Vala's voice brought the trembling back into Macro's body, and with it came a flood of unpleasant memories that he had long tried to bury. Scenes from the past resurfaced one after another, tightening his chest. Still, he did his best to remain calm, clinging to a single, undeniable fact: he was no longer just a powerless student. He was now one of the six pillars supporting his queen, the Minister of Technology of the kingdom of Yggdora.
"H-hello… it's been a while since w-we last saw each other, V-Vala," Macro replied in a trembling voice, watching the prodigy draw closer and closer to him.
"I'm happy," Vala said mockingly, stopping in the center of the arena. "It seems you haven't changed at all. Even that stupid way you talk is exactly the same."
Macro clenched his fists but remained silent. The smile on Vala's face widened further, clearly pleased. The sense of inferiority that his former "friend" held toward him still seemed firmly intact, and that realization amused him greatly.
The two stared at each other in silence for several long seconds. Just before Pinusal could ask his usual question, Vala spoke again.
"Failure," he said coldly, "are you really sure it was the right choice for you to participate in this tournament? I respect your inventions. They've always been useful, even back when we were students together. Honestly, the position of Minister of Technology suits you perfectly." He paused, then continued, his voice dripping with arrogance. "But if you believe that those little tools of yours—nothing more than pale imitations of real magic—are enough to place a failure like you, someone who can't even use is Derived Magic, on the same level as me, then you are gravely mistaken."
His tone was filled with anger and pride, yet carried a condescending edge that cut even deeper.
Macro lowered his gaze, his fists clenching even tighter at his sides.
Then Vala added, his voice cheerful but venomous, "Someone like you would be much better off never leaving his laboratory. That way, people would only remember your one useful quality, and you wouldn't risk dishonoring our kingdom by showing your weakness in public, failure."
Macro wanted to talk back to his old "friend." He truly did. But he couldn't bring himself to speak. After all, the words Vala had just thrown at him were the very same doubts that had plagued his mind ever since he decided to participate in this year's tournament. So he remained silent. Still, his reason for standing here had not changed. This match was his chance to prove Vala wrong—to prove everyone wrong—but above all, to prove himself wrong. His eyes, though shaken, still burned with determination.
Vala did not like that look at all.
Pinusal, unwilling to watch his great friend's student be insulted any further, decided to hasten the beginning of the match, though he would, of course, show no favoritism once it started.
"Is there anything else you wish to say to each other before the match begins?" Pinusal asked sternly.
Macro, still trembling, replied only by shaking his head from side to side.
"No, nothing else," Vala said with a cocky smile. "Let's hurry up and start. It seems my "friend" needs to be reminded of the old days—with his body."
Pinusal nodded. "Very well. Then the match will begin on my count."
After a couple of seconds of heavy silence, Pinusal began the countdown.
"Ready…"
Macro slapped both of his cheeks with his hands, trying to force the trembling to stop.
"Set..."
Seeing this, Vala let out a small laugh, but remained poised and ready.
"Go!"
While Vala was greeting his former "friend," Caesar found himself intrigued by one of the prodigy's remarks.
"I apologize if this comes across as rude," he said, regal curiosity coloring his voice, "but is what this boy named Vala said true? Is Minister Macro still unable to use his Derived Magic?"
Sequoria shook her head slowly. "Unfortunately, No. It is not that Macro has yet to learn how to use his personal derived magic; he simply cannot use it at all. It is a rare condition he was born with, though sadly, he only discovered it after enrolling at the Frassino Academy," she explained, a faint trace of melancholy present in her voice.
The fact that Macro was unable to use any Derived Magic was something Sequoria had already explained to Lucas before, but the matter of his time at the academy was entirely new information to him. As a result, this conversation immediately captured his full attention.
"The Frassino Academy… I've heard about it from King Leo," Caesar said thoughtfully. "If I'm not mistaken, excluding that magic academy located in the kingdom of wizards and witches, is the most prestigious on the entire continent. At the same time, however, it accepts anyone who wishes to learn and improve their magical abilities. But precisely because of that philosophy, once admitted, the lessons are extremely intense, and students' performance is taken very seriously. It must have been incredibly difficult for a boy with such a severe, undiagnosed disadvantage," he added.
Sequoria nodded. "Naturally, we are very careful when selecting teachers, so I believe—and hope—that they did their best to support Macro during his studies. But since the academy's motto is to accept everyone, the same cannot be said for the students themselves. Not all of them were kind to Macro, especially because they initially believed he was incompetent and simply not trying hard enough to learn how to use his Derived Magic. However, whether fortunately or unfortunately, in their eyes Macro was far from useless. He had always been an exceptional and ingenious inventor, and even those who bullied him found his creations extremely useful. So they exploited him, treating him more like a convenient tool than a person. I believe that boy named Vala was one of the primary—and most 'influential'—persecutors…" the former queen explained, her voice carrying an elegant sadness.
