Six Days Before School Starts
Mage Department freshman orientation.
Six days before the term began, the new students who had taken their entrance exams ahead of the Knight Department gathered in one place.
It was the large lecture hall reserved for first-year announcements. From her seat, Irina scanned the room.
"Hey, which Magic Ball did you grab? I took the easiest one."
"Lame. I went for something harder than that."
"What do I do? My orb cracked. Look at this."
"Whoa, current suddenly sparked out of mine and I thought I was dead. Nearly lost it."
They clustered in little groups, rehashing yesterday's entrance exam and holding out the orbs clutched in their hands for one another to see. Most of them were difficulty levels far below Irina's.
"……Heh."
Somehow, her mood lifted considerably. She had chosen the hardest difficulty and cleared it brilliantly. Of course she had. She was amazing.
……Well, there was a little help along the way.
That monster who had smashed the Magic Ball's shell in a single blow and not so much as blinked when the current leapt out. She still had no idea what kind of person he was, but it hardly mattered. Even without him, Irina would have unlocked the mechanism eventually. He had only shortened the time it took.
"Look over there. That's her—the one…"
"Yeah. That's her. The next Magic Tower Master candidate."
"The one in her hand is the hardest orb, right? How the hell did she crack that?"
"She's a magic genius, remember? She's on a whole different level from us."
The sidelong glances from the people around her were pure praise. Magic genius. A title she had never once lost while training at the Magic Tower. Of course, this time she hadn't exactly solved it on her own power alone…
"Well, it's not like I asked him to help."
He had volunteered. She had nothing to feel guilty about.
"Oh? Hello, Irina."
Someone dropped into the seat beside her without the slightest hesitation. No awkwardness, no deference—none of the careful distance nearly every other freshman kept from the girl widely assumed to be this year's Mage Department top student.
"Is this the first time we've met since that visit to the Magic Tower? Have you been well?"
"Hello, Your Highness."
Well. If it was the imperial princess, that attitude made perfect sense.
A young woman in a dress, her brilliant golden hair woven into a long braid, smiled with her eyes. She looked genuinely pleased to see Irina.
"Is Your Highness enrolled in the Mage Department as well?"
"Ah, no. I'm not with either side. It wouldn't be proper for a member of the imperial family to take one faction over the other. I'm just here to watch today."
Fair enough.
At Olympia, the bitter rivalry between the Knight Department and the Mage Department was famous the world over. If royalty joined either side, the balance would crack. So Helene had enrolled as an unaffiliated student this year—for the sake of political freedom.
Tick. Tick. Dong—dong—dong—
The hour struck. Footsteps approached. The moment orientation was due to begin, the hall fell silent in an instant. Every student straightened in their seat and waited for the instructor to speak. All of them had come already knowing the temperament of the first-year advisor.
"A pleasure. My name is Diggory. I will be your advisor this year."
He pushed his rimless glasses up with one finger. His tone was ice-cold. His clothes were so meticulously kept that not a speck of dust clung to them.
"Ordinarily my only duty would be to announce your entrance exam results and leave. But since I am in charge of the first-years, I will take the liberty of adding a few words beforehand."
Perfectionist Diggory.
In Song of Sword and Sorcery, he was the early-game magic instructor—a man whose finicky nature had turned countless players into dedicated haters. Reality on Atenel Island was no different. Even Irina shut her mouth and listened.
"Those of you who entered the Mage Department were surely praised wherever you came from. You sit here because your talent outstripped your peers."
"……"
"But here at Olympia, you will find such praise hard to come by. No—you will find slander far easier to hear."
Olympia was a gathering place for the finest talents. Students who had swaggered around their hometowns for being able to cast a little magic arrived here only to shrink before greater geniuses still.
"Talent is devoured by greater talent. ……Take, for example, the student who alone chose the most difficult Magic Ball in this entrance exam."
Heh. Diggory gave a low laugh. His gaze was fixed squarely on Irina. The first-year advisor looking at her and her alone—a tense situation by any measure.
"Yes, Miss Irina. While we are on the subject, might I ask you to explain how you unlocked the Magic Ball's lock?"
"That's no trouble at all."
But Irina did not tremble. She drew a short breath and launched straight into the principle behind the locking mechanism. With every word she spoke, Diggory's smile deepened. He looked thoroughly, unmistakably satisfied.
"……That is all."
"Excellent. Indeed—you were more than justified in choosing the highest difficulty yourself."
Ahem.
The corner of Irina's mouth twitched. She was fighting to keep from looking smug, but praise this open made joy hard to hide.
That's right. That's me!
Long before enrollment, she had been tipped as this year's Mage Department top freshman. Hearing such a generous evaluation from her advisor only swelled her pride further.
"Still, I am genuinely surprised. I already knew the rumors of a magic genius, but I never expected you to submit the orb quite so quickly."
"……Ah."
The twitching smile froze. Irina flicked her gaze aside. In that moment she could not meet Diggory's eyes. Her conscience stung.
"The fastest time on record. Considering the complexity of the lock, an almost absurd speed. Miss Irina, I truly cannot help but admire your skill."
"Ah—ahaha……! Of course."
A bead of sweat slid down Irina's cheek. No one would ever guess the truth—but after a gilding this thick, she could hardly admit she had received help.
"One slip and the current would have leapt out and roasted you. The fact that you never even suffered that is remarkable."
