Magic Academy Mayhem: A Class Full of Maniacs - Chapter 38

Chapter 38

Her thoughts were a tangled mess, and she did not sleep all night.

When Cynthia met up with her teammates, dark circles under her eyes, she observed Sangmo’s reaction.

Nothing had changed. He was as quiet as ever.

So it probably wasn’t him.

On the way to the floating island arena, Vernel noticed something was off with Cynthia. After a moment of silence, she still asked, “You don’t seem to be in very good shape.”

Cynthia rubbed her sore, swollen eyes and didn’t bother hiding the truth. “I stayed up all night practicing magic circles. I don’t even know whose nightmare I wandered into, but I didn’t sleep a wink.”

A nightmare?

Vernel recalled the magic circle Griffin had taught them a few days ago and more or less understood.

Richter glanced at Cynthia. “What are the rest of us supposed to do when our captain works this hard?”

Cynthia shrugged. “You could try surpassing me. By the way, when you practice the Dream-Entering Magic Circle, do your memories get blurry after you leave the dream?”

Vernel nodded. “They do, but I can remember the general outline.”

Eli said, “Dreams are projections of another person’s consciousness. It’s normal not to remember them clearly.”

Sangmo and Richter said nothing. They probably hadn’t tried it yet.

Cynthia gave a quiet hum. “As long as it’s normal.”

At the end of the day, it was only a dream. Even if she saw who that person was, other than satisfying her own curiosity, it didn’t seem to have any other meaning.

With that in mind, Cynthia pushed the matter aside and focused all her energy on today’s match.
In the waiting area, Cynthia’s group was scheduled for the second match.

That gave them plenty of time to discuss strategy.

Their opponents this time were Lightwing Team from Myriad Forms Academy.

Their captain, Anonna, was Divine Sequence 99 and currently at First Order, seven-star.

Among her four teammates, three were Spirit Sequence and one was Divine Sequence.

All of them were at six-star.

In terms of average strength, Lightwing Team was naturally above them.

After Cynthia finished reviewing all the information on their opponents, she said, “Their captain, Anonna, has the Spirit Weapon Thousand Soul Zither. She specializes in control and long-range damage. If their formation puts her in the back row, don’t rush to deal with her. Take this person out first.”

She pointed to the girl on the Light Screen whose Spirit Weapon was Blue Lotus.

Eli swept a glance over it. “Support-type mages usually have teammates protecting them. If our intent is too obvious, they may focus fire on us instead.”

“Exactly.” Cynthia had considered that as well. “So to handle the possibility of being focused down, we’ll leave this one to Richter.”

Richter’s first skill was a three-stage teleport, and his second skill was also a violent attack-boosting skill called Ghost Fiend. The mist it released was poisonous; not only could it obscure the enemy’s vision, it was also powerful as an area attack.

Even if he was surrounded, he could immediately retreat.

Cynthia briefly explained her thoughts, then turned to Richter. “Any problem?”

“Of course not.” Richter curved his eyes. “I will obey my captain’s orders, always and without fail.”

Cynthia smiled faintly in response.

Then she continued assigning the rest of their roles. “Vernel and Sangmo will be responsible for long-range harassment. Eli will handle the front line. My current realm is still relatively low, so I’ll focus mainly on defense. If the situation changes, adjust as needed. There’s no need to stubbornly stick to one position.”

Vernel said, “All right.”

The other three hummed in agreement and had no objections.

Logically speaking, their direct mentor should have been the one personally arranging their tactics, but unfortunately, their wonderful mentor was currently off wandering who knew where.

So that responsibility naturally fell onto Cynthia, the captain.

As they continued discussing the details, the first match soon ended. Next up was Class 659.

“Next, let us welcome Lightwing Team from Myriad Forms Academy and Eclipse Moon Team from Moon Soul Academy!”

When the five of them heard the words “Eclipse Moon Team,” they all froze for a moment.

Richter said, “When did you register our team name, Captain?”

“…I don’t know.” Cynthia had never thought about it at all. “Professor Griffin probably registered it for us.”
Aside from the captain, the only other people with that level of authority were naturally the teachers.

