Chapter 12

  TO TASTE IRON IS TO LEARN STRENGTH (2)

  I had prayed my first day at the magic academy would pass peacefully. But of course, life had other plans. Instead of a smooth beginning, I found myself standing before a crowd of students and a boy with a smug grin loudly accusing me of gaining admission through deceit.

  “It's clear she doesn’t belong here! I will prove to everyone she slipped in through unfair means.”

  A cold weight settled in my stomach. I didn’t want to become a burden to Athena, not after everything she had done to get me admitted here—especially when she had even joined the academy as a teacher. If I faltered now, if I failed to prove myself, it wouldn’t just tarnish my name. It would drag hers down with me.

  No. I would never allow that.

  If defending myself was all it took, then so be it.

  I took a step forward, ready to confront whatever he had plotted, when I suddenly felt a warm hand grip mine.

  “Wait.” It was Regis. “I know what you’re thinking. But you don’t need to go through with this. You can ignore it. And if he keeps at it then I will step in.” Regis’s grip tightened.

  I met her gaze. She meant every word. But this wasn’t her burden.

  “It’s alright,” I said, pulling my hand free with ease from her tight hold as she watched me walk straight into the middle of the challenge.

  “So, you finally crawl out from hiding!” Garrick’s smug laughter echoed, his red uniform catching the sunlight, amplifying the arrogance etched across his face. “Who would’ve thought it would be you of all people? Don’t even think for a second I have forgotten what you did this morning. Now you’ll pay the price for disrespecting me that time as well!”

  Gasps and murmurs rippled through the crowd. But I had no plans to retort back with words and only ignored them.

  “So, you have nothing to speak or even try defending yourself,” Garrick shouted at the top of his lungs, making sure everyone could hear, which made him feel even more confident.

  I met his glare with a calm glance, wondering how far he intended to drag this charade.

  “I propose a magical duel,” he sneered, raising his staff dramatically. “Whoever remains standing wins. Unless, of course, you’re too much of a coward even to try.”

  I just wanted to get this over with quickly, so I simply nodded, accepting whatever challenge he wished to throw at me.

  As he raised his staff, brimming with anticipation, Miss Xu stepped in.

  “I cannot allow an unofficial duel between students without proper safety measures, especially when it’s clear one of them is being forced into it,” she announced, glancing toward Class A’s teacher, Mr. Aldric.

  But Mr. Aldric groaned, reluctant to intervene— the same man who only moments ago had been the very picture of rules and regulations.

  “But Miss Xu, it’s obvious she has no right to be here. She’s too scared to even participate in the drill of her own class. Everyone saw it. It’s clear she got in through unfair means.”

  “Mr. Garrick,” Miss Xu’s tone was sharp, “you have neither the authority nor the evidence to defame a fellow student. Everyone here has their own unique power and skill.”

  “But isn’t it unfair to the rest of us who’ve worked so hard to be here, while someone just shows up without effort?” Garrick shot back.

  The mutters grew louder, uneasy. I could feel their eyes on me, weighing, judging, questioning.

  “That is a matter for the academy to decide,” Miss Xu said firmly. “And the school will not tolerate a one-sided duel simply to satisfy your pride.”

  That was when Sir Aldric finally raised his voice, though with a smirk tugging at his lips.

  “Exactly as you said, Miss Xu—if you believe it’s one-sided, why not settle the matter most simply?” Mr. Aldric smirked. “The academy does allow official matches under student consent. Why not ask the girl herself?”

  Both Garrick and Aldric chuckled, turning their eyes toward me as the rest of the crowd’s gaze followed.

  “I can do it,” I said, nodding. I didn’t need to think twice.

  Miss Xu’s head snapped toward me. “Miss Alicia, you don’t need to feel pressured just because—”

  “It’s fine,” I interrupted.

  I don’t know what Miss Xu saw in my eyes in that moment—but her expression softened. She immediately stepped aside, though the tension in her jaw betrayed her unease.

