Chapter 46

Mikhail looked at Julien standing beside him.

The instant his name was called, Julien's shoulders trembled. His head swiveled stiffly, scanning the scene around him.

Countless stares, all converging on that pink hair.

The more of them Julien registered, the harder his expression set.

"......"

Mikhail watched and narrowed his eyes. He could guess what was feeding Julien's anxiety.

The fear that his mana might be exposed.

On any other day, he'd have managed to wrestle his nerves under control somehow—but right now, that clearly wasn't happening.

Every gaze that touched him seemed to terrify him.

"Julien, hurry up and go."

"There's plenty of people waiting behind you."

Snickers and prods leaked out from all sides.

Julien grew visibly more rattled. His hand, hanging at his side, clenched into a tight fist as he opened his mouth toward Husto, who stood with his arms crossed and a look of utter indifference.

"Um, sorry, but could I go lat—!"

The instant Husto's brow crumpled, Mikhail reached out and caught Julien's wrist.

"...!"

Julien flinched and turned his head. Mikhail met his gaze, leaned in, and murmured under his breath.

"...Don't be nervous. All anyone's going to look at is how much damage the dummy took."

Julien froze. His wide eyes stared at Mikhail for a moment, then slowly drifted toward the other students.

Amid the darting glances flying back and forth, students were pointing at the wooden dummy, flaring their own mana, chatting among themselves.

As Julien took in the scene, his expression gradually softened. Mikhail watched, then gently released his grip on Julien's wrist.

"......"

Julien turned and walked forward, stopping in front of the wooden dummy.

"Begin."

"...Okay."

At Husto's instruction, Julien nodded and extended his right hand.

He drew a deep breath and narrowed his eyes at the dummy.

Mikhail crossed his arms and observed.

Fzzt.

It happened in an instant. The air rippled sharply, and a fist-sized mana sphere materialized at Julien's fingertips.

A murky blue flickered across its surface.

At the same time, derisive muttering spilled from several students nearby.

"Tch, I had a feeling, but... he's still like that? Mock training and the field practicum are both behind us, and he hasn't improved at all?"

"Maybe try some mana refinement drills. Or work on expanding your mana capacity. Either way, do something. There's a limit to how much you can disgrace your family name."

Tsssss.

But the voices quickly died. The mana sphere Julien had conjured was changing.

The color—an indicator of mana quality—began pulsing brighter, flaring into the vivid hue of a high-grade caster.

The sphere itself swelled in size, proportional to the mana being poured into it.

"Huh?"

"Wh—what?"

Eyes locked onto the mana sphere. Startled voices chained together one after another.

The atmosphere flipped in an instant, buzzing with an entirely different energy.

But Mikhail's gaze had already moved. His eyes slid from the sphere to Julien's left hand.

Tsssssss...

The sharp tip of a fingernail was digging under the nail of his thumb.

Flash!

It was instantaneous. The moment Julien's hand twitched and curled inward, the blazing mana sphere launched forward.

Blue mana hurtled toward the wooden dummy.

But the sphere quickly clouded over, its surface going dull as it lost cohesion and fell apart.

THUD!

A heavy, blunt impact echoed across the grounds. The mana sphere left nothing more than a half-handspan dent in the dummy's surface.

Deflated laughter began leaking from the watching students.

"Don't tell me all that buildup was just a bluff?"

"Unbelievable. A cheap trick half-blooded hacks use, and he pulls it during an evaluation."

It took exactly one heartbeat for anticipation to curdle into mockery.

With the bald ridicule and jeering at his back, Julien gasped for air, his shoulders trembling.

Then his pink head snapped up.

Wearing the same weak, wilting smile he always did, he scratched the back of his head and asked the assistant.

"Um... can I go back now?"

"Yeah, good job."

Husto waved him off with a careless flick, then rummaged through the bag he'd dragged over and fished out a block of wood.

He walked up to the dummy and pressed the block into the dented surface.

Click.

The wood swelled like a soaked sponge against the dummy, filling the damaged area in seconds.

The scattered snickering shifted into murmurs of fascination at the unfamiliar sight, and the noise swelled again.

Mikhail ignored the thoughtless stares and watched Julien approach.

Julien walked with his shoulders bunched tight. Midway, a hollow breath slipped from his lips and he stumbled.

Mikhail reached out and caught his sagging arm.

Thump.

Julien startled and looked up. Mikhail met those round violet eyes and smiled, just slightly.

"Nice work."

Julien's gaze flicked between his own arm and Mikhail's face.

A sheepish grin settled onto his lips.

"...Yeah."

Mikhail studied the faint, faltering smile for a moment, then gestured with his chin toward a bench behind them.

"Go rest over there. You won't be visible from the front."

