Finally, Leticiel finished drawing her formula on the board. Her expression was the epitome of rapture as she gazed happily upon the perfect formula. As she put down her chalk, the blizzard that had been assailing the classroom vanished into thin air. On the board was a formula at least half as small as the one the teacher had written.
She had cut away everything that could be removed, eliminated unnecessary variables or replaced them with other variables, and filled in the empty space with functions to create a magical formula that Leticiel knew well. She gazed at it with enchanted eyes. Though she had lost interest in others, her passion for and obsession with sorcery had far from disappeared, instead growing stronger.
“This is a true basic fire formula,” she told the teacher, giving him a huge smile. “I’ve overwritten it with a basic wind formula as you asked, so please feel free to use it in class.”
Murmurs ran through the classroom, which had been filled with fear moments earlier. To think the ice demon could smile in this way. Not her usual mocking smile or the creepy sneer she’d used earlier, but a genuine smile.
The smile was gone in the blink of an eye, returning to Leticiel’s default emotionless face. After a bow to the teacher, who was still dazed, Leticiel returned to her seat.
When she sat down, the girl next to her timidly spoke up, stuttering, “U-U-U-U-Um, that was…” Her complexion seemed much worse than it had been when Leticiel had met her that morning, not pale but somewhat ashen.
“What’s wrong?” Leticiel asked her. “If you’re not feeling well, you should rest.”
“Th-That’s what I was going to say!” the girl yelped, voice cracking, even though Leticiel had just been concerned about her health. Plus, her yell had gotten the attention of their other classmates, who were now looking at Leticiel with a mixture of reproaching, frightened, and displeased looks.
“Um… Did I do something?” Leticiel asked.
“What? Don’t tell me you weren’t aware…”
“Um… Unaware…of what?”
“Even though you let loose such a huge blizzard…?”
“A blizzard?”
After that, the girl zealously explained what had happened in the classroom while she had been facing the chalkboard. According to her, a black aura had risen from Drossell’s back, she let out an eerie laugh, and for some reason, a blizzard had struck the classroom, making many people faint.
If what the young lady said was true, then Leticiel truly did seem to have caused some damage. She did feel the need to apologize, but before that, there was one thing she wanted to say. “Thank you. That’s great news.”
“There’s nothing great about it! What could possibly be good about what I just told you? It was a nightmare, I tell you. A nightmare!”
“I’m terribly sorry for the trouble I’ve caused. Truly.”
“Why are you apologizing so normally? Now I can’t complain anymore,” the girl murmured, tears in her eyes. Have I said something to offend her? Leticiel wondered.
The “great news” Leticiel had been referring to was the invisible blizzard that had struck the classroom.
Sorcery was an art that involved gathering aether from the air and transforming it into a phenomenon by using the caster as a medium. The phenomenon and its scale could be adjusted freely by the caster, but the more difficult the spell or the greater its scale, the more of a burden it placed on the caster.
The blizzard, which must have been a nightmare for her classmates, was likely formed by the aether in the classroom tuning in to Leticiel’s rage and going wild, directly projecting her raging passion. Normally, sorcery couldn’t be used until the caster intentionally manipulated it, so for her to have done it unconsciously meant that she had a great deal of strength when it came to manipulating phenomena.
Plus, even though she’d gotten the entire classroom involved, Leticiel wasn’t out of breath at all, which meant the blizzard hadn’t strained her body. This body might be incredibly suited to sorcery, she realized, the thought making her chuckle.
Even in her previous body, she hadn’t been able to subconsciously cause magical phenomena. But in this body, she could. With training, she could surely become a sorceress even greater than Leticiel had been.
The other students cast her suspicious looks, unaware of the door she had opened to a new stage within herself.
Suddenly, Leticiel locked eyes with Christa, who was sitting at the front of the room. She was a little pale, but she was glaring at Leticiel with sharp eyes, as if she were facing her parents’ enemy. Her cute expression from that morning had disappeared, replaced with a terrifying, almost demonic expression. No one else was paying attention to Christa, so they didn’t notice how her expression and gaze seemed to resemble those of a woman going mad with jealousy.
It seemed her little sister wasn’t the pure noble lady she made herself out to be. Though she had noticed that discrepancy, it didn’t change the fact that Leticiel had no interest in Christa. The other woman was still glaring at her, but Leticiel decided to ignore her.
So much has happened in the few hours that have passed since I was reincarnated, she thought. I’m exhausted. Not paying any mind to the noisy classroom, Leticiel laid her head on her desk. A new environment, a new society, and new common sense, all in a new world. Knowledge of this unfamiliar world was battering her like a waterfall. Even as strong as she was, Leticiel was still tired.
Idly telling herself that she should write it all down and organize the information so she wouldn’t get confused later, her eyelids slowly slid closed.
✦ ✦ ✦
How could Drossell, who supposedly had no magical power, do such a thing?
The girl next to Leticiel, Mirandalette Lulu Wald, glanced confusedly at Drossell as she slept with her face down on the desk, oblivious to the stares of her bewildered classmates.
To be honest, Mirandalette did not like Drossell and was afraid of her. Not only did Drossell have no magical power, but she had a temper and was hard to approach.
It had all started when she lost her temper at her sister on the day of the entrance ceremony. Rumors had spread through the academy quickly, making Drossell an anathema right from the start. That was why Mirandalette didn’t want anything to do with her either.
But…had Miss Drossell always been like this? Since she had feared the rumors and only observed Drossell from afar, Mirandalette wasn’t sure.
Her thoughts jumbling, she watched Drossell sleep soundly as the classroom buzzed with talk about how differently Drossell had been acting in both their History and Magic Formula lessons. Their murmurs continued unabated as Mirandalette pondered how different the character of the girl in the rumors was from the personality of the girl next to her.
The formulas teacher was frozen for a short while, staring at the formula on the chalkboard. But he suddenly came to his senses with a gasp and fumbled for the notebook in his pocket, quickly scribbling something on it. “Everyone, the rest of today’s lesson will be used as a self-study session!” he announced once he had finished writing, putting his notebook away and quickly leaving the classroom.