Countdown
Countdown
A month had passed since I began preparing for the entrance exam in earnest with Professor Herlein's help.
My sessions with Herlein took place at dawn, before Professor Haspelt had arrived for the day. As a result, I had become chronically sleep-deprived.
Herlein taught me combat magic about once a week. I already had the stamina and experience from hunting low-grade magic beasts on the rear mountain, but the combat techniques she taught were sharper and more refined.
"I'll say this as many times as it takes: in the practical, you'll be fighting another student. Do not charge in with the same mindset you use to subdue a magic beast, understood?"
It was a strange thing. The academy was built to train students to kill magic beasts, so why was the combat assessment geared toward dueling other people?
Were there magic beasts that walked around acting like humans...? Everything I'd seen so far had been reptiles or amphibians, so I had no idea.
"Focus. Let's see how much you've improved this week."
Herlein pulled a scroll from inside her coat. It was called a scroll, but it was nearly a meter long and shaped like a rolled parchment. Earth Magic scrolls tended to be long by nature.
"Construct, High-grade Golem Riot."
Shortly after Herlein recited the incantation, a gym-freak golem that looked like someone had sculpted only its upper body burst forth. It had a human shape, but an oddly slapdash one.
"You said this was for dueling. Couldn't you spar with me yourself?"
That was the fifth time I'd asked.
"I have classes to teach. Beat this guy, and I'll think about it."
Boom, boom, boom. The humanoid golem slammed both arms against the ground, shaking the earth. Based on its behavior alone, you'd think it was a magic beast.
In truth, golems and magic beasts weren't all that different. Magic Golems had been created when earth mages researched ways to turn magic beasts into allies and combined corpses with alchemy.
When you got down to it, this was practically the same as fighting a magic beast corpse.
[Construct ─ Staff]
I pulled out the iron staff I always used. Muttering this kind of thing while puffing on a Mana Cigarette at dawn filled me with self-loathing. Was the Mana Cigarette destroying my mental health?
"Then work hard~."
And some time later, my body was flying through the air.
**
"Ugh."
Still, compared to the beginning, I'd improved considerably. I was now capable enough to blow off one of the golem's arms using only my staff.
"Why are you so freakishly strong? What kind of person breaks a golem's arm with a staff?!"
"Why? Is that not allowed?"
Herlein looked down at me, sprawled haphazardly across the Grand Stadium, with a disapproving expression.
"What's the practical exam subject? Combat Magic. Magic Arts is the key word here, Magic Arts! The assessment is supposed to evaluate your ability to subdue an opponent while using magic at appropriate moments. If you don't use magic, how is the examiner supposed to score you?"
Hmm, it was a logically sound point. I had nothing to counter it with.
"But they said scrolls are banned."
The Gold-Eye Tribe couldn't naturally circulate mana through their bodies, so they had to rely on various items like Mana Cigarettes or scrolls.
Using only a Mana Cigarette or only a scroll wasn't enough to cast magic. The primary mana-operation method for the Gold-Eye Tribe was to clench a Mana Cigarette, wait until enough magical energy had circulated through the body, and then pour that energy into a scroll within a limited window of time to barely manage an activation.
But they'd banned scrolls. How was I supposed to manifest Elemental Magic with just a Mana Cigarette?
"That's precisely why you need to reach a level where you can wield magic with only a Mana Cigarette in your mouth."
Was that even possible for the Gold-Eye Tribe...?
Of course it wasn't. Unless the heavens split in two, the day the Gold-Eye Tribe could use Elemental Magic with their bodies alone would never come.
Right. I meant 'Elemental Magic,' anyway.
[(Definition) Unique Magic Art: A rare Magic Art that can be used without a spirit's blessing or a scroll.]
There was always an exception somewhere in the world.
[Supreme Unique Magic ─ Element Operation]
It'd be idiotic to let a hidden skill I'd obtained at the cost of an all-nighter just sit around gathering dust.
Ever since the day I first messed around with transistors, I'd been researching Unique Magic Art whenever I had a spare moment. This was the only magic I could manifest in the practical exam using only a Mana Cigarette.
After sparring ended, I returned to the stables as usual and studied the Element Operation method.
It wasn't as though the past month had yielded no results. It just needed more work before it could be applied in actual combat.
In particular, adapting the concept of the 'Eightfold Way' to the magic theory of this world was proving difficult.
The Eightfold Way.
Normally, the term referred to the eight correct paths of practice leading to enlightenment in Buddhism. But when nuclear physicists talked about this Eightfold Way, they meant a completely different concept.
In nuclear physics, the diagram used to classify hadrons was the Eightfold Way. The Eightfold Way was usually shaped like a hexagon or an equilateral triangle.
By placing particles at certain points on the Eightfold Way diagram and arranging them, you could grasp at a glance what properties that particle possessed. You could even predict particles that hadn't been discovered yet.
While investigating the Unique Magic Art I'd first acquired, I'd discovered a clear correlation between this Eightfold Way and transistors.
An electronic component normally used only in semiconductor processing being related to the nuclear force was something I'd never heard of in my life.
