How a Catastrophe-Level Magician Lives

“…Did you see that just now, colleague?”
“…Yes.”

The teachers watching from a section of the spectator stands, having lost their senses as the duel ended.

“Light attribute magic? One of the two attributes said to be the rarest, excluding most of those ‘dark magicians’ who have now disappeared?”
“…It’s not just that. The magic that child Free just displayed was magic that can be learned from intermediate, not advanced, magic books. It was Judgment of The Light.”
“That’s right. As far as I know, it was indeed magic corresponding to intermediate level light attribute magic. But was it magic with this level of power and range?”
“…This is the first time I’ve actually seen that magic myself. I can hardly believe it even after seeing it.”
“Well, I agree. There are occasionally those who use simple light magic like Light from beginner magic. There are even some who use Light Arrow, one of the representative beginner magics. But…”
“Yes. There are very few in the world who use intermediate or higher light attribute magic. It’s almost nonexistent except for that ‘Saint’ and the high priests and senior clergy.”
“…It’s like seeing the second coming of a saint.”

Saint.
If there was a single Saint in the continent, there would naturally also be a male, not female, chosen by God.

The inhabitants of this world called such a person a Saint.

“That can’t be the case. If he were God’s Saint, there would be a mark somewhere on his body indicating he’s God’s messenger and a Saint.”
“Hmm, well. I heard that usually appears visibly on places like the back of the hand.”
Nod.
“That’s right. Moreover, a male Saint is an extremely rare case, even rarer than the Saint herself.”
“Hmm, that’s true. Plus, most of those chosen by God have been women until now. Was it because women can maintain a clean and pure heart longer than men from childhood?”
“That’s the rumor. Though it may not be certain.”
“Well, since he’s still young, couldn’t that Free child qualify as a Saint?”
“That’s possible, but judging from that eerily chilling laughter we heard earlier, it doesn’t seem likely…”
“I guess it was just a passing thought. Come to think of it, if he were the continent’s Saint chosen by God, he wouldn’t look so exhausted just from using an intermediate light attribute magic.”

As he said.
Free, the only figure standing in the dueling ground, looked quite exhausted, sweating on his forehead, even when observed from the distant spectator stands.

He looked close to collapse, as if reaching a state of magical power depletion.

“His complexion has turned pale. Looks like he might collapse at any moment.”
“It’s a natural result after using such a powerful wide-area magic. Still, it’s truly amazing. A freshly enrolled first-year student using magic of this level of power, and even managing to defeat young Rekas. It’s really unbelievable even though I saw it with my own eyes…”

As they said, Free was currently in a state of significant magical power consumption.

Inside the dueling ground, looking at Rekas lying face down on the floor, Free, clutching his heart where the mana heart is located with one hand and kneeling on one knee, thought with lowered eyes:

‘…The magical power consumption was more extreme than I expected. To the point where I had to mobilize almost all the magical power I had. It wasn’t easy to meet the minimum activation criteria for the magic.’

If it were other elemental attribute magic, even with full chanting and intermediate level, it wouldn’t have required magical power consumption to this extent.

‘Light attribute magic. It’s completely different from when using low-level beginner stage magic. With just one level difference. I didn’t expect there would be this much difference in consumption.’

Judgment of The Light, corresponding to intermediate light attribute magic, was magic Free had learned from a light attribute intermediate magic book he had accidentally obtained from the library of House Phoenix, to which he belonged.

However, although any magic inevitably increases in magical power consumption as its rank increases, this felt excessive.

‘…Fortunately, thanks to that most efficient mana training method series I received from Aina, I barely avoided reaching an unsightly state of exhaustion…’

To think he had to struggle this much with just one spell. Free thought it was magic he couldn’t use twice in a row in the current situation.

Then,
An unbelievable thing happened.

Twitch…!

“…!”
Rekas, who had been lying face down on one side of the dueling ground.

Suddenly, he was slowly and painfully raising his upper body, bracing against the ground, albeit very slowly.

‘He still hadn’t completely lost consciousness? Even after being directly hit by that magic…?’

Could such a thing be possible? Is this even possible?

At this unbelievable situation, everyone in the spectator stands who had been certain of Free’s victory was simultaneously surprised.

However,
Rekas, who had slowly raised his upper body, stopped there without being able to stand up further, remaining in that posture.

“……”

Then, without saying anything, perhaps lacking the strength to speak, Rekas slowly raised his head towards where Free was.

His face was in a state of serious injury, with skin partly peeled off, covered in wounds.

“…Haa, haa… Kuk…!”

To the point where even breathing seemed difficult. Rekas already looked completely exhausted, with both physical strength and magical power depleted.

Such Rekas, kneeling on one knee, looked directly at Free, who had quite a surprised expression on his face.

And the next words he uttered were:

“…Explosion magic is the strongest magic──!”

Along with those words full of some kind of conviction, Rekas generated a very small sphere of flame magical power in front of his open mouth, in place of his unusable arms and hands.

