“Could you please repeat that for me?” Sandra asked with a dubious look on her face.
Since I’d known she was coming today, I’d let her know that I wanted to speak with her about something in the training grounds room that was equipped with a blackboard. I’d told her about the spell I’d created the other day, Measure Mana, but I wasn’t getting through to her.
“Um, well, I wanted to look into how much mana you use when you cast a spell. So I used specialized magic to create a spell called Measure Mana. Does that make sense?”
“Your way of thinking seems to completely ignore any and all common sense,” Sandra said, shaking her head in a disapproving manner. She also began taking deep breaths, perhaps to calm herself down. “That doesn’t make sense, but I understand. So...a spell that can measure mana? How did you create it?”
“Well...”
I began to detail the steps I’d taken to create Measure Mana. I’d been inspired by the idea of measuring water, so I’d created a spell that produced a specific volume of water. I based my unit of measurement on the amount of mana it took to cast that spell, and with some strong focus, I’d been able to create the spell.
Of course, my spell had room for improvement, but it was good enough for the purpose of testing whether our new drug would be an effective treatment for mana depletion disorder.
Sandra’s brows were furrowed all the while. Once I finished my explanation, she covered her face with both of her hands. “You’re a genius, Sir Reid,” she remarked. “I never even thought of coming up with something like that. On a sidenote, I didn’t know that you also had elemental potential in water magic.”
“Um, yeah, it seems like I do. I just tried it out to see what would happen, and I was able to do it.”
“It’s not usually that easy...”
For now, I was keeping it a secret that I had potential in every element of magic, so this should’ve been a surprise to Sandra. Despite that, her reaction was underwhelming.
I wonder if something is wrong.
“Whew, all right. From now on, you are not to speak of that spell, Sir Reid. If it gets out that you can use such an extraordinary spell, you will likely be dragged away to the capital.”
“I wouldn’t want that! Why would the reaction be so extreme? The moment I thought of it, I was pretty surprised by the idea, but the actual spell seems easy enough for anyone to do.”
The specifics of what I’d been doing were quite simple, so any researcher with elemental potential could have done the same thing. I was curious about why she was so wary of it.
“Your idea of what is easy is quite skewed, Sir Reid,” Sandra said with a sigh. “Perhaps I am partially at fault for that, so I shall explain how things are for the average person.”
“You say that as if I’m not average.”
Sandra let out another sigh.
Isn’t it a little rude to sigh at someone when you’re right in front of them?
Sandra pulled out a case from her pocket and opened it up to take out her glasses. She put them on and switched to professor mode as she began to explain.
“First, we’ll start by defining average people as commoners. Most commoners cannot perform mana conversion. In other words, there are almost no commoners who are able to cast magic.”
“What? But during our first lesson, you said that everyone has mana and therefore, with practice, anyone can cast magic.”
“Yes, but that is only if they do practice. Only those who are familiar with combat—like adventurers, knights, and mages—actually know about mana conversion. Since that knowledge isn’t widespread, there are very few commoners who can cast magic. Any commoner who can use magic likely had a parent who knew how and passed it on to them. Otherwise, it would be difficult for someone to learn.”
What a waste! Here we are in a fantasy world and magic isn’t even being used by most people?
It was also possible that many people knew about magic and that it required lots of troublesome training to be able to use, which made them lose interest in learning. Humans tended to prefer the easy route in life, and it was our nature to avoid anything laborious. During my previous life, I’d tried weight lifting regularly but had quickly started skipping workouts.
“I guess I sort of understand,” I said. “Still, the people who research magic like you can all perform mana conversion, right, Professor Sandra? I thought there were lots of people with both the knowledge and skills needed to work on that project.”
“Since I am your teacher, I may have given you an inaccurate idea of what most people are like. As you suspect, being able to perform mana conversion is a minimum requirement of participating in such research. However, converting mana the way you do requires incredible skill. In other words, to be able to do what you accomplished, someone would have to be either a genius or diligent enough to spend decades polishing their skills.”
I was finally starting to understand. Magic wasn’t necessary for performing daily tasks. It was only used in situations such as adventuring, warfare, research, and combat.
