Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei - Volume 03 - Nine Schools Competition (I) (42 page)

"Indeed, to receive the compliments of someone who usually gives scant praise, isn't that something worthy of being happy about?"

Tatsuya didn't believe that he was a completely mature adult.

From an objective standpoint, he felt that he was still an immature child.

That being said, Mayumi's assessment made him out to be one of the fringe members of society unable to feign politeness, which he thoroughly disagreed with.

".
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I can be just as polite as anyone else."

However, Tatsuya's rebuttal only earned a sweet smile from Mayumi that clearly said she saw through his subterfuge.

"So you were just being polite just now?"

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No, I wasn't."

Mayumi's delighted smile struck Tatsuya in the wrong way, but continuing this conversation served no practical purpose.

Also, there was no reason he had to respond in the first place.

Unruffled, Tatsuya calmly accepted Mayumi's smile.

Among the Nine Schools Competition, "Crowd Ball" was the event with the most matches this day.

In terms of pure number of matches, "Monolith Code" was the one sport among the other six that had the most matches.
"Crowd Ball" and "Icicle Destruction" each had five, but "Monolith Code" and "Icicle Destruction" were split across two days, whereas "Crowd Ball" had to finish all 5 matches within half a day.

The allotted time was short, but the nature of the event and the fact that each session lasted three minutes with almost continuous magic invocation with no chance to catch a breather combined to create a situation that was in no way less arduous than the other events.

Thus, how to gauge the use of Magic Power was absolutely vital for seizing the gold in this event.

The goal was, of course, two consecutive victories.

During the match, the players weren't trying to send back every ball haphazardly, but to take into account which shots should be allowed to score in order to properly pace themselves.

Mayumi, who could continuously channel her magic throughout the entire session, was undoubtedly an outlier in this situation.

Even so, Mayumi didn't charge forward and rely solely on her strength in battle.

She also adopted strategies of her own.

Two consecutive victories was absolutely mandatory — this would prevent people from saying "Wait, didn't she just power through to victory?"

By choosing magic that was unsuited to this event by solely rebounding the balls back, this was to avoid exhaustion from continuously replicating magic — this also denied people from claiming that "She's not actually rationing her Magic Power, right?"

Owing to these reasons, her philosophy in battle was to go all out from the start without a trace of hesitation.

Yet, when the second round started, Mayumi was struck by a rare sense of confusion.

Her status was excellent.

Just like earlier, half the round was already over with her opponent unable to score a single point during the first match.

Her confusion came from a completely opposite reason.

(How.
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True, thanks to her opponent withdrawing from the first round, she had more time to rest than usual.

Still, this was a tightly packed schedule with 5 rounds crammed into half a day.

Usually, her mental and physical status would be gradually worn down from exhaustion, but they would definitely not show a marked improvement that even she could notice.

Thus, there must be some reason behind this highly unusual circumstance.

Mayumi could only think of one possible explanation.

As soon as the ending whistle sounded—

Mayumi decided to interrogate her perfidious underclassman.

"Tatsuya-kun, I thought you said you didn't alter the Activation Sequence?"

This was completely opposite from how the first round ended.

As soon as the judges confirmed the end of the round, Mayumi stormed to where Tatsuya was on the sidelines.

Mayumi's accusatory appearance caught Tatsuya by surprise, but he still replied back in a calm manner.

"I never touched the Activation Sequence and there shouldn't be any performance issues, unless you noticed something wrong?"

"Liar!"

Mayumi pointed a finger at Tatsuya's nose, her whole stance quivered like it was about to give off "Bishi!"
sound.

"The efficiency of magic construction was significantly higher and, since there was no time to change the hardware, the only possibility is that you altered the software!"

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So the efficiency coefficient wasn't lower, but higher?"

Tatsuya's clearly befuddled question took the wind out of Mayumi's sails.

"That's true.
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But.
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This would be a whole other story if efficiency dropped, but Mayumi finally noticed that her attitude was wholly ridiculous for someone coming to complain that her performance had shown marked improvement.

"Regardless, why don't you take a seat first?"

Still wearing a baffled expression, Tatsuya handed her a towel, which Mayumi accepted awkwardly before sitting down with a look of consternation on her face.

"The efficiency coefficient rose likely because the garbage was removed."

Tatsuya sat half a body length away from Mayumi and intentionally didn't watch her as he softly settled her down.

"Don't mess around with me.
I was watching you the entire time.
You didn't take apart the CAD for cleaning, nor did you use any cleaning fluids, correct?"

Mayumi said petulantly, but Tatsuya replied back patiently.

"No, I wasn't cleaning the hardware, I was removing the unnecessary software."

CAD performance was also affected by the user's mental condition.

If the user didn't trust the engineer, then this would obviously negatively impact the CAD's performance.

