CHAPTER 119
CHAPTER 119
The Heart of Adolescence Might Be Better Left Hidden
At a visible distance, all students successfully completed the basic telepathy spell.
Sadia looked satisfied with that result and moved on to the next stage.
"Alright, next step: cast telepathy toward a partner who has a marking spell placed on them, even when they are out of sight."
However, at this point, many students began to hit a wall.
Even though Sadia explained how to use the spell and demonstrated the structure of the spell formula, most students failed once their partner—their visual target—was no longer in sight.
"You learned Wizard Mark and tracking in Professor Magram’s class, didn’t you? Once you’ve placed a Wizard Mark on a target, if you track them, you can roughly determine their direction and distance no matter how far away they are.
Is sending telepathy to them that difficult?"
"Well, you see…"
"Even during Professor Magram’s class, many students failed."
Placing a Wizard Mark itself was not difficult, but locating that mark and then casting magic remotely through walls was the hard part.
The whispering telepathy spell was easier than remote spirit summoning, but still, a significant number of students failed.
"You’ll have a higher success rate if you’re close with your partner. From the looks of it, you haven’t formed much of a connection with them."
Sadia had intentionally paired male and female students together, and this clearly stirred emotions early on.
For adolescent boys and girls, being paired with peers naturally causes their feelings to fluctuate.
Most students here were still young, and even if they had attended social circles before, they were not yet of marriageable age, so many were meeting peers of the opposite sex in a serious setting for the first time.
However…
The problem was that the assignments were incredibly difficult.
The professors’ classes were so demanding that keeping up required intense study, leaving little room for thoughts of romance.
On top of that, Sadia had pushed things further.
She had paired students from families with vastly different statuses, so even if someone found the opposite sex attractive, those from high society could not easily act on their feelings due to considerations of family standing.
Since all of them came from notable families, social conditions could not be ignored.
"Very well. Then I’ll teach you the mind link spell. From now on, each pair of partners should maintain a continuous mind link."
"A mind link spell?"
Everyone was startled.
The mind link spell could be described as a kind of chat room.
Those connected by a mind link could send telepathic messages to everyone in the link simply by thinking, without needing to cast spells each time.
It functioned like a group chat, but instead of typing on a keyboard, thoughts themselves were transmitted, making it far more convenient.
'No, this is too much progress for one day.'
'I’ve heard of mind link before. I wanted to learn it, but can we actually use it right now?'
'Good heavens, the pace is too fast. I’ll have to spend all my free time training to keep up.'
'Does Professor Sadia think we only attend her class?'
Everyone had heard of the mind link spell, so their feelings were split between eagerness to learn it and anxiety about being introduced to so many difficult spells at once.
Whether Sadia was aware of the rapid pace or not, she demonstrated the structure of the mind link through illusion magic.
"Now that I’ve explained the mind link spell, go ahead and cast it. Assistants, help the students."
"Yes, yes…"
"Oh dear…"
The assistants chuckled awkwardly as they helped students attempt the mind link spell.
As expected, many students failed.
But Idnia succeeded with ease.
[Ah, can you hear my voice?]
[Ah… yes.]
Thanks to the spell Vuremhyde had placed on her, her mana was stabilized, allowing her to succeed effortlessly.
In particular, having prior knowledge from Earth of the concept of a chat room greatly helped in implementing it.
'The moment I recite the activation phrase, the image of a chat room appears in my mind. Perhaps holding onto that mental image makes it easier to activate. It barely consumes mana, and maintaining the spell doesn’t require any mental strain either?'
Idnia found it strange how easily the spell had succeeded.
For her, the mind link spell was far too easy. But seeing other students fail made her realize it must actually be quite difficult.
Was the difference simply whether one had the image of a chat room in mind or not?
'There are quite a number of spells that Earthlings can use particularly well. That’s fortunate. Unlike Magram, Sadia doesn’t seem to have any suspicions about me.'
Indeed, Sadia checked the students’ progress and clicked her tongue at their disappointing results.
"Honestly, there are many who can’t even maintain a mind link. Am I expecting too much, or are this year’s freshmen simply underperforming? Hey, assistants. Force mind links on all teams!"
"Yes, ma’am."
The assistants, as if expecting this, used their spells to forcibly link the students who had failed.
"Ohhh, this is a mind link."
"How fascinating."
Everyone found it interesting that telepathy flowed without needing to cast spells, simply by maintaining the mind link.
But then…
A strange atmosphere began to spread among the students.
[Ah, I’m nervous. Being paired with someone as noble as Duchess Idnia is overwhelming… ah… Lady Idnia is so beautiful.]
[Huh?]
[Ah! S-sorry. That was just my thoughts….]
Bolson panicked and covered his mouth, but his thoughts continued to flow without restraint.
Those unfamiliar with telepathy could not control their thoughts, and began transmitting things they never intended to share.
[I-I'm so embarrassed! No, this is worse than that… this is a disaster! I can’t believe someone like me is thinking such improper thoughts about Duchess Idnia… But Lady Idnia is so kind to someone like me… could it be that she likes me? N-no way… but if that were true, I’d be happy.]
Bolson’s thoughts were transmitted to Idnia without any filter.
He was not the only one; chaos began spreading among the students.
"No, that’s not it! I wasn’t looking at you like that!"
"R-right!"
Since Sadia had forcibly connected male and female students in pairs and linked them via mind link, the inner thoughts of those unaccustomed to telepathy were being transmitted without restraint.
