The Shut-Your-Beak Sparrow
Lucia opened her eyes.
She was staring up at the ceiling, mentally running through the day's tasks, when it hit her.
“…Master?”
Last night's events flickered through her mind. She had been granted an opportunity that the word destiny hardly did justice to.
But.
A wave of dread washed over her. She didn't toss and turn in her sleep—but what if, at some point, her body had rolled right on top of him and crushed him flat…?
…No way. Right?
She searched the spot where her master had fallen asleep. He was gone. Thinking he might have moved during the night, she combed through the bedding, lifting the blanket aside to check whether he was clinging to it somewhere.
Nothing.
The bed was completely empty.
“…”
Lucia's lips trembled faintly.
Right. It was never destiny at all.
That was the story she decided to believe. After all, she didn't deserve to be taught by him. No talent. A rotten personality, too. It was precisely that personality which had left her without a single teacher in all her life.
Because I can't trust people.
Things are just going back to the way they were.
For some reason, having him beside her had felt… okay. But that no longer mattered. He had already given up on her.
It was better to believe it was never destiny at all—
“…?”
As she tidied the bedding, her fingers brushed something soft beneath the pillow. Squishy. She kneaded it a few times between her fingertips.
“Master?”
She pulled the pillow away. Half-asleep, a sparrow blinked up at her from beneath it.
“…”
It was so unreasonably cute that she stared blankly for a moment before collecting herself.
“…Master, I think I woke you. Shall I cover you back up with the pillow?”
Even she could hear how strange that sounded, but the master paid it no mind and sent a thought her way.
[…Class.]
“Yes?”
[Take me to class, too…]
His eyes drifted shut again.
“…”
Lucia was left thoroughly confused.
I opened my eyes. I was still a sparrow.
So yesterday hadn't been a dream after all.
Cozy.
Luxuriating in the warmth of the pillow, I replayed the small hours of the morning. My unconscious self had chased that warmth until it eventually wedged itself under Lucia's pillow. It felt good, but… it was something. Sleeping under the pillow of a seventeen-year-old girl. I could feel my humanity disqualifying itself in real time.
Hmm.
I shunted the guilt aside and redirected my thoughts. I've gotten pretty close to Lucia. That might have been my imagination, but she had acknowledged me as her master, hadn't she? As long as nothing went wrong, I'd be sticking around for a long while yet.
…So why is it so noisy?
A voice seemed to be carrying across the entire room. Wondering what was going on, I poked my head out slightly.
A blonde girl in a school uniform was sitting at a desk.
What the—?
And what was with this lecture-hall of a space? Before I had any chance to get my bearings—
“—And that concludes our overview of the fundamentals of practical magic. Any questions?”
A voice rang out from far ahead. It was, unmistakably, the middle of class.
You've got to be kidding me.
I yanked my head back in at once.
“Hmm?”
Perhaps she'd heard the rustling, because the blonde girl right in front of me turned her head. Through the tiny gap, I caught a glimpse of blue eyes. Something about them felt familiar, and after a moment's thought it came to me.
It's Chloe.
I tried to hide myself, but the space was far too cramped. Our eyes met.
“…Hmm.”
Chloe lifted her gaze upward and gave a faint smile—the kind you give someone you're looking at. Or rather, someone looking at you.
What's going on?
I pieced the situation together slowly. I was positioned at roughly the height of a girl's hemline. And through the cloth wrapped around me, I could feel a familiar current of mana.
A skirt pocket?
And it seemed to be Lucia's skirt, at that. What on earth was happening? Then I remembered the morning.
…Right. I asked her to take me along.
That had been a close call, in hindsight. Events in this game surfaced at random, and to respond to every variable, I needed eyes on Lucia at all times.
At least it's only the first day, thank goodness.
The first class rarely produced anything dramatic. I'd just have to be more careful from now on. For the moment, I'd wait until class ended.
“I need a cadet to demonstrate today's lesson, and as it happens, this class has both the top and second-ranked students from the entrance examinations. Would you come forward, please?”
At the professor's words, Lucia rose from her seat. A gentle squeeze—her hand pressed softly against my body. Holding me so I wouldn't slip out of the pocket. I could picture her expression, and it was adorable.
“Then let's have Miss Chloe demonstrate the two fundamental combat spells first. I'm curious to see just how polished they are.”
The Mana Bullet, which releases a burst of mana as a projectile, and the defensive spell Lucia had learned just yesterday. Spells called the foundations of combat, yes—
But Lucia couldn't use either.
In the original story, she becomes everyone's laughingstock. And perhaps because of that, this incident was the spark that spread the rumor of her inferiority complex toward Chloe.
…Anyway.
“Miss Chloe, please fire a Mana Bullet at the target.”
The instant the professor finished speaking, the surrounding cadets began to murmur in admiration.
“How can her mana flow be that stable?”
“How big is that thing going to get? It's already twice the size of my Mana Bullet.”
Trapped in Lucia's pocket, I couldn't see a thing. All I could hear was the chorus of praise for Chloe, and then—
THWAM!
The sound of a direct hit on the target, and applause erupted like a downpour.
“Excellent work. Not only a stable mana flow, but the construction of the formula itself…”
After that came yet another round of gushing from the professor. Being the protagonist of the story really did come with aggressive favoritism.
“Now then, it's Miss Lucia's turn.”
“…”
Lucia said nothing and walked forward to prepare her Mana Bullet.
“Wait, is that her? The famous—”
Foom. I immediately sealed my ears with mana. I wanted to focus on Lucia's spell, and the lecture hall was drowning in noise.
