Chapter 8: Eliza Lowred
In the first practice room of Crawford Magic Academy, the second-year Class A students were having a mock battle during their lesson.
On one of the eight deployed battle fields, two female students faced each other.
One was Eliza Lowred, ranked fifth in the academy and belonging to Class A.
The other, standing opposite her, was a girl with silver hair so beautiful it could be called ethereal.
“(I’ll win today for sure.)”
While Eliza glared with hostility, the silver-haired girl stood with an expression that gave everyone who saw her a cold impression, showing no emotion at all. Her name was Yufia Queensroad.
At Crawford Magic Academy, exceptionally talented students are given the special A-rank title to prove their excellence.
Among them, only students who far surpass the A-rank category and the realm of magic students are given the “S-rank” title as a special case. In Crawford Magic Academy’s history, this title has been given to only three people so far.
And there is one prodigy who, for the first time since the academy’s founding, achieved an all-S evaluation in basic attributes during the practical exam, undisputedly earning the title of S-rank magic student.
That person is none other than the silver-haired girl facing Eliza now, Yufia Queensroad.
She is currently ranked first at Crawford Magic Academy and an opponent Eliza has never once defeated.
“Here I come!!”
“…Alright.”
In response to Eliza’s strong declaration, Yufia answered calmly, her expression unchanged.
“Piercing Blazing Arrows of Destruction – Sturm lanze!!”
“Tyrannical Glausamm – Azure Water Dragon Strudel”
Eliza immediately began her incantation to take the initiative, unleashing countless wind arrows wrapped in flames from her magic circle towards Yufia.
In response, Yufia very nonchalantly, albeit slightly delayed, deployed a deep blue magic circle and released a massive water spell in the shape of a dragon from it.
The water dragon took the countless magical arrows head-on, arrows powerful enough to pulverize huge rocks. Despite the impact causing splashes on its surface, the water dragon didn’t lose momentum and approached Eliza with a roaring sound.
“Ugh…!!”
To resist the approaching water dragon, Eliza gritted her teeth and poured more magical power into her magic circle.
“…Haaaaaaah!!”
Responding to Eliza’s roar, the arrow barrage increased in power, seemingly halting the water dragon’s advance.
“…”
But immediately after, the water dragon opened its mouth wide, letting out a roar-like thunderous sound. It then swallowed all the arrows with its mouth and once again increased its momentum, rushing towards Eliza.
“…Tch!!”
Eliza tried to counter by pouring even more magical power, but it was in vain. She was swallowed by the massive water dragon and slammed against the field’s barrier.
“…Gah!”
Unable to withstand the impact of hitting the barrier, Eliza coughed out the air from her lungs and collapsed to the ground.
However, gritting her teeth, Eliza immediately propped herself up on her arms.
“I’m… not… lost yet…!!”
“…”
Yufia watched this scene, her expression still unchanged.
Eliza stood up unsteadily, weakly raising her arm to deploy a magic circle.
She was about to continue the match when,
“That’s enough, Miss Eliza,”
she was stopped by the voice of the teacher supervising the mock battle from behind.
“…!”
“Just now, Miss Yufia was in a position to deliver the final blow at any time. This is your loss, Miss Eliza. The next pair is waiting, so please vacate the field.”
The supervising teacher who intervened urged Eliza to leave the field.
“It’s not over yet! I can still fight!”
“No. As the supervisor of this mock battle, I cannot allow the match to continue. Fighting in an exhausted state greatly increases the risk of serious injury compared to normal conditions. There will be more mock battle lessons in the future, and moreover, these aren’t about winning or losing. Please end it here for today.”
“…Ugh.”
The teacher spoke in an admonishing tone to Eliza, who had strongly objected.
Contrary to Eliza’s heightened emotions, the teacher’s extremely calm attitude made Eliza realize that further protest would not result in the continuation of the match.
“…I understand.”
Eliza said “Thank you very much” to Yufia as the customary post-match greeting, then left the field with her head bowed, seemingly chewing on her frustration.
Yufia followed, her expression still blank, saying “Thank you as well,” and exited the field.
As they left the mock battle field, Eliza noticed a group of female students glancing in her direction and whispering among themselves.
“…How annoying, really.”
Although she couldn’t hear their voices, Eliza could pretty much guess the content of their conversation.
She had accidentally overheard things like, “Miss Eliza always tries so hard,” “As if she could ever beat Miss Yufia,” “I wonder if she doesn’t understand the fundamental difference in talent between her and Miss Yufia,” “Miss Eliza’s pride is just too high,” “It’s kind of pitiful how desperate she gets.”
