Midterm Exams Have Been Deleted — Chapter 3
“….”
“…”
Ah, this is really making my concentration go to hell. I let out a long sigh and glanced sideways at my seatmate.
Sitting right next to me was my senior Charlotte, eyes sparkling like she had just discovered the greatest treasure in the world, gazing at the lecture textbook spread out before her.
“Um, Senior Charlotte? If you have something to say, just say it already. Don’t just keep staring like that.”
“Huh? Something to say?”
“I thought you wanted to say something, so you’ve been staring the whole time.”
“Nothing. I was just looking.”
“I don’t get what’s so fun about watching me study.”
“It’s not fun. It’s just surprising.”
Surprising about what? Right now the senior herself used to study this exact textbook in her first year.
Even history shares the same textbook from first to second year, so there’s nothing new to discover.
Yet she was staring at it so intensely. It felt strangely out of place.
“I didn’t take the history lecture.”
“What?”
“The elves who were watching over me told me I didn’t need to learn Lebechia’s history.”
“No… for graduation from the academy, we’re required to take every single course.”
“I know that. But apparently I’m an exception. They said not to take it, so I didn’t.”
“…”
This was beyond just awkward — it was completely unbelievable.
After all, she was the princess of the Minas Elf Kingdom, raised with utmost care as a direct descendant of royalty.
Yet weren’t the kingdoms of Minas Elf and Lebechia now allies bound by a mutual promise to advance together into the future?
That’s why academy students were already learning about the past, present, and future of the Minas Elf Kingdom, right?
But now she claimed to have no interest in Lebechia at all?
History was said to be the key that unlocked the past, present, and future of anyone you faced.
Especially in national affairs, knowing their society was essential — and that society was shaped by history.
The academy emphasized this above all, which was why we were studying everything from Minas Elf to Pirot.
“Not guardians… just dead weight. Useless lumps of dead weight.”
“Yeah. Professor Milaze said the exact same thing. ‘You stupid things! Parasites sucking down our food! Those idiots!’ and then she grabbed those elves by the collars and threw them around.”
Professor Milaze throwing them around? That was a scene I never imagined in a million years.
Every time she showed a calm side, occasional flashes of charisma always felt gentle.
Yet she had actually thrown elves by the collars. That was shocking.
I would never dare cross Professor Milaze again.
I had no desire to become the kind of mouse that got run over by a cat.
“I guess I understand why Professor Milaze assigned me this senior.”
“Why?”
“To get to know each other. I’m learning about Minas, and she’s learning about Lebechia.”
“…”
“I don’t know much about you. You might be disappointed in me, Lucian.”
“You were already pretty honest about Minas last time. That’s plenty.”
Unadorned, without any exaggeration or minimization — the plain truth.
Based on that, I would write an essay on how the two nations should extend a hand to each other and move forward together.
Of course, networking was part of it too.
Later, I ended up talking with Senior Charlotte about Lebechia and Minas.
Everything from basic table manners at meals to which seats were proper in which situations and what basic etiquette to avoid in certain contexts.
I gradually realized the subtle differences between the two kingdoms that seemed eerily similar on the surface yet felt completely different.
Professor Milaze had explained a little about the elf kingdom, but she hadn’t gone into the tiniest details.
After all, she was a history professor, not an elf specialist.
So by talking with Charlotte, I learned the finer points I had missed.
“…It’s amazing.”
“Amazing? What is?”
“The way elves live. Honestly, most people in Lebechia think of you as just forest fairies or something similar.”
“All elves are the same. I learned that after coming to Lebechia. We’re no different from humans. We laugh when we’re happy, cry when we’re sad, shout when we’re angry. I was actually more surprised here. Everyone treated elves like monsters, but that wasn’t the case.”
We lived on the same continent, yet we didn’t even know each other.
There wasn’t even a steep mountain range or vast lake or river or ocean between us.
We were just separated by forests. Here was Lebechia. There was the Minas Elf Kingdom.
Hoo-rook-.
“…You’re still drinking?”
“Yeah. I’m saving it for later. It’s really good.”
“You should have said that before you were kicked out. I would have given you all the money.”
“I thought of it later. And I didn’t have any need to spend money.”
“No need to spend money?”
“Yeah. After every lecture, I had to go back to the dorm, tell my people what happened today and who I talked to, and then get told more about elf society. There was no time left over.”
As she said this, Charlotte fiddled with her cup.
What could I say? She was already acting like a young child who had homework before bedtime.
Lost in all sorts of hardships, it seemed she had forgotten even the smallest joys of daily life.
The sense of duty carried by royalty — especially direct royal blood, not just collateral — must be tremendous.
I was already tense enough just thinking about it. As a direct descendant of the Theodore family, I had to live every day making sure I didn’t accidentally say something bad about my father or sister.
But sometimes even that pressure needed a recharge.
This elf princess sitting beside me seemed to have been holding everything together without ever needing that kind of break.
“…Want another hot chocolate?”
“Huh? No… no…”
Senior Charlotte, as if she had just found the world’s biggest problem, spun her eyes around in deep thought.
I had expected her to shout “Of course one more!” but the next words that came out were quite surprising.
