Vol. 2 Chapter 1.2 – Water Attribute VS Water Attribute

A murmur, like reeds swaying in the wind, enveloped the circular arena.

The interschool competition between the Academy and the Priest School.

The first match of the first round, which had begun at noon—in other words, the opening match of the entire tournament—had been a battle between two fire-attribute teams.

To begin with, in this era, the fire attribute was regarded as a dud attribute.

You could probably even say that making the fire-attribute match the first bout meant it was being treated as nothing more than an opening act.

The Academy’s participants were Arvin and me.

I had heard that last year, the Academy had no fire-attribute entrants at all, so the Priest School had won by default.

That being the case, the two priests we faced had clearly looked down on us.

But then—

Once the lid was lifted, it turned out to be our complete victory.

And not only that—the match had been decided mere seconds after it began.

Before the match, the crowd had been cheering excitedly over the participation of Arvin, the second princess of this kingdom.

Afterward, however, those cheers had transformed into an entirely different kind of commotion.

Even though the result had practically been an accident, all the attention that should have been focused on Arvin before the match had shifted toward me after I slaughtered the priests with a single attack.

“Even after being told not to stand out that much, are you an idiot? Do you want to die?”

As we watched the backs of the second match’s participants, Zaza and Chloe, climbing onto the combat stage, Arvin shrugged in exasperation.

“I told you, I couldn’t help it……How was I supposed to know they’d die from something like that?”

To cancel out the fireball they had launched at us, I fired back a fireball imbued with an explosive effect.

They just happened to get caught in the blast and were blown to death.

It was absolutely not my fault.

Despite being something of a festival-like event, this interschool competition was also a genuine fight to the death.

The only reason something this absurd was even possible was because of『Wedge of Time』, the unique magic belonging to the head of the Orthodox Church—the Archbishop.

Within the domain of this spell, anything that happens while it is active can later be made as though it never happened at all.

“Next time, you don’t need to do anything. I’ll handle it.”

“Yeah. That’d help.”

The second match, which was about to begin, was a battle between water-attribute teams.

If Zaza and the others won, they would become our next opponents.

Being told to engage in an actual fight to the death against female friends I normally got along with put me in a difficult position, to be perfectly honest.

But that apparently meant nothing to this strong-willed princess.

Up on the stage, Zaza and the others had already started trading verbal blows with their opponents.

I couldn’t make out exactly what they were saying from this distance, but their opponents were those ill-tempered twin Sisters we had confronted in the cafeteria the other day.

It wasn’t difficult to imagine that insults too foul to listen to were probably flying back and forth.

“……Do you think they can win?”

“They’ll be fine. Zaza and Chloe are way stronger than they used to be.”

That was what I said but it was only meant to reassure her.

To be honest, I thought they were in for a difficult fight.

Back when we confronted them in the cafeteria, the twin Sisters had already been capable of using ice-type magic, an advanced branch of the water attribute.

Their ability was clearly superior.

Even so, Zaza and Chloe had gone through grueling training with us, working themselves almost to the point of bleeding.

Surely, they would overturn the gap in strength.

At least, that was what I wanted to believe.

****

When I—Zaza—stepped onto the combat stage together with Chloe, the twin Sisters were already waiting across from us with provocative expressions on their faces.

The same silver hair, the same childish faces. Aside from the fact that their hair was parted in perfectly symmetrical directions, the two petite Sisters looked exactly alike.

“Huh? I was wondering what kind of opponents we’d get, but you’re just those weaklings who were scared shitless of Ange in the cafeteria.”

“Looks like the Academy must be seriously short on people, huh, Sis?”

The twins openly mocked us.

But provocation of this level was well within my expectations.

I took it in stride, completely unfazed.

“Well, if it isn’t Sister Ange’s little hangers-on. My, my, did you two get lost? This isn’t a place for little children, you know? I’ll give you some candy, so why don’t you go dig holes in the sandbox at the park?”

“What did you say!?”

“Now, now, Zaza, don’t provoke them. Picking on little kids like that is pretty immature of you.”

“Who’re you calling little kids!? I’ll fucking kill you!”

Pretending to admonish me, Chloe only poured even more oil onto the fire.

And the twin Sisters were both far too combustible.

Thanks to that, even before the match had begun, the atmosphere onstage had already heated up as much as it possibly could.

I glanced over my shoulder toward the entrance and stole a look at the boy who had been occupying my thoughts more than anyone lately.

‘Watch me…… Oz-kun.’

He was unconventional in all sorts of ways.

It had only been two weeks since a spirit first came to dwell within him and yet he could already control it perfectly. His spirit power was so immense that it couldn’t even be measured. He was smart, his physical abilities were incredible, and on top of that, he was handsome too.

Aside from being fire-attribute and being somewhat lacking in tact, you could almost call him perfect.

There were even delusional romance novels circulating among the girls pairing him with Thomas, who was likewise a handsome guy, so even if none of them had made a move yet, I figured there were probably quite a few girls who had their eyes on him.

And, well……

I was one of them.

I was really, really interested in him.

Aside from Her Highness the Princess, I was probably the girl closest to Oz-kun.

