[V13C17] Delinquents Always Break Windows

The history of the Minerva Institute for Mages was dotted by the heinous acts of two infamous students.

Regarding those troublemakers, Professor Gideon Rutherford had this to say:

“The first one was nasty. The second one was just plain creepy.”

Minerva’s first troublemaker, Louis Miller, had grown up to become a very cunning man.

He had already abused a loophole in the rules to strangle a coworker, but this was only just the beginning.

＊　＊　＊

Louis had pinpointed the location of his foes. The Artillery Mage was on the emergency staircase of the building’s east side, and the Silent Witch was on the west side.

He immediately decided on Monica as his next target.

The Silent Witch’s chantless magic was certainly a threat, but that was not the extent of her abilities. Her talents extended into all fields, be it offense, defense, or support.

Given enough time, she could even undo the sealing barriers Louis had placed on Raul and Ray. She needed to be eliminated as quickly as possible.

After setting his sights on Monica, Louis dove down to retrieve his dropped staff while starting an incantation.

Louis had surprisingly few options when it came to dealing with the Silent Witch. She could easily break out of his barriers, and strangling her was pointless as she didn’t need to chant in the first place.

He needed to either knock her unconscious, or completely exhaust her mana in one fell swoop.

(You leave me no choice. I will annihilate you with maximum firepower.)

Louis could perform a Spirit King summoning, but that would take too much time and mana.

Under these circumstances, he would rather deploy a sturdy barrier and ram into his target with flight magic.

──In other words, his infamous “barrier roadkill” tactic.

Louis had faced Monica in a magical battle for the first time during the Sage Selection Exam. Back then, he insisted on winning in a ‘sophisticated’ manner, which led to his complete and utter defeat.

But the current Louis had no intention of being picky.

(Dragon Slayer won’t be able to chant until he recovers from the strangling I gave him. The Artillery Mage is on the opposite side of the building, so he has no line of sight.)

Louis held his staff in front and deployed a wall-shaped barrier, charging at Monica from just barely above the ground.

Meanwhile, Monica pointed the tip of her staff at Louis, invoking a spear of flames.

While Monica possessed the ability to perform Spirit King summoning without incantation, she was unable to skip the steps for constructing and opening the gate. As such, she only had the time to perform an ordinary spell.

(Triple-reinforced, huh.)

It seems Monica decided to fight back with a chantless triple-reinforced spell.

The speed and power of her magic far surpassed the average mage, but this was still not enough to penetrate the Barrier Mage’s strongest shield.

Monica’s flame spear slammed into Louis’s barrier and slowed his momentum for a few seconds. However, it was only a matter of time before he broke through. At this rate, he would reach Monica before she cast her next spell.

Louis poured additional mana into his flight magic, propelling himself forward and pushing back Monica’s flames.

“I hope you are prepared for a bit of pain, my fellow Sage.”

Meanwhile, Monica pointed a finger at Louis’s right side.

There was no fear or worry on her face.

“In order to beat the strongest shield,” Monica muttered. “The best method is shooting from the side.”

Louis turned to his right for a brief instant, before noticing an enormous fireball right above his head. Not from the side, but from above.

How could he have fallen for the oldest trick in the book? By the time he realized it, the fireball was already within arm’s reach.

This was a doubly-reinforced fire spell. Though the structure of the formula was uneven, it contained even more mana than Monica’s spell. Which meant the caster was…

“Glenn… You little…!”

“Master, uh… I’m sorry!”

With Monica’s spell blocking his front and Glenn’s fireball closing in from above, Louis had no choice but to escape to the side. But at the next moment, a second flame spear appeared to block off his escape route.

Monica had employed remote magecraft to invoke her spell right next to Louis.

A massive explosion ensued, and Louis was consumed by the flames from three separate directions.

＊　＊　＊

The deafening explosion scattered flames everywhere, and the scene was covered by a cloud of billowing smoke.

Following the spectacular display, everyone in the Magic Corps building erupted in cheers. Among them was Norman, a boy clinging to the window on the third-floor corridor.

Norman was a young apprentice mage who had recently left his hometown.

He had been on his way to study at the Minerva Institute for Mages, but a strange series of events resulted in him staying at the Magic Corps headquarters. Currently, he was spectating the magical battle with his mentor in magic, Hubert Dee.

It was unclear how Hubert managed to secure permission to watch, but a magical battle involving the Seven Sages was not a normal occurrence.

Thus, Norman was standing on his tiptoes and pressed against the window to get the best possible view of this event.

(Wow, I still can’t believe I’m watching a magical battle between Sages… I wonder how much money they would make if they charged an admission fee for this.)

Norman’s goal was to become an outstanding mage and repay his village, so he was constantly thinking about ways to commercialize magic.

In his opinion, not showcasing this battle was a huge waste. If they held a similar event at his village, the boost in visitors would mean huge gains at the inns, the restaurants, the souvenir shops, etc. It seemed like the perfect way to have magic benefit the villagers who took care of him.

While Norman was clacking at his mental abacus, Hubert moved next to him and muttered his name.

