Heading to the Other Empire
The place was the middle school academy of the Orwen Empire. Free had immediately seen through the academy master’s intention—not to dwell on family matters, but to build a foundation here as quickly as possible.
As the son of the family head, he had no choice but to obey the academy master’s words.
Moreover,
“If you graduate from there safely in three years, I will lend you several of the family’s other advanced magic books.”
The academy master had presented this condition first, one that Free could never refuse.
For years, Free had been coming and going from the family’s archive. The sharp-eyed academy master had noticed Free’s genuine interest in magic and used that as leverage to catch his weakness and present an offer he could never refuse.
“……I understand….”
From his previous life, Free had been unusually drawn to magic and grimoires filled with spells. This was an irresistible condition. Even if he had sensed the academy master’s true motive earlier, he could not have refused.
Free eventually found himself heading to the middle academy in the southern Arhen Empire—the Orwen Empire—for three years.
And there, he would meet people he had never imagined.
[On the day of the Orwen Empire middle academy entrance ceremony.]
“What? Who are you?”
“…….”
For some reason, Free found himself facing two new students in the middle academy uniforms who were confronting each other on the very first day of the entrance ceremony.
One was a male student with jet-black hair, sharp eyes, and a tsundere expression. The other was a silver-haired girl with crimson eyes, her calm and quiet beauty impossible to ignore.
Yet between them, a surging pressure was slowly building, like a storm gathering force.
The black-haired boy possessed the same flame-attribute magic affinity as Phoenix.
The silver-haired girl radiated the opposite ice-attribute magic affinity.
“…….”
Even though arriving in the other empire had felt forced, he had not been pleased. What on earth was this on the first day of the entrance ceremony?
“Hey? Don’t you look? As a girl, do you think I’ll let you off?”
“……Move. You’re blocking the way.”
The situation had already escalated into a shouting match before anyone could intervene.
It was impossible to simply ignore them and walk past. The momentum collision between the two was growing steadily more intense. Especially since this had happened right in front of him.
……It was the perfect storm.
Free let out a sigh.
Glancing behind him, he saw that many other panicked students were also unable to pass because of the two in front.
‘No choice.’
Honestly, he had not wanted to get involved in the relationship of those two fighting from the very first day of middle school, but it was unavoidable.
Next to him stood a clock tower, its hands pointing to the entrance ceremony being mere minutes away.
So Free stepped forward between the fighting pair.
First, he tried to resolve it with words.
“Hey, you’re interfering with other students’ attendance. Can’t you fight somewhere else?”
“Who are you?”
“…….”
The returned gaze was anything but friendly.
“Get lost! I have business with this girl right now!”
“……Girl?”
The silver-haired girl’s eyebrows twitched at the black-haired boy’s words.
“…That word, you’d better cancel it right now.”
“Hah! Stop talking nonsense. You’d better kneel and beg right now. Otherwise that expressionless bastard might actually move.”
As he spoke, he manifested a threatening flame spell in one hand.
The silver-haired beauty’s face darkened.
“You too. Before you freeze everything with that unlucky face, cancel what you just said and apologize.”
The situation was on the verge of exploding.
Free had not even tried to listen to his words.
They were simply exchanging sparks of fury with their eyes.
In the end, Free shook his head and decided to engage in actual combat.
With one of Free’s eyes, the magic eye activated.
Then.
““……!?””
Both of them suddenly widened their eyes at the blue magic circle that had appeared beneath their feet.
“What…!”
They had probably been about to shout what he was doing.
But the No-Chant magic had already been cast.
Slid.
Slipped!
“……!”
“…Kuk!?”
Using the magic he had used before—Friction Decline—he knocked both of them to the floor in one swift motion.
At the same time, the fierce momentum they had been emitting vanished instantly.
Free said,
“Stop causing trouble on the public path that everyone uses.”
Leaving only that one sentence, before they could recover, Free walked away alone.
Seeing that, the other students who had been watching in panic behind him hurried after him to see what else would happen.
