18 – Do You Like Meat?
I interfered with Arya Fontaine’s magic until she eventually ran out of mana.
The surrounding students looked at Arya with her perplexed eyes.
All of them looked at Aria as if she was wondering if she should quit now, but she didn’t dare to open her mouth to talk.
I let go of her mana circuits that I was holding onto one by one. Her flow will no longer be twisted.
At the same time, with a terrible sound, the mana crystals stretched out in front.
“Ah, that’s it!”
Arya’s white face finally regains her original complexion. It was almost a sight of a corpse reviving.
The distance the crystal extended was pretty good. Arya jumped around and screamed her cheers.
“Win! I won this unconditionally!”
Then someone picked up a mana crystal with slow motion. Long, slender fingers and witch-sharp nails.
“…… ?”
Arya’s expression became more and more serious as she met her eyes with the owner of her hand, but then she completely cooled down.
She seemed to have finally realized why the surroundings had become quiet at some point.
“Haa…. Arya Fontaine.”
Violet sighed and turned to Aria. Arya purses her lips, but she doesn’t answer anything.
“I definitely told you not to do anything and wait.”
“…… “
I watched Aria shrivel in real time in front of her Violet.
Then, all of a sudden, I felt Trixie’s gaze staring at me.
Our eyes meet in the air.
Trixie swept her blue hair like a lake once and crept towards me with a subtle expression on her face.
“If the professor’s words were ridiculous, I would do something like this now—”
“Sorry….”
Arya was still being beaten by Violet. In the meantime, Trixie carefully parted her lips.
“You.”
Her voice was cold and frozen. To the extent that she couldn’t even think of the drunkard she was at the time.
“Did you just do something?”
The feeling of feeling the magic is quite wonderful.
It doesn’t matter if I tell her the truth, but I gave her a slightly different answer.
“Are you sober?”
“…… ?”
Trixie thought for a while about what I said.
Perhaps thinking he was talking nonsense, he quickly turned his head away.
◈
After class, the academy cafeteria was very noisy.
The sound of students chattering, the sound of tableware colliding with others moving….
I felt that the environment was not suitable for eating, so in the end I only packed food and went out.
I was going to eat alone, but someone dared to come and sit next to me. A girl with impressive red hair. It was Becky.
“What is it?”
“I want to eat here too.”
I pondered for a while.
“Don’t make a fuss.”
“…… Suddenly?”
But my warnings had no effect whatsoever. After a few bites of salad, Becky started chirping like a sparrow.
“Did you see that I can’t use aria magic? I was all refreshed.”
She didn’t give any answer to her. Why the restaurant grilled the meat this way was my top concern right now.
“I always talked about being particularly confident in the auxiliary series, but why did the output keep failing? Refreshing, refreshing Very refreshing!”
Then, all of a sudden, Becky’s face crumpled.
“Aria Fontyne~ Points are deducted~ Never take the professor’s words lightly~”
Muttered in a strange tone. It took me a while to realize that Becky was imitating Violet.
This time I asked.
“Do you have any reason to guess about Arya’s mistake?”
“Isn’t it just that you couldn’t do it yourself? In his own words, it is a level cursed by God…. He was just talking nonsense like that, so what kind of god could there be?”
Becky put a handful of his meat into his mouth as if the rice was delicious today.
“Who interfered with magic? That’s nonsense too. If so, wouldn’t anyone have noticed? In a place with so many students.”
It’s amazing how a small Becky can put so much food in it. Have you learned space magic?
I suddenly thought of something else, so I asked Becky.
“Until the day of the expedition, are all lectures like this?”
“Like this?”
“Only scroll usage is checked.”
If that was the case, I was thinking of not attending the lecture.
To begin with, I’m not very fond of scrolling itself.
From noble mtl dot com
It is the influence of the previous world. There was even a term for mages who used scrolls called ‘corpses that use magic’.
I had no choice but to participate on the day of the assignment, but I didn’t want to participate in the lecture to practice using the scroll.
I have always lived my life that way. Without spending time on things that feel magically worthless.
“Ah, no. Of course not.”
But Becky shook her head.
“The exact notice will be posted in the evening, but…. Oh yeah. Plan, you must be careful. Huh?”
Becky tapped me on the shoulder.
“What.”
“Arya, he’s trying properly. Isn’t that a bit funny? He fights first, then he fights alone….”
She pictured Arya von Tyne quietly in her head. A picture of her wearing a bunch of earrings and piercings.
One-on-one, of course, even if Arya formed a group and formed a rank, she was not confident of losing.
So I listened to Becky in one ear and let it out in the other.
“Professor Violet really likes competition among students. They even said that when they were in charge of the seniors, they even had magic duels with each other.”
“It’s okay if you don’t deal with it.”
“I can’t fight or avoid it. Professor Lee says that all of that is reflected in grades.”
I couldn’t get those words out of my ears.
Because I made a promise to Scarlett to get the highest grade until the midterm evaluation.
“Still, if you get high grades, there must be a certain reward. The seniors who received high grades under Professor Violet, now they all fly and crawl. I received the opportunity to present the thesis first, and I did research at the Magic Tower….”
My ears are starting to hurt. I heard enough of this explanation.
I chose the right words to interrupt Becky.
“Do you like meat?”
