Study Group
"Watch closely. Just whirl it around like this. Simple, right?"
"...No... that's not simple at all."
Rai sent a massive, gear-shaped hunk of iron spinning through the air. Mia, standing in front of him, shook her head with an awkward smile. He called it simple, but for someone whose mana control was as poor as hers, the spell was anything but.
"You can do it. Give it a try."
The iron mass thudded down in front of her. Mia swallowed hard and poured in her mana. Trying to shore up her confidence, she thought back on every bit of training she had done so far. She had been hit by Rai, hit by Philia, hit by Aslan, hit by Abigail and Zeroa.
...I can do this, right?
The only memories that came back were of getting beaten, and Mia's confidence went into free fall. Fortunately, contrary to her anxiety, the iron mass rattled and rose into the air. It trembled wildly, as if begging to be put down, looking thoroughly unstable—but she had succeeded in lifting it. Considering her past, when she couldn't produce a single spark without blowing something up, this was remarkable progress.
"I-it floated!"
"Focus. Anyone can do this."
When Mia made a fuss of it, Rai calmly reined in her excitement. If your mana control wasn't skilled, emotion had a way of running away with it.
As if to prove his concern, the iron mass began to hum and shudder, vibrating harder and harder. Watching it, Mia's pupils started shaking too.
"Zeroa."
"Yes, sir!"
At Rai's call, Zeroa—who had been training off to one side—scooped his fallen shield off the ground and came running. The instant he climbed on, the vibrating iron mass shot forward.
"Gah!"
Zeroa went flying with it and slammed into the dirt, kicking up a huge cloud of dust.
"I taught it as a defensive tool, but it might work pretty well as an attack too."
"Zeroa!"
Leaving Rai's casual remark hanging, Mia ran to him. He had taken a bit of a shock, but didn't seem injured. Zeroa emerged from the dust, waving the arm he had been clutching in pain.
"Zeroa, I'm so sorry! Because of me..."
"It's all right. I just wasn't skilled enough to deflect it properly."
Mia kept apologizing, but Zeroa answered with a good-natured smile that it was fine.
"That's supposed to be a defensive tool? Best defense is a good offense, is that it?"
Aslan had come up beside Rai, who was watching the two of them with a faintly suspicious look.
"Idiot. That's a defensive method modeled after the Shield of Aegis."
"What do you call it?"
"Hmm... what should I call it?"
"You made this?"
Aslan stared at him, incredulous, but Rai stroked his chin in thought, then shrugged.
"Eh, I'll let Mia name it. I made it to fit her anyway."
"How do you use it?"
"I'll show you."
Rai dragged over the iron mass that had been buried in the ground. The C-shaped hunk had teeth jutting out at regular intervals like a gear, and it was as thick around as a person's waist—just swinging it would have made it a formidable weapon. It drifted through the air, settled into orbit with Rai at its center, and began to rotate.
"Should I call it a hula hoop?"
"I don't know what a hula hoop is, but I'm sure that's not a good name."
As the iron mass spun around Rai, the others started watching with interest. Aslan, who had agreed to a simple spar, attacked—and was stopped cold by the rotating iron. Rai wasn't even striking back. He was simply walking forward, and Aslan kept being shoved back by the spinning mass.
"So that's why you said it was modeled after the Shield of Aegis."
"Yeah. It's a shield that guards the user's surroundings."
The Shield of Aegis was a spell that floated mana shields around the caster, automatically intercepting any attack directed at them. It was advanced magic that warriors wouldn't even dare attempt, but a skilled Pure Mage used it without fail before entering combat—an essential defensive spell. Rai had adapted it so that even warriors with little magical ability could use it, and of course Philia and the others couldn't help but take an interest.
It didn't merely spin on a horizontal plane. It rotated in every direction, and the motion itself was strangely fascinating. The C-shape had a purpose too: one side was left open so the construct wouldn't strike its user, and so it could move freely.
"Tch. I'll just grab it."
Aslan, who had been on the receiving end the whole time, caught the end of the iron mass in his hand and brought it to a halt. The huge hunk thrashed but couldn't break his grip. Aslan smiled in triumph and swung his greatsword one-handed.
