Chapter 19
Chapter 19
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 19
Chapter Title: Learning Magic (2)
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‘H-How can this be! Why is that girl here?’
As Amy walked over with a friend, Shirone quickly looked away. It would be a disaster if she remembered him. She knew he wasn't a noble.
‘Please, just keep walking. Just pass by.’
The two girls walked right past him without a second glance.
Shirone sighed in relief, but it was a rash assumption made by someone who didn't understand girls.
“Did you see that guy who just passed? Is he new? He looks too old to be a first-year. Maybe a transfer student? He's totally my type.”
Amy didn't respond, though she heard her chattering friend. Like Shirone, she too felt a strange sense of familiarity.
It wasn't a traumatic memory, however. For a girl who'd caused so much trouble in the back alleys, recalling one specific face like Shirone's wasn't easy.
“Hmm, strange. His face is definitely familiar. Where have I seen him?”
“What, are you interested in him? You've never given a guy a second glance before.”
“No. I'm telling you, I've really seen him somewhere.”
“Don't lie! You little sneak. You have a crush on him, don't you? You do, right?”
“Ugh, I told you, it's not like that.”
Under the relentless teasing, Amy picked up her pace. When her friend hurried to catch up, Amy broke into a run. The male students nearby watched her with fond expressions.
Shirone was the only one who knew that the girl revered as a goddess at Alpheas Magic Academy had once been a little terror who ruled the back alleys.
* * *
Magic Academy. Testing Ground 3.
A vast hall with a floor as smooth as a mirror. It was covered in densely packed, indecipherable characters, without a single chair in sight.
The only place with any furniture was on the north side of the hall. Five instructors sat in a row at a long table.
Six children were being tested, awaiting their turns. Most of them were under the age of ten.
“The tests aren't over yet. Perfect timing. Watch carefully how those children do.”
Shirone approached the testing area. The children, who had been concentrating while waiting for their turn, looked up at him with puzzled expressions.
By tradition, Testing Ground 3 was used exclusively for Spirit Zone entrance exams, save for special exceptions. And yet, Shirone was far too old to be an incoming freshman.
Alpheas had explained to Shirone that upon entering the zone, the characters etched into the floor would transmit specific information. Depending on what a person perceived, the instructors could then check the size, strength, flexibility, and tendencies of their Spirit Zone.
“Alright, Kemi. Can you use magic?”
“I can make things float.”
The examiners didn't verify each claim. After all, bluffing at a school you've come to learn at would only hurt you in the long run.
“I see. Shall we have you step into the Spirit Zone?”
Kemi stepped into the Spirit Zone, the focus of every examiner's gaze. The instructor on the far right rested his chin on the back of his hand, observing her intently. He was a clean-cut man with slicked-back hair and pronounced double eyelids.
“What is the farthest number you can see?”
“Six.”
“Oh! Six.”
The man jotted down the number on his documents, impressed. This meant her Spirit Zone had a diameter of six meters. For an incoming student, a size like that was enough to place her in Class Nine, at minimum.
It was the elderly instructor's turn to ask. With a short-cropped buzz cut and a forehead creased with fine lines, he had a habit of widening his eyes, which made him look like an owl.
“What is the most vivid color you perceive?”
“Um… It feels like I'm in a red world.”
“Red. An emission type. That explains why her zone is so large for her age.”
The other instructors nodded at the old man's assessment. The third and fourth instructors followed up with questions from their own areas of expertise.
A question about whether a giant tower stood to the right or left was meant to determine brain hemisphere dominance, while another about the number of oscillating spheres was to measure the zone's density.
“What about the temperature? Does it feel warm, or cold?”
The final instructor to ask a question was a young woman. Her eyebrows were sharp and thin, and the outer corners of her eyes were long, giving her a cold impression, but she was undeniably attractive.
“Um… I think it's a little hot. I'm sweating, too.”
Feeling heat meant the Spirit Zone's form was mutable. However, this came at the cost of durability, so it wasn't a simple matter of good or bad.
The remaining students were tested in this manner, one after another. The instructors looked pleased; the caliber of this year's applicants seemed quite high.
When one child called out the number 12, even the headmaster, Alpheas, couldn't help but be impressed.
When all the students had finished their tests, it was Shirone's turn. Alpheas gave the nervous boy a gentle push on the back, leading him toward the instructors.
“Now, don't feel any pressure. Just show them what you can do.”
“Yes, I'll try.”
Shirone didn't feel pressured. He had already resolved to start from the very basics when he came here.
As the tall boy approached, the examiners studied him closely. This was the special admission student the headmaster had told them about.
His file listed his unique status as a guest of the Ogent family, and the special remarks section noted he had high potential for growth.
It happened sometimes. A child would awaken their abilities by chance later in life.
But this was a magic academy known as the cradle of geniuses. Countless children, hailed as prodigies in the outside world, came here only to become underachievers. As such, the instructors harbored no great expectations.
The man with the slicked-back hair on the right asked a question, his voice laced with indifference. He was Thadd, a flame mage. The only people who could earn his goodwill were women.
