Chapter 52
Thursday, four days before final exams began.
It had been a long time since I'd attended Dean Raymond's lecture.
The magical barrier construction had finished long ago, but even after that the dean had been busy all over the place handling backlogged administrative work.
In fact, the dean could have skipped today too, but said there was no choice but to make time for the final class and the evaluation report submission.
The class, as usual, was a match against Dean Raymond in the Magic Hall practice annex.
And then.
"..."
I was utterly crushed.
I lay sprawled out on the floor, exhausted from both mana depletion and physical exhaustion.
...Still, the cool floor feels pretty nice. It's getting to be the kind of weather where I start missing air conditioning.
Cranking the AC hard in midsummer and curling up under a comforter? That's irresistible.
Ah, once I'm done inventing the Apple phone, my next magical device will absolutely be air conditioning.
"Student Lunaris."
While I was lost in useless thoughts, Dean Raymond's shadow fell over me.
"You seem to be in pretty bad shape today. D-don't tell me you studied for the exam all night?!"
"Well, something like that..."
"Don't lie to me! There's no way Student Lunaris would do that!"
No, I mean... that's not exactly wrong.
I did, after all, attend Her Highness's all-night exam-cramming session.
Of course, the problem was that I only studied properly for a little over an hour.
If anything, my condition was pretty good.
Because it's exam season, the maids have started leaving me more or less alone, so I've been sleeping plenty lately.
If I went down so spectacularly against Dean Raymond today, you could say it was because I felt too good and did something pointless.
"Honestly, when I was fighting that magic golem last time, something just sparked!"
"Oh?"
"So I tried to recreate it somehow, but it didn't go well."
Come to think of it, I really had phrased that horribly.
And yet Dean Raymond was trying hard to make sense of my nonsense.
"What were you trying to recreate? What exactly did it feel like?"
"Just, you know..."
Still lying on the floor, I flailed my arms around.
"I was just trying to cast magic normally, then mix in some natural mana with telekinesis and maybe trigger something like an overdrive."
"And then?"
"At the time it definitely felt like I was gripping starlight or something, but when I try again now, I can't do it."
"..."
At my words, Dean Raymond's eyes went wide.
"T-try it again!"
"Huh?"
"I'll just block it, so try again! Maybe that's the clue to getting past the wall!"
Seriously, how annoying. What now...
"Won't something just click again someday?"
I waved my hand dismissively and savored the chill rising from the floor.
Haaah... this is the charm of a stone bed...?
Unlike laid-back me, Dean Raymond looked oddly restless, as if in a hurry.
"No, the chance to become the youngest archmage in history is right in front of you! Isn't it too wasteful not to seize the chance to leave your name in history?"
"Hey, if you're impatient, even things that should work won't."
Come to think of it, having the talent of an archmage felt less like a blessing and more like a curse in some ways.
You just get dragged into troublesome things for no reason.
"Sigh... if I were Student Lunaris, I'd somehow find a way to see the end of magic no matter what!"
I'm already stuck at the archmage wall, and you want the end of magic? That's way too greedy.
"Oh, come to think of it, I saw something interesting while looking into the ancient magic golem recently."
As I kept reacting with indifference, Dean Raymond hesitated for a moment and then abruptly changed the subject.
"These days, magic has been systematized and standardized into a form that directly reproduces natural phenomena, but in ancient times it was said to have been a means for people to achieve their personal goals."
"..."
When I just blinked blankly, not understanding what was meant, Dean Raymond added an explanation.
"In other words, magic used to be incredibly intuitive."
For example.
If you wanted to destroy the obstacle in front of you, you'd use a "magic to break rocks."
If you wanted to fly through the sky, you'd use a "magic to lift your body into the air."
If you wanted to slay a beast, you'd use a "magic to kill monsters."
"That... doesn't sound intuitive so much as vague."
Listening to that, I couldn't help furrowing my brow.
"You've left out the how."
"Ohohoho!! Exactly! That's what makes ancient magic difficult!"
Dean Raymond came one step closer, excited.
"Because there are countless ways to kill a beast, and you have to think for yourself about how to do it most efficiently."
Listening to that, I suddenly had a question.
"At that point, it feels like there wouldn't be any reason to use magic in the first place..."
Putting aside things that are outright impossible, like flying through the sky.
For something like killing a beast, wouldn't it be faster just to build muscle and swing a sword?
"The very question you're asking now, Student Lunaris, is the key blind spot of ancient magic."
There are plenty of other means and methods.
Why, of all things, must it be magic?
