You might think I’m suddenly bringing up something completely out of nowhere, but I’d like you to listen.
Everyone probably knows that there is such a thing as the Academy.
The Hero’s Party, excluding Lady Eladrien, received their education there as well.
To briefly explain that Academy,
first of all, its full name is “Minerva Academy.”
It is an educational institution located in the capital of the Astra Empire,
and with retired knight commanders, elites who entered to build their careers, or professional educators who prepared specifically to work in education serving as professors, the students there can receive a high-quality education.
Thanks to that, most graduates find employment in the estates of marquises or dukes, or enter the royal family or the Magic Tower.
Of course, graduating is extremely difficult, but that is precisely why I believe Minerva graduates receive such treatment.
Commoner or noble, it does not matter.
If you have the aptitude, you enroll; if you have the skill, you graduate.
And the moment you graduate, whoever you are, you will receive the highest level of treatment in the Empire.
This was something often said to freshmen at Minerva Academy’s entrance ceremony.
Because of that, ordinary students spend their Academy lives studying with graduation as their goal,
and they do not wonder what lies beyond that higher stage.
As if being curious about it were the same as probing into a taboo.
But do you know this?
They say that the elites who graduate from Minerva Academy can answer a truly vast number of questions, but there is one question they all commonly struggle to answer.
Mm….
It would be boring if I just told you,
so I’d like you to imagine the sound of an old movie reel turning, and a faded pale-yellow screen.
- Ticktickticktickticktick.
The sound of an old film reel turning could be heard.
Interviewer: Good day. First, I would like to sincerely thank a precious talent who graduated from Minerva for applying to our Red Tower.
A: Not at all.
Interviewer: (Some boring and pedantic question)
A: (Some boring and pedantic answer)
Interviewer: Then this is the final question. Are you aware that, about three kilometers behind the main building where most Minerva Academy students attend classes, there is another building?
A: Yes.
Interviewer: Then do you also know what that building is used for?
A: Uh….
Usually, when graduates heard that question, they would ramble and fail to answer properly.
To be precise, they used to fail.
These days, everyone knows that question gets asked, so they include it among their expected questions and investigate it in advance,
but at first, they couldn’t have done that.
In any case, applicants usually answered like this.
1. I have seen professors enter there very occasionally, late at night.
2. There are various defensive facilities installed to prevent people from approaching it, but honestly, I don’t know what they’re for. At a glance, they seemed less like facilities to stop intruders from coming in from outside, and more like facilities to stop the people inside from getting out.
3. Very occasionally, screams could be heard. I was focused only on graduating and didn’t pay much attention, but I heard that when a few classmates asked school officials about it, they were told, “It’s nothing you need to worry about.”
4. Because of the screams, rumors of human experimentation would circulate, and in fact, there are eyewitness accounts of people very rarely seeing unidentified individuals around that place. The common testimony regarding those who were seen was that they looked listless, as if something terrible had been done to them.
All of them only spoke about rumors they had heard in that sort of way, and none of them could actually answer exactly what that building was used for.
However,
now everyone knows.
That place is none other than the “Minerva Aca-Graduate School.”
Rather than graduating normally and enjoying a stable life that also had a high ceiling,
it was an academic research institution where people gathered who had shown deep interest in the very studies they had learned at the Academy.
***
The introduction was rather long.
So why did I bring this up now?
Normally, that Minerva Aca-Graduate School is not a place you can go to simply because you have shown deep interest in academics.
In addition to having great interest in academics, you must also possess skill and creativity worthy of a professor’s attention.
When professors find such talent among Academy students, their eyes light up and they treat that student kindly.
They buy them meals, or recite idealistic and beautiful stories about the field they majored in.
In that way, they slowly guide the student toward graduate school, and when the student enters graduate school, they reveal their true colors… or so the rumor goes.
The situation I was in right now was exactly like that.
Their eyes were shining as though they had discovered a talent they had to take to graduate school.
“Magic is superior to the sword in more ways than one, you know. Hm?”
“That is correct. Before the profundity of magic, the sword is, well… splendid, yes, but still.”
“Exactly, exactly. Magic is better, I’m telling you. It can adapt and respond to any situation.”
