Learning from a Genius Made Magic Too Easy
At 10 p.m. the next night, a sound came from one side of the split cavern.
“I’m here.”
A girl trudged in, hugging a stack of books to her chest. Ellen’s face was a picture of misery.
“They expanded tomorrow’s exam range. And this topic is really nasty.”
She set the books down on the desk.
The most eye-catching title among them was Second-Tier Mana Operation Theory: The Collision and Control of Heterogeneous Attributes.
“The professor went too far this time. He wants me to mix fire and wind attributes to make the basic form of a flame vortex, but it just keeps exploding and won’t hold together. Because of this, Sophia even laughed at me during practice yesterday.”
Ellen bit her lip, clearly offended.
“Let’s take a look.”
I opened the book and found the pages packed with dense magic circles and formulas.
“The formula is terribly inefficient.”
“Inefficient? That’s the standard academy textbook from the magic tower! It was reviewed by the empire’s greatest mages.”
“Those mages have mana to burn. They probably never needed to think about tricks and shortcuts. It doesn’t suit people like you or me, who still don’t have enough mana.”
I picked up a quill.
“Let me ask one thing. How did you try mixing fire and wind?”
“Well... I made the fire first, then blew wind into it. But then it went boom and blew up.”
“Of course it did. You were trying to force two different natures together, so they just repelled each other.”
“Then what am I supposed to do?”
I took a length of red thread and a transparent thread from the workbench.
“Think of magic as sewing.”
“Sewing?”
“Look. This red thread is fire, and this clear thread is wind. Fire wants to blaze wildly, and wind wants to scatter. Don’t force them into a single clump. Just open a path for each one to pass through the other. Like this.”
Without twisting them together, I crossed the two threads and tied them into a knot.
“The moment the fire tries to spread, the wind slips in between and fills the gaps.”
I sprinkled a little magic stone powder to demonstrate.
A tiny flame bloomed at my fingertip.
Whoosh—
The flame caught the wind and spun in a graceful spiral.
A small but perfect flame vortex!
Better yet, the mana consumption was barely one-tenth of what the textbook method required.
“Wow.”
Ellen’s jaw dropped.
“That works?”
“Once you understand the principle, it’s very simple. Give me your hand.”
I took Ellen’s hand, still dazed, and guided the flow of her mana.
“Relax. Don’t pour it all out at once; ease it through like threading a needle. If the fire turns to the right, the wind wraps to the left.”
At my lead, Ellen’s mana began to move.
The mana that had been impossible to control only moments ago started tracing a gentle orbit.
Fwoooosh—!
At the same time, a fairly large flame vortex formed above her palm.
“I did it!”
Ellen jumped in delight, her expression still full of disbelief.
“I actually burned two magic stones practicing this. But the way you explained it makes the mana cost feel almost nonexistent.”
“Efficient design conserves resources.”
“It does.”
Ellen looked at me with a strange expression.
“You explain things better than the academy professors. At this rate, I’m going to end up depending on you forever.”
“Depend on me all you like... no, use me all you like. Isn’t that what a tutor is for?”
“Fine, then teach me the next problem too.”
“This one’s even easier.”
Once Ellen got going, she came at me with question after question like a fish that had finally found water.
Each time, I explained the tangled theory of magic by comparing it to ordinary life—sewing on buttons, ironing clothes, getting stains out.
There was a certain pleasure in watching knotted knowledge in my head straighten itself out all at once with a single explanation.
Ellen said it was the first time she’d ever found studying fun.
Before I knew it, it was 3 a.m.
The tutoring session was over.
Ellen looked tired, but her eyes were still bright.
“Thanks, Hans. I’m definitely getting a perfect score on tomorrow’s test. I can already imagine Sophia’s face.”
The hand she lifted in farewell was her right hand.
After holding a quill and taking notes for so long, the middle finger was red and swollen.
“Just a moment, miss.”
I opened the workbench drawer and took out something I’d made on a whim when I’d been bored.
A rough but soft pen grip, made from scraps of leather and broken pieces of spent magic stone.
“What’s this?”
“Put it on your pen.”
I slipped the pen grip onto her quill.
Tier 1 Composite Formula: Micro-Vibration + Fatigue Recovery
As soon as Ellen gripped the pen, her eyes went wide.
“Oh! This is... my hand doesn’t hurt at all! It feels like someone’s massaging it for me.”
“If your hand’s comfortable, studying goes better.”
In truth, it was an application of a Tier 1 household spell that imitated the principles of a Tier 2 healing spell.
To combat mages, it would seem trivial beyond imagining. But for me, a mere household mage, it was the kind of small invention only I could make.
“Thank you. I’ll use it well. I’ll keep this forever.”
“That’s a bit much... You can just use it until it wears out and toss it.”
But Ellen carefully tucked the pen grip into her pocket.
“You worked hard. See you tomorrow.”
She disappeared into the secret passage with an upright, unruffled back.
“Hoo...”
Once the door closed, silence returned.
“To think I’ve become the secret tutor of a noble lady.”
For some reason, the situation didn’t feel real.
It was like I was dreaming.
But there was no time to get sentimental.
Ellen was a reliable shield, but at the same time, a glass shield that could shatter at any moment.
As with what had happened in the alley of the slums, danger would come without warning.
There was no guarantee that someone would appear to save us again.
If that happened, would I still just stand there helpless?
My mana core had grown a little lately.
Even so, combat magic was still a distant dream.
But there’s no rule saying I have to fight only with combat magic.
People looked down on household magic.
They called it some trivial craft, good only for mending clothes and cleaning floors.
That was only because they didn’t understand the essence of magic.
