Magic and Aura Depend on How You Use Them
“You definitely have talent.”
Professor Karnarof said this while looking at the notes I’d submitted along with the book I’d borrowed. By now, half the notebook was already filled with dense black handwriting.
“I don’t fall for compliments like that.”
“If you interpret even kind words that way, I have nothing left to say.”
“And yet you’re still going to give me another assignment, aren’t you?”
“You ask the obvious. If one possesses talent, is it not a virtue to devote oneself to diligent study?”
This was in Karnarof's Office. The assignment he’d given me last time was to understand Chapter 6 of Basic Magic Circle Studies—specifically the section on Mathematics of Barriers—and solve the practice problems.
“I’ve finished grading them. I left comments on problems 16, 24, 35, and 68, so read them later and solve those again.”
They were the highest-difficulty questions I’d been unsure about. Problems that even my Mathematician of Magic Squares skill couldn’t solve, the kind that required real creativity. Each one had a separate memo attached, covered in tightly packed notes.
“This should help.”
Yeah, it probably would.
“But the part I still don’t get is barrier magic itself.”
“There’s nothing for me to teach you about barrier techniques. Interfering would only muddy your path.”
It seemed like he was saying that since I was already studying properly, I should break through the wall on my own. The way he phrased everything so indirectly was a talent in itself.
“For now, I’ll demonstrate. At your level, this should be enough to grasp the feel of it.”
Karnarof chanted a spell and deployed a localized barrier. It was basic casting using the minimum amount of mana possible. Yet the barrier unfolded with incredible cleanliness and stability. He’d added a blue tint for visibility and layered on several extra properties. The mana consumption was probably far lower than mine too.
“It never turns out like that when I do it.”
My Mathematician of Magic Squares was spinning in circles. Seeing a perfect example like this actually helped me get a sense of it. Scary how that works.
“That’s your assignment to figure out. You may leave now.”
Karnarof waved his staff once, and the barrier vanished without a trace. Then came the order to get out.
I decided to obediently make my escape. If I dawdled, he might slap me with another assignment.
“Ah, one moment.”
Karnarof raised his hand, stopping me as I tried to leave.
“Yes?”
“Could you get me one of these notebooks? The paper quality is quite excellent.”
“It’s not hard, but you’re not expecting me to do it for free, right?”
“I’ll compensate you properly.”
“Still… what are you using it for…?”
“It’s for a simple gift. The wine I was planning to present as tribute has all disappeared—”
I cut him off. I couldn’t let him say any more.
“I’ll get it for you.”
That one hit pretty hard. It was definitely the stuff Adrian had swiped. We’d drunk it all, and a good portion had turned into my mana. In other words, my karma was piled sky-high, and with Karnarof’s investigative skills, there was a real chance I’d get caught. I’d better buy him about ten high-quality ones later to make up for it.
Lately, we’d been experiencing both the overwhelming power of air conditioning and the painful limits of regular fans at the same time.
“It’s so humid… and hot…”
After classes, Aris had practically glued herself in front of the fan. But at this point, something felt off.
“Wait, there’s seriously no temperature control? That’s weird!”
I tied up my hair because it kept sticking to my neck. Even after dumping water on myself, the heat kept rising. It seemed like summer at Reinhart was similar to Korea’s. But something was definitely strange.
The faculty building wasn’t exactly cool, but it was bearable. The dormitory, on the other hand, was unbearably hot.
“There’s supposed to be a temperature control magic tool in the dormitory building… but apparently it broke…”
“…What?”
“They said it’ll probably take until mid-summer to repair…”
In that case, installing an air conditioner wasn’t a choice—it was mandatory! Both Aris and I had constitutions that suffered badly in the heat, which made it even worse.
“Ughhh, let’s just install the damn thing already! Come on, Aris!”
“So what exactly do I need to do?!”
After feeling the fan’s pathetic performance firsthand, Aris had decided to fully commit to my project. It was nice to see her roll up her sleeves with such enthusiasm.
I opened the storage room and showed her the parts. Two massive air conditioning units, their outdoor compressors, power cables, drainage pipes, and a high-capacity power strip to handle the extra load. Plus a full toolbox to install everything properly.
Aris froze.
“…Isn’t this a bit complicated?”
“It’s way more than ‘a bit’!! Are you telling me all of this is for just one unit?!”
It did look excessive compared to a simple fan.
“Oh, and be careful—there’s always something like electric magic running near the outlets.”
I explained the basic safety rules for handling electricity. Don’t touch exposed wires, never let water get near it, that sort of thing. I wasn’t sure if Aris would understand, but—
“Mm! It feels similar to handling mana with properties attached!”
She seemed to have interpreted it in her own way.
“Alright, let’s get started.”
“Umm… can’t we just tough it out with the magic tool?”
“Where do you think you’re going?”
“Ugh.”
