My Magical Career at Court: Living the Dream After My Nightmare Boss Fired Me from the Mages' Guild! Volume 3 E-Book

Shusui Hazuki

• Herausgeber: J-Novel Heart
• Kategorie: Fantasy und Science-Fiction
• Serie: My Magical Career at Court: Living the Dream After My Nightmare Boss Fired Me from the Mages' Guild!
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Seitenzahl: 268

Beschreibung

Noelle may be a commoner from the middle of nowhere, but she’s a rising star in her dream workplace—the Royal Court Magicians’ Division! It seems like a world away from her horrible old job at the Mages’ Guild, but life as a royal court magician comes with its own challenges. She’s already fought off a dragon and battled her way through the perilous Weissrosa Abyss, but can she survive making a fool of herself in front of all the magi?

Now, Noelle has been thrust into the unexpected situation of being picked to take part in the famous World Magic Championships—and she hasn’t even been a royal court magician for a year! Along with her old friend Luke, another impressive young magician, she has to face off against some of the toughest magicians from around the world. On her new globetrotting adventures, Noelle is confronted with sneaky aristocrats, powerful magic duelists, the mysterious Fairy Queen...and maybe even some romantic developments!

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Cover

Dramatis Personae

Map

Volume 2 Synopsis

Prologue: The Story So Far

Chapter 1: A Special Warm-up Match

Chapter 2: The Final Qualifying Round

Chapter 3: The World Magic Championships

Chapter 4: A Never-Ending Day in the Guardian City

Epilogue: The Words That Must Be Said

Extra Chapter: Twelve Years as Mother and Daughter

Afterword

Color Illustrations

About J-Novel Club

Copyright

Landmarks

Table of Contents

Volume 2 Synopsis

“Noelle Springfield, we don’t need a good-for-nothing like you at our workshop. You’re fired.”

Noelle was working at a mages’ guild in her hometown so that she could take care of her mother after graduating from a prestigious academy of magic. Fortunately, her mother recovered, but Noelle still needed to put up with the mean, prejudiced guild chief, who finally fired her. She was devastated after being cut off from a career in magic, but then an old school friend appeared.

Luke, Noelle’s erstwhile rival, had risen through the ranks as a royal court magician and reached the adamantite class faster than anybody else in history. He told Noelle that he wanted to nominate her as his mentee in the Royal Court Magicians’ Division.

Noelle soon began working as a royal court magician, but although she had Luke as a mentor, nobody at the court was willing to believe in a commoner like her. However, even with the odds against her, she smashed through the wall designed to test new recruits’ magical abilities, passed the so-called Sixty Seconds of Blood, saved a visiting queen, fought a wyvern, stamped out a sinister crime syndicate’s illegal weapons operation, and even held her own against a master swordsman at the Royal Invitational Tournament. She took on every new challenge using her talent and hard work, her bonds with her coworkers, and her devotion to magic!

These two young magicians—Noelle, the magic-loving commoner, and Luke, the heir to a noble household—have begun to usher in a new era in the kingdom!

But what’s in store for Noelle when her next task is to represent the kingdom at the World Magic Championships?

At that moment, everyone realized...the girl was not human.

Prologue: The Story So Far

When she’d enrolled in a magic academy in the royal capital nine years earlier, she hadn’t stood out whatsoever. The academy was a prestigious institution that attracted the finest talents from all over the kingdom. Compared to them, she was a nobody, and certainly not someone worth talking about.

The other new students were under the impression that she was an ignorant country bumpkin. “You’re from the outskirts of the western region? It can’t have been easy to come all the way here,” they said.

“I studied by myself,” she told them. “I’m lucky I passed the entrance exam!”

Her classmates were reassured that she was beneath them, so they talked to her without worrying about her opinions of them.

One day, a classmate said, “Hmm? You don’t know about the World Magic Championships?”

“The world magic what?”

Seeing her befuddled look, the classmate sighed. “It’s only the biggest tournament of magic in the western continent. Each country sends highly trained national representatives to compete. Recently, the Fairy Queen Evangeline Runeforest has been taking part too. She’s one of the Three Mystic Rulers, you know. Ever since she got involved, the tournament’s been getting more and more prestig—”

“Oooh! I don’t really get it, but that sounds super cool!”

As she loved magic more than the average student, she immediately began to pore through the records of past tournaments with wild abandon.

“Hey, Liz, check this out!” she raved one morning. “Did you know this person was the first to successfully use teleportation magic?” Day after day, she was absorbed in heavy volumes found in the academy’s library annex. “These people are all so incredible! One day, I wanna be the kind of magician who can compete at the WMC too!”

