Chapter 25

Everyday life without uncle, part 1 *DISCLAIMER: I DON'T REALLY KNOW j.a.pANESE, THESE ARE MACHINE TRANSLATIONS THAT I TRY TO PUT INTO PROPER ENGLISH. READ AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION.*I HAVE A DISCORD SERVER IN CASE YOU WANT TO BE NOTIFIED WHEN I'M ABOUT TO POST A NEW UPDATE. 

Istor Magic Academy.

A learning inst.i.tution where young people from relatively affluent families gathered. 

Renowned for its long history, spanning over 300 years since its founding, and boasting of producing many famous magicians, it was the most famous academic inst.i.tution of the Solisthea Magic Kingdom.

It's not an exaggeration to say that it's an academy city, due to its vast area, br.i.m.m.i.n.g with many magical research inst.i.tutes, and even a town that supports the students' lives.

It was supposed to be a place where a lot of people with the desire to learn congregated, and where ability and academic background were the only entry barriers.

But currently, the Academy is under the influence of the many magicians' factions and their power struggles.

It would still be acceptable if it were just a conflict between students, but effectively, it was a proxy war between aristocratic magicians.

The n.o.bles who had already graduated from the Academy have no choice but to manipulate their children to raise their influence within the inst.i.tution, and so, the students form factions, defaming and ostracizing those who don't follow their will.

The overwhelming majority of them were magicians of n.o.ble origin, most of them having succeeded their family's bloodline magic and other kinds of inheritance spells.  

Though, there were some magicians who were fallen n.o.bles trying to restore their houses to their former glory.

Inheritance magics were the spells handed down to the members of a household regardless of how strong they were as magicians, mainly because they were generally useless in battle, so possessing them was merely a sign of having a good relationship with one's family. Because some of these spells would have strange and random effects, they could be quite the strong research material for a family of magicians. 

Well, there were some families who've changed in a strange direction due to said research…

On the other hand, bloodline magic is, as its name indicates, magic that is transmitted to the members of a family, and it's an inborn type of unique magic succeeded from parent to child.

These magics may have a wide range of different effects, and the person who inherits them, is often not able to control them. They function at a subconscious level, and the person is able to suddenly invoke the magic without any need to chant. In many ways, it can be an incredibly dangerous magic. 

Particularly, 【Charm], 【Spontaneous Ignition], 【Foresight], and so on, were all unique magics, but at the same time, they didn't have great power, and moreover, they were difficult to control.

For instance, spontaneous ignition is literally, as its name suggests, the ability to suddenly ignite things on fire, and to produce a small fire with one's eyes, though it couldn't be used in actual combat. It was impossible to burn your enemies to death with a single glance. Furthermore, it was an immensely inconvenient ability to live with, when everything you look at catches on fire.

In the case of foresight, its predictions could be considered merely fortune-telling, regardless of whether they're right or not.

There were a lot of unique magics like that, but they were often unreliable magics that were considered useless by most people.

—

In one corner of the Academy, where many capable magicians gathered, there was one of the student dormitories, which were decided by their academic ranking.

The building itself had an early gothic style, and immediately after entering through the main entrance you were met by a vaulted ceiling, with its distinct characteristic, a pattern of two semi-cylindrical barrels intersecting each other, in other words, a rib vault ceiling*, decorating the whole structure. The rooms where the students lived were located left and right on both sides of the pa.s.sage extending from the facade of the dormitory, followed by a pair of staircases on both ends.

(*T.N: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vault_(architecture)#Rib_vault . I couldn't quite grasp the proper meaning of that paragraph, what the author described is not exactly what a rib vault is, but I have no clue what other thing they might be referring to, though I don't think it matters that much in the end.)

It's a plainly ornamented building, but to Celestina, it gives her a calm feeling, closer to the one in her grandfather's villa. 

Additionally, there are small spires symmetrically placed on both sides of the building, which in the past were mainly used to inflict punishments, though they have not been used much so far.

Given that it was an old building, the students who resided there were mostly from merchant and commoner households.

