“Ah······. Um······.”
Her heart pounded as if it would burst, and her mind had gone off into space. Her damned classmates had already vanished without a trace.
Epherene, too, tried to subtly take a step back.
“Move aside.”
But at those words, something stubborn flared up inside her.
Why doesn’t he move around me? Why tell me to move?
Epherene bit her lip hard and lifted her head. Then, she held out the paper in her hand in a straight line.
“······I!”
She had meant to do it with one hand, but somehow ended up raising both hands with absurd politeness. It was a disaster.
“I······.”
Deculein was still looking down at her with cold eyes.
Epherene steadied her trembling heart with a deep breath. At the same time, she made a vow. That arrogant gaze—if not now, then someday—she would break it with her own strength, without fail······.
“I intend to establish a club. However, to do so, I need the signature of one professor as an advisor.”
There was so little reaction that it was embarrassing, but Epherene continued speaking firmly.
“······I will absolutely not bother you. It’s just that the other professors are not pleased with a commoner’s club, so if you could only sign······.”
By the time she said that much, Epherene had used up all her energy. Her arms, stretched straight out, trembled. Deculein’s unfathomable pressure seemed to be crushing her.
──And then.
Something unexpected happened.
Deculein took the paper Epherene held out. Without a word, he simply reached out and snatched it away.
“······Hhk.”
Epherene made a sound as if her breath had stopped.
Deculein was reading the proposal.
She was on edge. What if he said, ‘How dare you crawl up to me—’ and tore that paper apart?
She could even hear an auditory hallucination of riiiiip—
But then, Deculein took a fountain pen from his breast pocket.
She was on edge. What if he said, ‘Did you expect something? How dare commoners—’ and tore the paper with the fountain pen?
But then, Deculein signed it with that fountain pen.
She was on edge. What if he said, ‘Did you think I would do this—’ and triumphantly tore the signed paper apart?
But Deculein did not.
He merely returned it, perfectly intact, to her hand.
“Write up all the details at a later date and send them to my office.”
“······Pardon?”
Then he walked past her.
As she stood there blankly, his scent slowly faded away.
“······.”
Epherene stood as if her soul had left her body, staring at the “Club Establishment Proposal.”
There was a signature.
Deculein’s signature.
······Let’s not let my guard down.
He might have placed a spell on it that would make it tear apart after some time passed.
However, even as Deculein grew distant, then more distant, until he soon became a dot and disappeared from sight, the paper remained intact.
“Wow, wooow, wow wow wow! Wow! Amazing!”
Only then did the obnoxious classmates who had been hiding show themselves.
“Wow, you really got his signature······ Epherene, you’ve seriously got guts.”
“See! I told you, didn’t I? To that professor, nobles are commoners and commoners are nobles! He ignores everyone equally!”
Everyone was laughing and making a fuss, but Epherene herself did not feel good.
It was the worst.
Once again—though it had not been her intention—she had ended up begging for sympathy.
Anger surged up within her. Heat was spreading through her entire body.
She wanted to ask Deculein.
Why are you only so lenient with me?
I don’t need that paltry sympathy and pity you feel for me at all. If anything, it’s laughable. Those petty emotions of yours—can’t you just cast them aside yourself?
No, if you truly are sorry, shouldn’t you confess your wrongdoing to the entire world and apologize to my father······?
“Ephy, you’re joining too, right?”
Julia asked tactlessly. Epherene clenched her fists hard, turned around, and glared at her.
“I’m not. And you, try pushing me like that one more time. You’ll be in real trouble.”
She pushed her away coldly, but Julia’s attention was already elsewhere.
“Ah~ no, wait. What do you mean, join? Ephy, we’re founding it thanks to you, so you should be the president!”
“You’re insane.”
What the hell is wrong with her? Dumbfounded, Epherene’s shoulders trembled.
“Hey. I clearly said I’m not doing it—”
However.
“Right. Since today’s a celebration, I’ll treat you to something even bigger! Want to come to our restaurant? Dad got some Roahawk boar.”
“······.”
Roahawk boar.
Epherene had never once eaten that boar before. No, even for someone other than Epherene, it would not be very common.
It was that high-grade of premium pork. Those creatures, raised only on Yufran perilla leaves, had better lives than she did. The moment you bit into the meat, the juices burst out, and its texture was said to be softer than any meat in the world······.
“······Ephy! You’re coming too, right?!”
“No. I’m not going.”
Epherene clung to her pride. She stuck out her lips and pretended to be angry, so Julia clasped her hands together and bowed her head.
