“That concludes my talk.” As soon as he’d completed his planned speech, Duke Valentine stepped down from the podium, giving the space to Duke Blois. There were no undulations in his tone from start to finish. For better or worse, it was a lecture like any other class. Some of the students seemed extremely pleased, though.
“I am Willaims Jilva Blois, Secretary of the Ministry of Magic. All that’s left is my speech, so please listen to this old man for a little longer.”
A few small laughs were sprinkled throughout the audience, but Leticiel was still freely writing spell techniques on her paper. She was only there because attendance was mandatory, not because she was interested in the lecture.
“…And that’s why those of us in the Ministry of Magic work hard each day to develop better magic and make it more universal.” Duke Blois’s lecture progressed smoothly as Leticiel wrote down all the techniques she thought up, adding mathematical expressions and writing random deployment methods.
“For example, this is a levitation spell I came up with. It can’t levitate big items, but something the size of a writing utensil should be fine.”
Duke Blois picked up a piece of chalk and then made it float up to the chalkboard and write the magic formula. Leticiel was somewhat impressed by the finished formula. It was certainly rough around the edges, but it still had a simple structure without extraneous expressions that would burden the computing area. It seemed his position as Secretary of the Ministry of Magic wasn’t just for show.
“Sir! May I try using that spell?” a boy at the back of the auditorium called out.
Duke Blois nodded as he wrote out the chant. “Of course.”
As soon as he gave his permission, embarrassed chanting could be heard throughout the auditorium, students’ writing utensils floating in the air.
“Is being able to use magic that special?” Leticiel wondered out loud as she watched the students gleefully mess around after successfully activating the spell. To her, using sorcery was an everyday occurrence, so it was nothing to fuss over.
“I think they’re just happy. Magic is rarely used in everyday life, after all,” Zeke answered, returning his floating pen to its place. At his words, Leticiel remembered that this era’s magic wasn’t very fuel-efficient, so it couldn’t be used often.
“Ordinary people do not come into contact with magic in their everyday lives, nor do they know much about its existence. Amongst the nobility, magic is seen as one type of status.”
“Status?”
“Yes. From what I’ve heard, nobles use magic to assist their movements and make them smoother while embroidering or to gather people’s attention on them at balls—things like that.”
“I see. Basically, in the world of the aristocracy, the more performative your power is, the better.”
Wasn’t that basically street performances under the name of magic? Leticiel had known that their magic was overwhelmingly unsuitable for attacks the first time she’d seen it, but to think their powers really were just a sham…
While they were talking, Williams walked down the aisle between Leticiel and Zeke. Once the magic demonstration time had started, he had been moving between the students, answering their questions.
“What do you think? Do you have any questions?” he asked Zeke.
Zeke snapped up the chance and began asking questions. “Ah, in that case, I’d like to ask about this expression in the formula…”
Leticiel had no intention of joining their conversation. Plus, she couldn’t use magic, so she decided to just sit and wait at her desk until the end of the demonstration. That was why she didn’t notice that, after finishing his talk with Zeke, Williams had caught sight of the doodles on her papers and was staring at them like he could bore a hole through them.
The room was still buzzing with people practicing magic, but Leticiel was starting to hear quiet but malicious snickers. When she sat up and scanned around the auditorium, some students looked away while most of the others continued to laugh as if to show off. They were likely amused by the fact that Leticiel had nothing to do. How stupid.
But Leticiel didn’t seem to be the only target of their ridicule. Behind her, near where Hilmes was sitting, one bespectacled girl was sitting with her head down. She had blue eyes and blonde hair that was tied up in two high pigtails that hung below her shoulders. She seemed to be doing her best to activate the levitation spell, but it wasn’t going well.
Leticiel thought the girl might have low magical power, but Leticiel was the only one in their grade who didn’t have any magical power at all. If she just had low magical power, she was like Mirandalette and Hilmes. Leticiel had no idea why the others were laughing at her.
