Garry Locke was sprinting down the deserted highway.
It had probably been about twenty minutes since he started pursuing Mercedes and Gerald. He had departed as quickly as possible right after them, yet there was still no sign of catching up.
It was just a gut feeling, but it even seemed like the gap between them was slowly widening.
There should have been practically no difference in their starting times.
If Garry ran normally, he could have overtaken any run-of-the-mill practitioner within ten seconds.
The fact that he hadn't meant only one thing: those two were forging ahead at a speed equal to or greater than his own.
“I have no interest in the weak.”
It was a ridiculous provocation, but after being challenged like that, Garry couldn't simply back down quietly. Gerald was likely the same. In that situation, prioritizing one's own pride over order was the correct choice for a mage. Even if he felt a little bad for the faculty representative.
People only evolve through competition.
He had no intention of meekly playing along with some lukewarm, get-to-know-you field trip.
However...
(I still haven't caught up...)
The scenery was opening up, yet he couldn't even see the figure of Gerald, who had left second. Should he pick up the pace from here on out, even if it cost him some stamina?
Crack.
A tiny bolt of lightning sparked near Garry's forehead.
Now that they were far from civilization, moving a bit flashily wouldn't disturb any nearby residents with vibrations or noise. Even if they were fellow faculty members, he didn't really want to show his hand on the very first day, but...
—Just then.
In the corner of his vision, he caught sight of a carriage.
Nearby was a small, elderly woman who appeared to be a porter.
"..."
It was only for a split second, but Garry grasped the general situation.
From the looks of it, the carriage had run off the road and thrown a wheel.
It had probably caught a wheel in a pothole on the highway.
A magical beast might be able to haul it out, but an ordinary horse getting stuck was a very real possibility.
Bad luck.
This was an empty stretch of land, exquisitely removed from any settlement.
To make matters worse, this highway saw very little traffic to begin with.
With the old woman's strength, resolving the derailed carriage was impossible, and even if someone did come along, nothing could be done if the carriage itself was damaged.
It was pitiful, but it was nothing more than a trivial matter.
The most Garry could do was pray she wouldn't be attacked by wild magical beasts.
For him right now, this clash of pride took precedence over some random old woman he didn't even know—
◇
"Thank you so much for helping me out, dear."
"...'S fine."
Even with a fully loaded carriage, lifting it alone was child's play for Garry. There was no need for leverage or anything of the sort. By converting his mana into kinetic energy, he could gain more than enough physical strength to hoist it. Body reinforcement—the very basics of magic.
In the end, it was about a minute ago that he had doubled back to the old woman.
Speaking to her gently so as not to frighten her and lifting the carriage had taken up the bulk of the time.
"Oh, but goodness me, this is a problem... The wheel is..."
Just as Garry had feared, the damage was severe. To put it simply, one of the iron wheels was ruined. It must have taken a tremendous impact. It had split cleanly enough that even an amateur like Garry could tell.
He suggested swapping it out, but she said she wasn't carrying a spare.
Upon asking, it turned out the old woman ran an eatery and was on her way back from sourcing ingredients from a familiar farmer.
Even on a maintained highway, once night fell, there was a very real chance that magical beasts would gather, lured by the scent.
Leaving her half-helped felt awkward.
At this point, his only option was to return to the royal capital and call for aid.
"Garry. So this is where you were."
Turning around, he saw a man with dark brown, curly hair standing there.
A harmless-looking man with a face that seemed to wander the boundary between boy and youth.
Garry's memory wasn't so terrible that he would forget the face of a guy who had introduced himself just moments ago.
That was right—Brendan Walker.
The unfortunate guy who had the role of representative for this year's Imperial Faculty dumped onto him by an irresponsible homeroom teacher, of all people.
More than that, however, Garry was surprised that anyone had caught up to him. He had stalled for a bit, sure, but he hadn't run so half-heartedly that someone could easily make up that kind of ground.
Brendan wasn't even breathing heavily.
He seemed to possess a fair amount of skill.
Garry had watched all of the practical exam results.
Among the remaining four, the only one who might have caught up with Garry was Luluck, a descendant of witches. Had this guy even been at the exam in the first place? No matter how he racked his brain, the face didn't match any of the examinees.
"My, the same uniform. Are you a friend of this boy?"
At the old woman's question, Brendan glanced at Garry before answering.
"Yes. Did something happen?"
"Well, you see, the carriage broke down."
"You're right. It's completely smashed."
From that point on, Brendan's movements were, to put it mildly, practiced.
First, he measured the dimensions of the wheel using a tape measure hanging from his waist. He marked the damaged areas with chalk. Finally, he gave the core material a single, light tap with a hammer. At once, the warped wheel deformed with a sound like cracking ice, instantly resolving into a proper circle.
Smelting magic.
Yet it was a process faster and more beautiful than anything Garry had ever seen.
What in the world was that just now?
"My goodness, were you a mage, dear?"
"Just an apprentice."
"My, how impressive. I must give you some kind of reward."
"It's fine. We're in the middle of class, so we have to get going."
"Is that so? Well then, come by my shop next time. I'll treat you to a proper meal."
"Thank you very much."
"And thank you for helping me too, young man."
Distracted by Brendan's spell, Garry answered the old woman's gratitude a beat late.
"No, I..."
"Bring that boy there and your other friends—come in a big group, all right? It's a promise!"
"...'Kay."
After a brief exchange of names, the old woman gave one last word of thanks and went on her way.
