Grace's words turned the mood from uncomfortable to serious.
Whether she realized it or not, Grace's mouth still twitched.
"This is me personally challenging you to a magic duel! You won't dare to run away in fear, will you?"
Grace poured oil on my already bad mood.
Though her words were directed at me, the students on Rodlen's side, who didn't know what had happened before, could only see her as arguing.
"What is she?"
"Let's see, is this it?"
I could see that the Mirko students were also tensing up as the Rodlen students were saying one thing after another.
And even Keshun, who I was watching closely, was tapping his foot as if he didn't know what to do.
"Keshurn is a weak character, so we'll have to deal with Grace first.
In the midst of the growing tension, I nodded.
"If you want a duel, I'll take it."
"Hmph. Very well. We'll duel right now."
He immediately pulled a pure white staff out of his arms and pointed it at me.
He's crazy, no matter how much I want to beat you up, I'm not in such a hurry to have a duel here.
"Let's not do this here, let's go to the place for the duel."
"Ha! Are you scared, I can't help but wonder. You dared to challenge this Grace Mayne, who is only a beginner mage, and there's no use in regretting it now! Burn to ashes before my 'Roar of the Dawn'!"
I'd forgotten, his staff was a Named item.
How he was recognized as its owner was a mystery to me, even in-game, but it was clearly too good to be true.
"That's it. It's against school rules to fight here.
Luckily, there were plenty of people around to provide an alibi.
If I attacked him from the moment he picked up the staff, it would be self-defense.
Oof.
The sound of my opponent's magic manifesting rang out.
I drew my sword as soon as I heard it, and Grace exclaimed when she saw me with my sword drawn.
"Yes, you bastard, I clearly said I was signing up for a 'magic' duel! How dare you draw your sword in a sacred magic duel!"
"When did I say I don't use magic, my staff is this sword."
"What?"
Hiss-!
Galakshur was engulfed in flames.
And the eyes of the people turned to him in disbelief.
"What the hell!"
I could hear the gasps around me, and at the same time, my opponent's magic was complete.
I cut through Grace's fire spell with my sword.
Then I swung it in a now-familiar sword motion that contained the flames.
Hwaahhhh!
"You, you!"
Grace, who hadn't finished her magic even with the roar of dawn, rolled over in a panic.
It was like a pig struggling to avoid being slaughtered.
I swung gently to make sure I didn't injure her, but even that didn't stop me from catching her clothes on fire.
"Aaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"
Panicking, Grace rolled on the ground, trying to put out the flames.
But the flames, made of mana, showed no signs of going out.
"This is going to get me in trouble.
I panicked a bit, thinking that I wouldn't be able to handle an attack of that magnitude.
I walked over to him and tried to extinguish the flames when Grace, who was making a pig squealing sound, squealed like she was going to die.
Chaaaah!
Pushyyy.
But someone was one step ahead of me and doused her with water.
When the fire was extinguished, Grace gasped for air and sprawled out on her back.
"...."
There was a moment of awkward air, and after we stood there stiffly, the wizard who had just extinguished the fire turned to me.
"That was amazing, was that really magic, or was that a sword made of artifacts?"
I recognized him now as Keshern Violga.
He looked at Grace on the floor for a moment, saw that she was okay, and immediately began to ask me questions.
It wasn't what I was expecting, but at least I was talking to Keshurn.
"It's magic."
"That's great, the rumored magic swordsman! May I have another look at him?"
"Yes."
"I came here in the first place to get to know you, but you can tell me anything you want.
I'll give you everything I can.
Hmph.
Before I knew it, the people gathered in the ballroom had forgotten about Grace and had begun to express interest in the new form of magic I had demonstrated.
Apparently, because I was using a sword, not only students from the magic faculty, but also students from the knight faculty were interested in me.
"Is this something that can be used in combat?"
"It's interesting, the color of the magic changes according to the color of the auror! I want to study how it works."
"Is there any inconvenience? It must be hard to calculate magic at the same time you're swinging your sword, right?"
Roderick's students and Mirko's students spoke up one by one as they watched me demonstrate fusion magic again.
Soon enough, they were discussing amongst themselves and opening up a dialog.
'They are top students after all. Whenever they are wary of each other, they always have a rational discussion.
After all, there's no such thing as a bad mood.
No, no. I didn't do the math.
I should have beaten him up, but his unexpected reaction cost me the opportunity.
I looked at Grace, still lying on the ground, eyes closed, feigning a faint.
Hopefully, she's a little demoralized.
* * *
Since it happened while the academy staff and teachers were away, the 'magical' duel between me and Grace was passed over in silence.
Thanks to this series of events, everyone except Grace was able to enjoy the exchange in good spirits.
Yue Ying.
"Now, this is the 'Rotation of the Stars'."
The place where I am now is a lecture related to the magic circle within the Faculty of Magic.
Today is the second day of the exchange program, and only the students who are mages are with us.
In the magic circle that the professor was showing on the lectern, a round sphere rose up and tiny spheres moved around it.
The artwork, which showed rotation and revolution, suggested that the planet was round and that processes and rotation had been discovered, albeit in a medieval setting.
"The key is to inscribe a reversal spell alongside the spell associated with the rotation, which is somewhere around 60 degrees. It won't be easy, of course, but control your mana as much as possible so you don't get crushed."
