Overpowered Archmage Doesn’t Hide His Talent

Chapter 42 I’ll ask.

“This time too, there was no sound from over there.”

Violet and the staff’s eyes widened simultaneously at Elyse’s words.

Now that they thought about it, she was right.

The speed of the magic bullet, unrestricted by the safety device, was tremendous. There was no way it could have collided without making any noise.

The three women all turned their heads toward Flan simultaneously.

The scene before them was simple, yet shocking.

The magic bullet was dispersed and scattered in all directions, while the boy stood there calmly. That was all.

Flan’s fingertips were clearly burned, and smoke was even rising from them.

Yet, Flan merely stared at the empty air as if bored.

Violet spoke with a bewildered expression.

“Elyse, that….”

“Yeah.”

Elyse nodded.

“It looks like he dismantled it again.”

“Wait, hold on. That doesn’t make sense. Wasn’t this magic bullet faster than the one in the third round?”

“Yes. It was set to the same speed as Yvonne Rose’s Flash.”

At that, Violet gasped.

“Comprehending the core circuit, interfering and dismantling without error—all within that brief moment….”

“He did it all. What the hell is that kid?”

During the three rounds of evaluating Flan,

At that time, Elyse had simply thought of him as a useful guy. The doubts still lingered.

But now, after the fourth round, Elyse’s thoughts had changed.

‘He’s an interesting guy.’

Considering Flan’s age, it would have been accurate to call him a “rough gem.” However…

…There was something strangely polished about the way he acted, as if he were already a cut gemstone.

Elyse licked her lower lip.

She valued the inner qualities of a magician more than their skill.

Many magicians shine brightly for a moment with their exceptional techniques, but a truly great magician must have overwhelming spirit that never falters.

She hadn’t expected that this peculiar boy would possess such an ability.

Yes, she hadn’t expected it at all….

Elyse looked at Flan’s face once more.

She could faintly see the overwhelming spirit she sought in his expression.

A desire began to build within her—a desire to see him in an actual battle, rather than this trivial test.

Step by step, Flan began walking toward them with a displeased look on his face. Soon, he knocked three times on the black barrier and spoke.

“What more do you need?”

Even though he couldn’t possibly see inside, he was looking straight at Violet.

“Hey, you.”

Elyse dispelled the black barrier. She immediately asked Flan a question.

“Why did you interfere by hand?”

Perhaps because of her rough tone, Flan frowned, thinking she was picking a fight.

“If you have excellent comprehension skills, you could have just interfered by observing it with your eyes. Why did you go out of your way to use your hand?”

“Oh.”

As if wondering why she was curious about that, Flan relaxed his expression and began to speak. The three women fixed their eyes on his mouth.

“There wasn’t enough mana to observe it with my eyes.”

Everyone except Flan looked surprised.

After a moment, Elyse asked again.

“Then I’ll ask you the same question again. Why didn’t you avoid it and used your hand instead? Weren’t you scared?”

“I don’t understand either. If what Student Flan said is true, if either comprehension or interference had been even slightly delayed, his hand would have been seriously injured.”

Violet chimed in from the side.

It was an unbelievably dangerous act.

If what Flan said was true, he had comprehended the core circuits of the magic bullet the moment it touched his fingertips, and then proceeded to dismantle it with interference.

Any magician who had run out of mana would have instinctively tried to dodge.

“Let me ask you.”

Flan, in turn, questioned Elyse.

“If it were you, would you have dodged?”

There was a moment of silence.

Elyse frowned and asked back.

“What do you mean by that?”

“If you had exhausted all your mana and your opponent was charging at you, would you dodge?”

“It depends on the situation and the opponent.”

“It doesn’t matter. A proper magician would think like this, no matter the situation.”

Flan’s lips curled into a subtle smile.

And he murmured quietly.

“There’s no reason to dodge.”

Violet and Elyse exchanged glances.

They both thought the same thing.

Today’s evaluation, which they hadn’t expected much from, this small flutter of wings, might just turn into a massive storm.

◈

—The evaluation has ended. The results will be announced shortly, so please do not leave the waiting room, students.

I chose one of the chairs in the waiting room and sat down.

“Louis, did you do well? I prayed hard for you.”

“Of course, he did well. He’s Louis, after all.”

The ones eager to socialize were already clustering around Louis. Everyone seemed confident that Louis would be chosen as the representative.

“Well, I don’t think it’ll be me.”

Louis replied with a faint smile. His gaze quietly shifted toward me.

“Oh, Louis, aren’t you being too modest?”

Hailey, sitting next to him, ran her fingers through Louis’s hair as she smiled brightly.

“Hey, Flan.”

Of course, there was also a fool who approached me.

“…Did you do well? I cheered for you.”

It was Becky. I gave a slight nod.

Whether I received cheers or curses, it didn’t matter much to me. After all, if I didn’t do it, no one else could.

At that moment, Violet appeared.

“Everyone, listen up. First of all, great job on completing the evaluation.”

Elyse stood next to Violet.

With Elyse being so tall and Violet being quite short, the difference between the two was particularly noticeable. It almost made Violet look like a little witch.

“Let’s skip the preamble and get straight to the results.”

At the mention of results, the room fell silent.

Violet snapped her fingers, and a name appeared in the air.

