Cloud
Walter's first Hemomancy class began.
Just as he'd promised, little had changed from Silaje's classes. Students studied theory from the textbook, carefully dissecting the composition of a magic circle before moving on to practice.
A new semester had started, and the students—who had already endured Byeolya's class—found the familiar structure oddly reassuring.
If there was any difference at all, it was that while Silaje had been somewhat blunt and authoritarian, Walter, being a young and newly appointed professor, approached students more warmly, exchanged jokes with them, and put everyone at ease.
"Alright, today's practical will start with the Blood Barrier."
The Blood Barrier was a versatile shield of blood—a mixture of blood and Jet-Black that could quickly screen the area in front of the caster. Its defining feature was that, once prepared, it could be deployed even faster than a Jet-Black Shield woven purely from Jet-Black.
The students all drew blood from their bodies at once, mixed it with Jet-Black, and unfolded their barriers.
The results were wildly varied. Some students' barriers melted and dripped away. Some produced a barrier no bigger than a palm. Some stretched wide but were thin as paper, and one student's barrier exploded with a pop the moment he raised it.
It was simply what happened when everyone's blood was a different type.
"Teaching assistants. Let's begin the feedback."
"Yes, Professor!"
At Walter's instruction, the TAs moved with practiced precision. Everyone had started from the same magic circle, but the revisions differed depending on each student's blood type.
Students whose barriers melted away learned how to coat their blood properly.
Students whose barriers spread too thin were prescribed additional density modifiers.
"Got it, Professor!"
"Excellent. Did everyone see that? Students with the LP-2 type, this is how it's done."
"Thank you!"
After seeing to one group of students, Walter made his way over to Camibarez.
She had been working hard on her Blood Barrier, but every time she raised one, it exploded almost immediately, unable to hold for more than a moment. The spell refused to obey her no matter how she tried, and her face had fallen into a discouraged frown.
"No need to rush."
Walter smiled gently.
"Your KP-1 blood is naturally explosive when combined with Jet-Black. So how about trying this instead?"
Camibarez looked up at him.
"Let Jet-Black Mechanics' defensive spells handle small attacks, and reserve the Blood Barrier for blocking big ones. Split the roles."
"B-big attacks? Um... how?"
Walter formed a heavy, dense sphere of blood.
"You can control the detonation time of a Blood Barrier, yes?"
"Yes! But no matter how long I stretch it, it always ends up exploding anyway, so..."
"Then let's detonate it at the very instant something strikes the barrier."
Walter conjured a Jet-Black sphere and, simultaneously, a volley of Jet-Black arrows, and hurled them all at once.
Camibarez spread her barrier and waited—and the moment the Jet-Black sphere touched it, she detonated the barrier. The sphere and the arrows chasing it were caught together in the blast and blown away.
"That's the feel of it. You can make an offensive shield this way. With your barrier's original thickness, you couldn't have stopped the sphere I just threw. But you covered for that weakness with an explosion. Just because you're a vampire with KP-1 doesn't mean your blood must be used only for offense. Think about other applications, too."
"...Oh! It's like something just clicked! Thank you so much!"
Camibarez bowed her head gratefully.
While the students beside her boasted about their own barriers—mine's bigger, mine's harder—one boy sat alone at his desk, chin propped in his hands, staring blankly into space.
...Must be nice for everyone else.
It was, of course, Simon.
His blood, SM-1, was an entirely new type that refused to cohere properly when combined with Jet-Black, which meant there was usually nothing for him to do in most Hemomancy classes.
Bored and envious of his friends, Simon stretched for no particular reason.
If I just had an ordinary blood type like everyone else, I could join in on those conversations too.
"Student Simon."
A teaching assistant quietly approached him.
"Professor Walter is asking for you."
"Huh?"
As Simon turned his head, he spotted Walter at the door leading out of the lecture hall, waving with a smile on his face.
...
