Episode 13: The Magic Academy (4)
“Wow, this is comfortable?”
The boy, having received a uniform that fit him perfectly, walked across the campus.
Black shorts and a white shirt.
The purple vest worn over it seemed to be made of luxurious fabric, so it felt good to the touch.
He had also received the red robe he had seen at the main gate, but since none of the students outside were wearing robes, he had left it in his dorm.
Anyway, with every step, the smell of new clothes reaching his nose couldn’t have been better.
“Miss! Thank you for the mana you gave me earlier. I could’ve failed, whew!”
[This is a gift commemorating your admission. From now on, I will not give it for free, so please remember the terms of the contract. As specified in the contract, mana loans are available at any time.]
“Come on, Miss. What would it hurt to just give it to me?”
Recalling the exam he had barely passed, the boy smiled lightly.
Perhaps the Passbook had disliked seeing that suffocating moment as well, for its tone was quite annoyed.
Moreover, the warning that it wouldn’t lend mana for free from now on remained, but truthfully, he couldn’t remember a single clause of the contract he had seen before.
Back then, he had been so excited signing it that the lengthy contract clauses were a blur.
“So many people.”
Buildings made of red bricks and a well-manicured garden.
This wonderful campus was filled with students waiting for the semester to begin.
“Where are you from? Kolhen? I’m from there too!”
“Really? Wow, then you must know Uncle Ereunwaseu? Do you know Teo, Teo? That cute puppy!”
Whether or not they had already made friends, children of the same age gathered together and chattered.
Thanks to wearing the uniform, Sid no longer stuck out.
Still, his potato-like hair was unavoidable.
Sid touched his bristly hair and thought he should grow it out a bit.
“Right, Miss. If it’s here, there should be one, right? A Mana Burn book.”
[I cannot be certain.]
“Hmm.”
The boy found the library marked on the map.
The first place he sought out after enrolling at the Academy was the library.
His goal was the Mana Burn book that had piqued his interest before.
Spotting a student who had casually rolled up his sleeves, Sid rolled up his sleeves as well.
A cool breeze brushed his freed forearms, and the stiff campus began to feel familiar.
Walking to a spot slightly removed from the dormitory, he drew close to the Academy library.
Like the dormitory, it was covered in green ivy clinging to red bricks.
Recalling the campus he had read about in books, his heart pounded.
“Excuse me.”
He cautiously poked his head in, but the library was silent.
Only a faint light spread through the window as warm sunlight streamed in.
Not a single bookworm like Sid, who would seek out the library on the very first day of admission, was in sight.
Delighted that he could effectively rent out the entire huge library to himself, the boy took a deep breath.
“Whew, haah!”
The fresh scent of books and dust tickled his nose.
He had loved the monastery’s small bookshop dearly, but an endless, massive library was truly nothing short of a cradle of knowledge.
A broad smile spreading across his face, Sid strode forward.
He wondered where to start in the empty library.
Then, something entered between the tall bookshelves.
“Hm?”
A large glass window where sunlight streamed in.
With her back to that window, a girl was reading a book.
“Huh?”
The girl with black, unkempt hair braided on both sides also spotted Sid.
Beyond thick lenses like Brother Antonio’s, her face was covered in red freckles.
Moreover, because of her long, slit-like eyes, her face was one that could not be called pretty.
Honestly, he shouldn’t think such things, but this girl… she was ugly.
“Ah… hello! May I use the library?”
Sid bowed his head without realizing it.
In fact, the library belonged to no one, so he only needed to find books.
But the boy, unaware of this, opened his mouth to the first person he found.
“Ye… yes? Heuk!”
The girl looking around was startled.
She realized that she herself was the one Sid had greeted.
However, contrary to his expectation that she would roughly mumble and ignore him, the girl closed her book and scurried over.
It was truly an awkward encounter.
“Ye… yes! Of course! I, I’m the librarian, Reiya……. You don’t have to ask like that……! Th… the book you want! If there’s a book, I’ll find it for you…….”
