Chapter 4
Chapter 4
“Ha, what is that supposed to be? With a flame that pathetic—”
The man, who had been sneering, fell silent.
As though he had sensed that something was wrong.
“Why is the core of the flame…? Didn’t you draw the Origin Star?”
A star had a core.
Since I had drawn a different star, its core looked different too.
“I tried to manifest a star in my own way.”
“Ha! What kind of nonsense are you talking about?!”
It wasn’t an exclamation of admiration.
“Modifying a basic First Star Rank elemental spell isn’t difficult. But no one attempts it!”
He scolded me as though I were a fool.
“Because no matter how you do it, you can’t surpass this orthodox star. Countless mages throughout history have tried to create a new ‘Origin Star,’ but all their efforts came to naught—!”
“You’re long-winded. I’m getting bored. Can we get started already?”
The man looked furious again.
“Please take care not to get hurt!!”
Whoosh!
His flames shot toward me.
I sent my own flames shooting forward to meet them.
The size of the flames, their force—
There was no comparison between them, not to the eye.
At this rate, his flames would swallow mine whole in an instant and make them disappear.
But strangely, I wasn’t worried.
It was an instinctive feeling.
A certainty that my star could never lose.
Just then, a message appeared before me.
<Gambler’s Judgment has been activated!>
An absolute chance of victory, one no variables could interfere with.
And at the same time—
The flames collided.
Fwoosh!!!
I saw his eyes grow so wide they looked ready to split.
My flames tore his to shreds.
Hans.
An Upper Mage who had graduated from one of the Four Great Academies and attained the Fifth Star Rank at the age of forty.
But that was where his growth had ended.
Hans knew his own limits well.
He knew the Sixth Star Rank was a realm he was never meant to reach.
He had no complaints.
Even the Fifth Star Rank was enough to earn him the finest treatment wherever he went and live comfortably.
In that respect, the Ecclesia Ducal House was the best place to work.
A duke worthy of respect, excellent heirs, and generous treatment.
If there was just one blemish, it was the duke’s third child, ‘Ban.’
‘A good-for-nothing, unlike the duke’s fine siblings.’
He wasn’t merely a good-for-nothing.
If Hans gathered up the newspapers reporting all the outrageous things Ban had done so far and piled them on the floor, the stack would reach the ceiling and then some.
Ban was nothing less than the Empire’s most wretched piece of trash.
Worst of all, he was an aspiring mage.
‘What kind of mage is someone with Mana Insensitivity?’
No, even Mana Insensitivity was all right.
It wasn’t as if he had chosen to be born with it.
If he wasn’t going to become a mage, Mana Insensitivity wasn’t much of a disability.
The problem was that Ban didn’t know his place.
‘He thinks he can redraw the Origin Star and challenge me? Something even Eighth Star Rank Archmages don’t dare attempt?’
In truth, drawing a new star to manifest a basic element wasn’t especially difficult.
It was the very foundation of the craft, after all.
Any mage who understood elemental attributes could draw and manifest a star in their own way.
But it amounted to no more than a bit of amusement.
No one—not even an Archmage—had ever surpassed the established stars.
That was why the stars of the established elemental attributes were called the ‘Origin Star.’
‘He dares to challenge me with some star he slapped together haphazardly? There’s a limit to not knowing your place.’
Hans resolved to teach him a thorough lesson so he would never come near him again.
But the moment the two flames collided, Hans had no choice but to open his eyes so wide they felt ready to split.
His flames were breaking apart.
‘No, how?!’
It was clear what had happened.
The core of the star Hans had created had collapsed.
That could happen only if the other star was overwhelmingly more solid.
‘The star that good-for-nothing made is better than the Origin Star? That’s impossible!!’
Hans stammered.
“I-I think I must have made some kind of mistake.”
“Are you saying you refuse to accept the result?”
“N-no, that’s not it… J-just one more try….”
Ban lifted his chin.
It was an unbelievably arrogant gesture.
Combined with his sculpted features, as if a god himself had carved them, it gave him a powerful air of intimidation.
“Very well. I’ll grant you one more chance, just this once. But there’s a condition.”
“…What is it?”
“If you lose this time as well, you won’t just be my demonstration assistant. You’ll become my personal servant for a month.”
“…Your personal servant?”
Ban said something even more infuriating.
“I think it’s a fair proposal for you as well. In your insignificant life, you’re hardly likely to get another glorious chance to serve someone like me.”
“Shut up!!”
An insult slipped out before Hans could stop it, but he was in no state of mind to care about that.
‘What just happened must have been a fluke. There’s no way that good-for-nothing brat could have come up with a star that surpasses the Origin Star…!!’
But—
Fwoooosh!!
Another miracle took place.
“……”
As Hans stood there, mouth hanging open in a daze, Ban curled up the corner of his mouth.
“For the next month, I’ll be counting on you.”
And so Hans became Ban’s personal servant.
‘…There was no need to make him my personal servant.’
I was sweating bullets on the inside.
My original condition had been, “For one month, you will obey my every word.”
But because of the Black Flame Dragon’s Charisma, it had come out in an over-the-top, transcendent way.
