Book 13 Chapter 15

Talent Donation (3)

Gisela was miserable and ashamed. Because she couldn't cast the next spell.

It was because the euphoria from her success had blanked out her mind. The brilliant success of her first attempt made subsequent attempts daunting.

As Gisela stood stiff and hesitant, Dean Atlante stroked his chin.

"If that's the problem, then seeing a good example should help."

"Are you going to show us, Dean?"

Gisela liked Atlante's magic.

In Atlante's magic, something shone. A light that one could never forget once seen.

However, instead of living up to that expectation, Atlante suddenly turned his gaze elsewhere.

"In times like these, wouldn't it be better to see someone your age do it? Rin!"

One scene that Gisela would recall whenever she remembered Rin later was this very moment.

Rin was always reading a book.

Anywhere, as if he would die if he didn't read a book at this very moment, he was still engrossed in a book, leaning against a pine tree.

"Rin?"

"……"

"Rin."

The Dean called out several times, but perhaps because he was engrossed in his book, he didn't even lift his head.

Gisela was about to say this.

"He's concentrating on his book, so please don't call him unnecessarily." She had already received so much help from Rin.

"I was going to exempt him from tonight's dinner duty if he showed Gisela a spell, but it's a shame."

But as soon as the Dean said that, he closed his book with a thud and stood up, as if he had been waiting?

"Phew, I was getting tired of waiting for you to call me."

Gisela pressed her brows, miserable and ashamed that her own thoughts were so pathetic.

The younger siblings protested, "Only Rin oppa? That's cowardly!" and Rin retorted, "Quiet, blame your pathetic intelligence. You know what to do if you're unhappy, right?"

The elder disciple looked at Rin with a smile that resembled the Dean's.

"Illusion magic is─"

"─No need, I'll handle it myself."

The Dean asked.

"Rin, you know you can only use 1-star magic, right?"

As if answering the question, a mesmerizing light of mana surged from Rin's palm.

That is the Jorgen type…

A realm that ordinary and dull people can never reach in their lifetime, where magic and brain become one.

"Can I make it real, so it can be a bit of training?"

Rin created a wedge with steel magic. The momentum of the wedge rushing fiercely towards the caster would have been more than enough to crush his delicate body in an instant.

However…

The vortex of light swirling from Rin's palms did not allow for a conventional outcome. Double casting, multi-computation.

'As expected…'

The first was wind magic.

'Rin when casting magic is…'

A powerful wind pressure, strong enough to shake the pine branches, further diminished the wedge's momentum.

'He's like a completely different person…'

The second was water.

The third was earth magic.

'The expression of boredom he usually has when dealing with us is nowhere to be seen…'

The rising earth was precisely the same size as the earthen wall Gisela had created, as if measured with a ruler.

But its properties were different.

The earthen wall, thoroughly soaked with water through its mixture with water magic, received the wedge with a squelch. If it had been Gisela's earthen wall, it would have been pierced and collapsed.

'Every single movement shines with passion, just like the Dean…'

The last was fire magic.

'Even the afterglow of mana dancing at his fingertips is still vivid in my eyes…'

Flames surging so intensely that they could melt steel into molten metal, for a moment, brought order to the chaos that had unfolded, disregarding the law of equivalent exchange.

"It's done. Now don't call me to prepare dinner."

Gisela didn't even have time to discern what mathematical formulas and what runes had been combined.

It was simply that light flashed, and when it broke from his palm with a clear sound, the magic was already manifesting.

In that continuous reaction of light, there was prodigious talent. There was absolute aptitude. And… there was painstaking effort.

'Because he always works harder than anyone else…'

The essence of magic, perfected through studying harder than anyone, researching harder than anyone, and calculating harder than anyone.

Helplessness.

Jealousy.

Such feelings no longer arise. Because Rin doesn't monopolize such knowledge. Pretending to be reluctantly persuaded by the Dean's words, he tries to teach.

'That's why Rin is amazing.'

'Will I ever be able to become like that… I no longer hold such a thought. Because I know I can't.'

'That's why he can become greater than any of us.'

But.

But someday.

Will a day come when I can talk about magic with him by his side? I hope such a day comes.

'We are still young, so we have decades to be together.'

Dreaming of such a future, Gisela tightly clenched her fists in front of her chest with a quiet smile. It was then.

"Dean, can I teach Gisela 'that'?"