  “Very well,” she said finally. Her voice carried across the grounds. “If you insist, then I will make certain this match is fair. And when the results are clear…” Her gaze slid like a dagger toward Aldric. “…I will make sure some people never forget their responsibility and the weight behind their words.”

  Miss Xu said, her eyes narrowing as she sneered at Aldric—a silent warning for what would follow once the match was over.

  A cold silence followed Miss Xu’s words as she stepped back. Garrick’s grin widened now that he had gotten what he wanted. Taking center stage, he pointed his staff straight at me, the red magical crystal embedded on its top glowing grimly.

  “You should have taken your chance and run while you still could. I won’t burn you to death — though I can’t guarantee the same for your dress or your skin.” Garrick looked exhilarated as he spun his staff between his palms; magical circles bloomed in the air.

  Once the formation locked into place, dozens of blazing orbs materialized within those circles and rocketed toward me like comets.

  It was almost comical — and I almost let out a laugh — but with such a huge audience and not wanting any more attention, I conjured a thin, luminous barrier.

  “You think a measly light wall can stop me?” Garrick shouted as the fireballs detonated against my barrier, sending up a cloud of smoke and dust.

  He leaned forward, eager for the collapse. But when the haze drifted away and the shield still held its place, a ripple of astonished cheering rose from the students.

  “How—?” someone breathed. “That light barrier’s still up!”

  Another voice answered, “She’s focusing all her magic only on the impact points.”

  “But how can she calculate trajectories so fast?”

  “That I don’t know.”

  “It’s like she knows the exact path the spell will take even before it's completed.”

  Others argued about reaction time, spell calculations—technical murmurs that made Garrick’s jaw tighten.

  The match had become a spectacle. The theatrical cruelty he’d planned was dissolving into something else—embarrassment.

  “Fine. If numbers won’t do it, I’ll just increase the blast.” He flamed his staff darker; the red magical crystal began to glow with a deeper color, and the magical circles widened.

  The fireballs swelled too, each one carrying far more heat and force. He hurled them again and again, this time from all sides.

  I had no choice but to extend the barrier into a full spherical shield, enclosing myself inside. Garrick’s blasts kept battering the surface, popping like bubbles against the shell with thunderous booms. But none of them were able to breach my shield.

  Garrick’s voice climbed to a fever pitch. “After I humiliate you in front of the class—and next would be the entire school. You have no family name, no noble blood, you are nothing but a fraud!” Spittle flecked his words. “You are from the Hart Kingdom? HAA—that’s worth less than a nail compared to my dukedom!”

  I already knew my enemy wasn’t capable of even laying a finger on me, but maybe that wasn’t how everyone saw it.

  “Man, that must be rough — being her.”

  “How long do you think that thin barrier will stand?”

  “If this continues, she’ll burn out of magic soon,” some students chimed in, jeering.

  But someone among the crowd felt too impatient to just stand and chatter—someone who’d had enough of watching and waiting. Tired of hearing only to whispers, they now wanted answers.

  “This is wrong,” she called, voice cutting clean through the clamor.

  Ingrid pushed forward, eyes sharp as she scanned faces until they landed on the one she wanted.

  “Hey — you there! Elf princess! You said in class you’re friends with that mask girl. Why aren’t you doing anything?” Her fingers jabbed accusingly toward Regis.

  Regis flinched as if struck. “I have a name,” she snapped, cheeks flushing. “It’s Regis.” She didn’t like the way Ingrid had reduced her identity to a title—an old irritation that now felt newly raw.

  Ingrid’s mouth twisted. “Yeah, right. Elf princess—Regis. But your friend is out there getting mauled. Don’t you care?”

  “What’s there to worry about?” she answered, voice like ice. “I tried to stop her, but she wouldn’t step back.”

