······Deculein left.
As promised, there was no rematch or review. Luina, on the other hand, still remained in her seat, and Sophien looked at her.
“Luina. What do you think of this position?”
“······It seems better than mine.”
Her pride was wounded, but she answered honestly. Sophien nodded as well.
“Far better. Not merely better—it was far more entertaining. You are too much of a coward, Luina.”
“······Yes. I apologize.”
“Were you raised being beaten by someone when you were young?”
“It is because I only read books at home.”
Luina calmly accepted Sophien’s words. She never showed anything on the surface.
“They say the relationship between Yukline and McQueen is not particularly good.”
“······Yes.”
But she did not have the courage to remain composed at this question. Luina lowered her head so her expression would not be seen.
The Bercht Conference fifteen years ago.
The one who attacked McQueen then and eliminated him was the previous head of Yukline.
He robbed her father of his dantian and turned him into a cripple. Then he shamelessly claimed that he had not intended it, that such things were only natural at Bercht, and offered financial support to the family as if it were salvation and compassion.
What he demanded in return was McQueen’s “magical secret art.” He even put up a hollow promise that he would return it once McQueen was back on track in the future.
At the time, McQueen could not refuse. It was a question of the worst evil or the lesser evil.
Such atrocities by Yukline had not begun with McQueen alone.
Even after Deculein became the family head, such deeds were commonplace, and as a result, numerous magical secret arts lay dormant in Yukline’s underground archives.
That was why Luina’s primary goal was to reclaim McQueen’s magical secret art.
“······.”
When she remained silent for a long while, Sophien lowered her face and looked into Luina’s eyes.
“Hey, are you crying?”
“······!”
Startled, Luina shook her head. Sophien could easily read the emotions of rage and hatred from her.
It was such an easy thing.
But not with Deculein. His emotions were opaque, acrid as though covered in dust.
Not even the slightest fragment of any emotion could be seen.
“Luina.”
“Yes.”
“Is this your gift?”
Sophien placed her hand on the magic book Luina had brought.
Luina answered with a measure of pride. It was, after all, an object that could not be bought with money.
“Yes. It contains magical insights written in his youth by the Grand Elder of the Dzek Order of Bercht—”
“I shall read it. Now you may go as well. A promise is a promise.”
“······Yes.”
Luina quietly rose and left.
Sophien rested her chin on her hand and looked at the chessboard. The classroom, now that the two mages had departed, was silent.
However, one person still remained.
“Keiron. What do you think of this position?”
“······.”
“No matter how hard one ponders, there is no way out.”
Once the situation had reached this point, there was no way to break through. No matter how much one thought, the conclusion was defeat.
The answer was “not to end up in such a situation in the first place.”
Looking at her sullen face, Keiron said,
“The world is vast indeed, Your Majesty.”
“······.”
For some reason, his tone sounded pleased. Sophien twisted her lips and glared sidelong at him.
“I did not lose.”
She seized her king. In her grasp, the king crumbled into powder and trickled down. At the manifestation of mana, Keiron’s brows twitched.
“If I had taken my time, I would have won. I was caught up in that fellow’s tricks.”
Sophien was confident she would win if they played again. She had been swept along by his pace and lost her own.
“The next lesson is next week?”
“The knights will arrive in three days.”
Sophien closed her eyes without answering.
And so, she soon sank into her own inner world, and Keiron said nothing more.
* * *
“Was it still too much?”
I had lost at chess.
Of course, by pouring mana into 「Comprehension」, I had been able to read the next moves and push her to some extent.
However, my entire mana pool was exhausted in twenty minutes. I had wrung it out by force, and even then I could not finish the game to the end.
Thanks to that, I did realize something new.
A temporary amplification of 「Comprehension」.
At the moment of the match, 「Comprehension」 rose to a high degree and helped me engage in tactics I did not even know, but it was an extremely consumptive act. Now that 「Comprehension」 had ended, I could not even remember what I had done back then or how I had played.
It was a manifestation on a slightly different level from “learning” or “studying.”
“······.”
Feeling the aftereffects of mana exhaustion, I came to the parking lot outside the outer castle. My car and Luina’s car were parked side by side.
—They say even the ones who used to drive carriages are belatedly getting licenses now.
—Is that so? Well, I suppose the nobles these days don’t ride carriages anymore.
The chauffeurs were conversing among themselves.
—Indeed. I am glad I found out early as well.
—But do you know who fastened the first button of this automobile trend?
—Who was it?
—Professor Deculein, of course. All trends in the capital begin with him.
