The welcoming dance party for the new students would be held on the weekend of the second week, the week of Heimdallr, in the month of Ur. As the focus of the party was the new students, the senior students decorated the hall and entertained the new students as hosts.

  The table was filled with delicacies prepared specially to welcome the stomachs of the new students. The splendidly dressed seniors were discussing which new juniors to invite for a dance.

  Needless to say, the most eye-catching person was naturally the foreign student studying at the academy from Germania, Kirche.

  Basically, the new students were still not used to social activities, so in terms of their tastes in attire, or dancing moves, they were still considered very bad. Consequently, they were not qualified to be dance partners of the senior students yet. Nonetheless, this new Germanian student who had been very “lively” in the social sector in all manners was another case. She possessed a strong sexy charm, her beauty was comparable to a flower giving off the scent of sweet nectar. The chatting topic of these senior students was focused on who would invite this new student for a dance.

  And so, when Kirche -wearing a black sexy dancing gown that brought out her well-developed breasts even more, her hair combed to a hairstyle popular on the streets, and adorning a ruby necklace that symbolized a slight fever- appeared, all the gentlemen in the area gave an emotional sigh. The sigh spread out like a ripple, and in a moments notice, Kirche had captured the eyes of all the people in the area.

  The females at the scene, upon seeing Kirche’s appearance, shifted their eyes away, and began finding faults with her dressing and hairstyle. This was because having the attention grabbed by a foreign female had made them feel very unhappy.

  The male seniors surrounded Kirche, all trying to invite her to dance. Kirche showed a proud expression, and squinted her eyes like an arrogant queen.

  As soon as Kirche took up a wineglass, there would be someone pouring grape wine for her. Whenever she bit a piece of cheese, there would be someone bringing her a plate with meat. If she told a joke, everyone would laugh heartily. Kirche’s every move drew the eyes of everyone at the scene.

  The music had started. Kirche chose a noble to be her dance partner. He was a tall and handsome second year student. This handsome guy showed a smile like a perfect sculpture, and kissed the back of the hand Kirche stretched out to him. Anyone could tell easily that these two were the highlight of the day.

  There were a bunch of people on their seats a distance away, watching this with ice cold eyes.

  They were the group that intended to take revenge on Kirche and Tabitha. One of them, who bore love for that second year handsome student, bit her handkerchief and shook her head in anger.

  “Ah~~ What is that! How dare she get so close to Pelisson-sama……”

  The leader of this revenge group, Thonet Charente, said softly as she flicked her gray hair.

  “Just watch. We are going to shame you right before everybody……”

  Following that, she sent a signal to De Lorraine. He had been hiding behind the curtains at a corner of the hall, waiting for this moment to arrive.

  He followed the script that he had practiced beforehand, and began chanting a spell while pointing his wand at Kirche.

  Kirche was holding onto the second year student and walking into the hall, when suddenly, a small whirlwind wrapped around her body.

  “What is this?”

  Before she finished her sentence, the whirlwind began to twist and turn and entangled her gown.

  “Huh? Oh?”

  Countless thin small wind blades cut Kirche’s skirt and underwear, tearing them to shreds.

  “Wahhhhhhhhhhhhh!”

  The one who gave off this scream of exclamation was not Kirche, but a girl standing near her. Other than the shoes at her feet, Kirche was just like a newborn, dumbly standing at the center of the hall, naked.

  The second year student who was supposed to be with Kirche had a nosebleed, and fell after losing a pool of blood. All the gentlemen at the scene, including the teachers, all stared straight at Kirche, as if swallowing her whole being. As for the ladies who did not have a good impression of Kirche, even though they gave off something similar to a sigh of pity towards this sudden incident, in their hearts they were laughing in secret, feeling that their unhappy feelings were vented out.

  Yet…… Kirche did not panic from this unfortunate accident, and instead, she brought her queen stance into play.

  She did not cover her bronze-colored body, which was giving off a wild charm, at all. She walked to the side of the wall, looking very natural, and sat on the sofa there.

  And, under the stare of surrounding students, she crossed her legs, murmuring comments like “it got cooler”. At this moment, the culprit, De Lorraine acted indifferently and walked over.

  “What a disaster.” He said as he draped his coat over Kirche.

  “Just who…… Did, did such a thing……”

  De Lorraine said, shifting his eyes away from the body Kirche was so proud of. His face could not help but blush red.

  “Basically I can more or less guess who it is.”

  Kirche stared at a bunch of girls in the far corner. They were looking in this direction, and smirking as they whispered to each other.