  Ingrid’s jaw tightened. “So, you’re not afraid she’ll run out of magic or make a mistake and get hurt. She can’t keep that up forever. You’re the only one who knows her. You could still intervene and ask her to call the match off.”

  Regis let out a short laugh, one that didn’t reach her eyes. “You’ve got it wrong. I held her back for his sake—thought it would be safer to let things play out. But now that I think I did good not forcing her to stay back.”

  Ingrid blinked, confused by the sudden chill in Regis’s answer. “What are you even saying? Are you really her friend, or were you just pretending to be and not going to help when she is in trouble?”

  “Don’t misunderstand me; if that bastard doesn’t shut his mouth soon, he won’t get the luxury of a second chance.” Pride curled in her tone like a warning.

  Regis tilted her head, watching the duel with a quiet that gave nothing away.

  “Huh?” she muttered, then shrugged as if giving up. “Whatever. It’s not like I care. At the end, this will only prove that she didn’t deserve to get the fifth rank.”

  ◇◇◇

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  Knock. Knock.

  The office doors creaked open, and a woman stepped in wearing plain teacher’s robes. Her oversized, translucent glasses swallowed half her face, hiding her eyes entirely.

  Even her ashen-white hair—so pale catching the sunlight streaming from the ceiling window, making her appear less like a person and more like a figure painted into the light.

  “Ah, you’re here, Karin.” The headmaster nearly rose from his seat at the sight of her.

  Fillia froze. She had never heard warmth in his voice before, much less seen him stir with such urgency for any academy matter.

  For a man who lived in perpetual lethargy, this sudden familiarity was… too startling for Fillia.

  They must share some history, Fillia thought, watching them closely. But that made no sense. Miss Karin looked far too young—mid-twenties at most. How could she have a long-standing connection with an old man like him?

  Fillia’s brows knit. The truth was, no one at the academy really knew what Karin was capable of. She drifted through the academy like a shadow, covering the occasional substitution class, exchanging no special words with students or staff.

  Even Fillia herself sometimes forgot Karin was employed here at all. The heavy goggles made her unreadable, and her presence felt so faint it was almost as though she chose to be invisible.

  Usually, Karin stayed tucked away in her own staff room. This was the first time Fillia had seen her in the headmaster’s office.

  “Hello, Miss Karin,” Fillia greeted politely.

  “Hello, Miss Fillia.” The woman’s voice was soft as she dipped into a small bow.

  “There’s no need for that,” Fillia said quickly, waving her hands. “We’re both teachers here.”

  “But you are my senior,” Karin replied meekly. “I only began this year. I have a lot to learn from you.”

  At least she’s polite, Fillia admitted inwardly. Down-to-earth, even. The other staff had welcomed her easily enough. All because the headmaster himself had been the one to personally recommend Karin, pushing for her appointment when no one knew her past or even where she came from.

  Something completely unlike the miserly, disinterested man Fillia knew him to be.

  “Miss Fillia, you were leaving, weren’t you?” the headmaster’s voice interrupted her thoughts.

  Just like that, his attention had already shifted entirely to Karin, as though nothing else in the world existed. Fillia pressed her lips together, quietly excused herself, and closed the door behind her.

  …

  Without a sound, Karin drifted closer. One moment she had been by the door, the next she stood at the headmaster’s desk, leaning in until they were nearly eye to eye. Her hands pressed lightly to the table, her expression unreadable behind those thick lenses.

  The greatest mage on the continent, Eldruin Grindelwald, didn’t flinch. If anything, the faint curl of his lips suggested amusement. As if this closeness was something he welcomed rather than resisted.

  Karin straightened, retreating a step. “Is she the reason you called me here?” she asked with a familiarity that made it seem as though she were speaking to another version of the man before her, not the prestigious headmaster of the biggest magical academy on the continent.

  A faint spark lit in the headmaster’s eye. “Ah, so she intrigues you as well. I wasn’t sure until I met her for the first time. That’s why I had to use it, and you came straight here.”