The people who saw her, openly expressed their apathy towards her on their expressions. Their impression of Celestina, born to a Ducal house was that she, was 'talented in lacking talent', 'an incompetent person, only here because of their family's influence', 'the teacher's pet', and so on. 

She must be an irritating presence to those who've paid the hefty tuition fees, and were desperately doing their best to learn.

Naturally, she understood that, and thus, she used to spend all her time holed up in the Academy's library.  On one hand, she felt sorry for them, but on the other, she was desperate to learn magic one way or another. 

The results were unsatisfactory, but that's a story for another time.

Celestina could now use magic, and if it's firing one shot at a time, it's possible for her to do it chantlessly. 

There's no need to open your mouth and recite an aria to be able to invoke a spell, the key is how strong is your imagination and how much can it be overlaid with the magic formula.

To successfully invoke a spell, the foundation is, first and foremost, the magic formula. And, while chanting is the trigger that activates the spell itself, it only helps to give shape to the magic. One's own mental image is more important, so when you have a sufficient understanding of magic, chanting becomes unnecessary.

For example, when you're about to shoot your gun, and the enemy was told 'the bullets are loaded into the magazine, the safety was released and the hammer was pulled. Now, let's shoot!'. Does that sort of thing really need to be said? It's the same with magic arias. 

However, the students don't know the current Celestina. They still think she's incompetent. 

"Young lady, please don't worry too much. They don't know about how strong you have become."

"I know, but just two months ago I used to be in such a place, honestly, it feels really unpleasant."

"But your mind and heart have grown at an incredible pace, soon everyone will realize that, you know? And, you will do your best in cla.s.s, isn't that right, young lady?"

"Yes, you're right, Misuka… I'm going to graduate from this academy and become a magician that will live up to sensei's name!"

With an expression full of motivation and determination, she begins to walk resolutely.

Shining on Celestina's right arm is the magic medium made by her mentor, Zeros.

Her new day begins. 

With a newfound determination in her heart and mind, she goes to take her lecture at the Academy, but it seems the status quo won't change that easily. 

The same scenery from two months ago is repeated. Eyes full of contempt and apathy are directed towards her. 

In all honesty, all she wants is to run away, but somehow stops herself and steps into the cla.s.sroom. 

Additionally, the lecturers at the Academy pretend not to see anything about Celestina's bullying, not saying anything unnecessary either. 

The reason is, whenever she asked a question regarding the lesson's contents, she would confront them by presenting a theory from a different perspective, causing them to be at a loss, not knowing how to answer. 

For the lecturers, she's the personification of a demon, and while her att.i.tude of asking about what she doesn't know is good, for them, it's extremely troublesome to be asked things they have no clue about. 

Although she couldn't use magic herself, being so excellent in everything related to magic theory made her a tough opponent for the lecturers. 

Her presence was problematic to them, who are supposed to teach magic to their students, hence, they decided to ignore her altogether.

Though, from their point of view, Celestina's talent was terrifying.

They thought that, if she only could invoke magic, she would become a magician superior to themselves, so the fact that she couldn't, above all, hurt their pride.  

They didn't want to admit they were inferior to the 'incompetent student'.

The lecturers all belong to the different factions, and have the mission of attracting talented people to their own clique. But, what if they're excellent and more knowledgeable than they themselves, except that they can't use magic? All what they've been doing so far would be meaningless.

In the current state of the Academy, belonging to a faction is a symbol of status, thus, such a girl possessing that much knowledge without belonging to any faction, is nothing but an unpleasant fact to them. 

While the mind of such a lecturer was drifting to somewhere else, Celestina was taking notes of the lesson's contents on a bundle of papers bound together. 

There weren't such convenient things like notebooks in this world. If you don't buy paper on your own, you have no choice but to use your memory. 

Due to that, students take the lectures at the Academy seriously. 

(I checked the contents of this lesson at the library. The lecturer said that preparing before the lesson was crucial, but isn't it a mistake to think that each individual magic character is a word containing meaning in itself? 

