Chapter 103 - 5

Boooooooommmmmm!

A huge explosion occurred in the middle of the battle arena accompanied by a heatwave and shock wave. Even the barrier installed there started to crack from the impact. Their clash of attacks was equivalent to a Magic King's attack. The barrier was created based on a student's strength and in the future would be increased little by little as their strength grew. But the academy didn't expect the students' strength to go that far.

"Brother!" Princess Freya screamed hysterically seeing her brother swallowed by a firestorm.

"Kyaa!"

"Hot!"

The students started screaming in panic after receiving the impact of the heatwave that broke through the cracks in the barrier.

Clank...

Eventually, the barrier shattered as it was unable to withstand the impact of their clashing attacks. The firestorm spread to the audience seats where many students were sitting watching their fight.

"This is troublesome!" Kyouka who was also watching from the audience seat was annoyed by the heatwave and shockwave that was heading towards her. She stretched out her hand and cast her magic.

[Black Ice Curtain]

A black ice curtain covered half of the colosseum and held back the firestorm. She used one of her innate skills, 'Invincible Magic'. With this skill, he can cast magic that is many times more powerful than the magic that other people use. She frowned as she intended to cover the entire colosseum but her strength wasn't enough. She overestimated herself.

"It will be too late!" Kyouka clicked her tongue. She was too late to cast the spell again. She saw the firestorm that wasn't blocked by the black ice heading towards the female student who had a seat next to her in the classroom. They were Princess Iris and Clara. There was also Lilith and Ziel sitting with them. Just as she was about to shout out a warning to them, suddenly the firestorm reversed its direction towards the place covered by the black ice barrier.

"What happened!?" Kyouka was shocked to see what happened before her eyes. She tried to find the cause but again ended up in vain as she couldn't find anything.

"Kyouka? What happened to you?" Megumi asked Kyouka who was acting strangely.

"Are you okay? You're sweating despite being surrounded by this icy cold." Sintaro who has now recovered was worried about Kyouka's condition. He had affection for him ever since they were summoned together to that world.

"I'm fine. You don't have to worry about me." Kyouka shook her head to get rid of the thoughts that were bothering her.

On the other hand, Merlick and the two kings who saw that also felt the strangeness that Kyouka felt.

"Jonathan, did you see it?" Merlick asked about the firestorm that reversed direction for unknown reasons.

"I saw it. But I don't know what happened." King Jonathan frowned after observing the scene before him. Even he with the power of a sage became confused and didn't notice anything when the firestorm reversed direction.

"Can't you find it too?" King Gustave scanned the hundreds of students sitting in the audience but he didn't find anything either.

"The person who did it must be very skilled to be able to act secretly before our eyes." Merlick nodded slightly at King Gustave's question.

"But I can confirm that this fellow has no ill will towards this academy because he protected the students from that attack." King Jonathan gave his opinion based on what he had seen. King Gustave and Merlick nodded in agreement at his words. They did not know that what the man did was not to save the students, but only to protect the master.

***

Back when the battle arena barrier was broken due to Hikaru's firestorm. Clara who was sitting with 3 other people started to panic when she saw the attack coming towards them. She knew even if she used barrier magic, she wouldn't be able to withstand the firestorm.

"Clara, watch out!" Beatrix shouted from afar to warn her. But Clara didn't have time to avoid it.

"How is this!? What should we do?" Clara panicked and asked Princess Iris. She thought that Princess Iris was the strongest among the four of them.

"Calm down Clara. We'll be fine." Princess Iris glanced at Ziel who looked calm seeing the firestorm in front of him.

"Master, do I have to do it?" Lilith whispered to Ziel next to her. She is currently in charge of protecting Clara from all kinds of harm. So she took the initiative to withstand the firestorm. But their conversation was noticed by Princess Iris.

"If you act, won't the principal and the two kings notice your existence? Not to mention a hero who is quite good at detecting traces of mana." Ziel narrowed his eyes looking at the black ice barrier that covered half the colosseum. He looked through the ice sheet. What he saw was a girl with long black hair who was spreading detection magic from the moment they were in the cafeteria.

"So what should we do?" Lilith didn't care about the firestorm in front of her because she wouldn't be hurt by that kind of thing. But it's a different story with Clara who only has the power of a senior mage.

Ziel didn't answer, he just took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. He mixed the gust of wind from his mouth with invisible mana and slowly changed the direction of the firestorm.

"Eh!" Clara was dumbfounded when she saw the firestorm heading towards them suddenly reversed direction.

(Eh! What's going on!? I've been watching him ever since. How can he do that without even speaking or moving a finger)

Princess Iris who had been watching Ziel for a long time didn't know how the firestorm could change direction. What he saw was only Ziel exhaling.

"As expected of you." Lilith smiled bitterly after seeing what he did. He can even do it without being seen or noticed.

Not long after, the firestorm disappeared. What was seen in the battle arena shocked the students in the audience. They thought that Prince Fritz would lose to Hikaru, but what the students saw was the two of them lying unconscious in the arena. Even so, it seems Prince Fritz has more serious injuries than Hikaru.

"Brother!" Princess Freya ran to her brother followed by Princess Aishia. On the other hand, Princess Reina and Prince Albert check on Hikaru's condition along with the other heroes.

"How is the condition?" Sintaro asks about Hikaru's condition, who is currently unconscious.

