Magic Academy Mayhem: A Class Full of Maniacs - Chapter 24

Chapter 24

The audience’s chatter couldn’t affect Cynthia.

The only thing that bothered her was that some of those barking dogs had turned out to be right.

Blood dripped from the Chain Whip and spattered onto the ground. Cynthia’s gaze swept over Rafael’s abdomen before finally meeting his eyes. “Why didn’t you dodge?”

Faced with the girl’s question, Rafael only said, “I couldn’t avoid it.”

“…Heh.”

Couldn’t avoid it?

Cynthia suddenly smiled, but there was not the slightest trace of amusement in her eyes.

The Chain Whip in her hand transformed again, shifting into a magical scepter.

The scepter was blue and white, with a rose-shaped crystal suspended at its center, giving off a faint golden glow. As the incantation in her heart came to an end, an intricate, exquisite golden magic circle appeared beneath Cynthia’s feet.

A rain of petals suddenly fell from the sky. Before the petals could drift to the ground, they transformed into thorny vines and stabbed toward Rafael.

At the same time, Cynthia instantly released the second subsidiary skill of Mirror Image Cage-Mirror Shard.

Mirror Image shards condensed from crystal formed in the blink of an eye. Their facets refracted cold light, sealing off the entire area and creating a cage with nowhere to run.

After the vines and skill had both been cast, Cynthia did not maintain a long-range assault. Instead, she charged straight at Rafael.

The scepter transformed into twin blades, and every move she made was utterly merciless.

Rafael did not dodge. He blocked all of her attacks with one hand.

Even wounded, he remained composed.

In that moment, Cynthia felt what it meant to face a gap in Sequence.

From the start of the match until now, Rafael had been holding back the entire time. He had not shown any intention of using his Sequence ability, either.

With the strength he had displayed, if he truly wanted to win, there was no way he could have failed to avoid her attack just now.

To put it more bluntly… from beginning to end, he had never taken this seriously.

Whether Rafael had held back because the original owner of this body had been his friend, or because he simply did not want to win, none of that mattered.

Cynthia brought both blades straight down, then lifted her leg in a sweeping kick.

The sharp edges sliced across Rafael’s arm and abdomen.

More and more wounds appeared on his body.

As Cynthia’s offensive grew increasingly fierce, Rafael vaguely sensed that something was wrong with her emotions.

He used one hand to brace his curved blade against her twin blades, while his other hand summoned flames that burned away the vines. Thousands of silver-white threads shot out at once, piercing through the glass walls formed by the mirrors. Then he controlled them to coil toward Cynthia.

He thought Cynthia would dodge. But this time, not only did she not dodge, she dropped her defenses instead.

“!”

Rafael’s pupils constricted. He instinctively tried to withdraw the threads, only to see the girl in front of him grab the retreating threads in a tight fist.

The silver-white threads sank into her palm, cutting through flesh and leaving bloody grooves.

And because the threads carried a numbing and toxic effect, purple poison spots began spreading across her skin.

Crimson blood spilled from the corner of Cynthia’s mouth, but she still did not stop. She forcibly used magic power to break through the obstruction caused by the paralysis, then wrapped the threads tightly around her hand in return.

The threads dug deeper and deeper, until even the white of bone could be seen beneath the torn flesh.

Rafael’s heart tightened. He prepared to forcibly disperse the threads, but at that very moment, the shattered mirror fragments turned into rings of light that wrapped around the countless threads.

Immediately after, an enormous suction force flowed out of his body along the threads. The threads were dissipating… No, rather, Cynthia was using those fragments as a medium to Devour his magic power.

Rafael realized her goal and wanted to use his skill to reverse the absorption.

But if he did that, both of them would inevitably suffer the backlash.

Rafael hesitated.

And because of that, he lost.

The instant his magic power was Devoured, the threads vanished completely, and the icy mirror fragments pressed against Rafael’s throat, all of Area A’s spectator stands fell into a brief, deathly silence.

The host’s voice rang out. “First competition zone, Cynthia of Moon Soul Academy, Class 659, wins!”

After that announcement fell, the audience finally seemed to wake up, erupting into cries of shock.

“How is that possible?! Cynthia actually won?!”

“How is it not possible? Just because she’s lower Sequence, does that mean she has to lose for it to make sense?”

“Speaking of which, Rafael still didn’t use his Sequence-exclusive ability all the way to the end. I’m honestly pretty curious what Divine Sequence 09’s ability is supposed to be.”