It's true what he said about the magic characters forming command words that change the mana accordingly to their respective functions, but, is it alright to keep spreading misinformation about the meanings of the magic characters any longer?

Now that the conflicts between the factions are becoming more intense…. What should I do?)

Currently, there's nothing for her to learn at the Academy. 

Because she already understands the true nature of the magic characters and magic formulas, it's useless for her to take a lecture about those very same topics at this point. 

However, it would leave a bad taste in her mouth continuing to allow the spreading of misinformation and erroneous teachings.

For the sake of all the future magicians, she thought it was necessary to put a stop on said believes. 

And so she does.

"Excuse me, teacher. May I ask a question?" 

(*T.N: for future reference, she uses the word 講師[koushi] which means 'lecturer', but it sounds kinda weird here.)

The lecturer, Séamus was screaming inside his mind: 'Here it comes! Ahhh!!'

This is the situation he was fearing the most.

"What is it, Celestina. Is there something wrong with the lecture's contents?"

"No, it's just that I've been thinking from a while ago that, each of the 56 magic characters and 10 numbers* have a distinct sound, correct? And, each of them have their own meaning. Furthermore, a magic formula is a complex combination of these characters. This is the modern consensus about magic theory. There's no doubt that that should be the case."

(*T.N: I think the author made a typo there, they wrote 'magic characters' again, when previously it was 'numbers'.)

"Y-yes. I-Is there a problem about that?"

"It's a simple question, aren't the magic characters used to form words, and not words themselves?

How useful is to learn this, when the characters themselves don't have meaning, but it's a series of characters making up a command word that transforms the mana accordingly to the predetermined function?"

Celestina casually said such a shocking remark. 

It would be better to say that the deciphering of magic formulas was nearly impossible, rather than just claiming it was progressing slowly.

Many magicians believed that a magic formula was a series of magic characters, and, in addition, it was some sort of puzzle, which was in the form of a chain made up of said characters, and that somehow invoked magic.

However, the meaning itself changes when it comes to forming a string of words.

The condition for the invocation of magic is directly related to the words that make up the formula, which materializes the desired phenomenon in accordance to the laws of physics.

(*T.N: not sure; 魔法の発動条件を言葉として文字を使い式を形成、それが魔法と云う物理法則に添う形で具現化させる事で様々な効果を生み出す。)

But despite that, it was generally taught that the magic characters, linked one by one, caused a chain reaction, that turned mana into a physical phenomenon.

If Celestina's theory is true, then everything they've learned so far would be meaningless.

Current day spells are created by modifying and optimizing the magic from the Lost Age, but if done poorly, there's the possibility of transforming a magic that was originally easy to use into one that's a lot more difficult to use.

Actually, Celestina is already able to engrave magic formulas directly into her mind, though the invocation itself is still imperfect.

And if this theory is proven, it would be impossible to say whether it would be accepted.

Many magicians are desperately working to decipher the magic characters, even to this day, they've been repeatedly creating many spells with their own methods, sometimes they succeed, sometimes they fail.

Taking into account that long history of hardships, those magicians wouldn't accept Celestina's theory. They're all haughty, domineering, and thickheaded at the same time. In other words, it's impossible for them to put up with her flexible way of thinking.   

"H-How did you come up with such an intriguing idea?"

"As you know, I couldn't use magic. That's why I tried to figure out the reason by ama.s.sing a good amount of knowledge, but then I wondered what if, in the first place, current magic was inferior to the old one."

"I see… that's not impossible."

"All humans possess mana, but why are there so few magicians compared to the past? What if, during the development of the magic deciphering movements, the magic from the Lost Age was altered in the wrong way, and created individual differences in the invocation process?  Then, modern magic research would be going in the wrong direction."

It's not completely impossible that the magic of the Lost Age was already completely destroyed by modern magic research. As Celestina said, there's an extremely limited number of magicians in the present era. 

According to the academic literature, it's said that, in the past, most people could use magic, and that it was the foundation of their everyday lives. 

