Chapter 637: The Ungraded
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 637: The Ungraded
All the children from the northeastern school district of the Celsius territory flocked to the academy where I was staying. Their number was a staggering one hundred and fifty. Every morning, they arrived in a long, winding queue.
I wasn't an enthusiastic teacher, but I was a competent one. I used mind-reading to grasp their aptitude, interests, and level of understanding, then stimulated their mana with magic tools along with a few tips. The children who had an epiphany would awaken their ability to sense mana, taking one step closer to becoming a mage.
It had been eight days since I descended to the Lower World.
Of the one hundred and fifty children, forty-three had awakened their mana sense.
And one had even mastered mana control.
“O, you who have stepped onto the great path of magic. O, you who have earned the right to ascend the stairs of knowledge. Today, I feel boundless joy at the birth of a new scholar. With your brilliant intellect, may you pluck the lofty stars of knowledge and scatter them across this world.”
With a look of deep emotion, the old man placed a spire cap on the child’s head. The hat, shaped like the top of a high steeple, was a symbol of a newly minted mage. The child, still looking incredulous, received an apprentice’s staff and a cheap grimoire.
That child was now one of the chosen.
He had become different from the peers he had studied with.
I allowed them to use the academy’s courtyard for the ceremony. They asked me to officiate, but I had no desire to do something so bothersome, nor did I know how. I left it to a more experienced mage and focused on my next task.
“Those of you who have just awakened your mana sense must be overjoyed. It’s as if a new color has been added to the world, and you must find it delightful just to watch how this newfound thing moves. Enjoy it while you can, but remember this: sensing mana is nothing more than a first step.”
I had sent the failures away. The ones who remained were the children who had awakened their mana sense. For them, who had already surpassed the basic level, I began the lesson for their second awakening.
“The reason sensing mana is easier than controlling it is simple. Mana control requires your own mana.”
This was also the reason I couldn't use proper magic, despite possessing perfect theoretical knowledge and the ability to indirectly sense mana through mind-reading.
“No matter how excellent a machine is, you can’t operate it properly if you lack strength. Magic is similar. Even when using a magic tool, you need a spark of mana to start it, and as the scale of the magic grows, so does the mana required. Of course, the same logic works in reverse. A trivial magic tool that creates an evocation-class spell can be used by any unenlightened person without mana.”
The Mage Federation was overflowing with such magic tools. I clapped my hands, and the housekeeper brought in a large pile of them.
Mana lamps, mana braziers, ice crystals, resonance orbs, and so on. It was a collection of evocation-class magic tools that required so little starting mana that even ordinary people could use them. I spread them out haphazardly and spoke.
“Now that you’ve learned to sense mana, you should also be able to detect the fluctuations in its wavelength caused by your actions. If you repeatedly observe the flow of mana within these magic tools, you will eventually learn to control it instinctively. That child who just became a mage, for instance, awakened his mana control while walking home, staring at a mana lamp in the pitch-black darkness.”
I had told him to do it, but I hadn't expected him to master control right after. Even if I was the catalyst, a child like that was probably bordering on genius.
And the children gathered here? Except for one, they wouldn't even dream of awakening before I left. Well, they might learn to control it with more effort after mana sense becomes second nature to them, but that would be out of my hands.
“Try it. Focus on the mana and sense how it flows. The movement of mana has a purpose. If you observe it carefully, one day you too will be able to control it.”
“Yes, sir!”
The children shouted energetically and scrambled to grab the magic tools, some even bickering to get the ones they wanted. As the housekeeper sighed at the thought of cleaning up, a large boy snatched an ice crystal from a scrawny one.
“Give it back!”
“Agh!”
The scrawny boy cried out as he was shoved to the ground. All eyes turned to them. The larger boy, who had been grinning triumphantly, saw my gaze and hastily made an excuse.
“It wasn’t me! This was mine to begin with!”
I answered reflexively.
“It’s mine, you little thief. Do you have any idea how much that costs?”
Even if I was their teacher for a short while, I wouldn't forgive them for stealing my property. As I replied coldly, the boy waved his hands in denial.
“Ah! N-no, that’s not what I meant! I called dibs on it, but this brat just snatched it away!”
“Ugh…”
The scrawny boy clutched his head and glared at the larger boy with sharp eyes. His furious gaze held a hint of desperation.
But the bigger boy just snorted.
“What are you staring at? You’re just an Ungraded!”
Ungraded. An abandoned child who didn't belong to any school district.
A school district was a collective of parents who could afford tuition. Those who yearned to become mages would pool their money to build an academy, hire a teacher, and receive instruction.
But there were levels to the wealth of the parents. If some paid more and others less, the ones paying more would inevitably protest. Naturally, parents of similar financial standing would form their own districts, and over time, a hierarchy of districts would form.
And at the very bottom of that hierarchy were the ones who couldn't even afford to hire a teacher. They became the ‘Ungraded,’ excluded from all education.
The final stop for the unenlightened. If you didn't have a mage in the family, or at least a technician who knew how to use magic tools, or if you lacked the will to teach your own children because you yourself were uneducated, you were destined to become Ungraded.
