Reversal (3)
"Girls..."
"Did you two...?"
Charlotte swallowed hard, her throat bobbing with visible tension. She desperately wanted to ask how their Magic Armament manifestation had turned out, but the fear that the results might be bad kept the words trapped in her throat. Standing beside her, Aris held her breath, watching just as anxiously.
Yet one person—their team leader, Goden—merely broke into a broad grin.
"Looks like it was a success, eh?"
Having spent years on the battlefield, Goden possessed the honed instinct to sense the subtle ebb and flow of mana within three paces. The moment the two teammates who had gone for testing stepped close, he had naturally picked up on the distinct change in their presence.
"Wow... and here we were trying to surprise everyone."
"Right? How on earth does he always notice?"
Erika and Senia, who had deliberately walked in wearing gloomy expressions to play a prank, saw their grand plan instantly foiled by Goden.
"Either way, congratulations on the manifestation, Erika, Senia."
"Congratulate us when it actually matters. We've still got a long way to go, haven't we? Aris already filled us in, so I know."
"Well, I suppose that's true, but..."
"Forget it. We don't have time to sit around celebrating over one tiny manifestation."
With those sharp words, Erika pressed Goden for their next directive. Just as Senia had noted, Erika was fully aware of the reality and found their current progress far from satisfactory. Driving her fierce urge for rapid growth was an unmistakable desire: she refused to fall behind Junon.
"It's true that your Magic Armaments are still in an incomplete stage," Goden acknowledged. "Next, you need to manifest them using purely your own power."
"Purely our own power?"
"What's that supposed to mean? We just manifested them with our own strength, didn't we?"
"To put it simply, look at this."
Whir—
Mana swirled around Goden's hand, condensing into the distinct form of a Magic Armament in the blink of an eye.
"Wait... you just did that without a mana stone?!"
"Yeah. That's the second stage you need to reach. Drawing on ambient, external mana isn't difficult. But pulling mana from within your own body and shaping it into a form that fits you perfectly? That won't be easy."
"Ugh, what a headache... That's the next step?"
Just as he said, Goden held no catalyst like a mana stone in his grip. Manifesting through one's own power meant pulling it off without relying on any external source whatsoever.
"A Magic Armament crafted by borrowing external mana rather than your own is commonly called a Mirage State. If the balance of mana slips even a fraction, it vanishes as if it were nothing more than an optical illusion. Even if you cast ranged magic, once you exhaust the mana invested into shaping the armament, it disappears just like any shattered weapon. In short, it suffers from fatal drawbacks: finite durability and a strict time limit."
"What... then does that mean what we just manifested is practically useless?"
"Pretty much. In that state, you won't be able to stand against the high-tier magical beasts we're aiming to hunt. You have to push beyond the Mirage State, at least to where mine is."
"Then what should we do?"
"What else? Live combat is right around the corner. Take those armaments you manifested and go hunt down some Fenrirs or Morel Snakes. The key is getting used to the weapons you've shaped. There's no other shortcut."
Though his lengthy lecture might have sounded overbearing, Goden was far from trying to restrict their freedom. This was guidance born of his resolve to help each of them achieve their personal goals and reshape the society of the Principality. There was no reason to refuse it.
Yet fate could be unpredictable. None of them could have foreseen that this very path would soon drive a bitter wedge between Senia and Erika.
"Sunbae... are you really sure this is okay?"
"Well... there'll always be another chance."
"Still, you're falling behind the others. This is an incredibly important period for gaining live combat experience."
Renias cast a worried glance at me. Her concern was understandable; I had put aside the Academy's upcoming live combat assessment against magical beasts—arguably one of the most pivotal milestones of the semester—and was currently heading somewhere else entirely. With Renias's help, I was riding in a carriage bound for the Lantana Ducal Manor in the Principality's central branch.
Adele wouldn't have sent me a personal letter without a good reason.
Even considering the incident involving the Coutelli family, she could have easily passed a message through Renias. The fact that she had insisted on delivering it directly to me meant there was a secret involved—one she hadn't shared with Renias.
