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Chapter 2[]
writer:Yamaguchi Noboru      update:2022-07-07 16:13
  Kirche entered Tristain Magic Academy as Spring was in the air, during the fourth month, Feoh’s moon’s 2nd week, the middle of Heimdallr’s week.

  The entrance ceremony was held in Alvíss Hall. There, every year, the ninety or so new students would be divided into three classes. Children of aristocratic families, gathered from all over, had waited for Principal Osman with nervous looks on their faces.

  Osman, leading the teachers, appeared on the 2nd floor and looked over the students a floor below.

  “Students, you are Tristain’s…… Argh!”

  Osman, spreading out his arms and legs, had jumped from the railing of the 2nd floor, preparing to land on a desk downstairs. In mid-air, he waved his staff to use “Levitation” to land safely, but failed. He’d grown old; the time he took to invoke spells had lengthened too much and he fell straight onto the desk. The hall was filled with an uproar as teachers jumped down to help him up. Osman had pulled something badly and someone had to heal him with Water magic. He continued, with no hint of embarrassment,

  “Everyone, Become the aristocrats who will support Halkeginia in the future!”

  Such brave words. Everyone started clapping, feeling pity for Osman who was trying so hard to maintain his composure.

  In the crowd…… There was a beautiful girl who stood out even amongst the nobles. This was Kirche, who held the title of “Ardent”. Giving a big yawn as she looked at the clumsy principal, she wondered if she’d made a mistake applying here.

  For Kirche, however, who’d left Vindobona Magical Academy in Germania’s capital…… There were no further alternatives, other than going abroad to study. Her parents staying in Zerbst had planned to marry Kirche, who’d been loafing around home after leaving school, off to some old Marquis. Kirche, who had no present desire for marriage, literally flew out of the country to Tristain seeking asylum.

  Her impulses moved her to act.

  From a young age, once she took a liking to something she did all she could to get it. If someone protested, she’d shut him up with her specialty, “Fire”. The reason for her dropping out, the “Incident” that had occurred in Germania, was a result of this aspect of her personality……

  The personality you grow up with is a hard thing to change. Even in Tristain, her arrogant ways were in full play.

  Getting back to the present, sitting next to Kirche was a petite, blue-haired girl. Compared to the beautiful goddess Kirche, possessor of a devil’s body, this girl’s body hadn’t even hit puberty. She really was a child, after all. The jade eyes behind the glasses still carried a hint of childishness. Even though she was at an Entrance Ceremony, those eyes were still wide open, engrossed in reading her book.

  For no apparent reason, Kirche started to get irritated with her attitude. To Kirche, good kids who liked to study were good targets for bullying. She asked in a low voice, “What are you reading?” and snatched away the book. The other girl looked at her with emotionless eyes.

  The words in the book were too hard for Kirche, she couldn’t understand a thing.

  “The hell is this…… ’Wind’s Power’s Influence on Atmospherics and Consequences’? Dunno what it’s saying. Can you even use this kinda high level magic?”

  The girl did not reply, only stretching out her hand.

  “Hey, when you’re asking a favor from someone, you should give your name, didn’t your parents ever teach you?”

  To be honest, it wasn’t really asking a favor, just trying to get back something that had been taken away…… The girl took a moment to consider, and said her name - “Tabitha”.

  “Whats that? Does everyone in Tristain use such weird names?”

  Kirche was close to rolling on the floor in laughter. The teacher in charge of assigning classes shot her a glare, but Kirche, ignoring him, continued to laugh.

  Tabitha looked at Kirche with cold eyes. The chain that held her parents’ destinies…… to hers had been mocked by someone. At that moment, Kirche totally didn’t see the change in Tabitha eyes.

  A girl with strawberry-blond hair, unable to take it any longer, stood right up.

  “That girl over there! Something important is being announced now! Why don’t you shut up!”

  She’d probably been enduring Kirche’s arrogance from before.

