I Became a Mesgaki Young Master (2): A Shift in Strategy
In the temporary dormitory assigned by the academy, I lay spread-eagled on the bed, staring blankly at the ceiling like a man who had lost his mind.
"..."
"Ahem, hum."
Miel, who was busy unpacking our luggage, stole a few glances at me before asking hesitantly, "Young Master, why is your face so pale? You look like someone who just crossed the River Jordan."
"I didn't cross the River Jordan. I crossed a river of sweaty, desperate men, damn it."
"Excuse me?"
I rubbed my face with both hands, chewing over the hellish scene I had just survived. The more I thought about it, the more absurd it was.
According to the standard clichés, when I slammed the desk and cursed, the other guy was supposed to tremble in fear or burn with rage. So why did his cheeks flush? Why did he pant like a creep and beg me to insult him more?
The cause is glaringly obvious.
My damn oversized uniform, combined with the sharp jawline and delicate features that had emerged as I lost weight. All of it was distorting my thuggish behavior, sending a completely warped message to those weirdos.
If I keep shouting and swinging my fists like a third-rate villain, all I'll get in return is the courtship of guys with bizarre fetishes.
Cain's awakening? Absolutely impossible at this rate. Cain was a righteous, upright protagonist. If his opponent was some lunatic revered as the king of perverts, Cain might feel disgust, but he wouldn't swing his wooden sword with all his might to deliver "justice."
He'd just avoid me because he didn't want to get involved. How could I make him perceive me as a genuine force of evil, driving him to lose his mind with rage and unleash his full strength against me?
"Miel. I think I need to take a page out of your book."
"...In what way?"
I didn't answer, simply pushing myself up into a sitting position. Yes. I had to face reality. My third-rate thug act was no longer working.
In that case...
I would simply adapt to this crazy world. Today, I was changing my strategy.
...Just you wait, Cain. To become your ultimate punching bag, I will become the most elegant, terrifying wall in this academy.
The next day, in the First Lecture Hall where basic liberal arts classes were held. I leaned back against my seat, legs crossed, resting my chin on my hand. The only difference was that I was no longer acting like a cheap thug—no more slouching, no more stuffing my hands awkwardly into my pockets.
Instead, I wore a perfectly tailored shirt buttoned all the way to the top, exuding the cold, haughty arrogance of a true noble as I looked down at the room.
I chose Magicology as my basic elective on purpose. Since I had already memorized all the secret manuals in the family treasury, a first-year basic swordsmanship class was utterly useless to me.
But above all, the biggest reason I chose this class... was because the first stepping stone of my new plan was right here.
At that moment, an old professor, notorious for his strictness in the Magicology Department, was spitting spit as he lectured passionately at the front of the hall.
"This formula is both the foundation and the essence of Magicology! Only those who perfectly comprehend this five-step formula to maximize mana efficiency can truly walk the path of Magicology! For your information, the five-step limit is an immutable law!"
Looking at the equations densely covering the blackboard, I almost snorted.
Immutable?
As far as I knew, the formula actually went up to seven steps. In the past, I thought the Magicologist class was trash because its growth rate was so slow... but once I discovered the hidden steps, I couldn't help but feel utterly dumbfounded.
For reference, Magicologists and Mages were similar classes. Magicologists researched magic formulas and crafted magic tools to create new things. Mages, on the other hand, prioritized training their dantian and focused solely on researching and casting spells. Both belonged to the magic category, but there was a fine line between them.
Back when I leaked the information about the 7-Step Magicology Formula on the strategy forums, it caused a massive wave of players who had ruined their builds by half-assedly following the Mage tech tree to immediately switch their classes to Magicologist.
And yet... a man who claimed to desire the infinite advancement of Magicology was teaching that primitive five-step formula as absolute truth?
"Now, is there any student who can complete the final fifth step of this formula?"
"I will do it."
"Oh, Miss Dorothy, our top freshman?"
A purple-haired girl sitting in the front row stood up as if she had been waiting for this moment. She was wearing a ridiculous pointed wizard hat and a dark robe—the official uniform of the Magicology Department, a school rule that almost everyone else ignored. She was the main heroine of the original game and a genius magicologist: Dorothy.
...Though I did accidentally see her naked in the treasury. Now was not the time for such distracting thoughts. Without a moment's hesitation, she recited the answer smoothly. "To prevent mana backlash, you must reverse-calculate and substitute the elemental alignment of the Sylph."
"Oh! Excellent, as expected of our top student! The fifth and final step is perfectly correct!"
...If you structure the fifth step like that, you can't progress to the sixth step. Quite apart from the act I was about to put on, I felt a genuine surge of irritation. As the old professor showered her with praise and murmurs of admiration rippled through the lecture hall, screeech— I uncrossed my legs and slowly stood up, pushing my chair back. The harsh scraping sound echoed loudly in the quiet room. In an instant, hundreds of eyes locked onto me.
"Perfectly correct?" Leaning slightly to the side, I looked back and forth between the blackboard and Dorothy, letting out a cold sneer. "How utterly pathetic. Applauding such an inefficient, garbage formula as if it's the correct answer."
The air in the lecture hall instantly froze. Dorothy's eyes shook violently, and the old professor's face turned a furious shade of crimson. "Wh-What?! What did you just say...?!"
"I called it garbage."
I pulled my hands from my pockets and walked toward the podium with elegant, measured strides. The students along the aisle held their breath and parted like the Red Sea. Stepping onto the platform, I smoothly snatched the chalk from the professor's hand. Then, I aggressively crossed out half of the fifth-step equation written on the blackboard.