“…!!”
Surprised, Free hurriedly gathered all the very small amount of remaining magical power and somewhat recovered magical power, squeezing it all together to create a final shield magic barrier in front.

Simultaneously, Rekas’s final last-ditch attack, which had been fired from in front of his mouth, reached and collided with Free’s shield barrier.

Kwaaang──!

Thud-

Rekas, who had now completely fallen silent after dropping his raised upper body and head back to the floor along with that last desperate act that seemed like an improvised bombing technique.

“…Truly, you’re an amazing fellow who surpassed even my expectations.”

And Free, who seemed unharmed after barely blocking Rekas’s final desperate attack with a single shield magic generated in front, closed his eyes with those muttered words.

With this, the winner was truly determined.

As Free’s victory.

“…It was amazing. I still can’t believe it.”

The person talking to herself was Aina, walking on the path after leaving the spectator stands when the duel ended.

Free von Betelgeuse.

Rekas von Buster.

Both were individuals who had shown offense and defense beyond the level she had assumed and thought.

Honestly, she might have had a tendency to somewhat underestimate them inwardly somewhere.

Because she herself hadn’t anticipated that both of them would show such unbelievable abilities and skills.

Among them, Free.

He was a person outside the standards she had set.

“…Free, von Betelgeuse.”

Aina seemed to be deeply engraving his name in her heart with incomprehensible self-talk.

Some time later.

Free was sitting quietly in his dormitory room alone, cross-legged on the bed with his eyes closed.

Soon, Free slowly opened his closed eyes.

The blue light of magical power contained in those eyes momentarily leaked out as if overflowing.

It was like a faint remnant of magical power that seemed to have exceeded the capacity he could absorb and contain in his body.

“Phew……”

With this, he had recovered all his magical power.

No, he had succeeded in creating and storing in his mana heart an amount of magical power far exceeding the target level he had aimed for.

The stored magical power was already at an unimaginably formidable level, easily surpassing the previous stage.

As a result of efforts throughout the day to develop the habit, the current Free had reached a state where he could absorb external mana and accumulate magical power even while doing other activities in daily life.

Of course, when the flow of consciousness was focused on absorbing mana, it produced a greater enhancing effect.

“Now, I no longer feel a strange sense of discomfort when moving my body.”

He was referring to the creaking sensation, to be precise.

Since that day, the state of his body had been continuously worse than expected.

To the extent that his usual condition had completely collapsed.

Because he had consumed an extremely large amount of magical power in an instant, his whole body’s blood vessels had screamed, creating a strange sense of discomfort like creaking.

However, strangely, Free was feeling extremely fortunate that it had stopped at that level, which was less than what he had somewhat anticipated and assumed himself.

Honestly, he had expelled such a massive amount of magical power, far beyond that level, and all at once.

He had been inwardly worried and somewhat certain that this process would completely break down his body condition.

Fortunately, there was only some uncomfortable sense of discomfort like creaking in his body. Such a thing had not happened.

As a result of completely observing his interior.
It felt as if the blood vessels throughout his body that make up his current physique had rather grown and expanded a little more than before.

‘I should start going back to classes soon. I’ve rested for too long since then, more than I expected.’

Due to personal circumstances of having suffered serious injuries, he was barely able to not attend classes and officially received permission from the academy to devote himself to resting and recovering for the past few days.

‘Rather, I’m needlessly worried about whether that Rekas is alright.’

According to the medical staff who appeared in the dueling ground, he had vaguely heard that Rekas, who had already lost consciousness, was in a state of more serious injury than Free at that time, to the extent of being more miserable.

Since Rekas had been immediately carried away on a stretcher while unconscious.

It was still unclear whether he had regained consciousness by now.

‘He really was an amazing guy. He quickly analyzed the unfavorable situation from the beginning and responded and dealt with me accordingly. Honestly, I never thought I’d be pushed into such a corner to that extent.’

He, putting on his uniform after a long time, headed outside.

Because there was a school rule that as long as one lives in the academy dormitory, they must wear the uniform of this place unconditionally when going outside, unless it’s after school or on weekends, etc.

Walking through the dormitory corridor, he thought on one side:

‘…If I had used magic other than intermediate light attribute magic from beginning to end, such a chilling situation probably wouldn’t have occurred at the end.’

It was unexpected even for himself.
And what was even more unexpected was the intermediate light attribute magic, abbreviated as Judgment.

‘Judgment of The Light. Honestly, its power and wide-ranging attack performance were truly admirable, but I should be somewhat cautious about using it for a while unless it’s a really dangerous situation. The magical power consumption is too great. It would be fine if it weren’t for the full chant.’

Thinking such thoughts and organizing his thoughts, Free went out to breathe the fresh outside air after a really long time.

And after walking for a while, perhaps because classes had just ended early, he could see students returning to their respective dormitories, and.

Among them, one person.
A beautiful female student.
He was able to encounter none other than Aina von Frost.

“……”
“……”

The meaning of their gazes directed at each other’s faces, seen after a long time, was something that both sides could hardly grasp.