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Saint Antohsa’s Academy was a school famed for producing the most talented saints in the world, and it just so happened to be the school Stella attended. I would be joining her as her staff.
“Miracles are, self-descriptively, miraculous phenomena caused by the countless spirits inhabiting nature. Under normal circumstances, they are beyond the grasp of humanity, but thanks to the Goddess allowing our will to be conveyed to the spirits, miracles are now our domain,” a professor intoned.
One class had about twenty students. Everyone wore robes as their uniforms and held staves. This lesson was titled “The Fundamentals of Miracles,” and we were gathered in the garden to hold it.
The teacher, Professor Elyena, looked younger than even Stella did. She wore a pointed hat and baggy robes that made her look like a kid cosplaying a witch on Halloween.
“Now, what exactly is the process by which we bring about miracles? Three elements are key: a prayer to chant, the holy power that is mana, and finally, the spirit within one’s staff,” Professor Elyena explained. She looked up at the brilliantly blue sky and spun her staff... But it was too big for her, and she ended up hitting the ground with it.
“Eep!” The staff bounced into the air, and she had to do a mad leap up to catch it. After landing, she smiled as if nothing had happened; her students watched on warmly. “Tee-hee.”
Looks like we’ve got a clumsy one.
“The prayer is chanted to reinforce one’s mental image. What spirit is called upon for its power, and upon what scale is the miracle performed? Let us repurpose verses from the scripture to convey our precise desires to the spirits,” Professor Elyena said, continuing her lecture while wiping her staff with a handkerchief. “Mana can be understood to be a power source. All of you are transferring it to your staff through your hands. One’s mana quantity is largely hereditary, but simply by being accepted into Antohsa’s Academy, you have demonstrated having a mana quantity above a certain normal.”
Apparently students were chosen based on their latent mana capacity, with mana being portrayed as a holy source of power. That explained why Stella was here despite not being able to cast miracles.
“The spirits within one’s staff are called guardian spirits, and they continue to exist within your staves by using your mana as energy. They derive a visualization from the chants made and call to the spirits nearby in nature. Spirits live by something of a hierarchy, and so a stronger guardian spirit will earn the aid of more nearby spirits, which in turn lead to greater mira—”
“Professor Elyena!” cried a student with blazing red, dressed-up hair. It was the villainess who threw a fireball at Stella yesterday. She wore an expression of extreme impatience.
“Yes, Quinza?”
“Why are we covering such basic fundamentals this late into the curriculum? Anyone can use miracles. Assuming they are not hated by the spirits, that is,” she said.
Stella didn’t react, but that ticked me off.
The professor smiled. “Well then, Quinza. I understand you to specialize in Fire miracles. I would like you to form a ball of fire and maintain it for an hour, starting now.”
Quinza froze and fell silent, prompting the professor’s smile to widen.
“Oh? I am only asking for an hour. Is it not the case that anyone can cast miracles? What would be the problem with maintaining it for one full hour?”
After some silence, Quinza said, “I apologize, Professor.”
“Aha ha. Your question does strike at an important reality: Although everyone can cast miracles that last for a moment, it takes great focus to maintain them for longer.” The professor began swinging her staff and chanted, “Terararia Sein, Luxsaria Sein, Aquaria Sein...”
At once, everyone present—the professor and the students—found themselves standing in the middle of an ornate classroom.
Instant transmission?!
I wasn’t the only one who seemed shocked. The nearby students all balked and looked around.
The room looked to be part of a European castle. There was a sizable chandelier on the ceiling, a slender table capable of seating thirty-some people, and rows of chairs.
The professor alone was unperturbed, and plopped into the frontmost seat of the table. “Light, Fire, Water, Wind, Earth. If miracles can manipulate every component constituting our world, why is it that no castles made of miracles exist? The answer is simple—maintaining miracles is different. Even if one makes a castle as I have, a simple nap would make it all vanish. And it need not even be a nap—simply by losing focus for a moment, anything built with miracles will collapse. That is why no one thinks of building castles with miracles.”
She made a castle...?! It wasn’t teleportation, then!
Professor Elyena poured tea from a teapot on the table. She brought the cup to her lips, then exhaled.
Instantly, the chandelier broke apart. The ceiling shattered and revealed fragments of the blue sky. The walls, table, and teapot all turned to clay, and before we knew it, we were all back in the garden. The chair the professor was sitting on disappeared when she stood.
HOLY COW! Miracles are something else!
It was genuinely moving to see such a massive-scale miracle for myself.
“That said, all of you can be considered Oravina’s elites, and I imagine you aim to join the military as warrior saints. During operations you may need to fly for hours at times, or maintain light sources throughout the entirety of night. Those who cannot maintain miracles for a mere hour would be rejected out of hand.”
Warrior saints in the military, eh?
I glanced at Stella’s way. She was listening with a diligent expression.
This academy hardly seemed like a happy place for her. What was she truly aiming for by staying here...?
“In today’s lesson, I will be training you to maintain miracles for longer periods of time. Chant your prayers precisely, and maintain connection to your spirits for as long as possible,” the professor said, using her staff to point to the back end of the garden. “Before class, I placed flags for each of you on the mountain peak behind us. Each of you must acquire yours and return before the end of class. That is today’s lesson.”
The students all fell silent and looked at the distant mountain. She said “the mountain” casually, but it wasn’t an easy place to reach.
Professor Elyena grinned at the uncomfortable students. “This is a test of endurance. It otherwise requires nothing more than simple flying. Aha!”
“O Spirits of Wind, grant me wings in the name of the Goddess supreme. Winaria Sein!”
The unified chants of the students resounded. Girls straddling staves were engulfed with wind and flew off one by one. Stella alone stood immobile, glaring off into the distance. I waited for everyone to fly off before whispering to her.
“Stella. Stella!”
“What.”
“Let’s get up in the sky. Now’s our chance to show everyone you can use miracles too,” I said. This was an early opportunity to salvage my damaged honor. Or so I thought, but...
“Are you genuinely stupid?” Stella asked, placing a hand on her hips. “Have you forgotten the Light miracle from last night? That tiny bean disappeared in an instant.”
“I’d never forget our first miracle.”
“A miracle on that level could stir up a slight breeze at best. It wouldn’t be enough for me to fly.”
“And so...you need practice?”
“That’s right. To fly like everyone else, I need to—”
“Stella,” came a voice.
Stella jumped with a start. Without our noticing, Professor Elyena had walked over, robe dragging behind her. Stella swiftly hid me behind her.
“Professor Elyena.”
“I understand endurance tasks will be difficult for you given your circumstances, Stella. I will ask you to write a report instead, which will be graded as normal. Aha.”
Oh, huh. Seems like she has some good professors too.
There was the elderly professor that had bashed Stella back at the festival, and there was Professor Speranza from this morning. Both had seemed to hate her, while Professor Elyena here seemed to be all smiles. She was helping Stella out since she couldn’t use miracles.
Stella averted her eyes from the smiling professor, then spoke uncomfortably. “I guess I don’t have a choice. I’ll settle for writing a report.”
Stella can’t be honest even with professors... That’s my gal.