Book 1 Chapter 23
【23】22
“Hey, expulsion… isn't that a bit too much?”
As Kal said, sweating, Chloe asked.
“Are you nervous?”
“Of course! If it's the Lumen Magic Exam, the difficulty is clearly no joke!”
“Surely they wouldn't give us problems beyond a freshman's level, would they?”
“I envy you, honor student.”
Kal was nervous about the exam itself because he had barely passed the entrance exam.
It seemed he wasn't the only student like that.
“Expulsion?”
“That's too much!”
“A professor has the authority to expel students. Everyone should know this, shouldn't they?”
“B-but you can't expel someone without a just cause!”
“Of course, expulsion without a just cause is impossible.”
Professor Ren tapped the exam paper with his fingertip—*tap*!
“But if you can't pass an exam of this level, you don't deserve to learn magic at Lumen.”
Then a male student, who appeared to be from another department, raised his hand.
“What about minor students who want to take magic classes?”
“You can take magic classes outside of your major.”
“What about those hoping for a dual class?”
“A dual class, huh…”
Professor Ren trailed off, smiling.
“You might discover your hidden magical talent in an introductory class.”
At his sudden words, the students wore puzzled expressions.
“Because there are those who hold such complacent thoughts, minor students also have to take this exam.”
*Wince*—some students could be seen trembling.
“Isn't it presumptuous for someone who has never learned magic to try to stand on equal footing with those who have dedicated their lives to it?”
Professor Ren was smiling, but his eyes were chilling.
Chloe's eyes sparkling as she enthusiastically nodded.
“The exam is a pass if you score 40 points or more out of 100.”
Students sighed in relief at the generous passing score.
Professor Ren snapped his fingers, and a giant hourglass appeared in mid-air.
“The exam time is one hour. Students who finish all problems can submit their papers and rest outside the classroom.”
Students took out their writing instruments.
“Then, begin.”
The hourglass turned once, and sand began to pour downwards.
Students held their quills and checked the exam papers.
The exam paper consisted of a question sheet, an answer sheet, and several sheets of paper provided for spell analysis.
As the sound of quills echoed, Leo's face hardened upon checking the exam questions.
‘Describe the effects unleashed when the respective magic formulas are combined.’
He felt a headache coming on.
‘What kind of spell formula is this?’
If one were to name the ability that had changed the most compared to his Kyle days, it was undoubtedly magic.
Magic is fundamentally a realm of exploration.
The basic runes remained the same, but the methods of using spell formulas underwent continuous changes with each era.
Especially in the current era, magic formulas have tremendously advanced thanks to the Hero Records.
Having never seen a magic book since his reincarnation, Leo was naturally ignorant of the spell formulas of the current era.
Looking next to him, Kal, who had been making a tearful face, was also solving the problems.
Chloe quickly wrote down the answers to the problems.
‘Kids these days are smart. They're solving these complex spell combinations by mental calculation?’
Leo, who had been wearing a fed-up expression, took a deep breath.
‘Right, let's just get a rough feel for the spell formulas of this era first. Even if the formulas differ by era, if I know the structure, I can pretty much figure them out.’
Leo composed himself.
‘I can't be so embarrassed as to get kicked out from the first class!’
As a great hero who saved the world, he had his pride!
Leo's eyes gleamed, and he began to analyze the spell formulas at an incredible speed.
‘Thank goodness! Only spell formulas I know came up!’
Meanwhile, Kal, who was solving the problems, let out a sigh of relief.
Contrary to his worries, the exam wasn't overly difficult.
All the spell formulas on the exam were ones he had memorized.
The spell combination was quite complex, but as Professor Ren said, if one couldn't solve even this much, they didn't deserve to learn magic at Lumen.
‘As expected, at her level, she's doing the spell combinations by mental calculation.’
Chloe's sight of writing down answers without showing the solution process made him instinctively click his tongue in amazement.
Turning his head towards Leo, he saw him moving his quill at an incredible speed.
