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Chapter 310
Chapter 310
Chapter 310
Harriet faced Olivia Lanche, who stood across from her, wearing a faint smile. Unlike the tension on Harriet’s face, Olivia’s expression exuded confidence and ease. Harriet couldn’t stand that arrogant demeanor.
‘Was I like that once?’ she wondered.
There was a time when everything in the world seemed trivial and laughable compared to herself. Having been born into a position in which everything was predetermined, she couldn’t understand why people struggled so desperately.
Instead of trying to understand them, she used to mock them. Even up to this point, she couldn’t say that she had completely abandoned that part of herself, but she realized she needed to change.
Her opponent was arrogant. Despite being known as a selfless person, as her nickname “Saintess of Eredian” suggested, Olivia acted despicably when it came to anything related to Reinhart. She openly picked fights with Ellen and intentionally ignored Harriet.
That subtle smile which she used to provoke others while hiding her true intentions infuriated Harriet.
Harriet knew her chances of winning were slim. She had seen that monster fight. But her mask, that disgustingly thick, hypocritical facade... She wanted to tear it off, even just once.
Her feelings were born out of anger, frustration, or sheer determination. She wouldn’t let Olivia continue to look down on her with that expression forever.
The announcer’s voice boomed across the stadium.
—Now, on to the next quarterfinal match, the final match of Group C! Let’s begin!
Olivia Lanche looked at Harriet calmly.
“I don’t like dragging things out. I’ll finish this quickly,” she said.
Blue mana enveloped Olivia’s body, shrouding her in a dense aura. Harriet found Olivia’s words absurd.
“Isn’t that quite weird coming from someone who clings so desperately to Reinhart, even though he doesn’t want you?” Harriet retorted.
“Oh, that?” Olivia smiled, walking slowly towards Harriet instead of running. “I like him so much that I’m willing to do things I hate.”
“...”
“You can’t say something like that, can you?” Olivia continued to approach Harriet with a dazzling smile.
Olivia was honest about her feelings. She could afford to be. She was willing to push forward, even if it meant hurting others, including Harriet and Ellen, just to have Reinhart. She had accepted that she had to lose some things to gain others.
Harriet felt a momentary surge of envy towards Olivia, but it quickly subsided. Her opponent was merely trying to provoke her.
As Harriet tried to push Olivia’s words out of her mind and regain her composure, Olivia gently pushed herself off the ground.
Tap!
The sound was delicate.
Swish!
However, the speed at which Olivia lunged forward was anything but.
Zing!
As soon as her protective spell materialized in front of Harriet’s eyes, Olivia’s fist struck the blue force field.
Boom!
With a single punch, the protective field collapsed, and Olivia’s fist came perilously close to Harriet’s face.
Fwoosh!
A split second before the attack landed, Harriet used Blink to instantly create distance between them. Olivia turned around immediately, smiling as she noticed Harriet sweating.
“You’re fast.”
Harriet had cast Blink almost as soon as her protection spell collapsed. But unlike Olivia, who seemed to have all the time in the world, Harriet could not afford any wordplay.
Flash!
A streak of lightning struck Olivia’s body. It was the same tactic Harriet had used in her first match. After creating distance with Blink, she would bombard her opponent with attack spells to strip away their Mana Reinforcement.
Many had fallen victim to this simple strategy during the preliminaries. If close combat was frightening, then she just had to avoid it.
Lightning spells, once cast, struck almost instantaneously and were nearly impossible to dodge. A normal person would be knocked out or even killed by such an attack, but an opponent using Mana Reinforcement was different.
The best strategy was to incapacitate them with a powerful Fireball. So far, it had worked.
However, Olivia charged at Harriet again without even flinching, as if the lightning was nothing. Harriet had expected as much.
Thud!
As soon as Harriet waved her hand, the ground in front of her rose up, forming a stone wall. Protection spells could be easily penetrated, so she created a physical barrier instead.
However, no strategy would work against Olivia.
“This won’t stop me,” Olivia said. Relying on her overwhelming physical strength, Olivia pushed forward. “Do you think this can hold me back?”
Bam!
Olivia shattered the stone wall with her bare hands and lunged at Harriet.
‘I’m not trying to stop you.’
In that brief moment, Harriet had already cast another spell. The wall wasn’t meant to stop Olivia; it was to obscure her vision.
The spell she used was Hallucination.
It created an illusion, which would make her presence undetectable. Magic had endless possibilities. By confusing her opponent’s perception, she could make them disqualify themselves by running out of bounds.
Now, Olivia wouldn’t be able to perceive her. She would break through the wall only to realize that Harriet had vanished.
However, just as Harriet cast the spell, she felt it.
‘Resistance...?’
The magic aimed at Olivia bounced off. Why?
It was a mid-to-high-level mental magic, and could not be easily resisted. Harriet could only watch in horror as Olivia’s fist flew towards her.
***
The first bout ended quickly in a victory for Olivia. Having been recalled away to avoid a fatal blow, Harriet stared blankly at Olivia’s smiling face after she was re-summoned back into the arena.
