Episode 19: A Genius Story and Slum Reform (2) Fin
Even after he started reading the book again,
the protagonist Tian’s genius continued to astonish Eric.
-This isn’t the destructive power of 1st Circle magic?!
It’s at least 2nd Circle or higher! Tian, how on earth did you do that?-
-Huh? Isn’t this how it normally is?
It’s felt like this ever since I first manifested it.-
-...It seems the quality and quantity of mana you possess are innately extraordinary.-
On top of having a genius-level understanding of learning magic and a natural sense for operating it,
even the quality and quantity of mana he had been born with were so high they could hardly be considered human.
-Master. What are composite magic and derivative attribute magic?-
-Ah, those are advanced magic systems that go one step beyond the four basic elemental attributes.
They’re more difficult than ordinary attribute magic, and if you don’t have the aptitude for them, you can’t learn them at all, so later...-
-Ah, do I do it like this?
For now, I tried combining the fire and earth attributes into lava, and changing the water attribute into ice!-
-...Let’s add those to your lessons starting today.-
He even had aptitude and talent for advanced magic systems.
When it came to talent for magic, he lacked nothing—he seemed, quite literally, to have been born for magic.
“At this point, isn’t he not just an ordinary genius, but the seed of a great mage whose name will go down in history?”
His talent was so overwhelming that such thoughts naturally came to mind.
Even knowing he was a character in a novel, Eric could not help but continue to marvel.
-Ha! To pick up an orphan from the slums and take him as your disciple.
Gray, it seems your standards have fallen to the dirt!
By contrast, my disciple is an elite born from the bloodline of a prestigious magic family! Hahaha!-
-Is that so? Then does your disciple also learn magic just by watching it, possess mana comparable to me at the 6th Circle despite still being 1st Circle, and have aptitude for every advanced system?-
-What kind of nonsense is that?! Where in the world would such a person exist?-
-My disciple can do it.-
-D-Don’t lie! There’s no way something so absurd could be real!-
And in the scene where Gray subtly bragged about Tian’s talent to an acquaintance who had looked down on Tian’s humble origins,
crushing the man’s pride, Eric felt a thrilling satisfaction as if it had happened to him personally.
“I knew Author Wei was skilled at manipulating people’s emotions, but feeling it again really makes me realize how incredible he is.”
At first, he had clearly felt awkward and uncomfortable with a protagonist who possessed such excessive ability.
Yet before he knew it, that resistance had disappeared, and he was feeling refreshed by watching Tian grow rapidly without ever getting stuck.
This emotion control was almost divine!
It was to the point that he wondered if magic had been used.
And by now, Gray, the master, had grown so accustomed to the protagonist Tian’s genius that he no longer showed surprise at ordinary things and simply accepted them calmly.
That reaction overlapped with Eric’s own, making him chuckle a little.
As his resistance toward Tian’s origins and talent faded like that, a certain thought naturally came to mind.
“What if Tian had been discovered just a little earlier?”
If so, wouldn’t he have broken every record for the youngest mage in the magic world?
Imagining that made reading the story even more enjoyable.
But Author Wei went one step beyond Eric’s imagination.
-Congratulations, Tian.
You’ve now perfectly stabilized the 3rd Circle.
To think it only took you one year to get here... At this rate, you’ll reach the 4th Circle in no time!-
Only one year after stepping onto the path of magic, in the year he turned thirteen, Tian perfectly stabilized the 3rd Circle.
And he reached the level where the 4th Circle was right before his eyes.
Considering that an ordinary mage took at least three years, no matter how fast, to reach the 3rd Circle from the time they began, this was several times faster.
Moreover, even that rapid speed had taken that long only because he had to spend separate time learning things he had never learned as an orphan in the slums, such as reading and general knowledge,
and because he had learned every spell below the 3rd Circle that Gray knew before moving on.
In other words, he was far more perfectly complete than other 3rd Circle mages.
It was not for nothing that the story said the 4th Circle was right in front of him.
“Haha. Right. If you’re going to go big, you have to go all the way. That’s how amazement outweighs awkwardness.”
By this point, Eric no longer bothered to nitpick.
He simply accepted that this was the kind of novel it was and began to relax completely and enjoy it.
Once he opened his heart like that, he was able to feel the fun of the book even more fully.
And that fun reached its peak in the part where Gray’s daughter, his master’s daughter, was kidnapped.
-You’re the disciple my dad picked up this time?
I’m Elise! I’m two years older than you, and I’m your senior as a mage, so if there’s anything you don’t know, ask me! Ahem!-
-You already completed the 3rd Circle?!
Uuugh! This is unfair!
Until just a little while ago, you were asking me about 2nd Circle magic, so why are you the one who became 3rd Circle before me?!-
Gray’s daughter Elise, who appeared as a girl around the same age as the protagonist Tian,
treated Tian, an orphan, kindly without prejudice. She was both his rival and another teacher who taught him common sense and reading.
When such an Elise happened to be kidnapped while Gray was away,
Tian attacked the kidnappers without hesitation to save her, using his genius talent in battle for the first time.
