Seraphina POV
After the flames from all the fireballs finally fizzle out, a large sphere of blaze completely envelops the unsteady figure of a certain girl.
"Heh, it is the president after all."
"Oh, was that it?"
"Did she really burn my eyes out just to lose so quickly? Tch."
The audience around me seems to have lost interest in the fight, but I can't even bother to listen to them right now.
"Damn it, why isn't the referee calling it already? I can't watch this anymore!"
Things went wrong from the start, so I have been clenching my fists throughout the entire duel, but now I feel my nails dig even deeper into my skin as I anxiously watch the arena.
"Calm down Sera! Watch the flames more carefully, a faint golden glow is still visible underneath so her shield spell is still holding. Don't be too hasty."
Arthur says and stops me just as I get ready to stand up to interrupt.
"Even so with all that fire… I don't know how much longer she can hold out. It's way more than anything we ever trained with so I'm really concerned about her."
"...I don't know all the details, but to me it seems like she's still fighting and hasn't given up. So maybe we can give her a little more time?"
"..."
I return my gaze to the large sphere of blaze. The faint glow of Lucy's spell is still visible, but it seems to be getting weaker and weaker.
Lucy…
Then suddenly the golden light intensifies, its radiance breaking through the deep red and yellow of the flames.
"...!"
"There it is! I knew it! If anyone, it would be Lucy who could block even the president's spells!" Arthur excitedly says upon seeing Lucy's efforts.
Then all of a sudden her barrier grows larger, pushing away the encroaching blaze far enough to disrupt Hugh's spell, making him lose control of the spell momentarily.
Although knowing his strength, even if he got taken off guard by Lucy's sudden display, he's probably already working on his follow up offensive spells. However Lucy is also ready to seize this opportunity and the next moment a small rock flies through the air and loudly crashes into something on the other side of the arena.
"...! What happened?"
"Did she just-?"
"Doesn't she have the light attribute? How did she…"
"...!"
I stand up among the suddenly excited audience as I finally get a good look at Lucy without all the magical effects obscuring her.
She's breathing heavily and looks quite disheveled, but she has a really serious and determined expression on her face. With such a big contrast to her usual self, my words of concern get stuck in my throat.
"She missed!"
"Aw, I got excited for nothing."
I quickly come to my senses and glance towards Hugh, and sure enough he's still standing tall, though with a somewhat surprised expression.
Then I look back to Lucy just in time to see her collapse to the ground.
"Lucy!"
I knew it, she was pushing herself too far. Why didn't you forfeit earlier you idiot? And why didn't I stop you…
Negtive thoughts start to weigh heavily on me, but I jump into the arena and quickly run towards Lucy.
***
Seraphina POV
"Physically she's mostly fine, just exhausted. She did get close to mana depletion by pushing herself to her limits, but thankfully she was still within the safe threshold."
Finishing her thorough examination, Miss Julia turns and tells me and Arthur. After she collapsed we brought Lucy to the infirmary and she is now lying peacefully on the sickbed.
"And mentally?"
"..."
I ask, but Miss Julia doesn't answer and instead looks at the two of us with suspicion in her eyes.
"Um, both of us know about Lucy's… condition."
"Hm, she told us about it herself."
"Haah. Just trust everyone you meet, why don't you?"
Miss Julia grumbles and gives the unconscious Lucy a helpless look before turning back to us.
"I don't know. That whole display probably awakened some traumatic memories for her, which was probably also a factor in her collapsing so suddenly."
"Lucy…"
"Is there anything we can do for her?"
"Well, since you already know her circumstances, I'll leave you two to accompany her until she wakes up. I need to go back to the arena to supervise the rest of the duels. But if any issues come up, find me immediately."
"Got it, thank you Miss Julia. We'll look after her."
Arthur says and Miss Julia leaves the two of us with Lucy.
"..."
"..."
Then an awkward silence settles over the infirmary as we sit down next to Lucy.
"Ahem. You heard Miss Julia, I'm sure Lucy will be alright."
"Tch, ...maybe. I just didn't expect the president to be one of them too."
"One of whom…?"
"People who want to bully Lucy. I already met other noble girls and even teachers who went out of their way just to mess with her. I'm sure Lucy's original opponent didn't back out willingly, only for the strongest fire mage to take their place. I bet it was their doing and Hugh is at least part of it, if not fully working with them."
"Something like that actually happened? At the academy?"
Arthur responds, with a look of disbelief on his face. Right, he didn't know about the previous incidents.
"What? Is it that hard to believe some people acted like that? You should be happy I no longer count someone else among them as well."
"...sorry. It's just… Which teacher was it? And the others, we should investigate it and report them as well. No matter their rank, the academy still enforces strict rules on all students and teachers."
