Chapter 202

Chapter 202

I Became the Academy Mafia Chapter 202A few days ago.

“Huff. Hah. Haaah. Instructor. We’re spatial mages, right? Hah... hah... Then why! Why the hell are we doing things like punching logs?”

Kim Se-ah, who had been dragged into the mountains by Ji Su-hyeon under the pretext of mentoring, was lying on the ground panting heavily.

“Instead of wasting time wondering about that, why don’t you hit the log a few more times?”

“Uegh... if I knew the reason, maybe I could work harder...”

At her groaning, Ji Su-hyeon finally sighed and slipped the phone she was holding into her pocket.

“I’m only going to say this once, so listen carefully. Kim Se-ah, what do you think a mage’s weakness is?”

“Huh? A mage’s... weakness?”

Her body was exhausted and her mind worn down, but this was instruction from none other than Ji Su-hyeon.

Se-ah pushed herself up from the ground, thought carefully about the answer, then slowly opened her mouth.

“A weak body? That’s why mages who overcome that are called War Mages, right?”

“War Mage... that’s not exactly what I want from you, but anyway, if you know that so well, why are you whining that this is hard?”

“B-but couldn’t I just achieve enough in magic to compensate for my weak body? Most schools of magic consider that important too.”

Whether training the body or training magic, both took a long time in the end.

But Ji Su-hyeon looked at Se-ah and shook her head as though she were pathetic.

“I’ll only show you once. Watch carefully.”

“Huh? Show me what...”

“That physical training you hate so much. Watch what a mage with a strong body looks like.”

Saying that, she began loosening up her body.

Every time she twisted her torso or cracked her neck, crunching sounds echoed.

At the same time, purple mana began rippling around her body.────!! ────!! ────!!

A series of flashes erupted, and an unbelievable sight began unfolding before Se-ah’s eyes.

Continuous teleportation so rapid it made her wonder what kind of calculations could possibly make such movement possible.

The punches and kicks thrown in the process shattered trees, crushed them, and began devastating everything around her.

“...

Wow.”

A horrific scene difficult to believe had occurred in only an instant.

The place that had been a dense forest just moments ago had transformed into a battlefield in the blink of an eye.

“Did you get a good look? A mage with a strong body.”

Ji Su-hyeon wiped the sweat from her face with a towel Se-ah had no idea where she’d gotten and smiled pleasantly.

Se-ah, who had been staring blankly, opened her mouth.

“W-what the hell was that just now? I mean. That’s on a completely different level from a War Mage!”

“I told you. What I want from you isn’t a War Mage. It’s this.”

At that, Se-ah looked even more dumbfounded.

“...

Huh?”

“CTC. It’s a martial art most spatial mages in special forces are trained in. The reason you’re doing all this now is to build a body capable of learning it.”

“W-wait! Then does that mean I have to keep doing nothing but physical training like this until my body is finished? Seriously?!”

Perhaps she had suddenly seen her own future.

Se-ah jumped in shock and backed away.

At the sight, Ji Su-hyeon snorted as though dumbfounded.

“You think so? Of course I’ll teach you other things too. I was planning to stop after you stabbed that log a thousand times today, but you haven’t even reached seven hundred yet, right?”

“W-well, that’s...”

“You’ve got three hundred left. Once you finish those, I’ll teach you a very interesting technique... so you can look forward to it.”

______________

“Orbit Control!”

Se-ah stretched her hand forward.

At the same time, the spell formulas and trajectories of the magic flying toward her appeared before her eyes, creating a situation where she could interfere with them.

Se-ah gripped the empty air as though twisting an object and moved her hand.

The pigeon and Fire Ball collided and caused an enormous explosion.

-Aaaah! Kim Se-ah’s spatial magic activates here! Twisting the trajectory of magic is a spatial mage’s specialty! At this point, projectile magic is practically sealed!

“Peace Makerrrrrrr!”

In contrast to the commentators going wild at the sight, an enormous scream came from the opposing side, but Se-ah remained unmoved and poured mana into her gloves.

Simply twisting trajectories was a minor trick she had already been able to use even before receiving mentoring.

But from here on was the true result of that mentoring.

“Technique Control.”

She seized the mana she had inserted into the spell formula while controlling its trajectory and completely stole control of it.

And as the finishing touch, she combined the two spell formulas into something new.

“Should I call this Fire Peace Maker?”

-Gurururururuk!

At the same time, a gigantic bird engulfed in flames changed direction and flew toward the opposing side.

This was the new magic Ji Su-hyeon had taught her.‘Technique Controller.’

-This is insane! She stole the spell formula and then remodeled and transformed it into a new spell! That beautiful magic deserves to be called usurpation rather than theft!

As the excited commentator’s voice echoed throughout the arena, Kim Se-ah felt the corners of her mouth naturally rise.‘Have this many people ever watched one of my matches and enjoyed it like this before?’Kim Se-ah knew better than anyone that she was talented.

She had talent in the extremely rare field of ‘spatial magic,’ and thanks to that, she had attended both middle school and the Academy on full scholarships.

But that was all.

She had thought she was merely talented, not someone who could become a star.

But look at this situation now.

-The firebird rises as though announcing its resurrection and flies toward ‘Magic Kid Magician’! Truly a Firebird! Firebird! Kim Se-ah! Is she a god?!

“Eeeek! Block it! We have to block it!”

“Give me mana, hurry!!”

Had it always felt this good to see people go wild over her magic and panic because of it?

