“Five mana stones embedded in the ceiling developed cracks and have been deemed fit for disposal. In addition, roughly thirty broken windows and the completely burned statue of the ‘Archmage Alexander.’ Plus soot spread throughout the interior of the main building.”
Tesca Academy's grand conference room.
An administrative staff member finished his report to the professors, who sat gathered in a circle holding their reports.
“That concludes the damage to the Academy. The contaminated areas have been cleaned with Cleanse and purification magic, but the mana stones and the statue will be difficult to restore.”
“What a pity. That was a piece I was fond of.”
The Academy's Vice Headmaster and a master of illusion magic.
Valeria smacked her lips.
“Well. Should we call it fortunate that it was only this much? They fought quite noisily, yet there is little damage.”
“Little damage, my foot.”
The five-to-five part sitting across from her.
Oracle ground his teeth.
“The honor of Tesca Academy, fallen to the ground. That is the greatest damage.”
“Honor?”
“Because no one noticed a blatant false enrollment. When I think of that barbarian strolling brazenly around the Academy, my five organs and six entrails twist.”
“We strengthen security every year, but it is hard to stop those who come in this prepared. They even go so far as to create a Circle for espionage. How could we?”
“That is why I said we should accept only those with a pedigree. Taking in commoner riffraff of unknown origin is how this mess…….”
Spin.
Oracle, who had been venting his complaints, suddenly shut his mouth.
He had seen Valeria's eyes spinning as if dancing.
“Professor Oracle. Are you saying that Headmaster Dorothy's policy is wrong?”
“It is not so much that…….”
“If you have a complaint about the administration, please raise a formal objection. And…….”
Valeria's eyes returned to their normal shape.
Then they curved into half-moons.
“You speak down to others at the end of every sentence. Please show the other professors some respect. As I am doing.”
“……Ahem.”
Oracle adjusted his posture with an uncomfortable sound.
‘Crazy bitch.’
Outwardly, she pretended to be well-mannered and cultured, but the most unhinged professor among them was Valeria.
Knowing that, Oracle did not push back any further.
“Ha-ha! All of this is the result of my own lack of virtue.”
A round table set in the middle of the professors.
At the very center of the table was the toy soldier.
The Headmaster, Dorothy, rotated three hundred sixty degrees on a creaking body, meeting the eyes of each professor one by one.
“Professor Oracle. Please do not worry too much! It would be one thing if we had let the spy get away, but he was caught, was he not?”
“That displeases me as well. He was not caught by our hands; it was the work of some unidentified party, was it not?”
Early at dawn.
A staff member about to lift the main building's security had let out a shrieking scream.
He had found a corpse lying on the floor, burned to charcoal.
Tesca Academy was, quite literally, turned upside down.
All scheduled classes were canceled, and most of the professors gathered in one place.
“Ha-ha! His opponent was a Sword Expert, so if possible, I would like it to have been the work of one of our students. How bright the future would be then!”
“Headmaster!”
“Accepting commoners is inevitable. It would be nice if the Illumina Empire's finances were always plentiful, but the situation is not so generous. The commoners are glad to be given a chance, and we are glad not to be hounded for money. We must rightly accept the risk.”
“But…….”
“How about this? For the rest of your tenure, we divert all of your pay into Tesca's finances. Then we could filter out the admission of one or two suspicious commoners. Ha-ha!”
At that, Oracle went quiet, like a mute who had eaten honey.
Whatever else, he could not work without pay.
And so Headmaster Dorothy reduced Oracle to someone who was all mouth.
“An internal investigation into last night's events is already underway. The Academy will make every effort to track down whoever was behind it. We are grateful that the spy was dealt with, but that place is, after all, a ‘forbidden zone.’”
“I hope they are caught. I will look forward to it.”
When the meeting reached a close, the light in the toy soldier's eyes went out, too.
Seeing that, the professors all rose from their seats at once.
“Terrifying bastards. Now they've gone so far as to make Circles, too.”
Crunch, crunch.
A tall dark elf, constantly biting her nails beneath her silver hair.
Valeria stroked Morvael's slender shoulder.
“Do not worry too much, Morvael.”
“Valeria.”
“He died on the spot, so Tesca's information would not have leaked. Astallon, too, will have realized that Tesca is no pushover.”
“Right? That's how it is, right?”
At Valeria's comfort, Morvael bared her pure white teeth.
The innocence particular to elves.
But a fragile, worn-down mind.
And unpredictable emotional swings.
Morvael was someone who possessed every trait of a dark elf, without exception.
“But why'd you do that to Oracle? I talk down to everyone every time, too.”
“Because Professor Oracle has not lived three hundred years like you have.”
“Hehe. That's true.”
The silver-haired dark elf smiled brightly.
But Morvael soon made a face as if she were about to cry.
“What a shame. Today's the day I teach the first-years. And it's canceled.”
“Oh my. You said you didn't want to teach freshmen. Weren't you always saying so?”
“Most of them, yeah. But one freshman showed up who makes teaching worth it.”
“Oho.”
Valeria's eyes spun once.
Considering the subject Morvael taught, she could guess who that freshman might be.
Rune Language.
Not just because Morvael was a professor of it; it was the ultimate truth she had been digging into for over two hundred years.
“Now I'm curious. Who is this genius child?”
“That kid's name is…….”
***
“Kawin. Kawin.”
