Chapter 71
Chapter 71
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 71
Chapter Title: The Scroll That Answers the Heart
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“How’s this? Think I can score pretty well with it?”
One week before finals, Kasena Page asked with a slightly tense expression, having devised a magic spell themed around scrolls.
Rain shrugged as he skimmed over the parchment, looking somewhat intrigued.
“Who knows.”
“R-Really? It’s no good?”
“Who knows.”
“What’s with that! Give me a straight answer!”
Kasena’s whining was enough to make his head throb. Rain shook his head with a quiet sigh.
“That’s not for me to say.”
“Then who?!”
“The magic itself.”
Kasena tilted her head, wondering if he was joking, but there wasn’t a hint of playfulness on Rain’s face.
“Someone once told me—the person who taught me magic—that casting a spell is about pouring your heart into a magic formation.”
Instead, a sad smile-like emotion welled up in his eyes… something she couldn’t quite pinpoint, but it felt close to longing.
“Pour your heart into magic?”
Magic was fundamentally a discipline of reason. Emotions were impurities to be excluded. And yet, pour your heart into it?
“I didn’t get it back then, and I still don’t, but when you actually try it, it fits better than you’d think.”
“What does?”
“They said if you pour your heart into the magic, the magic answers back.”
In that moment, Rain’s voice evoked the dreamlike yet heartbreaking image of walking a forest path blanketed in autumn leaves.
Then he chuckled, and the inexplicable scene that had formed in her mind vanished. For some reason, it left her feeling a bit wistful.
“So don’t ask me—ask your own magic. It’ll give you the answer.”
* * *
“A trapezoid…? You’re saying you can implement that as a scroll?”
Even Chancellor Madelia Page had to look at her daughter with a hint of bewilderment. Head Professor Marhena narrowed her eyes.
“A trapezoid? What’s with the confidence?”
“To this foolish disciple’s eyes, it looks like she’s aiming for telekinesis.”
“You think I don’t know a trapezoid is a telekinesis magic formation, you fool Kyle Inum! In all the times I’ve overseen this exam, Madelia’s girl here is the only one who’s ever chosen telekinesis.”
“In the long history of Delaiten, it’s probably happened only twice, total.”
Telekinesis was a prime example of attribute-less magic, not belonging to any of the eight magical attributes.
It was easy to learn at the beginner level but notoriously difficult to advance beyond, so most people picked up the basics and quit.
Having finished her tussle with Christa, Gertrude spoke up as they watched the same screen.
“Even just mastering the beginner-level power lets you handle most everyday tasks, doesn’t it?”
“True. Spending time researching telekinesis is less valuable for a mage than studying other attributes.”
There was a huge difference between simply casting magic and implementing it as a scroll.
To put it simply, creating a scroll required a high degree of proficiency in that magic’s attribute.
That was why so many had marveled when Christa perfectly captured her bloodline limit magic in a scroll.
“While the four great elements and four minor elements use formulaic Luthein runes, telekinesis relies on amplification-type Delvashirts all by itself—that’s one reason it’s so tough.”
“Then she could’ve compromised with an easier attribute. Marquess family pride, I suppose.”
Telekinesis’s difficulty spiked violently once past the beginner stage, so even as a 1-star spell, properly implementing it in a scroll was questionable.
Hmph. Christa smirked arrogantly, arms crossed, looking not entirely displeased.
“Going all-in like this… That girl must really hate losing.”
Christa had devoted herself fully to the study of magic since age six.
That was why she inexplicably took a liking to anyone who confronted magic with the same sincerity.
Watching her master grin, Gertrude shook her head as if it couldn’t be helped.
“You should stop showing that kind of favor to a rival so easily.”
“R-Rival? Pfft! She’s not even worth a single punch! Do you know who I am? The genius of the century, Christa Warden!”
“Hmm~ So you’re saying there’s no way Kasena could steal Young Master Rain from you?”
The female students eavesdropping covered their mouths while the males whistled. Christa’s hand immediately chopped down on Gertrude’s head.
“You’ve gotten too spoiled lately, haven’t you? Climbing all the way up there?”
“Eek…” Gertrude rubbed her bumped scalp, eyes tearing up. While those who’d finished their exams enjoyed such leisure,
“…….”
In the epicenter of the testing ground, amid the eye-of-the-storm silence, Kasena felt the sharp tension of her own heartbeat.
‘It’s still far from perfect, but…’
Rain, someday, could I stand by your side, researching magic and chatting like that? This is probably the first hurdle.
“A trapezoid… My knowledge is limited, but what kind of magic is this?”
That’s when one judge showed interest—an elderly man with a hunched back, leaning on a staff.
“Th-This is!”
Her voice cracked high from tension. Embarrassing as it was, it drew three or four more judges over.
“A telekinesis magic formation!”
The Page family was a great noble house of the first class, like the electoral counts, so she used informal speech with everyone except them.
“Telekinesis?”
“It’s super convenient! Even if you can’t move well, with this power, you can do anything!”
“Oh, could you demonstrate?”
Kasena cleared her throat, steadied herself, and began drawing divine script in the air with her fingertips.
The light from her fingers lingered as afterimages, flickering beautifully in the void.
“Oh, ooooooh?!!!”