They were both chauffeurs, but the difference was clear. My chauffeur’s back was straight, while Luina’s chauffeur was obsequious.
“Ah, you’ve arrived, sir!”
“It is an honor!”
When I approached, the two chauffeurs bowed at the waist. I gave a nod and got into the car.
“To the mansion.”
“Yes, sir!”
The vehicle left the parking lot with the sound of its engine.
Not long after we set off, I glanced at the rearview mirror. Luina’s car had pulled in right behind us.
Without thinking much of it, I looked forward again.
“······?”
The backrest of the front seat. On that leather seat, a certain energy was faintly shimmering.
It was a trace of mana.
I narrowed my brow and stared at it. The trace soon formed the shape of a sentence.
「Have you abandoned us?」
“Jeff.”
“Yes, sir!”
It was a surprising thing, but this body showed no sign of it. I merely looked around the interior of the car calmly.
There were no death variables.
“Was there ever a time you parked and left your post?”
“No, sir. I was near the car the whole time. Since the imperial castle is right nearby······.”
Even if he was a chauffeur, Jeff was a former mercenary.
If someone had engraved a sentence without being detected by his eyes or ears, then at the very least, they were no mere riffraff.
「Have you abandoned us?」
Also, judging from the contents, there was a high probability they belonged to Deculein’s original network.
If that was the case, it was somewhat troublesome. They must certainly be from the “underworld.”
“Did no one approach? Did you hear anything?”
“······Ah.”
As though he had realized something, Jeff nodded.
“They say Mage Luina recently purchased a mansion in the capital. It seems she intends to stay there from now on.”
“······.”
I looked out the window. In the passing scenery, darkness descended for an instant. I thought it was the work of mana, but it was the shadow of a tree.
“I see.”
I looked at the rearview mirror.
Luina’s car, which had been following behind, had vanished somewhere.
As usual, I opened a book. As I read calmly, I thought about Deculein’s forces.
“······.”
From a player’s perspective, Deculein’s subordinates were naturally irritating. There were many named villains among them whose combat power was stronger than Deculein’s own.
However, that network was extremely shallow. Once Deculein died, they would simply scatter without even an event along the lines of “We shall avenge our boss.”
In fact, Deculein’s underworld connections had faded away in vain as soon as I, after becoming Deculein, cut off that “patronage.”
And yet······.
“I’ll have to think about this a little.”
These guys were different somehow.
A few names that I could roughly guess came to mind, but until I met them face-to-face and looked them in the eye, it seemed necessary to refrain from acting rashly.
* * *
A dark night.
Iliade’s capital, “Terhal,” was busy these days with the opening of Marik and support for demon purification. Thanks to that, Giletheon of the lord’s castle was still signing off on work.
—Deculein’s abilities these days are beyond expectations.
Scratch, scratch. In the silence of a fountain pen scrawling, someone’s voice flowed in.
Giletheon nodded.
“So they are.”
He already knew Deculein’s practical skill in “detail” because of a certain incident.
However, he had thought that theory belonged entirely to “that man.”
In fact, after “that man” died, his theory had also abruptly ceased.
“A symposium, is it.”
Yet whether it was a change of heart, a last struggle, or whether he had obtained a new brain,
Deculein had declared his challenge to the symposium.
In the magical world, the authority of solving a symposium could be called an achievement to some degree.
Of course, it depended on the problem, but at the very least, the three problems that had held their places for fifteen years—Numbers 6, 9, and 11—were special.
“Which problem does he intend to challenge?”
—That does not seem to have been revealed yet.
“······I wonder what is inside that fellow’s head. The same goes for his opposition to the suppression of the Red Relics.”
Giletheon placed the signed documents on the desk. Then he leaned back in his chair.
Looking at the darkness outside the castle, he gave a low smile.
“He truly is hard to predict. As expected of a seed of Yukline, I suppose······.”
To say Yukline and Iliade were like dogs and monkeys would be insufficient.
Even aside from the incident fifteen years ago, they had clashed over all manner of things, been shattered, died, and killed.
And yet they acknowledged only each other as their fated enemies—a truly bizarre relationship.
“······What happened to the knight who died at Bercht?”
—It is in a state of suspension, but it will likely remain suspended forever.
Giletheon laughed softly.
“Ha-ha. To think that fellow Galak bore ill will toward Deculein.”
—Indeed.
Of course, the one who instigated the Bercht attack itself was the Kingdom of Leoc.
However, Giletheon’s younger brother, Galak, added one more piece so that the attack could be perfect.
Veron.
It was easy to incite a man swept away by emotion.
