Young Teacher.
It was a title that had arisen after Keiras, who was supposed to be the teacher, began receiving instruction from Aiman instead.
Aiman could only use magic up to the 3rd Class, and Keiras had already taught him everything else he could.
There was nothing left for him to teach.
At least, not unless they found a way to increase Aiman’s mana artificially, as they had discussed before.
From that point onward, Keiras began asking Aiman questions instead.
“Did the elderly gentleman who taught you Origami happen to teach you anything else?”
Mana Cutter was also a spell that did not exist within the bounds of Keiras’s knowledge.
In a sense, it bordered on the creation of entirely new magic.
Yet Aiman had accomplished it.
Naturally, even then, Aiman had covered it up with an excellent excuse.
“The elderly gentleman who taught me the Papermaking Method also taught me all sorts of Origami.”
Aiman claimed that the fold used for Mana Cutter was not something he had originally known.
He said it had been taught to him by the wandering master who had shown him the Papermaking Method, whom he generally referred to as ‘the Elder.’
Naturally, Keiras believed him without question. There was no reason to think a ten-year-old child could have discovered such a thing on his own.
That was why he had asked whether Aiman knew any other kinds of Origami.
Aiman knew many folds that Keiras had never seen before.
Of course, by Keiras’s standards, they would be considered Mana Calculation Formulas.
Rather than explaining them that way, however, Aiman merely said that he had learned them as Origami.
Since then, Keiras had been learning each of the folds Aiman knew, one at a time.
He had even said something like this.
“The man who taught you the Papermaking Method may well be a descendant of the Lost Age of Magic.”
The Lost Age of Magic.
It was an ancient legend about an age so distant that Magi and Grand Magi—realms that people today could only yearn for and never attain—might once have been abundant.
In any case, Keiras called Aiman his Young Teacher and asked what new Origami he could show him.
Aiman thought for a moment before speaking.
“Well, since you need to travel to the Capital, shall we make an airplane?”
“An airplane?”
“Uh, you can think of it as something like a carriage that can fly.”
“A carriage that can fly? Surely that cannot be possible.”
“Shall we try it first?”
“Very well. Let us try.”
“This is the basic airplane fold.”
A basic airplane fold.
It was the simple kind of paper airplane that almost everyone had probably made during elementary school.
“How easy. It should be simple to write a calculation formula for it as well. I suppose it would fall under Summoning Magic. Does using it summon a flying carriage?”
It was an extremely basic airplane fold.
However, what it produced was not an airplane.
Aiman shook his head.
“No. Rather than an airplane, it summons a wing that can ride the wind and fly.”
“A wing that can ride the wind?”
‘It does have a name—hang glider…….’
A hang glider.
It was the name of a glider that allowed a person to fly by hanging beneath its wing and using the wind.
Since such an object did not exist in this world, however, calling it an airplane was enough.
Introducing the term hang glider would only make the explanation unnecessarily complicated.
That was why Aiman had simply described it to Keiras as a wing that could ride the wind.
“Yes. You will understand once you use it.”
“Very well. The calculation formula does not appear difficult, so I shall try using only one circle’s worth of mana for now.”
“I’ll check that your calculation is correct.”
“Very well. Thank you.”
Keiras converted the Origami sequence Aiman had shown him into a Mana Calculation Formula, then used one circle’s worth of mana.
Aiman focused his gaze on Keiras, checking whether he was performing the calculation correctly.
‘He’s folding it properly.’
Keiras had converted the folding sequence Aiman had demonstrated moments ago into a Mana Calculation Formula and applied it perfectly.
HUMMM.
One circle’s worth of mana glowed between Keiras’s hands.
When the light disappeared, a hang glider small enough for an infant appeared in his hands.
Keiras stared curiously at the hang glider he had summoned.
“What is this?”
“It is a wing that allows you to ride the wind and fly after jumping from a high place.”
“So that is why you called it a wing that can ride the wind.”
“Yes.”
Having understood what Aiman meant, Keiras examined the hang glider resting in his hands.
He now understood what kind of object it was.
“But at this size…….”
“It is too small for you, Master. You will probably need to use a greater amount of mana.”
Using more mana should summon a larger hang glider.
However, Keiras shook his head.
“There seems to be little reason to use this at all.”
Aiman did not disagree.
“That’s because you can fly using Fly.”
“Precisely.”
Fly was a 4th-Class Spell that allowed its caster to take flight.
Because it existed, there was little need to use a hang glider that depended on the wind.
Furthermore, Keiras was a 5th-Class Mage.
Unlike Mages who had only just reached the 4th Class and could do little more than remain airborne with Fly, he could travel through the air at high speed.
However, the lesson on airplane folding was not over yet.
“That is only the basic airplane fold. Now we will move on to the advanced process.”
“Oh? Is there an advanced process?”
“From this point onward, they will become real airplanes. However, you will probably need five circles’ worth of mana to create one large enough for you to ride. With the two circles’ worth of mana I can wield, even I couldn’t fit inside one.”
At present, Aiman could cut mana with Mana Cutter and then invoke Higher-Class Magic.
He could use magic up to the 3rd Class if he manifested it in a somewhat reduced form, but reducing the form was impossible when it was something he needed to ride.
