After a short break, her second lesson, which seemed to be about magic formulas, started. Standing in front of the class at the podium, the teacher reviewed the previous lesson and read aloud from the textbook. Glancing sideways at the girl sitting next to her, Leticiel got out the same textbook. She also took her notebook out just in case, but probably wouldn’t take any notes.
Leticiel knew of magic formulas, but referred to them as spell techniques. They were learned as introductory tools for those who were studying sorcery.
The power and scale of sorcery was determined by a person’s imagination and their ability to calculate and process information. However, beginners couldn’t activate spells on their own right off the bat. Magic formulas compensated for their lack of ability. After practicing sorcery while using a formula and getting used to the calculation process, they wouldn’t need the formula anymore. At that level, they would be able to use sorcery by just imagining the spell they wanted, so it was easier and more efficient to perform calculations on their own than by using a formula.
As her kingdom’s greatest sorceress in her previous life, Leticiel had no use for beginners’ magical formulas. To be honest, she could see this class being a waste of her time.
“…sell. Miss Drossel!” Leticiel was shaken out of her recollection of the past by the teacher calling her name. “You seem to have your head in the clouds. Do you plan on answering my question?”
The teacher was staring at her with an irritated expression. It took a moment for Leticiel to realize that she had been called on. “I’m sorry,” she responded. “I couldn’t hear your question. Could you please repeat it?”
“Y-Yes,” the teacher stuttered. “Could you please come to the chalkboard and rewrite this basic fire formula to make it a basic wind formula?”
Leticiel glanced at the formula on the chalkboard and her eyes widened in shock.
On it was a basic fire magic formula…or rather, something similar to a basic fire formula. It was clear that the formula was related to fire in some way, but the small details in it were completely unlike the basic formulas that Leticiel knew.
First of all, the scale of the formula had been expanded far too much. Basic formulas were the basis for all magic, so consumption should be kept to a minimum. But at its current scale, it placed an unnecessary burden on the user’s brain. Not only that, but there were too many unnecessary variables to control. A basic formula containing so many variables would cause a disaster when creating an advanced formula based on it later on. The variables would cancel each other out and the user wouldn’t get the desired effect.
It was the first time in Leticiel’s life (including her previous life) that she had seen such a wasteful formula with poor fuel efficiency and absolutely horrible conversion efficiency. After being faced with the worst formula she’d ever seen, Leticiel had surpassed shock and was genuinely worried.
Forget overwriting it with a basic wind formula—there was no way she could do proper sorcery with such an inefficient formula. What had happened to the level of sorcery—or rather, magic—in this world?
Seeing Drossell stare at the board in a daze, her teacher and classmates misunderstood, thinking that she was silent because she didn’t know the answer. Scornful laughter rang out here and there in the classroom, especially from Rocheford and his followers. The teacher looked at the students, then Drossell, and sighed.
“You don’t know how to, huh? In that case—”
Leticiel cut off the teacher by standing suddenly, kicking her chair away noisily. The classroom fell silent as Leticiel strode forward, the other students wondering what she was planning to do.
Snatching the chalk right out of the teacher’s hand, Leticiel began to write a new formula right next to the other one. Silence fell upon the classroom as the laughter instantly died down. Stunned by Drossell’s unexpected behavior, her classmates could only wait with bated breath to see what she was up to.
Leticiel was furious. If any of them had known about the spell techniques she had used in her previous life, they would likely feel the same way.
She hadn’t been called the kingdom’s best sorceress for nothing. She was a verified sorcery maniac. While prioritizing her citizens and family, she had run around battlefields and poured all her time and energy into researching spell techniques. She had succeeded in her goal of finding the ultimate way to activate sorcery with the least effort and burden necessary by cutting down magic formulas to the bare minimum. Before her death, Leticiel had discovered the limitations of magical formulas. She knew the most beautiful, efficient, and sustainable formulas.
From her point of view, it would not be an exaggeration to say that the nonsensical formula written in front of her was a blasphemy against sorcery.
She didn’t know exactly how much time had passed since her previous life, but what exactly had gone wrong for such shitty formulas and theories to become widespread? She wanted to grab the person who’d spread them by the neck and question them for at least an hour.
“Heh heh heh…” Eerie laughter echoed in the classroom. Several students shrieked at the dark aura the girl was emitting as she stood in front of the chalkboard, living up to her nickname of being an “ice demon.” Even the teacher took a step back, face pale. An invisible blizzard blew through the classroom, terrifying some of the students so much that they fainted.