Fragment 1 Now that I was used to my sword training and my weekly trials from Maria, I decided to work toward my next goal: learning attack magic. Figuring that I might as well ask the mage-class teachers to teach me, I put in a request, only to get immediately shot down. Which I kind of expected, to be honest. I already had my sights set on a student who seemed likely to teach me magic. Solon Barclay, child prodigy and future Great Sage. He’s a problem student who barely ever shows up to class, probably because his magic powers already surpass the teachers’. I had one reason to choose him: He looks like he has a lot of free time since all he does is just walk around the place. I don’t see him much, so when I happened to spot him one day, I immediately called out to him. “Solon Barclay, could you teach me magic?” “No,” he said without even looking at me. He promptly tried to leave. Between his skinny frame and the constant scowl on his face, his entire body seemed to shout, “Don’t come near me.” “Wait, could you hear me out for a bit?” I circled around him, blocking his path. “I don’t need to. You’re Ares. The weird guy who’s seriously trying to become the Hero. You ape Leon’s sword style, and Maria toys around with you once a week. And now you’re trying to make me teach you magic? Don’t be ridiculous. Why do I, a genius, have to waste my time on someone like you? Do whatever you want with your life, but don’t get in my way.” His scowling face grew even pricklier throughout this entire spiel. “Wow, you sure know a lot about me. I’m glad I can skip the explaining. So could you teach me magic? Please?” “Weren’t you listening to me? Didn’t I tell your sorry peasant behind not to interfere with a genius like myself?” “But you’ve got loads of free time, right?” “Me? Free time?” “You always seem like you have nothing to do when you’re at the academy. Doesn’t seem like you’ve got friends, either.” “You don’t have any friends yourself! Are you looking to die?” When I saw Solon concentrating magic into his right hand, I hurriedly cleared a path for him. His lack of friends seemed to be a sore spot. “Don’t talk to me ever again,” Solon spat as he strode off. I spotted Solon another time a week later. “Hey, Solon,” I called out. “Have you thought about what we talked about?” “Do you have no powers of recollection? Did Maria’s pranks unscrew your brain? Also, how dare you speak to me so casually. Do you have a death wish?” From then on, he and I engaged in this sort of banter whenever I saw him. Solon was always insulting me with phrases like “you piece of trash,” but Maria’s trials must have strengthened my mental fortitude, because that level of insult left me completely unfazed. After a month of this, he finally stopped walking off. “Okay, I get it, trash can,” he said to me. “Your words have some logic to them. I admit I don’t have much to do at school. I’m only here because of stupid obligations.” When I asked him for the details, he told me he’d been forced to enter the academy for appearance’s sake. “I’m a low-ranking noble. My father is a skilled mage like myself, but he didn’t have enough clout to overrule a high-ranking noble like the chairman, who wanted me to attend so the academy could brag about raising a genius. That’s why my father was pressured into making me enroll. I killed time in the library for the first month, but now I have nothing to do. Mind you, though, I do have the right to choose something other than teaching you.” As Solon spoke, he pulled a pile of books out of his pocket. There physically wasn’t enough space in there to store so much stuff. Was that some kind of magic? “These books are given out to the students in the mage class. Technically, you should be able to use beginner magic if you can read and understand these, but in practice, you need talent. I won’t tell you to cast spells—just go and memorize everything in these books. It should take you about a week.” “A week?! To finish this mountain of books…?” This covered an entire year’s worth of classes. Solon was asking the impossible. “Can’t do it? I’d say becoming a Hero is the more ridiculous task. Besides, you’re the one who said you want to learn magic despite not having the talent for it. If this is enough to make you think twice, you’ll never learn it.” “Oof.” He had a point. Solon’s argument was completely logical. And anyway, compared with Maria’s trials, this one actually made sense. “Okay, fine. One week. I’ll memorize it all. Then you’ll teach me magic.” “I don’t make false promises.” And with that, Solon walked away. I went back to my room and dived straight into reading. It was a little hard to understand, but surprisingly enough, it wasn’t completely undecipherable, partly since the contents overlapped with a magic tome I’d read ages ago. From that day forth, I put a halt to my sword training, avoided Maria’s trials, and cut down my sleep time, all to focus on reading. Day and night, and even during classes and meals—I used every minute of my time on those books. One week later, when I