"He's fine. He only suffered minor injuries and was exhausted from using all his strength." Prince Albert answered after checking Hikaru's condition. Then he saw Prince Fritz's burnt body. Even though it wasn't severe but he took more damage.

After that, they were taken to the treatment room. The fight between Prince Fritz and Hikaru ended in a draw.

***

Time quickly passed, the sky had turned dark indicating that it was already night. Ziel has just returned after accompanying Clara and Princess Iris around the city. After escorting them back to the dormitory, he is currently walking towards his cottage which is in the academy forest area.

The forest environment is very dark at night because many large trees cover the moonlight. Only the area around Kalya's mansion and Ziel's cottage is bright because of the light from the glowing butterflies and fireflies that Ziel created earlier.

On his way to his cottage, he heard the sound of someone crying. It was a girl's voice and came from behind a large tree. He walked slowly towards her. After arriving there, he saw a girl with long black hair crying while hugging her knees like someone who was frightened. That girl is one of the heroes summoned from another world, Kyouka Hanasaki.

Kyouka felt Ziel's presence around her. She looked at Ziel with her wet and swollen eyes. She froze when she realized a man was looking at her. Because the environment in the forest was very dark, she couldn't see his face.

"You can continue, I just happened to be passing by here." Ziel turned around and wanted to leave that place immediately.

"Wait!" Kyouka screamed and a wall of ice appeared blocking Ziel's path.

"Haa...is there anything I can help you with, Miss Hero?" Ziel sighed and turned back to Kyouka.

"Did you see it?" Kyouka wiped the tears from her cheeks.

"What do you mean?" Ziel had seen her cry, but if he said that it would be troublesome for him.

"Don't pretend! You saw me cry, didn't you!?" Kyouka was annoyed with his attitude. She wanted to tear his face which was invisible in the darkness.

"I see it." Ziel answered honestly this time.

"You...!" Kyouka gritted her teeth in embarrassment and didn't know what to say. But then she had to prevent him from telling anyone about it. She tries to silence him.

"Never say this to anyone! You understand!" Kyouka said in a commanding tone.

"I understand, Miss Hero." Ziel gave a short answer and was about to leave, but he heard Kyouka's scream that sounded more and more irritated.

"Hero! Hero! All about heroes! Are you mocking me!" Kyouka let go of all her grievances that she had been holding back for so long. She unconsciously started crying again in front of Ziel.

"I'm sorry if my words offended you." Ziel lowered his head slightly to Kyouka.

"This is all because of you and the people of this world who summoned me from my original world. Do you even understand the feeling of us being suddenly summoned and asked to fight against a terrifying enemy to protect this world!" She wept bitterly. Her tears were like a broken dam. She covered her face with both hands so as not to be seen by Ziel. She cried for a while.

Ziel used the opportunity to leave her. He didn't want to interfere with the depressed hero with her situation. Even though he understood how she felt right now because he had experienced it before. But Kyouka stopped him again.

"I can't just let you go because you've seen me like this. And I don't trust the people of this world!" The current Kyouka didn't look like she was in the academy. She seemed to have been holding back her feelings for quite a while.

"What do you want?" Ziel felt the girl in front of him was getting more and more unreasonable because of her depression.

"You have to make a contract with me so you can't tell anyone what you have seen here." Kyouka glared at him and said seriously.

"You're out of your mind." Ziel turned and left her. From the start, he had no business with her. The black ice that had previously covered his path suddenly shattered. Ziel walked quickly into the forest and disappeared into the darkness.

"What!?" Kyouka was surprised because her black ice which was harder than steel and could withstand Hikaru's 5-colored firestorm suddenly shattered for no reason. She ran and chased Ziel into the depths of the forest.

Halfway through she froze in awe at the sight of the woman in the green dress. She was very beautiful and Kyouka had never seen such a beautiful woman in her entire life. She is like a real goddess. The tips of her ears were pointed which showed she was not human. Kyouka knew the woman was an elf, she had read about it in a book. This is also not the first time meeting her. She had seen the woman in front of her once at lunch in the cafeteria, but he didn't pay much attention to her at the time.

After being mesmerized for quite a while, Kyouka finally woke up. She walked over to the woman who was drinking tea in front of the mansion.

"Who are you? Aren't you an academy student? What are you doing in this place at night?" Kalya's lovely and melodious voice sounded in Kyouka's ears. She already knew that someone had entered her area and crossed the barrier that Ziel had created. She was able to get through it because she didn't have any malicious intentions.

"I'm sorry if I disturbed your rest time, Miss Kalya. I was chasing someone and got here." Kyouka remembers all the teachers' names including Kalya.

"Chasing someone? Who's that?" Kalya raised her eyebrows. The only people in the forest were her and Ziel.

"I can't see his face clearly, but he's a boy taller than me. That's all I remember." Kyouka tried to recall the boy in the darkness. But she couldn't describe his figure any more than that because the place was so dark.

"I don't see anyone through here. Maybe he's out of the forests. You better head back to the dorms because it's getting late." Kalya couldn't possibly tell her that that person was Ziel. After all, she still didn't know why this girl was looking for him.

"Okay thank you. Once again I apologize for interrupting your time." Kyouka bowed her head to Kalya and returned to the path she had walked before. She wanted to get out of the forest immediately because Kalya had reminded her. He didn't want to get in trouble because of this.

"Don't let me find you!" Kyouka gritted her teeth in annoyance and walked back to her dorm.