Why Don't You Come Out and Explain It Yourself?
Why Don't You Come Out and Explain It Yourself?
The next morning, a strange message arrived on Trivia.
[ ▶ Do you need the midterm cheat sheet? ]
The sender was anonymous.
If they're asking whether I need it, obviously I don't. I closed Trivia without any further response.
[ *Sepia ]
[ ▶ Plan! ]
[ ▶ When would work for the interview? ]
I'd thought this interview was nothing but a nuisance, but now I actually felt a need for it.
It would be a good way to forcefully demonstrate my determination to participate in the Subjugation Festival.
[ ▷ I'm thinking after the midterms. ]
After sending my reply to Sepia, I washed up and dressed properly. Today we were supposed to gather in the A Grade lecture hall.
The midterms accounted for no small portion of our grades.
Maybe the fervor stirred up by the Magic Sword Grand Festival victory had cooled a little. That was what I thought as I opened the lecture hall door.
Every student's gaze turned to me at once.
The looks were uniformly strange, but the way they looked at me was distinctly different from before.
I knew the moment I met those stares. Hoping the heat had died down was an absurd expectation.
'...I didn't expect anything anyway.'
They needed a large number of victories. Enough victories to grow indifferent to them.
"It's Plan."
"Hey, don't stare so openly."
Leaving the voices that clung to me like shadows behind, I quietly took my seat.
Still a nuisance, but better than before in that there was no overt provocation like last time.
"Plan, hi."
A moment later, Becky came and sat beside me naturally. She still carried the scent of roses.
"What's with all the chatter? Eyes up here, all of you. Today is the midterm evaluation."
At that moment, not Violet but a male professor I'd never seen before appeared.
He was stout and slightly balding, and Becky recognized him.
"Isn't that Professor Brody? He isn't a first-year instructor...."
Similar murmuring broke out elsewhere, but the male professor simply unfurled a large sheet of paper in silence.
"Professor Violet is running a bit late. I'm just filling in for the morning session."
The large paper wriggled like a living creature, then stuck itself to the blackboard as if magnetized.
"Since it's right before midterms, everyone check your grades. Those with high marks, keep them up. Those with low marks, do better."
Naturally, everyone's eyes turned to the large sheet stuck to the board.
The scores from all the exams we'd taken so far, along with the overall rankings, were recorded there.
Various reactions rippled through the room.
Some students nodded with satisfied expressions, but naturally more of them sighed with disappointed looks.
I only glanced at the overall rankings.
1. Plan
2. Lewis Rosevalt
.
.
.
By the time I'd checked that obvious ranking, every gaze in the lecture hall was already fixed on me.
I looked over a few of the stares directed at me.
Trixie wore an ambiguous expression, and Louis smiled brightly when our eyes met.
"Wow.... Plan, congratulations."
Becky silently mimed clapping beside me. Then she asked casually.
"...By the way, did you eat the chocolate I gave you last time?"
I shook my head.
That was still sitting untouched in my dormitory. Becky's lips twitched a little awkwardly.
"Huh? Really? Why haven't you eaten it yet...."
"I'll get to it later. As if there'd be any other reason."
"Huh? Ah, ahh~"
Becky twisted her hair with an embarrassed look.
"Was it too good to eat...? I just threw it together. Just eat it! I'll make you more later."
"Did you organize the materials?"
"...Did I do something wrong just now?"
Her face went pale. Just then, Brody opened his mouth again.
"Hey, you brats. Shut your mouths. It's not like you're chanting a spell or something.... Everyone's checked their results, right?"
He looked at the slightly deflated students and continued.
"Professor Violet is busy, sure, but that's not the only reason I'm here."
The professor's gaze turned to me. The other students' eyes naturally followed suit.
"As you all know, there's still some time until the exhibition opens. Now that you've seen your grades, nobody's feeling like slacking off, right?"
Brody played a recorded visual on the board. It was the scene from the Magic Sword Grand Festival where I faced Ivan.
