CH 116

Chapter 116 of “Mastering Magic in an Otome Game Part 3 (Magic Academy)”

I stood in the ring with my back to the crowd.

I can’t lose now that I’ve come this far.

For the sake of honor and the future of the group, I could not lose here.

With that kind of enthusiasm in mind, I looked ahead and saw Prince Aquilesta walking leisurely from the other side. Nicholas’ victory must have made him feel better.

I knew that Gabriella wouldn’t come out, so I wasn’t too upset. Perhaps there would even be a  “I’m scared, Prince!” “Donn’t worry, I’ll keep you safe!” type of situation.

The prince stopped once outside the white line and gave me a sarcastic look with a relaxed expression.

“I’ll be taking it from here…I will still allow you to give up now. As long as you kneel down and apologize for the insult and the injustice brought to me and Gabriella.”

I had wondered what he would say, but that was strange.

“I won’t give up, and I have not insulted you. It’s a fact…Don’t tell me you seriously believe Gabriella-sama’s poor argument, Your Highness?”

“……What?”

The prince twitched his eyebrows. He observed the situation carefully.

“Only seeing what you want to see. Not asking what you don’t want to hear…Isn’t that what has happened? Don’t you ever wonder or look into anything?”

“What do you mean?!”

“Aquilesta-sama, you don’t have to listen to that guy! Archelaus, shut up!”

This was the first time I had talked to the prince at such length, head-on, because we were always interfered with and avoided each other. Gabriella was shouting something, but he ignored it.

His well-groomed face and golden hair that glistened in the sunshine were just how a prince in an otome game should be, so why had he become so twisted?

I stared directly into those dark green eyes, and I saw that they were shaking slightly.

…Hmm? I see…

I don’t know why he blindly believed in Gabriella, but apparently the prince was subconsciously keeping his doubts and suspicions to himself.

I would have thought that if he was truly a blockhead who did not feel any discomfort with the situation at all, he would have had his succession to the throne revoked at all costs…Can he still correct things?

But either way, what we will do now would remain the same.

“There are as many stars as the things I want to say, but if it doesn’t reach Your Highness’ heart, then no matter how much I spin things now, it’s useless. So then, let’s get started, shall we? Unless…you are scared?”

With that said, I opened my hands and challenged him while laughing.

The ignorance of the influential is a sin. When it comes to the prince, the magnitude of that sin is explosive.

It is not a great thing for the royal family to be taken advantage of…especially by the aristocracy, who are under their control.

Even so, he let a petty person like Gabriella show such an arrogant appearance, not realizing that he was just a dumb shrine who was turning a blind eye to the vulgar behavior of the people under control.

In addition, the fact that he believed in the contempt for beastmen, which must have been imprinted on him by someone else, was now a harmful thing.

It was no longer acceptable for him to remain this way just because he was so young.

At all costs, I was going to have to kick his ass once and for all, and give him a good beating.

…So cross that white line and get over here quickly.

“Scared?! Hah, I’m gonna make you shut your mouth for saying something so stupid!”

The prince stepped over the white line with a bullish attitude, perhaps to shake off his hesitation, and stood up in front of me.

“Both of you, get ready.”

He nodded at Headmistress Ortensia’s voice. We both pulled out our Athames out and held them at the ready.

After a beat, a loud signal was shouted.

“It’s the final round. So neither of you should have any regrets—Begin!”

Come on, you idiot prince. I’ll teach you a lesson!

***

“I’ll show you the magic power of the royal family, so don’t regret it!…<Listen, voice of approval. Dazzling fire, show yourself!>”

With a gurgle and a loud sound, a flame burst outside the white line. It surrounded us in a circle.

A student watching the duel nearby screamed and jumped away.

The surrounding flames were certainly intimidating, and the extent of the area in which the flames appeared was just as you’d expect from the imperial family. However…

“A mocking threat? That’s a very princely.”

“What did you say?!”

While snickering at the prince who was surprised by my taunting, not flinching at all, I readied my Athame and assembled my spell as well.

“I’m used to this power…<The trembling curtains of night. A swarm of cold messengers. Let them cover this spell>”

I ran my eyes over the magic power. Conscious of the range, I deployed the magic power to the fullest extent along with the spell.

In an instant, the temperature around me dropped and cold air seemed to swirl around me in an instant. With a rattling sound, ice froze the ground in one fell swoop. It crossed the white line, swallowed the flames and…huh?

“Huh?!”

“Oh, whoa!”

Ah, geez. I was so enthusiastic that half the courtyard froze, let alone just outside the field. The students screamed.

“Hey, Alice! The white line is gone!! And it’s not safe!”

“I’m sorry, Headmistress!”

I apologized to the pouty and angry Headmistress Ortensia in return, but I grinned inwardly.

The white line disappeared? That’s just fine!

In other words, the battle would’t end outside the field. I would attack until he cried and reflected on himself!

With that enthusiasm, I looked at the prince and saw that he had fallen down trying to escape from the spreading ice.

“Pffft…! Oh, Prince, are you all right? Did you get sick? Shall I lend you a hand?”

The prince’s face turned bright red when I made fun of him that way while trembling and quivering.

