A Helping Hand I Never Expected
I threw myself into studying in earnest the day after the mock exam notice went up.
After classes, I stayed behind and headed to the library; during lunch breaks or the free periods in between, I received guidance from Professor Seras.
It was an awfully tight schedule, but there was nothing to be done. For the three weeks I had left, all I could do was throw myself at it with everything I had.
And so today, once again, I found myself alone after class, moving my pen in the library—that space thick with the scent of paper and wooden furniture.
Except my actions weren't exactly productive. I hadn't even uncapped the pen; I was just staring blankly at an empty notebook.
This is way too hard.
I dropped the pen onto my notes in irritation and scratched my head. I had reached the point where even reading the textbook didn't get me anywhere.
If this world were like my previous life, there'd be workbooks full of predicted exam questions for the covered material that I could simply drill into memory. There weren't. Having no choice but to study straight from the textbook was, quite frankly, the most painful part of it all.
What was I supposed to do when I couldn't even understand what the textbook was saying? How was I meant to keep going from there?
Maybe I should find a tutor somewhere.
The thought flitted through my mind, but I shook my head, realizing it was impossible. A tutor, or anything of the sort—first I'd need to actually know someone.
Rone was out of the question, as I'd already concluded. She simply wasn't the type to teach others. Tina was in Class E right alongside me and seemed to have her hands full with her own studies. The only name that came to mind was Phorion, a Class B cadet—but he was a muscle-brained type through and through, and I'd once overheard him admitting with his own mouth that magic theory wasn't his strong suit.
"Haah…."
I sighed at my hopeless social circle and flopped face-down onto the desk. Thankfully, no one was around to see it.
"Um… are you all right?"
"I'm sorry?"
A stranger's voice suddenly reached me as I sat there clawing at my head. No—stranger wasn't quite right. It was a voice I felt I'd heard somewhere before.
With a vague sense of doubt, I turned my head—and there stood a woman with cascading golden curls, carrying herself with the dignified air of a noble knight.
None other than Elisha.
"Ah, I'm Elisha Krochel. We met during the entrance exam, you see…."
"I remember."
How could I forget? I'd known who she was long before we'd ever actually met.
"What a relief. You were clutching your head, so I thought perhaps you'd taken ill…."
"I'm fine. Sorry for worrying you."
Just how kind-hearted did a person have to be to walk up and speak to someone she barely knew just because he was holding his head? Her goodwill felt almost excessive. Embarrassed, I scratched my cheek and told her the truth.
"Actually, it's not a headache. My studies just aren't going well."
"Ah, I see. Judging by the book, is that basic magic theory?"
"Yes… well."
It was the kind of thing that would probably seem trivial from her perspective, and I found myself averting my eyes as I answered. She'd be entirely justified in thinking, 'An Academy cadet has gotten this far without even studying this much?' and looking down on me.
But Elisha, defying my expectations, approached with a rather different air about her and took the seat beside me. Then, pointing a finger to a spot on the open book, she let a faint smile cross her lips.
"It may be the foundation, but it's also the hardest part of all. When I was first introduced to magic, I spent the better part of a month just wrestling with basic theory myself."
"Is… is that so."
Why did that tone—one that sounded like she was taking my side—only make it hurt more? I would honestly have preferred she just pretend not to notice and pass on by. It was embarrassing, plain and simple.
Unable to bear her gaze any longer, I ostentatiously opened a different book—a silent request for her to leave. A gesture that said, I'm going to focus on studying now, so please don't talk to me any further.
But Elisha's reaction here, too, caught me off guard.
"If there's a part you're stuck on, might I be of some help?"
"…Help me?"
I couldn't immediately grasp what she meant, and I heard myself objecting before I could stop. Elisha, entirely unbothered by my dim-witted reply, simply smiled graciously and elaborated.
"Just what I said. I wouldn't call myself brilliant with theory, but I think I know about as much as the average person. Basic theory is something I could teach you without any trouble at all."
At Elisha suddenly launching into a self-introduction of her own qualifications, I sat there dumbstruck, my eyes blinking like a fish.
Is this a dream?
Elisha—one of the top students even within Class A—was offering to help me study?
It was a fleeting chance, but an infinitely precious one. If I could just clear the spots where I was stuck, I might manage the rest on my own. I was curious why she wanted to help me, but more important than that right now was seizing this opportunity before it vanished. Perhaps it was simple pity for a classmate unfortunate enough to be in Class E.
"Then… may I impose on you?"
"I'm the one who brought it up, you know."
With an apology, Elisha pulled out the chair beside me and took a seat, setting the book she'd been carrying down on the desk for the moment.
Beautiful. She was, annoyingly, staggeringly beautiful.
Well, no one would doubt she was one of the original novel's main heroines.
Before long, Elisha was reaching into her bag for her pen case when her eyes suddenly went round, as if she'd just remembered something she'd forgotten.
"Oh, right. And there's really no need for you to speak to me so formally. Whether commoner or noble, everyone stands as equals within the Academy."
"No, but—Lady Elisha, you use formal speech with me, so that would be rather…."
"That's simply my manner of speaking. I use formal speech with everyone except my maid, you see."
Her tone was surprisingly firm, and I could only hum low in my throat and scratch my cheek. When she put it that way, what could I say? Come to think of it, I'd spoken casually to Phorion from the very start too. I had no particular aversion to talking down to a noble—rather, if that was what the other person wanted, granting it was closer to courtesy.
"…Then I'll speak comfortably. Just tell me if it bothers you."