I thought I had a chance.

From the perspective of the royal family, whose spouses were Spirit Kings, Oz-kun should have been outside the realm of romantic consideration.

Naturally, that should have included Her Highness as well.

Which meant that, in practical terms, I was the girl closest to him.

I didn’t think it would be an exaggeration to put it that way.

‘I’ve decided! Once this match is over, I’m going to confess! And for that, I absolutely have to win!’

Maybe it was nothing more than a little superstition.

Even so……

If I believed there was a reward waiting for me once I overcame this obstacle, I felt like I could become stronger.

《And now, the second match of the first round—a battle between water attributes! Archbishop-sama, if you would please activate 『Wedge of Time』!》

The announcement rang out, riling up the spectators.

Then, after a brief pause, pale blue light flooded the stage.

His Eminence the Archbishop’s unique magic had been activated.

《Then, let the match begin!》

The instant the announcement declared the start, cheers surged through the stands like a great wave.

The Sisters and we sprang backward almost simultaneously, as though repelled from one another, putting distance between us.

“「「「「『Water Stream Blade』!」」」」”

All four of us opened with exactly the same move.

Every single one of us activated the same spell.

It was the standard play.

Moisture gathered out of the air, formed into blades of water, and shot toward our opponents.

Water blades flew back and forth across the stage.

Of course, nobody here seriously believed the match would be decided by something like this.

“Chloe!”

“Leave it to me! 『Water Tentacles』!”

The moment Chloe activated her spell, countless writhing tentacles of water burst out from behind her.

“Eek!?”

“Uwah! Gross!”

The twin Sisters’ faces twisted in disgust.

Yeah, I understood how they felt.

Honestly, it looked pretty disgusting.

I could hear several almost-screams rising from the audience as well.

“Ufufu, my cute, cute little tentacles. There you go, there you go!”

But Chloe paid no attention whatsoever to everyone else’s reactions.

If anything, she looked delighted as she used the tentacles to swat the incoming water blades out of the air one after another.

This 『Water Tentacles』 was an original spell Chloe had created during our special training with Oz-kun and the others.

Magic was all about imagination.

I thought I understood that much myself.

But looking back on it now, I think I had been trapped by my own assumptions about what water-attribute magic was supposed to be.

For example, the first spell we learned was 『Water Stream Blade』, followed by 『Water Stream Spear』……

We had simply been tracing the methods created by those who came before us.

But Oz-kun was different.

Probably because he had never received a proper formal education, he didn’t seem to possess any preconceived notions about spirit magic in the first place.

The moment he concluded that it would be impossible to raise Chloe’s and my spirit power enough for us to acquire unique magic before the interschool competition, he proposed that we create entirely new spells—ones our opponents would have no way of preparing countermeasures against.

‘Though…… I still wonder why that somehow ended up becoming tentacles……’

According to Chloe, there was an erotic book associated with the great hero Ozma on display at the National Museum.

Ever since she saw an illustration in it of a woman being attacked by tentacles, she apparently hadn’t been able to get it out of her mind.

“Ahh…… So basically, it’s Ozma’s fault.”

That was what Her Highness had said.

For some reason, Oz-kun had looked utterly devastated when he heard that.

Still, despite the grotesque way 『Water Tentacles』 looked, it boasted remarkably strong defensive capabilities.

Because the tentacles freely swept away enemy spells from every direction, I was able to devote myself completely to offense.

Increasing the number of attacks I launched, I gradually began overwhelming the twin Sisters.

“Gross! You’re fucking gross! You bitch!”

The twin Sisters’ insults had been reduced to nothing but repeated cries of『gross』.

Apparently, they no longer had enough composure to come up with anything clever.

By now, it should have looked obvious to anyone watching that we held the advantage.

‘Now!’

I moved to finish the match in one decisive stroke.

Bringing weapons into this interschool competition was forbidden.

But there was no rule forbidding us from creating weapons with magic.

Just as Chloe had devised 『Water Tentacles』, I had also created a spell of my own to serve as my trump card.

On the final day of our special training, under Oz-kun’s guidance, I had succeeded in solidifying water.

Not ice.

Hard water at room temperature.

I had managed to create something completely outside the bounds of common sense.

That said, my proficiency with it was still at the bare minimum.

Even when creating it, a single knife was currently the most I could manage.

Protected by Chloe’s 『Water Tentacles』, I gripped the knife I had created in one hand and charged toward the twin Sisters.

Most users of spirit magic were poor at close-quarters combat.

My Doll family, on the other hand, could trace its ancestry back to a mercenary band.

Generation after generation, my ancestors had been muscle-brained battle maniacs.

Because of that, magic had always come second—or even third—in our household.

That was the kind of family we were, which was why even though my brother, who was five years older than me, had the fire attribute, he had never suffered any particular disadvantage because of it.

In exchange, whether we liked it or not, everyone in our family had close-combat techniques drilled into them from early childhood.

The twin Sisters hurriedly retreated in panic at my headlong charge—an approach utterly out of place in a magic battle.

With a single powerful step, I closed the distance to one of the twins and slipped inside her guard, raising my knife overhead.