"Separate."
At Rai's word, the tooth Aslan had been holding detached. Braced with all his strength, Aslan couldn't overcome his own force and toppled over backward.
"It's got all kinds of weird functions stuck on it!"
"I figured there'd be simpletons like you."
Aslan, who had gone down in a comical heap before snapping his balance back, snapped at him—but Rai only sneered. The iron mass was assembled from multiple pieces, so it could separate and recombine at will. The fragment Aslan had discarded came flying back, locked into place, and resumed spinning around Rai as if nothing had happened.
"That's an incredible formula. The spellwork itself is simple, but you'd have to raise your proficiency with it the way you would a weapon before you could use it in a real fight."
"Exactly. Anyone can dual-wield, right?"
As Rai said, raising weapon proficiency was nothing difficult for a warrior. This was a technique for warriors, not Pure Mages.
"Only Mia would be able to use it."
It wasn't quite the Shield of Aegis, but Philia had taken a brief interest in a magic whose power could scale indefinitely depending on proficiency and material—until she spotted a glaring drawback and gave up. Injecting mana into an object and swinging it around at will consumed an enormous amount of mana. Like a tailored suit, this was a technique meant for Mia and Mia alone.
"It's an amazing spell... but do you think I can actually do it?"
"You will."
Watching Rai demonstrate its power firsthand seemed to have backfired; Mia worried at him, all her confidence gone.
"You've been working hard this whole time. You can do it."
"Yes. I'll do my best."
She had been full of worry when Rai spoke to her, but the moment Zeroa cheered her on, she found her nerve. Rai's eyes narrowed. He gave Zeroa's rear a thoroughly uncalled-for kick, told them to keep training, and went to lie down in the shade.
Whether Rai was watching or not, the academy students never slacked off. They had come to the academy to get stronger, after all. Even Aslan, who had avoided training when he was at home, and Mia, who had no confidence to speak of, both worked hard.
Time passed, the day drew down, and just as they were about to scatter, Rai called them together. Philia and Abigail had stayed late as well; apparently they had no other schedule today.
"How's exam prep coming?"
"..."
"Why are you looking at me like that?"
"No, it's just... the last person I'd expect to ask is asking."
"I may not look it, but I'm an instructor. Your homeroom instructor, at that. And the one who cares the least is you—why's it me?"
Still lying down, Rai kicked at Aslan in irritation. Aslan swatted the poking feet away and got equally annoyed. Mia, still not used to the atmosphere, tensed up, and Zeroa quietly reassured her.
"Excluding practicals, what were your scores on last year's finals?"
"Ninety-four average."
Philia answered first, and Mia looked at her with something like reverence. Thanks to the instructors' vicious exam difficulty—they took tests deadly seriously—even breaking into the nineties put you at the very top.
Abigail had an eighty-eight. Higher than she looked, and when Mia glanced over and their eyes met, she startled and ducked her head. Next were Zeroa, then Aslan. Aslan had an average in the forties, and even he seemed embarrassed saying it; his voice came out small.
"Aren't you embarrassed in front of your underclassman?"
"I am embarrassed, so could you not say it?"
"I'm saying it so you'll be embarrassed."
Rai grinned, and Aslan's already intimidating face twisted further. Apparently satisfied with that expression, Rai laughed out loud, then looked at Philia and Abigail.
"If any of you average below seventy on this exam, don't even think about training."
"That's just me, then."
"Yep. Just you. But it's collective responsibility. If you don't make it, none of them get to train either."
The others stared at him in shock.
"Fuck. This is such bullshit. Just say you don't want to teach."
"Raising thirty points all at once doesn't make sense. That's impossible."
Abigail and Philia shouted at the same time. One had given up from the start; the other was trying to persuade him it couldn't be done. Rai didn't budge.
"Whether it's impossible or not depends on your ability."
"Even so, thirty points..."
"Don't know, don't care. If you fail, you all die together. Poor Mia—keep practicing what I taught you. Philia... you've got your own master, so no problem there. Zeroa's working hard enough."
The most flustered by that irresponsible verdict was Aslan. He was rough around the edges, but he hated causing trouble for other people. And now it was collective responsibility. If his grades were low, the others would suffer too.
