Hero
Hero
The manic praise directed at me continued for quite a while after that.
It wasn't like I'd won through pure swordsmanship, and strictly speaking I'd used Magic Power myself, so in many ways it was just a makeshift trick and I wasn't entirely comfortable with it, but since all I had to do was keep my mouth shut I just let it slide and played along appropriately.
But while I was being harassed like that for a long time, class ended up being completely derailed as expected and never properly continued. No, seriously, Jideulli, that bastard, he's the professor, what the hell was he doing getting swept up along with them? Maybe the reason Radnelbandes is so strict with him is because he has weirdly sloppy moments like that.
"I'll come find you later, so just wander around until then, Eldmia."
Siegfried laughed very cheerfully and moved on to the next class. Maybe because they'd never expected that kind of reaction, even the three women who stuck to the Hero wore puzzled expressions as they followed after him, and while I was quietly watching that, Ragnis came up beside me and asked.
"Why's he acting all chummy? It's irritating."
Winning had been fine, but since the Hero didn't actually seem to have taken much damage from it, she was in a state of vague spiteful irritation.
"He might be a more decent guy than I thought."
"...It looked like you were talking about something after the sparring ended. Did something happen in between?"
"I'll have to talk to him more to be sure... but about half of that debauched look seems to be an act."
Of course, that didn't mean his complete lack of fundamentals in swordsmanship or his lousy manners were an act, but Siegfried was clearly taking his position seriously. The way he reacted immediately when the Empire was brought up left no need for doubt.
"Hmm... anyway. You won, huh?"
"His basic abilities were at a level I couldn't even begin to match, but his fundamentals were way too lacking. He probably never felt any threat from monsters or bandits, and since it was enough to get by against other students inside the academy, that's probably why."
Since he's a reincarnator, there was also the possibility that he'd fallen hard into magic during his time being educated at the academy. I'd also tried to learn magic first thing when I was young. If he'd ever fought even once against someone strong enough to feel the wall, he might have realized it... but I still had no way of knowing whether he'd been deliberately left in that situation or coddled and raised as the Hero.
"The Empire goes so far in education as to use spatial magic to create that incredible sparring arena, so why would they leave a weakness in the Hero?"
Everything that immediately came to mind only led back to the intention of using the Hero, so I looked at Ragnis to get her opinion, but she just stared at me with a frown.
Why, why are you looking at me with those eyes.
"You noticed that? Like how you dismantled the magic too. Feels like I've got a lot of questions for you today?"
Ah. I only knew that because of the colors, so normally you wouldn't, huh.
"Let's just follow the classes for now and talk later."
"...We absolutely have to talk later?"
"Of course."
It's not like it was a story I couldn't tell, but there were too many eyes watching right now. Anyway, what should I even call this.
Do I just dump something like Mystic Eyes on it?
◈
Classes at the academy mostly wrapped up at 4 o'clock. Although in every class we went to, rumors that I'd beaten the Hero and used chantless casting had already spread far and wide, so Ragnis and I had to endure being mobbed by students to the point of exhaustion, but anyway, we managed to finish our first day at the academy without incident.
"The academy I knew wasn't like this..."
Unlike me, Ragnis, who was in the middle of experiencing the royal academy, had reached a point where she couldn't overcome the cultural differences and was slumping over, so that said it all. In the end, exhausted beyond belief, we sat down in a dessert cafe the female students had passionately recommended and were taking in caffeine and sugar.
"Compared to the Empire, the Kingdom is just a backwater village."
"I want to deny it as a noble, but I've got nothing to say."
The price of coffee at the cafe was one copper coin, and a small cake was two copper coins. Hell, even to my palate, which was considerably refined thanks to memories from my past life, both tasted decent enough.
In the Kingdom, a single slice of cake like that would cost at least six copper coins. And the standard for coffee was paying two copper coins for mud-water worse than this. Why do you think I carried around coffee beans?
"As expected, having a big country makes all the difference. If there's ever a surplus of goods later, will the Kingdom get some benefits too?"
"...You never even went to the academy, where do you study stuff like that?"
"I've got my ways."
Of course, whether such ways actually existed, I didn't know. It was just memories from my past life. Ragnis, who realized I had no intention of explaining in detail, wore the displeased expression she'd been showing more and more lately and changed the subject.
"More importantly, just explain what happened earlier at the sparring arena."
"It's a really vague sense to describe concretely as 'this is exactly it'..."
Since the other party was Ragnis anyway, I told her everything exactly as it was. It wasn't like I needed to hide it at this point when she already knew I was someone who used Magic Power, not aura.
Truthfully, sensing Magic Power wasn't limited to sight; all five senses reacted to it. Vision was simply the easiest part to explain, so I stopped there.
