Proving It
So that’s what it means to prove it, Cadet Rain.
The mother of all mages, Maria Eilish von Laenifel. As her name suggests, she was the founding queen who laid the foundation for the current kingdom. To mages, she is revered as their mother. The reason she is respected not as royalty but as a mage is because her unique magic, 『Greenhouse』, had an enormous impact on the study of mana circles.
First, she established the hierarchical system of mana circles… and above all, it allowed one to clearly see an individual’s strengths and weaknesses. In other words, it quantified everything from one’s current stats to their potential for growth. The statistics produced by 『Greenhouse』 were 99% accurate, which is why she earned the title of the mother of mages.
———The preface has gone on long enough.
“...Cadet Rain. You may enter.”
The assistant professor in charge of supervision stares at me with an openly displeased expression. If I weren’t a student, he looks like he’d drag me straight into summary judgment for insulting a noble…
‘What are you gonna do if you glare at me like that? Who the hell are you anyway?’
This is royal territory. This is the Academy, where everyone is equal. And since he holds the position of assistant professor, if he wants to continue living as a professor here, he can’t cause any trouble.
“Thanks for your hard work~.”
I give a casual nod as a greeting to the assistant professor who will be standing here for hours. Even though I’m a scoundrel, I have no desire to earn the title of Maestro, the man at the forefront of collapsing academic authority, so I kept things appropriately in line. Honestly, the ones at fault are the eighty people who happily wrote their names on that denunciation letter. This guy isn’t one of them.
‘So why poke at someone who was just minding their own business? It only makes everyone tired.’
Still, I don’t think it was excessive to look down on a noble, so… what was bound to explode eventually happened to explode today, and on a rather grand scale.
With a mental victory in my pocket, I step into the room.
“Are you Cadet Rain, 97th cohort of the Magic Department?”
As soon as I enter, I see a space divided by translucent glass. I’m on the left side of the glass, and the assistant professor in charge of preventing cheating and supervision is on the right. I nod in response to the woman’s question.
“Yes, that’s correct.”
“Your specialty is… Ether. Is that right?”
The moment she says the word Ether, a note of puzzlement enters the assistant professor’s voice.
“Yes, that’s correct.”
“...Understood. I will begin the preparations.”
The woman tilts her head openly, wearing an expression that says she doesn’t quite understand. Her reaction makes sense. The Ether school is an unknown domain currently under heavy investigation by the Magic Tower.
The five major schools within the Tower are the four elements—fire, water, wind, and earth—plus electricity. Since magic is a discipline that pursues Truth, learning has no end, and scholars of the five major schools are already busy enough researching their own fields. That’s why mages who dabble in Ether, a field that’s practically a blank slate, are extremely rare…
If the history here is similar to my previous life, the Seton family I belonged to has only recently risen to prominence and is currently leading the Ether school within the Magic Tower. Yet here appears a commoner who knows nothing, claiming to use Ether magic. From her perspective, she probably has no expectations and zero interest.
“Please activate your mana circle for one minute according to the audio signal. After that, simply carry out the ‘planning’ through ‘proof’ stages of the highest-difficulty spell formula you can demonstrate.”
She hasn’t seen what I can do yet.
Beep. Beep—.
At the short, thick signal, I lightly activate my mana circle.
A third-rate would mindlessly crank their mana circle to maximum output here. A second-rate would calculate the output needed for the spell they intend to use and test the waters. A first-rate would try to catch two rabbits with clean senses… but a super first-rate villain like me who loves causing chaos doesn’t obey the system.
Whoosh—.
I spread mana throughout the entire space. Mana is energy and force. That means it has a constant flow, and if something goes against that flow, it’s possible to read the opponent’s magic through various pieces of information—the angle of refraction, the distance it bounces, speed, degree of resonance, and so on.
Of course, that’s only theoretically possible. In practice, it’s incredibly difficult. If it were easy, anyone and everyone would be using ‘disruption’ to read an opponent’s magic in advance and neutralize the spell before it could even be cast.
Especially since this is a sealed space. There are variables created when mana particles bounced off the target magic hit the walls. And on top of that, it’s not ordinary magic—it’s a unique spell. A unique magic that embodies a mage’s subjective pursuit of Truth, one that is absolutely impossible to disrupt until you’ve experienced it firsthand.
