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Dorara Korajin.

Magic Arts Deputy.

Unique Trait: Inferiority Complex.

Specialty: Wind Magic.

As a Magic Arts Deputy, he could handle various wind spells and, given time, could also manage extensive wind magic.

His blade-like wind magic is sharp enough to easily slice through wood.

However.

“What, what on earth are you?”

In the world, there’s such a thing as countering elements.

After I was struck hard in the side, Dorara unleashed wave after wave of wind magic at me in a heated rage.

The blade-like fierce winds slammed against me repeatedly, and while Dorara laughed, assured of his victory—

In reality, he left not a single scratch on my body.

My secret.

Steel Skin.

This was practically a counter to Dorara’s wind magic.

My skin was immune to slashing.

“Didn’t you even watch the team battle properly?”

Well, it’s not like this fool could see anything but Sharine.

This is a guy who wouldn’t hesitate to spread behind-the-scenes rumors just to take her down.

There’s no way anything else could catch his eye.

That’s why I saw it as even more necessary to teach him a lesson.

A guy who can’t own up to his own shortcomings and only puts others down is of no help at all.

As I charged at him, Dorara panicked and summoned wind.

Then, he quickly lifted himself into the air, soaring outside the rooftop of the sky garden.

No matter how hard I tried, I wouldn’t be able to catch someone in the air.

Realizing this, Dorara let out a sigh of relief.

At the same time, he remembered the humiliation he’d suffered and lit his resolve.

“This jerk. I should’ve noticed when he started hanging out with that witch Sharine.”

Now that he felt safe, Dorara’s mouth began to flab again.

Wind started to whip up around his body.

The staff he held began to shine as it caught the light.

Even looking that pathetic, he was still a Magic Arts Deputy.

Sure, there’s a vast difference between the top and the deputy, but he still stood above countless wizards.

The amount of magical power he possessed could easily overwhelm other mages.

Seeing this, I naturally took my starting stance.

I placed both hands on the ground and lifted my back foot slightly off the ground.

Dorara, watching my actions, had a look of disbelief.

Bam!

As I pierced through Dorara’s disbelief, I kicked off the ground.

At that moment my foot hit the bars—

[KWAANG!]

My body soared over the fence of the sky garden into the air.

A sky garden that was far removed from the ground.

To fall like this would practically be an act of suicide.

“You crazy bastard!?”

Dorara shouted in shock.

And his bewilderment created a huge gap.

My arm was stretched back.

At the same time, a magical brand was activated along my steel skin.

The activated magical brand: Explosion.

“If you thought you’d be safe in the air—”

I needed to show him that was a grave mistake.

[KWAAAHHH!]

With the explosion from my grip, my body shot up into the air once more.

The distance between Dorara and me quickly narrowed.

In a situation he hadn’t anticipated, Dorara hurriedly tried to cast a spell again, but it was too late.

The moment a magician allows a close-combat fighter to close the space—

There are no more options left.

[BANG!]

My fist plunged unapologetically into Dorara’s jaw.

“Gahk!”

As he took a hit to the jaw, several of his teeth went flying.

With his mind momentarily blown by my strike, the magic that had kept him in the air was dispelled.

Still, being a Magic Arts Deputy, his stamina was decent.

Even with his mind half gone, Dorara floundered to avoid falling.

“Ugh, ah! S-somebody help me!”

He shouted, his face pale as a ghost.

Due to his mental disarray, he could barely channel any magic.

He’s going to die.

As Dorara was thinking this—

Thud!

My hand caught him by the nape of his neck.

Then, I triggered an explosion from my other hand and returned to the sky park.

Crash!

As I slammed Dorara to the ground, he rolled and came to a stop.

Perhaps it was because he had just barely escaped death, but his eyes were completely vacant.

Thump—

“Ugh!”

As I made a noise with my feet, Dorara jumped up in fright.

He looked at me, drenched in cold sweat.

If I hadn’t saved him just now, he would’ve been dead.

Realizing he could’ve died based on how I chose to act, a deep-rooted sense of fear toward me sank into him.

