Chapter 100: School Life (part one)
At last, the morning of the first day of school arrived.
Tirnanog and I got out of the bed and prepared the preliminary arrangements for guarding Beatrice.
First of all, Tirnanog took off his armor and put it on the body of the golem made in advance.
I used a Scroll of Invisibility I bought beforehand on Tirnanog to keep him transparent.
With this, he can’t be seen by either naked eye or Glam Sight, and when he transforms, he would become a perfect escort who can be hidden in any location.
Even if one realizes that I’m not bringing along my golem as usual, I will say that it is under adjustment.
Even if one sees my room, it’s perfect as there is the body double golem.
“I’m counting on you, Tir.”
『Leave it to me.』
“In the unlikely event that a mysterious and powerful monsto comes out, protect her even if you have to carry her off.”
『Kukuku, at that time I will reveal my true ability.』
I saw Tirnanog off and had breakfast.
After that, I joined Tricia who was waiting at the entrance hall inside the dorm.
First, we headed for the Ignitia-style chapel for the morning prayer.
The person in charge of the scripture reading of morning prayer is Auguste.
All the female students are listening to Auguste’s recitation with spellbound expression.
In actuality, his recitation is easy to listen to as his intonation and articulation are clear.
Next to Auguste are Klaus and Harold.
Harold seems to be incorporated as a new member of the Dynameis.
It is a hard work from the morning of the first day of class.
If I hadn’t used Harold as a shield, it might have been me who were there.
If so, it would be rather frightening.
After the morning prayer, I headed for the Elementary Summoning Magic classroom.
“Let’s meet up at lunch, Tricia-san.”
“Yes, Erica-sama. I will join you at the dining hall.”
After saying farewell to Tricia who has a different schedule in front of the school building, I walked to the classroom alone.
The main school building has a large inner courtyard.
Therefore, the central corridor circling that courtyard felt very long.
The corridor made of beeswax stones’ architectural style reminded of a forest .
Its beauty felt like Hafan’s cultural sphere which was cultivated deep in the forest.
There is also the influence of the built-in Ignitia-style which takes in more light, it seems to be a sanctuary of a pure forest.
After a while, I arrived at the intended classroom.
It seems that the person in charge of the Elementary Summoning Magic hasn’t arrived at the classroom yet.
When I looked around the classroom, there were surprisingly few students from Hafan.
Two people who were showing their notes in the front row and the group of five people to the side at the seats near a window.
They were playing with a mouse familiar spirit placed on top of the desk with a quill.
If they were high-ranking mages to a certain extent, they would have skipped this elementary class and take lessons in the more advanced class.
I sat at the end of the row, opened my textbook and looked around the classroom.
Then, Chloe and Beatrice entered the classroom with a small jog and sat on the front row seat.
The transparent Tirnanog is probably waiting somewhere in this room.
It was Auguste who came in next.
Oh?
I wonder why Auguste who is a third year is in here, I thought that, but that being said, Elementary Summoning Magic is not a first year-only class.
When I looked around the classroom, there seemed to be some senior students like him.
When I was thinking about such things, our eyes met.
Auguste looked very happy when his eyes met mine.
He walked straight to the back of the classroom and sat down next to me.
“Erica is also taking this lesson, huh?”
“Yes, I heard from my brother that magic classes will also make for good training in using scrolls, so I want to try it.”
“So that’s the reason, huh~ I see. What does Erica want to summon?”
“If I can master it, I want to buy a magical beast for protection……”
To tell the truth, this is a lesson that I chose with an ulterior motive; I was hoping that I could summon Tirnanog and Palug.
If I can summon both of them who are working on different tasks during emergency, wouldn’t that become the strongest security?
If I can say “summon the philosopher’s stone” or “summon an angel”, that will be kind of cool.
“—Students, it’s time.”
Suddenly, Brad’s voice was heard.
When I turned my head, Brad was standing on the teacher’s platform unnoticed.
The noisy classroom quickly calmed down.
“In this class you will learn elementary summoning magic lessons. If you read about the history of Lindis, you might know that summoning magic was the reason this magic academy was established.”