“Magical Cylinder!”

The members of the magician club gathered together and unleashed a massive spell.

Two enormous hats resembling magician hats.

The firebird entered the hat on the left, then shot out of the one on the right, once again changing its destination.

“Ha! We’ve got trump cards too!”

“Your magic! We’ll send it right back to you, just like you did!”

Seeing the magic change course again and fly toward her, Se-ah let out a hollow laugh.

Because even in a situation where she would have panicked badly or forfeited in the past, the first thought that came to mind was, ‘That’s nothing.’

“I think I understand why Mr. Eugene was so certain I’d win.”

Her path had already become completely different.

From a moderately talented ‘spatial mage’ into Familia’s spatial mage.──Clap!

Se-ah pressed her palms together as though in prayer, and purple mana began rippling around her.

She accelerated the circle inside her body even more, drawing out as much mana as possible.

Wooooooong───!

The mana inside her rotated and accelerated, and the mana flowing out of her body began growing denser and denser.

And finally.

“Diiiiieee!!”

The moment the opposing magic reached directly in front of Se-ah.

Thump.

Se-ah’s body disappeared.

“Huh? Where the hell did──.”

Booooom──!!

The figure of one of the magician club members wearing a cloak vanished in an instant.

“Huh?”

The one in the magician hat looked around in confusion at the sudden disappearance of his companion.

Then he saw his teammate far away, embedded in the wall and unconscious.

“W-what the hell is this?”

“──A battle between mages.”

A chilling voice came from behind him.

He quickly turned around and tried to cast magic toward the rear, but.

“My Instructor told me something. Throwing a punch is faster than raising mana.”

Crunch──!

The body of the man in the magician hat collapsed after taking a punch directly to the face.

-Th-this is insaaaaane! I never imagined I’d witness this today! CTC! A technique said to be usable only by a tiny minority of spatial mages is being displayed right now before all of our eyes! Now~ how will the ‘Magic Kid Magician’ Club respond after facing CTC! They must not break! What matters is an unbreakable spirit!

But there was no one left whose spirit could remain unbroken.

Only one member remained, holding a small wand.

“W-what the hell is this? You said you were a mage too! Th-this isn’t a battle between mages!”

The corners of Se-ah’s mouth slowly rose at the sight of his face already stained with fear.

“I heard this is the trend these days. Was it called a strength mage?”

“What kind of nonsense──.”

“I think I understand what Mr. Eugene feels when he fights. Does he always feel like this?”

Se-ah looked strangely exhilarated at the sight of the senior who feared her.

Another flash erupted, and Se-ah’s figure vanished.

“Where are you! Where the hell are you!”

He looked around while raising his wand, but...

“Peekaboo.”

“─Ah.”

The man’s face froze at Se-ah’s voice coming from above his head.

Thump!

-Match oveeeeeeeeeeer!! The winner of this club battle is none other than the Tarot Club’s proxy and champion! First-year student Kim Se-aaaaaaaah!!

______________

As Se-ah walked outside, people repeatedly began cheering her name.

“Kim Se-ah! Kim Se-ah!”

“Damn it! I believed in you!!”

“The underdog hiiiiit!!”

“You favorites bettors awake now?”

Amid that atmosphere, Se-ah approached us while scratching her head in embarrassment.

“I finished it. Just like you said, Mr. Eugene, it was easier than I expected.”

Although she was smiling, the sweat running down her face and her slightly breathless voice showed that she had pushed herself a little.

“Good work. Get some rest today.”

“Hehe. Is that okay? I guess I did push myself a little because I wanted to look cool.”

Even if the range was short, repeated teleportation consumed a tremendous amount of mana and stamina.

Although she had only done it three times, accomplishing even that much was enough to call her impressive.

“Young-je, then is that it for today?”

“Hm? Ah, yeah. There are three matches in a row tomorrow. And one match the day after.”

Three matches in one day tomorrow.

Normally, because of the school rule that ‘you may participate in only one club battle per day,’ we would have had to abandon several clubs...‘Fortunately, the kids got much stronger. That’s why this kind of situation is even possible.’

We were supposed to be the ones sweating bullets after falling into the student council’s scheme.

So why?

Right now, I had the feeling it would be the student council side sweating bullets more than us.

-Ding.At that moment, a new message window appeared in front of me.[Senior Yuli: 30 minutes later. Cielo notturno. VIP room.]

“Hm?”

A message from Yuli.

I had been wondering exactly why she hadn’t known about this matter, so the timing of her contact was perfect.

“All right, everyone worked hard today. Get some proper rest and I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Ah.

“And Se-ah.”

“Ah, yes?”

“You were seriously cool today.”

“...

Yes!”

Leaving her bright smile and the others behind, I immediately headed to the café, Cielo notturno.

The VIP room of Cielo notturno was a place where outside eavesdropping was absolutely impossible, just like our Familia president’s office.

I sat down first and sipped coffee.

A short while later, Yuli entered the room with an anxious expression.

“Ah, Senior.”

“...

Junior.”

She looked utterly exhausted and haggard.

She trudged over and dropped into the seat across from me.

“Looks like you had a hard time.”

“A ridiculous amount happened. First, I’ll tell you the important part.”

“...

Something important?”

Apparently it was rather urgent, because she went straight to the point.

“I think the President is planning something strange.”

“Pardon?”

“──Tomorrow. Your club members are in danger.”

It seemed the Academy’s president had prepared far more than I expected.