Several days had passed since the new semester began.
Magica Academy, founded not long after the existence of magic in the world was revealed, was a place with a long history and venerable traditions, having been in operation for over a thousand years.
Of course, over those long years, countless people had passed through its halls, and more than a few things must have changed—but there was one thing different from last semester.
“Hah... Seriously... I ran just this much and... I’m out of breath...”
In the predawn hour, before the sun had risen and the stars were still visible, Lowell was running through the empty academy.
In my opinion, humans are lazy animals.
If they’re standing, they want to sit. If they’re sitting, they want to lie down. If they’re lying down, they want to sleep.
That isn’t a bad thing.
After all, eating something to gain energy, then storing that energy as long as possible instead of wasting it, and using it when it mattered was advantageous for survival.
If humans were animals that disliked eating and loved moving around, I’m not sure they would have prospered this much.
There are plenty of things to think about and plenty more I’d like to say on the subject, but to summarize, humans fundamentally dislike moving, which means moving and training the body is an act that goes against human instinct.
Humans cannot overcome instinct.
Appetite, the desire for sleep, sexual desire, and so on—humans cannot escape such urges.
But that does not mean they have to lose to them.
When you’re full, you can stop eating, and even when you’re hungry, you can endure it.
If necessary, you can cut down on sleep.
And if sexual desire is not restrained, it is fatal for humans, who are social animals that live among others.
That is why humans do not live solely by instinct.
If humans are lazy, then they must overcome laziness.
“Hah...”
Of course, doing that is not easy.
First, you have to wake up early, and then you have to exercise until you’re out of breath, your legs ache, and your entire body is exhausted.
After that, you have to wash off the sweat you shed, and you have to change your clothes.
If you had slept comfortably instead, you could have slept more, your body would not be tired, and a simple wash of your face would have sufficed instead of a shower.
That is not a bad thing.
What mattered, however, was that Lowell’s body had fallen into lethargy.
Other people could sleep a little longer, conserve their strength for the day, and get by with a simple face wash, but not Lowell.
There are many different triggers and reasons for falling into lethargy, but the way to escape it is to move your body.
You just have to achieve small things, one by one.
I woke up earlier than others.
I endured the painful run to the end.
I took a shower with my exhausted, aching body.
Even just that is enough to make you feel as if you accomplished something.
And for now, that is enough.
###
After exercising early in the morning, there is quite a bit of time before class.
First, I fill a bucket with water by the lake, then carry it on my shoulder back to the dormitory.
Of course, there are water facilities, so one can wash and get drinking water at places like the bathhouse or the student cafeteria, but for the current Lowell, that is impossible.
Does that mean he should not wash or drink water? Well, there are reasons for this too.
First, after finding out what this guy had been doing over the past few days, it turned out he had gone around doing every piece of dogshit imaginable.
I found a notice saying that the academy would no longer provide him with the academic manager assigned to children of noble families, because he had assaulted that manager.
Because he overturned an entire meal just because it contained an ingredient he disliked, he had also been banned from entering the student cafeteria.
He was restricted from using the bathhouse after assaulting a classmate who mocked him upon seeing his body.
At the library... the armory... the laboratory...
...How did this kid not get expelled?
In effect, he had been banned from using almost every facility within the academy, so Lowell had apparently been living inside the academy on the allowance he received from his family.
And now, it seemed his father, the source of those funds, had finally lost patience with Lowell’s tyranny and cut off support.
Then why insist on staying in an academy where I can’t do anything?
The answer is extremely simple.
This game has multiple endings, and the number of bad endings in particular is beyond imagination.
At the very beginning, there is an option to give up the academy journey and return to a comfortable home, but if you choose that option, a dreadful bad ending awaits.
On the way home, you get attacked by bandits, and the bandits’ preferences just so happen to be...
That... There is a shocking ending waiting that is difficult to put into words.
Of course, I don’t know if the same would apply now, but since the game centers on events that occur within the academy in the first place, it is reasonable to assume that any option involving leaving the academy naturally comes with a penalty.
If I really have possessed someone inside the game, then I might be able to return after meeting a bad ending, but I refuse to risk my precious...
Anyway, for now, I have to endure inside the academy as much as possible.
I created the conditions to draw water from the lake within the academy, wash with it, drink it, and do laundry.
“Still, it’s a bit better.”
One way or another, there are honestly only a few things I can do.