  “Who are you? I am Louise Françoise Le Blanc de la Vallière. To think there are people like you attending, shocking!”

  “La Vallière?”

  Kirche looked happily at Louise’s face.

  “Please look after me. I’m Kirche von Zerbst, your neighbour. To think we’d meet here! What a privilege!”

  On hearing this Louise’s entire body began to tremble.

  “W-W-What did you say?”

  “Oh, please look after me.”

  Kirche gave a charming laugh. A teacher who saw them shivering in rage roared at the three,

  “All of you quiet down!”

  “Okay.” Saying this, Kirche returned to her seat. Tabitha snatched her book back from Kirche’s hand and glared at her from the corner of her eyes, her lips pressed tight.

  Every year was divided into three classes, named for the 3 legendary saints, Suen, Iyer and Seger. Kirche and Tabitha were in Suen, Louise in Iyer, while Guiche and Montmorency had been assigned to Seger.

  After leaving a big impression at the entrance ceremony, Kirche was being ignored by the girls of her class. That special wild attractiveness of Germanian girls, as well as that generous bust, the hormones in the air just couldn’t be shut out. In a second, she had all the boys in class to herself. This made the Tristain girls, already famous for being jealous, burn in envy.

  Her personality was one of the reasons she was disliked. Even in Germania, the land of Fire, Kirche had been ostracized for her arrogance. Her personality just rubbed the Tristainians, who worshipped caution as a virtue, the wrong way. Within a short time of starting school, she’d already seduced three boys. There were two reasons. Firstly, those three boys were the better looking ones in class. Secondly, and more importantly…… she was just so bored.

  Number one, a seductive glance thrown in the hallway.Number two, sticking her bust out as she pretended to trip.Number three, crossing her legs in front of him.

  Just like that, the three had already asked Kirche to go out with them. Kirche received their requests as though she were getting court summons. She went out with all three at the same time without hiding anything, and so the three were soon locked in combat.

  At the end of the pitched battle, the third boy emerged victorious. Just as he was congratulating himself over finally getting Kirche to himself, she found a fourth one.

  Several girls interested in these boys formed an alliance to negotiate with Kirche. Kirche, who’d just found five and six, and was once again three-timing, snorted with contempt at the forsaken girls.

  “Don’t you know when to stop? How many boys do you want before you’re happy?”

  “Who knows, I don’t.”

  Said Kirche as she sat at her desk polishing her nails.

  “Quit acting dumb!”

  “I didn’t do anything. They just found me by themselves, saying ’Kirche, wanna come to my room and drink,’ or ’I’ve written a poem, wanna hear it,’ stuff like that.”

  Kirche said, imitating the boys.

  “It’s always like this, I’m pretty irritated too, so I have to accept, in your language ’Oui’.” Did I pronounce it right?”

  Her attitude made the girls’ envy rocket to new heights instantly.

  “Listen here. This is Tristain, where we prize prudence and tradition, unlike your barbarian country. Even in love there are proper ways. An ignorant country-girl who doesn’t even know that should just go back home!”

  “If you’re really so concerned about your lover, why not lock him up in your room?”

  “What did you say?”

  “I’m just so confused. If you’ve got the time to be jealous, why not try to persuade him to stay?” If you like him you should compliment him a bit. All y’all only know how to put on an angry face, you don’t even know how to say things that make a man happy, do you?”

  “That’s what guys should do!”

  “Well I’m not like that, if I want someone, I’ll praise him as much as possible, otherwise, I’m gonna be very sad.”

  “Don’t treat us like idiots!”

  “However, all of you can rest assured. Although I follow the philosophy of “Do whatever it takes to get what I want,” I’d never take what’s most important to someone.”

  “Liar! Haven’t you tried to grab our boyfriends with your dirty hands?”

  Kirche turned her gaze slowly to the girls surrounding her.

  “To you, It’s really not the most important thing, is it.”

  “What did you say?”

