4-5: The one you used to be

Mary’s Point of View

“Leonard.”

“Yes?”

“The thing you did some days ago…Didn’t you go a little too far?”

I knew he had big priorities, and I know I didn’t say anything that day, but I wasn’t able to sleep properly after that.

“If we lose this chance we’re gonna lose everything. We need to learn more about Cloe and maybe develop her own talent. That way I’m gonna learn a possible way to give talent to normal people and get someone who can help the academy once I graduate.”

“But…you usually wouldn’t threaten someone like that…”

“I’m giving him a chance.”

He was right, it would be more unfair if he immediately chose to reveal the information and get rid of Thomas, but still…

“We’re gonna wait until he surrenders or until the time is over. It doesn’t matter what we chose, everything is okay.”

“...”

Hearing him say that made me think about when we first met.

“N-Nice to meet you, I’m Leonard.”

“Why are you scared?”

“I wasn’t waiting to enter the advanced class…It’s really intimidating...”

“If you can’t with this, just leave.”

“I-I can do this!”

When we met he had talent, but coming from a poor family made him think that everyone with better resources would beat him in everything. Now I’m ashamed of it, but I used to see him as someone who I could use for fun…The face he put every time I used basic illusions on him was really funny…

What made everyone notice his capabilities was a simple conflict with another student.

“Hey you!”

“M-Me?”

“I heard you got the best grade in every single test.”

“...Yes, I did that.”

“I wanna see if that translates to a real fight.”

“Huh?!”

“Hey both!”

In that time, the fights between students were very limited. They were only able to convince the teacher to let them fight after some other teachers offered their help to enhance the spell to weak magic.

“What am I supposed to do?!”

“Calm down.”

“I’ve only fought against monsters and mannequins before!”

“Just, try the same you do with them.”

“...Okay.”

When the fight started, Leonard touched his own legs and cast a spell I didn't know.

“...Multiply.”

In a blink, he was in front of the other guy, and before he could attack, Leonard’s hand was already touching his chest.

“Multiply.”

No one knew what happened, but suddenly the guy fell to the ground. Everyone thought he was knocked out, but things got worse when our teacher touched him.

“...There’s no pulse…”

“What?!”

Everyone was scared. We thought Leonard was someone that couldn’t win a single fight, but our opinion changed when he just murdered someone.

“Excuse me.”

Leonard himself was the one who solved everything. He approached to the guy and pronounced another spell

“Revert.”

The guy we thought was dead woke up screaming. No one understood what was happening.

“What did you do?!” Agh!”
“Sorry, I can’t cure pain.”

Some time after the fight, he explained to me that he'd sped up that guy's heart, giving him a heart attack, and then simply reversed it. But no one was thinking about how it happened, everyone was thinking about what had happened. To defeat someone like that and heal him seconds later. The students were terrified, but the teachers were impressed.

“Sorry for that! Really!”

That day was the start of everything. He was showing his capabilities helping teachers and students every day. Even when he was a student, slowly everyone started to treat him like another teacher. That helped him to gain confidence and with that, developing even more his talent.

“Hey Leonard, wanna go to eat something?”

“Sorry, the teachers wanna know if I can give more efficacy to some spells. We think we could change some rules with this.”

“I see. Good luck then.”

Slowly they started to call him the future of magic. That instead of making him egocentric made him even more serious.

At some point I challenged him to a fight, I needed to know how I could reach his level…But when that happened…

“Nightmare!”

My illusions covered his sight, but before I could notice it, he was already behind me.

“Try to not use illusions, I know how to nullify them.”

“...”

I tried with fire arrows, but he dodged them. I tried creating explosions in the area, but he went across them. I tried to freeze his feets, but the ice melted. Without any other option, I summoned my familiar.

“Appear!”

A second after a giant snake appeared, I saw his body split in half. And when I looked down, I saw Leonard’s sword just a millimeter from my neck.

“...I-I…”

“Yes?”

Just then I noticed the times he could do that. If I were a real enemy…No, if I weren’t her friend…how many times he could kill me?

“...I surrender…”

Any wish to reach him vanished at that moment. I agreed with everyone about the fact that he’s the future of magic and started to help him. If I can be useful for the guy who’s gonna change the world, I’m already satisfied.