“You were talking pretty freely a while ago.”

Thump—

With every time I loosened my wrist, Dorara flinched.

Though he still seemed to have some willpower left, he hastily fumbled around on the ground.

Then, he belatedly noticed something was missing.

“Looking for this?”

As I showed him the staff in my hand, his face turned even paler.

When battling a wizard, the most crucial thing is to take away their staff.

That’s the most basic of basics.

Once the staff is taken away, Dorara’s magical accuracy is going to plummet.

That means right now, he was nothing more than a barely-trained regular person.

Thump—

So, I tossed the staff back to him.

As he stared at the staff thrown in front of him, he slowly raised his head.

His face was that of someone who momentarily couldn’t understand the situation.

After all, there was no reason to return a weapon to someone who had already been thoroughly subdued.

“Let’s keep going.”

I decided to become an even more incomprehensible entity to Dorara.

“It wouldn’t be right to end things like this with a Magic Arts Deputy.”

Dorara finally grasped the madness reflected in my eyes.

Whether he lost his fighting spirit or not was no concern of mine.

I initiated a fight with him to learn how to combat a wizard.

If it ended here, it wouldn’t satisfy me at all.

“Crazy bastard.”

Dorara muttered as if he were facing an unexplainable entity.

However, I was already prepared to leap.

“There’s still plenty of lunchtime left.”

And in the sky garden, Dorara’s screams echoed out.

*

Murmurs—

Voices filled with the surprise and horror of children echoed from all around.

However, I didn’t change a single expression despite their commotion.

What I was holding in my hand was none other than the wrecked Dorara Korajin.

The Magic Arts Deputy.

This was precisely within the Magic Arts building.

Since my height was smaller than the average boys’, I was currently dragging Dorara across the ground.

Thanks to this, attention gathered, and the kids wore puzzled expressions.

“What’s that?”

“Dorara’s being dragged around in that awful state.”

“Hey, that’s him! The one who came in first in the team battle!”

“That was Hanon, right?”

The murmurs of the Magic Arts kids grew louder.

I pierced through their gazes and entered Dorara’s classroom.

Then, I casually picked him up and threw him to the ground.

Dorara rolled across the floor.

His eyes rolled back, and he didn’t seem to regain his sense at all.

I took a long breath as I felt the eyes of the Magic Arts kids gathering.

In the second semester of the second year, Act 4 was about to begin.

Thanks to Dorara’s efforts, rumors about Sharine were set to spread, and she would be bullied in the Magic Arts.

This wasn’t particularly important to the storyline.

It simply served as a factor in bringing the capricious Sharine into the team.

Act 4 could be smoothly navigated with Sharine’s assistance.

This meant that, whether I helped resolve Sharine’s bullying situation early or late, that didn’t really matter.

“I had no idea the standard of Magic Arts students had dropped this low.”

As soon as my remark left my lips, the gazes of all the Magic Arts kids shifted as one.

Everyone here takes pride in their magic.

Even if they were the bottom of Jerion Academy, they’d still be acknowledged for their excellence outside of the academy.

This place is where talent gathers.

Thus, their pride was higher than anyone else’s.

There’s no realm purer than talent like magic.

“Your Magic Arts Deputy said I could win first place in the team battle thanks to Sharine.”

Of course, the Deputy was too busy slandering Sharine to make such comments.

Yet the kids, feeling my lack of foresight, naturally thought Dorara would have said such things.

“Bullshit.”

As I spat that out, I looked at the Magic Arts students with a pathetic face.

“Even if one of you filled his position, I would’ve still come in first in the team battle.”

“Huh?”

“What are you saying?”

The students narrowed their eyes.

A multitude of kids here were jealous of Sharine.

She had shown that there’s a peak they could not reach even after living their lives as talent just like them.

Of course, they wouldn’t be able to swallow the inferiority sprouting in their hearts.

Yet separate from that inferiority, a part of them acknowledged Sharine’s talent.

Sharine had taken the top spot, beating every student at the Magic Arts.

To deny her was equivalent to denying those beneath her as well.