Speaking of which, the original Lindis was the place where the dragon knights learned magic.
Certainly, if dragon knights can use the summoning magic, they will be able to give a quick response when there is an emergency.
“Among the students who wanted to master the summoning magic, we chose only those with high proficiency in magical power conversion. That’s all of you. First of all, congratulations.”
Magical power conversion is the mages’ technique to convert external magical power into internal magical power.
By doing this, unlike the internal magical power that naturally generates in the human body, a versatile internal magical power that can build a wide variety of magic can be obtained.
I also spent about an hour everyday after the Knot Reed’s case to train my magical power conversion.
At first, I exercised my body and sense through abdominal breathing and meditation.
After getting accustomed to magical power conversion, the time spent purely on training it as well as the amount of magical power converted affected the growth.
I feel somewhat happy that my laborious training was rewarded.
“All of you are recognized as qualified to touch on the essential techniques of the summoning magic. Take it seriously and study it with caution, don’t ever make light of this lesson just because it is elementary.”
Brad finished his words with a calm and carrying voice.
Brad picked up a textbook and opened a bookmarked page.
From inside the classroom, I could hear the faint sounds of pages being turned.
It was the beginning of the first lesson at the magic academy.
“Now then, what kind of technique is ‘summoning magic’? How you perceive it is important. First of all, let me ask you……Erica Aurelia.”
All of a sudden, my name was called.
Even though I chose to sit at the back so as not to be conspicuous.
“Y-yes……”
“You are someone who gained the qualification to take this lesson despite being the daughter of the head of the alchemists. Of course, you must be able to answer this without any difficulty.”
Brad added such words while staring at me with sharp eyes.
I feel that he was casually raising my hurdles.
I recalled my memories of the textbook, which I had looked over roughly yesterday.
I remembered what kind of spell it was, but I can’t remember the details.
I was flustered trying to answer, but the memories didn’t stick because I was only skimming.
(Aah, I should have chosen a magic lesson that seems to be easier.)
When I was bewildered, Auguste kept his line of sight towards the teacher’s platform and brought a casually opened notes over to me.
Looking at the passage indicated by Auguste’s tapping finger, the general definition of summoning magic was written there.
(Y-you’re like a Buddha in Hell, Auguste-sama……!)
I read it while thanking Auguste in my mind.
“The substance theory of summoning magic divides it into two types of magic. Mutation magic that creates a spirit which takes a temporary form, and a transition magic regarding magical beasts and phantom beasts.”
“Very good. It’s an exemplary interpretation.”
When I returned an answer that seemed to have been copied from the textbook, Brad nodded without changing his expression.
Dangerous. I assumed that it was only a transitional magic.
But now that I think about it, there seems to have been some spells mentioned in the textbook that did not seem to belong to that system.
Between the combination of spirit and mutation magic, and the sub-category of transition magic, the range covered is too different.
“Summoning magic consists of two different magics of completely different systems. They are the same in terms of magical manifestation of some existence which was not originally present, but we must always be conscious of the fact that the process to follow can be completely different.”
Then, Brad put a stick on the desk.
It was about the length of a wand, but it was a plain and ordinary stick.
“Watch this.”
In accordance with Brad’s chant, light particles gathered on the stick.
When the light gradually took on a form of an organism, it slowly covered the stick.
The moment when the contour of the light and the stick completely overlapped, the scenery around the stick shimmered like heat haze.
At that moment, the thing which was only a stick a while ago started to wriggle.
I heard the sound of hitched breaths from the quiet classroom.
There was a snake with smooth and glistening gray scales.
The gray snake hissed ferociously, fell of the desk and began to crawl around the classroom floor.
When the snake came near the feet of the students sitting in the front row, Beatrice screamed a little and drew her whole body back.
But the snake was snatched by Chloe before it could come near Beatrice.
It happened in the blink of an eye.
I don’t know what Chloe was thinking, she looked at the snake with a somewhat drowsy look.
The class exhaled relieved sighs.
