[V16C18] The Strictest Of Them All

The spectator room went into an awkward silence as everyone wondered why the Library Lord was there. But after the self-proclaimed recorder quietly fixed his seat and returned to taking notes, they eventually got back to watching the match.

Silas glanced over at Mary.

The host of the magical battle was ostensibly Raul, the head of House Roseberg. However, Mary’s long tenure put her in charge of any event where the Seven Sages were gathered.

Rather than scolding anyone, Mary was covering her mouth with a hand and doing her best to hold back her laughter. That meant it was probably fine.

(Damn, that Library Lord guy did something pretty impressive… I’ve never seen Starseer laugh so hard.)

Apparently, not even reading the stars and seeing the fate of the nation could let her predict this development.

On the white screen, Isaac was stringing a band of water between two trees. He placed Glenn at the center, getting ready to launch him with the giant slingshot.

At this point, Isaac’s victory was practically assured.

Silas stroked his chin and let out a sigh of satisfaction.

The water net used by Isaac bore a close resemblance to Silas’s dragon capture spell. It was good to see him following in the footsteps of his older brother figure.

In which case, it fell to Silas to come up with a better alias than ‘Storage Mage’.

“Hey, Silent-neesan. What do you think about ‘Big Catch Mage’ for Ike’s alias?”

Silas grew up in the mountains, so he had always admired the men of the sea.

From behind him, Raul rested his chin on the backrest of the sofa and cut in.

“I think ‘Blast-Off Mage’ is better! The idea of launching people is awesome! Sounds super strong too!”

“No way, ‘Big Catch Mage’ is way cooler. What do you think, Silent-neesan?”

There was no reply from Monica.

Silas casually glanced to the side and flinched when he saw the expression on Monica’s face.

＊　＊　＊

“Gyaaaaah…!!”

Glenn continued screaming as Isaac prepared the human slingshot with an extremely wicked grin.

Meanwhile, Hugo Galletti was waiting for the chance to launch his counterattack.

This would be a dramatic comeback from the brink of defeat. Certain to make him look incredibly cool if he pulled it off.

Luckily, Isaac had decided to eliminate Glenn first, so his eyes were not on Hugo.

In addition, Glenn made a lot of noise with his screaming. This was the perfect cover for an incantation… or so Hugo thought. But then, a portion of the water net slid over to cover his mouth.

(He noticed me…!! …Ah, I’m done for… It’s all over…)

Humans could not cast magic with incantations. As such, mages were rendered powerless once they fell into water or got their mouth covered.

It was only a matter of time until Hugo’s turn to be launched into the sky.

Right as he was about to give up, Hugo spotted something on the ground. It was a few pinches of sand, slightly different in texture from the forest soil. They must have been left behind by Clarence’s spells.

The sand sparkled faintly in the light, so it seemed to contain a bit of mana still.

(Mana-infused sand? Isn’t that pretty similar to a magical tool…?)

Magical tools did not require chanting to activate.

In an act of desperation, Hugo tried channeling his mana into the few grains of sand covering his cheek.

(Come on…! Clarence-san! Lend me your strength…!)

After focusing his concentration, Hugo felt a link between himself and the sand. He couldn’t control it freely, but charging it with his mana and moving it around seemed doable.

Hugo moved those bits of sand into the band of water covering his mouth. The feeling of sandy water in his mouth was far from pleasant, but now wasn’t the time for complaints.

It became a battle of control between Isaac’s water and Hugo’s sand, and victory went to Hugo.

The sandy water covering his mouth crumbled apart and fell to the ground. Hugo spat out the remaining sand and water, then looked up at Isaac.

Isaac had yet to notice. He was too focused on manipulating the band of water holding Glenn.

(Just like I thought… Walker-kun is still a novice at mana manipulation!)

Isaac clenched his right hand and made the gesture of pulling back, as if drawing a bow.

In response, the water band holding Glenn stretched backwards. Glenn’s screams grew even louder.

(Come on… make it in time!)

First, Hugo created a defensive barrier to protect himself from electrocution. Then, he immediately continued into a second incantation.

He ended up biting his tongue twice, and probably messing up major portions of the formula.

Hugo had never been good at aiming spells. This was especially true with remote spells activated a distance from the caster. He almost never landed those.

(But, as long as I have a chance…!)

Hugo ignored aiming altogether and concentrated everything he had into a remote lightning spell with maximum power.

His lightning hit the slingshot, right as Glenn got launched into air. It happened almost simultaneously.

“Wagyaaaaaah…!!”

