Episode 3. A Grudge in the Heart
“Then it’s a contract.”
The boy smiled softly.
Breath that slipped through the gap in his smile stimulated Binaeril’s sense of smell. The two of them were pressed together closely enough for that right now.
It couldn’t possibly be pleasant to smell a stranger’s scent, yet Binaeril was not displeased.
Because between the scent of marten leather, the musty smell of old, ancient books had seeped in.
At first doubt, now certainty. This was not the scent of a living being. Binaeril thought.
“How are you going to help me?”
“What is magic?”
Again, again. Answering a question with a question.
But since he was the one in need, Binaeril had no choice but to rack his brains.
“The power to turn imagination into reality.”
“No. That’s only half correct. The other half is missing.”
“What is?”
Veritas whispered in a secretive tone, as if confessing the secrets of the world.
“Magic is ‘faith’ that turns imagination into reality. What did they teach you at school?”
“Faith that turns imagination into reality?”
Binaeril felt as if someone had struck his head with a hammer.
It was exactly what he had been worrying about until just now. Believing. But hearing it from another’s mouth made it feel anew like a truly important issue.
“Yes. If you don’t believe, it’s no use at all. Would God grant revelation to a prophet without faith?”
Binaeril threw a question to test Veritas.
“Is it really that simple?”
“A bit hollow, isn’t it?”
Mages had always considered themselves special beings.
Among hundreds, thousands of entering students, those who learned magic and advanced were barely a handful.
Binaeril had thought it was a difference in talent.
An innate difference in talent that could not be caught up to no matter how hard one tried.
But really, just because of faith?
“Of course, there’s also a difference in innate personality. How tenaciously you chase your imagination, how obsessively you hold onto it and make it real. How desperately you believe it…….”
“Even so.”
“You think it’s too simple?”
Binaeril nodded.
Veritas let out a small sigh. It sounded like a sigh that said, *You still don’t understand something this simple.*
“What is the way to build up stamina and become stronger? Isn’t it training hard and sweating every single day?”
“Th… that’s right?”
“Then why can’t most people achieve what is an obvious fact that everyone knows?”
“That’s because…….”
Binaeril couldn’t answer easily. He felt like he vaguely understood what Veritas was saying.
“The reasons and methods to achieve something aren’t complicated. They’re too simple. They’re so simple that they’re difficult. And only lazy humans package it with the name of talent, Binaeril.”
Binaeril met Veritas’s eyes.
Black pupils whose depth was unfathomable, boundless like his hair.
Those pupils felt as if they were reproaching Binaeril.
As if saying, *What kind of human are you?*
“Even if you hear this now, you won’t be able to accept it easily. Binaeril, what is the most certain way to shatter doubt?”
Veritas reached out a finger and tapped Binaeril’s nasal bridge.
“That is to prove it. With what? With fact. No fool can deny a given fact.”
From the dazed Binaeril’s embrace, the cube he had received as a class assignment fell.
Veritas picked it up, placed it on his palm, and struck a stylish pose.
If a person could converse through gestures alone, it was a pose that seemed to say, *I shall now show you magic!*
“I’ve seen countless magics at Elpenbain.”
“Right.”
“Do you think I can newly awaken to the principle with a single magic you show me?”
“No? What kind of foolish talk is that? Do you think I’m doing this just to put on a magic show?”
“Then…….”
The follow-up words of *What is it?* couldn’t pass his throat.
Because in the blink of an eye, an alien viewpoint seized his vision.
“Huh?”
Binaeril let out a foolish groan. But any human encountering a completely different viewpoint in the blink of an eye would show the same reaction.
—I’ve synchronized our senses. Not just senses, but thoughts, emotions, ideas, perspective, and even faith.
Someone was speaking into his mind. This must be what it meant to share thoughts.
Binaeril was astonished. The magic that happened in the blink of an eye—once again, he hadn’t heard any incantation.
“Just how great of a mage are you?”
Speaking by borrowing another’s vocal cords was extremely awkward.
—Unfortunately, this isn’t magic. I’m not a mage. And what I’ll show you from now on is real magic.
