Chapter 32
Lately, there had been a lot of unusual commotion around Estelle.
Of course, she was friendly and well liked, so it had rarely been quiet around her to begin with.
But the recent commotion was clearly a different sort.
"I-I really am amazed, Miss Lunaris...!"
At some point, Liliana Gearhart, the department head, had started coming in person to sit in on the lower-year practical classes in the Magitech Department.
Her gaze was always fixed on one place.
"To think you could cut the mana consumed by a magic communication orb this drastically...! Y-you're truly amazing!!"
"Well, it's all thanks to the materials. And this isn't a communication 'orb,' either."
That was exactly the truth.
What Lunaris held in her hand was not a crystal orb, but a rectangular panel.
She had forcibly distorted its shape with telekinetic magic.
Estelle swallowed dryly before she knew it.
Honestly, she was impressed.
An aesthetic sense that achieved a perfect golden ratio without a single unnecessary flourish.
Portability that fit perfectly in the palm of your hand.
And inside it, magitech with overwhelming space efficiency.
She could tell at once that all of it was meticulous, fully calculated practicality.
Naturally, Department Head Liliana was trembling with emotion, hands shaking as she smiled.
"To think the efficiency could be boosted so much depending on the shape of the same magitech device... This is exactly what magitech design is! This is perfection—the golden ratio!!"
"I knew even the department head would recognize the coolness of the Apple Phone."
Lunaris idly fiddled with the crystal panel, her sleepy eyes half-lidded.
Department Head Liliana stared at her as if spellbound.
"I-if you need anything, just say the word...! I'll support you out of my own pocket, Miss Lunaris!"
Her excited voice trembled.
Her usual shyness was nowhere to be seen.
"If I have to, I'll even do a full prostration to the chairman and somehow get it for you..."
"I don't think you need to go that far... Haaam..."
From a little distance away, Estelle stared blankly at the two of them as they spoke with sparkling eyes.
Even though they were right next to her, somehow their conversation felt a world away.
*
"Hey! The freshman top student is going head-to-head with the head of the Magic Department!"
"What? Where? Where?!"
"The Magic Hall's main practice building!"
The moment she heard the news, Estelle ran straight to the Magic Hall's main building with the other students.
The practice wing was already packed with spectators.
At its center, the two magics were clashing head-on.
Head of the Magic Department, Raymond Cloud.
To Estelle, the department head's magic was perfection itself.
Magic so precise and efficient it felt like the craft of a master honed over decades.
If effort had an endpoint, wasn't that what it would look like?
By contrast, Lunaris's magic was alien.
There were no rules, no form to speak of.
She would tear at space as she pleased and scatter magic around however she liked.
It was incomprehensible.
Before her, a magic overflowing with talent, as if mocking every theory she had ever learned, unfolded.
"That's... a student's level?"
"What kind of magic is that?"
Gasps erupted from all over the stands.
How much time had passed?
Lunaris suddenly swayed, then collapsed straight onto the floor.
"Uheee... I'm tired..."
It wasn't as though she'd been hit directly by magic.
Her mana wasn't exhausted, either.
She had just lain down on the spot.
"I can't do any more... I'm tired. I surrender, I surrender. Anyway, I took a week's worth of classes in advance, so this means I get to rest until midterms, right?"
Department Head Raymond stared blankly at Lunaris, then shook their head with a look of disbelief.
"...Lunaris, it's funny for me to say this as a magician, but you really need to exercise more."
"Eek. I really hate that."
With her grumbling voice, the duel came to an end.
At that moment, everyone watching burst into applause at once.
"Aaah... magical inspiration is surging through me..."
"Magic this close to a natural phenomenon... the magician's ideal was here..."
Even the temporary instructors dispatched from the Mage Tower were wiping away tears, overwhelmed.
But Estelle still couldn't bring herself to clap.
Even though she was a junior Estelle cared about, for some reason her hands felt heavy.
*
The bazaar held on the weekend drew more outside visitors than usual.
A large number of them came looking for Estelle.
"Excuse me. Are you student Estelle Belmaier?"
"Yes, that's right, but...?"
"I heard you're Miss Lunaris's mentor. Is that correct?"
The end of every conversation that began like that was always the same.
A dignified old gentleman would slyly hand her a letter expressing his wish to sponsor Lunaris, while a butler from a prominent family would entrust her with a heavy pouch of gold coins and ask her to pass it along properly.
The number of letters and items she took in had already easily passed double digits.
"Wow~ Estelle! You know what? These days, there are way more people saying they want to sponsor the Magitech Department."
When things had quieted down a little, a male classmate who helped run the bazaar with her came over and joked around.
"I don't know if it's okay for the Magic Department's standing as runner-up to be this high."
"It's all thanks to Luna, really."
Lunaris's acquaintance.
That's the phrase Estelle hears most these days.
Not many people still say the words "the Star of the Magitech Department" anymore.
"Having such a good junior join us means we get to enjoy the benefits too."
"Mm-hm, yeah."
"Estelle, you've had a hard time all this while, trying to raise the Magitech Department's standing by yourself."