“No. This is enough. I want more, but I’ll save it for tomorrow!”
“I don’t understand the strange logic, but I’ll cheer for you, senior.”
“Thank you!”
She had thanked me for something I hadn’t even said, and now she was giving me praise too.
I chuckled — I was wondering if all elves were like that.
“Lucian.”
Senior Charlotte, who had gone quiet, suddenly opened her mouth again.
“Want me to teach you magic?”
The proposal was extremely tempting to me.
“…”
“Magic? Teach me? Since you’ve been kind to me, I need to return the favor.”
“If two hot chocolates count as a favor, that seems a bit expensive.”
“I felt I owed you plenty. This is delicious. It’s better than any tea I drink from home!”
“…”
“Honestly, comparing it to tea feels a little unfair. I’ve heard tea has both taste and aroma.”
“Compared to hot chocolate — no, chocolate — it’s all about taste, right?”
“Um… I think the idea of ‘repaying a debt’ is nice, but it won’t work.”
“Won’t work? Why? Did my magic skills suck yesterday?”
“Absolutely not. Magicians who can cast Fly in just a few seconds are rare, aren’t they? Those are all Tower mages. Even accounting for the fact that you’re an elf and magic comes naturally, yesterday’s magic from you was flawless.”
“Then why? Why don’t you want it?”
“It’s not that I don’t want it. It’s that it’s impossible. I’m the worst.”
“Worst?”
At Charlotte’s question, I sighed and gave her the rough explanation.
I can’t manifest magic. No matter what I try, I can’t make it happen.
It’s not that I can’t gather mana or that my power circuits have issues.
I draw formulas perfectly and calculate faster than anyone else.
But even after doing all that, magic manifestation is an unreachable wall for me.
“That’s strange. Everything you said you could do perfectly — those are exactly the things you need to manifest magic.”
“That’s right.”
“You can do all that, but you can’t manifest magic? That doesn’t make sense.”
“I know it doesn’t make sense either. The one who doesn’t make sense is me.”
Here, take a look. Impressive, right? Damn it.
Even an elf like Senior Charlotte would find it impossible to understand after waking from death.
Accepting that one could be at the peak of magic yet still fail to manifest it was difficult.
For her, magic was as natural as breathing.
“…”
“Let’s try again. Let’s try it once more.”
“I can’t. We’ve already done this in front of Professor Raven how many times? I’ve accumulated countless failures now.”
“What did you do back then? Like what you’ve always done?”
“Yes. I gathered mana, accelerated my power circuits, drew formulas, and calculated.”
“Don’t do that. That’s a waste. It doesn’t suit you, Lucian.”
“…”
This was a completely ridiculous statement.
What I had been doing was the absolute basic of using magic.
If I didn’t gather mana, didn’t accelerate circuits, and didn’t finish formulas and calculations, how could I possibly use magic?
The academic consensus was that the most basic way to use magic was exactly that, yet she was telling me not to?
“That’s what ordinary people do. I don’t do things that way. I immediately think of magic, and that’s it. I don’t gather mana or calculate or anything.”
“But… elves are excellent at magic, so maybe they can do that, but I’m just human…”
“Whether you’re human or elf, it doesn’t matter. The important thing is what talent you were born with. I only realized it during sparring with Lye. You already know. You just can’t keep up. You can’t follow.”
“What exactly are you—”
“I know everything. Why do you keep stopping at baby steps? Run. Just run. You’ll understand once you start. Ah, I was born running. I thought I was just like everyone else, so I started walking. But there’s something I can only feel when I run.”
The words Charlotte spoke sank deep into my ears and lodged themselves in my mind.
Don’t try to do it like everyone else. You’re not walking anymore — you’re running. Stopped at baby steps, you’re even more blocked.
These were claims I couldn’t understand at all and that my head refused to accept.
And strangely, a tiny “Wait, really?” feeling stirred in a corner of my chest.
“What do you think now?”
“About what?”
“Yeah. How do you feel?”
“I’m frustrated. Like something is blocking everything. I don’t understand a single word you’re saying.”
“Then try thinking of one magic you remember right now with the intention of clearing that blockage. Make it as strong as possible.”
“Just thinking about it won’t—”
“It will. It can. It will happen.”
Her voice was so full of absolute certainty that arguing became impossible.
I finally gave in to her insistence and thought about the first magic that came to mind in this moment.
Frustrating. I really wanted to cast some magic.
I desperately needed something that would instantly break through the wall that had been blocking me for so long.
I didn’t want to live the rest of my life with the label of “genius at theory, useless in practice.”
I wanted to be greater than Lye. Or even greater than Lye.
I wanted her to say I was her rival, not the other way around!
Whoosh—!
‘…?’
With a strange sound, an unfamiliar heat suddenly surged from my palms.
What to say? It felt like standing right in front of a blazing bonfire.
Because the sensation was so alien, I opened my eyes slightly.
“W-what is this?! What the—?! Uwaaaah!!”
Seeing the flames roaring in my palms about to swallow my entire hand, I startled and instinctively swung my arm.
Kwaaang—!
…I had done it.