If you use sewing magic to repair clothes, it’s household magic... but if you use that same precision to strike a vital point, it becomes killing magic.
A needle that can pierce fabric has no reason it shouldn’t pierce skin.
In fact, an invisible needle could be far deadlier than some flashy fireball that exploded with a bang.
The mana needle that had pierced a punk’s foot in the back alley not long ago was a perfect example.
My thoughts kept spiraling.
“The problem is output.”
With my mana, even floating a single needle was a struggle.
I couldn’t block or dodge a blade flying at me in real combat.
Then I need to change the conditions.
What if, instead of me moving, I made the enemy step onto a board I’d already set?
I can use magic stones.
The magic stones laid out on the workbench.
They were only low-grade, of course.
Still, the amount of mana condensed inside each one was on a completely different level from the feeble mana inside my body.
Should I make a defensive magic circle?
The floor of the underground chamber.
After drawing the magic circle, I wedged a magic stone into one of the gaps.
Tier 1 Transformation Formula: Shadow Needle
The moment an enemy steps here, they’ll be stitched to the floor.
An enemy whose feet were pinned would be unable to move a muscle.
Of course, that wasn’t enough.
If I bind their movement, I need to finish them off.
I kept applying transformation formulas to the ceiling and the surrounding area, installing new magic circles all around.
Four more magic stones went in.
Hiss!
Installation complete!
The blue light of the low-grade magic stones flowed across the floor and ceiling.
A moment later, that light faded so completely it seemed to vanish.
Done.
Nothing was visible to the naked eye anymore.
A perfect trap.
It’s finished, but... how strong is it really?
I imagined an enemy entering and pictured the movement of the magic circles.
The enemy advanced.
The floor magic circle reacted, piercing their feet and stitching them to the ground.
While they were still reeling, invisible threads dropped from the ceiling and wrapped around their neck.
Tier 1 Transformation Formula: Transparent Thread
And then...
Hah... wait.
Cold sweat beaded all over me.
Even though it was only in my imagination, the sensation of killing someone with my own hand felt far too vivid.
“......What am I doing right now?”
A dry laugh escaped me.
This was the Valderk family’s top-secret evacuation shelter.
Ellen had said as much.
It was a hidden place known only to an exceedingly small number even within the family.
An assassin entering such a place?
The odds were slim.
And besides, this was only a crude trap made by twisting a Tier 1 household spell.
In my imagination, it had perfectly subdued the enemy, but reality could be very different.
The transparent thread might snap. The shadow needle might bounce off the target’s mana core resistance.
“Trying to catch an enemy with nothing but sewing magic. Was I getting carried away?”
I gave an awkward smile.
My grand, lone-wolf act suddenly felt embarrassing.
“Should I take it down?”
I hesitated.
Digging out the magic stones I’d carefully embedded into the floor and ceiling would be a pain.
“I already worked this hard installing it. Might as well leave it.”
Besides, Ellen had given me ten magic stones.
I’d used five on the trap, but five still remained.
More than enough for mending clothes and mana training for the time being.
Then another worry brushed through my mind.
What if Ellen or Count Valderk came rushing here for refuge and got caught in the trap?
No need to worry. This isn’t an auto-detect trap.
The activation method for this trap had only one trigger.
The sewing-magic signal containing my unique mana wavelength.
Unless I personally infused it with mana and intent, the magic circle was nothing but meaningless scribbles on the floor.
There wasn’t another lunatic in the world who’d elevated sewing into magic the way I had.
So the odds of the owner getting hurt by a malfunction were zero.
It’s late. I should sleep.
I immediately moved to the annex lodging above the cavern.
* * *
Rowen Magic Academy.
Ten minutes before the exam.
The stepped lecture hall was filled with taut, brittle tension.
The students had each opened thick textbooks and were feverishly memorizing the last scraps they could cram into their heads.
“Oh my, Ellen? You’re early for once?”
A voice dripping with mockery.
A girl with brilliant red hair, let loose in luxurious waves.
Sophia Bergen.
Behind her stood a screen of noble girls who followed her like attendants.
“What’s the matter, Ellen? You’re not going to lose control of your mana and singe the professor’s eyebrows again like you did in the last practical, are you?”
“Hee-hee-hee!”
The followers snickered along with her.
“That was truly a sight. A lady of the Valderk family, and she still can’t handle even a basic Tier 2 fire spell properly.”
Sophia opened her fan with obvious flair and hid her mouth behind it.
“What’ll you do if it happens again? Maybe you should just forfeit today. That might be the best way to preserve the family’s dignity, don’t you think?”
She pretended to be concerned, but it was a transparent provocation.
“Thanks for your concern, Sophia.”
Ellen met her gaze without a flicker of unease.
There was even the trace of a smile at the corner of her lips.
“But that won’t happen. It’s only your delusion.”
“Hmph...! How amusing. What exactly are you so confident about?”
“You’ll see in a little while.”
“W-what? This is...”
Sophia’s brows twitched.
Ellen’s reaction was far too different from usual.
What is she hiding?
Her eyes were steady.
There wasn’t even a hint of tension in the fingertips resting lightly at her side.
Unlike the other students, who were clinging to their last-minute memorization before the exam, Ellen had closed her book and was looking out the window with a calm ease.
Sophia clicked her tongue.
Hah! What empty bravado. So what if you act smug? What can you actually do?
Ellen, the only daughter of the Valderk family, was less skilled at mana operation than Sophia Bergen of the Bergen family.
That was already common knowledge at the academy.
There was no way one night could turn that upside down.
“Do you really think you can beat me?”
Then the lecture hall door opened, and a stern-looking old professor entered.
“Take your seats. The exam will begin.”