[Flan]

“Louis isn’t… the representative?”

Hailey murmured in shock as she stared at the name.

As her mouth slowly opened in disbelief, murmurs of confusion began to spread throughout the room.

“Flan?”

“Is this a mistake?”

“Why…?”

The shock among the students was more significant than expected.

“That doesn’t make sense! How could someone who completely relied on Trixie during the exploration evaluation become the representative?”

Martin’s comment was about to spark a heated debate when Elyse spoke up.

“I’ll say this upfront—the evaluation was fair.”

Her words only made the murmur grow louder.

As the waiting room grew increasingly chaotic, Elyse continued speaking.

“Our opponent is Yvonne Rose, the supernova of the Knight Department.”

Elyse scanned the students with her gaze.

“Since Yvonne’s innate ability is Flash, we evaluated you based on how well you could respond to magic bullets fired at high speed.”

The students nodded quietly.

Of course. There wouldn’t be anyone here who didn’t understand this much.

“By the way…. The equipment was equipped with a safety device. Our very considerate Professor Violet was extremely concerned for your well-being.”

Having said that, Elyse raised a lever. There were signs of it having been broken.

“I judged that it was necessary to accurately measure Flan’s skills. So, I disabled the safety device. And Flan handled the fourth shot brilliantly.”

As if she wasn’t finished, Elyse held up a single finger.

“Lastly, there’s one thing you all need to keep in mind.”

The students swallowed hard. Everyone was focused solely on Elyse’s words.

“The fourth magic bullet was fired at a speed similar to Yvonne Rose’s Flash. What you faced was much slower. Got it?”

The students were stunned by Elyse’s statement that the fourth magic bullet was as fast as Flash.

“Does that mean… we couldn’t even block the much slower ones?”

“And Flan managed to do that?”

As the students gasped in surprise, I felt a pair of intense eyes on me.

It was Trixie. She was staring at me intently.

But I started drifting into other thoughts, ignoring her gaze.

‘How long has it been?’

I absentmindedly examined the state of my left hand. The burn on my fingertip was noticeable.

It wasn’t a big deal to treat, as I could just use healing magic when I returned to the dorm….

But the concept of getting injured felt foreign to me. The sting in my finger was unfamiliar, insignificant….

I couldn’t remember the last time my body had been wounded.

However, I didn’t regret my actions.

Even if I were to break, I would never bend. I would only continue forward, never losing my self-respect.

‘Hera.’

I even had the artifact of a heroic spirit in my possession.

If I continued to grow with the artifact, the peak wouldn’t be far away. For now, I left it at that.

“The fairness of the representative selection is guaranteed by the Mysterious Valley. If anyone still has doubts, come see me.”

Elyse concluded her speech with that.

At the mention of the Mysterious Valley, everyone fell silent. Its name carried quite a bit of weight.

Violet spoke up again.

“Once again, I want to emphasize that you all did well in the evaluation. Now, let’s move on to the hotel inside the Magic Tower.”

The boys would stay on the 24th floor, and the girls on the 23rd…. Violet’s explanation continued for a while, and finally, we began moving toward the portal.

But then, a problem arose at the portal. Suddenly,

Yusia shouted.

“What? What do you mean?”

Glancing around, I saw that Yusia’s golden eyes were trembling as she stared at the staff member by the portal.

“What do you mean I can’t bring my glow-in-the-dark puzzle? Seriously?”

“No personal belongings are allowed inside the Magic Tower for security reasons. Please leave it at the storage facility outside the building.”

“This can’t be…!”

Despair spread across Yusia’s face.

Speaking of which, I also had some belongings. I checked the items I had brought with me.

『On the Phenomenon of Interference in Summoning』

『Elemental Research on the Alchemy System』

『Research on Fairy Language Pronunciation by Continental Dialect』

.

.

.

About eight carefully selected papers from the library.

I had been in the library since dinner, and because of Violet’s sudden summons, I had no choice but to bring these papers with me.

“Student, those count as personal belongings and cannot be brought in either.”

As expected, it wasn’t long before the staff pointed out the papers I had with me.

All the students’ eyes turned toward me. Violet addressed me.

“Student Flan, please leave those at the storage facility.”

I pondered for a moment and quickly made up my mind.

I approached Violet and handed her the eight papers I had selected.

“Please take care of these.”

Violet’s eyebrows twitched.

“Student Flan, are you asking a professor to run an errand for you?”

“No. Please place these papers in my room.”

“This is the second time I’m telling you, but personal items…. Wait, what?”

“I am the personal item.”

After forcibly placing the papers in her hands, I turned away.

I’ve slept rough before, so sleeping at the storage facility wouldn’t be that hard.

“What…. What did you say? Hey, Student Flan!”

Ignoring her, I quickly stepped onto the portal.

I can’t let my papers spend the night in the cold.

“….”

As I made my way toward the storage facility, I suddenly sensed someone’s presence and looked back.

A soft, white bundle of feathers was following me closely, only to stop as well.

Naturally, our eyes met.

I asked Yusia, who was smiling brightly as if she were having the time of her life.

“What are you doing?”

“Ah! Sir Flan!”

Yusia raised her box and shouted.

“My glow-in-the-dark puzzle!”