4 - Freshman Year, Summer 3

In MaSLo, the winner of this year’s Magic Tournament was whoever Serena supported. It’s a wonderful event where she tells them to give it their all just before the start, raising affection flags as well.

With that in mind, I’m still determined to win, because…

“Woo! Woo! E-li! E-li! You’ve got this tournament in the bag!”

… Serena is desperately cheering, four times as much as she ever did in the game.

My opponent for the first round is Stan DeFord, son of the High Priest and a capture target.

“Lady Elizabeth, I fear I cannot harm beautiful ladies like yourself, yet I cannot let you win here either,” he called out.

Ugh!

“Don’t worry,” I called back. “I’ll be the victor anyway.”

“Hmm, what an amusing thing for a lady to say,” he said.

I am going to crush this man into the ground.

I hold my hand out level to his chest. Then, as soon as the presiding teacher gives the signal, I rushed towards him in an instant and sent him flying.

The rules of magic in this world say that one person only has one magical attribute. The most common four are the attributes Fire, Water, Earth, and Wind, which can be summoned and manipulated at will. However, with a deeper understanding of magic, you can begin to use them at the Conceptual Level where you, you start manipulating your attribute’s properties and create entirely new, powerful magic.

With the Fire element, you could release a divine flame that burns everything it touches, or invoke the spirit of the Phoenix to heal others. With the Water element, you can siphon all the moisture from a person’s body and instantaneously turn them into a mummy.

My attribute is Earth.

It gave me control over the ground itself and not just dirt. I took advantage of that by moving the ground beneath my feet, propelling myself at high speed until my hand hit Stan. If you want to make a comparison to manga from before, I guess you could call it like the “JET Pistol”. 1

Stan ends up going quite the distance, and honestly, I feel a little sorry for him.

“Welcome back, Eli,” Serena says as I return to the stands. “You were so cool back there.”

“Was I?” I asked.

“Mmm,” Serena said. “I’d go say you’re the coolest person in the world today, Eli!”

It means a lot to me that she’s saying that.

“Time for me to step up,” Yoshie said as she headed down herself. “I won’t lose to you, Eliza.”

“Give it your all, Shi!” Serena says.

“Give it your all,” I repeat.

Later, after Yoshie and her opponent are in the ring, Serena asks, “Hey Eli, how likely do you think Yoshie’s going to win?”

“I’d give her a 90% chance of defeat,” I replied.

“That sounds pretty bad,” Serena said.

“Well, it’s not like Yoshie’s magic is good for combat…” I mutter.

Yoshie’s conceptual level magic was what you might call a “Dictionary”. It’s the ability to use magic to “know” whatever you would like. Since I don’t know the exact details, I think it’s similar to how an internet search engine works.

It’s incredibly useful except for combat. And so, Yoshie gets burned by the child of a fire mage.

Serena is next. Before she leaves she says, “Eli, I’ll give this match my all! If I win, pat my head!”

“Alright,” I said. Not that I was ever going to stop patting her head.

Her match ended with an overwhelming victory, Serena returned to me, looked up adorably, and said, “Eli, pat my head!”

I did then she giggled shyly. What an adorable creature she is.

In our second rounds, I won against the small fry thanks to my conceptual level magic. Serena, however, lost badly against Arthur’s twin brother, Mordred.

“Eli, I lost!” Serena cried, so I patted her head. Eventually, she calmed down and said, “Thank you, Eli. I know you’ll win this tournament, so go out there and take your title!”

With all the cheering from this morning and till now, I feel as if I have no choice but to win. And perhaps because of Serena’s support, I made it to the quarterfinals.

Lancelot was my opponent. “Hmph, Asteron,” he said. “Be prepared, for this will not be as easy as before.”

“I expected as much,” I replied.

The match started.

I cracked the ground beneath Lancelot’s feet.

“ Levitation! ” he cried, floating in the air just before he could fall in again.

“How about that!” I said as I made a smug grin. “But I don’t need to break the earth to win!”