"Hehe, very well, Dinauer."
Elisha nodded with a satisfied smile. Then she scooted her chair closer, tilted her head slightly, and checked the contents of my textbook.
"The part you're stuck on is mana Manifestation and Construction, isn't it?"
"Yeah. That section feels like grasping at clouds—I can't make heads or tails of it."
Manifestation and Construction, put simply, referred to the very process of casting a spell. Manifestation was the act of drawing the mana dwelling within one's body out into the open; Construction was shaping it into a new form—magic itself. On the surface it seemed simple enough, but the moment you dug into the theory, it was a minefield of incomprehensible content. I'd already wasted a good two hours on this page alone.
"I understand. For all that it's called the basics, it's the most fundamental element underpinning every spell in existence. I once asked a 7th Star Circle mage about it, and even he said he still hadn't fully grasped everything."
"That much?"
A 7th Star Circle mage was a heavyweight who could count among the empire's main fighting forces. After all, only two people in the empire's entire history had ever reached the 9th Star Circle at its peak, and among those who'd attained the 8th, barely a handful remained alive today. Most of the Academy's most venerable professors probably capped out at the 6th Star Circle. Even the original novel had described the 7th Star Circle as a realm reachable only by transcending the limits of humanity itself.
And they'd crammed content that even those monsters couldn't fully understand into the curriculum as *basics*? Who the hell wrote this textbook?
"Of course, that was likely a bit of an exaggeration. I imagine he simply meant to convey how important the fundamentals are."
Whether she'd caught the confusion written all over my face or not, Elisha hastily added that it wasn't quite that dire—that with just a little instruction, I'd understand in no time. Hearing it, I somehow felt like a child being soothed after a tantrum.
"First, as you know, the most important thing in the Manifestation process is 'extraction.' You regulate and draw out only the precise amount of mana dwelling in your body that the spell in question requires—that's the underlying principle."
Elisha walked me through the process step by step, starting from Manifestation. She moved at a pace neither too fast nor too slow, pausing to check whether I'd understood each point—honestly, it was like watching a first-rate professor at work. She'd do well at a lectern someday.
"…This process demands a surprising degree of concentration, you see. The swifter and more finely controlled it is, the fewer impurities need to be filtered out during Construction, and so the higher the quality of the finished spell."
Her explanations were remarkably easy to follow. Whenever I showed signs of not quite understanding something, she would retrace her steps without hesitation, and her gift for analogy made the theory far easier to digest than dry facts alone.
Thanks to her, in less than thirty minutes since she'd joined me, I'd come to understand the essentials of Manifestation and Construction. Compared to where I'd been an hour ago, it was nothing short of a leap forward.
"Thank you, Krochel. You saved my life."
"It was nothing."
I offered her my heartfelt gratitude—she'd cleanly resolved a problem I'd been stumbling over for two full hours. She smiled faintly as she slid her pen back into its case, the library's light catching her falling golden hair like a halo behind her.
I could say without hesitation that those thirty minutes learning from her had been more valuable than all my hours of studying alone. My eyes felt newly opened. There was still a long, daunting road ahead, but I'd cleared at least one hurdle. Even if I had to return to that hovel of a dormitory tonight, I'd sleep well.
"By the way, do you always study alone at this hour?"
"Pretty much. The mock exam's coming up, so I figured I should put in the work."
"The mock exam? How unusual. Most cadets don't pay it the slightest mind…."
Don't I know it. Why else would I be voluntarily subjecting myself to suffering nobody else bothers with?
"I have my reasons."
"I see. Then I take it your goal is a high ranking?"
"It is."
There was nothing to hide, so when I nodded, Elisha abruptly rested her chin on her hand, looking as if she were deliberating over something. Then her turquoise eyes turned back toward me. She seemed to have something she wanted to say.
"If you wouldn't mind… might I tutor you?"
"Tutor me? You mean, teach me more?"
At a proposal even more unexpected than her last, I blinked blankly.
"Yes. It looks to me like you're still at the foundational stage, and that's well within what I can teach. Besides, I come to the library at this hour every day."
"Hmm… I'm sorry, but I don't really have anything to offer you in return. And it would feel wrong to simply accept such kindness without giving anything back."
This was one-on-one tutoring, offered directly by a cadet regarded as elite even within Class A. I knew full well that Elisha wasn't the type to expect repayment for something like this—but my conscience pricked too hard to just take and take.
"I'm not seeking any repayment. But if it truly weighs on you…."
At first she waved a hand dismissively, but then—sensing my genuine discomfort—she hummed quietly and fell into thought. And then, before long:
"Could you grant me one favor, sometime in the future? Of course, it won't be anything difficult."
"No need—if it's a difficult request, that's fine too. Otherwise my conscience won't let me off the hook."
Since she'd been the one to raise it, I jumped at the chance and agreed, closing the negotiation on the spot. If her help got me into the top ranks and I successfully secured Rone, there was nothing I wouldn't do for her. Short of asking me for the stars in the sky, I was willing to grant anything.
"Then it's settled. Let's meet here again tomorrow after class. If anything confuses you while you study, jot it down and ask me."
"I will. Really—thank you, Krochel."
So this was what it felt like to gain an army out of nowhere. When good fortune came rolling in, ivy and all, I nearly sprang out of my chair to dance. I didn't know why she was willing to help me to this extent, but a debt like that could be repaid eventually.
For now, all I could do was keep my eyes fixed on my goal and do everything within my power.