Wait, Are We the Stronger Ones? - 1
The shock of being suddenly summoned for supplementary lessons didn't last long. Standing before Adrian's grave expression, the students swallowed dryly.
Just memorizing the materials is already more than I can handle.
We just finished practicals and haven't even eaten dinner yet...
Memorizing the course materials and surviving the practicals had already been exhausting enough. Supplementary lessons on top of that? Somehow, none of them could bring themselves to meet Adrian's eyes.
At last, the professor spoke.
"You don't like me, and I don't like you. But our interests aren't in conflict. You want to win the Magic Competition, don't you?"
Win the Magic Competition? Did he really need to ask? The students wanted that more than anyone alive.
That said, Rotin and Isabel had their own thoughts on the matter.
Not if it means staking our lives on it...
Honestly, even a draw would count as a win, right?
"It is absolutely unacceptable. For our class to lose to the mere B-Class, of all things."
Isabel's head tilted. Wasn't that backwards?
Adrian, however, was desperate in his own way. The moment the words branching point of the main scenario had surfaced in his mind, he knew they had to win this Magic Competition if the story was going to proceed toward a happy ending.
As an aside, Professor Rachel—who oversaw the B-Class mages—had such an insufferable attitude that he rather wanted to knock her down a peg. Strictly an aside, of course. An aside.
"So what kind of supplementary lesson are we doing today?"
Leave it to Michelle. Even in a situation like this, she was composed in her own way. It wasn't that she felt no dread toward studying materials, practicals, or extra lessons—more that her whole attitude said, if we have to do it anyway, let's just get it over with. Ease clung to her in abundance.
"A good question, Michelle."
Adrian traced several mana formulas into the empty air. Blue mana bloomed where nothing had been, lines drawing themselves, tangling, then resolving into a handful of distinct circuits. The students, who had diligently memorized their study materials, understood at once what those formulas were.
"The Acceleration Formula."
Charlotte murmured it under her breath. She was right.
The magic a mage wielded came in any number of schools. Summoning, curses, manifestation, elemental—list them and there would be no end. Among them, however, Acceleration belonged to the Anomalous type.
And the Anomalous type was not called anomalous for nothing. It was difficult to pin down with a single name, and it had no flashy display of its own to show off—but when it combined with other magic, it created something called a singularity. The Anomalous formula floating in the air right now, Acceleration, was a perfect example.
"The Acceleration Formula. It will help you dramatically reduce the time it takes to realize a spell. It sits on an Anomalous foundation, and the way its six elements brace one another is quite striking."
He called it six elements supporting one another, but that was only counting the ones that served as pillars. Get into the finer details and you were looking at twelve. It was a formula whose difficulty could never be called trivial. It wasn't a flashy magic either, which was precisely why other professors were especially keen to avoid teaching the Anomalous type at all.
"The supplementary lesson you and I will be doing today is exceedingly simple. You will put this Acceleration Formula to use."
Put it to use how, exactly? Invisible question marks bloomed over the students' heads. A single proper demonstration was worth more than a hundred words—easier for the one explaining, and easier for the ones listening.
Adrian's gaze swept across the students one by one, and at last he picked someone out. The easiest mark was Mi—no. The one who looked most suitable was Michelle. She was an exceptional prodigy, after all.
"Michelle."
"Yes."
"You should be able to protect yourself using telekinesis."
"I can."
That went without saying. A technique that used telekinetic force to deploy a unique domain and protect the caster standing at its center—Psychic Ground was the representative example.
"Try blocking this."
Fwoosh—!
The instant the words left his mouth, a Sawblade Mana Arrow—composed of nothing but a savage current of mana—shot toward Michelle.
Ting!
The feeble sound of it bouncing away was the girl's answer. Michelle had deployed her domain with remarkable calm and speed, and the mana arrow never reached her.
Awe spread across the faces of Charlotte, Isabel, and Rotin, complete with a round of impressed noises for good measure. Adrian checked his palm with unhurried composure. In his hand sat a pocket watch, meticulously crafted from mana.
"Exactly four seconds for the Sawblade Mana Arrow to reach you. Not a fraction of error."
"That's about how it felt, yes."
"Well done. And to deploy Psychic Ground?"
"About 3.5 seconds. I'm already aware of my own activation speed."
"Good that you are. And the domain you deployed was precise."
Michelle's shoulders went back and her chin lifted. Suddenly all this praise. Was this a curveball? She'd heard it was a fairly common tactic—heap on the compliments, then drop a confession out of nowhere...
Adrian cut that train of thought short.
"Let's try it faster this time. Use the Acceleration Formula. If you've memorized it, you should be able to apply it."
FWOOSH—!
The Sawblade Mana Arrow came screaming in far faster than before.
"Ngh!"
Michelle spread her palm with unhurried control. Light kindled in her pale green eyes. The foundation was Anomalous. What to apply was Acceleration. What to overlay was Psychic Ground. The girl put it to use without difficulty, and before long a Psychic Ground reinforced with the Acceleration Formula unfurled in the air.
Ting!
The result, then, did not change. Clean, without a wasted motion—wasn't it? Michelle looked at Adrian with an expression that said, well?
