Chapter 56
Edwin Belka let out a deep sigh as he looked at the clock.
Midnight.
The week-long hellish exam was over.
Even though the exam was over, Edwin still couldn't sever the mana connection to the test paper.
It felt like he could get the answer if he just kept going a little longer.
That lingering attachment kept him from letting go of the quill.
Edwin swallowed dryly without realizing it.
As the Belka family's heir, how many times had he felt this emotion of defeat—something he should never feel, at least not in magic?
“Student Edwin Belka, please hand in your test paper.”
While he stood there rooted in place, blinking vacantly, a teaching assistant who had been waiting until late came into the private room with a tired face.
“T-the last question... did, did anyone... solve it?”
A question that slipped out before he knew it.
His voice, unlike his usual rude manner, was surprisingly polite.
It was because the problem had thoroughly put him in his place.
A proper lesson in manners, delivered perfectly.
The assistant quietly searched through his memory, then slowly nodded.
“I haven't looked through all the answers submitted by the other students, but one student completed the spell for the problem on the fourth day of the exam.”
Obvious.
Lunaris Evermoon. It had to be her again.
To think that a problem he'd clung to for an entire week without even getting a clue on, she'd solved and left in just three or four days.
His mind went blank.
“Assistant, as for the memory of the exam question and the solution...”
“The anti-leak spell on the test papers hanging in the lecture hall has been lifted as of now. Even if you leave the private room, you won't forget it. Of course, since there are still people challenging the question, I can't give you the test paper itself.”
“That's fine. Thank you.”
It didn't really matter.
After all, aside from eating and sleeping, he'd spent the whole week thinking about nothing but this problem. He had memorized every single character.
Even after the assistant left, Edwin remained in the private room for a while, mulling over the problem.
...Ah, that's no good. I'm too drained to think straight.
“I should go get some sleep.”
Edwin scratched his head vigorously and flung the door open.
At the same time, the doors to two other rooms opened.
What stood before Edwin was someone truly unexpected.
“...Yo-Your Highness?!”
Why was she still here?
Honestly, Princess Celestina's magic skills were terrible.
She didn't have the skill to keep hanging on to the last question, so why was she still here?
Then another voice came from behind him.
“Your Highness, long time no... cough, you were there too? Edwin Belka.”
Who on earth was this guy again?
“Claire! You worked hard on the exam.”
Ah, right. That was the name.
Someone so inconspicuous he wouldn't have remembered at all if not for the princess.
The fact that he was spending the full exam time walking side by side with two people who had no talent for magic made him feel oddly self-disgusted.
It was as if his own level were being dragged down with them.
“How was the exam for you, Your Highness?”
“I think I did pretty well. Luna's advice was a huge help.”
Edwin silently walked behind the two girls as they chattered away.
He didn't especially want to exchange words. He'd planned to go back, get some sleep, half-ass the other exam prep, and then keep working on the last question.
“What about you, Claire? Question 7 looked insanely difficult.”
“Whoa~ I was already clinging to that one from the second day, but I just couldn't solve it.”
“Y-you held onto it that long and still couldn't solve it? It must've been really difficult.”
“Still, if I'd had just a little more time, I think I could've solved it... Maybe if I could've somehow linked those more than twenty magic circles organically...”
He kept finding himself listening to the voices coming from ahead.
Judging by what that Claire girl was saying, her method of solving problems was remarkably similar to his own.
In some parts, she even showed intuition and insight he'd never even considered.
“Ah~ If I'd known this would happen, I should've asked Luna more directly.”
“Heh-heh. If you'd said that to the Claire of a week ago, she'd have hated it, you know? She said she didn't want to get teased by Luna anymore.”
There was one name that kept coming up especially often in the conversation.
Luna.
Probably that top student's nickname.
Come to think of it, that Claire girl did seem vaguely familiar. She often seemed to be beside Lunaris.
No wonder. If she'd learned from that monster of a genius, it wouldn't be strange for her skills to improve.
“By any chance, how far did you get on the last question, Your Highness?”
Edwin couldn't hold back anymore and ended up speaking.
Asking Princess Celestina instead of Claire was his last shred of pride.
The princess turned her head and blinked blankly.
She hadn't imagined that Edwin would speak to her privately.
After a brief pause, the princess smiled and spoke.
“Solve it? I couldn't even touch it. Just getting through the first six questions was already a struggle.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes, once the test papers are released later, I'm planning to solve it again separately.”
Edwin nodded to himself.
Of course. He knew very well, as a fellow student in the same department, that the princess had no talent for magic.
Asking the princess had only been a stepping stone anyway.
Now, if he could just naturally strike up a conversation with Claire...
“The problem looked really interesting. Magic that gives shape to dreams, huh? If you produced the right answer and cast the spell, it would surely be beautiful.”
“...!”
“...!”
At Princess Celestina's offhand remark, Claire and Edwin both stopped in their tracks.
Pure shock appeared on both their faces.
“Dream... you said?”
“Huh, how did you know? I couldn't get the slightest clue...”
“Huh? Wasn't it written plainly in the question?”
The princess tilted her head, looking puzzled.
“The origin of this problem lies in dreams.”
At that moment, a bolt of lightning struck Edwin's mind.
All the magic circles he'd drawn in such a haphazard, chaotic mess until now.
Under the keyword dream, they became one painting.
“There definitely wasn't any clue about the keyword in the question...”
Edwin trailed off, opening and closing his mouth.
Thinking back on the last question now, he couldn't shake the feeling that something in the sentence was awkwardly missing.
