Chapter 157
Tap—tak—tap—
The sound of chalk echoed throughout the cafe.
The Emeral students who had been quietly snickering grew blank-faced as time passed.
Tap—
Leo put down the chalk and stepped back from the board.
He looked at Silla, who was opening and closing her mouth in shock.
“Well? What do you think?”
“Y-you can approach it like this too?”
Startled, Silla hurried up to the board.
‘What is this? How did he even interpret it? This spell actually works?’
At Emeral Academy, research projects are done in teams of twenty.
And the problem Leo just solved was the group assignment for Silla’s team.
He had just solved their group assignment with ease.
The Emeral students could only stare with their mouths open.
To be honest, even after watching Leo’s solution up close, they barely understood half of it.
‘Damn it! How did he even do that?’
She could tell the spell would work now.
But she had no idea how.
Silla stared at the board, then glanced at Leo, who was spinning the chalk casually, and gritted her teeth.
She wanted to ask for a detailed explanation, but her pride wouldn’t let her.
“But you know—”
“Y-yeah?”
“Wouldn’t it be more efficient to cast the spell a different way?”
“What?”
Smiling, Leo erased everything on the board and started writing a new formula.
“The last spell was about getting high output from low-level fire magic, right? If it’s heat, that means fire spells, so there will be a lot of fire formulas. But that means high mana consumption. So you need to use wind magic to compress it.”
Leo started writing out the magic formula on the board.
The Emeral students’ jaws dropped.
A spell so complicated it was hard to even follow.
‘How is that supposed to be more efficient?’
‘My brain’s about to explode!’
“If you compress it with wind formulas like this, you can increase firepower. And that also reduces mana consumption.”
Leo shrugged.
“Wait! Hold on! Sure, that’ll cut mana use, but efficiency isn’t just about that! You have to consider things like casting speed and simplicity too!”
At Silla’s objection, Leo let out a small laugh.
“There’s something great called a trigger formula these days, isn’t there?”
“Turning a spell this complicated into a trigger formula isn’t easy, you know!”
Silla narrowed her eyes.
Leo laughed.
“It’s not that hard.”
“What?”
Leo instantly activated the spell he just explained.
Flames flickered in Leo’s hand, then were compressed by wind into a ball of energy.
Silla’s jaw dropped.
“It’s not really practical for real combat yet, but with a bit more research, it could be pretty decent.”
As Leo ended the spell and shrugged, Silla began to tremble.
Then, as if she finally understood, she spoke.
“O-oh! So you were researching this kind of magic too? Wow, that’s just like Lumene! To think you’ve already been researching this kind of magic!”
Silla forced an awkward laugh.
“Ahahaha! I can’t believe I just copied what Lumene is working on. How embarrassing.”
“Lumene doesn’t actually do research like this.”
“What?”
“Lumene does experiment with new magic theories, but not at the school level. Instead of inventing new magic, Lumene mainly focuses on adapting and specializing existing spells for battle.”
Leo shrugged.
It was true.
The ultimate goal of Lumene’s Magic Department was to foster heroes.
So their main research was on adapting and applying existing spells for actual combat.
Professor Len did emphasize academic research, but that never became the norm.
Experiments like this were rare at Lumene.
“Wait. So how did you even interpret and convert that formula into a trigger spell? Did you really do it on the spot?”
“Yeah.”
Leo nodded calmly, and Silla stepped back in disbelief.
The other Emeral students started murmuring.
“Don’t lie! You just glanced at it and solved it? There’s no way you could do that unless you already knew how… Wait, maybe if you did it all in your head, but that’s impossible—”
“I did it in my head.”
“……!”
Crack—
Silla and all the Emeral students froze.
“Liar… No way! There’s no way a human could do that! Uwaaaaah!”
Shocked, Silla ran out of the cafe.
“Hey! Where’s our leader going?”
“W-wait for us!”
“Eek?!”
The Emeral students who scrambled to follow her met Leo’s eyes and flinched in terror.
Seeing them look at him like a monster, Leo scratched his cheek.
‘Maybe I went a little overboard.’
—
Assembly time came.
All 600 visiting students gathered in front of the dock to go to Lumene.
“I heard all the students this time are first years?”
On a bench at the dock, Leo sat between Celia on his left and Chelsea on his right.
“Celia, did you have anyone picking fights while you were in Lumeria City?”
“Picking fights? Not really.”
“How about you, Chelsea?”
Chelsea, who’d been swinging her legs on the bench and watching the Emeral students, shook her head.
“Me neither. Why? Did someone try to pick a fight with you, Leo?”
“Yeah.”
“Those kids are so unlucky. Of all people, they had to mess with you.”
Celia spoke indifferently.
Leo folded his arms as he looked at her.
“Why me?”
“There are plenty of kids at our school who despair after seeing you. Now, before joint classes even start, some other schools got crushed.”
Chelsea covered her mouth and stifled a laugh as Celia shrugged.
Just then, the supervising professors arrived at the dock.
Ain, Yura, Len.
Seeing the three professors, Chelsea spoke with a serious face.