"Three seconds for the Sawblade Mana Arrow to close in. It was accelerated by about a second."
"Correct. And your domain took 2.5 seconds to deploy. You succeeded in a one-second acceleration as well."
"It's not difficult."
If you've got something important to say, I'd rather you didn't drag it out any further. Michelle shrugged and looked at Adrian—and what came flying at the girl who had been sketching out a little illustrated diary in her head was Adrian's ice-cold voice.
"......?"
If a mage could deploy a body-protecting spell in the two-second range, that alone was treated as something extraordinary. For instance—
"Hamila's ice shield was about 2.01 seconds, too."
Hamila Winter. The student Rahal Academy hung out as its signboard, and a superstar besides. In some circles, there were even rumors she was a princess concealing her identity.
...And the one who had broken Michelle's leg.
Considering that even a protective spell of hers remained in the two-second range, Michelle's Psychic Ground could hardly be called "pathetically slow." Of course, she also had no desire to admit that Hamila was the more impressive of the two.
"And later on, I'll be able to do it better than Hamila."
"Understand what I'm saying, Michelle."
"Understand what?"
"Hamila's 2.01 seconds is pathetically slow as well. That's what I'm trying to say."
It wasn't Michelle alone who reeled at that remark. Charlotte, Isabel, even Rotin—all of them were stunned. And before their confusion could even fade, a Sawblade Mana Arrow went whoosh—and grazed past the side of Michelle's neck.
"...What?"
It wasn't that she hadn't blocked it. She hadn't been able to react.
"One second to pass you. I accelerated it by an additional two seconds."
"...How?"
Shortening the activation of the Sawblade Mana Arrow itself was not a particularly difficult feat. Ignore factors like firepower and direction entirely and focus solely on activation, and a one-second Sawblade Mana Arrow was well within reach.
But.
The direction was precise. And the power was nothing short of formidable.
That was the question lodged in every student's mind.
"You're all wearing such shocked faces. It isn't even that difficult."
"How did you do that?"
Michelle asked. Adrian immediately unfurled a board of mana in the air. This was the very heart of today's supplementary lesson.
"Would you overlay the process of deploying your Psychic Ground onto this board?"
Michelle nodded. First, she laid down the Anomalous-type Acceleration Formula as a foundation... then wove the Psychic Ground formula into that circuit, stroke by stroke. Fourteen strokes horizontally. Thirteen vertically. And into the vertical strokes, only seventy percent of the mana used for the horizontal ones. At last, the Psychic Ground formula was complete. Adrian nodded.
"This time, this is the process I used to deploy the Sawblade Mana Arrow."
How fast was he drawing the strokes? Was the mana infusion quicker? Or did his Acceleration Formula look a little different—
Fwoosh!
The students' questions died in an instant.
"Huh?"
"Wait."
"What."
There was no process. The formula for a Sawblade Mana Arrow, Acceleration already applied, simply came into being.
"The way you use magic, Michelle, is orthodox. That's why it can't help but be pathetically slow."
"It's orthodox... so it's pathetically slow."
Was that supposed to make sense? In magic, surely nothing was better than doing it by the book. But Adrian let out a short huff of laughter and went on.
"When the heir to House Maynans puts her maids to work, how does she go about it?"
"There isn't any 'putting them to work' to speak of. Each of them already knows her own duties perfectly well. I just tell them to do as they always do."
"That's exactly it, Michelle."
Adrian's index finger tapped the mana board hanging in the air.
"I simply told this formula to do as it always does."
⟨ Memorize ⟩
"......Ah?"
"We call this Memorize. If you Memorize the Acceleration Formula, a reduction of this degree is hardly an impossible story for you either."
The students' mouths fell open. None of them made a sound, but they were all thinking the same thing. How were they supposed to pull off this Memorize from this moment forward?
As if he understood, Adrian nodded.
"The method is simple. So simple it's a problem, really."
"Which is?"
"You use it until you drop. How about it?"
"Hmm."
Michelle met Adrian's eyes with a sharp look. How many times had she used Psychic Ground in her life? She couldn't even count. Memorize. Now that she understood the principle, she felt she could put it to use in actual combat this very instant. Which meant this was a matter that struck directly at her pride. She wanted to show him, right in front of his eyes, that something like this was possible in a single try.
"I'll try. Right now."
"Good resolve, Michelle."
Adrian prepared to fire a Sawblade Mana Arrow. Across from him, Michelle steeled her will just as firmly. Her eyes were burning with competitive fire. As the other students watched the standoff with bated breath, Michelle carefully parted her lips.
"I'll say this in advance."
Before they were professor and student, they were mage and mage. And so—
"Don't you dare go easy on me just because I'm a girl, or a stu—"
CRACK—!
The incoming lump of magic struck Michelle square in the forehead.
"What, were you not concentrating?"
"......"
Something trickled down over her philtrum. A nosebleed.
"And did you happen to say something? I didn't catch it."
"Nothing at all."
...That's so like you, Adrian.
"Good. Then we resume training."
"Yes."
Michelle hated Adrian. A lot.