The effectiveness of the high-tier illusion magic she had used had not merely been reduced; the spell had been somehow rendered completely ineffective.
“I could guess what you were trying to do,” Olivia said, placing her hands on her hips as if she were offering a special lesson. “Most mental magic doesn’t work on me, dear junior.”
Harriet’s thoughts froze when she heard that. Olivia’s near-immunity to mental magic was not common knowledge, and it was only natural that Harriet didn’t know about it. Because of this, though, all the strategies she had planned out in order to achieve victory were instantly nullified.
She had been convinced that mental magic was the solution, since she couldn’t match Olivia physically, but it also turned out to be entirely ineffective.
There was no chance Olivia was bluffing. Harriet had clearly felt that her spell had no effect. She had anticipated some resistance, but not complete immunity.
“Why do you look so incredulous? That’s how the world works, isn’t it? Everyone is born with certain gifts. This place is full of people born with extraordinary talents,” Olivia continued.
The Temple—and the Royal Class specifically—was a place where such individuals were concentrated.
“Just as you’re an extraordinary person in your own way, I am in mine,” Olivia said, her smile never wavering.
The second set was about to begin.
“If that’s all you’ve got, you might as well forfeit,” Olivia said, still smiling. “Before you embarrass yourself further.”
Harriet was already in a disadvantageous situation, and now she knew that this trump card of hers would not work.
She was on the brink of despair. She thought that only Scarlett from Class B had a talent granting her magic immunity, but it seemed there was another.
If only she had her calming earrings... Now that her only strategy had been nullified, Harriet’s mind was in turmoil.
—Hey! Thick-Skull!
A shout pierced through the fog of her chaotic thoughts. From the spectator stands, a familiar voice called out. She didn’t need to look to know who it was. Only one person in the world called her that.
—Don’t be scared!
He wasn’t telling her to win or to stay strong. He was simply telling her not to be scared. In itself, it wasn’t much of a cheer.
However...
“Tsk.”
Harriet noticed Olivia Lanche’s expression twist slightly upon hearing the same shout. Reinhart had once said that people tended to cheer for the underdog in such situations. It was bittersweet, knowing that he had said that while being certain of her defeat.
In the end, though, results were all that mattered in this world. Reinhart was cheering for her.
—Don’t be scared, just charge in!
Reinhart was cheering for Harriet de Saint-Ouen, not Olivia Lanche.
“So this is what it feels like to win even when you lose,” Harriet said, smiling as she saw Olivia’s expression harden.
“...”
Olivia’s smile vanished. She offered no more playful taunts or mocking words. Reinhart’s shout might have calmed Harriet’s chaotic mind, but it might have led to an even worse outcome for her.
“This is a little humiliating,” Olivia muttered, clearly angry now.
She was angry at Harriet, but also at Reinhart.
“This is so annoying. Let’s finish this quickly.”
The announcer had already declared the start of the second bout. Olivia charged in again. This time, Harriet didn’t cast a protective barrier. Instead, blue lines of mana formed intricate patterns on the back of her hand, glowing brightly.
“Hup!”
Crack!
In an instant, the ground beneath the arena cracked and began to collapse.
“Ugh!”
Taking advantage of Olivia’s momentary loss of balance, Harriet spread her hands wide. The spell she had just cast was Shockwave, which was causing the terrain to collapse.
It was by no means a low-level spell, and she was preparing to follow up with another high-level spell. There were no more chances left for her. She would use every means at her disposal to take this one bout.
Harriet raised her hands to the sky. A massive ball of fire, incomparable to a regular Fireball, formed above her.
“Take this!”
Flame Strike surged towards the staggering Olivia Lanche.
Booooom!
Blue mana lines glowed vividly on Harriet’s hands and forearms as Olivia Lanche was engulfed in a massive explosion of flames.
***
The arena had suddenly turned to rubble, compounded by the massive destructive force of Flame Strike.
The overwhelming spectacle left the audience speechless.
“This is unbelievable,” Sabioleen Tana remarked succinctly.
“No matter how much of a genius Harriet de Saint-Ouen is, casting such large-scale destructive magic at that speed is impossible,” she continued.
“... Are you suggesting she used some kind of trick?”
“I don’t know... but it doesn’t seem like a conventional use of magic. Just look at those symbols that have suddenly appeared on her body,” Sabioleen Tana replied.
Indeed, blue symbols had momentarily appeared on Harriet’s arms, although they had already vanished. She had cast two large-scale destructive spells in rapid succession, with almost no time between them.
Ellen, Riana, and I were all dumbfounded by the sight.
I grabbed Ellen’s shoulder and shook her. “Could it be... Did Harriet... D-Did she get a tattoo or something?”
“...?”
I didn’t know what it was, but the lines on her forearms had looked very much like tattoos.
Not that there was anything wrong with that... She could do whatever she wanted, but still...
“Is that really what’s important right now?” Riana scolded me, making me feel like crying. There had to be someone around who knew what was going on.
“Louis! Hey! What did you guys at the Magic Research Club do to our Thick-Skull?” I shouted, almost in a panic.
Louis turned to look at me from the front row, clearly not expecting my reaction.