She wasn’t shy about vocalizing her fantasy.

As if you ever could, the others around her thought. To become a national representative, one had to clear the famously brutal hurdle of passing the examination to join the Royal Court Magicians’ Division, and then continuously produce outstanding results. The road to the WMC was unbelievably steep and unforgiving. It wasn’t something that some country girl could do. Nevertheless, she forged ahead, oblivious to everyone’s doubtful stares. Her heart was full of hope for the future.

To think that back in those days, I felt like I was capable of anything...

Her work clothes were bedraggled. She had deep, dark circles under her eyes from hour upon hour of intense labor. Only a binder clip held her shaggy, unkempt hair in place.

So much had happened since she first went to that academy of magic. She was now an adult, working at a backwoods mages’ guild. Her quotas were assigned without any consideration for the actual situation in the workplace, and her monthly overtime exceeded four hundred hours. The higher-ups paid her no attention, treating her as a burden. Out of everyone in her graduating class, she had ended up in the worst work environment.

“Didn’t I tell you to get this finished by morning?!” her boss screamed, irrational as ever. “It’s no wonder you can’t do it if you always decide it’s impossible before you start. It’s your job to come up with a way to do it! Don’t forget, a waste of space like you is totally disposable!”

Just the thought that they might get rid of her made her breath catch in her throat. There were very few jobs available in her rural town where she would be able to use magic. Even at a local mages’ guild, she was made to feel useless. Old-fashioned ideas still held sway there, so just being a woman would put her at a disadvantage when it came to job hunting. All things considered, if she were to lose this job, finding alternative employment would be a tall order to say the least.

“Please!” she begged, frantically bowing. “Leave it to me! I’ll make sure to meet the next quota!”

With that, she managed to hold on to her job. People called her a clueless ditz, but even she could recognize that things were going badly.

I can’t handle this job. I’m not cut out to be a magician, she thought.

She’d succeeded up to a point at the academy, but she’d only been a student then. Real life wasn’t so forgiving. Some things would always be a fantasy no matter how hard she wished. She was clever enough to know that.

But still, I don’t want to give up on myself.

She didn’t care if people laughed at her for being naive. They could mock her all they wanted. She had chosen to devote her life to her one true love—magic. She just wanted to get at least a little bit better at it every day.

Okay, let’s do this!

She pulled up the sleeves of her tattered work shirt and got back to business.

◇ ◇ ◇

I woke up from a funny old dream. I’d remembered what it was like to be a child, innocently believing I could fly, and then to grow up and learn my limits.

Some things had changed, but others had stayed the same. There were still dreams I hadn’t achieved. Not everything in life could go the way I wanted. There were things that I couldn’t achieve, however hard I tried.

And I was so careful to drink milk every day!

It was amazing how little I’d grown since I started at the academy of magic nine years ago. I’d tried plenty of stretches and other methods to try and become taller, but it was pretty much a total failure. Then again, I’d had a bad habit of staying up too late after getting engrossed in grimoires, so I had to accept some responsibility too.

Apart from that, there was another dream I hadn’t achieved. It always made me a little sad to think about it. I never became the kind of magician I wanted to be back then.

I’d flopped at a mages’ guild in the middle of nowhere, and found myself clinging to the job for dear life just to be able to keep working with magic. It seemed laughable that I’d ever dreamed of participating in the World Magic Championships...

Wait a minute.

A lot had happened in the meantime. Luke had invited me to join the Royal Court Magicians’ Division, and thanks to my hard work, I’d earned lots of praise. It had all led to me being selected as a national representative for the World Magic Championships...or something.

Nah, that can’t have happened. Not in my wildest dreams.

I was a realistic adult without pretensions, so I knew it was all a fleeting dream that had come to me after being stretched to my limits in my brutal work environment. Now I would open my eyes to see the mountain of work I hadn’t finished...

Oh no! I need to get up early to meet my deadline!

“I’d better get to work!”

I leaped up and looked around. What I saw was nothing like what I’d expected. I felt a gentle draft and smelled a subtle, flowery scent. I was in a clean, cool office.

“Sorry for interrupting you during your lunch break, Noelle,” I heard someone say. “A person from the Central Administration Office wants to talk to you this afternoon.”

“The Central Administration Office?” I repeated blearily. After getting up, my thoughts were still sluggish.

