The fact that the good known as a hero exists means that the evil standing in opposition to it exists as well.
Two opposing concepts can never exist with only one side established.
Then, in a romance fantasy—
In a rofan, what is it that exists as inevitably as the protagonist?
The heroine? Not wrong, but those two are usually grouped together.
If one were to name the being that stands opposite to them, it would be the villain.
And the villainess.
The villainess of that rofan Mel had read before reincarnating was also the villain who represented the work.
A being who, backed by the power of a mighty house, bestowed all manner of trials and tribulations upon the protagonist and heroine.
And, in the end, a being who was miserably ruined.
Such was Sisne Ceronis, the duke’s daughter of the renowned Ceronis family in the northern Sigrian Empire.
She was also the person who made Mel realize that he had reincarnated into the world of a rofan.
Even Mel, right after reincarnating, had at first tried to act like the other usual regressors, possessors, and reincarnators.
He knew the contents of the original work.
He was essentially no different from a prophet who knew the future, so he thought he would be able to prevent the destined, ruinous future.
“Mel, this is Lady Sisne Ceronis, the daughter of His Excellency Darkan, whom you will be serving from now on.”
Those were the words of old man Vincent, the head butler of the Ceronis family, who had taken in Mel, freshly reincarnated into another world.
Even without hearing his words, Mel had known who that little young lady was the moment he first saw her.
And not only that.
He knew what kind of world he had reincarnated into, and even the future that would unfold from then on.
The gloomy aura pouring out of a mere five-year-old girl brought Mel a great deal of information.
The point at which the story of this rofan world began was thirteen years in the future.
With that much time, he should be able to avoid ruin.
Thinking so, Mel smiled and said to the girl,
“It is an honor to serve you, Lady Sisne Ceronis.”
“……”
And so Mel went through all kinds of hardships for ten years, but…
In the end, he had no choice but to admit failure.
.
.
.
“Was their meeting like this?”
Mel was puzzled.
According to the contents of that rofan, the first meeting between the protagonist, Azelan, and the villainess, Sisne, was inevitable.
Because that was the true beginning of the story.
The timing was after the entrance exam ended.
The encounter between Sisne, the top entrant among the noble students, and Azelan, the top entrant among the commoner students, unfolded during the entrance ceremony.
That was why Mel, preparing for any possible what-if, had deliberately taken work at the commoner examination grounds despite accepting lower pay.
It had already been thirteen years since he reincarnated, so he couldn’t perfectly remember every detail of that rofan’s story, but
at the very least, their encounter definitely hadn’t been like this, had it?
He wracked his brain, but the question did not resolve itself.
“I hid myself in such a hurry that I didn’t manage to take care of Louis… Will he be all right?”
Two vast forces of mana had collided in one place.
The tremendous explosion created by it had obliterated without a trace the mountain of exam dummies that had been piled up there until just moments ago.
If Louis, who was no different from an ordinary person incapable of handling mana, had taken such an attack head-on, he would certainly have met the same fate as the vanished training dummies.
But Mel had gotten Louis out of the blast radius.
Of course, Louis, faced with a life-or-death crisis, had simply lost consciousness on the spot—but being alive was what mattered, wasn’t it?
“I didn’t account for the mana storm generated by the collision of mana.”
A noble who could handle mana would have a certain degree of resistance to a mana storm, but Louis did not.
“Uuugh…”
Seeing Louis, who seemed to have an astonishing lack of resistance to mana and showed no sign of waking up, Mel felt bitter.
Though he was a guy he had only met today, and though his attitude was nothing to praise,
in any case, he was someone he had worked up a sweat with and even shared a meal from the same pot with, wasn’t he?
“But it’s not as if I can step forward either. This is really troublesome.”
Deciding to observe the situation for the time being, Mel continued watching the scene of the incident.
.
.
.
“Louis, get a hold of yourself!”
Rex, a fourth-class professor at Sigrian Academy, shouted as he patted the unconscious Louis on the cheek.
For an accident like this to happen was a painful blunder on his part as the person responsible for overseeing the work.
The unconscious Louis did not appear to have any major external injuries.
And yet, the reason he was unable to regain consciousness was…
“His mind has been damaged by a powerful mana storm.”
Lupasto Higrat, a first-class professor, could tell that it was a symptom that occasionally occurred when commoners who could not handle mana were swept up in overwhelming mana.
“His face looks somewhat familiar… Ah, isn’t he the one who failed recently?”
Lupasto said as he recognized the unconscious Louis.
He possessed a noble surname, but the far more important mana and the power to wield it were far too feeble, making him no different from a commoner who could not handle mana.
Looking at Louis, the unfortunate young man who, regrettably, had too little talent to ever pass the noble exam, and yet had kept challenging it for years, Lupasto clicked his tongue.
This year, too, he had coldly notified him of his failure, but as the administrator who oversaw the noble exam, it was regrettable that an innocent victim of an accident had appeared.
“Step aside.”
Lupasto moved past Rex, who was trying to wake Louis, and placed his hand on Louis’s chest as he lay there.
Flash!
Light shone from Lupasto’s hand and was absorbed into Louis’s body.
“Th-that is?”
“He is seizing the mana rampaging inside the body from the outside with his own mana, then directly controlling and stabilizing it. It’s an extremely difficult technique that only magicians of the sixth circle or higher can perform.”
Andre, a magician, explained to Rex.
A sixth-circle magician was at a level where they could even serve as a kingdom’s court magician.
In fact, Lupasto was a high-ranking noble who held the title of marquis.
