CH 69

“Now! This is Eidos-sensei and Tia-sensei, who will be teaching you all today. Now, teachers, please say hello.”

“I’m Tia. I’m going to teach you how to cast real spirit magic, so make sure you learn it well.”

“I’m Eidos. I will teach everyone about the potential a human holds.”

Inside a classroom at the academy. In front of dozens of students, Tia and I greeted them. The reason for this, of course, was that we accepted a proposal that was made to us the other day, asking if we would be interested in teaching a class. There were two main reasons.

“Me! Amar-sensei, may I?”

“Yes, what is it?”

While the classroom was buzzing with the unprecedented situation of a spirit teaching, Amar answered the female student who took the initiative and raised her hand.

“I understand what Tia-sensei will be teaching, but what does the potential of a human, as said by Eidos-sensei, mean? What exactly does that tell us?”

“Hm, I’ll answer that question for you.”

As the girl tilted her head, truly confused about the meaning, I asked Amar to exchange places with me and moved to the center of the class and began answering her question.

“To begin with, a human being holds alot of potential. For example, everyone has the potential of being able to use “Spirit Magic”…But using spirit magic is not necessarily the very best a person is capable of.”

“…………?”

“Haha, A little difficult? Then let me give you an example. My contractor, Miguel, his talent for spirit magic is not much to be honest. Of course, as someone who has been invited here, with the right amount of effort, I’m sure he will be able to use it. … But even if he trains for 10 years, he won’t be able to beat even you guys the next year.”

“Wow, that’s lame.”

“People used to consider him a genius.”

At my words, I heard people throughout the classroom ridiculing Miguel. But even with such taunts directed at him, Miguel looked at me with dignity and without condescension. I felt proud that Miguel had the confidence to do so, and I continued my explanation.

“Quiet. It is true that Miguel has no talent for spirit magic. Instead, he is blessed with an abundance of talent with the sword. Some of you may know that Miguel trains every day,…, but let me assure you. Assuming you guys learn spirit magic seriously, one year later. There is no one who will be able to beat Miguel in a one-on-one fight. Five years, ten years. The more time passes, the more the gap widens, and in 20 years, there will be nobody in this world who hasn’t heard of Miguel’s name,… He is that talented. Yes, of course, if Miguel continues to train diligently.”

“Ehh, No way!”

“How could swords possibly defeat spirit magic!”

“Fufufu~, I will let you see when we practice. The important thing to remember here is that just because you have a talent for using spirit magic, it is not worth it to get obsessed with it. For example, you girl, you have a certain talent for spirit magic, but the best skill that you possess is sewing.”

“Huh? Sewing!?”

The girl in question looked surprised when I secretly invoked my banishment skill [Rainbow Glass] and pointed out her true talent.

“That’s right. With proper training you will eventually even be able to sew dresses for a princess. … Well, what do you think of that?”

“Eh? Eeeeeeh!? Err… I’m happy, I guess? But I don’t really like sewing. …”

“I see. That’s fine. People have different talents, and the talent that lies dormant in them might not always be the one they want. But as a human spirit, I am here to show you what human potential is … and what talents are lying dormant in you. All of you here are gifted spirit magic users. However, it is too bad that you are so preoccupied with it that you neglect the rest of the talents. People are a mass of potential. We can do anything and be anything. There is more than one way to achieve our goal, and becoming a spirit user is not all there is to it.” 

(T/N: Things like these really show this dude has lived for 100 yrs)

“…………???”

“Hey, E…idos! They’re kids, you have to say it in a shorter, precise way.”

“O-Oh, Is that so? Let’s see, then…that.『What can I do to become stronger than I am now?』Or,『I want to do something like this, what should I do?』I’ll start by teaching you about the methods to achieve them… How about that?”

“Oh, Damn, that’s awesome!”

“Hmmm, sounds kind of useful.”

