Basic Magic (1)
To build a towering spire, where should one begin?
Of course, with a foundation strong enough to bear it.
In other words, the foundation mattered.
And I was...
"Blue cadet! That pattern is all crooked and slanted!"
"....."
...in the middle of laying that foundation.
.
.
.
"Haaam~"
Bright sunlight and a slightly chilly breeze pulled me up out of my soft bed.
Birds were chirping, flowers were blooming, and on a day like this, kids like me...
'Uuuugh~!'
Well, what else was I supposed to do but get up?
Tears pricking at the corners of my eyes, I stretched my body hard.
If I didn't do this every time I woke up, my mind wouldn't fully come to, so I usually made a point of stretching in the morning to shake off the last of the fog.
Still half-asleep, I checked the time built into my bracelet.
[ Saturday, 6:00 AM ]
I had woken at exactly six, just like on weekdays.
I wasn't the type to need a lot of sleep, so this was enough to get through the day without much trouble.
But today was Saturday. The weekend.
At Sielm Academy, the reason classes only ran Monday through Friday was because they didn't want to intrude on anyone's personal weekend time, but...
I did kind of want to go back to sleep.
The giant teddy bear tucked in my arms, along with all the things that had wrapped me in warmth and made sleep so comfortable, kept luring me back toward the depths of slumber.
"Sigh... I should get up."
Still, not today.
I had something important to do.
I dragged my whole body out of bed with great effort.
My heart was still full of the desire to keep sleeping, but if I let myself doze off now, I had a feeling I'd only end up cursing myself again today, so I shook my head and headed for the bathroom.
After setting the refilled towel and clothes carefully to one side, I turned on the faucet.
The moment warm water came out, all the tension in my body melted away, and I lay there in the tub for a while.
After washing myself from head to toe, I rubbed my body dry with the towel.
Where had all the blue bruises from yesterday gone? Only pale, white skin remained.
"?"
Wait a minute. Wasn't it supposed to be bad if the bruises were gone?
Yesterday, I'd definitely been beaten to a pulp by Professor Seres.
The bruises that should have been there had vanished cleanly.
I hurried to the mirror, and my face was in the same state; not a bruise in sight.
Recovery Training... one of the more widely known training methods, but, as Han Riae had put it, maybe it should be called a training method that's easier said than done.
Honestly, until yesterday I'd kept doubting this recovery training.
Apparently it was a kind of training where wounds absorbed mana, healed themselves again, and even natural recovery would improve.
Anyone else would have been skeptical if someone told them to use a method like that.
Professor Seres had also told me that if it got to be too much, I should just get treatment.
It hurt like hell. Honestly, saying it didn't hurt would be a complete lie. Even so, I hadn't gotten treated.
Just like Han Riae said, the effect was lousy, but I held on because I believed it really would do something, and I forced myself to endure it.
And now I was getting results like this.
It was true that my natural recovery was already high because of mana erosion, but yesterday the bruises hadn't gone away until the afternoon. Today, by morning, they were already gone.
I didn't want to admit it, but the effect was definitely real.
Her teaching had definitely paid off too.
The day before yesterday, I could barely even hold a sword properly and kept exposing openings, so I got beaten without mercy. But yesterday, even after picking up a spear, another weapon, I had somehow managed to hold out until the middle of the spar.
While we were sparring, I kept noticing new things one by one, my eyes caught little shifts in movement, and I had reached the point where I could at least exchange blows, if only barely.
Of course, the reason my skill had shot up so fast was definitely because of Professor Seres.
Her class really was the kind that left you saying, "Yeah, that's rough." After I listened to other cadets complaining that their afternoon majors were hard, I realized they didn't even amount to the dust beneath Professor Seres's feet.
For all its harshness, it was a class that gave you a great deal to take away from it.
Professor Seres was a new faculty member appointed this year.
Han Seohwa was also a professor newly appointed this year.
But if I thought about the difference between them...
Unlike Professor Han Seohwa, she didn't really have a newly opened course of her own.
The only thing she was running was a one-on-one combat class exclusively for special admission students, more or less.
Most professors at Sielm Academy had at least one course they themselves had opened.
But Professor Seres didn't even have that.
Hmm...
Well, at another academy that might have seemed strange, but this was Sielm.
There was no rule that said professors had to open a course of their own.
And there was also no rule forbidding them from opening multiple courses.
In this free atmosphere, a professor's duty was simply to pass on the knowledge they possessed to the cadets.
Since Professor Seres was teaching me, she wasn't going outside her duty.
"Hm, hm-hm~"
Feeling the joy of my own growth, I hummed to myself and left the bathroom.
Yesterday, when I'd looked in the mirror, my face had been covered in bruises and I'd been in a foul mood. Today, though, that wasn't the case, so I couldn't help feeling better.
Breathing in the fragrant scent of shampoo, I chose a decent-looking T-shirt from the closet.
Of course, the clothes in my closet were basically just my Sielm Academy uniform and a few hoodies I'd bought on the way here.
I put on a white T-shirt and threw a big denim jacket over it.
It was no longer the stiff, old-fashioned look of the academy uniform, but ordinary street clothes you could see anywhere.
Then I fastened my bracelet and shoved a handful of the chocolates Han Riae had given me into my pocket.
I had sincerely tried to refuse them, because they were absurdly expensive.
- This doesn't cost me a thing, so just take it lightly.
Along with those shocking words that the chocolate wasn't expensive at all, she'd handed over several dozen pieces.
"Nham, nham..."
