Chapter 23
Roxanna Gatling.
One of Class E’s duelists in the third round, and the one who suffered the most crushing defeat in the match.
Charlotte had at least managed to exchange blows with her opponent, but Roxanna….
“B-but I won!”
Apparently possessing at least the bare minimum of tact, Miriam tried to comfort Roxanna somehow instead of brutally hitting her with the facts.
Naturally, Roxanna wasn’t stupid. If someone who had mercilessly hit the other two with the facts suddenly offered her some clumsy consolation, it would hardly count as consolation at all.
Especially if all she could offer was something like, “Well, you won anyway….”
“Sob, hic….”
Yeah, I would’ve cried too.
“You crazy idiot. Is ‘You won, so that’s all that matters’ supposed to be comforting?”
“Ayla forfeiting was, no matter how you look at it, that… that thing!”
Blatant disregard. In some ways, it was close to mockery… no, it was clearly something even worse.
You weren’t even worth fighting.
It would be a waste to spend any more of my time and magic on you.
That was what her forfeiture meant.
Miriam looked back and forth between Charlotte and Kariya, who had forgotten their argument that morning and instantly joined forces to criticize her. Then she grew dejected and dropped heavily into her seat.
“Honestly.”
“…Well, her words aren’t entirely wrong, either.”
Kariya sighed and spoke to Roxanna.
“Since it has come to this, I’ll be as brutally honest as possible.”
“….”
“There’s nothing I can advise you on. We learned absolutely nothing from that sparring match.”
Kariya continued in a cold tone.
“You’ll have to work harder. Much harder than you do now. That’s all I can say.”
“…I’m really sorry, but I don’t have any worthwhile feedback to offer you, either.”
Charlotte chimed in as well.
As I quietly watched the children talk, I thought about it.
The more fundamental problem Roxanna had.
Perhaps, even before talent came into consideration, her very nature was unsuited to barrage magic itself.
‘But telling the young lady of the Gatling family not to use her family’s magic would be a little….’
Roxanna’s problem was on an entirely different level from Charlotte’s.
Charlotte had no problem using magic itself. Her problem was that her weapon and fighting style didn’t suit her.
Whether she changed her tactics or her weapon, it was a problem that could be solved with a certain amount of compromise.
But Roxanna was different. If I held Roxanna to the same standard as Charlotte, she would have to give up her magic entirely.
In other words, this wasn’t a situation where I could suddenly devise a breakthrough for her, as I had with Charlotte.
“…Miss Roxanna, how about trying a little harder from now on?”
In the end, all I could offer was that sort of hollow platitude. But regardless of anything else, I didn’t want to give irresponsible advice.
Even if Roxanna came to think of me as an incompetent instructor.
And next came Miriam, the last one.
There was honestly nothing to say about Miriam. If I had to find something to point out, it was that she lost a little of her reason every time she used magic.
But that was also an inherent characteristic of Miriam’s magic, so it wasn’t something that could be solved immediately. As a result, the feedback for Miriam petered out without much useful content.
Conversely, that also meant there was very little to criticize about Miriam.
And so, with a lingering sense of unease… the first day of class came to an end.
=
The entrance ceremony and first day of class had been on Thursday.
And today was the following day, Friday.
Since Friday’s schedule included neither a separate Practical Class lesson nor a lecture for the Advanced Mana Sensitivity course… it was practically like getting a day off just one day after being appointed as an instructor.
‘Even if I have nothing to do, I still have to come to work.’
I lightly slapped my cheeks a few times to reprimand myself for already having such bad thoughts on only my second day as an instructor, then picked up the list of students who had submitted applications for the Mana Sensitivity course.
The Lower, Intermediate, and Advanced Classes, apart from the Practical Class, operated on a basic credit system, and the courses available to students differed by class.
The Mana Sensitivity course was one that first- and second-year students in the Intermediate and Advanced Classes could take.
Apparently, Lower Class students had a separate course called “Mana Sensitivity Basics” that they could take instead.
But I had also heard that Advanced Class students hardly ever took this course, since they had long since reached the level of handling their mana like an extension of their limbs.
Mana Sensitivity Basics was a required course for Lower Class students, and those in the Lower Class who had scored at least 270 out of 300 on the preliminary practical and written examinations were allowed to take this advanced course, but….
‘There are only seven.’
I twirled a strand of my bangs around my finger and muttered inwardly.
Well, 270 out of 300 translated to 90 out of 100.
That was by no means an easy score to earn. And at Magnus Academy, there was no way they would have set the cutoff that lenient for an examination that allowed students to cross classes, even if only to a limited extent.
The examination must have been quite difficult as well. Perhaps it was impressive that as many as seven students had passed the preliminary test.
‘I was newly appointed this year, so….’
I slumped back in my chair and read through the list of students who had submitted applications one by one.
“…Uuugh.”
Perhaps because my body was small while the chair was pointlessly large and soft, I went limp in an instant, as if I were lying on a hospital bed propped up at an angle.
A chair was normally supposed to have a neck rest at the top of its backrest, meant to support the neck and keep one’s posture straight.
The chair in my office naturally had a neck rest as well, but the problem was that it had become nothing more than a decoration.
The chair was large, but my body was small. Rather than my neck reaching the neck rest, even the crown of my head failed to rise above the chair. Naturally, it looked as though my entire body had been buried inside it.