“Don’t make me laugh.”

“Does the Magic Arts Deputy look weak to you? If it weren’t for Sharine’s magic, I wouldn’t even have had that opportunity!”

“What do you know to be talking nonsense?”

Sure enough, a protective atmosphere formed around Sharine amongst them.

They needed to defend Sharine to fend off their own denial.

That’s why they began supporting her.

Looking at those kids, I couldn’t help but give a smirk.

It was an obvious sneer.

“That was all calculated. If someone else had come in, they would have devised the team differently and prepared differently.

It’s not because it’s Sharine that it’s important. You clueless fools.”

The Magic Arts students unknowingly tend to look down on Martial Arts students.

Thus, my statement that they knew nothing struck all of them to turn their gazes toward me.

“You’re a loose cannon just blabbing away.”

“What do you know about magic?”

“You’re such a bastard.”

The students’ words began to grow harsh.

While I looked at them, my face remained quite relaxed.

At the same time, my hand pointed at the corner where Dorara lay.

“No matter what, you all are below that messed-up deputy over there.”

The fire ignited in the kids’ eyes.

And they all glanced at Dorara, their annoyance rising.

They didn’t understand why he went and got beaten up, tarnishing their own pride.

It seemed many began to take a strong disliking to Dorara.

They must’ve thought they wouldn’t have ended up in such a state themselves.

Such thoughts were reading clear as day in their expressions.

“I’m not even the Martial Arts Deputy. The moment the Deputy got crushed by me, doesn’t that make all of you worthless as well?”

A fierce vibe surged among the kids as if they were about to pounce at any moment.

Even in that atmosphere, I shrugged my shoulders fearlessly.

“Right, what kind of conversation could I have with ignorant fools who can’t even read the flow of a team battle?”

Some students pulled out their staffs.

They had no plans to tolerate slander any longer.

“…Hanon?”

At that moment, the main character appeared.

The top of Magic Arts.

Sharine Sazarith.

She looked at me with a face that didn’t quite understand the situation among the kids.

“Sharine!”

“Who is that? Why did you team up with that guy!”

“Geez, do you think the top of Magic Arts is a joke?”

“If it had been Dorara instead of Sharine, you wouldn’t be alive right now!”

As soon as Sharine appeared, the kids’ voices grew even louder.

Sharine revealed her bewilderment at their responses.

Amidst the intense reactions, I met Sharine’s gaze.

“There’s hardly a difference between the top and the deputy; it’s just one rank.”

My mouth didn’t stop there.

The flames in their eyes flared even brighter.

Ding dong ding dong—

At that moment, a bell rang signaling that lunchtime would soon come to an end.

Upon hearing this, I moved towards the direction of the kids surrounding me.

Even though there was a hostile vibe from them, they couldn’t bring themselves to stop me when I shot them a cold glare.

After all, it was true that I had put Dorara in that state.

“Hanon.”

“Sharine, don’t hang around with that kind.”

“How could you come in first with such trash? If it weren’t for Sharine, you’d be nothing at all.”

“Don’t even bother talking to him.”

Sharine called out to me, but I could see the girls from Magic Arts clustering around her, eagerly chattering away.

From here on, the topic they complained about wouldn’t be Sharine, but me.

Sharine would be lifted up among the Magic Arts kids.

In order to preserve their pride, they would need to create her into their idol.

To achieve that, they deliberately triggered the peculiar competitive spirits between the Magic Arts and Martial Arts.

No matter how much they hated their representative, they couldn’t allow someone from the enemy camp to trample on them.

Such psychologies governed the Magic Arts students.

Thus, I would soon be the target of their scorn, taking retaliation on behalf of Sharine.

Along with that, the Dorara who had been beaten by me would also take his share of slander.

Thanks to Isabel’s incident, I was used to being cursed at.

It’s just that there might be a few more who would join in from now on.

‘I’ve repaid the debt for aiding my magic brands all this time.’

The debt I owed for helping me with magic brands and the team battle.

Having settled that debt, I exited the Magic Arts building.