“Limit Break Acceleration” was a powerful spell, but it consumed a huge amount of magic power. With Shion’s limited reserves, he could only maintain it for at most a few seconds.
Moreover, Shion had yet to fully master controlling “Limit Break Acceleration,” and while using it, his body suffered from the strain, preventing him from moving properly.
If he could fully control “Limit Break Acceleration,” he’d be able to move freely at near-supersonic speeds, but that was far beyond Shion’s current abilities. He could only manage small, walking-like movements.
In other words, he wasn’t dodging Eliza’s magic with ease while walking—walking was all he could manage.
He had pretended to deliberately take a hit from “Giant’s Fist-Freezing Fist,” but the truth was that, completely out of magic, Shion had no way to avoid it in the first place.
In the duel, if Eliza hadn’t been fixated on landing her “Blazing Inferno Storm” and had simply kept her distance, Shion would’ve run out of magic before getting close, and his approach would’ve failed.
Or, if Eliza had held out for even one more second, stubbornly continuing her barrage of magical arrows, Shion might’ve ended up as just a pile of meat.
In fact, if Eliza had calmly continued the fight after Shion declared “Checkmate,” he would’ve just embarrassed himself with a magic-depleted, pitiful defeat.
The fact that the duel ended as Shion had envisioned was purely due to a miraculous alignment of timing.
The result of the duel was entirely thanks to his luck.
And yet, in the post-duel exchange with Eliza, Shion had exuded a “I let you win on purpose” aura, and now he was basking in the belief that everything in the duel had gone according to his plan.
Having given his all to pull off a perfect “hiding my true power” act, he still couldn’t suppress his grin…
“Shion, you’re taking an awfully long time, aren’t you…?”
In the botany prep room within the academy, teacher Lina-Restia muttered to herself.
She had been getting help from her student, Shion, with preparing for class and had asked him to fetch some tools from the storage room.
Restia continued her work as she waited, but she couldn’t help but notice that Shion was taking an unusually long time to return from the storage room.
“(The supply room is indeed a bit far from here, but should it really take this long…?)”
Restia found it strange, but considering that the academy’s supply room held a wide variety of equipment beyond what was needed for the plant magic class, it was entirely possible that the tools she asked Shion to fetch were difficult to locate.
She concluded to herself that this was likely the reason for the delay.
…In reality, Shion was actually engaged in a duel with Eliza-Lowred at the arena, but Restia had no way of knowing that.
“Ah, I should have gone with him…”
Restia regretted her decision.
Ideally, she wanted to accompany him.
When preparing for her plant magic class, where experiments were conducted, there were always various preparations required, including tools, soil, and plant seeds for each student.
While having extra hands was certainly helpful, what mattered most to Restia was not having Shion run errands but spending time with him. Being together during preparations was what she truly wanted.
Therefore, the current situation, where Shion had gone alone to retrieve the equipment from the supply room, was far from ideal for Restia.
The cause of this situation stemmed from a recent incident.
A few days ago, due to an unexpected accident, Restia had fallen on top of Shion, ending up so close that their noses almost touched, remaining in that embrace for a moment.
When she saw Shion earlier, that memory suddenly resurfaced, causing Restia to hesitate and blush.
Noticing her strange behavior, Shion became concerned, but she managed to mask her embarrassment and hurriedly asked him to retrieve the equipment from the supply room.
As a result, Shion took longer to return than expected, leaving Restia to continue preparing for the class on her own, feeling somewhat down.
“Ah… Why am I so conscious of a student like this…?”
At that moment, Restia reconsidered her feelings.
“…Or rather, why am I the only one feeling this way?! Does a seven-year age gap really matter that much?! I’m only twenty-four, I’m still young!”
With that, Restia stood in front of the full-length mirror in the preparation room.
“I never paid attention to this because I’ve always been so focused on plants, but I do get a lot of attention from men, and my face isn’t bad… right?”
Restia positively assessed her reflection in the mirror, though even that was a modest evaluation—she was undeniably beautiful.
“And my chest is… quite ample, too. Isn’t it unusual for a man not to react to that…?”
She lightly cupped her breasts from the sides as if to confirm their size.
“Or maybe… I’m not making enough of an effort to appeal to him as a woman…?”
With that thought, Restia undid the top three buttons of her blouse, revealing her cleavage, and leaned forward slightly to examine the effect in the mirror.
“…!! Wow… Even I can look quite–”
…It was at that moment.
“–Excuse me. I’m sorry for being late…”
“…………”
“…………”
…Shion, who had just entered the room, locked eyes with Restia, who was reflected in the mirror.
–The very next moment, Shion found himself tightly bound by thick vines, completely immobilized.
“Please, Teacher, let’s calm down. We really don’t need to do this.”
“…It’s fine, Ichinose-kun!! If everything goes well, you’ll should only lose the memory of today!!”
“Teacher, I learned this in your class. If you make him drink the liquid in your hand, it’ll do more than just make him forget today. Please, don’t do anything rash, I’m serious.”
Restia, holding a bottle of ominously colored liquid, had a completely unhinged look in her eyes.
“(…This is really bad, I’m seriously going to die!! I’ve had a lot of close calls lately, but this is by far the worst…!!)”
