Arafoo Kenja No Isekai Seikatsu Nikki Chapter 25

Everyday life without uncle, part 1 *DISCLAIMER: I DON'T REALLY KNOW j.a.pANESE, THESE ARE MACHINE TRANSLATIONS THAT I TRY TO PUT INTO PROPER ENGLISH. READ AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION.

*I HAVE A DISCORD SERVER IN CASE YOU WANT TO BE NOTIFIED WHEN I'M ABOUT TO POST A NEW UPDATE. 

Istor Magic Academy.

A learning inst.i.tution where young people from relatively affluent families gathered. 

Renowned for its long history, spanning over 300 years since its founding, and boasting of producing many famous magicians, it was the most famous academic inst.i.tution of the Solisthea Magic Kingdom.

It's not an exaggeration to say that it's an academy city, due to its vast area, br.i.m.m.i.n.g with many magical research inst.i.tutes, and even a town that supports the students' lives.

It was supposed to be a place where a lot of people with the desire to learn congregated, and where ability and academic background were the only entry barriers.

But currently, the Academy is under the influence of the many magicians' factions and their power struggles.

It would still be acceptable if it were just a conflict between students, but effectively, it was a proxy war between aristocratic magicians.

The n.o.bles who had already graduated from the Academy have no choice but to manipulate their children to raise their influence within the inst.i.tution, and so, the students form factions, defaming and ostracizing those who don't follow their will.

The overwhelming majority of them were magicians of n.o.ble origin, most of them having succeeded their family's bloodline magic and other kinds of inheritance spells.  

Though, there were some magicians who were fallen n.o.bles trying to restore their houses to their former glory.

Inheritance magics were the spells handed down to the members of a household regardless of how strong they were as magicians, mainly because they were generally useless in battle, so possessing them was merely a sign of having a good relationship with one's family. Because some of these spells would have strange and random effects, they could be quite the strong research material for a family of magicians. 

Well, there were some families who've changed in a strange direction due to said research…

On the other hand, bloodline magic is, as its name indicates, magic that is transmitted to the members of a family, and it's an inborn type of unique magic succeeded from parent to child.

These magics may have a wide range of different effects, and the person who inherits them, is often not able to control them. They function at a subconscious level, and the person is able to suddenly invoke the magic without any need to chant. In many ways, it can be an incredibly dangerous magic. 

Particularly, 【Charm】, 【Spontaneous Ignition】, 【Foresight】, and so on, were all unique magics, but at the same time, they didn't have great power, and moreover, they were difficult to control.

For instance, spontaneous ignition is literally, as its name suggests, the ability to suddenly ignite things on fire, and to produce a small fire with one's eyes, though it couldn't be used in actual combat. It was impossible to burn your enemies to death with a single glance. Furthermore, it was an immensely inconvenient ability to live with, when everything you look at catches on fire.

In the case of foresight, its predictions could be considered merely fortune-telling, regardless of whether they're right or not.

There were a lot of unique magics like that, but they were often unreliable magics that were considered useless by most people.

—

In one corner of the Academy, where many capable magicians gathered, there was one of the student dormitories, which were decided by their academic ranking.

The building itself had an early gothic style, and immediately after entering through the main entrance you were met by a vaulted ceiling, with its distinct characteristic, a pattern of two semi-cylindrical barrels intersecting each other, in other words, a rib vault ceiling*, decorating the whole structure. The rooms where the students lived were located left and right on both sides of the pa.s.sage extending from the facade of the dormitory, followed by a pair of staircases on both ends.

(*T.N: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vault_(architecture)#Rib_vault . I couldn't quite grasp the proper meaning of that paragraph, what the author described is not exactly what a rib vault is, but I have no clue what other thing they might be referring to, though I don't think it matters that much in the end.)

It's a plainly ornamented building, but to Celestina, it gives her a calm feeling, closer to the one in her grandfather's villa. 

Additionally, there are small spires symmetrically placed on both sides of the building, which in the past were mainly used to inflict punishments, though they have not been used much so far.

Given that it was an old building, the students who resided there were mostly from merchant and commoner households.

