I Became the Male Lead who was Clinging onto the Female Leads

TL/Editor: Raei

Schedule: N/A

Illustrations: Posted in discord.

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“Wind!”

“Wind Cutter!”

Magic spells of the wind element were striking rocks all around.

The students were pouring magic into the rocks, taking care to not destroy their original shape as they struck.

“I found it! The first orb!”

“Good job, Yuria!”

Even the effort of finding a orb helped enhance their magic senses, so the students concentrated on breaking the rocks.

Eugene, who had just been asked ‘Shall we do it with teacher?’ had only just come to his senses.

‘Whew. This stupid rock.’

Though the cause of his anger was entirely due to his body's previous owner, the rock somehow looked unreasonably detestable.

‘So, I just have to find the orb, right?’

Eugene had no particular interest in wind magic, but he decided to participate sincerely.

Even though other teams had around six members and he was at a complete disadvantage, he had no intention of losing to them.

He placed his hand on the rock, focusing his mind and channeling his mana into it.

He intended to send thin strands of mana into the rock to locate the orb first.

This was something only Eugene could do, as he had talents in swords, martial arts, and magic, which allowed him to manipulate mana skillfully.

It might have been different if they were in a higher grade, but at the first-year level, even Yerina would have struggled to do it this easily.

‘Ugh!’

Though the student teacher had reinforced the entire rock with mana, making it much harder to search inside.

‘Thinner! Even thinner!’

Eugene gritted his teeth and made the strands of mana as thin as a thread, probing the interior of the rock.

After concentrating to the point of nearly grinding his teeth to bits, he managed to find all 15 orbs hidden within the rock.

“Haah! Haah!”

‘Such high-intensity training!’

Wiping off the sweat pouring down like rain, Eugene mulled over the appropriate wind magic spell to cut through the rock and retrieve the orbs.

‘This should be enough.’

Wind Blade.

A four-star spell that's hard to cast at the first-year level, it was magic that created a blade from the wind.

Eugene drew mana from the mana circuit and materialized the blade from his imagination.

The thin blade, formed from wind, was optimized for cutting through the rock and finding the orbs.

‘Ugh, I can't maintain it for long.’

Due to his young age and his limited amount of mana, he could only keep it up for a few minutes at most.

‘Quickly!’

With that short amount of time in mind, Eugene employed a rapid sword technique to finish the job.

His sword sliced through the rock, and dirt and stone chips flew everywhere.

The high-level swordplay combined with the wind created waves of air.

Had anyone seen this, even without expertise in wind magic, they would have found it impressive.

If a wind magic expert saw it, they would have been astounded.

But no one saw it.

The students were too busy cutting their rocks, and the student teacher had fainted in a corner of the training field due to excessive mana expenditure.

‘Who cares if anyone saw or not.’

Eugene casually dropped the 15 black orbs down in front of the rock and crossed his arms.

Since it didn't even count for grades, there was no need for anyone to acknowledge it.

Eugene spent the rest of the time watching the other students.

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Raei Translations

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“Ugh… This is so hard.”

"The rock is just too hard!"

Ignoring the whining of her female classmates, Yerina focused her gaze on the rock.

Right now, she was dealing with a head-scratching task.

‘So far, I've found 4 orbs.’

Since there were still intact parts of the rock, it was clear that there were more hidden orbs.

But finding them was not an easy task.

Every time she cut the rock, she had to use and control a thin layer of wind magic, which caused immense mana consumption.

If she knew the location of the orbs inside the rock, it would have been different.

But without that information, using magic to find the orbs was very difficult.

In the end, she had no choice but to grit her teeth and focus even more.

Yerina fixed her eyes on the rock, continuing to search for the orbs while casting her spell.

Around ten minutes must have passed when she heard,

“I can’t do it anymore.”

“I give up. I give up.”

“I'm all out of mana.”

As her group mates fell to the ground, having spent all their mana,

"Haa... Haa..."

Yerina was left panting heavily.

‘I've found 12 so far.’

Yerina had discovered a total of 12 orbs.

Considering that she had done this all alone, without any help from her teammates, it was an impressive accomplishment.

Even the instructors would be surprised if they knew she had done this much at the first-year level.

‘This should make me the one who found the most, right?’

There were a few more places on the rock that could potentially have orbs, but she didn't have much mana left.

If she pushed herself too hard here, she would be exhausted for the rest of the day after school.

It was wise to wrap up at this point.

‘There’s no way any other group found more orbs than this.’

Yerina took a moment to replenish her mana and looked around.

As she had expected, the progress of all the other groups paled in comparison to hers.

Seven orbs, six orbs, four orbs, eight orbs...

Not a single group had managed to find orbs in double digits.

