Chapter 101
Chapter 101
Professor Iris's private research lab.
Steam rose from the warm black tea between us as we sat facing each other on the plush leather sofa.
I swallowed hard at the vicious verdict she'd just delivered—'I will dissect every last detail of your body.'
"Now then."
Iris placed a notebook on her lap, pen in hand, and stared at me with the eyes of someone looking at a frog on a dissection tray.
"Then let's start with a basic diagnosis. First, could you roughly explain how Cassian constructed his mana circuit?"
Ah.
I felt from the very first step that things had gone horribly off track.
'That kind of thing doesn't exist. A mana hole, maybe.'
There was no way I had some lofty, fantasy-style infrastructure like a mana circuit installed in my body.
I'd never even thought about making something like a mana circuit.
And I didn't have a mana hole either. It had just appeared on its own after I drank a hasty potion.
When I was getting half-hearted magic tutoring at the main mansion in Farné Territory, there had been no need to bring up such specialized talk.
The most I ever used as practical magic was digging up a little dirt when plowing the fields and farming.
Even in class, I had never once gone any farther than the absolute earliest stage of learning the sensation—'Now, try sensing the mana~'.
Why?
Because the moment they tried to move any farther, my head would obviously start hurting, so before the teachers could start talking me to death, I'd throw a fit first and make them all run away.
So I never paid it any mind.
Even though I didn't actually have either one, I never once wondered during all that farming why magic was still usable.
All I knew was that whatever it was, it was a sweet deal.
But then.
'I have a feeling no lie I tell in front of this person will work.'
When I couldn't answer and just kept my mouth shut, my eyes were quivering in panic.
Iris tapped her pen and asked in a gentle voice.
"This is an absolutely necessary part of the lesson. Why are you trying to hide it from me too?"
Her tone itself was calm, but beneath it lurked a sharp barb that lightly prodded my flimsy guilt.
A subtle pressure, like a teacher trying to instruct a student and asking why I wouldn't even say that much.
I was pushed back by that pressure and surrendered immediately.
"There isn't one."
"......There isn't?"
"A mana circuit. I don't have one."
At my concise answer, Iris's eyes went round.
She drew in a small, sharp breath.
"That can't be."
"It really is."
I get this feeling we should be doing a little back-and-forth like, 'Was there one?' 'No, there wasn't.'
"......"
Iris set down her pen and silently locked eyes with me.
Her red pupils raked over my face, as though trying to catch even the slightest change in expression.
But I was telling the truth, so I met that gaze without even blinking.
"Haa."
In the end, Iris pushed her glasses up and let out a faint sigh.
"Maybe it'd be different if it were someone else."
"Yes."
"Hearing that come out of your mouth is so absurd that it feels like it might actually be true, which is making me incredibly flustered right now."
Right. I'm damn flustered too.
"Could I have your wrist?"
Iris rolled up her sleeve a little and held out her hand.
When I obediently offered my wrist without a word, Iris's white hand gently closed around my thick wrist.
Swoosh.
The sensation of skin touching skin was strangely cool yet soft.
From the side of her neck as she leaned closer, there drifted a very faint scent—something like herbs mixed with the smell of books.
'If I said this kind of thing makes my heart flutter, would that make me way too embarrassingly over-the-top?'
Tsk.
I was getting lost in some uselessly melancholy thoughts when.
"Don't talk."
Gasp.
What?
Did she hear me?
Iris whispered low, keeping my wrist's pulse beneath her fingertips.
"Don't open your mouth until I'm done. Breathe only through your nose, evenly. It will disrupt the flow of mana."
Holy shit, you scared me.
For a second, I thought I'd blurt out all the unfiltered thoughts in my head without realizing it.
At her serious command, I held my breath and obediently breathed only through my nose.
Vwoom—.
Then, from the hand gripping my wrist, a faint current of energy began to seep softly into my body.
It was a slightly eerie sensation, but not unpleasant, like a cool stream of water flowing backward through my veins.
I could feel her mana carefully and meticulously sweeping through every corner of my body.
A little while later.
"You......"
Iris slowly let go of the hand holding my wrist.
On her face was pure, one-hundred-percent shock, the mask of the usual cool, rational scholar completely shattered.
"There really isn't one. A mana circuit."
Seriously, I'm telling you the truth.
Why would I lie?
But for some reason, it feels incredibly melancholy.
It's not like I came out of an X-ray or an MRI; is it really okay to let a female professor rummage through my insides like this?
I feel naked.
Iris took up her pen again and, this time, asked while looking me over from head to toe.
"Then how on earth did you use magic?"