The people who saw her, openly expressed their apathy towards her on their expressions. Their impression of Celestina, born to a Ducal house was that she, was 'talented in lacking talent', 'an incompetent person, only here because of their family's influence', 'the teacher's pet', and so on. 

She must be an irritating presence to those who've paid the hefty tuition fees, and were desperately doing their best to learn.

Naturally, she understood that, and thus, she used to spend all her time holed up in the Academy's library.  On one hand, she felt sorry for them, but on the other, she was desperate to learn magic one way or another. 

The results were unsatisfactory, but that's a story for another time.

Celestina could now use magic, and if it's firing one shot at a time, it's possible for her to do it chantlessly. 

There's no need to open your mouth and recite an aria to be able to invoke a spell, the key is how strong is your imagination and how much can it be overlaid with the magic formula.

To successfully invoke a spell, the foundation is, first and foremost, the magic formula. And, while chanting is the trigger that activates the spell itself, it only helps to give shape to the magic. One's own mental image is more important, so when you have a sufficient understanding of magic, chanting becomes unnecessary.

For example, when you're about to shoot your gun, and the enemy was told 'the bullets are loaded into the magazine, the safety was released and the hammer was pulled. Now, let's shoot!'. Does that sort of thing really need to be said? It's the same with magic arias. 

However, the students don't know the current Celestina. They still think she's incompetent. 

"Young lady, please don't worry too much. They don't know about how strong you have become."

"I know, but just two months ago I used to be in such a place, honestly, it feels really unpleasant."

"But your mind and heart have grown at an incredible pace, soon everyone will realize that, you know? And, you will do your best in cla.s.s, isn't that right, young lady?"

"Yes, you're right, Misuka… I'm going to graduate from this academy and become a magician that will live up to sensei's name!"

With an expression full of motivation and determination, she begins to walk resolutely.

Shining on Celestina's right arm is the magic medium made by her mentor, Zeros.

Her new day begins. 

With a newfound determination in her heart and mind, she goes to take her lecture at the Academy, but it seems the status quo won't change that easily. 

The same scenery from two months ago is repeated. Eyes full of contempt and apathy are directed towards her. 

In all honesty, all she wants is to run away, but somehow stops herself and steps into the cla.s.sroom. 

Additionally, the lecturers at the Academy pretend not to see anything about Celestina's bullying, not saying anything unnecessary either. 

The reason is, whenever she asked a question regarding the lesson's contents, she would confront them by presenting a theory from a different perspective, causing them to be at a loss, not knowing how to answer. 

For the lecturers, she's the personification of a demon, and while her att.i.tude of asking about what she doesn't know is good, for them, it's extremely troublesome to be asked things they have no clue about. 

Although she couldn't use magic herself, being so excellent in everything related to magic theory made her a tough opponent for the lecturers. 

Her presence was problematic to them, who are supposed to teach magic to their students, hence, they decided to ignore her altogether.

Though, from their point of view, Celestina's talent was terrifying.

They thought that, if she only could invoke magic, she would become a magician superior to themselves, so the fact that she couldn't, above all, hurt their pride.  

They didn't want to admit they were inferior to the 'incompetent student'.

The lecturers all belong to the different factions, and have the mission of attracting talented people to their own clique. But, what if they're excellent and more knowledgeable than they themselves, except that they can't use magic? All what they've been doing so far would be meaningless.

In the current state of the Academy, belonging to a faction is a symbol of status, thus, such a girl possessing that much knowledge without belonging to any faction, is nothing but an unpleasant fact to them. 

While the mind of such a lecturer was drifting to somewhere else, Celestina was taking notes of the lesson's contents on a bundle of papers bound together. 

There weren't such convenient things like notebooks in this world. If you don't buy paper on your own, you have no choice but to use your memory. 

Due to that, students take the lectures at the Academy seriously. 

(I checked the contents of this lesson at the library. The lecturer said that preparing before the lesson was crucial, but isn't it a mistake to think that each individual magic character is a word containing meaning in itself? 