"Let's use the remaining time to learn a bit about the Summoning school. Today's lecture will use this recording."
Sighs leaked out from all around. The visual recording continued to play.
"Now, look. Summoning is fundamentally about observation."
I nodded quietly at his words.
Though it would have been better if he'd explained in a bit more detail that magical observation is the foundation.
"The manipulation is precise, isn't it? That's thanks to mana composition. You pour in only the exact amount. Otherwise, both sides get overloaded."
He wasn't wrong.
But still, if it were me, I'd have started by explaining in detail how to calculate the exact mana quantity.
And then the scene where the Ivan puppet blocked the sword. Professor Brody suddenly stopped the playback.
"...."
He rewound the recording a little and replayed that scene about five times.
"Hoo...."
Then he even tilted his head. Doubt slowly spread across the students' faces as well.
"I have something I'd like to ask the person involved."
At last, he turned his head toward me. Tap, tap — he pulled out a pointer and rapped it against the blackboard.
"...This part. How did you move the summon?"
He asked about the 'movement,' not the 'summoning.'
However.
The level of the question was still far too abstract. When asked in that manner, there aren't many answers I can give.
"I didn't particularly intend anything."
"Oh ho, nonsense? No.... Forget it. Let's start with something else first."
As if that weren't the urgent issue right now, Brody shook his head from side to side.
"So you're saying that summon moved on its own? I'm asking how you controlled it."
"Saying it moved on its own isn't entirely wrong either."
"No.... Hey, kid."
Tap-tap-tap. Brody irritably knocked the pointer against the board. It was the wrist area of the summon, which moved smoothly and steadily.
I was frustrated in my own way too.
The question was still superficial, and there were limits to explaining with words alone.
"The wrist, and the limbs — how did you move them? You need to explain that part specifically."
"Then why don't you point it out specifically."
I continued calmly.
"Over 230 joints, 78 organs, and the various muscles.... It's not as if I can explain every single one."
"What...?"
Brody openly twisted his face.
A brief silence passed, then he opened his mouth again.
"What did you just say?"
"You heard me."
"No no, that's not what I meant."
Brody shook his head again.
"What you just said about over 230 whatever.... Don't tell me you actually calculate all of that to move a summon?"
I nodded quietly.
"...."
After a brief silence, we both sighed at the same time.
We each understood better than anyone that there were limits to explanation and communication through question and answer alone.
In the end, Brody gestured with his chin.
"Then can you do that right now? Summon."
"That's an easy task, but."
I paused briefly before continuing.
"Simply showing you.... I don't think you'll understand it well."
"What...?"
Brody's eyes narrowed.
He flipped the pointer around. Then he held it out so the handle end faced me.
"Fine. Then why don't you come up here and explain it yourself."
The thoughts written on his face were plainly readable. Curiosity, disbelief, doubt, anger.... All manner of emotions were tangled together.
He wanted my proof.
I wasn't angry. It was only natural. I hadn't expected anything from the start.
Even for a professor, there would be limits to perfectly understanding my summoning.
"About 45 minutes left. Should be enough, don't you think?"
As he said, there were barely 45 minutes remaining.
Yes. It's enough.
I rose from my seat.
◈
Everyone stared blankly as he strode to the front of the lecture hall.
His towering height, high-bridged nose, and sharp jawline — the kind that could look down on any opponent.
Status aside, the man himself was born with loftiness.
"Professor-like."
He stood before the students with an indifferent face.
A few let out hollow laughs at those three short syllables. Not because it was funny, but because he really did seem like a professor.
Plan checked the state of his attire once more. Then he slowly swept his gaze over the students.
"...Yes, definitely professor-like."
After muttering that, he slowly examined the front of the lecture hall.
Even a faint smile flickered across his face. From the students' perspective, it was an unknowable thing.
A long while later, his mouth opened.
"From now on, I'll explain the movement of summoned beings. As a school, it would fall under.... 'Manipulation,' I suppose."
His attitude was composed, as if this kind of situation were familiar. A few watching students swallowed dryly.