However, Deculein’s victory was unexpected.
If it were one-on-one in a confined space, a mage should have struggled even against a knight two ranks below him.
“Galak’s temper is far too fiery.”
······Whatever the case.
All of this was Galak’s doing.
Naturally, Giletheon had no involvement whatsoever.
On the surface, and behind the scenes as well······.
—There are rumors lately that Julie and Deculein’s relationship is not bad.
“I know. The youngest piece of that family is truly lucky.”
Julie. A life that should have died in the womb to begin with, yet somehow she was born, and even after taking that “curse” in someone’s place, she survived.
It had originally been a curse impossible to heal, so Giletheon was still curious as to how she had overcome it.
—She seems to be a flower that blooms stronger the more she is tormented.
“She was tormented plenty. By Deculein, and by her own family.”
—On the contrary, that may be why she survived. Each individual harbors a different origin, after all.
Giletheon laughed.
“Too sentimental. It is a utterly useless hypothesis, so withdraw.”
—Yes.
The shadow that had been conversing with him quietly vanished.
* * *
Wednesday morning.
After waking from sleep, Epherene took a shower and came outside. Hwaaaam— yawning, she turned around without thinking and flinched in surprise.
“Honestly······ don’t they ever get tired?”
The door was covered in graffiti. Get lost, beggar bastard, filthy bitch, half-wit, and so on······. These days, such childish harassment was getting worse and worse.
She had thought that if she ignored it, they would stop in due time, but instead they had become even more rampant.
“Is doing this really what a noble is?”
She had a good idea of whose incitement and instigation it was. Beck, Lucia, Jufern. Probably the clique of children from viscount to count mage families who were doing quite well for themselves.
At first, she had simply found them pitiful. However, it was hard to endure when this nonsense spread to her club members as well.
“Childish fakes.”
Epherene cleaned the graffiti with Cleanse.
Thinking about it, the real mages were only on the floating island.
The saying that “there is no status in the Magic Tower” was nothing more than a facade. To begin with, if one wanted to remain in the Magic Tower, not only practical magical ability and theory but also “political power” were almost essential.
When one considered how many professors were involved in the review for full professorship, the scale of it became obvious.
“Sigh······.”
Epherene left the dormitory and walked across campus.
There were quite a lot of people on the school grounds these days. It was because the postponed school festival was belatedly continuing.
Street stalls lined every road, and there was plenty to see and do—taverns, parties, plays, even mounted duels from the Department of Knighthood—but among them, Epherene intended to buy a “theater ticket.”
As she was walking toward the theater—
Thud—!
Something caught on her ankle.
“Ugh!”
Epherene fell flat on the spot. A drink spilled over her sprawled body. Splash—sticky droplets sprayed up and clung to her hair and robe.
“Ow…”
“…Ah, seriously, what bitch was that?!”
Epherene had expected an apology, but what came back was a curse instead. She soon understood why when she saw the face.
It was Lucia of the Count Rebayron family, one of the noble cliques. She glared down at the fallen Epherene and muttered.
“You again?”
“Haa.”
With a sigh, Epherene got to her feet, brushed herself clean with Cleanse, and let out a faint snort.
“Yeah. It’s you again.”
“What do you mean, it’s me? Hey! Walk with your damn eyes open. I spilled my drink because of you!”
Lucia shoved a finger against Epherene’s chest. Anger surged up in her, but this bitch wasn’t worth responding to.
Even if she fought here, she would be the only one racking up penalty points, and if the comparatively fair Deculein got involved, that would only set off another round of ridiculous rumors.
Kids these days really weren’t afraid of Deculein. They didn’t know his infamy.
Was it because that professor never personally handed out punishments or penalty points?
“Fine. Sorry. Happy?”
Epherene snorted like that and turned away. As she walked, voices rolled in from behind her back.
—That crazy psycho seriously has no sense.
—Where would the rotten attitude of someone who mouthed off to Miss Sylvia from the start of the semester go? Who does she think she is?
—Right. You know what? Her dad was under that professor and killed himself, apparently.
At that moment, Epherene’s legs stopped.
—Huh? She stopped. Hey, she must be pissed.
—What’s she gonna do, that half-wit moron? It’s true. Does she not have any pride?
—Hey, hey. Leave it. She’ll go tattle to the professor again. Then we’ll be in trouble.
—…Hey. But these days, I heard the professors are banding together. If Professor Deculein even becomes Chief of the Planning Office or whatever, it’s obvious what life in the Magic Tower will be like. I guess they’re trying to keep him in check.
