novelraw Chapter 55 : The Semester of Upheaval (2)
Chapter 55 : The Semester of Upheaval (2)
Chapter 55: The Semester of Upheaval (2)
Judging from Banshi’s expression, it was the face of someone who had already pictured every possible future the moment the revised school regulations were announced.
However… the thought of moving on to Class 3 while leaving Banshi behind made me feel uneasy.
It wasn’t because I felt sorry for her.
I didn’t treat her like a tool, but if I were to advance directly into Class 3, I couldn’t predict what kind of situations might unfold.
Banshi was an indispensable presence precisely because she could respond to such unexpected developments.
She was the only student who knew that I was once the Archmage, Arkis Eimer.
And in this world where the Elementalist Flewd no longer existed, she was the only person with whom I could freely empathize and share information.
When I imagined life in Class 3 without Banshi, the absence of such a reliable ally felt far too large.
“Why do you look so uneasy?”
“It’s because I don’t think I can manage without you. In a time like this, who knows what kind of obstacles will be waiting for me in Class 3.”
“But there’s nothing we can do, right? Once you’ve become a student again, unless you meet Etar and negotiate with him directly, you have to follow the school rules.”
“That’s exactly why it’s frustrating.”
Wouldn’t it be better if Etar appeared before me right now?
If I revealed my identity and forced him into submission through power, everything might be settled neatly.
That way, I could conserve my strength and reach my goal much faster.
“You’re not seriously thinking that I won’t be able to make it up there, are you?”
Banshi tried to lighten the heavy mood with a joke that wasn’t even funny.
“With your level at the 6th Circle? No way. You’re on the same level as your family head, Emmet Vise.”
“Right… hearing that I’m on the same level as the family head still feels strange.”
Banshi gave a bitter smile.
‘Ah, I shouldn’t have brought up the family.’
That was careless of me.
I’d only meant to play along with her joke, but I ended up being completely thoughtless.
Normally, I wouldn’t have said something like that. I must have been more distracted than I realized.
“So don’t worry. I’ll get there soon enough. Until then, even if you miss me, you’ll have to endure it.”
“Pfft. That one was actually a little funny.”
“Haha.”
“Alright, but I’m not just going to sit around and wait for you. So hurry up and come up fast. This isn’t some running-mate situation. I’m not going to slow down for you.”
“Of course. You’ll have to run at full speed, so that when I catch up, you’ll at least make me your Disciple, right?”
Banshi, trying to ease my burden, slyly attempted to secure a promise from me.
“Disciple? You want to be my Disciple?”
“Yes!”
This time, she answered without hesitation.
“You should’ve said so earlier. Why only now?”
“If I had said it earlier, would you have accepted me?”
“Hmm… no, probably not.”
“Then I had to say it now, didn’t I?”
“Well, fine. Alright. I promise.”
I raised my pinky and held it out toward Banshi.
“Really? You can’t take this back later, alright?”
It was the most cheerful voice I’d ever heard from her.
“Of course. Would I, a former Archmage, lie about something like this to a 6th Circle mage like you?”
Banshi smiled radiantly and hooked her pinky around mine.
‘A Disciple… huh. That brings back memories.’
Back then, raising Disciples had brought me such joy and pride.
Now, I was feeling that same emotion toward Banshi.
Of course, she wasn’t officially my Disciple yet—but I could already sense that she would be before long.
Banshi was a 6th Circle Mage.
At least within this branch, there wasn’t a single student who could surpass her.
If there were any potential threats, they would be family mages in the upper classes—but even in 1st Class, out of thirty-one students, only three were family mages.
Water Element: Lamic Vir.
Light Element: Mihael Russel.
Fire Element: Nohill Hapert.
Even among them, the only one from a leading family was the Water Element.
The upper classes wouldn’t be much different.
Even if there were more, Banshi was from the Emmet Family, a Flewd-elemental lineage.
If they were of the same Circle, no one could possibly surpass her.
Handling a single element and mastering seven were as different as wielding one weapon versus seven.
“But remember—only if you graduate from the branch school at the same time as I do. Until then, even if we meet, don’t expect me to treat you like a Disciple.”
“Of course!”
“Alright then, that’s enough talk between us. You should head back now. I need to think about how to bring Hei and Kiena straight into Class 3.”
“Understood!”
Still brimming with excitement, Banshi left my dormitory.
Now, I called for Hei and Kiena.
It seemed they had also been resting in the dorm, because almost as soon as I called, there was a knock at the door.
Knock, knock.
“Artel! I’m here!”
Kiena’s lively voice followed.
“Come in.”
The three of us sat down together, and I projected the school’s announcement onto the mob.
“You’re aware that this takes effect starting tomorrow, right?”
“Of course.”
“Once it starts, we’re going to be extremely busy. Except for class hours, we’ll practically be living in the training arena.”
Both Kiena and Hei nodded.
The moment the three of us became a team, they must have sensed what awaited us.
“But here’s the problem. If I told you to spar twenty times a day, could you do it?”
I asked on purpose, exaggerating the number.
I didn’t know whether it would really be twenty or even more, so it was better to overstate it from the start.
“Umm…”
“Ugh…”
Neither of them could answer right away.
Understandably so—they were probably each running simulations in their heads, wondering how they could possibly handle twenty duels in a single day.
After a long moment of deep thought, both of them shook their heads.
Hei was the first to speak.
“No way. After just that one duel with you, I burned out so hard I had to be carried to the infirmary. How am I supposed to do twenty? I’d die.”
