Mightiest Melee Magician

Room 3 of the Mana Train on route to the Altein duchy.

Seta Malkiri of the Oyota National Magic Institute asked Malcolm, his accompanying professor,

“Why did you stop me before?”

There was a severe gap between the rich and the poor of the sand nation Oyota.

The ones living around the great oasis enjoyed a high-class and rich lifestyle. 

However, those who had to survive in a crude environment lacking in water must endure severe poverty.

The latter learnt about ‘survival’ from a young age, and they naturally grew their strength.

To survive in the hot and arid climate, they needed to fight and steal.

Meaning, those who gathered here to become magicians weren’t that much different either.

Especially ‘Seta Malkiri’, the representative of the Oyota, a commoner who had a very rough childhood.

With great fortune, he was born with a talent for magic, and was able to enroll into the Magic Institute with a scholarship.

Even then, his fiery personality didn’t change at all.

Fight.

Fight. 

Fight.

He always resolved his conflicts through fights when magic was off the table.

It wasn’t any different in the annual Magic Festival.

And against the pigs of the Ignit Magic Academy…

Who all had a lazy personality…

Had never known the pain of hunger…

And just sat there, looking like magicians.

He knew they were actually a bunch of pussies who couldn’t show off anything.

After he beat their smug looks to a pulp, they didn’t even think of resisting and groveled.

Their academy representative, Michael Galehill, was the same.

He tried to sweet-talk Seta with a promise of a good position after graduation, and tried to tempt him…

But rather than hitting him once out of annoyance at his words, he hit him twice.

This proved to be very effective.

And Professor Malcolm from Oyota had always watched with anticipation.

Rather, he encouraged it.

The one who told the students that the Ignit Magic Academy was in the carriage over was Professor Malcolm.

But why did he stop him?

“I’ll ask again. Why did you stop me?”

At Seta Malkiri’s question, Professor Malcolm said,

“Didn’t you notice?”

“What do you mean?”

“That Ruin kid from before, he was definitely different from the other academy kids just with the look in his eyes. His atmosphere and body’s build was also different.”

“What does that have to do with anything? There’s no one stronger than me between the Oyotas. A kid like him… I can definitely win against him.”

“No. That wasn’t all. There was one more thing.”

Malcolm opened his eyes into a slit and reflected on what just happened.

“That professor called Hydel. He was definitely laughing.”

“…what?”

What did this mean?

For the professor of the Ignit Academy to be laughing.

“You couldn’t see since his face was covered by his book, but I could. That professor… He was laughing at you guys. As if he was waiting for a fight to break out.”

Right.

Professor Hydel was secretly smiling while looking at the fight between Seta Malkiri and Ruin.

This was most likely pure curiosity at the performance his student might show.

And behind this curiosity, there was definitely a dense sense of confidence.

At that smile, Malcolm had felt a type of ‘goosebumps’.

“That kid named Ruin. He’s definitely hiding something incredible that we don’t know about. He’s someone who’s on a different level from that Michael Galehill you versed before.”

“……”

If Malcolm had said this much, Seta felt he couldn’t argue anymore.

Right.

The spirit Ruin showed was definitely different to those other ‘Acadummys’ who were consumed by greed, but weak as hell.

“He’s someone you’ll eventually have to face, but today’s not that day. We’ll need to be cautious until we find out more about him.”

“Yes Professor. Understood.”

* * *

* * *

The mana train speeded towards the Altein duchy of the Raynac Imperial Federation without rest.

And in those 10 minutes, while the train sped along, the atmosphere inside the carriage had changed a bit.

The main thing that changed were the attitudes in the Michael Group centered around Hankus.

“What’s our first event?”

“The first event is a group competition without a representative. It’s a fight we need to take without Ruin.”

“Ah, Ruin’s out? Can we do it by ourselves?”

“We need to. We can’t afford to lose.”

Just an hour ago…

These guys who were filled with jealousy and ego started to have a ‘strategy meeting’, even though the contents were subpar.

Their gazes towards me had also changed.

“Ruin, we’re thinking of putting Hankus as the goalkeeper in the arrow ball event. What do you think?”

“Hm?”

They started to ask me questions and showed some favourability towards me too.

Hankus was the same.

“Hm hm. So, I’m the goalkeeper?”

As his self-confidence recovered after being put in the important position of goalkeeper, he started to take the lead in the conversation with a weird, uplifted expression on his face.

