Chapter 18 – Finger Snap

Changed from this color to black, let me know if it’s better or worse.

It was almost dusk, the intense sun was setting and the selection test was coming to an end.

At this moment, Lin Xiao, who had already finished the test, did not leave. He was still observing the other students on the field who were still taking the test. At the same time, he was chatting quietly with the silver-haired maid next to him, conducting an inexplicable experiment, totally oblivious to the imminent danger.

“Elena, isn’t your perception too strong? Say, what level is that idiot?”

“Beginner second-level… Why are you calling someone else an idiot? You are also a lowly human.”

“Oh… that… the word idiot is not as simple as its literal meaning. In human society, it often represents a term of endearment!”

“Term of endearment? So, do you like being called an idiot by others?”

“Tsk, you got quite a mouth… Why is a mere maid talking so much? What should you call me?”

“……master.”

“Un, that’s a good girl.”

At a far away distance, Afu couldn’t hear their conversation, but he guessed that Lin Xiao must be discussing about the “experiment” again. His intuition was telling him that the black-haired boy must be hiding some secret, and the maid called Elena was not simple either, but currently, he had no time to eavesdrop, because the miss’s plan has already begun!

Rosie intends to use the test as a cover, pretend to attack the puppet, and then deliberately miss, thereby mounting a sneak attack on Lin Xiao who was standing foolishly behind the puppet!

Lin Xiao, who is still chatting with the maid, can’t hide from Rosie’s sneak attack!

“Teacher, I’m starting!”

“Okay, be careful, you must not miss.”

“Don’t worry!” Rosie nodded.

Teacher Woos’s evaluation of her is that her magic affinity is mid-high and her control of magic is very strong. This evaluation was quite pertinent. Rosie inherited the Childe’s family characteristics of meticulous planning and calculations, their control of magic was also very delicate.

Due to the level limit, she couldn’t release any powerful spells, but she also had a workaround ——

“Fireball!”

Magic chant complete.

She raised her right hand and a fiery red six-pointed star was formed in front of her palm.

Magic circuit complete.

A huge fireball appeared in front of her, the fireball was even bigger than the one Caesar and Lin Xiao released!

“Wow!”

“Look, what a big fireball!”

It is reasonable to say that since Rosie’s magic level was only advanced second-level, it was impossible to release such a huge fireball, but she had a trick.

The shape of the fireball looked big and scary, but it was actually very weak. With her careful control of magic power, she secretly adjusted the circuit structure, making the external flame of the fireball burn more vigorously, increasing the visual effect and correspondingly reducing the destructive power.

Although Rosie is headstrong, the excellent Childe family won’t raise an idiot. Even if this fireball hits Lin Xiao, it will definitely not cause life-threatening injuries. At most, it will burn off Lin Xiao’s clothes and let him experience the “happiness” of being burned by the fire while naked.

Rosie knew when to stop. She just wants to teach Lin Xiao a lesson, she doesn’t want to kill him.

“Go!”

The fireball left the hand, but the direction was a little wrong. There seemed to be some deviation.

“Not good!” Teacher Woos shouted.

The huge fireball did not hit the puppet, but passed the puppet and continued to fly out. It seemed to deviate from the original trajectory. In fact, it was Rosie’s deliberate intention.

The true target of the fireball is the black-haired boy ahead!

“Don’t worry Lin Xiao, if you really get injured, I’ll pay for your medical expenses…”

Watching the fireball getting closer and closer to Lin Xiao, Rosie concentrated her attention and used mental power to control the trajectory of the fireball.

This sneak attack must not fail!

“What’s wrong?” Lin Xiao, who was still immersed in the experiment, suddenly found that Elena’s expression was weird. She also took two steps back and inexplicably pulled herself away from him.

At that moment, Lin Xiao seemed to understand something. Elena was very perceptive. The reason why she suddenly retreated was definitely because of ——

The instinctive reaction to the crisis drove Lin Xiao to turn around quickly, but when his sight fell on the big fireball that was right in front of him, it was already late.

I can’t hide, the fireball is too big, the speed is too fast and the distance is too close. Lin Xiao wasn’t a muscle man from the warrior department, he can’t parkour and break large stones with his chest. It was definitely delusional thinking to try dodging.

Then, should I counter with magic and detonate the fireball before it arrives? It’s a good idea, but there are two necessary conditions to cast magic, “magic chanting” and “circuit composition”, both of which take time to prepare, there’s no time!

Although Lin Xiao was instantly able to see through Rosie’s little trick—she didn’t intend to kill him since the seemingly scary fireball actually had no power, but Lin Xiao was still unwilling to be burned naked by the fireball and then streak in the middle of the field.

—— That’s too shameful.

In the end, Lin Xiao sighed helplessly.

“Sigh, I can only use that trick…”

Snap!

A crisp and faint sound came, except for Elena, no one else heard it.

That, it seems to be a finger snap… why is there a snapping sound? Elena did not know, but in that instance, she widened her big red ruby-like eyes in disbelief.

From an imperceptible angle, a small fireball the size of a fist instantly flew out right into the big fireball that Rosie threw out!

Bang!

All of the students were dumbfounded.

“Did it work?” Rosie was pleased beyond expectation.

It accurately hit, the fireball burst into flames and a black mist enveloped Lin Xiao and Elena.