* * *

It would likely be impossible to make a gorilla the [Strongest Mage].

But if it's something basic…

The strength of Beast-form magic, or the Bargante type, is that 'if you don't understand it, just memorize it' works. Of course, there's a limitation that the coordinates are restricted to the caster's vicinity.

"What?"

If all it takes is forming hand seals, couldn't even a gorilla cast magic? Gisela is the subject of that experiment.

"Hand seals?"

To elaborate, she's the one who's been struggling immensely lately trying to study human academics with a gorilla's intelligence.

She can use two or three spells in a row, but she's a fool who lacks that final step.

What if we incorporate Beast-form magic, which is relatively simple to learn, into this final step?

"It will take some time to accurately memorize the hand seals, though."

For 1-star Bargante type magic, the hand sign combination of magic square-rune-formula is much easier.

"If you only have the intelligence to calculate mathematical formulas in your head and accurately form the coordinates with hand seals, you should be able to use it."

Then, though I expected her to get angry, Gisela nodded with determined eyes and learned the hand seals.

I wasn't perfect at the Bargante type yet either, so it was a quite valuable time for me to re-organize the inaccurate information during the teaching session and engrave it in my mind.

Thus, on a late summer morning, a week before the exam, Gisela, who had cast three spells towards a fiercely approaching log, closed her magic book and began to form hand seals.

Alright…

The hand seals for the magic square and runes are accurate.

Now, if only she can accurately form the mathematical formula for the coordinate values calculated in her mind.

- Don't try to understand this with your intelligence.

Gisela is weak at mental arithmetic.

Therefore, I systematized the coordinate value calculation using hand seals into front, back, side, up, and down, making her roughly memorize them.

So, Gisela only needs to be able to find the coordinate values of her current position.

She just needs to deploy the coordinate system centered on the caster, and find the coordinates of the coordinate system, the target, and the space she is in.

- Just memorize it.

In summary, it's half number calculation and half mental arithmetic. Don't try to understand, just memorize it—that's the strategy.

As Gisela meticulously formed each of the 8 hand seals, i.e., coordinate values, the distance to the log steadily closed.

Gisela decided on her last spell: water, specifically water sprayed onto an earthen wall. It was modeled after my method.

And finally…

The Bargante type has a structure where, at the moment calculation is complete, a magic circle unfolds around the caster, and its light is converted into mana.

Woong…!

The circular formation that unfolded around Gisela's feet soon materialized with light.

Water was sprayed onto the earthen wall.

It transformed the structure from firm to mushy, efficiently neutralizing the impact that rushed in.

…Thwack!

Amidst the mud splashing everywhere, Gisela looked back at me with blank eyes, and the elder disciple and younger siblings cheered and ran towards Gisela.

"Success, you succeeded! Gisela! You, you just succeeded properly!"

"You're amazing, unnie!"

In that moment when the brief tension subsided, I suddenly realized that my fist, covered in cold sweat, was involuntarily clenched.

Phew, that gorilla kid…

She's making people nervous…

Anyway, the live experiment is a success. The potential of Beast-form magic was confirmed by this.

Wait, but why was I nervous…?

As I tilted my head at my own unexplained physical reaction, I felt a hand gently stroking the top of my head.

"Gisela tried to showcase all four elemental types in the exam, following what Rin showed last time. And this is the result."

"They say a tailorbird chasing a stork rips its crotch."

"That proverb would have a different story if the stork had matched its pace with the tailorbird, wouldn't it?"

That's only because I made a contract with a nightmare to become the [Strongest Mage].

"In the Bandoran (1-star) exam, if you don't compromise the four main elements into lesser elements, you get bonus points. If all four spells are successfully cast, your basic score becomes overwhelmingly high, allowing you to rank within the passing grades. Topping the class is difficult because of geniuses like Rin."

A warm breeze blew, leaves rustled, and the scent of a vibrant summer brushed past my nose.

That wind, gently caressing both the Dean's head and mine equally, blew far away.

The Dean, tracing the invisible path of that wind, smiled brightly and looked back at me.

"Spring is coming."

"It's summer right now, though."

The Dean suddenly grabbed my fact-stating face with both hands, then turned my gaze towards… the elder disciple, Gisela, and the younger siblings who were making a fuss.

"Can't you see? The spring breeze that arose from Rin's heart has brought spring into everyone's hearts."