"As you can see, the magic circle used here has multiple joints."
The days passed normally, before the students knew it, they reached the middle of October.
Although they are preparing for the areas of the school festival, it does not mean that class A, the one representing the best students will invest their time only in it.
The school festival is divided into two parts. The first is the cultural festival which takes two days and the last day is the sports festival.
Students were preparing as many will participate in different clubs and attractions on that day as it is part of their exam grade.
At this time, Eli and Lily's classroom was receiving magical theory from a teacher.
Her hair color was silver like moonlight, long to her hips with a braid down the middle. Her eyes were a beautiful blue-green, but her cold, serious expression made her seem like a difficult woman to approach.
Despite her extensive knowledge, she was no older than 24.
Her name is Clarice von Attley, the aunt of one of the capture targets.
She was explaining how magic spell levels work.
Using magic chalk, she drew a large magic circle, then smaller ones on top of another.
"Before we continue, who will explain to me what a magic circle is?"
The students were a bit confused at that question, it was as if she was teasing them.
One of them raised his hand, he was one of the capture targets. Heir to a house of marquises and grandson of the first seat of the holy wizards. Oscar von Pleven.
A handsome boy with pink hair with several white locks, fluffy and silky smooth, it reached to his neck and covered his right eye, but was still transparent so you could see his beautiful bright indigo eyes.
"Excuse me teacher, but we all know it's a magic circle, I consider that you are mocking our intelligence."
Oscar said in a serious tone with his high pitched voice.
Clarice saw it, but only laughed a little.
"That's why you're still children."
"I beg your pardon?"
Oscar felt offended with that answer, a classmate supported him, another capture target.
The only male and heir to not only one of the former seven dukes of the empire, also son of the number two seat of the holy mages. Jake von Fitzclarence was.
His hair was a wavy fire red that covered part of his ears. His eyes were bright blue with a look of extreme confidence.
"Teacher, I agree with Oscar, I think you're making fun of us."
Despite Jake not being sarcastic, his tone seemed to be. It didn't help matters that his tone of voice was very coarse for someone his age.
Clarice also burst out laughing when she heard Jake. The students didn't understand why the laughter.
But someone slowly raised their hand.
It was Lily, who was standing next to Eli.
"You, scholarship student. what's your answer?"
Lily in a very shy tone of voice said.
"M-Magic circles are formulas we have in our heads and we materialize them, right?"
"Huh? That's─"
"Exactly."
Clarice shushed Jake who seemed to want to tease Lily just as it happened on her route.
Clarice walked over to the circle with the magic chalk and moved it so that it was in a facing direction with the students.
"Listen carefully. I know you all know it's a magic circle, but why do we call them that? Precisely as the scholarship student said."
"Because we memorize the knowledge of the runes it has written on it to connect the mana circuits to get the magic element in the air and in our body to react in a chain."
Clarice lightly touched the circle and they began to merge on top of each other creating a large magic circle.
"We call them magic circles and not otherwise, it is because a circle encloses in a continuous flow that never stops. In this way we can create magic circles due to the fact that we know perfectly well the detail of how they work."
"Teacher, but in my case I don't need to do it."
Who interrupted Clarice's explanation was a deep-voiced boy, another capture target, Bellange von Fraser, heir son of a count.
He was very tall, muscular, tanned skin, his hair was combed back, some ends rising showing a wild appearance, the color was black with golden lines and light brown eyes.
Bellange continued speaking in a tone of superiority.
"Since I was a child I managed to activate my magical attribute without the need for a magic circle, doesn't that make me smarter than you?"
Bellange's arrogant tone was normal for someone like him. Since his configuration was of the stereotypical muscle brain.
Clarice didn't get angry, she answered him like she would any student.
"It is as Fraser-kun says. There are people who develop the ability to without the need to create a magic circle can activate the spell and faster, but..."
Clarice quickly activated a magic circle under Bellange when her hand touched the table.
"But magic doesn't reside in whether you're better at it than others. It resides in whether you are smarter and able to use it against others who are superior to you. For example, the wizard god, do you think they call it that just because they do?"
"Just because you are talented, doesn't mean that someone else can't defeat you, or am I wrong?"
At that sentence, five people looked to the opposite side and clicked their tongues.
The only one of them giving glances between the teacher and her classmate was the main capture target, Regulux von Bryes, the former third prince of the empire and future white knight.
Regulux─ Lux was an extremely handsome boy, silky blond hair that reached to the nape of his neck and covered his ears. Beautiful emerald green eyes with a slim and well trained body.
To everyone's surprise but what no one knew, is that he is a reincarnated as Razel.
He was responsible for preempting the event of the villainess end and not only preventing Lily from making contact with the other targets, he also lost the ability to establish a relationship of any kind with her such as his position as third prince, which his half-brother Cid now occupies.
Lux was irritated as he remembered how he lost, not in battle yet in the palace. He was stripped of every luxury he had and is now just another prince.
His faction and benefactors were gone.
He was now just the fourth prince.
Clarice continued to explain more things about magic that the students didn't know, but the bell rang indicating that the class was over.
"Too bad, I was motivated. That ends the class, we'll see you Friday."
