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“…Now this is getting interesting. I left the rest of you unharmed on purpose.”

Marie smiled brightly as she aimed the muzzle of her magic cannon at us. I could tell she had no intention of firing immediately, but we still took cover behind the barriers, remaining cautious.

“Hold on! You’re way too strong, Senior! This was supposed to be a match against Class A, but it’s basically just you going on a rampage! That’s seriously unfair!”
“Ohohohoho! I’m honored by the compliment. But you do have a point…”

Marie laughed proudly at Vannabelle’s complaint, then suddenly placed a hand on her chin as if struck by an idea.

“Very well then. As a special rule, I shall allow each of you to use magic once.”
“Can we hold a strategy meeting?”
“You may—one minute only. Once time is up, I’ll start shooting without further warning.”

At Marie’s declaration, Rizel and the Gutenberg boy also nodded and lowered their magic cannons.

It wasn’t much, but we’d been granted a short reprieve. Huddling together, we began whispering rapidly.

“Numelin, can you slam the ground with the bayonet part of your magic cannon?”
“Of course~”
“Good. The moment you kick up the snow, Alfe will use wind magic to trigger a small avalanche. Once it buries their position, Hom will strike with Blitzraid, Vannabelle will go in with Vorpal Pierce, and Farah will follow up. Can you do it?”
“We’ve got no choice, right? What about you, Leafa?”

Vannabelle looked at me challengingly.

“I’ll stay in reserve. Right now I’m not much of a combat asset.”
“But you can read the battlefield better than anyone, Leafa. Right?”

I nodded at Alfe’s gaze—just as Marie began to move.

“Here we go~~~!”

Numelin burst out from behind the barrier and slammed her gunblade into the ground with all her strength.

“Not again!”

Rizel shouted——but his cry overlapped almost perfectly with Alfe’s chant.

“O wind. Layer upon layer, gather and bind—become a crushing hammer. Aero Blast!”

The wind magic Alfe unleashed whipped up the snow, triggering a small avalanche that surged toward Class A’s position.

“Alright! Our turn!”

Vannabelle and Hom were just about to charge—when a powerful gust sliced past my cheek.

“Alfe!!”

The instant I realized it had come from a paint round, I shouted. But without Ars Magna, I couldn’t construct a spell in an instant.

“Kyah!”

Unable to do anything, I could only watch as Alfe and Numelin were struck.

I didn’t even have time to regret it.

The avalanche suddenly split straight down the middle—and through it, Marie came charging forward.

“Vannabelle, Hom!!”

There was no reply, but through the snow-clouded visibility I saw a flash of lightning.

“Blitzraid!!”
“Vorpal Pierce!!”

Their techniques exploded simultaneously, scattering the snow. With their gunblades thrust forward, the two charged at Marie with tremendous speed.

“I thought you might try that!!”

Despite the two simultaneous, full-force attacks, Marie caught each of them with a separate gunblade.

“Physical Boost aside… those are still just ordinary magic cannons, right?”

The moment Vannabelle said that, Marie’s gunblades shattered to pieces.

“If you don’t have a weapon, you can’t defeat us. Right?”

Having destroyed Marie’s weapons, Vannabelle looked completely convinced of victory.

But Marie still wore a composed smile.

“That is certainly true. However, have you forgotten? This is a team battle.”
“Hom!!”

Perhaps realizing Marie’s intent from her fearless smile, Vannabelle suddenly shoved Hom away.

A moment later—

“This time Class A wins!”

Rizel and the Gutenberg boy fired at the same time, striking Vannabelle. Yellow ink splattered across her white winter coat.

“I won’t lose!!”

Hom, who had narrowly avoided the gunfire, regained her footing and immediately took down the Gutenberg boy.

But a simulated bullet came flying from somewhere and exploded against Hom’s back.

“Huh…?”
“I haven’t been hit yet. And besides, there’s no rule saying you can’t take your opponent’s gun.”

Marie—having taken Vannabelle’s magic cannon—picked up the cannon Hom had just dropped after being defeated.

“Hah! You got us good there!”

Taking advantage of that brief opening, Farah charged forward.

“We’re not finished yet!”

Facing her, Marie fired both magic cannons in rapid succession to intercept. But Farah skillfully dodged them, using the Magic Eyes of Delay to evade every shot.

“Oh my, you have sharp eyes.”

Marie let out a voice of admiration, yet the relaxed smile never left her face.

“Run, Leafa!”

Farah shouted while forcing Marie into close combat with a mock sword, not giving her the chance to fire her magic cannons.

Only Rizel remained in Class A’s camp now. If we wanted to win in this situation, there was no need to wipe them all out—we just had to take the flag.

I should’ve brought Ars Magna with me. Right now, the only magic I could use was low-tier spells, and because of the rules, I could only use it once.

In that case, I had no choice but to use the buoyancy of wind to accelerate my running speed and rush the flag in one go.

