"You will…!"
"Snowball."
"YOUNG MISS!"
Confident about her superiority, Amelia was about to put out some sort of demand, probably. The thing was, the area around Rotsard flashed with pale blue and white light just for a split second, and the next moment he was already flicking the spell at the girl, prompting Justin's heroic action of rushing in front of her and swinging his sword at the danger…
"?!?!"
…but even though the entire training weapon was coated with sword aura, and even though the tip of its blade clearly made contact with the sphere of white, it also passed right through it without any visible effect.
However, the snowball did seem to miss as it didn't hit either Justin nor Amelia, merely flying over the head of the latter.
"Hmph! Trash will always be-GUAGH!"
*thump*
Amelia snorted mockingly, but right then and there, something smacked hard against the top of her head, and she cried out pathetically, instantly crouching down as the object fell next to her.
"Y-young Miss!? Are you all… eh…?"
Justin gasped and turned to her, alarmed, but then his attention got diverted by unidentified specks of some sort of fine dust, seemingly caused by his movement.
…and as he looked carefully, the future hero traced those particles to his own weapon…
The handle of his wooden sword was cold, most of the carved blade was covered with frost…
…and the tip of it had shattered, but it wasn't splintering like wood should. Instead, it was crumbling into dust after being frozen beyond what the future hero thought was even possible…!
"..."
As for Amelia, she was facing her own crisis.
Because while she attempted to hold back tears over the headache caused by the head trauma, when laying her eyes on the object that smacked her, even her quivering lip stopped.
What the love interest of the future hero was looking for was something that looked like a perfect replica of a 4th tier fire spell, Flame Wheel, in its base form…
…only that it was made out of ice…
Cloudy ice turning clear on its ends, giving more life to the solid representation of flickering flames…
"..."
Amelia trembled.
She didn't want to, but she couldn't help herself.
After all, despite the attack, she didn't release her spell.
It should be right there, hovering above her, crackling in the crisp night air…
So she slowly looked up…
…and saw nothing but the starry sky…
That ice sculpture that hit her.
It was her spell.
Frozen solid.
"...!"
"..."
As she was lowering her head, desperate to check the ice halo and find any sign of it being some pallor trick, she ended up locking eyes with the quiet Rotsard.
The bleached-blond-haired boy was still perched on the outer wall, only now he was leaning further, as if he was a wolf about to pounce on its prey… and his beastly yellow eyes were staring right into Amelia's soul.
She wanted to experience the difference in power, and she did experience exactly that.
Only… not in the way she was so certain it would happen.
The longer their eye contact lasted, the more ice-cold fear sipped into her heart, her bones… her very core.
Amelia Edemsworth began to tremble as if she had just got out of ice-cold water.
The fear of being nothing more than a helpless prey overwhelmed her.
"Fuck. Off."
"N-NOOOOOOO! Nhhhghh…! NOOOO!"
Rotsard tilted his head from side to side while speaking only two words, but in response, Amelia completely lost her cool. She slipped and fell on her back, and while screeching and crying with tears streaming down her face, she tried to run away, but it seemed that her legs gave out completely.
"Y-young lady! OUGH…!"
Justin called out for the who-know-what time and rushed over, ending up catching a stray hit to the side of his jaw when picking Amelia up into his arms.
"..."
"..."
For a moment, the future hero glared at Rotsard, at first with pure anger and contempt, but as he was looking away, biting his lips to stop himself from saying anything more, it did seem that there was another feeling present…
But alas, Justin turned around and hurriedly carried the flailing Amelia to the dormitory without looking back again.
"Huop~!"
*thump*
"!!!"
As the hindrances were gone, Rotsard jumped off the wall and landed next to Vicas, startling him just as if the bleached-blond-haired boy did something unexpected and not perfectly normal.
"Let's get you and your friends to the hospital wing. Although I doubt that those two will leave it like that, we can try to act as if nothing happened and even say that I beat you all up again."
"S-sure…"
Rotsard smirked and said while reaching his hand towards Vicas, causing the unsurprisingly timid antagonist to nod and mutter as he took the offer.
...
"...our own, huh…?"
Observing it all, the headmaster of the Royal Academy, Vicas's uncle, Lord Lazalarius in person, leaned against the wall of one of the storage sheds and let out a sigh while looking towards the night sky.
"Young Vallall… you sure make me feel ashamed of myself for ever speaking badly of you… I am in your debt."
Although addressing Rotsard, the man muttered to himself with a wry smile.