After the dragon incident, Dessel had visited Alphonse, who was receiving treatment at a medical facility in the royal capital away from the academy. He apologized for his past attitude and actions towards Alphonse, and the two successfully reconciled.
Seeing this Dessel arguing with the three he was always with, Alphonse quickly headed to the scene.
When he reached the four, the atmosphere was at a boiling point, and Alphonse called out to Dessel, partly to restrain Kevin, Som, and Dominic.
“Dessel, are you alright? Did something happen?”
“Alphonse…! No, it’s nothing. Don’t worry about it.”
Surprised by Alphonse’s appearance, Dessel unconsciously loosened his grip on Kevin’s shoulder.
Taking advantage of this, Kevin shook off Dessel’s hand and called out to Alphonse, seemingly not caring about the argument he had just been having with Dessel.
“Hey, Alphonse! I heard about your recent achievements! You’re amazing!!”
Kevin spoke glibly, putting on an obviously fake smile.
“…I didn’t do anything special.”
Alphonse responded calmly, sensing some hostility in Kevin’s words.
“Come on, don’t be so modest! That humility is probably why people call you a hero! It’s really an admirable spirit!”
“………”
Kevin continued to praise Alphonse in an obviously insincere tone. As Alphonse gave him a slightly skeptical look, Kevin cut in with “By the way!”
“If you don’t mind, would you practice combat with me? I’d love to learn from the hero himself!”
“Hey!!”
As Kevin invited Alphonse to practice combat, Dessel immediately raised his voice.
Dessel tried to grab Kevin again, but Som and Dominic forcibly stopped him by blocking him with their bodies.
“Let go! Hey Alphonse, you don’t have to accept such an invitation!!”
“Hey, hey, what’s wrong, Dessel? Calm down a bit.”
Kevin turned to Dessel and spoke as if gently admonishing him.
“We’re in the middle of a practical class, and I’m just asking for some combat practice, right?”
“You bastard, stop spouting nonsense!”
While being held back by Som and Dominic, Dessel glared fiercely at Kevin.
However, Kevin turned back to Alphonse as if he didn’t even notice Dessel.
“This is ridiculous. I’m just trying to seriously engage in the class. …You think so too, right, Alphonse?”
“…Yeah, that’s true.”
After a slight pause, Alphonse affirmed Kevin’s claim.
“As expected! I’m glad you understand!! So, will you accept the combat practice?”
“Alphonse! It’s not just practice! They’re…”
“You shut up!!”
As Dessel tried to tell Alphonse something, he was interrupted by Dominic’s angry shout.
“Listen, Alphonse!”
“–Dessel.”
Alphonse stopped Dessel, who was still trying to say something, with a gentle voice.
“Thank you. But I’ll be fine.”
“Alphonse…”
Shifting his gaze from Dessel, who looked worried, to Kevin, Alphonse accepted Kevin’s offer.
“Alright, let’s do it.”
“Really?! Wow, I’m honored to learn from the hero himself!”
“…Alphonse.”
With that, the four except Dessel headed to the mock battle field, while Dessel anxiously watched them leave.
In a rectangular field of ten meters by fifteen meters, surrounded by magical barriers on all sides, Kevin stood at the front, Som and Dominic at the far end, and Alphonse in the center, facing Kevin.
Once inside the field, Alphonse was asked by Kevin not for a full combat simulation, but to “demonstrate how to defend against fire-attribute magic with wind-attribute magic.”
The flow would be “Alphonse defending against Kevin’s beginner-level fire-attribute magic [Fireball] with beginner-level wind-attribute magic [Typhoon]” – something like a practice for magic beginners.
In addition to this unnaturalness, Som and Dominic standing behind Alphonse inside the field to “observe” created a very irregular situation.
Including the earlier exchange with Dessel, there was no doubt that a considerably malicious scenario had been set up.
The supervising teacher for the class was completely focused on overseeing the mock battle between Yufia Queensroad and Eliza Lored, showing no signs of noticing Alphonse and the others. Alphonse guessed that this timing was probably also according to their calculations.
Despite everything, Alphonse prepared the magic as they had specified, having sensed their intentions.
Crouching down, he placed his right hand on the ground and deployed a magic circle about one meter in diameter centered on his body. It was the “Typhoon” spell. He then called out to Kevin.
“…I’m ready on this end. We can start anytime.”
Kevin confirmed that the magic circle Alphonse had deployed was indeed the “Typhoon” spell.
“Alright, then…”
He exchanged glances with Som and Dominic behind him. Instead of deploying the “Fireball” magic circle as discussed with Alphonse—
“Bloody Lightning!”
Kevin pulled out a paper from his pocket on which he had pre-inscribed the spell formula. He channeled his magic power into it, instantly unleashing his highest-level lightning attribute magic.
…As expected, Kevin had no intention of letting Alphonse demonstrate the magic. His goal was to trap and humiliate Alphonse, whom he disliked.
If Kevin had deployed the magic circle with his own magic power, Alphonse might have instantly noticed it wasn’t “Fireball” and responded immediately.
However, by pre-inscribing the “Bloody Lightning” spell formula on a “magic medium paper” with high magic conductivity and using it, Kevin succeeded in activating the spell almost instantly. He managed to launch a high-speed lightning strike at Alphonse before he could cancel his “Typhoon” magic circle.