Even when I lowered the chair as far as it would go, my feet still couldn’t reach the floor.
The one good thing was that the haori I had draped carelessly over the neck rest didn’t wrinkle.
“Gulp.”
I swallowed the drool trickling from the corner of my mouth and looked up at the clock hanging on one wall of the office.
“W-what? It’s already this late?”
Though I had been lying down for less than thirty minutes, drowsiness came rushing over me, and my head began to nod.
“…No, I can’t. Haru, get a grip.”
I muttered in a half-dreaming voice and pulled myself upright from the chair.
Then, straightening my back into proper posture, I brought the coffee heavily sweetened with sugar to my lips.
“I can’t sleep on my first day.”
Even taking into account that modern scientific inventions like CCTV did not yet exist in this world, that I was the only one in this private office, and that the chances of a student going out of their way to visit such a rookie new instructor were vanishingly low, from the very first day….
“…Should I rest just a little?”
Turning my eyes away from the guilt pricking at my heart, I glanced around and reclined in the chair.
Yeah, I worked hard yesterday. I’ll gradually get used to things from now on, and just for a little while….
-Knock knock.
“Instructor Haru, are you there?”
“Eek!”
The timely knocking from outside the door startled me so badly that I sprang up from the chair.
“W-who is it?”
“I’m Kate, a new student who enrolled at Magnus Academy this year.”
It was a young girl’s voice, the childishness not yet gone from it.
Wondering whether I had drooled at the corner of my mouth like before, I wiped it with my sleeve and looked at the clock.
‘H-has an entire hour already passed?!’
Apparently, this chair had some extremely high-level magic formula inscribed on it. One that affected space and time, at that.
‘No, this is no time for pointless thoughts!’
“W-what brings you here?”
“I came because I had a question about the ‘Advanced Mana Sensitivity’ course that starts next Monday.”
That was my course!
While I quickly checked myself in the mirror, straightened my clothes, and slipped on the haori hanging from the neck rest, the girl standing outside the door continued speaking.
“May I come in?”
“J-just a moment!”
I quickly wiped my face, still plainly showing signs of sleep, one last time with a wet towel, then ran toward the office door.
=
“I-I’ll open it for you.”
The voice from beyond the door was unmistakably flustered.
Kate, a new student at Magnus Academy ranked thirty-fourth among first-years and a member of the Advanced Class, tilted her head and took a step back from the door.
What possible reason could there be for someone to be that flustered?
‘Could she be doing something she shouldn’t let others see…?’
For an instant, the worst possibility flashed through Kate’s mind.
The image of a psycho-Orientalist Eastern shaman, cackling eerily inside an instructor’s private office while researching a forbidden sealing spell.
-Creeeak.
But despite Kate’s worries, Instructor Haru emerged from the office looking perfectly ordinary.
Actually, even calling her ordinary was somewhat inaccurate.
That was because the first impression that came to Kate’s mind the moment she saw Haru was….
‘Small.’
…That was all.
Due to circumstances at home, Kate herself wasn’t particularly large even among her peers, but Haru was still about half a head shorter than her.
Could she be barely in the low 150-centimeter range?
Kate had seen her during the introductions of the new instructors at the entrance ceremony, so she knew Haru was small. But she hadn’t expected her to be this small.
Despite being twenty-nine, her petite build and youthful features made her look no older than fourteen—less than half her age. Incongruously, she wore a mature black traditional Eastern outfit, with a small Magnus Academy emblem stitched onto the chest.
On top of that, she wore her hair tied low and draped forward rather than down her back—a mature hairstyle.
If Kate had met her without knowing that she was an instructor, and if Haru hadn’t possessed such an overall mature air, Kate might have mistaken her for an ordinary neighborhood child.
“P-please, come in.”
Kate would never learn that part of Haru’s mature, tranquil impression came from the fact that she was still half-asleep.
“Please sit here.”
Following Haru’s guidance, Kate obediently sat on the sofa in front of the table at the center of the office.
She felt the peculiar, awkward softness characteristic of office furniture beneath her. As Haru took a kettle and teacups from the cupboard, she spoke.
“What kind of tea would you like?”
“Ah, I’m fine. You don’t have to go to any trouble for me.”
“No, I was getting sleepy anyway, so I was about to make myself a cup. Consider it a bonus.”
“Then… I’ll have whatever you’re having, Instructor.”
Kate gave an awkward nod toward Haru’s back and thought,
‘I’m glad she seems gentle and kind.’
As her expectations of Haru rose slightly, Kate muttered inwardly,
‘Maybe I can ask about that without feeling so nervous….’
“Here you are.”
How long had she been lost in thought? Haru was already sitting across from her and holding out a teacup. Kate quickly accepted it and bowed her head.
“T-thank you.”
“It’s nothing.”
Haru smiled and tilted her teacup, and Kate awkwardly brought her own to her lips as well.
-Click.
“All right, then. May I hear what brought you here?”
“I-I!”
Kate cried out in a shrill voice. Was she nervous because she was alone with an instructor in the instructor’s office, or had Haru’s relaxed atmosphere and the tea instead caused her tension to disappear too completely?
As the slightly startled Haru blinked at her without a word, Kate abruptly got straight to the point.
“Y-yesterday! I heard there was a friendly sparring match between Class A and Class E of the Practical Class!”
“…Huh?”
The question was so far beyond what Haru had expected that she blinked and asked again.