You Would Have Died If I Hadn't Stopped.

I spent a long stretch in the Magic Department library before finally heading to the training chamber. By then, dawn had already broken.

With this body in its current state, I can manage about ten beginner-level spells at most.

Intermediate magic, maybe twice. High-level magic is out of the question.

But I scoffed. I have a very sound plan. It'll be resolved soon enough.

The moment I stepped inside, the meticulously maintained space opened out before me.

This white, expansive chamber is a state-of-the-art facility that Märchen Academy takes pride in. Train here consistently, and you can expect meaningful progress in both mana flow and overall capacity.

...or so the sign at the entrance claimed. I'd have to see for myself whether that held true.

In my previous world, we increased mana capacity through meditation. I simply hoped training in this space would prove more efficient than meditation.

'For now, let's just try whatever comes to mind.'

I was the only student visiting the training chamber at dawn. That meant I could use the space to my heart's content.

The instant I placed my hand on the pillar jutting up from the chamber's center, the pillar and my mana resonated.

[ Plan. 1st Year. ]

[ Please select a training category. ]

[ Please select a difficulty level. ]

Without a moment's hesitation, I chose Purification.

Raising your total capacity only to gather a mass of crude, disordered mana begins a vicious cycle. Raising the concentration of purity comes first — that's the proper approach.

Right now, time is something I have in abundance, so I can afford to be leisurely. But that doesn't mean I'll slack off.

"!"

The white chamber plunged into stark darkness, and the training commenced.

I began to feel a current rippling like the wind. Soon, those currents surged upward like a violent torrent, scattering my mana.

"......So that's how this works."

The mechanism wasn't difficult to grasp. Every moment I endured this would refine my mana into something purer.

I closed my eyes and fought to hold my mana together even within the torrent. I defended against the invading currents and wove my own flow through them.

I honed my mana against the current like sharpening a blade against a whetstone.

'Thoroughly unsatisfactory.'

The chamber's training method itself was quite to my liking, but my own shoddy flow was thoroughly unsatisfactory.

Every time the violent current made my mana scatter, my pride took a deep, gouging scratch. To be bested by mere equipment...

'Still... the efficiency is better than meditation.'

The change was minute, but I could physically feel my mana's purity being polished.

Compared to my previous world, where you would meditate and meditate and meditate, and then suddenly realize you had grown, this was far quicker.

'Shall I start riding the current soon?'

People often praise an unyielding nature as a virtue, but when the benchmark is mana purification, that isn't always true.

What I aim for is a purity that can embrace any surrounding circumstance. A clarity that does not lose its strength. The pinnacle of a mage.

I immediately began mixing tiny portions of my mana into the current.

Little by little, I began to reverse the initial dynamic — instead of the current invading my mana, I was forcing my mana into the current.

Pain severe enough to make me furrow my brow came with it, but I endured.

It was a pain I'd experienced countless times. Besides, pain is proof that training is progressing smoothly.

And then the moment came when I was certain my mana had sufficiently permeated the current.

'There.'

In a single move, I commanded the flow and swallowed the current whole.

The miraculous feat of turning everything in this space into my own "flow" and purifying it lay right in front of me.

From here on, it was purely a battle of mental fortitude and power. I steadied my breathing and wrung every ounce of strength from my body.

I clenched my teeth and endured the pain. The moment that followed was pain, and the moment after that was pain too, but I never grew used to it.

Blood vessels threatening to burst. A body overheating. A faint scorched smell beginning to prick at my nose.

Every part of my body screamed for surrender, but my mind could not comprehend the word.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠No, it refused to comprehend it.

'Just a little further.'

Every agonizing moment was tempering me into something stronger. The essence of my mana was growing purer.

I couldn't enjoy the process, but I couldn't avoid it either.

Proof.

Every moment I endured was proof. Even now, my mana was steadily growing purer.

At last, the very instant I was about to witness that small proof before my eyes...

"......?"

The equipment abruptly stopped.

