Chapter 283

[Ah, the moment last player Jiwon Ahn was eliminated, Altear Academy secured a 2-match winning streak once again! The score is 4 to 3! If they win the next match as well, Altear Academy will at least secure a draw in this year’s academy competition.]

[Seviron fought really, really hard, but Altear has returned having developed much more than last year! I believe the audience must have enjoyed the view with the use of destructive and wide-area magic, even with the reduction of flair.]

“It was a match where the differences in skill and experience could be seen bit by bit… Allowing the casting of wide-area magic was the biggest blunder. If we had just interrupted the spell in the middle, we could have leveraged our mana advantage to turn the tide.”

I clasped my hands together, expressing my disappointment.

Last year it was barrier magic, but this year Altear’s joker card must have been wide-area magic.

– If the magic circle spreads across the entire stadium, how the heck are we supposed to avoid it? lol

– It’s rare to see wide-area magic throughout the competition, but we saw it five times today alone.

– It’s because the efficiency of that magic is trash. But if it hits, it’s amazing.

Of course, although the students struggled against wide-area magic, it didn’t decisively affect the outcome.

It was hard to deny that Seviron Academy was outmatched in terms of skill.

“Once wide-area magic circles are activated, you have to think about blocking it rather than avoiding it, don’t you think, Father?”

“Ahem. That’s right. In the case of laminar flow magic, if you compute the boundary layer using the given Reynolds number, along with the displacement thickness and momentum thickness, you can easily—”

“Wait a minute, that’s enough. Anyway, while it’s possible to break it that way, we need to find the points where mana is emitted the weakest and minimize barrier damage at our level.”

It’s obvious, but breaking a spell is much harder than casting it.

The process of multiplying small numbers is easy, but factoring large numbers is challenging; it follows the same logic.

– The pace is too fast, Professor! (Really, a professor)

– I wondered who Noname learned from lol

– (Dazed)

– It seems like something beneficial, but I can’t understand any of itㅠㅠㅠ

– It’s just 2nd-circle magic, and I have to study fluid dynamics? This is making me dizzy;;

However, as Professor Cheon mixed in technical terms, all the viewers became confused and flooded the chat with dazed emojis.

Is this what’s called mirror treatment? From now on, I should restrain myself.

“Nameya.”

Just as I was about to end the broadcast and put away everything in my pockets into my bag, Professor Cheon called my name.

“Yeah? What is it?”

“Never mind. I’ll say nothing. I just hope you finish the match safely without getting hurt. Remember that winning or losing isn’t what’s important.”

“I won’t worry you.”

“If you get in danger, I will immediately stop the match. So you need to make good judgments before that happens, understood? Huh?”

Professor Cheon opened up my shirt collar and tidy up my clothing.

His eyes were filled with unspeakable concern.

The fact that someone cares for me like this made my heart swell for no particular reason.

‘I must be too old to crave such affection anymore.’

And beside this view stood a woman squinting her eyes.

“Oh dear, look at the pretty daughter that doesn’t hurt even if she’s put in the eye. Name student, let’s not worry and compete without pressure!”

Before I knew it, Principal Gu Onyu was patting my back and nudging me towards the stadium.

“What are you doing?”

For a moment, Professor Cheon had a fierce expression on his face, but the Principal responded nonchalantly.

“It’s a problem if you overly protect a child. You never know, right? If things go well, Name might be able to eliminate one or two opponents?”

“The best scenario is for our daughter not to have to compete at all. Principal Gu Onyu, is the level of Seviron Academy only this much?”

If all the seniors in front won, I wouldn’t have to compete, and that was also what Professor Cheon hoped for.

“Why are you questioning me? We lost all the middle school matches, and our elementary school won 3 to 2! Nameya, don’t worry about us and just go! Fighting!”

With Principal Gu Onyu’s cheers, cheers erupted from the Seviron audience.

“Noname! Don’t be discouraged and show all your abilities! You were the best in the game! Don’t be timid, fight!”

Semaaru, acting as the editor, passionately waved his cheering stick.

“Nameya! Be sure to win! If you don’t, we’ll tease you so much, so be ready!”

The Academy Friends were bouncing up and down in place, trying to see me for a bit longer.

And keeping a close eye on Professor Cheon and Principal Gu Onyu until the end, I turned around and went down the stairs.

With each step down the stairs, my heart thudded in time with the rhythm.

“Phew…”

I entered the long underground tunnel.

The hard concrete ceiling erased the blue sky.

