Chapter 66
Chapter 66
“…Huh.”
About an hour later, Gawain opened his mouth and let out a low sound of astonishment.
At my words saying I had understood everything, he continued the lesson once more.
By now, the amount of formulas had grown so large that the blackboard was no longer enough, so he explained most of it verbally, and even asked whether he could pose a few questions to see if I truly understood.
Naturally, I answered all of them without hesitation.
The function of the system assist did not merely stop at interpreting information or problems.
All of it had accumulated inside my head, and it had now reached the level where I could recall and use it as if it were originally my own.
In that situation, answering Gawain’s questions was truly child’s play.
He broke out into a slight cold sweat and spoke in a trembling voice.
“You truly are incredible, Your Highness. It feels as though I’m looking at my own younger self.”
And yet, even then, he would never praise me as being better than himself, even if it killed him.
As expected of a (former) genius.
His pride seemed immense—but how long would that last?
“Now then, since you’ve more or less grasped the basic theory, let’s move on to practice…….”
Just as he was about to proceed to the next lesson, the classroom door opened.
The two girls who soon revealed themselves looked at us and spoke with startled expressions.
“Ostia, and… Professor Gawain?”
Perhaps it was an unexpected combination, because Yuria stared at the two of us with her eyes wide open.
Behind her, Leysias stepped inside and bowed her head.
“If we interrupted your lesson, I apologize. However, it should be our turn to use this classroom…….”
“Has it already gotten that late?”
When leaving the office with Gawain, I had only applied for one hour of classroom use.
I thought the lesson wouldn’t be that long, but unexpectedly, because I found magic interesting, it ended up taking longer than I had anticipated.
“What did you two come here for?”
“Ah, Yuria asked me to teach her a little.”
Saying they had come to preview the next lesson, the two of them timidly stepped inside.
“Then how about joining us.”
When I said that while pointing at Gawain, they showed slightly troubled expressions.
Gawain likewise sent me a look asking whether that would really be fine.
“It’s fine. We both know that I’m a prince anyway.”
“…I see.”
At my words, he nodded.
Then he stepped forward in front of Leysias and Yuria and greeted them.
“I am Gawain, serving under Third Imperial Prince Leios. Until recently, I was a court mage, but by His Highness’s command, I have become an academy Professor.”
“…I’m Leysias, the eldest daughter of the Sheffield family. I’m friends with Ostia.”
“Y, Yuria!”
Gawain nodded with a pleased expression.
Compared to how he acted toward me, his serious demeanor nearly made me laugh out loud.
After finishing our introductions, we all listened to Gawain’s lesson together.
Taking the others’ levels into consideration, he tried to teach more easily than before, but when they followed along well, he raised the level again and continued the lesson with passionate enthusiasm.
“Your Highness has good friends.”
As expected of the eldest daughter of a prestigious magic family, Leysias, and Yuria as well, both showed considerable talent in theory.
However, their practical skills were utterly terrible, so overall they were sitting on failing grades.
By the time evening approached, we moved on to practice.
Since we were indoors, we decided to use magic focused on changing phenomena rather than spells with destructive power.
“[Primordial Light, Light].”
Using magic for the first time, I began the chant carefully, filled with tension.
Mana flowed out through my fingertips, and a small sphere of light about the size of a fist floated in midair.
“Ooh.”
Hadn’t everyone, at least once in childhood, imagined becoming a mage? Looking at the sphere of light floating before my eyes, I truly felt that I had used magic.
“For a first spell, it feels quite clean. As expected, once you’ve built a high level of attainment on one side, it seems to influence the other as well.”
As a swordsman, I handled aura, so I was already adept at moving mana.
Magic was likewise a technique for manipulating mana.
If Gawain praised it, then I must have done fairly well.
“[Primordial Light, Light].”
Leysias also easily pulled off basic magic.
As seen in the dungeon from the first semester exam, she was already a skilled mage.
This much was probably something she could do with her eyes closed.
“[O primordial light, bestow your grace upon the world and reveal its principles, Light].”
Only Yuria, however, finished her chant with difficulty.
Even then, the manifestation of her mana was unstable, and the sphere of light flickered as if it might disappear at any moment.
“Hm…….”
Gawain looked at it with suspicious eyes, while Leysias praised Yuria, saying she did well.
Light was such a basic spell that even a beginner like me, despite inhabiting this body, could succeed on the first try.
Yet Yuria struggled even with that.
It was only natural that Gawain would look at her strangely.
‘Is it because of magic nullification?’
A talent that erased any magic.
It had been residing in her body from the very beginning—she simply hadn’t realized it.
An uncontrolled ability leaked out little by little, affecting its owner first.
Because of that, despite having sufficient magical talent originally, Yuria was reduced to struggling from the most basic spells.
“Ha ha…….”
Though Leysias praised her, Yuria didn’t look happy.
Instead, her eyes darkened, and her hand gripping her skirt tightened.
Yuria’s feelings had been described several times before, so it wasn’t something I didn’t understand.
‘But I can’t tell her now.’
Her talent was rare even in the entire history of the continent.
If it were revealed that she possessed magic nullification, she would immediately be dragged to the imperial palace and subjected to all sorts of education and experiments.
Since that was not what I wanted, I kept my mouth shut.
“Then, let’s try using a slightly higher-level spell.”
The magic lesson progressed smoothly enough.
