It Would Be a Burden to My Master
The moment those words—“This is my master”—echoed through the examination hall, hundreds of applicants and the five examiners all held their breath at once.
Just moments earlier, blue flames had bloomed at Elysia Rowen’s fingertips. The Blue Flame. A rare phenomenon that only appeared when the flow of mana reached an extreme state of stability. That alone was enough to flip the entire evaluation hall upside down.
In the academy’s entire history, the Blue Flame had been observed during the practical entrance exam only three times. And without exception, all three of those individuals had become Great Mages who represented the kingdom.
But the real problem erupted right after that. Elysia had declared that she learned the magic from someone. From a master, no less.
“...A master?” someone muttered in a choked voice.
Only then did the frozen air begin to churn violently. While the other examiners shot to their feet in shock, only one man remained seated. Chief Examiner Leonhardt Beil, positioned at the center, rested his chin atop his interlaced fingers.
He was a man who rarely showed any disturbance. For decades he had presided over these evaluations, never once losing his composure even before those born with immense mana or prodigies who perfectly reproduced their family’s secret arts.
But this was different. Leonhardt traced the lingering afterimage of the magic circle Elysia had left hanging in the air.
“This is not the academy style,” he murmured under his breath. “It differs from the Rowen family’s vision arts and the Magic Tower’s standard formulas.”
Leonhardt narrowed his eyes. There were no traces of forced control or restraint, yet the mana did not collapse. It simply found its natural place, flowing like water.
It ran completely counter to the established common sense of the academic world. Rather than meticulously capturing mana, this was a method of opening paths for it to flow. Leonhardt recognized that subtle difference in an instant.
Which made it all the more baffling. The girl who, until yesterday, had been rumored incapable of handling even basic magic had reached this level in a single day. The scale of the transformation was far too vast to be mere personal enlightenment. Someone had intervened—and with terrifying precision and perfection.
With a hardened expression, Leonhardt spoke.
“Elysia Rowen.”
“Yes, Examiner.”
“Who is this master you just mentioned?”
Elysia closed her eyes for a moment. She saw the old house in the woods, the cooling potato soup. The man who had waved his hand in annoyance. And the single phrase that had lifted her back to her feet.
Don’t hold it. Just create the path.
She had failed hundreds of times. Every attempt to grasp the mana had collapsed like a sandcastle. Professors, elders, even the Magic Tower’s consultants had merely repeated that she lacked talent and effort, unable to identify the true cause.
But that man had been different. With just a few words, he had pierced straight through to the essence of the problem that no one else could pinpoint. He had not accepted her as a disciple. He had simply been indifferent, as if pointing the way to a lost traveler.
Yet to Elysia, it had been salvation. The beginning of an entirely new world.
Leonhardt asked again.
“Does that mean you cannot reveal his name?”
Elysia slowly opened her eyes. Not a trace of hesitation remained in them.
“It is not that I cannot speak it.”
Her voice was courteous, yet resolute.
“I will not speak it.”
The evaluation hall stirred once more. In the very heart of the kingdom’s foremost magic academy, she had openly refused the chief examiner’s question.
Leonhardt’s brow tightened.
“The reason?”
“It would be a burden to my Master.”
Several applicants swallowed hard. The genius hailed as the top candidate was stubbornly protecting some unknown figure, even at the cost of her own future in this pivotal evaluation.
“That person wished to live quietly. I cannot dare disturb his peace.”
Leonhardt fell silent for a moment. For a talent like Elysia Rowen to address someone with such blind reverence as “Master”… He gestured to calm the room before continuing.
“Then I will ask this instead. What prompted you to seek him out?”
Elysia hesitated briefly. She could not speak his name. But that one sentence—she did not want to hide it. Without it, she would never have found the courage to knock on that door yesterday.
She drew a single worn sheet of paper from within her robes. The bottom portion bearing the author’s name had been carefully folded away, leaving only the scribbled sentence in the corner visible.
“I cannot tell you his name, but this is what led me to seek him out.”
A proctor accepted the paper and delivered it to Leonhardt. It was an old draft. The edges were frayed, covered in the clear traces of repeated folding. It looked like the sort of miscellaneous scrap the Magic Tower would have discarded long ago.
Leonhardt lowered his gaze. The title was ordinary. But the single line written in the corner seized his attention with startling intensity.
Mana is not something to be grasped,
but rather to create a place for it to flow.