  De Lorraine placed his mouth by the side of Kirche’s ear.

  “Erm…… I saw someone that seemed like the culprit in the shadows from the curtains……”

  Kirche used suspicious eyes to look at De Lorraine.

  “Oh…… Really?”

  “Yes. If I tell you who it is, would you go on a date with me?”

  De Lorraine repeated from the script that they had prepared beforehand. Mainly because Thonet Charente argued very strongly that, by asking this, Kirche was more likely to believe what he said.

  Kirche studied De Lorraine slightly. He had a face that looked rather inflexible…… He belonged to the type that, even though confident in their studies and magic, had absolutely no idea about boy-girl relationships. It looked as though he might be secretly in love with her?

  Kirche gave a charming smile. Looking down on him, she thought to herself: What is this? So this guy is just another secret admirer of mine. For people who are overly narcissistic, their eyes that are meant to see the truth tend to be blinded very easily as well.

  “Sure, so tell me.”

  De Lorraine told Kirche softly.

  “.……It was a small sized girl. She was looking at you and waved her wand, so I think that it must be her.”

  “So then who is she?”

  “I did not get to see the face clearly though.”

  De Lorraine seemed embarrassed as he added.

  “Yeah, after that, my attention was shifted onto you, with your gown turned into cloth strips. It was after that that I thought that she might be the culprit for this. But when I turned my head again, she was no longer there."

  “Oh…… Is there anything with you that can act as proof?”

  De Lorraine took out a thread of hair from his pocket. That was a thread of blue hair.

  “This hair color is very uncommon.”

  “To possess hair of such color, there shouldn’t be many?”

  De Lorraine nodded.

  “Thank you, I think I know who it is.”

  Kirche said so softly, looked across the area and…… Her eyes stopped at a small girl wearing spectacles. That kid, I think her name was Tabitha?

  De Lorraine, who is standing beside me now, didn’t he have a duel with her? As she was not interested in this sort of thing, she had only heard a little of what happened.

  “Didn’t you have a duel with her?”

  “Yes.” De Lorraine nodded. “Though it is shameful, but I lost very miserably.”

  “So I heard. The reason for the duel?”

  “Because she was very disrespectful towards me, I said: “I wonder what your mother is like.” As you know, that girl has a strange name right? She must be hiding lowly birth. The moment I said that, she suddenly acted, that is why I lost against her.”

  De Lorraine lied.

  Kirche tilted her head and thought about it.

  She had made fun of her for a bit during the entrance ceremony, could that be the reason? Besides, she seemed to have made fun of her name before.

  She narrowed her eyes and stared at Tabitha, her face showing a cold smile.

  Seeing this scene, De Lorraine judged that his plan seemed to be going smoothly, he couldn’t help but give a smirk in his heart.

  Kirche appeared to be completely convinced…… That Tabitha bore a hatred towards her for making fun of her name, and consequently took revenge.

  The reason Thonet Charente presented this idea to De Lorraine was because she remembered that there had been some friction between Kirche and Tabitha during the entrance ceremony, so she put that incident into use in this plan.

  The next morning…… Kirche walked into the classroom, and sat beside Tabitha. Tabitha on the other hand read her book without moving. Kirche took action and snatched her book over.

  Tabitha looked towards Kirche, those blue eyes that still did not allow others to detect any emotions in them shone with a certain glow.

  “You…… The method of revenge you thought of is really clever.”

  Tabitha did not reply.

  “Is it that unforgivable to have your name made fun of?”

  Tabitha tilted her head, looking at Kirche, she did not seem to understand that Kirche meant that incident.

  Kirche threw pieces of her gown before Tabitha.

  “This is very expensive.”

  Tabitha used her finger to rub the cloth, and looked at it for a while.

  “I intend to make you suffer the same humiliation, will you accept that?”

  Tabitha shook her head, as if implying “I have no idea what you are talking about.”

  “Stop acting. You excel at “Wind” magic right? I hated the wind originally, but now I hate it even more. To be like you, sneaking at some dark corner to release a whirlwind…… That is really too annoying!”

  “It wasn’t me.”

  With things developed to such a state, Tabitha finally opened her mouth.

  “Things have already gotten to this stage, and you still intend to act innocent?”

  Kirche’s red hair danced like fire. She showed an effortless smile and said in a calm voice.

  “Then remember this, it shouldn’t take long for me to make you remember it.”

  With that, Kirche stood up and walked back to her seat.