Resolving to hear the details from Adele herself, I reached out and patted Renias gently on the head.
"Are you really that worried about me?"
"Of course I am! The timing of your Magic Armament manifestation is critical, and we're about to face real magical beasts. If you miss the prime window after coming all this way..."
"Come on. I'm literally just heading over to hang out at your place. Why worry about someone going on a casual visit?"
"...Huh?"
The truth was, I had full confidence in catching up even if I missed a few major lectures, and my live combat evaluation had simply been rescheduled for a later slot. There were no real penalties, so it was essentially taking a single day off. Renias seemed to be taking the whole thing far too seriously.
Perhaps realizing her overreaction, Renias's face suddenly flushed crimson.
"I-I didn't realize that's what this was...! Ahaha... I see! But goodness, why is it so hot in here?!"
Startled, she pulled away from my hand on her head and began vigorously fanning herself with both hands. Summer was indeed approaching, so the heat was understandable. While the window on my side was open, the glass on her side remained firmly shut. Seeing how warm she looked, I leaned forward to open it for her.
"Hold on. Let me get that window for—"
"Nooo! I can do it myself! Really, I'm fine, so...! Waaah?!"
Rattle!
Of all moments, the carriage hit a harsh rut in the road. All I had needed to do was lean over slightly, but Renias had stood up to reach the latch. When the carriage lurched to a sudden halt, her momentum carried her straight toward me.
Thud.
Thanks to inertia, her slender frame landed squarely in my embrace.
"Careful. Are you hurt anywhere?"
"Ah, uh... y-yeees...! I-I'm totally fine!"
She scrambled backward with lightning speed and planted herself back on her seat. Judging by how fast she moved, she clearly hadn't suffered an injury. Then again, I had caught her pretty securely with both arms as she tumbled.
A moment later, the coachman peeked back to apologize frantically.
"Oh, heavens, Milady, forgive me! This old fool lacks the skill to drive smoothly..."
"It's quite all right! I'm not hurt!"
"I'm unhurt as well. Don't worry about it."
"Truly...? Thank goodness. A water deer suddenly darted across the path, you see..."
The coachman hadn't done anything wrong, but carrying someone of Renias's high standing naturally made him jumpy. Shortly after the carriage resumed its journey, Renias clamped her eyes shut and pretended to be asleep for reasons known only to herself.
And the very instant the carriage pulled up at the ducal manor—
"I-I'll go on ahead!! Please call for me whenever you finish your business!!"
She threw the carriage door open and fled. It was an all-out sprint—faster than anything I had ever seen from her during our combat training.
"Anyone watching would think I was trying to eat you alive..."
Sure, she had the skittish charm of a little rabbit, but she was human. Why would I ever eat her?
"From the Calceria Merchant Guild too...? They purchased in tiny increments as well... It's exceedingly suspicious."
Adele was working diligently inside the Lantana Ducal Manor alongside Lewena. Before anyone realized it, her business acumen had developed to the point where she could stand tall and rightfully call herself a merchant. Perhaps her true calling had always been commerce rather than magic.
The recipient of her urgent letter stepped into the room.
"Long time no see, Adele."
"Junon! It's been so long!"
"Wow. I heard you were helping out with the trade business, but you look like a genuine professional. Maps spread out, ledgers full of figures... honestly, I can't make heads or tails of it. Back then I was the one tutoring you, but now I feel like I ought to take lessons from you instead."
I usually prided myself on being able to grasp written exam calculations just by glancing at the solution steps, but this realm was entirely different. Without someone explaining the underlying principles, it was impossible to decipher how the numbers moved. That, I supposed, was the difference between raw effort and innate talent.
"You're embarrassing me... I'm really just lending a hand to my mother..."
"Right, right. Modesty aside, what was in that letter that you needed to discuss with me in person?"
"Ah. That... I just recalculated the numbers, and the flow of money moving through the Principality looks strange."
"Money...?"
"Oh, explaining it like that makes no sense, doesn't it? Give me just a second."
Adele took several small slips of paper covered in densely jotted figures and laid them across a detailed map of the Principality.
Wait, this is...