  “Tell me,” Karin said, her tone sharpening. “How and where did you find that girl, Ed?”

  The way she addressed him — by name, even with a nickname — made headmaster Eldruin’s expression soften with nostalgia.

  “It was purely by coincidence,” Eldruin said at last. “She came here on her own. So—what did you find?”

  Karin’s gaze drifted away, sliding toward the tall window where the sky stretched out endlessly. But the way she stared at it, unblinking, felt as though her sight was not fixed on the clouds or light, but on something far beyond them.

  “I suppose my return wasn’t wasted after all,” she murmured. “Perhaps I’ll finally get the chance to repay her… even if not directly. No matter how much I searched, I could never find her before. But now…” A faint breath escaped her, almost a smile. “I’m glad I came back here, Ed.”

  “Yes,” Eldruin replied with a chuckle, though his eyes softened. “I am happy for you, too. Even though it took you more than forty years.”

  ◇◇◇

  “Looks like I’ll be taking that top-five spot in Class S as well—seeing someone like you get that kind of position is laughable.” Garrick howled, flinging fire-orbs from every angle. The ground around us blackened and cracked. Smoke and dust swallowed the air.

  And yet the brief, sizzling tracery of sparks where the fireballs met my shield betrayed his assaults. That was proof enough for him to keep going until he was sure I was ruined.

  With each volley, he pushed more power through the red crystal on his staff, overloading it and ignoring its cooldown. I could feel the strain in the air — the crystal’s amplification wouldn’t last.

  When that crystal’s magic power is completely exhausted, this show will end one way or another. All I had to do was sit tight inside my shield and let time do the rest.

  But Garrick wasn’t content with a slow burn. He paused for a breath, eyes alight with a dangerous grin.

  “Why don’t I show you my special technique?” he snarled. “Since you’re so desperate and can only hide behind that shield.” The crystal at the staff’s tip flared; its glow shifted from angry red to a blackened ruby.

  For a brief moment, the volley of fireballs stopped.

  He pointed skyward. “Fire Serpent!”

  Above me, a colossal magic circle unfurled in the sky. Unlike a simple flat pattern, it formed a writhing serpentine formation.

  Light braided into scales of flame. The circle shivered, then broke into a coiling, vertical serpent of pure magic, its head crowned with a dozen smaller lava balls that gleamed like hungry eyes. Fire burned along its spine, and the serpent’s mouth opened as if to inhale the sun itself.

  It uncoiled from the sky and began its descent toward me.

  The magic crystal on the staff in Garrick’s hands began to pulse in spasms, and faint pressure waves rolled through the ground.

  “Release your full power! Destroy her!” he bellowed.

  Garrick laughed, oblivious to the subtle signs of the magic crystal turning unstable, and continued to use it recklessly.

  “You had no right to be here when I couldn’t get into S class. I checked your records, and you are not even a noble. How dare you waltz in and try to mingle with us? Your no-name parents must be ashamed of you right now. How dare you think you could challenge me, the heir of the Fairbourne dukedom?” Garrick spat.

  “So that was it. That was his reason. That’s why he targeted me…” I whispered to myself.

  All I wanted was to lie inside my shield as always, telling myself the calamity would pass if I waited. That had been my reflex in my previous life.

  It never worked then. So why was I about to repeat the same mistake?

  ◇◇◇

  From the moment the match began, I had activated my battle-sense. Everything seemed under control. Even if things turned dangerous, I could easily step in.

  Surprisingly, Alicia’s light shield held firm against Garrick’s amplified magical attacks, so I didn’t need to intervene. I let the duel play out; so that Garrick would learn a lesson from this and maybe even turn a new leaf.

  But perhaps I had expected too much from him.

  Garrick had pushed the red magic crystal past its limit, using spells the artifact wasn’t meant to process. I could feel the crystal was about to overload.

  I was already preparing to surge forward and pry it from his grasp when the students’ voices cut through my focus.