Mumbling, she closed her lips, so the last sentence was barely audible.
Still, at her words that she would find the book he sought, Sid smiled.
The “librarians” he had read about in books until now were mostly wise and kind people, and that image connected to this girl named Reiya in that moment.
“Thank you! Then, by any chance, do you have a book on Mana Burn?”
“Mana… Burn?”
“Yes. I know it as a magic that burns mana. Do you know where it is?”
At Sid’s question, Reiya raised her head.
She opened her slit-like eyes wide and twitched her plump nose.
Since this expression wasn’t so hideous, Sid gave a light smile.
“Huh!”
The librarian who had been looking straight into the boy’s eyes started and bowed her head.
Then, a mumbling voice leaked from between her lips.
Her trembling, murmuring lips were like tiny cherries.
“Ma… Mana Burn books aren’t in the library……. That… it’s probably a forbidden book.”
“A forbidden book?”
Though her uncomfortably mumbling voice tripped him up, the words that Mana Burn books were forbidden had come through.
Well, it would be strange for such a threatening magic to be at the Academy anyway.
Accepting it easily, Sid continued.
“Thank you. Then do you have books on electric magic? I’d like to find everything related if possible.”
“Electric magic!”
The librarian’s expression brightened.
The red freckles stood out more on her reddened nose bridge.
The moment he thought she would now tell him the book’s location, space tore open in front of Reiya.
Even at a glance, library shelves could be seen beyond the gap.
Following the librarian’s gesture, the shelves inside the portal moved left and right.
It was Portal magic, a powerful spatial movement magic he had only seen in books.
“He, here they are. Five books total…….”
Reiya pulled out the five books and held them out.
“Wasn’t that Portal magic just now? I’ve never seen it before! It’s so cool!”
As Sid, who had seen Portal magic for the first time in real life, opened his mouth, the shy librarian couldn’t raise her head.
“Ye… yes? Ah… no…… It’s nothing really…….”
Unlike the excited boy, the girl’s face was beet-red.
It was like looking at a ripe tomato.
While staring at Reiya and wondering if something was wrong with her, a clear, deliberate voice came from behind.
It was the voice of a young boy with a slightly high tone.
“It is Portal magic. Unlike High-Circle mages who can move anywhere they want or summon things, she can’t do that, but she can take out books. My sister designated the entire library here as a portal point.”
Sid’s gaze turned toward the words pouring out like a rushing stream.
A boy smaller than him, whom he had to lower his head slightly to see.
A boy with snow-white skin and black hair like Reiya looked up at Sid.
The boy with a mysterious gaze smiled lightly and held out a single book.
“I see you’ve greeted my sister? I’m Reireu Wein. She’s a very shy person, so she might seem uncomfortable, but she means no ill will. Right, sister?”
“Huh? Uh… no, I…….”
Black eyes one could seemingly fall into.
Moreover, the uniform that matched his smoothly parted hair gave off a more classical feeling even though it was the same one Sid wore.
Sid received the book the boy handed him.
It was a book covered in worn leather.
“Ah… nice to meet you! I’m Sid! But what is this?”
“It’s a Mana Burn book. I was reading it, and brother seemed to be looking for it. And it’s not a forbidden book like my sister said, so don’t worry.”
“There was a Mana Burn book?”
At the sharply raised voice, Sid’s head turned.
The librarian who met eyes with Sid started and bowed her head.
Embarrassed at having raised her voice, her sharply bowed head didn’t come back up.
Anyway, Reireu, who had handed the Mana Burn book to Sid, smiled lightly and passed by him.
“Thank you! I’ll read it well!”
“Re… read… re…turn…….”
“Return it after you’re done reading. See you later, brother!”
The much younger-looking boy translated his sister’s mumbled words.
He was probably around twelve or thirteen?
He appeared so intelligent that one couldn’t believe he was such an age.
