Chapter 23
Cynthia began to question if she might have misinterpreted what she saw firsthand.
On the first day of school, when Ryu and Kane Hover clashed, she clearly remembered Kane unleashing a firebird at Ryu with lethal intent, and Ryu somehow neutralizing that firebird in “some way.”
After all, the firebird Kane Hover unleashed that day didn’t show any signs of breaking apart due to poor mana control, as Ryu had suggested.
‘Was it really just a mistake in mana control by Kane Hover…?’
“Ugh… How do you manage to do this so easily?”
“…As a knight, I believe one should speak through their sword.”
“No, no! That’s not what I mean… I think the circuit design here is wrong…!”
Cynthia watched Ryu, who seemed unable to keep up with the pace of the lesson, and seriously began to wonder if what she had witnessed that day had been a misinterpretation.
If Ryu was purposely pretending to struggle with mana handling right now, she was certainly falling for it.
It had already been several days, and he still couldn’t get past the same part.
“…At this point, I’m honestly curious.”
“Hm?”
“How did you score over 300 on the entrance exam…?”
“Hey, that’s different from this. I’m more of a hands-on type, you know.”
“No matter how you put it, it still doesn’t make sense that you can’t manage such basic magic.”
“…Ugh.”
Cynthia sighed quietly as she watched Ryu press his lips together, trying to focus with his eyes closed.
The spell Ryu was struggling to cast wasn’t anything special.
Even a non-mage could cast it with a little effort if they knew how to handle mana—a simple protective spell.
Cynthia, who was also not confident with magic or theory, had managed to learn it in just a few days, so it wasn’t particularly difficult, at least compared to more complex magical formulas.
Of course, it was simpler only relative to other magical equations, but given that “magic” itself was complex, it wasn’t exactly easy either. Still, she hadn’t expected him to struggle this much.
“Ooh! Is this the right feeling?”
“Yes, but… you need to extend the circuit downward and spread it out fully to make it more stable…”
Sigh.
Once again, Ryu’s attempt resulted in a half-formed spell.
A protective shield materialized faintly around his upper body, but below his waist, it faded out.
‘So was what I saw that day not actually magic? Or did I really misinterpret it…?’
Cynthia looked at Ryu, who was still struggling, and at Emily, who was patiently teaching him, then gave up and went to sit in a corner of the training ground.
It had already been a week since the official announcement about the Academy Tournament was released.
With the tournament schedule suddenly moved up, Cynthia and the other first-year representatives had been following a grueling routine every day.
In the morning, they attended lectures like all the other students, and in the afternoon, they gathered in the training ground with Professor Amilion for what was essentially personal training disguised as a lecture.
Although there were only two aspiring mages in the group, Professor Amilion insisted from the first day that everyone should know basic magic, so she taught everyone the spell.
At first, Cynthia thought this approach might be too mage-focused, but she found that the protective spell was quite useful even for a non-mage like herself.
With the shield up, she could ignore minor impacts from outside and focus solely on drawing her bowstring.
“Ryu seems better suited to being a knight than a mage.”
“Yes, I completely agree.”
“To think he’s even trying to learn magic…”
Cynthia, who was watching Ryu like her, turned to Elaine, who had come over and sat beside her, and suddenly felt curious.
Why did Elaine look so favorably upon Ryu?
Come to think of it, she hadn’t actually seen Ryu complete the Golem Hit test during the entrance exam, nor had there been any connections between Ryu, a commoner, and Elaine, a member of the Sinclair family, before the exam.
“So, Elaine.”
“Yes?”
“What makes you trust Ryu so much? I mean, it’s not like you actually saw him during the Golem Hit test, right?”
Cynthia thought the question might be overdue, but she was genuinely curious.
After spending several days with Elaine, Cynthia had come to realize that Elaine seemed to trust Ryu almost excessively.
Unlike her, who had actually seen Ryu pull off something extraordinary when he clashed with Kane Hover, Elaine wasn’t even there that day.
Yet Elaine never doubted Ryu’s abilities.
“Oh, Ryu saved me once.”
“Huh? When?”
“On the day of the entrance exam. Some people tried to attack me, but Ryu stepped in and dealt with them.”
“Wait, what? Are you saying some crazy people actually attacked a Sinclair? I didn’t hear anything about that!”
“You probably wouldn’t. We made sure to keep it quiet on our end.”
“No way… Did you find out who was behind it?”