"I'm not sure."
I shrugged.
There's no need to make some complicated excuse here.
Because there was a bulletproof excuse card that only geniuses could use naturally, as casually as eating a meal.
"Just."
"......Just?"
"I tried it."
I added with a calm expression.
"And it worked."
If some other ordinary aspiring mage or student had heard that, they'd either have cried bloody tears, thinking, 'Is this bastard seriously flexing on us right now?' or grabbed me by the collar and gotten insanely pissed off, telling me to stop with the smug flexing already.
But Iris was different.
After hearing my irresponsible answer, she instead smoothed out the slight frown on her face and nodded.
"I see. That can happen."
Huh? That counts as acceptable?
"There are records in the literature of extremely rare constitutions throughout history that instinctively synchronized with nature's own mana field instead of a mana circuit. Your mana circuit may be something like that as well."
I never expected Iris to elevate my ability into some high-level academic territory all by herself.
It was a lie I told because I was too lazy to make up a more complicated excuse, but watching my teacher's scholarly zeal made me feel oddly guilty.
"Then what I should prioritize doing for Cassian is..."
Iris said, adjusting her glasses.
"Not teaching you the basics of magic, but building a deeper understanding of yourself."
"Huh?"
No, did I really need to understand myself that deeply?
As long as I press the button at the right time, it goes click and sorts itself out.
'......Maybe not.'
On second thought, maybe it would be better to learn things properly for once.
Last time during the Legion Tour, after I tore up the village sewer system, I really did suffer like hell.
Rather than going through that again, maybe just learning the principles roughly and clicking my ability safely would help extend my lifespan.
"Would you like to try using magic once?"
Iris stood up.
"Huh?"
"I need to directly observe the moment when you unconsciously draw on mana. Cast a simple spell here and now."
I hesitated.
'...Here?'
I glanced around her private research lab, packed with all these luxurious, expensive magical tools.
I really wasn't confident at all in such a narrow, enclosed situation, especially with no idea how wildly the output of my Fixer ability might jump.
"Um, Professor."
"What is it?"
"It feels like I'm going to cause an accident. Do I really have to use it here?"
At my sincere concern.
Iris also glanced briefly at the expensive reagent bottles and magical tools around us, then gave a small nod.
"......Let's go outside, then."
* * *
Academy Third Magic Training Ground.
Normally it would have been bustling with students, but thanks to the temporary break after the early return, the wide dirt practice ground was empty.
Whooosh.
In the middle of the empty open lot, with a light sand breeze blowing.
Professor Iris stood behind me.
"Now, use it. Magic."
I heard Iris roll up her sleeves, then soon felt her hand touch my back.
"What should I use?"
"Please use fire-attribute magic, where changes in mana flow can be detected most clearly and destructively. I won't restrict the form."
Fire magic, huh.
Normally I'd have to chant the spell and circulate mana through a mana circuit, but I don't know anything that complicated.
'Fixer, activate.'
[Ability Activated : Fixer]
[Remaining uses today: 2/3]
Control the power.
This time it had better go right.
Unlike during the Legion Tour, I'm being extremely careful right now, so at most a nice little fireball should pop out.
But.
Vwoom...... Vwooom───!
At that instant, the air in the open field twisted grotesquely.
"Eh?"
Something ominous began to happen at my fingertips.
Not a proper fireball, but this terrifying heat, condensing while sucking in the surrounding oxygen like crazy.
The click skill was arbitrarily translating my request for a "spell to show the professor" into "extreme firepower to overwhelm the professor" and pulling it out.
"Wait, this output is......"
And then, before I could even control it.
KWAAAAAAANG───!!!!
The flames bursting from my fingertips became a giant pillar of fire that swallowed my field of vision.
A deafening blast that felt like it would tear my eardrums apart, and a fierce wave of heat swept across the entire dirt floor of the training ground.
Sizzle─! Fwoosh!
I could hear the dirt in the middle of the open lot melting and vitrifying in an instant under the tremendous heat.
As the blazing red flames died down and the thick cloud of dust slowly cleared in the wind.
"......"
In the middle of the flat dirt training ground that had been compressed and packed down.
There, as if a meteor had come crashing straight down, sat a massive blackened crater.
"Oh..."
I looked back and forth between my smoke-wreathed fingertips and the utterly ruined training ground.
Fuck.
Why do I feel like something has seriously gone to shit?
"I-I, this... Is it really okay to wreck it this badly...?"
When I turned my head to look at Professor Iris.
She was staring at me with a deeply bewildered expression.
......Fuck.
Am I screwed?