Since that day, Erich had not seen the young princess.
It wasn't that he hadn't seen her at all. In the corridors after class or around the corners of the cafeteria, he would occasionally catch a fleeting glimpse of pale gold hair. However, the young princess seemed to have mastered some special skill, always vanishing before Erich could spot her. At first, Lorraine had tried to help pass messages a few times, but she was eventually stopped by Celine, who was always by the young princess's side. After that, Lorraine could only shrug at Erich, offering a helpless expression that said she couldn't do anything to help.
Now, the tables had turned. Erich finally got a taste of what it felt like to be avoided.
The two of them dragged things out like this for a month.
The Freshman Ranking Tournament, however, did not grind to a halt over their petty drama. The academy had divided all the freshmen into eight groups for a round-robin tournament. It used a point system where a win earned one point and a loss deducted none. In the end, the person with the highest points in each group would advance. Due to injuries and other unexpected incidents during the matches, it took nearly a month just to complete the preliminary rounds.
Erich, on the other hand, barely had to fight. It wasn't that he didn't want to. The display he had put on in front of the entire school during the exhibition match had been too spectacular—and far too underhanded. When the groups were first drawn for the tournament, the freshmen assigned to Erich's group had stared at one another in dismay. By the very next day, over a dozen of them had applied to transfer groups, citing “physical discomfort” as their reason. Although the remaining students didn't say it out loud, whenever they were matched against Erich, they either forfeited immediately or simply went through the motions on stage before conceding.
The academy likely realized there was little point in having him participate in the prelims. Coupled with his status as a “special guest” of the exhibition match, they simply gave him a bye, allowing him to advance straight to the final round.
Initially, Erich was quite pleased. Advancing without having to fight saved him a lot of trouble. But he quickly realized the catch: he had become the idle-most person in the entire academy.
His classes remained the same, and going to them only meant zoning out. His roommates all had to compete in the tournament, so Erich couldn't very well drag them into sparring with him.
Thus, Erich thought about finding some upperclassmen to spar with.
However, the upperclassmen were either away on internships or couldn't bring themselves to lower their dignity to exchange blows with a first-year freshman. A few slightly older students did think they could handle him, but once they actually stepped onto the stage and were left thoroughly humiliated by Erich's elusive spells, none of them wanted to touch this tough nut again.
“Erich's magic is too dirty.” This was the rumor that spread through the academy. Even if one managed to win, it would cost them a layer of skin, and losing was even more embarrassing.
Under these circumstances, Erich channeled more of his energy into magic research.
He was already as familiar with first-tier spells as he could possibly be, able to cast them with his eyes closed. Thus, he began to self-study second-tier spells. The academy library had quite a few second-tier spellbooks. After paying a deposit, he selected a few that seemed practical and poured over them repeatedly.
He understood all the theories. The mobilization of mana, the construction of spell models, the guiding of mental power—he followed every step exactly as written in the books, yet something was off.
His body possessed a strange sense of rejection toward second-tier spells. When his mana flowed to certain nodes, it would experience a sort of stagnation, like something blocking a water pipe, preventing a smooth flow. Although the spells could barely take shape, their power was heavily compromised. Furthermore, after every cast, he would feel a tightness in his chest, as if something were pooling there.
Erich tried several times, switching to different types of second-tier spells, but the result remained the same.
Could it be that, just as the academy's talent test had indicated, this was indeed his ceiling?
If it were just a matter of spells not casting smoothly, it would be one thing, but what made Erich even more uneasy was another issue: his attribute growth.
When he leveled up by killing monsters in the Abyss, his attribute growth was visibly noticeable. But after leaving the Abyss and coming to the academy, the natural growth of his attributes had become ridiculously slow.
School had been in session for two months now. With constant practice, Erich's classmates were experiencing visible improvements in their total mana and mental strength. Yet, looking at Erich himself, his mental power felt as though it were being suppressed by something, and his Willpower remained completely stagnant.
He tried to find the cause, combing through books on mana cultivation in the library and trying various meditation methods to increase mental power. He tried everything, but the results were negligible.
With no progress in magic, Erich wondered if he could find a breakthrough from another direction, such as the 【Gravekeeper】 Class.
Having grown close to Old Barto, Erich had learned that the old man was also a 【Gravekeeper】. Thus, he wanted to ask for guidance on the next step.
“Advance further? I wish I could,” Old Barto had replied at the time. “Above Gravekeeper is Funeral Deacon, but I only know the name.”
The path of advancement for the Gravekeeper was cut off just like that, at least for the time being.
The bottleneck in his magic cultivation was also stuck there.
The young princess was still avoiding him.
Erich felt like he was going crazy from the frustration.
Fortunately, his dreary days were not entirely devoid of light.
On occasional nights, Margaret would come to the graveyard to find him. Sometimes she brought a flask of warmed fruit wine, sometimes a few home-baked cookies. She didn't speak much, simply sitting on the stool in his small cabin to accompany him while he read, occasionally mentioning how the young mistress was doing.
Irene came less frequently, but she would still slip into his cabin every few days after nightfall, sitting silently for a while and occasionally speaking of her childhood.
Even Alicia herself, when they occasionally crossed paths on campus, would nod to him instead of glaring. It was a friendship forged through a beating, though Erich felt the price of this friendship was a bit too steep.
There was also another thing: during the weekly church masses, Erich would always run into the Holy Maiden.
He didn't know when it started, but after mass ended, the Holy Maiden would walk over to his side and chat with him. Their conversations were always about trivial matters, like the recent cold weather or the flowers she was growing that had bloomed.
The Holy Maiden spoke with an inherent, relaxing warmth. Being around her didn't feel particularly intimate, but it was incredibly comforting.
Days passed one by one. In mid-October, the preliminary rounds of the Freshman Ranking Tournament drew to a close. The point rankings for the eight groups were released one after another, and the top-scoring individuals from each group advanced. Erich's roommate, Yser, successfully qualified. Ragg and Balin had slightly worse luck, finishing second in their respective groups and regrettably bowing out. Alicia advanced with a flawless, undefeated record as expected, and Lorraine also secured a spot to advance.
The final list of the top eight was posted on the academy bulletin board, surrounded by a dense crowd of students. Erich glanced at the sheet of paper from outside the crowd, spotting his name written at the very top, marked with “Advanced on a Bye.”
He twitched the corner of his mouth and prepared to leave.
As he passed the corner of the teaching building, he spotted the young princess and her friends standing in the distance. Lorraine was smiling and patting the young princess's shoulder, likely congratulating her on advancing. The young princess's pale gold hair gleamed softly in the sunlight. As if sensing something, she cast a glance in Erich's direction.
Their gazes met briefly in the air.
Then, the young princess lowered her head and followed her friends into the teaching building.
Rate on N.U.