“It doesn’t matter anyway.” Cynthia rose and walked toward the teleportation array. “Let’s go.”
Once the contestants from both sides had entered the arena, the host-who was also serving as referee-floated into the air with flight magic and began announcing the procedure.

“Both sides, please perform your pre-match salute.”

At the same time, all of the information on both teams appeared on the magic crystal screen.

The moment Eclipse Moon Team’s sequences were displayed, the entire venue exploded.

One could easily imagine how ugly the comments were.

But there were also spectators who had watched the individual matches, so the discussion in the arena split into two extreme camps.

“They’re all low sequence? And they’re on the same team?”

“…I don’t even know if I should call this rare or insane. This has never happened before. They’re definitely losing, right?”

“Lose? What are you talking about? Didn’t you watch their individual matches? They all did pretty well. And judging by their realms, they don’t look like bottom-rung low sequences at all.”

“Exactly. I don’t think it’s certain who’ll win this round. I saw a few of their individual matches, and each one was fiercer than the last.”

“Can you people stop being delusional? One low sequence would be bad enough, but their whole team is low sequence. How could they possibly win?”

“What else is there to say? Open a betting pool. I’ll bet 200 points on Skywing Team.”

“I’ll follow with 300.”

As soon as the betting pool opened, the people who had spoken up for Eclipse Moon Team gradually disappeared.

They might have said all that, but no one really wanted to take the risk.

Seeing that nearly several dozen people had already followed the bet on Skywing Team, Lomita, who had been listening from the side, gave a cold laugh. “I’ll bet 400 points that Eclipse Moon Team wins.”

By the time Lena tried to stop her, it was already too late.

Her head throbbed with helpless frustration.

That was every point her lady had…

—

While the crowd argued heatedly, the match had already begun.

The instant both sides’ Spirit Weapons manifested, the opposing main attacker charged forward at once, intending to take out Sangmo in the back line before he could finish summoning a large-scale offensive spell.

As if Cynthia would give him the chance.

The Spirit Weapon in her hand transformed into a scythe. In a flash, she stepped forward and blocked the opponent’s Shadow Eagle Claw.

When Saise saw Cynthia, his brows lifted in a mocking arc. “Even someone with the lowest star rating and lowest sequence can become captain? Oh, right. I almost forgot your entire team is made up of trash sequences. I guess it doesn’t matter who the captain is, huh?”

The scythe in Cynthia’s hand flashed. She feinted backward, and before he could react, she twisted her wrist and brought the blade cleaving down horizontally.

Saise’s eyes widened in shock, and he hastily flipped aside to dodge.

Cynthia flicked the scythe lightly and let out a cold scoff. “Even your master doesn’t bark as loudly as you do.”

Although the original owner of this body had been regarded as a villainess by the vast majority of people, in truth, her reputation as one had come entirely from the rumors and slander spread by Abel and his group.

Every bit of dirty water had been poured onto her. Later, the original owner just so happened to become obsessed with researching poisons, which naturally gave Abel and the others even more opportunities to smear her name.

At some point, the negative rumors about her had grown more and more vicious. At first, people only said things like she was the reincarnation of a disaster star. Gradually, that became claims that anyone who provoked her would be poisoned and cruelly harmed.

The original owner had already been taciturn and gloomy by nature. When she tried to explain and no one listened, she simply stopped bothering. Her dark, brooding demeanor, paired with those rumors, only made everything worse.

Later on, there were indeed times when the original owner lost control of her emotions and did impulsive, extreme things. Because of that, labels like arrogant, tyrannical, cold-blooded, and temperamental villainess were thoroughly pinned on her.

Her reputation became so firmly entrenched that almost the entire capital knew of it.

Fortunately, however, the original owner had been a top-ranking noble. As a result, most people only dared to whisper behind her back and never had the nerve to strut around in front of her.

Except… for certain lapdogs who had Abel as their backer, and noble children from families opposed to the original owner’s.

Saise, the person standing before her now, belonged to the former group.