On the way to the training arena, the two of us walked in silence, as if we'd made a pact not to speak.
I simply watched the back of his head as he walked ahead, indifferent.
Balrod Beljie.
A guy who seemed to embody every stereotype of the harsh, rugged East all at once.
Bronzed skin, a clean-cropped haircut, an appetite that had given me no end of headaches—but he'd always had an interesting side to him.
Come to think of it, the last time we'd sparred was already well over a year ago.
If memory served, it was sometime in the winter of first year.
Even back then, the gap between us had been unmistakable.
"…Hm."
"Ready?"
We'd reached the training arena before I knew it. Balrod, facing me now, began loosening up with easy, unhurried movements.
*He's gotten a lot stronger than a year ago, no doubt.*
I was only just starting to climb back up.
Balrod had been steadily sharpening his skills the whole time.
"This is just a straight sparring match, right?"
"Yeah, I told you—I'm serious about this."
He cracked his knuckles with a grinding sound and fixed me with a stare.
"Show me. How much you've grown."
"…"
There was no ease in Balrod's voice—only a focused gravity.
Was this my first real spar against an Alpha Class student?
The time I'd trained with Elline didn't count—she'd been calibrating herself to me, essentially running me through drills.
*Balrod.*
After he'd dropped his studies, I'd written him off as just an eccentric. But now I was reminded all over again of just how remarkable he actually was.
He'd never once fallen out of Alpha Class.
Truly.
*How strong is he now?*
I was curious.
We stood quietly, watching each other.
—Clang.
The bell mounted in the training arena rang out with a crisp, clear tone.
At that same moment, we both began compressing mana to cast.
Balrod was defense-branch.
Without throwing out serious firepower, breaking through him would be nearly impossible—but.
*Let's give it a shot.*
I opened my cupped hands.
I shaped the simplest, most manageable spell I had: Mana Bullets.
The core of a mage-versus-mage duel between practitioners of the same discipline was mana management.
Burn through it recklessly from the start, and exhaustion would come crashing down before long.
So the goal was to run mana as efficiently and steadily as possible while reading the opponent.
—Shwaaaat—
Ten Mana Bullets.
Then, in an instant—fire.
Ten bullets traced their arcs through the air.
—Thunk—
Balrod spread both hands and raised a silver barrier like hammered iron, neutralizing every last one.
All ten.
"Not bad."
I pushed forward into a harder offensive, leaving his casual praise behind.
Logically speaking, a support-branch mage from Beta Class beating a defense-branch mage from Alpha Class by the book was simply not going to happen.
Which meant I had to aim for anything but the book.
*Elline said it.*
That blocking was more efficient than deflecting or dodging.
Balrod would naturally operate the same way.
The fact that his target was fixed meant, conversely, that there were plenty of angles for me to work with.
*How do I exploit them?*
I kept firing bullets while slowly mapping it out in my head.
—Ping—!
—Thud—!
We traded several more exchanges after that, but not a scratch appeared on Balrod's body.
He stood motionless as a stone statue—plenty of openings to attack, yet every single strike was blocked, no matter where it came from.
*This guy's insane.*
I'd expected as much from a defense-branch mage, but I hadn't thought he'd be this impenetrable.
If anything, I was the one starting to feel the strain.
Through the rippling aftershocks, Balrod spoke.
"You've definitely improved a lot."
"…Yeah?"
He offered the compliment, then clenched one hand into a fist.
And for the first time, the man who'd done nothing but defend began drawing a magic circle—as if preparing to attack.
*That's…*
Fierce sparks began crackling from his hand.
"But you're not quite at Alpha Class level yet."
"…"
—BOOM!
With a thunderous crack, the sparks from Balrod's hand came streaking toward me.
*Stand and block, stand and—*
I called up Elline's lessons and deployed a barrier.
—Clang—!
Just like when I'd blocked Elline's attacks before, the barrier shattered and a tremor ran through my body.
"Ngh…"
The smile on Balrod's lips deepened.
"Did you learn that from Elline too?"
A tingling sensation lingered in my hands.
When I looked up, Balrod's face was beaded with sweat—but he still looked composed.