The students were pleased that Clarice's class was over, she has a reputation for being very strict with her students and very advanced classes even for teachers.
Before everyone left, she stopped one student.
"Please hold on, we need to talk."
He was with Regulux's group.
He was the last target for capture, a boy of short stature, his face was very expressionless which matched his skin was pale as the edge of a sword.
His body was toned, though slender. His hair reached below his shoulders, the color was ash gray. The back middle part was tied in a small braid.
His beautiful, crystalline blue-green eyes showed no sign of interest in the caller despite the fact that they were related.
To him, Lambert von Attley, the future sword saint, his aunt was someone irrelevant.
"If you have something to say that is personal you can do it on weekends."
Lambert's cold tone showed he wasn't interested in seeing or talking to his aunt, beyond taking lessons.
But Clarice insisted.
"This is an order as your teacher, stay as we need to talk alone."
Lambert clicked his tongue and Regulux sighed.
"Hey, your aunt wants to talk to you, you should be more considerate of her."
Lambert reacted to that and replied politely.
"If His Highness says so, then I'll do it."
"No, no, no, no, it's your family, you should pay attention to her and not because I say so. We'll wait for you outside."
Regulux grabbed Lambert by the shoulders and placed him close to his aunt, then walked out along with the other targets.
He closed the door and they were left alone.
An awkward silence engulfed the room due to Lambert standing there watching her.
Clarice on the other hand sat down and left her work mode.
"You really are very difficult to engage in conversation. Sit down.
Lambert grabbed a chair from a desk and dragged it close to the desk where his aunt was sitting."
Clarice crossed her legs revealing her pantyhose in her long skirt.
"How are you feeling? Since you came back from the lawless city you've been taking pills, haven't you?"
"I feel fine, the doctor said I don't need them anymore."
"I'm glad to hear that."
Although Clarice is never seen smiling at work and always passes by with a straight face, it is because she does not relate her work to her family or personal matters.
Clarice was different from the other girls because her father never sent her to the academy, instead of sending her to a place where she could interact with different sons of nobles, he sent her to the temple of the three gods.
From the age of 8 to 14, she studied the teachings of the goddess Alexia for six years.
There, under the care of the nuns, Clarice was studying from 15 to 20 years old everything that had to do with magic and politics.
Her father passed away recently and her older brother was appointed the new head of the house.
At 21, Clarice went to work for two years at the ministry of magic where the wizard god himself said she could use her knowledge for future generations.
Giving to her current situation.
To prove that she was more capable than they imagined, in half a year she managed to become vice-principal.
No doubt Clarice was a hardworking woman.
But there was something else she enjoyed, and that was hanging out with her nephew.
She rarely got to see him. At the time, Lambert was a boy and Clarice tried to be a charming big sister to him.
But after learning what happened at the duel, she became angry with him. Ending up in the current situation where he considers her a nuisance.
Whenever Clarice would ask Lambert about how he was doing or if he was in trouble, he would answer in a short and brief way.
Clarice knew something was wrong with him, but he was very closed in his emotions.
So she decided to touch on a sensitive subject.
"Tell me, Lambert, are you still thinking about that day?"
Lambert looked at her at last and asked.
"What do you mean?"
"You know, about the duel. Your dream─"
Immediately Lambert stood up very upset.
The reason for that discomfort was because Lambert dreamt that he was defeated by Razel. On the day of the duel Lambert had wounds caused by someone, but since Xerxes was present that day they all assumed it was the monster's fault.
But Lambert felt that those blows on his body were provoked by a person. Then came his trip to the lawless city, where he was defeated again and felt he saw Razel.
That led to him developing stress resulting in him taking pills.
Lambert feels he lost to Razel despite being told it was a dream.
But to him, it would not seem strange considering he heard that the emperor appointed him as the black knight, promoted to A-rank adventurer and a count.
Such a promotion and appointment is not given to someone just because. To make matters worse, Razel was rumored to have killed a dragon, an ogre and one of the dark knights.
For Lambert who aspires to be a sword saint despite being one of the twelve candidates, Razel is an existence that walks leaps and bounds above everyone else.
He instantly recognized Razel when he saw how much he had changed the last semester.
Razel was definitely an existence that destroys all the logic Lambert knew.
For that reason, he became annoyed with his aunt and left the room without turning to look at her.
"Lambert wait, I didn't want to─!"
He closed the door very loudly and left with brusque steps.
Clarice regretted asking that question.
Lambert's friends were waiting for him near a pillar.
When Lambert passed near them he stopped, Regulux asked him.
"Did something happen?"
He quickly tried to return to his cool, calm personality.
"Nothing really."
But his heart was still beating very fast.
The five of them were going on their way when Jake said.
"Oh? That's Razel over there, isn't it? He looks a lot different than I remember him."
The five turned to look and Lambert was annoyed to see Razel who was totally different from before.
Razel was standing next to his friends and their girlfriends laughing.
Lambert thought as he clenched his fists.
(I won't be ridiculed by someone like you.)
(On the day of the sports festival, I will defeat you so I will never think of your existence again.)
Lambert had developed a rivalry against Razel which, for some reason, only existed in the reverse harem route as he did not want to lose Lily's affection.