“Norman.”

Hubert placed his ring-adorned hand on Norman’s head and continued…

“Get down and pray.”

“Huh?”

The two dropped to the floor right as a storm swept through the corridor.

＊　＊　＊

The explosion hitting Louis had covered the entire area in smoke and flames.

Monica immediately deployed a defensive barrier around herself and Glenn.

(Louis-san changed the shape of his barrier at the last moment.)

The strength of a defensive barrier was inversely proportional to its size. A shield-shaped barrier for protecting the front would be the most sturdy, while a spherical or dome-shaped barrier would result in slightly reduced durability.

Monica had witnessed Louis transforming the shape of his barrier to minimize the damage from their multi-directional assault.

Factoring in the reduced durability from a dome-shaped barrier, an ordinary mage would stand no chance against two triple-reinforced spells from Monica and a double-reinforced fireball from Glenn… But they were up against Louis Miller.

(He’s not finished yet, I’m sure of it.)

Knowing Louis, he might even play dead and launch a surprise attack.

Monica watched carefully while maintaining her barrier, ready to launch an immediate counterattack if necessary. But suddenly, she heard a cracking sound from above, followed by the screams of the Magic Corps.

She looked up to see the windows broken from the inside, with fragments of glass falling everywhere.

Monica trembled in realization.

“L-Louis-san, n-no way…!”

While the outside of the building was protected by the magical battle barrier, the same did not apply to the interior.

In addition, most magical battle barriers did not have the ability to restrict entry or departure, which was why they needed Bradford to prevent Louis’s escape.

The cornered Louis Miller had broken through the window to escape into the Magic Corps building, which was outside the influence of the barrier.

(No… This is no escape. His intention is…!)

＊　＊　＊

Caught in between several spells, Louis immediately transformed his barrier into a dome shape and huddled on the ground.

In real combat, even the weakest attacks could be fatal if they hit vital points like the neck. However, magical battles worked differently. The greater the surface area exposed to an attack, the greater the damage received.

As a result, lying on the ground was the best way to minimize the damage from explosions and similar wide-range attacks.

(That reduced my remaining mana to below one-fifth.)

But there was something he could do even with low mana.

Louis immediately soared into the air with flight magic and used his staff to smash through the window of the third floor.

The spectating Magic Corps members were initially dumbfounded, but their faces quickly turned pale in realization.

The inside of this building was outside the range of the magical battle barrier. Naturally, there were no longer any limitations on physical attacks.

As screams of despair echoed through the corridor, Louis twisted his dirt-covered face into a grin.

“If you want to gamble against me… You’ll have to stake your life.”

Louis swung his mana-enchanted staff and shattered the other windows——as well as the portion of the barrier that had been covering them.

While the magical battle barrier was resilient to internal attacks, it was surprisingly fragile against external ones.

And due to the complexity of the barrier, repairing a crack was extremely difficult. This was typically done by disengaging and reapplying the barrier, which naturally took a great deal of time.

Louis ran through the corridor, smashing all the windows and kicking down anyone in his way. Once he reached the east side, he broke through the window and flew out with flight magic.

He emerged right above the emergency staircase where the Artillery Mage was hiding.

“You smashed your way through the building…!?”

Bradford shouted in surprise, but he quickly regained his calm and pointed his staff at Louis. Apparently, he had already finished his incantation and was ready to fire whenever.

Louis would be doomed if he took a direct hit at this range… which was why he took hostages.

“Strike me down if you dare,” Louis said, gesturing behind himself with his thumb.

The Magic Corps headquarters was right behind him.

The building was supposed to be protected by the magical battle barrier, but Louis had poked several holes in it. A fireball from Bradford might end up incinerating the people inside.

Bradford put on a face of half exasperation, half surprise.

“Are you seriously taking your former subordinates as hostages!?”

“I’m sure all of them are prepared to die in the line of duty.”

Louis flew down and swung his wind-enchanted staff at Bradford, who intercepted the blow with his own staff.

However, the force of the wind knocked him over the railing of the emergency staircase.

Though Bradford was a large and muscular man, he was also surprisingly nimble. He employed a shortened incantation wind spell to mitigate his fall and land on his feet.

But for some reason, his knees gave out when he tried to stand back up.

Bradford looked down in surprise to see a glowing purple pattern on the ground.

“What!? This is…!”

This pattern was one of the curse traps set by Ray. Louis had perfectly calculated the angle of his swing to knock Bradford into it.

The effect of the curse induced a numbing sensation throughout his entire body. Bradford found himself completely paralyzed, including his tongue, so he could no longer chant spells.

With this, Louis had neutralized the Thorn Witch, the Abyss Shaman, and the Artillery Mage.

Louis made his way to the front of the Magic Corps headquarters, making sure that the building was always right behind him.

The barrier covering the building was riddled with holes, so Glenn and Monica could not risk using high-powered spells.

Having taken the entire Magic Corps hostage, the former captain Louis spoke triumphantly.

“Now then, who wants to get crushed next?”

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