Tap-.When I deliberately made my footsteps audible, Meyer saw me and lightly waved his hand.“Ah, there you are.”The relaxed look of a strong man at ease.Meyer glanced around at the stands and spoke first.“More spectators than expected have gathered, Loen. I find today’s matter regrettable.”He was apologizing as if my defeat and public humiliation were already a confirmed future.I answered calmly without much change in expression.“We’ll see about that. We’ll find out soon enough who’ll be laughing and who’ll be crying in front of all these people.”“Fufu, your confidence is as impressive as ever. Come to think of it, your outfit has changed. Is that magic clothing, by any chance?”“Yeah. It’s pretty high-grade.”When I straightened the lapel of my suit, Meyer’s eyes gleamed.“As expected, it looks like top-class work. The fabric, and the way the mana flows through it—it seems several spells are engraved into it. So that’s what you’re relying on for all that confidence. Of course…”Tick-.Meyer snapped his fingers.“It’s nowhere near my Elegance No. 2.”Rumble-.The massive armor loaded on a mana wagon appeared in the Great Hall.Full-plate alloy armor gleaming under the lights, adorned with beautifully engraved magic patterns.“Ooooh.”The students who saw it began to buzz.With a smile, Meyer stretched his hand toward the armor and said,“Well? How do you like my pride and joy? Everyone, feel free to cheer louder.”He shrugged his shoulders proudly in front of the Magic Armor, drinking in the students’ attention.“What is that?”“You don’t know Magic Armor? They call it the pinnacle of Magi-Engineering!”“That’s so damn cool…”The crowd’s heated reaction.Magic Armor was itself a symbol of wealth and technology, and also a kind of romantic dream for most men.Something everyone dreamed of owning at least once, but never even dared to attempt.You could think of it as something like Iron Man.Even to a modern person like me, it looked cool, so how much more so for the other students?I, too, eyed Meyer’s Magic Armor with interest.‘It’d be really useful if I could get one of those for myself.’If I could modify it properly, I wouldn’t even need to dash around fighting on my own; wasn’t there some way to get one?I shifted my gaze from the Magic Armor back to Meyer and thought,‘…In the end, I’ll just have to sweet-talk this guy somehow.’He was a bit greasy and annoying, but Meyer’s knowledge of Magic Armor would be a huge help to me.And I’d need to borrow the Meister Academy’s workshops in the future as well.We were enemies by circumstance this time, but this was, at the end of the day, just one official Competition Battle match. I could always coax him along later.I stepped closer to Meyer and asked in a low voice,“Meyer, do you and I have some kind of personal bad blood?”Before you tried to win someone over with words, you had to know what they thought of you.So I asked if Meyer had any personal grudge against me.“Hmm, you said you lost part of your memory in an accident, didn’t you?”“Yeah.”With a somewhat displeased look, Meyer continued.“Well, if we’re being precise, I personally don’t have any hard feelings toward you. We didn’t have many points of contact to begin with.”“Is that so?”If there was no grudge, things would be easier.If I used the next-generation core as bait and suggested a trade for his Magic Armor tech, this could wrap up neatly.Just as I was thinking that, Meyer opened his mouth again.“However, separately from myself, quite a few students were tormented during the year you studied abroad at the Empire’s intermediate school.”“For example?”“Well, there are too many to list one by one. You abused your family’s authority to threaten servants, picked fights with lesser nobles’ children and robbed them of their belongings. I personally confirmed multiple times that the items you took later turned up broken in the incinerator. And you also laid hands on several girl students and were dragged off to the dean’s office over and over.”“Mm…”Barely pausing for breath, Meyer went on.“And that’s not all. Around the school, you once caught stray cats the students were raising and used them for experiments, then threw them away. Ah, come to think of it, you were the one who killed the pet parrot Yulina cherished, weren’t you? Everyone was young back then, so they were sobbing and wailing like crazy.”“……”I’d known to some extent, but hearing it spoken aloud like this didn’t feel great.Meyer shrugged.“Well, that’s about the extent of what I know. Of course, there are probably exaggerated rumors, and surely some misdeeds that never came to light. Naturally… as for the rumor that you used humans in alchemy, I don’t particularly believe that myself. Do you need more explanation?”“That’s enough.”When I nodded to show I understood, Meyer roughly wrapped up.