In this world, there are reviews that only Koreans can read.
[Tokyo Banana Mansion Review - Rating ★★★★★]
[Ahm ritin thiss sow ohnlee Kohreeunz kan reed itt.
Itz lesss thann thurtee sekondz frum Tohkyo Stayshun, butt thuh plaiss iz reelee rundownn.
Noh elluhvayter ann itz thuh fifth flore, sow iff yoo hav lotz uv baggij itz a fukkin nitemair.
Kokroachez kaim owt ann thuh bathroohm stinkz lyke krazee.
Pryses r fukkin expensiv tooo!
Nevurr evurr kum heer!]
Korean had been twisted into something like a cipher so that the people running the lodging could not delete bad reviews.
The reason for bringing this up so suddenly is,
‘It's similar.’
The magic array Valeria had created was remarkably similar to this.
To Kawin, who had seen straight through Braille, the root of the magic system, everything came into view at a glance.
That the rune characters were a mess,
and how to work backward from them.
‘Discard the sentences that don't hold up at all, and keep only the rune characters that have proper form.’
Before Valeria had even finished announcing the test,
Kawin had already derived the answer.
For Kawin, to whom Braille came as easily as breathing, this was like swimming with his hands planted on the ground.
[Whutt kondishun muss bee kept whenn doowin a Chalenj?]
Kawin's nonchalant steps headed for the podium.
Every gaze around converged on one place.
The eyes of Valeria, who had set the question, were no different.
“No way…….”
“He's already solved it?”
“That's impossible. There's no way he solved it.”
“Hmph. Dead-Battery Bug bastard. Showing off.”
Even Walther Franken, now his friend, had wavering eyes at this moment.
‘They said if you give a wrong answer once, you get pushed to the very back of the order?’
Whether or not he knew about the stir around him,
Kawin walked among the students with a calm gait.
When he finally stepped up onto the podium, Valeria asked in a dry voice,
“Coming up here means you have solved the question?”
“Of course.”
“You did not misunderstand the rules, I trust? Give a wrong answer once, and you will have no other chance until every student here has answered.”
“I won't be wrong.”
Spin.
Valeria's eyes turned around once.
‘I can't read him.’
How long had it been since she felt this way?
She recalled something from more than ten years ago.
When she had first met the Headmaster of this Academy.
Even when some toy soldier had appeared and offered her a handshake, she had not felt like this.
‘Just try being wrong.’
‘Can he really get it right?’
Two thoughts whirled in Valeria's mind.
Her specialty was illusion, but at this moment, she felt as though she herself were under one.
Kawin Anper.
A man who had been special since the entrance exam.
Valeria swallowed once without realizing it and nodded.
“Then let us hear the answer.”
She lowered her head before Kawin.
Thanks to that, her pure white neckline was clearly revealed.
If not for her spinning eyes, it was a sight that would have shaken the heart of every man.
But Kawin merely answered in a flat voice.
“The answer is an Observer. It's a condition required when conducting a Challenge.”
“!”
He had solved it properly.
He had even perfectly deciphered the sentence planted in the magic array.
In that instant, tremendous magic power surged from Valeria's body.
WHOOSH!
But as if it had never happened, that energy vanished without a trace.
‘That startled me.’
Kawin did not let it show, but his developed ‘Electron Perception’ had blared an alarm for a moment.
That was how strong an urge Valeria had felt.
She had wanted to cast an illusion on Kawin and dissect his mind.
But that was not something a professor should do to a newly enrolled student.
Without anyone knowing, Valeria had exercised superhuman patience.
She announced to the students in a trembling voice.
“Kawin Anper. Correct.”
At that shocking declaration, most of the entrants clutched their heads.
“Huh?”
“No way!”
“I haven't even deciphered the first letter yet!”
“Didn't the question get leaked in advance? Otherwise……!”
“You want to die? You dare doubt the professors?”
“I lost the moment it started…….”
“This is a scam!”
Valeria did not particularly restrain the students' agitation.
After all, the one most shaken at this moment was herself.
She tried not to let it show, but her voice trembled on its own.
“Are you aware? This is no ordinary magic array.”
“Yes. You cleverly twisted the rune characters and had us decipher them.”
“To see through even that……. This was a question that even most of the Academy's professors could not be sure of solving within thirty minutes. And yet…….”
How did you do it?
Her spiral eyes stared intently at Kawin.
But Kawin's answer was quite simple.
“House Anper's magic is paltry. So I had to find another way.”
“……In place of insufficient magic power, you diligently studied other things? Rune language, magical theory, things of that sort?”
“Yes. Something like that.”
Kawin shrugged both shoulders, and Valeria fell into thought.
This question was something she had devised alone.
Content she had not revealed to the other professors, not even to the Headmaster.
So there could be no cheating.
‘Pointy Ears is going to lose it upon finding out about this.’
Valeria gave a smile that was barely perceptible.
She turned her gaze to the students.
“First place in this test is Kawin Anper. As announced, he will use the best VIP Room in the dormitory.”
“Wow…….”
“It's real.”
“So fucking jealous.”
“Ah, fuck, I can't share a bathroom!”
“Crazy, hearing that from a bastard who looks like he never washes pisses me off even more.”
Valeria asked the agitated students,
“Do you have time to complain right now?”
“……!”
The students once again summoned all their concentration to decipher the rune characters.
And Kawin,
Fwump!
threw himself onto a bed far too wide for one person.