  “That’s so much magic…”

  “I’ve lost count of the magic circles and layers he has used.”

  “Is it even safe to cast something that huge? We could all get caught in it.”

  “Should we run?”

  Garrick’s spell coalesced into a colossal, serpentine fire-construct. Even with Alicia’s skill, that thing could have burned a hole through her defenses. My worry spiked.

  From the crowd, a sharper, stranger murmur rose. “Did she just—did she drop her shield?”

  “Does she want to die? At least the shield could’ve saved her life.”

  “What can a healer even do against that? Maybe she has given up.”

  For a heartbeat, I shared their panic. I saw Alicia let the shield fall. The fire serpent descended.

  And yet something about her threw me off — my battle-sense, fully sharpened, suddenly went absurdly, terrifyingly quiet.

  Even though Alicia was standing right in front of my eyes, my battle-sense couldn’t sense her at all. It was almost as if she had knowingly extinguished her presence.

  This was impossible because, except for… no one has been able to do it.

  I focused and saw her then. Alicia. Her stance and posture were not those of someone who had lost or given up hope. The dome of light that had been a second skin around her had vanished. For a heartbeat, the arena held its breath.

  In that split breath, too quick for ordinary eyes to track, Alicia lifted her palm.

  A low rumble shook the floor as a torrent of battle spirit erupted from beneath her. It surged upward like a massive pillar of energy, spearing through the descending fire serpent.

  The construct of flame howled once, fractured, and then dissolved into nothing. The pillar didn’t stop—it ripped into the sky itself, parting clouds in a yawning ring of clear heavens.

  Gasps tore through the crowd. Silence fell in the wake of the impossible.

  Garrick’s eyes bulged. “Wh–what? No… no, that’s not—!” His voice cracked into a shriek. “It’s not possible! My serpent?”

  He staggered back, shaking his head, eyes wide and bloodshot. “It must be a mistake! If I pour more. If I do it once more—”

  His gaze snapped toward the red crystal clutched in his staff, its surface already writhing with unstable light. But instead of stopping, Garrick laughed, a broken, manic sound.

  Raising the staff high once more, he tried to force the same magic through it again. But the artifact could no longer contain it. The magical crystal blazed scarlet, but instead of flaring outward, the light began to implode, folding in on itself.

  “Wha—AAARGH!” Garrick screamed as every ounce of his magic was ripped from him, dragged into the crystal’s core. His veins glowed red as he convulsed, skin seared by his own stolen power.

  “You idiot…” I breathed, my blood running cold.

  The crystal flared with blinding light, fissures running across its surface. A surge of destructive energy pulsed outward, unstable and violent.

  It was going to explode.

  I shot forward. “I have to stop him. If it goes off—”

  I clenched my fists. I can’t afford to be late. My students… I need to save everyone!

  The air warped, pressure building toward the inevitable burst.

  ◇◇◇

  Mother had not only trained me in swordplay and weapons, but she had also carved into me the foundation of martial arts—the art of channeling one’s own spirit as both shield and blade.

  Martial arts was not separate from magic; they were the primal form of it, the body itself becoming the vessel. Where mages referred to inner strength as aura, martialists simply called it battle spirit.

  I could still recall the first day mother showed it to me. Her palm had struck the air, and though it never touched me, the force alone sent me reeling, clutching my stomach in pain for a whole day. My body carried bruises for three more as we continued training.

  Yet it was also then that I realized—battle spirit was not some trick of muscle or magic. It was the pure will of the body and soul given form. It took me three grueling days to reach the threshold of the Superior Heavenly Realm, where I could finally conceal my spirit and spar against her as an equal.

  Since I can’t use any magic other than light at the academy for now, I’ll have to rely on my physical strength—even though I’m not too fond of using it, being a magician.

  I exhaled slowly, lowering my stance, my abdomen sinking as I gathered the breath of heaven and earth into my dantian. Energy flooded my meridians, surging with force until I bent it into a calm, steady flow.

