Chapter 77: Suspicion

“Kuh… To struggle this much… What a disgrace. Even so, by defeating the ‘Academy’s’ rank number one, I’m one step ahead for the ‘Rookie of the Year’ title, right.”

Inside Blau Lanze, which had one arm torn off and its legs damaged, the ‘School’s’ first-year rank number two, Lobelia tel Panaches, muttered to herself.

The ‘Rookie of the Year’ she mentioned is an award given to the pilot deemed to have performed the best among the first-years in that year’s ‘Inter-School Match’.

Last year, a then-first-year from the ‘School’ won it, and the year before that, the ‘Academy’s’ [Sword Empress Princess] won it.

Since Lobelia was secretly aiming for it as well, she wanted to defeat the ‘Academy’s’ rank number one no matter what.

However, having taken this much damage, she had no choice but to retreat. Any further active participation would be difficult.

“It can’t be helped. There’s still the ‘Comprehensive Match’. I just need to perform well there. No, rather, that one gets more attention, doesn’t it.”

Making that boast, she sent a transmission to her two allies who were still fighting, and Blau Lanze turned on its heel.

On the other hand, in front of her main monitor that had turned pure red in defeat, Rizlet brought her fist down on the console in extreme anger.

“What a humiliation…! Remember this, Lobelia tel Panaches…! I will definitely return this favor in the ‘Comprehensive Match’…!”

One bout birthed a new rivalry, and yet the battle continued.

『Ora ora ora! What happened to that bravado from earlier!』

Under the fierce onslaught of ‘Brandish’, piloted by the ‘School’s’ rank number nine, Balanga, Hatoba was entirely on the defensive.

Under the repeated attacks unleashed from the great axe, ‘Linddrake’ piloted by Hatoba was being pushed back.

Although Linddrake was a Custom Frame, the machine, which seemed to symbolize the Dragonewt tribe, heavily emphasized sturdiness exactly as its features suggested, and half-hearted attacks shouldn’t have worked on it.

However, this Ritter Frame named Brandish in front of him.

Despite being a Ritter Frame, its power is absurd. It attacks by violently swinging a great axe around bun-bun.

Fortunately, its speed wasn’t that high so he was somehow dodging, but Linddrake wasn’t a very agile machine either, and he was gradually becoming unable to dodge entirely.

Linddrake caught the swung-down great axe by crossing the Mithril gauntlets on both of its arms.

It turned into a pushing match just like that, but in the face of Brandish’s power, Linddrake was gradually sinking down.

“What is with this guy…! Why does he have this much power…!”

Linddrake is a Custom Frame specialized in close-quarters combat fighting with its fists.

Because of that, while it naturally couldn’t compare to a Titan Frame, Hatoba believed it had quite a lot of power.

And yet, the Ritter Frame in front of him possessed enough power to surpass that.

This much power. Racking his brain over what this could mean, Hatoba hit upon one possibility.

“You bastard…! You’ve removed the ‘Limiters’, haven’t you…!”

『What, you only noticed now?』

Frame Gears are equipped with various safety devices (limiters) to prevent out-of-control meltdowns (destruction). Intentionally removing them increases the output beyond normal, making it possible to raise the machine’s specs by several levels.

These cannot be freely toggled during a match. In other words, this machine named Brandish had its limiters removed from the very beginning.

Having the safety limiters removed meant that the machine could break down at any moment. To think there was an idiot who would actually do it…

“Without the safety limiters, it should consume magic power like crazy too…! Is this guy actually a magician…?!”

The capacity of magic power inevitably varies greatly from individual to individual.

As far as Hatoba knew, the one with the highest magic power capacity on the ‘Academy’ side was Nero.

However, she pilots a Lightning Frame, not a Mystic Frame. Just because one has a lot of magic power doesn’t necessarily mean they use it for magic.

And, it’s not necessarily proportional to strength either.

In fact, while the ‘Academy’s’ rank number one, the [Sword Empress Princess], has an above-average magic capacity, it’s not outstandingly high.

The point is how it’s used. A fighting style that utilizes that large amount of magic power is necessary.

But to think he would use it like this…

For Hatoba to win, enduring the attacks and aiming for this machine’s self-destruction seemed the most surefire way.

However, as to whether Linddrake’s machine would last until then, that was a very difficult prospect.

“Oraaah!”

『Guh.』

Kicking the belly of the pushing Brandish, Hatoba temporarily took distance.

A tactic like waiting for the opponent’s self-destruction didn’t suit him. He would clash head-on and defeat him!

Hatoba made that decision, accumulated fighting spirit in Linddrake’s fist, and unleashed it riding on a straight punch.