Some had their romantic feelings exposed, while others even had rather indecent thoughts laid bare.
"Hahahahah! Good, good! Excellent! How is it? Doesn’t this stimulate your lives?"
Sadia burst into laughter.
It seemed she had intentionally orchestrated the situation to force students’ hidden thoughts into the open through the mind link.
Idnia was thoroughly exhausted by Sadia’s ruthless method of exposing the inner hearts of adolescents.
[Huh? Lady Idnia just sighed! Was it because of me!?]
Idnia’s partner, Bolson, still had no control over telepathy.
Sadia assigned an enormous amount of homework.
"By the next class, you must successfully cast telepathy remotely to a target identified with a Wizard Mark. You must also succeed in the mind link spell, and by the next class, complete a multi-person mind link. Ah, those who succeed this time will receive points. Assistants! Bring the list!"
"Yes!"
The assistants brought the list they had compiled of students who had succeeded in mind link on their own before being assisted.
'Wait… this is going to be a problem.'
Idnia was shocked upon hearing Sadia’s plan to award points.
In Euros, Idnia, Maria, Sandia, Christiaan, and Percifier—four in total—had succeeded.
In Zephyrus, including Isolde and Rudolf, 17 students had succeeded…
In Notos, Fiona, Lorenzo, Rex Breguet, and Patek Philippe among 22 students had succeeded…
In Boreas, including Karl and his guards Eirik, Ribal, Olssengard, and Dubin, 10 students had succeeded.
A massive shift occurred in the rankings.
Euros, Zephyrus, and Boreas were now tied at 33 points each, while Notos had fallen to last place with 31.
Yet the difference was only two points.
'So this is where the difference in dorm population shows its effect… To award so many points in a single class… the rankings we worked so hard to build….'
Idnia felt it was unfair to see the dorm rankings overturned in a single lecture.
All the points accumulated through hard work seemed meaningless as large numbers of points were awarded at once.
The side with more students had a clear advantage.
Still, since points were awarded fairly, there was nothing she could object to.
"Hah. Just how many spies did you bring in? You came prepared."
Karl scoffed upon seeing that Notos had far more students succeeding in telepathy than expected for its size.
"And what about you, Karl? It seems you’ve trained your Black Iron Warrior unit well. Far more of them succeeded in mind link than I expected."
"What? That’s an annoying thing to say. ‘Better than expected’? Are you implying we wouldn’t be able to use mind link?"
"It is quite a difficult spell."
Lorenzo and Karl continued bickering. Seeing this, Rudolf stepped in to mediate.
"Alright, enough. Let’s think of this positively now that we’re in an alliance."
"Alliance… wasn’t that already settled when Lorenzo bought up the town’s shops?"
"Hm? Do you wish to break the alliance, Karl?"
When Rudolf asked, Karl clicked his tongue.
"No, that’s not what I meant…."
"Let’s look at it positively. With 56 points distributed in a single class, we’re getting closer to unlocking academy facilities, aren’t we?
The food is poor, space is limited—we’re reaching our limits. We’ve been waiting desperately for facilities to open because earning points has been so difficult."
From the perspective of the student alliance, a large influx of points was certainly beneficial.
However, Idnia shook her head.
"The problem is that if things continue like this, dorms with fewer students like ours will definitely struggle."
"Ah, Lady Idnia has practically been leading Euros on her own all this time. Truly impressive."
Karl acknowledged Idnia’s efforts.
Lorenzo also added a comment.
"Haha. And yet we are in last place. You put me to shame, Lady Idnia."
Idnia had already proven her leadership and wisdom by earning a massive number of points.
Even if other dorms eventually overtook her due to population advantages, the respect she had earned would not fade.
From the beginning, Notos had considered Euros a potential target for alliance anyway.
"So, while dorm competition is fine, I ask you to remember the promise we made at the start of forming the alliance."
"Well, Prince Rudolf, the town shops were first monopolized by Notos—"
"If problems arise, we will act together against Notos. Karl, if you start making assumptions and acting hostile now, you will lose your justification."
Rudolf calmly persuaded Karl, but his words also carried a warning directed at Lorenzo.
If anything suspicious happened, the other three dorms would unite against him.
That was the underlying message.
'Hm. Rudolf is not to be underestimated either.'
Lorenzo brushed it off with a smile.
"I’m concerned we might be blamed for things that aren’t our responsibility, Your Highness Rudolf."
"Didn’t we agree to speak informally among students?"
"There’s something stuck in my mouth that won’t come off easily."
"Well, that can’t be helped. Ah, and regarding today’s mind link, students ended up exchanging some rather unusual telepathic thoughts. Let’s be careful to avoid any issues. We must not forget our positions as dorm leaders."
Rudolf raised the issue of potential side effects from the mind link, reminding the others to remain cautious.
"Yes."
"Agreed."
"If I were a professor, I would have awarded points to Prince Rudolf just now. Well done. To think of that."
Idnia was impressed by Rudolf’s concern for the side effects of the mind link. She almost applauded him.
"Then let us move on to the next class. The next class is…."
As Rudolf spoke—
Suddenly, the bell tower of Dunaise Academy began ringing urgently.
At the same time, moving armors marched in formation, snapping into defensive positions.
A thick mist spread between the buildings, and thorny vines grew rapidly, forming barricades.
"What…."
"An intruder!?"
Everyone was shocked.