*Still a long way up.*
It had only been a month.
Catching up to people who'd been grinding hard for two years in a single month was, plainly, absurd.
It wasn't as if I had any exceptional talent to speak of.
Even so.
*I'm not giving up.*
Because there were people who believed in me.
I began gathering Mana Bullets again.
Fifteen this time.
The advantage of Mana Bullets—scattering mana before firing—was that you could launch multiple shots at once; the drawback was that each hit lacked punch.
So I needed to go for raw firepower.
Balrod shrugged and casually deployed his silver barrier again with both hands.
The sheer pressure of that barrier—like a steel-plated shield—was almost intimidating.
*Not that it matters.*
I fired the Mana Bullets anyway.
Like Professor Raen had done—dripping water, one drop at a time.
Scattered.
—Ping—!
Balrod blocked them without a care, as if holding an umbrella against the rain.
Even the last bullet thudded into the barrier—only a hairline crack formed before it quietly dissolved.
"Rutess."
He watched me wiping sweat from my face and spoke in a measured tone.
"As a friend, I'll say it—you've really grown a lot. But as someone who'd be competing alongside you, there's still something lacking—"
…
Balrod's eyes shifted slightly.
I was wiping sweat.
And.
One hand was behind my back.
Before Balrod could even finish reflexively twisting his body to raise a barrier—
—Clang—!
—Fwip—
A sharp crack rang past my ear.
He hadn't quite managed to block it—a faint graze across his cheek left a thin scratch.
"…"
I'd fired from his blind spot.
"Hah."
The composed expression on Balrod's face slowly gave way to a deep grin.
"…What are you?"
I wiped the sweat from my face and looked at him.
"I dropped the ball for a while and had to start over. So I've been cutting corners a bit."
"Cutting corners?"
"Yeah."
The same shortcut I'd used when learning chess.
Watching what skilled people did—and copying it.
"How was that? Just now I tried copying Professor Raen's move."
Whether it was my sloppy execution or Balrod's good read, he'd blocked it quickly enough.
But the grin on Balrod's face kept deepening.
"That's interesting."
A smile rising on a face that had gone from relaxed to genuinely focused.
Balrod spread both hands and began unfolding a magic formula—
"Oh."
—and stopped dead.
"?"
I'd been bracing myself, running through my next sequence in my head.
Seeing him halt so abruptly left me thrown off.
"…Why'd you stop?"
Balrod scratched his head with a look of mild exasperation.
"I just remembered—we were supposed to meet up at lunch."
What was that supposed to mean.
"Why?"
"The professor said she had something to tell us before the week of patrols starts. Completely slipped my mind."
We'd had the whole atmosphere built up just a moment ago. And it ends like this?
"What are you doing this afternoon?"
"Meeting Elline."
"Hmm."
Balrod turned to look at me and mulled it over for a moment.
Then he clicked his tongue and glanced back at me.
"…Should we call it here?"
* * *
The small auditorium on the third floor of the Academy's Central Hall.
On any normal weekend it would have been quiet and still, but today there were an unusual number of students gathered.
"Professor. We're ready."
Abel, a member of the student council, murmured quietly, and Raen rose without a word.
"Any students not yet present?"
"One hasn't arrived yet. According to the report, they're on their way back after finishing patrol."
"Understood."
Raen leaned on her staff and stepped up to the podium.
The low murmur of voices fell silent all at once as every eye turned toward her.
With most of the professors away, reinforcing security was only natural.
Guards were posted and the Academy's own magical wards had been raised—but taking every possible precaution was simply the right thing to do, which was why the remaining professors had formed a temporary patrol unit together with the student council.
By the time students reached their third year at the Academy, their abilities had had ample time to fully bloom.
And those at Alpha Class level were already capable of holding their own on the northern monster front lines, right now if needed.
With Tirion absent on deployment, the gathering was still composed largely of top-tier students.
Raen slowly swept her gaze across the room, taking quiet pleasure in the sight of her students—grown so admirably over the years—before drawing the real topic to the fore.
"Now that everyone's here, I'll briefly explain why I've called you together."
And with that, she began.