Immediately after the collision, I opened the contract gate, drawing in magical power.

But I couldn’t fire the magic bullet.

'Where is it?'

The clash between Rei and the monster only happened once. With my vision sealed, all I could rely on were my hearing and sense of touch to locate the creature. While I could roughly determine its position, it was hard to pinpoint an exact target.

On the other hand, Leaf, who didn't need to depend on her own senses, moved to support Rei.

"Undine! Help Rei! Disrupt that monster's movements."

Undine, the water spirit, appeared with the bubbling sound of boiling water and followed Leaf's command.

The sound of waves overlapped with the wind produced by Rei and the monster.

Rei flawlessly fulfilled her role as the vanguard. She wasn’t a typical tank that blocked enemies with sheer defense, but with her swift movements, she lured and evaded the enemy instead.

Leaf, too. Although she stood still like me, her power, Undine, was faithfully supporting Rei.

With the tank and support roles covered, it was time for me, as the damage dealer, to take action.

While I condensed my magical power, ready to strike at any moment, I quickly thought.

'How is Undine able to detect Rei and the monster?'

Does she sense heat like thermal imaging equipment? But Undine isn’t a fire spirit; she’s a water spirit.

At the very least, she wasn't perceiving them through physical senses like sight, sound, or touch.

What about magic, then?

'If she can distinguish objects through magic, there’s no reason I can’t do the same.'

Unlike other wizards who only control their own magic, I manipulate the magic of others. I’ve often perceived external magic before.

Even without the contract gate as a connection, my brain had already learned how to recognize it.

'I think... I can see something.'

Faintly, a silhouette began to appear.

The optic nerve accounts for 70% of sensory information, and the eyes are directly connected to the brain more than any other sensory organ. My brain, trained in magic, started interpreting magical power as another signal.

Magical Vision.

Although there was no light emitted by the external magical power, my eyes began to capture it.

I could see the magically reinforced form of Rei. I could even see Undine floating beside her.

And the giant lizard, fiercely chasing them along the wall.

"Leaf, can you ask Undine to stop that thing for a moment?"

I spoke urgently, slipping into informal speech. Leaf quickly caught on and responded without hesitation.

"I'll try! Undine!"

At Leaf's call, Undine abruptly halted and sprayed water to hinder the lizard’s movement.

The lizard briefly paused, and my magic bullet shot through the air.

Crack!

The sound of impact, like a rock being struck, echoed through the cave.

With my vision still sealed, I couldn’t confirm the damage, but judging by the monster's remaining magical energy, I knew it hadn’t suffered a fatal blow.

"Rei, grab its attention!" "I’m on it."

Before the lizard could focus on me, Rei charged in and struck its lower jaw.

The chase resumed.

During the time I was given, I prepared my next strike.

'Compress… Compress... With four, the firepower will be weak. I need to reduce it to three.'

I pushed my magic down, compressing it further.

This was different from dealing with that illusionist before.

Back then, it was nothing but a mere illusion, but now, this was the real thing.

It wasn’t possible that they had a real monster here, so it must’ve been artificially created or a high-level illusionist had materialized the image into reality.

In that case, there must be a core acting as the focal point of this lizard’s form.

'The place where the magic density is highest.'

Squinting my eyes, focusing on the magic vision, I tried to track the lizard's movements as one with poor eyesight would squint to see better.

With narrowed vision, I pursued the lizard.

'When it stops for another moment…'

"Roman!"

I couldn’t finish my thought.

At the same time as Leaf’s scream, the lizard’s magic filled my vision.

'It lost its focus.'

Evade or confront.

At the crossroads of this decision, I chose the latter.

The magic bullet, compressed to its limit, surged forward.

There was no need to aim.

It was charging at me in a straight line, so I fired it straight back.

Wheeeeeee-!!

The compressed magic bullet left my fingertips.

Crack!

Two forces of magic collided.

As the light of the giant lizard’s magic faded, its form began to collapse, signaling the end of the battle.

