‘Hmm. Fortunately, it seems he understood what I told him.’
Beginning the day after the incident, Vele wore an expression as though he had bitten into something foul whenever Jaes saw him in the classroom. Nevertheless, as promised, he did not approach Jaes or Ian unnecessarily.
Even the followers Jaes had personally dealt with that night remained quiet. Because of that, Jaes assumed Vele had listened to reason and accepted his proposal.
Of course, that did not mean nothing had changed.
Jaes had never been particularly close to the others, but an atmosphere gradually formed in which not only the nobles but even the other commoners in the class seemed reluctant to associate with him.
It was probably the result of Vele spreading rumours about him, but Jaes honestly did not care. In some ways, he even thought it was for the best.
‘This works out well. It will be easier to keep a low profile if I am alone anyway. Now I only have to occasionally do something to bolster Vele’s pride, just as I promised. If that is enough to restore the peaceful life I wanted, then it is a small price to pay.’
Besides, it was not as though every student in the class avoided Jaes.
“The next class is the Protection Magic test. That’s the subject you’re good at, Ian.”
“Y…… Yeah!”
Perhaps because Ian still felt guilty about trying to lure Jaes out that night, he could not bring himself to look Jaes directly in the eyes. Even so, he insistently remained by Jaes’s side.
Jaes acted as though nothing had happened and made an even greater effort than usual to approach Ian first.
“Don’t worry about what happened then. It wasn’t your fault, and everything was resolved without any problems. I didn’t even need to use the insurance I had prepared just in case.”
“B-But…….”
“I know how exhausting and painful it is to become the target of people like them. When I asked you what was happening, though, you didn’t deceive me. You told me the truth, and that alone is enough. After sharing a room with you for the past month, I already know that you aren’t a bad person.”
“Jaes…….”
When Jaes was in high school and smartphone messaging applications had only just begun to become popular, a few of the more popular students had created a class group chat after they entered a new class at the beginning of the school year.
Jaes had reluctantly remained in it for a while. However, no essential announcements were ever posted there. All the students did was react to the jokes made by a handful of popular students, so Jaes left the group chat without hesitation after a few days.
And then,
The group began collectively persecuting him for no reason whatsoever.
It was not particularly severe at first.
Initially, they merely made light jokes and false accusations about him because he was not present in the group chat.
However, the easiest and most convenient way for a group to strengthen its unity was to create a common enemy. There were also few easier ways to experience an illicit thrill than gathering together to speak ill of someone who was not present.
As a result, their behaviour gradually became worse.
Even if Jaes later learned what they had done and confronted them, their only response was to ask why he was reacting so sensitively to a simple joke.
Having already become members of the ‘majority’ by remaining in the group chat, they naturally selected the ‘minority’ who refused to follow the majority’s will as their prey. Without even recognising their actions as violence, they eagerly tore into him and strengthened their bonds at his expense.
What made a group especially frightening once that sense of solidarity had formed was how fiercely it attempted to eliminate any dissenter who threatened to disrupt it.
The stronger a person’s attachment to the group, the more intense that reaction inevitably became. Just as someone who lazed about while everyone else worked the fields would be ostracised, most of the students who had initially been nothing more than bystanders gradually joined the perpetrators.
Only then could peace return to their group, and only then could they ensure that they would not become the next victims.
‘That’s why I don’t want to join a ‘group’ anymore, no matter what kind of group it is.’
At first, Jaes had assumed that such behaviour only occurred because the students were still mentally immature.
However, when he entered graduate school and once again began living as part of a community, he saw even those supposedly intelligent people gathering into comfortable little cliques and repeating the same behaviour. The severity might have differed, but the essence remained unchanged.
That experience only reinforced his conviction.
‘……This is pointless. I got lost in my memories for far too long.’
In any event, because Jaes had experienced such things before, his present circumstances did not inconvenience him in the slightest.
On the contrary, although Ian was merely his roommate, Jaes understood how difficult it must have been for Ian to choose to step away from the group on his own. Jaes was already satisfied merely to have gained a friend like him.
“Let’s go early and practise. You’re better at Protection Magic than I am.”
“O-Okay!”
……However, Jaes had overlooked three facts at that time.
The first was that Vele was still a young student.
The second was that, precisely because of his youth, Vele did not judge or decide everything according to reason as Jaes did.
The last was that Vele was the son of a marquis and believed himself to be the most magically gifted among all the first-years. Consequently, his pride was incomparably greater than that of the ordinary bullies from Jaes’s former world.
‘Grit. That bastard Jaes…….’
“As expected. I heard Lord Vele thoroughly put him in his place that night, and now he cannot even look in our direction. We would never have lost to someone like him if we had not let our guard down. I can only apologise for forcing Lord Vele to deal with him personally.”
“……It is fine.”
Setting aside the matter of his pride, Vele had lost nothing.
The official story was that Vele had taught Jaes a lesson, and Jaes was behaving in a manner that supported that story.
Jaes had therefore assumed that Vele would honour their agreement and refrain from doing anything unnecessary.
Unfortunately, that assumption was a grave miscalculation.
‘How dare a mere commoner use a cheap surprise attack to knock me to the ground and then have the audacity to propose a deal beyond his station? ……He will pay dearly for it during the next class.’
GRIN.
“A commoner who still does not understand his place must naturally pay the price.”
“Indeed.”
