Chapter 34

"..."

A flick to the forehead.

The impact of this statement was quite big.

"Wait. You're saying that, if we win tomorrow against Oyota, you're going to flick Seta Malkiri on his forehead?"

"Yeah. In front of everyone as well."

"The flick that blasted Michael away?"

"That's right."

"…We need to win no matter what."

The entire student body saw it.

In the Arenahall, on the <Man-to-man Combat Test> testing grounds, the single flick of my finger that flung Michael backwards.

Having heard I would repeat this scene against an Oyota, they couldn't help but smile.

On top of that,

"That's not all. If we win in the match tomorrow, Oyota will apologize to us."

"Oyota will apologize to us? There's no way we can lose now."

An apology in front of all the students of the 32 schools.

The day Oyota lost to the 'acadummies' would be their most humiliating day.

Of course, on the other hand, if we lost,

'I would be the subject of that humiliation…'

But I was confident.

If we continued with our uplifted morale against the Oyotas whose morale had been crushed, we could definitely win.

And another thing.

"We're fine as we are now… But Ruin… Are you also prepared? You have your individual match tomorrow as well."

"Dude, don't worry. There's no way Ruin would lose."

"Kekek. Well, that's true."

"..."

My individual match against Seta Malkiri tomorrow was…

<Capture the Flag>.

The first person to snatch the flag attached to the back of the other magician was the winner. It was a head-on battle that was a simple, but effective way to gauge an individual's skill.

I needed to win this with an overwhelming difference too.

That was how I would be able to carve it into the minds of everyone.

Into the minds of the students of the 32 schools that were chosen to come to Altein and to the geniuses amongst geniuses that were vying for first place.

That they cannot relax.

Maybe that was why…

"Woah. Look at all the people."

"I can't even see the road ahead with all these people in the way."

The roads of Altein that were noisy before the competition even began were now even more full of tourists who came to watch the competition and enjoy the festival.

Even though we woke up at dawn and made our way to the tournament grounds early, if this many people were here now, the opening ceremony before noon would flood the entirety of Altein.

"We've arrived. Everyone, get off."

The 8-person carriages that we were riding on stopped.

"Woah. Look at that!"

The scene that unfolded before us was a circular dome that could easily fit multiple tens of thousands of people.

Altein Stadium.

It was an indoor stadium, but due to having implemented conjuration and illusion magic circles during its construction, it could create terrain features that would be hard to even find outside.

Being able to manifest even frigid glaciers and burning heat waves, it could be considered one of the greatest constructions of magical engineering.

That wasn't all.

"Over there. Is that an artificial island?"

In front of this Altein Stadium was an artificial lake, and in the middle floated a small artificial island.

"Yeah. That's where the battle royale between the school representatives happens."

"…That's amazing."

As we were blankly sightseeing the stadium and its surroundings, Professor Hydel walked up to us.

"It's nearly time. The spectators will start to enter. Let's go to our waiting rooms."

"Okay."

We headed towards our waiting room on the 1st floor of the Altein Stadium.

We changed into our school uniforms in the waiting room, the ones who packed it beforehand ate their lunch, and we did a light warm-up while the spectators started to filter in.

A little bit later, an announcement was made signaling that everyone had finished entering the stadium,

[The opening ceremony will begin. The students that are on standby, please prepare for the parade.]

And the announcement that the opening ceremony would begin was also heard.

I stood up from my seat.

"Let's go."

The Opening Ceremony.

It was the event that boasted the most attractions during the Grand Festival that was held over the course of 15 days.

The host announced the opening of the ceremony, and each of the 32 schools entered the stadium while holding their flags.

It was quite an amazing scene.

Our flag bearer was Jason.

Jason walked in front of us while holding onto the flag that had our academy's insignia of the incandescent lightning drawn onto it.

And I walked right behind him.

And the remaining 29 students walked in a line behind me.

I looked toward the students.

"Are you ready?"

"Yes."

My peers were noticeably nervous, and it showed from their expressions.

However, the encouraging fact was that the origin of this nervousness wasn't fear.

"Everyone, let's enjoy this. Let's go and show them what we can do!"

"Yeah!"

The origin was from the anticipation of maybe showing all those people, all the world, that we weren't the worst school anymore.

Yeah.

The proper amount of nervousness could be the catalyst that led to smooth success.

[The entrance countdown will begin. 10... 9... 8... 7...]

I turned to my peers, gave an uplifting smile and clapped my hands once.

"Let's go!"

The entrance ceremony had begun.

Simultaneously, each of the 32 schools with their 31 students entered the dome of the Altein Stadium, each from one of the 32 entrances.

In total, 992 people.

The flag bearers standing at the front of their respective groups held the flags that bore their magic school's insignia high into the air, walking confidently, and the sky was filled with an unending flow of fireworks.