“Yep. I think it’s something to do with the WMC. You’ve been penciled in as a representative, remember?” My superior watched me as I froze, then clutched my head and screamed internally. “Your reactions are always so funny!”

The Central Administration Office was a department that dealt primarily with human resources and financial affairs in the Royal Court Magicians’ Division.

“It’s a top-class department in the organization,” I’d been told once at after-work drinks. “People say that getting in there is a surefire way to climb the corporate ladder.”

Of the top members of the court magicians’ division—those in the adamantite class and above—around half had worked in the Central Administration Office. I learned that Letitia, lieutenant of the Third Unit, had worked there before she took on her current role.

“She was really something. She was so icy and stern, they called her the Iron Lady,” my coworker had explained. “She was constantly exposing corruption among nobles and clergymen with government positions. I heard it caused her some problems, though.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yeah. The truth is, it’s not always as simple as doing the right thing, doing it well, and getting the respect you deserve for it. She made some enemies and took a lot of heat. They’d come up with all these wild claims, like saying it was a setup designed to promote social progress for women. In the end, when it came time for her to be promoted, she got transferred to the Third Unit.”

“For her protection, right?”

“Nah, it was because the newly installed Captain Gawain had gone too far in treating his employees and ended up in a crazy amount of debt. People in the division were concerned that he was in so much trouble that he’d need money from them, so they wanted to put a stop to it.”

“Oh...”

Even if people I knew had had a hard time there, I understood that the Central Administration Office was home to some of the real elites of the Royal Court Magicians’ Division. I had to brace myself to make my way there. I had a stern expression on my face as I walked nervously down the long corridor. And I wasn’t the only one—just ahead of me was my dear friend Luke, looking equally serious.

As the youngest person ever promoted to the adamantite class, he had history with the Central Administration Office. I’d heard that when he was a new recruit, he’d ruffled some feathers by filling his preferred position questionnaire with comments like “I definitely don’t want to be in the Central Administration Office” and “I can progress faster in the field; I’ll simply prove my worth.” When he’d then gone on to be as good as his word and rise through the ranks faster than anyone before him, it wasn’t so surprising that people who thought they’d made the right choice for their own career progress had been unamused. When I’d joined the Royal Court Magicians’ Division, it turned out that hiring me had also been something Luke decided alone, without alerting anybody.

Marius, the chief of HR, had really scared me back then. Thinking about him reminded me of all the difficulties I’d endured on my first day. Even now, any time he looked at me, I’d get frazzled and worry I was being tested. I suppose I still couldn’t shake the nervousness I’d felt turning up to my interview with him—and my less than stellar impression on him—with all my other bombed interviews still stuck on my mind. My current anxiety must have been at least partly due to those feelings.

I came to a stop a little behind Luke. As he knocked on the door before us, the sound echoed around the quiet corridor.

“Enter,” a voice called out.

“Excuse us.” Luke opened the door and walked into the room with a graceful bow.

I followed him in, also bowing. Once I was in the room, though, my mind went blank as I spotted the people filling the seats on the opposite side of the room.

First, there was the Sixth Unit captain and director of the Technological Development Bureau, Theodore Gide—also known as the Creator Magician. Then there was Maurice Heidenstam, the so-called Logic Magician, who led the Fifth Unit and the Magical Potions Research Section. The kingdom’s most talented user of healing magic was there too—Vicente Cera, captain of the Fourth Unit, nicknamed the Savior Magician. I also recognized two of the other magi: Gawain Stark, the Third Unit’s captain and known as the Hellfire Magician for his great command of fire-type magic, and Chris Sherlock, the Silver Magician, who was an ice-type magic expert and captain of the Second Unit.

The captains and lieutenants of each unit are all here!

There were only seven magi in the kingdom, and six of them were in the room. The only one absent was the secretary-general, who was in the middle of time travel research that could shape the course of history if it succeeded. The mere fact that these people were present was sufficient evidence that something was different about the World Magic Championships this time around.

The atmosphere was intense. I felt so on edge that I could hardly breathe.

“I would like to speak to the two of you before moving on to other matters,” an old man said.

The look on his deeply creased face was enough to send a chill down my spine. After the absent secretary-general, this man was the highest-ranking member of the Royal Court Magicians’ Division. Captain of the First Unit and leader of the Central Administration Office, he was the so-called Glimmering Magician, Ernest Maeterlinck.

