Annie trembled under Darwin’s icy gaze.
“The art of magic is not the dreamy little fairy tale you fools think it is,” he proclaimed. “The history of mages is stained in blood and plagued by war. There’s no place for the ethics, morals, and mercy of the common masses in magic. ‘If thou seekest to achieve thy desires, thou must feed the desires of others into the kiln.’ The power to push through and have your own way is everything. Do you understand? As long as you are a mage, someday, without fail, there will come a time when you cannot avoid a battle. And when that time comes, your opponent will use any and all means at their disposal to force their own way upon you. Against such an opponent, will you persuade them with mercy and morals? Will you speak of justice? If so, you should give up being a mage here and now. You’d be better off.
“Know this. Based on the rules of these training grounds, Gordon Grolyle has done nothing wrong. If anyone is wrong, it’s Shino Whytenight, clinging to this academy and taking on this battle despite her utter powerlessness.”
“?!”
Annie froze in shock, devastated. She was unable to accept a single word Darwin had said.
And yet…she felt the weight of those words as well as a sense of defeat.
“Ha! Professor, your logic is full of crap!”
“Indeed! I won’t allow this to go on any longer!”
Randy and Serephina were ready to join in the fight. They began charging toward Gordon…
…but before they could reach him, a flash of light streamed past them and headed straight for Gordon.
“What’s this?” Gordon said.
Without even looking, he snatched up the light in his fingertips.
The source of the light—was actually a throwing knife.
“That’s enough, Gorgan.”
It was Rix. Rix had thrown a knife at him.
Randy and Serephina were dumbfounded. Rix pushed them aside and approached Gordon.
“Huh? Are you messing with me? My name’s Gordon.”
“Oh, it is? Gor-whatever? Unfortunately, I can’t even remember my multiplication tables.”
Gordon’s expression flared with dangerous rage.
The students around them began to murmur.
“…Rix…?”
Shino, her consciousness wavering, noticed Rix and moaned his name.
Ignoring everything else around them, Gordon and Rix glared at each other, face-to-face.
There was a considerable height difference between them, with Gordon looking down on Rix.
“Oh yeah. There’s another piece of trash besides Shino who hasn’t opened their Sphere, isn’t there? Hey, trash…you think you can just come and butt in on our match like this? You trying to get killed?”
“Whatever. It’s time to wrap it up. There’s other people waiting for their turn.”
“What? Their turn?” Gordon cocked his head in confusion.
“Yeah, your next battle is with me,” Rix declared. “You won’t be running away, right? You wouldn’t be dragging out this battle with Shino just to avoid taking me on, would you?”
“!!”
Gordon was momentarily in shock at Rix’s challenging attitude.
“Gya-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!”
But the next instant, he started cackling wildly.
“That reminds me, I owe you a walloping after what happened at the entrance ceremony, huh?! Fine, let’s do this. I’ll smash you to a pulp in front of all these people!”
As he shouted this, an overwhelming amount of mana flowed out explosively from his body.
The ominous pressure emanating from his mana and his giantlike presence set him apart from all the other students.
“Wh-what is this? There’s something strange about his mana!”
“Unbelievable… This amount of mana isn’t something that can be explained simply by his age or talent! There’s definitely something strange going on here!”
Randy, and even Serephina, couldn’t help but be stunned by Gordon’s extraordinary and abnormal mana.
Then finally, Shino was released.
The power supporting her disappeared, and she began to fall, but Rix caught her in his arms and cradled her.
“…Hold on a moment.” Rix brought Shino’s limp body over to where his friends were.
“…A-are you really gonna do this, Rix?” Randy asked.
“Yeah, you guys take care of Shino.” Rix handed Shino over to Randy and the others.
“Wait! There’s something strange about him! Let me help you fight!” Serephina insisted.
“M-me too!” Randy added. “I can’t just stand by and do nothing! I might get in the way, but—”
“No, you two. Professor Darwin said it has to be one-on-one. If that’s the rule he made, there’s no way he’ll let anyone else get involved.” Rix looked over at Darwin. “Leave this to me.”
With that, Rix started heading toward Gordon again.
“…Don’t do it.”
But someone else called out to him. It was Alfred, who had come running up to him.
“I told you, didn’t I? ‘A swordsman can never win against a mage.’ It’s a hard fact.”
“…”
“On top of that, right now, Gordon…somehow looks like his mana’s power exceeds some of our instructors’. If you try to fight him, and you’re not even a mage, it’s not going to end well.”
“Hmm? Are you worried about me?”
“Wh-why should I be worried about you? I’m the one who’s supposed to fight you! I just can’t have this guy snatching my opponent out from under my nose!” Alfred shouted angrily as his face reddened. “But the way you are, I guess you can’t see how much of a threat he is right now.”
“I can kind of get it… It’s just a feeling. I can feel it in my swordsman’s instinct, down to my bones… Something’s telling me ‘Don’t fight him right now.’”
“Hmph, really? Then why are you gonna fight him?”
“It’s the way we did things back at my old haunts,” Rix replied nonchalantly. “You have to help your comrades—it’s just a rule.”
“…C-comrade…? I’m…your…?” Shino whispered, looking up at Rix.
But he didn’t notice.
Once again, he headed for Gordon.