Reversal (2)
If anyone else were placed in his shoes, they would probably ask: knowing full well what disasters the future held, why was he leisurely sitting through academy lectures?
Yet this was the only correct path.
The coming crises were not matters he could resolve or prepare for with his current strength alone. Securing the means to grow stronger had to take absolute precedence.
I tried wielding the Magic Armament when fighting those bastards... but it was far from complete.
That realization remained vividly etched into Junon's mind.
The Magic Armament manifested through an artificial magic stone felt so fragile that the word "makeshift" hardly did it justice. He still didn't comprehend its true shape or the essence of its power, and its path of growth remained utterly opaque. Fighting magical beasts in such a state? Utterly out of the question.
Unlike his life before regression, he had to absorb new knowledge.
"Greetings. I am Professor Muniherr, and I will be overseeing your course on Magic Armament Manifestation. Since this is our first session, I will provide a brief summary of what you will be learning. Any objections?"
Magic Armament Manifestation.
Unlike the general lectures from yesterday, this class was reserved exclusively for students who had just crossed the threshold of manifesting their armaments.
This was the path he had chosen.
Not a single fool raising a fuss.
Perhaps because all the rabble had been relegated to Classes E and F, a heavy silence reigned. No student in this room was foolish enough to defy Professor Muniherr.
Yet true to his eccentric reputation, the professor began with words that struck the lecture hall like a thunderclap.
"Then I will summarize without preamble: the Magic Armaments you manifested during the suitability test using magic stones are complete and utter garbage."
...The man truly had no filter.
Yet as eccentric as the professor was, he was never one to utter falsehoods. Which, ironically, made him all the more trustworthy.
A student raised a hand in disbelief. "What do you mean, the armaments we manifested during the test are useless? What does that even mean, sir?"
"You. I will give you this stone. Manifest your armament."
"Y-yes, sir..."
The singled-out student accepted the magic stone from Professor Muniherr and spent several minutes drawing forth his Magic Armament. It materialized as a plain gladius—the standard weapon of a frontline melee combatant.
Professor Muniherr stepped to a spot where every student could clearly see. He cast a brief glance across the room, then smirked.
...Did he just look at me?
Must have been my imagination, Junon thought—until the very next second.
"You may feel slightly dizzy. Tensing your body will only make the pain worse, so relax."
"Ugh...?!"
As if demonstrating a simple point, Professor Muniherr rested a hand lightly upon the student's shoulder. Instantly, the boy clutched his head and collapsed to his knees.
At that very moment, the gladius lost its form and dissolved into thin air.
Most in the room couldn't fathom what had just occurred, but to one person, the spectacle was all too familiar.
Anti-Cast.
Considering the way the student collapsed the exact moment the weapon dissipated, there was no other explanation. So that was why Professor Muniherr had glanced in his direction.
"Most of you likely hammered your familiar mana into the stone to pry out an armament," Muniherr declared. "As you just witnessed, a construct formed in such a manner is so precarious that a slight twist to its mana will shatter it completely. That is why what you made is garbage."
"Then... can't we simply make it again? If the mana is disrupted, we just need time to restore it."
"Remake it, you say? That would mean carrying magic stones around like disposable rations and finding the leisure to manifest them mid-battle. Even if you concentrate to keep the mana from twisting, every single time you cast an ability, the equilibrium between your mana and your armament will fluctuate. You intend to catch that fluctuation and restore it? Do you honestly believe you will have such luxury on a battlefield?"
Absurd. Doing something that reckless in combat would cost a warrior their head in a fraction of a second.
"Even setting that aside, an armament manifested this way lasts only as long as that initial over-saturation of mana persists. Once that reserve runs dry or a certain amount of time elapses, the weapon will naturally dissolve on its own. If that happens in the heat of combat, you are as good as dead. So, what must you do?"
"Create a state where it won't vanish even if the mana is disrupted..."
"Extend its duration so it doesn't fade away..."
Murmurs rippled across the room, but none of the students could form a coherent answer.
Professor Muniherr bluntly laid out the solution.
"Forge and sustain your Magic Armament with your own mana, not the borrowed mana of a stone. That is the second step you must take."
An answer that left everyone speechless.
And with that, the day's lecture came to an end.
When presented with a problem, one inevitably sought the answer.
If the method of solving it didn't come to mind, one could always review and practice until it did. However, being given both the problem and the answer while being told to figure out the formula entirely on your own was another matter entirely.
What Professor Muniherr had essentially given them was an assignment to reverse-engineer the proof.
"Telling us to figure out how to forge and maintain an armament with our own mana... What a piece of work."
Still, the man surely had his reasons. Knowing his eccentric personality softened the shock for Junon compared to the others, but understanding didn't solve the problem. Step by step from the very beginning, he had to polish the most fundamental basics if he wanted to construct a proper tower called Magic Armament.