  Thonet Charente and De Lorraine sneakily hid at one corner of the classroom to eavesdrop on their conversation; following that they exchanged glances, and secretly gave a smile.

  They initiated the second part of their plan very quickly.

  After school that day, Tabitha returned to her room, only to find it in a pathetic state. The room was filled with a burnt smell, books, which had been Tabitha’s only friend, and the bookshelf to put them were all burnt to pieces. Tabitha picked up the remains of one of the burnt books. The pages inside were burnt to ashes, and flew off, falling back onto the floor.

  Tabitha bit her lips hard. She used her emotionless eyes to look around, and found a thread of hair that fell onto her bed. She picked up that thread of hair and with the kerosene lamp in her room, she saw the red long hair shining with luster.

  Within Tabitha’s deep blue eyes, a strong cold blizzard began to blow.

  Deep in the night, there was a knock on Kirche’s door.

  Kirche had been furious about having provided her body at the party for free for the admiring of all the students and teachers in school, she asked the person outside the door: “Who is it?”

  “It is me.”

  It was Tabitha’s voice. The side of Kirche’s lips raised in a vigorous manner, revealing a cruel smile that would never be displayed before others. She opened the door to her room.

  Tabitha held a large wand in her hand, standing outside the door.

  “You finally intend to settle things once and for all?”

  Kirche asked, looking from above at this girl whose height was only up to her chest. Tabitha did not reply, and just used cold eyes to stare at Kirche.

  Those eyes gave a clear reply to Kirche’s question.

  “Location?”

  Kirche asks once more.

  “Anywhere is fine.”

  “Time?”

  “Now.”

  “Good.”

  Kirche took up her wand, and walked off before Tabitha.

  At the center of the Vestri Courtyard that barely had anyone there even in the day, Kirche and Tabitha turned their bodies to face each other. It seemed that the moon would be their only audience.

  Yet…… There were other spectators hiding behind bushes or the shadow of the tower. That would be De Lorraine, or the group of girls seeking revenge, with Thonet Charente as their leader. And Thonet Charente was the culprit for sneaking into Tabitha’s room and burning her bookshelf.

  This bunch of people were rejoicing over the success of their plan. They wanted to witness the final results, and so they arrived here, sneaking up behind Tabitha and Kirche.

  Darkness quietly surrounded the cold moist air in the night of spring.

  Kirche raised her wand before her.

  “Firstly, I would like to apologize. Regarding making fun of your name…… I have no bad intentions. As you can see, this is just my personality~ It seems that unintentionally, I tend to make others angry.”

  Tabitha placed her big wand down towards the ground, and was prepared to chant a spell anytime.

  “But, I never expected you to make me suffer such a humiliation, so I will not go easy on you.”

  Yet Kirche noticed that Tabitha was still very small. Even though she was really angry, but to fight against a girl as young as her…… Is this really right? This query appeared in her heart faintly.

  “Don’t take me for a normal flirt and underestimate my capabilities. I am a von Zerbst of Germania, you have heard of it right?”

  Tabitha nodded.

  “Then, you should know the rumors that my family has on the battlefield. My family is cheerful and free like fire, but we are not just that. We will cheerfully and freely burn everything to ashes. And not just our enemies…… Sometimes even our own men if they do not listen to us.”

  Tabitha looked at Kirche motionlessly, the expression on her face seemed to be saying: “So what?”

  "The thing I am most boastful about is the Zerbst flame that flows within my body. So as long as something obstructs my path, no matter what it is, I will burn it to a crisp. Even if it is our King…… Or a child, they are all the same."

  Tabitha began spell-chanting. It seemed that Kirche’s threatening words did not have any effect on Tabitha.

  “I have already warned you.”

  Kirche waved her wand. Because of the considerable amount of military training she had received, when she got serious, her chanting speed was faster than anyone else.

  From the tip of her wand a fireball, not conservative in terms of size or power, flew towards Tabitha. Tabitha changed her spell in an instant, making an ice wall right before herself.

  A thick ice wall blocked Kirche’s fireball…… And melted into water. But this ice wall was unable to completely block Kirche’s fireball, causing Tabitha’s hair to be burnt by the spitting flames.

  Tabitha jumped backwards, and then turned defense into attack. She made the water vapour in the air condense into ice, sending ice arrows flying at Kirche from all directions. She was serious as well, compared to the time when she nailed De Lorraine to the wall last time, the number of ice arrows was about three times as many…… All hurdling straight towards Kirche.

  Kirche waved her wand. Flames spinned around her body, wrapping onto the sharp ice blades, and melting them entirely. But, one of the ice arrows that had yet to melt completely scratched her cheek.

