If There's a Warning, Someone Must Have Done Something

“Huh?”

“I’d like to speak with you for a moment.”

I looked him over.

His mana was only slightly less dense than the monstrous mana of Karnarof or Isabel.

But more than that, the magical tools he wore were far more threatening.

[Instant-Death Needle (UR)]

[Clock of Light (UR)]

[The All-Seeing One (UR)]

.

.

.

More than ten UR-rank magical tools.

He carried every one of them as naturally as his own body.

No, they seemed almost like a part of his body.

They felt unnaturally well bound to his mana.

“…I suppose that’s fine.”

And so I followed him to his laboratory.

* * *

Magical Engineering Department.

The department where my precious slave… no, upperclassman Chloe was, and where one studied magical tools and deployable magic circles.

Someone who normally had no connection to me because he didn’t teach first-year classes was standing before me.

He looked somewhat tired, but his eyes were intense.

He opened his mouth.

“How did you solve the problems without Calculation Magic?”

“I just solved them.”

“That is impossible. All my problems are built upon solid logic.”

“Even if you say that…”

“That formula—did you devise it yourself?”

“Ah.”

There had been a problem that asked me to interpret something, so I had somehow muddled through it using what I’d learned in high school and college.

“You mean the formula you used for Problem 3?”

“Indeed. I would like to know whether that formula is truly correct.”

I didn’t remember the proof.

Still, I somehow dredged up my memories and explained it.

And so, a heated discussion unfolded for about an hour.

I wrung out every scrap of knowledge I possessed to answer him.

He nodded gravely or offered new interpretations, but

his expression gradually became colored with surprise.

“Th-then how did you solve the magic circle problems?”

“Pardon?”

“Normally, if you don’t have a prepared interpretation spell, even interpreting the problem itself would be a hurdle!?”

Ah.

That was thanks to the Mathematician of Magic Circles.

But I couldn’t tell him that.

“Well… I can more or less see it?”

I answered vaguely.

“I see. So you know once you see it. A genius’s intuition!”

“…I didn’t say it like that?”

“You are a talent the Empire needs. Personally, you are a talent I find highly desirable.”

“Uh… wait a second.”

“Come to the Magical Engineering Department. We need a talent like you.”

When I said I wanted to apply to the Magical Engineering Department,

all I meant was that I wanted to avoid the clutches of Karnarof and Isabel and slack off.

But if this happened, I wouldn’t be able to slack off!

“…or so I’d like to say.”

He smiled at me and said,

“It would be difficult for you to come to the Magical Engineering Department. I’ve heard that you have the support of Karnarof and Isabel.”

As he said that, he handed me a cube.

“But I calculate that I may at least pique your interest.”

“What is this?”

[Magic-Sealing Cube (???)]

“It is a magical tool. Ordinarily, a magical tool is something you can use only after understanding its principles.”

“Hmm.”

I had a feeling I’d just shove it into a corner of my Inventory.

“There is one problem on each face, and each is imbued with a different function. By the time you unlock every face…”

“Then what?”

“You’ll have developed an interest in magical engineering.”

Bern smiled benevolently.

His narrowed eyes opened slightly.

And so I received a proposal that wasn’t quite a proposal.

Well, receiving a magical tool was nice.

The mana imbued in each face alone already surpassed my total mana by a considerable amount.

And as I left the laboratory, I suddenly realized.

“This is just homework.”

Why did this school like assigning homework so much?

***

“Are you the newcomer?”

As I walked along an overgrown forest path toward the western forest, I heard someone’s voice.

I could definitely hear the voice, but strangely, I couldn’t determine its direction.

Then I had no choice but to wait for it to attack.

“Who are you?”

I tensed and sent mana into Dragon Eye, but there was no sign that an attack was coming.

“Solver of the Empire, I am the imperial palace’s watchdog and the bearer of a lofty secret command.”

“Uhh…”

That didn’t tell me anything.

“I bear a message from Karnarof.”

“Yessir.”

Did I just need to pass this along to Karnarof?

“Slay the demon hiding in Reinhart at once.”

“Roger.”

“What an unusual fellow.”

I’d answered with a little flair, so that was the response I got.

“You’re the weirder one, punk!”

I shouted that, but no reply came.

…What was that?

***

I immediately went and tattled to Karnarof.

I told him that someone like that had come.