"Well, that worked out."
"...You're not half bad."
At Garry's awkward response, Brendan simply continued in a tone that suggested he wasn't particularly bothered.
"It's the family business. You pick it up whether you want to or not."
"You're from Decol, right...?"
"Yeah. Where are you from, Garry?"
"...I'm from around here."
"Then that works out nicely. Would you mind coming along with me to the National Park?"
Garry understood Brendan's intentions well enough.
Though his purpose differed from Garry's, he probably wanted to catch up to the two ahead. Was he dutifully trying to follow the homeroom teacher's instructions to chaperone the group, or was it something else?
"I don't mind, but we're not gonna catch those two ahead of us anyway."
"Are they really that fast?"
"Honestly, it's gonna be tough."
There wasn't even a trace of their presence left.
Since making up the ground was unrealistic, Garry's contest was essentially over. If you wanted to call it losing a clash of pride, then that was all there was to it.
"They might have stopped due to trouble just like you, Garry, so let's run a little further."
"I'm pretty damn fast, you know."
"Well, let's see what happens."
Without seeming particularly tense, Brendan lightly cracked the knuckles of one hand.
Brendan Walker.
It was a name Garry had never heard before, but based on what he had just seen, he understood that this guy was no ordinary mage.
There was also the matter of the upcoming rookie tournament.
Until he could get a clear grasp of Brendan's true strength, Garry didn't mind complying with the wishes of this so-called faculty representative.
◇
Gerald was acutely aware of the change in the surrounding atmosphere.
The location was deep within a forest.
Along a woodland path that could barely even be called a road, Gerald floated silently, as if gliding over the ground. He could have run, but he couldn't bear the thought of dirtying his custom artisan-made leather shoes on an unpaved road.
Less than half the distance to the destination remained.
It was about time to transition into a sprint, but there was something he needed to confirm first.
"...Here they come."
Bursting out from the thicket ahead in droves were four-legged magical beasts. Every single one had bloodshot eyes, and their bared fangs made it instantly obvious that they were carnivores.
Magical beasts.
Creatures whose very physiology incorporated magic, they came in various sizes, and even a small specimen could easily tear a flesh-and-blood adult man to shreds. The unmanaged, feral beasts roaming wild were one of the perennial headaches plaguing this country.
"Gaaah!!"
Showing no reaction whatsoever to the magical beasts' intimidation, Gerald merely glanced at the charging pack.
In an instant, the entire pack was pinned flat to the ground, their whole bodies crushed with a wet crunch. Just as if they had been trampled underfoot by an invisible giant.
"Hmm..."
Gerald was originally the type of mage capable of flight, but this was the exact reason he had gone out of his way to descend to the ground. Harmful magical beasts had been released into this forest owned by Magias.
The teacher had claimed it was for socialization, but this was likely a sort of aptitude assessment as well. If he felt like it, he could have bypassed everything through the sky, but he felt reluctant to ignore an amusement the teachers had deliberately prepared. Though in the end, it was rather anticlimactic.
There was one more reason.
If he looked closely, scraps of magical beast flesh were splattered around the vicinity.
It seemed someone had already gone completely wild ahead of him.
As expected of the Sword Saint's only daughter.
Mercedes's progress was faster than Gerald had anticipated; she wasn't letting him catch up easily.
Of course, he felt no panic.
Assessing the distance and the speed difference between them, he would have plenty of leeway to turn the tables before reaching the goal. All that mattered was that Gerald made no mistakes until then.
"Just a little further, is it...?"
The corners of his mouth lifted unconsciously.
Gerald hadn't expected to find so much amusement in a mere pursuit.
When it came down to it, he had never once lost to his peers, even in a simple game of tag.
He shivered with excitement at experiencing a genuine, worthwhile rivalry for the first time in a long while. The trailing classmates he had met just moments ago had already vanished completely from his mind.
◇
Left behind, Amae, Filiestra, and Luluck were leisurely enjoying their journey through the sky.
"Huh... So you already have a medical license at your age, Filiestra-san?"
"Yeah. Though I'm really just a fledgling doctor."
"That's crazy. Isn't that crazy? Hey, Miss Witch?"
"This is crazy indeed!"
Let us ride my broom to chase after everyone.
Luluck had made that suggestion before their departure.
Hearing the name Luluck Lulu Lunlun, one could vaguely guess she came from a lineage of witches. But the fact that she carried a flying broom proved she was truly a practitioner of traditional magic.
The broom seemed capable of adjusting its size to some degree; even with the three of them—Luluck, Amae, and Filiestra—aboard, it remained spacious, all while cruising at high speed. What's more, they weren't affected by wind pressure or temperature in the slightest, keeping the area around the broom entirely comfortable.
Luluck seemed somewhat carefree, but her skill as a mage was evidently the real deal. At the very least, she was skilled enough to join the casual chatter of the two behind her while maintaining advanced flight magic.
"Ehh, then, hey, do you mind if I call you Filie-chan?"
At Amae's suggestion, Filiestra blinked slightly, then answered with a gentle smile.
"In that case, I'll call you Amae-chan too."
"Nice, let's be friends~"
Seeing Amae and Filiestra hit it off immediately, Luluck hurriedly chimed in.
"What about me, both of you!? What will you call me!?"
"For Miss Witch... Which do you prefer, Lunlun or Luluyan?"
"Eeeh~!? What a dilemma~!"
Unlike those who had sprinted ahead, the atmosphere among the late group was, quite literally, that of a field trip.