Chapter 93
Honestly, I still don’t really understand what magic in this world even is.
They call me an archmage, a genius of the century, but that isn’t me—it’s Lunaris.
Most of my magical activities rely, more or less, on intuition.
It’s not about calculating things in your head according to theory, devising formulas, and controlling the flow of mana.
It’s more like my hand moves first and the spell goes off on its own.
To be exact, it’s more like instinctively drawing out, whenever needed, the knowledge deeply imprinted in the character 'Lunaris Evermoon.'
You know that obnoxious line geniuses always like to spout?
It just works when I do it. Isn’t it no different from breathing?
Back when I saw those guys, I wanted to give them a satisfying flick on the forehead, but now that I’m in that position myself, I oddly sympathize.
Seriously, what am I supposed to do if it just works?
But I can’t exactly tell other people to just go by feel.
So when I absolutely have no choice but to explain it, I end up forcing in some scientific theory.
The funny thing is, it somehow fits surprisingly well.
Maybe the author of <The Academy’s Grit Mage>, the work this world is based on, borrowed some scientific theory when building the magic system.
Come to think of it, magic in this world is ultimately the mathematical breakdown of natural phenomena and their scientific implementation.
If you explain mana as an energy broken down into microscopic units like atoms and molecules, it isn’t perfect, but it more or less works.
If anything, it’s often much clearer than the cloudy riddles other mages spout.
Of course, I have no intention of boasting about this magical knowledge anywhere.
Besides, it’s not like this is some groundbreaking theory.
It’s ordinary magical knowledge anyone can figure out with a little thought.
A satisfying-to-hit plushie, used to tease Claire.
That’s about all it amounts to...
*
"I may be getting a little sidetracked, but let me start with the essence of ice magic."
Within the pale frost mist, I continued my explanation, folding my fingers down one by one.
"Ice-attribute magic can be divided into three branches according to the size of the ice grains that make up the spell."
Shaping magic that uses clumped ice crystals.
Frost magic that uses finely crushed grains.
And cold magic that uses an invisible chill.
"Of these, cold magic can only be used by those born with it, but shaping magic and frost magic are things anyone can do as long as they understand their essence."
Especially shaping magic—just clumping the crystals together is enough, so even the neighbor’s Poppy or the backyard cat can do it.
I went on, looking steadily into Claire’s eyes.
"Don’t think of it as freezing water-attribute mana into ice. Think of it as tightly gathering water mana into a narrow space and solidifying it."
"So... you mean I should roughly compress it?"
"Don’t just try to wing it by feel and intuition. You need to approach it rationally."
Claire groaned and concentrated mana in both hands.
The way she concentrated, brow furrowed, was quite serious.
"...?"
Before long, a small hexagonal pillar-shaped ice crystal floated up from Claire’s fingertips.
"Huh? I-it really works?!"
Claire’s eyes widened in shock.
Was she really this clueless all this time?
"Wow— I think I did it too!"
A pretty ice crystal had also formed at the fingertips of Princess Celestina, who had been following along beside her.
Just by the shape of the crystal, the Princess’s was neater and more refined than Claire’s.
Well, Claire’s specialties are fire and earth magic, whereas the Princess mainly uses wind magic and water magic as a secondary. It’s just a difference in aptitude.
"That’s really fascinating. Then if you make the crystals smaller here, does it become frost magic?"
"Yes, that’s right. More precisely, it’s not just making them smaller; what matters more is increasing the amount of crystal itself and scattering it through the space."
"Hmm—just hearing that makes it sound difficult."
"Your Highness has a good sense for it, so you’ll pick it up quickly."
I gave a nonchalant thumbs-up, and the Princess smiled bashfully.
"Luna! Why are you only strict with me?!"
"Quiet, you idiot Claire. What do you think you’re doing, shouting so loud while the professor is lecturing?"
"U, uuuu..."
The professor is in the middle of a lecture, after all. Shouting like that isn’t proper behavior for a student, Claire.
Don’t you know that when you talk in class, keeping your voice down is the basic rule?
As the rebuffed Claire sulked again, the Princess curiously turned the ice crystal she’d made this way and that.
"Until now, I’d only ever seen ice-attribute magic brushed off as a type of water-attribute magic, so this is the first time I’ve seen it classified so finely by crystal size. Is this something written in a magic book somewhere?"
"Not exactly... I just arranged it in my own way to make it easier to explain. And ice magic isn’t really the important thing right now, either."
I waved my hand to make the ice crystal vanish, then continued.
"More importantly, right now we need to solve the problem Claire botched."