“Magic has a high floor, and its ceiling is also comparable to that of aura users.”
“The mortality rate is still higher among warriors than among mages. Even taking into account the fact that mages are weak in close combat, it’s still like that.”
“Truly. It is just that your brilliant talent is far too precious, Sir Evan.”
“That’s right. I’m telling you, you really have talent on a level similar to mine! If we work together, we’ll more than leave a great mark on the world of magic!!”
“Indeed. As expected of Lady Signica.”
As I quietly listened to their magic flirting, my brain began to sink into chaos.
“M-my talent is that great?”
At my question, their gazes focused on me again.
““Hmmm….””
They began to ponder for a moment.
“Of course, we have to consider that Evan is already an upper-rank Expert. You already have experience handling intangible energy and dealing with mental imagery.”
“But even taking that into account, using nothing but a basic magic textbook to manipulate mana and transform it into the shape of a spell makes no sense.”
They explained it to me like this.
Aura is energy that arises from within a person.
It is believed to be the identity of the soul that makes up that person, in other words, that person’s own world.
That is why one’s aura increases every time one gains enlightenment.
Because gaining enlightenment means the existence called “oneself” has grown larger.
Then, does that mean one can become an expert without needing to swing a sword or weapon, simply by shutting oneself up in the mountains all day and spending time exploring and thinking about oneself and the world?
Of course not.
Because using the energy gained that way falls within the realm of talent,
and fundamentally, one must have a cultivation method as a foundation in order to process and use aura.
The size of one’s circuits is also important.
That is why most scholars of that type end up as nothing more than “young men who give off good energy.”
In any case,
that is what aura is like, but mana is a bit different.
Mana refers to the energy spread throughout nature.
Unlike aura, mana is accumulated by drawing it in from the outside and using a cultivation method to trap it within one’s body.
The way one’s realm rises is expressed the same way as aura, as enlightenment, but the feeling is slightly different.
For them, a high understanding of mana and magic is enlightenment.
Usually, it is one’s understanding of mana rather than one’s understanding of magic that divides realms.
“In this way, aura and mana differ slightly in nature and slightly in how they are used.”
“Extracting the necessary elements from mana, gathering them into a single form, and manifesting them as real existence is an extremely difficult task. There are aspects that are quite abstract, but one’s sense for handling mana and one’s concentration are also among the many factors that raise the difficulty.”
“Lighting a fire like you just did is something even people called talented can only do after receiving a certain amount of explanation from a mage. But mages are valuable people, so usually many mages come from noble families with enough money to call them in.”
After hearing their explanation, the conclusion I reached was this.
I definitely had an innate talent for magic.
And at a very outstanding level, too.
“Hmm….”
Honestly, I did feel a little conflicted.
Of course, I was grateful to have talent in both the sword and magic.
But if I focused on one, I could quickly rise to the ranks of the strongest, so wouldn’t splitting my attention for no reason make the speed at which my realm rose far too slow?
In the end, I might end up neither one thing nor the other.
I conveyed my opinion to them.
Since I had started with the sword first, and had already reached the realm of an upper-rank Expert,
would it not be better to keep digging into the sword?
At that,
“No, no. I’ll really guarantee it. You can do both well enough.”
“That is correct. This old man is also certain that if it is Sir Evan, you can do it.”
“Hmmm….”
I thought about it for a moment.
Well, there was nothing bad about it.
It wasn’t as though I had been told to give one up because I couldn’t master both if I did them at the same time.
If I could master both, then learning magic could compensate to some extent for the parts the sword could not handle.
For example, combining wind magic with physical abilities strengthened by aura to make even faster movement possible?
Or deliberately throwing a fireball to obscure the enemy’s vision?
….
Now that I think about it, isn’t that freaking awesome?
“Then… I’ll give it a try.”
After hearing my answer, Signica noona and Aldric looked up at me with deeply moved expressions.
“Good! I’ll teach you diligently starting today!”
“It is truly a blessing for the world of magic.”
“Uh….”
Is it that big of a deal?
They’re seriously happy.
Anyway,
starting today, I’m a freaking awesome magic swordsman.