That meant the largest object he could bring forth through Summoning Magic was only equivalent in scale to a 2nd-Class Spell.
Aiman had already tried applying airplane folds to magic while he was alone.
Thinking back on the result still left him dumbfounded.
‘The inventions of Earth are actually being summoned.’
He had discovered it through the airplane folds.
When the things he made through Origami were folded through magic, they generally manifested as Summoning Magic.
During those experiments, he had summoned the airplanes he was now describing to Keiras as part of the advanced process.
Passenger jets, fighter jets, stealth aircraft, and more.
He had been able to summon all of them.
The problem was that they had appeared as the actual objects. To examine them properly, he needed to enter their cockpits, but the aircraft he summoned were only about the size of a carriage.
It was impossible to board them at all.
That had made him wonder.
‘What would happen if I used Master’s five circles’ worth of mana?’
No sooner had the thought occurred to him than he resolved to teach Keiras the airplane fold that very day.
In any case, Keiras’s curiosity had been thoroughly piqued by Aiman’s explanation.
“Then hurry and show me this advanced process of yours. This fully grown disciple of yours is dying of curiosity.”
“Yes.”
Aiman took out a large sheet of Hanji and began folding a fighter jet.
Keiras watched with keen interest as Aiman worked.
“Oh, this is certainly more difficult than the airplane from before. The calculation formula will become quite complicated.”
“It should be comparable to the formula of a 5th-Class Spell.”
“I would expect so.”
The simple airplane fold that had summoned the hang glider was little more than a child’s game.
Comparing it to the F-15 fighter jet Aiman was now creating would almost be an insult.
Aiman could fold it quickly only because he had mastered Origami well enough to be called an Origami master.
An ordinary person would need at least an hour to complete the work while following an instructional video.
There were easier Origami designs for fighter jets, but Aiman wanted to test this one through Keiras, a 5th-Class Mage.
He wanted to know whether such a complex and difficult fighter jet could truly be summoned through magic.
Keiras also possessed a brilliant mind and an exceptional memory. He was a genius capable of converting something into a spell formula after seeing it only once.
It was only natural to make the fullest possible use of someone like that.
It was not solely for Aiman’s benefit, either. Keiras himself wanted to learn, making the arrangement mutually advantageous.
Aiman completed the F-15 fighter jet in less than three minutes, even though an ordinary Origami hobbyist would have needed five to ten minutes.
Even so, the fold was extremely complicated, so he asked Keiras a question.
“Would you like me to show you once more?”
“No. Once was enough.”
Aiman had not carefully explained each step.
Keiras had merely watched him fold it at high speed, yet a single demonstration had been enough.
Aiman could only marvel at Keiras’s genius.
‘He really is incredible. Is that why he was able to reach the 5th Class?’
A 5th-Class Mage.
There were 6th-Class Mages known as Archmages in the world, but fewer than ten of those extraordinary figures existed across the entire continent.
Furthermore, all of them were advanced in age.
Keiras, on the other hand, had only just turned thirty.
That was one of the reasons Keiras was as famous throughout the Empire as the Archmages themselves.
Few people knew that he had already reached the 5th Class, but merely reaching the 4th Class while still in his twenties had earned him the epithet ‘Magic Genius.’
Keiras closed his eyes.
The Origami Aiman had shown him was highly complicated, so he was mentally reviewing the sequence.
Once he had finished reviewing it, Keiras opened his eyes and spoke.
“Then I shall begin.”
“Yes.”
Aiman focused on Keiras once again.
Mana flowed out from within Keiras’s body.
Unlike when he had drawn out only one circle’s worth of mana, the surrounding air now seemed to grow heavy.
Such was the pressure carried by five circles’ worth of mana.
After drawing out all five circles’ worth and gathering the mana into a single mass, Keiras began calculating the spell in the same sequence as the Origami Aiman had demonstrated moments ago.
When Aiman saw that more than half of the calculation had been completed, he felt extremely satisfied.
‘It’s exact.’
As Keiras completed the remainder of the formula, the mana between his hands began to spiral.
The spiraling mana spread outward in a vast surge, growing large enough to fill Keiras’s Magic Training Ground.
At last, the spell calculation was completed, and Keiras’s five circles’ worth of mana took on the shape of a fighter jet.
FLASH!
An immense burst of light filled the interior of the Magic Training Ground.
When the light faded, Aiman saw it.
‘It’s real. The real thing appeared!’
With his face slightly flushed from excitement, Aiman stared at the F-15 fighter jet summoned through Keiras’s mana.
Keiras, meanwhile, looked dumbfounded by what his own magic had produced.
“Hah, so this is an airplane?”
“To be precise, it is a fighter jet.”
“A fighter jet? Does that mean it is an airplane used for battle?”
“That’s right.”
“It can not only fly, but also fight?”
“That’s right.”
“Then how do you use it?”
“What?”
“Whether you intend to fly it or fight with it, you need to know how to operate it before it can be of any use, do you not?”
At that moment, Aiman felt completely blindsided.
He had been so focused on summoning the fighter jet with Keiras that he had never considered what would come afterward.
Even if they successfully summoned it, it was meaningless if neither of them knew how to pilot it.
Aiman fell silent for a moment.
“…….”