Ordinarily, Owen and Via had little to do with each other, and there was basically no conflict between them.
Owen’s interrogation of Via left everyone puzzled.
“I already heard it from the teacher,” Owen stared at Via. “In this assessment, your final result was Excellent, right?”
“…What about it?” Via lowered her head.
“Answer me—where did you get those monster cores?”
“I picked them up.”
“Picked them up?”
“I already explained. After other teams used teleport crystals, their monster cores were left behind. I just got lucky and picked them—”
“Nonsense!” Owen cut her off. “Those cores were stolen from us!”
“What?”
Everyone was shocked to hear that.
“When our team was heading to the safe zone, we passed a large bridge,” the enchanter from Team 023 explained. “While we were crossing it, the bridge was blown apart. Our team fell off the cliff and blacked out.”
“I saw it. In the woods across the bridge, there was a figure. Pink hair, and wearing our academy uniform,” Owen pointed at Via’s hair. “In Avalon Academy, who else is pink besides you?”
All eyes gathered on Via.
“I don’t understand what you’re talking about,” Via looked aggrieved. “I don’t know anything about a blown-up bridge. I spent the whole time hiding. I wouldn’t dare go near anything dangerous.”
“Other people saw what you did!”
Owen turned to the crowd, scanning for familiar faces.
He quickly found them.
“Sack, Pate—members of Team 075, come over here!”
“Us?”
The members of Team 075 exchanged looks.
Under everyone’s gaze, Sack and Pate walked up to Via and stood at Owen’s side, facing her together.
Arms crossed, Owen asked, “Sack, during the assessment your team was also set up by someone—fell into a trap—and your monster cores were taken, right?”
“We tried to track the attacker down but couldn’t find them,” Sack replied. “The attacker trapped me first, then stopped our mage from casting. They used black gas to obstruct Pate and took the cores.”
“You should have seen it then. That person was Via, right?” Owen pressed for a confirming answer.
“That person did look like—”
Sack had just started to speak when he felt a hand pinch his waist.
He turned and saw that it was Pate.
At first he didn’t understand what Pate meant, but after following Pate’s eye signal to look around, Sack’s expression changed.
“How weak is Team 075 supposed to be?”
“Getting worked over by Via alone… and even having your cores stolen?”
“That’s Via—the one who can’t use holy arts and can only cast the most basic Fireball.”
The spectators’ muttering made sweat bead on Sack’s forehead.
In truth, he hadn’t seen clearly—he only vaguely felt that the person resembled Via.
If he followed Owen’s lead here, wouldn’t that be the same as telling everyone that their team had been completely humiliated by Via?
He’d become a joke—and never be able to show his face again.
“Young Master Owen, I don’t think Via did it.”
“Hm?” Owen frowned.
“It must have been someone else. Anyway, not Via.” Leaving that line behind, Sack led Team 075 away.
“Teacher! Teacher! I want to file a report!!” Owen refused to let it drop, shouting loudly.
Anima was soon drawn over. After hearing Owen’s story, he rubbed his temples.
It made no sense to condemn Via based on one side’s claims.
“Owen, do you have any proof that the monster cores Via submitted were yours?” Anima asked.
“I do!” Owen raised his voice. “There’s a special family imprint on the cores. I request an inspection!”
“No, you can’t!” Via panicked, her body trembling slightly—clearly frightened.
Seeing Via’s abnormal reaction, Owen was overjoyed.
So desperate to stop it… she had to be afraid of being exposed in public.
“We must inspect them. In the name of the Lester family’s honor, I swear it was she who took our cores. If I’ve slandered Via, I’ll bow and apologize to her in front of everyone!!”
With things stated that bluntly, Anima had no choice but to take out the monster cores Via had submitted and examine them in front of the crowd.
Via glanced around, looking absent-minded and on edge.
Owen stood brimming with confidence, poised to settle the score.
The crowd fell quiet, waiting for the result.
“…Owen, the result is out,” Anima finished the check.
“Oh?” Owen’s confidence swelled. The farce could end now.
“There’s no magic imprint on these cores.”
“?”
Owen’s expression froze at Anima’s announcement. He snatched a Silver-grade core from Anima’s hand and found that there was indeed no Lester Family Mark on it.
“Impossible!!”
“May I go now?” Via sounded very wronged. “I’m sorry for what happened to you, but that doesn’t mean you can take it out on me…”
“No—no! I’m certain it was you!!”
The Lester heir flew into a rage.
“Via, you used magic to blow up that bridge! I don’t care—you must admit in front of everyone that you’re the one who—”
“Enough, Owen. Stop embarrassing yourself. Do you really want everyone to laugh at you?”
A blonde girl radiating noble grace interrupted Owen.
Her name was Lucy Favi, scion of a great and famous house—gifted and capable—one of Avalon Academy’s rising stars.
Her family and Owen’s were rivals, and the two of them never got along at Avalon. They were essentially enemies.
“Lucy, this has nothing to do with you. Step aside!” Owen had no intention of being polite to her.
“So you’re saying Via, by herself, trapped Team 075, used magic to blow up a bridge, stole your cores, and erased your family’s identification magic?”
“That…” Owen was momentarily at a loss for words.
“I know you failed the assessment, but dumping it all on Via will only make you look worse,” Lucy mocked. “You might as well just say you lost because you’re useless.”
Pfft—haha…
Someone in the crowd laughed. Plenty of people disliked Owen’s usual arrogance.
Then more voices joined in, the tide turning.
“Via gets scared by mice. Where would she get the guts?”
“She can’t even handle Fireball properly—blow up a bridge? If she can blow up a bridge, I can slay a dragon.”
“Maybe Young Master Owen just can’t handle losing and snapped!”
The mockery turned Owen’s face pale, then flushed. Rage and humiliation surged in his chest like never before.
The priest and enchanter from Team 023 were also mortified—publicly socially dead—and couldn’t bear to stay.
“Out of my way!”
In the end, Owen shoved through the crowd in fury and left.
…Did you really think I noticed nothing?
Your family’s magic imprint was a little too easy to crack, wasn’t it?