"Can't I just take the punishment myself? I feel bad for them. I'll study hard, I promise."
"No."
Aslan tried, his face going stiff, but Rai smiled and refused. Aslan was serious, though.
"Why are you doing this all of a sudden? If you want to mess with someone, mess with me. If you don't want to teach, just do it to me."
"I've been teaching you all just fine. I've been filling in your weak points and teaching you only what suits each of you."
Nobody disputed that. Not a single academy student had ever complained about Rai's teaching.
"This is just another assignment to fill in the most lacking part. What's your biggest weakness?"
"Mana control?"
"No. That empty head of yours."
He had been openly insulted for being stupid, but Aslan didn't get angry. He understood—but that didn't mean the others needed to share the blame.
"If I don't do it this way, you'll never study. And to raise your grades, you need good teachers too."
"Teachers?"
"Yeah. We've got a ninety-four-point teacher and an eighty-eight-point teacher right here."
Rai looked at Philia and Abigail.
"You two are in charge of teaching him."
"You want us to form a study group?"
"The grade gap's so big it's more like tutoring than a study group, isn't it? While you're at it, teach Zeroa and Mia too. Discussion over. Everyone brings back a seventy or above. I'll still oversee training until the exams are done, so don't worry about that. After that... who knows?"
Listening to that infuriating voice, Philia and Abigail looked at Aslan. It wasn't just those two—Zeroa and Mia were staring at him as well. Aslan smiled awkwardly.
"W-well, I'm counting on you...?"
A special tutoring class for Aslan was established at Rye's House.
Philia and Abigail did not get along, but for this, they agreed to join forces. They hadn't discussed it separately, but failure wasn't an option, so the agreement needed no words. Philia's average was higher, but there were a few subjects Abigail was better at. The reason her average sat lower was that the subjects she cared about scored near perfect, while the ones she didn't scored relatively poorly.
There wasn't much time until the exam. Even if they hammered it into Aslan's skull day and night, training be damned, it still wouldn't be enough. Zeroa and Mia, who had been roped in as well, took their seats, and a quiet study atmosphere settled over the room.
Philia, wearing glasses to protect her eyesight, sat at the center of the table and picked up a book.
"Since we're doing this, I'll raise your grades for real. Seventy points? Don't make me laugh. If you grasp the key points, even the eighties are easy."
Abigail, whose average sat in the eighties, looked at her as if the words were mockery, but Philia ignored her and stared only at Aslan.
"If it were that easy, everyone would get an eighty."
"It had better be easy. If it isn't, you'll die by my hand."
"I'll kill the other half."
As Philia and Abigail radiated killing intent, Aslan shut his mouth. Zeroa, tending to a trembling Mia, asked the two of them,
"But is it really possible? Raising thirty points all at once is hard, isn't it?"
"Raising one or two points from a high score is hard, but raising ten or twenty from a low score isn't. And Zeroa—your grades aren't safe either."
Zeroa's score was seventy-two. Last year's finals had barely cleared seventy, and there was no guarantee he would clear it this time.
"Don't overthink it. I'll help with both of their grades, and Mia's too. Just keep up."
"Don't talk like you're doing everything yourself."
When Philia said it with a smile, Abigail snapped back. Still ignoring her, Philia opened the book.
"For lectures where memorization alone guarantees a grade, I'll organize the materials separately. For now, let's study Mana Conversion Theory. Which part do you understand the least?"
When Philia asked with a kind smile, Aslan, who had been staring blankly, looked back and forth between her and the book. He had been rubbing the corner of it with his fingers as if about to tear it. Then he lifted it so Philia and Abigail could see the cover clearly.
"From here."
Aslan turned the book around to show the back.
"To here."
"..."
At that brazen declaration, the two of them had nothing to say.
"Huh? Zeroa? What's wrong?"
Mia looked up in confusion at Zeroa, who had taken her by the shoulder—but he only smiled gently and led her away from the table.
"Hey! Why?! I told the truth!"
A noisy racket rose behind the two of them, followed by the sound of something shattering. Aslan's scream came next, but they pretended to know nothing and did not look back.