Chapter 2
“Hmm. Did I underestimate her too much?”
He adjusted his glasses.
“Seems you’ve got some talent after all, but not enough to shake me off with that...”
“Gyaaaah! It’s a monster!!!”
I screamed and ran.
The flustered middle-aged man shouted back.
“I’m not a monster!”
“I’m not some monster who goes around pinning down little girls!!!”
“That makes it even weirder!!”
“What are you planning to do after binding me up, you monster!!”
“I’m not planning anything!!”
“A monster who isn’t planning anything!! Gyaaah!!!”
“...You’re impossible to talk to.”
I ran at full speed.
Honestly, a monster would be better!
I already had it bad enough becoming a girl; I didn’t want all kinds of weird crap done to me on top of that!
But from what I’d seen earlier, the net’s range was pretty wide.
“Bind.”
He swung his staff again and said it.
Thinking it was the same trick, I tried once more to find the center where mana gathered.
‘...There isn’t one!’
It was much neater, much faster, but there was no center where mana gathered!
No, to be exact, everything was all tangled and mixed together!
I realized it instinctively.
I can’t block that.
Even so, I sent out mana, but it all bounced off.
The net spread across the sky fell to the ground and swallowed me up.
“Waaah! I’m getting weird crap done to meee!”
I heard the sound of his footsteps approaching.
“You’ve got remarkable talent.”
I heard him murmur in a deep, rough voice.
“But know this: talent alone won’t be enough to beat this Karnarov.”
He came all the way to my feet.
I couldn’t resist.
The net had tightly bound my body.
I couldn’t break free with my own strength.
But there was still the possibility that he only had binding abilities...
“In code, Sleep.”
“How many abilities... do you have...”
I thought he was just some common mob you meet at the first gate...
He’s fucking strong...
With that thought, my consciousness was cut off.
***
Conference room.
Phenomenology, potion studies, biology, medicine, astrology, and more.
Professors famous in each field had gathered there.
At the most honored seat sat the principal, his hair completely white.
And Karnarov.
The one who had restrained that outsider girl earlier.
He had been informed by the principal that she was an outsider.
“…She’s not on the student registry?”
“Yes. More precisely, her name was just written at the very bottom.”
The entrance ceremony was already over, and the semester had just begun.
The student registry of Reinhardt Magic School.
Any talented student of the right age is automatically recognized as a student.
So they take in all students first.
And then draw a blue line at the bottom to mark the cohort.
Beneath the thick blue line, the name [Yumia] was written.
Karnarov looked annoyed.
He knew exactly what that meant.
An unexpected transfer student.
“We now have to decide whether or not to accept that child.”
The duty of Reinhardt Magic School.
If a child has talent, admit them and let them learn.
That was the principle unless there was a special reason not to.
Karnarov knew that too.
But first, he objected.
“…Absolutely not! Someone who doesn’t even properly have the aptitude of a mage is being admitted?!”
“Didn’t you just say it yourself? That your magic was dispersed.”
“That was just a probing exchange to show consideration for the opponent!”
“Even so, you would surely have used magic properly. She dispersed it with nothing but mana manipulation and no theory whatsoever. That means she has the aptitude. You know just how absurd that is.”
Karnarov didn’t particularly like that girl.
Dismantling his magic was certainly a plus.
‘Even if it was an ultra-short incantation without any encryption, that’s a feat impossible without precise mana control.’
But her attitude was the problem.
The way she spoke, and the fact that she seemed uninterested in magic from the start.
Letting someone like that in would only stir up trouble.
She was clearly the type to rely on talent alone without building even the most basic foundation.
The arrogant geniuses he’d seen had always been like that.
They looked down on theory and valued talent and instinct.
They neglected practice and never refined their scholarship.
Every single one of them was overtaken by him without exception.
“She could become a troublemaker. Especially since she’s foreign, not an Imperial citizen.”
“Well, one or two little rascals shouldn’t be a problem. Wouldn’t that be fun?”
The principal, Patstemon, looked around at the other professors.
“Well, I suppose it’s fine? We welcome unusual children. The more eccentric they are, the more likely they are to take interest in their studies.”
Isabella, the potion studies professor, cast a vote in favor.
“I’m against it. No matter how outstanding their aptitude is, once we admit them, they’re our student. Increasing our responsibilities further is...”
Celine, the medicine professor, cast a vote against it.
Her reason was that more patients meant more work.
The other professors cast their votes one by one, and the result was split evenly.
But even they weren’t taking it all that seriously.
Even if one more student were added, their work wouldn’t really increase much.
“Well, we already tossed her into the dormitory exam, so let’s see how that goes and decide after that. Karnarov, aren’t you going in as an examiner too?”
“There’s hardly anything to see, is there?”
***
I finally figured out what this place was for.
This place was, astonishingly enough, Reinhardt Magic School...!
And even more astonishingly, you could learn magic at a magic school...!
‘...What kind of bullshit is that.’
But from the looks of it, it seemed to be true.
So I decided to interpret it my own way.
‘I’d heard there was something similar in the Tower.’
Each floor of the Tower has its own theme.
Apparently, there are floors where you have to solve quests, not just fight.
And people can also get rare traits or abilities there.
‘If I can use magic too.’
If this gate was such a “theme,” then my lucky break would be handed out in that way too.
‘...Got it. The core of this gate!’
If I get a decent score here, that’ll help with admission.
I’d get a magic-related lucky break and escape.
That became my first goal.
***
Dormitory exam.
It was a test that determined the location and room of your dormitory based on your score.
But unlike the other kids, I’d heard it might even decide whether I got in at all.
‘If it doesn’t work out, I’ll just run.’
As I headed to the exam hall, I asked around.
They surprisingly told me the location of the forest I’d come from.