Under the sunlight, the blade of water flashed brightly.

‘This ends it!’

But almost at the exact moment I shouted that inside my head, Oz-kun’s strained voice rang out from behind me.

“No, Zaza! Get away!”

At that instant, I saw the corners of both twins’ mouths twist upward into matching grins.

Smiles of certain victory.

Mocking smiles.

By the time I thought, This is bad, it was already too late.

Spirit power swelled beneath my feet.

With tremendous force, pointed spikes of ice burst upward from the ground.

It was the twins’ unique magic, 『Icicle』—the same spell I had seen when we clashed with them in the cafeteria.

“Eek!?”

It was a surprise attack aimed at the exact instant when, because we had the advantage, my focus had shifted too far forward.

An attack from an unexpected angle.

And then, the moment a sharp pain shot through me as something pierced straight through the center of my body—

My consciousness abruptly cut out.

****

Beside me, I heard someone sharply suck in a breath.

“It can’t be……”

Arvin covered her mouth, her face gone pale.

From crotch to crown, Zaza and Chloe were impaled straight through by『Icicle』 in a single stroke and both girls’ eyes rolled upward until only the whites showed.

Blood dripped down in heavy drops, staining the pillars of ice red.

A gruesome ending.

A miserable defeat.

The two girls left displayed, skewered upon the ice.

At the sheer brutality of the sight, the entire arena fell silent as though someone had poured water over it.

《Th-The winners! The Priest School representatives!》

Even they must have decided that the scene was simply too horrible to keep watching.

Together with the announcement declaring the result, 『Wedge of Time』 was hurriedly released, and time on the stage was reset.

Zaza and Chloe reappeared in the positions they had occupied at the beginning of the match, without so much as a scratch on them.

But both of them immediately collapsed to the floor.

“Ugh…… ngh…… haa, haa, haa……”

Their breaths came raggedly, sweat streaming down their foreheads.

When Zaza raised her deathly pale face, still gripped by the terror of dying, one of the twins gave a quiet kusukusu laugh and twisted her face into a nasty grin.

“So, how was iiit? Pretty thrilling for your first time, wasn’t it! Ahh…… Sorry, sorry. You Academy bitches screw around all the time, don’t you? No way any of you still have a hymen intact.”

“Y-You’ve said enough……”

Zaza forced the words out through a groan and one of the twins irritably twitched an eyebrow.

“Shut up, dumbass. Don’t go barking when you’re weak. Want me to skewer you one more time? Huh!?”

“Y-You little…… Bring it on!”

Just as Zaza, trembling all over, tried to force herself back onto her feet, Chloe broke down crying behind her.

“No…… p-please, forgive me…… I don’t want this anymore! No more, no more of thaaaat!”

“Chloe……”

Chloe wailed uncontrollably.

Seeing her like that, Zaza’s shoulders slumped in stunned silence.

“Hah. Don’t ever run your mouth like you’re hot shit again, loser.”

With a contemptuous snort, the twin Sisters turned on their heels and stepped down from the combat stage.

The audience erupted into commotion.

The priests assigned to medical support hurried onto the stage, placed the sobbing Chloe and the dazed Zaza onto stretchers, and carried them away to the infirmary.

When Arvin and I followed after them and arrived at the infirmary, Chloe’s wailing echoed from beyond the curtain surrounding the bed at the very back.

On a bench closer to the entrance, Zaza sat alone with her knees drawn up to her chest, quietly crying, unable even to share the frustration of defeat with her partner.

Beside me, Arvin bit down hard on her lip.

Her clenched fist was trembling.

I walked over to Zaza and gently stroked her hair.

“You were close.”

“……Don’t. You’ll just make me feel even more pathetic……”

She buried her face between her knees and let out muffled sobs, trying desperately to suppress them.

Of course she was frustrated.

Considering how hard they had worked up until today, this outcome was nowhere near what their efforts deserved.

But reality could be cruel sometimes.

Without even realizing it, I found myself overlapping the sight of her with my own image from three hundred years ago—defeated by the Empire and lying miserably in the back alley of a slum.

Unable to say anything more, I lowered my gaze.

Then Arvin looked down at her and quietly spoke.

“……I’ll avenge you.”

On the surface, her tone was as calm and matter-of-fact as ever.

But a dense aura of rage was swirling around her.

I had been watching her from close by for some time now, so I could tell.

Arvin was absolutely furious.

“Oz…… just like I said earlier, don’t interfere. I’m going to beat those twins down myself.”

“Hey…… calm down.”

“There’s no need to worry. I am calm. This is an interschool competition, after all. Getting hurt is unavoidable, and I have no intention of blaming them for that. But I’m not grown-up enough to stay perfectly composed after seeing my friend humiliated.”

At that moment, Zaza raised her tear-swollen face and widened her eyes.

“Did you just say…… friend?”

“W-What? You got a problem with that?”

Arvin turned away and Zaza quietly whispered to me,

“……It feels like a dog that never warmed up to you suddenly started playing with you.”

Fortunately, it seemed Arvin hadn’t heard that last remark.