“No.”
Though Elaine was smiling as she said “no,” Cynthia thought there was a hint of sadness in her eyes.
Elaine, who wore a sad smile for a moment, soon changed her expression and continued.
“But that day, just from seeing Ryu’s movements, I knew. He’s far more skilled than I am.”
“Ah…”
Cynthia didn’t know how to respond to Elaine’s unexpectedly serious answer, so she simply nodded along.
It was a much more serious story than she had anticipated.
‘So, it seems I didn’t see it wrong after all…’
After hearing Elaine’s words, Ryu, who was up front struggling to rearrange his mana circuits, came into view once again.
Is he really just pretending?
***
Sigh.
“Addy.”
“Yes?”
“I guess I really don’t have any talent for magic.”
“Why would you suddenly think that? I told you before, didn’t I? Commander, you don’t exactly have a knack for magic.”
“…Hey, could you be a bit nicer?”
Addy gave me a cold response to my whiny complaint.
Life at the Academy was tougher than I’d expected and wasn’t exactly enjoyable.
I’d thought I’d be reliving my college days, but here they were, planning to put me through a so-called “Academy Tournament,” which was really just a disguised skill test. Every day was one-on-one lessons with a professor.
Instead of the Academy life I was looking forward to, it was just endless classes, training, and more classes—a bit like being at a military boot camp.
And on top of that, Professor Amilion, while teaching magic, had handed out sheets filled with formulas that I couldn’t understand in the slightest and told me to try casting spells.
One of the reasons I chose “Mage” as my class was so I wouldn’t have to study this kind of thing…
“By the way, I told you to keep a low profile, but you seem to have become quite famous.”
“Me? Ah, yeah, I guess so.”
“Honestly, couldn’t you have toned it down a bit?”
“… If you keep poking at me like this, I’ll get sad. I already had enough criticism today.”
Emily’s words from earlier came to mind.
“Wow, how can someone be this bad?” she muttered softly, marveling at my lack of skill with pure surprise, not malice.
“Anyway, since it’s been a while, I’ll give you a quick report. First, here’s 50 million gold. Collected, as promised.”
“Oh!”
That was definitely good news.
It seemed the hourglass we acquired on a recent operation with Erica had finally been converted into 50 million gold.
Even Addy was smiling as she spoke, clearly pleased.
“And Erica has returned. She said she’ll be taking a well-deserved break after the big operation.”
“Right, she deserves it.”
“And it seems Jacqueline will be back soon as well.”
“Huh? Really?”
“Yes. She didn’t give too many details, but she sent a message saying, ‘The training is sufficient,’ and that she’ll be returning soon…”
“Hmm, well, alright. When she arrives, assign her a suitable mission.”
“Understood. Other than that… nothing much to report.”
Apart from the fact that Jacqueline was coming back sooner than expected, there wasn’t much news.
Jacqueline, captain of the 3rd Squad of the Black Shadow Corps, had gone to the northern continent with her subordinates to train and improve their skills.
There was supposed to be an Academy trip to the northern continent soon, for a combined study tour and monster subjugation event, so I’d planned to meet her then. Looks like she’ll be back sooner.
“It seems things run smoothly without me.”
“I’ve been telling you that for ages. So could you increase my salary a bit? I have so much work to do.”
“… Addy, you seem to have a lot of complaints today.”
“Me?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, for someone who just received 50 million gold, you’re being quite stingy.”
“What? Stingy?”
“Never mind.”
Addy sighed dramatically, then tapped the papers on the desk as she organized them, making a bit of noise.
The fact that she was openly expressing her complaints like this meant she really must have been busy recently.
“Well… take some if we have money left over.”
“… Really?”
“Yeah, just consider it a small bonus.”
“Heh, alright. Oh, and here.”
Addy, now wearing an even broader smile as if she’d achieved her goal, took a neatly folded sheet of paper from her pocket and handed it to me.
“What’s this?”
“A kind of gift for you, Commander, for all your hard work. The Academy Tournament is starting next week, isn’t it?”
“And?”
“You’ll understand when you see it. Just make sure it doesn’t get leaked outside—it’s classified information.”
“If you’re saying that, then…”
“Alright, I’ll take my leave now.”
With a rare, bright smile, Addy left my office. I waved her off, then unfolded the paper she’d handed me.
“Huh, what’s this?”
Where on earth did she manage to get this?
—
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