  Then, like a floodgate breaking, my aura ignited—battle spirit enveloped me, coiling around my legs. The world sharpened; I could feel the flow of air, the trembling instability of Garrick’s magic, even the faint heartbeats of the students behind me.

  To me, it was as though the veil of reality had thinned—I was standing in a world painted in streams of aura.

  Channeling all that gathered force into a single point, I thrust upward.

  My aura erupted in a blinding pillar of crimson-gold, surging skyward in a single straight pillar of force. It wasn’t a spell, nor a technique—it was pure martial will.

  The column tore through the air, splitting Garrick’s fire serpent from crown to tail. The beast screamed without a voice, its body torn apart as if it were made of paper.

  In that instant, the fire serpent was no more—scattered into nothingness.

  The pillar did not stop—it continued skyward, gouging a clean rift in the clouds, revealing an endless blue above.

  But things weren’t over yet. Garrick, blinded by arrogance, tried to summon the same forbidden magic again. The crystal, however, had long passed its limits.

  The red crystal on his staff throbbed violently, rejecting his control. Instead of being a conduit of magical energy, it began feeding on its user instead, siphoning magic straight from Garrick’s magical veins.

  If left unchecked, the crystal would explode, and everyone nearby would be caught in the blast. Miss Xu had already started rushing toward him, but she was too far; she wouldn’t reach him in time.

  I could have easily protected everyone instantly enveloping everyone with my strongest shield—but I didn’t want to.

  I wasn’t done with Garrick. Not yet. After all, just as he had asked, I still needed to prove my worth for the S-class—and this would be the ultimate demonstration.

  Drawing my battle spirit deep into my body, I felt my aura surge into my legs like liquid fire. With a leap faster than lightning, I closed the distance between us. Garrick barely had time to register me before I landed.

  His eyes went wide — too late.

  He flinched, staggering under the pressure, still clutching the staff.

  “You should let me handle that,” I said, my hands glowing faintly with a thin sheet of crackling blue aura. I grasped the crystal with my bare hands.

  The energy backlash bit into my palms, the crystal’s heat radiating like a miniature sun, while my aura wrapped around my hands in a thin, shimmering sheath.

  Yet I still couldn’t sever the channel that had formed between the corrupted magic crystal and Garrick.

  A quick solution came to mind. Twisting midair, I unleashed a precise, horizontal tornado kick to his abdomen, sending him hurtling hundreds of meters away.

  It’s not like I’ve been looking forward to doing this or anything. I just… couldn’t have any interruptions while I resolved the situation.

  I began to rotate my hands in a controlled circle around the crystal, wrapping it in my battle spirit. Streams of blue and white light coursed along my arms, intertwining with the volatile crimson energy of the artifact.

  The crystal’s corrupted energy resisted my attempt to stabilize it, tearing at the edges of my aura—but I held firm.

  Realizing there was no way to prevent it from detonating while holding it — but I could control where it struck.

  “There’s no stopping this here… better it explodes somewhere empty,” I muttered.

  Raising my palm holding it straight vertically, my aura coalesced into a massive, pulsating wave of energy around my palm, the crystal’s final eruption funneled into it.

  “Falling Star Palm Break!”

  With a thrust forward, I released it in a single, devastating arc. Blue-white light cut through the air, shearing the land in its wake.

  The beam carved a clear path of blazing radiance, arcing toward the empty space Al had indicated, which coincidentally turned out to be the expanse beyond the Seven Gates barriers raised by Miss Xu.

  My battle spirit palm force collided with the barriers like a thousand thunderbolts. One by one, the towering, magical fortifications crumbled, each shattering into dust.

  The seventh barrier shattered with a deafening boom, and beyond that, the crystal detonated in a controlled cataclysm, sending a blinding wave of energy rippling through the entire space felt by everyone. Then, as quickly as it came, silence and shadow returned.

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