"It's absolutely appalling. Bleeding thirty percent of your mana into the void just to force a fifth step? I suppose a top student from a commoner background can't help but display such vulgar, wasteful habits."
"...What?" Dorothy's face contorted, stung by the sudden personal attack.
Tap, tap, clack! Pressing hard enough to snap the chalk, I added just two lines of runes to the remaining equation. "This is more than enough for the fifth step. Instead of reverse-calculating the Sylph's element, if you simply twist the rotation of the mana core in the opposite direction, the efficiency doubles and the casting time is cut in half."
"...!"
"If you have eyes, calculate it yourself." The lecture hall fell into a deathly silence.
"Th-This is...!" The old professor, at least, seemed to recognize it. A new rule that shattered the existing framework and staged a rebellion against the established academic schools. But Dorothy, still blind to its brilliance, protested, "Professor, please judge this yourself. A ridiculous, fake formula like that—"
"..."
"...Professor?"
The old professor was staring back and forth between the blackboard and me, his eyes trembling. Sensing the shift in the atmosphere, Dorothy began to look uneasy, and that was when I drove the final nail into the coffin.
"And here I thought you were the academy's brightest prospect in Magicology. Turns out you're playing at a level lower than third-rate street mages in some back alley."
Contempt dripping with deep arrogance. This method acting was, of course, fueled by years of my own pent-up frustration.
As I dusted the chalk from my hands and turned to walk back to my seat, "...Wait." Dorothy called out, her voice trembling with humiliation and anger. "You... what is your name?"
"..."
I turned my head very slowly to look at her. Then, with a smirk, I enunciated clearly, "Sian."
"...?"
"Sian Brace."
In an instant, Dorothy's face went blank, the color draining completely from her cheeks. Not just Sian, but Sian Brace? While there could be plenty of people sharing a first name with the trashy young master who had sexually harassed her, the matching family name made it clear.
She seemed to think I was intentionally mocking her. "I'm not teasing you, so could you stop making that face?"
"...Do you honestly think this makes any sense right now?"
"Well, why wouldn't it?"
Wearing an elegant smile, I took a step closer to Dorothy, who stood frozen like a stone statue. Then, as if dragging up the terrible trauma of her past, I whispered in a very low, deep voice, "Are you still wearing bear panties?"
"...!!"
For a split second, Dorothy forgot how to breathe. Judging by her reaction, it seemed my provocation was a resounding success. "This is too boring to listen to any longer."
"W-Wait! Did you say Sian...? Just a moment, tell me more about this formula—" Ignoring the professor who reached out to stop me, I walked out of the lecture hall with the most leisurely strides imaginable.
On the terrace of Elysium, the most luxurious dessert cafe inside the academy. It was supposed to be a peaceful teatime, but the atmosphere around the table was slightly off. "So... you're saying you can't get that girl out of your head?" Cain spoke up cautiously, turning his cold teacup. He was referring to the strange girl who had burst into the clubroom a few days ago.
"Hmm, in short, it was love at first sight." Sitting across from him was Hilda, a red-haired first-year from the swordsmanship department. She asked nonchalantly as she gulped down her chocolate milk. "N-No! It's not like that! It's just... I felt this strange sense of déjà vu."
"Déjà vu, my foot. So, did she look strong? Did she have calluses on her hands? If she sparred with me, who do you think would win?"
"...Hilda, please, stop trying to turn everything into a duel."
Cain let out a sigh and turned his head toward Dorothy, who was sitting next to him. Normally, the academy's greatest genius magicologist would have snapped back, pointing out Hilda's ignorance. But today, she was staring blankly, mindlessly stirring her cold tea with a spoon like someone who had lost her soul. Her eyes seemed completely out of focus.
"Dorothy? Is something wrong? Your face has been so dark since earlier."
"..."
At Cain's worried call, "Ah...!" Clink! Dorothy startled, dropping her teaspoon onto the saucer. "N-No, it's nothing! I just pushed myself a bit too hard researching formulas yesterday, so I'm a little tired."
"Really? Take it easy." Dorothy forced a calm smile.
But inwardly, her mind was in a frenzy. Sian... Sian Brace. Right after he had walked out of the lecture hall with that effortless posture, the old professor had erupted.
"To reverse the rotation of the mana core and cut down the calculation process by two whole steps! How could anyone conceive such an idea? This is a revolution in the field of Magicology! Hahaha!"
Those were the genuine, ecstatic words of a professor who had dedicated his entire life to the craft. It was also a direct blow that set Dorothy's pride ablaze.
I was outmatched in a magic formula? Dorothy possessed an insatiable thirst for knowledge and had constantly questioned the old professor about formulas. But to think that everything she had learned until now was actually a foolish waste, bleeding mana into the void? That alone was stressful enough, but there was something else driving her absolutely mad.
...The bear panties. I am still wearing them, though. It was definitely unpleasant and humiliating, but those feelings were quickly buried by a far more shocking realization. The Sian Brace she knew was a stupid, incompetent, obese pig who used to follow her around while breathing heavily. What on earth happened to him during his suspension?
His presence and the look in his eyes today made him seem like an entirely different person. Moreover, how did someone who used to be completely ignorant of Magicology know such an incredible formula? Just as a spark of curiosity began to take root in Dorothy's heart...
"Huh? Dorothy, are you uncomfortable somewhere? Why do you keep fidgeting with your legs..."
"..."
Beneath her blank expression, Dorothy subtly adjusted her skirt. From now on, she decided, she would buy her own underwear instead of letting her parents pick them out.