“Heh. Look at you openly celebrating after merely managing to cast a First-Tier spell. Commoners with such shallow educations truly cannot be helped. Open your eyes and watch closely. Wind Cutter!”
‘Sigh. Is he a child? ……Oh, right. He is.’
Belé cast a Second-Tier spell and looked down upon Jaes and the other commoners with a conceited gaze.
To Jaes, however, Belé’s behaviour seemed nothing more than childish.
‘Since he is a noble, he probably began receiving an education at an early age. Still, this is ridiculous. To think he can act so arrogant with such meagre ability.’
The spell Belé had just cast was unquestionably the Second-Tier spell Wind Cutter.
However, just as it was not enough for a coded program merely to function, magic was not successful simply because its effect manifested.
Belé had barely managed to complete the incantation. Its performance and power fell far short of what should have been expected from a Second-Tier spell.
Jaes could clearly see its appallingly poor efficiency.
‘He would be better off properly casting the First-Tier spell Wind, just as we did.’
Judging by the instructor’s sigh, she appeared to share Jaes’s opinion. She had most likely refrained from correcting Belé only because he was the son of a marquis.
‘As expected. Seeing something like that confirms that I have no reason to rush after higher-tier spells. In the long run, I would benefit far more from thoroughly analysing reliable First-Tier spells and establishing a solid foundation for incorporating the programming techniques I know into this world’s Magic Language.’
The performance and power of higher-tier magic rose almost exponentially when the spell was cast perfectly.
However, the length of the Magic Language required for even a basic incantation also increased tremendously.
Although Jaes was not yet certain, from what he had discovered thus far, casting a Third-Tier spell was comparable to writing thousands of lines of code on the spot without making a single mistake.
That was by no means easy, no matter how intelligent Jaes was or how familiar he might be with the programming language in question.
It was even more difficult with the inefficient Magic Language used in this world.
Of course, there had occasionally been monstrous geniuses in his previous world who could accomplish similar feats even in machine code.
‘Those incomprehensible monsters must be the people called Archmages in this world.’
Even so, there appeared to be a viable method.
If he used his knowledge of programming languages to optimise this world’s Magic Language in a similar fashion, there seemed to be ample room for improvement.
‘Of course, it will take quite some time, but it is worth attempting. Fortunately, enrolling here has effectively given me until graduation to work on it. ……It will be difficult, but it sounds like an extremely interesting project.’
After continuing his work over the past month, Jaes had gradually begun producing meaningful results.
‘Whether it is a program or magic, stability and efficiency are what truly matter.’
From Jaes’s perspective, Belé’s boasting was no different from someone proudly displaying a program that barely functioned.
If anything, Belé served as an excellent example of what not to do.
“Let us go, Ian.”
“O-Okay.”
“As expected of Lord Belé! That was magnificent!!”
“Hmph. This much is nothing.”
Jaes quietly left the classroom with Ian, secretly ridiculing Belé’s childish display.
However, because he had been paying attention only to Belé, Jaes made a rare mistake.
“How was that, Lord Damian?!”
“……Hmm.”
Just before leaving the classroom, Damian, who had silently observed the entire scene from behind, caught sight of the faint smile Jaes had attempted to conceal.
* * *
—Duke Ailin de Reinhardt.
As an Eighth-Tier Archmage, he was unquestionably the most famous person in the Kingdom of Le Mans in the present era.
However, there were two other ducal houses in the kingdom.
Although its talent for magic was comparatively ordinary, House Duschfeldt was renowned for its swordsmanship and had made overwhelming contributions to the Kingdom of Le Mans since the nation’s founding.
Damian Duschfeldt, the third son of that house, was Jaes’s classmate.
House Duschfeldt’s magical talent was described as ordinary only when compared to other families that possessed extraordinary gifts for magic. It by no means suggested that the family was truly deficient in that field.
Compared to the general population, House Duschfeldt was considerably superior in magic as well.
However, its primary discipline was swordsmanship, not magic.
As magic gradually became more practical, distinguishing between magic and martial arts had become increasingly meaningless. Most Knights and Mages now learned both, differing only in which discipline they emphasised.
House Duschfeldt, however, was a traditional martial house whose members honed their abilities by using magic to support their speciality, swordsmanship.
Consequently, Damian Duschfeldt possessed swordsmanship far superior to that of most children his age.
Although he was only the third son, he was still a child of an influential ducal house. Among the first-year students of Ielhas Magic Academy, he could therefore be said to command the most powerful faction.
Recently, however, someone had begun to attract his attention.
It was the transfer student named Jaes.
Jaes had introduced himself as a commoner. Aside from having been taken in by Duke Ailin, he appeared to be a perfectly ordinary student with no particularly remarkable qualities.
At first, Damian had paid him no attention whatsoever.
After all, Damian’s goal was to improve his abilities here as quickly as possible, prove that House Duschfeldt had not fallen behind the times, and further elevate its reputation.
He intended to begin accomplishing that goal immediately, even as a first-year student.
At first, Damian had ordered Robert, who served as his butler, to observe Jaes merely out of mild curiosity.
When Belé, whose enthusiastic devotion had become bothersome, cast a Second-Tier spell during the Basic Magic Aptitude exam, every other student reacted with envy, admiration, jealousy, or resentment.
Jaes alone had worn an oddly relaxed smile.
Damian had happened to notice it.