“This is so absurd…”

“It is. No matter how you look at it, Rafael winning would’ve made more sense.”

“All I can say is he threw the match. That wasn’t just holding back, that was practically the whole Pacific Ocean.”

“Can I just say, what exactly are you people calling absurd? And holding back, holding back-what water did he even release? I think the only thing full of water is your brain. Seriously, this is so annoying. Can’t even watch a match without people running their mouths.”
The noisy spectator stands did not affect the two people on the stage.

After the host announced the result, Cynthia put away her Spirit Weapon and turned to walk down from the arena.

On the first day, the four hundred contestants were divided into an upper half and a lower half.

She was in the upper half. The lower half had nothing to do with her.

Now she only needed to wait for the others to finish their matches, then continue with the second round tomorrow.

After taking a Healing Potion, Cynthia left the competition area without hesitation.

The crowd gradually thinned, yet the person behind her was still following.

Cynthia stopped and turned to look at Rafael, who had been trailing after her.

Wiping the blood from her hand with a silk handkerchief, she asked, “Is there something else?”

Rafael wanted to come closer, but he seemed a little nervous.

In the end, he could only stop where he was. He gathered his mana into a Levitation Magic Bubble, placed a Healing Potion and the gift he had prepared long ago inside it, then raised his hand and gently pushed the bubble in front of her.

“…Are you angry?”

“Why would I be angry?” Cynthia glanced at the golden bubble before her, somewhat speechless.

Was this guy a child or what…?

She looked away and stared at him quietly. “Or are you saying you held back, just like they said?”

Rafael was silent for a moment before he said softly, “I didn’t. Ever since we were little, you’ve always been stronger than me. That hasn’t changed now.”

“…” Cynthia’s gaze moved downward. His hand hung at his side, and his fingertips were unconsciously turning the ring on his finger.

Whenever he lied, his expression, movements, and demeanor could never hide it.

That was from the original owner’s memories.

Cynthia did not want to look into it. In truth, whether he had held back or not did not matter.

It was not some so-called battle of dignity. To her, winning was all that mattered.

She pushed the bubble back and said bluntly, “Since you didn’t, there’s no need to bring it up again. I don’t need these. Goodbye.”

“Wait!” Seeing that she was about to leave, Rafael grew a little flustered.

He stepped forward and grabbed her sleeve. His long, slender fingers turned faintly pale from gripping too tightly in his nervousness.

But when Cynthia looked over, he hurriedly let go.

“…Xiya, I didn’t mean to go these past few months without contacting you. I only regained consciousness right before school started, and afterward I enrolled in such a rush that I couldn’t send the letters out. I’m truly sorry.”

The young man before her spoke carefully, as if he were afraid of upsetting her.

The direct line of the Clavien Family was indeed tormented by a strange illness. Before reaching adulthood, they would repeatedly fall into nightmares. During those periods, their fevers would not break, and they would lose consciousness and sink into a deep sleep.

There were also cases of people never waking once they fell asleep, so every coma was a threat of death to them.

The original owner knew about this. It had been mentioned in his letters.

If that was the reason he had lost contact, then there was no need for him to apologize at all.

Cynthia honestly did not understand why, when they were both children of ducal families, he seemed so passive.

If she had to explain it, it was probably because he treasured this childhood friendship too much.

Cynthia very much wanted to turn around and leave, but in the end, she was borrowing the original owner’s body. Toward the only person the original owner had cherished besides her family, she could not exactly say something unhinged like they should cut ties from now on.

“You don’t need to apologize. I didn’t take it to heart.”

Hearing this, Rafael’s dim eyes seemed to brighten with a trace of light. “Then in the future… may I contact you through the Light Screen?”

Cynthia met those eyes and found it genuinely difficult to refuse.

She sighed inwardly, but in the end, she still said yes.

After they added each other’s contact information, Rafael’s joy was written plainly across his face.

Cynthia closed the Light Screen. Having learned her lesson from earlier, she did not give him any chance this time.

After saying, “I still have something to do. See you next time,” she quickly left.

As for whether there would actually be a next time, that was not certain.

This time, Rafael did not try to make her stay. Only after her figure disappeared from sight did he withdraw his gaze.

After Cynthia left, a black-haired girl walked out from the shadows and stood guard beside Rafael, reminding him, “Young Master, you should tend to your wound first.”

Rafael did not respond. Ignoring the bloody, mangled wound on his abdomen, he asked flatly, “Anno, what do you think could cause a person’s temperament to change so drastically…?”