—Oh, right. That’s true. My dad was originally just going to let it slide, but apparently he defended the Red Order at Bercht? So he joined the petition against him…
To them, Deculein was the villain.
Of course, Deculein was a villain to me too, but to me, all of you are villains as well.
“…Idiots.”
Barely holding herself back, Epherene strode away. Then she bought a ticket at the theater. She stared at the small slip of paper, clutching it as if it might tear.
Tomorrow night, nine o’clock. Portrait of a Sorrowful Day.
After that, she ate alone, and when she happened to run into her club members on the street, she even warned them, “Do not, under any circumstances, act like you know me in the Magic Tower,” before returning to the Magic Tower before three in the afternoon.
[ A Class ]
Today, Deculein’s A Class lecture hall was a wide, lofty open field.
She had grown used to this mysterious transformation by now.
Epherene stood alone, not even glancing at the club members who were watching her anxiously.
“Good to see you.”
At exactly three o’clock, Deculein entered. With his usual indifferent expression, he stood before the debutants.
“The assignment may be submitted even after the final exam, so take your time with it.”
It was a welcome thing to hear. Deculein swept his gaze over them and continued.
“The subject of today’s lecture is the practical use of pure elements. The ‘school application’ of pure elements.”
School application. It was, in effect, the final boss of the lecture and close to its main point.
The mages grew visibly stiff with tension.
“School application may seem somewhat complicated, but there is no need to think of it as so difficult. I will demonstrate.”
Deculein struck his staff against the ground.
Thump—!
Along with that reverberation, will-o’-wisps rose on all sides.
The professor’s will-o’-wisps were neat in form, and their flickering figures were elegant.
They were so beautiful they seemed more like art than magic, and the debutants stared at them blankly for a moment.
“These will-o’-wisps are an ordinary combination of fire and wind. However.”
One of them clung to the debutant Rondo.
Rondo flinched in surprise, but it was not hot at all.
“Move.”
Rondo moved his body. His movements were light. Rondo’s eyes widened.
Soon after, the will-o’-wisps clung to the debutants, including Epherene, and their reactions were similar to Rondo’s.
“This is the auxiliary application of will-o’-wisps. If the elements of wind and fire within the formula achieve perfect ‘harmony,’ a pure element produces a ‘special effect that surpasses the simple combination of elements.’”
It was a kind of combination bonus.
Originally, in the game, using will-o’-wisps as an auxiliary school affected movement speed and attack speed, and that system had simply been carried over intact.
“Of course, will-o’-wisps can be used destructively, but they display their greatest performance when used as an auxiliary school. In other words, every pure element has its own unique strengths.”
It was something Epherene hadn’t known. No, judging by the reactions, it seemed none of the debutants knew.
It was only natural in a way, since it had been an obvious game-like system only to Kim Woojin.
“Thus, a harmonized pure element must be utilized as the school best suited to its characteristics. To use it as a school is simple. You need only recall the magic you have learned for each school.”
He emitted mana and drew the formula for a simple destructive spell, Fireball.
“Here, the core of the formula is this ‘Fireball’ circuit. If you erase the Fireball circuit from this formula…”
The flame that formed the core of the formula vanished, and in its place, the pure element “Thundercloud” settled in.
“Then implant the formula of the pure element and connect the circuit. That is all.”
…There was a brief silence.
Their minds seemed to go blank for a moment at the sudden combination of circuits and magic.
“It is only natural that this is difficult for you. You will only understand by trying it yourselves. Epherene.”
Deculein called Epherene. She, who had been reviewing what she had just heard, gave a small start.
“And Sylvia. The two of you, come forward.”
The first and second place students of the midterm would serve as good examples.
“Apply a school to any pure elemental magic and demonstrate it.”
Deculein said so, and the two nodded. Epherene tried to apply “Thundercloud” to destructive magic.
Her mana formed a thundercloud in midair.
However.
Snap—!
Deculein snapped his fingers, and the thundercloud scattered. No, it was erased in an instant.
It was mana interference.
“Huh?”
“Wrong. Again.”
She didn’t get angry at him telling her to do it again. Even though she was unskilled at school magic, the fact that it had been erased with nothing more than a snap of his fingers subtly wounded her pride.
“Yes.”
Epherene nodded. Then she condensed her mana.
“Again.”
Snap—!
Deculein erased the magic again this time and told her to try again, but she let it pass. Sylvia was going through the exact same thing right now, after all.
…But then.
“Again.”
Snap—!
“Again.”
Snap—!
“A little better, but again.”
Snap—!
There was no end to that “again.”