Book 3 Chapter 22
Chapter 71
"What do you think? Don't you think this would get a decent evaluation?" Casena Page asked with a slightly nervous expression, a week before the final exam, having devised a magic spell fitting the theme of "scroll."
Rain, who had been scanning the parchment as if quite interested, shrugged his shoulders.
"Well…"
"Ah, so it won't work after all?"
"Well…"
"What! Give me a straight answer!"
Casena's bickering was enough to make one's head ring. Rain shook his head with a quiet sigh.
"That's not an answer I can give you."
"Then who can?!"
"Magic."
Casena tilted her head, wondering if he was joking, but there was no trace of playfulness on Rain's face.
"The person who taught me magic said this. They said magic is about putting your heart onto a single magic formation."
Instead, the emotion that settled in his eyes like a sad smile… it was hard to tell exactly, but it seemed to be an emotion close to longing.
"Put your heart into it? Into magic?"
Magic, at its root, is a discipline that pursues reason. Here, emotion is an impurity that must be excluded. But to put your heart into it?
"I couldn't understand it, and I still don't understand it, but when I actually tried it, it worked surprisingly well."
"What?"
"They said if you put your heart into magic, the magic will answer that heart.”
At that moment, Rain's voice, as if walking on a path thick with fallen leaves during a long autumn, seemed both dreamy and painfully bitter.
Then, when Rain chuckled, that scenery, which had been unconsciously drawn in her mind, disappeared. She felt a strange sense of regret.
"So don't ask me, ask your magic directly, young lady. Then the magic will answer.”
* * *
"A trapezoid… You can implement that as a scroll?"
Even the Chancellor, Madellia Page, had to look at her daughter with a slightly bewildered gaze. Chief Professor Marhena narrowed her eyes.
"A trapezoid? What confidence is that?"
"My humble student observes that she seems to be trying to implement telekinesis."
"Don't you think I know that a trapezoid is a magic formation for telekinesis, Kyle, you brat! Madellia's daughter will be the only one to choose telekinesis in this exam.”
"Even in the long history of <Delaiten>, it will probably be only twice.”
Telekinesis is a representative non-elemental magic that does not belong to the eight attributes of magic.
Its introduction is easy, but reaching the advanced stage is extremely difficult, so most were known for simply learning the introductory stage and then giving up.
Having finished her squabble with Christa, Gertrude, who had been watching the same screen, opened her mouth.
"Isn't it true that even if you can only handle the introductory level of power, you can pretty much do anything?"
"Yes. And researching other attributes instead of telekinesis is also a way to increase a wizard's value.”
There is a big difference between simply casting a spell and implementing magic as a scroll.
If you want to understand it easily, it's enough to know that for a spell to be made into a scroll, the caster must have considerable proficiency in that magical attribute.
That's why many people admired Christa when she perfectly enshrined her bloodline limit magic in a scroll.
"While both the Four Great Elements and Four Lesser Elements use runes belonging to the formulaic Lutician, telekinesis alone using an amplification-type Delbeischertz is one of the reasons it's difficult.”
"In that case, there would have been a way to compromise with an attribute of lower difficulty. Perhaps it's the pride of a noble family.”
Because the difficulty of telekinesis increases violently from the moment it surpasses the introductory stage, it was uncertain whether it could be properly implemented as a scroll, even as a 1-star magic.
Hmph, Christa arrogantly crossed her arms and smiled as if it wasn't so bad after all.
"A winning move here, that girl must have a terribly competitive personality.”
Christa was a remarkable woman who had dedicated herself to the study of magic since she was six years old.
Perhaps because of this, when she saw someone seriously tackling magic, just like herself, she would inexplicably take a liking to them.
Watching her mistress smirk, Gertrude also shook her head as if to say it was useless to stop her.
"It would be better if you changed your personality of showing favor so easily to a rival.”
"Ri-rival? Don't be ridiculous! That girl is not even worth a punch! Who am I? I'm Christa Warden, the genius of the century!”