Maybe it was because the man's first impression had left him uneasy. Simon was wary, but he had no grounds to disobey a professor's summons during class.
When Simon came over, Walter explained.
"Your blood type is a special one, so I'd like to go over it in my office on the fourth floor. Come along."
Walter and Simon climbed the stairs side by side.
There was no small talk between them, and Simon found his nerves wound tight for some reason.
Why is it that every time I think of this man, the word 'Judah' comes to mind? And more than anything—
-Did you see it?
That look in his eyes from the day they first met was impossible to forget. Of course, it might have been pure imagination—Simon couldn't even be certain the man had actually worn such a gaze.
At last, the two arrived in front of the office on the fourth floor.
"You seem awfully tense."
Walter said with a laugh.
"Is this your first time visiting a professor's office?"
Simon only shook his head quietly. He'd been to Professor Aaron's and Professor Jane's offices before, and Professor Lang's as well.
"There's nothing impressive in there, so come in and relax."
Walter opened the door and gestured for Simon to go first.
Simon swallowed dryly and strode into the office.
?
True to Walter's word, there was indeed nothing impressive.
The office was nearly empty, and it looked as though he hadn't finished unpacking—boxes of documents and books lay scattered about haphazardly. A desk, a chair, and a solitary sofa were all the room had to offer.
"I've been terribly busy since joining Kizen."
Walter smiled and offered him a seat on the sofa. Simon sat down carefully, still on guard, and Walter asked if he'd like some tea. Simon shook his head and declined.
"Then let's get straight to the point."
Walter brought a crystal orb from his desk and set it on the table. The moment he lightly touched it, a mana screen unfurled in the air.
"These are the materials Professor Silaje passed along to me. Shall we take a look together?"
The mana screen showed Simon from the first semester—the day he'd fired his very first Blood Bullet at the magic-bullet practice range.
-Lane Six, Simon Polentia. Ready when you are!
On the screen, Simon could be seen closing one eye and extending the tip of his index finger to aim at the target.
A moment later, Silaje shouted Commence firing, and Simon's arm jerked back as the Blood Bullet launched.
The bullet Simon fired vanished mid-flight into thin air—only to reappear moments later just in front of the target, blazing with blue light.
The instant the light struck the target, its power fanned out in a wedge shape. Two targets at the rear were torn apart, and then one target on each side split open as well.
"A truly fascinating phenomenon."
Walter said, watching the footage.
"I can understand why Professor Silaje became so captivated by your 'SM-1'. He carried out research on it all through the first semester, and while he was away on his mission, he delegated the analysis of SM-1 to his disciples, myself included. Not to brag, but my results were the most outstanding of the lot."
Walter's gaze turned to Simon.
"Let's start with the basics. What do you know about that blood of yours?"
Simon answered with what he knew.
"I understand it as a kind of multiplication effect. When blood and Jet-Black combine, the Jet-Black devours the blood without any special reaction, increasing both the volume and the power."
"That's not wrong."
Walter nodded.
"But if that were all there were to it, Professor Silaje would never have struggled so much over you that he left you unattended for an entire semester."
"...Th-then there's another function?"
Instead of answering, Walter reached into a box on his desk and held something out to Simon.
Well, this takes me back.
A magic circle calibration tool. A beginner's implement that, when fed Jet-Black, laid the formula into the frame of the calibration plate and helped shape a magic circle.
Simon had used one when he first learned Exhaust in Curse Magic class, but he'd hardly touched one since.
"This is a magic circle Professor Silaje developed himself, for the effective use of SM-1. Care to give it a try?"
Looking it over, Simon could see nothing particularly wrong with the circle.
He nodded, gripped both handles of the calibration tool, and fed his Jet-Black into it.
Vmmm!
The Jet-Black traced along the calibration tool and began assembling the formula. A few of the calculations were ones Simon couldn't have constructed on his own even with the tool, but Walter explained each one until it was easy to grasp. Overall, it wasn't an especially difficult structure.
