This chapter is a disappointment. I'm not going to drop the manga yet, but I expect things to be better later on.
My gripe is not how Nunaly is always second to Alves. That is the whole point of the manga so far.
My problem is that she is presented as a strong and skilled mage in her own right, but she can't do something significant unless her rival is there to walk her through it.
In my opinion, this would be more faithful to what we were told about her if she struggled to learn the spell, succeeded only to meet a smug Alves demonstrating how he was able to do it way earlier.
Instead, we have a presumably "strong" mage unable to learn a spell without her rival helping her through the whole process, figuratively holding her hand along the way.
Then they try to pretend that she was successful because she was skilled using the other employee's failure.
(Also, don't use the girls's magic exam as an example that she can succeed by herself. This was a sham only made to get her frustrated at not being able to compete with Lockmann. And it was more a test of character than a test of magic. As proof of that: teams of three were built only to have two members serve as fodder in a "hostage" simulation. Their magic was never tested.)
In the end, Nunaly is only a strong character on paper (depicted in school ranking) and not in action.
It reminds me of several mangas I dropped where the MC is depicted as super strong, recognized as such by nearly everyone - including the god of that world in one case - and never actually wins a fight without help or circumstantial luck.
We are told one thing and shown another, which is an irritating bait-and-switch.
I'll wait a little longer because I liked the Nunaly that was originally introduced and I'm waiting to see her again. If the author keeps only showing a failing Nunaly that must have Alves around to do anything, I will get tired quickly.