Class Time
Shirud had never been one to pay attention in class, but now he found it utterly impossible.
Thinking about what he wanted to think about—and, beyond that, what he truly wanted—turned out to be surprisingly enjoyable.
Schoolwork felt like something being hammered into his skull. Conversation with Luke was nothing like that.
"Is mana… water?"
"Water, is it…! And why did you think of that?"
"Well, it's everywhere, and it can take any form."
"Hmm. I see. Water can exist anywhere—as gas, liquid, or solid. An interesting metaphor. Then what of fire?"
"I just said water, and now you're jumping to fire?"
"Unlike water, which continually changes form and exists throughout the world, fire consumes both the wood and itself as it spreads its influence. Does that not resemble us, who expend mana through magic?"
"Huh… yeah, it does."
It was a conversation that bordered on riddles, yet Shirud genuinely delighted in it.
Luke listened carefully to everything he said, filling in the gaps in his reasoning, and the back-and-forth that emerged from it was thoroughly entertaining.
Excited, Shirud pressed on.
"Then…"
That was when it happened.
"Shirud! Transfer student! What are you two talking about so loudly?"
Their voices must have carried farther than they realized. The teacher lecturing at the front of the room had clearly had enough.
Well, they had been goofing off during class. It was only natural he'd find it irritating.
"Shirud! Flirting with the transfer student on day one?"
"Th-that's…"
Shirud flushed and ducked away from the male teacher's gaze.
The teacher seemed to have a bone to pick with Luke as well, and turned on him next.
"Even if you scored a perfect mark on the entrance exam, that doesn't mean you get to disrupt class."
"I apologize for that. I shall reflect on it."
"Good. If you're reflecting, then solve this problem."
The teacher pointed to the problem written on the blackboard.
It was a simple calculation: given a total mana capacity of twenty rain, find the maximum time one could keep an object aloft using the Class 1 micro-scale levitation spell Avet at a cost of one gram of mana.
All one had to do was plug the numbers into Avet's mana-consumption formula.
The phrase "kept aloft" did not specify altitude, so the intended approach was to assume a height approaching zero.
Luke calculated it at once and delivered the answer.
"The answer is approximately two minutes."
"Uh… that's correct."
But the teacher looked faintly unsettled.
For a ten-year-old to arrive at that by pure mental arithmetic, the formula was a bit long.
"Then how about this one?"
The next problem was a touch more bothersome.
Only the numbers had changed, and this time altitude had been added.
Assuming a height of one meter, and excluding the loss rates for the moments of lifting and lowering? The assumptions are absurdly narrow and utterly impractical.
The intent to deliberately omit any calculation related to lifting speed was obvious.
This wasn't magic. It was just a problem.
It barely differed from an entrance-exam question.
"The answer is approximately three minutes."
"Correct!"
Well, he must have worked them out ahead of time.
Faced with answers that came far too quickly, the teacher decided as much and shifted his target to Shirud.
He erased the problems Luke had already solved from the board and improvised a new one on the spot.
"Shirud, you try this one. Come up here."
"Uh…"
Shirud, of course, could not do mental arithmetic the way Luke could.
He hadn't even been listening to the lesson, so answering like Luke was out of the question.
Even if he went up to the board, there was nothing he would be able to do.
As Shirud sat frozen, unable to stand, a scrape of chair legs sounded from the seat beside him. Luke rose and raised his hand, pointing out the flaw in the problem.
"You there—you've written the problem incorrectly. Calculate it that way and the time comes out negative. No matter how many times I check it, I can only conclude that you made a mistake."
"Huh?"
At Luke's correction, the teacher worked through the solution on the board.
The answer really was negative.
He must have set the numerical units wrong in his haste to invent the problem.
It was an embarrassing blunder, he would admit—but the problem had been visible to Luke for only two or three seconds.
It was a fairly advanced problem; even a teacher like him needed to write out the steps to solve it properly.
And this child had finished the calculation in his head within a few seconds and even double-checked it?
Whether the claim of double-checking was true or not, the fact that he had spotted the error in that fleeting instant was astonishing.
This time, there was no way he could have prepared the answer in advance!
The kid really is sharp…
What an extraordinary transfer student.
"Whoa, that's amazing."
"He really did get a perfect score."
Clap. Clap. Clap.
A few of the children began to applaud, and it did not take long for herd instinct to fill the entire classroom with the sound of clapping.
At the center of it all, Luke felt his face grow inexplicably hot.
Faced with the sudden applause and praise, he dropped straight back into his seat and pressed both hands to his forehead, burying his face against the desk.
What on earth is this spectacle…
To receive applause for something so trivial.
He wanted to die of embarrassment.
Wasn't the level of this completely mismatched?
That his flustered, bashful reaction only stoked the children's mischievous spirits was something he had no room to consider.
As a result, the applause and cheers went on for quite some time.
And among those clapping and cheering—sheepishly, at that—was Shirud himself.
The small sound of applause from the seat beside him only inflamed Luke's feelings further.
At this rate, he might well suffer a mana surge from sheer mortification.
—Luke…?
Pai slipped through the desk, met Luke's eyes, and tilted her head.
Then, all of a sudden, she began to tremble with delight, mimicking the applause and cheers.
"You too… stop that at once!"
The reply to that quiet but firm mutter came from surprisingly close by.
"S-sorry… I-I'll stop if you don't like it."
"…No. That wasn't directed at you."
As Shirud flinched and looked away in a wounded voice, Luke quietly soothed him.
Hah. This child's abundance of feeling is truly a problem…
And that was hardly good for his Circle.
Time passed, and lunch arrived.
Meals were always a joyful occasion for children, so the atmosphere was lively all around.