“Got it! Thank you!”
Having obtained the book he wanted, Sid left the library.
The books on various topics scattered everywhere overwhelmed even Sid, the bookworm from the monastery.
Perhaps Reiya, who had said she was the librarian, was an even worse bookworm than Sid.
To think she used Portal magic just to find books.
What other place would use such a precious ability like that!
Sid headed to the dormitory holding six books.
A cozy personal space that one person could use comfortably.
The boy folded the monastery robes filled with sentiment and tucked them under the bed where they wouldn’t be seen.
Because Eirena had said she would tear them up if she saw them.
“Whew.”
A room of his own that he had obtained for the first time in his life.
And his heart pounded at the Academy life that would begin tomorrow.
“Hup!”
The boy who had been lying on the bed sprang up.
He soon picked up the Mana Burn book he had heard about from the Passbook and turned the first page.
The worn leather gave off a soft feeling, likely from how old it was.
A fearsome magic that might become his finishing move…….
It was his first encounter with such magic.
* * *
“Miss? I have a question. This Mana Burn, is it something that could be mistaken for a forbidden book?”
[Yes. Please speak.]
Bluish moonlight entered through the small window.
Half a day had passed since enrolling at the Academy.
Having passed Eirena’s special exam and obtained the book he wanted, the boy finished dinner with awkward classmates.
Returning to the dormitory like that, he read the obtained book over and over, but something strange stood out in its contents.
The magic called Mana Burn itself was strange.
“Looking at it closely, this is a self-destruct spell!”
[If you squeeze out all remaining mana, mutual destruction is the natural result. We recommend leaving appropriate mana when using it.]
“What kind of magic is this! It’s suicide!”
At the extreme risk that matched its extreme effect, Sid clicked his tongue.
A magic that consumes one’s own mana to burn the opponent’s mana.
Only with high proficiency was it a one-to-one ratio; using it against an opponent with more mana was like throwing an egg at a rock.
For the record, the egg that shatters here refers to Sid’s skull.
“What kind of barbaric magic is this!”
Contrary to his expectation that it would become a finishing move, Mana Burn was indeed something that could be mistaken for a forbidden book.
Maybe if he could store huge chunks of mana in the distant future, but he had nearly failed the exam today due to lack of mana…….
For the boy, such magic was as good as useless.
Of course, having read it through three times, the method of using Mana Burn was already in his head.
But he had no desire to use or practice it.
He simply pouted and decided in his mind the fate of this magic.
‘You. Sealed.’
Sid’s current pure mana capacity was about 117 Mana Coins.
Of course, he was growing day by day, but he had barely passed the Level Card from the exam.
Being merely a creature with a mere 117 coins of possessed mana from the start, he concluded that it would be best not to use Mana Burn.
Closing the book, Sid let out a hollow breath.
“Haah.”
Smiling awkwardly, the boy examined his Electric Magic book.
If Mana Burn was no good, it was time to test the Circle he had synchronized thanks to being struck by lightning.
But perhaps frustrated by this sight, the Passbook’s words continued.
[You may not need it now, but evaporating mana is a fatal and effective strategy. I expect it will become a fearsome weapon for the customer someday. When that day comes, you will be grateful to me.]
Perhaps taking offense at his grumbling response, the Passbook’s tone was nothing but stiff.
In fact, the Passbook’s tone was always similarly mechanical.
But Sid, who had grown close to her, could sense small emotions even in the Passbook’s tone.
Sid smiled playfully and teased the Passbook.
“Miss. Are you sulking?”
[Not at all.]
Of course, Sid was not disappointed in the Passbook just because he was disappointed in Mana Burn.
Hadn’t it been the Passbook that saved him when he couldn’t use magic in the first place?
Simply conscious of the Passbook in his chest, the boy smiled lightly.
Over the few weeks with the Passbook, the boy had become inseparable from her.
“I’m always grateful. Miss.”
- To be continued in Episode 14 -