“I also got high grades, so I must go study abroad in a special area…. Huh? What?”
Becky tilted her head in silence. Instead of answering, I pointed at the meat with my fork.
“Ah, yes. I like meat. Who hates it?”
I put the meat on Becky’s plate and got up.
Can you handle leftovers this way?
… Isn’t that kind of environmentally friendly?
“What is it? Why do you do this to me…. Uh? Where!”
I ignored Becky’s voice. I had a lot of work to do today.
◈
Faculty of Magic shop, which reflects the magic trend the fastest, just looking around becomes a mage’s amusement.
However, there was one female student who couldn’t show her face at all even in that fun place.
“Oh, Arya. Look at this. This wand decoration is very pretty.”
Arya von Tyne didn’t pay attention to Hayley talking next to her. No, she couldn’t exactly write.
Plan.
That cheeky commoner was Arya’s only concern. I still shudder when I think of the deduction in front of everyone.
“Scrolling has also been newly added. Aria, what do you like?”
Hayley sticks her face out in front of Aria, who doesn’t answer.
“Aria?”
“Oh, yes.”
Haley shook her head, as if she knew what Arya was thinking.
“Don’t worry too much. How do you go through mana stagnation at that timing? Plane is really lucky.”
“Mana identity….”
Mana stagnation, a phenomenon that usually occurs when her body is fatigued due to mana getting tangled up like a cramp in her limbs. Even after hearing Hailey’s comfort, Aria’s expression was not good.
“Eh, why? Didn’t she go through mana stagnation? I saw it that way.”
“Huh? That’s right. It’s true that you suffered from mana stagnation.”
“Right? If Professor Violet had arrived a little later, we could have seen Plan drop out.”
She responded quickly, but Arya was still embarrassed.
‘It was a little different from congestion.’
As she recalled her feelings at that time, Aria became nervous involuntarily and made her back stand upright.
It’s too much trouble to simply describe it as stagnant.
The strands of mana to draw her spells couldn’t be grasped. Her flow, which should have flowed smoothly, bounced arbitrarily.
A fear strikes her that she will never be able to use magic again. It was like, in an instant, I felt as if I had a huge handicap.
‘Maybe…. Interference?’
Arya, who had gone that far, burst into laughter involuntarily. I wondered how embarrassing she must have been to even think of this herself.
The premise of interference is that the caster has a higher understanding of magical power than the target of interference.
‘Something like flan, better than me?’
She shook her head vigorously to clear her thoughts. Completely excluded. Because it was completely impossible.
Haley held onto Arya’s arm beside her.
“I’ll buy you coffee! Let’s have a drink with Louis later. Aria, it doesn’t suit you being so serious.”
“Ah, thank you.”
“Yes. Let’s scroll now. Should I prepare for the lecture tomorrow?”
Haley and Arya crossed their arms and went through the scrolls one by one.
Floating Scrolls, Throwing Scrolls, Volatile Scrolls…. The content was varied and the price was also very different.
At some point, Hailey’s gaze lands on a particularly bright red scroll.
“Uh~ I don’t recommend that to newbies~”
Just as Haley was about to get her hands on it and examine it, a fairy clerk suddenly appeared.
She continued her words while holding up a scroll that was larger than her body.
“This is an extremely reading scroll. It’s a scroll used to poison orcs, but if it accidentally touches a human, it will cause side effects.”
“What side effects?”
“I suffer from paralysis~ But if I’m not lucky, I’ll be living in a vegetable state for the rest of my life, so I don’t recommend it to newbies.”
Haley gulped down her saliva and grabbed Arya.
“You better not touch that, Aria. The side effects are a bit scary….”
Haley narrowed her brows as if the imagining was terrifying.
The two continued to wander around the store after that. Haley glanced over at the trivia and widened her eyes.
“Oh, the announcement for tomorrow’s lecture has been posted. Did you come up earlier than expected?”
“Where? See you together.”
The eyes of the two girls landed on Haley’s open trivia.
[ Mock magic battle ]
▶ Battle is inevitable in the process of competition. We want to train students to show their best in real combat.
▶The mock battle results are reflected in the grades.
▶Special Note: Because of the exploration task, the use of scrolls is exceptionally allowed.
*You cannot bring your own scrolls. 3 Will be given randomly on the same day.
▶Professor Leonard will be present to ensure fairness.
Haley shook her head.
“The seniors were right…. Professor Violet really likes mock battles.”
Haley’s gaze suddenly turned outside the store as she muttered. Her expression brightened visibly and she raised her hand.
“Oh, Louis is here! Louis!”
Haley sprinted out of the store with her gun, but Arya’s feet were still stuck in her place.
Arya von Tyne pictured Violet’s lecture tomorrow in her head.
And while drawing again. She finally made up her mind.
“Over there.”
Arya called the clerk. The fairy appeared swiftly, as if it had been by her side from the beginning.
“Yes, did you call me?”
“Please wrap that scroll.”
A thin index finger pointed at the bright red scroll. The fairy tilts her head.
“Ummm~ Eh, an extremely reading scroll?”
“Yes.”
“Uh…. Does a newbie ever use that?”
“Sure.”
Arya nodded her head with a subtle expression.
“I have an exploration task a little later.”
Sinceramente estupido