It would still be difficult to use in real combat, but if they practiced for a few more months, it would probably be serviceable.
“Ah.”
While Gawain and Leysias were earnestly cheering on Yuria as she struggled to chant her spell, a scene from an animation I had seen back in reality suddenly came to mind.
‘…Would it work?’
“Ahem.”
I lightly cleared my throat and extended both hands.
Just in case, I drew out the minimum amount of mana and began the chant.
“[From depths deeper than the abyss and darkness darker than pitch-black, may my crimson soul be intermingled. The time of awakening has come, so appear as a formless distortion, O principle fallen at the boundary of nothingness].”
“…What kind of spell chant is that?”
Gawain beside me asked with an expression saying he had never heard of such magic in his life.
Leysias and Yuria wore the same expression.
I barely managed to calm my reddening face and shook my head.
“It’s nothing special. It was a chant from an ancient text, so I just…….”
Wooooooong—!
Dozens of magic circles floated in midair.
As everyone was about to gape at the sight of them rising even through the classroom ceiling, a status window appeared in one corner of my vision.
[SYSTEM: Interpretation of the chant has been completed. Would you like to use the ‘Explosion’ spell? Y / N]
“You fucking—.”
Just how good was the system assist’s performance, that it could even interpret and bring in a spell chant from another work?
“O, Ostia!”
“Your Highness!”
In the midst of my panic, the urgent voices calling me snapped me back to my senses.
I hurriedly canceled the spell and let out a hollow laugh.
The magic circles filling the air shattered and vanished like grains of sand scattered by the wind.
With more than half my mana gone in an instant, my stomach churned and I staggered, and Leysias hurried over to support my shoulder.
“You say that was a spell you saw in an ancient text?”
“…It was in the imperial palace archive, but I never imagined it would turn out like this…….”
When I shrugged my shoulders, saying I never could have imagined it, they looked at me with dumbfounded expressions.
“Where is it! Did you find it?”
“Roughly, we’re sure it’s around this area!”
“There was a terror incident during the first semester. If something like that happens again……!”
Outside, however, it was pandemonium.
Teachers, along with the knights guarding the academy, were making a huge fuss and searching everywhere to find the cause of the disturbance.
“…Let’s leave here too.”
No one said anything, but all of us wore the same expression.
Since Gawain had business in the headmaster’s office, he said he would explain the situation on the way using my name, and fortunately, the incident was settled for now.
The sudden fluctuation of mana was replaced with the excuse that the headmaster, Chris herself, had gained a new insight while conducting research, and thankfully, my fault was buried with only a few people knowing the truth.
However, through Gawain, Chris teased me, saying she would make me pay for this properly, mocking me for causing a disturbance.
As if anyone could have known it would turn out like that.
With things having ended up this way, we hurriedly wrapped up the extra lesson and dispersed with calm expressions as if nothing had happened.
I also wanted to rest, so I dragged my tired body back to the dormitory, when from afar a girl with a familiar face spotted me and approached with a frown.
“Alice?”
“I heard from other students that you were with Leysias and Yuria. Did you forget the promise you made with me?”
“…Ah.”
Looking up at me with a sulky expression, her narrowed eyes made me recall the promise I had completely forgotten.
Alice and I often sparred together.
To help the protagonist grow, and because there were only a handful of people in this academy who could match me, we became good opponents for each other.
Today was also the day we had promised to spar.
However, I had postponed it for about an hour to learn magic from Gawain, and because of the commotion earlier, I ended up forgetting about it entirely.
“…I’m sorry, but I’m tired today.”
“Hm, then it can’t be helped.”
Fortunately, Alice nodded obediently at my words.
Surprised by her uncharacteristic reaction, I widened my eyes—only to have her grab my arm with powerful grip, her eyes narrowing further, just as expected.
“Did you really think I’d say that? When I was exhausted and about to die, you kept lecturing me, saying that’s how you grow, and now you’re trying to slip away on your own?”
With an expression saying she wouldn’t allow it, she dragged me along.
“I’m not letting you sleep today.”
“…Isn’t that not the kind of thing you say in situations like this?”
“Shut up.”
If she weren’t the protagonist, I would’ve just grabbed her head and smacked it, but the fact that I couldn’t only made it more frustrating.
A short while later, we stood facing each other in the training ground.
Despite being an enclosed space, a cool breeze blew through, as if by some mechanism, slightly lifting my mood.
Alice also seemed to have relaxed a bit, lightly bouncing in place as she loosened up her body.
Then, with a confident attitude, she pointed her sword at me.
“I won’t lose today.”
“That’s exactly the thirty-first time I’ve heard that.”
Alice’s swordsmanship was undoubtedly at a high level.
However, her sword was specialized toward killing people.
She hadn’t learned properly from a formal master, and having taught herself through real combat, it pursued only efficiency and sharpness.
Naturally, that wasn’t good in the long run.
That was why I had taught Alice the Fiore style and the secret techniques of the Sword Saint style that I had learned.
At first, she had reacted with disgust, asking why she had to learn that, but after being beaten by me over a dozen times, she gradually changed her mind.
In the end, she mastered the swordsmanship I taught her, and these days, to exaggerate slightly, she had caught up to about chest level.
“If you’ve lost around thirty times, shouldn’t it be time to win now?”
With confidence overflowing, Alice swung her sword toward me.