At last the magic circle was complete and rose into the air.
"Now, draw some of your blood. You learned the blood-drawing circle back in first year, yes?"
"Yes."
Simon spread a small magic circle at the tip of his index finger, and a single drop of blood rose through it. Then it passed through the new circle he had just completed with the calibration tool.
FWOOOSH!
The circle and the drop of blood merged, triggering a chemical reaction. Simon flinched and stumbled backward.
A fizzling, crackling sound filled the air. The circle flickered from blood-red to Jet-Black and back again, oscillating between the two.
Then, at last, the reaction completed itself, and the whole thing transformed into a luminous, teal-tinted vapor—neither red nor black. At times it seemed pale blue-green, spiraling with an otherworldly pattern like the whorls of a snail's shell.
Okay, that's kind of cool.
Simon's eyes sparkled.
"This effect appears only when SM-1 and your Jet-Black pass through this particular circle at a particular ratio. Professor Silaje named this power SMF24-CLOUD—'Cloud' for short."
Cloud, huh.
As Simon quietly gazed at his new power, Walter raised both arms.
"Now! This is a dark spell made from your own blood. What do you think you can do with it?"
...
Simon shifted his body hesitantly—and felt the vapor begin to drift slowly at his command.
It felt like...
Like connecting to an undead's psychic imprint and controlling it.
It didn't take long at all. When Walter saw him commanding the Cloud a mere minute after first using it, he smiled.
"Your control is quite proficient. Then might something like this also be possible?"
Walter pointed to a box of papers sitting in the corner.
"Lifting that box with the vapor, for instance."
...
On the surface it seemed impossible—it looked like a gas, and gases can't lift objects—but Simon, who was even now controlling the Cloud, somehow had a feeling it might work.
He extended his right arm, and the vapor shot forward and wrapped itself around the box.
Just like that.
Simon turned his hand so his palm faced upward and slowly mimed lifting.
Got it!
Swiiish.
At the sight of the box of documents rising slowly into the air, Walter let out a cry of admiration.
"You managed that on your first try! Remarkable."
"Nnngh."
Simon's arm was trembling.
But why is this so exhausting? My mind feels strained, obviously, but it also feels like I'm genuinely lifting the thing with my own arm.
When Simon slowly set the box back down, the weary sensation lifted with it.
"But there is one more unique property of the Cloud that we discovered."
Walter rose from his seat and approached the vapor. Then he pinched the Cloud between his thumb and middle finger.
"Ow!"
Simon jumped. It genuinely hurt, as if he'd been pinched himself.
"This power shares the user's senses. Does it hurt?"
This time, Walter lengthened his fingernail with blood and jabbed it into the vapor again and again—and Simon yelped in shock, nearly toppling out of his chair.
"Professor!"
"Haha, my apologies. My doctoral-student curiosity got the better of me. I'm a professor now, aren't I."
Walter returned his fingernail to normal, and Simon dismantled the Cloud and sat up straight in his chair.
He was genuinely grateful that this man had researched his power alongside Silaje—but somehow he was angry too, and he found himself glaring at him.
"Are you upset?"
"...No, Professor."
"In any case, the conclusion was reached that the Cloud is a power that simply cannot be defined by the current body of Hemomancy knowledge. Professor Silaje had originally intended to present it as a formal paper at the Hemomancy academic conference, but he abandoned the idea."
"Why?"
"Because it might put you in danger. SM-1 is research that could point the way to the secrets of the world itself, and mad scholars might come running. And among necromancer scholars, there are some true lunatics."
He added with a smile:
"I'm one of them, you see."
...
"In fact, the reason I accepted the position of Hemomancy professor..."
His two eyes met Simon's.
"...was precisely to meet you. You and I can create an even greater synergy together. I will uncover the secrets of this new blood, and you will learn to master a special technique called Cloud."
Walter extended his hand.
"Let me make you a formal offer. Won't you become my direct disciple?"