Descent of the Legendary Archmage

The fourth match of the quarter-finals.

In the match between Shin Hayul and Ha Sangjun, Shin Hayul one-sidedly overwhelmed his opponent.

"This match feels a bit dull."

"Yeah, true. The round of 16 was just too exciting."

The reactions from the spectators were lukewarm.

“The finals are going to be more boring than I thought."

"Agreed. It's gonna be no fun."

It felt as if the finals had already happened in the 8th match in the round of 16.

The greatest battle, filled to the brim with plot twist after plot twist.

Looking back at it for a second time, it really was a spectacular match that gave the spectators no choice but to cheer.

Having already seen such a match, it was inevitable for the spectator's standards to have risen.

Of course, there were still some who showed interest in the current battle.

"Hey. Look over there."

“Seems like she's already woken up, huh? Does your resilience improve with your magic ability?"

Adella Stuart.

Her eyes were still shining brightly.

"What is she staring so hard at?"

“Did you know that she's looking for Shin Hayul's weakness to get revenge on him?”

She was focusing on Shin Hayul with so much intent, that if her eyes could shoot lasers, Shin Hayul would have burnt to a crisp.

"Well since she lost in the round of 16 because of Shin Hayul, she does have a right to be resentful."

“I bet it hurt her pride.”

Although it may appear like that at a glance, Adella's fixated gaze was not caused by negative emotions such as resentment or revenge.

In fact, it was the very opposite.

‘That Aero Shot just now. He deliberately slowed it down to increase its power.’

Joy, delight.

The desire to absorb every piece of information there was on Shin Hayul.

Her eyes were filled with these kinds of positive emotions.

‘I see. By slowing down the speed of the skill like that, you can catch your opponent off guard.'

For Adela, Shin Hayul was sort of like a textbook.

The greatest textbook, that was filled with things that she would have never thought of.

'He was able to land a blow with his 1-circle magic because his opponent was so wary of his 2-circle magic.'

‘Oh, I never knew that you can not only tie the enemy’s feet with Wood Bind, but you can also cover their eyes.'

Adella, who had been presented with the greatest textbook that could not be obtained anywhere else, felt her heart burning as fiercely as it possibly could.

I will absorb everything that he has.

Her head was filled with those intentions.

'What will he show me next?'

Adella had found the past year unbelievably boring.

She had learned magic from a textbook and familiarised herself with the magic her family taught her.

And although this was an extremely rational and reliable way of doing things, for Adella, it was nothing but a time of pure boredom.

'As expected he's different.'

Adella, who had been chasing the genius known as Shin Hayul since youth, could never be satisfied by mere textbooks.

‘My heart pounds whenever I see it.'

Shin Hayul, a person who had made a fool out of her in ways she could never have imagined.

Shin Hayul, who in his youth, had said that the Mystic Wi Clan's method of teaching didn’t work.

She remembered that time when Shin Hayul had playfully laughed and told her that if she continued to follow what was written in the textbook, it would be easy to keep making a fool out of her.

‘I want to see more, learn it all and steal everything.'

To Adella, Shin Hayul was a "superstar".

In the monotonous world of magic, he alone was the shining star with no equal.

The light that Adella had kept chasing.

The brightest star that had been unable to shine through the clouded skies for quite some time.

‘I want to be like him someday, too.'

He was the embodiment of all of Adella's ideals.

He shone brightly, with absolute confidence in himself.

Adella, without realising it, had reached out with her hand.

'Some day I want to be able to overcome him.'

I want to overcome him with the things I learned from him.

Ba-dump-!

Her heart pounded.

It felt as if the time that had been frozen for a year started to flow again.

“The match is over! Winner! Shin Hayul!"

”Woaaaaahhh-!!"

Adella's radiant eyes drilled holes through Shin Hayul's back.

As she stared, she found herself unknowingly smiling.

"...Wow. I've never seen Adella smile before."

"She's prettier when she smiles."

Adella got out of her seat and quickly left the stands.

The reason for her doing this was obvious.

She had so many things that she wanted to ask him.

* * *

"Uh..!"

After my duel had ended, Adella was there waiting for me.

With a sort of flushed expression.

"You're awake then? Are you feeling well?"

“Yes. I'm fine."

"That's a relief."

My final Blast Lance had struck her with its full force so I had assumed that it would take her some time before she regained consciousness.

I can't believe she woke up in just two hours.

She must have great resilience.

“So, what's up?”

Unlike how she usually presented herself, her clothes were all crumpled up and her gold hair was quite messy.