For someone like him to use such a technique on a lower noble—no, a young man who was practically no different from a commoner—was quite unusual.
A short while later.
“It’s done. He should wake up soon. Fortunately, there were no major external injuries, so it ended more quickly than I expected.”
Lupasto removed his hand from Louis’s chest and rose to his feet.
“Thank you so much! Thank you so much!”
At that moment, a blue-eyed boy with long brown hair stepped forward and bowed deeply to Lupasto in gratitude.
“Are you the one who caused this mana storm?”
Lupasto looked down at the boy.
A boy who could not yet be twenty years old.
As if realizing that he had caused a serious accident and had shrunk back under the weight of guilt, the boy nodded heavily.
“Yes, I made a mistake. I am truly sorry. Once that man wakes up, I will apologize immediately, and as my responsibility for this, I will give up the entrance exam.”
At the boy’s mention of voluntarily giving up admission to Sigrian Academy, something countless young people commonly longed for, Rex and Andre widened their eyes.
“You. What is your name?”
“I’m Azelan. And I’m a commoner.”
Lupasto stared at Azelan for a moment.
“Do you think that a mere commoner like yourself giving up the exam has such great value?”
“……”
Azelan could not give any answer to Lupasto’s question.
“That sort of responsibility is something only those with fame can take. For a mere commoner like you, it is far too insincere a method.”
At Lupasto’s rather logical words, Azelan could not possibly refute him.
“Of course, that does not mean there is no way to resolve this. Wouldn’t it be enough to gain fame, make your name known, and then apologize? And this Sigrian Academy is truly the optimal place to gain fame.”
Saying that, Lupasto placed a hand on Azelan’s shoulder.
“For a commoner like you, the very posture of making a mistake and feeling guilt over it is enough. I will personally fill in what is lacking.”
“Th-thank you. I will never forget this kindness.”
Azelan could not understand why a noble of such renown would show this kind of favor to a mere commoner.
But even if he could not understand it, it was only natural to express gratitude for such undeserved favor.
And so Azelan bowed in thanks.
Andre felt a sense of incongruity at Lupasto’s behavior.
Andre, too, had once been taught in the past by Lupasto Higris, a first-class professor of the academy and a man who had served as a professor for many long years.
Lupasto was colder than anyone toward those without talent.
Conversely, one could also say he was more favorable than anyone toward those with talent.
Even Andre himself, during his days as an academy student, had never received that level of favor from him. Yet a mere examinee was receiving that much favor?
“Certainly… it makes sense that the professor would act like that.”
Recalling the divine might Azelan had displayed just moments ago, Andre nodded.
“If even that commoner is acting like that, don’t you have something to say? Sisne?”
A beautiful girl with platinum-blond hair spoke, her emerald-like eyes shining.
It was a far too familiar attitude to take toward the young lady of the Ceronis family, a great northern noble house.
“…Not really? Elcia?”
“Oh? You really don’t? Sisne Ceronis?”
At Sisne’s curt reply, the girl called Elcia smiled.
It was certainly a beautiful smile, but the force it exuded made the people around them flinch for an instant.
“What exactly did I do wrong? That target was much flimsier than I thought—kyaaak!”
At that moment, Elcia seized Sisne’s chest firmly.
“You stupid, ogre-like bitch whose only trait is brute strength! Is it because all your nutrition went straight into your muscles and these boobs, so there was nothing left to go to your brain? Huh!”
At the sight of Elcia scolding Sisne with quite a frightening momentum, no one dared to stop her.
“Who in the world is that child…?”
A beautiful girl roughly grabbing another beautiful girl’s chest… aside, doing such an outrageous thing to the daughter of the northern grand duke was, in many senses, a rare spectacle.
“She is the daughter of the Magic Bullet Duke.”
At the answer, “Magic Bullet Duke,” Andre’s eyes widened.
“Special First-Class Professor Blasto Magnon’s?”
The Magnon family, a noble house that supported the empire alongside the Ceronis family.
He had mentioned the name of the man who was the head of that house and held the position of special first-class professor, one of only a tiny number at Sigrian Academy.
“Isn’t it widely known that the Sword Duke and the Magic Bullet Duke are old friends? It’s the same for their children.”
Elcia Magnon.
Because she was Sisne’s close friend, who had been with her since childhood, that young lady was unable to put up any meaningful resistance.
“F-first of all, there’s nothing I can do! It hurts, so stop!”
Sisne shouted as she struggled to pull away Elcia, who was persistently scolding her.
“Hmph! If there’s nothing you can do, I’ll do it to a certain extent. Wait.”
Saying that, Elcia looked down at Louis lying on the ground.
And then…
Clack!
Elcia pulled out a lump of metal from her waist with a heavy metallic sound.
Rex and Andre knew what it was.
“A magic bullet gun?”
It was a weapon that fired bullets imbued with mana—magic bullets, for short.
Even without any aptitude for magic whatsoever, it allowed one to carry out magical attacks, and because of that, it was an item handled cautiously even on a national level.
It was the pinnacle of magical engineering, one of the branches of the study known as magic, and since she was the young lady of the Magnon family, which developed and distributed countless magic tools, there was nothing particularly strange about her possessing one.
But why was she taking it out here?
That question lasted only a moment. With practiced hands, Elcia loaded a magic bullet into the cylinder, then aimed the muzzle of the magic bullet gun downward.
At the end of the gleaming barrel of the magic bullet gun was Louis, lying on the ground.
“W-wait?!”
Bang!
Before anyone could stop her, a thunderous gunshot rang out in every direction.