Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei - Volume 03 - Nine Schools Competition (I) (19 page)

Even if Tatsuya stood onstage, there would be no stones or magic hurtled his way — that was a given.

However, for him, this was a very foreign location.

The participants and engineers assembled into two lines.
Among the technician team, only Tatsuya was an underclassman.
All the others were upperclassmen, which naturally lent the feeling that he was the odd man out.

Thanks to Tatsuya's performance during the selection meeting, he was spared the outright hostile or contemptuous gazes on stage.

That being said, it wasn't like the gazes were friendly.
Favorable evaluation does not equate to a favorable impression.

Regardless of how they looked at it, his acceptance onto the team was an unprecedented elevation and special treatment.

To top it all off, Tatsuya was presently garbed in the jacket with the coveted eight petal flower emblem embroidered on it.

Surely someone must consider this offensive, which inevitably led to further backlash that he could do nothing about.
Beneath the luminous lights, Tatsuya calmly thought about this as if he wasn't the principal.

During this time, they were introducing each contestant in turn on stage.

Mayumi was the master of ceremonies.

Upon being called, each participant would receive a special medal that concealed the ID crystal needed to enter the competition arena.

To improve the presentation, Miyuki was responsible for presenting the medal to each individual.

Just the contestants alone numbered 40 people (excluding Miyuki and Mayumi there were 38), so this was a very time-consuming process, but probably owing to her excellent upbringing, Miyuki maintained a sweet smile throughout as she smoothly pinned the medals onto each individual.

In such an extreme proximity that they could feel her breath, no male student was immune to Miyuki's smile as they desperately tried to fight their blushing and shaky expressions.

If that was the case, this scene would undoubtedly rouse the ire of the entire female student body, but even the female students that received the medals had succumbed to flushed faces or faltering gazes, so no one in the audience (especially the upperclassmen) was irked and instead smiled in agreement.

The medals were not just presented to the participants, but to the auxiliary team as well.

After the tactical advisory team was introduced, it was finally the technical support team's turn.

"Somehow I feel a little nervous."

Someone next to him suddenly spoke to him, causing Tatsuya to slightly turn his head.

The male student to his flank also turned his head slightly, catching Tatsuya's gaze directly.

The level of Tatsuya's sight was slightly higher.

If he recalled correctly, this was the Year 2 student named Isori Kei.
Of course, he was a Course 1 student (and Tatsuya was the only Course 2 student onstage anyways).

"Yeah."

He was one of the very few that were openly friendly to Tatsuya.

This handsome youth possessed a mild temperament and, coupled with his slender figure, if he exchanged the pants for a dress, would perfectly fit the description of a "tall female student".
However, he was also First Place in Magic Theory for the Year 2 class as well as one of the foremost Magicians with technical skills.

As Tatsuya re-examined his "beauty" at close range, he got the distinct impression that one shouldn't judge a book by its cover.

They were still on stage, so the conversation ended there.

However, even for a slower individual like Tatsuya, to be able to find one shining light of friendliness in this murky ocean of negativity was enough to lessen the gloomy emotions welling up in his heart.

As he felt his depression lighten, he had the excess energy to survey the audience.

Since there wasn't any assigned seating in the audience, the student body naturally split into two, with the Course 1 students in front and the Course 2 students in the rear.

That being said, a few outsiders had managed to infiltrate the front half.

They probably detected Tatsuya's gaze.

Erika vigorously waved at him from her seat in the third row from the front, which was close enough to be called front row seating.

Tatsuya was thoroughly astounded by this.

Taking a closer look, Mizuki sat next to Erika, with Leo on her other side and Mikihiko occupying Leo's other flank.
Even the faces behind them were all familiar.

In sheer defiance of the disapproving looks sent their way by the surrounding Course 1 students, First Year Class E stormed the front of seating and claimed a section for themselves.

As Tatsuya was drawn to their courageous actions, Miyuki arrived in front of him with a small cart before her.

Of the 40 contestants, 4 tactical advisors, 8 technicians and removing the master of ceremonies and assistant, there were a total of 50 people on stage.
Forty-nine of them had already received their medals.

Last, but not least, it was finally the 50th person's turn.

In other words, Tatsuya was up next.

Mayumi loudly proclaimed his name.

Was Tatsuya over thinking too much, or did she place extra emphasis on his name?

Tatsuya stepped forward to acknowledge the announcement.

Miyuki revealed a brilliant, melting smile — enough to cause Tatsuya to be worried about his sister's mental status — and stood before Tatsuya.

Miyuki clipped the medal onto Tatsuya's jacket.

At the same time, thunderous applause broke forth.

