CH 46

Vaguely sensing that energy, I went further away and took a closer look at Senior Jimbo’s back, which was faintly visible within the crowd. Of course, first of all, he’s an honour student who has never missed the first place and is good-looking. He has a personality that seems tired of everything, but still quietly does everything he needs to do. He knows how to be considerate of others and is good at teaching. His family was even more impressive. His father’s side came from a background of lawyers and his mother was the owner of a famous confectionery company.

“It doesn’t make sense that Nimbo is the vice-captain.”

Leto, who still doesn’t pronounce Senior Jimbo’s name correctly, muttered.

“What?”

But what do you mean vice-captain? When I tilted my head at that word, Leto replied, “You really don’t know anything.”

“You said you wanted to participate in the cricket tournament, but didn’t do any research about it? That guy was the main player who led the magics department to victory last year.”

“Senior Jimbo?”

“Who else?”

Senior Jimbo was more impressive than I thought. No wonder people admired him so much. Leto gave me a disgruntled look at me as I thought about Senior Jimbo, then grabbed my head and turned it forward.

“Hurry up and go.”

The line was getting shorter. The faces of the student who came out of the room after submitting their form were full of smiles.

We waited in line to submit our application form and soon it was our turn. As Leto and I entered the door when they called to come in, I saw three students sitting at a long table. They all looked like third-year students, dressed neatly in their school uniforms and sat with proper posture.

I became nervous for some reason. I held out my application form to the senior in front of me. Without saying a word, she looked at the paper and my face, before stamping the form immediately.

“Tomorrow at 7 o’clock. There will be the first tryout at the field, so be sure to participate. Now, please measure your body and take your tag from the side.”

After a brief physical examination, my weight and height were measured. As soon as the records came out, the senior who took note of the measurement, pointed with his pen to get the tag from the side. While I was doing the physical examination, the tag was already magically stamped. The guy sitting in the middle was smiling brightly, holding a tag with my face and name on it.

“May junior acquire the main fielder position.”

“Thank you.”

After all the procedures were completed and I was waiting for Leto, the height-measuring machine suddenly beeped. All the students in the room turned towards Leto at the sudden sound. Leto stiffened and froze. Was the magic malfunctioning? The senior who had been sitting stood up and inspected the magic height-measuring tool. 

“It says it can’t measure his height?”

At the senior’s words, the other two seniors that were sitting said, “That can’t be true”, and suggested to try again. Still, when the beeping noise appeared, they couldn’t believe it. Leto had his height and skeleton changed from the pills and drugs that made him change his appearance to a woman. Leto’s actual height was much taller than that. Did the magic tool recognise this and so fail to measure his height? Leto stood there with a puzzled look, perhaps thinking the same thing as me.

“What’s wrong with this thing? Should I bring a measuring tape?”

“That’s too troublesome. Did this kid take some medicine to increase her height or something? Why are people selling drugs like that these days?”

A sharp senior suspected Leto.

“So, Leah Arsene?”

“Yes.”

“You didn’t force yourself to grow taller, did you?”

“No.”

When Leto answered at once, the senior looked at him suspiciously.

“This won’t do. Get me a drug-nullifying potion.”

What?

He might get caught at this rate.

“W-Wait!”

Everyone focused on my words. Wh-What should I do?

“Ah, Leah! You lifted your heels, didn’t you?”

“…What?”

“She’s originally tall and quite competitive. Haha. She’s trying to grow 1cm taller, but I actually know her actual height. It’s 172 cm tall. Look, I’m 15 cm apart from her, right? Go on, go write it down!”

When I spoke in a hurry, the seniors swiftly took note of Leto’s measurements. And I quickly snatched Leto’s tag when it was completed from the senior’s hand.

“I’ll definitely take the main fielder spot! You don’t have to pray for me!”

“……W-Wait.”

“Is the queue long? We’ll get going now!”

I pushed Leto’s back and slammed the door shut.