-I-Impossible...! I’m a 4th Circle mage, and I lost to a mere brat like this...-
-Huff, huff— I’m not a mere brat.
The one who defeated you is a mage named Tian!-
And Tian’s talent was displayed without fail in magical combat as well.
He applied every spell he had learned so far in the right place at the right time, and used modified magic stuffed full of his innately vast mana.
When he defeated an enemy one level above him, a 4th Circle mage, despite being only 3rd Circle,
the tension drained from Eric’s entire body, and a thrilling pleasure flooded through him strongly enough to make his brain tingle.
And in the scene where the nameless orphan of the slums called himself by the name his master had given him for the first time,
showing that he now stood tall as a mage in his own right, Eric was so electrified that he could not even utter an exclamation.
“Was it said that nameless grass only became a flower once it was given a name?”
Like that maxim that suddenly surfaced in his mind,
a genius who might have been buried as an orphan in the slums had met the opportunity called a master, received a name, and made his hidden talent bloom.
It was a moving and symbolic scene.
-I came to save you, Sister Elise.-
-Tian...? You really came to save me?-
After that, in the scene where Tian, though victorious in the battle against the kidnappers, rescued Elise while covered in wounds,
a pleased smile naturally formed on Eric’s lips.
“Hehehe. She’s completely fallen for him.
Well, in a situation like this, how could she not?”
Because it was obvious to anyone that Elise had fallen for Tian, who had come to save her.
“I’m looking forward to seeing them after they grow up. Hehehe.”
If it was Author Wei, who had previously written such an excellent romance work, then surely he would give these two a sweet love story as well...
“Huh?”
Eric, who had been turning the page while imagining such sweetness, soon grew flustered and began shouting.
“Why, why is there no next page??”
Because there was no content after the page he had turned!
Had something been omitted?
Was it defective?
Or had someone torn it out?
In the span of only a few seconds, all sorts of thoughts began racing through Eric’s mind.
-End of Volume 1-
Until he discovered that one short sentence written in small letters at the bottom corner of the final page.
“End of Volume 1?!”
Eric, who had been about to go to the bookstore and complain about the crime of selling him a defective product that had cut him off at such an important moment,
froze the instant he saw that sentence.
“End of Volume 1.
...Then does that mean there’s another volume?”
That was right.
This story was not ending in a single volume. It was a long series.
In other words, the story of the genius mage Tian was not over, and there was still more left afterward.
But if he wanted to read it, he would have to wait until the next volume came out.
“No, no! This isn’t right!
Everything until now was released as a short work, so why is this one a long series?!
I want to read the next part right now!”
The moment he realized that fact, Eric began screaming in terror and rage.
It was good that such an entertaining story would continue for a long time.
But he could not accept the reality that this also meant the wait would be longer, and he ended up turning violent.
“You’re cutting it off here? You’re cutting it off here?!”
“Khekh! Hrk! The next volume! I want to see the next volume so badly I can’t breathe! This is curse magic!
If the author doesn’t want to be punished as a dark mage, he’d better release the next volume at once!”
“Listen, Author Wei! If you don’t release the next volume immediately, I’ll dump filth in front of the Publishing Guild every single day until it comes out!”
“No, why are you doing this to our Publishing Guild?!”
Naturally, this phenomenon was not limited to Eric alone. It was occurring simultaneously all across the nation among those who had read the book.
And even amidst the readers’ confusion and anger, certain rumors quietly began to spread.
‘Maybe Author Wei was disheartened because he wanted to reform the slums, but ran into opposition.’
‘He wanted to save the futures of talented children like the protagonist Tian.
But since he met opposition, he might be disappointed and refuse to release the next volume!’
There was no logic or evidence behind it, only speculation bordering on delusion... or perhaps covert incitement.
However, in the minds of readers who had already fallen deeply for [The Genius Mage of the Slums] and were longing for the next volume, it sounded plausible.
-The seed of a beautiful lotus hidden in the mud of prejudice, as shown in [The Genius Mage of the Slums].
Can it bloom in reality as well?-
-Opposing slum reform? That is the act of letting hidden treasures rot because one has been blinded by prejudice!-
“Even at this very moment! Some brilliant talent may be fading away under our indifference!
To prevent such a tragedy, we must fundamentally reform the slums!”
“Hear, hear! Let us save the future great mages and future swordmasters with our own hands!”
When public opinion joined in and began fanning the flames,
“Damn it! Since it’s come to this, let’s do it! Slum reform!”
“Right! We won’t oppose it, so hurry up and release the next volume!”
In the end, even opposition readers including Eric turned to supporting slum reform. It became the decisive turning point.
“Ahem. And perhaps my future disciple might be there, after all.”
“Ahem! What are you talking about? They would be my disciple.”
Of course, a bit of personal greed was mixed in as well—the desire that perhaps they might pick up a disciple like Tian, the protagonist of the novel.
In any case.
Thus, amid the sweet fantasy of becoming the master or sponsor of an unprecedented genius mage,
the new work splendidly completed its mission.