After getting scolded by Tia and rephrasing it, the kids finally responded in a positive way. Gosh, It was hard to communicate in a way that was easy to understand while still maintaining my dignity. … I might as well just talk normally, right? But it was similar to Tia’s “Spirit Of Beauty”, it was too late to back out now.

Nonetheless, this was the first reason. In short, I wanted to offer a bright future to childs like Miguel, who came to this school with just barely enough talent.

Since the presence of spirit users was a key to national defense, a drastic change of policy would be difficult to achieve, still, if we succeed in achieving results here, we may be able to avoid the ironic fate of “Having our future crushed by our talents” even if only a little.

And that would surely help Miguel if the day comes when he stands as a Hero. It won’t reach the level of unbalance where all his comrades were spirit users.

“Well, that’s all I have to say regarding the girl’s question. Is there anything else?”

No one said anything this time. So that was the end of my turn for the moment.

“Then, let’s start with Tia’s lesson. I have to talk to each of you individually, after that. Then, Tia, please take care of them.”

“Okay! I’ll start the class right away.”

As I relinquished the center of the podium, Tia began teaching  with a lively expression on her face. Some students were surprised by her behavior, probably because of the image of her as a quiet spirit in her early days.

“For starters, You all know that spirit magic is magic that is activated with the help of spirits, right? Meaning everyone forms a contract with a spirit first, and then borrows its power to activate the magic. … So far so good?”

“”Yes””

The students responded to Tia’s question in unison. Hearing this, Tia nodded her head … and clapped her hands together in front of her chest.

“Yep, that’s where you’re wrong! You don’t need a contract with a spirit to use spirit magic! In fact, making a contract with a spirit from the very beginning is not a very good way to improve your spirit magic.”

“”Eeeeeeeeeeeeehhh!?””

“Hey, Wait a minute, Tia-sensei!? What in the world…!?”

Tia’s words elicited a response from the students, but it was Amar who was most perplexed. However, Tia smiled and spoke to Amar-sensei.

“Fufu, I think it’s best to show them how it’s done. Hey, Amar-sensei. What kind of spirit do you have a contract with? May I see them?”

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“Eh? Yes, that’s fine. Come on in, Flautia.”

As Amar called out to her, the water gathered over his shoulders and eventually became a ball of water the size of a human head. To me, it completely looked like it was just floating water. … I guess that’s a spirit, too, looking at the flow.

“Ah, she’s a pure attribute. This may be a little tough, but I hope Sensei can handle it? Hey, Amar-sensei, could you try …, I guess, use some wind-based spirit magic?” 

“Wind? Flautia is water spirit, so she can’t use magic of any other attribute, I think?”

“Just go ahead! Gather the mana in yourself, not that girl, and then follow me in chanting. ‘Gather O winds and strike――”

“Eh? Gather O Wind――”

Following Tia’s chanting, Amar also started chanting. However, while a small whirlwind was generated on Tia’s hand when she finished her chanting to the end, nothing appeared on Amal’s hand.

“Look, look, send more mana!”

“B-But I’ve already consumed about the same amount of mana needed for intermediate level magic, you know? If I pour so much mana into a rudimentary magic, let alone elementary spell, and it still doesn’t work, then…”

“Listen to me! Just keep your concentration and send the mana as fast as you can! It’s not like we’re going to be fighting anything after this, so it’s okay if you use up all our mana, right?”

“That’s well…”

“Then trust me!”

“… understood.”

In response to Tia who was staring at him with serious eyes, Amar kept pouring more mana… even though he was half convinced. I honestly had no idea what was going on, but after a few moments, a tiny whirlpool of wind finally began to appear over Amar’s hand.

“EHHHHHHH!? W-what, How!?”

“See, you did it, right?”

Tia smiled at the astonished Amar. This was the moment when common sense, which supported the very foundation of this world, was turned upside down.

(T/N: Sorry for the delay was on the finale of cold steel 2)