“In any case, that sort of behavior didn’t stop when you came to Union either. Though I’ve heard that after you were hospitalized from the incident in the Great Hall a few months ago, you changed a little… but can a person really change that easily?”Clack-.As he finished speaking, Meyer pressed the button on the pendant hanging around his neck.Then the Magic Armor that had been standing imposingly behind him began to activate.Clatter-.The armor plates that had been sealed shut opened on their own, creating a space large enough for one person inside.Meyer climbed straight into the Magic Armor.Clank-. Clank-.Once the owner boarded, the armor closed back up, returning to its original form.Putting on his helmet last, Meyer spoke.“Even if you have changed, that doesn’t erase your past misdeeds. The Noble Alliance is moving to judge those past wrongdoings before you can revamp your image and bury them. I suggest you keep that in mind.”Hiss-.As Meyer finished equipping the Magic Armor, steam puffed out from the pipes attached to its back.At the same time, a vivid blue glow rose along the magic circuits engraved on the surface of the armor.“Oooooh!”The students cheered at the sight of the Magic Armor activating.From inside the helmet, Meyer’s voice rang out, amplified by a loudspeaker.[Come up, Loen. Let us begin the judgment.]I gave a nod and walked out to the center of the Great Hall.Once Meyer and I stood in the middle of the hall, the announcer shouted,“Alright! Then we’ll begin the Competition Battle: Loen Dvralis versus Meyer McDowell, Meyer McDowell versus Loen Dvralis! Both competitors, please touch your student IDs together!”[…Ah. Student ID.]Meyer’s Magic Armor suddenly halted in place, and a small gap opened in the gauntlet.Click-.[I forgot. Here.]Meyer pulled just his arm out of the armor and handed his student ID to the announcer.Receiving Meyer’s ID, the announcer spoke.“Ah… yes, I’ll touch it on your behalf.”Watching this, I gulped down the potion I’d brought.You have consumed Blessing of Fierabras.For 500 seconds, the effects of all consumable items are increased by 100%.You cannot use spells while the effect is active.Due to the sub-effect of [Alchemy], effect duration is increased by 30%.Then I crushed the enhancement stones I’d brought.With a pleasant cracking sound, power surged through my entire body.A log popped up in front of my eyes, showing that various stats had gone up.With gains nearly twice what I’d seen before.“Whoo.”I clenched my fist tightly, gauging the strength that had risen.Crack-.It wasn’t on the level of when I’d taken in demonic energy, but my body felt so light it was like I might fly, and I could feel a powerful force boiling up from inside.Once I’d finished doping up, I checked that the item in my inner pocket was still there, then held out my student ID.Vwoom-.As our IDs touched, a mana barrier formed around the Great Hall.With that, all preparations were complete.“Alright. Then let the match… begin~!”Waaaa-!Amid the cheers echoing through the Great Hall, the battle with Meyer began.I silently looked up at the steel armor standing before my eyes.“……”The Magic Armor stood about two meters tall.But standing bare-handed in front of the pinnacle of modern Magi-Engineering, the sense of pressure felt like far more than a simple size difference.Like I was standing in front of a huge wall.From an ordinary person’s perspective, there would be no way to even begin to figure out how to attack it.Telling a person to fight some robot covered head to toe in alloy plating.There was no way to win with normal methods.From inside the armor, Meyer spoke.[I have no personal feelings in this. Don’t resent me!]Whoom-.He lightly swung a fist at me.He might have thought he’d thrown a light punch, but from my position facing it, it was anything but.If that massive steel fist crashed into my face, the match would end right then and there.Of course—Tap-.My stats were much higher than before, so I simply leaned my upper body back and dodged his punch without much difficulty.When I slipped past the attack, Meyer let out an impressed murmur.[Hooh? I did hear you’d been training your body hard, but I didn’t expect this level. Then let’s go a bit faster.]Hiss-.Steam vented out as the armor’s mana core output ramped up another step.In accordance, the armor’s speed also rose dramatically.Like a clunky machine that had been stumbling up stairs had evolved several stages into a cutting-edge unit, its movements grew swift.Tap-tap-.Kicking off the floor, Meyer shot toward me, then swung his gauntlets wildly.Whoom- whoom-.With the sound of the air being torn apart, every single blow looked threatening enough that taking even one would send me straight to the afterlife.Flash-.Dodging the Magic Armor’s punches again and again, I was eventually driven into a corner of the hall.Meyer grinned like a cat toying with a mouse trapped in a corner.[Fufu, cornered at last. Then try avoiding this as well!]Whoom-.The Magic Armor’s gauntlet came flying toward me, right up in my face.Judging that dodging this attack would be difficult, I switched to a defensive stance.Swish-.I raised both arms into a guard position and shrank Aegis’s area as much as possible, spreading it like a thin film on the inside of my suit.Then—KWAANG-!The Magic Armor’s gauntlet hammered my arms with all its might.As the attack landed squarely, Meyer laughed loudly from inside the armor.