Chapter 12
As soon as morning broke, Acel and Ena began their education in the library. Ena picked out only the necessary books from the hundreds on the shelves and placed them in front of Acel.
"These are the characters used in spell formulas. Memorize them."
"Understood."
Ena handed over a total of 10 books. It was too much to cover in a short time. But Acel, without showing any dislike, took all the books and settled in a corner of the library. Ena stayed by his side, waiting for him to finish reading all the books.
Time passed like this. As a result of focusing solely on reading, except for sleeping and meal times, Acel was able to finish all 10 books in a week.
It wasn't just about finishing reading, but ultimately memorizing all the characters, which wasn't a big problem for Acel.
"What does this character mean?"
"Expansion. It's used to increase or amplify the range of magic."
"And this one?"
"Delay. It's a character used to determine when magic will activate depending on how much magical power is injected. It's effective for spells used with a time difference."
"Then this one?"
"Autonomy. It goes into spell formulas for magic that operates by thinking and judging on its own."
Answers came out without hesitation to Ena's questions. After confirming that Acel had definitely memorized all the characters in the books, Ena moved on to the next stage.
"I'll teach you about the basic knowledge of magic."
The second session was a lecture. Acel sat in a chair, watching Ena start to explain while standing on a podium, and recalled memories from his past life.
It seemed that professors gave lectures like this in a place called “university”. It wasn't a bad feeling. Acel focused on Ena's lecture.
The lectures on the basics of magic were mostly knowledge-based. There weren't many opportunities to actually use magic. At most, there were occasional uses without attribute changes, and the rest was just sitting, taking notes, and listening.
"Magic is a miracle manifested through magical power. There are quite a lot of types, and those called great masters sometimes develop new, original magic. The great master of lightning magic was an archmage named Cromwell, but he's gone now. He died a thousand years ago."
"..."
"Just because you've learned the same magic doesn't mean you can project the same power. Depending on the mage's ability, even lower-level magic can have the power of high-level magic."
"Can you do that too, Master?"
"If I concentrate."
The lectures continued for about 4 months. During that period, Acel was able to accumulate a lot of knowledge, starting from the history related to magic, methods of reading spell formulas, arranging characters, creating spell formulas, methods of imbuing magical properties, and so on.
It was quite a meaningful achievement. Acel smiled with satisfaction as he confirmed that the efficiency and power of fire magic, which was now more than familiar to him, had dramatically increased through Ena's lectures.
Meanwhile, time continued to flow.
By the time Ena's lectures ended, the season was already looking towards summer. From then on, Acel began to learn lightning magic in earnest from Ena.
There were a total of five magic books related to lightning magic in Ena's library. Considering that other types of magic had well over hundreds of books, this was a very small amount, but most magic classified as unique was in a similar situation. To begin with, since there were few users, it was natural that there was little organized content.
Moreover, lightning magic was a magic that no one except its creator, Cromwell, and Ena had been able to learn. Thinking about it that way, even five books seemed quite a lot.
"Have you finished reading the introductory book?"
"Yes, I've read it all the way through," Acel answered Ena's question.
Currently, the two were standing in an open space behind the mansion. They had moved locations because it was too dangerous to give magic instruction in the library where they had always continued their education. Here, compared to the narrow library, it was easier to deal with and not bad for unleashing magic.
"What's the most basic magic of lightning spells?"
"Lightning Release. It's magic that changes magical power into the nature of lightning and fires it."
"Try using it."
Acel nodded, facing Ena with a serious expression.
He had read the books on lightning spells dozens of times. The same was true for the rest, excluding the introductory book. The contents of the books he had read numerous times while frequenting the library still remained in his head.
As he raised his hand, he recalled the characteristics of lightning magic.
The activation speed was slower than light-based magic that handled light, but the power was doubled. Although classified as a branch of destruction magic, unlike other destruction magic, lightning magic had no recoil thanks to its special circuit. However, not only the power but also the speed, calculation, and delicacy in handling the power of lightning all depend solely on the mage's ability without the aid of spell formulas, so most people couldn't even touch it.
This was Acel's first time using it directly too. Although he knew the knowledge through books, he had refrained from using it following Ena's advice. Therefore, changing magical power into lightning, assembling spell formulas, and calculating magical power amount were all firsts for him.
But...
This is strange.
Acel thought with a comfortable expression as he moved his magical power.
Woong.
The magical power in his core moved instantly. The magical power that had increased through using magic slowly changed its nature in response to his will. Accordingly, a circuit with good compatibility with lightning magic was formed.
It was an instinctively assembled circuit. A type of magical power circuit that could be flexibly designed to match each type of magic. Through this innate talent, Acel could assemble any type of circuit he wanted.
The same was true for lightning magic. He felt that the lightning magic circuit he had currently assembled was more familiar than the circuit he had assembled for fire magic so far. Perhaps he had even better aptitude for this. No, that was certainly the case.
"If you judge it to be dangerous, cut it off. I'll block the recoil."
Ena's words. Acel nodded, still with an indifferent expression.
He assembled the circuit and changed the nature of the magical power. Work that took place simultaneously without paying attention to order produced results at the same time.
Crack.
The sound of lightning striking echoed in his mind.
A smile naturally bloomed on his lips.
He manifested magic without any chanting, just by recalling the spell formula.