I started turning the ground around him into golems. In honor of a certain game, I christened it “Unlimited Golem Works.” 2

Lancelot lasted for all of two minutes against my golem army until he was yelling, “I give, I give, it’s my loss!”

My victory was delicious like Henna chocolate.

As I moved onto semi-finals, my opponent was Mordred, the bastard prince that made my adorable Serena cry. He was the “handsome bookish” type of capture target and is the most down-to-earth and humorless of them.

“You’ve made my Serena cry, so prepare yourself,” I said as we met on the field.

“This battle will be mine, so you prepare for that,” he counters.

I will admit that was pretty cool of Mordred, but by crushing him with a localized gravitational field, victory was almost instantly mine.

He approached me after the match. “You’re very strong, Elizabeth. Become my master.”

“My training is strict, I wonder if you’ll be able to keep up,” I said.

“Hmm, hmm, let’s do it,” Mordred said.

He’s still game for it, what do I do?

“Eli, thanks for avenging me,” Serena said as she came up and hugged me, adorable as always. “Go clinch the finals, okay?”

“Good luck as well,” Mordred said before he turned around.

“Oh? You’re leaving now?” I asked.

“I must start training again soon,” he said.

“And I’m going to stop Eli from becoming anyone’s master without her permission,” Serena said.

It seems that Serena and Mordred don’t get along well. That fight earlier must have blocked that route.

Time for the finals.

“Well, Eliza, I do want you to kick me right now, but I suppose I should hold till after my victory,” Arthur said.

“How about before the match starts?” I snapped as I started approaching him. “I’d be happy to kick you now!”

“Stop, stop, only up to that point!” the teacher said, keeping me from getting any closer and getting disqualified. Thank you, teacher!

“Well, your kicks will certainly be a fantastic reward for my victory,” Arthur said.

“You speak as if I’d let you win,” I said.

“Now, let the duel commence!” the teacher cried.

Immediately, I trapped Arthur’s feet in a gravitational field before I cast Fissure on the ground.

Arthur pulled out his sword and stopped the spell before the cracks could appear. As the only conceptual level mage alongside me and Yoshie, he focused his magic on sword spells, all while wielding the strongest one in all of MaSLo:

“Now, Excalibur.”

He swings and carves out impossibly huge sections of the ground. If I couldn’t move so fast with my magic, I would have been destroyed with them. As soon as he stops, I increase the gravitational force on his feet.

“How nice, Eliza,” Arthur says as he swings his sword, freeing himself. “Shame it won’t work. This is sword is an enchanted blade, it will cut through all forms of magic.”

His words shake me. But I can’t give up while Serena and Yoshie are cheering me on. I summon new golems then try to crush him with gravity again, but he cuts them both apart.

“It’s useless, Eliza!” Arthur yells. “Just surrender and kick me!”

This guy won’t get disciplined any time soon. But I still had my trump card. I cast my Zero-G spell, leaving me temporarily unaffected by the earth’s gravity. Weightless, I propelled myself forward and got right in front of Arthur in an instant.

“How…?” Arthur muttered.

I sent him flying out of bounds.

The stands erupt in cheers, Serena rushes down from the audience to hug me right then there. “You did it!” she cries. “Congratulations! That’s our Eli: strong, cute, and kind. No doubts about it, I’m happy you’re my friend!”

“Selena, she’s not yours,” Arthur said as he came back. “Elizabeth is mine.”

“Hmm, hmm, she’s my master,” Mordred said, somehow getting mixed up in this.

“Haa, just shut up,” Serena said. “Pervert M-Princes!

“Don’t confuse me for my brother,” Mordred says.

“Oh, Serena,” Arthur said. “Your insults are almost as good as Eliza’s kicks.”

Seeing the princes like this made me very worried for the future of this country.

Footnotes

From One Piece, the JET Pistol is Luffy’s “Second Gear” attack. From Fate/Stay Night, used by Shirou.