Chapter 23
“Hey, expulsion… Isn’t that a bit much?”
Carl said with a cold sweat, and Chloe asked,
“Nervous?”
“Of course! If it’s a Lumeln magic test, you know it’s bound to be tough!”
“You really think they’d give problems beyond a freshman’s level?”
“Must be nice, being an honor student.”
Carl barely passed the entrance exam, so he was already nervous about the test.
And he wasn’t the only one.
“Expulsion?”
“That’s too much!”
“The professor does have the authority to expel students. Everyone should know this, right?”
“But you can’t expel someone without a valid reason!”
“Of course, you can’t be expelled without a valid reason.”
Professor Ren tapped the exam paper with his fingertip.
“But if you can’t even pass a test like this, you don’t deserve to learn magic at Lumeln.”
Then, a male student from another department raised his hand.
“What about students taking magic as a minor?”
“You can still take non-major magic classes.”
“And what about dual-class applicants?”
“Dual class…”
Professor Ren trailed off with a smile.
“You might just discover hidden magical talent in one of these temporary classes.”
The sudden remark left the students puzzled.
“It’s because of that kind of casual thinking that minors have to take this exam too.”
A few students flinched.
“Trying to stand on equal ground with those who’ve dedicated their lives to magic, without ever having learned it—isn’t that rude?”
Professor Ren smiled, but his eyes were cold.
Chloe nodded enthusiastically, her eyes shining.
“You pass if you score forty out of a hundred.”
With the low cutoff, the students sighed in relief.
Professor Ren snapped his fingers, and a huge hourglass appeared in the air.
“You have one hour. If you finish early, submit your test and wait outside.”
The students pulled out their pens.
“Begin.”
The hourglass turned, and sand began to pour down.
The students checked the questions and answer sheets, along with extra paper for working out the formulas.
The scratching of quills echoed as Leo checked the test—and his expression hardened.
‘Describe the effect when the given magic formulas are combined.’
He felt his head ache.
‘What are these formulas?’
If he had to pick the skill that had changed most since his days as Kyle, it was magic.
Magic was, by nature, a field of exploration.
The basic runes were the same, but the way formulas were used evolved with each era.
Especially in the current era, magic formulas had advanced tremendously thanks to the Hero Record.
Since his reincarnation, Leo hadn’t read a single magic book, so he was totally ignorant of current formulas.
He glanced to the side and saw Carl, also looking worried but working through the problems.
Chloe was answering at lightning speed.
‘Kids these days are really smart. They’re solving these complicated formula combinations in their heads?’
Leo sighed, looking overwhelmed.
‘Fine, let’s just get a feel for the modern formulas. The structure is all that really matters, so I can make an educated guess, no matter the era.’
Leo composed himself.
‘No way am I getting kicked out of my first class!’
He had his pride as the hero who saved the world.
With a flash in his eyes, Leo began solving the formulas at an incredible speed.
‘Thank goodness! I know all these formulas!’
Meanwhile, Carl breathed a sigh of relief as he worked.
Contrary to his worries, the test wasn’t impossibly hard.
All the formulas on the test were ones he’d memorized.
Combining them was tricky, but as Professor Ren said, if you couldn’t do at least this, you didn’t deserve to study magic at Lumeln.
‘Figures. Chloe’s the kind of student who solves formula combinations in her head.’
Seeing Chloe write answers without showing any work, Carl could only marvel.
He glanced at Leo and saw his quill flying across the page.
But despite that speed, Leo’s answer sheet remained blank.
‘What’s going on? He wants to dual class, but his knowledge of formulas is lacking?’
At this rate, Leo clearly wouldn’t be able to take any magic classes.
Carl felt a pang of disappointment at the thought they wouldn’t be taking classes together.
“Thirty minutes left.”
‘Yikes, no time to waste. I’d better get to it.’
Meanwhile, Leo had filled an entire sheet with calculations and finally stopped his quill.
‘Who the hell made these formulas so damn complicated!’
If he had more time, he could solve it all.
The problem was, there just wasn’t enough time.
Checking the next question, he found it was again full of formulas he’d never seen before.
Frustrated, Leo kept checking the problems—then stopped at the last one.
There were fifty questions in all.
Questions 1 through 49 were formula combination problems, and the final one required interpreting a formula to find the result.
Compared to the earlier problems, the last formula wasn’t that complex.
Leo solved it mentally and wrote the answer on the sheet before standing up.
The students’ eyes followed him.
‘He gave up. Well, he couldn’t even solve the first problem, so anything else would be a waste of time.’
Carl clicked his tongue as he saw Leo hand his answer sheet to the TA.
‘Guess he’s giving up on magic classes.’
How could you attend class if you only knew the answer to one out of fifty questions?
‘Guess I’ll have to self-study.’
He left the lecture hall, blaming himself for his laziness.
The hourglass kept flowing.
But no other student stood up.
Even those who took magic as a minor had at least the basics, since they’d chosen it.
“Time’s up. Everyone, hand your papers to the TAs.”
“Phew, that was tough.”
Carl stretched and asked Chloe,
“Hey, what was your answer for the last question? I just couldn’t solve it.”
Watching Carl shake his head in defeat, Chloe frowned in frustration.
“I didn’t have enough time, so I couldn’t finish everything either.”
“Really? Yeah, it was ridiculously hard.”
