I Was Reincarnated as the Most Wicked Aristocrat Who Rules Over the Kingdom’s Darkness in an R-18 Eroge, but I Don’t Like Abnormal Situations, so I Tried to Live a Normal and Peaceful Life, but I’m Somehow in the Same Situation as the Original Scenario - Chapter 15 - Understanding My Power

Chapter 15 – Understanding My Power

——Strength is power.

The path that the Ringveid Kingdom has walked can be summed up in those words.

From the dawn of time to the present, the majority of problems in this country have been solved through violence and struggle.

It is likely that because of this history, the Ringveid Kingdom has a strong sense of machismo, where strength is everything.

This is true not only of the common people, but also of the aristocrats.

An excessive supremacy of violence is rampant among them, and naturally, this mentality also influences the personalities of their sons and daughters.

To put it simply, everyone loves to test their strength.

This tendency is especially strong among students, who are at an age where they are at the peak of their passion.

And for that very reason, the arena that was set up as a place to implement the combat education curriculum is always open to the students.

…I had wanted this duel to take place solemnly, with a minimum of spectators, but…

The exact opposite happened.

“That guy’s already causing a ruckus right after enrolling, huh?”

“First, he gets together with Miss Elise, and now he’s picking a fight with the disciplinary committee chairman.”

“The eldest son of the Zesphilia family… Even if he’s rushing through life, there’s a limit to how much he can do…”

For some reason, the auditorium was packed with a lot of students…

Among them were not only Lumiere, Elise, Cecil, and Clarice.

She was also there…

“Show me what you’re capable of.”

Rinslet Freanain.

My homeroom teacher and the strongest magician of the current generation.

The fact that I was receiving her attention felt like a curse.

Theodore, standing opposite me, frowned and spoke,

“…Why there’s so much fuss over facing a mere middle-ranked nobody like you, I’ll never understand.”

Exactly, Theodore. You’re absolutely right.

“Sigh… Whatever. More importantly, let me give you a clear demonstration of the gap between us, in concrete terms.”

He said with a proud smile.

“My grade rank is fifth among the seniors. In terms of the academy rank, which is the overall ranking of the academy, I’m seventh.”

Theodore continued,

“You will now be fighting one of the top ten most powerful people in this academy. However, I have no intention of using my full power against the likes of you, so you can rest assured.”

Stop it, Theodore.

That’s a defeat flag.

Don’t interfere with my plan.

“…The arena is not the place to make excuses, Mister Theodore.”

I can’t let him raise any more flags, so I uttered some provocative words to get the fight started quickly.

“If your specialty is not magic combat but verbal sparring, then I understand your arrogant attitude completely. I admit defeat in that regard and will gladly surrender.”

I would be very happy if this were the end of the matter.

But well… I guess things won’t settle that easily.

“Huh!!! Don’t get too cocky, you bastard!”

I told you already, stop raising defeat flags.

“Lightning Impact!”

A sudden advanced magic?

I can see that he wants to kill me instantly.

But… I can’t let things end so easily.

If I lose too poorly, my evaluation will drop too much. What’s more, people might start over analyzing my defeat and end up drawing the wrong conclusions.

That’s why I want this duel to end with “I did okay, but I lost in the end.”

With that in mind, I cast a moderately strong defensive spell.

A semi-transparent barrier materialized before me, just in time to intercept Theodore’s lightning strike.

The moment the lightning connected with my barrier, cracks spread across the surface, just as I had intended.

After a moment, the barrier in front of me shattered into pieces, and part of the lightning pierced my body.

It hurt quite a bit.

I remembered a time during lunch break in middle school when my classmates and I were shoulder punching each other.

That was roughly the extent of the damage I had received, but…

I decided to kneel down in a dramatic fashion.

“Arghh…! As expected of Mister Theodore…!”

If there was one thing that was bothering me about this fight, it was just how far my terrible acting would go.

That was my only source of anxiety, but…

It seemed Theodore was surprisingly bad at reading things. He seemed to completely believe my poor acting.

“Hmph… I’ll change my opinion of you just a little. You seem to have a fairly high level of skill in defensive magic.”

After adjusting his glasses, Theodore spoke the following words,

“However… Don’t think you can win a fight with defense alone!”

It’s okay, Theodore.

I have no intention of beating you.

“Come now! What’s wrong, Alvart? Is defense your only strong point?”

I continued playing my role, pretending to be on the defensive.

Meanwhile, the audience started to chime in,

“Wow, that guy’s incredible. He’s enduring Theodore-senpai’s fierce attacks.”

“He’s got some impressive guts.”

“His defensive magic skills are pretty impressive, too.”

They gave me some fairly high praise.

However…

“I guess it’s only a matter of time before this ends.”