Simply analyzing regular magic is like trying to feel grains of sand with your eyes closed and match their shapes. Analyzing a unique magic is like trying to feel particles smaller than grains of sand with your hair. And disrupting it is an entirely separate, even more difficult task.
So if a mage somewhere tells you, “I have experience disrupting magic,” you can assume with high probability that they’re suffering from a bad case of lying and should just smile politely and walk away.
At this point, if someone were to ask, “So does that mean Rain is suffering from the same condition…?”
“Found it.”
I, Rain, can say it with my chest puffed out: ‘I have never told a lie since the day I was born.’
Hoo—.
I activate my mana circle even more strongly and dig into the gaps of 『Greenhouse』. If it were a personal unique magic, even the me from my previous life would need five minutes to analyze it. But this is a standardized, ready-made spell formula designed to activate once certain conditions are met.
What that means is… ‘As long as I meet the conditions, I’m granted the right to intervene in the spell formula~.’
I smile and boldly seize that authority.
From the beginning, I had no intention of analyzing 『Greenhouse』. It would be ridiculous for the current me to uncover something so difficult. What I had been searching for were the conditions and permissions required to cast 『Greenhouse』. To find them, I focused on locating the foreign energy within the spell formula of 『Greenhouse』.
Of course, that’s still a difficult task, but who do you think I am? The one and only being in human history to have realized Truth. And the Truth I realized was space and time. Even if it was a unique magic, two circles were enough to analyze and calculate a standardized spell… and two circles were also enough to copy the permissions and conditions needed to intervene.
‘Ah, I really have to praise myself for never robbing a bank despite having this ability.’
A guy whose brain for dirty tricks is second to none. A sneaky bastard. A guy strangely brilliant at useless things. A guy whose talent is truly wasted. A complete madman. Yeah, that’s me.
‘Your skills are still the same, Rain.’
A madman’s third-person self-address. But since I’m a somewhat socialized madman who knows saying it out loud would make me even crazier, I praise myself inwardly and successfully intervene in 『Greenhouse』.
“...Wait a moment.”
Only then does the assistant professor, who had been watching the screen, realize the problem. She tries to assess the situation with a serious expression, but—
Beep. Beep—.
Before she can do anything, the test moves on to the next phase. I deploy the magic I had prepared.
The five major elements with attributes and the non-attribute Ether are completely different from the planning stage all the way to proof. The planning array for attribute magic is normally written in even-numbered rune characters to induce phenomenon alteration through mana… but for the Ether school, the main phrases must absolutely use origin runes, and the phrases must be written in odd-numbered units.
Therefore, the construction array that follows the planning array for the five major elements draws circuits made of even-numbered strokes to supplement or add meaning to the planner’s intent… but for the Ether school, the construction array draws geometrically shaped circuits solely for the purpose of letting the magic calculate according to the caster’s will, regardless of even or odd numbers.
———And so, there was only one thing I wanted to accomplish even if it meant intervening in 『Greenhouse』.
“...What is this?!”
I distort the clear vision provided by the mystical glasses so that 『Greenhouse』 cannot detect the fact that I am operating a fourth-circle spell using only two circles through the Truth of Space and Time.
A fourth-circle spell from the space-time school.
[Domain Expansion: Time Deceleration]
I casually bring out the fourth-circle magic I had prepared and display a color intensity that cannot be seen in reality.
"I will prove it."
⟨ Domain Expansion: Time Deceleration ⟩
Beep. Beep—.
Operation terminated.
Along with the monotonous notification, the 『Greenhouse』 magic circle that had filled the space shuts down.
I leisurely swept my bangs back and smiled at the assistant professor beyond the glass… and she wore an expression of pure shock, as if what she was seeing couldn’t possibly be real, staring at something in a daze.
Yeah, even I would make that face.
One hundred out of one hundred, one thousand out of one thousand—the legacy of the mother who produced nearly perfect results every time. 『Maria’s Greenhouse』. That very 『Maria’s Greenhouse』, which would succeed in analysis and produce results no matter how ordinary or genius the test subject was…
97th Cohort | Magic Department / Ether School
Rain
Classification • Evaluation: Impossible
Error Code: 0001
Even I can’t help but sigh and mutter, ‘Ugh… this one really is too much.’
