Chapter 16
I have no idea what misunderstanding she had.
But I had to clear it up as earnestly as I could.
“Ah.. So, there’s somewhere you need to use Inscription right away?”
Helia was looking at me with a dubious expression.
I nodded vigorously.
“Yes, there’s less than a week left, so.. I don’t have a choice.”
“But.. you’re already.. flirting with Ms. Ena..”
“No, what does that have to do with anything?”
“Of course it matters..! After Ms. Ena, me too..? No, that’s not okay!”
Helia trembled again.
What kind of thought process is that?
“Don’t tell me.. one person isn’t enough for you…!”
“No, how did you arrive at that!?”
I looked at Helia with an incredulous expression.
Helia’s tendency to indulge in wild fantasies was well known.
She did have low self-esteem, too.
The problem was that she was a fairly important character within the academy.
So.. hadn’t I had to comfort her after the first class, when her self-esteem was shattered?
But.
I really never imagined she’d misunderstand things like this.
And where on earth had she gotten the idea that Ena and I were flirting?
Hmm..
I could tell there were quite a few places that rumor might have come from.
But that was something to think about later.
“I was asking purely in the sense of [Learning]. Would that be okay?”
“Ah.. Ah! Learning? Don’t tell me you really can’t use Inscription..”
Helia was about to say something, then stared at me.
Then she slightly furrowed her brow and nodded.
“If it’s you, Mr. Bin, I can see that being possible!”
I looked at Helia, dumbfounded.
It’s possible because it’s me?
Most students at the academy couldn’t use magic.
Wasn’t that only natural?
“Most of the students here probably can’t use it..”
“Eeh. That’s because they aren’t mages. Anyone who studied some magic before coming here should know how, right?”
“.. Really?”
“.. Huh? You really didn’t know?”
Of course I didn’t.
Because I wasn’t from this world.
But there was no way Helia could know that.
She continued looking at me with an incredulous expression.
Even if she looked at me like that.. I really hadn’t known.
They’d never told us anything like that in the game..
“.. You really didn’t know??!”
Helia looked at me with a stunned expression.
I was at a loss for words. At least it was good that I knew now.
Thinking about it this way,
I could understand Helia’s misunderstanding.
“.. Ena must have learned it too, right?”
“Of course! Even Ms. Mist, who can’t use magic, probably knows that!”
Even if I ran to Ena right now and asked her to teach me,
she probably would have.
But asking her instead of asking Ena?
Anyone would see this as flirting.
“Ahaha.. Then.. I’ll withdraw my request..?”
Helia puffed out her cheeks after hearing me.
I had no idea what she was thinking.
She didn’t answer even after hearing what I said.
“Haha..”
Just as I gave an awkward laugh and was about to turn away,
she gave me a strange reply.
“No take-backs.”
“.. What?”
“I’ll teach you after class! Come to the library.. no, the workshop!”
Helia spoke to me in a slightly irritated tone.
As if she wouldn’t accept any objections.
‘Why on earth..’
I looked at Helia and was about to say, ‘Why do I have to go?’
but swallowed the words that rose to my lips.
I didn’t know what the problem was,
but somehow.. it felt like refusing to go would cause a major problem.
‘No.. Before her favorability gets destroyed.. I should just agree.’
“Um.. okay.”
Helia was watching me nod.
Then she was aghast.
“You really can’t be satisfied with just one person..”
It was unfair.
Could I really keep freeloading my way through life like this?
But my sense of injustice lasted only a moment.
This was a situation where I had to learn, even if I had to shamelessly endure it.
—-
A place where the dance of fire and ice created endless rises and falls.
The academy’s workshop and forge.
This was where the slaves—no, graduate students—who diligently made their own equipment and commissioned equipment remained all year round.
I was merely a drifter who had lost his place to go.
“Hmm.. It’s a little dizzying, isn’t it?”
Helia lightly scratched her head and waved at me.
I waved back slightly and greeted her.
“It is. I’d heard this place was lively, but..”
- Boom!! Kaboom!!
A huge explosion rang out from somewhere.
A pillar of flame appeared, as though someone had cast a high-level spell.
But.. the most frightening thing was that no one reacted.
It was as though they were machines.
No matter what happened here.
Slaves that kept moving until their switches were turned off.
“But.. I can still teach you!”
Helia seemed to find this different from what she’d expected.
She stumbled over her words.
I had no idea what thoughts had brought her here..
Still, she was right.
‘For now.. all that matters is that I can learn.’
As long as I could inscribe magic circles and make talismans right away,
I might be able to avoid coming in last in the next sparring match.
“Right. Well.. it’s nice that no one around us seems to care.”
“Ah..”
Helia bit her lips tightly, as if she didn’t like what I’d said.
But she let out a small sigh and looked at me.
“All right.. I’ll teach you quickly and be done with it. Now.. you know what Inscription is, right?”
I tilted my head slightly.
I’d read the skill description in the game.
I even remembered it.
But was that the same as the general knowledge taught here?
I didn’t know.
But I didn’t know anything else, so I might as well tell her what I knew.
“It’s the process of infusing mana into an object.. isn’t it?”
“.. You know this one quite well, too?”
“That’s right. Inscription is a way of infusing mana into an object.”
