I Became the Maid of the Lout Prince

“Begin the duel!”

Whoosh!

The magic duel between Agnes and Lilith began with Lady Blaze’s opening attack.

It was only natural for Agnes to start by hurling a fireball, given how much had built up against Lilith due to the incident a week ago.

Her determination to land a fireball on Lilith, which she had harbored all week since the incident in front of the Student Council Building, would not waver even if her opponent was one of only two friends she had in the world.

“Fly forth! Blazing flames!”

Agnes’s swift fireball crossed the circular arena, shooting straight toward Lilith’s body.

A spell flying at tremendous speed, covering 30 meters (T/N: approx. 100 ft.) in less than a second. Moreover, given who was casting it, its power was nothing to scoff at.

In fact, during last year’s evaluation duel, this very spell had knocked out Isabel, who was ranked second at the time, in one hit.

Typically, in magical duels, one would choose between speed and power, but Agnes possessed both. It’s no surprise that she firmly held the top spot in the Magic Department.

Also, throughout the entire second year, only one person had the means to counter such an Agnes within the Magic Department. [Only on Galaxy Translations! / Axiomatic]

Whoosh!

Lilith, having predicted the swift fireball from the moment Agnes began her incantation, leapt sideways, kicking off the ground.

Given the spell’s power, a person with the average jumping ability of a student of the Magic Department would normally be caught in the explosion’s range. However, Lilith’s physical abilities were far superior to those of other fellow students to begin with.

Thud!

After spinning once in mid-air and flying over 5 meters (T/N: ~16.5 ft), Lilith’s body hit the ground.

Seeing Lilith’s body ripple once upon landing, Agnes’s determination flared up once again.

‘Hmph, so your physical abilities are good after all, huh?’

Agnes was already aware that Lilith’s overall physical abilities were superior compared to other Magic Department students.

After all, there was no way a student of the Magic Department would keep taking Swordsmanship Department classes for three semesters straight otherwise. Even if one’s lover was in the Swordsmanship Department, it would be difficult to continue for long without genuine talent.

Another point was also how she had faced Luke with dagger techniques in last year’s evaluation duel. Although Agnes had impulsively chosen Lilith as her opponent due to her anger towards her, she wasn’t careless enough to assume she would definitely win against her.

This time, Lilith counterattacked towards Agnes, who had a slight opening after using the swift fireball as her first spell.

“Pierce, arrows of magic!”

The same triple casting as always, and the Magic Arrows she had always used…

It was an attack focused on speed, chosen between Energy Bolt, which emphasized attacking power, and Magic Arrow, which emphasized speed.

Unfortunately, Lilith had failed to predict that against Agnes, Energy Bolts would be more effective than Magic Arrows.

‘Three Magic Arrows. This, too, is as I expected.’

True to her nature of rarely forgetting what she had learned, Agnes remembered most of what she had seen in last year’s duel between Lilith and Luke.

While outwardly pretending to be uninterested in other students, she was actually more attentive to their matches than anyone else. [Only on Galaxy Translations! / Axiomatic]

Due to her never-ending academic enthusiasm for magic, and her obsession with not losing the top spot in order to enter the main house of the Elizabeth family, Agnes had a habit of carefully observing the matches of other top-ranking Magic Department students, not just her own. This naturally included Lilith, who had been ranked 5th in their year last year.

“Protect!”

Clang!

With Agnes’s incantation, three copies of Arcane Barrier enveloped her surroundings. Lilith’s Magic Arrows struck two of the three.

If they had been Energy Bolts, they could have broken through and dealt some damage. Or even if Agnes had prepared for that, she would have had to spend more time on the incantation, which would have been a better choice than Magic Arrows in terms of buying more time.

As a bonus, thanks to her still poor accuracy, one of the three shots fell short midway.

“Infernocilia, it’s time to use what we practiced.”

|Okay!|

“|As the burning flames awaken that soul, today, this young spirit shall blaze in a new form!|”

Agnes and Infernocilia simultaneously chanted the joint spell in the same manner after a brief exchange.

And as soon as the spell ended, a large fire spirit formed on one side of the arena. It was the form of what’s commonly called a Fire Giant, which Infernocilia had taken on.

|Alright, here I go!!!|

A synergy spell that a mage with an affinity for fire magic can use in conjunction with a fire spirit…

Lilith felt a bit flustered at Agnes’s original technique, which was rarely seen in the original story.

‘I’ve often seen Orion use Forest Giant, but…’

Lilith hadn’t expected Agnes to use Fire Giant in this duel.

