Chapter 38

Mightiest Melee Magician

Chapter 38

A man with a dark skin tone and a bulky figure.

At this appearance, the mood burning with excitement instantly cooled down.

He was…

“Why are you here? Are you here to taunt us again?”

Seta Malkiri.

At the appearance of an unwanted guest, Jason shot back with a sharp tone,

“I know your pride is hurt because you lost to Ruin… but go home for today. We’re just about to have fun.”

Jason’s hostile tone. 

Because of this, I thought maybe Seta would try to provoke a fight then and there.

But the response was unexpected.

Like a docile sheep, Seta Malkiri slowly opened his mouth.

“I’m not here to taunt you… I’m here to apologize.”

“……What?”

It was truly unexpected.

“I’m sorry… for bullying you all this time.”

An apology.

Seta Malkiri looked inexperienced saying such words and he scratched the back of his bushy head.

“After getting hit by Ruin in the stadium, I finally understood. It’s not good to bully others just because they are weaker than me. There are many people stronger than me in the world, meaning I am a weak person too. I truly feel this. What I did to you all this time was wrong.”

“W-wait, if a person’s personality changes too fast…”

“I know you won’t accept my apology this easily… but I still wanted to tell everyone. Sorry.”

“…they die.”

Jason tried to change the tone with a joke, but it didn’t work.

It only made it more serious.

However,

“…This is a bit awkward.”

“Hehe, yeah.”

My peers looked a bit happier at Seta Malkiri’s apology, seeming to like it.

It was the same for me.

I don’t know how he suddenly reformed, but it wasn’t a bad feeling at all.

“I’m sorry for breaking the mood. Then……”

Seta Malkiri deeply bowed his head and tried to leave,

But then I asked Seta,

“Seta.”

“……”

“Your apology just now. Was it because of the bet? Or was it what you truly felt?”

Right.

Seta and I definitely had a ‘bet’.

The loser would apologise in front of everyone publicly.

Of course, I wasn’t expecting such a serious apology from this bet.

But…

“……It’s the truth.”

Seta’s apology was not just a simple apology because of the bet, but a heartfelt and truthful one.

I smiled at Seta and said this.

“Thank you for apologising like a man.”

“……Uh?”

“Since it’s like this, sit down with us. Let’s have a drink together. How about it?”

I looked for my peer’s approval and they nodded with a light smile.

“What Ruin said is true! Let’s forget it all and have a drink together!”

“That’s right! Let’s drink. Hurry and sit down.”

“……I-is that alright?”

“Of course! Here. Take this.”

Seta hesitated, feeling awkward, but in time, he took the glass.

I raised my glass while looking at this Seta Malkiri.

“I won’t do a cringe toast. Let’s be good to each other from now on.”

“Cheers!”

The mood was good.

I clenched my eyes shut and lifted the alcohol to my lips.

For the first time in my life, I drank alcohol.

Gulp, gulp.

As soon as it went down, my throat felt like it was burning.

Woah… What the hell was this?

“Kuah! That hits the spot!”

“How is it? It’s pretty good, right?”

“Isn’t this too strong? Ueck!”

“……”

The voices of my peers floated around my ears and soon became muffled.

And I couldn’t hear any voices at all.

Wing Weng Wing Weng.

Weng Weng Weng.

My sight turned white.

Huah.

I tried to take a deep breath, but it felt like my throat was burning.

Is this what dragons felt when they breathed out fire?

……Damon’s Dragon Kiss.

I’d definitely remember it.

That this drink…

Was a drink I must avoid just when seeing the bottle.

But…

“Jashon……”

“Eh?”

“Why do you… why are there two of you……?”

“What are you on about? Ruin, is your tongue ok?”

My consciousness became faint.

As reality drifted away from me, I tried to hold on to it and mumbled,

“Hmnya… Alcohol scawy…”

* * *

I’m ruined.

As soon as I regained consciousness, I knew that I was ruined.

I could clearly remember what happened yesterday.

I definitely had a brilliant toast with a reformed Seta Malkiri,

And after promising we would treat each other well, I poured the alcohol into my mouth.

After that…

Crash!

“Do you remember Ruin yesterday? Hmnya… Alcohol scawwyyyy.”

“Kekekekekek. My stomach can’t take anymore! For that perfect Ruin’s weakness to be alcohol. Kekekekek!”

“Look at him still unconscious like this. Wow. How do you collapse after just one drink?”

“P-Puahaha! Kekek! Just how many hours is he sleeping?”

“……”

I’m awake you bastards.

But, from the shame, I couldn’t open my eyes.

As soon as I came to, the first thing that I heard were the voices of my teammates that mocked me straight at my face.

“Alcohol scawyyyyyy……!”

“Kekekekek! Ah, it hurts from laughing so much!”

“……”

What was so funny?

This wasn’t a problem with me, but rather from the drink being unnecessarily strong.

Enough of this.

I suddenly stood up and asked as if nothing happened,

“If you’re done mocking me, you should stop.”

“Ek-kekekek!”

“He was listening the whole time?! Puahahahaha!”

“……”

But they just laughed even harder.

You idiots.

Jason talked while wiping the tears from his eyes.

“Ehehehehe. Ruin, do you remember?”

“What?”

“You and Seta linked shoulders while both drunk and running around.”