The pain that had been crushing me vanished. But the proof that had been right before my eyes vanished with it.

Why. For the first time in a long while, I felt genuine anger.

I wiped my face, now drenched in sweat, and examined the cause.

And that cause was standing right in front of me.

"......"

Hair blue as if holding the ocean within it, and eyes of pure gold that shone like the sun. It was Trixie. Our eyes met in the empty air between us.

I might have found her elegant, alluring appearance striking. If only she hadn't interfered with my training.

"Didn't know you were here."

That was all Trixie said. No apology, not even a hint of remorse.

I briefly recalled how I used to handle people like this in my previous life. I want to annihilate her.

Even with a thousand concessions, I want to hang her upside down in midair.

I was checking how much mana I had left to see if that was doable when, suddenly, Trixie added a few more words.

"......I was too tired."

Only then did I truly take in her appearance. She looked exhausted. The shadows under her eyes had deepened even further.

A crumpled ballet leotard stuck out of the bag slung over her shoulder, and crumpled papers were jammed inside in a heap.

One of those papers fluttered loose and drifted to the floor.

A glance told me it was full of notes trying to approach a problem from the Agora Board. The other papers were likely the same.

My anger subsided a little.

The sight of her racking her brain to solve my problem was, admittedly, a bit endearing.

Haah. I brushed it off with a single sigh and moved to leave the training chamber.

"You."

She called out to stop me.

I considered ignoring her, but I was curious what someone who'd spent the entire day agonizing over a problem I'd set might have to say. So I stopped.

"You asked if I'd sobered up. What did you mean by that?"

"Did I say that."

"What you said about the scroll. I meant it."

Her tone was merely cool. Even when asking a question, her voice was flat, without inflection.

She hadn't been like that when she was drunk. Hard to adjust to, in many ways.

I gave a nod.

"Of course."

"Good. You're useful."

I tilted my head slightly. The compliment had come so out of nowhere. And calling it a compliment was debatable in itself.

Trixie continued in that characteristically icy tone of hers.

"Thanks to that, I got a chance to be exempt from the written exam. Don't try to do anything during the exploration. I'll handle everything myself."

Only then did I understand Trixie's line of thought.

She wasn't agreeing with my reasoning or anything of the sort — she was simply satisfied that she'd gained an opportunity to skip the written exam.

And trailing right behind that satisfaction was the self-assurance that she could single-handedly carry the exploration assignment to victory with her own skill alone.

That arrogant attitude didn't strike me as off-putting, oddly enough. It reminded me, just for a moment, of my past self.

"Handle it yourself."

With those words, I moved past her.

"You."

But she stopped me again.

"......You were on the advanced difficulty."

She tapped the pillar twice, lightly, with the tip of her index finger. My information must still have been displayed on it.

"If I hadn't stopped it, you'd be dead. Advanced isn't a student-level difficulty."

Maybe I should hang her in midair after all. I considered it.

"You."

Trixie's questions continued.

"You enrolled as an F Grade. How did you get an A Grade?"

"That's none of your business."

"Tell me."

I was about to just ignore her when a thought suddenly occurred to me. It was a rather clever idea.

Facing Trixie as she stared at me with that expressionless face, I pulled out a tome with a shabby cover from inside my coat.

"There's a Teaching Auction on the auction board. I use it often."

"......?"

Trixie tilted her head to the side.

"You."

She called out to me again, but I ignored her and left. The remaining hours of dawn were for training through meditation.

◈

The next morning.

For the first time since I'd begun operating in this world, I felt genuine admiration. It happened in the book section of the Magic Department shop.

"This can't be."

『 How Healing Magic Became the Center of Controversy 』

A single book had seized my attention.

Positioned on the highest shelf under the most brilliant lighting, that book was more than enough to capture my interest.

Healing magic had been a hot topic in my previous world as well, because it was the culprit behind countless controversies and incidents.

Though it did overcome that transitional phase and become firmly established.

In this world, what kind of controversies and incidents were occurring? Would they resemble my previous world? How far had it developed here...?