  “If it was such an important thing, you wouldn’t have formed a team to negotiate with me. You’d have taken my head off my shoulders a long time ago, or am I wrong?”

  The jealous girls had nothing to say.

  “.……Er……”

  “I don’t want to die yet. Therefore, I won’t take what’s most precious from someone.”

  The girls had been struck by Kirche’s imposing manner and started to look at each other.

  “If I plan on taking someone’s most precious possession, I’ll be ready to fight for it. My element is “Fire”. “Fire” controls destruction and passion. I too, want a passionate affair that turns all life to ash and burns everything to the ground.”

  Just like that, Kirche’s lovers continued to increase, but she was unable to make a single friend. Tabitha, however, was not much better off.

  Tabitha hardly spoke to anyone at all. Whether it was break time or lunchtime, starting class or ending, even in the dorms or social spaces. She said nothing to anyone. Silent, with a world-weary look on her face…… only reading. No matter who tried to speak to her, Tabitha totally ignored them. Not just ignored, it was as though she was totally ignorant of their even existing.

  Because of this, Tabitha turned into an object of ridicule. For some reason, she refused to give her last name, so the rumors were that she was a bastard.

  The time when she really raised the ire of the entire class was during their first class.

  Tabitha, who’d been taken as just a ’normal’ bookworm, was found to be an adept “Wind” mage during the first “Wind” magic lesson.

  Mr. Quito was in charge of “Wind” class. The first words out of his mouth were,

  “This year’s students are just too sorry.”

  Displeasure was immediately written on the faces of the students, who’d gathered in the central courtyard.

  “Looking at your school record, almost all of you are ’dot’ mages, only a few are ’line’. Not even one is a ’triangle’ mage. What’s going on?”

  Dot and triangle referred to the number of elements that could be stacked. ’Dot’ meant one element, ’line’ meant the mage could combine two. Even if it was the same element, as long as it could be stacked, a powerful spell could be created.

  “I have absolutely no hopes for any of you, but this is my job, after all.”

  After Mr. Quito finished speaking in a low voice, class started. “Wind”’s basic skill’s are “Flight” and “levitation”.

  However…… Tabitha began to show her abilities at this point.

  She was the first to soar far up quickly using the “Flight” spell. Even so, to try to avoid attention, she’d deliberately not used all her power. Mr. Quito was rather confused.

  “For a ’dot’ mage, that pretty good.”

  Not knowing Tabitha’s true ability, it was unavoidable that he’d say that.

  For various reasons, the only person who knew Tabitha’s real power was Principal Osman. Moreover, Mr. Quito hadn’t looked at the exchange students’ records.

  “No matter what, all of you lost out to the youngest girl in class. Don’t you feel ashamed?”

  With Mr. Quito’s words, the entire class started to get angry.

  During the break after lunch, one of the boys asked Tabitha to spar with him.

  Sparring like this was basically the same as dueling. Since it was sparring, there was no little danger of any loss of life, at least not in this time period. In times past, it was said that giving your opponent the coup de grace was the way of the noble, but that age of heroes had disappeared into history. The modern method was to use spells with low lethality, and once someone was injured, the bout would be decided. Although at times there were incidents were a finger was broken, it was far safer than placing one’s life on the line. In most cases, stealing your opponent’s wand was considered the most elegant way of winning.

  The youth who had challenged Tabitha was named de Lorraine. Born into a family famous for “Wind” magic, he was one of their year’s elite ’line’ magicians.

  He carried a grudge from having been beaten at “Flight” by some unknown like Tabitha. He liked to boast that there was no one who could compete with him in “Wind” magic, and wanted a chance to get back at Tabitha.

  Walking towards Tabitha, reading in the central courtyard, he issued a declaration of war,

  “Milady, I would like your instruction in “Wind” magic.”

  When Tabitha gave no reply, de Lorraine started to get angry.

  “To continue reading while someone is challenging you, isn’t this far too rude?”