"Ah, Instructor. About that."
"Hm?"
She seized the opening at once. Irina remembered it clearly.
Oh, right. It did come out.
What that unidentified upperclassman had said after shattering the Magic Ball. The way the current had sparked right in front of his face and left him completely unharmed.
"Is the current actually dangerous? I mean—for example—could it only look frightening while being harmless to the human body?"
"Haha. For all your talent, you are still rather naive, Miss Irina."
"……"
Both her cheeks flushed with shame.
"Olympia does not indulge in such clumsy consideration. That was the highest-difficulty Magic Ball. A hit from the current means injury without exception—and death is not out of the question."
……That serious?
Cold sweat ran down Irina's spine.
Then that upperclassman could have died?
Looking back on it, it really had been a close call.
Then Diggory's added remark reached her ears.
"Well. Anyone who could claim to be completely unharmed by that current would possess overwhelming skill. Impossible for anyone short of the Chairman or the Department Head."
"……Thank you."
The Department Head, or the Chairman. Mages who had each shaken the world in their own right. To walk away unscathed, you would need to be on that level.
……Just who is that upperclassman?
"It is about time. I will now announce the rankings."
Snap!
Diggory flicked his fingers. At once a stick of chalk rose of its own accord and began writing the entrance exam results across the blackboard.
1st: Irina Eletal
2nd: Ruby Duerre
3rd: Sapphire Duerre
…
"Heh."
Irina smiled as she confirmed the results. Of course. No one else was going to take first place from her.
"Wow, wow. That's incredible, Irina. First place!"
In a lecture hall buzzing over individual ranks, Helene raised her voice.
"It's nothing special. Basic, really."
"Indeed. As Miss Irina says, it is the baseline in our Mage Department, Your Highness."
Diggory added the remark right on the heels of Irina's answer. He pushed up his glasses and twisted the corner of his mouth. He had been about to post the results and leave—until the princess's reaction stopped him in his tracks.
"Your Highness belongs to neither department. Even so, I will presume to offer a frank word as a representative of the Mage Department."
"My. Sir Diggory. And what might that be?"
"That there is no point in attending the Knight Department's orientation."
An arrogant declaration. Words that could easily have been taken as rude. Diggory did not care in the slightest. He was certain they were true—and Mage Department slander of the Knight Department was already common sense besides.
"Those empty-headed oafs with nothing but their frames to recommend them produce nothing but sweat. Go, and you will come back having smelled nothing but a foul stench."
"Heehee. Thank you for the apt advice, Sir. I'll keep it in mind."
"You are most welcome. And the rest of you—take this to heart as well."
The arrow passed beyond Helene and landed among the students. Having seized the freshmen's attention once more, Diggory tilted his glasses to veil his pupils and spoke with absolute certainty, reverse light cutting across his face.
"So long as I am in charge of the first-years, defeat will not be tolerated. This year, we will without fail defeat the Knight Department."
"……"
"All of you will grind yourselves down to achieve that cause. For high-intelligence types like us, handling a pack of muscle-brains is no difficult task. Even so—should the Mage Department lose by some remote chance……"
Gulp.
Someone swallowed. Someone clenched their hands tight. Someone squeezed their eyes shut. Diggory's pressure carried that much force.
"……I will show you hell."
The low-voiced promise was so terrifying that every Mage Department freshman steeled themselves with desperate resolve.
"Shit, that's scary as hell."
"Fuck……. Did I enroll for nothing?"
"Forget it. Like we'd lose to those idiot Knight Department bastards? We just win."
"Yeah, that's right."
As they filed out of the lecture hall one by one in Diggory's wake, Irina did not join the chatter. She turned over the words she had just heard.
Well. Anyone who could claim to be completely unharmed by that current would possess overwhelming skill. Impossible for anyone short of the Chairman or the Department Head.
"……That's ridiculous."
She had never heard of a second-year genius on that level. Someone whose skill could be compared to the Department Head or the Chairman? Someone only a single year older than Irina?
But the vivid scene burned into her memory made it fact. The art of crushing a Magic Ball bare-handed and instantly dispelling the current that leapt free. He had clearly been strong. At least twice as strong as Irina, at minimum.
"I need to look into this."
If every one of these hypotheses turned out to be true…… she was willing to use a little formal speech with him. If she meant to ask him to teach her, that much courtesy was the least she owed.
"Figures."
No good.
After finishing my workout and coming back to my room, I had cracked open a book and was trying my hand at magic for once.
The so-called Nutcracker.
A simple spell that cracked a distant walnut using nothing but mana. Widely used as a beginner's exercise.
"……It's not working, is it?"
Mana sensitivity: zero, after all. I couldn't feel so much as a scrap of mana. I just flopped onto the bed.
"Damn it. I get dropped into a fantasy world and I can't even use magic?"
It had been kind of a dream of mine.
I sighed. Staring blankly at the ceiling, I found myself thinking of the girl I had seen yesterday.
Irina Eletal. The mage-route protagonist of Song of Sword and Sorcery.
Someone like her would pull off a Nutcracker without breaking a sweat. Hell, forget walnuts—she could probably smash a boulder.
"Yeah. I absolutely cannot get involved with her."
A magic genius who put a dullard like me to shame. Let the protagonist push the story along as she was meant to, and keep her nowhere near me. Not that she would have any interest in me anyway.