School! Luke, School!
The blue spirit dances joyfully.
Luke lightly shook his head as he looked at the overly excited spirit.
“It seems you prefer this more than I do.”
Unlike Py, who was happily spinning around, Luke remained calm.
The size of the arrived academy could be described as quite large, but that was all.
It resembled a traditional and elegant building, much like what he had seen in the pamphlet he received earlier.
It was a decorative and beautiful sculptural structure.
When he turned around, everything was modern rectangular buildings, but as he looked ahead, the school building, exuding a strong scent of the past, came into view.
It looked almost like a museum.
For those living in modern times, they might shiver at such a sight.
However, it was truly regrettable that Luke had no interest in that architectural style.
To be traditional was synonymous with being old, and Luke was somewhat accustomed to that oldness.
‘There are some improved aspects, but fundamentally, it’s based on past architectural styles.’
Even though 5000 years have passed.
Of course, 5000 years ago, there were architects and mages, and since the academy was a facility designed by the nation to cultivate top talent, that architectural style must have been the latest, the best design at that time. Yet, he thought it wasn’t impressive enough to be maintained even in modern times.
Back in the day, the reason for carving sculptures into buildings was none other than to enchant magic; such efforts needed material imbued with human will, like alloying or carving.
Due to the nature of magic reflecting human will upon objects and the world, it was only natural that magic would easily attach itself to objects infused with strong will.
In the past, institutions that nurtured top talent needed to be able to ‘protect’ that talent.
In those days, losing a decent mage was sensitive enough to be considered a national loss, so the academy inevitably required an impressive level of defense against all forms of physical and magical attacks.
Thus, it was only natural to enchant buildings for physical and magical defense, and the architecture style of carving sculptures into buildings developed for that reason.
However, upon surveying with magic sight, this building was not necessarily built for that reason.
It was just for the sake of aesthetics.
Indeed, this world was peaceful enough to not require such preparations against invasions.
That was a good thing, but…
“I wanted to see something completely new.”
If the building had been constructed entirely in a modern style, it would have intrigued Luke.
He preferred the simple yet practical design of modern buildings much more.
Luke walked away with a slightly disappointed expression.
——–
The first place Luke arrived at was the staff room, which was not hard to find.
This was because he already knew what kind of structure this academy had.
He had received explanations during the entrance exam, and there was even a brief map drawn in the pamphlet.
Therefore, even if Tig Academy was quite spacious, there was no reason for Luke to get lost.
In the staff room, a neat-looking woman in her mid-twenties with sharp eyes greeted him as if she had been waiting.
“Oh, you’ve come? You’re the top student from this entrance exam?”
“That’s right. You can call me Luke Irushi.”
“Skipping 1st year with full marks is impressive.”
The female teacher patted his head as she said that, but Luke found that uncomfortable.
To begin with, it didn’t feel good to have his head patted.
It was natural for him to feel his face get hot.
However, Luke stepping back in embarrassment was not particularly special in the teacher’s view.
She simply thought he was a child with a somewhat shy personality.
Thus, in the classroom, as was customary for a new student, Luke introduced himself.
After glancing around the classroom, Luke couldn’t help but feel slightly flustered.
‘They’re too… young.’
Though he had expected this, they were really young.
Around 11 years old?
He had trusted the words of the examiner during the entrance exam that he would be placed in a class appropriate for his level, but it felt somewhat bewildering and displeasing to think that the people in charge considered this to be his level.
‘What in the world is going on…?’
Shirud could be seen sitting in a corner, and he seemed quite surprised.
Hadn’t he heard from his parents that Luke was transferring?
While Luke was fumbling about in confusion, the teacher thought he was just a shy child and began the introduction herself.
“Now, today we have a new student. His name is Luke Irushi! He’s a year younger than you all, but since he scored full marks on the entrance exam, let’s all be friendly with him.”
That was a brief self-introduction.
However, the kids reacted quite sensitively to the word “full marks.”
The atmosphere started to get quite chaotic.
“What, full marks?”
“I heard there aren’t any full scorers this year…”
“Then he’ll be first in the whole school from now on!”
In fact, that situation also left Luke bewildered.
‘Is getting full marks in such an easy exam not something that routinely happens…?’
The exam was so simple that he just wrote down the answers, so he did not understand why he was receiving praise for it.
It was natural for full marks to come out.
Without deep consideration of the phenomenon, he simply put the facts on the answer sheet as they were written in the books and study materials.
It was a simple test made for the convenience of the grader.
Luke had that impression of the exam.
He felt it was merely a test of memory.
In that sense, being praised for getting full marks on such an easy exam felt very awkward to him.
It was like someone praising an adult for babbling.
As Luke flushed with embarrassment, the teacher undoubtedly thought this child was quite shy.
That’s why it was nice as it was very childlike.
“Then, go ahead and take a seat, Luke.”
“Ah, understood…”
Finally freed from the formal embarrassment, Luke quickly sat in an empty seat.
Naturally, the seat was right next to Shirud.
“You, you…! How did you get here?”
“If you’re asking ‘how,’ I simply enrolled as usual.”
With a dry response, Shirud covered his face and buried his head in his desk.
‘Is this what my mom meant when she said to expect something today?’
Had she been that worried about him not having close friends?
‘It’s not like I need friends, though.’
Seeing Shirud with his head buried, Luke sighed deeply.
Just then, Py, who had been watching, worriedly asked.
“Luke, are you looking forward to school?”
“I was definitely looking forward to it at first, but now I’m not so sure…”
So far, it had been disappointing.
Being among the children like this felt quite disheartening.
While arrogance is poison to mages, putting a hawk among chicks inevitably leads to such feelings even if the hawk does not want to.
