9

Laika asked as she received the textbook.

“H-hey Ains. You can’t just wander around freely.”

“That’s right, attendant over there. As Laika-san says. Interrupting the lecture isn’t good, but that doesn’t mean you may act however you please.”

Hanna warned Ains with a sigh.

The surrounding students, still unfamiliar with academy life, silently watched. Internally they were probably fed up that the lecture had stopped because of Ains, but none spoke it aloud.

“But this lecture is pointless. I’ve already seen the level, so I’m done.”

Hanna was left speechless by Ains’s unexpected words.

“Laika too—you shouldn’t use that book. Not only will it not improve your magic, you’ll have no future as a mage.”

Ains’s cold eyes fell on the textbook in Laika’s hands.

“Something this unnecessarily thick is only good as a pillow. Even then, it’s so hard a cheap pillow would be better.”

Insulted that far, Hanna trembled with anger.

“Who do you think you are! Being a servant of a noble house doesn’t mean everything is forgiven! Know your place!”

The class instantly grew tense at Hanna’s harsh tone.

But Ains felt nothing from the atmosphere.

“For a mage who can’t even distinguish means from purpose to stand at the podium—now I see the level of the Sorcery Academy. I’d rather you not even use the word sorcery. It makes me sick.”

Ains poured oil on the fire.

The students’ faces gradually turned pale. A normal person would try to calm the situation under Hanna’s fury, but Ains worsened it further.

“I am a mage who serves as an instructor of the Sorcery Academy! Don’t mock me, hired servant!”

Hanna’s ears were red to the tips while Ains looked down at her expressionlessly.

Hanna took a deep breath once, lowered her voice, and continued.

“…If you say that much, then please enlighten us on what exactly is wrong with the academy’s educational policy.”

Hanna prided herself on having magic skill above ordinary people.

That pride led her to provoke Ains.

Because the classroom seating was arranged like steps, the ceiling was built high. Even from Ains’s upper position, the ceiling was just under three meters away.

From Hanna’s position at the podium, it was roughly twice that height.

To the students, Hanna looked like a small figure drawn alone on a vast canvas. Yet she still carried the pride, aura, and dignity of a Sorcery Academy instructor and a distinguished mage of the Santia Kingdom, not something laughable.

After a brief pause in the tense air, Ains spoke.

“…Hmph. You’re not seeking that knowledge. There’s no need to teach someone who doesn’t seek it, right?”

Whether he understood her meaning or not, Ains ignored the provocation and stepped forward.

Hanna fell silent at the direct hit, while the other students could only watch.

In the silence, as Ains descended a few steps, a voice called to his back.

“Ains-san, I’m curious. About the meaning of your words. Could you teach me?”

It was Kirishiya who broke the silence. Her usual gentle and cute expression was gone, replaced by seriousness.

Ains stopped and turned. Her eyes were fixed straight on him.

“…Or am I someone who does not seek knowledge?”

Under her strong gaze, Ains thought—strangely out of place—that the doll-like Kirishiya could also wear the face of a mage.

“…I see. Kirishiya-san truly seeks knowledge. Alright, I’ll teach you.”

Ains slowly descended the steps and headed toward the podium.

But Hanna stood there, glaring at him without moving.

“…‘The alchemist deceives. Turns sand to gold, white to black. And yet the sheep profit.’”

Ains continued forward, looking at Hanna as if she were a pebble in his path, and spoke.

“‘Standing on the podium is loss.’ Reiterated: ‘Stepping down from the podium is gain.’ Move aside, Hanna Wills.”

“No, I won’t move. Only Sorcery Academy instructors are allowed to stand here—”

Hanna refused while staring at Ains—at least verbally.

“!?”

Yet her legs moved on their own, yielding the podium to Ains as she stepped down.

“W-why!?”

Hanna panicked.

Her body would not obey her. Even though she strongly wished to strike Ains and reclaim the podium, her body couldn’t approach it at all, as if repelled by magnets.

“This magic is surprisingly convenient. Just from this you can tell Corbelli was an excellent mage.”

After all, he created this spell—amazing, amazing, Ains nodded to himself.

“(This is… magic? I don’t know this. It lacks the flashiness of advanced magic, yet… it’s so strange…)”

Hanna could only look up at Ains from one step below the podium.

The strange magic was also visible from the upper seats to Kirishiya.

“Seidel, what magic was that? Do you know it?”

“No, Lady Kirishiya, I do not.”

Seidel could only shake his head.

“…That was Corbelli’s magic.”

Laika answered from the side.

“You know it, Laika? Corbelli… if I recall…”

“It’s the magic favored by Corbelli, the Binding Sorcerer of the Next-Era Luminaries.”

“This… is the magic of the Next-Era Luminaries…”

This strange magic—and the reality that a Sorcery Academy instructor was effortlessly displaced before it—revealed the threat of the Next-Era Luminaries.

“Now then, let’s begin the lesson.”

Ains started teaching.

First, what magic actually was. Like he taught Laika, he explained it manifested natural laws and phenomena using mana.

“You know that part already. Now, about formulas and incantations.”

They hadn’t known.

Everyone except Laika. They vaguely recognized magic but had never properly understood its verbalized meaning.

“The phenomena produced by magic already exist everywhere. So by giving shapeless mana the form of that phenomenon and releasing it, it manifests as tangible magic.”

If one could correctly imagine the phenomenon, formulas were unnecessary for manifestation, Ains said.

“So what is a formula? It supplements the elements needed to manifest phenomena you cannot properly imagine.”

Ains paused after saying this.