The faint light spilling from the lamps created a spooky atmosphere.

Excitement and fear mixed together, making my head throb.

But this feeling was far too familiar to me.

Every step I took through the dark tunnel echoed lightly.

It was a space so quiet that the cheers of the crowd that had made my ears ache could hardly be heard.

At the end of the tunnel, nine shadows awaited me.

I rushed past them and filled the last empty spot.

Then, a man in an orange vest walked by us with a walkie-talkie.

“It seems everyone’s here. Ah, here is E6 standby. Requesting to hand over participants to A3.”

*crackle*

[This is A3. Standing by.]

*tap*

The man put the walkie-talkie in his pocket and turned towards us.

“Hey kids, is it a bit too bright for you? I’ll lower the shutter for a moment.”

The face that hadn’t been visible due to backlighting came into view under the crimson lighting.

It was a face I knew well.

“Shin Yeonho…?”

“Wow, Seviron recognized me first? Are you juniors feeling a bit slighted?”

The man who arrived as a volunteer for the Academy Competition was Shin Yeonho from Korea University’s Department of Theoretical Magic.

Seeing an unexpected face here made me feel happiness and I greeted him.

“Is it really you, Senior Shin Yeonho? Wow, amazing!”

“Wow…”

“What brings you here?”

“What do you mean what brings me here? I came to volunteer without pay. But why do the third years seem so tense? Unlike the first and second years?”

“…”

The Altear students glanced at each other without speaking.

One of them glanced my way, and I stuck out my tongue and made a deliberately silly face.

‘Lower your gaze. If it was back in the day, you wouldn’t even be able to stand in front of me.’

Shin Yeonho shrugged it off and offered words of encouragement as a senior.

“I won’t tell you to be careful and not to get hurt. Starting a fight is about hurting each other, so that would be contradictory, right? Once a fight starts, just dive in headfirst without regrets for life. The same goes for you Seviron juniors.”

““Yes.””

The students answered sequentially.

“And to my beloved Altear juniors.”

“Yes.”

“I think this will be your last chance.”

“Last chance?”

“The last chance you have to beat him.”

Shin Yeonho stretched out his arm and pointed his finger at me.

“That guy is not a human like us. I can assure you that if you lose today, you won’t win for the rest of your lives.”

“…?”

Shin Yeonho flashed a meaningful smile at me.

Ha, look at this guy.

Those who have experienced it firsthand recognize my abilities to a certain extent.

Yeah, ‘to a certain extent.’ That’s still far from enough.

Shin Yeonho’s arrival had dampened the spirits of our Seviron seniors.

“Nameya…”

“Sorry, we thought we’d do our best…”

“Regardless of what anyone says, you are the most proud people from our Academy.”

Due to the nature of the inter-grade competition, once you’ve met an opponent, you meet again continuously until graduation.

So, it seems, the seniors accustomed to countless defeats were already anticipating a loss before the duel began.

“Still, Hwang Juyoung is the strongest among us…”

“I don’t know much about that Hwang Juyoung. You seniors also worked just as hard to be selected for the competition, right? Isn’t that so?”

“Yeah.”

“It doesn’t matter how many times you seniors lost to those Altear guys in the past. The one who laughs at the end is the winner anyway. So, let’s make sure we win this year. And that graduate brother, I’ve hit him before, and he’s weaker than he looks.”

“Pff! Ah! No, sorry…”

“No, no. A little trash talk before a match is understandable.”

Shin Yeonho waved his hand good-naturedly.

Meanwhile, the Altear students glared at us with fierce eyes.

“Our juniors grow by seeing the seniors rather than the teachers. So, as Shin Yeonho said, please show them a match that sets an example for the Academy juniors. If your legs are blown off, crawl with your arms, and if your limbs are all gone, use your mouth to tear off and eat flesh—”

“Hey! Noname, wait, stop! What are we, filming a gory film? Why are you saying something so brutal? I only told you all to do your best…!”

Shin Yeonho shouted, interrupting my words of encouragement.

As expected, a cunning person trying to dampen our morale from the outset.

“Either way, I won’t tolerate losing easily. The moment you give up, I will truly be disappointed in the seniors.”

“That won’t happen. We’ve been doing this for years. No, I promise right here that we will finish this before your turn comes!”

“Do we really have to make such a cute kid fight? No way? So let’s make sure we win this year!”

“Fighting! Fighting!”

“Seviron is invincible! Seviron is eternal!”

*crackle*

The sound of the walkie-talkie echoed, and the shutter heading towards the surface rose.

