I Think My Fiancé Has Regressed

Chapter 50: Second semester begins (5)

A week of private tutoring followed, with President Del teaching me a special kind of magic detection.

Thanks to President Del’s hands-on, detailed explanations, it didn’t take me long to master the new magic.

“That’s great, Student Ariana, you’re already able to use the special magic detection!”

It didn’t fix the drawback of having to use a lot of magic, but at least I could easily detect a handkerchief with a hole in it.

“Of course, I am Duchess Arianna, eldest daughter of House Anastasia.”

To be honest, getting to that point wasn’t without its challenges, but it would look bad for a high noble to be too humble.

Once I’d demonstrated the appropriate amount of pride, I made plans for the next step.

Specialized magic detection is just the first step, but there’s still a lot more work to be done.

I need to drastically reduce the amount of mana consumed per use, and I need to be able to detect much more precise objects than just a handkerchief with a hole in it.

And even after using the specialized magic detection, I need to reduce the amount of mana expended so that it can be used at least twice.

If I don’t make that happen somehow….I probably won’t be able to save Alex.

Of course, I can’t be sure that what I’m doing is right, but it’s the safest and closest I can get.

I’m really out of time in so many ways.

I wish I’d had more time, or rather, I wish I’d been prepared from the beginning, from freshman year, without Ms. Sierra.

I feel like I’m paying the price for being lazy and doing nothing but tuck my tail, now.

Besides, this isn’t the only thing I have to do at the Academy, because I still have a long way to go.

“Uh, stop the spirits! Are you going to freeze the whole area?!”

“I’m sorry, I don’t know how to stop it!!!”

Hearing the screams of a few students coming from one side of the summoner, I quickly walked in the direction of the sound.

It was time to solve the main event of the semester, the case of the High Elemental Runaway.

* * *

High Elemental Eustyr.

Eustyr, also known as the Frost Elemental, takes the form of a long-haired female made of ice.

She is quite beautiful by normal standards of beauty, and her temperament is milder than that of other High Spirits.

She is also a High Elemental who was summoned by a student at the Academy as a graduation project for her upcoming graduation.

However, something went wrong during the summoning process, and she became a Named Monster of Academy Light Romance.

As a mid-boss summoned by a student, there was no guarantee that she would appear this semester.

Since Sierra and I had changed so much of the existing plot, I wasn’t sure about its future so for a brief moment, I thought maybe we could just skip the hassle and let this semester go by quietly but the big picture of the future didn’t change, and here it is in front of me.

“…….”

Eustyr, the Ice Elemental, looked around the unfamiliar space she had been summoned to, unleashing a freezing chill on the students around her.

“Pfft, hurry up, reverse summon, reverse summon first!”

“Ah, yes, I understand, Iris the Chill Elemental, return to nature!”

“…….”

Eustyr stared wordlessly at the summoner’s face, which seemed to be speaking to her.

“……!!”

With a furious scowl, she fired a cold ice pick at her.

“…Uh, eh?”

The student, bewildered by the sight of a summoned beast attacking her, was unable to take her feet off the ground in terror.

“It’s dangerous!”

A black wall formed from my staff, narrowly stopping the summoner from turning into ice skewers.

It was a rather wasteful use of a single spell of creation magic, but of course, one life is more important than that.

“Get out of there, quick!”

“Yes!”

She hurriedly scrambled away to safety as a wall of dark magic formed between the summoner and Eustyr.

Now that the annoying obstacle was out of the way, I could finally fight in peace.

The problem is, I’ve already used my special magic detection once in class today, so I don’t have much magic left to use.

“Ariana!”

“Sis, what’s going on?!”

The good news is that, just like in the original, as soon as the battle started, Alex and Kael appeared on the scene.

Their strength would probably be enough to take down Eustyr.

“It’s Eustyr, a fourth year student summoned her as a graduation project, and she’s gone on a rampage and can’t be controlled!”

