Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei - Volume 03 - Nine Schools Competition (I) (18 page)

"Tatsuya, stop."

Tatsuya's father, who had remained silent until now — Shiba Tatsurou, covered for the immobile Aoki who had been cowed into silence and stepped forward to halt Tatsuya.

"Don't speak poorly of your mother."

But his words were completely off topic.

This was probably done to avoid irritating the main house and to protect himself.

This corporation was secretly funded by the Yotsuba Family, so even though he was the majority shareholder thanks to the stocks from his deceased wife, the actual power of attorney still remained in the hands of the Yotsuba Family, hence it wasn't surprising for him to speak softly around them, but.
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Tatsuya almost broke into laughter.

"Tatsuya, it's not that I don't understand why you bear hatred towards your mother.
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And, this father couldn't even read Tatsuya's expression.

Tatsuya truly believed that, for the sake of everyone's mutual mental health, it was best to leave as quickly as possible.

Even so, Tatsuya felt that he needed to add one extra comment before departing.

"Otou-san, you misunderstand, I don't hate my mother."

"Is.
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Is that so.
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That was all that was necessary.

There was no need to tell him the words Tatsuya didn't say.

Tatsuya's heart did not possess the ability to "hate".

He could not feel any strong emotions like fury, despair, envy, hatred, disgust, gluttony, lust, sloth, and.
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love.

Never would he forget himself in anger.

Neither would he wallow in despair.

Nor struggle with envy.

Unknown to hatred, nor known to disgust.

Or fall in love with women.

To hunger, but not gluttonous.

To arouse, but not lustful.

To tire, but not slothful.

The unique magic that only his mother possessed in the entire world erased all the strongest emotions and urges from his heart.

He did not hate his mother.

Nor was he furious.

That was because he was "unable" to enrage and "unable" to hate.

The only "emotion" they left for him was intentionally left behind to bind him to the Yotsuba Family with a chain forged of duty.

Of course, this was not filial piety.

And so, Tatsuya cradled the sobbing Miyuki as they left the premises without a word of goodbye.

One of the advantages of having a set classroom at school was that it fostered building interpersonal relationships.

Regional proximity and blood relations are both powerful impetus for developing bonds and, regardless of whether they are official or unofficial organizations, serve to differentiate and categorize groups within groups.

For the practical application of this sentiment.
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"Morning, Shiba.
I heard about it already, nice going."

"Morning, Shiba-kun, great job."

"Good morning, Shiba-kun, I'm rooting for you."

"Hey, go for it, Shiba."

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And so, even students who normally weren't very close to him were voluntarily bridging out towards him through greetings and words of encouragement.

As soon as Tatsuya entered the classroom on Monday, he received a string of support from his classmates.

The reason why they did this was natural:
Tatsuya was selected as one of the representatives for the Nine Schools Competition.

"The grapevine is quite active."

"Yep.
This was only decided last week and there hasn't even been an official announcement yet."

"Yeah, so where did they get the news?"

Leo, Mizuki, and Erika did not appear to be feigning ignorance, so they probably weren't the culprits.

However, it's not like those responsible were issued gag orders either.

At the time, only upperclassmen attended the meeting, so they likely heard the news from their club leaders.

"Speaking of which, didn't they make the announcement today?"

Erika tilted her head to one side and asked, at which Tatsuya nodded in a solemn manner.

Including the technician team, the official roster for the Nine Schools Competition was finalized last Friday.

The original timetable called for the roster to be finalized two weeks ago, so they were obviously several steps behind.

The fact that the contestants were already decided may have been a blessing in disguise, since all the competition-use CADs and uniforms that usually took the longest time to prepare had already been assembled.
The only bottleneck was that because the engineering candidates hadn't been settled, all of the maintenance and testing work was yet to be done.

Miyuki was a contestant herself, but owing to the constant stream of preparation work she was entirely unavailable.
For her, Tatsuya was willing to sacrifice anything, but still couldn't dispel the notion that he was being railroaded.

"I think 5th period will be changed to an assembly, right?"

Mizuki said this as she gazed at the terminal screen set into the table before them that listed today's class schedule.

All grades shared the same schedule with three periods in the morning and two in the afternoon.

Even so, besides labs, technical skills, and physical education classes, standardized classes (classes set as progression goals) advanced according to the student's own pace.
Modern schools allowed for personalized education to be displayed on the terminal screens in class and did not heavily restrict start and end times.

In modern schools, the higher the grade level, the less emphasis was placed on determining class time and break time.
The fact that the school changed the entire 5th period into an assembly to properly send off the representatives was a clear sign of how highly the school viewed this event.

