Chapter 556:
The Bear Cheers Shia On
Part 3
THE COMPETITION RESTARTED in the afternoon. This time, the targets were scattered all over the grounds at different heights. According to the teacher, the students would have to hit the targets to the left and right of them while riding a horse. There were also targets in between the main ones that they weren’t allowed to hit. In other words, the students couldn’t use a wide-ranging magical attack to sweep the targets. On top of that, they were being timed, which meant they had to be precise. Just imagining it was frightening.
“Do you know how to ride a horse, Noa?”
“A horse? I’m not very good at it, but I can ride. I need to know just in case of emergency.”
Yup, she was the daughter of nobility all right.
“But I’m much better at riding on Kumayuru and Kumakyu. Sometimes I feel I might fall off of a horse, but I don’t feel that way with them.”
Yeah, that was because of their special abilities. I probably wouldn’t be able to ride on them either if it weren’t for that. Even if I could somehow climb on them initially, I’d probably fall.
As I was talking with Noa, event setup completed, and everyone looked over at the grounds.
The students rode in on their horses and shot at the targets, turning back and forth to the left and right to take aim as they rode. Most mages use their dominant hand to cast. I tended to use my right, dominant hand too. Holding chopsticks, throwing a ball, punching, holding a weapon...most things were just easier to do with my dominant hand. The same held true for magic.
The targets had been set up to make aiming with one hand harder. Hitting some of the targets also required using both hands. The teachers probably set things up that way on purpose. It was kind of annoying but made for an entertaining watch.
The first student only got the targets on their dominant side. The second student used a wand. They waved it back and forth to hit the targets, and it ended up being a lot more effective than I expected. I couldn’t tell if the student was just that good or if it was the wand that helped, but they still performed pretty well.
I guess the students had been practicing riding horses since they were pretty good at it. I wondered if they’d brought the horses in from the capital. If the horses were all prepared by the Yufarian academy, those students would be at an advantage. Animals had quirks and personality differences, after all, which meant you’d change how you rode based on what you knew. It kind of seemed like the academies had each prepared their own horses.
The students made their attempts one after another until it was Shia’s turn.
“Shia’s up. You can do it, Shia!”
Shia gripped the reins of the horse she rode. Wow, she looked so cool. Maybe I was biased, but she looked pretty gallant on horseback.
Shia took the starting position, then took off at the teacher’s signal. The horse galloped forward as Shia used her earth magic to hit the targets.
“Shia’s really good on horseback,” I said.
“She was always very good rider, even when she was still in Crimonia,” Noa told me.
Shia was still precise, even when she had to use both her hands to aim at the targets.
“She’s good.”
Shia had taken a commanding lead for the horseback challenge. Her only slip-up was that she hit one target she wasn’t supposed to. If she hadn’t, she would have had a perfect score.
After that, it was Seleiyu’s turn. Once again, she was really good too, she scored in the top ranks.
The competition continued, with the crowd cheering whenever anyone hit a target and sighing when the students missed. Soon, the last student finished, and the horseback competition was over.
That was it for the competitions, so they started to give commendations for the people who had gotten the top three combined scores in each division. Seleiyu got first place in wind and fire magic, but she was second in earth, and third in water. She was the only student to place in all the categories. She was also the only one to have participated in all of them.
“Shia did well too.”
“Yes.”
She had earned second in fire and third in earth. More of the capital students had ended up placing in the combined scores. Then both schools celebrated their winners.
“I wonder what would have happened if you had participated.”
With my bear gear, I definitely would have placed well. The issue was the horseback-riding competition. Since I’d never ridden a horse before, I probably wouldn’t have been able to hit the targets.
“I can’t ride a horse, so I’m not sure how well I’d do. I think I could win everything else though.”
If they let me ride Kumayuru and Kumakyu, I would’ve definitely gotten first place in everything, though.
“Yes, horseback riding is difficult. I still wish I could have seen you compete though.”
I wanted to participate too, but I was already cheating with my mana recovery, and I had target correction too. If I won, then I’d feel guilty for all the students who were competing legit.
After she celebrated with the capital students, Shia came over to us.
“Congrats, Shia,” I told her.
“Congratulations!” Noa said.
“Thank you. But I still lost to Seleiyu. I’ll work harder so I can come in first next year.”
Next year, the competition would be in the capital, so it’d be nice to bring Fina along.
“I heard there was supposed to be a match or something at the end.”
We hadn’t seen anything like that today.
“That’s tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow?”
“Yes, tomorrow.”
“The competition goes on for another day?”
“Yes. Didn’t anyone mention it?” Shia asked. I looked over at Noa beside me.
“Did you know, Noa?”
“Yes, it was in the letter.”
Apparently, I was the only one out of the loop. I guess the first day was individual competition and the second day would be something else.
Shia had to go to a wrap-up meeting and prep for tomorrow, so she left and Seleiyu came by in her place.
“So Shia headed back already. I was a little too slow.”
Seleiyu had gotten commended, so the students had mobbed her. She hadn’t been able to get away.
“Congratulations,” I said to her.
“Congratulations, Lady Seleiyu.”
“Thank you. But I did lose some of the competitions. It’s very difficult to win against people who specialize in one type of magic.”