The teacher finds himself unable to respond because of the persuasiveness of her argument, and, at the same time, he realized an odd implication in her previous words.

"Celestina, you said you 'couldn't use magic', why in past tense?"

"I can use it now. In these past two months, I've trained and managed to invoke magic successfully."

"Impossible! If that's really the case… how were you able to use magic in such a short period of time?"

"I had combat training every day, and in between, I also had magic control practice. And also, I experienced actual combat?"

That's her second shocking remark.

If she had such an experience, then, naturally she would level up. And when that happens, her body would begin to optimize itself to efficiently manage its newfound power, which would lead to a considerable increase in physical ability and magic capacity.

If one is to believe her words, it would mean she continued to fight until to the point where she was able to use magic. 

It's not quite what a normal student would do on their summer vacation. 

"You seem to have done something quite absurd. There's a risk that the body will present abnormalities when you level up too fast."

"There was no time to think about that when you're at the brink of death. Because monsters attacked our camp, we had to hunt for food, and we fought continuously for about four days, with only a few hours of rest each day."

"There's no way anyone could survive such a harsh situation!"

"I'm here because I did. My brother and a knight squad were with me, you may confirm it with them if you doubt my words."

She remembers her experience trying to survive in the vast forest of Far-flung.

Because of the dangerous environment they were in, Celestina, along with the knights, inevitably had to be on high alert at all times, and for the sake of satiating their hunger, they had to hunt the monsters wandering around the forest, so their personalities ended up slightly twisted by the end of the training camp as a result.

The polite knights turned into ferocious warriors in just a few days, her revered master, Zeros mercilessly mowed down monsters, and her brother, came to realize how fun alchemy was and went crazy.

Celestina herself enjoyed raising her levels, and was happily killing monsters left and right.

"It's certainly a place made to break the human heart…"

"W-Why do your eyes look so dead…?"

"Current day magicians wouldn't be able to survive in that forest… that place… is just too harsh."

"Just how many hardships did you go through in that forest!?"

"The monsters in the depths of Far-flung are even more fierce. Even I would die if I went there right now."

It was an unimaginable situation.

The monsters in Far-flung forest grow stronger the deeper you go, the ones wandering around the outer areas can't even be compared with them.

It's nothing but h.e.l.l to keep fighting in such a place.

In addition, only knights were trained enough in close-quarters combat to fight in such situations, and it was impossible for the rest of the factions to carry out that sort of training without them.

However, the Chivalric Order and the magicians' factions were famously antagonizing each other. Neither of them were insane enough to work together with a hostile political faction. 

Only the magicians from the Solisthea faction would be able to pull off something like that.

Cold sweat ran down Séamus' spine.

He belongs to the Weissler faction, but the situation would be completely different if the Solisthea faction is conducting such a combat training for their magicians.

The Weissler faction, renowned for excelling in battle prowess, would lose relevance, and at the same time, the Solisthea faction will strengthen their ties with the Knight faction.

It's the impossible dream of all magicians' factions: to seize the control of the military.

"Does Solisthea have an experienced combat magician?"

"I don't know about that, but at least I don't intend to join any other faction. After all, they weren't the ones that helped me use magic."

"Did you get someone's guidance then? What faction are they in?"

"I can only say they're a friend of my grandfather. I don't have the authority to make that public."

A magician who was able to help Celestina didn't exist in any faction.

Nevertheless, given that she can now use magic, then there must have been someone who taught her.

It came to be rumored that there was a powerful magician in the shadows behind the Solisthea faction.

If it's an acquaintance of the notorious 'Magician of the Purgatory', then it must indeed be quite a strong magician.

That fact will create ripples through the Weissler faction, though that's a story for the future.

This other shocking remark greatly affects the surroundings. 

They were the students who hara.s.sed her and despised her for being 'incompetent'.

"Seriously… the incompetent can use magic now? What will happen now?"

"Hey… we totally made a fool of her, didn't we?"

"She's the Duke's daughter, right? Isn't this bad?"

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"What should I do? I laughed at her before…"

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