Midterm Exam (2)
"Ugh."
"What even is this."
"It's so hard."
With midterms upon them, most Academy lectures had been replaced with self-study periods. The reason was simple: the multi-layered magic circle Department Head Alketo had dumped on them was so complex that a first-year student could spend an entire year on it and still fail to decipher it.
The professors, taking pity on their students, had kindly set aside all lecture time so they could pour everything into analyzing the circle. A few students even tried asking their professors for help, only to be told, "That sort of thing only means something if you figure it out yourself," as the instructors strolled leisurely out of the classroom.
What remained were the black multi-layered magic circle Alketo had left behind, and a room full of students clutching their heads and scribbling endlessly across sheets of parchment.
Ah — except for me and Iren.
"Fascinating. This really is Alketo's work."
While the other students writhed in agony, Iren was poking at a floating illusory replica of the magic circle.
"Ideas are just pouring out of me. What about you, Frey?"
"Do you want me to use this?"
"What, you couldn't figure it out?"
"If I use it, I'm fairly certain I'd win so overwhelmingly it wouldn't even be a contest."
"I like that absurd confidence of yours. But I wouldn't be so sure if I were you."
Iren plucked a single circle free from the black multi-layered array. It was a brilliant sky-blue magic circle.
"Combine this with my mana, and even something like this becomes possible."
She fed a single thread of mana into the circle. Under ordinary circumstances, that amount of mana would barely freeze a drop of water.
The moment it entered the circle, a blizzard erupted inside the lecture hall.
"Kyaaaaah!"
"W-what is this?!"
"It's the Princess! The Princess used the magic circle!"
The sudden blizzard plunged the classroom into pandemonium. Iren flicked her fingers.
With a sharp snap, the blizzard — and every flake of snow that had piled up — vanished cleanly away.
"Worthy of a magic circle from the man ranked third among the Empire's mages. You won't find anything like this in a textbook, Frey."
"It is certainly remarkable."
The circle Iren had just used was one that boosted efficiency to an absurd degree. More precisely, it took the user's mana as a core, drew in ambient mana from the surroundings, and converted it all into large-scale magic. Setting one up would cost a fortune, of course.
"I don't mind if you refuse to use it — but it's starting to scrape at my pride a little."
"Then you just don't use it either."
"I don't want to."
Iren made no effort to hide her keen interest.
"This is the first time since coming to the Academy that things have actually gotten fun."
She really was a genius on the same level as me. After sitting through countless professors' lectures, only now did she find something entertaining. If any of those professors had overheard that, they might have cried. Professor Colton, for instance.
"If we're going to take an exam, we might as well make it fun, don't you think?"
"That's fair enough."
"So you use it too."
"Hmm. Though this is a problem. If the other students just pour mana into it the way you did, would the same kind of catastrophe break out?"
"Good question. If you put mana into it, Frey, it'd be a real catastrophe."
"That won't happen."
Karl cut in with hollow, exhausted eyes. He was scratching something onto parchment with a quill as he spoke.
"In the first place, only the imperial family has elemental attributes woven into their mana."
"What?"
"Huh?"
What had Karl just said?
"Karl, I think I just heard a joke."
"Right. Elemental mana belongs only to the imperial family?"
"Why are you both reacting like that? Have either of you ever seen another student use elemental mana?"
"Uh…"
Iren and I locked eyes. And then we realized something astonishing.
We had never once seen an elemental attribute in anyone else's mana.
I hastily extended my senses and surveyed the room. Unlike Iren and me, the students around us were leaking mana all over the place — yet none of it carried any color. Every last thread was clear and transparent.
"This is common knowledge, you know. And the two greatest geniuses in the room didn't know it?"
"Frey. Come with me."
"Ah — yes."
"??"
Leaving a thoroughly bewildered Karl behind, Iren and I hurried out of the lecture hall. She led me upstairs, to where the second-year magic division classrooms were.
The second-years appeared to be self-studying as well. Ignoring the second-years who stared at her with wide eyes, Iren strode straight toward her target.
A blue-haired, blue-eyed young man was analyzing a magic circle with hollow eyes — Lionel, Iren's older brother. The moment he saw her, his face lit up.
"Iren! What brings you here?"
"You damn older brother. Step outside for a moment."
"Huh?"
She grabbed Lionel and hauled him out of the classroom. Finding an empty practice room, Iren pulled us inside and locked the door.
