"Abracadabra."
With this one word of mine, a fireball appeared and shoot the target. Swift and precise. Since I still didn't have a full grasp of the average level of a student here, I made sure it would be exactly the same size as Lucius' fireball.
The lack of reactions bothering me, I turned around to inspect the other students. They were frozen in place, all looking at the target with dumbfounded faces. The atmosphere suddenly stiffened up, the first one to pull themselves together was the teacher.
"V-Very impressive!" She exclaimed as naturally as possible.
Weird. Is it the chant after all?
"She reached it…"
"So fast…!"
"Just like Lucius!"
"No, wasn't it even better than Lucius?"
Hearing this last remark, Lucius clenched his fist, glaring furiously at me. Then, he turned to the teacher.
"Mrs. Borge!" He called out. "I would like to try again!"
A little startled at first, the teacher didn't seem to find any inconvenience with that -after all, students were finally willing to hit that thirty meters target.
"Yes, of course, go ahead."
The boy shot me one last deadly glare before focusing on the target. Once again, he closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath.
"Ô Ignis, I implore thee! I cry foul, feel the wrath within me. Devour my soul and bring destruction before me! 『Fireball』!"
Ah, what a fool. This time, he put even more mana in it.
The spell did work, though. The fireball, which appeared even bigger than before, hit the target. And just like that, a new commotion rose among the students.
"Wow, did you see that?"
"It's even bigger!"
"Lucius is the best after all!"
The boy, cheered up by his audience's acclaims, puffed out proudly his chest and turned to me, a presumptuous grin on his face.
Ah… How childish.
"Abracadabra."
The students fell silent again as I launched a second fireball to the target. Once again, I adapted its size to Lucius' fireball. The boy, whose grin disappeared faster than lightning, froze in disbelief. After a while, finally coming back to his senses, and without even asking for the teacher's permission this time, he immediately started chanting again.
"Ô Ignis, I implore thee! I cry foul, feel the wrath within me. Devour my soul and bring destruction before me! 『Fireball』!"
As I expected, he once again concentrated more mana into his spell. This is madness. He is playing with fire. Unfortunately, this is not a game he can win. Not against me.
"Abracadabra."
I launched another fireball to hit the target. Frustrated, the boy immediately retaliated.
"Ô Ignis, I implore thee! I cry foul, feel the wrath within me. Devour my soul and bring destruction before me! 『Fireball』!"
"Abracadabra."
"Ô Ignis, I implore thee! I cry foul, feel the wrath within me. Devour my soul and bring destruction before me! 『Fireball』!"
"Abracadabra."
The teacher didn't dare to interrupt our little clash, as the students simply watched, their mouths wide-open, unable to take their eyes off of us.
Lucius' fireball was growing in size each time, but so was mine. However, while mine kept a steady course, his were progressively losing in speed and accuracy. He was exhausting his mana pool and it was starting to show. He quickly ran out of breath, cold sweat forming on his forehead. Although he was trying not to show it, it was obvious to all, his strength was leaving him. He kept rubbing his eyes, meaning that his vision was becoming blurry. He was going to pass out at any moment now.
I have to give it to him, he lasted longer than I thought.
"Why don't we stop now?" I suggested.
But that angered him even more. Ignoring my proposition, the boy gathered every last bit of his strength to cast one last spell. However, this time, in the confusion, he messed his incantation up. One stutter. Just one stutter. This is all it takes for an incantation to fail. Lucius knew it.
He did manage to make a fireball appear, but this time, it was too unstable. He had no control over it. The fireball drifted randomly and ended up vanishing upon hitting the ground not even ten meters away from him.
Either from the shock or from exhaustion, the boy collapsed on the floor, his eyes locked on the spot where his fireball was extinguished. He missed the target. And I wasn't going to miss it next. He knew it. It was his loss. Neither the students or the teacher said a word. Not even the students who were talking behind his back. Seeing him in this state, who would have the heart to say anything?
It can't be helped, but I-
W-WAIT!
What are you doing Lucius? Why are your eyes wet?! Y-You're not going to cry, are you?
As disappointment over took him, tears started to flow down on Lucius face.
S-Shit…
He really is crying.
Come on, don't do that to me. Aren't you the one who started this? I am very uncomfortable with crying people.
Crap, crap, crap. He's crying. In front of everyone. What about your pride, Lucius? Now the whole school is going to say that I made a boy cry.
As his sobbing became uncontrollable, everyone started to panic. The teacher tried to cheer him up, praising him his performance, but Lucius wasn't listening. On the other hands, the students started to gossip among them, watching the scene their eyes full of pity. Some were glaring at me.
Ah, fuck. Now I'm starting to feel bad.
Well, he is just a kid after all. That fight wasn't even fair to begin with.
Fine. You win.
As I raised my hand, preparing to launch another fireball, all eyes turned on me. They were probably thinking I was going to rub it in. But it was the contrary.
"Abracadabra."
A fireball gushed out of my hand, but as soon as it appeared, I made it vanish. Unable to comprehend the scene, the students exchanged doubtful looks.
"Huh?"
"What happened?"
"Oh, what a shame! I ran out of mana!" I loudly exclaimed, making sure everyone one had heard me.
The awkward silence didn't last long as the students quickly accepted my explanation. After all, there would be no other reasons why my fireball suddenly disappeared, right? Besides, from their perspective, it would make sense to run out of mana after casting so many spells -just like Lucius.
Speaking of Lucius, he quickly regained control of himself. After staring blankly at me for a few seconds, he wiped the tears off his face and got up.
"Hah, it's my win!" He declared proudly, his fists resting on his chest in a triumphant pose.