Eliza could easily imagine that this time too, they were probably saying things like “There goes Miss Eliza again,” in a tone that pitied or looked down on her.
Being talked about freely by bystanders was extremely humiliating for Eliza, but she accepted it grudgingly.
It would be easy for her to say something back to them or to have a mock battle with them right now to show them the difference in power.
However, she told herself, “Doing such things won’t change the fact that I can’t beat Yufia Queensroad,” and firmly vowed to prove them wrong one day by defeating Yufia.
She continued unleashing magic at the targets in the practice room as if venting her anger until the supervising teacher announced the end of the class. Eliza then left the practice room and headed for the changing room…
When Eliza was a first-year student, she would always refuse to accept the outcome of mock battles with Yufia like this one, trying forcefully to continue the match only to be stopped by the supervising teacher.
This was because she couldn’t accept losing to a student of her own generation when she had been called a rare genius magician before entering the academy.
Born into the prestigious Lowred family of magicians, Eliza had defeated other children and even adult magicians with her magic from a young age, developing a strong sense of pride in being a genius magician. However, upon entering the academy, she experienced defeat in magic for the first time against someone of her own generation.
At first, she couldn’t accept this reality and became even more determined to train her magic skills and defeat Yufia Queensroad.
However, no matter how much effort she put in, the gap between her and Yufia only widened.
By the time a year had passed since her enrollment and she became a second-year student, Eliza had stopped trying to forcefully continue mock battles.
She was gradually beginning to accept what others were saying – that there was a fundamental difference in innate talent between her and Yufia Queensroad.
Eliza had to acknowledge that in the face of a true genius like Yufia, she was merely average.
No matter how much effort she put in, she could never catch up to her. There was no point in getting worked up over a wall she could never overcome.
Recently, Eliza had begun to give up on defeating Yufia and started to accept the difference in talent between them.
However, lately, Eliza had once again begun to struggle to catch up with Yufia.
The trigger was the words of a certain boy who had recently dueled with Eliza.
[No matter how many times you’re beaten down, no matter how much the difference in ability is shoved in your face, no matter how hopeless the situation becomes… As long as you don’t give up, you’re not defeated.]
Although the boy usually seemed to be joking around, those words carried an unusual weight and resonated within Eliza.
For some reason, she could feel an incredibly strong will behind the boy’s words.
As Eliza walked down the hallway towards the changing room, slightly hunched over, she recalled the days when she had desperately tried to defeat Yufia Queensroad. His words echoed eerily in her mind:
“Let’s struggle a bit more.”
Although it irked Eliza greatly, it was an undeniable fact that his words had rekindled her fighting spirit.
After that, she intensified her magical training even more than before, striving once again to surpass Yufia.
However, in today’s practice match, despite unleashing her full power against Yufia, all her efforts were easily brushed aside. Faced with the absolute difference in talent between herself and Yufia Queensroad, Eliza was on the verge of giving up again.
“As expected, Yufia is strong… No matter what, I can’t possibly beat her…”
…It wasn’t that Eliza’s will was weak.
Yufia Queensroad’s abilities were so overwhelming that they could easily crush the fighting spirit Eliza had regained.
Eliza keenly felt once again the gap in talent that seemed bottomless, a realm she could never reach no matter how hard she tried.
Because of her own magical talent, Eliza understood this difference in ability all too well.
As she walked down the hallway with her head slightly lowered, she noticed a male student coming from the opposite direction.
Eliza stopped in her tracks with a soft “Ah” and raised her head.
Following suit, the black-haired male student also stopped, seemingly noticing Eliza.
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“Ah”
“(Ugh)”
As Shion was walking down the hallway towards his next class, he noticed a female student coming from the opposite direction stop upon seeing him.
Recognizing the female student, Shion momentarily stopped as well, but then tried to pass by her as if nothing had happened.
…However.
“Hey, wait a minute. Why are you ignoring me?”
“Ugh”
The female student, Eliza Lowred, grabbed the back of Shion’s uniform and stopped him.
Slightly losing his balance from suddenly being pulled by his uniform, Shion came to a halt.
“Shouldn’t you at least greet me?”
“…Ah, good work”
Thinking “We’re not really close enough to greet each other…”, Shion turned towards Eliza and replied, then said “Well then” and started to walk away again.
“W-wait a minute!”
“Hmph”
Eliza called out in a flustered manner and grabbed Shion’s uniform again to stop him.
“…Do you need something from me?”
“Ah, no… It’s not like I have any particular business…”
“Sorry, I’m not angry or anything… But if you don’t need anything, I’ll be going now”
“N-no… I’m the one who should apologize…”
Eliza said, looking embarrassed.
As she released his uniform, Shion turned around and started walking again.
However,
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