I Became the Maid of the Lout Prince

Chapter 130

“Winner! Agnes Elizabeth Blaze!”

“Woohoo! Blaze! Blaze won!!”

“Hellfire! Hellfire!”

“As expected of the future Archmage of the Crimson Tower!!”

The result announcement from the arena and the cheers of the spectating students reached the waiting room.

As that burdensome voice echoed inside, the tension I had tried to suppress began to rise again.

Undoubtedly, Agnes, the top freshman in the Magic Department, must have thoroughly defeated Isabel, who was second-ranked. It was obvious without even watching.@@@@

This was one of the basic events that would occur even if you only played “Luminor Academy” once or twice, so I wasn’t particularly surprised.

Unless the protagonist character entered the Magic Department, Technical Department, or Pharmacy Department and targeted Agnes, this event would occur with 100% probability.

In fact, it wasn’t even really an event. In actual gameplay, it would only appear in the form of a summary in one or two sentences and had little significance to the game‘s actual story progression. It was just pitiful for Isabel, who kept getting beaten up every time just because she was second-ranked. [GalaxyTL/Axiomatic]

Thinking about this, after about ten minutes passed as the arena was being prepared, the battle between Karen and Siz, ranked 3rd and 7th respectively, also began.

The result of that match also ended anticlimactic in less than 5 minutes, just like Agnes’s evaluation battle.

“Winner, Karen Iris Stormweaver!”

“Woohoo!”

“Karen! Karen!”

The victory declaration and students’ cheers were heard again, not even ten minutes after Agnes’s duel had ended.

It was to be expected. Students with the right to choose their opponents tended to pick opponents they could easily defeat.

If you only looked at the skills of the 3rd and 7th ranked, it shouldn’t have been a match that ended this quickly, but Karen had a huge advantage over Siz in their specialties.

Karen’s specialty was Wind Magic, while Siz’s specialty was Nature Magic.

‘Originally, I was supposed to win comfortably against opponents using Summoning Magic or Dark Magic and wrap up the semester.’

I still couldn’t understand how it had turned out like this.

This academy just wouldn’t let me relax even until the end of the semester.

“Lilith.”

“...Yes, Young Master Ethan.”

Ethan, who had been waiting with me in the same waiting room out of concern, approached me.

Surely, he wasn’t going to tell me to forfeit because he was worried, right?

Even if he said such a thing, I had no intention of missing out on this major XP event from the start. I would have to politely refuse somehow...

“You must win, Lilith.”

“...Pardon?”

“I believe you can win, Lilith.”

...What’s with him suddenly?

Well, it was still much better than telling me not to do it because it was dangerous.

Rather, receiving encouragement helped me focus my mind a little more. [GalaxyTL/Axiomatic]

I slightly bowed my head and answered Ethan, who was speaking to me with a serious look.

“Of course, that’s what I intend to do.”

“Good. I’ll be waiting.”

...If I say this so shamelessly and then come back defeated, I won’t be able to show my face for a while out of embarrassment.

It seemed I had no choice but to win this duel and return victorious.

“Next duel! Magic Department, 4th rank, Lilith Blackwood Rosewood! Technical Department, 2nd rank, Luke Cruella!”

“Hey, hey, isn’t she the woman who cut Raidenhart’s wrist with a silver dagger at the entrance ceremony...?”

Most students in the Magic and Swordsmanship Departments already knew that I could fight with a silver dagger due to the incident I caused at the entrance ceremony, but the spectators’ seats weren’t just filled with students from these two departments.

It wasn’t that strange for them to show such surprised reactions. [GalaxyTL/Axiomatic]

The same seemed to be true for Luke, who had rushed at me with daggers.

“H-How...?”

How, my ass. You shouldn’t be surprised by something like this when you’re the one who picked this fight in the first place.

To be fair, it wasn’t purely a battle of sword against sword. She was swinging her daggers purely with the grip strength of her hands, while I had deflected her sword once using Mana Imbue and a Shockwave.

I dodged one of the blades coming from both sides by turning my body and deflected the other to create an opening.

Of course, this wasn’t particularly important. What mattered was that I had the means to deal with Luke’s movements and techniques.

“Weren’t you a mage...?”

“No, I am.”

“Then how can you use a dagger...”

“Well, what can I say? If you don’t like it, use magic yourself.”

“......”

“You’re from the Technical Department, but you’re making a fuss. Don’t make this troublesome.”

Obviously, there was no rule saying that a mage couldn’t use a sword in the final evaluation battle.

In the first place, magic itself wasn’t exclusive to the Magic Department, and there were quite a few close-combat warriors among the nobles who used magic as a supplementary means even if they weren’t in the Magic Department.

It wasn’t against the rules for someone from the Magic Department to fight with a sword or a spear.

After all, what the academy wanted was “academy students with combat abilities,” and they weren’t a stupid group that would prohibit magicians from equipping secondary weapons to develop those combat abilities.

“......”

On the other hand, Luke, whose first attack had been blocked by me, showed somewhat confused emotions in her eyes. [GalaxyTL/Axiomatic]

For someone with strong pride as the princess’s guard, the situation of having her blade blocked by a female student from the Magic Department must have been hard to understand.

However, that moment of hesitation on her part became an opportunity for me.

For a close-combat fighter to give distance and time to a Magic Department student meant giving them time to respond.

Thanking Luke’s momentarily foolish judgment, I used the next spell I had secretly memorized.

*SHIIIINE*

“Ugh?!”

Blurred Light, a spell I had learned separately from the auxiliary magic tree for this battle.

It was a magic used to momentarily blur vision by flashing a strong light in front of the eyes, allowing other party members to attack in the meantime. Of course, there were no other party members with me, so I had to do both the support and the attack myself.

Luke showed an opening as she momentarily squinted at the flash of light thrust before her eyes.

That opening was exactly the moment I was aiming for, and this time, I cast three Magic Arrows, created by triple casting flew toward Luke.

There wasn’t enough time to use Mana Blast, so the plan was to inflict small wounds little by little for now.

Whoosh!

“AAAAARGH!”

With only a 20% hit rate, there was a possibility that all three shots would miss, but fortunately, it seemed the god of fate hadn’t abandoned me.

One of the three Magic Arrows pierced Luke’s left forearm, and her painful scream reached my ears.

‘Well, that’s one hit.’

For a duel between a close-combat fighter and a mage, it wasn’t a bad start.

Whether I could end it this decently until the end remained to be seen.