Magic based on natural phenomena like fire, water, wind, earth, and lightning closely resembles actual natural phenomena in its properties.
Among these, lightning attribute magic is exceptionally fast from creation to impact on the target, making it very difficult to defend against by deploying defensive magic after it’s been released.
Moreover, when wind attribute magic clashes with fire, water, or earth attribute magic, the magical powers repel each other, with the stronger one pushing back the other.
However, when wind magic encounters lightning magic, there’s no repulsion between the magical powers. Lightning magic pierces through wind magic effortlessly.
In other words, even if Alphonse activated the beginner-level wind attribute magic “Typhoon,” he shouldn’t have been able to defend against Kevin’s magic. …That said, the opponent was Alphonse Freed, an S-class mage.
Perhaps he could cancel the “Typhoon” magic circle and deploy new defensive magic even after reacting to the released “Bloody Lightning.”
But even if that were possible, a second wave was coming. Som and Dominic behind Kevin had also released their highest-level lightning magic at the same timing.
Kevin believed that even if Alphonse could activate magic to defend against his spell, he wouldn’t be able to handle the attacks from the two behind him.
“(What’s with that ‘I’ll be fine’ nonsense? You fool!! Take this!!)”
Confident that his plan had succeeded perfectly, Kevin’s lips curled into a smile.
–But at that moment.
“Typhoon!”
With a sound like space itself being mowed down, a tremendous gale swept away Kevin and the others’ magic, blowing all three of them away.
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“–Alphonse…, you bastard…”
Kevin, who had been violently thrown against the magical barrier of the field, forced his aching body to rise and glared at Alphonse.
“…I’m sorry. I was only supposed to demonstrate, but it seems I got startled and put in too much power.”
“D-Don’t mess with me!! This isn’t what we agreed on!! We told you to use ‘Typhoon’!!”
“You had a different spell prepared from the start, didn’t you!!”
Kevin and the others shouted desperately at Alphonse, veins popping on their temples.
“…That sounds bad. I used ‘Typhoon’ as you said. But aren’t you the ones who changed the plan? I don’t remember hearing anything about using high-level lightning attribute magic.”
Alphonse responded calmly to the three.
“D-Don’t be ridiculous!! There’s no way a wind attribute, let alone a beginner-level spell, could defend against our lightning magic…!!”
“Th-That’s right!! For a descendant of a great hero, you’re just showing off…!!”
“Not keeping to the pre-duel agreement, the hero would be appalled!!”
Kevin and the others’ rebuttals and accusations, ignoring their own actions, were terribly incoherent. Whether from confusion at the unbelievable situation, anger at having their plan backfire, or both.
To these three, Alphonse coldly inquired.
“…Are you guys serious?”
“…What?”
To Kevin, who was glaring with a distorted expression, Alphonse continued.
“It’s true that wind and lightning have a fatally bad compatibility, but even with disadvantageous attributes, you can cope if the magic power density is high enough. The magic power density of my wind magic was overwhelmingly higher than your lightning magic, so this was the result.”
“…Ugh!”
“It’s common knowledge among mages that disadvantageous attributes can be overcome by differences in magic power density, right? With the difference in our abilities, this outcome is normal. I’d like you to understand and accept that this was an inevitable, natural conclusion.”
Alphonse re-explained the nature of magic power, which should be common knowledge for mages, completely refuting their accusations. …However, his words struck a nerve with Kevin and the others.
“Normal for you…!? It might be normal for you, but we’re struggling in our own way to get stronger…!! You’re just acting high and mighty because you were born lucky!!”
“No matter what people say about you being a hero, you haven’t changed at all since the entrance exam…!!”
“Just because you were born on the privileged side, you look down on and belittle those who aren’t special!! You’re no hero, you’re just a self-satisfied inhuman bastard!!”
Despite being showered with abuse from the enraged three, Alphonse didn’t just hang his head as he had before.
“…You’re right. People are born with different abilities, and I do think I’m fortunate. …But I swear, that doesn’t mean I could ever look down on others around me.”
Saying this, Alphonse turned a strong gaze towards Kevin and the others.
“But let me be clear, I think I’ll never lose to you guys.”
“Wha…!?”
Faced with these unexpected words, Kevin and the others were visibly shaken. …To them, Alphonse declared powerfully.
“Because I’m working harder than any of you.”
What allowed Alphonse to say this was the solid confidence that came from the days of desperate effort he had actually accumulated so far.
–Maybe they’re making their own efforts somewhere I don’t know about. But still…
“I can’t imagine people who are so focused on putting others down instead of trying to become stronger themselves could ever be a match for me.”
“Guh!”
Even when treated like a nuisance by those around him and subjected to criticism and slander, Alphonse had resigned himself to thinking it was the natural consequence of his own actions.
Kevin and the others were shaken by this strong-willed behavior, unimaginable from the previous Alphonse, and couldn’t find words to retort.
“If you want to belittle me, feel free. If you want to get one over on me, use underhanded methods like today again.”
“But let me say one thing,” Alphonse continued.
–Being disliked by someone is painful.
–Being the target of someone’s ill will and facing it is scary. …Even so–.
Alphonse declared powerfully to Kevin and the others.
“No matter what ill will you direct at me, I won’t just hang my head in silence anymore. From now on, I’ll fight fair and square.”
–Because I am the descendant of a great hero.
–And because my hero told me to… “stand tall.”
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