Chapter 59
Chapter 59
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 59
Chapter Title: Genius Cosplay
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‘He’s gonna solve that?’
Kerr’s words, spoken as if it were no big deal, made me glance back at the blackboard.
I didn’t know the first thing about magic theory…
But I’d seen plenty of spell formulas in the game, so I could at least gauge the difficulty.
‘That looks insanely hard.’
For one thing, the sheer length of the problem was brutal.
And it wasn’t just text—there were all sorts of complex shapes and graphs tangled up in it.
‘…Can he really solve that?’
[Heh. Still doubting this one? That’s child’s play. Give me a little time, and it’s done.]
Kerr, however, was brimming with confidence.
At her urging to just wait and see, I decided to sit back and do exactly that.
If it worked, great. If not, oh well.
That’s when it happened.
“…I-I’ll give it a shot!”
The bespectacled, timid-looking male cadet was the first to step up to the blackboard.
He scribbled down three or four lines after some heavy pondering, but couldn’t go any further.
A few more cadets followed, adding a line or two each…
But from their reactions, it was clear they were still miles away.
That’s when Luna stood up.
She breezed past the spot where the others had been struggling, then wrote out the formula without hesitation.
“Whoa… she’s approaching it like that?”
“Shrinking the force field’s range itself to control the variables. That’ll definitely cut down on mana consumption.”
“She really is on another level…”
The cadets let out gasps of admiration at her solution.
In an instant, she filled nearly half the remaining space on the board.
Even she, though, couldn’t crack the whole thing.
Luna hesitated with the chalk against the board, then shook her head with a rueful smile.
“Hehe. Looks like this is as far as I get.”
Next up was Artel.
“Ooh!”
“If it’s Artel…!”
All eyes turned to her expectantly.
Basking in their attention, she headed to the blackboard.
But unlike the others, she didn’t build on the existing work. She started fresh in a new section.
She jotted down a few short lines of equations, then stopped.
Clack.
Artel silently set down the chalk and returned to her seat.
“Ah…”
Sighs rippled through the classroom.
Even Artel could only get that far.
And on top of that…
“Doesn’t that feel kinda off?”
“Amplifying the mana interference coefficient? Won’t that make the force field even more unstable?”
“Yeah, was there even a formula like that?”
Some cadets eyed her solution with puzzlement.
By the time class was nearly over…
[It’s done.]
Kerr announced.
With leisurely steps, I sauntered over to the blackboard.
Up close, though, it looked even more nightmarish than from afar.
Ugh… what the hell is this monstrosity?
‘The other kids have to solve stuff like this?’
I had a sudden surge of respect for them.
It felt way beyond anything like college entrance exams.
Lost in those thoughts, I promptly handed everything over to my external brain, Kerr.
‘Kerr, where do we start?’
Her immediate response…
[First, let’s clear out those eyesores.]
‘Erase that?’
I looked at the section she’d telepathically pointed out.
‘…Still, they worked hard on it. Isn’t erasing it kinda rude?’
[Rude? Bringing that sloppy mess before me is the real rudeness! Wipe it out already.]
With no choice, I picked up the eraser.
***
***
Professor Kate’s classes were notoriously tough on a good day, but today’s was a nightmare.
Proof was that even as time ticked down, no one had touched the board since Artel.
That’s when someone stood from the very back of the classroom and headed to the front.
With extremely laid-back, dragging steps.
The cadets’ eyes naturally followed him.
‘Huh…?’
‘That’s Jeron, right?’
Jeron Airgia.
His prowess in practical magic and combat was now known to everyone in the magic department.
But he was said to be weak on theory.
Which made sense—he slept through nearly every theory lecture.
At first, rumors flew that he was bored because the classes were too easy, but those died out after everyone saw his blank test papers.
Still, the cadets didn’t find it odd or shocking.
There were combat prodigies who just sucked at theory, after all.
That said, a few weeks back, he’d aced an assignment in ‘Understanding Magic Circles,’ leaving the professor stunned enough to rethink her own research methods… or so the rumors went.
It was obviously exaggerated, and with no real results since, no one took it seriously.
Naturally, Jeron had been sleeping through today’s class as usual.
And now, suddenly, he was stepping up.
“……?”
Everyone watched him in bewilderment.
Even Professor Kate eyed him with interest.
The blackboard, cluttered with the problem and the cadets’ attempts.
Jeron stood before it, staring for a moment.
‘…What’s he thinking?’
His gaze seemed vacant, like his mind was elsewhere.
