[■■■■■!!!!]

Lesser Demonic Beasts charged, letting out their terrible cries.

They rushed at the people, who were fleeing in panic and unguarded.

The gleaming claws and teeth of the demonic beasts rushed toward the backs of the people.

Just as someone was about to let out a scream, suddenly, a magic circle appeared in the air, binding the demonic beasts that had been attacking the people in place.

In front of the startled individuals, a blond boy with drowsy eyes slowly stepped forward and said.

“Don’t worry. I’m here to save you.”

With just that one statement, the boy, Dwight Ninehart, calmed the people. As he waved his hand in the air, sharp ice pillars shot up from beneath the feet of the demonic beasts that had been magically restrained.

While Dwight was examining the demonic beasts turned into ice skewers with a curious gaze, once again, a scream rang out.

Another group of demonic beasts had appeared, targeting the people on the opposite side of Dwight.

Before he could cast a spell on them, flames erupted explosively and consumed another group of demonic beasts in an instant.

Watching that scene, Dwight muttered in frustration.

“…You didn’t have to get involved. I could have handled it on my own.”

“Well, I know, but it’s a group assignment… I have to do something too.”

As I approached to respond after dealing with the demonic beasts, Dwight’s brow furrowed slightly.

It was clear that he was internally thinking, ‘What a waste. It would have been a valuable opportunity to test magic on the demonic beasts…’

In fact, I knew that someone of Dwight’s caliber wouldn’t have had any trouble dealing with the demonic beasts even without my help, but today’s training was a cooperative one.

The purpose of today’s training was to experience the situation when demonic beasts invaded the city and to rescue the citizens as cleanly as possible through cooperation with one’s partner.

My partner was Dwight from Class B, and when I expressed that, since it’s a cooperative training, it would be inappropriate to just stand still, Dwight relaxed his previously furrowed brow, albeit somewhat regretfully.

While we were protecting and evacuating the citizens in the city created by the illusion of Teacher Eve, Dwight glanced at me and said.

“…By the way, you’ve noticeably become stronger since the first time I saw you. It’s admirable how much effort you must have put in to develop so rapidly.”

“Ah… well, it’s not like I’ve worked that specifically hard or anything…”

Unintentionally, I bowed my head at Dwight’s words.

Effort, effort.

It’s true that I participated diligently in classes and endured hardships during training.

If my strength had truly increased because of that, I would have been able to stand a bit taller.

But now that I think about it, it wasn’t just my noticeable physical abilities or the firepower of the flames emanating from my body.

I’ve recently realized that every time my body came into contact with demon magic, I grew stronger.

It wasn’t a result of effort but rather my body naturally becoming stronger as it transformed closer to that of a witch.

Therefore, being praised for my effort by someone like Dwight felt just plain embarrassing.

He was someone who undoubtedly put in more effort than anyone else in the academy.

Standing before someone so obsessed with magic practice that he came to class with dark circles under his eyes every day, what did it even mean to talk about effort?

As I bowed my head in embarrassment, Dwight scoffed and continued speaking.

“Well, then it’s purely because you’re a genius, isn’t it?”

“Ah… no. I’m not a genius at all… The genius is someone like you…”

When the word “genius” slipped from his lips, I was taken aback, shaking my head in denial.

The term genius had no one in the academy who suited it better than this guy in front of me.

A magical genius, Dwight Ninehart was a character often referred to as Yoon Si-woo’s rival in the original story.

Being called a genius by someone with such monstrous talent made me flinch, and Dwight said this with a calm expression.

“Of course, I’m a genius. An extraordinary one too.”

Although it was true, hearing him declare it so confidently left me dumbfounded as I stared at him blankly. Dwight opened his mouth again.

“I’ve realized since long ago that my talent is exceptional. Being called a genius, I can see slightly more than the average person does. Still, even in my eyes, your growth seems remarkably outstanding, which is why I’m mentioning it. Therefore, it’s obvious that there must be tremendous effort behind your growth, isn’t it?”

Since I couldn’t reveal the truth about my connection to the witch, I couldn’t speak truthfully, but as I was about to answer that I didn’t want to create such misunderstandings, he continued.

“While physical abilities and strength may fall under the realm of talent, the improvement of your skills is entirely within the domain of effort and mastery.”

At those words, my mouth, which had been opened in disbelief, closed again.

“I’ve never thought I would be lacking in talent compared to others. But I’ve realized there are talents superior to mine. I felt the difference in talent against that white-haired guy who defeated me in sparring. But back then, I wasn’t shocked. That was unavoidable.”

Dwight quietly closed his eyes as he spoke.

And a moment later, his eyes opened wide, shining brightly, directed at me.

“However, I had never considered that I would be surpassed by someone through effort. Thus, I was shocked. Watching you challenge yourself repeatedly during Teacher Natalia’s special class until you finally reached the end, I felt, for the first time in my life, that I lost to effort. That was when I felt the emotion of defeat for the first time in my life.”

At Dwight’s words, I recalled the memory of that moment.

The memory of the day when I achieved something I had worked hard for, despite the difficulties.

The result achieved purely through my own efforts, unrelated to the witch’s power.

And to that version of me, Dwight said,

“I am a magician. A magician does not believe anything but what he sees with his own eyes. And you, at the very least, are the hardest worker I’ve seen. So be proud. Don’t belittle your own efforts. You are someone who can take pride in your own labor. You are the one who made me feel a sense of defeat.”

At those words, I felt something swell up inside me.

Regardless of anything witch-like, it felt like my efforts up until now were being acknowledged.

Feeling a little happy about that, I nodded.

After that, a moment of silence fell.

As the feelings from just now subsided, I was left with embarrassment and curiosity.