Just imagining it quickened my heartbeat. The moment I unconsciously reached out toward the book—

"Interested in the healing field?"

A now-familiar voice struck my eardrums. A pale-green fairy appeared, hovering right in front of my face.

"It has been a hot topic lately, you know~ Quite noisy."

It was only now, with her hovering right in front of my face, that I noticed a nameplate was affixed to the chest of that tiny body.

The name written there was Sylph. I parted my lips.

"Is there a reason it's a hot topic?"

"Well, nothing's properly established yet, so people are abusing it like crazy. Like forcibly healing someone's body to make them work when their mind is already wrecked."

It seemed the kinds of controversies were similar in this world as well.

However, seeing that these things were only becoming controversial now meant the tipping point needed to overcome the transitional phase had not yet arrived.

'Which means.'

If I rapidly research this world's healing magic based on the knowledge from my previous world, I could trigger that tipping point myself and leave an enormous mark.

That would be quite satisfying proof. My desire to read the book grew even stronger.

"I want to read it right now, but."

"Ugh, but I told you to stop half-speaking like that. Why have you been like this since last time? And F Grade students can't view this. It's incredibly expensive."

"I'm A Grade now."

"Does that even make sense~?"

I simply stared fixedly at Sylph. Wearing a dumbfounded expression, Sylph leafed through a tome as large as her own body.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠"Why are you like this~ The Magic Department shop tome can be browsed by student grade~ If you're lying, you'll get caught right away.... Huh?"

Visibly flustered, Sylph glanced back and forth between the tome and me several times. Then, clearing her throat with a dry cough, she closed the tome.

"That's really amazing, I've never seen a student rise in grade that fast and that much. Anyway, fine~ If it's according to A Grade standards, then with the discount applied...."

Then Sylph suddenly gave a start.

"Oh, what's this. This has a reservation on it already~"

Muttering that, she fluttered over to another fairy, exchanged a few words, then came back to me.

"Sorry~ There's only one copy available right now, and it has a reservation on it. You know the Fritz Family, right?"

Fritz. I turned those three syllables over in my mind a couple of times, and naturally, the name Trixie von Fritz came to mind.

Sylph tilted her head.

"You don't know the Fritz Family? Black Yudit, magic is Fritz. Haven't you ever heard that saying?"

"In any case, you're saying I can't read it right now."

"That's right~"

"I'll visit again later."

I gave Sylph a nod and turned my back.

"No, everything's fine, but I told you to stop half-speaking!"

Sylph shouted from behind me.

◈

After lunch came Violet's lecture period. Today was the mock battle she'd announced in advance.

Professor Violet and Professor Leonard gathered the students in a training arena unlike the usual one.

At the center was a wide, circular combat arena, ringed entirely by enormous spectator stands.

I sat in a corner seat and placed my tome on the seat beside me. Since the spectator stands were quite spacious, this made a clear sign not to sit next to me.

"Hey, Plan!"

But someone plopped down right on top of my tome. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠A ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠strong whiff of perfume. It was none other than Becky.

"Ugh.... I'm so nervous about today's mock battle. Right?"

"Get up."

"Huh? Oh."

Realizing something was under her rear, Becky shot up out of her seat as if spring-loaded.

"Ah, sorry. I didn't know. I really didn't know."

I'd have to buy a new one later, I thought, as I accepted the tome she held out.

But then Becky suddenly tilted her head.

"Huh.... Hey, Plan. Do you actually write on the tome too, by any chance?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Look at this."

Becky pointed at the cover with her index finger. The broom crest was lit with a blue flame.

"When it lights up like this, it means you have a notification. Seriously, that's unexpected. I thought you had zero interest in this stuff."

I'd have to modify it tonight when I got back to the dormitory so the light doesn't come on. I snatched the tome from her and checked the contents.

Sure enough, the Teaching Auction had finally gotten a bite.

[ ▶ How far do you teach, by the way? 8ㅅ8 ]

......Accompanied by a rather peculiar manner of speech.