Was the daily return of mealtime really that delightful?
Watching the children's excitement, Luke found his own mood lifting in turn.
"Luke, I heard our school lunch is pretty good. Well, I've never tried lunch at any other school, though."
Mary chattered away at Luke's side.
Shirud merely listened to her from nearby, and Mary seemed rather uncomfortable about it.
"Shirud, why don't you try saying something as well?"
Shirud answered awkwardly.
"…I don't have anything to say."
"Hmm. Well, if that's the case…"
Forcing conversation was hardly a good approach either.
But a decent friend was something Shirud desperately needed.
As far as Luke could tell, Mary seemed well suited to that role.
If those two grew close, my own heart would rest a good deal easier…
A Circle was especially vulnerable to negative emotions. Fear, loneliness, melancholy…
And those were problems that a trustworthy friend could largely resolve.
Was there not a saying for this? Better one true friend than ten thousand spells.
It was not entirely wrong.
In this vast world, finding a kindred spirit truly was a kind of magic.
Though for a mage—who would choose the ten thousand spells—it was a rather amusing proverb…
Thinking about the saying, a small smile rose unbidden to his face.
Mary, catching that shy little smile, found Luke's expression thoroughly pleasing.
"What are you thinking about, Luke?"
"Heh. Nothing of consequence. More importantly, I am rather curious when we shall be allowed to use our wands."
"That's probably next period! Next class is magic practice! Did you get your wand yet, Luke?"
"Not yet. I was told the school would issue them. Is that correct?"
"That's right—! You'll probably get it when next class starts! Make sure you write your name on it, okay?"
"I shall keep that in mind."
Wands were dangerous for a child to handle alone, and until graduation students were considered "unqualified," so taking a wand off school grounds was strictly forbidden.
That was a source of dissatisfaction for Luke, but he found it reasonably understandable.
Passing the time with various bits of school common knowledge and questions about the next class, they soon arrived at the cafeteria. Once they had joined the snaking line, Shirud gave a light nod and slipped away.
"Where is Shirud going? The restroom, perhaps?"
Mary laughed and said that was not the case.
"Nope! Elves have a separate serving line. Elf food can't have any meat in it."
"Is that so?"
Well, considering that elves could not eat meat for religious and nutritional reasons, it made sense.
Their digestive systems rejected a particular type of mana found in meat, causing indigestion and stomach pain—and further, rashes, hives, and in severe cases even death.
If an entire race had a meat allergy, then of course social institutions ought to make special accommodations.
Thinking that, Luke accepted a tray made of white plastic and his eyes lit up slightly.
"This is a rather unusual shape."
True to the word "tray," it looked like several bowls fused onto a single plate.
In the past, there had been no need to even consider such a thing.
The very concept of "serving"—distributing meals to a great many people in one place—had been unfamiliar.
Back then, mages had been an extremely rare resource, and the entire academy had numbered only about thirty students. The only place that maintained group living on the scale of today's academy had been the military.
And even they had used ordinary dishes in a buffet style, so there had been neither need nor opportunity to think about trays like this.
He supposed it was efficient enough, in its way.
Though it would be of little use at home.
"Why are you staring at the tray like that? Is there something on it? Want me to get you a new one?"
When Luke simply kept gazing at the tray, Mary grew concerned enough to speak up.
"No, it's fine. Let us go."
As the smell of food drew nearer, Luke found it a trial to keep swallowing down the saliva that kept welling up.
Gulp. Gulp.
He kept swallowing, and Mary watched him with a smile.
"Right? Smells good, doesn't it?"
"I-indeed. This is equal to—or perhaps greater than—Daiton's skewers…"
Apparently the claim that the school lunch was delicious had been no empty boast.
"Daiton's skewers? What's that? A restaurant name?"
Mary asked, having overheard Luke's mutter.
"No. Simply the cooking of someone I know."
"Really…? Now I'm curious what it's like!"
"It is quite delicious. If the opportunity arises, I shall ask whether something might be prepared for you as well, Miss Mary."
"Wow! Are you inviting me over?"
"There is no particular reason it couldn't be done… though I am not certain."
Inviting someone home would inevitably reveal that Yerna was currently his temporary guardian.
Mary, he thought, would not spread malicious rumors even if she learned of it—but caution was still warranted.
Having no parents tended to invite unnecessary pity, and Luke found such pity unpleasant.
It felt almost like an insult to those who had lived out their full span and passed on in peace.
At any rate, chatting as they went, they soon arrived at the front of the serving line.
"So you're that perfect-score transfer student? Eat well, now."
Luke put on an awkward smile as he received his food, wondering why on earth he had become so famous.
It was because Serena had spoken to the teachers and other adults about "the new transfer student."
Her request that they not ask about his family circumstances had, paradoxically, ensured that every adult knew who Luke was.
Unaware of this, Luke could only think that a perfect score must truly have been that remarkable.
A short while later.
As dishes piled one by one onto his tray, the rising aroma became impossible to endure.
Luke was now swallowing saliva almost like water.
"C-could you give me just a little more?"
"Not enough? I already gave you a pretty big portion."
"Even so…"
"Pfft—hahaha!"
Mary, watching from beside him, burst out laughing.
"Luke, you really are a beastfolk! Your appetite's no joke!"
"Th-that's…"
"Just bring the empty tray back when you're done. It'd be a waste to leave any."
"Ah—understood. I shall."
The meal was more than satisfying for Luke.
Modern spices!
He refilled his completely emptied tray once more, and cleaned that one out just as thoroughly.
Pai muttered something as she watched, but he let it slide.
It had sounded rather like a pig's squeal…
If she was teasing him for being a pig, he might just get a little angry.