“Briseis.”

But the problem is,

“When did I cheat on my height?”

Uh oh. I heard Leto’s resentful voice, but I tried to ignore him. Leto kept staring at me with his mouth closed before letting out a deep sigh. It meant that he was going to let it slide. At the sound of his sigh, my heart calmed down.

T-That was close. 

＊  ＊  ＊

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“Our magics department had a glorious victory in the cricket tournament last year. And it will be the same this year! We will select only the best players to win the game, and we will decide on these main fielders through high-level training and testing. So to those who are going to give up, give up now!”

The woman, who appeared to be the captain, stomped the ground bluntly with her cricket bat and spoke loudly. At her spirit, the students around were squatting with a tense expressions on their faces. The sun was starting to set, and it was time for the night to ripen. As the lights turned on one by one, the white light shone on us from above at the field.

Have there ever been so many students gathered on the field? Only four people from the first years could be the main players, but there were well over 100 students here. We were then separated in two, men and women, and the men were gathered in a distance.

Anyway, these were the students I saw when I submitted the application form earlier. Leto and I had to beat the women here in terms of physical strength to take the main spot.

“No magic can be used during the cricket tournament, you must compete with pure physical strength. Today’s test is also about basic fitness. Push-ups, sit-ups, sprints and stamina tests!”

The tests the captain listed out were like selecting mercenaries or warriors. My confidence plummeted when I heard that we would only be selected based on our basic fitness. Unlike me, Leto was confident and in a good mood. Well, there was an overwhelming advantage for Leto. 

‘Isn’t this cheating?’

Even as I thought so, I felt frustrated because I couldn’t say anything. If I knew this would happen, I would have trained my basic stamina…Sitting at the desk all day and carrying all those books in order to enter Lexley Academy was poison. I’ve only been living with my butt on the seat, so there’s no way my fitness was good.

“From number one, odd numbers come out in line.”

Leto and I were 35 and 37 respectively. Our turns were still long to come, so I quickly went back and stretched. I stretched out my arms and legs, thinking that I should at least warm up my body, but Leto approached me.

“Will that be enough? You have to stretch out further.”

Leto grabbed my arm and stretched it further.

“Ow, my arm is going to fall out!”

Leto quickly let go of my arm when I yelped.

“You have to take the lead.”

“Are you worried about me?”

Leto turned his head away, coughing in the air.

“You shouldn’t ask me to join, but be the one to leave first.”

“That’s right!”

As I stretched out my arms again, Leto looked at me and opened his mouth curiously.

“I’ve been wondering about this since before, but why do you want to play cricket? You already have a lot of friends in the first place.”

I almost replied, “Of course, it’s for you!” but I swallowed my words because I was sure he would refute me. If I hesitated longer, I would be suspicious, so I had to spit out something quickly.

“It’s cool.”

“What?”

Leto looked puzzled.

“I mean Senior Jimbo. Isn’t he cool?”

Leto’s expression visibly hardened at the mention of Jimbo. Maybe the explanation wasn’t enough?

“Well, he’s cool and good at studying. So I wanted to follow Senior Jimbo. My role model, yes. Senior Jimbo is my role model!”

It was not wrong, so I just spat out whatever came to mind.

Leto’s face was completely hardened and he was no longer looking at me. The more I tried to explain, the more stiff his expression seemed to get, so I smiled awkwardly at the end. Leto saw my smile and frowned before suddenly starting to stretch out.

He stretched out his flexible arms and long legs forward. Leto’s gaze was different from before as he punched his thigh several times with his fist. He seemed to take the training very seriously. I wasn’t sure where the fire ignited, but the determined Leto was scary.

It was the determination to beat all these competitors and stay. I was a little scared and tried to keep a distance, but Leto reacted right away.

“Where are you going?”

“What?”

“So if you’re good at studying and become a main player in cricket, it’s cool?”

“T-That’s right.”

Why are you asking me that?

“You better not be lying.”