「To my dear elder brother, Are you doing well at the Academy?
The Ferdalos territory is much the same as in previous years. The weather is reasonably pleasant, the residents reasonably lively, and even our finances are in reasonably manageable condition.
As always, everything continues in an ordinary and peaceful manner.
If there is one thing that has changed, however, it would naturally be Mother's presence.
Since Mother rose from her sickbed, managing the Ferdalos territory has become considerably easier.
As expected of someone who oversaw the territory in Father's place in the past, she began exercising her influence in many areas again as soon as she returned to active duty.
Margrave Highgarden even visited this distant territory not long ago. I can only cautiously assume that this, too, was due to Mother's influence.
Yesterday, I shared a drink with Father and Mother for the first time in a while. By the time this letter reaches you, I suppose that will have been about three days ago.
It was Mother's first time joining us for drinks since rising from her sickbed, but she still appeared to enjoy her liquor immensely.
Had Father not collapsed first, the gathering might have continued a little longer.
I hope that next time, you will be able to join us as well.
More than four months have already passed since you returned to the Academy.
You promised to send one letter every month to let us know how you were doing, yet not a single one has arrived even though the semester is nearly over. Father and I have been terribly worried about you.
Mother told us not to worry, saying that you were probably busy with your studies.
Even so, we cannot help wondering whether you were injured in an accident during class at the Academy, or whether you fell into a slump so deep that you lack even the energy to write a letter.
As your family, I suppose it is only natural that we feel anxious despite ourselves.
Unable to endure these ominous thoughts any longer, I finally decided to write to you first.
When you read this letter, please send even a brief reply telling us how you are.
Even if the person reading this is not my brother... please reply and tell us what condition he is in.
I will end the letter here before it grows any longer.
Once the rest of the semester is over, we will be waiting for you to come home again this summer.
From your one and only younger sister, Delphina Ferdalos」
The first thing that greeted me when I woke that morning was a lengthy letter from my younger sister.
The moment I saw the envelope stamped with the seal of House of Ferdalos, I remembered a promise Delphina and I had made around the time I entered the Academy last year.
I would send at least one letter every month describing how I was doing.
Until last year, I had indeed sent one or two letters from the Academy each month.
But after returning to the past, I had forgotten about it for a while.
“I made them worry.”
Just as I had expected, the letter went on at considerable length about how worried my family had become after hearing nothing from me.
It might have seemed somewhat excessive, but their concern was only natural.
Unlike the Ferdalos territory, where life passed without any particular threats, the Academy was a place where no small number of dangers lurked.
Alexandros Academy was a specialized training institution for cultivating state agents.
Simply enduring four years and graduating gave a person credentials that would be recognized anywhere.
That was, of course, assuming they managed to obtain the diploma.
Naturally, just as many people dropped out along the way. Some even said that the graduation examination was more difficult than the already demanding entrance examination.
More precisely, the difficult part was surviving at the Academy long enough to reach the year when one could take the graduation examination.
Statistically, more than half of all freshmen left before graduating for one reason or another.
Some withdrew because they could not adapt to the Academy's fierce and competitive culture. Others were expelled because the Academy judged them to lack talent.
Those who were particularly unlucky sometimes lost their lives altogether after one misfortune piled upon another.
The Church and high-ranking clergy were permanently stationed at the Academy to prevent that, yet despite their efforts, a considerable number of fatal accidents occurred every year.
It was not as though Church personnel could be dispatched into the depths of the Demon Forest or into every private laboratory.
My family had gone three months without hearing from me, so this letter was the result of seeds I had sown myself.
It was true that I had been busy with various matters, but I should at least send a letter telling them that I was alive and well.
“I should write one now.”
I took a blank sheet of paper and a pen from the drawer and began composing a letter to the Ferdalos territory.
Its main point was a brief summary of what had happened over the past three months and an assurance that there was no need to worry.
I wrote about my impressive victory over a fourth-year student from the Department of Swordsmanship in the Midterm Evaluation Match.
I also wrote that I had recently killed a Giant Boa in the Demon Forest and that the profits had left me in considerably more comfortable circumstances.
“Should I include some of the earnings as proof?”
Even after various deductions, the guild had paid thirty gold coins for the materials. After dividing shares between Stella and Lulu, I still had more than ten gold coins left for living expenses.
The two of them had insisted that I should take everything because I alone had killed the monster and they had merely followed me of their own accord.
But there was no denying the results I had gained thanks to Stella and Lulu, such as selling the materials without any losses and saving on dismantling fees.
Refusing to give them a share would have violated basic decency.
It might not have meant much to Stella, whose family was wealthy, but to Lulu, the windfall must have been like welcome rain after a drought.
Of course, the same was true for me.
After wondering how much to include with the letter, I enclosed a reasonable five gold coins.
It was neither too little nor too much, and it still left me with enough for my own expenses.
Hoping that my family back home would be pleased, I sent the Ferdalos territory a letter containing only good news.
One week later, 「Brother, I now understand that you are doing well.
I understand that you do not wish to worry your family, but please do not lie to us.