“Luke Waldstein, Noelle Springfield,” the magus continued. “You performed bravely in the Weissrosa Abyss. I understand that it is largely thanks to your efforts that our nation, having been slow to react initially, was able to forge a relationship with adventurers in the area ahead of delegates from other countries. In recognition of your distinguished service, Noelle Springfield, you are to be promoted to the gold class.”

I gasped as he held out a pocket watch toward me. In my student days, I’d been useless at any subject outside of magic. I knew nothing about high society, and my manners in pompous situations like this were the worst of the worst. So far, I’d usually managed to get by as long as I could copy whatever Luke was doing, but I was the only one getting a promotion here. That meant that I had no example to follow as I navigated how to appropriately accept the pocket watch.

Just relax. Stay cool. Simply reach out and take the watch.

Under the watchful eyes of the biggest names in the organization, I carefully stepped toward Captain Ernest. I was so overwhelmed that I couldn’t keep track of anything else going on, and I failed to notice the tiny bump where the edge of one rug met another.

“Wuh-oh!” I blurted out as I tripped and landed flat on my face. At the same time, one of my shoes flew off.

Yikes! Okay, I just need to get up nice and casually, like nothing happened, and put my shoe back on.

I suppressed my inner turmoil and looked around with all the grace I could muster. Fortunately, I spotted my shoe right away. Less fortunately, it was atop the head of Captain Ernest, the most powerful man in the room.

I see. So this is where it all ends.

Having felt the cold touch of death, I bowed solemnly as Captain Ernest handed me the pocket watch and my shoe, before I walked back and stood next to Luke. The room was silent, as if nobody wanted to address what had just happened.

Soon enough, the meeting proceeded like everything was normal, but I was left with no memory of what they talked about.

◇ ◇ ◇

I was too distracted by my own problems to realize it at the time, but that meeting had revealed an added significance to this edition of the World Magic Championships.

For the first time in the history of the Kingdom of Ardenfeld, there was to be an eighth magus, and there were currently three candidates for the title. One was the Third Unit lieutenant and the most decorated female magician in the kingdom, Letitia Lisette-Stone. The next was the Second Unit lieutenant and head of the Improper Magic Usage Bureau, Seamus Glass. Finally, there was the First Unit lieutenant, the Royal Court Magicians’ Division’s most successful duelist, known as a master of weaponsmithing magic—Ryan Archbret.

“Out of those three, Ryan is the one people say is the closest to becoming a magus,” I was told. “It’s hard to ignore the importance of him being chosen as the captain of the national team at the WMC. He’ll be treating this tournament as his own chance to prove himself in battle. There’s hardly anyone in the whole wide world who could beat him in a one-on-one duel. It’s likely that this tournament will decide who becomes the new magus.”

However, the person who wanted to become the eighth magus most of all was Luke. My old friend was working to become the greatest magician in all the land so that he could lay his hands on something that he was determined to obtain. He would do whatever it took to make his greatest wish come true and become the youngest magus of all time.

This tournament was to be contested by representatives from all over the world—but privately, these magicians had their eyes on another prize.

Chapter 1: A Special Warm-Up Match

A few days had passed since the incident where I’d made a complete fool of myself and hit Captain Ernest on the head with my shoe. As soon as I’d realized what I’d done, I’d given up on everything. I had thought it was time to meet my maker, but somehow I made it out alive without even facing much in the way of punishment. That didn’t stop me from having recurring nightmares, though.

“Announcement! Noelle Springfield, you’re fired!”

“Noooo!”

Now that I was getting a meager eight hours of decent sleep each night, I’d begun trying to soothe my nerves by carrying around the transport whistle the dragon gave me. All it would take was one blow of that little silver whistle to solve everything.

“Announcement! Noelle Springfield, you’re fired!”

“Dragon, come to me!”

“Oh no! This is a disaster!”

“Dragon-Please-Throw-the-Fight Magic Puuuunch!”

“Noelle, you drove away the dragon!”

“You saved the kingdom!”

That was my incredibly smart and sophisticated strategy for avoiding dismissal—but, of course, it was a last resort. After the dragon had been so kind as to give me this precious whistle, I wanted to avoid summoning it merely for my own protection. For one thing, I would feel bad about getting the dragon to act as a villain when it had done nothing wrong.

With that in mind, in my great wisdom I had begun work on an alternative method to avoid getting fired. That plan was Operation Kick Butt at the World Magic Championships to Prove I’m Useful to the Royal Court Magicians’ Division!

Some of the most advanced nations in the world of magic would be participating in the tournament. Of course, there was the Holy Empire of Vellmar, but then there were also the likes of the Magedom of Liesvania and the Duchy of Brandard. They would be tough competition, but that made me even more confident that progressing through the tournament would send my reputation through the roof.

