To become a State-Certified Mage, one had to reach the Third Tier.
Normally, young mages who had received gifted education reached the Third Tier at the age of fourteen. Even the fastest among them were around twelve.
But Lara had reached the Third Tier at only ten years old.
It was an achievement that shattered every official record in the Republic, and the magical academic world had been thrown into an uproar at the time.
Every mage had their eyes on her.
At least, until her secret was revealed.
—Whether God is fair or cruel, I don’t know. To play such a trick on a mage with once-in-a-generation talent.... When I heard the news, as a fellow mage, I felt an uncomfortable sense of relief. But it was bitter too.
Stella relentlessly bombarded Lara and Samuel with magic.
Stella understood Lara’s weakness perfectly. Every time Lara tried to cast a spell, Stella used formulas she had planted beforehand to force her to move.
As a result, Stella was able to maintain the upper hand.
As time passed, Lara and Samuel rapidly lost stamina, putting them at an increasing disadvantage.
—Even so. You should’ve told your teammates beforehand. If this had been a real battle, you would’ve been putting your teammates’ lives on a tightrope.
A mage who could not cast while moving was like a swordsman missing an arm.
That was the cold assessment of the public.
Moreover, for a Special Unit that had to fight Heretical Mages, this weakness was fatal.
She could not cast spells while chasing a fleeing mage, and she was inevitably vulnerable in close combat as well.
“Haah.......”
Lara let out a deep sigh.
Controlling both her somewhat ragged breathing and her emotions, she readily admitted it and replied.
“You’re right. That part was definitely my fault. I didn’t tell my teammates even though one wrong move could get their heads cut off or their limbs severed.”
Han, the team leader, had known about it.
In fact, she had expected Han to tell the other team members immediately. As Stella said, it was something too important for them not to know.
But Han had said nothing during their first mission, nor after all the team members had gathered.
‘Maybe he intended for it to come out naturally during this training.’
Had he arranged joint training with Gilbert’s team after calculating that this exact situation would arise?
If so, he had a more devious side than she had expected. After all, he was using someone else to reprimand her for her mistake.
Realizing Han’s hidden intention, Lara smiled faintly.
“But if you went to the same school as me, maybe you know this too.”
Even after having her fatal weakness exposed in front of others, Lara did not break. Instead, her fighting spirit rose even higher.
“Every single person who mocked me ended up regretting it.”
—Huh? No. I wasn’t trying to mock you.......
“Shut up.”
HMMMMM—!
The density of Lara’s mana surged.
Blue mana instantly enveloped Lara and radiated tremendous pressure.
—Wait, wait! You know this is only training, right?
“Train like it’s the real thing. That’s the basic rule. That’s what our team leader told us.”
—Damn it. He’s not wrong about that either!
Stella hurriedly gathered her mana. She had already exhausted all the formulas she had used to force Lara to move.
She could no longer stop Lara from casting beforehand.
Lara had probably been waiting for this exact moment.
At the same time, Stella thought,
‘I was only trying to make her a little more eager to fight, but I flipped the damn switch!’
‘And what the hell is with this ridiculous amount of mana?! Is this really the level of a seventeen-year-old?’
‘She wasn’t even going all out until now!’
More than a little flustered, Stella hurriedly cast a spell.
RATATATAT—!
Mud coated in paint turned into bullets and poured toward Lara from every direction.
However.
“Th-Thanks!”
“Forget it. You helped me too.”
Lara created a curtain of wind to protect herself and Samuel.
The wind, which vaguely resembled an igloo, revolved around them at high speed.
Lara immediately pulled out her paint sword and thrust it into the curtain. At once, the wind took on a deep pink hue, as though it had been dyed by the paint.
WHOOSH—!
The curtain of wind was not used merely as a shield.
As if to make that fact clear, Lara moved the wind.
Following her command, the wind transformed into a vortex and shot toward Stella.
BOOM! RUMBLE!
Stella raised an earth wall or used nearby objects to block it.