At some point, even some nobles wanted to talk with him and offered tons of money just to contract him once he graduated. He never lost his modesty no matter how much was praised, so the only thing teachers and students saw for the future was hope.

But, something changed one day.

“Leonard, I brought some mannequins for your practice, do you need-.”

“Damn!”

When I entered his room, I saw a ton of papers on the floor. Every single one had magic formulas, so he was probably studying.

“Having difficulties? I know you only got a ninety-nine on the last test, but this is excessive.”

“...”

“Is something wrong?”

“...Have you ever tried to learn every single spell?”

“That sounds impossible.”

“...I tried…”

“...Yeah, I can see you doing it.”

“...Why…?”

“Huh?”

“I thought it would be impossible…These are all the spells?”

“What do you mean?”

“How many years had passed since a new spell for everyone was created?”

“I don’t know.”

“...People can’t create new formulas?”

“Are you crazy? Maybe it looks easy for you, but a whole life would be required to create a single formula.”

“But…Amelie’s father and I can do that.”

“That’s an exception.”

“Only people like us can do that…?”

“Unfortunately, yes.”

“Normal people are stuck…”

“That’s a rude way to say it…”

“...Next year…will be my last year here…Maybe…I can do something before leaving this place.”

Since then, he started to use his influence more actively. He created ranks and a rule that allowed everyone to fight against him. At the same time, he started to show more and more his own capabilities.

“We can do this…Just…more time…”

That idea was stuck in his head. He wouldn’t be happy until he got one thing: Giving normal people the abilities of prodigies.

I thought that was a noble purpose, and I’m still thinking it is. But even when I promised myself not to question him, I wondered…Is this the correct way?

“Mary, are you okay?”

“Huh, sorry, I was thinking…”

“On what?”

“When we met.”

“I also remember that…It’s been a while since we had dinner together. Once we win this, wanna go to eat something?”

“...Yeah, that would be great.”

He seemed happy now that we have a possible answer…Maybe when he gets everything he wants, things will calm down.

“Excuse me.”

We looked back, and it was just a student. His eyes pointed to Leonard, so he talked.

“Do you need something?”

“How's it going to happen?!”

“...Huh?”

Suddenly, another student approached.

“Whose gonna join?!”

And another.

“We’re really gonna be able to see it?!”

A lot of students were approaching us. None of us understood what they were talking about, but we found out when we saw a student sticking a poster on the wall.

“What the…”

I approached and started reading it out loud.

“Next week, three people will fight against a team of three led by Leonard. Everyone can enjoy how he finally stops being the number one.”

Below those words, a familiar face was smiling with his eyes covered by a hat.

“...Thomas.”

We couldn’t believe it. He transformed what was supposed to be one by one into a three vs three…and not just that, he also made it a show.

“...I see…”

Leonard smiled, everyone else probably thought that he was happy, but I noticed the fury in his eyes.

“That's right. There's no better way to learn different types of magic than by fighting each other. I hope everyone learns from this experience... But I admit this design wasn't my idea.”

He went to his classroom and I followed him with one of those posters in my hands. When we made sure that no one was close, he punched the wall.

“That idiot!”

“You can reject the challenge.”

“I can’t, I’ve never specified that I cannot be challenged to team fights…If I reject this, some people could think that I see him as someone dangerous…”

“Leonard…”

“Give me that.”

He took the poster and read it all, trying to not miss anything.

“...He even made some interesting rules.”

“What do you mean?”

“We’re gonna have individual fights. Both sides decide two magicians and those magicians will fight until one is unable to continue. Every winner is allowed to make a request to their opponent, and the team with more wins can make a request to the other team.”

“I see why they decided to make this a show.”

“That’s not the interesting part. He left the names of his companions.”

I read the three names. One was Thomas, the other a guy we didn’t remember, and the third one, was Cloe.

“Do you know what this means? If we directly beat her, we can make everything easier.”

His smile was big…and scary.

“Thomas, I accept your challenge. We’re gonna give a future to magic, no matter who tries to stop us.”

“We still need a third person though.”

“I know someone that would benefit from this system. Start practicing your magic, you will show to everyone how great you are.”

That way, we started our preparations.