However, contrary to that speed, nothing was written on the answer sheet.
‘What? Leo. He said he was aiming for a dual class, but is his knowledge of spell formulas lacking?’
At this rate, it was obvious Leo wouldn't be able to take major magic classes.
Kal made a regretful expression at the fact that he wouldn't be able to take magic classes together with Leo.
“Thirty minutes left.”
‘Oops, this isn't the time for this. Let's solve the problems first.’
Meanwhile, Leo, who had completely filled one of the solution papers, stopped his quill.
‘What kind of bastard made the spell formulas this complicated!’
If he only had time, he could interpret them sufficiently.
The problem was that there wasn't enough time.
Checking the next problem, he found it also covered in unfamiliar spell formulas.
Leo, tearing at his hair as he checked the problems, stopped his gaze at the last question.
There were a total of 50 questions on the exam.
Of those, questions 1 through 49 were spell combination problems, and the last question was to interpret a spell and find its resulting value.
The spell itself was not significantly complex compared to the previous problems.
Leo, having calculated the answer mentally, wrote it on the answer sheet and stood up from his seat.
The students' gazes fixed on him.
‘He gave up. Well, he couldn't even solve the first problem yet, so anything more would be a waste of time.’
Kal clicked his tongue as he watched Leo hand his answer sheet to the TA.
‘I'll just quit magic classes.’
How could he possibly take classes if he only knew one out of 50 problems?
‘I'll have to learn it by myself, or something.’
Blaming his own complacency, he left the classroom.
Even after that, the hourglass continued to run.
But no other student stood up from their seat.
Even if non-major students had come with a complacent mindset, they still had basic knowledge of magic, given that they chose it as a minor.
“Time's up. Everyone, submit your answer sheets to the TAs.”
“Ugh~ That was tough.”
Kal stretched and asked Chloe.
“Hey, what was the answer to the last question? I couldn't solve it at all.”
Chloe frowned in displeasure, looking at Kal shaking his head as if exhausted.
“I didn't have enough time, so I couldn't solve all of it either.”
“Really? Yeah, it was ridiculously hard.”
“What about Leo?”
“From a glance, it looked like he hadn't solved a single problem.”
‘So that's why he left.’
He nodded, stood up, and walked towards someone.
Kal, feeling curious, followed behind Chloe.
“Brother! This question is also correct, right?”
“Yes, it is!”
“Awesome!”
Chloe had headed to where Abard and Chelsea were.
“Chelsea, hi.”
“Huh? It's Kal? Who's that woman?”
“This is Chloe Müller.”
“The North's top student?”
Chelsea's eyes widened.
“Nice to meet you, Abard Lewellin. Did you happen to solve the last problem?”
“I couldn't solve it because I ran out of time. How about you?”
“Me too.”
Chloe took out her exam paper.
“I'm curious how much my solution differs from yours, could we compare them?”
“As it happens, I was curious too, so that works out well.”
Chloe's exam paper was packed with the spell formula solution for the last question.
Abard's exam paper was no less dense than Chloe's.
Kal clicked his tongue in amazement.
‘Top students really are different. If they only had more time, they would have solved everything, wouldn't they?’
“What about Leo-oppa?”
“After he left earlier, it seems he left the magic building itself. It looked like he couldn't solve a single problem.”
“True. It's not a problem a knight could solve.”
Chelsea, who knew Leo as an excellent knight, nodded.
Just then, Professor Ren went back up to the podium, and the students quickly returned to their seats.
“Everyone worked hard on the exam.”
Professor Ren gave a neat smile.
“The TAs will finish grading soon. Until then, I'll briefly explain the magic theory class I'm in charge of.”
Professor Ren's class began.
As they listened to the lecture, the students couldn't help but exclaim in admiration.
Professor Ren's lecture content was easy to grasp.
They instinctively knew they had met the best professor.
‘To be able to take classes from someone like this in the future!’
The students swelled with anticipation.