***
After coming to the Academy, Kawin realized something.
That now was precisely the time he could legally laze around.
He had solved the test question first, and this was the time the other students were doing their remedial study(?).
He had no particular obligation to do anything; he could just lounge and eat.
However, the one thing Kawin was actually looking for was not there.
‘I want to read a book.’
Everything needed for daily life was there, but there were no books here.
Books he needed could be found by going to the Academy library.
There was no need to keep magic books here.
Since Kawin had only just discovered the joy of reading with his eyes, he thirsted for books.
Especially the grimoire hidden in the Academy.
It was the book Kawin wanted to read most right now.
Glug.
Various teas, including coffee, were laid out in front of a luxurious teapot.
Kawin made himself a coffee, savored a sip, and organized his thoughts.
About one of the reasons he had come to this Academy.
About the ‘grimoire.’
-Where do I need to go to see the grimoire?
Kawin had asked that, and Valeria had answered that he was ‘already viewing it.’
Already viewing it.
Certainly, countless magic books were on display in the Academy's main building.
Quite a few magic books were protected by barriers to keep them from being touched carelessly.
Was one of them the grimoire?
‘No. That can't be it.’
Kawin shook his head.
He had already experienced the Archmage Dharma's grimoire.
The way it had poured out a dazzling radiance for hundreds of years.
Compared to that, the displayed magic books felt almost dull.
‘There was no lie in Valeria's answer. The grimoire is in the main building. Which means…….’
There was something he was missing.
That was the conclusion Kawin reached.
After another sip of coffee, Kawin looked around.
Compared to his room at House Anper, it looked, exaggerating a little, a hundred times bigger.
The bed and furniture were beyond clean, to the point of gleaming.
Looking at the empty wardrobe, he almost felt sorry.
“Should I tell Walther to store his bones in here?”
After a chuckle, Kawin suddenly sat on the floor and closed his eyes.
Then he began to focus inward.
The single enormous ring settled within his body.
The Orbis.
Starting from the twelve o'clock position, he slowly rotated the Orbis' energy clockwise.
Like a steam engine turning a massive wheel.
The Orbis' rotation gradually quickened.
WHIRRR!
When the rotation had grown as fast as a sports car's wheels,
sweat poured from Kawin's body like rain.
Something he had repeated without missing a single day.
The more he rotated the Orbis like this, the thicker the ring grew, bit by bit.
It meant the mana he could use increased.
“Phew……!”
Kawin had fallen into a trance so deep he did not know how much time had passed.
When he came out after washing up in the large shower room, a bell rang outside.
“Kawin! It's me!”
The voice belonged to Walther.
He beamed at Kawin, then soon made a face as if he had lost his country.
“Whoa, shit. It's huge. My room's the size of a rat's X…….”
“Really? I figured you'd have solved it early.”
“I was on the fast side. Ranking it roughly, I'd be in the top 10%. It's just…… the VIP treatment you're getting is insanely good.”
“Is that so.”
“You know what's more amazing? It's been ten hours since the question went up, and there are still morons solving it. Those bastards whose brains have devolved.”
Kawin chuckled.
It seemed the guys Walther was talking about were the Druids.
Idiots whose bodies suffered because their heads were bad.
After cursing them once more, Walther looked around.
“Looking for something?”
“Ah. It's just a habit of mine. Whenever I enter a new space, I look for hard things first.”
“Don't tell me…… you're looking for skeleton soldier parts in my room?”
“Haha. Kidding, kidding.”
Kawin quietly sensed Walther's heartbeat.
His breathing and his smell.
All steady.
Walther was serious.
‘Why isn't there a single normal person around me?’
Having scanned around with shining eyes, Walther asked Kawin,
“Aren't you curious? About who came in second after you?”
Kawin nodded.
He was not particularly curious, but seeing that excited face, he did not want to disappoint him.
“Frasel Illuma.”
“Illuma? Then…….”
Kawin, who had seemed uninterested, suddenly widened his eyes.
A surname tied to Illumina, the empire of magic.
Only one family in the Empire could use it.
“The imperial family?”
“Yeah. The seventh Imperial Princess, to be exact.”
Frasel Illuma was the youngest daughter among the Emperor's seven children.
“Professor Valeria said so. If a monster hadn't shown up, her score would normally have taken first place.”
That very monster asked Walther,
“I saw someone wearing a mask among the entrants. Is that girl Frasel?”
“Right. This Academy's famous for its strict dress code and rules, but since she's imperial, it seems they made accommodations.”
“I don't like it.”
At the sudden remark, Walther's faint eyebrows twitched.
“Why? Because it's like she's flaunting privilege at an Academy that's supposed to be equal?”
“No.”
Kawin's answer was much simpler and more straightforward than that.
“I just hate it when something's covered up.”
“Eh……? What's that supposed to mean? Anyway, this got interesting. Everyone figured Frasel would take this VIP Room. She's the top entrant by admission scores, and her status is what it is.”
But the world's expectations had all been devoured by a monster.
And the next day.
“Talk to me casually. We're all students now, aren't we?”
A large cat mask that covered her entire face.
From within that mask came a voice brimming with holy power.
“The reason I came to Tesca? For the Empire and His Majesty the Emperor, of course.”
Being close by, Kawin could feel it all.
An irregular breathing pattern.
A faint but definite increase in the smell of sweat.
‘Well, would you look at that?’
Frasel was lying.