The magic bullet, fired with three fingers as the barrel, had successfully destroyed the lizard’s magical core.

As I felt the exhaustion set in, Rei's approaching figure became nothing more than a vague silhouette as my magical vision began to blur. My tired brain seemed unable to process all the visual information.

"Not bad."

Despite my throbbing head from the intense focus, I responded to Rei’s words.

"Rei, you led us here on purpose, didn’t you?"

I was certain of it.

Rei knew what this place was when she brought us here.

Even so, Rei remained unfazed.

"I don’t know what you’re talking about." "No, you never stopped. You didn’t hesitate. Even at the crossroads, you made your decisions as if you had a map. You must know something."

"I was just moving without thinking. And we’re in the Abyss, of course there are monsters here."

So that’s how you’re going to play it...

Sure, my argument was circumstantial at best. If Rei kept denying it, there wasn’t much else I could say.

"Fine, let’s say coming here was a coincidence."

But then Rei made a critical mistake.

"But letting that lizard go earlier—weren’t you neglecting your role as the vanguard?" "It wasn’t particularly dangerous. It was just a decoy made by illusion magic. It probably lost its physical form right before the collision."

Rei’s excuse was as good as an admission.

Although it wasn’t very risky, she had deliberately let the lizard slip away.

"You deliberately tested us, didn’t you? You wanted to see our abilities. Am I wrong?" "And what if I did?" "You should have asked for our consent first, said you wanted to assess our skills. We would have agreed. But acting on your own like this is unacceptable."

My firm words were echoed by Leaf.

"That’s right! Rei, you went too far. Roman is limited in how much magic he can use."

"...Yeah, I was out of line. Satisfied?"

With Leaf also chiming in, Rei begrudgingly admitted her mistake.

If we ended it here, we could just move on. But I decided not to.

And I shouldn’t have.

Even if we just put a lid on it, there’d only be more clashes later.

"Are you really going to leave it at that?" "Hah? This was something that had to happen sooner or later. Now we know each other's abilities, don’t we?"

"If it was done with mutual agreement, sure."

Rei was right that the risk wasn’t very high. The instructors weren’t fools; if things had gone truly south, they would have intervened.

But this was a matter of trust.

"You betrayed the team's trust."

Trust that she would guide us properly as the leader. Trust that she would block the enemy as the vanguard.

"But I’ll admit it was a necessary process."

It’s true we needed to go through this. There’s a big difference between testing combat power through sparring and coordinating in an actual team fight. We definitely needed to test our synergy.

If there had been no valid reason, this wouldn’t have ended with just words.

"So, apologize. Sincerely. Promise not to do this again, and we can leave it at that."

I waited for Rei’s response.

If she continued to act on her own, I would draw a clear line.

"Sor..."

Rei’s voice came out barely audible.

"I... I’m sorry."

Even I, the one demanding the apology, was momentarily stunned by the genuine tone of her voice.

Was this really the same Rei who always spoke curtly and indifferently?

Leaf also seemed caught off guard, judging by her shocked exclamation, “Eh...?”

"There! It’s done! I apologized, okay? Happy now?" "Uh, um, sure. What about you, Leaf?" "Me? Oh, yes. I think it’s fine now..."

What had started as a tense confrontation quickly dissipated.

"So... let’s go. I’ll lead properly this time." "Rei." "..." "If you don’t want to respond, just listen. I’m not mocking you."

I called out to Rei, stopping her as she was about to leave.

"From now on, we’re going to set some rules." "Rules?"

Yes.

Leaf, I’m so glad you’re here. You're so sensible.

"That’s right. Team rules. Like it or not, we’re a team, and we’re going to be working together for a while. We can’t keep clashing like this."

"That’s... true, I guess?" "Which is why we need rules."

I quickly came up with a list.

"One: We make decisions by majority vote. Two: We never resort to physical conflict. Three: We don’t do anything that harms a team member."

Simple but necessary and reasonable rules for a team.

Leaf clapped her hands enthusiastically in agreement.

