Chapter 64

Laura von Adelheit opened her previously shut eyes.

“Where is this…?”

Here is dirt. Over there is dirt. Everything is made of dirt walls and floor.

It didn’t take long for her to realize that she was inside a maze built in the practice field. Laura slowly looked around.

The solid dirt walls were built in a way that made the maze’s paths narrow enough for only two people to pass through.

Looking up at the sky of the maze, she saw the dark drapes hanging, just as Professor Andres had said. She could not see outside from within the maze.

Laura placed her hand on the dirt wall. The straight-up dirt wall was so tightly packed that not a single grain of dirt would fall away just by touching it.

This also meant that breaking through the maze’s walls and forging a path would be difficult. Laura considered using magic to break the dirt wall but quickly abandoned the idea.

“I need to conserve my magical power.”

The sight of the maze she had seen from the audience was undoubtedly massive; she did not have infinite magical power to collapse all those dirt walls. Laura clicked her tongue without realizing it and slowly began to move forward.

‘The condition for victory in this duel is to seize the flag.’

Right. If she seizes the flag, she can advance to the next duel. It’s a straightforward rule.

‘There are 64 flags hidden within the maze.’

In other words, only one-fifth of the students could advance to the next duel. Laura had to be among them.

Trying to understand the structure of the maze, which was changing in real-time, was meaningless.

So, she needed to explore the maze first.

This was the moment her first objective was set. Laura pulled her magic wand from her robe.

Like a conductor waving a baton, a white magical power emanated from the gracefully dancing wand and formed a magic circle in the air.

“Output, conversion, repulsion.”

The circular magic circle drawn at the innermost part outputted the magical power Laura was emitting.

The complex trajectory of spells surrounding it was a conversion system that transformed external impacts into magical energy.

And finally, this small magic circle was tightly surrounded by a dodecagonal spell. Other students would not be able to construct a dodecagon in such a short time, but it was possible for Laura.

“Magical Defense (υπερασπίζω).”

This was not a simple defense; it was protection. It did not merely defend against a specific attack; the translucent dodecagon spread around Laura was a complex spell that protected her from all attacks.

Laura looked at the translucent barrier swirling around her and smiled satisfactorily.

Now her task was to find the flags hidden throughout the maze.

Laura began to move. Of course, the direction was straightforward.

Time was running short, the number of remaining flags was decreasing in real time, and the maze’s structure was narrowing.

Laura did not like any of these circumstances. She had thought she could confidently pass this flag snatching, but reality was far from easy.

She was incredibly unlucky. Other students who encountered her or randomly charged at her were easy to deal with, but the flag just wouldn’t appear.

‘At this rate, really…’

Could it be that she would get eliminated on the very first day of the grade-by-grade duel? How absurd?

“No.”

At the very least, Laura did not want to give up. As she shook her head to cast away negative thoughts, she rounded a corner of a dirt wall.

“Hmm…?”

Unlike before, a fairly spacious clearing appeared. Laura stared at the clearing with a slightly flustered expression.

And then, Laura’s eyes began to shake violently.

A clearing with evenly compacted dirt ground. In the center stood a lone flag, fluttering in the breeze.

“A flag…!”

It was a flag. After diving into this relentless maze for over fifty minutes, she finally found the flag. Laura felt tears welling up in her eyes.

Her dirt-stained hands and similarly soiled clothes vividly demonstrated how hard she had struggled to find the flag. Laura wiped her tears away with her tiny hands.

Just as Laura was about to take a triumphant step toward the flag, suddenly—

– Tatatatang—!

A heavy sound that burst and ripped through the surrounding air reached Laura’s sensitive ears immediately. She halted her steps at once.

– Pababak!

Three bullets embedded in the hard dirt ground. Laura’s gaze transformed into a sharp dagger as she calculated the trajectory of the bullets.

Calculation, search, and derivation.

“Tch. This doesn’t match.”

A male student, holding a revolver in his hand, slowly stepped out from the corner of the dirt wall on the opposite side. Laura recognized who he was.

He was a student from Class A, someone she had briefly seen in Professor Antorelli’s class.

The realization seemed to surprise the other student as well; he looked at Laura with a slightly startled expression.

However, that was only for a moment. Soon, the male student’s eyes transformed into those of a fierce hunter, and Laura swiftly assumed a combat stance.

“You’re the young lady of Adelheit, right? Laura von Adelheit.”

“And who might you be?”

“Aren’t we both from Class A? Don’t you know my name?”

“I don’t remember people I’m not close to.”

Taking her words as a provocation, the unnamed male student gritted his teeth and reloaded his revolver.

“My name is Nils. I’m from the combat department of Class A, Nils Chamber.”

“The Nils Chamber from the combat department… I’ll remember that.”

“Laura von Adelheit. How about you just hand over the flag without fighting?”

“You think I would allow that?”

“Do I really need to ask for your permission?”

“Do you think I would just stand idly by while you take the flag? I underestimated you.”

With Laura’s words, a suffocating silence descended upon the clearing.

Since Laura had never fought students from Class A before, she looked at this first encounter with a formidable opponent with anxious eyes. The same was true for Nils standing opposite her.

Since Class A students had never dueled amongst themselves, it was hardly surprising that the tension between them was palpable.

Class A students were the cream of the crop among students of the Caldera Imperial Academy from the same year. This held true in any field, without exception.

A spinning top suddenly rolled between them, making its way toward the flag that was stuck in the ground.

“……”

“……”

And then, the moment the spinning top touched the flag and came to a stop.

“Crush it (συντριβή)—!”

– Tatatatang—! Ka-wooom!

Without waiting for each other, attacks soared toward one another. The three bullets aimed at Laura were obstructed by her magical defense and shattered into pieces, while the intangible attack directed at Nils pressed down heavily on his body.

“Ugh…! Gravitational manipulation magic…!”

“Phew…!”

Setting up a magic circle in advance had been a stroke of genius. However, Nils was still standing strong.

“You’re persistent…!”

“This is nothing…!”

Laura quickly began to formulate a spell. Her brilliant brain calculated swiftly, and soon magic circles began to be drawn in the air following the movement of her wand.

“Liquid, conversion, amplification, absolute zero…”

White coldness started to frost over the magic circle, and her magic circle was being completed in an instant.

However, Nils had no intention of simply accepting this. Almost free from the magic’s influence, he quickly emptied the bullets in his revolver and hastily loaded in a bright-red bullet.

“Take this!”

“Freeze in place! Blizzard (χιονοθύελλα)!!”

– Kawa-wooom—!!

The remaining duel time was a mere 5 minutes. And neither of these two students showed any intention of backing down.

It was the moment a fierce battle unfolded to seize the first victory.