6 Tribulations

Relief was the only feeling I felt once the morning classes had ended. With non-stop glares from my classmates throughout the Magic Circle Computation and Science sections, it was simply just a race to dethrone me by the time the history teacher had walked in.

It seemed apparent that none of these people had attended middle school with me, as I've been told I was the top of my class in history and would have had a future as a historian if my magic skills were better, if present at all.

Things had changed, now that a different "Candace Mendoza" had taken over this body.

Before I could reach the dining hall to grab lunch, I was roughly grabbed and pulled aside. I resisted initially, but after seeing it was my "brother," Fredric Mendoza, I stopped.

In the side hallway, he slammed me up against the wall, much like he did in the library last night.

"You know," I said jokingly. "People might get the wrong idea if they see us like this."

He scoffed. "No one will come by here, anyways."

I rolled my eyes and pushed hard against his chest. Managed to get him off of me, but my wrists hurt in the process.

From the way this body has been responding, I doubt that "Candace" was the most physically active in her lifetime.

"What did you need from me?" I asked once I got him off.

"Are you really my sister?" he asked.

No, I'm not.

"Who else would I be?" I asked.

He slammed me into the wall again, my back probably would have broken if I didn't sneakily cast magic to soften the blow.

"Look," he said. "I know you have amnesia and don't remember anything. But, I watched your battle royale. Your face... is different."

I tilted my head to the side. "How so?" I asked.

"It was like...you were a skilled magus that had fought in the army for years," he said.

"That's impossible," I said. "For starters, I could even use magic until yesterday?"

"Dual wielding fire and water, huh. Did you let mother and father know?"

"No," I answered curtly.

I wasn't a so-called "dual wielder," purely channeling magic through one single element was stupid. Importance is much better placed on versatility, despite brute force occasionally being the necessary answer.

These mages were likely attuned to a few elements and only those elements, so while their specializations were extremely focused and their elemental control was better than what I could do with shorter spells, I still win because of the various techniques I have to get around that.

That's why, we didn't recommend specializing too heavily. Otherwise, you could end up useless against certain things. Unlike the scientific fields of study, where you have a large breadth of knowledge in one topic and a cursory knowledge of the rest, in magic it's more important to have a cursory knowledge in everything and at most, a few specializations that could help in multiple scenarios. For example, my specialty was in long-range conjuration spells to take out the enemy and dish out damage from a safe position, but I was still versed in healing, divination, and transportation spells.

"But today," he continued, ignoring my objection. "You used only water and ice. Ice-type spells are extremely difficult to master the way you displayed today. On top of that, I never saw your mouth move, meaning you did it all chantless."

"What about it?" I asked. "Maybe the Water Goddess just blessed me with powers overnight."

There was a bit of sarcasm there, but Fredric chose to ignore it.

"So then, are you really my sister?" he asked.

"What else could I be?" I countered. I wasn't his sister, but I didn't exactly know how to tell him about my transmigration. What would I say? That I was casting a spell in a different world and just happened to end up in a body that was drowning that also happened to look exactly like me five years ago?

"You look exactly like her, but your countenance and your abilities are completely different," he said, shaking his head. "You used to never study anything but history, but now your paper examination scores are the complete opposite. You were always dead last in your class since you didn't have magic, but now you're at the very top."

"I don't know what to say," I said. "But I do need to eat lunch, so I'll be off."

When I walked into the cafeteria, I was immediately greeted with a lively scene. There seemed to be separate lines for food based on your class ranking, so of course, I walked to the A-class line.

There was another like for the S-class, but no one there.

"Huh, why isn't anyone..." I remarked offhandedly.

"Ah, the S-class line?" the boy in front of me cheerfully asked.

I looked over in surprise.

"Evered Kinge," he introduced himself.

"Candace Mendoza," I replied.

"We know," he said.

"Eh?" I asked, confused. Weren't the ranking boards not supposed to be posted for another two weeks, when the challenge rounds would begin?

"Fredric's younger sister. You put on quite a show at the battle royales, most everyone knows you now," the girl in front of him said.

"Ah? Was it really that impressive, though...?" I wondered.