It's true what he said about the magic characters forming command words that change the mana accordingly to their respective functions, but, is it alright to keep spreading misinformation about the meanings of the magic characters any longer?

Now that the conflicts between the factions are becoming more intense…. What should I do?)

Currently, there's nothing for her to learn at the Academy. 

Because she already understands the true nature of the magic characters and magic formulas, it's useless for her to take a lecture about those very same topics at this point. 

However, it would leave a bad taste in her mouth continuing to allow the spreading of misinformation and erroneous teachings.

For the sake of all the future magicians, she thought it was necessary to put a stop on said believes. 

And so she does.

"Excuse me, teacher. May I ask a question?" 

(*T.N: for future reference, she uses the word 講師[koushi] which means 'lecturer', but it sounds kinda weird here.)

The lecturer, Séamus was screaming inside his mind: 'Here it comes! Ahhh!!'

This is the situation he was fearing the most.

"What is it, Celestina. Is there something wrong with the lecture's contents?"

"No, it's just that I've been thinking from a while ago that, each of the 56 magic characters and 10 numbers* have a distinct sound, correct? And, each of them have their own meaning. Furthermore, a magic formula is a complex combination of these characters. This is the modern consensus about magic theory. There's no doubt that that should be the case."

(*T.N: I think the author made a typo there, they wrote 'magic characters' again, when previously it was 'numbers'.)

"Y-yes. I-Is there a problem about that?"

"It's a simple question, aren't the magic characters used to form words, and not words themselves?

How useful is to learn this, when the characters themselves don't have meaning, but it's a series of characters making up a command word that transforms the mana accordingly to the predetermined function?"

Celestina casually said such a shocking remark. 

It would be better to say that the deciphering of magic formulas was nearly impossible, rather than just claiming it was progressing slowly.

Many magicians believed that a magic formula was a series of magic characters, and, in addition, it was some sort of puzzle, which was in the form of a chain made up of said characters, and that somehow invoked magic.

However, the meaning itself changes when it comes to forming a string of words.

The condition for the invocation of magic is directly related to the words that make up the formula, which materializes the desired phenomenon in accordance to the laws of physics.

(*T.N: not sure; 魔法の発動条件を言葉として文字を使い式を形成、それが魔法と云う物理法則に添う形で具現化させる事で様々な効果を生み出す。)

 But despite that, it was generally taught that the magic characters, linked one by one, caused a chain reaction, that turned mana into a physical phenomenon.

If Celestina's theory is true, then everything they've learned so far would be meaningless.

Current day spells are created by modifying and optimizing the magic from the Lost Age, but if done poorly, there's the possibility of transforming a magic that was originally easy to use into one that's a lot more difficult to use.

Actually, Celestina is already able to engrave magic formulas directly into her mind, though the invocation itself is still imperfect.

And if this theory is proven, it would be impossible to say whether it would be accepted.

Many magicians are desperately working to decipher the magic characters, even to this day, they've been repeatedly creating many spells with their own methods, sometimes they succeed, sometimes they fail.

Taking into account that long history of hardships, those magicians wouldn't accept Celestina's theory. They're all haughty, domineering, and thickheaded at the same time. In other words, it's impossible for them to put up with her flexible way of thinking.   

"H-How did you come up with such an intriguing idea?"

"As you know, I couldn't use magic. That's why I tried to figure out the reason by ama.s.sing a good amount of knowledge, but then I wondered what if, in the first place, current magic was inferior to the old one."

"I see… that's not impossible."

"All humans possess mana, but why are there so few magicians compared to the past? What if, during the development of the magic deciphering movements, the magic from the Lost Age was altered in the wrong way, and created individual differences in the invocation process?  Then, modern magic research would be going in the wrong direction."

It's not completely impossible that the magic of the Lost Age was already completely destroyed by modern magic research. As Celestina said, there's an extremely limited number of magicians in the present era. 

According to the academic literature, it's said that, in the past, most people could use magic, and that it was the foundation of their everyday lives. 

The teacher finds himself unable to respond because of the persuasiveness of her argument, and, at the same time, he realized an odd implication in her previous words.

