Mightiest Melee Magician

“……Doom Prime lost?”

The greatest magic school on the Frelian continent that produced the King of Magicians.

As he was the representative of the Raynac Magic Soldier Training School, the news of Doom Prime’s elimination was quite shocking.

On top of that, he wasn’t even 2nd, but 9th.

This unexpectedly low performance in the rankings by Doom Prime had nearly silenced the Altein Stadium with shock.

However, this was only for the citizens of Raynac.

“The victor has been decided!”

“Ruin! It’s Ruin Ardell!”

After the great wall of Doom was broken down, a new ‘magician of the generation’ had appeared.

“WOOOOOOOO!”

The Altein Stadium wasn’t filled with silence, but cheers.

Victory in the Battle Survival.

This meant victory in the Individual Competition, and everyone welcomed the newly appearing genius.

From here, one key factor that Ruin had that Doom didn’t was shown clearly.

It was his star quality.

“Have you heard about that student?”

“Ruin Ardell? Yeah, I did. I heard that he used to be a failing student?”

“That’s right. On top of that, he’s from a countryside family that didn’t have any connection to magic.”

“Hoho. For a student like that to show these results… Isn’t Doom Prime from an elite family?”

“Who cares so long as it’s entertaining, right? Haha!

A dunce that appeared like a comet after squeezing past the geniuses.

A no-name magician that was originally a failing student and had no official experience in competitions.

A miraculous story that was played out by this no-name magician.

This was quite the charismatic story for the average tourist that went to the Grand Festival to have some fun.

And the night after the Battle Survival, talks of ‘who is Ruin Ardell?’ filled the streets.

This wasn’t that different among the participating students.

“I-if this keeps going like this, won’t Ruin actually win?”

“Hey. Shut up. That guy had a team. Doom Prime was alone.”

“B-but he was definitely in a one on one situation when he fought—”

“Didn’t I tell you to shut up? What dogshit are you saying in front of Doom?”

“…S-sorry.”

Even the students of Raynac Magic Soldier Training School, who had never doubted their victories, had talked about Ruin Ardell.

Some students even started betting on who the winner of the Grand Festival would be.

And surprisingly, ‘Ruin Ardell’ was favoured quite highly.

It seemed that the one on one fight between Doom and Ruin had made quite the impression.

“Alright! The genius magician that appeared from nowhere, Ruin Ardell! We’re selling the seats to his next individual match!”

“Everyone, remember, this is the magician that defeated Doom Prime! He’s a once-in-a-generation magician!”

“……”

Doom was leaning on the terrace of his inn while looking down on the Altein district plastered with the name of ‘Ruin Ardell’ instead of his.

“Doom, are you ok?”

Asked a worried student to him, but Doom didn’t avert his gaze.

He only looked at his sword broken in two, his ‘Sword of Brilliance’, with a dejected look in his eyes.

On the inside, he was thinking,

‘I let my guard down.’

He tried to pass it off as a simple loss of focus,

“……”

But his pride wouldn’t let that happen.

He knew it himself.

That this wasn’t something he can pass off as just ‘letting his guard down’.

Even knowing that Ruin Ardell’s strength was unnaturally powerful,

‘……To aim for my sword.’

The fact that he didn’t aim at Doom, but rather the sword he was swinging and hit it head on was something that he had never expected.

No.

He furrowed his brows as he thought again to his fight against Ruin Ardell that he had meditated on for a few hundred times.

‘I could’ve dodged it.’

In that ‘second’ that decided the fate of the battle.

If he had noticed that Ruin was aiming for his sword and not himself, he could’ve even saved the sword.

But instead, he swung his sword without hesitation.

Because which would break when a fist met a blade was obvious.

Because he had never anticipated that he could lose.

However,

‘I lost.’

Doom Prime lost.

Twice on top of that.

He lost when his magic sword, which represented his status as a magic swordsman, broke.

“Has the Fire King… not called for me?”

“No. Not yet…”

“……”

And since he lost in front of the Fire King, it was the same as losing twice.

“D-don’t worry too much. I’m sure he’s being kind and letting you rest up while—”

“I want to be alone now.”

“Eh……? Ah! O-ok. Sorry. I’ll leave. C-call if you need anything.”

“……”

Doom Prime turned his gaze again to the streets of Altein.

Everyone in this damned night was still noisy, and they looked to be having fun.

* * *

* * *

The Battle Survival.

The two elders that were looking at this the closest were both shocked.

‘……He actually won.’

One of the elders was Tirion Ignit.

The one that called Ruin Ardell to this Grand Festival.

If anyone had asked him about his predictions about Ruin’s performance in this competition, he would’ve replied that he was confident Ruin would do well.

But he would’ve hesitated if they asked if he thought Ruin would win.

