CH 140

[There is an Intruder!]

Chatter, chatter—

The sudden shout caused an uproar in the venue.

The appearance of the girl who had shouted took the audience by surprise.

“H-hey!”

“What’s going on?!”

Such voices were audible from here and there.

“Eh?! Ehh?!”

“W-why is she?!”

“What in the world?!”

Tayte, Jarvis, and Eureka were also surprised.

So was I… but in my heart, I kind of expected things to end up like this.

“Looks like… they made it just in time.”

I muttered, looking at—Madeline Halman.

She was the real Madeline, not her cross-dressing twin brother.

“A-ahh…”

Standing on the stage facing Raul, Joel became weak-kneed, falling on his rear.

Then knights came out of nowhere, lent him a shoulder, and took him away somewhere.

I couldn’t register what was going on for a moment… but when I saw Principal Abigail appear accompanied by knights, dots immediately connected in my mind.

Principal Abigail had been searching for Madeline.

Seeing how the knights took her younger brother Joel away… I was guessing that he was somehow involved in her disappearance.

In the middle of the confusion, the principal talked to the knights who had come to watch the tournament, after which…

“Silence!!!”

She silenced the venue with a terrifyingly loud voice.

Was that also magic?

I didn’t think a human’s throat could produce such a loud voice.

“There happens to be a slight mistake, so let us restart the third round! Once again, let the match between Raul Lorenz and Madeline Halman, begin!”

When the principal finished declaring loudly, the suppressed emotions of the audience burst into cheers.

Raul still seemed confused by the situation, but…

“Raul… let us fight fair and square.”

…when (the real) Madeline, who had gone up to the stage, said so and asked Raul for a handshake…

“—Yeah! Let’s have a good match!”

…Raul responded with a smile.

It seemed that had cleared his hesitation.

Right after, the bell for the start of the match was rung.

The fight between Raul and Madeline was finally starting for real… I was very curious about how the match would turn out, but I was just as curious about Joel. What in the world did he do?

“Calm down.”

As I was unsure of which one to focus on, a voice suddenly called out to me from behind.

It was Principal Abigail.

“P-Principal?!”

“For now, just focus on supporting your friend. I’ll tell you about the circumstances later.” She told me to concentrate on cheering for Raul with a gentle pat on my shoulder.

After which, the principal was about to take her leave, but…

“Raul seems to be far less tense than before… did something happen?”

…so she asked.

It was likely thanks to the fact that I had cut off his curse mark.

Just as I was about to say that, the audience burst into cheers.

When I looked at the stage in response, I saw Raul on his knee, in pain.

“Raul?!”

It seemed he had been hit by Madeline’s spell.

Madeline, belonging to the light element class, was an all-rounder who could use magic of various elements like me. Seeing that the edges of Raul’s clothes were slightly burnt, it could be inferred that she had used a fire element spell.

“Raul! Pull yourself together! You are above her when it comes to speed and techniques!”

“Y-yeah!”

Eureka, who played the role of his support, was right. Raul might outperform Madeline in terms of basic stats, but… he was overwhelmed by Madeline’s determination.

“…………”

Her eyes, oozing with determination, pierced Raul straight.

This was bad.

Madeline Halman… she didn’t seem to be as easy to deal with as I thought.