Admiration burst not just from the judges but from the audience stands at the sight of that beautiful, one-of-a-kind bloodline limit.
The formation’s shape: trapezoid.
Rune inscribed: Joo (呪; invocation).
Mathematical formula in the explanation: cubic equation.
“……!”
Madelia, watching her daughter anxiously, widened her eyes. Surprised murmurs rose here and there.
“She cast it at high speed…!”
“A spell at the advanced 1-star level…!”
“No, impressive as it is, isn’t it just her bloodline limit…?”
Madelia shook her head.
No matter the Page bloodline limit, low understanding of the magic wouldn’t allow such fast casting.
And this wasn’t basic 1-star—it was advanced, using a cubic equation?
‘In just two months…?’
Kasena, flushed and panting, grasped the glowing runes in the air, and a colorless, transparent sphere materialized before her, spinning.
‘So what exactly is that magic?’
The judges voiced the question Madelia held in her heart. Kasena answered with a tense expression.
“This sphere is the core of the telekinesis. To use telekinesis on something, just place your hand on it and think what you want.”
She placed her hand on the sphere, and suddenly the nearby brush floated up. Then the parchment rose, and the portable stool shifted slightly aside.
“…….”
“…….”
“…….”
She finished her explanation with an excited look, but the judges exchanged only cold silence.
It certainly seemed convenient.
Convenient, yes—but as scroll magic, wasn’t it too trivial?
As despair made her squeeze her eyes shut, ooh… A middle-aged man in an expensive-looking mage robe glared fiercely.
“I see… I get why you used the Joo (呪) rune for telekinesis.”
Joo (呪) was a dual rune meaning both ‘invocation’ and ‘curse.’ Its demand for a cubic equation even in 1-star magic came from that unique property.
“Using the ‘invocation’ property to build the foundation and the ‘curse’ property for duration… Is that right?”
The key concern in curse magic was duration.
Unlike spells that dealt massive damage at once, curses inflicted ongoing harm.
Kasena nodded, surprised he’d figured it out.
“I tried all sorts of things to maximize telekinesis’s strengths, but due to 1-star limits, it was either too strong with short duration or too weak with long duration.”
Rain hadn’t given her the answer directly. He’d just hinted:
- If you’re limited to 1-star, why not use a dual rune?
Whatever Rain taught always led to the solution. This time too.
“That’s when I found this—Joo (呪)! With this rune, it has just enough power for real life and lasts about four hundred uses!”
The mages murmured, eyes gleaming as if enlightened.
“Oh, so that’s it?”
“Four hundred times… Who knew the Joo rune synergized so well with telekinesis spells.”
“Matching 2-star effects with one rune—more impressive than I thought.”
At the center of the murmurs, Kasena cleared her throat shyly and added,
“This is just my shallow thought, but telekinesis isn’t just ‘convenient power.’ For those with difficult lives, it’s ‘essential power’…”
Perhaps because it stemmed from her own desperate experience, her shy words struck a chord deep in people’s hearts.
“That’s why. I wanted to make a scroll that could truly help those people. It’s still lacking, but…”
She ended with a pure, bashful smile, and a profound silence overwhelmed the venue, as if the world had stopped.
It was a fragment of truth Atlante had taught Lin, passed from Rain to Kasena: magic holds the heart.
As if answering that heart, an enormous uproar erupted to fill the silence.
“Could you give me one right now? Four hundred uses, no less!”
“Me too. At my age, some mornings my back hurts so much I can barely stand—perfect for that.”
“One for my mother would be ideal. Please, one for me too.”
Orders poured in instantly from judges of all stripes—seven in total.
Kasena blinked in flustered disbelief at the overwhelming goodwill.
Looking down at her, Rain unconsciously smiled with satisfaction.
‘The natural result. Strictly speaking, you could call her one of Lin’s disciples too.’
Of course, the weakest among them right now, but still.
Even Head Professor Marhena and Vice Professor Kyle were smiling warmly.
“Madelia had a fun vessel hidden away.”
“I agree. Still rough, but if she grows, she’ll be one interesting mage. Truly, remarkably interesting.”
Ah, what a golden generation. Not just talented cadets, but ones with the right mindset, gathered in such numbers.
So full of promise.
What form will magic take in the era led by these children?
“Kasenaaaaaaa—!”
Then a scorching shout exploded from the VIP room, shaking the venue.
It was Yuren Page.
Defying his retainers’ restraint, he waved frantically at Kasena, tears of emotion streaming.
“Wh-What are you doing?! Seriously!”
Kasena whipped her head away as if she didn’t know him and focused on drawing the magic formation on her parchment.
“…….”
Amid the commotion, Madelia Page covered her eyes with one hand, unable to contain the tears bursting forth.
- Your Excellency, I’m truly sorry, but the young lady will never walk again…
- I said no magic lessons! What’s the point? A disabled mage? I don’t want that!
- We can’t teach her anything. Her will is too stubborn… My apologies.
Memories flashing by her ears were shards of despair, fragments of sorrow, pieces of tears.
It had been that way, definitely…
Yet now, before her eyes, was a light so blinding it hurt to look.
- Your Excellency, would it be alright if I made Kasena able to walk again?
She’d said it and thought it many times, but truly, an unrepayable debt. One she could spend a lifetime repaying and still fall short…