[20] Learning Magic (3)
"How cold is it right now, Shirone?"
Shiina asked, already assuming Shirone leaned toward the cold side.
As expected, Shirone gave the answer she wanted.
"It's quite cold. No—cold enough that you can feel a chill."
In Exam Hall Three you couldn't feel more than a chill anyway. Shiina nodded as if in understanding and wrote her overall evaluation.
The gist was this: convergent in type, defensive, and possessing excellent durability. Still, the zone's size was abnormally large.
Shiina wondered if cases like this existed. In over four years as a teacher, she had rarely seen someone whose temperament showed the exact opposite trait of their mental disposition.
But this was the inevitable result of Shirone's focused choices. Just as he had buried himself in history books to compensate for shallow knowledge, he had repeated nothing but Spirit Zone practice in an environment where magic study was impossible—and that single-minded training had given him this outstanding foundation.
"Good work. You can come out of the Spirit Zone now. We need to meet to decide a class assignment, so could you wait outside for a bit?"
"Yes. Thank you."
Shirone bowed and walked out of the Spirit Zone toward the cluster of children waiting outside.
As the exam hall doors closed, the teachers began voicing their opinions one after another.
"A very unusual student, huh."
Saad retorted as if displeased.
"Unusual? Isn't it more like a very well-balanced profile?" Shiina said.
"It's unusual because the balance is too perfect. An eighteen-year-old boy who doesn't know magic has a zone over thirty meters in diameter. And he's convergent in tendency, too."
"The larger a zone gets, the lower the density tends to be. Yet this student's density is 86.7 percent."
"We do teach students techniques to raise density, but he achieved this with only his own ability. 86.7 percent—that's the mental stability of a high ascetic training on a mountain."
The teachers' praise made Saad even more irritable. Magic was a realm of talent, and most mages had strong pride. They were easily subject to jealousy, even toward their students.
"It's still just a student level. We should wait and see more."
"What do you mean, 'student level'? This is a school where students come to learn."
Shiina's cold voice flushed Saad's face. Had her features not been so pretty, he might not have tolerated such an insult.
Seeing the argument about to devolve into a shouting match, the other professors fell silent. Saad, a fire mage, and Shiina, a frost mage, were a famously hostile pair even within the school.
Alpheas asked, "So where should we place him? I mean Shirone."
Shiina spoke first. "Class Five would be appropriate, I think. He has high potential and a peculiar tendency; he needs focused management."
Saad objected. "But he doesn't know any magic. Put him in Class Five and he might get cocky and cause trouble."
"Not every student will turn out like you, Saad."
Saad narrowed his eyes and rose.
"Shiina! There is a limit to my patience! Honestly, you want to take him under your wing, don't you? You're the Class Five homeroom teacher!"
"And what of that? What's wrong with a teacher wanting to guide a student?"
"You're being overly greedy. He doesn't know magic, and his zone is at a level where transformation is impossible. Even if we're generous, Class Seven would be fitting."
Alpheas turned to the other teachers for opinions. One suggested starting him carefully from Class Ten, another recommended holding off on placement for a while.
An owl-like teacher proposed a compromise.
"I think Class Seven is suitable. Given his age, sending him to the beginner class might sap his motivation, and Class Seven includes basic Spirit Zone instruction. If Shirone truly shows talent, we can promote him early."
Alpheas agreed. To perfect Shirone's half-formed talents, bolstering the basics was necessary.
"Very well. We'll assign him accordingly."
The entrance examinations concluded.
* * *
Assigned to Class Seven, Shirone was able to take a room in the upper-class dormitory where his peers lived.
Surprisingly, it was a private room. Since nobles attended the school, they provided as much comfort as possible.
Shirone's room was Room 707 in the boys' dormitory.
Modest for a noble, but the size of the living room of the hut where Shirone had lived. A bookshelf lined one wall—of course, empty.
The staff member who showed him the room gave simple instructions. Classes ended at five in the afternoon; after that was free time.
Except on weekends, leaving campus was prohibited, but the grounds were so vast most facilities were provided on campus.
You could form study clubs in areas of interest, and if enough members gathered, the school would supply funding.
The libraries—north, south, east, and west—were open twenty-four hours, and as long as you observed return deadlines, there were few restrictions on how many books you could borrow.
Shirone was satisfied. It was an ideal environment for study.
The staff member finished with prohibitions. Outside of laboratories, the use of magic after hours was strictly forbidden. In particular, researching heterodox magic could lead to disciplinary action.
Representative heterodox practices included necromancers' soul arts, and some of them even involved anti-magic.
Shirone asked why anti-magic was prohibited, but the staffer only shrugged and left.
