The Signs of a Catastrophe-Class Mage's Birth
Days had passed since that incident.
Finally, Recas von Buster returned to the academy.
He still hadn’t fully recovered. A bandage wrapped around his left arm, where it connected to his shoulder. No one needed to be told what had happened to the right arm he relied on most in battle. The damage had been especially severe.
Yet he looked fit enough to attend class. His movements showed no real discomfort.
Recas walked straight toward Free’s seat.
“Hey.”
The boy who had approached without hesitation first met Free’s eyes, paused, and then spoke.
“…As promised, I’ll lend you one of the grimoires I want to study for a week.”
“…”
Ah. So that was it.
Of course she’d been waiting.
He wanted time to recover enough to return to the academy before he could hand it over.
Nod.
“Then write down what grimoires you have on paper and pass them over.”
“…Got it.”
After that exchange, Recas quietly returned to his seat.
Something about him seemed different. The pride and fiery temper that had defined him before felt a little less sharp, as if the defeat had chipped away at them.
‘That guy was the one who kept saying “the ultimate magic is the explosive one.” He must be carrying a complex feeling about this loss.’
I knew. Exactly what he was thinking.
But like the old me, after experiencing war a few times, that kind of pride would vanish quickly.
He had been fighting for survival back then. The old me.
Still, the boy was a formidable mage. Maybe he’d met a different ending than the old me.
“…”
The bigger problem was the piercing gaze that suddenly stabbed the back of my neck.
I turned my head slightly. When our eyes met, Aina von Frost jumped in surprise and quickly looked away.
“…Hmm?”
Honestly, I had no idea why she was doing that.
Since the day she returned to class, she’d been doing it constantly.
Maybe one of the spells I’d taught her wasn’t working the way I thought?
I didn’t think it was worth going over and asking directly. If she needed help, she would come to me first.
Unconcerned, I walked to the front of the empty classroom.
The lesson began shortly after, and I sat listening to the teacher explain the theoretical relationships of magic.
* * *
“…”
During class, Aina von Frost sat motionless in her seat, her gaze fixed on Free’s back in the seat directly in front of hers.
She stared with a blank expression, her face unchanging as she quietly watched.
‘Since I came back to school today… I haven’t seen him talk intimately with anyone except Recas.’
She was exactly like me.
Unconsciously, that thought made Aina frown.
‘Am I the only friend he has? Or is he really not interested in anyone outside of magic?’
The realization strangely lifted her mood.
‘That smile… it must have only been for me.’
For some reason, a strangely pleasant feeling bloomed inside her.
‘How embarrassing… What is this feeling? Why do I feel this way?’
Aina von Frost.
Fourteen years old.
At the very age when puberty would bring her first full blossoming.
The girl who had never shown interest in others before now found herself curious about someone outside of magic.
After the first period ended, the break began.
The moment class finished, Recas stood up and headed toward Free. Aina’s eyes followed him.
Recas sat three rows ahead of her, near the center of the front section.
He approached Free’s desk and placed a folded white memo paper into his left hand, which still wore the bandage.
“Here. The list on this paper contains the grimoires I can lend you.”
“…”
Free, still sitting, turned his body toward Recas and accepted the paper without a word.
He began examining the list.
A moment later.
After handing the memo back and watching Recas remain standing obediently, Free spoke.
“This one. [Minimizing the presence of magic].”
“…Understood.”
It was only a single volume.
In the next instant, Recas manifested his grimoire and pulled out the required book, handing it over.
“Then I’ll return to my seat. I’ve kept our promise.”
“Yeah. I’ll return it on time.”
With that exchange, Recas walked back to his seat.
Free remained alone, immediately unfolding the grimoire and beginning to read.
“…”
Aina von Frost secretly felt a surge of admiration for Free’s thirst for magic. She whispered under her breath, “He really does love magic…” without realizing she had spoken.
She had come to believe the boy shared her own hobbies.
* * *
“Haah…!!”
Whish—!
At the private training grounds of the Aust Ducal Estate.
The figure wielding the sword amid the wind was Aura von Aust.
The girl who had grown noticeably taller and more beautiful since Free first met her at her tenth birthday banquet.
She paused the sword swing that had been infused with magic, wiped the sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand, and took a deep breath.
“Haaah…”
The swordsmanship Aura had shown moments ago was not pure sword technique. It was a unique style enhanced by auxiliary magic.
Her own new sword art, applying wind magic.
She stood still for a moment, breathing deeply, and unconsciously glanced up at the clear blue sky.
Floating clouds drifted across the expanse.
“…”
‘…Where is he right now? What is he doing?’
The figure that came to mind was the boy she had helped on her tenth birthday party, back when she was ten.
Free at ten years old.
The habit of secretly investigating people had been something she believed was unsuitable for a knight of a knightly family. She had kept it hidden until now…
‘…I should look into it more closely now.’
In the end, Aura couldn’t hold back any longer and let the thought surface.
She turned away from her training, stopped, and stepped out of the private grounds through the connecting corridor.
Behind her, the ground on the training field was covered in countless slashes and traces of sword energy. It looked as though sharp wind had carved the air repeatedly. Another clear sign that her pure strength had long since surpassed ordinary levels.
* * *
Tap.
She gently closed the book in both hands.
The classroom was quiet. It was lunchtime.
Free, the only student in the classroom, had used the break and lunch hour to complete the [Minimizing the presence of magic] grimoire he had received from Recas.
‘It was a good spell. In that battle with Recas, I saw the stealth trap explosion magic. This magic must have played a major part.’
Free understood.
After reading the grimoire, he realized the hidden attribute that made Recas’s magic seem so powerful was actually the most important core of the explosion-type magic.
The list Recas had given him during the first-period break had mostly listed the explosive magic from his own Burst family—core and main magic.
Even the non-explosive ones were all still tied to explosion-type effects, limited to fire explosive magic and its supportive spells.
That was why the single-volume magic that had caught Free’s eye the most, and which he could obtain instantly, was this [Minimizing the presence of magic].
‘It allows any attack or defense magic to gain the stealth property by altering its nature.’
For example, the spell he himself liked to use most.
Ray.
A beginner-level light magic that fires a compressed beam of light from the tip of one finger. The finger points in the direction, the beam becomes a line, and it can be shot with near-instantaneous speed.
Adding the element of stealth to a magic that attacks at such speed could mean obtaining an invincible silent-casting attack magic.
‘Ray is very suitable for silent casting. The speed toward the target is essentially the speed of light. If this magic that is hard to avoid even for those who know it gains stealth, the opponent would be forced into a difficult situation.’
That was the final reason Free had chosen it.
‘Recas said he’d lend it for a week… but I didn’t need to wait that long.’
The speed at which Free devoured the grimoire was astonishing.
Normally, it took days to read a book multiple times. That’s why Recas had generously given him a week.
But it wasn’t just reading. After each line and sentence, he immediately understood it in his head, simulating it, and absorbing it in a way no one else could match.
That was pure magical obsession and endless curiosity.
The result of excessive passion and his unparalleled talent.
‘Even in my past life, in the Phoenix world, I spent the whole day just reading books and grimoires. The speed and time shortened. Is this talent? Or something that counts as talent…’
Free walked down the corridor toward the cafeteria with a somewhat trivial thought.
He was starving.
Starving to the point that no matter how much he ate, he still felt empty, with an infinite sense of hunger…
He hadn’t noticed that he was slowly becoming a monster.
The events of that day ended quietly without anything else happening.
And a few months later, after several months had passed.
The first semester of the first year. The start of summer break arrived with Free’s first mid-term evaluation.