“Lin Xiao!” Teacher Woos shouted worriedly.

Everyone thought that Lin Xiao had been hit! But in reality…

As a slight breeze swept by, the smoke gradually dispersed and the figures of the two victims finally became clear.

“What?” Rosie looked incredulously at Lin Xiao who fell to the ground.

Elena still stood expressionlessly at her spot, and kept a two-step distance from Lin Xiao. Other than feeling a little uncomfortable after inhaling the black smoke, nothing else happened to her.

As for Lin Xiao… In Rosie’s opinion, the fireball did hit him, and he did fall, but he was unscathed! The clothes on his body were not burned at all!

How can this be?

“Oh… Elena help me up.”

“Yes, master.”

Lin Xiao expressed his astonishment with great exaggeration, then extended an arm to Elena. Elena was filled with grievance, but she could only think about it and pull his arm unwillingly and dragged him up with great effort.

He patted the dust on his body, Lin Xiao brought out his acting skills and screamed at Rosie resentfully.

“Hey, Missy, are you trying to kill someone!?”

“I, I…not…no! Why are you okay? Just now…”

“Ha?” Lin Xiao ran over covered in dirt and shouted while pointing at Rosie’s nose. “You still have a look of regret. Would it have been better if I was killed by you?”

“No, no! I, I, I, I… I… uh…”

When has Rosie been treated like this before? Denounced by Lin Xiao in front of all the other students, she crashed on the spot and was not able to refute at all.

What happened just now? The fireball clearly hit, but why is Lin Xiao okay?

To try to gain the advantage but end up worse, how embarrassing! Rosie suddenly felt that she was an idiot. Her nose tickled and there was something warm rushing out of her eyes.

“Lin Xiao! How are you? Are you hurt?” Woos quickly rushed over and looked at Lin Xiao’s body up and down to make sure he was okay before he finally breathed a sigh of relief.

“Teacher, I’m fine.” Lin Xiao shook his head. “I was just unlucky. Fortunately, the fireball went out of control and self-destructed midway, otherwise, it would have been terrible!”

“Out of control and self-destructed?”

Rosie took a few deep breaths and choked back her tears of disappointment.

—— In the situation where a magician forcibly exerts powerful magic when the magic level is not enough, it will cause a serious burden on their mind. It’s also easy to lose control of the magic. It was a very common occurrence to lose control and self-destruct, Rosie understood this very well.

Lin Xiao said that the reason why he was not injured was because the fireball technique was out of control and self-destructed —— but Rosie was 100% sure that she never lost control of the fireball! Going out of control and self-destructing was impossible.

What really happened?

“Rosie, you…” just as Woos was about to scold Rosie, he was stopped by Lin Xiao.

“It’s fine teacher, it was just an accident and I’m not injured, so you don’t need to blame her.” Lin Xiao unexpectedly spoke up for Rosie, reluctantly smiled, turned to Rosie and said, “Anyway, you didn’t do it intentionally, so it’s useless even if I reproach you, right?”

“Eh? I…sorry, I, I didn’t mean it…” Rosie was a bit stunned and instinctively apologized.

“Un, I forgive you. The test is over, I should go home and rest.” Lin Xiao had an expression that he shouldn’t stay any longer and he quickly beckoned Elena to leave.

Elena looked at Rosie who was almost crying, then looked at Lin Xiao who pretended to be a good person and seemingly wanted to say something.

The crisp and faint snap earlier made her extremely concerned. There was no “magic chant”, no “magic circuit”, there was nothing. It was like that inconspicuous little fireball appeared out of thin air ——

Lin Xiao was definitely acting again! He’s up to something again, Rosie’s fireball definitely did not explode because she lost control!

Elena wanted to expose Lin Xiao! But very quickly, she suddenly remembered what happened in the past few days, and couldn’t help but shiver and swallow her words.

No, I can’t run my mouth anymore! … She still had lingering fears.

If she did this, Lin Xiao that damn pervert would have another excuse to harass her and rub her chest again!

In order to avoid having her chest attacked, Elena had to leave without saying a word and silently follow behind Lin Xiao.

The involved party quickly slipped away and the students finally recovered from the accident. They whispered irresponsible gossip around the inattentive Rosie.

“What the hell is going on, the spell went out of control and self-destructed midway? That was a close call!”

“Hey, do you think that Rosie deliberately missed her fireball and wanted to teach Lin Xiao a lesson?”

“No way, right? Lin Xiao is going to fight Caesar soon. If he gets injured now, won’t he definitely lose?”

“That… Rosie, don’t tell me she deliberately wanted to hurt Lin Xiao to help Caesar win the duel?”

“What? How despicable, to actually use this kind of method! How disgusting…”

“Move, get out of the way!” Afu forced aside the students who were in the way and quickly rushed to Rosie’s side and asked worriedly, “Miss, are you okay?”

“I’m fine…” Rosie pushed Afu away and asked, “Hey, did you see it?”

“See what?”

“My fireball, did it really explode because I lost control?”

“Sigh… miss, don’t say anything anymore, let’s just go!”

Hearing the malicious words of the students in their surroundings, Afu couldn’t worry about anything else and quickly escaped the field with Rosie.

As for why the fireball exploded midway ——

It was probably because Miss Rosie was too nervous and she lost control of the fireball.

Presently, Afu could only reach this conclusion.