I can clearly see that she had come to see me as soon as she had woken up.

That meant that she had some business with me.

And when I looked at her flushed cheeks, there could only be one reason she had come.

“I just wanted to talk about our match.”

‘‘You want some feedback right?"

"Yes."

She wanted feedback reflecting upon our recent bout.

That was the only thing she could have come to talk to me about.

“Since you have your semifinals and finals coming up, if you need some rest I can ask you later..."

Adella was looking at the floor, fiddling with her fingers as she hesitantly said this.

When I saw her acting like this I unknowingly let out a laugh.

"No, don't worry. Giving feedback will benefit me as well. Let's do it now. "

Before we had enrolled at the academy, this kind of thing had also occasionally happened.

Especially, when we would have mock battles, she would always without fail, ask me for some feedback.

Even then, she used to hesitantly ask as she had done just now.

Nothing has changed since then.

"Okay. So you know when you used Barrier to double jump."

And like in the past, as soon as I accepted, she began passionately talking, removing any trace of hesitance.

“Did you plan all that from the very moment you had dodged the Earth Needle? If you had planned it, then how were you so sure that I would use Earth Needle?"

"Remember how when I had dodged your magic, my stance got a bit messy? I'd deliberately lowered my centre of gravity."

“Ah, so you had planned everything from then on. Then the way you had naturally hid the wind spear with the sunlight was also...”

“I had planned all that from the very beginning as well.”

"As I had thought! Then..."

I continued to give Adella feedback until the start of the semi-finals.

I was touched by Adella's smile, which was broadening more and more.

* * *

At that time, elsewhere.

A man and a woman were talking on the top floor of an affiliated building owned by the Magic Shin Clan.

They are staring intensely at a monitor screen with serious expressions.

“Oppa are we going to let this be?”

"Let what be?"

The high-tech hologram screen that was occupying one side of the room was broadcasting Shin Hayul's semi-final match.

"I'm talking about Hayul. Are we just going to leave him be?"

Shin Hayul's elder sister and the oldest daughter in the family.

Shin Seha glared fiercely at the man.

"Of course I'm going to leave him be. What do you even expect me to do?"

Shin Jihan, Shin Hayul's eldest brother, nonchalantly shrugged his shoulders.

"Oh, come on! Why are you so composed? Haven't you heard? Father is planning on reinstating Hayul back to the family!"

Shin Inhyuk had already decided to reinstate Shin Hayul to the family.

One reason was that he had lost the bet with Shin Hayul.

And at the very least, unlike how he was 1 year ago, Shin Hayul was deemed more than worthy to be someone worth looking over.

When all the matches were finished, Shin Hayul was most likely going to become a member of the Magic Shin Clan again and would be able to enjoy all of the benefits that position held.

"Of course, I've heard about that."

“Ah, it's so frustrating."

Shin Seha pounded on her chest.

She looked as if she was so frustrated that she could die.

"What's wrong?"

“Do I really have to put it into words for you to understand?”

She was getting increasingly more hysterical.

"Shin Hayul. If he returns to the family, then don't you know our positions within the clan will be threatened? Did you forget what it was like just a year ago? Are you an idiot?"

The Magic Shin Clan is a clan that values skill before all else.

In fact, there's a tradition where regardless of age, the position of the clan leader is given to the most exceptional mage.

Of course, until a year ago, Shin Hayul had received an overwhelming amount of support.

In fact, he was treated as the next head of the Magic Shin Clan.

“Both of us could end up becoming outcasts again...”

That was why Shin Seha was expressing so much emotion.

If Shin Hayul returned to the family, then the position she had spent 1 year building up could vanish into thin air.

"Seha. The situation now is different to the situation a year ago."

Unlike Seha, Shin Jihan who was more easy-going smiled without a care in the world.

"The Hayul then and the Hayul now are different. I think you've lost your cool because you were reminded of what happened back then."

Shin Jihan thought that Shin Hayul's return was of no concern at all.

"A year ago, Hayul was a prodigious genius that the entire world was paying attention to, but the Hayul now is nothing more than a pile of rubbish."

Shin Jihan looked at Shin Hayul, who had come up on the screen, with a sense of superiority.

"But everyone's making a fuss about how great he is..."

Shin Jihan laughed as if he had heard something ridiculous.

"If a basketball player who had no right arm were to make a play that looked as if it required both arms, then, of course, it would look impressive. Even if in actuality it was just a normal feat."

A mage without artificial intelligence is like a basketball player that's missing an arm. If they were to perform well even whilst missing something so important, then, of course, people were going to pay attention to it.