All the rocks were in much better condition than the one she had been working on.

There was one exception, though.

The group that included Nox from the infamous White Flower Class of the Royal Academy.

"Ugh! This is so frustrating! Can't we just break it?"

"Hold back, Nox!"

"All our work up till now would be wasted, right?"

"Ugh!"

Finding the orbs inside the rock required thin and precise use of magic, something completely at odds with that rascal’s temperament.

That's why, despite the rock being on the verge of collapse, they'd only managed to find five orbs.

'Nox has one of the highest mana levels in the first year, if not the highest.'

He was branded as a problem child for not being able to control his fiery temper.

He might lose his patience and blast the rock to pieces.

‘Anyway, whatever.’

It was certain that Yerina had found the most orbs.

While it was amusing to consider the family's reputation in such an assignment, it could be said that she achieved results befitting the continent's most prestigious magic family.

“Wow, look over there!”

“Isn’t that 15 orbs he found?”

“The rock looks perfectly fine, how did he manage to find 15?”

The strange murmuring reached her ears only then.

“What...?”

Yerina turned to look behind her.

There was the rock that she had passed by, thinking it was in too good of a condition.

Behind it stood a relaxed man with his arms crossed, Eugene.

‘Eugene?’

Yerina's brow furrowed.

That rock was definitely something Eugene had taken care of on his own.

So the 15 orbs lying next to it must have been found by him alone.

‘Does that even make sense?’

Yerina was left baffled, her mind not processing the situation that was beyond her comprehension.

In her memory, Eugene was not a man capable of accomplishing such a task.

'Did he pull some kind of trick?'

Did he take orbs from another team?

‘No, that can’t be it.’

No matter how eccentric Eugene was, he wouldn't do something like that.

Not only would other students not just watch as their orbs were taken away, but what benefit would there be in doing such a thing during a task that had no effect on grades?

There was no doubt, the 15 orbs were all found by Eugene.

'But how did he do it?'

The question was how Eugene accomplished such a feat.

Of course, it was the kind of question that could not be easily answered.

If she had seen Eugene finding the orbs, she would have understood immediately, but she was too busy finding her own orbs.

'I'll have to ask him later.'

Asking Eugene something did wound her pride, but improving her magic was a more important matter than her ego.

Hadn't she already received help from him in understanding magic?

A broken clock is right twice a day, after all.

She had thought that talkative Eugene had given some useful advice by chance and let it pass.

But if he had truly found those orbs today through his own ability, then she needed to ask him how he did it and learn from him.

“Ughhh! I can’t hold back anymore!”

“Hold on! Calm down! Nox!”

Yerina, immersed in her deep thoughts, failed to notice the surrounding commotion.

"I don't care! I'll break this damned rock!"

"Hey! What are you doing! If you cast such a powerful spell…"

Kwaang!

From behind Yerina, the furious Nox, who had been struggling with the rock, gathered all his mana and launched a spell.

"Wa, Watch out for the fragments!"

"Take cover!"

His spell shattered the already fragile rock into tiny pieces.

Fragments scattered in all directions.

"Yerina! Dodge it!"

"Yerina! Look behind!"

"...What?"

Unfortunately, the largest fragment was heading straight for Yerina.

By the time she noticed it and turned around, the fragment was already dangerously close.

"…!"

There was not even enough time to cast a spell.

Without even the time to erect a barrier, mana that failed to materialize into a spell reached out from her fingertips.

The power was too weak to stop the fragments.

‘If only I had noticed a little earlier...!’

Though she hardly had any mana left, with enough time, those fragments could have been easily shattered.

But the realization came too late.

‘I can't avoid this...’

Yerina tightly closed her eyes.

Sizzle~

“......?”

She was bracing for terrible pain, but no pain came.

Only the characteristic sound of lightning magic could be heard.

Opening her eyes, she saw the fragmented shard flying far off into the distance, shattered to pieces.

'Did the teacher help?'

She quickly spun her head around.

Inside this practice field, such quick assistance would have been impossible at the student level.

If it was a student teacher who had helped, she needed to rush and express her gratitude.

If she had been hit by that shard, it wouldn't have merely resulted in minor injuries.

'But the teacher is still unconscious?'

Yet the student teacher was still knocked out cold.

Then who on earth could it have been?

Regaining her composure and looking around, she saw many students' eyes all focused on one place.

Her head naturally followed their gazes.

At the end of it, Eugene was standing there, arms crossed, just as he was before.

“What? Why? Never seen magic before?”

Why are they all looking this way?

His face was impassive, as if he had no realization of how extraordinary what he'd done was.

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Raei Translations

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A moment later, after the instructor regained consciousness.