saw Solon, I ran up to him without hesitation. “I memorized everything!” I declared. “Oh, you did?” Meanwhile, Solon was the picture of nonchalance. “Then let’s go.” Solon started walking toward the campus. “Where?” I said. “Aren’t you going to quiz me on what I’ve learned?” “I don’t ask for the impossible. And I know you’re no liar. So I don’t need to check you.” That left me momentarily dumbfounded, but I soon ran after Solon. His destination was an empty classroom. “Okay, try chanting a fire spell,” he said. I did what I was told, reciting a spell from the books. But nothing happened. “Hmph. You chanted it correctly. But I sensed no mana in your spell. Have you pictured a fire?” “Yeah, just like the book told me to.” “What kind of fire?” “A hearth.” “That’s too weak. Imagine raging flames.” Solon gave me similarly detailed instructions over the course of our lesson, expanding on what was in the books. Although I didn’t quite muster any results, Solon took the whole thing very seriously. “Interesting. How very interesting,” he mused. “You might be able to analyze the fundamentals of magic in even greater detail.” “But it doesn’t look like I’m casting spells anytime soon.” “That’s what’s so interesting. I can use magic without thinking about it, but if you put thought into your magic, then theoretically, it’s possible to bolster your efficiency. In other words, if you can just learn how to cast magic, you might be able to improve your spells on a fundamental level.” I only half understood what Solon was saying, but at least he was really getting into his teaching gig. Our lessons only happened once a week, when Solon came to school. But I enjoyed our hangouts; we chatted about all kinds of things. I’d always thought of him as kind of a smart-ass who was prickly around other people, but he was actually a caring guy once you got to know him. “People always flattered me by calling me a genius or a prodigy, but nobles are all about using people for their own ends. Growing up with that kind of treatment, I couldn’t trust anyone around me. I always kept my own company,” Solon said with a self-deprecating smile. “Maria’s the same. Truth is, she’s just able to sense God. She’s no Holy Maiden, but people kept pushing their expectations on her, and now she’s a wacko. She might seem fine on the outside, but she’s quite gloomy on the inside. Still, there’s no one else who can sense God like she can. She’s nothing like those old farts who became bishops because of their status. If Maria can’t teach you, no one can. I guess, in that sense, she really is a Holy Maiden.” Solon seemed to have mixed feelings about Maria. “So what are her trials like?” he asked me.
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“Last time, she hit me over and over with a whip. ‘If you truly pray to God, you should stop feeling the pain,’ she said.” Solon winced. “Oh. Oh, I see. But you know, healing wounds is the first step toward God’s miracles. Maybe she was whipping you to get your body to heal itself and to make you sense God.” “These days, she’s been hitting me while venting about some venerable bishop who touched her butt or something. I can just hear her yelling, ‘Screw that old man!’” “……” “Oh, and while she’s hitting me, her smile gets wider and wider. Gives me the creeps. Is it really doing me any good?” I needed to do whatever it took to learn healing magic, but I had my doubts about Maria’s teaching style. “…Did you achieve anything?” Solon asked finally. “The pain did stop halfway through. Maria called it a ‘divine miracle,’ but I think I just got numb to the pain.” “I’m surprised you don’t have scars on your body…” Solon’s eyes swept over me. “She cleaned up the lash marks. ‘What we do in our trials is our little secret, so I must conceal the evidence,’ was what she said.” Maria demonstrated her competence in the most unpleasant form imaginable. “Okay, let’s start training your magic! Can’t waste a genius’s time!” Solon announced. He averted his gaze, and so our lesson began. And that’s how I spent my days at the academy. I used it all on training. Everyone else, teachers and students included, looked at me as if I was weird and derided me for “putting in so much work for nothing,” but I couldn’t give up on becoming the Hero. Around the beginning of my third year, I started being able to use magic. I could produce a bit of fire right around my fingertip. “Well, look at you!” Solon was as delighted as if it were his own achievement. “This is incredible! Nobody should be able to use magic unless they have a latent ability for it! Your hard work overcame that! Now this is something you can brag about! This is groundbreaking stuff, enough to rewrite the conventional theories of magic!” He was so happy that I forgot to be happy for myself. It took some time for it to sink in, but when the joy struck me, so did the tears. “Thank you, Solon.” My cheeks were damp. “I couldn’t have done it without you.” I’d dreamed about being able to use magic. And now I’d finally done it. No more regrets this time.