…It took quite some time for Restia to return to her senses, thanks to Shion’s desperate pleas.
Once she came to, Restia repeatedly apologized to Shion while bowing deeply, but he would later recall this as the time he felt closest to death in his entire life.
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…That night, after his duel with Eliza-Lowred and being freed from Restia’s clutches,
Shion was training as usual in the C-class students’ practice grounds.
He activated “Limit Acceleration – Axel,” standing still as he maintained the spell until his mana ran out.
After several seconds, his mana was depleted, and he sat on the ground, drenched in sweat, gasping for air as his body was wracked with pain from the strain.
With veins bulging unnaturally all over his body, Shion endured the intense pain caused by mana exhaustion and waited for his strength to recover by drinking a potion.
Once his mana was replenished, he stood up and activated “Limit Acceleration – Axel” again, this time practicing large movements while maintaining the spell.
When his mana ran out once more, he drank another potion, recovering enough to quickly activate and deactivate “Limit Acceleration – Axel” repeatedly.
Next, he attempted to cast another spell while “Limit Acceleration – Axel” was active, continuing to push himself to master the technique.
Every action was part of his relentless training to perfect “Limit Acceleration – Axel.”
From the day he first succeeded in activating “Limit Acceleration – Axel,” Shion hadn’t missed a single day of training, pushing himself without compromise.
Even now, the spell’s performance was still limited, but when he first succeeded, it was barely functional at all.
When he first activated “Limit Acceleration”, he could only maintain the magic for about 0.1 seconds before running out of mana and fainting.
Shion was born with mana naturally suited for “Limit Acceleration”, but that was only by his own standards.
…For him, being able to activate high-level magic was enough to indicate aptitude, regardless of its usefulness.
Previously, Shion had attempted to activate countless high-level spells but failed to activate any of them.
During those days, his merchant parents acquired a rare magic book not even found in the national magic library.
It was a magic book written entirely in the “Dragon language”.
“Dragon language” – Unlike the common language widely used around the world today, it was a unique language used by dragons and dragonkin demihumans.
Many demihumans, including dragonkin, originally lived separately from humans. But over time, various demihumans began to live alongside humans, and the number of half-demihumans, called “half-breeds”, increased.
As a result, humans inherited much of the magic and culture unique to demihumans.
Dragonkin excelled in handling magic and possessed several unique spells. When people inherited these, they created many magic books translated into the common language.
However, spells that had no users among the dragonkin at the time or couldn’t be inherited by humans were not made into common language magic books. Instead, magic books written only in the Dragon language remained.
One of these was the “Limit Acceleration” magic book, which Shion’s parents had acquired.
Attempting to activate this magic required first learning the Dragon language, which seemed like an insurmountable task. But when Shion’s parents gave him the magic book, he began studying the Dragon language without hesitation.
A unique magic created by a clan with dragon blood. An ancient, forgotten magic that perhaps no one in the present day could use.
The fact that “this might become a unique magic that only Ichinose Shion can use in the modern era” excited him abnormally.
— “My own trump card”, nothing else resonated with Shion quite like this.
With his parents’ help, he learned the Dragon language while decoding the “Limit Acceleration” magic book, memorizing its structure and formulas.
He couldn’t activate it from the start, but he attempted activation thousands of times, and finally succeeded in activating “Limit Acceleration”.
Even then, the time he could maintain it was only 0.1 seconds.
His body was under intense strain, and he couldn’t move at all for that 0.1 seconds before running out of mana.
The magic he had dedicated so much time to was far from usable.
An ordinary magician would immediately discard such a magic, thinking “this magic doesn’t suit me”.
But Shion was different.
He, who couldn’t even activate countless spells despite desperately studying them, was able to activate “Limit Acceleration”, even if at an unusable level.
Realizing this fact, he became convinced that “this will become my trump card”.
From the day he first succeeded in activating it, he continued to train “Limit Acceleration” every day without fail.
Believing that someday, it would truly become his trump card.
In today’s duel with Eliza Lowred, Shion could only dodge Eliza’s magic, resulting in his undeniable defeat.
For Shion, Eliza Lowred was an opponent he would lose to 1000 times out of 1000 fights.
An opponent with absolute differences in talent, mana, and everything else.
However, “Limit Acceleration” undoubtedly surpassed Eliza Lowred’s trump card, “Vindictive Inferno Lance” .
Shion’s accumulated efforts, his honed blade, was certainly reaching for her throat.
If he could have maintained “Limit Acceleration” for a few seconds longer, if he could have launched another attack magic while activating “Limit Acceleration”, if he could have utilized “Limit Acceleration” more skillfully… perhaps he could have landed a hit on her.
“Limit Acceleration” held ample potential for Shion to surpass A-class magicians.
–Shion was convinced that the magic he had chosen was not wrong.
He, lacking talent in magic, works harder than anyone else in the school, but his growth is slower than any of them.
Even after years of extraordinary training, he can barely walk for ten seconds while “Limit Acceleration” is activated.
However, no matter how small his steps may be, he continues to move forward.
He never stops.
He believes without doubt that he will eventually become the strongest magic swordsman.
That’s why he continues his daily training today, tomorrow, and beyond…
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