Each time, a tremendous roar erupted as though a natural disaster had struck, while the aftermath of the wind that missed its target sent clothes whipping in the air.
“Amazing...! You’re amazing, Lara!”
“Idiot! Instead of standing there in awe, find the other bastard hiding around here!”
“Ah, right. You’re right!”
Amid the chaos, Samuel concentrated and searched for the presence of one more person.
The paint bullet that had hit him at the beginning.
It had not been magic.
He had clearly heard gunpowder exploding.
It had undoubtedly been fired from a revolver.
In other words, there was someone else in this place besides Stella.
‘I said that, but I still have to be the one to find them....’
Lara thought.
Samuel was not a mage.
Nor was he experienced like Han or Fabian.
So even while attacking Stella, Lara was also trying to locate the person hiding nearby.
Every living creature possessed a small amount of mana, and anyone skilled enough to use Mobility Gear would inevitably be noticed by the eyes of an experienced mage.
Naturally, it would be much faster for Lara to find them than to leave it to Samuel.
But then.
“Lara! Left!”
BANG, BANG!
Two gunshots rang out.
The first was a Magic-Suppressing Silver Bullet.
It slipped through an opening in her wind magic and partially erased the formula, creating a hole large enough for a fist to pass through.
The second was a paint bullet.
It followed that opening toward Lara, but missed.
“He’s coming straight at us!”
Samuel shouted.
Without even having time to be surprised, Lara quickly repaired the formula and sent a vortex toward that direction.
A man emerged from where the bullets had come from.
With minimal movement, he avoided the vortex and charged toward them.
Samuel was being protected by Lara’s magic, but he still drew his sword.
He took a stance that suggested he would immediately counterattack if Lara’s magic were broken.
Then.
“W-What do I do now?”
“What—?!”
ZZZZT—!
Just as Samuel had feared, the opponent accurately targeted a weakness in the spell and broke through it.
The opponent was a veteran highly skilled in Mobility Gear techniques.
Facing him was a former rookie guard from Alkant.
The Mobility Gear worn by the two men burst with steam.
HISSSSS—!
“Aaagh—!”
The scream belonged to Samuel.
In an instant, he allowed two sword strikes to land.
He gathered his courage and tried to fight back, but the tip of Samuel’s blade could not even reach his opponent.
One more paint strike and Samuel would be out.
Lara, his teammate, could not bear to watch that happen.
“Seriously. You coward!”
One second.
That was all the time Lara needed to gather mana and deploy a formula.
BOOM!
As though she had fired a palm blast, compressed wind exploded from Lara’s fingertips.
With no possible way to evade it, the attack struck the man directly.
Unable to withstand it, he was blasted away.
“Th-Thanks, Lara! Because of you....”
“Ugh.”
Lara clenched her teeth to keep herself from making a weak sound.
Reflected in Samuel’s eyes was Lara being struck hard in both sides.
It was Stella’s earth magic.
With that, Lara and Samuel had each taken two paint hits.
They had only one chance left.
“Lara! Are you—”
“—Stop worrying about me and focus! Watch your opponent!”
Lara’s shout snapped Samuel back to his senses.
Samuel looked toward the man Lara had blown away.
He still had not fully regained his stance.
There was still a chance!
Samuel raised his revolver.
BANG, BANG—!
Two accurately aimed bullets flew.
He wanted to fire three shots in succession, but the structure of the gun made that impossible.
So Samuel released steam.
He intended to finish it himself with his sword.
He moved frantically, refusing to give his legs even a moment to become afraid.
HISSSSSSS—!
The Mobility Gear tightened around Samuel’s body.
It rapidly devoured his mana.
At the same time, Samuel swung his sword.
However, his opponent had no intention of going down easily.
CLANG—!
Their swords collided with a sudden impact.
And it was Samuel’s sword that went flying.
The overwhelming difference in skill had cost Samuel his weapon.
Now, all that awaited him was his opponent’s final blow.
“Ugh!”