I can only move my body and wash properly.
It is not as if I currently possess exceptional abilities, nor do I have some brilliant move or cheat code capable of overturning the situation.
For now, the priority is simply to change from a day spent lying around every day to a day where I wake up early in the morning and busily move my body.
If my stamina improves, then there will be that much more I can do, and my appearance will at least stop drawing disgust from others, even if it does not earn their favor.
After washing up simply, I put on the uniform I had laundered over the weekend properly.
Then I leave the dormitory without being late and head toward the lecture hall.
The looks from the students I pass are still far from kind, but they do not openly badmouth me like before.
Of course, there are whispers, but in the end, aren’t they just kids? It is nothing to worry about much.
The next thing to do is simple.
Having gone through twelve years of regular education—elementary school, middle school, and high school—graduated from university, and lived as a sound member of society, there is no way I would be unable to focus in class.
“The types of elements are broadly considered to be five, and in detail, thirty. The core of elemental studies lies in classifying them according to their attributes and examining their interactions. And among those interactions...”
The complicated formulas on the blackboard, the symbols I had never seen or heard of, and even what looked like a dictionary densely packed in tiny writing...
Everyone has a plausible plan.
Until they get punched in the face.
I have absolutely no idea what he is talking about.
While I was spacing out like that, class ended before I knew it, and the students rose from their seats one by one and headed to their next class.
This is quite a disaster.
It goes without saying, but tuition at Magica Academy is on the expensive side.
Of course, their educational philosophy prioritizes ability over status or bloodline when it comes to learning, so the academy provides considerable support to those with outstanding talent—but there is no way an academy would provide such enormous support to an underachiever...
Therefore, now that I cannot receive support from my family either, my academic grades are desperately important.
I came into this class steeling my resolve, but if I fail to understand a single thing like this, it will disrupt all my plans going forward.
To be honest, there is no answer.
But giving up without even trying is the worst habit of all.
Of course, I know why people give up.
Moving your body for one day does not dramatically change it.
Studying for one day does not make your grades rebound.
The reverse is the same. Skipping exercise and study for just one day is not a problem.
It is just that it repeats every day.
Rest is necessary, but if you spend each day saying you can’t do it because of this or because of that, then eventually, even in important situations, you will start by looking for reasons why it cannot be done.
“Professor.”
“...? Lecture time is already over. What is it?”
“I have not been focusing in class until now, so I did not properly understand today’s lesson. Even so, there is something I am curious about.”
Of course, every word of that is true.
There is no way Lowell studied, and I have no way of knowing anything about fields related to magic, which does not even exist in reality.
Of course, elements are something you can learn about in science, but in my previous life, I was not some special person who had been a scientist or majored in that field.
I was an ordinary person with nothing exceptional, who merely lived diligently. The only thing slightly different from others was that I liked this game, and the only thing a little more special than that was that I was an ordinary X-board gremlin who had furiously fought keyboard battles in online communities over this game’s setting and story.
In this game, the concept of elements refers to the essence of energy found in nature.
The reason fire is hot is naturally because the element of fire exists within it, and the reason water is cold is because the element of water exists within it.
Naturally, they can influence one another and even mix together.
Genius mages can instinctively distinguish and utilize them, but most people cannot read those subtle flows.
For example, if there is muddy water, it means it is difficult to distinguish the element of water and the element of earth within it and use them separately.
Then can they not be used without separating them? That is not the case either.
“I am curious as to why the academic world teaches the classification of elements into five to thirty types as accepted doctrine, when the definition of the types of elements itself is uncertain.”
To be honest, I have absolutely no scholarly zeal or anything of the sort.
I have several objectives.
First, what I just mentioned is something that will later be revealed as canon. When elemental studies develop, magitech will advance enough to replace mages.
They say that sufficiently advanced science is indistinguishable from magic, and it is the same as that.
Because of that, the development of elemental studies had been blocked for quite a long time.
Against this background, elemental studies is not a mainstream field at present, and because there are almost no competitors, I registered for this course.
Honestly, I do not care whether it is magic, elemental studies, or spirit studies.
Even if the protagonist’s settings have changed now, I know this game, and Professor Clayton, standing before me, has a setting where he gives grades according to his own interest rather than the academy’s rules.
“Interesting... I have another class next. What is your name...? Ah... no. Are you free today?”
I feel like I may have touched something I should not have...