Since he did act without giving prior warning, which meant that he did not go through the informed consent phase, Tatsuya still felt that it was necessary for him to give an in-depth explanation.

"The President's CAD had system files left over from earlier versions of the OS, so I had these removed.
While previous system files rarely accumulate these garbage files, that doesn't mean that they are completely removed either.
By completely erasing these files, CAD performance can be improved by a few percentage points.
However, this usually would not bring about an immediately noticeable improvement, hence I didn't inform you beforehand.
This just goes to show that the President's senses are just that refined and I was being overly rash."

"Ah, that.
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If that's all it is, then don't worry about it."

Tatsuya's excessive bow and apology prompted Mayumi to frantically wave both her hands.

"In that case, this also shows that Tatsuya-kun was dutiful in all regards, so I should be the one apologizing for suspecting you in the first place."

When Tatsuya raised his head, Mayumi was also bowing to him in apology.

Tatsuya couldn't help but note how swiftly she was able to shift gears.

"Then, let's end this conversation here."

He also felt that she was someone who could readily admit her own mistakes.

"You're right."

Must be from a composure born of maturity.

"Then, Tatsuya-kun.
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Even so, it wasn't like she was taking the high ground either.

"What is it?"

"That calibration method.
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or do you call it garbage cleanup?
Can you teach me later?"

No ill intent whatsoever.

"No problem, but please focus on your next match."

"Of course, leave that to Onee-san!"

At this stage, choosing to adopt an older sister's attitude could make anyone smile.

And so, Mayumi completely denied her opponent from scoring a single point.
She won every match 2-0 without yielding a single point and took sole possession of the crown for the Women's "Crowd Ball".

"Icicle Destruction", also known simply as "Pillar Knock", was held in an outdoor arena that was 12 meters long and 24 meters wide.
The field was divided into two halves, each with 12 ice pillars that were 1 meter wide and 2 meters tall, with the victor destroying all the pillars in the opposite field first.

Thanks to this, "Icicle Destruction" required preparation on a massive scale.

Requiring hundreds of huge ice pillars that needed to be kept frozen during the height of summer, it greatly limited the number of arenas, even with the military's complete support.

Owing to the limits on ice production, the Nine Schools Competition could only afford to prepare two arenas for both the Men's Team and Women's Team for a total of 4 arenas.
Each of the two sites had 12 matches in the first round and six matches in the second round for a total of 18 matches, which was the maximum limit for one day.

"Nevertheless, this is a contest that severely depletes Magic Power.
If they held every match in one day, many of the players wouldn't make it.
For the single elimination contest on the second day, there's an extremely short interval between each match.
Thus, there is some truth in the saying that 'Icicle Destruction is won by those with the greatest stamina'."

Tatsuya was lecturing on the details while the one listening and nodding was Shizuku.

Miyuki was also present, but if his sister was the only one here, then Tatsuya wouldn't have to explain at this particular time.

The three of them weren't in the audience stands, but the auxiliary working area.

Their goal was to watch Kanon's match from close proximity to get a first hand experience of what the contest was like.

Kanon was busy discussing the final details with Isori, so this wasn't a good time to interrupt them.

Everyone went to watch the Men's "Crowd Ball" contest.

Sayaka came to cheer on Kirihara, Erika chose to accompany her and roped Mizuki into the mix, then Mizuki invited Mikihiko to come along, finally culminating with Mikihiko grabbing Leo.
And that's how it was.

After hearing Miyuki's report, Tatsuya maintained a "what a duplicitous bunch" feeling.
As for who among them was duplicitous, some things are better left unsaid.

Kanon finally stepped onto the stage.

There were two platforms that stood four meters high at the two ends of the arena.

The players had to use magic to defend the icicles in their own half of the court while simultaneously destroying their opponent's icicles.

After entering the arena, all restrictions on magic safety were removed, so this was publicly acknowledged to be the most intense of all the magic contests.

"Shiba-kun."

After seeing Kanon off to the platform, Isori turned to wave at Tatsuya.

"Let's go too."

Isori invited Miyuki and Shizuku, who brought Tatsuya with them.

Behind the platforms where the players stood, there was a special observation deck for support personnel.

Here, there were several devices responsible for monitoring the players' physical condition as well as a large window for viewing the competition.

"How's Chiyoda-senpai's status?"

Tatsuya felt that it was impolite to remain silent, so he supplied an icebreaker question.

"She's very motivated, to the point that I'm a little concerned that she's too fired up and will lose steam in tomorrow's matches."

With a smile on his face, Isori answered Tatsuya's customary question.

There was no trace of unease on his face.

"I heard that senpai won the first round with the fastest time ever recorded."

"Well, that is Kanon's personality.
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I earnestly hope that she would be a little more prudent, so those watching over her could relax somewhat."