Delmar raised his staff high and began to pour out a long-winded chant.
“O breath of the great sun! Answer my call and become the crimson judgment that shall burn the blasphemer down to his very bones! Flame of destruction that returns all things to ash—!”
Mana condensed at the tip of his staff.
Soon, a massive fireball the size of a small warehouse formed.
‘Wow, he really does chant.’
I had seen Ivelin show me magic at the research institute, but...
This guy was different somehow.
How should I put it?
A narcissist who believed he was the coolest person in the world?
It felt like that sticky self-love was smeared thickly over every single word of his chant.
It was biologically repulsive.
“Senior. Are all mages originally like that? Do they have to shout like that?”
He was practically screaming.
It was embarrassing just to watch.
[No, that one is exceptionally self-absorbed. What a wasteful habit with not a speck of efficiency to be found.]
Eleanor snorted.
She was right.
The amount of mana Delmar was emitting was certainly enough to burn me to death and then some.
But its structure was like a net riddled with holes.
It was merely flashy; thermodynamically, it was the worst possible design.
You should never, ever do physics.
After making that brief assessment,
my gaze went past Delmar.
Near the VIP seats.
Ivelin’s face had already turned deathly pale.
Was she shouting for them to stop the duel?
She was clutching the arm of the knight commander beside her and crying out urgently.
‘She really doesn’t have to worry that much.’
I calmly stretched out my hand instead.
“Flame is simply an oxidation reaction. But that thing is closer to a high-pressure lump of energy forcibly bound together by mana.”
I pinpointed the exact node where the mana flows intersected.
If I disturbed the equilibrium of the system... just slightly.
The pitifully small amount of 0th-tier mana I possessed burrowed into Delmar’s flames.
The quantity was negligible.
But like a needle pricking a balloon, it pierced straight through the vital point.
The phenomenon I was inducing was simple.
“If high-pressure energy suddenly expands, where does that energy go?”
The so-called principle of adiabatic expansion.
Chiiiiik—!
The enormous blazing fireball shrank in an instant.
As the hot air rapidly cooled, white vapor billowed up.
A moment later, a bizarre rupture rang out.
Puh-uhk—!
The energy that had been forcibly compressed lost its balance and expanded explosively.
And the direction of that explosion was, naturally, toward Delmar, the caster.
“...Huh?”
Delmar’s vacant voice.
The rapidly expanding mana sent the surrounding temperature plummeting below freezing.
White frost crept in from the tip of Delmar’s staff.
Soon, his sleeves, eyebrows, and hair froze white in an instant.
“Ggh, ugh...!”
The very person who had cast fire magic turned pale and began shivering violently.
“......”
Delmar stared blankly at his own staff.
Then his face flushed red with humiliation, and he jerked his head up savagely.
“Y-you son of a biiitch!”
His confusion soon turned into uncontrollable rage.
What a fine sight, him getting angry.
That’s why you should have known when to stop.
“......”
It was a fine sight, sure...
But the amount of mana that bastard was spewing out was strange.
This is safe, right?
Behind his back, mana dozens of times greater than before began to swirl.
[Rihan. That one truly intends to kill you.]
Eleanor’s low warning.
I pretended to be relaxed, but cold sweat was already running down my back in streams.
A 4th-tier mage was losing his reason and charging in?
For a 0th-tier researcher with a mana pool the size of a rat’s tail, there was no answer.
In other words, I was fucked.
‘Senior! I used up all my mana, you know? Am I seriously about to die here?’
The crisis-escape instinct unique to graduate students took over my brain.
‘Excuse me, I’m a researcher! Fuck, save me!’
Just as I was wondering whether I should immediately declare surrender and roll on the floor,
Eleanor whispered softly.
[Do not worry. Am I not here? If it truly becomes dangerous, I will burn this doll body if I must and leave that whelp half-dead.]
As expected of Eleanor!
My master, my senior, and the greatest teaching assistant!
It was the moment when the majesty of a 10th-tier being shone even from within a doll.
If the seat belt was securely fastened,
then what came next was already decided.
It was time for the so-called teabagging.
“If your efficiency is bad, at least your personality should be good.”
I stared straight at Delmar and smirked.
“But from the looks of it, both are a complete bust, aren’t they? Haha!”
“I’ll tear that arrogant mouth of yours apart first! You son of a biiitch!”
A hair-trigger situation.
Just as Delmar was about to unleash his magic—
Tak—!
The clear sound of fingers snapping.