"Hmm~ Does that mean you would never lose Young Master Rain to Lady Casena?"
At that, the female students who had been eavesdropping covered their mouths, and the male students whistled. Immediately, Christa's knife-hand struck Gertrude's head.
"Because I've been spoiling you lately, you're getting completely out of hand, huh?”
Ouch… Gertrude teared up, rubbing the lump that had risen on her crown. Meanwhile, those who had finished their exams enjoyed such leisure.
"…"
In the middle of the fiercely contested area, Casena, in a silence like the eye of a storm, felt a tension where she could clearly hear her own heartbeat.
‘I'm still very lacking, but…’
Rain, will I someday be able to research magic with you and chat like that by your side? Perhaps, for that to happen, this will be the first hurdle.
"A trapezoid… Forgive my lack of knowledge, but what kind of magic is this?"
It was then that one of the judges showed interest. He was an old man with a bent back, leaning on a staff.
"Th-this is!"
Perhaps due to nervousness, her voice suddenly rose high and then cracked. It was an embarrassing moment, but perhaps because of it, three or four more judges came over.
"It's a magic formation for telekinesis!"
The Page family, like the Elector families, was a great noble family belonging to the First Estate, so Casena had to use informal speech with everyone except the Elector's household.
"Telekinesis?"
"It's incredibly convenient! Even if it's hard to move, with this power alone, you can do anything!"
"Oh, would you please demonstrate it?"
Casena cleared her throat, composed herself, and then began to draw the gods' script in the air with her fingertips.
The light created from her fingertips remained as an afterimage, flickering beautifully in the air.
"Oh, ooooh?!!!"
Exclamations of admiration flowed from the judges and the audience alike at the beautiful and unique bloodline limit.
The shape of the magic formation was a trapezoid.
The rune engraved was 'Ju' (呪; invoking), and the mathematical formula used for its interpretation was a cubic equation.
"…!"
Madellia's eyes, which had been watching her daughter with concern, opened wide. Astonished murmurs could be heard from here and there.
"She used it at high speed…!"
"A magic belonging to the advanced grade of 1-star magic…!"
"No, it seems great, but isn't it just her bloodline limit…?”
Madellia shook her head.
Even with the Page family's bloodline limit, such fast casting would be impossible if her understanding of the magic was low.
And that's not just a 1-star magic; it's an advanced 1-star magic that uses a cubic equation.
‘To this level in just two months…?’
Casena, panting slightly with a flushed face, grasped the rune glowing in the air, and before her, a colorless, transparent, self-rotating sphere appeared.
‘So what on earth is that magic?’
That question, which Madellia had harbored in her heart, the judges voiced aloud. Casena immediately replied with a tense expression.
"This sphere is the core of telekinesis. When you want to do something with telekinesis, you just place your hand on it and think of what you want.”
As Casena placed her hand on the sphere, the brush lying nearby suddenly floated up. Then, a parchment also floated up, and a movable stool shifted slightly sideways.
"…"
"…"
"…"
She finished her explanation with a slightly excited expression, but the judges only exchanged glances in cold silence.
It certainly seemed convenient.
It did seem convenient, but wasn't it too trivial to be called a scroll magic?
Just as she was feeling despair and about to close her eyes tightly, Oh… a middle-aged man wearing an expensive-looking wizard's robe had his eyes gleaming fiercely.
"I see… Now I understand why you used the 'Ju' (呪) rune for telekinesis.”
'Ju' (呪) is one of the dual runes, having the dual meanings of 'invocation' and 'curse'. The reason it requires a cubic equation despite being a 1-star magic is precisely because of its peculiar characteristic.
"You established the foundation of the magic with the 'invocation' characteristic, and by using the 'curse' characteristic, you even captured the magic's duration… Is my understanding correct?”
The most important characteristic to consider in curse-type magic is its duration.
Unlike spells that inflict great damage at once, a curse is a spell that must inflict damage continuously.