To live as an irredeemable, unenlightened person, with no way to ever come into contact with any knowledge or magic.
Before them lay the aspiration to become a mage; behind them lurked the fear of falling into the ranks of the Ungraded. These two emotions were the driving force that made the Mage Federation a nation of magic.
“Why is an Ungraded here?”
“He can’t even pay tuition.”
“Isn’t he stealing lessons? This academy has students from all sorts of districts mixed together, so…”
“He probably thought no one would notice if he snuck in.”
The educated children were cunning and quick-witted. They quickly understood what was happening and began to inch away from the Ungraded boy.
Just as the exposed boy gritted his teeth, I strode toward him. Holding a card in each hand, I looked him straight in the eye and asked.
“Do you know how to sense mana?”
The Ungraded boy spotted me and answered quickly.
“Y-yes…”
“Left hand or right hand. Which one holds my magic tool?”
“Th-the left one.”
“The answer is both. You liar.”
I opened both fists to reveal a clover card in each. A look of dismay crossed the boy’s face.
“It was a good try… but a shallow lie is quickly exposed.”
He chose the left without a moment’s hesitation? He’d readily bet his fate on a 50% chance. He’s decisive and quite sharp.
But that wasn't enough.
I knelt on one knee in front of the boy. The Ungraded, who had been holding onto a sliver of hope that I might show him favor, flinched when he met my gaze.
Because my eyes held no mercy, no warmth.
“Kid. I don’t care whether you listen to my lessons or not. To me, everyone here is nothing but unenlightened.”
It was cold, but it was reality. The children didn't look disappointed; they just nodded. To a supreme mage (in training) like me from the Floating Castle, teaching children in the Lower World was nothing more than charity work.
“However, I gathered only the children who succeeded in sensing mana. It’s so I can give a lecture appropriate for their level. This is not the place for you.”
“But why…!”
If this continued, he would be kicked out. Sensing this, the Ungraded boy shouted in frustration.
“I heard you were teaching at the academy without asking for anything in return. If that’s true, then I should be able to listen too! Why can’t I? What, are you not confident you can teach me?!”
‘I have to attend this lecture, no matter what! Appeal to his compassion? He’s not the type to fall for that! I’ll provoke him. It’s risky, but if I miss this chance, I have no future!’
…Oh? He thinks he can provoke me into letting him stay?
He may be uneducated, but he’s experienced. Is it from being knocked around as an Ungraded? He’s quite cunning. But…
“The students of this academy study magic for three to seven years. They learn literature, mathematics, geometry, and history. They master all that basic knowledge while practicing magic whenever they have a spare moment.”
Completely unshaken by his childish provocation, I spoke as coldly as possible, stripping all emotion from my voice, delivering only the bone-chilling facts.
“My lecture is the best there is. But listening to it won’t bridge a gap of three to seven years. If it could, why would anyone train? Why would anyone diligently read books? Magic is an honest discipline. It produces phenomena proportional to the mana invested. Have you invested that much time?”
“I-I never had…!”
“You’ll say your environment was poor, that you didn't have enough time? Your environment and your time are both a part of who you are. If so, you should have shown a talent that surpasses those circumstances.”
To the Ungraded, I must have seemed like a miracle. A mage who descended from the Floating Castle to teach the frontier districts with an even hand. He must have harbored the illusion that I, engaged in what was essentially volunteer work, might teach him.
But I, that very miracle, was now confronting him with harsh, cold reality, crushing the faint hope in his heart.
“I can only stay for about a month. It’s impossible to make you awaken in that time. I do not attempt the impossible.”
“Ah…!”
“Listen if you want. But it won’t do you any good.”
“Augh…!”
Tears welled up in the Ungraded boy’s eyes. Abandoned by the Mage Federation, he was now being abandoned by me. Shuddering with despair, sorrow, and misery, he could no longer stay here.
What I said was the plain truth. Staying here would be of no help to him.
“Uwaaaaaaah!!”
The Ungraded boy howled like an animal and ran out of the academy. He didn't even put his shoes on properly, kicking them aside as he ran barefoot across the icy ground. His feet must have been freezing, but could it be colder than his heart?
Amid the snickers and whispers of ‘serves him right’ and ‘an Ungraded got caught sneaking in’ that filled the academy, I called for the housekeeper.
“Housekeeper.”
“Yes?”
“He left his shoes. Go give them to him.”
“What? Me? Alone, in this cold?”
“You can handle that much, can’t you?”
‘He’s being cruel. Uncharacteristically so. But… if he were truly cruel, he wouldn’t have sent me, would he?’
The housekeeper glanced back and forth between me and the academy gate, then murmured with a slightly pitying expression.
“Is it alright if I try to comfort him when I go?”
“Do as you please.”
“I’ll be right back!”
The housekeeper hurried after the Ungraded boy. I watched her for a moment, then felt the students’ eyes on me and spoke.
“Is the practical session over? Can I collect the magic tools now?”
“N-no, sir!”
The murmuring about the Ungraded boy’s appearance was brief. The children refocused on their training with the magic tools. Soon, they would either forget this incident entirely or turn it into a piece of gossip to joke about.
The northern wind was as cold as ever. I closed the door the housekeeper had left open.