“Ah, I’m sorry, I’m sorry. You were startled, right? I was just so flustered too. Don’t be like that, let’s go together just this once.”
Epherene was grateful for that question.
“······Then I guess I’ll go. But don’t do something like this again.”
“Ah, of course~ Let’s go, let’s go~”
“I’m only doing this on purpose because your club’s purpose seems good—”
“I know, I know. Let’s go, let’s go~”
Julia linked arms with Epherene and walked.
And so, pretending she had been dragged there against her will, Epherene arrived at Julia’s restaurant, [The Pig’s Flower].
The restaurant, whose signboard and interior both radiated luxury, was delicious, delicious, and delicious.
Especially the blissful taste of the Roahawk boar······ was enough to make her want to keep it in her mouth for the rest of her life.
* * *
The last Thursday of March, in the annex of the Yukline Grand Mansion.
In that place, completely remodeled into a training ground and exercise room where not even sunlight entered, I swept back my wet hair.
After intense exercise, my whole body reflected in the mirror had long since become drenched in sweat.
If it had been the original me, I would not have cared at all, but because of my changed personality, it felt as if insects were crawling all over my body.
Snap─!
I used a basic spell of the common category. Since it was a three-stroke spell, I could manifest it with just a snap of my fingers.
Its name was “Cleanse.” It was a temporary measure before showering, gathering all the sweat and dust from my body into the air and removing it.
After roughly cleaning myself with that, I looked at the clock.
6 a.m.
I had woken up at 4 a.m., so about two hours had passed. It had been about five days since I began exercising at dawn every day.
I looked at my body in the full-length mirror.
The effects of exercise were clear. The muscles throughout my body had been sculpted in a practical and perfect way, yet not too large or sluggish, no different from those of a statue.
It was, without question, thanks to 「Iron Man」. No exercise was difficult, and even if I had muscle pain, I recovered quickly.
If I kept putting in steady effort like this for a month or two, it seemed I could easily surpass even those supposedly extraordinary NFL and NBA athletes through pure physical ability.
“Now, the next routine is······.”
“Sword Control.”
I took out the cherished weapons I had previously commissioned from a smithy. However, there was not just one. There were quite a few. Exactly twenty.
The material was woodsteel. It had inherited the color and weight of wood, and yet, despite that, was a top-grade metal harder than steel.
The weapon made from it could be described in one phrase as a “sharp octahedron.”
It was about half the size of my forearm and resembled a shuriken, but it had no handle and both sides were blades—in other words, it would be correct to say it had a symmetrical shape.
Every surface of this weapon was sharp, and every point was pointed, making it highly efficient to handle with telekinesis.
It was useful for every kind of attack—thrusting, slashing, piercing, launching—and in an emergency, it could be formed into a shield and used defensively.
In any case, it was basically a shuriken, a cherished weapon I would use only until I bought Snowflower Stone. Of course, I planned to process the Snowflower Stone like this as well.
“Rise.”
At that one word, twenty shuriken rose into the air.
Woooooo······.
The many shuriken soon flew, but they collided with each other and made a goddamn mess.
Kang─ clang─ tang─ chang─ crunch─!
The roof and pillars were smashed apart. I hurriedly reduced the number to ten.
As expected, I was not used to it yet. There was also the fact that woodsteel itself was an extremely high-grade metal.
Of the ten shuriken, five floated along a diagonal line to the right, and the rest along a diagonal line to the left. The ten shuriken crossed through the air as if building a tower of matches.
Now that the number had been reduced, they seemed to move somewhat more precisely······ or so I thought.
When I increased their speed, ting─! Two of them collided and bounced away.
“······!”
One blade sliced my shoulder. Fuck. I mumbled the word with my mouth and held it in. However, immediately after, another blade shot upward in the same way and stabbed my thigh.
“······That hurts like hell.”
This one hurt too much to endure. It was a tragedy caused by each of the ten shuriken moving at different speeds.
Thanks to that, I learned their destructive power.
With these, killing a single person would be laughably easy.
“······Hup!”
Breathing deeply, I pulled the shuriken embedded in my thigh out.
Blood flowed heavily, but treatment was unnecessary.
I was Iron Man. Whether mana or stamina, my recovery speed was beyond human.
“One more time.”
Before the wound in my thigh had even healed, I raised the ten shuriken again with telekinesis.
Claaang─!
One of them suddenly tumbled and stabbed into my shoulder.
“······!”
It hurt like I was going to die.
