"It must've been hard for young master, training all this time. That Gent lad is probably training somewhere else entirely, therefore having proficiency with the spell. There's a reason he dared to place the bet. If the test is tomorrow and young master has insufficient practice, why play exactly by the rules?"
"I see. Gent has definitely trained outside of the public eye while I have struggled until now. Right now, even if I happen to grasp the secret behind the spell, I will still lag behind," Jinto spoke in response.
"Yes, I say that besting him will be hard. That's why I propose psychological warfare."
Jinto stopped sketching the Wind Blade on the page of the book and looked at Sarina. "Psychological warfare?"
"Since intent, in part, is about calming the mind and having a said intent, why not disturb it? And to do it, all that is needed is to riddle the opponent's mind with negative thoughts."
Jinto grasped what Sarina was trying to say. A smile curved up from his lips as he said, "It truly is dishonorable, but no win comes at no cost. I will just make him angry, huh? That guy has always had insecurities about his image. A good humiliation in front of everybody will suffice."
Slightly surprised, Sarina inwardly thought, "This young master of mine isn't so cookie." Magicians of the righteous clan always revered honor as a code to abide by. For the glory of the clan, it is encouraged to sacrifice themselves. To fight with fairness in mind, to sacrifice for the greater picture, was the righteous way.
"I'm glad my humble opinion has provided help. That's all I could come up with." Sarina bowed.
"You've been of excellent help. To be honest, I didn't expect much. But today, you've truly opened my eyes. Don't put yourself down; you've managed to figure out things even I haven't thought of," Jinto gave his words of approval.
"With all that said and done, I'll excuse myself. Dinner will be ready shortly, so be prepared, young master."
Jinto nodded; his mood had improved significantly.
"Good, you can finish yourself."
Sarina slightly bowed before leaving the room and closing the door behind her.
…
After dinner, he gathered Paul and Melissa into his room and told them what Sarina and he had discussed previously.
"Impressive, haha, we all have to thank Sarina for this." Paul couldn't contain his praises.
Melissa, with a towel wrapped around her hair, responded, "Intent is just not about the tranquility of the mind. We had eyes but failed to see what Master Hector was instructing. But now, how are you supposed to win the supposed friendly duel against him? He must've known the secrets behind it from Olsen."
"That's right, Jinto. Even with this information, we have yet to put it into practice."
"There's a simple solution." Jinto smiled, not finishing his sentence to let the others inquire.
"Spit it out already," Melissa grew slightly impatient.
Paul stayed quiet, waiting for Jinto to speak of his plan.
"If I can't win by normal means, then I'll have to go to another method, and this method is very simple. I'll just have to humiliate him enough for him to suffer backlash."
Melissa realized, "Good plan. Knowing his character, he is doomed to vomit blood at a public embarrassment."
Paul wanted to put his palm to his face at the mention of this, as it was an unsightly way of doing things, but ultimately, he kept quiet and heard the plan Jinto was setting in motion.
…
In the early morning before the proficiency test, outside of the Fang household at the edges of the estate, in a wide field near the farms that mortals occupied.
Swoosh
A Wind Blade shot out from a youth. The Wind Blade struck a rock standing at both a meter in width and length that was situated on the floor, passing straight through it.
"This really is the right way," Jinto said excitedly. All this time, he had struggled to cleanly slice the mannequin at the training ground, but now, it was accomplished in a single strike.
Swoosh Swoosh
At the sight of Jinto's success, Melissa and Paul activated their spells, completely slicing off the already destroyed rock. Now the rock had been heavily trimmed, with four pieces of what used to be a unified structure scattered across the ground.
"Now that we have confirmed the right way in practice, the plan is set in motion. That guy, Gent, is going to leave me for the later rounds, I'm presuming, as information of me struggling is public. Paul, you should go first into the starter rounds to make him a little worried about my abilities."
Paul nodded.
Jinto looked at the rock that had been heavily dismembered and said, "Melissa, please, once you see Olsen take the stage, go and give him some words of 'affection,' but not to the point of backlash—just enough so he can hear you. Of course, if he goes into the starting rounds, then the plan will be slightly switched, but it shouldn't be a problem."
Melissa gave a light smile. "Count me in. If possible, I too want to win the mana stones. I can't let him haggle them. His loss should also give Gent a mental attack."
Jinto looked at his right hand, which had shot the spell. "As for me, I'll put on a good insulting show for you guys—no, for all the students to see." He sighed: "Hopefully, I manage to finish off the duel today."
…
Training grounds.
Jinto had his eyes closed as he remembered how he got to this point. His plan, to his surprise, went along better than he had expected. It wasn't a well-thought-out plan, as he didn't see the retaliation Gent would cause upon seeing Paul. The exchange was largely improvised, but it all worked out well.
He only had two more chances. His first Wind Blade had missed; the second and third managed to hit the mannequin, but not in the desired spot.
He imagined his intent of cutting the target that stood before him, wanting to cut it as if he was wielding the sharpest sword that couldn't be stopped. In his mind, the sketch of his Wind Blade he had made was brought to the scene. He imagined its perfect curvature, its pointed edges, and its deadly sharp razor front.
Swoosh
The Wind Blade shot forward. Its momentum was unstoppable. It quickly appeared in front of its target.
Shing
With a sound, it sliced off the mannequin's two legs at the upper thigh. From the impact of the strike, both of the mannequin's halves shot backward. A man, already holding a mannequin, quickly went to where the remains of the severed target were and quickly made a replacement before going back to his spot.
