"Moran...!"
Camus clutched the camera tightly in both hands.
Her delicate face was full of tension and worry.
She kept praying for Waver and Moran to win, hoping to see how handsome he would look in victory.
"I'll start with that disgusting face of yours!"
Kemia let out an arrogant laugh.
Moran's handsome features had intimidated him earlier, so he struck at them now out of spite.
His sandbag-sized fist shot straight toward Moran's face.
Bang—!!
Fist met flesh with a dull, explosive boom.
A heat wave strong enough to shake the soul spread outward beyond the field.
Even Camus did not dare look directly.
For an instant, she could not help closing her eyes.
Though she wanted more than anyone to believe in Waver and Moran, some part of her still thought they could not defeat reality.
She did not want to see the people she admired.
Beaten bloody by the iron fist known as reality.
Boom—!!
Dust stirred up by the fierce wind filled the arena, and a dark figure flew out and smashed viciously into a marble pillar.
A suffocating atmosphere gradually spread.
Everyone outside the field stared wide-eyed in disbelief, as if they had witnessed something that overturned reality itself.
Silence—silence so terrifying it made people afraid.
The training ground had fallen into such dead stillness that a pin dropping would have been heard.
"—How... could that be?"
The first to break the silence was a trembling cry of shock.
It was filled with disbelief and astonishment.
The dust lingering across the training ground gradually dispersed, revealing what had happened to everyone.
"The one who was sent flying was... Kemia—!?"
Richard's face went pale in shock.
She was also a member of the El-Melloi classroom, and one of those who had believed Moran and Waver stood no chance.
Yet the result left everyone stunned.
"Oh dear, my hand slipped. Kemia, what was it you said you were going to show me?"
Moran casually wiped his hand.
His right fist was stained with bright red blood.
Waver was completely dumbfounded.
He looked around in every direction, having no idea what had happened.
"Oh?"
Kayneth's eyes lit up as he stroked his chin.
He had watched every second of the battle.
If he had to sum up what he had seen in one word—it was agility.
Moran had seen through the fact that his opponent could not change direction after launching that thrust.
Rather than evade, Moran chose a direct counterattack.
He turned his head at the last fraction of a second to avoid the fist, then followed up with a punch to Kemia's abdomen.
Mana circulated, power condensed.
Combined with recoil and precise control.
He completed that powerful sequence within a thousandth of a second.
It had been utterly seamless.
Only when Kemia was sent flying by that explosive mana-infused heavy punch did Kayneth realize he had forgotten to breathe.
"Such efficient mana circulation and such extensive combat experience—few even at the Clock Tower could achieve this... Perfect!"
Kayneth could not help praising him.
But that very perfection also stirred an association in his mind.
For that instant, Moran had not seemed like an ordinary student in the classroom, but a battle-hardened warrior.
Like an executor of the Holy Church.
Someone who had honed every part of his body into a weapon for battle.
"Mm... Kemia has lost consciousness and can no longer fight. A few of you, carry him to the infirmary for treatment."
Kayneth walked beneath the stone pillar.
He saw Kemia embedded in it.
This pillar had been reinforced with a Magus's magecraft and could withstand a truck collision without budging, yet Kemia's impact had nearly snapped it in half.
That showed just how great Moran's strength was.
If Magi did not reinforce their bodies with magecraft during battle, an ordinary person's body would likely have burst apart on the spot.
"Uh... You bastard! What exactly did you do!?"
Amures came to his senses and shouted in panic.
He could not believe Kemia had been taken down by a single punch.
Kemia was a model student on the same level as him!
A new-generation Magus acknowledged by Professor Kayneth!
How could this be? How could it end like this!?
There could not possibly be such an absurd error in reality!
"What did I do? Hm? Didn't you see it clearly?"
Moran put one hand on his waist and feigned confusion.
He was as relaxed as though he were taking a stroll down the street, as if he had merely done something insignificant.
"Moran, you were the one who sent Kemia flying?"
"Who else? I told you, whatever comes, we'll handle it. Waver, just wait to receive the award with me."
"Receive the award... Hahaha..."
Moran even had the leisure to chat with Waver.
As if they were not facing any sort of challenge at all.
He completely ignored Amures, his opponent.
"Guh! Impossible!
How could Kemia lose to trash like you! Professor Kayneth! Something must be wrong!"
Of course, Amures could not accept it.
He could not admit that he had not seen a thing.
He had been unable even to catch or analyze the course of the fight.
If word got out, his reputation would be utterly destroyed. He could never endure such humiliation.
P.S.: I've explained this in the comments, and I'm exhausted. The modern arc is only a dozen or so chapters long; at the latest, it'll be over tomorrow. Sigh.
As for why the protagonist picked an argument with Kayneth out of boredom, that touched on a matter of principle for him.
What the protagonist opposed was not bloodline theory.
What he opposed was the conclusion that innate qualities completely determined everything.
It was true that the protagonist obtained his abilities through simulations with the Simulator, but he earned them through twenty-six years of effort and bloodshed, achieving all kinds of legends and accomplishments.
He himself had extremely strong initiative and broad vision. He could directly participate in the Holy Grail War without much trouble; it was just that his personality before the simulations had been rather laid-back.
Kayneth's definition of the innate was far too absolute, which was why the protagonist felt he was being too definitive and refuted him. Considering the protagonist had just returned from a simulation and carried the memories of a hero who had spent twenty-six years fighting against his innate fate, it would have been stranger if he had not argued with Kayneth.
Think about it, everyone—if I were always overanalyzing the text.
You'd definitely chase after me and curse me for padding, and that obviously is not what you want to see. The number of words I've used explaining this could have let me release another chapter.
And now I still have to rush drafts like crazy while thinking about all this.
Lately, I've basically been going to sleep at two or three in the morning.
I'm tired. Really, truly tired.
The Lost Art: Pankration—Please Give Flowers! Please Give Monthly Tickets!
"Hmph, Amures, are you saying that Moran and Waver could have cheated under my personal supervision? Or are you saying that the eyes of an El-Melloi Lord are inferior to yours?"
"No! No! I didn't mean that!"
Kayneth had the arrogant temperament of a noble.
But he hated Magi who did not follow the rules even more.
Especially Magi who violated etiquette.
Fortunately, Amures merely lacked discernment, so Kayneth would not haggle with a mere student.
Unless that student wanted to argue with him.
Like Moran did.
"Damn it! Damn you all! As long as I crush every last one of you, it'll be fine!"
Amures's mind gave up thinking.
He truly could not figure out how Moran had dealt with Kemia.
But there was one thing he could understand.
He had to defeat Waver and Moran here, or he might lose all the honors he had earned in the past.
Even his future as a Magus.
"Waver, get farther away."
"Huh?"
"Amures is about to make his move. If you get caught up in it, don't ask me to pay your medical bills. I'm broke."
At that, Waver immediately retreated and yielded the battlefield.
Even if he wanted to help in this fight, he lacked the ability to do so.
It was exactly as Moran had said.
"Get down!"
Amures was the first to launch an attack against Moran.
The gale whipped up by his punch howled fiercely enough to tear eardrums.
It roared and lunged at Moran one blow after another.
Before you continue