After all, the fact that she could use Fire Giant was because Lilith herself had helped her contract with a fire spirit, so in the end, it was Lilith’s own karma.

|Take this!!! You big-boobed girl who made Agnes cry!!!|

Infernocilia, temporarily elevated in rank due to the combination spell’s effect, swung a giant fist of fire at Lilith. Even though she was temporarily elevated in rank, she was still a low-level spirit at her core, so her high-pitched voice and clumsy attitude that didn’t match her size came as a bonus.

Of course, Lilith couldn’t just take the hit, so, once again, she avoided the giant’s fiery fist with a jump in place.

Although Infernocilia’s attacks came down several times in succession, they weren’t particularly difficult to dodge compared to the swift fireball.

It seemed that the low-level spirit was not yet accustomed to her large body, and to begin with, all a low-level spirit could do after temporarily receiving a higher-level body was to attack using that enlarged body. [Only on Galaxy Translations! / Axiomatic]

As long as it contained a low-level spirit, it couldn’t imitate the truly fearsome aspects of a high-level spirit.

However, what made the Fire Giant frightening was that it provided even a lesser fire spirit with a means to use powerful and dangerous attacks with each step. So, it was inevitable that Lilith, who until just now had only been dealing with Agnes’s magic alone, would have to dodge much more desperately.

Boom! 

Crash!

‘Although attacks are coming from both sides, if I concentrate, it’s not impossible to dodge…’

“Flame Field!”

“Oh no!”

In the process of avoiding attacks coming from two different directions in entirely different ways, Lilith’s concentration was inevitably disrupted, and of course, Agnes was aiming for just that one opening.

The spell, used to predict where Lilith’s steps would land, blazed up from below. Since she was already airborne, there wasn’t enough distance to dodge using the recoil from a Shockwave.

Fortunately, like Agnes, Lilith wasn’t fighting alone.

“Sei! Favorable wind!”

[Okay.]

With a short reply, an updraft caught Lilith’s body as it was about to fall into the flames. Although it was just an intermediate spirit’s wind magic, it was more than enough to lift and support the body of one young girl.

“Sally! Please take care of that giant friend for me! You can use my mana as much as you want, so please handle them properly!”

{Alright! Leave that one to me, Lilith!}

As soon as Lilith’s plea for help, having judged that she couldn’t possibly face Agnes and the fire spirit simultaneously on her own, came out, the salamander flew towards the Fire Giant as if it had been waiting for those words.

With her right hand, she created a ring of blazing fire and began to expand its size.

Whoosh, whoosh…

|Huh…?|

A giant ring was growing rapidly in the hands of the high-level spirit, quickly reaching a size not inferior to the Fire Giant.

Upon witnessing this enormous ring, Infernocilia momentarily hesitated, and Sally threw the fiery chakram in her hand with all her might towards the Fire Giant.

{Such a giant body is a thousand years too early for someone who hasn’t even lived a year!}

|Kyaaaa!!|

The Fire Giant crumbled as half of its body was sliced off by the flaming disc that flew from Sally’s hand. And in an instant, Sally rushed towards the halved Infernocilia with an excited expression.

‘…High-ranking spirits are reliable after all.’

Lilith focused on her battle with Agnes, thinking that it would be fine to let the fire spirits fight each other.

Barely avoiding Agnes’s spells that had been unleashed in one go, Lilith once again aimed for an opening in her opponent with triple casting.

This time, it was a triple casting of Energy Bolts instead of Magic Arrows, but once again, Lilith’s attack was blocked by Agnes’s quickly-deployed defensive magic.

‘Two hits this time, too. I’ve felt this before, but Lilith isn’t the type with particularly good accuracy.’

Both in last year’s final duel and in today’s final duel, whenever Lilith used Triple Casting, all three spells never hit.

One or two always missed, and only two or one properly hit the target. This was undoubtedly true, as Agnes had observed it several times while taking the same major subjects with Lilith. [Only on Galaxy Translations! / Axiomatic]

At first, she thought it might be due to Lilith’s lack of proficiency with triple casting, but for that, Lilith rarely made the mistakes typical of such imperfect Triple Casting.

Usually, when compressing a three-part spell into one, mistakes tend to occur in the last spell deployed, but Lilith’s magic completely deviated from this pattern.

‘This time, the second spell missed. Earlier, it was the first spell. Maybe, instead of being unskilled at Triple Casting, is she deliberately deflecting one spell at a time?’

Agnes couldn’t imagine it was simply bad luck causing one shot to miss each time. After all, she was born with luck that had never let a spell miss when she put her heart and soul into concentrating. 

However, this middling accuracy was raising Agnes’s suspicions and gradually drew her attention in the heat of battle.

“……”

Agnes had failed to notice that Lilith, who seemed to be merely dodging magic and buying time, was gradually approaching her.

T/N

Hello! Axiomatic here.

See you in a bit for the bonus chapter!