Tirion had also seen Doom Prime’s skills since he started learning magic from 10 years old, so he knew them pretty well.

If, maybe, Ruin’s skills were the same as when he fought against Michael Galehill, he predicted that it wouldn’t be enough against Doom Prime.

However, he won.

He actually won.

Not just from the stance of a director, but from his seat as a judge, it was a situation where he could only marvel.

Then,

“You can stop hiding it now.”

“……”

“That joyous feeling. I can see it all over your face, so you don’t have to keep hiding it.”

Here was the other elder, looking to be only around 30 years old, and who was also shocked.

The Fire King Teron talked truthfully to Tirion Ignit.

“Congratulations. You won.”

“Won? The festival hasn’t ended yet.”

“I’m not talking about the Grand Festival. I’m saying your methods of teaching won.”

Ruin Ardell and Doom Prime’s fight wasn’t just a fight between those two.

Tirion’s ‘trust in the student’ method that he emphasized, and Teron’s method of ‘educating’ someone by holding them in his control.

It was also an unseen fight between these two.

“I also lost when Doom Prime lost. This is my first loss to you in about 50 years.”

“First? I definitely remember that I was better than you until we were at least 13 years old.”

“……You remember some odd things. In any case, this Ruin Ardell… A truly savage kid. Who could’ve guessed that he would break a magic sword with his fist? I nearly fell off my seat from the shock.”

“Hehe… Well, I can’t say anything about that either.”

When looking at objective combat power levels, Doom Prime didn’t lose to Ruin Ardell.

It was more like he was at an overwhelming advantage.

However, the moment of victory in their fight appeared in an instant.

And Ruin Ardell’s tenacity and danger sense were much better.

This was also the territory of talent.

Since this couldn’t be accounted for by hard work alone, from Teron’s perspective, it was his complete loss.

Teron muttered while shaking his head,

“Tsk…… Seems I couldn’t save face, even though I’m the host. I don’t think I can look at that kid during the banquet.”

“Indeed. The banquet is coming up soon.”

The banquet.

This was a huge feast open for all participants on the day before the Grand Festival’s last.

Here, the six judges, including Fire King Teron, ate together with all the participants.

It was also the place where noble families would try and persuade some noteworthy students.

And it was used to scout out magicians too.

This was the place that determined the paths of these students after their graduation.

Even though Fire King Teron said he wouldn’t be able to talk to Ruin, he was still looking forward to everyone meeting together in one place.

“If Doom won, I would’ve been able to tell Ruin, ‘Kid, you still have a long way to go’ directly to his face. Kekeke.”

And so, the Grand Festival was nearing its conclusion.

* * *

A few days had passed since the end of the Battle Survival.

The events that happened afterwards were the three Group Competitions and the two Individual Competitions.

The group competition record was two wins, one loss, and the individual competition was total victory.

From this, our group competition ranking of 4th was finalized.

“Ah! So close……!”

The reason Jason was feeling down.

It was because, if they hadn’t lost in the final event, they could’ve been tied 3rd with the Frelia Holy Magic School, headed by Dylan Marken.

However, they ended up losing, and the final score was five wins, two losses.

And so they ended up in 4th.

I poked Jason in his hip and joked with him.

“Don’t you know I can see that you’re super happy?”

“…Is it that obvious?”

“Really obvious.”

“Wahoo! 4th place! We’re 4th place!”

“Hurray!”

Yeah.

4th.

This was a miraculous result considering we were called the ‘Acadummy’ not too long ago.

On top of that, weren’t the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place schools all super competitive and under the support of the Empire?

That was why this rank was priceless.

It was the precious victory a small nation had gotten after squeezing past the strong nations.

And, of course,

“Ruin, are you confident?”

We hadn’t obtained ‘real victory’ yet.

There was still one more individual event left.

After this one event was over…

Today…

After waiting for so long, they would decide the winner of this competition.

“Of course.”

A triathlon.

Running through the city of Atltein while overcoming the obstacles that were set up before crossing the ocean.

This was a track and field event where the 32 students all started at the same time, and the one who arrived at the goal first won.

Of course, since this was a competition between magicians and not athletes, there were a few changes.

You could summon and ride something to run.

And others would use short-range teleport magic to weave through space-time.

However, I was confident.

I looked forward to this event and cracked my neck.

“This is my specialty.”

Running.

Destroying.

Overcoming.

For half a year, I had only trained my body.

This was a game made for me.

After cooly finishing this event,

“I made a promise with Doom Prime, to meet him at the banquet.”

I was planning to flatten Doom’s pride at tonight’s banquet.

I started stretching while looking forward to the last event of the Grand Festival.

“……”

Doom was looking at me from the other side.

I smiled brightly for him.

Welcome.

To my home ground.

——