The girl looked up from time to time, glancing at a certain spot. Curious, Leticiel followed her gaze and saw that it led to the Secretary of the Navy, who was sitting on a chair and waiting now that his lecture had ended.
Duke Valentine either hadn’t noticed or was purposefully ignoring her, as his eyes were fixed on a spot in front of him. Perhaps they knew each other?
Some time later, the long lecture finally came to an end. After the demonstration time, Leticiel had gotten fed up with listening and had taken a nap.
“It’s oooveeer!” Hilmes immediately stood after the secretaries left the auditorium and came flying over to Leticiel and the others. “Let’s hurry up and go to the cafeteria! I’m starving!”
“Yes. We’d better hurry or we won’t be able to get seats.”
A crowd of students were already pushing through the exit, leaving the audience seats almost empty. Leticiel stood to leave as well.
“It’s gone… It’s gone!” The frazzled whisper came from behind her. When she turned around, she saw that the girl with glasses seemed to be searching for something. Seeming close to tears, she rummaged through the desk’s drawer and upended the contents of her bag onto the tabletop.
“Are you looking for something?” Leticiel asked.
“Eep!”
Leticiel could have kept walking, but it would have pained her to ignore the girl, who looked so desperate. She’d talked to the girl, hoping there was something she could do to help, but the girl was so surprised that she’d jumped and let out a small shriek.
“Um, if you’re looking for something, shall we look with you?”
“Erm… No, it’s… Uh…” The girl fumbled over her words, face turning red. She had completely lost her composure. Leticiel wasn’t quite sure how to handle the apparently extremely shy young lady.
Still, she waited patiently without rushing the girl, who finally managed to wrangle her words into choppy sentences. “M… My p-pencil case… It’s all I have left of my mother…”
Leticiel ran through her memories. When she had looked back at the girl during the lecture, there had been a pretty wooden box on her desk.
“Was your pencil case a wooden one?”
“Y-Y-Y-Y-Yes!”
Leticiel had done her best to speak quietly in a low tone so as not to surprise the girl, but she still didn’t seem used to talking with others.
Leticiel cast a searching spell on the auditorium. Knowing the shape made it easier to find objects with said spell.
“There’s a wooden object in the last desk in the last row,” Leticiel announced. “Why don’t you check there?”
“O-O-Okay, I will!” The girl immediately headed for the last seat. She bent down and peered into the desk, eyes shining when she pulled out a rounded wooden box with a mellow color scheme. “I-It’s here. I found it!”
“I’m so glad you were able to find it.”
“Yes… Yes!” Clutching the pencil case tightly to her chest, the girl smiled, thoroughly relieved. It must truly be important to her.
“Well, I’d better go now. Please take good care of that pencil case.”
The mystery of how the girl’s pencil case had gotten so far away from her seat still remained, but at least she’d been able to recover it. After saying her goodbyes, Leticiel headed for the auditorium’s exit.
“W-Wait!” the girl called, stopping her right before she could pass through the door. She was holding the pencil case against her chest and breathing deeply as if to try and calm herself. “Thank you…very…muth! Hnn…”
The girl bit her tongue in the middle of saying thanks and covered her face out of embarrassment, crouching down to hide behind the table.
“Erm, you’re welcome,” Leticiel replied to the hidden blonde girl before leaving the auditorium, followed by her friends.
The girl had left an impact on Leticiel. She murmured, “Who was she?”
“Ah, that’s Miss Veronica.” Surprisingly enough, Hilmes was the one who answered.
“Are you friends with her, Hilmes?”
“I wouldn’t say we’re friends, but she’s the daughter of a duke and is in Class 3 with me!”
“She’s the daughter of a duke?”
“Yep! Her father is the Secretary of the Navy who came today!”
In other words, Veronica was Duke Valentine’s daughter. No wonder she’d been looking his way during the lecture. But judging from the duke’s attitude, they didn’t seem to be very close.
“More importantly, let’s hurry to the cafeteria! I’m gonna go ahead!”
“Wait, Leif!”
Mirandalette hastily followed after Hilmes, who skipped down the hallway.