Chapter 53
Indeed, you do have talent.
Karnarov said, looking over the notebook I had submitted along with the borrowed book.
Half of the notebook was already filled with black writing.
“That kind of talk doesn't fool me.”
“If I compliment you and you still take it that way, I have nothing to say.”
“And after saying that, you're going to assign me more homework, aren't you?”
“You ask the obvious. If one has talent, continued refinement is only proper, is it not?”
Karnarov's office.
[Basic Magic Circle Studies], Chapter 6.
[Barrier Mathematics]
That section was the homework Karnarov had given me earlier: understand it and solve the practice problems.
“Grading is finished. I've written comments on problems 16, 24, 35, and 68, so read them later and solve them again.”
The hardest problems, the ones I'd been unsure about.
They were creative problems that even the Magic Square Mathematician couldn't solve.
Each one had a memo slip attached, filled with dense comments.
“This should help.”
It probably would help.
“But the part I don't understand is barrier magic.”
“There's nothing for me to teach you about barrier magic. If I meddle, I'll only throw your path off.”
It seemed to mean that, since I was learning properly, I should push through the blockage myself.
The ability to beat around the bush like that is a talent too.
“I'll demonstrate first. With you, this much should be enough for you to catch on.”
Then Karnarov muttered an incantation and deployed a localized barrier.
It was barrier magic using basic casting and only the minimum amount of mana.
Even so, the barrier was deployed cleanly and stably.
He colored it blue for visibility and added a few more properties.
It probably even used far less mana than mine did.
“It doesn't come out like that when I do it.”
The Magic Square Mathematician was going in circles.
It's scary how much of a feel you can get from a model answer.
“That's your problem to solve. Now, get out.”
With a single wave of Karnarov's wand, the barrier vanished without a trace.
And then I got shown the door.
I decided to leave obediently.
If I dawdled, he might give me another assignment.
“Ah, wait.”
Karnarov stopped me as I was heading out with a raised hand.
“Yes?”
“Could you get me one of these notebooks? The paper quality is quite good.”
“It's not difficult, but you're asking me to do it for free?”
“I'll compensate you.”
“But what are you using it for...”
“It's just for a small gift. All the liquor I was going to bring as a gift disappeared—”
I cut him off.
I couldn't let him say any more.
“I'll just get it for you.”
That really hit a nerve.
It was probably Adrian who swiped it.
He'd already drunk it all, and a good portion of it had become my mana.
In other words, my karma had piled up to a dangerous degree, and with Karnarov's investigative skills, there was a real chance I'd be found out.
I should get him about ten good ones later.
* * *
Lately, we had been feeling both the power of an air conditioner and the limits of a fan.
“It's humid... and hot...”
After class, I mostly just parked myself in front of the fan.
At this point, it was getting a little strange.
“No, but there's no temperature countermeasure? That's weird!”
My hair was sticking to me, so I tied it back.
Even after splashing water over myself, it kept getting hotter.
Reinhart's summer seemed to be just like Korea's.
But it really was strange.
The teachers' building wasn't cool, but it was bearable.
The dorms were especially hot.
“Apparently the dormitory building's temperature-control magic tool... is broken...”
“...What?”
“They said repairs would probably take until mid-summer...”
Then an air conditioner wasn't optional; it was a necessity!
Aris and I both had heat-sensitive constitutions, so it was even worse.
“Graaah, let's just install it already! Come on, Aris!”
“So, what am I supposed to do!”
After feeling the power of a fan, Aris decided to actively join my project.
Aris's enthusiasm as they rolled up their sleeves was nice to see.
I opened the storage room and showed the parts.
Two huge air conditioner units and the outdoor unit.
Wires, drain pipes, and a heavy-duty power strip for drawing extra power from other outlets.
And, as a bonus, a toolbox to install it properly.
Aris faltered.
“...It's a little complicated, isn't it?”
“A little complicated? This is way more than a little complicated!! Are you saying all of this was parts for one unit!?”
It is a bit much compared to a fan.
“Oh, and there's always some electrical spell or another running near the outlets, so be careful.”
I explained the basic rules for handling electricity.
Like not touching exposed wires or ever letting water get in.
Though I wasn't sure Aris would understand.
“Mm! It feels kind of like handling mana imbued with an attribute!”
Aris seemed to have interpreted it in a slightly different way.
“Then let's get started.”
“Umm... couldn't we just tough it out with that magic device?”
“Where do you think you're going?”
“Ugh.”
I caught Aris as Aris tried to slip away.
The money I spent on that air conditioner set.
And the time and effort I put into it.
I couldn't back out now.
“Well... as long as we keep at it, we'll probably finish within the day!”