“Raging wind, grant me the blessing of the gale. Wind Flow.”

With the chant, I sprinted into Class A’s camp and kicked off the wall. Catching Rizel completely off guard, I vaulted over him and closed in on the flag in one swift motion.

But at the very instant my hand was about to reach it—

“That won’t do!”

At the same moment I felt an impact in my back, I was thrown onto the snow.

“Marie…”

When I reached back, my hand came away stained—yellow ink had spread across my back.

I was out.

All that remained was to entrust everything to Farah.

But when I staggered to my feet, I saw that Farah’s winter coat already bore a cross-shaped paint mark, as if she had been slashed.

Her face twisted in embarrassment.

“We did it! Class A wins!”

Rizel shouted in triumph.

But the next moment, snow powder swirled through the air—and yellow ink splattered across Rizel’s winter coat.

“Huh? How…?”

Rizel muttered blankly, looking utterly unable to understand what had just happened.

““Complacency is the greatest enemy. It is precisely when one is certain of victory that traps lie in wait.””

Two voices overlapped as they spoke—coming from beneath our feet, from the ground itself.

“That voice is…”
““We shall not forget your noble sacrifices. This speaking mission succeeded thanks entirely to the strength of the F Alliance.””

The ground in front of me bulged upward, and two shadows burst out.

“Lili-Lulu!”

I had assumed they’d already been taken out since we hadn’t seen them—but to think they’d been hiding beneath the snow—

““True tactics deceive even one’s allies. Now is the time to seize victory.””
“You shall not~!”

Marie fired her magic cannons, but Lili-Lulu raised an ice barrier and easily withstood the attack. Then, moving with complete composure, the two of them grabbed the flag at the same time and held it high.

““We have captured the flag. Class A would do well to surrender.””
“You’ve got to be kidding me… You’re telling me you were buried in the snow the whole time!?”

Rizel stared at Lili-Lulu, still unable to accept what had happened. Lili-Lulu seemed to take it as praise, however, and wore triumphant smiles.

““Indeed. In winter, the Elven Forest is sealed beneath snow. Something like this is child’s play.””
“Well now, what an unexpected ambush.”
“There’s no way anyone could’ve predicted that…”

Marie let out a dry, exasperated laugh, while the Gutenberg boy muttered in stunned disbelief. Rizel had been on the verge of victory, and the disappointment must have hit hard—he collapsed to the ground without strength.

“Man… I thought we’d finally won…”
““Fear not. Prisoners will be treated in accordance with the Varse Convention. We guarantee three meals and a nap.””

Holding the flag, Lili-Lulu walked up to Rizel and gave his shoulder light pats.

“Nyahaha! Prisoners, huh!”
“Lili-Lulu… this is just a mock exercise… okay?”

Farah doubled over laughing at the ever-unfazed Lili-Lulu, while Alfe added the clarification with a worried look.

“Well, we got taken out—but with this, Class F pulls one step further ahead!”
“With Lili-Lulu’s performance, it’s more like a hundred steps ahead.”
“Yeah! Leafa, let’s build up an even bigger lead next time!”

Anyway, since we had secured the victory, Vannabelle looked extremely pleased.

“I wasn’t the one who came up with Lili-Lulu’s plan, though.”

Honestly, Lili-Lulu’s move had been completely unexpected. And yet, somehow, that was exactly what made it interesting.

“Well, complacency’s the real enemy. Next time, we won’t lose either.”

The Gutenberg boy seemed to have already gotten over it. Though there was still a trace of frustration, he showed a refreshing smile. Seeing him act so composed seemed to help Rizel as well—though biting his lip, he was clearly doing his best to swallow his disappointment and pull himself together.

“Lyle’s right. As their leader, I should also reconsider my command abilities.”
“Hm? Does that mean you should start taking notes from me?”
“I said as a leader, didn’t I?!”

When Vannabelle teased him, Rizel turned bright red and denied it—but he didn’t seem genuinely angry.

We often found ourselves facing off against Class A, but thinking about how things had grown since that after-party following the Zersteller… it was strangely moving to realize we had become rivals who could push each other to improve.

“…My, how odd.”

As I watched Vannabelle and the others, Marie approached and tilted her head curiously.

“This is quite different from what I heard.”
“What’s different?”

When I asked without thinking, Marie continued while observing both Class A and Class F with interest.

“The academy I know is rife with discrimination against demi-humans. Seeing Class A and Class F chatting so cheerfully together—I find it hard to believe.”

Ah, right. The discrimination against demi-humans had started back when the current second-years were still first-years. And the one trying to abolish it was Estea.

“…But this is who we are now.”
“Hm. You, now… don’t tell me you had a hand—perhaps even more than one—in creating this situation?”

When she asked with clear curiosity, I finally realized I had let something slip.

Marianne Von Versailles (Marie)

Rizel Siegert