Of course, I liked sweets, and they tasted good, so I ended up eating most of the handful of chocolates the moment I reached the dormitory lobby.
Even I couldn't help sighing inwardly at how fast I'd finished them off.
After leaving the lobby, I stepped into the street.
It was the weekend, and it was still not even seven, so there wasn't a soul around.
I rotated my wrists and ankles, stretched my legs out long, rolled my shoulders back, and loosened the stiff tension in my neck.
My body, made drowsy by the morning shower, was gradually unwinding one piece at a time.
After loosening up my stiffened body, I pushed off the ground and ran through the empty street. Was this what jogging was?
I hadn't run enough to know what was what, but one thing was certain: my physical ability had clearly improved.
It would have been fine to take one of the buses that ran twenty-four hours a day, but I wasn't in that much of a hurry, and I wanted to feel the sensation of running again, so I decided to run all the way to my destination.
The resistance of the air, something I'd never have felt on the very first day of class.
The chilly wind brushed past my hair and scattered it pleasantly.
The cold dawn air wrapped around my whole body, and only then did all the sleepiness finally seem to drain away.
I really hated this kind of cold, but since it had woken me up, I decided to resign myself to the pain.
The special training carried out under Professor Seres, the blessing of growth at Sielm, and mana erosion with its pure mana that absorbed all of it without restraint.
Once it had begun, that growth was still continuing to shape me.
It had only been three days, if I counted them, and yet I could already feel the change in my body clearly.
My body felt lighter than it had on the first day by a wide margin, and even after running this much, my legs still drove off the ground without tiring.
It was the complete opposite of the first day, when I had been gasping for breath after just one lap.
After about thirty minutes of running, I reached my destination.
It wasn't the dusty training grounds from my special lesson with Professor Seres, but a park with lush green grass spread out across it.
The stream of a river moving gently along with the current and flowers blooming in profusion delighted my eyes.
The pale morning sunlight and the thick mist unique to dawn deepened the mystical atmosphere.
I walked along the park path, and soon a space that looked like a study area came into view.
Several books were lined up on the shelves, and mana could be seen rising in wisps here and there.
The clean mana drifting around me tickled my skin as it softly soaked in.
Time...
[ Saturday, 7:24 AM ]
The appointed time was 7:30. There was still room to spare before then.
After taking a little more time to look around the place, I sat neatly on a bench.
It was a section for first-year students only, and at this hour there was hardly anyone there anyway.
Enjoying the long-lost sense of freedom, I took a deep breath.
The smell of grass, with weeds and pretty flowers mixed together, drifted past on the cool wind.
Honestly, if Han Riae hadn't been sitting beside me during the morning lecture, the unpleasant trembling in my body would have gone on and on.
Even during sparring with Professor Seres, I could feel it, and holding it back took everything I had.
But right now, there was only me in this place.
"Tweet, tweet."
"Ah, right, you're here too."
A sparrow fluttered in cutely and landed on my hand, so I gently stroked it.
Seeing it give a pleased chirp, I wondered if this was what it felt like when Han Riae petted me.
As I was savoring that rare sense of freedom, mana erosion sent me a signal.
The force of the mana was intense enough that even an ordinary superhuman wouldn't easily possess it. Feeling that enormous magical power through my skin, I flinched.
"Blue cadet~ You've already arrived?"
"Ah... yes, I got here a few minutes ago."
"Really? Whew, that's a relief. I thought I'd made you wait for a few dozen minutes."
Even with all that vivid green filling my vision, her rainbow-colored eyes stood out brilliantly.
No matter how afraid of people I was, my gaze couldn't help but go to her.
Unlike her shirt-and-robe look during class, she was wearing a soft-looking sweater and a newsboy cap that suited her surprisingly well.
And she was slowly walking toward me...
"P-please don't come too close..."
"Ah, right. I forgot for a moment."
My fear of people had long since spread far and wide, and the faculty already had my information.
Professor Han Seohwa looked a little embarrassed, then took something out of the bag she was carrying.
"Here, take this."
This was...
A lollipop?
"I heard Cadet Lim Paran likes sweets, so I brought one. Do you not like candy, by any chance?"
"I like sweets. Thank you..."
I ended up taking the candy without thinking.
It seemed my love of sweets had already gotten around.
With Han Riae feeding me chocolate constantly during class, it was only a matter of time before word spread.
But for the professor to know that too...
"And you can eat that now if you want. We'll start after a little rest!"
Han Seohwa laughed, her smile mischievous.
I carefully peeled off the wrapper and bit into it.
"Nham...?"
A tart lemon scent burst across my mouth, and then a sweet taste followed, teasing my tongue.
It couldn't compare to the chocolates Han Riae had given me, but even so, it had that expensive taste to it.
"Let's finish that and then begin, shall we?"
"Ye-yes."
The reason I had met Professor Han Seohwa today wasn't anything terribly grand.
During the morning lecture, questions had kept coming up, so I'd asked them one after another, and along with my apology for the introduction earlier, we had agreed to meet separately on the weekend so she could teach me the basics I lacked.
Honestly, even though I had mana erosion, I was still terribly lacking in theory.
It was easy enough to feel, and it was easy to see too, but I had no idea how to properly handle it.
The greatest advantage of pure mana was supposed to be its fierce, explosive firepower, and I couldn't even do that, which was frustrating beyond words.
Since mana erosion had already improved my physical ability, this time I was going to try handling magic power itself.
If I could learn from a real expert like Professor Han Seohwa, it would be the best possible start.
Feeling my heart pound, not from illness this time but from nothing more than expectation, I entered the lesson.
.