“Well, he did well against a senior.”

Yes.

Everyone’s been fooled. Surprisingly easy too.

“Ugh…!”

I rolled around on the ground, putting on a lame show, even though I thought it was a pathetic performance.

Now then.

Everything’s gone smoothly so far.

All that’s left is the finishing touch.

To be specific——I need to put out a final, desperate attempt.

“Arghh…! Fireball!”

In the midst of the enemy’s continuing fierce attack, with lightning still blasting all over my body, I unleashed a fireball.

It was the perfect example of a desperate last-attempt.

Naturally, it would be a futile effort, and moments later, I would collapse. Truly the perfect scenario.

And in reality, Theodore did dodge my attack——

“Huh…?!”

…What?

But there was something strange about Theodore.

“A-Alvart… No, Alvart-kun”

“…Yes, what is it?”

“You declared that the attack earlier was a fireball, right?”

“…Yes, and what of it?”

As I looked confused, Theodore shouted, sweating profusely.

“Even as a joke, that’s too cruel!”

…I couldn’t understand what he was saying.

“I only unleashed a fireball.”

“Stop with that! How was that only a fireball?!”

Theodore’s whole body was shaking with fear as she spoke.

“What you unleashed just now was a special-grade spell, Tempest Flare!”

Huh?

What is he talking about?

No matter how I look at what I just did…

No, wait a second…

Impossible…

“To those without talent, that last spell probably just looked like a normal Fireball. But to anyone with a modicum of skill, it was something else entirely.”

Rinslet revealed the secret with a smile.

“You must understand, scaling up a spell’s size is simple, but compressing that much power into such a small form is incredibly difficult. And Alvart here did just that… with special-grade magic, no less.”

…I wanted to deny it.

But if this was true, it made sense that there was a certain incident that I had been slightly suspicious of.

Regarding that…

And just as I started to process it all, Lumiere chimed in.

“That was a close call, Theodore-senpai. If you had underestimated him and taken that spell head-on, you would have suffered even worse than me, you know?”

And then, Lumiere told the truth of that night.

“This is a bit of a brag, but my magical power is exceptional. It’s such that the magic I unconsciously leak could serve as a barrier. So, of course, I can nullify not only low-level magic but even intermediate magic. However… that was impossible with Nii-sama’s.”

That’s right.

That night, I used a fireball to knock my sister down.

But, thinking about it, it was a strange story.

Why had I not contemplated this deeply until now?

I’ve never cursed my own incompetence so much. I had completely misjudged my own abilities.

“Nii-sama can compress special-grade magic into the scale of low-level magic and unleash it. Surely there’s no fool who doesn’t understand how high-level that is, right?”

…There is one big problem with this.

Of course, I hadn’t been serious at all.

As proof of this, I had purposely turned off both my adaptation power and my other power, and I had adjusted my magic to the lowest level possible.

In particular, I was aware that I had definitely activated the lowest level of offensive magic, a fireball.

So, that means… What is the lowest level to me is the highest level to others.

Thus, no matter how much I try to hold back, I end up unconsciously using ultra-high-level techniques.

…The Administrator.

I did ask for strength… But I didn’t ask to be this strong!

“A-Alvart-kun… N-no, Alvert-sama…!”

Theodore’s whole body was shaking as he knelt in front of me,

“I apologize for all my rudeness…! S-so please, spare my life…!”

This is the worst. It really is the worst outcome.

“Theodore-sama, is it alright to say that the winner of this duel is Alvart-sama?”

“Of course!”

“What about him joining the student council?”

“I’m all for it! If he wants, I’ll even give up my position!”

I don’t need that kind of thing…

“Then, this matter is settled.”

Afterwards, Clarice took Theodore and disappeared somewhere.

She was probably planning to take him somewhere out of sight and offer him some sexual comfort.

But that doesn’t matter.

Right now, all I could think was,

“That guy is crazy…”

“Who the hell ranked him as average…?”

“Either way… He’s a monster.”

Envy. Admiration…

And fear.

I was pierced by gazes and emotions that I absolutely did not want to be exposed to.

But… In the midst of all this.

“I was right about my expectations. Well, that’s only natural, though.”

Rinslet’s interest in me intensified.

“As expected of my husband! I’ve fallen in love with Alvart all over again!”

Elise blushed and spoke of her love with excitement.

“Isn’t that more like being infatuated rather than in love?”

Lumiere didn’t seem to think much of my abilities.

“Haha. As I expected, you’re amazing, Alvart-kun.”

Cecil still had his usual smile on his face.

…Perhaps their presence might just be the only solace I have.

In any case, I muttered as I looked up to the sky, pouring my emotions into my words.

“——How did things turn out like this?”