I grabbed Aris as she tried to slowly back away. After all the money I’d spent buying this air conditioner set, plus my time and effort, there was no way I was giving up now.
“Well… if we work on it, we should finish today, right?!”
“Anyway, I’ll handle all the hard parts. I just need you to lend a hand.”
Aris nodded. She looked like she’d renewed her resolve.
“But there’s a problem.”
“Huh? Didn’t you just say there wasn’t a problem?”
“The installation itself isn’t the issue.”
“Then what’s the—”
“We need to make a hole in the wall.”
“…Excuse me?”
Aris stared back at me with a completely dumbfounded expression.
I continued with a long, scholarly explanation. Heat loss and circulation, the path for the drainage pipe, and all the other reasons why we needed to drill a hole in the wall.
“So you’re really going to make a hole?”
“Yep. We can just fix it with magic later.”
“Hmm… if we ask Linia, she might be able to manage it somehow…”
“Wait, that works?”
I’d been planning to somehow do it with elemental magic without getting caught. But Aris, you’re also totally fine with punching a hole in the wall? Even if there’s a good reason, I was still feeling a slight pang of conscience.
“More importantly, how are we going to hide it from the cleaning staff?”
“I’ll just put up a barrier with perception interference.”
If it was only meant to hide a hole, a small-scale barrier would do. That much could be covered with a single mana potion. Of course, the further you moved away from it, the more mana it consumed.
“In Code, Domain.”
I tested it by deploying a small barrier.
“When did you even learn that? That’s usually in second-year textbooks…”
“Some seniors taught me?”
“…Huh? You had seniors who knew you?”
Well, I did learn it pretty intensely. I also taught those seniors how to deal with someone wielding a blunt weapon. They screamed with joy as they accepted my teachings. Most of them were so happy they passed out, but that wasn’t important. It was a true exchange where we complemented each other’s weaknesses. Wasn’t this the ideal senior-junior relationship?
“Still, I can’t really use this one properly.”
Since I hadn’t learned it systematically, it had too many gaps. I was just testing it out for now.
“If you want to learn it properly, there should be a book in the library.”
“Really?”
“I think the title was something like Enhanced Casting? If you ask the professor, maybe he’ll give you a permit?”
Aris said she’d already learned up to In Code herself. Yeah, if I asked Karnarof, he’d probably issue a permit. I didn’t have much else to do until I learned beginner magic anyway.
But.
‘Hmm. I see. You want a permit. In that case, solve up to chapter four and have it checked during the next magic repair class.’
Yeah… no.
“I’ll go later.”
Final exams weren’t even over yet. I couldn’t pile on more assignments. But the air conditioner was something that had to be done right now.
I picked up my staff and aimed it at an appropriate spot. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any tools capable of drilling through the solid wall, so I had no choice but to use magic.
“W-wait a second! How are you going to make the hole?! If you use a mana bullet, it’ll just look like an accident!!”
Oh. Right. No matter how much I minimized the penetration formula, a mana bullet was still a physical force. It wouldn’t make a clean hole.
“Then let’s take care of everything else first.”
There was no putting it off. I unwrapped the outdoor unit that had been sleeping in storage and moved it out to the terrace. The models I’d brought from the modern world came in both stand and wall-mounted types. I planned to install one in the living room and one in the bedroom. I was determined to finish both today. It was do or die.
“Ughhh…”
Installing the wall-mounted air conditioner turned out to be an absolute pain in the ass. It wasn’t just one hole I needed to make in the wall. And because any noise could get the construction noticed, using localized barriers to block the sound was incredibly tedious.
‘My barrier proficiency seems to have gone up, though.’
“Ugh… somehow I got everything attached. But you’re saying really cool air will come out of here?!”
If it didn’t, I’d probably kill someone.
“Of course.”
“That’s a relief, then…”
“But we still need to make the hole.”
“So it comes down to that after all.”
Was there really no clean way to just drill a hole?
“Hmm… if the material were softer, we could learn cutting magic…”
“Isn’t that an attack spell?”
“Ah.”
Aris’s brain had finally melted from the heat and manual labor. There was no way dangerous magic like that would be in the first-year library.
“Then what do we do…”
That’s when a thought suddenly flashed through my mind.
“…Wait, wasn’t trying to solve this with magic the wrong approach from the start?”
“Huh? We can’t use anything but magic, right? Even you, Yumia, aside from that ridiculous physical ability…”
“No, there’s one more thing.”
A card I hadn’t played yet. But I had been practicing it steadily. Its range and firepower were lower than magic attacks, but in terms of basic destructive power and cutting ability, nothing could match it.
A sword appeared in my right hand.
Tier 2.
My beloved weapon that I’d grown attached to. A blade of higher quality than any sword I’d used back on Earth. A blue aura wrapped around it.
“E-eh?! Eeeeeeeeeeeh?!”