Naturally, I stopped picking on them or giving them the cold shoulder.

No matter if I liked them or not, in the end, I needed to lead these guys in the competitions.

‘Rather than that, Professor is…’

After that weird phrase he said before, Professor Hydel didn’t say anything else.

I wanted to ask him what was unfortunate.

Or what was the interesting scene he missed.

But since it was outside my expectations, I didn’t ask him.

And then, around 30 minutes after we boarded the train…

[This next stop is the Altein Dukedom, Altein.]

With the announcement of our arrival, the train stopped, and the doors opened.

“We’ve arrived. Let’s go.”

Professor Hydel led the way and we left just like we entered, through the gate.

The scene outside was not the one I knew before.

“This is Altein.”

The place we arrived at exactly 30 minutes after leaving our familiar academy.

“So, you're saying this is the Raynac Empire?”

“You idiot. This isn’t the Raynac Empire itself, but rather a dukedom under its control.”

“Same thing.”

The Altein Dukedom.

As one of the nations in the Raynac Imperial Federation, it was the only nation that was recognised as a ‘neutral nation’ in the Federation.

In this place, whether a nation had good or bad relations with others, they were all considered equal.

Even if it was between warring nations who had hated each other for several decades, if they drew their blades or there was bloodshed in Altein…

The lord of the continent, Raynac Empire, would personally come and judge their sins.

That’s why all the nations of the continent had to remove their personal feelings, if only inside Altein.

Due to the benefits of a neutral nation, big national tournaments such as the Grand Festival for the magic world and the Sword Grand Prix for the swordsmanship world could be held.

Maybe that was why Altein was always easy-going and wealthy.

You couldn’t find anyone rushing around or suffering from poverty.

Everyone was enjoying their meals and drinking beer in the city square.

The clothes they were wearing also had an atmosphere of vintage taste.

“It’s a totally different world…”

“Y-yea…”

“Even though my territory is also known as one of the top 10 wealthy territories in the Radian Kingdom, all the mansions here are like my—”

“Silence. Everyone, get on the carriage.”

After having properly realized they were small fish in a big pond, we got on the four 8-seater transportation carriages that we had made reservations for.

The carriage took us deeper into the city center, and about 20 minutes later, we arrived at the main commercial district of Altein.

“We’ve arrived. Let’s go.”

Altein’s Commercial District.

We went to the accommodation street which had inns and hotels.

As the city center of Altein, there were multiple restaurants, bars, a variety of stores, and a few inns, so it was one of the busiest streets in the area.

The amusing thing was that the assortment of inns all had an insignia hanging at their front door representing a certain magic school.

“Damn. How many of these inns are completely booked out?”

“Well, since a few hundred students need to stay here at once… It’s still pretty impressive.”

Matching the season of the Grand Festival, the entire city had gone into a type of ‘festival’ mode.

Most accommodations, like inns, were provided to the magic school students, and because of this, despite tourists having to deal with the lack of accommodation…

No one complained.

It was because this city was built with things like this in mind.

Professor Hydel stopped in front of the 「Warm Noon Inn」 situated at the center of the commercial district.

“This will be our lodging.”

At that place, there was the insignia of our academy, the symbol of  ‘incandescent lightning’, hanging at the entrance.

“Damn! This is pretty clean.”

“Ah, I want to quickly unpack and go in for a bath!”

At a glance, you could tell it was high-class, and seeing this, my peers all had a smile on their faces.

And seeing us like this, Professor Hydel made a request to us.

“I’m saying this just in case, but don’t go looking for the lodgings of other magic schools. No good will come out of provoking them unnecessarily.”

Professor’s sight landed on me.

Eh?

Why were you singling me out?

I wanted to ask that, but since I knew I was recognised as a target of caution, I kept my mouth shut and nodded my head.

Yeah, yeah.

I understood.

“The opening ceremony of the Grand Festival is in two days. You have free time until then, however, for security reasons, you must report to me before going to do anything. Any questions?”

“No sir!”

The opening ceremony of the Grand Festival was in two days.

Thanks to that, I had about a day’s worth of time to have some self-reflection.

Then, what should I do during that time?

First, I needed to do my quest.

And I should explore this foreign city I’d seen for the first time in my life.

And…

“Here. There’s a funny smell coming from something here.”

“…What smell?”

“From what I can tell, ‘Draka’s relic’ is somewhere around here.”

“……”

Draka’s relic.

I’d need to go look at that too.

——