“Ah? You’re all here already?”
The team looked around, then at Headmaster Farhir. Was this unkempt, droopy-faced man really their headmaster? He…
“Did you go out drinking last night?” Kate crossed her arms and glared at Headmaster Farhir.
“Ah… no.”
‘I was drinking, but I didn’t go out to drink.’ thought Headmaster Farhir.
Actually, he’d wanted to go home to sleep early, but because of the bottle of wine he’d polished off in his office, by the time he’d arrived home, he had been more than a little drunk. As a man who didn’t often drink, he’d been hit rather hard last night… in more ways than one. The previous night, for Headmaster Farhir, had looked something like this.
After struggling with the front door to his estate, he’d accidentally walked right into his wife, who had been waiting for his return. What she hadn’t expected, however, was for him to smell like alcohol, stumbling around like a poor drunkard.
Instead of her usual greeting, which was to hug him and ask how he was doing, she had immediately slapped his face, shouting. “WHO LET YOU DRINK TONIGHT?”
Headmaster Farhir couldn’t remember much after that, as he’d blacked out. After waking up, he’d found himself lying facedown on his front porch, the door to his house locked shut. Despite knocking on the door with all his might, the door remained closed.
After trying for a few minutes, he’d given up and had begun to make his way over to the school. On the way, still caught up in his hangover, he’d decided to stop for a bowl of ox bone soup before continuing on to his office, all without washing, shaving, or changing his clothes from the day before.
Hence his current disheveled state.
“Ah… just… just give me a minute.” Headmaster Farhir strolled past his students and entered his office. After a bit, the students could hear the sound of running water, and...off-tune singing.
Was he...showering?
They looked towards each other. Had the headmaster gone crazy?
After a few moments of silence,Cassandra sighed. “We have to do better next round, everyone. Otherwise, I don’t think the headmaster will be able to stand it…”
“Mm, mm.” Everyone in the office nodded their heads in agreement.
If this was how Headmaster Farhir behaved after a tough win, how would he react to a loss? They didn’t want to imagine it.
After a bit, Headmaster finally walked out of his office, his hair still wet. At least, he had changed into a new outfit and looked more lively tha neh had before.
“Alright, come into my office separately, and we’ll go over what you can do to improve in the upcoming rounds., uh… Cassandra.”
“Yes, sir!
As the morning went on, the team filed in and out of the office. Finally the “lower three”, May, Alex, and Wesley were the only three left.
Headmaster Farhir decided to leave May and Alex for the end, and asked for Wesley to be sent in.
“So, what’s going on?”
“Hello Wesley, uhh… so you did very well in the fight, so this will be short. Everything you did against your first opponent was exemplary, if a little risky. If not for his moment of hesitation, it is unsure as to who would have come out of that ahead. Remember, winners win by performing at a high level on a consistent basis, not by fighting as aggressively as they can and hoping they come out ahead.
“As for your second opponent, it was a very good job of saving Luke with your ice wall. The touch of thickness you added to the ice wall was a great touch, but you forgot to keep an eye on your surroundings.”
Headmaster zoomed in on the image of Wesley face-planting into the stage floor, then repeated the scene a few times for effect.
‘...’ Wesley wasn’t sure what to make of the situation.
“Well, just keep that in mind. Again, great job. Please send Alex and May in together.”
“Yes, Headmaster.”
After walking out the room, Wesley addressed Alex and May. “Hey, he wants to see the both of you.”
“Ah?” Alex and May looked at each other, then walked into Headmaster Farhir’s office.
…
Barely a hundred miles south, a Reiniad scout laid prone on the forest floor, softly breathing through his mouth.
A few hundred feet in front of him, rows of soldiers marched northward. At regular intervals, the rows of soldiers gave way to horse-drawn wagons, each of which carried a large basket several feet wide and long, as well as a large amount of… cloth?
The scout narrowed his eyes. Regardless of what the baskets were for, he could easily see that the soldiers were wearing armors distinctive to Clairmont Kingdom. Yet, these soldiers were but a hundred miles away from Lumient City, well within the Reiniad Kingdom’s borders. At the very least, they would have at least passed a few villages, even a city or two. How had they escaped detection until now?
Well, that wasn’t important right now. He needed to relay this information to his superior. Otherwise…
He slowly picked himself off the ground, the turned - and abrupt stopped.
“Yo.”
The scout stared wide-eyed at the magic seal just a foot from his face.
“...Oh fu-”
Chapter 25
Back in Lumient City, Headmaster Farhir pointedly asked Alex and May, “How do you think you guys did during the fight against the Northeastern Elementary Institute of Magic?”
