Chapter 11 (1/2)
Mightiest Melee Magician
Chapter 11
My roommate, Jason, shouted while walking in front of me,
“Make way for the Archmage!”
“……”
What was with this fame?
“Woah! It’s Ruin!”
“Hey Ruin! You wanna eat lunch together?”
“Did you go exercise in the morning? Do you train like that every day?”
“……”
It changed overnight.
Just until yesterday, I was the biggest loner of the academy.
“Ruin, how do you feel about today’s test?”
“Will you use your fists again? Woosh, woosh. Like this?”
“Of course he will!”
Should I just say that the number of people who wanted to become my friend had increased?
To these classmates, all I did was shake my head.
“…Please, just mind your own business.”
But the more I did this, the more they swarmed around me.
“Ruin. Do you perhaps know my name? We were in the same class for the last 6 years, but this is the first time we are talking like this. My name is Halbert. Don’t forg-”
“Get off him! It’s my turn now. Ruin, you know my name, right? The son of Baron Mungelind…”
“……”
I’m sorry, but I don’t care about your names.
“Sigh…”
As soon as I made that small sigh, Jason said to me in an increasingly joking way,
“Sir Archmage! Are you uncomfortable anywhere?”
“You’re too loud. Please.”
“Kekek.”
This had become even more tiring than before, when no one paid any attention to me.
Of course, not everyone was just friendly to me either.
Some groups that liked to talk badly about me were still present.
“I really can’t understand the examiners. How could they accept that ‘thing’ as magic?”
“He definitely used some weird tricks. Don’t you think so, Michael?”
The main group being the nobles that attached themselves to Michael Galehill so that they may eat his crumbs someday.
They always looked at me like my existence was offensive to them.
But honestly, these types of responses were easier to deal with.
I grinned.
“Eh?”
“That bastard is… smiling?”
If I lightly smiled at them, they’d explode on their own.
“You. Did you just laugh at us?”
“You think you’re unstoppable just because you had one good test result?”
As expected, they were within my predictions.
Michael Galehill, who was observing me from afar, slowly walked up to me.
“For a magician to use their fist… As expected, you’re vulgar.”
“Vulgar? Can I take that statement to mean you disregard all the knights of the kingdom?”
“…Whatever. I don’t care what you say. I don’t know what tricks you used yesterday but…”
Michael grinned a little, as if he had a plan.
“You know it’s no use on today’s test, right?”
“……”
The 2nd test was today.
It was a straightforward test to determine the destructive power of one’s magic.
But there was one variable for this test.
The artifact used for the test, ‘The Ancient Ogre Kingram’, was in fact, ‘alive’.
Just as the name would suggest, the ancient predator ogre ‘Kingram’ was defeated by the first archmage, Frolian Ignit, and was therefore trapped in the void inside the artifact, cursed to always be famished.
He became an artifact in this state and Kingram, still trapped inside the artifact, received the magician’s mana when attacked and he absorbed it.
Technically used as a type of ‘Magic Sandbag’, the mana output absorbed by Kingram was then digitized, and the number was put as that magician’s grade.
Meaning, this was an entirely different variable than any other test.
‘What if the ogre doesn’t accept my unusual magic.’
Well, I had never even touched ‘Kingram’ once before.
And on top of that, my magic was unusual.
Magic that no one had seen before.
This was probably why Michael was acting all high and mighty.
But rather than worry about it, I decided to brightly smile for him.
“Michael. Good luck on your test.”
“What? The hell are you saying now?”
“So that you’ll see me again, in the .”
The last of the tests, and also the climax.
The students battle each other in a special mana barrier where the lethality of their magic is reduced by 99%.
The important thing here was the matchup.
The one that sets those matchups was the result of today’s test.
The group bracket you got put into would depend on the outcome.
The low scores with low scores and the high scores with other high scores.
“Don’t you also want to meet me?
My small provocation made Michael’s eyebrows twitch and he snorted at me, responding in kind,
“Do you think you even have a chance of matching against me? You, who is an inferior. Who only got failing marks for the last 6 years…”
Inferior student.
Failing marks.
The tags that were attached to me till the end.
I responded to Michael in a colder voice,
“Michael, aren’t you being too nervous right now?”
“What?”
It was then.
Wheeeeeeng-!
The siren that marked the start of the test rang through the entire academy.
Rattle!
As the doors to the testing grounds opened, the assistant instructors that were in charge of the examinations appeared one by one.
“The test has started! Everyone go to your seats!”
“ ……”
Michael’s face said he had a lot of things to say to me, but at the arrival of the instructors, he didn’t say anything and went back to his seat.
Instead, it was like he was talking with his eyes, staring at me like looks could kill.
Seeing Michael like that, I gave him a shrug.
Calm down buddy.
You’re gonna start firing lasers out of your eyes.
At that point, Jason, who was sitting next to me, pointed to the entrance of the testing grounds.
“Yo Ruin, look at that!”
“Hm?”
“Even though I’ve seen it many times, it’s still so cool every time I see it.”
At the place that Jason was pointing to, the academy instructors were wheeling in a huge statue on a cart.
A gigantic, silver-plated statue.
Even though the outside was constructed using sturdy platinum, the inside housed a living, breathing creature.
That was definitely,
“…Kingram.”
* * *
* * *
The Ancient Ogre Kingram.
This was a treasure that represented the academy, and a rare-grade artifact, something that was hard to find, even across the entire continent.
‘The Ancient Ogre Kingram’.