[Lightning Release]
Crackle!
Dark blue lightning shot out rapidly from Acel's hand. The lightning, advancing without any hindrance, disappeared with a huge thunderclap as it struck a tree. Ena glanced at the tree that had started to tilt with its center completely pierced, then smiled back at Acel who was smiling at her.
It was the birth of the third lightning mage in history.
***
Time flowed like running water. Seasons passed to the point where it was impossible to know how many times they had repeated, and Acel finally greeted his first day as an adult.
Just like they had held a coming-of-age party for Evelyn last year, this year a party was held to celebrate Acel's coming of age. However, while last year only the mansion's residents attended the party, this year several mages from the Witch Association joined the party. They were all people who had connections with Ena or had formed new relationships with Acel.
After receiving most of his education from Ena, Acel often went alone to the Witch Association's library to immerse himself in books or attend magic exchange meetings, and in the process, he was able to build quite a lot of relationships.
In a way, it was natural. Acel, who had grown up without any dramatic changes from his childhood appearance, had long since become a celebrity in the Witch Association, where women made up the majority. Moreover, unlike his master, who was famous for her bad temper, he was easy to talk to, and was receiving the love of similar young mages with his whole body.
There were even those who tried to seduce him physically to gain his interest or favor. Of course, they were somewhat restrained by their masters, but still, there were many who struggled to receive Acel's attention.
It was the same at this party.
"It's been a while, Acel! Have you been well?"
"Ah, Hera. I've been fine. You look even prettier when you dress up."
"Ugh... Ahem. Thank you. This is a coming-of-age gift. Will you accept it?"
"...Is it a letter?"
"Yes! I put money in it too! So, Acel! Won't you spend your life doing magic research with me?!"
A confession befitting a mage from Hera. Acel returned the letter to her with a bitter smile and gently expressed his refusal.
"I'm sorry. I'm not ready to be with someone yet. I'll just accept your feelings."
"Ah..."
At this clear expression of intent, Hera stood still as if her soul had left her body, then turned around with tears in her eyes. Acel scratched the back of his head as he watched her hair flutter. At that moment, Irina, with a pipe in her mouth, chuckled and casually draped her arm over Acel's shoulder.
"You're popular, huh? How many girls have you made cry so far?"
"...I don't know."
"How many are there that you don't even know?"
"Come on, why are you asking such things? It's uncomfortable."
"It's fun."
Irina laughed as she blew smoke infused with magical power into Acel's face. Acel ignited a flame to consume all the smoke, then gently slipped out of Irina's embrace.
"They're all still young. They're mistaking interest with affection because I'm the only man they frequently meet."
"You sound like you've lived decades longer. You're about the same age as them, you know."
Irina let out a hollow laugh as if dumbfounded, then used smoke to pull a glass of wine from the table and took a sip. Acel also drank wine following her, and when his eyes met with Evelyn, who was busily moving around the tables, he smiled and waved at her. Evelyn also smiled back and waved.
Irina said, watching this scene, "You siblings get along well."
"We've lived relying on each other since we were young. We can't help but get along. By the way, Lady Irina. Didn't you have a meeting today? Why are you here?" Acel asked this as he put down the wine he was holding on the table.
Coincidentally, this year there was a meeting led by the Alliance on this day. There wasn't one last year, but due to the sudden meeting held this year, even Ena left for the meeting hall after just leaving words of congratulations. Yet Irina, who belonged to the same Alliance, was sitting at the party drinking wine instead of attending the meeting.
When he first met her, she was full of intimidation and mystery, but after getting to know her somewhat, her impression was completely opposite to the first. To the point where he wondered if she was the same person. So Acel thought, maybe Irina had been expelled from the Alliance and couldn't attend the meeting.
"Ah, that."
But the answer that came out was different from what he thought.
"It's not really a meeting I need to attend. If I just vote briefly or give an opinion, I don't have to go to the meeting hall."
"But Master went..."
"Ena has to attend. The topic of this meeting is related to Ena."
"What could it be?"
"It's confidential."
Irina smiled and tapped Acel's head with the end of her pipe.
"If you're curious, get a high position in the Alliance."
"...Is this what an archmage is like?"
"Amazing, right? I know."
Irina chuckled as she inhaled smoke, then suddenly remembered something and turned to Acel with an "Ah" sound.
"I think I can tell you this."
"...?"
"Congratulations on your admission to the Academy."
"...?"
Acel's face crumpled at the words delivered with a smile.
***
"According to the contract between the Alliance and Luminus Academy, we need to enroll one excellent mage who has just become an adult in the academy. The candidates are Acel, Ena's disciple, and Cal, Quirm's disciple. These are the two. The preliminary voting results show 25 votes for Acel and 3 votes for Cal."
"..."
"Even if all the votes of those gathered here go to Cal, it's not enough to match Acel. I will confirm Acel's enrollment in the academy."
Bang bang bang.
The elderly mage sitting at the end of the round table finished speaking and struck the table with a magical hammer. At the same time, thunderous applause filled the room, followed by Ena standing up from her seat and bringing real thunder.
[Lightning Bow]
BOOM!!!!
In an instant, the walls of the conference room were shattered. Ena looked down at the silent people with ominous eyes and muttered softly, "I refuse."
He's my disciple.
Ena's expression as she murmured this was distorted with anger.