Glenn shot through the air like a bullet.

“Gah!”

Meanwhile, the lightning conducted through the slingshot and electrocuted Isaac. The man dropped to his knees.

“Ah, crap, I was too late! Glenn-kun, I’m sorry! Really, really sorry!”

Glenn sailed way over the height of the marker and came plummeting back down.

Only now did Hugo remember. The magical battle barrier nullified physical attacks, but not accidents like falls. Those could still result in injury or death.

“Glenn-kun! The tree! Hurry and grab a branch!!”

Hugo tried to shout at the falling Glenn, but Glenn was tumbling headfirst with his arms and legs limp. He seemed to have fallen unconscious.

This was bad. Hugo no longer had the time to chant a spell for saving him.

Behind the panicking Hugo, the collapsed Isaac stretched out his right hand and whispered, “Wil,” or something like that. Perhaps that was part of an incantation?

Soon after, a film of water appeared beneath Glenn and caught his fall. He bounced once on the springy water before landing softly on the ground.

Hugo stood up slowly and looked around.

Clarence was already out. Glenn was unconscious. Isaac lay on the ground, and the gem of the armband on his left arm glowed red. He had run out of mana.

“…Did I… just win?”

Hugo was uncertain until the Thorn Witch’s voice rang out from above.

“Well… Glenn’s knocked out, and Isaac’s out of mana… Yeah, this match goes to Hugo! Congrats!”

Still not quite feeling his victory, Hugo flopped onto his back with his arms and legs spread out.

In moments like these, there was only one thing to say. Hugo stared up at the sky and muttered to himself.

“Good grief…”

A tuft of his hair swayed weakly above his forehead.

＊　＊　＊

Right as the magical battle ended, Louis uncrossed his legs and muttered internally.

(…I’ll give you 75 points.)

This was his evaluation of Isaac Walker in today’s battle.

His handling of magic still had some rough edges, but he made up for it with ingenuity. It was only fair to say he earned at least a passing grade.

Glenn, on the other hand, would get a mere 15 points. He took far too long to get serious.

With the battle concluded, the disciples got up and made their way toward the pillar at the center of the forest.

Their chatter reached the spectator room once they got closer.

“President… President… sniff…”

“Sorry about everything, Dudley-kun.”

“Walker-kun, how did you manage to catch Glenn-kun at the end there? I thought you weren’t good at projecting water at a distance.”

“That’s a secret.”

“We’ve arrived, Milady.”

Clarence’s words served as the signal for Mary to rise from her sofa and step forward.

She moved to the crystal ball and opened her mouth to speak.

“Well done, everyone. You showed us a very impressive battle.”

Mary walked around to the other side of the crystal ball, then turned gracefully to face Louis and the other spectators.

The recorders had already left the spectator room, so only the Seven Sages were present, except for Ray, who stepped away.

Mary addressed the five still in the room—Bradford, Raul, Louis, Monica, and Silas—as well as the four disciples at the arena.

“There may come a time when we, the Seven Sages, are not present for an emergency. Thus, I wanted to use this magical battle to encourage interaction and growth among our disciples.”

The incident with Gluttonous Zoe was still fresh in their minds.

Back then, Mary was comatose, Louis had temporarily lost the use of his magic, and the Seven Sages needed to be scattered across the country.

It made sense to foster training and camaraderie among their disciples.

Louis furrowed his brows slightly.

(…She really doesn’t miss a thing.)

Mary did not arrange the magical battle just as a test for Isaac. All those other considerations were on her mind too.

And now, after emphasizing the need for interaction between their disciples, it became difficult to discard Isaac outright.

At first glance, this appeared to be a generous gesture toward Isaac. But behind it, Louis could sense the cunning of a witch determined to make full use of anyone useful.

Louis had to agree with her there. He was also inclined to thoroughly work any useful tool to the bone.

The Silent Witch and her disciple were far too talented to let their gifts go to waste.

“And also, I was thinking it might be good to have a sort of leader to bring our disciples together~.”

Even though it wasn’t visible to their disciples in the arena, Mary tilted her head with a cute girlish smile.

“Would you mind, Hugo-chan?”

“Eh!? M-Me!?”

On the white screen, Hugo pointed to himself and looked around in a panic.

“I’m fine with that,” Glenn said, nodding without hesitation. “Hugo-san is a cool guy.”

“I have no objections either,” Clarence followed.

Finally, Isaac nodded while flexing his hands. Apparently, they were still a bit numb from the lightning spell.