"Celestina, you said you 'couldn't use magic', why in past tense?"

"I can use it now. In these past two months, I've trained and managed to invoke magic successfully."

"Impossible! If that's really the case… how were you able to use magic in such a short period of time?"

"I had combat training every day, and in between, I also had magic control practice. And also, I experienced actual combat?"

That's her second shocking remark.

If she had such an experience, then, naturally she would level up. And when that happens, her body would begin to optimize itself to efficiently manage its newfound power, which would lead to a considerable increase in physical ability and magic capacity.

If one is to believe her words, it would mean she continued to fight until to the point where she was able to use magic. 

It's not quite what a normal student would do on their summer vacation. 

"You seem to have done something quite absurd. There's a risk that the body will present abnormalities when you level up too fast."

"There was no time to think about that when you're at the brink of death. Because monsters attacked our camp, we had to hunt for food, and we fought continuously for about four days, with only a few hours of rest each day."

"There's no way anyone could survive such a harsh situation!"

"I'm here because I did. My brother and a knight squad were with me, you may confirm it with them if you doubt my words."

She remembers her experience trying to survive in the vast forest of Far-flung.

Because of the dangerous environment they were in, Celestina, along with the knights, inevitably had to be on high alert at all times, and for the sake of satiating their hunger, they had to hunt the monsters wandering around the forest, so their personalities ended up slightly twisted by the end of the training camp as a result.

The polite knights turned into ferocious warriors in just a few days, her revered master, Zeros mercilessly mowed down monsters, and her brother, came to realize how fun alchemy was and went crazy.

Celestina herself enjoyed raising her levels, and was happily killing monsters left and right.

"It's certainly a place made to break the human heart…"

"W-Why do your eyes look so dead…?"

"Current day magicians wouldn't be able to survive in that forest… that place… is just too harsh."

"Just how many hardships did you go through in that forest!?"

"The monsters in the depths of Far-flung are even more fierce. Even I would die if I went there right now."

It was an unimaginable situation.

The monsters in Far-flung forest grow stronger the deeper you go, the ones wandering around the outer areas can't even be compared with them.

It's nothing but h.e.l.l to keep fighting in such a place.

In addition, only knights were trained enough in close-quarters combat to fight in such situations, and it was impossible for the rest of the factions to carry out that sort of training without them.

However, the Chivalric Order and the magicians' factions were famously antagonizing each other. Neither of them were insane enough to work together with a hostile political faction. 

Only the magicians from the Solisthea faction would be able to pull off something like that.

Cold sweat ran down Séamus' spine.

He belongs to the Weissler faction, but the situation would be completely different if the Solisthea faction is conducting such a combat training for their magicians.

The Weissler faction, renowned for excelling in battle prowess, would lose relevance, and at the same time, the Solisthea faction will strengthen their ties with the Knight faction.

It's the impossible dream of all magicians' factions: to seize the control of the military.

"Does Solisthea have an experienced combat magician?"

"I don't know about that, but at least I don't intend to join any other faction. After all, they weren't the ones that helped me use magic."

"Did you get someone's guidance then? What faction are they in?"

"I can only say they're a friend of my grandfather. I don't have the authority to make that public."

A magician who was able to help Celestina didn't exist in any faction.

Nevertheless, given that she can now use magic, then there must have been someone who taught her.

It came to be rumored that there was a powerful magician in the shadows behind the Solisthea faction.

If it's an acquaintance of the notorious 'Magician of the Purgatory', then it must indeed be quite a strong magician.

That fact will create ripples through the Weissler faction, though that's a story for the future.

This other shocking remark greatly affects the surroundings. 

They were the students who hara.s.sed her and despised her for being 'incompetent'.

"Seriously… the incompetent can use magic now? What will happen now?"

"Hey… we totally made a fool of her, didn't we?"

"She's the Duke's daughter, right? Isn't this bad?"

"What should I do? I laughed at her before…"

The people who mocked her, who was born to a Duke's house but had no talent, went pale all at once.