Knock knock.
“Hweh…?!”
I knock on the glass to snap the assistant professor out of her daze as she stares blankly at the monitor.
“Can I leave now?”
Then, with the kindest smile in the world, I say something I know full well I shouldn’t.
+++
“Does this even make sense!!”
With a roar filled with rage, a middle-aged man with thick double eyelids slams his hand down hard on the table. The five full professors attending the meeting don’t say anything because they understand his anger, but…
“Please calm down. Getting angry right now won’t solve anything, will it?”
Professor Miles, the overall supervisor for this grade assessment, adjusts his uniquely shaped glasses and tries to calm his colleague. But the man still can’t contain his fury, veins bulging on his neck.
“How can you say that after seeing that a third party’s mana has interfered with Maria’s Greenhouse!”
As he said, an immediate investigation after Cadet Rain’s test revealed traces of unknown mana interfering with 『Maria’s Greenhouse』. By all rights, it would be reasonable to immediately treat it as Rain’s cheating and punish him based on circumstantial evidence, but…
“There is no evidence, is there?”
Featureless mana. No matter how much Ether is considered non-attribute magic, mana is still a person’s unique energy and aura—in other words, another means of identifying the individual.
Even these full professors of the Academy, renowned for their extensive academic backgrounds, have never seen this kind of magic before, so grasping the truth is difficult… but anyway, the Ether magic that Rain had successfully proven was filled with traces of mana bearing his distinct characteristics.
“...If the spell formula had detected any form of intervention, the firewall spell we professors created would have activated immediately.”
“...That’s true. And above all, the error code is that code, isn’t it?”
A code that appears when facing a 'genius' that even Maria's Greenhouse cannot dare to evaluate.
When that irrefutable code is mentioned, even the thick double-eyelidded professor who had been raging lets out a deep sigh and can only mutter curses under his breath.
Error Code 0001 is literally the code that appears when facing a ‘genius’ that even 『Maria’s Greenhouse』 cannot dare to evaluate.
“...We don’t have much time left.”
After thirty minutes of no answers, Professor Miles’s dark circles grow even darker. In just ten minutes, the last test subject from the Knight Department will be receiving their rank assessment. Setting aside the rank judgment, it’s about time they finish Rain’s first-grade classification, but… even though the professors famous for their brilliant minds are gathered here, none of them have any idea what grade to assign.
How could they possibly evaluate a person that even the arrangement of Lady Maria—the mother of mages and founding queen—could not analyze? Setting aside the fact that he was an insolent and arrogant commoner, not a single one of them could easily offer an opinion on how to define Rain’s talent as Academy professors.
It was right at that moment—
Vrrrr—.
“Excuse me.”
Professor Miles’s terminal vibrates and emits a sound.
Sender: Assistant Professor Juvia
The source of the message was the assistant professor who had been temporarily assigned to facilitate smooth communication with Rain.
“Pardon me for a moment.”
After obtaining his colleagues’ permission, Miles carefully checks the message. Soon, the man who is rarely shaken by anything lets out a disbelieving chuckle and rummages through the inner pocket of his professor’s robe. He pulls out a cigarette—the one he only smokes when he’s suffering from a headache—and lights it without hesitation.
His colleagues, who know his habit, look at him with puzzled eyes.
“...First of all, thank you all for participating in this emergency meeting. It seems we can adjourn now.”
“What do you mean?”
“The matter hasn’t even been resolved yet.”
“Did they discover clear evidence of cheating?”
“Of course. There’s no way a commoner could produce Error Code 0001.”
“...It’s not that.”
Hoo—.
Miles exhales the cigarette smoke he had inhaled deeply and shares his terminal screen onto the large display with a bitter smile.
“Since the professors seem to be struggling quite a bit, I will volunteer for Grade 5. I apologize for causing you all concern…?”
“What is this?”
The thick double-eyelidded professor read the message exactly as it was, and…
“It’s exactly what it says.”
Miles shrugged as if he found it absurd.
“He’s proving it. Cadet Rain. That the words he spoke from the podium weren’t lies.”
The cigarette he tasted after so long was incredibly sweet.