But I never grit my teeth, scream grotesquely, or widen my eyes.
No, I couldn’t. Even if I wanted to scream and howl, nothing came out.
“A mere shuriken······.”
Instead, I only grew angry. How dare a shuriken, a thing that was nothing more than a mere weapon, refuse to follow my control?
You have chosen the wrong opponent. I will do this until I win—until, without question, I win······.
The personality trait 「Competitive Spirit」 had been triggered.
Was there not also the famous saying that one learns with the body?
The more my body hurt, the more sharply my proficiency would rise, so there was nothing to lose.
······That day.
After being cut exactly 108 times and stabbed 13 times, I ended my training.
Of course, the contest was not over yet, and I still had strength left, but because I had a lecture from 3 p.m., I had no choice.
* * *
3 p.m., the A Class lecture room of the Magic Tower.
Unlike the previous class, the room was ordinarily spacious, and within it hung a different sort of tension from before.
The cause was, as expected, Sylvia and Epherene. It was the first lecture after the two had fought tooth and nail.
“······Ahem. Ahem.”
Epherene tried not to pay attention to Sylvia, but her eyes kept drifting that way, while Sylvia did not even glance at Epherene.
However, factions naturally formed. Those from commoner backgrounds sat beside Epherene and seemed to support her, while the nobles appeared to look down on Epherene from Sylvia’s side.
As everyone felt discomfort in that choking atmosphere,
Drrrrk─
The door of the lecture room opened, and Head Professor Deculein appeared.
As always, he was dressed impeccably.
Before she knew it, Epherene was gripping her pen tightly. Since she had charged up her anger (?) just last night while reading her father’s letter, merely seeing his face made her feel needlessly complicated.
Deculein ascended the podium of the vast lecture room. As was his habit, he adjusted his clothes, then set his materials down on the lectern.
“Good to see you.”
At that chic tone, everyone greeted him reflexively.
“Today, we will proceed with a lecture directly connected to the understanding of ‘pure elements.’”
The mages opened their textbooks. Since today was said to be an ordinary indoor lecture, each of them had brought Deculein’s work, [Understanding the Elements].
For reference, Epherene had not bought it because she had no money.
“As you know, ‘elements’ are an attribute that serves as the basis of almost all magic. However, there are still many mages who confuse the difference between ‘category magic’ and ‘pure elements.’”
For example, “attribute” comes first, and “category” comes next.
Take the act of creating fire. That in itself is a “pure element.”
The act of spewing out that fire one has created. That is the “destruction category.”
“Thus, today, I intend to teach you this magic.”
The mages’ hands grew busy. They tilted their heads and flipped through the textbook here and there. Nowhere in his work was there any content related to today’s lecture.
Snap—!
When he snapped his fingers, the lecture room went dark. In the dark air, the formula of a certain spell and its name appeared.
「Scorching Fire」
“Huh?”
“Mm?”
Everyone was surprised. 「Scorching Fire」 was among the most fiendishly difficult even within the category of “pure elements.”
“There is no need to be surprised. I am not telling you to learn this magic. Your abilities fall short for a spell like this. 「Scorching Fire」 is merely a textbook.”
Deculein continued the lecture calmly.
“As you all know, eight lines are enough for ordinary ignition.”
The moment he finished speaking, fire rose into the air. It was Deculein’s magic.
His flame flickered with unnecessary elegance.
“However, this 「Scorching Fire」 requires eighty-eight lines.”
A fire without sound, without form.
This mid-to-high-rank spell, used for massacres and arson, required eighty-eight strokes purely for “ignition.” If one intended to use it offensively, sixty more strokes were added on top of that.
“Has no one ever wondered why? Is it simply because it is a strange fire? Or because, though it is called a ‘pure element,’ it seems to have schools of manipulation or illusion mixed in?”
Everyone merely blinked.
“And yet, despite those schools being mixed in, why is it classified not as a school, but as a ‘pure element’? Just what is this pure element, that it is so riddled with questions?”
There was a strange pull to his lecture.
“You must have lived without ever harboring such doubts. Theory was only material, and you learned magic solely through your own intuition.”
At that moment, fire spread across the ceiling. It was a red fire. But soon it became blue, and before long it became black.
The eyes of one hundred and fifty mages blinked blankly.
“You must clearly understand the formula of the pure element called ‘fire.’”
Before long, a much simpler formula was projected.
It was the eight-line 「Fire」.
From that point on—
A great many mages, including Epherene, who had only been watching and listening to the lecture, naturally took out writing tools.