“Shirone. Eighteen years old. Can you use magic?”
“No. I haven't learned magic yet.”
“I see. Though you should be able to manage a few things even without formal training.”
Thadd's tone was laced with sarcasm. Of course, there was some truth to his words. The Spirit Zone acted as a channel to pull knowledge from one's mind into reality.
Thus, children of nobility, who studied a wide range of subjects from a young age, could often perform simple magic on their own.
But for Shirone, who'd never had the opportunity for a formal education, this was impossible. It was precisely because he knew this weakness that he had focused so intently on the backbone of knowledge, but regardless, his current understanding was still too shallow to be applied as magic.
“Fine. Let's see for ourselves. Stand in the circle over there and try to activate your Spirit Zone. You can at least do that, I presume?”
If the boy couldn't even enter the Spirit Zone yet had been admitted through special consideration, Thadd was prepared to question the headmaster's integrity.
Fortunately, Shirone simply nodded and walked toward the circle, preventing any such unnecessary suspicion.
Shirone closed his eyes and focused. As his sense of self faded, a myriad of senses stretched outward.
‘Whoa…’
Entering the zone, Shirone was overwhelmed by the vast amount of information. It felt as if he had fallen into a different dimension, not a testing ground.
Within this phase space, most external information was cut off. All he could perceive was the interaction of the magical characters etched into the floor.
“What is the farthest number you see?”
Countless numbers were orbiting around him. Shirone focused on the one that seemed most distant. It wasn't a matter of sight, but of synesthesia, so his eyesight was irrelevant.
But Shirone couldn't answer.
“Shirone, what is the number you see in the distance?”
Even as Thadd prompted him again, Shirone remained silent. The instructors assumed he was embarrassed. It was only natural for him to feel intimidated after witnessing the younger children's abilities.
Alpheas coaxed him in a gentle voice.
“Shirone, just speak honestly. We're not ranking you; we're trying to find the most suitable educational method for you.”
Shirone spoke in a hesitant voice.
“Um… I can see a number, but it's too long for me to read.”
“You can't read it? Do you mean you can't see it?”
“No. I can see it, but it's too long. It's still getting longer.”
Thadd grew irritated. The magical script that calculated the zone's size was designed to transmit only integers. He figured the boy was ashamed of his poor abilities and was just babbling to stall for time.
“Then just tell me the first few numbers.”
“Um, 3.14.”
The instructors' eyes widened. The number Shirone was seeing was pi. As an irrational number, it stretched on infinitely, never resolving into a whole number.
The woman on the left pushed up her glasses and spoke sharply. It was Shina, a master of ice magic. True to her magical affinity, she had a cold personality and was Thadd's bitter rival among the faculty.
“Shirone, I'm sorry, but 3.14 is not among the numbers we've designated. Are you absolutely sure?”
Shirone frowned, looking troubled.
“Um. Is that so? But that's what I see.”
‘It's real…’
Shina had lied. Of course, pi wasn't actually written among the magical characters on the floor. There was only one situation in which it would appear.
When the domain of the zone exceeded the measurable range.
This meant the diameter of the zone Shirone had deployed was at least thirty meters.
The measurement precision in Testing Ground 3 was set relatively low for evaluating new students. Exposing immature children to intense phenomena—scorching heat, arctic chills—could result in psychological trauma.
As a part of these precautions, the measurable range of a Spirit Zone's diameter was limited to thirty meters.
However, even among late admissions, very few ever surpassed this limit. A zone with a diameter of over thirty meters was at least the level of a Class Five mage.
The old man sitting next to Thadd asked a question.
“What is the most vivid color you perceive?”
“Um, blue. Everything is bathed in blue.”
The old man pursed his lips. A murmur began to stir among the instructors.
Blue indicated a convergence type—one that excelled in durability rather than size.
For a convergence type to have a diameter exceeding thirty meters meant his development was by no means slow for his age.
Alpheas, too, was met with one surprise after another. He was finally beginning to understand why Klumpf had been so confident.
But as a mage to his core, he became more critical.
He would have offered praise for a moderate talent, but Shirone had already surpassed that level. Furthermore, this was a half-formed talent, one that had yet to touch the realm of magic.
This was dangerous. Too much praise now could ruin him for life.
Shirone answered the subsequent questions. His brain was the dual-hemisphere type, utilizing both left and right sides simultaneously.
This too was distinctive, but the most remarkable revelation came from the next question.
“How many spheres are floating around you?”
Thanks to synesthesia, he didn't need to count them individually. He could perceive the total number of spheres at once, much like feeling a touch on the skin.
After a moment of silence, Shirone spoke.
“867.”
“867…”
The instructor who had asked the question muttered the number, almost unconsciously.
Even Shina, who had been observing with a frosty demeanor, pulled her chair in and sat up straight for the first time.
The density of a zone was a measure of how uniformly one's mental energy was distributed.
Perceiving 867 spheres meant that Shirone's mental energy was filling his zone at a density of 86.7 percent.
A uniform density implied a stable mind, which in turn meant a naturally higher success rate for casting magic.