“Even those who research magic aren’t required to perform mana conversion or manipulate their mana with the precision that you do,” Sandra continued to explain. “The very first spell I showed you is all that they need to know how to do.”
“I-I see.”
“It hurts to admit this, but I couldn’t create a spell that produced exactly one liter of water in an accurate manner, even if I wanted to. I don’t even have elemental potential in water magic. To have an accurate sense of how much mana you used, and to also be able to conjure a clear image of that, is something only a diligent genius could do, Sir Reid.”
Wow. I guess Reid also has some incredible stats when it comes to magic, not just for physical things.
My experiences had been in line with Sandra’s explanations. I’d never seen anyone use magic in the mansion. Now I understood: It wasn’t that they didn’t but rather that they couldn’t.
“I’ve always thought you were incredibly talented, but I didn’t think it was to this degree,” Sandra remarked. “You put in hard work to polish your innate abilities, and you also aren’t bound by conventional ways of thinking. You’re some sort of nonconventional child prodigy. So, do you have a better understanding now?”
“Setting aside the whole prodigy thing, I think I understand that magic isn’t really a part of daily life. In that case, what about you specifically, Professor Sandra? You can perform mana conversion much better than I can, and you can also manipulate that mana. I’m not the only special one here, right?”
If I was a “nonconventional child prodigy,” then Sandra would also have to be classified in a similar manner.
In that case, wouldn’t she have been taken away to the capita— Wait.
I had a terrifying realization. The color in my face drained, and I cautiously looked up at Sandra’s face. She wore a bright smile, but I could tell from her eyes that it wasn’t an innocent one. I reflexively backed away from her.
“That’s right...” she said, slowly closing the distance between us. She brought her face up to mine and whispered in my ear, “That is why I was handpicked to be the chief of a research facility in the imperial capital.”
I was so terrified that a shiver ran down my spine. Seeing my pale face made her smile grow wider, and she continued to speak in a lighthearted manner.
“Well, that all went away in a flash because of some annoyances and schemes. Despite what you may think, I was indeed summoned to the capital because of my genius.”
With that, Sandra placed her right hand on her head, which she tilted while sticking her tongue out in a cutesy manner. It was that pose known as tehepero in Japan.
The very next moment, something dawned on me. “Professor Sandra...you knew that I’d do something unconventional like this sooner or later, didn’t you?”
“To be honest, I thought it would happen much further in the future. If you continue to polish your skills, you will be able to do extraordinary things. Knowing that makes watching you grow so much fun. I was always planning to observe you as a research sub— I mean, watch over you by your side.”
She was totally about to call me a research subject.
Regardless of how she viewed me, she’d always known that I was a diamond in the rough and perhaps had taken extra care in how she taught me. I looked back at Sandra, who was smiling, seemingly enjoying our conversation.
“Don’t worry, Sir Reid! Stepping out of line only gets you into trouble if you don’t have a clear destination! Don’t let yourself be trapped by conventions! Break them all as you go forward!!!”
Sandra thrust her right arm into the air, pointing straight up. I thought I could see a spinning spiral behind her back, but I was probably just imagining things.
“I don’t think I need to go out of my way and break any conventions,” I said with a sigh. “But I will be careful about sharing information regarding the creation of any spells.”
“Yes, please do. If information gets out, even Sir Reiner may not be able to control what happens.”
To summarize what I’d learned from Sandra, I seemed to have abilities that made me a nonconventional child prodigy, but I was deeply against any such label. Additionally, others finding out about said abilities carried a high risk of getting me mixed up in some kind of trouble.
“I’m going to continue doing my best not to stand out unnecessarily,” I said, sighing again.
“Yes, I encourage you to keep your head down.”
Now that I finally understood just how much I’d broken the conventions of magic, Sandra seemed pleased and smiled.
Since she knew something like this might happen, couldn’t she have given me a heads-up?
I decided to keep that thought to myself. She’d probably just say she didn’t warn me because “it seemed fun.”
“That’s exactly right, Sir Reid,” Sandra said suddenly. “It’s because this is more fun.”
“You’re terrifying!” I exclaimed.
She giggled and replied, “You’re just very easy to read.”
She seemed to be reading my mind with a smile on her face, which just made me turn pale and shudder.