Book 13 Chapter 27

Boy Deung-gwa (少年登科, Achieving a high rank in the civil service examination at a young age),

Appearance in the Magic World (1)

Half a year after the first mercenary request, in the winter of my twelfth year… the season when a turning point in my life arrived.

According to Gizella, the self-proclaimed next dean No. 2, thirteen is a special age for a wizard in the Magic Tower.

It's because it's the age when one enters the middle school division of the Magic School in the Magic Tower, but for me, who had no interest in going outside the Magic Tower, it seemed like a year that would hold little meaning.

"Rin, you go too."

"I'm not going."

"Why aren't you going!"

"I'm not going."

"Dean, Rin is being stubborn!"

"If she doesn't want to go, we can't force her, can we?"

The dean held a small celebration for Gizella and three others who were entering.

I secretly raised a toast. Gizella, who had been constantly bothering me, was gone; it seemed like a year to rejoice.

It certainly seemed like such a year. Until 'that old geezer' appeared on the morning of the day after the celebration.

"Oh, damn it, what am I supposed to do with these blockheads?"

That day, I was in charge of chicken feed.

A lot changed after Gizella achieved the Bandoran (1st rank) status.

In between my daily routines, I had to teach magic to other blockheads.

"Wind Trio, assemble."

Among them, the most challenging was the Wind Quartet, which Gizella had arbitrarily put together. I was trying to group these guys as the Trio and escape this assembly.

"Stand straight, Saruen (Saruen; Autumn Wind)."

"Okay, big brother."

"Kyukyu!"

"Oppa, can I play with Syu and Nora?"

"Yeah."

Winter Wind Riki is only four, so I'll let it slide.

"Why did you solve 8x8 as 60?"

"I kept drawing 8s, and it was 60!"

"Syu (Syu; Summer Wind), why is yours 63?"

"I drew 8 lines horizontally and vertically and counted the intersecting numbers, and there were 63, Oppa!"

"You Wind Trio are always so talkative. This is math. It's not drawing. Don't you know that if you're as stupid as you are, you can't become a wizard even if you die a hundred times?"

"Hoe-e-e-e-e-e-eng…!"

"Heu-e-e-e-e-e-eng…!"

Then the two rascals started crying, and I became the bad guy again.

These guys weren't even primates like gorillas; they had microbial-level intelligence. Perhaps that's why they were named 'Wind'.

While I slapped my forehead at the dean's wisdom, thinking about the future these guys had to live with such pitiful intelligence made me dizzy.

"Alright, let's at least memorize the multiplication table. Please, just memorize it."

Even while dealing with these guys, I needed time to completely master Osarius's hand seal theory.

Osarius made hand seals for only 157 runes used in combat magic.

If I completely understood the principles of combining those hand seals, I would be able to make hand seals for other runes as well.

To realize that possibility, I didn't just memorize the hand seals; I tried to understand the combination principles.

Let's talk about history for a moment.

This world was originally said to be dominated by the Lords of the Abyss, the <Forgotten Kings>. Then the Lords of Light descended, defeated the kings, and opened the dawn, and they are the <Those Who Came>.

Osarius's hand seals were visualizing the characters of <Those Who Came> as hieroglyphs, or runes.

In short, if I could figure out the characters of <Those Who Came> that correspond to the Thousand Character Classic, it would be possible to establish other hand seals based on the shapes of the fingers.

When I asked the dean to get me relevant books when he went to the city, he bought them for me. Autumn was a time for such research, and I succeeded in combining an additional 128 hand seals.

Oh, there's another research project.

It's about Sval.

As a living punching bag, I tried to directly experiment with the power of magic and observe its reactions, but strangely, the power of ice magic was amplified to an extreme degree?

My ice magic's usual power is 170%, and when Sval puffs out both cheeks and tenses his whole body, it's amplified up to 230%.

- Kyu, kyukyu, kyukyukyu!

- You strengthened my ice attribute with your power?

- Kyuu!

- Super useless. I don't really like ice magic. If it were to come out, I'd prefer lightning attribute. Or fire attribute. Sigh, I really have no luck with draws.

However, [The Strongest Wizard] must rely 100% on skill, not luck, so I wasn't too sad. Just a little disappointed.

- Just grow a bit in Svalag mode. Let me try some magic. Tell me how much it hurts.

- Kyu, Kyuuuuuuu…!

Sval didn't appear for about half a day after that, then started showing up again when he got hungry. Anyway, the day the turning point in my life arrived was such a day.

"No, Professor Kern!"

"Long time no see, Atlante. Have you been well?"

The old geezer, who appeared neatly dressed in a hanbok (寒服), a traditional northern formal attire, clearly seemed to have a high density of magical power in his body.

Slightly stronger than the dean…

The old geezer sat on the wooden porch and muttered, "The scenery here is always so good." At that time, I was on feed duty, scattering food to chickens and chicks in the yard.

"Hey, Sval."

"Kyuuuu?"

"Other furballs are warm, but why are you just cold? I'm freezing to death. Get lost."

Sval looked at me with sad eyes, but [The Strongest Wizard] values rationality. Get lost, seriously.

"Rin, say hello. This is the head professor of <Winterhold>, the best magic university in the North. He's also one of the Empire's top 10 Gladoss (4th rank) wizards, and my mentor."