To be honest, Dwight and I didn’t have much interaction besides a few conversations, so we weren’t that close.

Moreover, I had never thought he would say such things.

“Um, I appreciate that you recognize my efforts, but why are you suddenly saying this…”

Curious, I asked, and Dwight, shifting back to his usual languid gaze, answered.

“I thought you were pushing yourself a bit too hard due to recent training. Hmm… you seem okay today, but you looked like you hadn’t slept for a while, didn’t you?”

I was taken aback by those words.

It wasn’t that I was mixing my nights for training, but…

I thought I had managed to act unnoticeably at the academy, so how did he know?

When I shot him a wary glance, he casually replied.

“Wondering how I knew? Well, you might have tried to hide it, but I’m sort of an expert in the field of reducing sleep for training purposes. Besides, like I said, geniuses tend to see things that others might miss. I can tell from a distance.”

Was that so? Being a genius seems a bit scary…

While I thought that, I still had a fundamental question that hadn’t been resolved, so I threw another question at Dwight.

“So, did you really worry about me?”

“Yeah. It’s fine to pull an all-nighter, but I felt like you weren’t taking care of yourself. Watching you, I got inspired after a long time, and I didn’t want someone I consider a rival to crumble. And most importantly, as a colleague of the academy, you see. Effort is good, but moderation is important. Moderation.”

Dwight replied in a calm voice, but I felt an immense sense of gratitude from that response.

Never did I expect that someone as indifferent as Dwight would say the word “colleague…”

Was he actually aloof but a softy at heart?

Holding back a mischievous smile while looking at Dwight’s profile, I suddenly noticed a tremendous contradiction in his statement and decided to call him out.

“Hey, you know, with those dark circles under your eyes, it’s pretty unconvincing to tell others to take it easy.”

“Unlike others, I calculate my body’s limits properly and reduce sleep, so there’s no problem. Besides, for me, this is moderation. I can’t stand the thought of reducing my time researching magic just for sleeping.”

From his sincere answer, I felt a mix of something close to madness.

Wasn’t he the one who said he found studying enjoyable and stayed up all night to study?

I asked him with a slightly bewildered expression.

“…You really love magic, huh? What makes it so great?”

“It’s a field of study with limitless possibilities. It’s simply irresistible.”

Dwight, who seemed to have a magic obsession, lit up his eyes and replied more energetically than usual as soon as the topic of magic came up.

“Combat magic necessary to defeat demonic beasts is alluring, but also, don’t you think other types of magic, which are useful in daily life, are wonderful too? If you have the capability, magic is the field that can contribute more significantly to the existence of humanity than anything else, just like the barrier my ancestors spread across the cities. My dream is to create magic that can help people for a long time, just like my ancestor, the great magician Viola Ninehart. To achieve that dream, I have no time to waste on sleep.”

“…You really respect your ancestor, huh?”

“Of course. The barrier magic is beautiful in itself. It stops the invasion of mana and acts as a seal… no doubt it’s truly exceptional magic. In that sense, today’s training devised by Teacher Eve is not very practical. As long as there’s a barrier in place, there’s never a chance for demonic beasts to rampage through the city.”

“…Still, there might be exceptional circumstances, like when the demonic beasts controlled people last time, right?”

“Ugh… that was simply not accounting for the existence of demonic beasts that could control people even when weakened. Normally, common demonic beasts lose all their power the moment they pass through the barrier.”

As I chatted with Dwight, before I knew it, we had arrived at the shelter, leading the people.

As I thought about how the other groups were doing, a loud noise echoed from behind us.

“Yay! Looks like you’re done too!”

“Ugh…”

At the cheerful voice, Dwight scrunched his face and conjured a magical barrier, but it was useless against the pink girl tank that charged at us at terrifying speed.

The girl, Florene, crashed into the barrier Dwight had created with all her might, shattering it like a cookie.

As a result, Florene, wearing a face that clearly said she was not pleased, clung to Dwight’s back and, with a bright smile, asked me,

“I noticed you two seemed to be having a lively chat while coming over. What were you talking about?”

“Uh… just a bit about magic?”

“Ahaha! Dwight loves magic too much, doesn’t he? It seems like wherever magic is needed, Dwight is always there! Florene’s papa is also working on some magic circle construction, and he’s helping out, right?”

Construction?

As I tilted my head in confusion, Dwight responded with a shocked expression while trying to shake off Florene.

“Haah… I’m helping with the teleportation barrier installation supervised by Dolos House. It’s an important task, and gaining experience from such large-scale magic circle installations is a good opportunity.”

“…Didn’t you just help out with something at the hospital under Teacher Eve last time?”

“If it involves magic and I can gain experience, I’ll go anywhere.”

…This guy is really something in many ways.

As I shook my head in admiration, Florene, who had detached from Dwight, suddenly ran up to me and exclaimed,

“Hmm, since Dwight seems to dislike me, I’ll go to Scarlet!”

Last time, when I let Florene latch onto me without a second thought, I had to endure her for about an hour, so I ignited flames around me to prevent such a disaster this time.

Seeing my intense resistance, Florene pouted a bit and chuckled.

“Ahaha, what a shame! I could have gotten closer to Scarlet!”

…Now that I think about it, before I received that cosmetic gift last time, Florene also seemed to notice that I wasn’t sleeping well.

Could it be that Florene is also a genius?

Just as that thought crossed my mind, I caught sight of Marine, who ran from afar, scolding Florene, saying, “Florene! Didn’t I tell you not to act independently during training?” as she showered her with light slaps, causing Florene to put on a mournful expression. I couldn’t help but chuckle.

That girl a genius?

They say there’s only a page between a genius and a fool.