The students stood some distance away and expanded their Spheres.
With their shouts, their mana flowed through their Spheres in accordance with the magic formula they’d just learned.
And then—
“Whoa?!”
—a small ball of fire like a stone appeared and flew out from each student’s fingertips.
The balls of fire flew toward the targets and burned them.
“Wow! I did it! I really did it?!”
Randy’s eyes widened; he was incredulous.
Around him, other students were succeeding in casting their first spell as well.
“The incantation you are now shouting is a simplified version of the contents of the magic formula required in order to exercise the spell.”
As the students practiced, Arca continued her explanation.
“Words have power, akin to their own spirit, which deeply affects one’s inner world when uttered. By reciting these incantations, it becomes easier for your mana to flow according to the magic formula. However, there is no need to worry about sticking exactly to existing incantations. As long as it allows your mana to flow more easily, any word will do. And ultimately…”
Suddenly, Arca snapped her fingers.
A dozen small flames appeared above her head, and she sent them flying toward the targets. Every single one struck its target dead center, and the targets all simultaneously went up in flames.
It was clear that Arca’s Ember was on an entirely different level in heat and firepower compared with the students’ spells.
As the students gasped in amazement, Arca continued without a single note of pride in her voice.
“Chantless spellcasting. Deepen your understanding and mastery of magic formulas, and the spell takes on a natural reason of your own creation. To be able to have your mana flow smoothly and efficiently according to the magic formula without reciting an incantation… That is the goal you all should be striving for.”
The apparent, stark difference in Arca’s power rendered the students speechless.
“Hmm, simply remarkable. While I’m able to use the same chantless spellcasting, the quality of Arca’s flames is like solid ice, while mine are like lukewarm water. I’m not even close to that level of power and precision…”
Serephina was astounded.
“Damn. So this is the power of one of the world’s most prestigious mages.” For some reason, Alfred started talking to Rix. “I hope I can reach that level someday… Don’t you feel the same, Rix?”
“…”
“Oh, right, my bad. That’s impossible for you, isn’t it? You don’t even have a Sphere. It’s totally out of the question for you to get that good… Heh-heh-heh…”
Alfred laughed scornfully.
Immediately, the atmosphere started turning sour.
“You there, stop the chitchat. Would you like some points taken off your grade?”
Unable to abide the distraction, Arca gave Alfred a warning.
“That’s actually not true at all, Alfred,” Rix replied. “I bet I can manage something around that level.”
““““What?!””””
His classmates were shocked.
“…Oh, really?” Arca looked at Rix with interest.
“Listen, you… Don’t go running your mouth about things you aren’t able to back up!” Annoyed by Rix’s complacency, Alfred began calling him out. “You think you can pull off something superhuman like that, when you don’t even have a Sphere?! That’s just insulting to the professor, no matter how you look at it!”
Rix was persistently irreverent. “No, really, I can. It’s actually pretty simple. I mean…it’ll take a bit more time than Professor Arca’s spell did, but…”
“Interesting. Please, go ahead and try.” Professor Arca started encouraging him out of genuine interest. “Rix, I know you haven’t opened your Sphere yet. As a mage, I am truly interested in how you expect to replicate what I have just done.”
“P-Professor! He’s just making rash remarks; don’t take him seriously!”
“Alfred. One absolutely necessary quality of a mage is the flexibility in thinking that allows them to question existing common sense and fixed ideas. For that very reason: Please go ahead, Rix. If you are to boast so boldly before me, please don’t leave me disappointed.”
“I’ve got this, Professor. All right, one moment, please…”
Rix ran toward the forest outside the magic training grounds at an amazing speed…and when he finally returned, he was carrying a bunch of dead branches in his arms.
The students began to buzz.
Alfred and Professor Arca blinked at him, wondering what he could be up to.
Don’t tell me…
No way…
He can’t be…
Randy, Annie, and Serephina already had a bad feeling.
And then Rix got to work.
“I bring forth a stone of flaaaaame!” he shouted with a furious look on his face, drilling a dead branch into some wood chips he had placed on the ground.
Scritch, scritch, scritch, scritch! The deafening sound of wood rubbing against wood reverberated around them.
“Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha! Are you stupid? There’s no way you can make a fire like tha—”
Poof!
“A fire?!”
Alfred’s eyes looked like they were about to pop out of his head.
Arca was looking dumbfounded, herself.
“I bring forth, a stone of flaaame! I bring forth! A stone of flaaaaaaame!!”
