Alice just sighed at them.
“I’ll start off with a simple introduction, shall I? My name’s Yolande Elias Lonsdale. It’s nice to meet you. Just go ahead and call me Instructor Yolande! As some of you might have already noticed, Alice over there is my little sister.” Yolande smiled, and Alice narrowed her eyes at him in silent annoyance.
The two of them make quite the contrast as siblings. Alice described her brother as worthless, but I’m not so sure. I felt a weird power from him when we actually met in person the first time.
“I also hold the title of assistant division commander of the Second Royal Magic Division—though this is only my first year in the position, I must admit.”
Seems like Yolande being worthless is a thing of the past. I knew he was a member of one of the Royal Magic divisions, but only as a regular old foot soldier. That was two years ago, so I guess he caught the attention of his superiors sometime in the interim. It was also two years ago that I was forced into my engagement to Alice.
This is the first I’m hearing about his advancement to assistant division commander, though. It’s unheard of for a foot soldier to reach that rank in just two years. That’s a truly exceptional rise.
“Right, then, that’s about all for my self-introduction. Let’s get on to the class itself. I’ve called my class Special-Magic Battle Practicals, but who here knows what it’s actually about?”
“Me!”
One boy’s hand immediately shot up into the air.
“All right then, you. What’s your name?”
“Logan Rolle Compton, sir!”
“Okay then, Logan, mind answering the question for me?”
“This class is for practical battle demonstrations, on the assumption that one’s enemy might deploy special elemental magic! Sir!”
“Correct. And what kind of special elemental magic might we be talking about here?”
“Ah… I don’t know!” answered Logan.
“Okay then! Thanks for being honest!”
Alice watched her brother interact with the straight-backed boy named Logan, and it seemed she couldn’t help but mutter to herself.
“Gross,” she whispered under her breath.
Yolande stopped in his tracks for just a brief moment, and the blink-and-you’d-miss-it shiver that ran through his body didn’t escape my eyes.
Huh? What was that?
I felt like I had caught a glimpse of something absolutely terrifying.
“I’ll g-get on with the explanation. There are four basic elements—Fire, Wind, Water, and Earth. What I’m talking about are the elements that diverge from those main four. For example, my own Magnet element.”
Magnet, eh?
“Right, then, you there! The large boy!” said Yolande, jabbing his finger at the class.
“M-me?” the boy in question spluttered.
“Yes, you. What is your name? Just your first, please.”
“It’s Hugo!”
“Okay, Hugo! What’s your element?”
“It’s Rock.”
“All right, that’s a good one. Will you try to cast a spell on me, then? Make it as powerful as you can, now.”
“A-are you sure…?”
“Yes, I am. Rest assured, you won’t be hitting me.”
“All right,” Hugo replied, seemingly fired up by the provocation. “Here goes!”
“Sure, whenever you’re ready.”
“Magic Bullet of Rock.”
In an instant, he formed a giant boulder in the air and sent it flying toward Yolande.
Quite speedy too. Not bad. When the attack’s coming that fast and that wide, you’d need to react immediately to have any hope of dodging it.
Yolande, however, stayed exactly where he was.
“Please dodge!” screamed Hugo, beginning to panic.
“Repulse.”
At Yolande’s incantation, the giant boulder changed course, floating harmlessly over his head.
“See? It didn’t hit me.”
He laughed like a child.
“Whoa…”
Almost everyone in the class was left speechless, Hugo included. After watching his demonstration, I felt I had a basic understanding of his Magnet element.
That’s really powerful magic.
Mwa ha… And he’s worthless, is he? Give me a break, Alice.
“My Magnet magic is capable of magnetizing any object. What I did just now was quite simple: I imbued the rock with one polarity and the ground with the opposite, which allowed me to use the resulting repulsion to redirect it.”
I see.
“You think my ability’s strong, eh? Magnetic repulsion and attraction are quite strong, yes. But you know, I can only magnetize objects that are within about a sixteen-foot radius of my body. I can’t repulse things like heat or cold, and the more attraction or repulsion I induce in a target, the more mana I consume doing it. I don’t have much in the way of area-of-effect attacks… There are all kinds of disadvantages.”
Yolande continued.
“I just told you my weaknesses, but in a real fight, you’ll need to find your opponent’s weak points all on your own. That’s what I hope to teach you in this class. I want to teach you how to use your own elemental magic to force your advantage, just as I do.”
This class doesn’t sound bad at all. Clearly I made the right decision in taking it.
“I’ll also be bringing in some of my comrades from the magic division to act as your opponents during class.” He paused and looked around. “Well then, that’s it for my explanation.”
From what I could see, most of the people around me were just as captivated by the class as I was. The only one who looked conflicted was Alice.
“Let’s see… Luke!”
He suddenly called my name.
“I hear you’re the most talented one here. How about it—do you feel up to fighting me?”
“Mwa ha ha.”
Such a gentle smile…and such intense hostility I feel emanating from beneath it. He really must hate me. But why? I don’t recall doing anything to him.
“Sure, let’s do it.”
“Good.”
The others looked on as I walked toward Yolande. He stepped back to put some distance between us.
“I’ll be using a sword too,” said Yolande, unsheathing his blade. “It suits my element.”
“I see.” I raised my own sword.
“Whenever you’re ready.”
“I won’t hold back, then.” I prepared a spell.
“Dark Spirit Drain.”
The spell was simple but powerful. It used my Dark element to suck mana from a target.
To a magic user, mana is lifeblood; without it, they’re rendered helpless. That’s why I’m absolutely confident that Dark is the strongest element there is. I have such a significant advantage over other magic users. But right now, something’s wrong. I’m not absorbing his mana.
“I know about your Dark element, but did you know that I can magnetize my own mana? I’m applying enough attraction to prevent you from pulling it away, canceling out your ability by keeping it in balance. I’m surprised. It turns out you’re not so strong after all.”
“Mwa ha ha ha!”
Man, this is so much fun. I can hardly contain myself.
“Apply Dark.”
The sword in my right hand became cloaked in darkness.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Armor of Darkness.”
My darkness formed into a suit of armor, covering my body from head to toe.
“Fortify Strength × 2.”
I felt a massive amount of energy surging through my body.
“Here goes!”
“C’mon then.”
I grinned so wide I felt as if my face might split open as I kicked hard off the ground.
✦ ✦ ✦
Yolande thought that his little sister, Alice, was the most beautiful thing in the world. No man could possibly keep away from her, and it was because he understood that fact better than anyone, that Yolande knew the day would come when he would have to let her go. He had prepared himself to accept it. But when he saw that his beloved sister had been altered, twisted by the demon Luke, something changed within Yolande as well. He could not accept this. So it was that Yolande revealed his true power, which he had been concealing for his own purposes. A monster that was never meant to have anything to do with the original work had now been unleashed.