‘…Does it matter? If I hadn’t put it like that, he wouldn’t have been so willing to cooperate.’
I cleared my throat.
Hans was standing beside me with a face like he’d just swallowed shit.
It was the kind I’d often seen back on Earth:
A stubborn old-timer who refused to acknowledge anyone else.
‘To study the way I want, I needed a mage I could put to work as much as I liked. This worked out well.’
I looked at the mountain of basic magic books piled up before me.
‘When am I supposed to get through all these?’
If I studied the usual way, I’d have to bury myself in books for at least several years.
‘I need a shortcut.’
I recalled the properties of the Grandmaster.
There was a method perfectly suited to this ability.
“From now on, recite the basic theories corresponding to First Star Rank for me.”
“…You want me to recite them?”
“Yes. Leave out anything unnecessary and tell me only the essentials.”
I couldn’t simply ignore established theories.
My goal was to become a professor, after all.
Whether I accepted them or rejected them, I had to know them.
‘With my Grandmaster Ability, just listening to someone else summarize everything should be enough.’
Hans answered with a huff.
“Understood. I’ll recite them as you wish.”
Hans still didn’t acknowledge me.
He didn’t seem able to accept what had just happened at all.
“…I’ll begin. First, regarding the properties of star patterns. White Magic has elemental, manipulation, summoning, and holy attributes.”
“Skip the obvious parts.”
I already knew the things that had come up in the game’s lore.
“Each attribute has its own pattern for manifesting it as a star. Elemental magic, basically, uses the patterns of Seventeenfold Geometry… To explain the first pattern…”
As I listened to him explain, another problem came up.
I couldn’t understand the explanation.
No—more precisely, it bothered me.
Just as it had when I first saw the Origin Star.
“May I ask you something? In the first geometric pattern, Triangular Convergence, is there a reason the second angle is set at forty-five degrees?”
“That’s because it’s the most efficient for accelerating mana…”
“What about slowing the second angle, and shortening the opposite side proportionally instead?”
“……”
Hans was struck dumb.
He didn’t seem to understand what I meant.
“…Never mind. Just continue explaining.”
“…The second pattern is…”
The explanation continued, and more things kept bothering me.
If I pointed them all out one by one, it seemed like we’d never get anywhere, so I decided to let them pass.
Instead, I gently closed my eyes.
“The fifth pattern makes use of mana’s rotation. The mana transformation begins at the tip of the pentagram…”
In the darkness behind my closed eyes,
stars appeared.
I drew the stars as Hans described them.
I didn’t like them.
This time, I drew them my way.
First, I tried modifying the stars Hans had taught me in various ways.
I liked them better than before.
But they still weren’t perfect.
This time, I drew a star entirely my way.
‘That’s it.’
A sense of satisfaction welled up in me on its own.
“My lord? What are you doing?”
“Don’t mind me. Keep reciting.”
“…Understood. After moving the mana using the Counterpoint Transformation method…”
The same thing happened again.
As I listened to Hans, I repeatedly drew and erased stars in my mind.
‘Why have mages been drawing stars so inefficiently all this time?’
I couldn’t understand it.
‘It’d be nice if I could actually make one.’
Since I’d only drawn them in my imagination, I needed to see how they actually took effect.
As it happened, I had a good assistant for a demonstration.
“Now, try manifesting the star exactly as I tell you.”
“…As you tell me?”
Perhaps his pride was hurt, because his eyebrow twitched.
“Here. Draw a star with this kind of pattern.”
“What sort of bizarre thing is this?”
“Just try it.”
Hans frowned deeply.
But since he’d made a promise, he obediently did as I said.
And then—
Flash!
“……”
Hans stared blankly at the magic he had manifested.
He wore the exact same expression he’d had when his Fire Magic clashed with mine earlier.
Even I could see that a brilliant “light” magic spell had taken shape.
“W-what is this?”
“I need to go take a nap, so hurry up. The next pattern is…”
I taught him the patterns one by one, and as time went on, Hans’s face grew more and more astonishing to behold.
Duke Huam was walking down the mansion corridor, his face deeply furrowed.
It was because of the words his wretched son had thrown at him a little while ago.
-That day, I’ll give you a shock, Father.
“Hah. What a lunatic.”
A hollow laugh escaped him.
Just thinking about Ban made his teeth grind.
‘Good. This time, I’ll strip him of the family name and throw him out.’
He should have kicked him out long ago.
But he hadn’t been able to let go of his attachment to him, despite hating him, because he was his son. And so, all this time had passed.
Just then, he saw a familiar face across the corridor.
It was Hans, the mage privately employed by the Ducal House.
“My greetings, Your Grace.”
“Yes, it’s been a while.”
The duke’s expression softened.
“I heard Ban’s been pestering you lately. I apologize on his behalf.”
But Hans’s reaction was strange.
“…That isn’t the case.”
“What do you mean?”
“…If you’ll forgive my impertinence, Your Grace, how much do you know about the young master?”
It was a completely unexpected question.
“What do you mean by that?”
Hans’s reaction was stranger still.
His face was full of confusion.
“Perhaps we haven’t truly understood the young master at all.”