“Yeah… Hei looked really bad back then. And if you overdo it in a burnout state, your brain can shut down!”
‘Burnout?’
That word caught my attention.
No, it gave me an idea.
“That’s it! Burnout!”
Without realizing it, the moment enlightenment struck, I suddenly jumped to my feet and shouted loudly.
“Whoa! What’s with you all of a sudden?”
“Artel…?”
To be honest, I wasn’t worried about Kiena.
She had already become a Summoner capable of calling forth a 3rd Circle-level divine artifact in Class 1, so the likelihood of her experiencing burnout was relatively low.
As for me, that went without saying.
Among the three of us, the weakest link was undoubtedly Hei.
During the duel between Hei and me, the other students had seen how much he struggled, so the target would naturally shift to him.
Right now, the students gathered in the library were studying with Kiena as their first target, but once they realized she was too difficult, they would immediately switch their sights to Hei.
After all, he was the one they had the highest chance of defeating.
“Kiena, Hei.”
“Yeah!”
“What?”
“When we duel, I want you to push yourselves to the limit.”
“…If we push too hard, we’ll burn out.”
“Right. I mean push yourselves until you burn out.”
“…What are you talking about?”
Kiena and Hei both frowned.
They couldn’t understand what I meant.
‘How could I not have thought of this before? It’s such a simple method.’
Burnout.
A condition caused by excessive magical use that overloaded the brain, leading to complete exhaustion.
Never in my life had I imagined I’d use burnout as part of a strategy.
Once burnout set in, you couldn’t continue dueling.
You’d be immediately carried to the infirmary and forced to stay hospitalized for a week.
In other words—a week of rest.
Even if your point gap widened during that week, it didn’t matter.
Because if your points exceeded 120, half would be taken away, and if they reached over 150, you’d lose them all.
So, if Hei and Kiena kept up the grueling dueling schedule until they burned out, they could rest in the infirmary, then simply challenge and take points from the students who’d accumulated a lot during their absence.
There was a drawback—missing classes meant falling behind in theoretical knowledge—but even that could easily be mitigated.
The other students still didn’t know Kiena’s weakness as a Summoner.
And as for Hei, he had the Ed Family’s magic tome he’d obtained from the Secret Room in the library, so even if he missed lectures, it wouldn’t hinder him much.
He couldn’t read in the infirmary, but if he studied bit by bit from now on, he’d already be far ahead of everyone else in terms of progress.
‘Etar, Former. You tried to exploit the Joint Admission System by targeting Kiena and Hei’s weaknesses… but you two completely forgot about burnout.’
Because for high-circle mages, burnout wasn’t something worth considering.
Would a mage who had already mastered their elemental magic ever burn out?
Unless they were fighting a life-or-death battle, it was something they’d never experience in their entire lifetime.
For a high-circle mage to suffer burnout under normal circumstances was like a monkey falling out of a tree it had always climbed with ease.
They say even monkeys fall from trees sometimes—but if such a monkey really existed, would its troop still respect it?
Not its comrades. Not even its juniors.
They would all look down on it, and the idea of treating it as a high-circle mage would become laughable.
That was why burnout was something they avoided even thinking about—and why neither of them considered it a factor.
It simply didn’t apply to them.
I explained this reasoning to the two of them.
Their expressions instantly brightened.
“Artel… you’re a genius.”
“You’re amazing, Artel!”
We’d found our solution.
‘Etar, Former. You made a mistake. You said there would be no limit to the number of duels—but you can’t possibly force a student in burnout to keep fighting.’
That would lead to actual deaths among the students.
No matter how reckless they were, they wouldn’t want a fatal accident to happen.
Not at the Magic Academy, of all places.
If a student were to die during a duel, what would happen?
Would anyone else dare to apply for another duel?
The moment such a tragedy occurred, the atmosphere among the students would instantly turn against dueling.
“But burnout really hurts,” Hei muttered in the midst of it all.
“How bad is it…?”
“Hmm…”
After furrowing his brow for a long time, Hei finally said,
“It hurts a lot… but I can’t even explain it. You have to feel it for yourself.”
‘That’s true. You really do have to experience it yourself. I… went through it countless times during my master’s lessons. I even fainted once.’
“Alright, anyway, you both understand now, right? Push yourselves until you hit burnout.”
“But after we recover, what makes you so sure we’ll definitely win?” Hei asked back.
“You’ve got the Ed Family’s magic tome, Hei. I’d bet it’s the strongest in Class 1.”
“Yeah, yeah. And Artel, you’re the one who found it for him, right?”
Though I’d never explicitly said so, it seemed Hei had hinted at it when the two were alone.
That was fine.
We were close friends who shared everything openly anyway.
Then I turned to Kiena.
“A 1st Class Summoner who can call forth a divine artifact. You said the artifact’s power was equivalent to a 3rd Circle, right? Is there any student who could beat you?”
“Nope!”
“And me? What am I again?”
I pointed to my chest with my thumb and asked.
Both of them answered at the same time with one phrase.
“The first Double Caster in 500 years!”
“Exactly. So let’s make sure the three of us rank in the top three and advance straight to Class 3.”
I held out my hand, and Hei and Kiena placed theirs on top of mine.
“Let’s do this!”
Then, all three of us stretched our hands high above our heads, shouting with spirit.
Our combined cheer wasn’t one of fear for what lay ahead—it was one of fierce welcome.
Their expressions practically said, “Come at us if you dare!”
I had a feeling that passing through Class 1 would be much easier than I had initially thought.