[V5C4] As If Watching Ignorant Lambs
Translated by Jodas 5: The Magic BattleThe Headmaster, Klaus Möbius.
The Assistant Headmaster, Miriam.
Holding sway over all three Spires of the Wedge Tower, the highest authority and his closest retainer.
Hütter gulped.
(Wait-wait-wait-wait, No one told me the Headmaster himself was going to show up…)
Hütter tried to hide his nervousness as Sombart whispered to him.
“Looks like Headmaster Möbius has returned, huh. I heard he went on a pretty long expedition this time.”
Möbius was an outstanding mage and swordsman who once belonged to the Extermination Office, as well as one of only a small handful in the Empire who wielded an Ancient Magical Artifact.
Ancient Magical Artifacts were made with completely different techniques to the magical devices of the modern day, and accordingly held a level of power to which modern magical devices couldn’t hope to compare.
One of Hütter’s students, Sevil, had once said that magical devices were weapons, but it was Ancient Magical Artifacts that were the true weapons.
When war broke out with the Kingdom of Ridill to the West, the Empire was well on the way to losing. However, what came to save them from that desperate situation and led the Empire to victory was the Ancient Magical Artifact: The Mirror of Bern.
Ancient Magical Artifacts had the power to turn the fortunes of war, and were proportionally difficult to control. He’d heard they were managed as important treasures of the state.
At the moment, there were three Ancient Magical Artifacts under the Wedge Tower’s management. ‘Ignatius, the Severer,’ ‘Eurydice, the Cackling Foam,’ and ‘Despina, the Chain of Fools.’
(The sword hanging from Headmaster Möbius’ hip… Is that ‘Ignatius, the Severer’?)
He’d done a little bit of research about this stuff since infiltrating the Wedge Tower.
‘Ignatius, the Severer’ was a sword which commanded overwhelming power against Monsters.
While Monsters had incredible regeneration abilities, a cut made by that sword is said to never heal. It was a veritable trump card in combat against Monsters.
As its wielder, even though Möbius was the leader of the Wedge Tower, he was said to often head to the front lines himself and make full use of his sword.
As Hütter inspected the sword, Sombart spoke to him.
“Oh my, Mr. Hütter. You’ve got your eye on ‘Ignatius, the Severer’?”
Hütter pondered how to respond most naturally.
He knew of the Wedge Tower’s Ancient Magical Artifacts thanks to Heidi’s investigations, but he sensed that the higher-ups at the Mage Association also had a rough grasp on their existence.
However, he wasn’t sure if anyone other than the higher-ups would know about them.
On the other hand, the majority of people in the Wedge Tower were aware of the existence of the Ancient Magical Artifacts.
It wouldn’t be unusual for Hütter to have heard from someone that Headmaster Möbius wielded an Ancient Magical Artifact.
“Hm~, so that’s the one in the rumors… It looks like a pretty heavy sword to me.”
Without bringing up the specific name ‘The Ancient Magical Artifact: Ignatius, the Severer,’ Hütter would try to conceal exactly how much he knew.
In the worst case scenario, if someone called him out on it, he could try to smooth things over by saying ‘I was just pretending to know.’
Sombart smiled cheerfully as he spoke.
“Headmaster Möbius is a talented swordsman, you know. He used to be in the Extermination Office when he was younger, after all.”
“Wow, and his muscles are something else, too. He’s older than I am, but his body is in perfect condition! Don’t you think so too, Mr. Armster?”
Hütter passed the conversation over to Armster, who jumped in his seat. “Um…… Well…….” He stammered.
(Whenever Sombart gets too annoying, it’s best to just pass on to someone else…)
Holding a fake smile, Hütter looked back at the white curtain.
Just as Möbius walked in, the white curtain switched from showing Tia and the others making piro-piro noises to Julius.
(…Thank goodness, no one noticed the piro-piro thing!)
After all, the ones piro-piroing were the three from Hütter’s class. He didn’t want piro-piro to be the reason the Headmaster started paying attention to him.
Secretly wiping off a bead of sweat, Hütter watched Möbius from behind.
At first glance, it was clear his stance left zero openings. This wasn’t the kind of man he could fool with some simple party tricks.
“Is that Samuel’s son?”
Asking that question to Abel while staring straight at the screen was the woman in a nun’s habit — Assistant Headmaster Miriam.
Abel smiled with the face of an old lady who was always kind to those younger than her.
“Yes. He’s still young, but a very hard worker.”
“I would not use the term ‘hard work’ to refer to one traipsing about in vain without knowing the duty he shoulders. To me, he appears to be nothing but an ignorant lamb.”
Assistant Headmaster Miriam’s voice was beautiful, yet cold.
“You would not refer to a lamb’s helpless bleating as it wandered the fields ‘hard work,’ would you?”
She treats Julius as a mere lamb. Hütter internally remarked ‘This woman’s a piece of work.’
Over drinks and whatnot, he’d been able to gleam a certain level of information about Headmaster Möbius, the leader of the Wedge Tower.
However, he almost never heard anything about his assistant, Miriam. All he knew was that she was Möbius’ peer and that she was once also in the Extermination Office.
(So she’s the assistant to Headmaster Möbius? … No last name and a nun’s habit, huh? Sounds like she’s got quite the story… But I reckon I’ll get caught if I tried digging into her background too carelessly. So, where do I even start my investigation?)
First, praying that the higher-ups don’t catch a glimpse of Hütter’s three students piro-piroing, Hütter silently observed the crowd assembled in the meeting room.
While Tia was busy with her piro-piro taunting, Ella tapped her on the shoulder.
“Tia, I think that’s enough with the piro-piros. Let’s greet the nice folks from the Extermination Office properly before we begin, okay?”