‘For someone who has only just begun learning magic, seeing a Second-Tier spell would ordinarily inspire surprise or at least interest, just as it did with the other children. Yet his smile possessed a certain composure, as though he considered it entirely unimpressive.’
It began as only the faintest trace of interest.
However, after receiving reports from Robert, who secretly observed Jaes for some time, Damian’s curiosity gradually began to grow.
“You could not determine anything?”
“No. There was nothing particularly noteworthy about him. In fact, his complete lack of remarkable traits is suspicious in itself.”
“Hmm…… What about his magical ability?”
“He performs slightly above average in every subject. I did not notice anything at first, but after observing him closely on Lord Damian’s orders, I began to sense a slight incongruity. However, it is so faint that, to be entirely honest, I cannot say anything with certainty. I do not know whether what he displays now is genuine or merely an act.”
“Hmm. It must be something noteworthy if even you say that.”
Even in Damian’s eyes, Jaes appeared to be an ordinary commoner who could be found anywhere.
However, perhaps because Jaes had already captured his attention, Damian had recently begun feeling a peculiar sense of stability whenever he saw Jaes cast First-Tier Magic.
Since he had ordered Robert to observe Jaes for a while, Damian had expected his butler to bring him a satisfying answer.
Although Robert was a commoner, he ranked among the most skilled of House Duschfeldt’s retainers in their age group. When Damian enrolled at the academy, his father had assigned Robert to accompany him as his Escort Knight.
Yet even Robert was now admitting that he could not reach a conclusion about Jaes.
“Would that not make him even more suspicious?”
“Yes. You are correct, Lord Damian. In my eyes, he presents himself as perfectly ‘ordinary’ to an almost excessive degree. Achieving that is not nearly as simple as it appears. Of course, it may still be nothing more than coincidence.”
“……Then he is worth continuing to observe.”
Because Duke Ailin was involved with Ielhas Magic Academy, it was publicly known that numerous agents from other nations had infiltrated the academy while disguised as students.
As the son of an ancient ducal house of the Kingdom of Le Mans, Damian naturally knew this.
He honestly could not understand Duke Ailin’s eccentric decision to continue operating the Magic Academy while remaining idle and taking no particular countermeasures.
‘Even if he is an Eighth-Tier Archmage, is he not behaving far too irresponsibly for a duke of the Kingdom of Le Mans?’
However, as the importance of magic continued to increase, the fame of Duke Ailin and his disciples had surpassed even that of House Duschfeldt in the eyes of the public.
Damian had therefore taken advantage of his position as the third son and voluntarily enrolled in Ielhas Magic Academy as a first-year student.
He possessed the bold, youthful ambition of correcting any problems within the academy with his own hands and thereby elevating the name of House Duschfeldt.
Jaes was the first suspicious person to catch Damian’s eye.
“Continue observing him whenever you have the opportunity.”
“Yes. Understood.”
With that, the conversation between Damian and his butler Robert came to an end.
Meanwhile, although Jaes had not overheard their conversation, he was equally conscious of Damian and Robert as he outwardly continued speaking to Ian without revealing anything.
‘Sigh. What is this? Why have I felt as though someone has been watching me lately? Please, just stop paying attention to me.’
Jaes believed that he had handled himself reasonably well thus far.
In front of Belé and his followers, he displayed abilities slightly inferior to theirs so that he would not injure their pride.
At the same time, he avoided revealing any obvious weaknesses or appearing excessively naive.
What they instinctively desired was to torment people weaker than themselves, satisfy their meagre self-esteem, and enjoy a sense of relative superiority.
Once Jaes understood that, there was no reason to take offence at their conceited behaviour.
Even if they were the children of noble families, they were still only teenagers. After enduring graduate school, Jaes did not find their psychology or behavioural patterns particularly difficult to decipher.
‘How adorable. Truly adorable.’
As he had intended, Jaes enjoyed a peaceful daily life while remaining inconspicuous enough that he might as well not have existed.
……However,
‘Whew. Why has this suddenly started happening?’
Recently, Jaes had been unable to shake the feeling that Damian, the son of a ducal house whom he had never intended to become involved with, was paying attention to him.
‘A ducal house means his status must be extraordinarily high, does it not? Even higher than that Belé brat’s. Why would someone like him suddenly start taking an interest in me?’
From Jaes’s experience, becoming involved with such a person would inevitably destroy his plan to live quietly, even if that person’s attention was closer to goodwill than hostility.
‘I refuse to become entangled in pointless relationships and allow them to control my life even here.’
If Jaes had been interested in achieving success in this world, developing a friendship with Damian, the third son of a ducal house, might not have been a bad idea.
However, he had already experienced more than enough factional politics in graduate school.
The experience had drained him mentally and taught him on a visceral level that such things did not suit him.
All Jaes wanted was to quietly devote himself to researching the Magic Language and continue his school life as he had been doing.
“Hm? Jaes, what is wrong?”
“Ah. It is nothing, Ian.”
After noticing that Robert, the boy who constantly accompanied Damian as his butler, had also begun discreetly observing him, Jaes deliberately started behaving more clumsily than usual.
‘Good grief. He is far more persistent than I expected!’
However, Robert, whom Jaes only remembered as possessing a stiff and expressionless demeanour, appeared far more tenacious in his observations than Jaes had anticipated.
Just as Jaes had feared, it ultimately led to the destruction of his peaceful daily life.