"Of course it was!" Evered scoffed. "Famously last place, couldn't use magic at all in junior high. Now, specialization in the water element, even going so far to be adept with freeze-type spells before coming to the Academie de Magie."

"Ah..." I said speechlessly.

"Anyways," Evered continued. "The S-class line isn't for a particular class, but for the Elite Four and Substitute players. They get special privileges for being the best of the best."

"Oh," I remarked.

"You didn't know?" he continued. "Garvia Arvras, Armel Estienne, Brisaem Calica, and Fredric Mendoza. The Elite Four. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure Valerian Bunea is great too, but as substitute he doesn't get quite as much attention."

"I see," I said. I supposed that their files were the ones the Dean had handed over this morning after the exams.

The conversation ended there once reached the front of the line to receive our meals. The food didn't look too bad, it was a relatively balanced pasta dish with plenty of vegetables and meat. There was even a side of bread and onion soup with a glass of cold lemonade.

When I exited, Lynne immediately caught my eye. Even though she seemed loud and incompetent, I supposed that putting up the "best friend" act would do for now.

"So," she asked the moment I set my tray full of food down. "How'd you get into the A-class while I'm stuck here in the D-class?"

"I was just good at fighting, that's all."

"I didn't get to see your battle royale," she huffed.

I bet she got taken out first. Completely out, like an idiot.

"Hey," she said, changing the subject.

"Yeah?" I answered halfheartedly.

"Can I have your lemonade?" she asked sheepishly.

"If you give me your water," I waved boredly.

"Yay!" she exclaimed. "I heard that the lemonade the school makes is absolutely delicious and boosts your elemental affinity, so I'm lucky to get one from you.~"

I had no reply to that. Things like elemental affinity were useless for me, as I didn't specialize in a specific element, but a specific class of spells, being conjuration.

The water wasn't bad, either, albeit plain. It probably wouldn't go around boosting any magical powers, but it didn't taste bad at all.

The rest of the food seemed relatively normal, though from the looks of Lynne drooling all over it, it was probably special too. I wasn't about to trade my pasta for her dry-looking sandwich, though.

The two of us sat in the back corner, relatively alone. I was somewhat expecting kids from my class to come up and heckle me, but it didn't happen.

Guess they figured there were better things to do with their time.

The exception to this, however, was someone from my battle royale group.

He came up rudely and slammed his tray on the table, startling Lynne.

"Careful," I said. "You'll end up with your lunch on the floor."

"You think I care about that?" he asked.

Ah, right, this was the guy who had charged at me first and gotten himself placed in the D-class.

He deserved it. You can't always think that the outcome you want will be the outcome you get. Recklessly charging in like that was a sign that his temper needed controlling.

Or, he could probably be in the B or C classes, but he was just unlucky to meet with me. Rather, my entire battle royale group was unlucky. If they had decided to take each other out before a few of them turned on me, some of them could have gotten into the B-class or even the A-class.

Battle royales followed different rules, you couldn't focus on the strongest, you had to take out the weakest before fighting all the strongest members. While numbers were advantageous when taking on a strong opponent, you had to be careful not to get in each others' way and to watch out for large area of effect spells. That was the downfall of my battle royale group today.

I continued eating, while Lynne stared blankly at the new addition to our table.

"Is anything wrong?" I asked after seeing him angrily eat his sandwich.

"Yes," he said matter-of-factly. "I'm forced to eat this shitty sandwich because you took me out when I was supposed to make it to the A-class and you were supposed to be in the D-class instead of me."

"What makes you think that?" I asked.

"Because I'm from the Philips Family, which ranks me higher than you," he said.

"And why are you in a school that's barely in the Grandmagic rankings?" I threw out.

"I'm here to raise it to the top," he said. "That way, I can be considered a hero."

How... arrogant. I couldn't say I was any better, though.

"Well, it's not my fault that you charged in like a somewhat childish idiot who believed no one could stop you, because look," I said, getting up in his face. "I did."

At that point I had finished all the food on my tray, so I stood up and left.

The moment before I could slip out of the cafeteria without drawing further attention, however, he ran his way in front of me.

"Duel me," he challenged.