They never directly insulted her to her face, but instead they would intentionally call her derogatory words out loud when she was around, so she could hear.

The Academy's policy was that power and status didn't matter inside it, even though it was the sort of behavior that would get them punished if it were any other student.

They opened their door to all kinds of people, giving them the opportunity to learn, but in fact, the power struggles of the factions were running rampant on the inside.

In such a situation, it didn't take long for her, who was the daughter of a Duke but had no talent in magic, to end as a human sacrifice for the factions.

They were directing their pent-up anger towards Celestina.

What will they do when that becomes impossible?

"Anyhow, that must be some sort of ploy. It should be impossible for her to be able to use magic without any problems in just two months."

"That's right, it's impossible…"

Some still deny her words.

They were the ones whose grades were at the bottom, but were making fun of Celestina who couldn't even use magic.

They remember how gloomy she used to be, but now she carries a dignified and confident countenance, unlike her past self.

The bell signifying the end of the lecture rang out as if measuring time by when the cla.s.sroom gets the most noisy.

"Well, that's it for today's lecture. Celestina, your theory was very interesting. I'm going to try to verify it on my own way."

"Is that so? Then, please let me know if you do, teacher. I'm looking forward to it."

At that time, Séamus thought that she had already managed to prove it.

The reason being that, a person who wasn't good at magic to begin with, managed to acquire the ability to use it, most likely by levelling up.

Seeing that other people had managed to succeed in getting a new ability by obtaining knowledge you don't have, it was akin to denying your past efforts.

(*T.N: not sure; 自分達の知らない何かを知り、それを得た事で実力を伸ばす事に成功したと思わねば、今までの自分を否定される事に繋がる。)

As a magic teacher, that's something he can't let slide.

Although he couldn't say whether it was true or not, an anxiety he hadn't felt before was beginning to rise within Séamus.

It's the anxiety that the common sense of the magic he was taught and took for granted, would collapse silently.

—

In the end, the lecturer, Séamus never demonstrated Celestina's hypothesis.

The idea of developing a method of magic deciphering that considers using magic characters to form words, denies all modern research. And at the same time, to embark on that task would mean to have to start investigating from scratch, as well as the period from before the funding of the Academy.

He didn't want to set on such a troublesome endeavor because he treasured his stable salary. He doesn't know what the consequences might be like. 

The Academy doesn't teach only magic.

There is a wide range of disciplines, ranging from national history and literature, to mathematics and pharmacology. 

Such lectures are taken according to the students' own interest, in other words, if they're not interested, they don't have to attend.

It's an environment similar to the lectures of modern universities, but with the drawback of, if you miss one of the sessions, you won't be able to understand the rest.

Celestina's curriculum was mainly made up of magic and physics, and from the start of the new academic semester, she took alchemy.

And so, the days of studying the contents of the lectures beforehand continued.

During that time, there was no one she could talk to, and she felt like everyone was sending her glances full of interest and fear.

The former are interested in what kind of magic Celestina uses, the latter are afraid of being accused of ridiculing her and being punished, now that she can use magic, and finally, there's a small portion of the students that see her almost like a traitor. 

These are the students who held the lowest level of academic ability, commonly known as "the dropouts".

Though there's no real reason to call her one, from their point of view, Celestina, who couldn't use magic, made them feel better about their own inability. 

Their distorted thoughts, such as 'at least I can use magic unlike her' or 'she might be a bit smart, but she's disappointingly useless when it comes to magic, so I'm better than her', served as the final breakwater for them.

Without that, they, who were already being scorned, wouldn't be able to stay sane much longer in this Academy, where the power struggle of the factions run rampant.

Nevertheless, they only despise her unilaterally, in reality, it's not as if she did betray them.

And thus, the time for the next lecture came, whether the students were eagerly waiting for it or not.

It's magic invocation practice.

Students gathered on the training ground.

For them, it's a boring lecture that basically consists of shooting magic for almost an hour straight. 

It's a training that measures how much the student's mana is consumed by invoking magic, though it's just continuously shooting magic. In a real battlefield, however, they'll be at the mercy of the enemy as soon as their mana gets depleted.