Jinto raised his right hand a little higher this time. Seeing how his strike had failed to hit the neck, he calculated the position of this newly placed mannequin. The margin of error wasn't great, and due to the size of the Wind Blade, it was unlikely not to strike his desired spot this time!
Swoosh
At the release of the Wind Blade, Jinto's medium spiky black hair fluttered as his robes, placed to his right, trembled slightly at the sudden release of the spell.
The Wind Blade made a piercing sound as it passed through the air. Undisturbed, it arrived five meters away from its target.
Jinto smiled: "I guess this is it."
The students had long ceased their laughter at the sight of Gent's backlash. They now saw the view in front of their eyes.
Some students' faces had darkened significantly from what they were originally. Because Jinto was about to win!
On the other hand, the small few who went against the odds smiled brightly.
Olsen closed his eyes.
"Haha, what is it now? Master Jinto is what he will call him?" Paul laughed.
"It will be that from now on. Just look at his face," Melissa pointed out.
There, on the ground, with the corner of his lips tainted in blood and a droplet of blood slightly coming out of his nose, Gent watched as he lay on the ground. From the backlash, his vision was slightly blurred.
"Damn it, I lost. To this Golden Fissure waste?"
"All my life, that bastard… has always had it all!" Gent couldn't help but exclaim.
Since childhood, his parents had always compared him to the young master of the Fang family.
"Why can't you write at the age of six? The Fang family has been boasting about their son writing poems." His father looked at him in disappointment.
So, to comply with his parents, at the age of six, Gent Joto started to write and study. Ultimately creating his own poems, it had taken him a year to write neatly and read. He took his time, and after spending three weeks viewing nature, he had created his poem. He eagerly and excitedly pushed open the door to his father's room.
"Dad, look, I've made a poem just like you wanted!" He stepped closer to his father's desk. His father sat at his desk, a pen in his right hand as he wrote on documents.
His father remained attentive to his work, not even glancing back at his child, remarking, "Poems? What poems? What do I need poems for? It seems you've been wasting your time. Unlike the young master of the Fangs, he has already begun to concoct basic alchemist potions. I hoped, with that news, you would've taken the initiative on your own and inquired about it, but it seems you've been wasting your time on useless poems!" Once he finished speaking, he turned around and snatched the piece of paper from Gent's hands.
"Dad!" Gent exclaimed, surprised. He had put his diligence into making the poem, and seeing it snatched away in such an aggressive manner made his heart ache. His eyes started to water as he stared at his father's face, which contained only disapproval.
"Dad, I…" He wanted to say something back—to say that he had not been wasting his time. He had studied hard to write and read, very hard! But his words couldn't come out. Maybe it was due to the extreme bitterness he was feeling at the moment or the sadness welling up inside him.
"You what? Tsk, you can't even explain yourself properly. Are you even my son? Hmph! Your elder cousin, Gena, is more fit to inherit my position."
Once he finished speaking, with his hand tightly holding the piece of paper his son once held, he activated his mana and triturated the piece of paper into tiny pieces that slowly fell to the ground.
Gent stood there, watching as his father shredded it into pieces, and started to tear up. Tears streamed down both of his cheeks, hitting the ground.
His father stared at his weeping son. "Is this all you can muster? Leave!" he angrily roared.
Gent sucked up all the bitterness he felt. With tear-soaked eyes, he lifted his right elbow to hide them as he slowly turned around to leave the room. His small steps sounded until he had left his father's room.
Once he left, his father shook his head in disappointment before returning to his work.
…
Jinto's brows tightened. His Wind Blade, instead of reaching its target, had hit a compact white wall that was slightly transparent with hints of green.
"Enough." Master Hector stepped out as his commanding voice rang out. All students placed their eyes on him.
Jinto, being puzzled, thought: "Hm? Why is Master Hector interfering?"
"That's enough from both of you. I tried not to interrupt for the sake of competition between students, but this has grown distorted." Originally, he wasn't going to meddle since it was a fight between students. In fact, he had earlier been entertained. But Jinto's method was too foul. If the conditions of the bet were fulfilled, Gent would have to abide by them for the duration of his stay at the academy. Losing in such a manner would only lead to more negative feelings—especially in an academy designed for learning. Master Hector wasn't the type to scold someone for how they did things, but as a teacher, he had to abide by rules.
Master Hector looked at Jinto intently as he commanded, "Jinto, your manner of doing things isn't right. Please keep it appropriate inside the academy from now on."
"So he's meddling because of my actions, I see." Jinto cast a quick side-eye at Gent, who lay on the ground.
"As for the bet, I'll declare it null. Neither Jinto nor Gent has won." Master Hector cast his gaze toward the students around him, leaving no room for rebuttal. He knew that some students were distracted due to having placed their money on one of the contestants. With this action, he wanted to suppress such things in the future as well.
Students who had placed their money on Gent had their moods lifted, while those who had bet against the odds had theirs thrown to the ground.
"Now that we've settled that, many of you have shown how much effort was put into perfecting the spell. But the one who had the most outstanding performance is none other than Melissa Fang."
Melissa smiled internally. Out of all the performances, she knew she had the best one. Vitus' performance was lackluster, she had meddled with Olsen's performance by intentionally competing alongside him, and even if Jinto had managed to strike that Wind Blade, she had the most consistent results.
Paul, at the side, said, "Congratulations. Now you are four mana stones wealthier."
Melissa didn't hide her smile. "Thank you."