Alex and May glanced at each other, then Alex answered. “Not well, sir.”
Headmaster Farhir propped his chin up with his index fingers. “Tell me what you did that made your performance subpar.”
“Ah…”
Alex and May exchanged glances again, then collectively sighed.
“We, uh, we’ve always been practicing together, and practicing fighting together. Um… we’ve always been at the top of our class, simply stronger and smarter than the rest. But, Wesley and Luke have come along.
“We didn’t really care when the team was formed, as we were still comparable to them, stronger than Wesley, even. But now, the two of them are improving too fast for us to catch up… so we wanted to see if we could push ourselves harder in order to match them.
“So, we’ve been trying some more complicated maneuvers. Unfortunately, during the fight, I messed up, and wasn’t able to correct myself before we were taken out of the ring.”
Headmaster Farhir nodded. It was a plausible excuse...
“So, Wesley and Luke. their fast progression has given you a large amount of pressure, so you tried to catch back up to them by stretching the limits of your synergy?”
May spoke up. “Yes headmaster. Sorry.”
“Eh, nothing to be sorry about. However, I must say that while you two indeed do cooperate very well with each other when fighting, for now, please keep to improving your fundamentals, and don’t try anything too complicated on stage.”
“But - “
“No buts. We have a strong team, and that includes the two of you. Fighting in the training fields, and fighting on stage are two completely different animals - the two of you realized that yesterday, didn’t you?”
Alex and May shifted in their seats. “Yes…”
“Well then, that’ll be all. Feel free to practice more complicated maneuvers, but only bring them out on stage when you’re absolutely sure you’ve practiced it adequately. Otherwise, you won’t be helping the team but rather, be hurting it.
“Furthermore, if you rush your progression, you’ll never become a top-tier mage, which both of you have the potential to be. Don’t rush the basics just because someone more talented than you has appeared - throwing your future away for something like that is simply not worth it.”
“Yes, headmaster!”
The headmaster’s words had subtly pointed something out - despite falling behind Wesley and Luke, they were still young mages with incredibly high potential - and even if Wesley and Luke were passing them now, as long as they put forth enoug
h effort, what was to say that they wouldn’t be able to catch up in the future?
“Alright, now, head back out there. The rest of today will be devoted to team practice.”
“Yes, headmaster!”
May and Alex left the room, leaving Headmaster Farhir to rub his temples in silence. Sometimes, he felt convinced that leading troops in war was easier than heading an institute of learning - at least there, he could vent his frustrations on the enemy troops.
He looked down at his desk. On it, was an unfurled scroll with large words written in flamboyant writing.
It read:
‘Under the command of his highness, the King of Reiniad, Sir Farhir is to take command of the 13th Division in the campaign against the Clairmont Kingdom.’
“Aish, even I’m being drawn in. We’ve already sent mages to fight the Conarite Kingdom, and now we’re looking to fight the Clairmont Kingdom? Just what is going on?”
He looked in the direction of the central palace, then shook his head. Just how long would this war last?
After taking a few moments to gather his thoughts, he left his office and stepped outside to greet his students again.
“Alright everyone, enough resting for today! Go go go, we’re going to the training fields!”
At the training fields, several hundred students of the Reiniad Elementary Institute of Magic had been dutifully practicing, but upon seeing the headmaster arrive with the school’s representative team in tow, they immediately relinquished the field.
However, for Headmaster Farhir, this wasn’t quite enough.
“Hello everyone, please leave the immediate area - school guards be surrounding the training fields to prevent trespassers from viewing our practice. Please understand. When the school representative team is not practicing here, you are still free to use the training fields as you wish.
“Thank you for your patience.”
With Headmaster Farhir’s words, the students in the area disbursed, but not without some groaning.
Even as they left, tens of school guards surrounded the training field to guard against unwanted observers.
Wesley and the rest of the school representative began to practice team-based strategies for the next few rounds of the competition, as well as some 2 vs 2 and 1 vs 1 duels.
Alex and May had always been determined as one of the duos for the 2 vs 2 fights, and despite their performance the day prior, performed well in practice. Headmaster Farhir, in an attempt to show his trust, decided to keep them as one of the duos.
Another duo, was Wesley and Kate. The latter, as a defensive support mage, could provide Wesley, who had an encyclopedia worth of ice spells at his disposal, the time and safety to fire off as many spells as he could - and with how fast their mana regenerated now, Wesley could fire out an extreme amount of spells for a mage of his age.
As the day progressed, the team slowly but surely ironed out weaknesses they’d noticed from the day prior.