Realizing what would happen next, Samuel squeezed his eyes shut.
Samuel opened them again only after his shoulder was lightly touched.
Tap.
“Not bad. You two.”
The man had been hit by both of Samuel’s paint bullets.
Yet instead of becoming angry or embarrassed by the rookie’s counterattack, he smiled pleasantly.
“Polish yourselves up a little more, and you’ll become excellent Special Unit agents in no time.”
Only then was Samuel able to properly take in his opponent’s face.
Until moments ago, the man had seemed as fierce as a wolf encountered in the wilderness.
Now he looked like a mischievous older brother from the neighborhood.
“Aizan. Why are you pretending to be nice?”
Stella walked over.
Beside her, Lara floated in midair, completely encased in mud.
Lara looked thoroughly displeased.
“Come on. They did well. Look at this. If I’d screwed up, I could’ve been knocked out.”
“Oh, please. What an achievement.”
“You say that, but it looks like you were in quite a bit of danger yourself.”
“.......”
Aizan pointed toward both of Stella’s legs.
Pink paint covered both of them, though it was unclear when she had been hit.
They were the marks Lara had left during her desperate resistance before being defeated.
“As if this cheeky little junior would just let me take her down without a fight.”
Stella gave a hollow laugh and gestured toward Lara with her chin.
Lara was completely immobilized inside the mud.
She glared at Stella with the eyes of an untamed beast.
Meanwhile, Stella did not seem to dislike Lara all that much.
The expression that briefly crossed her face resembled a senior looking at a troublesome junior.
‘...I see.’
Only then did Samuel realize it.
Ah, these people really are our seniors.
They wanted to teach the newcomers something as their seniors.
Judging from Lara’s fierce reaction, their method did not seem particularly kind.
But if he looked closely, every place they had struck had avoided vital points.
That also meant they had never intended to fight seriously from the beginning.
“Anyway. Training is over for you two. All that’s left is the front entrance...... Hm?”
With the situation at the rear entrance more or less resolved, Stella turned toward the front entrance and narrowed her eyes.
She had spread mana throughout the abandoned building beforehand, allowing her to detect changes with great sensitivity.
“Why is Team Leader Gilbert over there.... Wait, before that....”
RUMBLE—!
The building shook as though an earthquake had struck.
At the same time, an enraged man’s roar thundered out.
“Aaaaaaaaaah!”
RUMBLE—!!
The second tremor was even stronger than the first.
Stella knew that the source of the shaking was their own team leader, Gilbert.
“This... doesn’t look normal at all. We don’t have time to stand around here!”
Team Leader Gilbert was genuinely furious.
Knowing exactly what that meant, Stella and Aizan hurriedly ran off.
With Stella gone, the magic restraining Lara was abruptly dispelled.
Lara and Samuel, both bewildered by the unexpected turn of events, exchanged looks before following them.
As they ran, they recalled the rule Han had explained before the training began.
—Team leaders will not directly participate in the training, but if an unexpected situation occurs, or if they determine one is about to occur, they may intervene freely.
Intervention by a team leader due to an unexpected situation.
Team Leader Gilbert seemingly furious.
Powerful tremors reminiscent of an earthquake.
With nothing but ominous signs, was this really heading toward catastrophe?
The four arrived at their destination.
Only then were they finally able to witness the scene of the problem for themselves.
“Why?! Why did you do something like this?!”
The interior was cracked and shattered in several places.
Reinforced concrete that had clearly once formed the first-floor ceiling and the second-floor floor had collapsed.
There were familiar faces nearby as well.
The two people lying on the ground and groaning in pain were members of Gilbert’s team.
And the person staggering as he barely managed to get back to his feet was Fabian.
However, the eyes of the four who had just arrived were drawn elsewhere.
“If you don’t give me a reason I can accept, you won’t die peacefully! Louis Allen!”
There stood Gilbert, thick veins bulging as though they might burst through his skin.
And gripped by the collar in his hand was Louis Allen, a member of Team 251.