His body began to move regardless of Binaeril’s will. Or rather, it was Veritas’s body.
Veritas projected his imagination toward the egg contained within the cube.
“!”
An image so intricate it was unbelievable. Steel-like faith fired at the cube held in his hand.
From Veritas’s mouth, an incantation that would serve as the trigger was pronounced.
“Shatter into pieces.”
This too was an incantation he heard for the first time. Rather than an incantation, it was like a command. Or perhaps, it also seemed like a declaration for showmanship.
Anyway, to Binaeril’s ears, it was a voice carrying weight as if it were a solemn verdict.
It was a 1st-tier destruction magic like Binaeril’s, but the result was the exact opposite.
The egg inside the cube had cracks like fissures drawn across its entire shell.
If the cube weren’t containing it, it would have burst into pieces. He could believe so even without seeing it.
Veritas’s incantation held such weight.
The violence of coercive will, enough to make another perfectly understand.
When he blinked again, Binaeril had returned to his own body.
—Now it’s your turn.
Veritas’s figure had vanished without a trace, and the cube had fallen to the floor.
Binaeril picked it up as if bewitched.
Perhaps.
Perhaps he felt like the history of his failures over the past three years could be overturned today.
—Try chanting the magic again just as you felt it.
Over Binaeril’s shoulder, a dust-covered old book was flying through the air, fluttering.
It was a shocking sight, but Binaeril paid it no mind.
The sensation he had just felt—if he didn’t focus, he felt he would lose that thread-like sensation and never get it back.
Binaeril swallowed hard and placed the cube on his palm.
And he imagined revolutionarily.
“Shatter… into pieces.”
And the entire cube began to vibrate.
A square cube the size of a palm, letting out a grinding groan.
“This is…!”
Veritas, who had been floating and fluttering, spoke in a voice filled with pride.
—Binaeril Dalhaim, I have fulfilled the contract. The remaining promise depends on you.
“Ahem.”
Professor Peuroiteu Yeong stood at the front of the classroom and cleared his throat.
Just thinking about meeting the boy again made irritation surge up in him.
*Like an arrogant brat who doesn’t know how high the sky is.*
Soon after entering the classroom, he called roll.
“…Binaeril Dalhaim.”
“Good. Everyone’s here.”
Professor Peuroiteu looked down at the students.
“Everyone, submit the assignment I gave last time.”
Gaseupelteu, who was assisting the class, collected the students’ cubes.
Students who succeeded in the assignment to the left, those who failed to the right.
Destruction magic that exerted force on objects was the most basic 1st-tier magic.
And based on whether they accomplished this assignment, Elpenbain divided students into two categories.
Students without qualification to take Elpenbain’s regular classes, and students who had proven that qualification.
By the names of Junior and Senior.
Most cubes were placed on the right side in perfect condition.
Only two or three cubes were placed on the left. And even those only had caused small cracks in the eggs inside the cubes.
Students who had risen to Senior submitted their assignments to the left.
And Peuroiteu confirmed that Binaeril was sitting in his seat without submitting anything.
Did this mean he wouldn’t listen to the professor anymore?
“Yes. Professor.”
“Why haven’t you submitted your cube?”
Binaeril didn’t answer.
Professor Peuroiteu felt his mood improve considerably at the thought that he had caught him on a technicality.
“Did you at least try? I try to maintain a fair attitude and not blame a student’s talent, but when I look at you, sometimes that effort feels meaningless.”
The other students all knew that Peuroiteu’s words were nonsense.
Professor Peuroiteu belonged to the group of professors who were especially prone to favoritism.
Still, there weren’t any students who pitied Binaeril either.
It wasn’t just the professors—quite a ratio of other students disliked Binaeril too.
“Always all mouth like that… It seems you have no talent other than nitpicking. Have you considered my final favor of helping you with the expulsion process?”
Professor Peuroiteu was particularly fixated on Binaeril today.
Thanks to that, the class atmosphere gradually grew hostile.
Some of the students’ eyes lit up at the prospect of watching a fight, while others simply wished this uncomfortable time would pass quickly.