"You’re going to keep calling me an idiot?!"
"We’ve taken quite a detour, but in the end the essence of this magic circle is—"
"Hey, Lunaris!"
"You could call it a transformation formula that uses frost magic to induce lightning."
"...Huh?"
Claire’s mouth fell open in a dazed, drawn-out “heeh—”.
"L-lightning?"
"Yeah, lightning."
"You mean the stuff that goes crash-boom on rainy days?"
"Yeah. The flash-flash one."
"...You could even make that with magic?"
"Why couldn’t you? Every natural phenomenon in the world can be expressed with magical formulas."
Even Kyle Lowell, the protagonist of the original novel, often used lightning-summoning magic along with star magic.
By the middle of the novel, the reason he earned the title of the fastest wizard was all thanks to this magic.
"Look closely. The transformation formula in this problem is ultimately just there to apply equations to the frost particles and define their direction of motion."
"U, uh?"
"So you make the particles collide to induce static electricity, and then amplify the energy..."
Using my finger as a pen and mana as ink, I scribbled the equations across Claire’s notebook.
"I’ll give you the concept, so look at this and try solving it again."
"W-wait! I don’t understand a single thing you’re saying! More importantly... does that even make sense? Where would magic like that even exist?!"
Claire clutched her head and screamed.
Seeing that, all I could do as a friend was sigh.
"Do I have to show you before you’ll believe me?"
I’m spoon-feeding you everything, spoon-feeding it all to you.
I extended my finger again and drew a new magic circle on Claire’s notebook.
I didn’t even need to draw a magic circle in the first place, so thanks to Claire, I have no idea what this is even for.
The moment I infused it with mana, crackle—sparks flew.
Before the smell of burning even had time to rise, blue light flashed and the notebook cover was instantly scorched black.
"So, that’s the general idea."
"..."
Claire stared blankly down at the scorched notebook with her mouth hanging open.
Come to think of it, I had effectively burned the homework she’d solved herself without permission, but I didn’t feel particularly sorry.
At a glance, she’d already gotten everything wrong from the very first step, so even if she’d submitted it, it would’ve been a zero.
"By the way..."
I suddenly realized the area around us was strangely quiet.
I lifted my head and quickly looked around.
"..."
Not only the students, but even the professor standing in front of the blackboard.
Everyone in the lecture hall was staring blankly at me.
No, they weren’t just staring.
Everyone had pens in hand and was frantically scribbling something in their notebooks.
Even the professor had picked up a mana pen instead of chalk and was busily taking notes on the wizboard.
Then, as I blinked blankly and looked around, the professor gave me an embarrassed look and suddenly said,
"Student Lunaris, don’t mind me—please keep going."
"...?"
"I’m listening to your lecture with great interest."
"..."
"Ah, if possible, I’d like you to explain again the part where you considered ice magic from a different angle. Would that be possible?"
This professor was shamelessly freeloading off my lecture.
*
"So... Student Lunaris, what brings you here?"
The grand auditorium of the Magic Hall’s practice building.
That was the first thing I heard the moment I made eye contact with the professor in charge of the afternoon Practical Magic class.
The atmosphere in the auditorium was even more serious than the morning lecture hall’s.
Still, the lecture hall had at least some background chatter.
"..."
"..."
Here, the students stood far away from me, swallowing hard and saying nothing.
It felt as if an invisible barrier had been set up around me.
I rubbed the back of my neck and answered with a sullen expression.
"Why else? I came to attend class."
"You didn’t even show up in the first week, so I figured you’d decided not to come at all..."
The professor muttered, breaking into a sweat.
At the same time, they kept glancing over my shoulder.
More precisely, they were looking at the silver-white staff floating behind my back, Arke.
"And lethal weapons aren’t allowed in the lecture hall."
"This isn’t a lethal weapon."
I reached out and grabbed Arke.
"As you can see, it’s just a plain stick with no blade."
To prove it, I swung Arke through the air with a whoosh.
"Kyaaaah!"
"Hup...!"
"Hiiik!!"
The students who had been keeping their distance from me backed away even farther.
No, even if it hit you, it wouldn’t kill you. You’d just get a bump or two.
"Th-that..."
Before I knew it, the professor had also backed away from me and pointed it out with a hesitant expression.
"It may not have a blade, but if you put mana into it, couldn’t it blow up the whole hall?"
"With or without this thing, blowing up a building is no big deal."
"..."
"I’m joking."
"...When a student says that, it really doesn’t sound like a joke at all, so please mind what you say."