“Anyway, I'll handle all the hard parts, so I just need you to lend a hand.”
Aris nodded.
Aris seemed to have steeled themselves again.
“But there's a problem.”
“Huh? Didn't you just say there wasn't one?”
“The installation itself isn't a problem.”
“Then what's the problem...”
“We have to make a hole in the wall.”
“...Pardon?”
Aris asked back, looking utterly incredulous.
* * *
I went on with a dull, pedantic explanation.
About heat loss and intake, the passage for the drain pipe, and all the other reasons why a hole had to be drilled in the wall.
“So you're going to drill a hole?”
“Yeah. We can just repair it with magic later.”
“Hmm... if I ask Linia, I might be able to get it sorted somehow...”
“Huh? You can do that?”
I was just going to pick an elemental spell solution that wouldn't get noticed.
But Aris, you've gotten to the point where even drilling a hole in the wall doesn't bother you anymore, huh.
No matter how you look at it, that's still a bit much.
Even I was feeling a little guilty.
“More importantly, how are you going to hide it from the people who come to clean?”
“We'll just put up a barrier and hide it from view.”
If we're only covering the hole, a small barrier is enough, and one mana potion should cover it.
Of course, the downside was that mana consumption rose the farther you got from the barrier.
“In Code, Domain.”
A small barrier deployed as a test.
“That's usually in second-year textbooks, isn't it...”
“The upperclassmen taught me.”
“...Huh? You had upperclassmen you knew?”
Of course, I did learn it pretty roughly.
I also taught the upperclassmen how to deal with opponents wielding blunt weapons.
The upperclassmen accepted my teachings with cries of delight.
Most of them fainted from sheer joy, but that wasn't important.
It was a genuine exchange event, each side covering the other's weak points.
Isn't this the proper senior-junior relationship?
“Still, I can't use this.”
It wasn't properly learned, so there were too many gaps.
I was just using it as a test.
“If you want to learn it properly, there should be a book in the library.”
“Huh?”
“I think the book was called Enhanced Casting? If you ask the professor, wouldn't they issue a permit?”
Aris said they had learned up through In Code as well.
Karnarov would probably give me a permit.
I also didn't have anything to do until I learned basic magic.
But.
‘Hmm. I see. You want a permit. Then solve Chapter 4 and have it checked during the next Magical Repair class.’
Hmm...
“I'll do it later.”
I couldn't add more homework when finals hadn't even ended yet.
But the air conditioner was something I had to deal with now.
I raised my wand and aimed at a suitable spot.
Unfortunately, I didn't have a tool for making a hole in a solid wall, so I had no choice but to use magic.
“Wait, hold on! How are you planning to make the hole! If you blow it open with a mana bullet, that's just an accident!!”
Ah.
Right.
Even the lowest-power piercing spell was still the application of physical force.
It wouldn't make a neat hole.
“Then let's get something else out of the way first.”
There was no putting it off.
I peeled the packaging off the outdoor unit that had been sitting in storage.
Then I moved it out onto the terrace.
The air conditioners I had brought over from the modern world came in two types: standing and wall-mounted.
I planned to install one in the living room and one in the bedroom.
I planned to finish both today.
Let's do this, even if one of us dies.
* * *
“Graaagh...”
Installing the wall-mounted air conditioner was more of a pain than I'd expected.
There wasn't just one hole to make in the wall.
And because any noise risked exposing the construction, using a localized barrier to mask the sound was pretty grueling.
It felt like my barrier proficiency had gone up even more.
“Ugh... I somehow managed to get everything installed. But you're saying really cool air comes out of this!?”
If it doesn't, you look like you'd kill me.
“Of course it does.”
“Then that's a relief...”
“But first, we still have to drill the hole.”
“So it comes back to that after all.”
I wondered if there wasn't a way to just make a clean hole.
“Hmm... if the material were a little softer, maybe I could go learn a cutting spell...”
“Isn't that an attack spell?”
“Ah.”
At last, Aris's brain had gone to mush from the heat and labor.
There was no way such a dangerous spell would be in the first-year-only library.
“Then what do we do...”
At that moment, an idea flashed through my head.
“...Wait, wasn't trying to solve this with magic in the first place the mistake?”
“Huh? We can't use anything but magic, can we? You too, Yumia, aside from that monstrous physical ability of yours...”
“No, there's one more.”
A trump card I hadn't used yet.
But I'd been practicing it steadily.
Its basic range and firepower were inferior to magic attacks.
But its basic attack power and cutting power were unmatched.
My right hand gripped a sword.
Tier 2.
My cherished sword, one I'd grown attached to by now, and a blade of better quality than any I'd used on Earth.
Blue aura enveloped it.
“E, yeeeeeeh!?”