After all, a transistor's operating principle was electromagnetism, while the subject the Eightfold Way described was the strong nuclear force. They were fundamentally different in nature to begin with.
But this was a different world. What the transistor-shaped magic stone was transporting wasn't electrons; it was mana particles.
I didn't need to overcomplicate it beyond that. The conclusion I reached was simple.
"If I use a transistor, it might be possible to fuse mana particles together."
Fusion or whatever, I hadn't experimented on what would happen if I made a hodgepodge out of them. If I smashed two fire-attribute mana particles together, wouldn't that just make a nuclear bomb?
......My head hurt. I decided not to think that far for now.
There was just one hypothesis I needed to focus on. If my guess was right, it might also be possible to cancel out magical power through mana-particle fusion.
For example, if I forcibly fused water and fire mana particles, they might become magically neutral. If I inserted neutralized magical power into a circuit, that circuit would either break down or stop functioning.
After finishing the thought experiment, I immediately prepared the real experiment.
The magic paper and magic stones that Haspelt had given me to complete other spells. I gathered them together and constructed an independent circuit of my own. Sorry, Professor!
A pang of conscience did hit me as I worked, but what could I do? I'd rather die than simper and fawn under some prince whose face I'd never even seen. Getting caught slacking by Haspelt and beaten like a dog on the hottest day of summer was far preferable to running a godawful horizontal decathlon in bed with a man.
Anyway, the experiment didn't take long. I installed aquamarine and ruby, then composed a circuit filled with transistors between them. When I infused magical power, mysteriously enough, it didn't activate.
"Oh."
In that moment, a good idea came to me.
A way to avoid failing the practical while using a Mana Cigarette only once.
**
Two more months passed. The outlines were finally starting to come into focus.
There were two possibilities. I'd get wrecked, or I'd wreck them. Passing would be a relief, but if by any chance I didn't, I'd get beaten by Haspelt in a furious drumbeat tempo and then sold off to the prince.
Until the day the results were announced, not even the Goddess would know my fate. I could imagine how Schrödinger's cat must have felt going into that box.
In the meantime, I'd picked up a few pieces of information about the prince. One was that the bastard was a notorious womanizer. There was even a saying that he was the cure for his fiancée's low blood pressure.
After hearing that, I resolved I absolutely had to pass. For some reason, the closer exam day got, the more my heart refused to settle. It hadn't even been this bad during the Suneung.
The written portion was more or less sorted out. I'd also become reasonably capable at the alchemy and scroll writing required for the practical. If I could just perform decently in the combat magic portion, it felt like I could walk right in.
The problem was that the frequency with which Professor Haspelt worked me to the bone had grown unimaginably worse over the past three months. Once, when she stormed right into the stables to ask about my progress, I nearly died of shock.
I'd talked my way out of it then, but honestly, I wasn't confident I could keep covering it up.
If I bombed the exam, should I just vanish...? I could bolt to the elf country and start over. But then I'd have to self-study magic, which would take way longer to return to my original world.
In any case.
Haspelt occasionally tossed me a carrot, but her default stance was the whip. If I worked well, I got quality food; if my output dropped, I skipped lunch that day. The pattern was absolutely transparent.
She kept up that routine consistently through three full cycles of the moon.
"Did you know?"
Haspelt, who'd been inscribing a scroll beside me, let out a murmur and spoke.
"Lately, Iron Drakes have been coming down from the rear mountain more frequently."
"That's unusual."
"The capital is in an uproar over it. There's talk circulating about whether it's truly acceptable to raise mid-grade magic beasts in the middle of the capital, even if it's for student training."
"I'm sure the government will handle it well enough."
Most of the conversations we exchanged during work were news tidbits. Haspelt must have been bored now that the semester had ended. She was even trying to make small talk with me.
"Hwaaaahm─."
"Tired?"
"Yes. Probably because I've been pulling a lot of all-nighters lately."
"Just endure it until next week. Once we complete 'Flare,' I'll let you rest."
Liar.
"Excuse me. I'll go get some fresh air for a moment."
After confirming Haspelt's nod, I stepped outside the research building. Even wrapped tightly in a thick robe, the bone-cutting cold seeped into every part of my body.
The thirty-six massive pillars supporting the research building. A woman positioned at one of them glanced at me with one eye.
"Aether."
"Professor Herlein."
We stared at each other for a moment without a word. It was Herlein who broke the silence.
"Kleis and I are going on a business trip starting tomorrow for three days. An anomaly arose on the Northern Front, and His Imperial Majesty requested we confirm the war situation."
I knew.
"Your application has been accepted. Your exam number is now fixed."
I knew.
"The practical runs for four hours, from eight in the morning until noon. The venue is the Lubter Water Magic Liberal Arts Building. Afterward, you'll have lunch until one o'clock and then assemble immediately at the Grand Stadium."
I knew.
"Aether."
"Yes, ma'am."
"Deal a blow to that idiot friend of mine who doesn't know how to handle talent."
I nodded, gazing at the distant Water Magic Liberal Arts Building.
[Lubter Liberal Arts Hall ─ 1024th Tillet Magic Academy Entrance Exam, Designated 17th Examination Room]
Right.
Tomorrow was the day.