Chapter 61
Chapter 61
Regret, Despair, Obsession?
“Hmm?! What? This is possible?”
Karl was startled as he watched Notos Dorm cleaning mandragora at an incredible speed.
The Notos Dorm placed mandragora into washing basins, poured water over them using water pumps, and then Lorenzo cast a spirit summoning spell, calling forth a water spirit.
The water spirit that emerged from the water containing the mandragora would lift them with its own hands and rub them together with both hands, completing most of the cleaning in a single motion.
As a result, the water spirit itself became muddy, but the muddy water circulated within its body like blood through a human body and was then expelled downward.
“A circulating water spirit? That must consume an enormous amount of mana.”
“No, it’s not me. I’m having the other students cast rotation spells inside the water spirit’s body to gather the dirt and dust into one place.”
“You’re casting rotation magic on a water spirit’s body? But once it becomes a spirit, it gains anti-magic properties compared to ordinary water…”
Casting magic on water itself already consumes more mana and requires precise focus to avoid the spell slipping and going astray.
However, since they only had two washing basins, the water would quickly turn into mud, and there was no proper place to drain it. Thus, Lorenzo used water spirits while the other students continuously cleaned the dirty water spirits and kept the process going.
On top of that, another water spirit appeared.
A female student from Notos Dorm, Fiona, cast a spell and summoned yet another water spirit.
While other dorms used a single spirit, Notos began with two, dramatically increasing their speed and quickly taking the lead.
“I will too!”
Seeing this, Isolde from Zephyrus also summoned a spirit, allowing her dorm to increase its speed as well.
As Zephyrus in the west and Notos in the south each used two spirits to carry out cleaning, Boreas began to fall behind.
“Tch. Don’t worry! Long-term, we have the advantage! Spirit summoning consumes too much mana and mental strength to sustain! Since this is time-limited, they won’t be able to maintain the spirits the whole time!”
Karl encouraged the Boreas students, who were diligently performing physical labor, and increased the strength of his gust magic.
“Please stop! If you blow wind toward us, the dust will just fly back and stick to the ones we’ve already cleaned!”
Even the normally gentle Lorenzo seemed mildly irritated as he protested Karl.
“Sorry, but I can’t give up this efficient process.”
“Honestly…”
At that moment, after some time had passed, a question reached their ears from Idnia.
“If we’ve finished washing the mandragora we were given, may we bring more from the other dorms to clean?”
“……”
“……”
“……”
Lorenzo, Fiona, Karl, Rudolf, and Isolde all doubted their ears.
Only thirty minutes had passed, yet Eurus had already finished washing all of their assigned mandragora?
“That’s impossible!”
Everyone shouted in unison.
But it was true.
Surprisingly, the Eurus Dorm, where Idnia was, had already washed all of their allocated mandragora and placed them on the workbench.
“How… how did they do that?”
While everyone was wondering, the instructor gave permission.
“Very well. Idnia student, you may proceed to clean other mandragora.”
“Understood.”
Idnia picked up her black iron magic wand.
The Eurus Dorm had the smallest number of students.
Because of that, in a dorm competition like this, they would normally have no chance of winning in terms of sheer numbers.
“Ah, it’s over. Completely over. No point in trying hard. Unlike extraction, this isn’t something one person can solve alone.
Even if we work hard, we’re just making money for the academy. Can’t you see they’re using us to exploit labor?”
Sendia Aspinal gave up from the beginning and encouraged others to slack off.
But then Idnia stepped forward.
“Sendia. You’re free to think that way, but please don’t encourage slacking off. We can win.”
“Huh? Idnia-sama? How can we win?”
“There are only two washing basins. Even if a dorm has many students, without an efficient workflow, bottlenecks are inevitable.
In other words, even with fewer people, it’s entirely possible to compete.”
“Well, that’s only if everything goes well. Isn’t it still better to have more people even if you wash by hand?”
Sendia raised her objection, but Idnia shook her head.
‘There’s no way high-class students would perform such grueling labor like factory workers.’
However, saying that would not resonate with the Eurus students, who were also mostly upper class.
“Now then, everyone. First, let me demonstrate.”
Idnia rolled up her sleeves and stepped forward.
The result was proven by the clean mandragora placed on the workbench.
‘No way… how did she do that?’
Students from the other dorms stared at Idnia in astonishment.
Notos Dorm, which had surged ahead by summoning spirits from the start, was now slowing down as Lorenzo and Fiona began to tire.
They even dismissed their spirits to watch how Idnia was working.
“Hmm.”
Rudolf and Isolde also dismissed their spirits and decided to observe Idnia.
Karl, however, did not give up and continued generating gusts.
“Now’s the time to pull ahead.”
He sent swirling dust toward the students who were watching Idnia’s work.
