I Favor the Villainess Chapter 22Practical exam ~Rod vs Misha~

“Ninth match, Rod-sama versus Misha. Both, forward”

As usual, Rod-sama with a confident gait and Misha with an unruffled atmosphere walked towards the center of the sports ground.

“Both of you, are you ready?”

“Aye”

“Whenever”

“Well then, ready… go!”

It was Rod-sama who moved first right on cue.

He fell back considerably and grandly spread his arms towards the sky.

“Come!”

While Rod-sama’s loud voice resounded, the temperature on the sport grounds rose by several degrees.

Small flames reaching human knee filled the sport grounds one by one.

On a closer look, the flames took shape of tiny soldiers.

Their number reached thirty.

This is Rod-sama’s combat style – its name is Army of Flame.

As I’ve already mentioned, Rod-sama’s magic aptitude that’s medium fire aptitude is by no means high.

However, Rod-sama has an exceptional quality not found in anyone else.

That is, his magic capacity surpasses holders of super aptitude.

Rod-sama makes full use of his abundant magic power by creating tiny flame soldiers to fight for him.

“Go!”

At Rod-sama’s command, flame soldiers rushed Misha.

Even looking from sidelines, the impact is considerable.

“…”

Even after seeing the Army of Flame, which should be the first time for her, Misha’s expression remained unchanged.

Misha’s magic aptitude is high wind aptitude – same as Sein-sama’s.

However, there’s a reason why on the Magic test she achieved a good result ranking second, far apart from Sein-sama.

“――”

A shrill sound like glass being scratched resounded across the sport grounds.

At the same moment, the thirty minions all burst and scattered.

Misha hasn’t moved even a little.

“!?”

As expected, Rod-sama’s composed countenance changed.

However, it only lasted a moment.

He immediately summoned next minions.

“Go!”

The same sight was born, as if rewatching a video.

Army of Flame approached Misha to crush her.

“――”

Again, a strange sound.

While it subsided, all the figures of minions vanished.

“Is that your wind magic?”

“Yes”

Unlike Sein-sama’s support magic, Misha’s wind magic is an unusual offensive magic.

Its nature is sound.

Her combat style is to pour in magic using sound as the intermediary – it’s known as Siren.

“This is troublesome. Well, what I need to do doesn’t change”

Rod-sama produced the army for the third time.

“Go!”

His troops charged once again.

That’s the troublesome aspect of Rod-sama’s tactic.

With his exceptional magic capacity, even if you defeat his minions they’ll keep coming endlessly.

To make matters worse, as Rod-sama positions himself behind his army, it’s impossible to get even halfway close.

The difference in aptitude is crushed by the sheer quantity, that’s Rod-sama’s way of fighting.

“――”

In contrast, Misha’s way is quite absurd.

The thirty lumps of flame that approached were extinguished in an instant with her magic ability.

Be that as it may, in the current situation she’s lacking means of attack.

It’s a one-way defensive battle.

However, there’s a reason for it.

Unlike me, Misha has absolute respect for royalty characteristic of nobles.

As a result, I don’t think she’ll voluntarily attack Rod-sama.

I guess she doesn’t mind failing the exam rather than doing that.

“… Boring”

After his minions were extinguished for the third time, Rod-sama snorted.

“You aren’t serious, right? Are you holding back against me”

“I’m not so audacious as to point a blade at royalty”

“… As far as I’m concerned, know that it’s such an attitude that I find disrespectful”

“No matter what you say, I will not change in the slightest”

“Then, I’ll forcibly make you get serious”

Rod-sama once again summoned minions.

However, this time their movement is different.

The soldiers took positions at fixed distance in order to surround her.

“…”

“You really won’t do anything… Repent”

When Rod-sama snapped fingers the minions suddenly began contagiously exploding.

When one exploded, it caused others neighboring minions to follow, the chain explosion quickly spread and engulfed Misha.

“How is it. Do you still not feel like getting serious”

Rod-sama laughed arrogantly――.

“You’re… unhurt?”

When a gust of wind blew away the smoke, there stood the unchanged Misha’s figure.

Smoke is swirling around her.

“Wind defensive wall… is it? But, it shouldn’t be able to stop heat”

“I used vacuum tear”

“!”

In short, it uses the same principle as a thermos.

To shut out the heat, Misha created a vacuum gap around herself.

“… Kuku, interesting. Unexpectedly, you’re interesting”

“Thank you”

“But, not yet. It only starts from here”

“Let’s continue until you are satisfied”

This is the fifth time he summoned minions, yet their number shows no sign of decreasing.

It’s truly an exceptional magic capacity.

“Surround”

Same as a moment ago, minions took positions at a distance around her.

Furthermore――.

“Burst”

With Rod-sama snapping his fingers, minions began chain exploding.

Nearly every spectator expected the same development as before.

“Come, burst, come――”

Rather than summoning them in front of himself, Rod-sama summoned minions directly around Misha then detonated them, he performed that sequence many times in succession in no time.

The heat waves from explosions even reached spectators.

That Rod-sama’s being immature.

But, not going one bit easy on female opponents personally gives me a good impression.

“… I surrender”

“!? That’s enough!”

Suddenly, from among the explosions a weak surrender could be heard.

Lorec-sama hurriedly stopped the match.

With Rod-sama stopping snapping his fingers, the explosions settled down.

“What happened? Why did Misha surrender?”

“Perhaps due to lack of oxygen”

I explained to Claire-sama who was making a bewildered expression, and by proxy to every other spectator.

Rod-sama’s successive attacks with fire sucked oxygen out of Misha’s surroundings.

Because Misha’s barrier relies on vacuum tear, the lack of oxygen became even more serious.

Ultimately, Misha’s technique was overcome with Rod-sama’s numbers.

“Well, it’s like this”

“I was completely defeated”

“Don’t be silly. I will not pass with such a victory. If you weren’t stalling it wouldn’t turn out like this”

“I intended to give it my all”

Two people walked towards the spectating area while talking.

The crowd naturally split in two.

“Oh? What’s the matter?”

“You’re drawing attention. Both of you overdid it”

As Yuu-sama said, it was without a doubt a sight out of this world.

It’s natural for sword and armor era to end.

On such a battlefield, swords and the likes are nothing more than sticks.

At this point some people may become suspicious.

Sein-sama and Yuu-sama notwithstanding, couldn’t Rod-sama or Misha easily defeat the water slime.

In a sense, that doubt is correct.

While it would be a little tough for Sein-sama who specializes in physical attacks, under normal conditions any of the other three would be able to defeat the slime.

At that time, what caused the crisis was the surprise attack with Hate Cry.

It’s a powerful game-changing skill that causes the opponents to shrivel.

That I and Tred-sensei were able to resist was nothing but good luck.

“There’s no way we overdid it. Well, next up are the key performers, there should be more intriguing things to be seen”

“Hey, Rod-sama. Could you please cease adding strange pressure”

Claire-sama raised a complaint against Rod-sama who cracked a joke.

“But, you don’t intend to lose?”

“That should be obvious”

“I’m looking forward to it. Rei, you too”

Rod-sama faced me with a macho smile.

“Yes”

“That’s how you are being disrespectful, Rei”

Misha rebuked me for the half-hearted reply.

But, I want her to forgive me this time.

Because next is――.

“Tenth match, Claire-sama versus Rei”

Claire-sama’s and my turn.