Is he the pinnacle among [The Best Wizards]? [The Strongest Wizard] does not compromise by saying 'top 10' or anything like that. [The Strongest] is only one!

I nodded my head in greeting.

For me, who consistently responds with indifference to things I'm not interested in, this was the ultimate greeting.

"What? This child is Rin?"

But then the old geezer suddenly stood up as if his anger had erupted.

No, did he get angry over something like this?

He strode over, snatched my wrist, and then took away the feed basket.

"Look at her hands, chapped and calloused, Atlante. What on earth have you been making this child do! At a time when every single minute and second is important for learning magic!"

"It's to let her know the joy of caring for life. I also learned this from my master."

"It's a meaningless act! You used to do such meaningless things even when you were at the university. That's why your achievements stopped there! You could have aimed for the same Gladoss (4th rank) as me!"

This was a new experience.

When a gorilla like Gizella called me "a boring bookworm" or my seniors swore at me as "an ill-mannered brat," I felt no emotion.

But now… now, seeing someone yelling at the dean, it was different.

"Atlante, I also hold the position of North Inspector for the Magic Association. My subordinates reported what they observed of the civilians near your Magic Tower."

"Ah, then you would know."

"Yes, the villagers all spoke of the boy who accompanied you. How he built a dike with one spell, or paved a road, or stopped the rain… and that grateful boy wizard's name was Rin!"

It wasn't that I 'did it for them'.

I just 'did it' as I pleased.

"And bandits and monster hordes repeatedly disappeared without a trace in the area. That must also be this child's work, right?"

"Yes."

"And my disciple, Cecil Duren, also told me what a young wizard named 'Rin' did. He said he assisted the Platinum mercenaries in the subjugation of Svalag. Even if he's not the main force yet, that level of talent at his age is more than enough. But you're letting that talent rot like this?"

It was the first time I felt something like molten lava bubbling inside me.

Even when faced with the threat of death in the slums, I don't recall ever suffocating from such internal heat.

At that time, I didn't even know that the true nature of this emotion was anger.

"They say genius is short-lived. The creative years of a genius are not long. But you've been wasting this child's time with such useless education, and furthermore, hindering the progress of magical history?"

In those young days, the dean and Osarius's Magic Tower were everything to me.

They gave me everything without expecting anything in return.

Food, clothes, a place to sleep, and furthermore, they taught me magic. I learned an academic discipline that some people could never learn even if they begged their whole lives, without any cost.

"Rin, come with me. I will be your master. I will open up a greater horizon of magic in your mind."

But who…

But who would dare…

Insult such a place? Should I let them insult it?

"This is on a different dimension from such a backwater place. In the best educational facility in the North, your talent can spread its wings─"

It was then that I learned there are things in the world that cannot be tolerated.

"─Oh really? How well do *you* use magic?"

A moment of silence fell.

The dean rushed over, grabbed my head, and forcibly made me bow, but I didn't care.

"I'm sorry, Professor Kern. Rin usually dislikes these things, but I made her do it this morning, so she's irritable right now. I'll be careful─"

"─Rin, I am a Gladoss (4th rank) wizard. There is no one superior to me in the Empire. There are those who are of the same rank, but no one better. It is natural for a high-ranking wizard to guide a lower-ranking wizard."

"Then if it's proven that I'm a more outstanding wizard than you, does that mean you have to come to our Magic Tower to learn magic with your pathetic brain?"

This silence was fierce.

It felt as if even the forest, which had been sobbing in the biting winter wind, was now holding its breath, listening to the conversation.

At the end of the brief but long-feeling silence, Kern burst into hearty laughter.

"Yes, a genius should naturally possess such wildness. Then, would you like to make a deal with me? Next summer, the rank examination to select the tenth Gladoss (4th rank) wizard, whose position is currently vacant, will be held. I will recommend you for that examination."

"Professor, that's absurd. You need to have Atlas (3rd rank) status to participate in that. Rin hasn't even taken any rank exams yet."

"If I, a current Gladoss (4th rank), provide a letter of recommendation, you will be able to take all the Bandoran (1st rank), Limites (2nd rank), and Atlas (3rd rank) rank exams this summer. And then immediately proceed to the Gladoss (4th rank) exam."

I didn't like how the old geezer was boastfully bragging to the dean, so I brought the flow of conversation back to myself.

"So, what's the deal?"

"If you become the tenth Gladoss (4th rank) wizard, I will formally apologize to Atlante. And I will arrange scholarships so that all the children in this Magic Tower can enter <Winterhold>. If they don't have the talent to enter the university, I'll find the best magic school for them instead."

And in the next moment, the hint of a smile that had been on the old geezer's lips throughout his speech vanished from his entire demeanor.

"But if you fail, you must leave Osarius's Magic Tower and become my disciple."

Originally, I had no intention of ever taking a rank exam in my life, but now my mind changed.

While learning magic, I learned that there are [correct answers] and [incorrect answers] to everything in the world. This current situation is a terribly [incorrect answer].

I need to see this old geezer, who has probably overworked his back his whole life, bow to the dean and squirm.

Anyway, my identity was revealed.

For my peaceful daily life, I decided that simply having a high rank would prevent such pests from bothering me.

"Sounds good. But if you go back on your word, I won't let it go. Seriously."

That was the [correct answer] to the equation of the world I saw at that moment.