“I volunteer.”

Since deciding to not force anyone into participating n the exposition duels, Devios was about to ask the others about their behavior under the influence of the mana depletion when a wild volunteer just raised their hand on their own.

It was the yellow-haired boy who looked far too young to fit within the imposed age limit for entering the Heavenly Star Academy or even the Aspakeony Academy.

“You are… Terez Kalleronette… Well, with her majesty’s recommendation backing you up, I believe there is nothing I should be worried about… that said, do you know how you act under mana depletion?”

The blue-haired man nodded, squinting his eyes trying to remember the name of the boy he met the first time ON the ship crossing the ocean to the Heavenly Star nation.

“My mom said that I become really cute and adorable to the point of others wanting to spoil me rotten, but I can’t confirm it since I usually don’t remember it happening anything from that.”

Terez revealed tilting his head to the side and putting his index fingers to his cheek while his expression remained kind of blank.

“…does… does it happen often? By that I mean do you have low mana?”

Devios furrowed his brows, focusing on the shade of the boy’s hair and eyes.

Usually the paler the color the lower amount of mana at the user’s disposal, and honestly, Terez hair was almost blond and not even gold suggesting that he was a really weak light magician…

“I am not the strongest, but I will do my best. Mana is poisonous for the people of this land, right? I will make sure to be the last man standing.”

Terez straightened his back and assured sounding positively confident about his chances.

“…you do have her highness’s recommendation… Alright. We will be counting on you.”

Devios repeated himself as if he was trying to remind himself about the fact, before agreeing on the boy participating.

That left Reo to either confirm or reject participating in the tournament, there was very little time to decide so the attention shifted back to him, making him shift in unease.𝑂𝑽𝐿xt.𝗰𝒐𝐌

“…before we proceed, I would like to tell something to everyone…”

The green-haired man took a deep breath and said, pulling out a small box from his chest pocket.

“I have broken off any connection with the house of Moyena so there is no longer to keep it a secret, although I was doing that because I was afraid of what kind of reaction everyone would have.”

He said, looking at the magicians surrounding him with an upset expression.

“You do love to talk a whole lot, prankster. What’s with the build-up, get on with it.”

Noex rolled his eyes with a groan as if he was already well acquainted with the green-haired young man’s behavior.

“Well, you see. My late mother was a magician, but her mother was someone from the Atreterve nation. People from the Atreterve nation do not possess mana in the same sense as people from the kingdom of Bellcephora do. They are more attuned to using the mana stones and creating artifacts with them…”

Reo gulped down his saliva and raised the box in his hand a bit higher so that everyone could see it properly.

“Hold on…”

“…”

“…”

The brown-haired boy furrowed his brows looking at Reo with unease while Devios and Metavicero exchanged surprised looks.

“You see, in truth, I inherited most of the bloodline of my grandmother. I do not have mana. I have been using this device the whole time to alter my appearance to make it look like I am a wind magician this whole time… Also, all the pranks I’ve been pulling out with the wind-like spells were caused by the small artifacts that I came up with and created myself.”

“NO!”

Reo announced which caused Noex to straighten his back and exclaim in the most genuine overreaction that anyone from their group has ever seen. The brown-haired boy seemed so invested in what the green-haired young man was saying as if it had been affecting his worldview as a whole.

“This is how I really look…”

The green-haired young man glanced with confusion at the devastated Noex and bowed his head apologetically to the others.

He opened the little box and took out the green mana stone hidden within.

As he did…

*BOING*

He shrunk by a lot, becoming shorter than Devios and Noex, but what he lost in the height he gained in the volume of his chest and the length of his hair that changed the color from green to brown.

As it turned out – or rather, as it was revealed for the group, Reo wasn’t a man at all, but a brown-haired, green-eyed young woman who was staring at her feet while nervously clenching her hands on the artifact that was hiding her real appearance up until then.

“…! …! !!!”

Noex took a few steps back, greatly disturbed by the change, opening and closing his mouth while moving his hands to his head and then pointing them at Reo repeatedly.

“…that artifact influenced more than just your hair color…”

“…?!”

Devios took a deep breath and pointed out – as he did, Metavicero glared at him in disbelief before glancing over at Reo, or more specifically her chest, and immediately puffed out her own chest before glancing over at the blue-haired young man while making a sulky expression.

“This artifact is a lot more complicated than the ones I was allowed to research, the appearance that I was turning into was not of my design.”

Reo said apologetically without raising her head.

“It is what it is. My question and the plan do not change. You are still the best candidate for our last representative. Even slightly better now as with your lack of mana, you can’t enter mana depletion.”

Devios didn’t dwell on the matter for any longer than a second or two and went back to the most pressing subject.

“…I can’t promise you that I will win…”

“Don’t worry about that. I can’t say that about myself either. What matter is that we will not back down from a challenge.”

Reo breathed out apologetically, but Devios only shook his head and assured her.