Leonhardt’s eyes widened. The sentence’s meaning aligned perfectly with the core of the mana manipulation Elysia had just demonstrated. Yet his gaze soon shifted from the words to the paper itself. It was special parchment issued exclusively to the Magic Tower’s highest consultants. The short yet piercingly arrogant phrasing, the distinctive handwriting habits at the end, and even the faint residual mana that clung to the sheet—all of it was familiar.
It can’t be. It could still be coincidence.
He cautioned himself against jumping to conclusions, but when the clues overlapped this perfectly, they became certainty. Every trace pointed to a single individual—the reclusive mage who had recently sat in the principal’s office, flatly rejected the kingdom’s highest invitation, and vanished into the forest.
“...Could it really be him?”
He collected his complicated thoughts and returned the draft.
“The evaluation will continue.”
With those words, the frozen hall began moving again. Yet no one could concentrate on the exam as before.
Elysia Rowen had returned. She had ascended to a realm beyond comparison with her former self, carrying an unidentified monster as her master.
Immediately after the evaluation ended, Leonhardt summoned Elysia to the waiting room. In the closed space with only the two of them present, he spoke with careful deliberation.
“One final question. Did that person accept you as his disciple?”
Elysia’s head drooped weakly.
“...No, he did not.”
“Yet you still call him Master?”
She bit her lip tightly and answered, quietly but with unmistakable strength.
“To me, he already is. It is simply that I remain unworthy, and have not yet earned formal recognition as his disciple.”
Leonhardt was rendered speechless. A standard so high that even overwhelming talent like hers felt inadequate. Just where was that reclusive mage’s bar set?
If he was someone who could make her talent bloom in a single day, he was a benefactor. But if he was someone who could shatter the very foundations of magic and reassemble them in a day, then he was an uncontrollable variable.
As if having reached a decision, Leonhardt rose from his seat.
“I will have to confirm this myself.”
It was the perfect morning. I had slept in deeply, then warmed up the leftover potato soup from yesterday. Beyond the window stretched a peaceful forest, and neatly arranged rejection letters sat on the desk.
The Magic Academy’s invitation had long since been buried at the bottom of the trash bin.
“Yeah. This is what retirement should look like.”
A hum rose naturally from my throat. The girl named Elysia who had shown up yesterday lingered in my mind for a moment, but I soon brushed the thought aside. I had pointed out the cause and given her a hint; there was nothing more a mediocre person like me could do.
She would surely thrive at the academy, praised as a genius, and our paths would never cross again.
I believed that firmly.
Right up until I heard the sound of a messenger bird tapping at the window.
With a sense of unease, I opened it. A red letter bearing the academy’s seal dropped down. The rejection reply still sat on the desk, which meant this was an entirely different matter.
With trembling fingers I tore open the envelope.
Similar mana manipulation to that found in your past draft has been confirmed during Miss Elysia Rowen’s practical evaluation.
Furthermore, Miss Elysia Rowen has stated that she learned the relevant magic from her Master.
This matter has been classified as emergency grade. Verification personnel have already been dispatched.
The spoon I had been holding slipped from my fingers the instant I read the first line.
Clatter.
The spoon rolled across the floor.
“Master?”
Who? Me? What the hell did that kid go around telling people? I clearly told her I wasn’t taking any disciples!
I snatched up a quill in a panic. I had to write some excuse—that it was all a misunderstanding, that I wasn’t anyone’s master. But the moment the pen touched the paper, I realized the trap.
If I claimed I didn’t know her, it would be a lie. She really had come to my house yesterday. If I admitted I knew her, I would be entangled. It would be the same as acknowledging that I had taught her. If I denied being her master, I would have to explain why I helped her. If I stayed silent, I would only look more suspicious.
No matter which path I chose, my peaceful daily life was doomed.
An unavoidable, catastrophic checkmate.
“I’m screwed. I’m really, properly screwed.”
As I clutched my head in despair, my eyes caught the final line of the letter.
The word “already” seemed to glow an especially ominous shade of blue.
Knock, knock.
The exact same knock as yesterday rang out. A chill ran down my spine. I prayed it was just a hallucination.
I turned my head with the creaking stiffness of a rusted robot. From beyond the door came a clear, familiar voice—far more confident than yesterday.
“Master! I have arrived!”
And right after, a heavy, unfamiliar male voice drove the nail in completely.
“Pardon the intrusion. I am Leonhardt Beil, Chief Examiner of the Magic Academy.”