"I love it! And since there are three of us, we don’t have to worry about ties in the vote!" "What about you, Rei?" "...Fine, it’s not bad."

With both Leaf and Rei in agreement, I added one final rule.

"And four: Always remember that we’re a team."

So let’s all do our best together.

Please.

"One hour and fifty-one minutes. Lowest ranking."

Hearing Aaron’s evaluation, our team remained silent.

"Don’t get too comfortable. While we don’t usually expel people after the aptitude test, severe infractions can still lead to forced expulsion."

I nodded dully, a strange sense of unease settling in my mind.

Is that it? It's really over just like that?

We took down that huge stone lizard, and they’re not even mentioning it?

"And I suggest you start learning some basic magic. At least pick up a simple illumination spell. The Abyss has many dark places."

At those words, Leaf’s grip on her staff tightened, though no one seemed to notice.

"And lastly, have more trust in one another. While team changes are possible... I suspect you’ll stay as you are. You’ll need to work together for the upcoming tests."

Aaron waved dismissively as he concluded his speech.

"That’s all for today’s training. You’re dismissed. Use the remaining time as you see fit."

After giving the dismissal, Aaron promptly left.

I stood there, staring after him in a daze before exchanging glances with Leaf.

'Is it really over?' 'Are we just moving on from this?'

Who knows.

That lizard was tough, but I guess everyone here can handle something like that.

"So... I’d like to clean up a bit. How about a little gathering afterward?" "I need to clean up too. And I think I’ll practice some basic magic today. What about you, Rei... Oh, she’s already gone."

Leaf’s voice was tinged with disappointment as she watched Rei’s distant figure disappear.

It would’ve been nice if she at least said goodbye... We’re a team after all.

With a sense of lingering regret, we disbanded.

While Roman and Leaf headed back to the dorms to wash up, Rei's footsteps took her in the opposite direction, towards the training hall.

Rei's thoughts were a mess.

At first, she had approached Roman to study demon magic.

Demon sorcerers were one of the enemies Rei had sworn to defeat.

Through this seemingly inept demon sorcerer, she hoped to learn their weaknesses and how to counter them.

What happened during the recent training session was part of that same effort. She had led them not to the endpoint but to where the strongest enemy seemed to be.

To see how Roman would fight. The stronger the opponent, the more Roman would be forced to reveal his abilities.

But Roman had been right.

'I shouldn’t have done that...'

Betraying their trust like that... She was no better than the people she despised.

And the one who made her realize this was none other than the demon sorcerer, Roman.

'I ended up acting just like them.'

What kind of confidence did that scrawny guy have to lecture her like that? He reminded her of someone.

Someone who was weak in strength but upright in spirit.

Someone who had scolded her when she did something wrong.

And in the end, someone who had looked her in the eyes and said:

—We are family.

"Weakling...!"

Weakling? Really?

The stone basilisk was a monster Rei knew well.

It wasn’t a good matchup for her, elementally speaking.

The stone basilisk they encountered underground was an alchemical construct enhanced by illusion magic. It was weaker than the real thing, but even so, Rei would’ve had to try hard to beat it head-on.

Yet Roman had taken it down.

Without magic, just with raw magic projection.

Could Rei have done the same?

Without relying on physical enhancements or magic, she would’ve had a hard time.

But why?

Why was it that no matter how much she tried to replay Roman’s power in her mind, the only thing she could remember was what he had said?

"Ughhh!"

Why did I stupidly say something like ‘sorry’...?

"Forget it! Erase it from your brain!"

Thud! Thud!

Rei repeatedly knocked her head with her fists. To anyone watching, she must’ve looked completely deranged.

Perhaps realizing how foolish this was, she let her fists fall limp to her sides.

Thunk.

Leaning her head against the wall, Rei muttered despondently.

"Why... Why did I talk like that person..."

The one person who had ever scolded her.

The one person she could never see again.

Suppressing the flood of memories, Rei began walking again.

As she entered the training hall, her figure looked smaller than ever.