Sylvia, on the other hand, remained stubborn.
I have nothing to learn from you. Whether theory or intuition, you cannot teach me anything at all…
She was still sulking.
“Look closely. If you add these two thin lines to the formula of 「Fire」, you can change its color. These two lines are what handle color.”
Turning red into blue, two lines.
“If you add four lines, you can kindle a larger flame.”
Making the fire more destructive, four lines.
“But here, fire with seven added lines suddenly ‘flows.’”
Like an illusion, the flame flowed downward.
It was not something like magma. The fire was truly “flowing.”
“…”
By that point, even Sylvia, who had been trying hard to ignore it, began to grow anxious. At the unexpected content, her hands started to itch.
Indeed, Deculein’s lecture was extremely “theoretical.”
Ordinary elites—that is, mages called geniuses—wielded magic through their own intuition. Theory only gave them the broad framework, while the details were realized solely through their own instincts.
If mages were all theoretical, every spell would have been rigidly standardized, as though copied and pasted.
Sylvia was no exception to that sort of genius. To begin with, her attribute was not an element but Origin. There was no way she would know the theory of pure elements, which was only complicated for complication’s sake.
And it could not be helped, because if one leaned too heavily into theory, there would be no time to learn magic.
This much mana for each and every line. This circuit performs this function, that circuit performs that function.
If one tried to understand all of those things theoretically, even “memorizing” a single spell would take ages, and it would be difficult to carry out practical training properly.
“Now then, look again at these seven lines here.”
It could be called a contradiction.
To become an elite, one had to possess outstanding intuition.
However, elites could not explain their own intuition.
Therefore, in order to teach well, one had to possess outstanding theory.
Yet those who actually excelled in theory were buried in theory, or lacked intuition, and so could not realize magic beyond the intermediate level. Thus, they were not elites.
That was why professors were perhaps only half complete. If they could just provide the theoretical framework, young mages would be able to get a feel for it, but they too explained only through intuition, without theory.
Deculein was different.
“These seven lines—in other words, this formula—made ‘fire flow.’ Yet this formula is a shape you will have seen somewhere before.”
She felt as though she knew what Deculein would say next.
Water [水].
Because the nature of the element called water had been magically separated and bestowed upon fire, the fire “flowed” like water.
This was the combination of pure elements.
“Correct. This formula belongs to the water attribute. Fire and water. Such combinations of pure elements are extremely difficult to execute, but once you understand the principle, they can be understood well enough.”
At that moment—Sylvia felt goosebumps rise along her back.
It was an experience so strange because the subject was unexpected, and so unfamiliar because it had been so long.
Right now, I am—learning.
From Deculein, she was feeling what it meant to learn.
The only problem was that Sylvia herself had not brought any writing tools. She had been stubborn on purpose, insisting that it would not be of any use as study.
Frankly, who would have known that Deculein, who was said to be jealous of talented new mages, would prepare a lecture like this? I thought I would only be the target of his jealousy too.
“…”
Everyone in the A Class lecture hall was already focused on Deculein as though entranced.
They were all taking notes, and I alone am not.
She grew anxious.
I could apply this lecture far better than the likes of you. I could learn it far more deeply. So why are only you studying?
Restless, Sylvia carefully stretched out her fingers. A female mage beside her had tossed her pencil case aside, and Sylvia reached toward it slowly, like a spider eyeing its prey.
At that very moment—their eyes briefly met.
The woman soon focused back on the class, but Sylvia was at a loss, overcome with the shame of having been caught in the act.
“…”
Gritting her teeth in anguish, Sylvia had no choice but to manifest mana. Carefully, so that the ripples of her mana would not leak outside.
The mana that originated from her dantian flowed along her blood vessels, surged to her extremities, and escaped through her fingertips. What had been merely blue soon took on a variety of colors, forming the shape of a long, blunt writing tool.
It was a pencil.
“Therefore, the attribute of this 「Scorching Fire」 can be said to be highly complex.”
What swayed without sound was wind.
What rose without form was smoke, that is, fire and water.
With three attributes combined, 「Scorching Fire」 was formed.
“Because the three elements of fire, water, and wind have been purely combined, it is pure elemental magic. Then now, we shall simplify this 「Scorching Fire」. Let us see what calculations are required for its realization.”
Sylvia immersed herself in the lesson.
To the face, voice, and teachings of a professor she could call “teacher” for the first time in so long, she devoted her entire mind.
Having recovered, even if only a little, that pure emotion she had lost one day when she was very young…