Maybe this world wasn’t all that cruel after all.
[Practical Exam Hall]
I went and stood in one of the lines of kids wearing robes.
Kids went into a black room and came back out in less than three minutes.
There were more than a dozen lines like that.
“How do I do it?”
I quietly asked the kid in front of me.
“...What, you came here without even knowing that?”
“Tell me.”
The kid in front of me sighed and explained it roughly.
“Just send the incoming mana in the opposite direction, or spread it out in several directions.”
“That’s all?”
“What do you mean, that’s all! Knowing how to move mana is the beginning of magic!”
“Then what can you do with it?”
“Umm... well, you can use magic... and if you’re really skilled, they say you can interfere with unfinished magic and make it collapse! ...Ah! You distracted me! If I mess up, it’ll be your fault!”
The kid adjusted his glasses and darted into the black room.
I waited for my turn and thought it over.
‘...Maybe I can do something similar to what I did earlier?’
At least the practical should be manageable.
***
I somehow got through the practical exam.
Remembering the earlier sensation, I spread the mana out as instructed.
It was similar to the crap I’d been doing outside this gate or whatever, so it was easy.
The written exam began.
Honestly, I wasn’t even sure I’d properly taken the practical exam.
The examiner was that horribly strict-looking professor I’d seen earlier.
Sleepiness started creeping in.
Ever since I got this body, if I didn’t sleep at least eight hours a day, I got sleepy.
Probably because the habit of sleeping a lot had set in.
I could endure it, but honestly, was there any need to?
I might as well just sleep.
Honestly, I think my old self, who slept six hours a day, was the weird one.
How can a person live on only six hours of sleep?
‘But it’d be obvious if I did that...’
It’d be blatantly obvious.
If I put my head down and slept now, it felt like the other students would brand me a troublemaker too.
It felt like I’d botched the practical too...
If I did too badly, there might be a penalty.
I checked to see if there were any problems I could solve somehow...
[Basic Mathematics (30 points) - All Reinhardt Faculty]
‘What is this? It’s math, isn’t it?’
I was a science-track graduate of a Korean high school.
Of course, I was basically one of those fake science-track kids who only memorized formulas, but still, science track.
Middle school math and very basic high school math.
This was a piece of cake.
Since there were no proof problems, I started shamelessly cheesing the formulas to my heart’s content.
Easy multiplication tables and arithmetic were a breeze.
Since sample problems were provided, slightly different rules weren’t a problem either.
For geometry problems, I borrowed the power of Pythagoras.
For the difficult calculus problems, I cheesed them with differentiation formulas and L’Hôpital’s rule.
I had solved every basic math problem before even ten minutes had passed.
Once the problems started flowing smoothly, my sleepiness vanished too!
At this pace, top of the written exam is no problem!
Come to think of it, maybe I’d done pretty well on the practical too!
Gate or not, good is good!
I smiled so wide it nearly reached my ears and flipped the test paper over.
And then the next page.
“Gek.”
[Magic Mathematics - Ivan G. Karnarov (70 points)]
Magic circles everywhere.
Insanely complex equations.
Characters I’d never seen before.
Sleepiness... is... closing in....
I looked at Karnarov, the professor in front.
‘Ehe...’
This should... be fine....
And after flashing a smile of surrender, she buried her head straight into the desk.
***
Once Karnarov, serving as examiner, entered, he was forced to retract several of the evaluations he’d made about Yumia not long after the exam began.
‘She doesn’t lack a foundation. Rather, it’s the exact opposite.’
The equation problems in front were questions that always came in roughly the same format, with only the numbers changed.
So rather than setting them himself, he usually left them to the newly hired faculty member.
But since everyone tends to overlook the importance of arithmetic and geometry and doesn’t study them properly, there aren’t many students who solve them correctly.
Even with sample problems provided.
And even fewer could solve them that quickly.
Her solutions were also extremely neat, and several times faster than the other students’.
She even solved them in ways he himself hadn’t discovered.
Every time she solved a problem, he had to admit it.
The girl in front of him was a genius.
And he found himself harboring secret expectations.
If it was her, maybe she’d be able to solve all the magic-equation problems he’d set too.
If she could solve even one of them.
No, if she could even imagine the approach, that would be a passing grade.
She’d simply surpass the others and take first place.
If that happened, he planned to retract every prejudice he’d had about her.
Not only that.
If they took in a human with that level of calculation and thinking ability as a research student?
Then it was certain they could get several steps closer to the family’s long-cherished wish.
‘Now then. Show me. Break through Karnarov’s riddles and seize the top spot...’
But then Yumia’s expression suddenly turned strange.
And she began some bizarre behavior.
She turned the question paper over, spread it out, folded it, and looked at it again.
‘...What is she doing?’
Karnarov was flustered, but he kept his composure.
Soon Yumia looked at the last page and gave him a bright smile.
And then buried her head in the desk.
For a moment, he couldn’t understand what was happening.
After trying a few measures, he reached the conclusion that she was simply going to sleep.
A vein bulged red all over Karnarov’s face.
“Kuhuhuhuhu... So that’s how it is.”
He understood the meaning of that smile.
Several of the formulas she used were ones even Karnarov didn’t know.
That was her declaration.
She wouldn’t show any more.
There wasn’t a single student who could properly solve the magic problems.
So as long as their approach or method was even just right or novel, he was inclined to give points.
Solve just one problem and you’d be top of the written exam.
No, you could even aim for overall first place.
Reinhardt was the Empire’s greatest prestigious academy.
One couldn’t even begin to imagine how much honor came with being overall first.
And yet she’d tossed it aside right before his eyes and even sneered.
Karnarov quietly burst into laughter.
“Prepare yourself. My tuition is going to be a little expensive.”