  Tabitha still did not reply. De Lorraine’s words went by her ears unheard as though it were sound of the breeze.

  “So, when it comes to sparring you don’t have what it takes. That isn’t hard to understand. After all, these contests put one’s life on the line! Totally different from flying and jumping around a bit in class!”

  Tabitha continued to flip through her book. De Lorraine’s insulting words had no effect on the jade-eyed girl.

  “Heh!”

  De Lorraine snorted, and smirked.

  “So. It seems that the rumors of you being a bastard are true. I fear you don’t even know who your mother is. To feel envious of some low-born person like you would dishonor my family’s reputation!”

  As he gave these words and prepared to leave, Tabitha finally stood up. If Kirche were to see her now she would probably feel it. Within those emotionless jade eyes, an icy wind was howling.

  “Have you finally gotten serious?”

  Tabitha set her book down on the bench, and turning, walked towards an open area.

  Tabitha and de Lorraine stood facing each other about ten meters apart.

  “Although I don’t want to give my name to a bastard like you, this is the common practice. I, Verrieres de Lorraine, shall be your opponent.”

  Tabitha did not give her name.

  “It’s so pitiful to not have a name to give, even at a time like this! I shall not show mercy! En guarde!”

  De Lorraine shouted, and began to chant, “Wind Break.” He planned to send Tabitha flying at once. Tabitha did not take a stance, and merely silently prepared to take the wind that seemed set to blow her away.

  What was going on? She totally made no attempt to take an invocation stance. De Lorraine’s “Wind Break” was a powerful spell, a spell to counter it would take some time to cast.

  Was it because she had never sparred like this before, or had she been scared witless by de Lorraine’s spell……

  Whatever the reason, time was up.

  Just as de Lorraine felt he had victory in his hand……

  Tabitha raised her wand, and as though clearing spiderwebs from her path, waved it randomly. A single word was spoken, and just like that, Tabitha had control of all the air currents in the area.

  This minute adjustment in air flow changed de Lorraine’s spell’s forward momentum, returning it to the caster.

  De Lorraine was flung against the wall by his own wind. Giving him no time, Tabitha immediately began to cast again. Water vapour in the air froze to ice, turning into countless frozen arrows, which plunged towards de Lorraine.

  “Ah!”

  With a clear tinkling sound, the ice arrows pinned de Lorraine to the wall by his cloak and clothes. He was scared stiff by this power he had seen for the first time in his life. “Wind,” could it really be all that powerful? A giant ice arrow flew towards the pinned de Lorraine from the front.

  “I’m going to die! Save me!"

  He shouted reflexively. The arrow, as thick as his arm, stopped in front of his eye. It started to melt, turning into a puddle.

  At the same time, the arrows that pinned his body to the wall too began to melt.

  The newly released de Lorraine trembled uncontrollably. At his feet, a pool began to form, not from the defrosting ice arrows, but from some other liquid. From between his legs liquid flowed, forming a body-temperature puddle. He sank to his knees.

  Throwing away his wand, and begging, ”Please spare me,” he crawled away.

  Tabitha’s little feet suddenly filled his vision, scaring him so much that he shrieked. She stood there looking down at him, her expression unchanging.

  “Spare me! Let me live! S-Sparring’s merely a game! Duels where you gamble your life are old history!”

  De Lorraine said, denying everything he had said earlier. Tabitha stuck out a wand.

  “Let me go! If you let me live, I’ll do anything you say!”

  Tabitha pointed at the wand in her hands, saying simply,

  “You forgot this.”

  It was the wand de Lorraine had thrown away.

  Those were the reasons why Kirche and Tabitha were hated by the rest of their class…… Kirche especially by the girls whose boyfriends she had stolen, and Tabitha by de Lorraine, who she had beaten so badly.

  De Lorraine suggested a plan to the girls.

  On hearing his plan, the girls clapped and agreed. This would keep their identities from being known and take care of the two most hated girls in class.