“……What the hell are you talking about? I definitely just fainted after hitting my head…”

“Did you think that was it? You were shouting, ‘We’re friends from now on!’ with Seta, and while dancing together, you both hit your heads together and passed out.”

“……”

Something I should have forgotten.

No.

The things I definitely had to erase from memory started to slowly return to me.

As the pieces started to match up together,

“……Ah.”

A dark moment in my life that I must never think of again.

No, I remembered my drunken frenzy.

Ah, I truly went insane.

How could I have done that?

As I clenched my throbbing forehead, my peers were still laughing louder, going Puahahahaha!

And Jason, who said he would promise me how to drink properly,

“Kekekek. You need to watch yourself when drinking in the future.”

Instead warned me about my alcohol intake.

Ah, ok.

I truly thank you for telling me that now.

* * *

* * *

“Uh? Ruin!”

“Oops. This is the wrong—”

“Ruin! How’re your guts feeling?”

“……”

Seta Malkiri.

That reformed Seta Malkiri of yesterday waved at me with a happy face as we met each other in the hallways of the Altein Stadium.

I felt shame after remembering what happened at the bar yesterday, but Seta looked as if he didn’t remember anything.

No.

That wasn’t it.

Seta remembered everything.

It was just that,

“Ruin, we’re friends from now on, right”

“……”

He didn’t know shame

“Ha-haha… Yeah.”

“Nice. Since we’re friends now, if I hear anyone calling you guys Acadummy, I’ll go bash them for you.”

“U-uh, uhm… Thanks. Haha…”

“So other than that, Ruin, from what I saw yesterday, you looked like you had some interest in martial arts. You know that Oyota is famous for its martial arts, so we should meet up some time to talk about—”

“Y-yeah. Sure. Later.”

I laughed awkwardly and fled the interaction,

And Seta Malkiri waved at me while shouting, ‘Friend! I’ll see you later!’ while waving his hand.

Right.

That guy was from Oyota.

As Oyota was a coarse sand nation, they were known not for their magic, but for their strong martial arts and persistent swordsmanship.

It was a place with definite respect for the battle.

And it seems he had grown to respect me after getting hit.

This wasn’t just true for the Oyotas.

“Welcome. I’m Dylan of the Frelia Holy Magic School.”

“……”

“You were pretty strong yesterday. That Seta Malkiri… To blow his big body away in one strike. How did you do it? What magic did you use?”

Some approached me with half goodwill and half curiosity after seeing the battle yesterday.

Just like I wanted.

I not only became a ‘tasty prey’, but simultaneously a ‘warning’ too.

A warning of the pain from underestimating me.

From what I heard, there were also some teams that tried to avoid direct confrontation with me…

It seemed everything that I wanted fell into place.

The effects of this warning didn’t stop at just mere students.

Professor Hydel.

When he came up to me, he said this one thing.

“Ruin. You really have gotten yourself into a situation again.”

“What do you mean ‘again’?”

“Don’t you know? Problems and situations always follow in your wake.”

“Ehm… I’m getting scared now. What happened?”

“The Fire King wants to see you.”

“……”

Fire King Teron.

It seemed that the name ‘Ruin Ardell’ had deeply implanted itself into the King of Magicians.

Of course, I was expecting this to happen sometime down the line.

But it was sooner than I expected.

“The Fire King… It seems he’s more curious than I thought. Even though I only finished 1 battle.”

“The director was worried for you, saying he was a dangerous person with a cunning mask.”

“I’ll bear that in mind.”

Generally, a person who wore their heart on their sleeve was easy to deal with.

But people like the Fire King who hid their true feelings with a mask were dangerous.

Because you didn’t know when they would pull out their knife.

Even more so in a situation where you didn’t know if the knife was friendly…

Or hostile.

I looked up at the host room that flew in the air of the Altein Stadium.

“When do I need to go up?” 

“I’ll tell you when your match ends today.”

“Understood.”

After my match ended today……

I looked over at my peers who were warming up.

“We definitely need to win today.”

“Eh? That’s natural. Why are you suddenly saying this?”

“Someone who has a special interest in today’s matches has appeared.”

“Someone with a special interest? Who?

“The Fire King.”

“F-Fire King Teron? The King of Magicians will watch our matches?”

“That’s insane!”

Today’s match.

A group competition where a total of 9 students, including their school representative, would be participating.

It had rather simple rules.

Per team of 9 people, they would make an attacking team, defending team and goalkeeping team.

After dividing into these 3 positions, a team won if they shot more arrow balls into the opposing team’s goal.

However, there was a hidden variable here.

The Arrow Ball.

It was a huge arrow with a knockback effect,

It constantly flew around unpredictably, and this was a pain for both side’s defending teams.

It meant that the defending team must defend against the other attacking team’s magic while also defending against this wild Arrow Ball.

Because of this, a high level of strategy and tactics was required in the real game.

When to use defence spells…

When to use crowd-control magic to bind the feet of the opposing team’s defenders…

How to grab the arrow ball and throw it into the other goal…

Et cetera.

“Ruin, what’s our plan for today?”

“Plan?”

I muttered while looking at the arrow ball that was moving about sporadically.

Bzzzt— 

Swoosh—

“I’ll grab the arrow ball and jump into the goal.”

Operation Name:

Defend if you can.

I was planning on just running through the enemy team.

——