“Laze Martial King Style Secret Technique, [Dragonic Cannon]!”

The fighting spirit merged with magic power took the shape of a dragon and attacked Brandish.

Judging it unavoidable, Balanga stood Brandish’s great axe on the ground and endured the attack of the [Dragonic Cannon].

『Hah, not bad. But it ain’t working!』

Brandish attacked Linddrake while swinging the great axe around again.

While dodging it, Hatoba ruminated on the question that popped into his head.

[Dragonic Cannon] didn’t work?

It certainly wasn’t sufficiently refined ‘Ki’. He was impatient, and his stance probably wasn’t perfect either.

Even so, it was unexpected for it to be this ineffective.

He thought some damage would remain, but there was absolutely no sign of that from the attacking Brandish.

Could that great axe have an effect like Nero’s [Shield]? …No, if he had something like that, he would use it more practically.

In that case, as expected, that venomous purple armor itself…

Hah, the memory of what he learned in class revived in his mind.

“Hardening Magic…?!”

『So you finally noticed.』

Hardening Magic, which can temporarily raise defensive power by flowing magic power through armor imbued with Engraving Magic.

Its effects are immeasurable, but the magic power consumption is also quite substantial. It can be mitigated by using things like Mithril, which has a high magic power transmission rate, but no matter how you look at it, that machine isn’t one that uses rare metals.

To begin with, there’s no way a first-year who just enrolled could use such a material in large quantities.

Which means he is simply flowing that massive amount of magic power normally.

Reaching that fact, Hatoba was astonished and his reaction was delayed.

Delayed in parrying, the great axe he couldn’t fully catch with his gauntlets bit into his shoulder.

“Damn it…!”

The mouth of Linddrake’s dragon-modeled head opened, and it spewed a breath of fire towards Brandish.

『Tch!』

Hardening Magic is useless against the heat of flames. Fearing damage to the internal mechanisms from the intense heat, Balanga backed away.

“This might be a bit tough…”

Having somehow escaped the crisis, Hatoba smiled bitterly to himself inside Linddrake.

◇ ◇ ◇

“Strange, isn’t it.”

“It’s strange, yes.”

Ende, the School Principal, and Quun, the Academy Principal, who were watching the match on a large monitor in a VIP room behind the first-years’ match venue, muttered that almost simultaneously.

“Removing the limiters itself isn’t a rule violation, so that’s fine. Hardening Magic isn’t a problem either. What’s strange is that magic power sustaining them… Could he be a ‘Lineage’…?”

“His birth shows he’s from the Curiela Kingdom. He has no family name, but apparently he’s the illegitimate child of a noble. Judging from the matches since he enrolled, there’s no record of him possessing that much magic power, though.”

Ende checked while flipping through the representative players’ documents para-para.

He looked into even the detailed contents of the [Star Duels], but as expected, he couldn’t find any mention of it.

To begin with, if he had that kind of ability, he didn’t look like the type to remain content with rank number nine.

“Is it unreasonable to think… his magic power capacity grew explosively over these past few weeks?”

“The possibility isn’t zero, though.”

Right. It wasn’t zero.

Over this long period of three hundred years, they had seen several ‘Lineages’ of the first Sovereign Duke. Among them, some suddenly awakened to that power from a trivial trigger.

In fact, even among those definitely descended from the first Sovereign Duke, there are far more who do not awaken. The current Sovereign Duke of Brunhild is one of those.

Conversely, there are also extremely rare existences who are awakened from birth, but… Quun cast a sidelong glance at Lucifer projected on the split screen.

“What do you think, Quun?”

“…I think that’s incorrect. How should I say it… I can’t express it well in words. Put simply, he doesn’t seem like the type spirits would like.”

“Haha. I see, that is easy to understand.”

For someone descended from the man once called the ‘Spirit King’ to be disliked by spirits would be out of the question.

Hearing Quun’s words, Ende reached the conclusion ‘Not a chance’ within himself.

It was a mysterious thing; those who became a ‘Lineage’ had personalities similar to the nine Sovereign Duchesses in some way.

Zelda resembled her ancestor Duchess Hilda, and Nero resembled Duchess Elze, who was also Quun’s junior disciple. The slightly shy yet audacious parts resembled her younger sister Duchess Linze… no, to begin with, she looked exactly like Linne, Duchess Linze’s daughter and Quun’s younger sister.

“In that case, that amount of magic power… has become a bit suspicious.”

“Will you pause the match?”

“No, we don’t have any proof yet. I’ll let it continue for now. I’ll have it investigated immediately.”

Ende took a smartphone out from his breast pocket and started making a call somewhere.

This is completely a mistake on our, the administration’s, side, Quun let out a small sigh.