“All right. First, let’s transform.”
Earnest and Lunaria were in the Proving Ground, the two Empresses of the academy on their feet and facing each other. Their class’s actual instructor was silently kneeling on the ground, unable even to announce the day’s training schedule.
“Huh? Ah! Wait a minute!”
Earnest put a hand on her clothing. She took off her sword belt and jacket, then hurriedly removed one boot and then the next, nearly falling over as she did.
“I—I mean…when I transformed yesterday, that was totally unexpected! So I burned my whole outfit, and now I’m out of backups…”
“Ah, yes, nobles with no money… Whatever shall we do with you?”
Lunaria rubbed the space between her eyebrows. The contempt in that gesture hit her partner like a ton of bricks.
Earnest threw her boots to one side and got ready to ignite herself…then thought better of it. She removed her bolero, unbuttoned her overblouse, then reached for her pleated skirt…
“Boys! Don’t look! I’ll kill you all!”
“Stripping in public now? Of all the ridiculous things for a barbarian noble to do…”
Lunaria wasn’t just telegraphing contempt now. She felt actual pity for Earnest.
Enduring the humiliation, Earnest neatly folded her clothes. She still had some extra panties and tights, so she had no problem burning those up as she became the Scion of Flame.
“All right. I’ve transformed.”
“Honestly. How unsightly…”
But Earnest no longer cared what Lunaria said. After burning everything away, she was no longer mortal.
“Come on. You transform, too.”
“Ice…Transform!”
With that cool little intro, Lunaria began her transformation.
That’s not fair. Why does she have a catchphrase? We’re both doing the same thing, but now she seems ten times cooler than me!
“All right. I am transformed.”
“No fair! No fair… Next time, I’m gonna say something like ‘Fire…Transform!’ too, all right?!”
“Um… All right. Go right ahead, if you wish…”
Lunaria looked genuinely confused. That was exactly why Earnest hated geniuses.
Now the Scion of Flame and the Scion of Ice stood facing each other, a set distance apart. There was only six or so feet between them, but one was starting to melt, and the other was beginning to have her fires extinguished. If they got any closer, they probably would’ve annihilated each other.
Come to think of it, I have the Magic Sword of Flame and she has the Magic Sword of Ice…but there are similar wind- and earth-oriented blades elsewhere in the kingdom. I wonder if their wielders can become scions, too? It’s been a long time since I saw either of them…
“All right. Ready to go back to normal?”
“Y-yes!”
Earnest leaned forward, watching closely. She took a few steps toward her partner, almost putting out the flames on her head.
The Scion of Ice’s body was changing. There was a notable whooshing sound as the frozen, shattered fragments of ice gathered back together, regained their shape, and reformed into organs, bones, eyeballs, and skin. This familiar yet different restoration process disgusted Earnest, but she still watched every moment of it.
Soon, the layer of fat on Lunaria’s body was covered with skin, and…
Come on! Why do her breasts have to be that big, huh?
Earnest let her mind wander as she stared. The crucial part was coming up next.
“This is how I create my clothing.”
Crystals of ice covered Lunaria’s skin and formed a dress. As Earnest watched, a magnificent ice-themed costume came together. Lunaria’s nude body was only exposed to the male students’ gazes for a second or two—but that was fine, because these less-than-gentlemanly boys were in the process of being brutally murdered by Claire, Yessica, and Sophie.
“Oh! Aha! I see, I see!”
Now Earnest understood. And what Lunaria had done with ice, she could do with fire.
Easy peasy!
She wasted no time trying it out herself. First, she released her flame form, then she used the fire to cover her reconstituted body. Her aim was to create a dress of flame of her very own. But midway through the process…
“Ow! Ow! Hot, hot, hot, hot, hot!”
The fire was hot. Really hot. The flame dress on her body was broiling her newly reconstructed flesh. She rolled around on the ground like a sausage cooking on a grill, trying to put out the fire. It didn’t work. But just when the fire was about to claim her life, an exasperated Lunaria blew a gust of cold air at her.
Now she was close to freezing to death instead.
“I-I’m dying… I’m dying… C-Claire…”
“Why don’t you just go back into flame mode again?” said Lunaria.
She made it sound so easy. And it was, really. The moment Earnest transformed and then untransformed again, her body would be fully restored without the need for further healing. The thing was, to generate the flames required, she would need to drum up the requisite fighting force, and it was hard to concentrate when you were in pain from head to toe. Plus, half her body was burned to a crisp and the other half was frozen solid, leaving her with a dire lack of physical strength…
“Anna! I’ll heal you right now!”
Claire rushed over and began to restore her friend, only to have Lunaria stop her with a hand.
“Quit coddling her, Claire. If she can’t manage this on her own, let her rot on the ground and die. All this monster has is her stubbornness. If you took that away from her and threw it fifteen feet into the distance, what would be left? A half-burnt caterpillar, perhaps?”
Easy for her to say, thought the half-dead Earnest as she clung to life, panting.
“Earnest Flaming. If you believe yourself to be my rival, then stand up and fight. That is all I have to say to you.”
“Don’t…you…dare…mess…with…me!” Earnest converted her flare of anger into fighting force and instantly burst into flames again.
“Now, that’s what I expect from my destined rival.”
“Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! …None of that crap even matters right now!”
“Oh, but it matters a great deal. It’s so important. It is your duty, after all, to crawl around at this genius’s feet like the turgid, slimy snail you are, irritating me forever. That is the Earnest Flaming I want to see.”
Lunaria gave a lovely smile, but Earnest had other things on her mind.
“But you haven’t solved my problem at all! Your method for creating clothes is completely useless to me, moron!”