But, also in that brief interval of time, Chloe threw the snake to Brad, so tension ran through the room once again.
Brad caught the snake without moving an eyebrow.
In his hand, the snake returned to its original stick form.
Chloe who was taking her seat with a yawn, exchanged words with the still teary eyed Beatrice.
When Brad put the stick on the desk without feeling concerned, he began to explain indiscreetly.
“On the day after tomorrow, at this time, you will use spirit mutation magic, from stick to snake. For the time being, I think I will have you learn the theory today so that you can practice the spell smoothly.”
Brad looked around the classroom while pressing the bridge part of his glasses with his middle finger.
“How does the spell on the stick manifest into snake……now then, who shall I ask?”
Some students raised their hands.
They were students who seem to be from Hafan, mostly from their black hair.
Brad looked around and called the girl who didn’t seem to be the most confident among them.
“Well, Beatrice Glaw. Please answer.”
“Y-yes……f-first of all, it creates a spirit in the form of a snake in the magical layer. Next, it materializes by overwriting the form of the stick in the physical layer and opening the path for the spirit of the snake, I, I think that’s it.”
Beatrice answered briefly.
Giggles echoed from somewhere in the classroom.
When I looked around, the group of black-haired students who were raising their hands earlier were huddling with each other for some reason.
Somehow, I have a bad premonition.
Speaking of which, in the game there was an event of Beatrice being bullied.
It was supposed to be solved by Chloe and Harold in the original game, but is this okay?
“Well done. That is correct.”
On the other hand, Brad was nodding in satisfaction with Beatrice’s answer.
Apparently, Beatrice seems to have sufficient knowledge as a mage.
The Earl House of Wynt who is going to take her in is a famous noble family of mages.
They are unusual even in Hafan, they are a family to study future vision, past vision and causal interference magic.
Although Beatrice descended from the Wynt family, she came from the commoners.
Despite this, she is undoubtedly excellent enough to be selected as their successor from among many people.
While I was looking at Beatrice and Chloe, the lesson continued.
“Then, the smallest composition of spells that, at a minimum, make Stick To Snake executable—Roald Llan.”
“Yes, Temporal Circulation, Soften, and Awaken.”
“That’s correct. Next, add terms to unite these three spells, Auguste.”
“Quod, Tu, Repo, Aperio.”
“Good work. Now then, incorporating everything mentioned just now, such spells will be built in the magical layer.”
Brad wrote a schematic diagram of a complex spell structure.
In just a brief of time the schematic was completed, and Brad added notes with a different colored chalk.
I started to copy those notes in my notebook.
It included casually important points not written in the textbook.
From the classroom, I could hear the sounds of quills running through the pages.
“But, this snake will die in less than a few minutes. Why is that, Zemus Danpierre.”
“Umm, is it because it cannot breathe?”
“Your lesson preparation seems inadequate, but your insight is good. When planning for long time activities, it is necessary to add temporary respiration and other things. However, according to the additional spells, the terms necessary for uniting them also tend to change and increase……”
Giving a backward glance towards the students who haven’t caught up with the writing on the blackboard, Brad kept on explaining and questioning rapidly.
Finally, the first schematic drawing was erased because the blackboard was full.
A small scream came up from somewhere in the classroom.
I’m just barely safe, but I cannot be careless at all.
Since I might get asked at this timing, I can’t be negligent about the writing on the blackboard nor the questions.
“Now then, these composition of spells will be written on scrolls, in the case of dragon knights and the others who are learning the art. Because it contains multiple spells, as a precaution to not incorrectly activate it with a single spell—”
Although the writing on the blackboard became increasingly complicated, the pace of Brad’s lesson didn’t slow down at all.
Uwah, what’s with this amount.
Far from going through my textbook, my own preparatory notebook was full with the essential lesson.
The students with whom I hadn’t been acquainted with and I, all had a blue face.
Stealing a glance at Auguste, he was checking the notes he had prepared beforehand with a nonchalant air.
While he seems to have a carefree genius temperament, as expected he is an honest and hardworking person
From now on, I will also make preparatory notes diligently.