It was then that Binaeril opened his mouth.
“…Quiet down.”
In a low voice, but loud enough for most of the quiet classroom to hear.
“…What did you just say?”
Professor Peuroiteu Yeong doubted his own ears.
Was this boy now trying to act out?
Binaeril rarely showed a flustered expression.
“No, Professor. That wasn’t directed at you, Professor.”
“Do you think I’m deaf at my age!”
The atmosphere became uncontrollably messy. Professor Peuroiteu’s face flushed red.
“A student who cannot even properly carry out such a simple assignment has no place under me! Binaeril Dalhaim! Leave the classroom immediately and pack your things!”
Peuroiteu thought he could no longer tolerate a student who repeatedly committed insubordination.
“The thing is, Professor, there was a reason I couldn’t submit it.”
“While practicing the assignment… I accidentally broke it. That cube.”
A brief silence fell. Not only Professor Peuroiteu, but even the students couldn’t readily understand his words.
“What does that mean?”
“It means exactly that. I broke it. That’s why I couldn’t submit it.”
Scoffs burst from some students who grasped the situation.
“That cube was designed by the equipment department instructors, so it won’t budge against ordinary force… No, never mind. Binaeril Dalhaim. Come forward.”
Professor Peuroiteu called Binaeril to the lectern.
“Now you’ve graduated to lying.”
Binaeril shrugged his shoulders. An attitude that said he had only spoken the truth.
That shamelessness stoked Professor Peuroiteu’s temper even more.
“Come out this instant!”
Binaeril walked out to the lectern with a confident attitude, not intimidated in the slightest.
“Binaeril Dalhaim. If what you say is true, do it again. If you can’t, I will formally raise the matter of your expulsion at the professors’ meeting.”
Professor Peuroiteu picked one from the pile of cubes on the right and handed it to Binaeril.
Binaeril reached to take it but paused. Then he opened his mouth.
“Promise me one thing.”
“If I succeed at this, apologize for the remarks you’ve made belittling me in front of the other students.”
“What?”
Professor Peuroiteu locked eyes directly with Binaeril.
*What confidence is making him act like this?*
Binaeril’s gaze was as calm as usual.
Even when Professor Peuroiteu made remarks openly disparaging him, even when he always failed the assignments given in class, he had worn exactly that expression.
But today was different.
It seemed as if some unknown certainty had been born in those eyes.
“Stop talking nonsense and just do it.”
Professor Peuroiteu avoided answering.
Binaeril didn’t press him further either.
Binaeril placed the cube on the lectern.
Then he chanted the magic activation words in the same cheerful tone as before. Loud enough for everyone to hear.
That was all.
There was no sloppy posture, no solemn preparation.
The result also seemed no different from before.
A quietly placed lump of cube.
“Look at this, what on earth do you believe in to act like such an insolent brat…….”
Professor Peuroiteu’s words couldn’t be finished.
Because cracks began to form on the peacefully placed cube.
Following the cube’s cracks, cracks began to draw across the eggshell as if chiseled.
“This is absurd!”
Contrary to Professor Peuroiteu’s wishes, the cube began to shatter into pieces exactly as Binaeril had said.
“Kyak!”
Students sitting in the front row had to raise both arms to block the flying fragments.
“I’m sorry, Professor. I couldn’t control my strength well. As you know, I’m a bit lacking.”
Binaeril smiled slightly.
But no one in the classroom could smile like him.
“I’ll hear your apology next time. After all, you have to finish today’s class.”
Binaeril finished speaking firmly and returned to his seat.
—Aren’t you getting too carried away?
—Saying you couldn’t control your strength, you broke it on purpose, didn’t you?
—Look at that professor’s stupid expression, it’s quite a sight.
“Shut your mouth for a bit.”
Binaeril whispered, replying quietly to the inner voice.
Veritas’s words had been right.
It had been an emotional act, unlike him.
But he felt no regret. He felt refreshed.
Binaeril felt as if the grudge that had been pent up in his heart for the past three years was melting away a little.