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Bellum quickly covered up Bonita's failed joke with another topic.
"Magic Department students must be struggling. So, what exams do you have left?"
Liber replied, "Summoning magic, mental magic, spirit magic."
"Still three? Ugh. We finished on Monday."
"Actually, it's two. Only Davian can use spirit magic among us."
"Ah, is that so? Then the end of your spirit magic exam will be wandering around the forest behind the Medio Garden again?"
"Probably. Maybe we'll hear a spirit's voice at least once after doing that for seven years?"
Nuves, who had emptied the plate full of meat, asked, "By the way, what's that rumor? What the magic department kids are talking about. That this exam is a showdown between Latia and Karin."
Liber answered this time as well.
"Well, that atmosphere was set from the first day of the four elemental magic exams. Karin suddenly appeared and beat everyone. Except for Latia."
"So Latia won then?"
"You could say that... but Karin had used up some of her strength in the previous battles. Anyway, Karin won in telekinesis magic. Latia won in healing magic."
Bellum leaned closer to Karin.
"How was it, Karin? The four elemental magic exam on the first day. Could you have beaten Latia if you hadn't used up your strength beforehand?"
A sensitive question.
But Karin's answer was surprisingly clear.
"There's no need for such assumptions. If I lost, I lost."
"Oh, cool. As expected of the secret weapon."
Karin looked at Latia.
"Latia, how about it? Since we're on the topic, shall we make a bet?"
Latia, who was twirling noodles with her fork, shook her head without looking up.
"I'm not interested in bets."
"The winner gets to go on a date with Davian."
Latia raised her head and looked at Karin.
"What kind of bet is that? Karin, didn't you hate Davian?"
"You saw right through me."
"But why suddenly?"
"Because Latia, you like Davian. It means, if you don't want me to take him, win the bet."
Karin looked at Latia with a confident expression, as if saying, "Did you think I didn't know?"
Latia silently stared at Karin with a blank expression.
"Forget it. I'm not interested in that kind of thing, so you two can date or not, do whatever you want."
"What, Latia. Are you just a coward? Are you okay with losing the genius magic girl title, losing Davian, losing everything?"
Hiccup.
A hiccup came from an unexpected place.
It was Luna Pueri.
"Um, you guys... suddenly a date... shouldn't we hear Davian's opinion too..."
Suddenly Latia's voice was heard.
"Fine. Let's bet."
Hiccup.
Luna turned to Latia with a flustered look.
"L-Latia...?"
Karin jumped up.
"Good. Let's bet on who wins three out of the five subjects excluding the spirit magic exam. You're winning two to one so far, Latia, so no complaints, right? There are two subjects left now."
"Just so you know. Listen carefully. I'm not accepting this bet because of Davian. This is a matter of my pride."
"As long as you accepted. I'm not interested in Davian at all."
"Me neither."
Davian, who had suddenly become a date partner, then a target of an affair, and then nothing again, asked, "What are you two doing?"
"Stay out of it."
"This is our problem. Stay out, Davian."
Nuves nudged Bellum's side.
"Bellum, did I say something wrong?"
"Yeah, you did, big guy."
At that moment.
Davian spoke again.
"Now is not the time to be betting on who will win."
Liber asked, "What do you mean?"
"Latia, Karin, Liber, Luna. Listen carefully to what I'm about to say."
The next day.
The practical exam for summoning magic was held on a wide hill.
Professor Wendy, who had her hair in pigtails again today, looked around at the students.
"Alright, you've all memorized the scores for each summoning target that I gave out last week, right? You can summon one with a big score, or if you're not confident in that, you can summon several with smaller scores. From now on, two hours. Only entities that are summoned within that time will be included in the scoring. Start!"
The students spread out widely, securing space to draw their summoning circles.
"Ah! Just because I said that doesn't mean you can fill this hill with monsters, so once the summoning is complete, get confirmation from the teaching assistant and immediately stop the summoning circle from activating. Failing to stop the magic circle in time will also result in a deduction."
While the students were settling in.
Professor Wendy walked around among the students, continuing to speak.
"And, if you think the magic circle is even slightly strangely drawn, raise your hand immediately and let a teaching assistant or me know. Understood? As I warned in advance, if even a little bit is wrong with a summoning magic circle of a certain level or higher, it can summon a completely different entity. I hope there aren't any students who would endanger their friends just to get a slightly better test score?"
Karin and Latia stood facing each other openly.
"What Davian said yesterday is one thing. The bet is the bet. Latia."
"You can still talk about the bet after hearing what he said yesterday?"
"We have to do what we agreed to do. In any case, according to Davian, we have to summon as many strong monsters as possible, right?"
"So. You want to make a bet about that?"
"Yes. Based on the scores written on the scoring table."
"Fine by me. Great. As long as it doesn't interfere with Davian's plan. Let's do it."
Karin smirked.
"Just Davian, Davian. You guys are amazing."
"What do you mean?"