  A drop of fresh blood fell along Kirche’s cheek.

  Yet…… Both Kirche and Tabitha stopped after that…… The attacks from both sides ended there.

  Both of them lowered their wands, and stared at each other.

  Kirche stretched her tongue out to lick the blood that was falling down her cheek.

  Tabitha used her hand to check her burnt hair as well.

  De Lorraine who was hiding in the bushes asked Thonet Charente beside him, who was holding her breath to observe the battle.

  “.……What is going on? Is it over already?”

  “.……How should I know. Geez, get on with the fight already. There’s no result yet is there?”

  Why did Tabitha and Kirche stop fighting after releasing one attack each? De Lorraine and Thonet Charente could not understand the reason at all.

  “What a headache…… It seems that this is a misunderstanding after all.” Kirche said, pouting.

  This mindless speech made De Lorraine and gang even more confused. Now is not the time to make such a relaxed speech is it? The two of them should be dueling, betting their lives on it shouldn’t they?

  Tabitha seemed to have the same opinion as Kirche, and nodded.

  Following that, she walked up to Kirche, and handed the burnt book to Kirche. Kirche took a look, and shook her head, saying.

  “I didn’t do this.”

  Tabitha raised her head to look up at Kirche. Kirche gave a faint smile, and patted her shoulder.

  “My, if there is something I want, I would rob it, but my rule is to ’not rob the most treasured items of others’.”

  Tabitha openned her mouth to say.

  “Why?”

  “Because, if I rob that, it would cause a situation where I have to risk my life, isn’t that kind of thing very troublesome?”

  Kirche laughed cheerfully.

  Tabitha, led by Kirche, revealed a tiny smile.

  Kirche seemed to have noticed that smile, and said to Tabitha.

  “You are cuter when you smile like this.”

  After that, Kirche raised her wand high. A few tiny fireballs were fired towards the sky like fireworks, lighting up the area as though it was morning.

  De Lorraine and gang who had been hiding amidst the darkness were instantly revealed in this light.

  “Hi! Hiiiiiiii!"

  “You people…… What are you doing here?”

  “N-no, just taking a stroll!”

  “A stroll? Go for that a little later. Yeah, regarding the humiliation I suffered thanks to you…… I would like to ’repay’ you.”

  The girls and De Lorraine intended to run, but their legs were tied tightly by Tabitha’s ropes of wind.

  Kirche closed in upon De Lorraine who fell down.

  “W-W-Why!”

  “Are you trying to ask how we realized it?”

  De Lorraine nodded vigorously as if he had a cramp.

  “Listen well, have you heard the phrase ’The strong will know the strong?’ When you become ’Triangle class’ like us, you will be able to understand the level of the magic being cast on you. The whirlwind that tore my gown at the party, compared to the ice arrows this child has used just now, even though they are both of “wind” magic, the magical powers in the two are completely different!”

  “Hi! Hi! Hiiiii!"

  Hearing the term ’Triangle Mages’, all the people who fell to the floor were so scared they began trembling.

  “Tabitha and I realized that both of us are triangle mages; that is why we let our wands down. If burnt by my flames, how can there be any book that retains its original shape? Remember well, my “fire” will burn everything ’to a crisp’.”

  De Lorraine struggled to get up to escape. Tabitha was about to chant a spell, but Kirche stopped her.

  “Leave it to me.”

  Tabitha shook her head.

  “What are those books! I will become your friend in place of your books! But my humiliation…… I am unable to find anything in replacement. So, I will take revenge for you as well, just watch!”

  Something warm was created within Tabitha’s heart. Ever since she had abandoned her name, this is the first time someone had said something like “become your friend”.

  This sentence…… Seemed to have made the blizzard that has been rampaging in her heart melt slightly…… Tabitha had that feeling.

  “I owe you one.”

  Tabitha nodded to say.

  Her voice was very soft…… She sounded a little shy, and there seemed to be a little happiness mixed in her tone. Having someone whom she could owe something to, this made Tabitha very happy without knowing why.

  “Fine, you shall owe me for now. You better return the favor in the future!”

  Kirche used a calm voice and a solemn demeanor to begin spell-chanting. A fireball flew at De Lorraine and his gang, who had no idea which way to run to.

  The queen of flames sent more fireballs in concession, her actions seemed as though she was dancing, her tone sounded as though she was singing in happiness……

  The angrier Kirche got, the cooler her speech, and the calmer her attitude.