Might as well take a look at her mana flow.
She'd only grasped magic yesterday, but my knowledge was at the level of a Grand Mage—reading the flow would be easy enough. …Probably. For now, I closed my eyes.
Shaaa…
I could genuinely feel it. Lucia was controlling extremely aggressive mana with remarkable precision. And she wasn't sacrificing speed for the sake of stability, either. If anything, it felt several times faster than the ordinary approach.
Seconds ticked by, and then—
Tap.
The flow of mana stopped.
Nice.
I dispelled the mana over my ears. Something told me I absolutely had to hear this.
BOOOM!
A massive explosion tore through the hall.
Nearly perfect.
It wasn't quite tactical-instructor caliber, but more than enough to stand toe-to-toe with Chloe. Except—
“…”
Only silence settled over the lecture hall.
“I'm short on time, so I'll keep this brief… Not a bad level of completion.”
No applause. Just the professor's indifferent voice, moving on.
“Given how aggressive the mana's structure is, it was reasonably stable, and the destructive force was acceptable. Now, next, Miss Chloe will deploy her defensive spell.”
No analysis of the technique whatsoever. A single line of commentary, and nothing more. Even that amounted to acceptable, all things considered.
…
Lucia quietly stepped back. Chloe readied her spell, and the lecture hall grew animated once more. The atmosphere was night and day.
[Lucia.]
I sent her a telepathic message.
[If yes, tap me once. If no, tap me twice.]
Tap. A fingertip brushed lightly against my body.
[Is that a yes?]
Tap.
Lucia affirmed it without a moment's hesitation.
Figures. For all the rumors that swirled around her, in truth she simply didn't care what anyone else thought.
…But.
This isn't right.
The professor knew. No matter how hard Lucia tried, she could never match Chloe's stability. He knew that innate, inborn difference better than anyone.
“—However simple the spell may be, it gave us a glimpse of Miss Chloe's deep understanding of mana.”
So then. Why had the professor been so one-sided in his explanations?
“I've rambled long enough. To sum it up in a single word: a flawless demonstration.”
Something had been off from the very start. Did two people really need to demonstrate the spell? Would one—Chloe alone—not have been enough? If it wasn't, he should have picked someone else.
Lucia is bad at defensive magic. That difference stems from the structure of her mana. With defensive spells in particular, it was obvious another student would outperform her. That is a plain, undeniable fact.
And he hadn't been trying to showcase her aggressive form of Mana Bullet either—he'd skipped the explanation entirely, let alone any detailed commentary.
So why, then, had the professor put Lucia on the spot?
Tap, tap.
Lucia walked to the center of the platform. The lecture hall fell silent in an instant.
…The air was cold.
The atmosphere alone told the story. Glacial stares were fixed on Lucia. They weren't even aimed directly at me, and still I felt suffocated—the whole weight of that malice pressing down on my body.
“I heard the gap between this year's top and second-ranked students was nearly nonexistent. I'm curious to see just what standard of work Miss Lucia will show us.”
This was different from when she'd prepared the Mana Bullet. There was expectation in the professor's voice now—the ugly kind.
…This is malicious.
There's a fact revealed in the original story: the professor knew that Lucia couldn't cast defensive magic.
“Go on, deploy your mana. Are you telling me you're not ready to cast a defensive spell?”
It was repulsive. Utterly repulsive.
“…Rather than a standard defensive spell, would it be all right if I used something else?” Lucia said, touching me gently.
“Ah, you're modifying the spell? That's quite all right. A fresh bit of magic is always welcome.”
That question had never been meant for the professor.
[Yes. Use it freely.]
“Yes.”
Only after hearing my answer did Lucia begin to unfurl her mana.
So she thought she wasn't allowed to show it freely.
Unexpectedly endearing, hiding in a place like that.
“…Whew.”
Lucia calmly began drawing out her formula. Her mana was stable—even further developed than at her last practice session. If this kept up, she might manage even that thing she hadn't been able to pull off in the dormitory.
“Your formula is rather unusual. Is this truly a defensive spell?”
Before long, the professor spat out the words.
“…One moment. This looks like magic far beyond what Miss Lucia can handle.”
Lucia ignored him and moved her mana.
“What is that? Is it dangerous?”
The cadets stirred.
“Even the formula's off. I've never seen magic like that in my life.”
“It looks almost like an ice attribute… don't tell me it's an offensive spell?”
Countless voices rose to deny her.
“Miss Lucia, are you not mishandling your mana from the very start?”
Wrong. There wasn't a hair's breadth of error in her mana control.
“Can you not hear me? Stop at once. That is not a formula a student of your level should be wielding.”
Wrong. There wasn't the slightest tremor in her formula.
“Miss Lucia, this is your final warning! There is a risk of a runaway spell, so I am intervening directly!”
Having lost all patience, the professor's mana surged outward, aiming to shatter the spell—
Crack.
The mana across the entire hall froze solid and crystallized.
“What…?”
Cold air flooded the lecture hall. Snowflakes whirled on the freezing current and drifted down like falling blossoms. At that sight, the professor's shout died in his throat, and the cadets went quiet.
And at Lucia's fingertips, an enormous crystal had taken shape.
This is her core ability.
Absorb every trace of the surrounding mana, then turn it instantly into an attack. Every single snowflake drifting through the hall was, in truth, part of Lucia's spell.
“This is…?”
The professor, finally grasping a fraction of the situation, went rigid. Faced with a flawless defensive formula that could never be denied, he could only stare at her in silence.
“If you don't know, then shut your mouth.”
Lucia's glacial voice rang through the hall.