"I see," Caesar said, touching his chin thoughtfully. "It must be extremely difficult for Minister Macro to face someone who, from his perspective, once held so much power over him."
Sequoria nodded once more. She was about to continue her explanation, but noticing that the match was clearly about to begin, she chose to keep the rest to herself for now and focused her attention on the arena.
The moment Pinusal gave the signal, he immediately moved away from the two young men.
"Don't worry, failure," Vala sneered. "I know you don't have any Derived Magic, so I'll do you the courtesy of defeating you without using mine… Torrent!" he shouted, extending an open hand toward his opponent.
At that instant, a blue magic circle formed in front of his palm, and an enormous mass of water erupted from it, surging forward with the overwhelming force of a raging river.
At the same moment, Macro slipped his hand into the bag attached to his belt.
The violent stream of water seemed to swallow Macro entirely before he could react, hiding him from both Vala and the audience.
Torrent was a high-level water spell—difficult to master and control, yet devastatingly powerful. It generated an immense volume of water that seized its unfortunate target and hurled them violently in all directions through its turbulent currents.
When the torrent finally slammed against the arena wall and the water began to seep into the ground, most spectators expected to find Macro crushed against the stone.
But when the majority of the water vanished into the earth, there was no body pinned to the wall.
Vala's eyebrows curved sharply in surprise.
Macro had not moved more than two centimeters from his original position. On his right wrist, raised protectively in front of his face, was a mechanical-looking bracelet adorned with a beautiful midnight-blue stone, reminiscent of lapis lazuli. A few bruises were already visible on his body, but he remained standing, steady and unbroken.
"I see that, as usual, you've been saved by one of your little gadgets, failure," Vala said with clear contempt in her voice.
"Yes, this is one of my inventions," Macro replied. "I call it a sponge bracelet. The stone set in the center is called Azzurrentite, which, when placed at least five centimeters away from any source of water, attracts that water toward itself and absorbs it. Naturally, it has its limits, which is why I was unable to completely block your attack, but this bracelet also has—" Macro began to explain eloquently, as if he were an entirely different person now, his voice overflowing with boundless joy and genuine happiness.
Vala did not wait for him to finish.
Her hand remained extended in the same position as when she had cast the water spell earlier. "I see. So water doesn't work very well. What a shame," she said mockingly. "It's the Original Magic with which I have the greatest affinity, but oh well. This is a perfect opportunity to prove that I don't even need that to defeat a failure," he added coldly, interrupting her former classmate once more. Then he cast, "Air Bullets!"
A light-blue magic circle appeared in front of her hand. From it, four tiny, almost invisible projectiles of compressed air were fired at the speed of sound, flying straight toward Macro.
For little more than a millisecond, Macro was startled by the sudden interruption of his explanation. But he immediately remembered where he was and what was happening. He raised the arm wearing the bracelet in front of his chest and infused it with a small amount of mana. Several tiny openings formed around the setting of the stone, and the metal ring began spinning at extreme speed. From those holes, thin jets of water burst forth under such immense pressure that they carved into the ground where they struck.
Then Macro concentrated even harder, shortening the jets. They rotated so rapidly, and there were so many of them, that a thin circular shield with a radius of roughly half a meter formed around the stone, composed entirely of high-pressure water.
All of this happened in less than a second, before the compressed air bullets could reach Macro. Thanks to the shield, they never touched him, being stopped effortlessly.
He immediately deactivated the shield afterward, careful not to waste the water the bracelet had absorbed.
"It can also transform into a defensive barrier using the water it has stored," Macro continued enthusiastically. "The jets emerge from the holes that open in the ring where the Azzurrentite is set, and the ring can rotate at extreme speed. However, this alone isn't enough to form a proper shield. To activate this function, you also need—" he resumed explaining, once again forgetting that he was in the middle of a match.
But he was interrupted yet again.
"To use the Water Manipulation spell to control the jets, adjusting their length so they form a perfect shield!" Vala said with a sharp smile.
The fact that the failure had blocked two of his attacks using only one inventions was beginning to irritate him. Still, the realization that Macro needed to rely on spells to make those inventions function properly soothed Vala's bruised ego and reignited his sense of superiority. After all, he was the prodigy of the Frassino Academy, while his opponent was a failure who could only use a handful of spells from tha Original Magics. There was no doubt in his mind that he was the superior magic user, and there was no reason he could possibly lose if his opponent relied on magic as well.
That said, there was still an inconvenient truth. Among the spells of the six Original Magic Vala could use—excluding water magic—there was not a single one capable of breaking through that shield. This left him with very few options.
He hated the idea deeply, but he wasn't foolish enough to hold back his strongest weapon just because of something he had said at the start of the match.
"Failure," he shouted arrogantly, "consider yourself lucky. You're about to witness my beautiful and invincible Derived Magic once again!"
At those words, Macro's body trembled.
He knew that magic very well, and he also knew that his opponent was not bluffing.