I didn’t have experience in formal one-on-one magic duels, but I’d dueled with Captain Gawain, and I’d faced the master swordsman Eric Rashford at the Royal Invitational Tournament. Since I’d been chosen as a national representative, the people making the decisions must have thought I was strong enough for this challenge. For that matter, maybe I would even do better than Luke or Lieutenant Ryan, and people would see me as the kingdom’s greatest talent!

“Wow, Noelle. You’re even more of a genius than Luke!”

“Heh heh.”

I smiled as I envisioned a future where everyone piled praise on me. I’d had my share of serious incidents since joining the Royal Court Magicians’ Division, but I felt like I’d done a pretty decent job. Could it be that I was actually good at this?

I was basking in my dreamy mood when I turned up to the first day of training. The three national representatives were going to face each other one at a time in practice duels.

I chuckled to myself as I approached Luke. Prepare to experience my incredible power, now that I’ve built up my strength! Brimming with expectation, I established my magic sequence and got ready to beat Luke to a pulp.

I lost... I lost hard.

After training on the first day, I was staring sadly into space, having just been clearly and resoundingly beaten several times in a row. Our practice duels had revealed how horrifically strong the other two were compared to me.

“It’s out of your control,” a coworker said afterward. “Ryan is one of the world’s best at one-on-one duels. And Luke has all kinds of natural talent.”

No, I thought. You’ve got Luke all wrong.

I’d known Luke for long enough to know better. He might have come across like he’d had it in the bag from the start, but behind that lay a vast amount of preparation.

He’s had so much practice in one-on-one duels to get ready for the tournament!

Duels required not only pure magic ability, but also specialized skills for one-on-one contests: the ability to work out what your opponent was thinking, tactical shrewdness, and the strategic know-how and judgment to respond to that opponent’s spells with the most suitable tactics and maneuvers.

When I’d fought Captain Gawain, his fighting style hadn’t taken advantage of my tactical weaknesses at all. Then, when it came to the Royal Invitational Tournament, Luke had come up with a game plan that papered over my flaws.

I wasn’t good enough. As things stood, it was obvious that I didn’t have what it took to fight as a national representative. And if nothing changed, Luke would leave me in the dust again. I would be thrashed over and over again.

I can’t stand being left in his dust.

There was still time. There was still a chance. I was determined to improve my weak areas enough to be able to compete in the World Magic Championships. I selected the quickest route I could think of to become strong enough to match Luke at the tournament.

“Lieutenant Ryan, please teach me how to duel.”

Ryan Archbret was the lieutenant of the First Unit of the Royal Court Magicians’ Division. He used his own system of weaponsmithing magic to manifest huge spears of fire.

I’d heard that his path into this career was unlike that of most other royal court magicians. Having attended a regional magic academy, he’d been a total unknown in his younger years. He hadn’t gone to university, instead working as an adventurer while studying for the Royal Court Magicians’ Division entrance exam. He had passed on his fourth attempt.

After spending his days as an adventurer learning to work efficiently from taking on F-rank requests to unload building materials, he’d proved himself to be an unusually down-to-earth court magician. As such, he had gone on to be extremely reliable and hardworking, and his outstanding ability to push his own limits had brought him within reach of promotion to the top rank of magus.

He was the polar opposite of Luke, who had been treated as a prodigy since he was little, turning him into an obnoxious brat.

Anybody would surely take one look at Ryan’s story and feel that he deserved to become the next magus, and I had to agree. I wondered what he would be like in person. I was sure that where Luke was overconfident and pretentious, Ryan would be modest and amiable.

I eagerly awaited his answer, letting the clock tick by several seconds.

“So you want to confront your problems head-on, huh?” he responded energetically. His hair was wine red and his skin was tanned. He gave me a cheerful nod and continued. “No problem. I’ll teach you. You ready for this, Springfield? Our potential is limitless! See this plant? It’s called bamboo, and it grows in the Far East. It stands strong through wind and snow, always raising its face toward the sky. So beautiful and strong. Just like this plant, let’s battle with all our might. I’m sure you can do it. From now on, you and I are bamboo!”

“Uh...”

He wasn’t what I’d thought he would be like. He seemed really passionate. Just from talking to him, I felt like the room had started heating up.

Can we really see eye to eye when I’m a coolheaded, intellectual lady and he’s like this? Is this going to work out okay...?

