I Felt a Threat to My Life
I felt a threat to my life.
"So you're that new student."
A gentle voice.
Wearing a benevolent smile that seemed ready to grant every wish I might ever make—and fixing me with a look of pure goodwill—was Elysia von Lidel.
I knew exactly who she was. I had seen her more times than I could count in the game.
A pointed witch's hat suited to a mage, and a face far too youthful for a professor.
Once the most promising mage at St. Celestia Academy, she could, in a single phrase, be summed up like this:
An eccentric genius of a mage.
Her record alone—youngest and most brilliant Doctor of Magical Studies—was enough to mark her as a monster of talent. And yet now she spent her days buried in the academy's most shadowy underground chambers, pursuing secret research without end.
What that research entailed had never been revealed. But one thing was certain.
This woman was twisted somewhere deep inside.
"Yes… for what reason have you summoned me?"
There was a reason I had ended up alone with such a terrifying creature.
Barely a few hours earlier, I had successfully completed a magic practical. Of every student in the practice hall, I had solved the assignment first and submitted my formula in a daze of disbelief. Then I had watched the professor's blank expression shift, second by second—and that much had been fine.
My approach to the problem. My method of solving it. My explanation of the result. The professor, who at first seemed ready to write the whole assignment off as a failure, had gradually come to acknowledge my thinking with every point I made. It had been rather enjoyable, actually.
I had felt almost proud—as if I had somehow become an honor student.
Right up until the moment I realized a complete stranger was standing beside me, nodding along.
"You. You're interesting."
With that single remark, I found myself sharing an intimate conversation in her private reception room.
"Your name?"
"Carmilla de Valin… is what I am called."
"Ah, Carmilla… what a lovely name."
Hehehe…
A faintly ominous little laugh.
Taken in isolation, there was no reason to be this tense. The atmosphere was friendly, and a rather cute girl seemed to have taken a liking to me. Under ordinary circumstances I would have been grateful for the goodwill and made the most of this precious time.
And yet… why?
Something felt off.
An instinct I could not explain was sounding the alarm.
This person was dangerous.
"You can just call me Elysia. I conduct magic research at this school."
"Ah, then you are a professor?"
"Something like that, yes."
As she spoke, Elysia flicked her fingers.
With a sharp snap, a set of cookies and tea appeared out of thin air. Neat cups and plates glided down through empty space and settled softly before me.
"Why don't we chat a while over these?"
Warm tea poured from the pot into the cup like a miniature waterfall.
Needless to say, it was an exquisite levitation spell.
But for me, something far more astonishing than any refined magic sat right in front of me.
"My, the academy even has sweets like these?"
Honestly, I was surprised. A school that served nothing but oatmeal gruel day after day somehow had luxury cookies on hand?
Had they been committing cafeteria fraud after all?
"It's nothing special. Someone of my standing can bring in treats like these without much trouble."
Ah. So it was smuggling.
That, at least, made sense.
"Then I shall not refuse a bite."
Crunch. Crunch.
A cookie with a soft buttery fragrance and a texture that crumbled the moment it entered the mouth. Drawn in by the sweetness, one bite became two—until, inevitably, my throat grew dry…
And a single sip of warm black tea delivered a pleasantly bitter finish. A beautiful pairing.
Truly, a noble tea worthy of a young lady's palate.
This is an absolute flavor bomb…!
I nearly felt gratitude toward Elysia for providing such a textbook-perfect tea time.
And so I was happily enjoying tea and cookies when—
"Well, enough of that… Carmilla, as you may have guessed, I called you here because of your assignment. That approach of yours was excellent."
Elysia, who had been watching me with open interest, abruptly cut to the point.
"Ah, you flatter me."
"It isn't flattery. I designed that exam myself. So feel free to be proud."
I had never known that bit of behind-the-scenes information, but it was plausible enough. A person like her would absolutely do such a thing.
"I created that exam to identify three broad types of people. Can you guess what they are?"
"Hmm… I haven't the faintest idea."