"WOOOOOOO!"

The spectators that filled the stadium like sardines started to cheer for the magic school of their choosing by shouting its name.

"Over there! That's the kids from our school!"

"…It sure is."

And it wasn't very hard to find the students who were cheering for the Ignit Magic Academy.

"Ruin!"

I waved my hands at the students who came all the way here to support us, and I took a deep breath to steady myself from the emotions that were welling up from within me.

The parade went on for about 10 minutes, and ended after everyone walked a lap around the stadium

They then gathered all the students of the 32 schools at the center of the Altein Stadium.

Fortunately for me…

"How's your arm?"

"..."

Seta Malkiri was standing right next to me.

Seta Malkiri held back his anger while tightly closing his eyes as if remembering what happened yesterday.

"I lowered my guard yesterday."

"..."

Ah, was that so?

How come you still sounded like a third-rate villain?

Seta grinded his teeth and talked as if he had made up his mind.

"I was too careless yesterday, but today won't be the same. Be prepared."

"Sure. Try your best. Don't say anything dumb later."

"..."

"You didn't forget our bet, did you?"

"Of course not. That pretty face of yours. I'll properly destroy it in front of everyone."

It wasn't only us.

Maybe because the event had officially started.

Everyone felt on edge.

An invisible mental battle was going on between all the schools, and even though we couldn't hear it, there were big and small arguments going on there too.

Everyone was laughing and relaxing until just yesterday,

But this really made everyone feel that the competition had definitely started.

The first place I looked was…

'So, that guy is…'

The winner of the magic festival every year, the man standing at the very front of the Raynac Magic Soldier Training School.

'Doom Prime.'

The magician who wielded the Sword of Brilliance.

Living up to his fame, he had a shining sword strapped to his belt.

As the competition allowed artifacts that one could use with their abilities, it was a symbol that showed that one would use everything they had to win.

"Doom! Doom! Doom!"

"..."

He had a stone-cold face that didn't seem to falter from any sort of nervousness and accepted all the cheers that were directed at him.

If I were to keep on winning in this competition, he was definitely a guy I must face at one point.

As I looked away from Doom Prime,

'...Eh?'

I felt the burning gaze from another and turned my head.

It was someone I knew.

Irene Prius.

She looked at me with eyes filled with curiosity and said something to me.

"It seems you're the type to go around causing trouble."

"…Trouble? What do you mean?"

"I'm talking about yesterday. You made an unnecessary provocation in front of everyone."

"..."

Ah.

She was talking about the secret weapon thing.

"That. I did that intentionally."

"…What?"

"I said I did it intentionally. I needed to introduce myself."

"..."

Then Irene tilted her head like she couldn't understand me at all.

"Also, I heard you charged into the Oyota's lodging and messed everything up."

"Eh? How do you know that?"

"Altein is quite small. At this point, there's probably no school who doesn't know what happened."

"..."

They say that bad news travels fast.

But just how far did the rumour spread?

"Hm hm. Well, I didn't mess everything up. I just wanted to have a talk."

I shrugged my shoulders while making a poor excuse.

Then, Irene Prius looked blankly at me.

"Since you gave me the book I was looking for that one time, I'll give you some advice. It'll be good to not get the attention of others here."

It was good advice.

Don't get the attention of others.

Don't stand out.

Maybe then, you at least wouldn't become prey to those hyenas.

However,

"Like you, who hid her true strength?"

"..."

As I jokingly laughed and looked at her, Irene's eyes became filled with shock.

Irene Prius was known to the world in rumours as only a 5th-class Novice, but she was much stronger, a 5th-class Master.

She asked with her eyes how I knew, but, smiling happily, I just replied,

"Thank you for that good advice."

"..."

Then, an announcement was made that signaled the end of the opening ceremony and the start of the first event.

I gave a small nod to Irene Prius.

"Then, I'll be going. We're the contestants for the first event."

"…Ah, then…"

Irene had an expression that said she wanted to ask me more questions, but she closed her mouth.

The reason I made a scene was not just to make our presence known.

Rather, it was to use it as bait.

As the other teams underestimated us as delicious prey, our team's bond grew even stronger.

* * *

As the magicians sent from the Magic Tower to host the competition cast their spells, the interior of the stadium began to change.

Mithril golems started to spawn in the empty center of the stadium.

And from a crack that formed in the air, countless mana bombs started to pour out.

The first event after the opening ceremony.

<Mana Bomb Throwing>

Using the mana bombs, the first team to blow up their mithril golem was the winner.

The first contestants for this historical opening of the competition were Oyota and our academy.

The majority of the people were naturally predicting that Oyota would be the winning team.

However,

"W-what… That's…?"

"Is that even allowed?"

I would show them through this competition,

I'd make sure everyone knew it.

That the Acadummies and the cripple Ruin no longer existed.

——