The Mysterious Black Magician

While watching the match, he thought about the speed of improvement of Almina and the other students. Everyone's level rose really fast. Especially their ascent of the False Path. However, based on his knowledge, the faster one reaches the False Path stage, the harder it is for them to reach the Real Path. So most experts are stuck on the False Path. It took a year or two for a lucky person to ascend to the Real Path. Well, not all are lucky enough. Most of the people failed to ascend and remained in the False Path for the rest of their lives.

He, on the other hand, until now was still at level 5 while his contemporaries are leaving him behind. Yman could not help but feel bothered by it. 

"..."

Nonetheless, regarding Miss Ice's question about who they think will win the current match, this question is not easy to answer. So his only answer was silence. He also did not want to give an answer without a solid basis. When Ice noticed his silence, she reiterated her question.

"Eh? Yman, what do you think? Kiko Sun said he was sure that Almina would win. Based on his answer, he seems to have a lot of trust in Almina. Isn't he very sweet?"

Yman didn't know why Miss Ice's questioning seemed to have been seasoned with something else. She sounded like she was teasing or maybe testing him. Looks like she has something else she wants to convey. But, Yman did not pay attention to it.

A large sweat drew to the back of his head. After letting air into his mouth he laughed dryly. "Haha…" In his mind, 'Sweet my ass!' He didn't really care about Kiko's comments. Yman said, "Well, I can't help it because the match seems equal. Any of them can win this match." Ice frowned at his answer. Probably not satisfied or maybe she wanted to hear more. But Yman remained true to his thoughts about his vision of the current match. Kiko raised a brow and snorted at him.

"Eh~"

He heard Ice sounded disappointed. Well, it doesn't really matter to him. After all, he can't blame Miss Ice either. Because honestly, if you look at the match properly, you can see that Almina is a little at the advantage. However, he was waiting to see something before he says who he thinks will win this battle.

"Then you don't have confidence that Almina will win?"

"....."

Yman suddenly fell silent at this question from Miss Ice. He didn't know why Miss Ice insisted about it.

"Heh!" Kiko snorted. "Don't waste your time with that dumb. That is not worth wasting time. That dumb can't answer that question because it doesn't know how to look at the match." Based on the tone of Kiko's words, he seemed to avoid saying that he was referring to Yman as a person.

This was a huge insult coming from Kiko. Of course, Yman didn't like what Kiko said. Although he wanted to ignore him and treated Kiko as something like air. This time, he glanced at him with a momentary gleam in his eyes. Even Ice was a little bit surprised by Kiko's remarks. 

But, the situation seems to have become even more interesting. Instead of reprimanding Kiko for his unpleasant behavior, Ice kept quiet as she waited for Yman's response to what Kiko said.

Ice knows about Almina's feelings. So she wants to know which of the two she thinks is better suited to her considered younger sister. Ice secretly giggled at the current situation. Like a teen who has watched a drama scene of two males quarreling for their love for the same girl. Kiko was obviously showing his affection to Almina, though it wasn't the case for Yman. It was also the reason why Ice tried to figure out Yman's real feelings towards Almina.

Well, Ice heard that Kiko asked Almina in public. But Almina refused him. Such a poor guy. Though, she admired Kiko's guts. Even though he was rejected, he was wearing an air that seemed to say the battle wasn't over. Looks like the rejection did not bother him that much. He was probably waiting for Almina to change her mind, or maybe he was planning something to forcibly change her mind.

This is probably the reason why Kiko's treatment of Yman is not good. Ice was sure of this reason. She was also sure that Almina loves Yman. Ice saw it when Almina ran to the stage and almost kissed him. She was on the edge of her seat when that happened. She thought Almina would do it. Ice never thought that her younger sister was so bold to do it.

Although she was waiting for Yman's response from Kiko's spicy remarks, she couldn't help fueling the fire. "Hm, I think Yman is just afraid of making a mistake in his prediction about the outcome of the match, or maybe he just doesn't really have confidence in Almina's ability." Ice's voice was sad as she said the last line. From Kiko, Yman turned his gaze back to Ice.

He frowned. "It's not that I don't have confidence in Almina's ability. I knew she was strong… uhm one of the strongest students in the academy. However, I also have no idea of her opponent's ability. It's hard to predict if you only look from one side and you know nothing about the other," he explained his reason for remaining silent.

Yman had high respect towards the people in this world. They were gifted with an abundance of mana. He already fought against some of them. So, he knew that they weren't someone to belittle.

Also, just looking at the match, Yman could say that Almina has high respect for her opponent's strength. She was careful not to make a single mistake. 

"....."

Ice fell silent from his reply. There's nothing she could rebut him because Yman has a point. She wants to know if Yman knows how Almina feels for him, but Yman was so composed. Sad to say, if she kept insisting on this issue, Yman might think she was irritating. It was obvious from his answer that he felt that way. Probably because of Kiko's insult.

"Well, the match is about to come to an end. Let's just hope Almina will come out as the winner," Yman added to lead their focus back to the match. Instead of bothering himself with Kiko's old-style taunt, he rather not waste this opportunity to witness a very interesting match. "Also, the match is on a good part now."

Kiko knitted his brows with a frown on his face and Ice just sighed but agreed to Yman. Just as he said, the two participants unleashed an attack at the same time. However, Alminas' attack came up superior to Rei-Rei's.

The match has been decided after that. Almina came up victorious. Rei-Rei lost the match. Miss Mora Liz announces Almina's victory and the end of their match after Rei-Rei's health points reached 0%.

The cause of Rei-Rei's defeat was her lack of power in her finishing moves. Although she learned many techniques, she forgot to give more time to master her ultimate move. So when they used the ultimate move at the same time, it turned out that Almina was stronger.

They used the same technique. Rei-Rei imitated Almina's style. She also held two swords. And she copied when Almina combined her weapons. Their weapons turned to a very long sword that seemed to pierce the clouds in the sky. Then, that happened, they simultaneously unleashed their attacks. They attacked at the same time, which was followed by a loud noise and explosion in the air where they were floating. Everyone gaped with wide eyes when that happened.

Rei-Rei's figure shot back to the stage. After figuring that she was unconscious and Almina was still fine, the match was immediately declared as over.

Finally, four participants were left!