"The first are the geniuses—no explanation needed."
For them, the assignment was trivial. All they had to do was look at the shape of their own mana circuits and draw them exactly as they were. Impossible for ordinary people, but geniuses simply… did it. That was why they were called geniuses, Elysia added.
"The second are people with powers of observation."
The Rodoros Continent had built its magic upon abundant mana. Even those not born as mages lived surrounded by opportunities to encounter magic. The most common examples were convenience furnishings powered by mana stones—everything from the refrigerator I had made to the magic lamps used when a room needed light. Magical formulae applied to mana stones had spread into more places than one might expect.
Anyone with a little curiosity could examine the basic formulae written into those stones and grasp how they worked. In this case, a careful look at the ignition formulae used in fireplaces or lamps was enough to pass the exam with ease. It took a little time, but most people got through that way, she said.
"The third are people with the gift of application."
Of course, there would always be those who had never paid attention to such things in their lives—people who would never think to pry open a lamp's formula or stick their head into a fireplace to study its shape. Or those simply too poor ever to have seen such things at all. In short, they were the type who had no idea what an "ignition" formula looked like.
The only clues available to them were the various other formulae they had encountered over a lifetime. They would analyze a formula's structure, observe what changed when they altered individual elements—and in that way, rework some other formula already stored in their heads until they produced fire.
"Ahh… people like that… I just love them."
Elysia's eyes went dreamy, as if she were lost in a vision.
"Tracing where the mana enters, figuring out which points to press to activate the formula… slowly feeling your way through it is just so… how should I put it? Unbearably thrilling."
"Y-yes…"
What kind of way is that to talk?
This is still about magic… right?
"In case you didn't know—you're the third type."
Reverse engineering.
That, she told me, was the name for the method I had used to solve the assignment.
"More precisely, you applied a concept obtained through reverse engineering… that would be the accurate way to put it."
A magical formula, she added, was the realization of a small world.
"Using celestial bodies as a framework is rather classical… but serviceable enough. And pretty, too."
Mana that entered a world of cold moons knew no other realm. From the beginning, warmth had never existed there—so coldness was all it could become. My formula, she said, had realized the warm reverse side of that world.
"It was excellent. By the time you graduate, I can scarcely imagine how far you'll have grown."
And now, surely, came her true purpose.
"I'll cut to the chase. Carmilla—when you become a third-year, come to my research lab."
"All of a sudden…?"
"You have talent, and I am not the sort of person who can simply leave talent sitting idle."
She tilted her head and looked at me. She added nothing further, and yet it felt as though she were demanding an answer.
Only then did I recognize the true nature of that nameless unease.
To me, this situation was all too familiar.
No matter how I look at it, this is a professor kidnapping graduate students…!
And so I began to retreat, one step at a time.
"Well… I do have other things I must attend to…"
"Don't worry about tuition. I'll take care of everything."
"I have not yet properly settled upon a career path, one might say…"
"You can take your time deciding."
But every word I offered as I tried to edge away—
Elysia cut off, one by one.
"That's right… if you work with me, you could eat cookies like these every single day, you know?"
Only then did I look into her eyes. What glittered there was something close to hunger.
This woman…
Was terrifying.
In all my life, I had never felt fear toward a woman. The emotion was utterly foreign.
"You don't have to decide right this moment. When it's time to graduate… hmm? I'll wait until then."
This was dangerous.
I had to escape immediately.
Every nerve in my body was screaming it.
I knew full well what fate awaited those slaves known as graduate students.
The instant that thought struck home, my body moved of its own accord.
"I—I have just recalled an urgent matter… I must take my leave!"
I rose from my chair and fled for the exit.
Whatever words Elysia tried to use to stop me, whatever hand she reached out with—I shook them all off and moved purely for survival.
And yet even as I shut the reception room door and ran with everything I had…
The vacant murmur that drifted from behind me refused to leave my ears.
"Ah… perhaps it's because the new students haven't eaten enough cafeteria food yet…"
What that meant, exactly—
I had no desire to think about.