“It’s a little crude, but.. like when you put mana into a tennis ball, Mr. Bin.”
I nodded.
I roughly understood what she meant.
Since I’d stuffed a tennis ball full of mana the night before we left on the expedition,
I knew that sensation well.
“So, if I do it the way I did with the tennis ball, is that Inscription?”
“Ah.. But that isn’t quite it. Mr. Bin, how do you usually cast a fireball spell?”
Huh? A fireball?
I didn’t know how to use one.
There were only two spells I’d learned since coming to the academy, after all.
Energy Bolt and Magic Missile.
“I don’t know.”
“Right. Simplified characters.. Huh? You don’t know?”
“Uh.. I haven’t learned that yet, have I?”
“..?”
Helia blinked and looked at me.
As if she couldn’t understand.
“Did you perhaps learn magic completely from scratch after coming to the academy?”
“Yes. Completely from scratch.”
I’d never even held a sword, let alone used magic.
Would I have known any of this if I’d put some basic abilities into the character during creation?
I was definitely a little more nimble than in my original world.
But I’d become a completely useless character.
I was truly an empty-headed vessel who knew nothing at all.
“Ah.. No wonder you didn’t know Inscription.. So you really are a complete beginner..”
Helia stuck out her lower lip.
Her expression clearly said that explaining this would be complicated.
“To learn Inscription, you need to know a few basic spells first..”
Helia tugged on my hand.
Then she began writing something on my hand, blue mana pooled in her hand.
“A great flame reaching toward the sky.. and a burning speck beside it.. This is the foundation of the magic that produces flames.”
As if she were drawing on a sheet of paper,
Helia drew a flame on my hand.
With blue mana.
“It really looks like a flame, doesn’t it?”
Helia nodded slightly.
Then.. she infused it with mana forcefully.
- Fwoosh!
“Now.. this is a basic fire spell.”
“Wow, that’s fascinating..?”
A flame was blossoming from my hand.
It was a pure flame.
The flame that had flared up while devouring the blue mana
disappeared once the mana ran out.
“But didn’t you notice anything strange about the magic I just drew?”
Something strange?
Hmm.. I wasn’t sure. Since it was shaped like a flame, fire appearing seemed..
only natural.
Hmm.. No, wait.
If I had to draw something like that on my hand every time,
using magic would be too much of a hassle.
“If I had to draw that on my hand every time.. it’d be hard to use.”
“Oh~ Exactly. That’s the problem!”
Helia nodded vigorously, seeming pleased with what I’d said.
“Actually, even the flame I drew on your hand was relatively easy. The most basic method is.. to form the mana into a three-dimensional flame.”
Helia drew out her mana and began shaping it in midair.
Just like when Professor Naia had first made Energy Bolt and Magic Missile.
Naturally.. creating a flame with so many curves was much more difficult.
Helia barely managed to make a flame, then looked at me.
“Hah.. Ugh. This is really difficult. Anyway. To avoid doing this kind of thing.. rune characters were created.”
Helia looked at me and showed me a character with four strokes. (火)
“This is a rune character that means flame, you see? If you infuse mana into it..”
- Fwoosh!!
Helia looked at me with a slight smile.
A flame was flaring up in her hand.
Much more easily than before.
“Hehe.. This is how you cast fire magic.”
Having said that, Helia looked at me again.
“Now, let’s return to Inscription. What, exactly.. does Inscription do?”
I smiled slightly as I looked at Helia.
I thought I understood what she was trying to say now.
“Inscription means.. engraving those rune characters, right?”
“That’s right! More precisely, it isn’t limited to rune characters.. but anyway, it’s the process of engraving them!”
“In that sense.. Professor Naia was right.” “What she did in that class was exactly a primitive magic circle.”
Helia said that, then gave me a small sheet of paper and
a strange-looking pen.
“This is one of the things called a magic pen. Use it to inscribe a rune character on the paper!”
“Ah! Of course, you need to put quite a lot of mana into the pen first. More than you would when casting magic.”
I took the pen from her.
From her explanation alone, it didn’t seem that difficult.
For starters, the rune character meaning fire
was just the Chinese character for fire, 火, wasn’t it?
.. Why had this game turned rune characters into Chinese characters?
Well, that worked out for me.
It was much easier than writing rune characters I’d never seen or used before.
“Hmm.. I’ll give it a try.”
“Hehe.. It’ll be pretty difficult the first time. After all.. it’s a language you’re writing for the first time.”
Helia looked at me with a meaningful smile.
But I simply remembered writing Chinese characters long ago and wrote it.
“Uh.. Huh?”
Helia tilted her head in confusion as she watched my handwriting come out neat and pretty.
Hmm, judging by that reaction, I must be writing it correctly.
“Ehh???”
Helia looked at my neatly written character, then stared at my face in confusion.
Well, it was pointless even if she looked.
She wouldn’t believe me even if I told her I’d written this in my old world.
I sent the completed sheet of paper flying into the air.
- Fwoosh!!!
“Wow..! As expected, Ms. Helia, you’re an amazing teacher! I succeeded on my first try!”
Helia gave a hollow laugh, looking as though she’d been deflated.
“.. It took me a day..”
Apparently.
I must have somehow caused yet another strange misunderstanding.