Hours later, the sun had already set when the team finally ended their practice - happy from the improvement they’d made during the day, they happily returned to their homes in good spirits.
That night, however, a certain school guard, no longer in his working attire, walked up to the entrance of a hotel, looked around, then walked in. After walking past the front lobby, he walked up a few flights of stairs, then knocked on a door.
“Who is it?”
“SG78.”
“Ah, perfect. Come in, I hope you have some fun information to share to us.”
“Of course.”
Chapter 26
The next day, Patriarch Lumient walked alongside Wesley and Kate on their way to the stadium. With nearly a hundred family guards escorting them, the trio were able to travel at a leisurely pace, separated from the rest of the world.
“How has practice been?” Patriarch Lumient questioned the two youngsters.
“Tough. We didn’t expect to be struggling so much against the other teams, so we’ve been doubling our efforts.”
“Well, try your best. The King himself will be present today. Give me something to brag about, haha.”
Wesley and Kate glanced at each other, then rolled their eyes.
After reaching the stadium, Patriarch Lumient parted from Wesley and Kate, who made their way toward the team’s prep room. Meanwhile, Patriarch Lumient made his way to his place at the King’s side.
After about an hour, the Reiniad Elementary Institute’s team stood on stage, facing against their opponents of the day. In a 2-4-3 formation, they stood proudly, calmly, waiting for the match to begin.
When it did, they defaulted to a very standard battle system.
The two in front, Jacob and Ryu, were meant to be fodder for the rest of the team - to buy them enough time to cast their spells. If the team’s formation was akin to that of a city’s defenses, Jacob and Ryu were the city’s gate and walls, the four just behind them were the archers, and the three in the back were cannons.
Wesley looked calmly upon the scene from the back of his team’s formation. As three of the strongest mages on the team, he, Kate, and Luke had been chosen as the team’s “cannons”.
Cassandra stood at the center of the stage, facing the captain of the opposing team. The opponents today were from a small, specialized school of magic that trained only close-combat mages.
A unique challenge.
However, before the two teams clashed, in the sky, hundreds of balloons suddenly appeared in the sky above Lumient City, with a large concentration of them hovering over the stadium.
The balloons were so large and numerous that all those in the stadium instantly saw them, but most simply applauded. The Reiniad Kingdom had really stepped up the production value of the tournament this year!
But Patriarch Lumient, the many guards present, and even the King and his entourage stared into the sky with trepidation and fear.
These… These balloons were not from the Reiniad Kingdom!
Immediately, Patriarch Lumient soared into the air, while alarms sounded throughout the stadium, and throughout Lumient City.
Although they’d never expected such an attack, those in charge of Lumient City’s security had long prepared for this kind of worst case situation.
Tens of thousands of mages rushed toward rallying points, while hundreds of thousands of soldiers, while caught off guard, rushed to the barracks to arm themselves and form into battle formations.
The general populace hid themselves in their dwellings, but most couldn’t resist and look outside, wondering what fate had in store for them.
As soon as the balloons appeared, thousands of ‘things’ indistinguishable to those on the ground rained down from the sky. As Patriarch Lumient neared the hot air balloons, he caught a glimpse of what those ‘things’ were.
Chaos gems! Shit!
Without a second thought, Patriarch Lumient instantly did two things.
The first, he instantly used his mana to broadcast his voice to the entire city. “All mages, cast shielding spells now! The enemy is dropping chaos gems on the city!”
In better circumstances, he wouldn’t have done this, at risk of causing the city’s residents to panic, but in this case, he had no choice.
At the same time, he drew a seal with his quickest speed and poured as much of his mana into it as he could.
The result was a gigantic shield of light that covered not only the stadium, but the surrounding city as well.
Just in time too - just a split second later, thousands upon thousands of chaos gems exploded against the shield, and a few seconds later, thousands of explosions sounded about near or at ground level of the city.
Luckily, with Patriarch Lumient’s quick actions, the damage was minimized, but thousands of chaos gems still exploded on direct contact with building rooftops, the streets, and even a few unfortunate souls were unfortunately hit directly.
Fire quickly spread through the city, but many citizens and mages on hand quickly moved to
quell the flames.
As soon as the attack had started, the King had been whisked away by his guards, and the commander the city’s forces had begun to move - but even the quickest of preparations still needed time.
And it was the few minutes the enemy needed to descend from the skies, and attack the city en masse.
Kate, Wesley, and the others on stage glanced at each other, panic clearly in their eyes.
Memory Seal- Volume 2 Page 11