Feeling a little nervous, I began my private training with Lieutenant Ryan.

◆ ◆ ◆

It was still only the first day of training for the WMC team, and nobody had imagined he would appear.

“Y-Your Royal Highness...”

The Crown Prince Michael Ardenfeld had come, flanked by the captain of the Second Unit of the Royal Court Magicians’ Division—Chris Sherlock, the Silver Magician—and the leader of the Order of Royal Knights—Eric Rashford, the Undefeated Master of the Blade. The prince was somebody with such towering intellect that people said he could see into the future.

Prince Michael put a finger to his immaculate lips to avoid causing a fuss.

“Thank you very much for coming, Your Royal Highness,” an attendant said. “Please let me prepare a seat for you.”

“No need. Don’t do anything special on my account. I don’t wish to be in anybody’s way.”

“Very well.”

The prince’s golden eyes flashed as he watched the two magicians training in earnest before him.

“Here we go! Ready to run, Springfield?”

“Yes, Lieutenant Ryan! Let’s keep running until the sun goes down!”

Those two are a remarkably good match, the crown prince thought. Ryan Archbret and Noelle Springfield have a good deal in common. I can imagine that Gawain Stark was expecting a chemical reaction such as this when he recommended the girl.

Though there was no hint of it in his outer appearance, Gawain was surprisingly resourceful, and his ability to watch people and concoct plans was excellent. Prince Michael admired that about him.

I also know that she’s the type to learn from direct experience. It’s when she has her back against the wall, with nowhere left to run, that she exhibits her full power. What kind of performance will we see when she reaches the tournament itself? It’s a truly fascinating prospect.

A slight smile formed on his lips, and he turned to look at somebody else a little farther away. And then there’s him. He made his demands with such theatrical verve, and I understand that he has been hard at work behind the scenes. But can he make his wish come true, I wonder?

All of this was only the tip of the iceberg, though. There was a deeper story in the background.

I hear there’s been suspicious activity going on within the empire’s borders too. I can think of one person it might be appropriate to contact... The prince seemed amused by the thought. I know the secretary-general of the Royal Court Magicians’ Division—the Split-Second Magician—is interested in the Guardian City of Grambern, where the tournament is held. Maybe the magus will make an appearance if our Ardenfeld WMC competitors fall into any danger.

Only the crown prince and the king himself had the means to communicate with the Split-Second Magician.

Prince Michael smiled. Yes, this is getting interesting.

◇ ◇ ◇

The special training program for the World Magic Championships national representatives had begun. The focus of Luke’s attention was the man said to be the closest in the Royal Court Magicians’ Division to becoming a magus at the time: the First Unit lieutenant, Ryan Archbret.

He was from a once-great family known for mastery of water-type magic, but Ryan had not inherited those abilities. At the age of twelve, he had failed the entrance test to attend an illustrious magic academy. He’d then honed his skills at an obscure regional academy. Once he graduated, he took on manual labor while continuing his studies. After four attempts, he had secured a job as a royal court magician. With his tenacity and refusal to give in under pressure, he had gone on to produce astounding results in the area of magical weapons and climbed his way up to become lieutenant of the First Unit.

His track record is flawless, Luke thought. His interpersonal skills are great too. There’s no sign of him being involved in any impropriety or suspicious activities. He’s regarded as an all-around decent person. Luke turned his blue eyes toward Ryan. Keeping up with him will be a huge challenge.

When Luke found any dirt on an opponent, he’d use it to gain the upper hand. However, it was hard to compete with somebody with a reputation as good as the lieutenant’s. Perhaps some of this difficulty was due to Ryan reminding Luke of somebody he’d been watching over all this time. Maybe it was because from Luke’s calculating perspective, there was something admirable about being purehearted.

Nonetheless, I mustn’t work myself up too much.

He was trying to stay calm, but he couldn’t deny that the situation had already begun to change in concerning ways.

“Here we go! Ready to run, Springfield?”

“Yes, Lieutenant Ryan! Let’s keep running until the sun goes down!”

As an energetic person, she’d always tended to get along with athletic types. As a student, she had spent time with upperclassmen from the sports clubs, battling it out to become the academy’s biggest eater. Her interactions with Ryan were not a surprising development.

Even so, Luke wasn’t pleased to see the two of them getting along like two peas in a pod.

Ugh, this is ridiculous. I need to grow up.

He knew his feelings were foolish. As the heir to a noble household, he was in no position to ever marry her anyway. If they were to get too close, he would surely hurt her, and it was possible she wasn’t even interested.