[Hahaha. For a frail mage to take this head-on—have you gone mad?]“…Not really.”Shaking the numbness out of my arms, I quickly slipped out of the corner.[Huh?]Meyer muttered in surprise as he watched me move around just fine after taking his blow head-on.[How? I definitely felt the impact.]“How? With gear. It’s all item stats.”I ran my hand through my hair and spoke calmly.The scales used as the base fabric of my suit had a built-in physical impact-halving function.On top of that, the [Physical Resistance] magic engraved on the surface further reduced the damage I took.‘…Even so, there’s no way I’d be fine after taking the Magic Armor’s punch head-on with just that.’The key here was the thin Aegis barrier I’d spread inside my suit.Aegis’s shield absorbed the rest of the shock that the suit couldn’t take.Naturally, the barrier’s durability would be shaved down a little in blocking that impact, but…‘I accounted for that and linked it to Star of Tubal-cain beforehand.’In preparation for this Competition Battle, I’d linked Aegis to Star of Tubal-cain instead of Derod’s Ring.At this level of impact, it could endure as much as needed.Inside the armor, Meyer ground his teeth.[I see… so you didn’t come completely unprepared. However, blocking the Magic Armor’s physical attacks doesn’t change anything. Physical attacks aren’t where Elegance No. 2 truly shines!]Clank-.Meyer stretched one fist toward me and deployed the mana cannon hidden inside the thick gauntlet.[Try taking this as well!]Vwooom-.Mana pooled in the barrel, and just as the mana cannon was about to fire at me—I, who had anticipated this, launched chains of mana from my glove.Slice-.Thud-.The mana chains cut through the air and slammed straight into the inside of the cannon barrel.[!]No mana flow could be felt anymore from the cannon. It seemed I’d broken it properly.Clatter-.I yanked the chains back into my glove and spoke.“It’s always the transformation sequence that’s the most dangerous.”Crackle- crackle-.Meyer fiddled with the now-broken mana cannon that was sparking with electricity and asked,[How did you know there was a mana cannon in the gauntlet…?]“You showed it to me yourself. In your office.”[!]Even though it had been hidden inside a thick alloy glove, the cannon’s existence could still be confirmed.And in the game, too, Meyer’s Magic Armor had a slot in the right gauntlet for mounting a mana cannon.“You picked the wrong person to brag in front of. You showed it off right to my face and didn’t even think it might get countered.”[…]After a moment of silence, Meyer spoke again.[So that’s how you want to do this.]Having run into one unexpected thing after another, he seemed to harden his resolve.He finally activated all of Elegance No. 2’s cores.Vwoooom-.With a loud whirring sound, mana poured out of each of the armor’s joints.Fssshhh-.Thick steam and mana haze spewed from the exhaust at its back.The intense mana flow emanating from Meyer’s Magic Armor.The pounding of the mana cores transmitted through my whole body, overlapping with my heartbeat and sounding even louder.I swallowed as I watched the Magic Armor.‘…So it really wasn’t an exaggeration to say it was far stronger than autonomous golems.’Output far beyond that of the autonomous golem Freya had fought.So he’d just been playing around until now, huh.I let out a small, inward laugh and asked him,“You still have more to show?”[To be honest, I’m a little surprised. I didn’t expect you to be able to draw out Elegance No. 2’s power to this extent. I acknowledge it—you’ve gotten quite strong. You’ve reached a level that could get you into the top 100.]Vwoom-.Meyer drew the sword mounted on the armor’s back and equipped it.When he channeled mana into it, a blade of magic rose along the sword, its flow mimicking a knight’s sword aura.With the sword in hand, Meyer spoke to me.[However, that level of strength is not enough to reach me. Think of today’s loss as simply having met the wrong opponent.]I answered his confident declaration with a smile.“No, the one who met the wrong opponent is you.”[?]“It’s about time we wrapped this up.”I’d confirmed the performance of my newly tailored suit and the power of Meyer’s Magic Armor.Now it was time to end the fight.Even though the abilities contained in Meyer’s Magic Armor were stronger than I’d expected, that was all they were.Without a word, I pulled something out from inside my jacket.What I took out was none other than a remote.It looked similar to the one I’d used to summon a golem during practical class.Inside the armor, Meyer tilted his head and asked,[What is that?]I kindly explained to the idiot asking the question.“You told me before, remember? That the mana cores used in your Magic Armor are the same specs as the ones Union uses in its autonomous golems.”Beep-.I pressed the button on the remote and grinned.“That’s your fatal mistake, Meyer.”

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