“Wait—if all the students on offense attack each one at a time, they’d have the advantage,” I said.
“There are rules against that. The team on offense can only send one person to attack a flag at a time. They can’t pair up—with one exception.”
If anyone on the offensive side took down a flag, they had to leave the competition. In addition, the student on protection duty would join the offense, so they could attack one flag in a pair with someone else. If the two students were able to take down a flag though, then they would both need to leave the game.
In other words, as each team took down flags, they would lose players. If they put their best players on offense, then their defense would become weaker. But if they did the opposite, their offense would be weak, and they wouldn’t be able to take down any flags at all.
The fact that scoring teams would lose players was what made this tricky. If a student who was good at attacking tried to go up against a student who was weaker, they could lose a strong player.
I remembered a similar sort of mechanic in one of my games. What decided the outcome was whether you could win when there was only a slight difference in each player’s skill. They had really thought this game through. When a flag is taken, the outcome of the whole match could change depending on who the student moved from defense to offense paired with.
It seemed like it would be an interesting competition, appropriate for the last event for the gathering.
After Shia finished explaining the rules, she headed over to join the other students. Noa and I went to stake out a spot to watch from.
“They’re actually doing some fighting then,” I said.
“Does this count as fighting?”
“The students protecting the flag are the guards, and the ones on offense are sort of attacking the leaders of their enemies.”
“You’re right, thinking about it that way.”
Noa and I set up our chairs so that we could see the entire field. The students from each academy were all talking with each other down there. It looked a little like they were arguing. Or not arguing so much as trying to figure out the strategy of what to do.
“I wonder what’s happened?”
We couldn’t overhear what they were talking about from here. A teacher headed over to the group of girls that Shia was with and started talking with them. Then Shia and the teacher headed a short distance away from the other students. Shia glanced at us as she talked to the teacher. The teacher looked over too.
I wonder why?
“Shia is looking over at us,” Noa said.
Yeah, she was all right. After that, the two of them started to walk over to us.
“Um, Yuna... Would you mind participating in the competition?”
“Me...?”
“Yes.”
The groups were divided into boys and girls. They were supposed to do the competition with twelve girls on each side. Six would be on offense and six on defense to make a total of twelve per team. But one of the girls had used too much mana during the fabrication magic event and couldn’t participate anymore.
The discussion apparently involved them trying to figure out what to do about their missing person. They were discussing whether to sit a competitor to match the capital’s number of people or to continue the match with the missing person. The Yufarian side wouldn’t want fewer players, because that’d mean they would have to leave out someone who was supposed to be part of the event. They wanted to avoid that. But by the same token, it would be unfair to the capital’s side to be down one person.
“So we were wondering if you could participate?”
Shia seemed apologetic.
“Don’t you have other students who can compete?” I asked.
“The other students figured they were done, so they used the last of their mana already.”
“But they could still participate, couldn’t they?”
“To put it frankly, I think none of them want to feel like they could be the reason we lost.”
If someone took the missing player’s place and was a liability to the team, who knew what others would say behind their backs. They’d need to tell their family and friends about what had happened at the match too. No one wanted to say they were the reason their team lost.
“This was the only way I could think of making it work. It’s okay if you don’t want to go all out.”
Well, now she was putting me on the spot. If I did end up participating, I would obviously have to put in an effort. As an ex-gamer, I liked situations like these. I’d been wanting to participate since yesterday, after all. If I did join in, I could see myself getting hardcore about it. My spirit for competition wouldn’t let me do anything other than go all-out.
“I’m not a student, though. Wouldn’t they notice right away?”
That was the biggest problem.
“That shouldn’t be an issue. The academy has lots of students. No one knows all the students’ names and faces. Also, Mr. Shoog is our team leader, and he already knows about you.”
“Mr. Shoog?”
I had no memory of this person.
“You’ve met him before, Yuna.”
Apparently, I met him while guarding Shia and her classmates during their practical test. I looked over at the man on the field and realized that, yeah, he did look a little familiar.
“Mother said to ask him for advice if you did anything.”
“Ellelaura...”
Apparently, she thought I’d do something that would require damage control. I was grateful she wanted to help me, but what, did she think I was some sort of troublemaker?
“Mr. Shoog already knows about you, so it should be fine.”
“But then doesn’t that mean he definitely knows I’m not a student?”
I’d introduced myself as an adventurer.
“It’s okay. He knows, and he gave his permission.”
That must have been why she talked to him earlier.
“But...”
My powers were unfair. Could I really participate against a bunch of students who had practiced so hard to get here the legit way?
“Yuna, I want to see you competing with Shia and doing the very best you can to win,” Noa said.
Well, I’d wanted to participate since yesterday...
“Please, Yuna?”
Shia clasped her hands together. It would be easy to say no. But I also felt like I had to make sure Shia and her classmates got good closure for this gathering.
“Okay, okay. But I don’t know how to hold back, so put me on the side protecting the flags. It would be bad if I used a spell that’s too powerful on the offensive side.”
Since I’d just be protecting the flag, I could just match my opponent’s energy. If I was on the offense, I might get competitive and overdo it if someone managed to block my magic.
“Yuna, thank you so much.”
Shia seemed happy.
“So, Yuna, what name do you want to go by?”
“Huh?”
“Do you want to be Youna again like at the academy festival? The teacher knows your name, but the students don’t.”
She was right. But hearing it again, that fake name definitely wasn’t fooling anyone. I know I came up with it on the spot, but still. It was really bad.
“Right. Then while I’m in my school uniform, let’s go with Youna.”
“All right. Well, Youna, shall we go, Youna?”
“Shia, can I come closer to watch?”
“Sure.”
“Thank you.”
All three of us headed toward the field.