“Piropiropiro……Okayyy!”
Tia put a stop to her piro-piro and bowed towards Frederik and the others.
“Let’s have a good match!”
“Yes, let’s have a good match.”
Frederik dutifully returned her greetings, and Rikard and Helena followed in kind.
“Let’s have a good match.”
“Yes, let’s.”
Rikard lightly tipped his head, while Helena placed both hands in front of her body and bowed deeply. Taking care to do things properly.
The Apprentices all likewise bowed back to them.
While there were countless standards and traditions for conduct and respect among mages throughout the Empire, the Wedge Tower was a place where mages from across the Empire gathered.
As a result, the minute details of such niceties varied depending on each individual’s customs.
Tia, who was ignorant to human conduct in the first place, much less any specific custom, was grateful for that level of leeway.
Once the greetings were over, Röhm stepped forward as the adjudicator.
“Well then, allow me to explain the rules of this magic battle. First, I would like all of you to wear this bracelet around your left wrist.”
Röhm passed around a basket filled with bracelets, and each person took one before passing the basket to the next person.
Tia, who hated wearing this kind of thing, made a distressed “pevuvu” noise, but she swallowed her complaints and put the bracelet on.
Ella had told her beforehand that these bracelets were necessary for the magic battle.
“Once your mana reserves drop below a certain level, the gem on these bracelets is designed to start glowing. This time, when those of you whose total reserves are below a hundred drop to below half, or when those of you with reserves above a hundred drop below fifty, then you will be considered knocked out.”
Which meant 48 or below for Tia, who had 98 mana; 18 or below for Wren, who had 36; and 50 or below for Sevil, who had 110; were the points at which they’d be knocked out.
— Of course, Ella had made sure to tell her those numbers beforehand. Tia had tried her best to calculate that, but she had gotten it wrong all three times she’d tried.
“Also, if the bracelet is removed, you’ll also be considered knocked out. If any of you wish to drop out at any time, just take your bracelet off, okay?”
Magic battles had a whole lot of rules, it was all so confusing.
At the moment, everything Röhm was talking about had been explained to her beforehand. Ella, especially, took care break everything down for Tia and Finn, who had issues remembering things like that.
(Only attacks with mana included will work. You’re not allowed to leave the magic battle barrier. You’ll lose mana relative to the damage you take.)
When the Harpies fought, they’d just flock up to the target and scratch it until it dies. Human battles were way too complicated.
“The area of the magic battle is everything inside this circle on the map. You’ll be considered knocked out if you leave the barrier. Also, there is a height limit to the barrier, so please take care not to fly too high up. You’ll be knocked out even if you leave the barrier through the top.”
This was the most important warning for Tia.
The height of the barrier was just a little higher than the tallest tree in the forest. If she flew too high up, she would be knocked out just like that.
Today was the first time she’d seen the exact area of the barrier, but as Wren anticipated, it wasn’t very big.
Even though they were in a forest, it would be hard for them to evade three members of the Extermination Office for a whole hour.
“From the Extermination Office side, only Frederik Lange may make direct attacks. The other two will only be permitted to engage in defense and interception. The time limit for this magic battle will be one hour. Should the Apprentices render Frederik Lange unable to fight or should at least one of them survive, then it will be their victory.”
These rules were overwhelmingly in the Apprentices’ favor.
There was no need for them to waste their time taking down Rikard or Helena.
In essence, all they had to do was either take down Frederik or have just one of them survive the whole time.
…That was just how much of a gap in strength there was between the three from the Extermination Office and the twelve Apprentice Mages.
“Finally, regarding your start positions, the twelve Apprentice Mages will have five minutes from the time the bell rings to move to a location of their choice. Once those five minutes are up, the next bell will indicate the start of the magic battle.”
(So Frederik and the others won’t be allowed to move for five minutes.)
Over these five minutes, their side would have to move to an advantageous position, and start preparing. These were the most important five minutes.
“If you don’t have any more questions, we will begin the magic battle. The Spiremaster and Directors will be watching the battle today, so please try your best, everyone.”
If they perform well in this battle and catch the eye of a Spiremaster or Director, they might have an advantage when it comes time to select an Office next year. — She wandered how many of them were thinking that way.
She felt like it probably wasn’t many, but at the same time, none of the Apprentices would be taking this lightly.
“Ella.”
Sevil smirked and looked at the other Apprentices.
“As our representative, would you like to say something?”
Ella’s face tensed to Sevil’s words.
“We’ve done a lot of preparation for this day… so let’s win!”
“Yeah!” “Uh-huh.” “Mhm.” “Yep!” “Indeed.” —Amidst the disorganized chorus of responses was an energetic “Piyopp!”
The magic battle barrier was set up through a series of special stakes driven into the ground at specific locations.
Where one of those stakes was, a single man appeared.
A large man with an X-shaped scar on his face — the Extermination Office mage Dammer — used far-sight magecraft and observed the forms of the Apprentices gathered at the starting point.
(…I knew she’d be here. That annoying piyo-piyo white-haired girl.)
His face contorting in disgust, Dammer laid a hand on one of the stakes.
If he were to pull out or destroy this stake or some other mishap were to occur, the magic battle barrier would disappear.
—Meaning Frederik’s spear and attack magic would become fatal.
His first priority was that white-haired girl, Tia.
He had to get her out of the picture as soon as possible, before she said anything.
(That crazy guy… The Dream Mage, Caspar Hütter is in the viewing room, so now’s my chance.)
He just had to wait for the moment Frederik lets out a fatal attack towards Tia.
Then, at that moment, he would remove this stake.
Imagining Frederik’s spear piercing through Tia’s body, Dammer laughed darkly.