"In the past, people who found their own answer to that question were called archmages."
So the reason she brought up this story, in the end...
was to show me a new path to reaching the realm of an archmage.
"Somehow, I feel like Student Lunaris could control top-tier magic even without making a contract with a spirit."
So she was telling me to think along those lines too.
Dean Raymond straightened up and put on a full-on teacher act.
"Come to think of it, next Monday is the magic theory exam. When I write my answers, can I use the 'ancient magic theory' you taught me today to explain them?"
Dean Raymond gave a slightly exasperated laugh and shrugged.
"Do as you like. A magic exam is just about whether the logic is sound, no matter what you write, isn't it?"
"Ah, that's nice."
I suddenly snorted out a laugh.
It was kind of funny that I'd told Her Highness to solve the questions faithfully by the textbook, while I was doing this myself.
"Oh, and by the way, this theory exam is going to be really fun."
"...Just in case, let me ask: you didn't make it harder than the fourth-years' exam, did you?"
"It's been set so that if you attended classes faithfully and didn't doze off during lectures, you could solve it just fine."
...No, why are you answering something different from the question?
"So you're saying you made it crazy hard, then."
"...Ahem! It's a relative-ranking exam aimed only at first-years, so what does difficulty matter? And if it's hard, doesn't that just create better differentiation, which you should actually welcome?"
At Dean Raymond's words, a sigh escaped me before I knew it.
Having the questions come out hard isn't exactly welcome for me either.
A problem I could've cleared in ten minutes and gone back to sleep, but now it takes an hour?
That's a serious sleep loss.
*
Monday, the start of final exam period.
"Mmmn~"
I got up late and stretched contentedly on the bed.
Outside the window, the sun was already high in the sky.
Linnea Hall was unnaturally quiet.
Most of the maids who should've come to wake me were probably assigned to exam proctoring support.
The students in the other rooms had likely already headed off to the exam hall.
If everyone was so diligent from the first day of exam period, the reason was probably the theory exam for our major subjects.
It's downright cruel to stick the most important exam on the very first day of exam period.
I glanced at the clock.
It was noon. There was still an hour left until the exam started.
Yep. Plenty of time.
"I guess I should get ready and head out soon... yawn-"
People say things like getting used to the exam hall, keeping yesterday's study in your head, or grabbing a good seat, but.
Stuff like that? It's all meaningless.
The best thing is just to sleep well, go in in good condition, scribble on the test paper, and come back out.
I splashed water on my face in a halfhearted wash and ran my fingers through my messy hair a few times.
If the maids had seen me, they would've been horrified, but whatever. Not my problem.
The exam venue was the main lecture hall of the Magic Hall. We lowly first-years had elbowed past the upperclassmen and taken the biggest, widest room.
"Ooh..."
The huge lecture hall was already packed with first-year students from the Magic Department and the Magitech Department.
The moment I stepped inside, countless eyes briefly turned my way before going back to their notebooks as if nothing had happened.
I pushed through the crowd and made my way to Claire's seat in the corner, where she was sitting with a half-dead expression.
"...Oh, you're here?"
Claire looked up at me with hollow eyes.
"You look like you're in good shape."
"You look completely wiped out. Did you get any sleep?"
"Of course I stayed up all night. I couldn't sleep at all."
Claire muttered, chewing on her lip.
"I don't think I was this nervous during midterms."
"Back then you just took them without knowing any better."
Claire made a miserable face.
"But now... now Linnea Hall is right in front of me..."
"By the way, I don't see Her Highness. Hasn't she arrived yet?"
"If you mean Her Highness, the TAs already took her to a private room."
Claire grumbled in annoyance.
"Looks like they took Edwin Belka and a few others away separately too."
Come to think of it, it's a little strange for important people like that to be mixed in with us, solving problems in this crowded, shabby place.
At that moment, someone suddenly pushed through the crowd and came up to me.
"Student Lunaris Evermoon, is that correct?"
"Yes, that's me."
"Hello, I'm the teaching assistant for the class 'Basic Concepts of Magic Theory.' Would you come with me for a moment? We'll move you to a private room."
"...Me too?"
Why bother? I'm just going to finish quickly and leave anyway.
"It's because we've arranged things so all Linnea Hall students can take the exam in separate private rooms."
"Oh, if that's the case."
I shot a quick glance at Claire, who was sitting beside me.
"Ugh... j-just you wait... I'm definitely getting into Linnea Hall by placing in the top three of the department...!!"
Uh... sorry, Claire.
Anyway, that's how it turned out.