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Just as Yunyi thought, This is bad, Mayumi Saegusa calmed down instead.

"Do you think becoming a Strategic-Class Magician is that easy? I actually believed you. Honestly..."

Before Mayumi Saegusa could finish, however, a strange electromagnetic field of lightning enveloped the living room.

"Th-this is...!?" Mayumi Saegusa cried out. She had recognized the magic, but how was this possible!?

"Strategic-Class Magic, Thunderclap Tower! You should recognize it, right? Old Liu demonstrated this magic in front of me once, and then I reproduced it." Yunyi smiled, then shook his hand and dispelled Thunderclap Tower's electromagnetic field.

He had only demonstrated the rudimentary form of the magic for Mayumi Saegusa, without actually activating it. Otherwise, his living room might have been destroyed by now!

"So... you really can do it," Mayumi Saegusa murmured.

"It's just Strategic-Class Magic. Don't make such a big deal out of it. Do you think that, with so many people in the Great Asian Alliance, Old Liu is really its only Strategic-Class Magician? Let me tell you, there are at least three people in the Alliance who can use Thunderclap Tower alone!" Yunyi scoffed.

This news undoubtedly shocked Mayumi Saegusa once again. But this time, she recovered quickly, seemingly because she had spent more time around Yunyi and been shocked far too many times.

Suddenly, as if she had thought of something, she asked urgently, "That magic you used that time, Heavenly Fire Burns the City-was that Strategic-Class Magic too!?"

Unexpectedly, Yunyi shook his head. "Heavenly Fire Burns the City isn't Strategic-Class Magic. My reproduction of it isn't complete, because it's missing the most important thing."

Judging by appearances, Heavenly Fire Burns the City did indeed have the potential to become Strategic-Class Magic. Unfortunately, the technique could not be raised to that level for the time being.

After deploying Fool's World, Yunyi could exert complete control over the psions within its domain. He could even use variables to convert psions into any usable form of energy. It was by using variables in this way that he had reproduced magic that should not have existed in this world.

But to perfectly manifest the spells in his memory, he needed one specific condition: he had to recite the entire activation incantation! And the spells he wanted to manifest did have incantations! A thirteenth-tier spell meant thirteen lines of incantation. How could Yunyi possibly remember them all clearly?

Thus, although the Heavenly Fire Burns the City he manifested was called a forbidden spell, it was actually nothing more than a somewhat more spectacular-looking fire spell. Unless he could recall its incantation, the spell could never be manifested perfectly.

Of course, these were Yunyi's hidden secrets, and he could hardly tell Mayumi Saegusa about them. But after learning that the spell was not Strategic-Class Magic, she seemed a little disappointed.

"What, you really want to see Strategic-Class Magic?" Yunyi asked with a smile.

Mayumi Saegusa nodded, but a moment later she shook her head.

"Strategic-Class Magic is perhaps the highest level a modern magician can reach. Naturally, I'd like to see magic like that with my own eyes. But using Strategic-Class Magic would mean there was a conflict, wouldn't it? In that case, never mind."

Hearing her answer, Yunyi nodded as well.

"You're right. Strategic-Class Magic really shouldn't be used casually."

At that moment, Yunyi very much wanted a certain friend of his to hear those words. It was Strategic-Class Magic! How could he just use it to attack people on a whim? He really had no awareness of what it meant to be a Strategic-Class Magician.

"All right, let's stop talking about that and get back to what we were discussing before," Yunyi said, bringing the conversation back around.

"Your disagreement with your father boils down to the fact that a marriage alliance would benefit the family, so that's why he's planning it. If you were strong enough yourself, he'd naturally give up on the idea. He might even give you more freedom to maintain a good relationship with you."

Yunyi paused briefly before continuing, "But there are two sides to everything. If you really became a Strategic-Class Magician, the Japanese government would probably set its sights on you. When that happened, you might lose even more than you have now. Mayumi, you understand all that, don't you?"

Mayumi Saegusa nodded dejectedly. How could she not know all that? At that moment, she would rather not have been the Saegusa Family's young lady or a genius with outstanding magical talent. She only wished she were an ordinary girl, free to fall in love and enjoy life.

"Sigh, I understand everything you've said, but Yunyi, you're a Strategic-Class Magician too, so why do you get to run around wherever you want?" Mayumi Saegusa complained.

"Me? Simple. Because they don't dare mess with me!" Yunyi shrugged and gave his answer without a care.

He had left the Great Asian Alliance for a foreign country when he was thirteen. At the time, more than seventy percent of the Alliance's higher-ups had opposed his departure. But Yunyi had already grown thoroughly irritated with those old fools' petty tricks. During a meeting of the higher-ups, he had barged straight in and, in front of everyone, formed a Strategic-Class Magic spell above the meeting venue as a bargaining chip for a good talk with those fellows. Afterward, he had boarded his flight out of the country safe and sound.

But several years had passed without him returning home or doing anything else frightening, so the Alliance's higher-ups seemed to have forgotten what he was capable of. Lately, Yunyi had been thinking of finding time to return to the Alliance and see his old man, while also paying his respects to those old fellows.

While Yunyi was lost in thought, Mayumi Saegusa suddenly spoke. "Forget it. It's not like I can learn Strategic-Class Magic in a day or two anyway. Until then, you can pretend to be my boyfriend for now."

"Ahem!" Yunyi coughed several times in quick succession. "How did you end up back on that after going around in circles?"

"You!" Mayumi Saegusa glared at Yunyi irritably. "Keeping your identity secret puts me under a lot of pressure! Especially in front of my father, I have to be careful every single moment! I'm going through all that trouble, so can't you help me out now?"

"Uh..."

Mayumi Saegusa's words left Yunyi speechless. He really didn't know how to argue with that. Was he supposed to tell her, "Then go tell your dad who I am"?

If he really did that, Yunyi figured Mayumi Saegusa would surely fly into a rage and attack him, then go home and spill everything about his identity! Thinking about it that way, it seemed he could only agree to her proposal.