"..."
"You can finally let that burden go a little now. Right?"
A comfort with no malice behind it.
Estelle could only smile awkwardly.
*
Even though it was late at night, Estelle's private room was still brightly lit.
What she held in her hand was none other than a magic communication orb.
The very thing she had made together with Lunaris on the first day of practical training.
Even saying they had made it together was a stretch.
In the end, Lunaris had completely redone everything, from the circuit layout to the magic circle design.
"It's really incredible... how can someone come up with a design like this?"
Since that day, she had spent night after night analyzing and studying it countless times, but she still hadn't fully understood the technology inside that tiny orb.
The more she dug, the more there was to learn.
It felt as though she, not Lunaris, had become the apprentice.
Jealousy?
That was an emotion you only felt when the difference in ability was at least somewhat even.
She didn't even feel like that in front of talent this overwhelming.
And yet, still.
"I'm Luna's mentor, a master craftsman who should be leading the apprentice..."
Muttering to herself, Estelle reached deep into the drawer and pulled out an old sheet of parchment.
A bazaar event she had taken part in not long after entering the Magitech Department as the top student last year.
It was the blueprint of an ancient magitech golem that a masked benefactor had handed her, telling her to study it.
She had researched it in bits and pieces for over a year, but hadn't even gotten so much as a clue.
But recently, while studying the magic circle Lunaris had engraved into the communication orb, she had managed to uncover a few leads.
"If I can just finish this..."
Then maybe just a little.
Maybe she could stand proudly before Lunaris.
Maybe she could be free of this inferiority complex...
*
In the past few weeks, the score in her morning wars with the Linea Hall maids had completely flipped.
A string of victories.
Now there were far more days when she beat the maids than days when she was dragged to class against her will.
Honestly, at the start of the semester, I had gone easy on them a bit.
No, to be exact, I had no choice but to go easy on them.
If my magic went berserk, WWE would turn into UFC, after all.
But now that I'd gotten completely used to handling natural mana, it was no trouble at all to fire magic off indiscriminately.
In other words, just like now.
"Cough!"
Among the maids strewn across the floor, Miss Odette let out a cough.
Today, too, I'd cut down every maid who had charged into my room in just three minutes flat.
Anti-magic armor? Stuff like that is made to be crushed under even more overwhelming force.
Magic not working? Then you need to ask yourself whether the problem isn't a lack of mana.
"Haaam... I'll sleep a little more and go to afternoon class later..."
I adjusted my pillow and savored the luxury of victory.
"Oh, right. Today was Monday."
Then I wouldn't have to go out in the afternoon either.
Perfect.
"...Young lady, then at least go to morning class... attend the lecture and come back to sleep..."
Miss Odette, sprawled on the floor, groaned as though squeezing out her last bit of strength.
"But I'm too sleepy right now to move my body... hmnya."
The moment I started nodding off, my head bobbing sleepily, Miss Odette tried to rise as if sensing her chance.
I flicked my finger, and the air in the room sank heavily.
Miss Odette gave a faint groan and was pressed back down onto the floor.
"Um, Miss Odette. I'm not trying to tease you or anything, but don't the maids seem a little low on energy these days?"
"...It's not that we've gotten weaker, cough, it's that you've become, cough, way too strong..."
"No, no. That's not what I mean."
I shook my head and went on.
"How should I put it? Compared to the start of the semester, they seem to be lacking some punch? And their personalities seem a little more short-tempered too."
Somehow, none of them seemed quite as they had before.
A look of flustered embarrassment flickered across Miss Odette's face.
Seeing her startle like that, I figured there really was something going on.
"...We're perfectly fine."
"Hmm-"
Of course, on the surface they were perfect maids.
But when you bicker every day, there are things you can't help noticing even if you don't want to.
Their expressions were tense, their movements hurried, and there was an inexplicable restlessness too.
If even I, who was usually oblivious to changes around me, had noticed it, then yes, this was serious.
"Are you all getting enough rest?"
"If Miss Lunaris becomes diligent... we should be able to rest enough, I think..."
"That would be a little difficult. Wouldn't everything be solved if you just gave up on waking me up?"
At my words, Miss Odette smiled quietly.
It was a smile tinged with her stubbornness.
"That is precisely the problem. Turning the young lady into a diligent student is the duty of us Linea Hall maids."
As expected, negotiations broke down.
"Well, that's a shame, then."
"Oh, come to think of it, when I woke up for a second at dawn, there was a bit of a commotion outside."
Miss Odette's reply came a beat late.
"...Isn't it exam season these days? There are a lot of people studying late into the night."
"Studying... so loudly that it shakes all of Linea Hall? And for weeks on end?"
"I don't think there was any noise big enough to shake the building, though..."
With a sighing smile, Miss Odette went on.
"And in Linea Hall, there are quite a few people who spend the whole semester preparing for exams."
...Back then, I had simply taken it that way and casually brushed off Odette's words.
If only I'd paid a little more attention to that faint sense of unease then.
Maybe I could have avoided even a little of the dreadful hassle that would come later.