“……No-Chant magic? So fast?”
“…….”
The two who had fallen soon stood up from their spots once the magic disappeared, each reacting differently.
“Damn it! I got hit by this low-level spell!”
But the black-haired boy glared with a gloomy face and ground his teeth.
It seemed that being knocked down without any response in front of so many watching students had been deeply humiliating.
It had gone beyond mere embarrassment and now carried pure irritation.
“Damn it!”
“…….”
He spat out a curse and kicked the ground, storming off somewhere, but the silver-haired girl who had been hit by Free’s magic said nothing. Instead, she quietly watched the direction Free had gone, her expression strange.
***
The middle school entrance ceremony had begun.
Free sat in the prepared seat in the auditorium, arms crossed, quietly watching the stage.
But his mind was not on the principal’s long speech. It was elsewhere.
Free thought,
‘The must-read book on multi-casting. The difference between Volume 1 and 2 was clear.’
He had been secretly reflecting on the multi-casting books he had finished reading earlier.
The must-read book on multi-casting.
Volume 1.
An advanced grimoire that allowed simultaneous manifestation of multiple attributes.
Volume 2.
The second grimoire that described how to further strengthen manifested magic by two or three times in power.
In short, when one activated and manifested flame-attribute magic, Volume 2 focused on how to powerfully supplement and reinforce it.
And on the final page,
‘Multi-attribute combined magic.’
It informed them of the existence of Volume 3, which allowed combining two or more attribute magics into one.
Fusion, not combination.
For example, when activating a lower-tier fire ball spell, water-attribute magic could wrap around the ball in a spiral and rotate in front.
‘Originally, it was impossible to completely fuse mutually opposing fire and water attribute magics. When the two touched, they would definitely repel each other.’
While thinking that, the scene that came to mind was steam rising and the magic failing.
Therefore, it was combination magic, not fusion.
One could place lightning on fire.
Conversely, one could place fire and water on lightning.
‘Combining lightning-attribute magic with water-attribute magic could produce even stronger power.’
Free rested his chin on his hand, head slightly lowered, lost in thought.
‘If I base it on water-attribute magic and shoot lightning rotating in a spiral, the destructive power could increase several times.’
Normally, mages alternated between water-attribute and lightning-attribute magic that could interact with each other.
In the past, it had been common to fill the ground with water-attribute magic until it reached ankle-deep, then pour lightning-attribute magic to cause widespread electrocution and mass casualties.
As a countermeasure, fire-attribute magic with a powerful weapon was used to evaporate the water quickly.
Quick response and quick judgment were required, because failing to act immediately could result in electrocution and death.
‘But Volume 3 of the must-read book on multi-casting, described with illustrations in the final page of Volume 2, was literally attribute combination magic. It recorded in detail how to make two or more attributes compatible and increase power and range to a certain degree.’
Therefore, the volumes had been divided in that order—1, 2, 3.
Because without obtaining Volumes 1 and 2, Volume 3 alone would have no meaning.
‘This is only my guess, but the reason Volume 2 was written about attribute enhancement before Volume 3 was probably to further strengthen the attribute combination magic described in Volume 3.’
After reasoning it out, the reason Volume 1 focused on recording multi-attribute manifestation and Volume 2 on multi-attribute enhancement was because of the attribute combination magic recorded in Volume 3.
‘Interesting. I look forward to this magic.’
An advanced grimoire divided into three volumes.
When he had completely read and fully mastered all three, the range, power, and tacticality would increase exponentially beyond imagination.
And the most important stage—Volume 3’s advanced grimoire—was something Free had heard directly from the Phoenix family’s academy master before coming here.
At that moment, the principal on the stage announced that the entrance ceremony for all middle school first-year new students had ended.
And the class he was assigned to was.
“…….”
“…….”
“…….”
The two male and female students he had seen earlier at the entrance ceremony attendance—Free had no idea what had happened, but he guessed they were the ones who had caused unnecessary trouble.
Seeing them, Free sighed and thought that his luck was truly terrible.