After contemplating the problem a bit longer, he picked something up.
Not chalk—an eraser.
The very first thing Jeron did was…
Wipe away every precious solution the magic department’s top cadets, including Luna, had painstakingly written.
*Get out of the way, you’re in my view.*
As if declaring it outright.
‘Huh…?’
The cadets’ minds went blank.
***
***
‘Time’s almost up.’
A little earlier, before Jeron had stepped up, Professor Kate checked her watch and thought.
The problem wasn’t solved yet…
But she was quietly satisfied.
She hadn’t assigned it to be solved in the first place.
Asking first-year cadets to crack it during class was like telling them to go slay a dragon right now.
This problem was specially chosen to impart a more valuable lesson than mere knowledge transfer.
The teachings she wanted to convey were three-fold.
First, courage.
Facing even the toughest foe without giving up. That was the core spirit of Stella Academy.
In that sense, the first cadet to tackle it had shown true valor, even if they hadn’t gotten far.
Like being the first to bravely strike at a massive dragon.
Second, teamwork.
Even the mightiest enemy could be overcome by combining strengths.
One after another, cadets built on the initial effort, adding their own contributions.
Like a party targeting different parts of the dragon bit by bit.
In her view, Luna had solved so much only because of the foundation laid by those before her.
And the final lesson, third: creativity.
Thinking beyond the established framework.
…Honestly, she thought expecting them to grasp this was asking too much.
It required breaking entirely from the standard magic education curriculum to find a clue.
But.
One cadet had managed it.
‘Cadet Artel Rosendal… she’s grown a lot.’
Artel’s solution, brief as it was, was the most brilliant.
She hadn’t extended the others’ work but proposed a fresh path from an entirely different angle.
Like finding the dragon’s weak spot while everyone else hacked at its impenetrable scales.
‘Her thinking’s become so flexible.’
She’d always been exceptional, but tended to stick too rigidly to textbook methods. Lately, though, her growth was remarkable.
Just as she was about to wrap up class and explain the lessons next time…
‘Hm? That’s… Jeron?’
Jeron stepped up.
And promptly erased every cadet’s solution.
Except for Artel’s.
‘…?’
Kate was momentarily flustered.
What was this? Some act of defiance?
The thought crossed her mind.
But the instant Jeron picked up the chalk and started writing…
Her eyes widened.
It wasn’t defiance.
‘…That’s the same as my solution?’
He was solving it properly.
In the exact same way she had.
Impossible.
She herself had agonized over this for days and nights.
Only after digging through ancient magic formats did she finally get the inspiration to solve it.
Yet Jeron was breezing through the entire process in minutes—the exact same flow!
Scribble—scratch—!
Jeron’s chalk flew across the board without pause.
Like he was possessed by a ghost.
Or controlled by some force…!
‘T-That’s…!’
Kate jolted in recognition.
She occasionally entered that state herself.
‘The zone of madness?’
Beyond mere focus—hyper-immersion.
A moment seized by near-mad inspiration.
It had come to Jeron.
He rapidly filled the massive board.
Starting from Artel’s tiny incision—
He was carving up the dragon called the problem.
‘Jeron…! He’s a theory genius too?!’
Amazed by the wild genius on display, Kate’s heart swelled for another reason.
After shining in combat drills, showing interest in dark magic last time, now he was diving into proper magic study.
Thanks to her problem, no less!
‘Have I helped guide this lost kid a little…?’
As an educator, she couldn’t help but feel proud.
The core of the problem was solved.
All that remained was the lengthy proof process.
Time to deliver the killing blow, like thrusting a sword through the dragon’s throat.
Tricky, but he’d gotten this far—he could handle it.
That’s when.
Ding-dong-ding—!
The bell rang, signaling the end of class and start of break.
No one in the room paid it any mind.
Every cadet held their breath, waiting for Jeron’s next move.
Kate was no different.
But then.
Jeron abruptly stopped, clack.
“I’ll stop here.”
“What…? You’re ending it? Why, Cadet Jeron?”
She couldn’t help but ask.
It felt too regrettable to halt such an intense battle.
Especially now that he’d hit the zone of madness…
“Did you hit a wall on the proof? I can give you a hint.”
Had he reached the final hurdle?
Kate was prepared to assist if needed.
But Jeron’s reply was nothing she expected.
“No. I found the elegant proof.”
“Huh…? Then?”
“It’s break time now.”
Jeron set down the chalk matter-of-factly.
“No point writing it out since we’re short on time.”