20. 模擬戦
学園の敷地内にある訓練所を借りて、模擬戦を行うことになった。
ルールは簡単。
相手が降参するか、クリス先生が勝負ありと判断するか、だ。
俺はドミニクと向かい合って、試合の合図を待った。
「ふんっ。無能のお前がなぜ選ばれたのかはわからんが、勝つのは俺だ! 目に物見せてやる!」
「そういう強い言葉、あまり使わない方がいいよ」
ときに、自分が吐いた言葉によって、苦しめられることもあるからだ。
が良く知っている。
「うるせぇ! ぶっ殺してやる!」
「二人とも。言い争いは止めろ。文句があるなら、拳で語り合え」
クリス先生は少年誌のキャラのような、カッコイイセリフを吐く。
男らしいし、そういうセリフが本当に様になる。
「位置についたな」
彼女は俺とドミニクが距離を取って向かい合っているのを確認すると、
「では、はじめ!」
勝負開始を宣言した。
その声と同時に、ドミニクが、
「炎弾」
俺は迫り来る炎弾に対して、右手を向けて迎撃の姿勢を取る。
「大火球......!」
火球は直径1メートルほどあり、炎弾を軽々と飲み込んで、ドミニクに襲いかかった。
「火の壁よ! 俺を守れ!」
ドミニクの作り出した壁によって、大火球を防がれた。
ドミニクは火魔法が得意だ。
重力魔法も使えるが、あれは使い勝手が悪い。
特に、空を飛んでいるときは、重力魔法を使用しているせいで他の魔法が使えなくなる。
狙ってくださいと言っているようなものだからだ。
俺が持つ攻撃手段として、最も有用なのは火魔法になる。
火魔法使い同士の戦いか。
負けてられんな。
「本物の火魔法を見せてやる。―――イフリートよ、灼熱をもって、敵を殲滅せよ」
魔法とは想像だ。
俺が思い描いたのは、前世のとあるRPGに出てきたイフリートの化身。
体中に炎をまとわせ、鬼のような風貌の野獣だ。
イフリートが敵を殲滅する際に放つ魔法を想像した。
灼熱の炎がドミニクを襲う。
「な、な、なんだ、その威力は!?」
ドミニクが焦った雰囲気を出し、防御魔法も使おうとせず、慌てだした。
「凍てつけ!」
クリス先生が氷魔法を発動した。
氷はまるで意志を持っているかのように動き、炎に向かっていく。
氷と炎がぶつかり合い、音が爆発したように辺り一帯に広がった。
俺の放った炎は消え去り、高温で熱さられた氷が水蒸気となり、周囲に霧を作り出す。
さすが、【氷結の悪魔】と呼ばれるクリス先生だ。
そして、霧が晴れると、腰を抜かして座り込むドミニクがいた。
それを確認したクリス先生は右手を挙げ、
「勝者、オーウェン・ペッパー!」
と、叫び、模擬戦は終了した。
思ったよりも、あっけなく勝ったようだ。
「オーウェンが武闘会に参加することに対し、文句のあるやつは他にいるか? だったら今この場で勝負させてやる」
クリス先生は生徒を見渡した。
みな、驚きで口を開けていた。
「では、オーウェンを武闘会参加者とする!」
こうして俺は武闘会に出場することになった。
「......オーウェン・ペッパーか」
クリスは先程の模擬戦を思い出し、ひとりごちる。
ペッパー家といえば落ち目という話であったが、すでにその情報は古い。
オーウェン・ペッパーの才能に気づいている者たちが一定数いる。
例えばラルフ・アルデラート。
ナタリーの誕生日会でオーウェンが飛行魔法を使ったことで、ラルフは彼の有用性に気がついたようだ。
そして、娘を使った囲い込みを始めたのだ。
「ナタリーは囲い込みのために近づいているわけじゃ、なさそうだけどな」
才能ある魔法使いを、どれだけ抱えているかが貴族社会では重要なステータスとなる。
そして、何より優秀な魔法使いは一般の兵士何十人分という戦力になる。
クリスも多くの貴族にすり寄られてきたが、全て無視してきた。
時折、強く言い寄ってくる者がいるが、それは力で黙らせることができる。
魔法至上主義のこの国では、三ツ星の発言権は大きい。
才能ある魔法使いはそれだけ貴重ということだ。他にもオーウェンの才能に気づいている者はたくさんいる。
だが、彼らに先んじて、いち早くオーウェンの才能に気づいたのはクリスだ。
クリスはカザリーナと旧知の仲である。
学園では魔法を競い合っていたライバルとも言える。
クリスは魔力制御において、カザリーナに及ばない。
最高峰の三ツ星魔法使いであるクリスに、魔法制御で敵わないと言わしめるのだ。
カザリーナの能力の高さがわかるだろう。その能力に反して、カザリーナの魔法の成績は良くなかった。
なぜなら、彼女は魔力量が圧倒的に少なかったからだ。それこそ入学すら危ぶまれるほどに。
当時の魔法の成績の判断基準は、簡単に言えば如何に強力な魔法が使えるか、だ。
もちろん他にも項目はあるが、魔力量が少ないというのは明らかなマイナス要素であった。
もし、カザリーナに魔力があれば、とんでもない魔法使いになっていただろう。
そして、魔力量の少なさから王都では良い職にありつけなかった。
「私に頼めば、いくらでも仕事を紹介してやったのにな」
しかし、ライバルのクリスからの紹介は、己の信念に反するとカザリーナは考えたようで、あっさりと断られた。
そうして、学園を卒業してからしばらく経つと、カザリーナがオーウェンの家庭教師になったと耳にした。
そこで初めて、クリスはオーウェンのことを知ったのだ。
話に聞くだけで、オーウェンが恐ろしいほどの才能の持ち主だと感じていた。
だが―――実際は予想よりも上だった。
「あれほどの高威力の魔法を1年生の段階で使えるのか......」
思い返すのは先程の模擬戦。
オーウェンが最後に放った魔法。
学園を卒業する子でも、あの威力の魔法が扱える子は少ない。
―――本当に凄まじい子が来たものだ。
さらには第三王子、ナタリー、聖女など、今年の1年は濃いメンバーが揃っている。
これはもう、普通の教師には手に負えない。
「さすがに、こいつらの指導を下手な人材には任せられない、か。学園長の言い分もよく分かる。だから、私に話が来たのだろう」