“Heh heh. Then shall we begin making our way there as well?”
“Yes.”
Wearing a sinister smile, Vele left the classroom with his followers as though pursuing the two of them.
“…….”
From the back of the classroom, Damian silently watched Vele leave.
His butler, Robert, stood beside him.
* * *
Protection Magic.
As its name suggested, it was a general term for magic intended to protect oneself or one’s allies from external attacks.
Like other forms of magic, Protection Magic existed in various stages beginning with the First Tier. Naturally, the spell the first-years needed to learn and master before anything else was the First-Tier spell Shield.
It was a spell that manipulated the density of the surrounding air to create a membrane of air resembling a shield, just as its name suggested.
The purpose of that day’s class was to test their proficiency with the Shield spell.
“Next. Ian.”
“Y-Yes!”
The test required the students to cast Shield and defend themselves against magic launched by Greiker, the instructor in charge of the class.
Naturally, Greiker adjusted the power of his spells to an appropriate level for the students.
However, as a Fourth-Tier Mage, even his First-Tier Magic possessed a sharpness befitting his level.
The purpose of the test was to evaluate how skilfully the students could defend themselves against it.
“Magic Arrow.”
FWOOSH.
Four Magic Arrows formed simultaneously following Greiker’s brief incantation.
‘Hmm. They certainly look different from my spells somehow.’
It was the first time Jaes had seen Magic Arrow cast by someone skilled other than himself.
Considering it an excellent opportunity, he observed the spell closely with sparkling eyes.
‘The old you would have been able to analyse that and accumulate data after seeing it. But naturally, you’ll say that’s impossible now, won’t you, Mir?’
<Yes, Master. It is impossible ‘in my current state’.>
‘Haah. You always say that. Well, I already knew the answer when I asked. I’ve thought of something that might solve that problem too, so let’s try it later.’
<Okay~>
‘……It is nice that your tone has become more cheerful.’
WHOOSH.
Meanwhile, the four Magic Arrows created in Greiker’s hand shot toward Ian from four different directions.
“Hup!”
Ian calmly cast Shield and began blocking them.
‘Instructor Greiker is a Fourth-Tier Mage, isn’t he? His spell certainly looks much more stable. His incantation is fast as well. But…… I don’t see anything particularly special beyond that.’
Still, that was more or less what Jaes had expected.
There were countless paths leading upward through the different tiers of magic. Because most Mages were occupied with learning higher-tier spells, Jaes had heard that they rarely used basic spells such as Magic Arrow at all.
‘Something isn’t necessarily better just because it’s complicated and large in scale. The same applies to programs. Simple and intuitive code is better than piling up an impressive-looking mess that no one can understand.’
FLASH.
“Hmm. Ian, you pass.”
“Phew!”
While Jaes seriously observed Greiker’s magic, Ian successfully blocked all of the instructor’s spells without making a mistake, fully demonstrating his talent for Protection Magic.
“Good work.”
“Thank you, Jaes! Good luck to you too!”
“Yeah. I’m not as skilled as you are, but I’ve become reasonably accustomed to the Shield spell by now, so don’t worry.”
“Next, Jaes!”
“Yes.”
TAP.
A moment later, Jaes heard his name and entered the testing chamber with a composed expression.
“I will attack you four times. Defend yourself using the Shield spell.”
“Yes.”
‘That should be easy enough.’
While learning magic at the academy, Jaes had continued researching methods of incorporating programming techniques into Magic Arrow and Haste to optimise them. That research had now begun to stabilise to a certain extent, and he had also become capable of using the other basic spells reasonably well.
At the same time, he had begun studying how to optimise spells such as Shield and improve their efficiency.
Of course, he was not yet as familiar with them as he was with Magic Arrow.
‘I still made sure to learn Shield properly. It’s a spell that can protect my body in an emergency.’
He might not be able to block every attack as perfectly as Ian had, but he was confident that he could pass a test of this level without difficulty.
“Then I will begin. Magic Arrow.”
SWISH.
‘Hmm!’
FLASH.
Greiker’s first attack launched from his hand.
Witnessing it directly before his eyes made Jaes even more keenly aware of its stability, which existed on an entirely different level from the spells cast by the other students.
Nevertheless,
‘Too slow.’
Jaes had practised Magic Arrow to the point of exhaustion over the past month. It was not an attack he would find particularly difficult to block.
FLASH.
After identifying its trajectory, Jaes blocked the first attack without difficulty.
The second attack approached from a different angle.
Jaes detected that one well in advance too. Just as he leisurely cast Shield to block it,
WHIZZ.
FWOOSH.
‘……?!’
Greiker’s Magic Arrow suddenly seemed to accelerate by a subtle degree. It pierced through Jaes’s Shield and grazed his cheek.
‘What was that?!’
This was merely a basic magic test for first-years. It was supposed to test whether the students could cast their spells at the proper moment, and Jaes understood that the attacks would be kept at the minimum possible power for safety.
That was precisely why Greiker, a Fourth-Tier Mage, was personally casting the offensive spells. Jaes had also heard that a basic Defensive Barrier had been erected around the testing chamber.
However, Jaes was certain that the Shield spell he had just cast had been flawless.
The fact that the attack had pierced it and nearly injured him filled him with a sense that something was wrong.
FWIP.
“Urgh!!”
And during the third attack that followed,
That suspicion finally became certainty.