That brief sound echoed throughout the entire training ground.
At the same time, the overwhelming mana that had filled the space behind Delmar scattered like a mirage.
“......?”
When I looked toward the sound, Duke Cassian was standing there.
An indifferent expression.
With just a light snap of his fingers, a 4th-tier spell had silently evaporated.
Clap, clap, clap.
Cassian clapped very slowly.
“Truly astonishing. This is the first time I have witnessed a sight that makes the word genius feel so inadequate.”
His voice was gentle.
But within it lay an irresistible pressure.
“To overcome insufficient mana with precise formulae, and an inferior tier through the distortion of law... Master Rihan, your magic is a bizarre yet beautiful form unlike anything I have seen in my life.”
Cassian’s gaze turned to Delmar.
“How unsightly, Delmar. For the chief mage of Estal to lose his reason.”
The rampaging Delmar trembled like a wet dog.
Fear pressed down on the training ground.
“Our mage has committed a grave discourtesy. Master Rihan, I hope you will be generous enough to understand.”
The most powerful man in the empire dipped his head ever so slightly.
He was offering an apology, but his eyes did not look sorry in the slightest.
Only thick curiosity gleamed in them.
‘That’s right. This is how you should come out.’
I pleasantly savored Delmar’s wretched expression.
A dog has to be scolded harshly once if you don’t want it to bite later.
[Hmph, he should know his place. To dare shove a brute lump of mana into a precisely designed law.]
Eleanor also snorted as if she found him laughable.
[That whelp’s aptitude does not lie in holding a staff, but in swinging a pickaxe in the mines.]
‘Senior, he’s still 4th-tier. He could annihilate a platoon of elite knights...’
[In my eyes, it was merely a slightly larger stone rolling along the roadside. If that Cassian fellow had not interfered, I would have overloaded that whelp’s magic circuits entirely and made sure he could never use magic again. What a pity.]
‘Please don’t say such terrifying things. If we cripple the ducal family’s chief mage, I won’t be able to live normally either.’
Leaving behind Eleanor’s spine-chilling remark,
Cassian came right up in front of me and offered his hand first for a handshake.
I had never learned anything like noble etiquette...
Should I do it like I learned in the military?
I straightened my back as I had learned in the military and grasped his hand appropriately.
“You flatter me, Your Grace.”
Cassian held my hand and smiled, slowly curving his eyes.
“It must have been a tiring day. But to me, Master Rihan, you were well worth it.”
He let go of my hand and looked me over, as if sorting out a card he would find useful tomorrow.
“Let us meet again tomorrow. There is a matter on which I would like to seek counsel from that clever mind of yours.”
Cassian turned away without waiting for an answer.
“I have high expectations. I believe you may be able to resolve a long-standing concern of mine very neatly. Then, rest well.”
And with that, he left the training ground.
****
Phew, it was finally over.
To have to risk my life as soon as I arrived.
As expected, the ducal family was a frightening place in a way entirely different from the research institute.
Now it was time to go in and focus on my real job again.
My true objective was, after all, the ring sleeping in the treasury.
“Senior. When should we set the operation time?”
[In my view, the classic choice of night would be best. The hour when the shadows are deepest is also ideal for avoiding eyes that sense mana.]
She was right.
The most orthodox method was to steal beneath the moonlight.
And I could even secure a bit of romance while I was at it.
As I walked while planning the operation, I saw a familiar figure in the distance.
It was Ivelin.
To ease the tension, I approached with a deliberately playful tone.
“Were you waiting for me? How was it, your master’s performance?”
“......”
Normally, she would have scolded me with something like, “Stop being so full of yourself.”
But there was no reaction.
‘What is it this time?’
Her expression beneath the corridor lamp looked far more complicated than it had at the training ground earlier.
When I drew closer, she slowly raised her head.
“...Rihan.”
The playful reply I had been about to make slipped back down my throat.
Because her eyes had sunk deeply.
“I have something to say. Do you have a moment?”
She looked around and asked in an uncharacteristically low voice.
For the princess of the Duchy of Estal to be this intimidated in her own home.
‘What a mess of a household atmosphere.’
I could understand why, in the original novel, this family was destroyed so horribly.
It was like an old tree that looked splendid on the outside but was rotting within.
The air of the mansion felt especially heavy.
I gave a light nod.
Let’s at least hear what she has to say.
Without a word, I followed her toward a dark corner of the corridor where even the lamplight barely reached.