“What about Leo?”
“I glanced over and he didn’t solve a single problem.”
‘So that’s why he left.’
Nodding, Chloe got up and walked over to someone.
Curious, Carl followed her.
“Big brother! This answer’s right, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, it is!”
“Yes!”
Chloe had gone to where Abad and Chelsea were sitting.
“Hi, Chelsea.”
“Huh? Carl? Who’s she?”
“This is Chloe Muller.”
“The top student from the north?”
Chelsea’s eyes went wide.
“Nice to meet you, Abad Rewallin. Did you solve the last problem by any chance?”
“I ran out of time. What about you?”
“Same here.”
Chloe took out her test paper.
“I’m curious how our solutions differ—want to compare?”
“Actually, I was wondering the same thing.”
Chloe’s test was filled with calculations for the final problem.
Abad’s was just as packed.
Carl couldn’t help but be amazed.
‘As expected of the top students. They would have finished everything if they’d had more time.’
“What about Leo?”
“After he left, I haven’t seen him anywhere in the magic building. He didn’t seem to solve anything.”
“Well, these aren’t questions a knight could solve.”
Believing Leo was an exceptional knight, Chelsea nodded.
At that moment, Professor Ren returned to the podium, and the students quickly found their seats.
“Good work on the test, everyone.”
Professor Ren gave a neat smile.
“The TAs will have your scores ready soon. In the meantime, I’ll briefly explain what my magic theory class will cover.”
The lecture began.
As they listened, the students couldn’t help but be impressed.
Professor Ren’s explanations were clear and engaging.
It was obvious—even instinctively—that they were learning from the best.
‘To think we’ll get to attend lectures like this from now on!’
The students were filled with anticipation.
As Professor Ren finished speaking, a male TA came up to the stage.
“Professor, the test results are ready.”
“Shall we all check the results together?”
Other TAs brought a board to the front of the lecture hall with the rankings.
“In fact, this test consisted of forty-nine one-point questions and one final question worth fifty-one points.”
As the students murmured, Professor Ren continued.
“This test isn’t just to select students for my major course, but is also the essence of my teaching philosophy.”
“In recent centuries, magic formulas have advanced rapidly. Thanks to that, spells that once required deep understanding can now be used by simply memorizing their activation conditions.”
As Professor Ren opened his palm, a formula made of Mana activated.
He clenched his fist, and the formula shattered, scattering fragments of Mana in all directions.
“That kind of progress has made magicians regress!”
The students jumped at his sudden exclamation.
“The trend these days is to memorize as many formulas as possible! It certainly makes magic easier to use… But that alone doesn’t make a true magician! The essence of a magician is exploration and understanding, not just memorization! Yet what are young magicians doing now? They ignore comprehension and just focus on rote learning! The progress of spells has led to the decline of magicians!”
Professor Ren raised both hands overhead.
A vast number of magic formulas spread across the air.
“This is the essence of my own magic formulas—not the standard activation sequence, but spells I created from scratch. Are there any modern magicians who research their own spells?”
This was the pure essence of a magician’s original world.
To the students’ eyes, Professor Ren’s magical world looked truly beautiful.
“The battle between mages isn’t just about Mana. It’s a contest to see who can analyze and break down the opponent’s spells faster. You can’t reach the highest levels just by memorizing activation sequences. That’s why!”
Whoosh—!
Professor Ren’s magic formulas vanished.
“I’ll be teaching you to understand magic formulas deeply! So you can become true magicians!”
Professor Ren spoke passionately to the students.
That passion inspired the students to start applauding.
The words “true magician” moved the hearts of the young students.
As the applause died down, Professor Ren pointed to the board.
“Check your scores and rankings. And if you scored below forty, please leave the classroom. That’s all.”
The students crowded to the board.
As Professor Ren watched with thoughtful eyes, a male instructor approached.
“Professor.”
“What is it, assistant professor?”
“There’s a student who answered question fifty correctly.”
“Someone scored a hundred?”
Professor Ren was genuinely surprised.
‘An outstanding talent like that! Abad? Chloe? Ah, have I finally found the disciple of a lifetime?!’
“It’s not a perfect score.”
“Not a perfect score?”
Professor Ren’s expression twisted in confusion.
Anyone who could solve the last problem shouldn’t have found the earlier ones difficult.
So how was it not a perfect score?
“Ah, looks like they skipped a few questions to solve the last one.”
“Not quite. Except for the last question, everything else was blank. Look.”
The assistant professor handed the answer sheet to Professor Ren.
Seeing the entirely blank answer sheet, Professor Ren asked gravely,
“…Who is this student?”
—
Checking the board, Chloe naturally looked toward the top of the rankings.
Then she was stunned.
2nd place. Chloe Muller, Abad Rewallin. (49 points)
3rd place. Chelsea Rewallin (48 points)
No matter how she looked, Chloe and Abad were tied for second.
And the name at the very top—
1st place. Leo Flove. (51 points)
As Chloe stared at the rankings with a stiff expression, she looked toward the front row—where Leo had been sitting.
There sat the test paper Leo had been working on.
She hurried over and checked the test paper.
‘W-what is this?’
Seeing the formula Leo had tried to solve and then given up on for the very first question, Chloe couldn’t help but look shocked.
‘Leo Flove… just what kind of person are you!’