"You all hang on Davian's every word. Yesterday and today too. He's saying all sorts of nonsense like he's some kind of prophet, and you guys are taking it seriously?"
This time, Latia smirked back.
"You'll understand once you experience it."
Meanwhile, Davian approached the third-ranked and fourth-ranked students in the magic department, Elraim Bristin and Colson Blake.
"Are you ready?"
"Yeah, Davian."
"Yeah. But I agreed to do as you said for now, but is it really true? That Professor Wendy will die today if we don't prepare properly? And several kids will die too?"
Davian lowered his voice.
"Shhh. There's no need to cause confusion by telling the other kids. You'll see later. You two just do as I said. Can you do it?"
Elraim nodded.
"Alright. There's also the thing from the friendly match last time. I'll trust you this time, Davian."
Colson also nodded.
"That's right. If we had listened to Davian during the friendly match, we wouldn't have been hurt so badly."
One hour later.
"Student Latia? Student Karin? Why haven't you poured mana into the summoning circles you've already drawn?"
"That's..."
While Latia was hesitating.
Karin answered, "Latia and I made a bet. About who can summon monsters with higher scores. We drew them all in advance and will pour mana into them at the same time later."
Professor Wendy nodded.
"A bet... it's not an appropriate thing to do during an exam, but. Anyway, it's good to have friendly competition with a friend. Alright. I'll look forward to it. You're going to summon them all at once later, right?"
"Yes."
"Elraim and Colson are doing that over there too. Everyone's competing fiercely. Very good."
At that moment.
Davian, who had roughly drawn a large summoning circle, was walking around the hill, examining the terrain.
'How long has he been preparing it? I can't find it this time either.'
Davian kicked the innocent ground with his foot.
'It's clear that a summoning magic circle is drawn under here. But they must have used the terrain to activate it... I have no idea how to figure it out.'
Today, when the midterm practical exam for summoning magic in the second semester is taking place.
One large quest begins.
Later, it would be revealed that this was also something orchestrated by the Marino Empire's spy organization.
After arresting one of the teaching assistants involved in this incident, interrogation revealed that it was an operation that had been meticulously prepared for as long as three years.
Installing a special summoning magic circle under this hill.
Using the surrounding objects as triggers, it was a trap that had been prepared for a very long time.
They would make it look like it was an accident caused by one of the high-level magic circles that the students were clumsily imitating malfunctioning, and carry out the plan in time for the summoning magic exam.
Davian tried to stop the activation of the super-large summoning magic circle as soon as the quest popped up.
However, the activation method was too different from Alcantia's magic circle, and their preparations were too thorough.
Of course, there was also the method of talking to the head of the magic department, Sirims, or other professors and thoroughly investigating this place in advance.
However, during the fourth playthrough, he had clearly learned that.
If he avoided it before the quest popped up, a new quest of a similar or more difficult level would simply arise.
That meant that all major quests had to be confronted head-on.
In the second playthrough, Professor Wendy and all the summoning department teaching assistants died due to today's incident.
It was an incident that occurred because they tried to protect the remaining magic department students at the time with the previous incidents.
In the third playthrough, there were more members of the magic department and he was able to reduce the number of deaths, but in the end, Professor Wendy died trying to protect the students.
The achievement condition of this quest is...
Ding.
The quest notification window opened just in time.
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[Quest: Behemoth Herd Attack]
―Stop the behemoth herd attack without any deaths.
―Reward: 15K mana points (x2)
―Achievement Reward: Leadership +3 Dignity +3
=====
An achievement reward that didn't exist before has also been created.
'Shall I stop it properly this time?'
The situation is better than ever.
There are four aces who are diligently carrying out Davian's words.
And thanks to protecting the students well since the Gray Witch quest, the number of magic department students is much larger than in previous playthroughs.
And above all.
'I'm not the same as before.'
He was planning to run straight to graduation this time.
He can't fail a mere freshman quest.
Davian slowly put on the Ferrarius gloves.
Seeing that, Latia, Karin, Elraim, and Colson also took out their mana amplification rings and started putting them on their fingers.
Liber and Luna came up behind Davian and stood close to him.
A moment later.
Crack.
A large tree on the hill fell down.
'It's a trigger.'
Following that.
Rumble.
A rock at the bottom of the hill suddenly popped out whole and started rolling down.
Professor Wendy looked around with a flustered face.
"What's going on? Could this be...?"
The youngest professor at Elton Academy and a genius in summoning studies, Professor Wendy.
Although she had never actually seen it, she had read about this phenomenon in a book.
"Everyone! Get down the hill! Hurry!"
Her assessment of the situation was fast.
But it was already too late.
Thud.
The entire hill shook violently as if there was a large earthquake.
Soon, the ground cracked.
Dazzling light burst out from between the cracks.
Professor Wendy hastily manipulated her mana to try to stop the summoning magic circle hidden under the ground from activating.
At that time.
Kroaaaa!
The roar of a huge beast began to be heard.
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