Just as Professor Ren finished speaking, a male TA came up to the classroom.
“Professor. The exam results are out.”
“Shall we all check the exam results?”
Other TAs brought a bulletin board with the exam rankings written on it to the front of the classroom.
“Actually, this exam consists of forty-nine 1-point questions and one 51-point question.”
As the students murmured, Professor Ren continued his explanation.
“This exam, before selecting students for major magic classes, is also the core of my lesson.”
“In recent centuries, magic formulas have advanced rapidly. Thanks to that, spell formulas that originally required complete understanding to use can now be used simply by memorizing their activation conditions.”
As Professor Ren spread his palm, a spell formula woven with magic power was activated.
Professor Ren *clenched* the spell formula!
The spell formula was destroyed, and fragments of magic power scattered in all directions.
“Such advancements in spell formulas have caused mages to degenerate!”
The students were startled by the sudden shout.
“The recent trend among mages is to memorize more spell formulas! It's certainly an easy way to use magic… but! That cannot be called a true mage! The essence of a mage is not memorization, but exploration and understanding! But what are young mages doing now? They are busy clinging only to memorization while neglecting spell understanding! The advancement of spell formulas has led to the decline of mages!”
Professor Ren spread both hands above his head.
A vast quantity of magic formulas unfolded in mid-air.
“This is the essence of the magic formula I created. It's not an activation formula that anyone learns, but my own spell formula, created by me from beginning to end. Are there any mages these days who research their own spell formulas?”
That was, quite literally, the essence of an individual's unique magical world.
To the eyes of a mage, Professor Ren's magical world appeared incredibly beautiful.
“A confrontation between magic and magic is also a battle of who can understand and decipher the opponent's spell formula more quickly, even before it becomes a battle of magic power. You cannot reach a high level with just activation formulas, so!”
*Swoosh—!*
Professor Ren's magic formula disappeared.
“I will conduct classes to enhance your understanding of magic formulas! So that you can become true mages!”
Professor Ren passionately spoke to the students.
Students, inspired by his passion, began to clap.
The phrase "true mage" was enough to resonate with the young students' hearts.
Professor Ren, who nodded at the enthusiastic reaction of the students, pointed to the bulletin board.
“Check your scores and rankings. And for students with less than 40 points, unfortunately, I ask that you leave the classroom. That's all!”
Students gathered in front of the bulletin board.
A male professor approached Professor Ren, who was gazing at the students with profound eyes.
“Professor.”
“Why are you calling, Associate Professor?”
“There's a student who got question 50 correct.”
“Someone got 100 points?”
Professor Ren was genuinely surprised.
‘Such a talent has joined! Abard? Chloe? Ah! Am I finally getting a disciple of a lifetime?!’
“Not 100 points.”
“Not 100 points?”
Professor Ren's face changed strangely.
A student capable of solving the last problem would surely not find the preceding 49 problems very difficult.
But not 100 points?
“Ah. It seems they skipped some problems to solve the last one.”
“That's not it either. Everything but the last question is blank. Look here.”
The associate professor handed the answer sheet to Professor Ren.
Professor Ren, checking the blank answer sheet, asked with a serious face.
“…Who is this student?”
***
Chloe, having checked the bulletin board, naturally directed her gaze towards the top ranks.
And she became flustered.
2nd place. Chloe Müller, Abard Lewellin. (49 points)
3rd place. Chelsea Lewellin (48 points)
By all appearances, Chloe and Abard were tied for 2nd place.
And the name at the very top was.
1st place. Leo Flobe. (51 points)
Chloe, checking the rankings with a hardened face, looked at the very front seat, where Leo had been sitting.
There was the problem sheet Leo had been solving.
She rushed over and checked the problem sheet.
‘Wh-What on earth is this?’
Chloe, upon seeing the spell formula solution for the first problem that Leo had given up on solving, couldn't help but make an astonished expression.
‘Leo Flobe… What kind of person is he?!’