The More Beautiful They Are, The Pricklier They Get

“...”

Nicole was truly speechless as she watched the handsome young man running ahead of her.

When Ethan declared that he was confident in his stamina, the pink-haired beauty only thought that he was just joking.

However, after nearly twenty minutes of running, she understood that Ethan’s words weren’t a lie.

His stamina was truly outstanding!

‘He’s not even sweating,’ Nicole thought as she tried her best to maintain her running speed. ‘Just what kind of environment did this guy grow up in?’

Nicole was confident in both her physical and magical abilities because she had been trained by her family to be a Magical Knight.

The Asta Family was a Knight family, and all of them were blessed with great magical powers.

Because of this, it was very natural for them to transition into being Magical Knights, who sometimes helped the Magistratus deal with Monster Outbreaks, as well as hunt Rogue Wizards and Witches, who committed crimes using their magic.

Nicole was their pride, and they expected a lot from her. Because of this, she strived to be the best in everything, allowing her to be hailed as a genius in their family.

‘This can’t go on,’ Nicole thought. ‘I refuse to lose to Ethan.’

Nicole then glanced behind her, checking to see if any of the First Years had managed to catch up to them. However, with the exception of the First Years from the Eques Manor, the other students, who were not physically fit, lagged far behind.

It was at that moment when Nicole thought of something good.

The pink-haired beauty took out her wand and waved it behind her.

“Aqua Carcerem!!

A moment later, cries of shock, and disbelief spread in the surroundings as the two teenage boys, who were a dozen of meters behind Nicole, were trapped in a cage made of Water.

“Nicole! We’re from the same Manor!” one of the teenage boys shouted. “Why are you doing this?!”

“For fun,” Nicole replied with a devilish smile on her face. “Just running is a bit boring. Although we can’t use our magic to help us reach our destination, Sir Lionel didn’t say we couldn’t use it to hinder the competition, right?”

Nicole waved at the two imprisoned boys before running away, making the two glare at her.

“Damn it! She’s too evil!”

“Mama was right. All roses have thorns. The more beautiful they are, the pricklier they get.”

At that moment, the two imprisoned boys saw the other First Years catching up to them, and decided to take them down with them.

“Impediendum!”

“Illaqueare!”

One of the spells hit a chubby boy, paralyzing him, and making him fall to the ground.

The other spell created several vines that rose up from the ground, which wrapped themselves around a girl, binding her in place.

Shouts of anger, curses, and indignation were heard as the other First Years all took out their wands and hurled spells at each other. Of course, none of them were offensive spells that were meant to harm people.

The only spells that they used were to immobilize, block, or prevent others from advancing forward.

“Hahaha.” Sir Lionel laughed. “Now this is more like it. That girl really knows how to spice things up.”

Truth be told, this running exercise was not only meant to test the stamina of the students. It was a test on their ability to take advantage of the rules that he had set in place.

Just as Nicole suspected, their practical test didn’t prevent them from using magic in order to delay others from reaching their destination.

They were, after all, Wizards and Witches, so using magic was always an option.

‘Still, I’d better keep a lookout on the students to make sure they don’t use magic to hurt each other,’ Sir Lionel thought. “Come, Wind Dancer!”

A shriek answered the Knightly Professor’s call and a hawk landed on his gloved hand.

“Follow the two who are in the lead and keep an eye on them,” Sir Lionel ordered. “Report everything to me later. If you notice the girl using magic to increase her speed, let me know at once.”

The hawk nodded before opening its wings to fly up to the sky.

The Knightly Professor then shifted his attention on the brawl that was happening below him, and smiled.

“Hah… this is the passion of youth,” Sir Lionel muttered. “But, this might not bode well for that young lady from the Asta Family. The school term has just started, and she’s made enemies in her own Manor. I wonder how this will affect her in the long run.”

Rivalries between members of the same Manor was a very normal occurrence. However, there were times when someone made more enemies that they could count, which caused them to be alienated by their own Manor.

There was a saying in Brynhildr Academy that your Manor is your greatest ally, so when this ally turns against you, it will also become your greatest enemy.

This made the lives of those students, who had been abandoned by their own Manor, have a very stressful academy life.

Some of these students were left with no other choice than to leave the Academy, and go to other Wizarding Schools to start over again.

As the brawl behind her intensified, the smile she had on her face earlier disappeared.

She had only stopped for a few minutes to deal with the two Wizards that were about to catch up to her from behind, but in that span of time, Ethan had already lengthened the gap between them, making the pink-haired beauty unable to see where he was.

‘How can this be?’ Nicole thought as she once again increased her pace. ‘He shouldn’t have been able to go so far in that short period of time. I knew it. I should have eliminated him first!’

What Nicole didn’t know was that Ethan had this uncanny sixth sense that tells him when someone wanted to do bad things to him.

In the beginning, he tried not to increase his speed too much and allow Nicole to keep up with him. However, when the pink-haired beauty suddenly stopped to cast spells on the two teenage boys behind her, Ethan knew that things were starting to not look good.

Because of this, he immediately sprinted like there was no tomorrow, increasing the gap between him and Nicole.

The young man knew that the farther he was from the pink-haired beauty, the better. Because of that, he threw caution to the wind and ran like a Madlad!

No matter what happened, he wouldn't allow the evil witch to catch up to him.

They were running in a forest, so it was hard for Nicole to see him, but Ethan was, at the very least, a kilometer ahead of her already.