“Hmm. So you received such a message.”

“Yes, sir.”

“You need only do what you’ve been doing. Continue just like that.”

“Do what?”

I asked in return, but Karnarof didn’t answer.

“Even the Imperial Palace seems to be getting rather impatient. That is all. Go.”

Would it kill him to explain a little more?

If you don’t explain, am I going to have to act on my own?

***

And the next day.

In Basic Combat Arts class, Karnarof said with a solemn expression,

“I shall announce the assignment that will replace the final exam.”

Karnarof explained the outline of the final assignment less than a day after the midterms had completely ended.

First, Reinhart would cover all the costs of taking the exam.

Since the main purpose of the class was to take the Rank 1 mage exam, it seemed they didn’t grade us separately.

“However, if you fail to get a perfect score, you must write and submit a report detailing the reason.”

I mentally checked out around then.

“I know all this already, and I’m sleepy, so I wish you’d hurry up and finish already aaaaagh…”

“Wake up! Yumia!”

Aris patted my back and whispered into my ear.

But I couldn’t hear her.

“You will go to the Empire’s examination center and take the Rank 1 regular mage exam.”

Karnarof repeated himself.

“It is the Rank 1 regular mage exam. Make no mistake.”

“Surely there’s no one like that, right?”

“You know how stories about people taking the wrong exam and coming back with something weird are famous.”

“I hear some people even take the combat mage exam, which is several times harder?”

“How does that even happen?”

I didn’t know about that, but I just wanted class to end already.

“That concludes matters. You are dismissed.”

Students streamed out like the tide going out.

There weren’t many to begin with, since this was a class for the top-ranked students.

I walked out like a zombie.

Nyeeeek.

I’m sleepy enough to die.

I connected the console I’d brought to the TV and played games, so time passed very quickly.

“It’s because you play games until so late.”

Bringing the game console had been a stroke of genius.

It had melted away every last bit of my free time after the midterms ended.

Aris had dragged me to bed after waking up to get water in the middle of the night, but I was still sleep-deprived.

I’d only slept for two hours.

‘Nyaaaagh! Just one more try! I could’ve beaten it if I’d had one more try!!’

I remembered yesterday vividly.

Damn it, I should’ve beaten that pig boss!

Wouldn’t it be easy to beat it by using enhanced dynamic vision?

‘Then what fun would the game be?’

Instead, I deliberately messed up my mana circulation, lowering it to an ordinary person’s level, and beat it using only pattern recognition.

It was definitely fun that way, but time melted away.

“I used to not feel particularly tired even after sleeping four hours.”

“What kind of life were you living?”

Linia, who was sensitive about sleep, looked at me as if I were insane.

“Back then, I lived with the resolve that I’d die if I couldn’t do this.”

“Yumia, people die if they don’t sleep.”

“Uh… yeah.”

So this was actually a much more serious matter than I’d thought.

“Still, it should be okay not to sleep a little, right?”

“What?”

“Nothing.”

But I did sleep quite a lot.

Maybe it was because I’d gotten used to sleeping ten hours a day.

If I slept only a little like this, I got sleepy.

Even today, Aris had practically dragged me out of bed after I nearly overslept, and I’d gone back to sleep in the lecture hall until class started.

“Maybe it’s because I’m getting old.”

They say people sleep less as they get older.

But if you’re only moderately old, it seems to increase instead.

“Are you old enough to be saying things like that?”

Robert said it as though he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

Damn it, I couldn’t exactly reveal the truth.

They wouldn’t believe me anyway.

“What would you know?”

Have you ever been a woman?

If not, shut up.

Aris said with a smile,

“Shall we go straight to the registration office and sign up for the exam?”

As befitting a magic school, the registration office for magic exams was also located on school grounds.

“Let’s do that.”

We went to the registration office and received the application form.

“You’re first-year students, I see? I’ll give you the application for the Rank 1 mage exam!”

As we looked over the form,

there were fields for our names and addresses, as well as a field where we could choose something.

“How am I supposed to apply for this?”

“Just apply and write your dorm room number. Then they’ll deliver the plaque to your dorm room.”

“Rank 1 Combat Mage Exam [Practical]?”

Since it said Rank 1… this must be the one, I guess.

And so I put the application form in the mailbox.

“I wish they’d computerize this.”

I thought that as I did so.