今年のAクラスのメンバーは、三ツ星魔法使いでないと教育を任せられないほどに、突出した才能が集まっているのだ。
クリスは誰にともなく、そう呟いた。
Ch 20
We borrowed a training center on the school grounds to have a mock battle.
The rules were simple.
Either the opponent would give up, or Chris-sensei would decide the end of the match.
I faced Dominic and waited for the signal to start the match.
"Hmph. I don't know why sensei picked you, you incompetent bastard, but I'm the one who's going to win! I'll show you!"
"You shouldn't use such strong words.
Because sometimes you can be tormented by your own words."
I, Owen, know that very well.
"Shut up! I'll kill you!"
"Both of you. Stop arguing. If you have a problem with each other, you can talk with your fists."
Chris-sensei spouted cool lines like a character from a shounen manga.
Chris-sensei's lines were very cool as she was a manly person.
"Get in position."
She made sure that Dominic and I were facing each other at a distance.
"Begin!"
She announced the start of the match.
Immediately, Dominic attacked.
"Fireball!
I pointed my right hand at the incoming fireball and took a stance to intercept it.
"Great Fireball ......!"
The fireball was about a meter in diameter, and it swallowed the flaming bullet with ease as it was attacking Dominic.
"Wall of fire! Protect me!"
Dominic's wall of fire prevented the large fireball from reaching him.
Dominic was good at fire magic.
I could also use gravity magic, but it was not very useful.
Especially when I used gravity magic to fly, I could not use any other magic.
It would be as if I was asking my opponent to aim at me.
The most useful means of attack that I had was fire magic.
This was a battle between fire magic users.
I couldn't afford to lose.
'I'll show you my real fire magic. --Ifrit, annihilate the enemy with your scorching heat.'
Magic was about imagination.
I imagined an incarnation of the Ifrit from a certain RPG from my previous life.
It was a beast with flames all over its body and a demonic appearance.
I imagined the magic that the Ifrit would unleash when destroying its enemies.
The scorching flames attacked Dominic.
"What, what, what is that power?
Dominic became impatient  and started to panic, not even trying to use defensive magic.
"Freeze!"
Chris-sensei activated her ice magic.
The ice moved as if it had a will of its own and headed for the flames.
The ice and the flames collided, and the sound spread throughout the area like an explosion.
The flames I had released disappeared, and the ice that had been heated to a high temperature turned into steam, creating a fog around me.