"Tatsuya-kun will also be onstage during the ceremony, correct?"

"Hm, yeah.
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Tatsuya stammered out a reply to Mizuki's question because this was precisely the point of contention that plagued him.

"And Tatsuya is the only First Year student, right?"

Just as Leo said, the only First Year student accepted into the technician team was Tatsuya.

Experience in CAD maintenance was absolutely necessary, so naturally upperclassmen should be the ones selected for the technician team, except that Tatsuya's skills were vastly different from the masses.

Of course, when taking into consideration that he was a pioneering expert in the development of CAD software, he would definitely be overqualified for serving as an engineer in a high school competition.

But, regardless of whether they were in his year or higher grades, no one was aware of this detail.

Only his sister Miyuki knew.

"Those Course 1 students look so~ very~ aggrieved."

The Course 1 students were still smarting from the results of the finals and this selection would only serve to throw more oil on the fire.
This was blatantly obvious even without Erika verbalizing it.

"But all the contestants are Course 1 students.
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That was Tatsuya's perspective.

Since all the contestants for the Newcomers Division were Course 1 students and Tatsuya was only an auxiliary member, no one on the outside would comment on this.

—But for the people in question, this was insufficient to comfort the other Course 1 students that aimed to become Magic Artificers.

Tatsuya was rarely in a position that aroused jealousy.

He also lacked the ability to envy others.

His life experiences were not rich enough for him to observe all the minute details.

"There's nothing they can do about it.
Jealousy alone isn't a good enough reason."

So when he heard Mizuki's piercing comment, Tatsuya was unable to formulate a reply.

"Relax, this time no one is going to throw stones or magic at you."

At Erika's overly extreme method of comforting him, Tatsuya could only smile wryly.

After 4th period, Tatsuya reported on time to the backstage, where he was handed a thin jacket by Miyuki, who arrived before him.

"This is?"

For all intents and purposes, this was a normal jacket, but Tatsuya still wanted to verify that.

"This is the uniform for the technician team.
Please put that on during the ceremony in place of the actual uniform."

The one who answered was Mayumi.

—With the expected answer.

Mayumi herself was wearing a western-styled sports jacket.

That was probably the uniform for contestants.

Miyuki, who was still in her school uniform, let out an expectant smile as she held out the jacket to Tatsuya with both hands.

A brief, mischievous urge flashed across his mind, but Tatsuya knew that resistance was futile.

Tatsuya frankly removed the jacket of his school uniform and hung it on the coat hanger prepared ahead of time.

Next, he slightly bent his knees and allowed Miyuki to help him put on the jacket.

Standing behind him, Miyuki tugged the jacket over her brother's shoulders before looping to the front and adjusting the collar and sleeves.
Afterwards, she took a step back to glance over her brother's torso and letting out a wide, satisfied smile.

Tatsuya was largely aware of why his sister was in such a fantastic mood.

Her happiness was likely caused by the school emblem embroidered over the jacket's left breast.

The emblem was styled after a flower with eight petals.

Miyuki's uniform had the same emblem over the same location.

The emblem of First High.

And not a replacement either, but the symbol of a Course 1 student.

"Onii-sama, that suits you perfectly.
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The intramural competition uniforms were largely the same as the normal ones, which was natural since it was only intended to identify which school the contestants belonged to.

However, in Miyuki's eyes, Tatsuya's appearance was finally restored to its rightful state.

Tatsuya honestly couldn't care less but it was precisely because he didn't care that he didn't want to spoil the mood.
There was still some time until the commencement of the ceremony, so Tatsuya waited around wearing the uniform for the technician team.

Miyuki was completely mesmerized by the dashing figure Tatsuya cut in his uniform.
She remained standing there without tiring in her uniform.
Tatsuya gazed around him but failed to catch sight of Miyuki's western sport jacket.
Even with the copious amount of time remaining, Tatsuya still felt that she should get ready as soon as possible.

"Don't you need to change?"

"I'm serving as the ceremonial assistant."

Hearing Tatsuya's question, Miyuki snapped out of her mesmerized expression to reply with her usual smile on her face.

In other words, this was the only time that Miyuki was excluded from the participant standing and served instead as the representative for the send-off party.
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At least that's how Tatsuya interpreted Miyuki's words.

"Is that so, that's quite a heavy responsibility."

"Please don't remind me.
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There was no way she would shrink at such a marginal duty, but she still employed that weak tone and faltering gaze, prompting Tatsuya to smile softly and lay a hand on his sister's head.

—The surrounding onlookers directed cold gazes towards the two of them.

The team members responsible for organizing the so-called send off ceremony got the event started on time, and everything proceeded according to plan.