Even if there's some little mana remaining by the end, it's useless if you can't strike down the enemy in front of you.

It was a training in name only, it didn't take into account actual combat.

How to properly manage your mana reserves should be the lecture's topic, but in actuality, it was a place for the students to release their stress.

The spell they use is the initial magic 〖Fireball〗, whose power is determined by the user's total amount of mana.

The notion of taking and using the mana from nature has been lost in the present time, so they rely exclusively on the mana within their own bodies to cast magic. 

As the number of times one runs out of magic increases, there might be people who learn 【Mana Control】 and 【Mana Consumption Reduction】, but at best, their mana reserves will be slightly increased, because and most importantly, they don't have any experience in consciously practicing magic control, so they'll never learn the skills.

Incidentally, 【Mana Increase】is a skill that people rarely obtain, though Celestina already had it.

The training under the suspicious-looking uncle was an extremely harsh but fun time.

"Haah…"

Celestina heaves a sigh.

"You don't seem very motivated, young lady…"

"It was more fun to fight against the Golems. It was a kind of training that pushed you, both physically and mentally, and you could easily see how much you were improving."

"That sounds like the opposite of fun though?"

"It's training, so of course it has to be serious, but considering there's almost zero risk to your life, it's almost the same as just playing around."

While feeling a sense of relief in her master's change, Misuka sighs in the same way as her.

It looks like there really is nothing she can learn from the Academy. 

"But, there's a huge amount of information at this Academy. I want to acquire as much information as I can."

"'The physical laws of this world', right? What Zeros-dono was talking about earlier for your a.s.signment."

"Well, it's important to understand the physical phenomenon in the construction of a spell. It can be read from the magic formula, but it's still too vague, and if I manage to compare it against the physical law in question, I might get to understand the rationale behind the invocation of any magic."

She could read a bit of a magic formula, but it wasn't enough to create a new magic. 

Seeking knowledge was currently her top priority, so she would've liked to be spared from playing around in this poor excuse of a lecture.

In a sense, it could be said that the times when she wasn't practicing magic were just as valuable.

—

And she sighed once again for the umpteen time this day.

"Oh my, Isn't it Celestinsan? So you were still in this Academy."

In front of her was another cause of her headaches. 

The voice that called out to her belonged to a girl with blonde ringlets, Christine Ledoux Saint-Germain. She was the daughter of the Marquis of Saint-Germain, leader of the h.o.m.onymous faction, as well as the Magic Research faction. 

She is one of the few people who would actually talk to Celestina. 

"Christine-san, it's good to see you again."

(*T.N: Celestina is talking with a polite speech while Christine isn't. It's just somewhat hard to translate that nuance into English without sounding overly stiff.)

"Hee, yes, it's been a while. But, how rare, I haven't seen you taking this lecture before."

"Oh, was it really a lecture? It looks more like just playing around to me. There's nothing to learn from it."

"Is that so? By the way, I heard you could use magic now. So, how did you do it?"

"Do you really want me to tell you?"

"Indeed, please tell me. I'm sooo curious I won't be able to sleep at night!"

Celestina wasn't good at dealing with her.

She's not a hateful person, but for some reason, she seems to be overly concerned about Celestina.

Furthermore, as a result, the surrounding people didn't even try to hide their scornful words.

She's not aware of it, and she's not a bad girl, so Celestina couldn't treat her coldly.

In short, she was a troublesome person.

"A three hours training session fighting against a group of Mud Golems, it's possible to train both your mind and body at the same time… but, I wouldn't recommend it."

"…… T-That sounds quite fierce. And, how did you get that many Golems?"

(*T.N: she uses 'desuwa' as her sentence-ending catchword. It sounds kinda cringe in english, but I wanted you guys to know that she talks like the stereotypical ojou-sama.)

"A magician who's an acquaintance of my grandfather could use the spell 〖Create Golem〗. Not only is he strong, but he could control the Golems' movements with pinpoint accuracy so we wouldn't get a serious injury."

"I haven't heard of such a magician. Is he perhaps your 'mentor'?"