"When many numbers appear, everyone gets intimidated right away, but there's no need to think of it as difficult."
What Plan found natural, Brody found natural as well.
That familiar and adept air. He himself was being drawn in now.
Around then, Becky's and Plan's eyes met in midair. He flicked his finger lightly.
BOOM—!
"Becky...?"
"It's Becky?"
The students murmured.
As thin mist spread and revealed its form, it was a summon modeled after Becky's appearance.
"That's me?"
Becky muttered in bewilderment.
"This summon only mimics the outward form. You can tell right away once it moves."
The Becky puppet began to walk. But the creaking, stiff motion was close to a wreck.
"If you simply try to summon whatever comes to mind without expansive thinking, this is the result."
The corner of his mouth lifted ever so slightly.
"Since this pathetic excuse for a summon is what results.... For some, the movement is difficult, the control is difficult. Isn't that the case."
At that, Brody opened his mouth.
Plan's tone had been considerably rude, but astonishingly, curiosity now outweighed anger.
"Fine. Then how is your summoning accomplished?"
The asking professor's tone was hardly gentle.
For Brody, who had dedicated his entire career to the Summoning school, Plan's very appearance was a contradiction.
"Magical thinking."
And Plan delivered his immediate answer to the professor in just two words.
The Becky puppet began to move again. But this time it was distinctly different.
Its movements were light. Moreover, even minute details — like sniffing the scent at its sleeve midway — were exactly the same.
Becky's and Brody's eyes went round. The other students' reactions weren't much different.
"The world you've seen until now has all been an illusion."
He pointed at the Becky puppet with his chin.
"And even now.... you're all living under the illusion of seeing."
Plan tapped beneath his own eye twice with his index finger.
"But you should know that if you simply take this scenery at face value, you ought to be ashamed to call yourselves mages."
SNAP—!
"For a moment, I'll share my field of vision with you."
He flicked his finger. Above the Becky puppet, blue lines began to reveal themselves distinctly.
"These are circuits. Make the effort to read and commit these to memory every single moment. Only then will you have truly seen."
Actions, habits, joints, organs.... All of it bound into a single circuit, and he saw the whole thing at once?
Simple in theory, but a realm difficult to apply. As a professor, Brody knew that better than anyone.
"Hold on."
Brody cut off Plan's explanation.
"It's orthodox and an excellent method. But one question still remains."
"...Which is."
"What you've just modeled and summoned — the original is a mage. Isn't that right?"
The professor pointed at the Becky puppet.
"Mages fundamentally possess mana circuits. That's why observing the mana circuits is possible."
Plan simply stared at Brody wordlessly.
As if whatever he was asked was only natural, as if he'd predicted it. As if he held no expectations whatsoever.
"Then how did you summon Ivan's swordsmanship? A knight's actions have no discernible mana circuits."
Brody's face was filled with doubt.
The foundation of summoning is reproducing the mana circuits of the 'original motion' exactly as they are.
But.
If the 'original motion' has no mana circuits, then reproducing it borders on the unnatural.
"Can you explain that as well?"
"It's simple."
Plan created three non-attribute spheres, then sent them flying toward the wall.
The moment they touched the wall, circuits resembling the shape of a labyrinth began to draw themselves.
"Wow...."
"Whoa...."
The students let out exclamations of awe. Plan continued his explanation with an impassive attitude.
"Interaction with magic. The rules read in that instant."
"Rules?"
"At the time, three spheres also touched Ivan's body, and then I simply turned the swordsmanship she swung immediately after into circuits. That's all."
"Into circuits... you say...?"
Even as a professor, he had never once considered creating circuits that didn't exist from scratch and using them as an approach.
Was he the only one? Probably most were. No, all of them.
Brody swallowed dryly.
Having always taught someone else ever since entering the teaching profession, learning was a sensation that had grown far too unfamiliar.
But unmistakably, he was feeling interest now. He'd learned something new, and he was trying to remember it.
Two characters already existed to express this.
Learning (學習).