“Is it time already….”

“Now, wait a minute. Isn’t Eustyr one of the milder of the higher spirits? Why is she uncontrollable?”

Alex was calm as if he knew what was coming, but Kael cocked his head in disbelief.

“Because the summoner student mistook Eustyr for Iris, and called her Iris!”

“Ouch….”

When dealing with spirits, getting their names wrong is a pretty big deal.

Especially if you confuse the name of a higher-ranking spirit with a lower-ranking spirit, or if you mistake a lower-ranking spirit for a higher-ranking spirit and call it something else.

Even the meekest and most obedient Elementals can become dangerously unruly.

If someone mistook me for Miss Sierra and called me that, I would probably feel similarly.

“Eustyr’s weakness is fire, and if we destroy her summoning stone in the center of her chest with fire magic, she’ll revert to her natural state on her own!”

“How are we going to attack that crazy, rampaging thing? We can throw fireballs at it from a distance, but the flames will freeze before they can get close.”

“…….”

“Ariana, what do you think we should do?”

They were both looking at me earnestly for a solution, so I couldn’t help but open my mouth and explain the strategy.

“…Alex should do it.”

I don’t want to put Alex in harm’s way again, but eventually we’re going to need his strength again.

I can’t replace him with someone else, it’s something only he can do.

“Alex needs to get as close to Eustyr as he can, and stab her summoning stone with his sword, which of course needs to be enchanted with fire magic.”

In Kael’s case, he was vulnerable in close combat, and even if he had Prince Eamon, he wouldn’t have been able to handle fire magic.

Of all the people who can handle both close combat and fire magic, Alex is the only one I would trust.

Although I really, really didn’t want to leave it to Alex.

“Okay.”

I knew he’d say that again.

When I look at Alex, who always says yes to my requests to solve seemingly impossible problems, without question it makes me wonder if he can really do anything.

“Hey, are you sure you’re okay with that? I don’t think even Alex can navigate through that blizzard of ice picks to get to….”

“That’s for you to handle, Kael.”

“…Me? …That?”

“Alex is risking his life to get close to Eustyr and you’re going to stand by and do nothing?”

“Of course not, but….you expect me to deal with that?”

Kael replied in disbelief as he looked at the giant vortex that had formed around her, the ice pellets fluttering in it.

“It’s simple. You just need to intercept the ice pellets as they get closer to Alex with a small fire spell and destroy them one by one.”

“That’s easier said than done. There are different sizes of ice pellets, and if I don’t control the firepower, Alex will get hurt.”

“Have you forgotten how to control the firepower of your magic already?”

“That’s not what I meant, ha….”

Kael shoots me a frustrated look, but it doesn’t change what I have to say to him.

Eventually, perhaps sensing that it was something he had to do, Kael reluctantly nodded.

“Okay, we’ll do it.”

“Right now, even as we speak, the ice grains in the vortex are growing, and if we don’t hurry and start fighting off Eustyr, we won’t even be able to get close.”

“I’m ready, Kael.”

“I’m ready, too.”

At the same time as their last words, Alex’s body was sucked into the blizzard.

He was using wind magic and arcane magic to maximize his physical abilities, trying to reach Eustyr’s summoning stone in the shortest distance possible.

Every single ice pellet that attempted to reach his body was either dissipating in midair or turning into droplets of water under Kael’s magic.

Alex’s form was quickly swallowed up by the blizzard, and we waited silently for the outcome, praying that he would be safe.

Shortly thereafter, the winner was decided between Alex and Eustyr.

“…….”

From the slowly dissipating swirl of snow and ice, the silhouette of a man loomed.

The holy sword he held was engraved with fire magic, and every inch of his body was covered in frost, as if droplets of melted water had re-frozen.

And where Eustyr had last been, only a summoning stone, broken in half, rolled across the floor.

“Alex!”

And just like that, the battle with Eustyr, the Frost Elemental, was over.