There was no need for any visual confirmation.

It was Erika and Leo leading the rest of his classmates in applause.

To Mayumi and Miyuki, who were responsible for directing the ceremony, this was an unplanned for ruckus.

However, just as the First Year Course 1 students were about to hush the clapping.
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Mayumi and Miyuki seized the initiative to start clapping from the wings of the stage.

After introducing the last representative, the entire assembly started applauding.

This perfectly coincided with the applause for the entire team, which spread throughout the auditorium.

After the conclusion of the colors ceremony, the entire campus was completely focused on preparing for the Nine Schools Competition.

With the events they would be participating in settled, Miyuki spent every day practicing with Shizuka and Honoka until the last second before the campus closed.

Tatsuya needed to perform CAD maintenance at the same time he was assisting Miyuki with her tasks, so he was also occupied until late in the day.

Both Erika and Leo were affiliated with athletic clubs, so they were also drafted to help deal with the myriad tasks that needed doing.

Mizuki was the only one in the literary clubs, so this week she usually waited by herself for everyone else to finish.

Last week's colors ceremony filled her with anxiety.

Even though there was no assigned seating, it still took a lot of courage to disregard that unspoken rule.

There was no way she could do that alone, though the situation was more like if Erika hadn't been there, none of their classmates would've taken the plunge either.

Mizuki acknowledged her own introverted and cowering personality, so she was doubly impressed by and envious of her friend.

(But why was Erika striving so hard like that.
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Mizuki was forcibly dragged along by Erika into participating.

Of course, she wanted to support Tatsuya as well, but reflecting on the situation, she would be more than satisfied with applauding from the rear.

Erika was inclined towards reckless behavior, so her ulterior motive may also be to taunt the Course 1 students.

At the same time, Erika was a flighty individual that usually didn't think things through.

In Mizuki's eyes, she was someone who loved to get in on the action, but rarely was the source of any troublesome business.
This could be easily explained if it only involved her best friends like Mizuki, but to be motivated enough to involve all of their classmates, this didn't seem to fit a practical joker's state of mind.

(So Erika is really like that towards Tatsuya.
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Right.
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From Mizuki's perspective, the male who hit it off the best with Erika was Leo.

Erika also had an extensive back story with Mikihiko, who took Third Place in the Theoretical portion of their exams.

But Mizuki felt that Erika held something special for Tatsuya that weighed far differently than the others.

For some reason, Mizuki refused to assign this feeling Erika had a specific definition in her mind.

She arrived at the school entrance less than 5 minutes ago.

The time was too short for her to claim that she was tired of waiting.

However, this was more than enough time to jolt her thinking.

Without any conscious effort, an assortment of things flowed through Mizuki's mind.

This situation would perfectly fit the criteria for being distracted.

And so, with her sense unfocused towards any single point, she spread her senses outward and detected a foreign wavelength.

Mizuki pondered this for exactly one second.

Then she made up her mind to remove her glasses.

Instantly, a tidal wave of flowing colors came rushing in.

Her vision was filled with colorful lights from a myriad of shades.

Mizuki temporarily sustained the pain in her eyes brought on by the excess stimulation.

For her, the act of removing her glasses was like walking from pitch darkness into the sun's radiant rays.

The things she usually avoided looking at suddenly became visible.

The surplus data gave her a rudderless feeling as her ocular nerves and brain were overloaded by processing all this information.

If this happened to the average person, they might've been knocked unconscious by this information deluge, but for her, this was "another world" that had been by her side since birth.

Even people that were suddenly exposed before the powerful rays of the sun swiftly adapted after a short period of time.

For people with dark pupils suitable for intense light, this time would be even shorter.

All Mizuki had to do was blink two or three times and her eyes adjusted to be able to see a psion light several dozen times stronger than what the average Magician perceives as well as the pushion light that average Magicians couldn't even identify.

Mizuki cautiously replaced her glasses into the carrying case, then directed her gaze towards the odd vibration from earlier.

She swiftly found the frequency that allowed her to penetrate the anti-spirit light lens.

The pushion signal that possessed a wavering but regular beat like breathing.

Now, even the source of the light could be easily seen.

Mizuki advanced towards the Technical Skills Building where the vibration originated from as if drawn to it.

The closer she got to the Technical Skills Building, the more she felt the seeping cold air in the surrounding environment.

This was the middle of summer, and even if the setting sun was partially blocked by the neighboring hills and cut a horizon that was not altogether "curved", the temperature was still more than high enough to be sweating.

This was an illusion.

"Something" was pretending to be cold air, tucked within the folds of the warm summer air.