Of course. Question 7 is put together from the answers to Questions 1 through 6.
The higher the quality of the solution, the more information is given about Question 7.
In other words, there had to be a difference between the Question 7 Claire or Edwin saw, after scribbling down answers to Question 6 in less than a day...
...and the amount of information in the Question 7 seen by Princess Celestina, who had painstakingly written out her solution over the course of a whole week.
“Aaaah...! No wonder every formula looked filthy—it was because it wasn't elemental magic!”
Claire seemed to be thinking the same thing, because she let out a hollow voice.
“Ha, what a shame. If I'd known even a day, no, even two days earlier, I feel like I could've gotten the answer.”
At Claire's murmur, Edwin bit his lip without realizing it.
All this time, he'd been chasing only Lunaris's shadow, with no room in his mind for anyone else.
When he came to his senses, the other students in his year were already right behind him.
Quietly sighing, Edwin ran a hand over his face.
“Um, Your Highness. And Edwin Belka.”
Claire quietly watched him, then suddenly made a suggestion.
“Why don't we make a short-term study group? Until the day final exam grades are announced, before the answer sheets are released.”
“Hmph, what a waste of time to bother with that...”
“Oh my! Sounds great, Claire. Since we're at it, wouldn't it be nice to coax Luna into giving us some hints too?”
“That sounds good, Your Highness. How about we start tomorrow?”
At the princess's added suggestion, Edwin nodded eagerly as if he'd been waiting for it.
Then he flinched, trembling without realizing it.
For some reason, he squeezed his eyes shut in embarrassment.
“Hehe~ What's with agreeing so fast just because Luna's coming? Do you maybe have a thing for Luna?”
“W-what! What's so good about that lazy bum! I just want to make sure that guy actually solved the magic formulas properly...!”
“Y-yes, yes~ Let's just go with that~”
Edwin squeezed his eyes shut and let out a sigh.
Even so, he never did say he wouldn't join the study group.
In the end, he was one of those unavoidable creatures called mages.
Discussing difficult magic with people his own age was something he had longed to do.
Above all, wasn't there a chance that Lunaris might come to the study group?
If he wanted to catch up to that damned talent-monster top student, he needed at least some idea of what she was thinking.
Yes, this was a kind of scouting mission.
Edwin forcefully rationalized it to himself, saying it was only for improving his magic skills.
“But will Luna join the study group?”
“...Ah, true. Luna might skip it, saying it's a hassle.”
“Wait! If that woman doesn't come, then there's no point in holding the study group! How dare you fool me...!”
“Oh? Edwin Belka, talking informally to the princess right away? How dare you?”
“...Are you serious?”
*
“-Wow~ this is really something!”
In front of my eyes, as I lay sprawled on the bed, Vice Dean Albert's figure appeared on the palm-sized black panel, letting out an exclamation of admiration.
On the screen, he was looking back and forth at my face as seen through the Apple Phone, with a curious expression.
-A mana communication device that even shows the face of the person on the other side...!
“Haaahm- This isn't a communication device.”
I cut him off, stretching out a yawn.
“It has a perfectly proper name: Apple Phone 1st Generation.”
-Ah, right. Apple Phone. Haha!
Vice Dean Albert let out an awkward laugh.
-I was wondering that too. Why is it called Apple Phone? I can sort of accept 'phone' as a cute way of saying 'board,' but what's the apple part?
At his question, as if I'd come up with the idea while eating an apple, I nodded casually.
It seemed too boring and pretentious to drag up memories of my previous life just to talk about the bitten-apple logo.
Besides, the name itself wasn't all that important anyway.
-Haha. Anyway, it's truly an amazing magic tool. It's such a shame that intellectual property is tied to the academy.
“If you're planning to mass-produce it, let's start with Apple Phone 2 instead of this one. For now, just build the mass-production system.”
There were still many things lacking.
The mana consumption still hadn't been improved, and the screen also cut out from time to time.
Above all, the problem was that it only had voice and video communication functions.
If it were up to me, I'd want to add entertainment functions too... but that would probably be too much.
Still, I do want to add a messaging function somehow.
Come to think of it, I heard Dean Liliana was developing some technology useful for touchscreens. I should go visit her sometime.
-You're quite ambitious. This is already amazing enough. No one would believe me if I said it was made as a final assignment by a student who's only just finished one semester at the academy.
Speaking of a final assignment, something suddenly came to mind.
“Come to think of it, Vice Dean, you pulled a pretty interesting prank on this Magic Theory final exam.”
-Hm? I'm not quite sure what you're talking about...
At my words, Vice Dean Albert's gaze on the screen drifted slightly to the side.
-The professor asked for help with running the exam and setting the questions, so I only lent a little help out of goodwill.
“I don't think that was your only intention.”
-Haha, it's true. If you were trying to evaluate Miss Lunaris, ordinary questions wouldn't do...
“Vice Dean.”
Video calls were really convenient.
“Don't look away.”
Because they let me see things with my eyes that I couldn't tell from someone's voice alone.
“How about looking me straight in the eye when you say that?”
If it had merely been a matter of evaluation, maybe I wouldn't have known.
But planting illusion magic—his signature spell—inside the question left no choice but to suspect he had some other scheme.
Vice Dean Albert's face on the screen stiffened for a moment.
How much time had passed?
-Heh-heh. So now I see that sending this mana communication device to me was...
With a sighing laugh, the vice dean opened his mouth.
-So you sent it to interrogate me from afar.
“Going in person to ask would be a hassle, after all.”
Remote interrogation while sprawled face-down on a soft bed—how comfortable and ideal.