"It was Mister Roderic. Although after Miss Julia lectured him about it and Lucy joined the student council, there hasn't really been anyone who dared to mess with her since, so I didn't prioritize looking into them. But now, they clearly haven't given up and were just waiting for an opportunity."
"And you think the president is also working with them?"
"You don't?"
Arthur scratches the side of his head as he thinks for a moment and then says:
"I don't think so. At least from what I know about the president, unless something is beneficial towards his goals, he doesn't care about it. And I don't see how bullying Lucy could be useful for him, so I think they might have made a deal with him, but how much he knew about Lucy's circumstances, I have no idea. If he didn't know about her condition with fire, he might have truly been just filling in for the original duel opponent."
"Or he might have been fully aware of all the details."
Even though we are part of the same generation of noble children, I very rarely met Hugh before. He barely showed up at social events, and even when he did, he was quite cold and unapproachable. And while he is the president of the student council, after the initial introductions he barely ever showed up at the office again.
So I can only judge him based on what I've seen of him at the arena, which doesn't paint him in a favourable light at all. But Arthur continues:
"How about this? Give me like a week to look into this incident and find out if the president was actually involved. Then we can decide our next move afterward. What do you think?"
"...Fine, one week."
It is true that last time something like this happened, I was apparently wrong about Arthur, so I guess I can wait an extra week for him to make sure. Then I glance at Lucy lying on the bed with a somewhat uncomfortable expression and another worry surfaces in my mind.
"But for that week, could you help me ask for a leave for Lucy from her student council responsibilities? I know the president rarely goes to the office, but I want to make sure Lucy can recover peacefully."
"Of course, we can arrange that. I'll talk to the president about it later today, and then we can just split Lucy's work between us?"
"Hm. Thank you."
Well, at least he can be reliable sometimes… Though his smug smile is still annoying.
"Ugh."
Then suddenly Lucy stirs in her sleep, her face looking pained and her body slightly shaking. She's probably having a nightmare.
"Lucy!"
So I grab her arm, and gently try to wake her up.
"Ahhh!"
She cries out and jumps up on the bed, her breathing heavy and her eyes unfocused, likely still affected by her nightmare.
"Lucy, it's okay. I'm here."
"...Huh? H-Hina?"
I reach out and help her lie down again, after a few seconds she seems to calm down and come to her senses.
"Why am I…? Ah! The duel! Did I-... I lost, didn't I?"
"Don't think about that. How are you feeling? Are you okay?"
"I'm fine, but…Hina… Arthur. I… I'm sorry. Even though you helped me so much, I let you down. Sniff. I'm so sorry. I'm really useless, aren't I?"
Right after her eyes regained their usual clarity, the first thing she thinks of is her fight with Hugh. Even after I express my concerns for her, she goes straight back to blaming herself as her eyes glimmer with tears and a few drops even fall on the bed.
Seeing her in such a self-loathing state makes me feel…
"I should just-"
"You still have the nerve to talk like that!"
Really mad. I'm really angry.
Out of frustration I slam my hands on the sides of my chair and interrupt her with a shout.
"Do you know how worried I was about you?! I don't care about the outcome of the match at all, what I do care about is you. You should have forfeited the moment you felt it was too much and not push yourself so much!"
"Sera, calm-"
"You shut up!"
"..."
Arthur tries to interrupt my scolding, but I quickly shut him down too, then turn back to Lucy. Though that brief distraction helped clear my mind a little so when I look at her appearance again, it makes it a little hard for me to continue.
Although her previous depressed look has disappeared, she's now looking at me with a really surprised expression. That combined with her large eyes wide open, still glistening with unshed tears kind of makes her look like some scared kitten.
So that mental image makes my further words of reprimand catch in my throat. Even though I feel like she'd deserve harsher treatment, I can't help but calm down and use a gentler tone instead.
"...Just promise me you won't act so reckless in the future, okay? And you better remember to put yourself first and not some useless results. Am I understood?"
"...yes."
"Also! Don't put yourself down like that anymore. You did really well, I'm proud."
"Hina…"
"You've done your part, now leave the rest to me. I'll avenge you and teach the president a lesson he won't forget."
"Pfft. Haha, sorry."
Just as I'm having a nice moment with Lucy, Arthur makes a sudden noise and has a hard time stopping himself from laughing.
"What?"
I try to mask my embarrassment by making my voice sound cold, but it doesn't seem to affect him much.
"Nothing pfft. I said nothing. Pretend I'm not here haha."
"...Since you woke up, I'll go get Miss Julia. You better remember what I said." I tell Lucy. Then I turn to Arthur.
"And you better not say anything."
After that I hurry out of the infirmary while feeling my cheeks slightly heat up.