Bang! Bang!

A huge scarecrow puppet burst into flames, causing a massive explosion. During the ‘Practical Combat Lecture', students shoot at the target with magic attacks that matched their attributes.

“It’s not always about firing hard and fast. What matters is ‘accuracy,’ and even if you have powerful magic skills, they are useless if you don’t hit the enemy, right?”

When the words of fire attribute professor Hong Yi-El fell, the scarecrow shrank and began to run around.

The attacks of the students exploded in the air, unable to even scratch the target, and it was the same for Hong Bi-Yeon’s magic attack.

Thud!

She furrowed her brows, nervously pulled out the staff, and cast a ball of flame.

Her firepower was strong, but she could not hit anything.

Hong Yi-El passed by her and whispered.

“… That’s terrible, Bi-Yeon.”

Hong Bi-Yeon paled at the words, but closed her eyes tightly, trying not to show her chaotic emotions. Biting her trembling lips, she raised the staff again.

She felt she could not do it, so she had no choice but to lay down the staff.

“Hmmm…”

The horrifying pressure of failure fell on her chest, and she fought to breath against it as cold sweat trickled down her forehead.

‘You can’t make it obvious. You must not show your vulnerability.’

Hong Bi-Yeon felt like she was going to faint at any moment, but she persevered with a superhuman mental strength. A girl approached her while she sat still.

“Wow… Princess, you’re incredible.”

“… What?”

“You used the same magic skill as me, but you had three times the power.”

'Is this brat aware of how I’m feeling, and or she's just speaking without thinking?'

“What’s the point, though? It’s pointless. I’m not even sure I can hit it. I’m envious of you. You have high accuracy.”

“… But, if the Princess practised a little more, wouldn’t she surpass someone like me easily?”

'What do you mean?'

Hong Bi-Yeon ignored the girl’s words, picked up the staff, and stood up. Thanks to the conversation, the pressure on her chest loosened to some extent.

'Come to think of it, is she also a Flame Mage?'

'I think I’ve heard of her. Her name is Arshuang.'

In the outside world, there was a commotion saying that the greatest flame attribute talent of all time had appeared. After thinking a bit, she recalled that she heard it before, but when Arshuang actually entered the academy, her magic skill was so shabby that she could not even be compared with Hong Bi-Yeon.

It was completely natural. Since Hong Bi-Yeon was a world-class genius, not an all-time great. Hong Bi-Yeon did not show much pride because she had just defeated an opponent who deserved to be defeated.

“Whoo…”

After that, Hong Bi-Yeon, who had been struggling for a while to catch the running scarecrow, ran out of the classroom the moment the lecture was over.

It was because it was difficult for her to look at her mother’s face for even one second longer.

“Whew….”

She came to the break room and sat down helplessly. Even her legs felt numb, and she lost all sensation.

It might be because she exerted two or three times more strength than other students, or it was the psychological factor that played a big role.

“Princess.”

“Yuri, you are here. Bring me a drink. …and red ginseng candy as a bonus.”

“Here you go.”

Princess Hong Bi-Yeon’s exclusive bodyguard, Yuri, was tall for a woman, reaching almost 170cm. And Hong Bi-Yeon, who was 160cm, had to look slightly upward to make eye contact with her.

“By the way, any news?”

“Yes. It’s about the wand remodelling that you ordered the other day.”

“Ah, that.”

Hong Bi-Yeon stroked her chin and pondered. She heard that sometimes alchemists use remodelled staff, but she had never seen a mage do that before.

‘He is unique in many ways.’

A boy who resonated with an upper-intermediate grade wand, was at the last place in the whole school and made his way into the Class S…

“Is a magic sword possible?”

“Since the wand is so good, it seems that a good quality product will come out without any problems. However, there is one thing that is a little questionable.”

“Questionable?”

“That’s… the wand keeps trying to drain its owner’s mana.”

“What? Isn’t that a taboo?”

“It wasn’t exactly like that. It appeared to be constantly resonating with natural mana.”

“What kind of strange wand did he get? Stella is also strange.”

'Continuously absorbing the user’s mana, and resonating with nature’s mana at the same time? It's just weird to hear.'

“… Why's such a garbage wand at upper-intermediate grade?”

“So, it’s only upper-intermediate grade.”

“What does that mean?”

Yuri continued with an expression that meant she did not know how to explain this.

“Its original performance was rated higher because it had the effect of explosively enhancing the user’s magic power and amplifying it tremendously, but it was lowered to intermediate grade because it would suck away the user’s mana upon contact.”

“S-Superior? How does a student hold such a thing?”

“That’s a riddle for me too.”

Hong Bi-Yeon knew very well that it was not set up for resonance in the first place. But, how did he resonate with such a wand?

‘What is that strange commoner doing?’

Of course, that did not mean that the wand was coveted.

It was strange that the power of magic skill increased explosively, but the penalty of losing mana was too great.

“I don’t think he’ll use it even if I give him that wand. I don’t know if he has abundant mana, or if he doesn’t have it at all.”

That was pretty weird. If one didn’t have any mana, one wouldn't be a mage, so why use a wand?

“… I don't know. The commoner will figure it out. I will just do what I was told.”

'Its owner is also one-of-a-kind, as is his wand.'

There was never a time when she kept commoners in her mind, but Baek Yu-seol did not leave her mind for a long time in many ways.