Well, he sure recovers fast.
Lucius kept staring at me, his eyes full of confidence again, probably expecting some kind of reaction from me.
Ah, yes, yes, you win. Whatever, kid. I showed enough for today anyway.
The demonstration over, Mrs. Borge let out a relieved sigh. Applauses rippled around the yard as palpable excitement spread among the students. It seems that they had been quite satisfied with this display of magic. Among them, Vivian was particularly enthusiastic with her clapping.
"It's ok, you did great!" She shouted when our eyes met. "You were awesome too!"
I tried to hide a weak smile, seeing her attempting to comfort me after this "defeat". Completely oblivious of her surroundings, Vivian kept waving at me, a broad smile on her face. She sure is precious.
After a few moments, Mrs. Borge decided it was time to call the class back to order and clapped in her hands a couple of times to catch our attention. It took some time, but the students eventually calmed down.
"Alright, alright," she spoke up once the silence was finally back. "Hopefully you all will be able to learn something from this. This demonstration was surely-"
"Impressive!"
Mrs. Borge turned in the direction of the voice who just cut her off and we all did the same. It was Mr. Glenn. He had stayed quiet during all this time, simply watching from afar, but now he was finally butting in.
"Really impressive," he repeated all smiles. "Don't you think so Mrs. Borge?"
"Of course Mr. Glenn. I'm glad to hear you liked it."
Hearing the head teacher himself praising his performance, a candid smile spread on Lucius' face. This time, there was not the slightest trace of arrogance in it.
"I believe this deserves a place in one of my classes, what do you think Mrs. Borge?"
A couple of voices gasped in surprise at this proposition. Some students started muttering in a low voice while others were eying Lucius with envy. The boy, who initially was as taken aback as his peers, quickly regained his senses. His smile grew wider, turning into something much less sincere. His ego was back. He was now glaring arrogantly at his peers. Anyone could tell what he was thinking. They were all hoping to join the big boss' class one day and were all training for this purpose, but he was the one who had been chosen.
Mrs. Borge, on the other hand, didn't seem surprised. She still had the same serious expression on her face, although there was a hint of resignation in it.
"I believe you are better-qualified than I, when it comes to this matter, Mr. Glenn," she pointed out.
The head teacher grinned. As he approached us, Lucius stiffened up, straightening his back. He tried to hide his growing smile, to appear as serious as possible. He didn't have to try for too long though. When the head teacher finally stopped at his side, his smile vanished on its own. Even though he was right beside him, Mr. Glenn had no interest in him. He was completely ignoring him. Instead, he was completely focused on me. The head teacher slightly bent forward to give me a smile.
"I expect a lot from you Lynett," he said.
Uhm… Me?
Lucius' expression fell apart as he realized that Mr. Glenn was talking about me. His mouth kept opening and shutting like a goldfish, but no sound came from it. The students were as dumbfounded as him, not comprehending the situation. Only Mrs. Borge seemed to have expected this as she let out a long complaining sigh.
"Why her?"
"Didn't Lucius do better?"
"She ran out of mana!"
"Uh, why me?" I asked, as confused the others. As they said I "ran out" of mana first. So from an outside perspective, Lucius would be a better choice, even though he messed up his last spell.
"Seeing such a wonderful performance really lifted up my spirits! It even reminded me of something that happened to a friend of mine, a while ago," Mr. Glenn commented, completely ignoring my question. "Would you like to hear it?"
"Sure?" I responded out of politeness.
"Well you see, back when I was a teenager, I had a friend, whom I met in this very school actually," the head teacher related. "He was a disaster when it comes to magic, but he was excellent with the sword."
What the hell is he talking about now?
"It didn't take long for him to reach the top," Mr. Glenn continued. "He quickly found himself offered to became the disciple of a sword-master. And so he did become his disciple. But my friend was what you would call a genius, you see? So after a few years, he had already surpassed his master."
Yeah? I don't really care, though. Why is he telling me this?
"He was thirsty for power, but there was nothing left from him to learn from his master. So you know what he did, Lynett?" The head teacher asked.
"No I don't," I replied, trying to hide the boredom in my voice.
At this moment, an unpleasant grin spread on Mr. Glenn's face.
"He hid his own abilities," he emphasized.
A shiver ran down my spine as I suddenly understood the reason why he was telling me this story.
"He wanted to learn a new style so he went to find another master," Mr. Glenn continued. "But no masters would accept the disciple of a rival, you know? So that idiot tried to pass off as beginner. Very foolish of him, don't you think?"
I broke into a nervous laughter.
"W-Why?" I wondered, as normally as possible.
"Because he got busted immediately! After all…" The head teacher gave me a meaningful smile. "After all, the masters saw right through his act. No matter how clumsy his swordsmanship was, no matter how slow he would react, he couldn't fool them. Because a real master would be able to tell. By the way he holds his sword, by the way he walked. He could tell he was no amateur."
Fuck.
Lucius and the others kept staring silently at the head teacher with confused expressions. They didn't understand the point of telling us this story. They couldn't. After all, the underlying message in it was addressed to me.
Mr. Glenn placed a hand on my shoulder and leaned forward.
"Nice try, young lady," he muttered with a smirk.
Redressing himself, he turned in the direction of Mrs. Borge.
"Well then, if you'll excuse me, I must get going now!"
The female teacher sighed.
"Of course."
Leaving the confused students behind, Mr. Glenn exited the yard. After a couple of meters, he stopped, turning around one last time.
"See you tomorrow in my class, Lynett!" He shouted, contentedly waving in my direction.
…
Shit.
Humans can't feel mana, right?