“Why are you so freaked out?” he sighed, trying to calm me down. “It’s an application of scroll magic.”
“... What does that even mean?” I asked, bewildered.
Louis looked at Harriet, who was standing in the partially-destroyed arena.
“Harriet is writing and using magic scrolls in real-time.”
‘Huh...? What kind of bizarre explanation is that?’
***
—Louis! Hey! What did you guys at the Magic Research Club do to our thick skull?”
Reinhart wasn’t the only one who was confused; the Grand Duke and Duchess were equally perplexed. They were too focused on their daughter to pay attention to Reinhart calling her Thick-Skull.
“What is... our baby doing?” the Duchess asked.
“I don’t know... but it seems she’s done something extraordinary,” the Grand Duke replied.
Even the Grand Duke, who was well-versed in magic, couldn’t understand what strange thing his daughter had done to herself. It was an unprecedented sight.
Unlike Reinhart, the Grand Duke wasn’t panicking about tattoos or anything of the sort. He was a mage before he was a noble, and he thought like one.
“Our daughter appears to have accomplished something that will astonish the world,” he said.
The outcome of the fight didn’t matter. The Grand Duke sensed that his daughter had developed a new branch of magic.
***
Casting...
Casting was the alpha and the omega of magic. However, casting ultimately required time, and no matter how fast one became, it was impossible to reduce that time to zero.
Magic was a great and convenient power, but when used in combat, casting time remained a critical disadvantage. Given enough time, magic could destroy anything. However, the time required to prepare and cast a spell often led to the untimely deaths of even the most skilled battle mages.
Casting was a natural process. The idea of eliminating it entirely was as absurd as solving an equation without any calculations. But Harriet knew of a precedent. Rudina, the number one student in Royal Class 2-A, had a talent known as No-Casting. Though it was a supernatural power, Harriet had seen with her own eyes that it was possible.
Magic that manifested instantly through thought alone—if that was possible, why couldn’t she achieve something similar?
However, acquiring a supernatural power was out of the question. Like many battle mages before her, Harriet sought to drastically reduce casting time. She hadn’t gained a supernatural power, but she had found another way.
Huddled together in the Magic Research Club, Harriet and her peers racked their brains. The answer came not from Harriet but from Louis Ankton, who had a deep understanding of magic but couldn’t use it. His thought processes differed from that of typical mages.
.
.
“Scroll magic can be activated instantly, right?” Louis asked.
“That’s right,” Harriet confirmed.
“A scroll is essentially a piece of paper imbued with magic, with a magic circle drawn on it, correct?”
“Yes.”
“But the human body is already imbued with magic, isn’t it?”
“Yes, so?”
“What if we consider the human body as a scroll and draw magic circles on it to activate spells?”
“...?”
“Huh?”
Everyone else seemed confused by Louis Ankton’s suggestion, finding it bizarre. However, the concept wasn’t entirely irrational. A scroll was essentially a medium imbued with magic, with a magic circle drawn on it.
The paper, imbued with magic, was the medium, and the magic circle was the formula.
If the medium was the human body and the formula was drawn on it, wouldn’t the magic automatically activate?
It was a very intuitive way of understanding how scrolls worked. Even Harriet, who had extensive knowledge of magic, found it a strange but intriguing proposition.
“Dettomorian said that, in his tribe, warriors had shamans draw tattoos they called Warpaints on their faces to draw out extraordinary power.”
“I know that Sorcery is the root of magic, but... are you saying that this Warpaint is like drawing magic circles on the human body to draw out power?”
“Yes, I’ve heard it actually works. If this Warpaint utilizes the magic inherent in the human body, then it’s not much different from what I’m suggesting.”
If the art of Warpainting essentially involved drawing Sorcery circles on the human body to channel power, then it wasn’t fundamentally different from scroll magic.
Louis was merely speculating that one could turn the human body into a sort of living scroll in order to reduce casting time.
Adelia tilted her head, trying to wrap her mind around the radical nature of Louis’s idea.
“Assuming it works, and you engrave the magic circle for a Fireball, does that mean that the person can only use Fireball? What about other spells...?” she asked.
“Then their whole body would have to be covered in tattoos...” someone else chimed in.
It was clear to all of them that even if it worked, covering one’s body with numerous magic circles just to use various spells would not look pleasant. Their expressions soured at the thought.
“And besides, we can’t even learn scroll magic,” Cristina pointed out.
Magic related to magic scrolls was highly classified, and not taught at the Temple. Therefore, the workability of this concept was a moot point, since they couldn’t learn it.
“Not exactly,” Harriet interjected, shaking her head. “Instead of magic circles, we can engrave ‘language.’”
Language... The sudden mention of something else confused everyone all over again.
“If we engrave a language, we can derive numerous spells just by combining the necessary characters. There’s a magical system that works like that,” Harriet explained.
Once Harriet explained it this way, everyone understood what she was talking about. It was an ancient magical system, not as old as Sorcery but still very ancient, and the true origin of magic.
“We can engrave runes.”
By using runes, it was possible to implement every sort of magic that existed.