"So... you can see the flow of Mana in those colors too, and when someone casts magic, you see the Mana being sucked into the spell in progress?"
"Roughly, yeah?"
"Just because you can see it, can you cut it just by swinging?"
"Not exactly. I have to apply a little technique to the sword, like wrapping my body in Magic Power, before I can cut it."
"Is it difficult?"
"A bit tricky. It was easier in the sparring arena, but that's probably because the sword was an illusion made from Mana."
Even after getting a new sword, I'd tried multiple times, but it never worked that fast.
"Th-then, could it work just by coating the weapon in Mana or aura?"
"Weeeell? I can't properly feel aura or Mana, you see. But even if you could cut it, wouldn't it be hard if you can't see it? The damn thing wavers like a thread blowing in the wind, and it's ridiculously fast."
Things like dispel, or disrupting the spell formula directly to dismantle magic, were common enough to be used in battles of wits between mages, but at least I'd never yet heard a story of someone doing it like I did.
If simply coating a weapon in Mana were enough, there should've been rumors of someone swinging an enchanted sword around and accidentally popping a spell or two, and somebody would've started researching it. But I'd never heard anything like that. Besides, the accepted theory was that aura couldn't be coated onto a weapon at all, so there was no point considering that side of it.
"Even I only recently found out that this kind of thing is possible on a weapon. No matter how much we combine the common knowledge you know and the common knowledge I know, no one else is likely able to imitate this."
"...That's a problem in itself."
What Ragnis was worried about was obvious. A previously nonexistent technique had popped up, so all kinds of groups would be eyeing it to figure out the truth and assess my worth. But I hadn't shown off something like that openly without any thought either.
"I'll just roughly bluff that the sword has a dispel spell loaded into it, that'll do."
"No matter what, such an obvious lie? The rumors must be spreading like crazy already, would anyone believe that?"
"Even if thirty students and one professor right here all speak with one voice and say they saw it, there are tons of people who'd doubt it first. This kind of thing, when you look into it, it was nothing. He was just hiding it well. If I leave it at that and don't react much, most of it gets resolved."
Even right now, Jideulli's case would be resolved at Radnelbandes' level, so for the rest of the rumors, you just have to let time pass and make people feel nothing but vague doubt, like 'Huh? Was that what it was?' More than discovering some completely impossible new thing, it was far more realistic that I'd prepared for the fight that meticulously, especially since I'd beaten the Hero too.
"Feels like you're thinking about it too carelessly..."
"Hey, trust me. By the time we leave, they'll only care about the fact that I beat the Hero, and the magic dismantling won't even be mentioned, okay?"
Though not particularly enthusiastic, Ragnis ultimately nodded and accepted it. As we idly chatted like that and finished off a cup of coffee, around that time, the cafe door opened and a familiar voice came through.
"Eldmia! Let's talk over some food!"
Not content with sandwiching a woman on each side, Siegfried appeared with one more stuck behind him, and with a boldness that paid no attention to the surroundings whatsoever, he approached me.
Please, I don't care if he pays no attention to the surroundings, but I'd appreciate it if he'd stop squeezing their chests and asses while walking over. Ragnis was getting damn embarrassed.
"Haah... Hero. No, this isn't the Hero's problem. Young ladies, are you truly fine with being groped like that in public?"
Earlier he'd had the nun and Eselua on his arms, and now he had Eselua and the elf. Seeing as Eselua was always there, was she the main wife or something?
Of course, none of that really mattered to me... but the fact that those three also reacted as if none of it mattered to them after hearing what I said was driving me crazy.
"If Zeke likes it, I like it too. Well, it's a little embarrassing, but I prefer this to worrying about other people's stares."
"I don't particularly mind either."
The elf and Eselua answered without changing their expression one bit, and the nun silently nodded.
I'm going insane, seriously.
"You little brat. This is the magnificence of the Hero. Still, out of respect for the Margrave and you, I'll cut you some slack just this once."
"Z-Zeke?"
"As I thought, did you get hit wrong somewhere when we fought earlier?"
Instead, when Siegfried took his hands off their bodies and showed exaggerated courtesy, the three women's eyes went wide as they panicked.
Just what kind of life had that bastard lived in this other world?
"Anyway. First, food."
The guy who laughed out loud still had that fierce laugh, but unlike in the beginning, it gave off more of a hearty impression. And it seemed I wasn't the only one who felt that way, as Ragnis was also considerably flustered by Siegfried's completely different attitude from earlier.
Probably because there was no hostility or annoyance left in that attitude at all.
"Zeke. If you say it like that, other people won't understand. What on earth is this 'bap' you keep calling meals?"
"Ah. Right. Even after all this time, it never gets fixed. Meal, it's a meal. My treat."
I don't know about anything else. But that bastard, that was definitely a Korean.
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