Two from Seviron and two from Altear went up to the training hall, while the remaining students were directed to the substitution area through the adjacent corridor.

“Wooooooah!”

This enthusiasm, this atmosphere.

I hope the seniors can maintain it until the end. Not just for the match, but for a lifetime.

* * *

“Ha… ha… Haaack! Seriously, Seviron just keeps bothering us to the end! Ah, I want to curse!”

Lee Minyoung shouted with a piercing voice, unleashing her pent-up frustrations.

Her prized glossy brown hair was all disheveled.

Ashen smudges covered her face, ruining her makeup.

The eyeliner had smudged down to under her eyes, making her look as if she were possessed by a vengeful spirit on the scoreboard.

“Are they real zombies? They’re especially relentless this year.”

Park Junyoung, who was abnormally tall, was among those who suffered less.

“You’re the one who’s had it easy from the back! Is it right that a lady like me fights up front?”

“Then you should learn magic without using aura.”

“Shut up. Let’s hurry up and finish this and leave.”

Crack—

Lee Minyoung bit down hard on her already torn nails once more.

‘You’re keeping your promise to get rid of this guy, right?’

When I first met Name, I didn’t grasp the situation properly, wanting to defend my pride.

However, I was worried that what happened with that unpleasant Otakjae touching Name could escalate more than expected, and the clarity of mind I had briefly lost returned.

“What are you doing? Bring your four little friends too. I’ll finish it all at once.”

“Ah… ahhh…”

Lee Minyoung threatened the Seviron female student in a menacing tone.

The student’s eyes glanced nervously.

A year had passed, and I had completely forgotten this. They were the predators of Altear.

They enjoyed the act of fighting itself and were notoriously cruel with their hands.

It was harder to sustain injuries during fights with the aura barriers in place.

Yet, three students who went out earlier were all carried out unconscious on stretchers.

One had his arm bent in a grotesque angle, enough for the scoreboard to be pixelated by the AI observer.

It would have been better if they had been mentally deficient, but just like any other academy student, the head they inherited from their parents was truly brilliant.

“Get out quickly! I didn’t put on any sunscreen, how long are you going to keep me waiting? Hey, referee, isn’t this delaying against the rules?”

“Shut your mouth. If your mouth itches, chew on some candy or something.”

Their violent actions all stemmed from anxiety.

How to handle Noname.

If I used full power against a 7-year-old child, I’d lose face, but I couldn’t afford to let my guard down due to Shin Yeonho’s warning still echoing in my mind.

Especially since Hwan Sung Joon and Lee Jae Hwan planned to skirt responsibility by sneaking away, it only further heated my anger.

“Should we switch with Otakjae?”

“Forget it. He’ll just ruin the perfect win, and then Joo Seon will make another fuss.”

“What should we do then?”

“First, we need to see what they’re capable of. How confident can they be to say such things with a gaping mouth?”

As her words faded, the shutter door rose.

Lee Minyoung’s eyes sparked with blue flames.

In that instant, her aura shifted and without hesitation, she kicked the head of the female student standing still.

Bam—!

The student’s body flew dozens of meters and crashed against the wall of the training hall.

Given the barrier she had, that was an excessively forceful attack.

“…”

As soon as Name entered the training hall, the match resumed.

Lee Minyoung’s actions weren’t fair play, but they weren’t against the rules either.

“Now, you’re alone, Noname?”

The momentary glance of coldness toward the situation, Name suddenly halted and dropped to her knees on the ground.

“What the heck is she doing?”

“Don’t tell me she got scared coming this far?”

“Huh?”

Name clapped her hands together and began to pray in a suddenly reverent atmosphere.

Even the previously bustling audience maintained silence at her bizarre act.

“El Maben Sutra Ekaterium. El Las Bestial Saleantirumone. Dra Est Asha Subur Kimoshat.”

The first two sentences chanted a succession of runes, and the last was murmured in a completely different intonation, in an incomprehensible language.

[Intermediate Incantation: Demon Lord’s Horn]

A magic circle appeared around her, emitting a brighter light than ever toward the sky.

To protect against the sudden attack, Lee Minyoung and Park Junyoung lowered their center of gravity and drew their wands.

The magic circle gradually shrank, hovering above Name’s head like a butterfly.

Name lowered her arms and stood up slowly.

“If you really wanted to win, you should have interfered with me standing up, you little brats.”

With the determination to prevent the middle school’s complete defeat, Name spat out her words.