"Are you finished with class, Sunbae?"
"Hm?"
Stepping out of the lecture hall, Junon found someone waiting for him. It was Renias, who had spent the previous day showing him around the classrooms, guiding him along the paths, and sharing every useful tip she knew.
"Is your lecture over?"
"As you can see. But it's not even training time yet. Why are you here so early?"
"I was waiting for you. There's something I need to tell you."
Something to tell him? Important enough to wait outside a classroom she couldn't attend since she hadn't manifested an armament yet?
Renias gently retrieved a letter from her handbag and held it out. After glancing around to ensure no one was listening, she leaned in and whispered in a hushed tone,
"It's a letter from Adele-unni."
"...Adele?"
Since Renias usually kept him updated on most matters, Junon wondered why Adele had felt the need to write. Yet the fact that she had gone out of her way to send a letter suggested its contents carried weight.
The letter itself contained standard pleasantries, not much different from what he had already heard secondhand. The problem was one specific line.
"There is something I must speak with you about in person."
A single request: she wanted to speak with him alone, face-to-face.
Meanwhile, Dubhe Hall—the building Junon had intended to visit—was bustling with activity.
The window for the Magic Armament suitability test spanned only a few days at the start of each semester. A student had to manifest their armament within this brief window to advance to the next phase.
Desperate not to miss the deadline, students moved with frantic urgency, filling the synthesis laboratories of Dubhe Hall to the brim as they worked to craft artificial magic stones.
"It failed again. What went wrong?"
"Look, sediment settled at the bottom. The ratio must have been slightly off this time."
"Mm... Alright. Let's try agai—gah!"
"Try again? What do you think you're trying again?"
A sudden kick sent a student sprawling hard onto the floor.
Who in this place would strike someone so unprovoked? Unquestionably, the intruders were uninvited guests.
"Kayden...!"
"You used to address me as Lord Kayden. Forgotten your manners already?"
"Indeed. A bunch of bottom-feeders who used to keep their heads pressed to the dirt have suddenly grown bold."
Though the nobles had returned to intimidate them once more, the students did not repeat their past mistakes. A certain someone had opened their eyes and fortified their resolve.
"Ignore them. Just get back to work."
Having faced down the nobles without ever turning his back, Junon had become a living example for the frontline and support role students.
How dare these dogs ignore me?
Kayden was already seething with resentment from countless grievances.
Losing to Junon was bad enough, but seeing that the other commoners hadn't faced harsh disciplinary action—and worse, that they hadn't fallen into despair or begged on their knees—infuriated him beyond measure. Most intolerable of all was the sight of these lowly commoners striding with pride before nobility.
"You lot. Do what we talked about earlier."
"Understood."
At Kayden's command, his lackeys began deliberately disrupting everyone synthesizing magic stones in the lab.
"Aaaah!"
"Wh-what are you doing?!"
"It's hardly fair for you rabble to monopolize this place all to yourselves. We need to use it too, don't we?"
"Don't give us that rubbish! You nobles have real magic stones—why on earth are you here?!"
"Regrettably, magic stones are consumables. With prices skyrocketing by the day, we've decided we could make use of these artificial stones as well."
"Besides, it makes far more sense to give the materials to those of us with actual potential, rather than wasting them on failures who can't even manifest an armament."
"So pack up and leave quietly. Stop squandering valuable ingredients. Heh heh."
In short, they were demanding the commoners clear out so they could take over the facility.
Crash!
"Oops, my hand slipped. My arm hasn't fully healed after taking that beating, you see."
Kayden sneered as he deliberately knocked over a container of carefully measured reagents, shattering it across the floor.
Though his body might still ache from the beating, he was an aristocrat. He had hired healers, received treatment, and was attending the academy without a hitch. It was an obvious, spiteful lie, and everyone knew it.
"You think... we're just going to take this lying down again?!"
"In a cramped room like this, we're the ones who know how to brawl!"
"Have you insects lost your minds?! How dare you...!"
"Get them!!"
Even without John and Noel present. Even without Junon stepping in.
The students charged the nobles on their own. They refused to surrender what little they had ever again. Exploiting the cramped quarters to drag the fight into a chaotic melee, they stood a real chance of overpowering the pampered nobles.
"Serves you right! So much for your noble pride when you can't even throw a decent punch!"
"You... filth...!"
Driven to fury, one of the nobles began channeling mana, unable to hold back any longer—but the fight was cut short.
"Who authorized a brawl in my laboratory?"
With Dahlia's arrival, the commotion came to an abrupt halt. The nobles were forced to tuck their tails and retreat.
Yet who could have known?
Intoxicated by their small victory, the students failed to notice the looming danger. They did not realize how ruthlessly calculating these aristocrats were, nor how far they would go, stopping at nothing, to salvage their bruised pride.
What seemed like a minor squabble was about to summon an unforeseen disaster.