Casena nodded with an expression of surprise that she had been understood.
"I tried various things to leverage the advantages of telekinesis, but perhaps due to the limitations of 1-star magic, the telekinetic power was either too strong and short-lived, or too weak with only long duration.”
At that point, Rain did not immediately give her the correct answer. Instead, he merely gave her a hint like this:
- If you can only use 1-star magic, couldn't you just use a dual rune?
Whatever Rain taught always led to the correct answer. It was the same this time.
"What I found there was this 'Ju' (呪) rune! With this rune, the strength of telekinesis can be just enough for daily life, and it can also have enough duration to be used about four hundred times!”
At that, as if they had received a valuable lesson, the wizards' eyes shone as they whispered amongst themselves.
"Oh, is that how it is?"
"Four hundred times…! The 'Ju' (呪) rune suited telekinesis-type magic so well, after all.”
"To produce the same effect as 2-star magic with just one rune, that's more amazing than I thought?”
In the midst of the murmurs, Casena, with a shy expression, cleared her throat and added:
"This is just my humble opinion, but telekinesis isn't just a ‘convenient power’. For those with inconvenient lives, it's a ‘truly essential power’…”
Perhaps because these words stemmed from her own desperate experiences, there was something in Casena's shy explanation that resonated with people's hearts.
"That's why. I wanted to create a scroll that could truly help such people. I'm still very lacking, but…”
And when she ended with a pure smile, as if embarrassed, a silence as if the world had stopped overwhelmed the hall.
It was a fragment of the truth (眞理) that Atlante had taught Rin, and Rain had conveyed to Casena: that magic is about putting your heart into it.
Had magic answered that heart? As if to fill the moment of silence, a tremendous uproar erupted.
"Can you give me one right now? Four hundred times, you say!"
"Give me one too. At my age, there are days when my back hurts so much I can barely get up in the morning, so this would be incredibly useful.”
"It would be perfect to give one to my mother. Give me one too.”
A staggering seven orders came in instantly from judges of all walks of life.
Casena blinked in bewilderment, as if she couldn't believe this immense favor.
Looking down at her, Rain was unconsciously smiling a satisfied smile.
‘This is a natural result. If you really think about it strictly, you could even be called one of Rin's disciples.’
Of course, she's the most lacking among his disciples right now, but regardless.
Not only Chief Professor Marhena, but Assistant Chief Professor Kyle was also smiling gently.
"Madellia had been secretly hiding a fascinating talent."
"I agree. She's still lacking, but if she grows, she will certainly become an interesting wizard. A truly, truly interesting wizard.”
Ah, it's a golden generation. It's not just students with outstanding talent. There are so many students gathered here who have excellent mindsets from the start.
It's truly exciting.
What form will magic take in the era where these children are at the forefront?
"Casenaaaaaaaaaa───!"
At that moment, an embarrassing shout erupted from the VIP room like an explosion, shaking the hall.
It was Yuren Page.
Despite his retainers' attempts to stop him, he was shedding tears of emotion and wildly waving his hand towards Casena.
"Wha-what, what are you doing?! Seriously!"
Casena abruptly turned her head away as if she didn't know such a person, and concentrated on drawing the magic formation on the parchment.
"…"
Amidst such commotion, Madellia Page couldn't control the tears that suddenly burst forth, and had to cover her eyes with one hand.
- Your Excellency, I am truly sorry to say that the young lady will now never be able to walk again…
- I told you I wouldn't learn magic! What's the point of learning it anyway? A disabled wizard? I hate that kind of thing!
- I cannot teach her anything. Her will is too stubborn… I apologize.
The memories that flashed through her mind were fragments of despair, pieces of sadness, and shards of tears.
But it was then, it was surely then…
But what she was seeing now, something so dazzling it was hard to look at…
- Your Excellency, may I make Lady Casena walk again?
She had said and thought it many times already, but truly, she had incurred an unpayable debt. A debt that even a lifetime of repayment wouldn't suffice to cover…