“I just don’t get our school sometimes. Why do they always put those three together for big events when it always ends up a mess?”
When two of them got together, it was like a chemical reaction. With all three, it got even worse, yet they often moved as a group.
At Chelsea’s comment, Celia looked like she agreed.
“All instructors, assemble.”
At Ain’s command, ten students stood at the front.
Curious gazes from students of the three academies focused on them.
“Wow, she’s pretty.”
“Celia…! She’s gorgeous!”
“That’s Chelsea Lewellin, right?”
“Who’s that girl from the Magic Department?”
“Is that little girl really in the Knights Department?”
“The heir to House Hergin seems hard to approach.”
The boys gazed at the Lumene girls in awe.
But the Lumene girls seemed indifferent.
Celia ran her fingers through her hair, clearly uninterested.
Chelsea crossed her arms and pouted.
Chloe read her magic book as usual, looking uninterested, and Eliza didn’t even glance up as she arranged her fingers.
Only Chen Xia smiled and waved.
The girls’ reactions were similar.
“Wow… They look like they stepped out of a painting.”
“Amazing, they’re so handsome.”
“K-kind of scary looking, though.”
Abad, Duran, and Walden drew all the girls’ attention.
“That white-haired boy is Leo Plov, right?”
“An All-Class!”
“He’s got such a cute face. I thought he’d be more rugged.”
Just then, some girls squealed.
Chelsea, Chloe, and Chen Xia looked over.
Meanwhile, Celia folded her arms and muttered,
“What’s so great about that butterball anyway?”
“Why are you calling my brother butter?!”
Chelsea snapped.
“Quiet.”
Ain spoke coldly.
The students from all three academies immediately fell silent at Ain’s tone.
“These students are instructors, just like you, even if they’re students themselves. Follow their instructions.”
At Ain’s words, a girl raised her hand.
“Professor! We want that instructor! Can he be our supervisor?”
The one raising her hand was a student from the Knight Academy, Ecorte.
She pointed at Abad as Ain replied,
“Abad Lewellin is from the Magic Department. He has nothing to do with you Ecorte students.”
The girl giggled.
“What does it matter? We’re all temporary Lumene students. Who cares what department?”
The Lumene students stared wide-eyed at her.
The students with her also folded their arms and nodded.
Even Duran’s jaw dropped.
There was no such thing as openly defying or whining at a Lumene professor.
Especially not to Professor Ain!
“Wow… Unbelievable.”
“Looks like she has a death wish,” Chelsea murmured, and Eliza smirked.
But Yura and Len just looked like they’d expected this.
“You, what’s your name?”
“Siriina Pia! I’m a noble from the Cheya Principality!”
Siriina puffed out her chest proudly.
Cheya Principality.
A fairly large principality in the eastern continent.
At her words, Ain spoke.
“Siriina. That’s a warning. Three warnings and you’ll be sent home immediately.”
Professor Ain was about to announce the schedule, but—
“Wait! Why am I getting a warning? And you’re sending me home? Do you know who I am?”
Siriina protested.
“Second warning. Don’t let it get to three.”
“No! Seriously! Why am I being warned?!”
Siriina made a hysterical face.
Lumene was a school everyone dreamed of attending.
Even if it was just joint classes, studying there was a huge deal.
But before she even got to attend, she’d been warned and was about to get kicked out.
It made Siriina furious.
“Third warning. You’re expelled.”
Ain pulled out a list.
“Hey! Even if you’re a professor at Lumene, you don’t have the right to kick me out!”
Siriina shouted, pointing her finger at Ain.
Yura muttered as she watched,
“She’s really crossing the line.”
“There’s always a few like that, but this year’s bunch is worse,” Len sighed.
Grab—!
“Huh?”
“Listen up, Siriina Pia. I don’t care if you’re a noble of Cheya or some princess from another country. I don’t care at all.”
Ain’s cold voice made Siriina’s face go pale.
“This is Lumene. Here, a professor’s word is absolute. That kind of petty authority means nothing here. Now get out of my sight.”
Whoosh—!
“Kyahhh!”
Splash—!
Ain tossed Siriina into the water, then spoke to the frozen students of all three academies.
“Let this be a warning. This isn’t Ecorte, Emeral, or Scaun. It’s Lumene. A student is nothing more or less than a student here, and there’s no hierarchy. From this moment on, you will be treated the same as Lumene students. Anyone who tries to flaunt their family name can leave right now. That is all.”
The students from the other academies held their breath.
Chelsea murmured,
“Seems even worse than what we heard.”
“Worse how?” Leo asked with a puzzled look, and Chloe closed her book and said,
“The students at the three great academies don’t have a hierarchy based on skill, like at Lumene.”
“What?”
“A lot of nobles from high places enroll there. Our school is similar, but over there, the nobles have a lot more influence.”
Chelsea crossed her arms and clicked her tongue.
“So even if they’re useless, they still act up because of their family name. I heard even the professors tiptoe around them.”
Leo murmured,
“Looks like it’ll be noisy for a few days.”