As expected of Chris-sensei, who is known as the [Freezing Demon].
When the fog cleared, I saw Dominic sitting on the ground, slumped over.
When Chris-sensei saw him, she raised her right hand and said,
"The winner, Owen Pepper!
"And the mock battle is over.
"It looks like he won much easier than I thought he would.
"Is there anyone else who has a problem with Owen participating in the tournament? If so, I'll let you compete with him right here and now."
Chris-sensei looked around at the students, but none of them reacted.
Everyone's mouths were hanging open in surprise.
"Then, I declare Owen a participant in the tournament!"
And that's how I ended up participating in the martial arts tournament.
"...... Owen Pepper, huh?"
Chris thought back to the mock battle they had just had, and chuckled to herself.
It has been said that the Pepper family was on the decline, but that information was crealy wrong.
Though, there were a certain number of people who were aware of Owen Pepper's talent.
Ralph Alderath, for example.
When Owen had used his flying magic at Natalie's birthday party, Ralph seemed to have realized his usefulness.
Then he started to use his daughter to get closer to Owen.
"Natalie doesn't seem to be approaching him for the sake of recruitment, though."
In aristocratic society, the amount of talented wizards in your pocket was an important factor of your status.
And above all, a good wizard could be as powerful as dozens of ordinary soldiers.
Chris had also been scouted by many nobles, but she ignored them all.
Occasionally, some of them would come on to her strongly, but she was able to silence them with his power.
In a country where magic was supreme, a three-star wizard had a lot of say.
That's how valuable a talented wizard was. There were many other people who were aware of Owen's talent.
However, Chris was the first one to notice Owen's talent before they did.
Chris was an old acquaintance of Katherina.
They could be said to be rivals who had competed with each other in magic at the school.
Chris was not as good as Katherina in controlling magic power.
Chris, who was a three-star wizard of the highest level, was said to be no match for her in magic control.
You can see how powerful Katherina's abilities are. Despite her control over her power, Katherina's performance in magic was not good.
This is because she had an overwhelmingly low amount of magic power. In fact, it was so low that even her entrance into the school was in jeopardy.
At that time, the criterion for magic grades was, simply put, how powerful the magic was.
Of course, there were other factors, but a lack of magic power was a clear negative factor.
If Katherina had any magic power, she would have become an incredible magician.
And because of her low magic power, she could not find a good job in the capital.
'If you had asked me, I would have introduced you to any number of jobs.'
However, Katherina seemed to think that an introduction from her rival Chris would go against her beliefs, so she simply refused.
Then, some time after graduating from the school, she heard that Katherina had become Owen's tutor.
That was the first time Chris learned about Owen.
Just from what he had heard, so far she had felt that Owen was an incredibly talented person.
But in fact, he was even better than she had expected.
'I wondered how he could use magic of such high power in his first year.....'
He thought back to the mock battle they just had.
Owen's last magic.
Even children who graduated from school, there were very few children who could handle the magic of that power.
'--Honestly,... a child with a tremendous amount of power showed up.'
In addition, the third prince, Natalie, and the saint are all members of this year's class.
This is too much for a normal teacher to handle.
"I'm sure you can't leave the teaching of these people to incompetent people. I can understand the principal's point of view. I guess that's why he asked me to help."
This year's Class A members were so outstandingly talented that only a three-star wizard could be entrusted with their education.
Chris muttered to herself.
Reincarnated as the Son of a Vicious Lord! ~When I Was Having Fun Learning Magic, I Had to Get Rid of My Stigma~!
悪徳領主の息子に転生！？～楽しく魔法を学んでいたら、汚名を返上してました～
https://www.novelupdates.com/series/reincarnated-as-the-son-of-a-vicious-lord-when-i-was-having-fun-learning-magic-i-had-to-get-rid-of-my-stigma/
Adventure Fantasy Romance School Life Shounen
Academy Adapted to Manga Age Progression Battle Competition Character Growth Cheats Child Protagonist Dense Protagonist Depictions of Cruelty Elemental Magic Fat to Fit Female Master Friendship Harem-seeking Protagonist Harsh Training Hated Protagonist Late Romance Loyal Subordinates Male Protagonist Modern Knowledge Naive Protagonist Nobles Reincarnated in Another World Saints Strength-based Social Hierarchy Sword And Magic Underestimated Protagonist
https://ncode.syosetu.com/n6812gh/
米津