Rix used this method to light each branch and make them into torches.
Soon enough, he had about a dozen of these torches.
He then picked them up and stood in front of the targets.
“I! Bring forth! A stone! Of flaaaaaaaaaaaaaaame!”
Using every fiber of his being, he flung the bundle of torches at the targets.
Each torch flew toward its target with unparalleled accuracy.
Crack!
All the targets were simultaneously demolished.
““““…………””””
The students’ jaws fell to the floor.
“See, it’s just like Professor Arca said.” Having completed his task, Rix smiled brightly. “Words are power, with their own spirit!”
“I’m pretty sure this isn’t what she meant,” Randy quipped back, right on schedule.
“…Rix.” Arca turned to face Rix with an inscrutable expression.
“Eep?! P-please, Professor, don’t be angry with him!”
“This guy, he’s just an idiot! I swear, he’s just a harmless, extreme dumbass!”
“I’ll be sure to punish him severely myself, so please, spare him this time!”
Annie, Randy, and Serephina rushed to cover for their friend, but it was already too late.
Arca stood before Rix and slowly raised her hands.
“Magnificent.”
With an uncharacteristically tender expression, she placed her hands gently on Rix’s shoulders.
“I see… So this method exists, too. Thanks to you, I was able to break down another of my fixed ideas about common sense, even at my age. I thank you.”
“Professor…I think you’d better keep that common sense intact…,” Randy urged, rounding off the day’s black magic class.
“Good day, everyone. My name is Ray Doctrice. I am the instructor in charge of the white magic class. Pleased to make your acquaintance.”
It was time for white magic class.
The person who appeared in the classroom before the students of the White Class was a man with bright blond hair and blue eyes.
With his silky hair, intelligent yet gentle eyes, and exquisitely well-featured and sweet face, he was a stunningly beautiful young man. The moment he appeared, the female students squealed.
“If black magic is said to deal with the outside world—that is, physical laws and energies—then white magic is an inquiry of the inner world—the body and spirit, the mysteries of life, and the very existence of living things,” Ray began. “At times, it heals the bodies of the wounded, at times changes or transforms the body itself, and yet other times it deludes the hearts of others, produces illusions before them, or even curses their existence itself. White magic has its own dangerous side that is different from that of black magic. I ask that you please take care to never abuse it.”
““““Yes, Professor! ♥””””
Ray was smiling gently, and all the girls in the room—save for Annie, Serephina, and Shino—clasped their hands together, responding in unison.
“Tch, this is why I hate handsome men…”
“Seriously, Randy! Does this guy have no shame?! All handsome men should just die!”
“Yeah, exactly! …Though I hate myself a little for having to agree with you on this one thing.”
Ray got started, paying no mind to the two idiotic boys.
Today, he would be teaching the magic formula for the Sleep spell. Apparently, it was a foundational spell in mind-control magic that forced the target into a state of sleep.
Ray’s class was just as easy to understand as Arca’s had been, but the fact that the female students squealed at Ray’s each and every move seemed to be gradually annoying and stressing out the male students.
“Now let’s give this spell a try. Please cast Sleep on each other per my instructions, taking turns with the person next to you,” said Ray.
The male students’ struggle was over, and they could move on to actually practicing magic.
“But don’t worry,” Ray assured the class. “I’ll use another spell to immediately wake any students who fall asleep.”
““““Aaah! I want to be gently woken up by Professor Raaaay! ♥””””
““““Tch! Ugh! Grrrrr!””””
The students, a whirlwind of love and hate, moved on to spell practice.
“Close thine eyes and tranquility find! …How was that? Did it work?”
“Um…? Sorry, Randy. I don’t feel any different…,” said Annie.
“O-oh, okay… Dammit, this is harder than I thought. When you cast it on me, I fell right to sleep…”
“Grr… White magic has never been my strong point… Annie, can you teach me the trick to it…?”
Most of the students were already having trouble with this first spell. Annie was the only one who had been successful.
“Everyone, there’s no need to rush. Compared to black magic, even white magic of the same level is considered much more difficult. Black magic manipulates the outside world, which does not have its own free will, while white magic takes as its subject individuals with their own free will, who can resist.”
Ray walked around the room observing the students and trying to reassure them.
Then:
“Hey, Rix. Let’s do this: I’ll cast Sleep on you, then you on me.”
With no sign of changing his tune even after the last incident, Alfred came at Rix with another challenge.