"Ahaha, Iren. What is it you want to talk about that you had to drag your big brother out here? Though I'd rather say it without Frey standing right next to us."
"I'm talking to you because of Frey, Brother."
"Oh."
Lionel looked at me with startled eyes — then smiled as if he'd figured something out.
Was he thinking I'd finally made good on my promise to build a bridge between him and Iren? That wasn't it at all. I really hoped he wouldn't get the wrong idea.
"I want to ask about the imperial family's mana."
"Go ahead. Ask away."
"Is it true that only the imperial family possesses elemental mana?"
"Haha. You've got quite the sense of humor, Iren."
What — had Karl been wrong after all?
But Lionel's next words betrayed us completely.
"That's the most basic common knowledge there is. You didn't come all this way just to ask about something you already know, did you?"
"…"
"More importantly, that multi-layered magic circle Alketo assigned this time is extraordinarily difficult. If you need your big brother's help…"
"We're done here. Let's go, Frey."
"Ah — yes."
"…?"
Lionel looked at me with the face of a man betrayed. I'm sorry, Your Highness. I wasn't building any bridges this time — next opportunity, I swear!
Iren and I found a place with no one around. Then she spoke.
"Frey. Back in the infirmary, you definitely…"
"…"
"…had an attribute in your mana, didn't you?"
"…"
"Show me. Right now. You've been suppressing it normally, haven't you?"
"Haaa…"
I raised a small amount of mana in my hand. Mana drawn from my heart shaped itself into a tiny sphere in my palm. It was unmistakably red — a fiercely burning mana.
"Good heavens…"
"Iren."
"This is impossible. What on earth is going on?"
"I don't really know either."
It truly made no sense.
I'd assumed everyone was like that — but elemental mana was actually an exclusive privilege of the imperial family?
Then why could I use it? Me, a commoner who'd thought he was nothing more than the steward of House Katram — was I secretly royalty? Even a third-rate novel wouldn't use a plot twist that cheap!
"Hide it."
"Yes."
"You understand, then. You absolutely must hide this."
Fear filled Iren's eyes. Not fear of me — fear of the unknown situation that might come for us in the future.
"Honestly, I don't think you're actually imperial blood. The imperial family doesn't have any defining traits besides the mana."
That was true. The greatest hallmark of the Valencia imperial family was their blue hair and blue eyes. I, by contrast, had black hair and red eyes — the most common physical features among commoners.
"If word spreads that a collateral branch of the Katram duchy possesses mana exclusive to the imperial family, there's no telling what might happen. So you have to hide it. Understood?"
"Of course. I'll hide it, obviously."
"Just checking — do you have any idea why?"
"None whatsoever."
There really was no telling what could happen.
Not of imperial blood, yet possessing imperial mana.
People might assume I'd stolen imperial mana through some illicit means — or that I was part of an experiment aimed at overthrowing the imperial house.
That was how high the authority of an imperial privilege stood, and how absolutely forbidden it was to trespass upon.
It was only because my mana control was exceptional enough that I never leaked any that I'd gotten away with it this long. If this had been discovered earlier — or if someone other than Iren had found out…
Just thinking about it was horrifying.
Before I was six, maybe.
Somehow I felt the answer lay in those sealed memories. And coincidentally, the magic that had sealed my memories from before age six was an imperial mental barrier, wasn't it?
Should I research it later? Even for someone like me, probing a powerful mental barrier cast on my own brain carried real risk. And it wasn't as though I could show it to anyone else.
I couldn't exactly ask the assassin's guild to dig into my past either. That would only give me a headache. At least the badge I'd given them let me keep them under constant surveillance — that was a relief.
The conclusion, then:
"Don't use Alketo's magic circle."
"Yes. I'll stick to methods I'm already familiar with."
"You've managed not to get caught so far, so you'll handle it fine. But Frey — you absolutely must not get caught."
"I know, I know. I understand perfectly well, Iren."
"I'm saying this because I'm worried about you. Hmm. Though you really don't look anything like me, do you?"
"And?"
"If it turned out you were my secret twin sibling, would I start crying?"
"When's your birthday, Iren?"
"You're asking that here?"
"If I were the younger sibling, things would get annoying."
"You deserve a beating."
"Aagh! Stop that!"
Trading pointless banter, we stepped back outside. Right. This had to be buried. It was a secret that must never get out.
For now, I would focus only on beating Iren in the midterms — and on figuring out why she liked me.
…
Still. Maybe I should at least ask Mother about Father.