—Mahara POV。

「”Needle Blasttt”!!」

While watching the needles drawing near me with cold disinterest, I mince the needles with the basic magic “Cut”. The magic he used before me is that of intermediate to high level. The one I’m using is basic level magic. Additionally, his magic has a lot of wasted magic power while I’ve optimized my use of magic power through our training, so our rate of consumption is completely incomparable.

It has been 10 minutes since the duel started. We’ve repeated this pointless exchange over and over already, and it seems that he’s finally running out of magic power, as the boy standing in front of me has begun losing his breath. It should be about time to end this. I raised my right hand pointing above his head.

「”Wind”, blow from up to down.」 「Haa, haa…… …… T-this sort of magic is nooo-!?」

The wind blowing downwards on him not only pinned him in place but also threw him to the floor. With both his magic power and stamina exhausted, it seems that he doesn’t have the energy to stand up anymore.

「, winner, Mahara.」As Professor Herman, one of the witnesses, announced the victor with exasperation, today’s pointless duel has finally ended. Six times ever since the month started. That’s the number of times I, Mahara, have been challenged by Mark1 to a duel.

At first, I fought him seriously. I used the Magic Shell Miss Lily taught me, as well as high-level wind attribute magic. The battle ended instantly. The next day he insisted that I cheated while challenging me for the second time. It already began to feel annoying at that point, but I decided to hold back a bit during the fight. This time he lasted for 5 seconds. On the third and fourth time, I limited the magic I could use each time, and on the fifth, I finally turned off my Magic Shell. And on the sixth, which is today, I decided to only fight with the basic magic “Cut” and “Wind”, and still won as usual. No one could blame Professor Herman for showing exasperation.

「Good work, Mahara」 「Lady Hermie! No, not at all!」 「It must be exhausting for you. Geez, does he have no understanding of his own place? Or does he simply lack the ability to learn?」

While it might be rude, I completely agree with the last thing Lady Hermie said. Even if he’s aiming for Miss Lily, it would have been best for him to simply give up on defeating me and just steadily climb the ranks. Mark’s rank is currently 21st. My current rank is 11th, so winning against me would be the fastest route to challenging the top ranker, Miss Lily. That’s one has the capability to win against me, however.

It’s not that I’m being particularly presumptuous. I’m confident that I’ve gained enough strength to not lose my place as the 11th ranker and I’ve received the confirmation of Lady Hermie and Miss Lily regarding this. I’ve also earned sufficient results even during the mock battles during our after-class training.In class A, the top ranker Miss Lily, the 2nd ranker Mr. Tebby, the 5th ranker Lady Hermie, the 6th ranker Miss Sola, and the 10th ranker Miss Urania have the predominantly highest combat capabilities. The two at the 1st and 2nd, in particular, are so powerful that I can’t even imagine how great they are in comparison.

The 4th ranker Mr. Ethel, 8th ranker Mr. Kief, 9th ranker Miss Aura, 12th ranker Mr. Kerry, 19th ranker Miss Kiara, and 11th ranker me are relatively equal in power. During mock battles, I think I’ve kept about a 50% win rate. Though I do lose more against Mr. Ethel and Miss Aura.

The 15th ranker Miss Suzy, 16th ranker Mr. Kut, 17th ranker Mr. Magnus, and 20th ranker Miss Jassie are somewhat loose with magic manipulation, so they fall behind a bit within class A. If Mark really wants to build up strength, then I believe that it would be best to fight against these four to practice his own magic control.

The reason I have my current strength, the reason I maintain my current place, and the reason that I can remain together with Lady Hermie is all thanks to Miss Lily.

By all rights, Lady Hermie and I aren’t in a position where we should be able to talk to each other like this. While we grew together ever since we were little, Lady Hermie is the daughter of a Purple Peer Household, while I am but a red folk capable of using magic. Far from being equal, we’re not even permitted to talk to each other directly.

As children, we used to play in secret, away from the eyes of the adults, but as the two of us grew and matured, we couldn’t do this anymore. And even within the academy, Lady Hermie needs to spend time connecting with the important nobles rather than waste time on me. But what changed all of this was Miss Lily. A top passer that’s not a noble, she created the student council, an organization that doesn’t adhere to the factions and traditions, and granted me the strength to be worth simply associating with. Naturally, this is likely just an unintentional result of her true goals. Even so, I can’t thank Miss Lily enough for enabling our current environment.

Bothering Miss Lily is something that I absolutely cannot permit. And this sentiment is something I share with most of the class A members. If this shameless man dares to ignorantly get in between us2, then I will crush him with all I have.Lyly: Oh, the poor guyLyly: Is it just me or is there some subtext here?