“I don’t have any objections either. Galletti-kun’s sociable nature and attentiveness to those around him seem well-suited for a coordinator role.”

In Isaac’s case, the truth was probably that he didn’t want to be saddled with such a bothersome job himself.

However, Hugo seemed moved, flitting excitedly around Isaac.

“Oh my gosh, Walker-kun’s praising me so much…! You can praise me more, you know?”

“You are very perceptive, especially when it comes to danger,” Isaac continued. “Also, you can use the most types of magic out of all of us. No one can complain with you as our leader.”

“Yes, yes, yes! Walker-kun, you’re the best! Oh, just call me Hugo. Can I call you Isaac? Wanna grab a drink sometime? Actually, how about a celebration tonight? We’re doing an afterparty, right?”

Even though an annoying job had just been pushed onto him, Hugo seemed delighted to be praised. His master Bradford crossed his arms and gave a wry smile.

Mary chuckled at the excitement of the young ones before continuing to speak.

“Let’s finish with some comments from the masters, shall we?”

Mary glanced over at Louis.

“And Louis-chan, no more being mean, okay? You didn’t even cheer for your own disciple~.”

“Who cares about cheers from their master? If it were me, I’d be thinking, ‘Shut up, old man’.”

“That’s only you and Rutherford-sama~.”

To Louis, a master’s encouragement was no better than heckling. Cheering was pointless unless it came from the woman you love.

“Either way,” Louis scoffed and shrugged his shoulders. “Giving Glenn feedback is pointless. He’ll forget it by tomorrow.”

On the white screen, Glenn raised his voice in protest.

“I’ll remember it for at least ten minutes!”

“At least remember it for a full day, you damn brat.”

Realizing she wouldn’t get anything but abuse out of Louis, Mary turned her gaze to Bradford, who sat on the sofa behind him.

“How about you, Bradford-chan?”

“I figured that Hugo’s good at survival, so he’d hang in there even if he couldn’t win… But you did real good at the end there. Nice one, Hugo.”

“Master…! You saw that? You saw it, right? Now I’m the strongest of the Sage disciples!”

“Yeah, yeah, I saw it.”

Hugo waved both hands in the air. He was an energetic young man whose every action seemed entertaining.

As a mage, Hugo Galletti was only intermediate level in skill, but perhaps thanks to accompanying his master on so many dragon hunts, he developed a keen sense of danger. If nothing else, he knew how to survive.

He sometimes acted like a bit of a clown, but he should manage fine with Clarence’s support.

Next, Mary spoke with a cheerful smile as Clarence’s master.

“I asked my disciple Clarence to assess everyone’s abilities as much as possible. Thank you, Clarence. You did a wonderful job.”

“I’m honored.”

“Now then, last is Monica-chan. Go ahead.”

When Mary called her name, Monica flinched and fidgeted with her fingers for a bit.

“Y-Yes! Um, when I made the master-disciple pact with Ike, I promised to make him into a proper mage… so I always tell myself I have to be strict… but…”

Monica lowered her brows and gave a weak, apologetic smile.

“Today, I might go a little easy on him. I can tell that he tried really, really hard, and did his best to be creative.”

“My fellow sage,” Louis interjected. “How many points would you give him?”

Letting Monica talk about magic always resulted in a lengthy rant, so Louis asked her to shorten it into a numerical evaluation.

Monica smiled and clenched the fingers she had been fidgeting with.

Then, in a cheerful voice meant to praise her hardworking disciple, she declared…

“You get 35 points!”

The atmosphere in the room froze over in an instant.

As an awkward silence took over both the spectator room and the arena, Silas asked her in a whisper.

“Nee-san… Is that, uh, out of a hundred?”

“Eh? Yes, it is.”

Her youthful face seemed to say, “Of course. Why wouldn’t it be?”

Silas grimaced and pressed a finger against his forehead.

“…I saw your face when Ike used an additional spell just for drawing water. There were vertical lines right here between your eyebrows and under your mouth.”

Apparently, that formula division was something Monica could not tolerate.

Meanwhile, the pillar in the forest picked up a faint murmur from Isaac.

“Finally… I got a score over 30…”

When he heard that, Louis finally understood.

The Silent Witch, Monica Everett, was the strictest master of all. She would never show her disciple even the slightest hint of mercy.

And the only one who could ever be her disciple—past or future—was that man.


Louis didn’t even bother with the evaluation because it was pointless, and Monica cheerfully gave her disciple a 35.

Everyone else in the room quietly shared the same thought: Those guys are two of a kind.

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