Julien nodded without a word and headed for the spot Mikhail had pointed to.

Mikhail watched his retreating back, then turned forward again.

His eyes narrowed at the wooden dummy's wound—already knitting itself shut after the mana strike.

...Come to think of it, there's a spell I've been meaning to test. Now's a good chance.

[Magic: Control]

[A support skill that increases magic power and stability by controlling mana's inherent properties or assigned attributes. Allows adjustment of magic effects by consuming mana.]

Mikhail clenched his hand.

Activating his newly acquired spell and confirming his current maximum output—this was the perfect opportunity to do both at once.

"Next—Deibon Kiris!"

Meanwhile, the evaluations continued without pause.

BOOM!

A sharp burst of impact rang out.

Students erupted in admiration each time.

"That's Deibon for you! That's gotta be the best score so far, right?"

"Damn, so close. A little more and he would've punched clean through."

But beneath the excited chatter, Mikhail stood in silence.

He had no interest in making a fuss over middling performances, and he already knew his turn would be last.

CRACK!

Each time a student stepped up, the dummy dented and repaired, dented and repaired.

The evaluation was nearing its end. Only one or two students remained ahead of him.

"—Mikhail Senit."

At the final call, Mikhail stepped forward and planted his feet on the line marked into the ground.

The buzzing crowd fell silent in an instant.

"Come to think of it, this is the first time we've seen him since his expulsion got reversed, right?"

"Hmm... I wonder. I heard he got wrecked during the last field practicum. Even if there were some unexpected circumstances, if he can't even protect himself, that says everything, doesn't it?"

"Well, we don't know exactly what kind of magical beast he fought to end up like that..."

Whisper, whisper.

Blunt gossip traded back and forth with the subject standing right in front of them. But none of it was worth listening to.

Mikhail extended his left hand and faced the wooden dummy ahead.

Fzzt.

A faint crackle of static, and a dark blue mana sphere formed at his outstretched fingertips.

The murmuring sharpened.

"What—what is that? Why does his mana look like that?"

"Way too murky. Can that even produce half the power of normal mana...?"

"Don't tell me he's bluffing too?"

"I doubt it—he's already been flagged as deficient once..."

Mikhail tuned out the noise and recalled the formula structure for Control that he'd studied before.

Lines and curves, circles and characters, the flow rate and pulse of mana—each element surfaced in sequence and wove together.

【Notice: Activation of [Magic: Control] has begun.】

Tsssss...

A wave surged across his vision. The scenery around him transformed in an instant.

He stood at the center of a dark, fathomless ocean surface.

Across the endless seafloor, snow was drifting gently down.

"......"

Mikhail swept his calm gaze around, then reached toward the fluttering snowflakes.

The white specks floated, then fell. They expanded, then contracted—pulsing with a steady, rhythmic light.

Mikhail understood that they resonated with his breathing. They were the zero points of the mana seated within his body.

Then that means I can use these to control the part of my mana that carries the eradication ability.

Mikhail watched the white fragments pulse in his palm, then raised his eyes.

He extended his fingers and began tracing across the water's surface.

His fingertips sought out specific fragments—the ones resting on currents of an unusually deep black amid the rippling surface.

Tsst.

The white fragments followed the path Mikhail traced, linking together in a chain and flaring with brilliant light.

His finger reached the final point.

Mikhail swept his hand sharply upward from the water's surface.

RUMBLE!

The dark blue waves answered, surging skyward as if in response.

Mikhail lifted his gaze from the surface and looked into the open air above.

【Notice: Activation of [Magic: Control] is complete.】

With the system message, the deep-colored sea that had enveloped him split apart in every direction and receded.

The scenery returned to reality.

"......"

Mikhail looked again at the mana sphere gathered at his fingertips.

Stripped of its dark energy, the mana shone clear and translucent for one brief, brilliant instant.

"Hm?"

The assistant beside him flinched and let out a puzzled sound—

Mikhail fired. The mana sphere streaked toward the wooden dummy.

BOOOOOM!

The explosion shook the air. A violent gust whipped through the hair of every student standing around.

What emerged next was something no one had seen in any evaluation before it.

"......"

A hole punched clean through the dummy's chest.

A perfect, precise puncture wound—as if carved by a razor-sharp awl.

"Wha—!"

Ragged gasps erupted from every direction. Shock and disbelief hung heavy over the crowd.

What followed was nothing but silence.

"......"

Mikhail slowly lowered his hand, turned his back on the dummy, and walked away.

Beneath the growing swell of murmurs filling the air behind him—

Mikhail ran through what came next in his mind as a quest completion message floated before his eyes.

Pop!

【Quest: [Sub] Complete the Individual Role Evaluation】

• Completion Reward: Shop Currency +3