"Huff, huff, huff, huff…."
In a place filled with a lot of greenery, a girl with platinum hair was running while breathing heavily.
"Hey, Diana, where are you going?"
Behind her was a girl with pointy ears and green hair who was shouting.
"I will see my brother."
The platinum-haired girl named Diana answered while not stopping in her tracks.
"You know, you can't. Master didn't allow us to leave this place until we had conducted the fourth rank magic perfectly without the chant."
The green-haired girl following her answered while trying to catch up with Diana.
"I know. But it doesn't matter. I need to see him."
Answering like it was something nonchalant for him, Diana kept running.
"Hey, are you going against master's orders now?"
However, it looked like the answer was something the girl running behind her was not happy with.
"Are you sure you want to do that? Because of a loser like him, you will lose Master's favor."
And the moment she said that something weird happened.
Suddenly a dark green aura started oozing from the platinum-haired girl.
At that moment, Diana stopped running as well.
With her hands clenched.
Turning her head back to the girl who shouted like that, she locked her blue eyes with hers.
"Hick!"
Seeing this, the pointy-eared girl was surprised by the sudden change of atmosphere around her.
"What did you say, Sheela?"
Slowly turning her body backward, she started approaching the elven girl named Sheela.
"Did you say something to my brother?"
Seeing this, the girl named Sheela was inwardly smirking.
'Heh, got you…. You bitch.'
"What?"
Answering like that, she locked her eyes with Diana's blue eyes.
"Who do you think you are to talk like that about my brother?"
"Am I not right, though? Isn't he a loser who can't even use magic even though he is the son of the world's greatest lightning magician? Ah, I forgot. He was just a bastard, right? Son of a who-"
/SWOOSH/
Just as she was about to finish her sentence, suddenly, a branch of a plant surged from the ground.
And attacked her from her neck, gripping it tightly.
"Kugh!"
Her neck, which was gripped tightly with the branch of a tree that suddenly sprouted from the ground, was unable to breathe.
'What? I can't remove the branches? They are not listening to me?'
In her mind, who was confused by this fact, she was trying to remove branches.
"Are you trying to remove the branches with your puny magic?"
However, she was not successful.
And in front of her, the one responsible for this magic was standing.
"Now, what were you saying about my brother?"
With her blue eyes that were darkened like a murderer, she was looking at the elven girl's eyes.
'HICK! She is scary.'
Sheela Yovanna.
She was one of the proud elven girls who were talented at nature magic. She was also coming from a very famous elven family who had a very higher standing amongst the other families.
Thanks to that, she was a very prideful elf who was proud of her magic.
Which was amplified as she was accepted as the disciple of one of the strongest nature magic users in the world.
And she went on as a successful student for a long time until a girl that was a different race from her came as her junior disciple.
Diana Augustride.
Was the name of that girl.
However, Sheela was a very arrogant and prideful elf who always looked down upon other races.
Like humans.
Therefore, she never liked the fact that her master went her way to accept a human as her disciple.
Because of that, she wanted to prove the fact that elves were more talented than humans.
Elves were superior.
And she was looking for an opportunity to show this as well.
But, no matter how hard she tried, she was not able to show her superiority.
Because that human girl was studying very diligently, never showing any signs of undisciplined behavior.
As a result, no matter how hard she sought for any mistake she made, she was not able to humiliate this girl when it came to the studies of magic.
This went on like that for almost a year.
Although Diana's father left this world, even that wasn't enough for her to get distracted.
However, soon the opportunity represented itself.
Because Sheila heard about a rumor that was circulating around the nobles of the Wraslugia Kingdom.
"The illegitimate child of Duke Austin was removed from his title."
Although, that rumor reached her ears a lot later than the event happened, thanks to the fact that they were living a secluded life.
The moment she heard that, she knew she found the opportunity she had wanted.
Because she knew how much Diana loved her brother.
And deciding to use that fact to provoke the girl in front of her, she leaked the information via the maids living here.
To humiliate the girl in front of her, who was now looking at her like she was about to kill her.
"Do you know why you are not able to remove these branches from your neck?"
Diana asked while locking her eyes with hers.
"Because this spell is already a fourth-rank spell. I had already mastered it."
The moment she heard the words coming out of Diana's mouth, Sheela's mind started generating a simple emotion.
Inferiority.
'She had already mastered it.'
"Just because you were not able to master it, do you think I couldn't? I knew you were always trying to dig for an opportunity like this, but don't ever insult my brother in front of me again."
"Kurgh-"
With the branches that were squeezing her neck getting tighter, she was on the verge of collapsing from the lack of oxygen.
"Because if you ever do such a thing once more, I will gouge your eyes out and pluck your tongue just to make sure you won't ever make such a mistake. You and I are not on the same ground. You are way below."
With her mouth slowly reaching Sheela's ears, Diana whispered.
/THUD/
Then, removed the branches that were covering her neck.
"Haaaaah….. Haaah….. Haaaaaaah….."
Then turned back, leaving a heavy-breathing girl on the ground that was on the verge of dying.
"What is happening here?"
Until she heard the authoritative voice coming from her back.