"And especially since it's a person who, in the past, was praised as a prodigious genius no less. How could there not be interest around him, right?"

All the attention currently on Shin Hayul is like an illusion that's soon to be dispelled.

“And just put everything down and think it through with a cool head. It should be obvious why Shin Hayul is overwhelming his competition right now.”

"Think it through...? Ah."

Shin Seha exclaimed as if she had understood.

“Hayul alone is a 4th circle mage while all his opponents are 3 circle mages...”

"That's right. Even if it wasn't Ha-yul, it's normal for a 4th circle mage to overwhelm 3-circle mages.”

In the modern study of magic, the most obvious indicator of victory was the difference in the number of circles the mages had.

This can be proven just by looking at all the records of past fights between 3 and 4 - circle mages.

The odds are 1:9.

The 4th-circle mage's chance of winning is more than 90 percent.

“Hayul's barely making up for his defect using the vision magic he's luckily acquired, his brains and his technique. If you think about it rationally, he's way weaker than a normal 4-circle mage.”

Would anything have changed if it wasn’t Shin Hayul in that position but just some ordinary 4th circle mage?

What if it was a normal 4th circle mage who had fought Adella?

They probably would have secured victory without struggling nearly as much as Shin Hayul did.

"Hm, I see. In the end, no matter how hard he may try, a defect is just a defect.”

Shin Seha let out a sigh of relief.

"Do you get it now? Why I said there was no point in fussing over it?"

"Yep, I get it. No matter what Ha-ul does, he'll never be able to beat mages on the same level as him."

“That's right. Even if Hayul reaches 5 circles, 6 circles or whatever, he won't ever be a threat to us. So there's absolutely no reason to get stressed over it."

Shin Hayul is unable to beat a mage on the same level as him.

You'd probably scoff if you heard that the 4th circle mage, Shin Hayul was only able to use 2-circle magic.

"And well, if we leave him be for a bit, and it looks as if he'll be a threat to us, by then it still won't be too late to take care of him."

"As expected of you. You had everything thought out."

"Of course."

The two looked at each other and laughed.

* * *

The midterm comprehensive evaluation has come to an end.

‘‘The match has ended! Winner! Shin Hayul!"

”Woahhhh-!!"

“Shin Hayul you're awesome!”

"That was a great match!"

Of course, I was the winner.

Of the remaining contestants, none were nearly as strong as Adella, so I was able to win without any problems.

"Congratulations. As the instructor in charge, I'm impressed."

Instructor Ko Changsoo congratulated me as his representative.

''Thank you."

The sound of clapping echoes from all directions.

People were chanting my name and applauding just for me.

The cheers of the people congratulating my victory were like a drug, making my heart beat like crazy.

"...So annoying.”

"It doesn't matter if he wins, he's just a defect."

“I really hate vision magic.”

Although there were a few students who I could sense were jealous of me, I still felt great.

I believe that you are only ever jealous of a person if you've concluded that you can never overcome them.

In other words, all these people who are glaring at me with jealousy are just future losers who’ve convinced themselves that they'll never be able to defeat me.

'I've been receiving attention for all kinds of reasons for the past year so something like that is nothing to me.'

In the first place, I shouldn't be concerning myself with such petty negativity.

I skimmed past those gazes and basked in the joy of victory.

"Hayul! We have to have a celebration party! "

Soonchan approached me whilst putting his arms around my shoulders.

"Yeah! We should have one! "

"A glorious winner has come from class 1, so of course we have to! "

“What, you guys even considered the idea that we wouldn't have one? I thought that there was no way that we wouldn't have one.”

Second-year students from class 1 flocked all around me.

Everyone was sincerely congratulating me on my victory.

‘‘Instructor, you're coming too right? "

"That's a funny way of saying that you need me to pay for it all."

“Come on~ instructor. It's not like that."

Soonchan wrapped his right arm around my neck and made a fuss.

"Hey, what is there to even think about? Let's go! The instructor said that he would pay!"

He had a huge grin on his face that told me that he was happier about my victory than he was for his work.

When I saw that smile, even I had no choice but to let out a laugh.

I thought that if it was a celebration party with this kind of atmosphere then it wouldn't be all that bad.

However,

“Sorry. I really want to go, I really do. But I have something I need to get to."

"Something you have to get to?"

"Yeah."

Unfortunately, I had something I needed to do.

[Father]

[I'm sure there's a lot we have to talk about.]

[When the finals are over, immediately come home.]

[I'll send a car to come and pick you up.]

Going home for the first time in 1 year.

That was something that was very important.