“Hey Karl. As your friend, I’m asking you to please stop that.”
Rudolf, unable to tolerate it any longer, spoke with an unusually cold gaze.
“…Uh.”
Karl froze under Rudolf’s unfamiliar, icy stare.
“Then—!”
“Shield!”
Idnia cast a shield spell and began shaping it.
Her shield transformed into a large mesh-like sieve.
“Ah?”
Using the shield-turned-sieve, Idnia placed a large amount of mandragora inside and shook them vigorously, sending dirt and dust pouring out.
First, she formed the sieve, placed the dirty mandragora inside, and gestured to her companions.
The Eurus students simultaneously cast continuous rotation magic.
By rotating the air at fixed positions, they produced an effect similar to Karl’s wind magic.
The difference was that the airflow was directed toward the ground, and other students continuously poured water to prevent dust from rising.
They also used rotation magic on the flowing water along the ground, controlling its movement.
The flowing water swept up the dust on the floor and carried it into the drain.
“This is…”
Idnia used the sieve to easily shake off the dirt, then moved to the first washing basin.
Inside the basin, Eurus students were also rotating the water, so simply dipping and lifting the sieve resulted in significantly cleaner mandragora.
Idnia then moved the cleaned sieve under the water pump.
Water gushed down from the pump, rinsing the mandragora thoroughly. The water that fell was guided by rotation magic, settling the dust on the ground and cleaning it as well.
‘They’re only using one basin?’
Idnia placed the fully rinsed mandragora onto the workbench.
“Incredible. Now I understand why they’re so fast.”
Watching Idnia’s performance, Lorenzo clicked his tongue.
Notos, which relied on summoning spirits, and Zephyrus under Rudolf inevitably faced bottlenecks.
Since spirit summoning was not something all students could perform, they couldn’t fully utilize everyone’s mana and abilities.
In contrast, Idnia handled the main tasks herself while involving all Eurus students in auxiliary tasks, requiring only basic rotation magic from them.
With all Eurus students participating, the mandragora were cleaned rapidly.
‘However, isn’t Idnia shouldering too much mana consumption and concentration alone? Shaping shield magic like that must be mentally taxing…’
Just as Lorenzo had that thought, he noticed something.
Other Eurus students began to move.
“Hm?”
Several students were linking their magic wands together to maintain the shield spell.
It wasn’t as neatly shaped as Idnia’s.
Rather, it resembled standing the shield upright like iron bars.
While Idnia used shape transformation alone to form the sieve, the students who couldn’t shape-transform combined their shield magic together to form one collectively.
“……”
“Incredible.”
All the students couldn’t help but admire it.
All the mandragora prepared for the class had been washed.
Dryad instructor Nailey seemed deeply impressed.
“Just in case, I had prepared far more than usual… as expected, Eurus Dorm has won by a landslide.
Their cleaning method was also very wise.
Not only did they utilize the basic magic they had learned, but they also involved all students, distributing mana and concentration to avoid overburdening a few individuals.
I hope the other dorm students will reflect on why only two washing basins were provided regardless of dorm size.
It seems that having advanced magic learned through prior training actually worked against them.
I will award Eurus Dorm 5 shop points to be distributed at the dorm leader’s discretion. Additionally, Dorm Leader Idnia will receive a special 1 shop point!”
Instructor Nailey generously granted a total of 6 shop points—5 for the dorm and 1 personally.
Considering that the top admission score was only 2 points, this was an enormous reward.
However, no other student dared to object.
Idnia had demonstrated outstanding leadership and operational design ability.
“……”
Rudolf silently looked at Idnia.
A dull ache throbbed in his chest.
Up until now, Rudolf had never felt inferiority toward others’ achievements.
After all, he would become emperor and rule over all. If talented individuals in the empire showed their abilities, he believed it was something to praise and accept, not compete against.
But Idnia was simply too outstanding.
And she had declared their engagement broken.
He could not be certain of her loyalty to him, yet she was far too capable.
‘And her status as an Elector… she could even aim for the throne. Or am I overthinking?’
Rudolf felt a burning pain in his chest—part inferiority, part admiration, part frustration.
Even as his chest burned because of her, knowing that Idnia did not even glance his way made it hurt even more.
“Brother?”
Isolde called out to Rudolf.
“Are you feeling unwell?”
“No. I’m fine, Isolde.”
“Although we lost this time to Idnia, I have learned much. Her ideas and methods are excellent lessons. Even if we lost now, next time I will surely bring you victory, brother.”
Seeing Rudolf’s distress, Isolde herself felt pain as well.
“Yes. That’s a great help, Isolde. But…”
Rudolf smiled bitterly.
Though he had lived his life as a crown prince with nothing lacking, today he felt a sense of deficiency.
He found himself thinking… it would have been better if he had not broken off the engagement with Idnia.