"He's more than just a powerful person. We met by chance when we were returning home from the Academy and were attacked by bandits. After that, he spent his time teaching me the basics for two months."

The presence of a magician with  tremendous ability. 

Christine was genuinely amazed.

"And where is this person now? I'd love to meet him."

"It's unfortunate, but by the end of the summer vacations, he most likely left again… he is not seeking for power, after all."

"Wonderful, it's really wonderful! So there were still real magicians in this world!"

The Saint-Germain faction l.u.s.ts for power for the sake of obtaining more research funds.

They figured that the reason behind the stagnation of magic research was that there weren't many excellent magicians, so they took action to increase their own influence, and headhunt talented magicians in each country.

And in fact, there was an overwhelming amount of magicians who turned to alchemy for an easy way to make money.

Nonetheless, the Saint-Germain faction was known for being research-oriented, counting with many scholars investigating a wide variety of topics.

Knowing the existence of such Great Sage, she would, without a doubt, try to headhunt Zeros, thus, for the sake of her mentor*, who just wanted to live a peaceful life, she told her a bit of a white lie.

(*T.N: the word used here, and above by Christine, is 師[shi], it means teacher, mentor or expert, but it's different from how Zeros was called before[with sensei and shishou]. In fact, almost every word I found that referred to being a teacher and/or expert in something, had that kanji but it doesn't usually go alone. Maybe there's a nuance I'm missing here.)

Though it seems like her family's tendencies were also present in Christine herself.

Most of all, she has a strong fascination for the great sages of old.

(I can't say that my mentor is a Great Sage, if I do, she'll surely do everything in her power to meet with him, even if I refuse, I feel like she'll totally ditch school to go see him.)

She puts effort on the most pointless things.

"Next! Celestina von Solisthea."

Celestina returns to reality with the teacher's words. Apparently it was her turn now.

"Alright. Here I go."

"Please don't overdo it, young lady."

She heads towards the place she was told with unwilling steps.

"Can you really use magic, Celestinsan? Honestly, it feels the same as before."

"You can tell just by looking. The young lady is even physically stronger than the average male."

"By the way, why is your maid, Misuka, here? Shouldn't the maids stay in the dormitories?"

"I'm a graduate from this Academy."

Misuka's excuse wasn't really a valid reason.

It's not alright for maids to wander around the Academy as they like, though she seemed totally unapologetic.

As the surroundings' gazes gather on her, Celestina measures the distance to the target.

The target is an alloy of mithril and damascus ore, engraved with a magic formula, making it resistant to magic.

Because the target wouldn't be easily destroyed, the purpose of this training was to measure the accuracy and power of the students' magic. 

"Alright. Here I go."

A small fireball was generated from Celestina's palm. It looks to be much smaller than the rest of the students'.

Those who saw immediately snickered at her.

But the teacher was astonished in a different sense.

Celestina was invoking magic without chanting. 

"Fire."

A flash of light is shot towards the armored target.

The ultra high-speed fireball hits and penetrates the armor, melting it with its high heat.

With an explosion, the target is blown to pieces.

Even with a spell like fireball, the amount of heat and power will rise as it's further compressed, and so, when it hits the target and explodes, the destructive power jumps exponentially compared to its regular-sized counterpart.

Though the magic formula itself is practically the same as the other students', the combination of the 【Mana Control】 and 【Magic Manipulation】 skills, makes the power output of her fireball, leagues above their own.

All things considered, Celestina's spell was optimized by Zeros, and it's comparable to the magic of the old era.

Its mana consumption is low while its power is high, so in a sense, she might have a cheat?

"W-What was that!?!?"

"Impossible, what's with that power!?"

"Wasn't it the same magic!? Wasn't she an incompetent!?"

The training ground quickly became noisy.

The reinforced, magic-resistant target being blown to smithereens is something that has never happened before. Moreover, the one who did it, was the girl known as 'incompetent'.

On that day, she came to be known as the Academy's 'genius girl'.

However, such a t.i.tle has no meaning to her. 

Because the back of her mentor is at a distance much, much far away…