You said that you defeated a student from the Department of Swordsmanship in an evaluation match? A fourth-year student on the verge of graduation, no less?
I may not attend the Academy yet, but even I know that evaluation matches are only arranged between students in the same department.
And you claim that you killed a Giant Boa in the Demon Forest. Where in the world did you learn to make such boasts?
I am returning all the gold coins you enclosed.
If you borrowed the money merely to support your boasting, please repay the debt at once.
You are already a wonderful and precious person to me and to our parents.
Even if you achieve nothing particularly noteworthy at the Academy, Father, Mother, and I will all be relieved as long as you remain healthy.
I will end here, hoping that you continue to stay well.
Delphina Ferdalos」
The five untouched gold coins had been enclosed inside the returned envelope.
...Maybe I should have sent only three.
***
A month passed in the blink of an eye after the day we hunted the Giant Boa.
Dike must have been utterly terrified, because he seemed to have vanished from the Academy without even completing the withdrawal procedure.
As a result, the greatsword he had left behind in the Demon Forest had truly become ownerless.
It now remained in my room, quietly asserting its presence.
I would assume that I would find some use for it eventually.
In any case, I had no attention to spare for it right now.
Far more important was the fact that today was the day I was scheduled to use the Department of Magic's training grounds.
“It has been a while since I've done this, but it should probably work.”
For the first time since enrolling, I entered the Department of Magic's training grounds with a bottle containing the Giant Boa's venom sac.
My objective was, of course, to unlock the Fourth Circle before the day ended.
Unlike when I had unlocked the Second and Third Circles two stages at once, today I would have to exert every ounce of my strength merely to unlock the Fourth Circle alone.
It went without saying that I had to proceed even more carefully because I had only obtained enough material for a single attempt.
Unlocking the Fourth Circle was not fundamentally different from unlocking the Second or Third Circle.
I had to arrange sixteen spells in a 4×4 formation to create a mana formula.
I had already decided which formulas to combine and in what order, so all that remained was to put the plan into action.
The one thing that could never be omitted from the process was the Giant Boa's venom sac.
It did not necessarily have to be this particular material as long as it could temporarily suppress magic, but among the materials I could obtain, this was the easiest to acquire.
A Cockatrice's vocal cords. Paper made from the World Tree.
Every one of those materials cost at least a hundred gold coins if purchased.
More importantly, freshness was everything for materials of this kind, making it as difficult as plucking a star from the sky to use one exactly when needed.
Fortunately, this time I knew where to obtain what I needed, so acquiring it had been easy.
“Phew.”
I steadied my mind and began casting the first magic formula.
Parallel computation could shorten the process, but when unlocking a Magic Circle, it was important to cast each formula with painstaking care.
If I accidentally changed the casting order, I might create a completely different Circle from the one I intended. Above all, if I failed, the hard-won material would be wasted.
With the Hunting Festival approaching, I could not allow that to happen.
Using the staff in my hand, I manifested the first formula I had cast.
The moment the first was complete, I began casting the second and slowly linked the spells together.
The third... the fifth... the seventh....
First, I linked eight formulas together, fixed them in place, and immediately moved on to the next step.
Adding just one more stage here would cause the magic to erupt on its own and form the formula needed to unlock the Third Circle.
But what I wanted was not the Third Circle. It was the Fourth.
Under ordinary methods, nine was the limit for linking magic formulas as though they were a single spell.
The moment the ninth magic formula was linked, the formulas connected before it could no longer endure the accumulated energy and would activate all at once as though exploding.
That was why, when unlocking the Fourth Circle or higher, one used a fixing effect on the linked magic already created.
The Giant Boa's potent venom was necessary for that fixing effect.
Unlike an ordinary boa's normal venom, a Giant Boa's venom was a mana poison, making it exceptionally effective at fixing magic in place so that it could not activate temporarily.
It was also the only material I could obtain immediately.
Wearing gloves to avoid being poisoned, I took the Giant Boa's venom sac from the bottle.
I aimed the sac's discharge opening at the mana formula and squeezed, forcefully spraying the potent venom inside.
There was no need to paralyze all of them. I only needed to stop one.
Then again, I only had enough venom for one in the first place.
To prevent the formation from becoming nine consecutive magic formulas, I fixed the eighth formula in place.
The mana formula touched by the venom turned black and entered a temporarily paralyzed state in which the spell could not activate.
From this point onward, I had to hurry through the remaining steps.
I needed to finish everything before the potent venom coating the spell evaporated and lost its effect.
I rapidly attached another eight magic formulas beneath the original eight.
For the moment, the mana formula I had created took the form of 7+1+8.
Now, all I could do was hold my breath and wait in silence.
Less than a minute after I finished inscribing the final mana formula, the potent venom applied to the central formula began losing its effect.
Not long afterward, when more than half of the blackened mana characters had reappeared, the sixteen-stage linked spell activated simultaneously as though erupting.
The fierce vortex of mana I felt within my body proved that I had become a Fourth-Circle mage.
Two years earlier than in my previous life.