She hadn't placed them at random. Each slip sat precisely over the geographical location where funds had exchanged hands.
"If you factor in the intelligence gathered from Count Coutelli's estate, the picture becomes clear. Look at the very bottom: these are the surplus margins—the residual differences. But on a specific day, these separate margins were pooled together to buy up inventory across multiple locations."
"Meaning someone bought specific goods in sequence that day? Across several different regions?"
"Exactly. If it were an ordinary transaction, I wouldn't worry, but you're at the Academy—you already know what happened recently. The sudden shortage of a particular commodity."
"...The hoarding of mana stones. Everyone already suspects the nobility was behind it."
"Yes. In the case of the mana stones, major factions and coalitions bought them up openly. The sums were massive, and the targets were predictable. But... the margins left behind at the locations I've marked aren't that large individually. When you gather them all together, though..."
With a troubled expression, Adele added up the figures on the slips and showed me the total.
Five thousand Alte. Once assembled, it formed an imposing sum. Given that high-grade noble silk cost roughly a thousand Alte a bolt, it was an amount that could not be brushed aside.
"At this scale, we have to assume organized involvement. A wealthy individual acting alone would only incur massive losses with this kind of pattern. While coincidences do happen..."
That was why Adele had summoned me in secret. She suspected this covert movement of capital was the harbinger of an impending plot at the Academy.
"Hmm..."
"I'm not entirely certain yet, to be honest. So... please don't assume a disaster is guaranteed to strike."
"Still, it means I need to stay vigilant. The nobles might be plotting something behind the scenes."
If Adele's deduction held true, the aristocrats weren't stopping at buying up mana stones to hinder commoners from manifesting their Magic Armaments. They were preparing another move. And there was an upcoming event that matched the timing perfectly: the third-year students' live combat assessment against magical beasts. If the nobility intended to sabotage that trial, Adele's financial trail made chilling sense.
It never hurts to be on guard.
Keeping Adele's warning in mind, I returned to the Academy, intending to take the delayed live combat assessment while keeping a close eye on the nobles' movements.
However, when I finally entered the assessment grounds, an entirely different complication arose.
The social fabric of the Principality was shifting.
The man who received reports on every intimate detail of the nation's internal affairs leaned back, contemplating that very truth. An individual had emerged with the resolve to challenge an aristocratic-centered society, and by his own strength, he had succeeded in peeling away a layer of the nobility's rotten husk.
Recognizing the presence of a precious, unpolished gemstone born of troubled times, the Grand Duke let out a low, hearty chuckle.
"So. In your eyes as well, that boy appears to be a Mizar Type?"
"...It is almost certain, Your Grace. When I accompanied Muniherr in the Empire, I witnessed a remarkably similar manifestation. In fact, that very student has since come here on an exchange program."
"You speak of the foreign student named Goden."
"Precisely."
Mizar.
Among the six fundamental mana classifications, it was the rarest and most elusive—a celestial phenomenon akin to a comet. Its nature was distinct enough to be recognized almost at a glance. A rough gem waiting to be shaped. And now, the bearer of that extraordinary trait was Junon.
The Grand Duke had not forgotten that the youth had once caught Ophelia's discerning eye. That was precisely why he had summoned Professor Jake—the instructor who had observed Junon the longest—to glean further insight without overstepping.
"I hear the upcoming live combat exercise is taking place in the southern region of Algenib Province."
"That is correct, Your Grace."
"Once it concludes, could you bring that boy to me? I would like to share a word with him."
"Could Your Grace not simply issue a royal summons? Why go through me...?"
The straightforward answer would have been to mention that Ophelia had seemed intent on shielding the boy, but the Grand Duke refrained. Uttering that aloud would drag whatever Ophelia had tried to conceal into the harsh light. If Junon harbored personal secrets, the Grand Duke had no desire to pry them open by force.
"There is no need to issue an official summons for a mere student. It would only place an unnecessary burden on his shoulders."
"Mmm... that is true."
"Let us see. We will need a suitable pretext... Yes. Present it as a formal commendation for the student who bravely rescued his friend from Count Coutelli's estate."