Walther Franken's voice woke Kawin's mind.
“Why are you just sitting there grinning in the middle of eating? You're creeping me out.”
“Was I?”
Kawin chuckled and picked up his fork again.
Kawin was in such a good mood that a smile kept rising even when he did nothing.
Because he had subdued a Sword Expert?
Or because he had not been caught yet?
Neither.
The reason Kawin's heart swelled like a balloon was,
‘It's grown again.’
The enormous Circle that formed the root of his magic.
The energy of the Orbis had grown stronger once more.
WHIRRR……!
The white sparks wrapped around its rim writhed more actively.
It also looked twice as thick as it had been at first.
That meant Kawin's mana had doubled.
It was not because of the Challenge with Frasel.
Today's scheduled 2nd Challenge had been canceled due to the school's circumstances.
In the meantime, there had been no incidental Challenges with other students, either.
Instead,
‘I did go a round with a sword-wielding knight.’
Astallon's spy, Bane.
He might have had magic power, but at his root, he was a swordsman, no matter what anyone said.
Someone only a single step away from Swordmaster.
In last night's battle, Bane had not used magic even once.
Yet Kawin's Orbis had grown fiercer still.
‘Which means…….’
The ability to plunder an opponent's power.
Current Devour did not react only to mana.
The Aura used by Swordmasters also became nourishment for the Orbis.
It was an unexpected harvest that even Kawin had not anticipated.
‘Probably thanks to him using Requiem, too.’
Power gained for a brief moment by burning life force.
It had become a permanent foundation for Kawin.
A great stroke of luck, where the grimoire's ability and coincidence had overlapped.
Brimming with satisfaction, Kawin muttered something he should not have.
“I hope another spy shows up.”
“You crazy bastard……!”
Startled, Walther hurriedly clapped a hand over Kawin's mouth.
However,
“Kawin Anper.”
An administrative staff member who had entered the cafeteria delivered a message with an expressionless face.
“When your meal is finished, come to the Headmaster's office. Headmaster Dorothy wishes to see you privately.”
“Eh?”
The staff member left the cafeteria without another word.
Kawin and Walther turned their heads and met each other's eyes at the same time.
“Looks like I'm X-ed?”
“What did I tell you! I said to watch your mouth.”
“Is there a wiretap in the cafeteria or something?”
“That's why you shouldn't say subversive stuff like that……!”
Kawin looked around, and Walther hung his head, clutching it in both hands.
***
To get to the conclusion first, there was no wiretap.
Headmaster Dorothy had not summoned Kawin because of his careless remark.
But Kawin's tension only grew.
If it was not about a slip of the tongue, why would someone as lofty as the Headmaster hold a one-on-one meeting with a mere student?
There was only one answer.
“Thank you for doing our job for us, Kawin Anper.”
A purple halo flowed from the toy soldier's innocent eyes.
Such viscous magic power, even from a puppet being controlled.
In a different way from Kawin, it did not tolerate lies.
He would have to give up denying it.
Kawin made up his mind.
This was not an opponent he could hold out against by feigning ignorance.
“How did you know?”
“Ha-ha! Thank you for being honest!”
The toy soldier saluted with a comical motion.
“The other professors suspect a fire-type mage. The soot, and above all, the statue burned away completely.”
“I figured they would, too.”
“However, in this world, there is a magic harder than earth, sharper than wind, and stronger than flame.”
“!”
Goosebumps rose all over Kawin's body.
Because what Dorothy had just said matched a passage in the grimoire Kawin had read exactly.
“Kawin Anper. How much do you know about Lord Dharma?”
The Archmage Dharma.
A name that had vanished from all of Illumina's history came out of Dorothy's mouth.
Kawin did not answer.
If Dorothy belonged to the faction that had suppressed Dharma, he, too, could be in danger.
“There is no need to be so tense. Lord Dharma is a figure from hundreds of years ago. Unless one is an elf, one could hardly have any debts of gratitude or grudges with Lord Dharma.”
“It seems you already know more than I do.”
“Ha-ha! You have a way with words, Kawin. This conversation is delightful!”
The toy soldier mimed clutching its stomach with laughter.
Perhaps it was only his imagination, but the purple magic power seemed to have faded a little.
“Very well. I did not call you here to interrogate you, so let us stop confirming the facts here.”
“You're not…… going to charge me with the crime of killing Bane?”
“Ha-ha! How is that a crime? If you punished a spy of Astallon, you ought rightly to be rewarded. It is regrettable that you crossed into the forbidden zone, but I will let it slide just this once. You have done more merit than harm.”
“Then why did you call me here? And in a one-on-one meeting, no less.”
“It is only natural to reward those who have earned merit! I thought about why student Kawin would go so far as to enter the forbidden zone. And I reached a conclusion.”
Snap!
The toy soldier saluted once again.
“Break free of fixed ideas, Kawin. As a mage should. A grimoire is the most mysterious object in this world. There are no constraints on its form or size.”
“There are…… no constraints?”
Kawin's blue eyes wavered greatly.
The hint Dorothy had given struck Kawin's heart like a thunderclap. KRA-KOOM.
The grimoire.
Form and size.
Without such constraints, which object in this Academy best fit the description of a grimoire?
‘That's it……!’
A blue flame rose in Kawin's eyes.
Kawin now knew for certain what he had to do next.