“You—! After all, as Gabriella said, you’re a woman of bad character, despite your appearance!”

“What? I only asked if I could lend you a hand…”

As I blurted that out, the prince irritably thrust his Athame into the frozen ground with a thud and shouted, “<Stones, grains of sand, awaken the soil that rests loosely>!”

Then the ground shook from the prince as if he was the starting point, and the ice shattered with a bang in a wide area. Earth magic?

I didn’t want to make it a close call, so I froze my feet. As expected, it didn’t seem to do as it was made to do.

“You can’t get too comfortable with that level of magic…! “<O’ lion of the stone gate, pass through, the way of branches and leaves>!”

A hard vine grass attacked me through the dirt. But when I heard the familiar spell, I calmly cast a counter spell.

“<Listen, O’ ancient seed. Rejoice to rule and be ruled>!”

When I said this sharply with the image of hurling my magic power to the fullest, the dynamic vine grass stopped moving in a flash. It was a success.

“Hoh, a counter spell…”

Headmistress Ortensia’s muttering entered my ears. Yeah, it was obviously cool magic, so I had been studying it.

Having taken over the domination of the plant magic, I flew the vines towards the upset prince.

“Ah, gua?!”

The prince lost the freedom of his body as it flew and tangled into him as it crawled on the ground. I opened my mouth as I slowly walked over.

“Prince. You are quite good at magic, aren’t you?”

“…! Damn it, are you trying to make fun of me?!”

“No. I love magic. On top of that, I have a ridiculously high amount of magic power, so I don’t have many people I can practice with to give it my all…I’m having a lot of fun right now.”

I said something that somewhat made me sound like a battle-crazed psychopath, but I’d get to the point for now.

“Prince. Do you know what the students around us are thinking right now?”

“Nn…”

When I said this slowly, with my face close to his ear, the prince looked doubtful. If he didn’t understand, I would tell him.

“People who see great power feel that they must have it themselves for self-defense…If so, then what about the students who have seen us fight, who have seen such a great standing?”

“!”

Yes. There were probably three things that the students would feel after watching this abnormal first-year magic battle.

‘Fear of the unknown,’ a ‘longing for power,’ and ‘impatience at being powerless.’

……All of which fueled the urge to remain ignorant.

The country’s mysterious and lazy attitude towards study and magic. The unreasonableness and discrimination that results from it.

It was a hindrance to me. If so, I would destroy it as long as I had the chance.

“I do not deny the doctrine of the Lamina religion, nor  the worship of the emperor in any way. I am an aristocrat and a friend of the Emperor and Your Highness. You cannot just go and expect to be used by someone else so easily…Is it really possible to be a good ruler that way?”

“…!”

Yeah. Now…I’m confident I’m putting on quite the face.

I was sure the prince would think I was pretty evil, but I didn’t care.

The horror of the fact that others are using you without your knowledge.

If I didn’t know that early on, it wouldn’t be for the sake of this child.

It was also not good for the country where important people live.

…Well, it is indeed impossible to physically beat a member of the imperial family to a pulp, so I decided to make it a mental attack for both hobby and practical purposes—that was big part of it.

With that in mind, I thought about what I was going to do next.

“……Damn it,…damn it, damn it, damn it! Wh-What the hell!? You don’t know anything! Nobody knows anything about! Shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up!”

“!?”

As I jumped back in surprise at the tremendous wave of magic power that buzzed around, the vine grass that had been defeated by the concentration of magic power released by the prince was rapidly withering and nearly collapsing into tatters.

The shape of the vine and the raging aggressive magic power made me realize…This was the same as what happened to me.

Magic power losing control!

“Run away!”

I shouted that and looked back at the students, but not many of them could instantly realize the situation.

However, Headmistress Ortensia, who saw the situation, quickly ran and began to loudly and forcefully guide the evacuation. At the same time, seeing the grass around the prince’s rapidly dying, the students screamed and ran away.

“Ah…guh, uh…? Damn it, why, wh-why, it’s all me, because it’s me, I’m—!”

I looked at the prince, who was cowering in confusion, and quickly looked around to see if there was anyone who could calm him down.

…But I didn’t expect it to happen. There wasn’t a single human being left, except for the aides and some of the members of the Golden Dawn Gang who were worried about me and stayed behind.

“What—where’s Gabriella?! E-Eh?!”

“Alice-sama! Come here quickly!”

I could hear Johann’s voice, but I couldn’t move because the strong wind blew me off my feet. As expected, he was upset.

Eh, didn’t the prince have aides as well? What about friends? Subordinates?…No way, really?

“Ah…? What, this, h-how—what should I do?”

The prince, who seemed to be suddenly aware of his condition, looked around with tears streaming down his face.

The dense magic power swirling around him was causing a strong wind. The prince in the center of it all seemed to be all alone.

“Oh, gosh!”

…When I saw such a pitiful figure, I couldn’t help but run out.

[Original Author’s Note] I’m going to go ahead and run true to the image of Alice that I have been painting since the beginning of the series. One thing about this adult woman is that although she is mature, she is still a young child who is far from perfect.

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T/N: Not gonna lie, I thought that it was gonna be a battle vs. Gabriella (which would have been really nice), but seeing her battle the prince was still pretty good!