"Thank you, truly, from the bottom of my heart. I had no idea something like that would happen while I was unconscious. If Yerina von Bliss had been injured, my head wouldn't be attached to my body right now. Both my career and my life would have been over."

"No, you don't need to... After all, it was because of me that you fainted," Eugene interjected.

"No, no, absolutely not! You've saved a teacher's life, Eugene. I will remember this for the rest of my days. Truly."

"......"

Watching the instructor bow repeatedly, Eugene wore a slightly troubled face.

'It's not like I did anything great.'

What was so hard about breaking a single shard?

He had simply thought it would hurt if someone got hit.

It would take too long if used a chant so he simply expedited the process by using a chant-less stream of lightning.

That was all.

In Eugene's mind, it was not something to receive such gratitude for.

"You can stop thanking me now. I should go. I need to return to the classroom."

"Oh, yes, of course. If I ever become a teacher at this school, I'll treat you really well. Let's meet again."

"Yes, let's. Take care."

After receiving a few more words of thanks, Eugene was finally freed from the instructor.

'I better hurry to the classroom.'

A few minutes had already passed since the end of the class.

The other students had likely returned to their classrooms already.

He had been kept in the practice field by the student teacher...

He needed to get back to the classroom quickly to wrap up his student schedule and leave.

Only then could he start his personal training.

'Right now, securing a lot of personal training time is more important than anything else.'

Eugene, having left the magic training ground, hurried toward the classroom.

"Eugene, wait a moment!"

He paused.

'Yerina?'

Yerina was waiting for him outside the training ground.

"What's up?"

"I want to thank you."

"Ah... it's okay. You weren't hurt, so it's fine. I have to go."

"No, wait, just a moment!"

Yerina reached out, grabbing his sleeve as he tried to leave.

'What is she doing?'

Eugene turned back with a bewildered look on his face.

"If it weren't for you, I could have been seriously injured. I am the oldest daughter of the Duke of Beruz, and I have the means to properly repay someone who helps me. Is there anything?"

"......I've already said I don't want anything, right? Since you weren't hurt, it's fine."

"What?"

"Don't make me repeat myself. I said it's fine."

As Eugene tried to leave again, Yerina grabbed his clothes even more forcefully.

"Okay, I get it. You don't need my help. But I have one favor to ask; please listen to it!"

'What's going on here?'

He was refusing her repayment, and now she had a favor to ask?

Curious about what Yerina had to say, Eugene asked her what the favor was.

"Would you, by any chance, have time to share a cup of tea with me and chat tomorrow?"

Yerina had various reasons for this request.

First, she could naturally ask about how he managed to complete today's task.

Along with that, she could verify the fact that Eugene had managed to use magic without a chant — information she heard from other students.

She could also repay Eugene in this way.

After all, having a connection with the daughter of the continent's top magical family was something no one would refuse.

Of course, she wasn't thinking of giving just that.

If Eugene wanted, she could also provide him with information that might financially help his fallen baronet family.

'There's no reason for him to refuse, in any respect.'

Yerina had no doubt that Eugene would accept her offer.

"Have tea together?"

"Yes."

"No."

"Understood. The time is tomorrow, whenever you're comfortable. Wait, what? You said no?"

"It's a request, so I can refuse, right? I'm leaving."

The strength drained from Yerina's hand as she clung to Eugene's sleeve.

She was so dumbfounded by what just happened that she couldn't even speak.

'He said no...?'

Even the children of well-known noble families, if given the opportunity to have tea with her, would come running with joy.

But now,

The son of a fallen baronet refused her?

Really?

'What on earth...'

Caught in a bewildering situation she'd never experienced before, Yerina couldn't tell if this was reality or a dream.

'Sorry, but I want to avoid anything that interferes with my personal training.'

Of course, Eugene had his own reasons for refusing.

He was deeply focused on his swordsmanship, and he wanted to avoid anything else that might distract him.

This included the kind of help Yerina was thinking of offering, which could aid his fallen family.

Eugene wasn't a fool, and he knew that Yerina could provide such assistance.

Accepting her help would undoubtedly ease his family's situation for the time being.

'But then, there would be things I would have to do in return.'

A continuous relationship would form, and he would have less time for personal training.

If Eugene's talent were a few notches lower than it currently was, he would have accepted Yerina's offer without a second thought.

However,

'My talent isn't merely at that level.'

Eugene's talent in swordsmanship pointed to something beyond.

Saving his position and family could wait until he became stronger; it wouldn't be too late.

Right now, raising his own value was his top priority and more important than anything else.

"See you guys."

"See you tomorrow!"

"See you tomorrow, teach!"

As soon as the school day ended, Eugene left to focus on his personal training, relentlessly honing his sword skills and his physical condition.

And then, a week passed.

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