“Perhaps something will change when classes start.”
———
When break time came, the children were buzzing with curiosity about the new transfer student.
Surrounded by children all of a sudden, Luke had known this would happen, but found it quite awkward when it actually occurred.
“What’s with those horns? They don’t look like deer… Are they from a cow? A goat?”
“Those ears are cute; is that a cat?”
“You got full marks, right? How did you study?”
“Your face and eyes are cute, but those horns look uncomfortable.”
“What are your hobbies? What do you usually do?”
Various questions interspersed with compliments about his appearance.
Cute!
Though it might have been an offhand comment, it made Luke feel uncomfortable.
From Luke’s perspective, it was actually the children saying he was cute that felt awkward.
But now, he found himself in the cute position, which was incredibly peculiar.
Holding that in was bound to be painful.
He tried to glance at Shirud, but the boy had already left his seat before people gathered around.
‘What a predicament.’
At that moment, someone stepped in to alleviate Luke’s discomfort.
“Ask one question at a time; the new student is feeling awkward!”
From among the crowd of children came a cheerful but firm voice of a girl.
As the noise quieted down, that child, possessing a rather fluffy impression, stepped forward.
“Nice to meet you! You’re Luke Irushi, right? I’m Mary! Mary Ideal!”
The child who introduced herself as Mary Ideal was a sheep beast girl with rich, curly gray hair. The spiraled horns adorning her head confirmed her identity.
“As you can see, I’m a sheep beast. We’ve both got horns; let’s do our best together!”
“Sure, let’s do that, Mary Ideal.”
As she extended her hand, Luke instinctively grabbed it and shook it up and down, causing Mary to grin widely.
“I’m the class representative, so if you have any troubles or questions, you can ask me anytime!”
“Understood, Mary.”
Sheep are animals that typically live in herds.
Naturally, those who live in herds have a leader.
It seems Mary is the leader of this class.
Luke found Mary’s proud posture, striking a cute contrast to her fluffy appearance, so endearing that a smile escaped him.
Seeing Luke’s natural smile, Mary thought perhaps the transfer student was starting to open up a bit and smiled back.
“By the way, it’s really rare for a beast to score full marks! Beasts usually don’t have much aptitude for studying.”
“Is that so?”
“They prefer physical activities over just sitting and studying!”
Mary declared cheerfully, raising her fist in triumph.
Watching that, Luke felt an urge to pat her head as he was filled with pleasant feelings.
The bright smile of a child has a way of filling the heart with something special.
For Luke, who had to end a war to reclaim such smiles, Mary’s smile felt like a sort of reward.
It was hard to contain his laughter.
Mary, seeing Luke’s smile, felt a sense of familiarity. It felt as if they had already become friends.
——–
As class began, Shirud was slouching in his seat, not really paying attention.
No, in fact, he wasn’t paying attention at all.
He was still pondering why this girl was seated next to him.
‘My mom definitely did something…’
Shirud felt troubled.
‘This girl is definitely not an ordinary girl…’
That was because she shared an affinity for circles, just like him, and she knew how to manipulate them freely.
He had been practicing magic using the methods Luke taught him, but he struggled to make it work properly.
It felt too unfamiliar.
Most importantly, how could she use magic without even a chant?
No matter how much he tried, he couldn’t manage to move mana, let alone create light.
Luke was equally unable to concentrate on the class.
‘It’s not different from what I already know anyway.’
He was just sitting there postured, thinking about when he would finally be able to use a cane, displaying an attitude that was not distracted out of desire not to disturb the one conducting the lesson.
“Hey.”
He heard Shirud’s quiet call.
“What is it?”
“About the magic you told me last time.”
“Is something not going well?”
Yes, this was more interesting, rather than just hearing the same thing repeated.
If he could stabilize Shirud’s circles, it would eliminate his suffering from unpredictable mana.
“I can’t manage to do it by myself at all. I can’t even move mana like you.”
“Hmm.”
Luke pondered that phenomenon and rubbed his chin.
Each individual has their own method of controlling mana.
Perhaps Shirud hadn’t found his yet.
“What do you think mana is?”
“……Mana? It’s an endless energy source that exists in all things and constitutes the world.”
Luke shook his head and sighed at Shirud’s simple, thoughtless definition.
“That’s just a definition from a textbook.”
Well, it wasn’t incorrect, but it was merely a surface-level definition of mana.
And Shirud had no clue what that really meant.
Luke’s own definition of mana went like this:
“Mana is the world itself.”
Everything that constitutes the world is made of mana.
Living beings, non-living things.
Existence and consciousness.
Space and time.
All of those are interconnected with the world through the existence of mana.
Mana is both life and the world itself.
“That definition of mana is actually meaningless. It can’t be defined that way. Can you define the world?”
The world.
The world given to all is different for everyone.
The only equal thing is that it is given to all.
Can such a world be simply defined with just a few words?
If one were to elaborate, it could go on endlessly, but that endless understanding and contemplation would be of no use to others.
Just as a person who has fallen from nobility to slavery cannot understand the pain of someone who has been a slave from birth.
Since everyone has different attitudes and levels of intelligence in accepting the life they have lived, no matter how much someone else explains it, they could never truly understand.
‘While perhaps definitions set by others might be applicable in class magic,’
In circle magic, one must become the world themselves.
“Shirud, what would you like to think mana is?”
“What I want to think…?”
For Shirud, this was far too unfamiliar a topic.
His understanding of the world had always been one that was entrusted to others.
After all, he was just an 11-year-old child.
He was still just an 11-year-old kid who relied on his parents and took other people’s words at face value.
“What I want to think…”
‘What do I want to think?’
At the age of 11, this was the first time Shirud began to ponder about himself.