Shirone lay on the bed and thought. He had nothing to study at the moment, so joining a club wasn't necessary for now.
'I should hit the libraries. I spent two years just on history; now it's time to broaden my knowledge.'
He was confident. Wasn't the backbone of knowledge he'd built by restraining his curiosity? Now all that remained was to master every field of knowledge in the world.
* * *
Piano practice woke Shirone. The sound had been spread through ether resonance, a kind of sound magic. It was pleasant, though not up to Reina's skill.
He missed her already. Was Reina doing well? Was Rian waiting for his first class with the same fluttering feeling?
Unlike the strictly separated dorms, the dining hall was the only place where men and women could sit together.
Shirone took a seat in a corner and ate alone.
He'd once been teased by the kids in his old village for being shy like this, but here students didn't care how someone ate.
There was one exception: matters between the sexes. Whenever a pretty or handsome student entered, everyone turned to look.
Being new and handsome made Shirone the center of many girls' attention.
Finishing his meal as if fleeing from the girls' whispering, Shirone returned to his room and packed his books according to his timetable.
His shoulders ached under the weight. Class Seven was still an upper-level class, and there was a staggering amount to learn.
The classes were difficult. Compared to nobles who prepared thoroughly, Shirone's knowledge was limited.
But thanks to the backbone of knowledge he'd built, which let him absorb shallow but wide-ranging facts, he could keep up to some extent.
If theory was taught in the morning, practice came in the afternoon. The upper classes proceeded with integrated Spirit Zone training.
Two hundred eighty students gathering in the training ground, dividing into seniors and juniors, was a spectacular sight to Shirone.
"Senpai, thanks to what you taught me last time, I did well on the exam. Thank you."
"Senpai, over here! I saved a seat for you!"
Without anyone he knew, Shirone watched how the students acted. It wasn't uncommon to see older students bowing their heads to younger ones.
Whether publicly recognized or not, in society rank determined position, so here too the barrier between senior and junior was strict according to skill.
It was, in other words, a miniature of the magical society.
Of course, yesterday's junior could become today's senior, but no senior avoided treating juniors firmly out of fear of such reversals.
On the contrary, they boldly displayed their status as if daring others to catch up.
Admission to the Magic Academy itself was proof of talent. In a place where such people gathered to compete, promotion was brutally difficult, and once a gap opened, catching up was nearly impossible.
The Spirit Zone teacher was Etella, a certified Grade-6 mage. She looked to be in her mid-twenties—brown hair tied back, large glasses, and such a gentle face that you wouldn't immediately think "mage."
"Before we start, we have some new students. Shirone, stand and introduce yourself."
Countless eyes turned to Shirone. Amy was among them.
"Oh! Isn't he the kid from yesterday? His name must be Shirone."
Amy's friend Seriel fluttered excitedly. Amy didn't answer. The face seemed familiar, but she couldn't place it.
"Hey! Senpai, do you know him?"
"A new freshman who was placed directly into Class Seven, I hear. The teachers say he's got tremendous talent."
"Really? I like that. Wonder what house he's from. Do you know his family name?"
"Darn it!"
Amy suddenly shouted. Seriel looked at her in surprise. She had never heard such a crude exclamation from Amy before.
"Amy, what's wrong?"
"Huh? Oh, nothing. It's nothing."
"Tremendous talent. A noble family's son." Those two keywords had awakened her memory.
He was the boy she'd met in a back alley six years ago.
'He did have talent. But he was clearly a commoner. No, even among commoners, he was lowest class. So how is he here?'
Shirone introduced himself in a calm voice.
"Hello. I'm Shirone Arian. I'll be joining Class Seven. Please take care of me."
The students welcomed him with applause. Seniors were pleased to have juniors; girls were thrilled because a handsome boy had arrived.
But some looked on with resentment—the justified hostility of someone who saw a future rival.
After the new students' introductions, Etella began the lesson.
"All right. What is a Spirit Zone?"
"A mage's mind," came a voice.
"That's right. A Spirit Zone is the mage's spirit manifested into form. The initial form is a sphere—that's what concentration is. But the basic form alone is inefficient in practical situations."
Etella entered a magical device called the Image Zone. The same smooth floor Shirone had seen during the entrance test spread out before them, with countless magic circles forming concentric rings.
When the smooth floor vanished and a dark space opened, Etella appeared to be floating. From that state she unfolded a Spirit Zone about ten meters in diameter, and to Shirone's surprise the form became distinctly visible.
'So this is the Image Zone.'
The Image Zone was a device that required vast amounts of magical engineering and tremendous funding to create.
But if you could see a Spirit Zone with your own eyes, the class's effectiveness increased drastically. No wonder the Alpheas School of Magic was one of the kingdom's five prestigious academies.