While Mirko's students listened intently to Rodlen's lecture, they also paid attention to the other students.
The one who was getting the most attention was, of course, Diane Alben.
Prestigious mage and winner of last year's tournament.
These two titles alone were enough to make most of the students chew on her.
Whatever interest she had in me on the first day had now faded like a firefly in the sun.
She was listening to the lecture with a straight face, as if she didn't care about the stares, but I knew it was all part of her facial expression management.
Whatever. I don't even know the personalities of the characters I've played.
"Okay, let's do this together, shall we?"
The professor said and handed us a piece of paper.
We were told to create our own spells based on the ones we'd learned in class, but I honestly had no idea what to do.
"A spin and reverse spell.
I glanced over at Diane, and she was already scribbling away.
Next, I turned to Keshurn, the genius of the magic circle, and unlike Diane, he looked troubled.
'This is an event that has never happened before in the game, so it's exciting. It's a battle of the magic circles between Diane and Keshurn.
Both were considered geniuses when it came to magic, so they might be able to inspire each other.
"Wait. Inspiration? Isn't that something I could give them?
I'm not good at magic, I'm good at building magic circles!
After all, I've been playing tons of games and have seen my fair share of magic circles.
Of course, there's a difference between actually drawing a magic circle and just clicking on it in the game, but I'm pretty good with ideas and types.
'It seems like you've covered quite a few magic circles that only use rotation or only use reversal....'
What were the ones that used both?
I was worried because the meaning of reversal is open to interpretation.
I could have just shown it as the opposite of rotation to show retrograde motion, as the professor did, but I think it would be better to have a different meaning than just reversing rotation.
'Bitter, this seems a bit difficult.'
If you try and fail, you can't help it.
I slowly started to draw the spell, since it was part of a simple lecture and not an assessment anyway.
Time passed.
As I slowly drew the spell, I looked up at a sudden exclamation.
"Wow!"
"It's Diane Alven. Is that possible for a student?"
In front of her, the paper the professor had given her to draw the magic circle was floating in the air.
Water droplets were falling from the paper as if it were pouring rain, but the water droplets passed right through the paper and went down, and at some point they defied gravity and went up again.
The droplets were colored and beautifully shaped, like an endless loop of shooting stars.
"This is the magic of Dene.
Having drawn so much attention to herself, Diane turned to look at her work and then back at me.
When I made eye contact and clapped my hands in admiration, the bridge of her nose seemed to rise even higher.
One by one, the students' magic circles began to take shape, starting with Dene.
Laughter and cheers erupted with each one, until finally, it was Keshurn's turn.
"I tried to make mine a little bigger," he said, "but if the paper was a little bigger, I could have made it more perfect."
Keshun's words were met with a muted response.
Only the students of Mirko Academy were looking at him with expectant eyes, and I was curious to see what kind of magic circle he had made.
Woof.
As he injected mana, the densely engraved magic circle glowed.
At the same time, the scenery around us suddenly began to slowly change.
"Crazy...."
An outright exclamation came from someone, and even the professor in charge of the lecture was looking at the landscape Keshurn was creating with an open mouth and a surprised expression.
"It's a maze built using turns and inversions. It's a bit simple, so you shouldn't have any trouble escaping."
Having actually experienced it, I can only say that it was insane.
To be able to create such illusionary magic on just a small piece of paper, and it didn't even take that much time.
"I guess I have no one to follow when it comes to secondary magic and magic circles.
I wondered if he would be similar to Bahat in terms of magic circles.
If he grows up here, he'll soon surpass him.
"Really, really great."
Even the heavenly Diene looked around in awe.
Even her magic circle seemed insignificant compared to this labyrinth.
Of course, in terms of direct combat ability, she would have the edge over Keshurn, but they were both gifted in different areas.
'If you think about it, Diane is middle of the pack among geniuses. In terms of combat prowess, Lucia, who cured her of her illness later in life, is superior, and Keshurn is the one who does all the supporting magic.
Still, Diane has her own advantages.
It's the magic of space and time.
Of course, these are spells that will see the light of day when she's older, so for now, she seems to be taking a backseat to those two.
So we walked through Keshurn's illusory magic circle and followed his lead to exit the spell.
As we exited the spell, it felt like we were back in a normal classroom, as if we were possessed.
The difference in talent was overwhelming.
The rest of the students' magic circles paled into insignificance, and they looked up in shame.
As it happened, Keshun was next in line.
'That's the same for me, too. I worked hard on it....'
Although I had put a lot of effort into it, the scale of Keshun's fantasy made it look shabby in comparison.
One after another, it was finally my turn.
"Adrias Cromwell, would you like to show us your magic circle?"
There were a lot of eyes on me because I was almost the last one up.
I awkwardly rubbed the bridge of my nose and quickly energized the circle with mana.
"A flower?"
It was a single flower.
It hadn't even bloomed yet, just a bud.
Everyone onlookers scratched their heads at the unexpected magic that seemed so unremarkable.
The green bud floated slightly above the magic circle, merely existing.
"Hmm. Student Adrias. I asked you to put in a spell of rotation and reversal, but I can't see it in this piece. Do you think you can explain it to me?"
I nodded.
Then opened my mouth to speak.
"Ah."
As if mesmerized by something, Keshurn stepped toward my flower.
Then he sent me a trembling glance.