By Zephyria 
I had intended to call Edwin over for a talk as soon as class ended, but my appearance was so disheveled today that I hesitated to call over the child who already seemed to dislike me.
I noticed the students from the Department of Magic kept looking my way during class. They had clearly abandoned their “operation of ignoring” me, but I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what their next strategy would be.
Could it be that since ignoring me didn’t work, they were now trying to bother me by staring?
It didn’t bother me in the slightest.
If I were to pick methods that truly bothered me, only direct attacks or being physically confined somewhere would be effective. Of course, I also felt that I could overcome any trap, no matter what magic the opponent used.
I recalled Jegal Amugae, who had asked me to wait briefly at the Martial Alliance Dragon Phoenix Gathering, then conjured mist using four square stones, a branch, and twenty jade pebbles on the martial arts training ground. He had conjured an immense fog in just one hour, but I defeated him because he couldn’t hide his tense breathing.
However, I soon thought of Professor Angela Sting, who could conjure fire and water as if breathing and restore her disturbed Qi and blood. Magic attacks…
Today, as usual, I summoned the mana from the air and let it swirl pointlessly in my Middle Dantian before releasing it. While waiting for Professor Angela Sting, who was watching the other students’ demonstrations, I suddenly felt curious and nudged the student next to me. It was one of the students who had handed me that Crystal Orb.
He flinched so violently that I was the one who looked surprised.
“Why are you so startled?”
“Huh? Uh-huh. No, it’s nothing. What is it?”
“Do you know what Circle Edwin Kiadris is?”
The boy’s mouth snapped shut.
I realized the number of gazes directed at me had increased. I roughly swept my hair, tangled with dirt and dust, and looked around.
Among the students whose eyes met mine, some averted their gaze, but others continued to look at me.
Of course, the most intense gaze among them was from Marianne Philodendore, who had clearly and thoroughly revealed Edwin’s dark intentions to me, and the second most intense was from Edwin Kiadris himself, the subject of my inquiry.
“…Why is that?”
“No, I was just curious. Don’t you know?”
“…I-I don’t know.”
“Really?”
I didn’t want to frighten other students who hadn’t harmed me, nor did I want to cause a disturbance by getting up during class.
The Crimson Gold Circle Edwin had displayed previously was still vividly etched in my mind, but now that I had learned that what was visible wasn’t the entirety of it, I simply thought he was quite strong.
I was curious about the offensive magic he could conjure.
According to what I had read in Sierren’s fairy tales, offensive magic involved hurling fireballs or water blobs, creating wind, and shaking the earth.
In the Central Plains, those who could do such things were called Immortals. Even the sect leader of the Kunlun Sect, a master among masters, couldn’t dream of such feats, so it was a truly wondrous world.
As the saying goes, you can’t steal someone’s seed and expect to have your own children. He hated being compared to his brother, so he hadn’t even started swordsmanship, but this was magic that someone with extraordinary talent would have researched with all his might.
I wondered if I could block a fireball with my sword if one were thrown at me. Even if it wasn’t a fireball, I had seen people shoot Sword energy like arrows across the vast Martial World.
The answer was to break a river with a river and deflect a flow with a flow. If he conjured fire by twisting, coiling, and bending Mana, perhaps it could be broken or deflected with Mana or Internal Energy? I pondered this.
After checking all the spell formulas assigned as homework from the previous class, Professor Sting stepped onto the podium.
She tried to harden her voice, which was naturally drawn out and weak like a young goat’s, and sternly warned us not to practice this formula alone. As I was already pondering what dangerous magic might exist, I straightened my posture and meticulously examined the handouts that appeared on my desk.
There were a few things I could recognize.
The last one was the concluding Alpha formula, and there were three patterns of concentration needed to gather Mana in the middle.
This was dispersal, this was amplification… Aside from those four, the twenty-one formulas were entirely new to me, but I wasn’t disheartened because they weren’t related to my path; I was merely curious.
“…This is a formula for new creation… It breathes life into the earth, disturbed and damaged by the energy of monsters… It’s a formula that allows grass and trees to grow… It can be used from Class 2, but… the amount of Mana required is immense… If you don’t use potions and auxiliary tools… very serious things can happen…”
“Yes.”
“This formula isn’t often used on its own; it’s mainly used to create Artifacts… Does anyone know what kind of Artifact I’m talking about?”
A boy who looked quite bright raised his hand. As Professor Sting nodded, the boy promptly replied in a clear voice.
“The Artifact that uses the new creation formula is called the Source of the Waterproof Forest. It’s something the Special Imperial Knight Order scatters after exterminating monsters in the northern mountains, using the monster corpses as fertilizer so trees can grow well. It’s about the size of a child’s fist and very light, but it can purify an area of five meters around it.”
“…Thank you for a very excellent explanation, Gregory.”
As the boy, looking proud, closed his mouth, Professor Sting took out a round object from her robe pocket and showed it to us. It was about the size of the circle formed by touching one’s thumb and middle finger. Its color resembled brass, and its sheen was dull, so from a distance, it might have looked like a lump of dirt or stone. The professor continued her explanation.
“This is… twenty-five layers of formulas, entered twenty-five times into a small object, the purification of civilization… the Source of the Waterproof Forest… Because it’s a constantly needed consumable… it can be of great help to our students when they urgently need money…”
What was inside that small object? I found myself looking back and forth between the handout in front of me and the Artifact.
“Not only the 1st and 2nd Magic Towers in the capital… but also the 3rd, 4th, and 5th Magic Towers in the provincial administrative districts… we always welcome wizards who can inscribe the new creation formula… If you run out of money while traveling, you should visit a Magic Tower first…”
It was hard to tell if she was joking or serious.
My interest lay elsewhere. I had heard that this peaceful land had many high-level experts and many organizations that promoted martial arts, but it seemed monsters were more powerful than I had imagined.
Even if this Artifact was a small object, scattering so many of them would be a heavy burden, and I worried it might be cumbersome to move.
Naturally, I could imagine my future self in those mountains.
While I couldn’t imagine the wondrous and beautiful appearance of the Imperial Palace, I could clearly picture myself scattering those round beads, as they called them, on the dark ground where enemies lay split in half, while checking on my comrades.
“Alright, then… shall we start with the analysis of the Mon-steo-os form?… Be very careful of the two dots marked above. If these dots are missing, the formula won’t activate at all…”
I listened to the class with a diligent attitude. It felt like listening to the chattering voices of nurses and maids when I was born, lying in a high crib that resembled a feeding trough, as Sierren had described.
Back then, I recognized laughter as laughter and knew when I was being called, but I couldn’t understand most of the conversations they had.
It was exactly like that now.
My strong body prevented me from dozing off or slumping during class, but listening to incomprehensible words was inevitably boring.
To at least memorize the shapes of the parts that shouldn’t be skipped or overlooked, I concentrated, looking back and forth between the symbols being written on the blackboard and those on the handout.
So, when Edwin Kiadris called me over after class, I was merely bewildered by my exhaustion and had no idea what to do.
“Michael Ernhardt. Come here for a moment.”
“Yes, Senior.”
He was a year above me, so I replied immediately.
My hair, damp from sweat and then dried, was messy and falling over my forehead, and I disliked it, so I brushed it back again. Edwin glared at me for a moment, then turned abruptly and started walking ahead.
His attitude clearly indicated he wanted to go somewhere quiet, so I followed him, pondering what he might say.
The Department of Magic building and the Swordsmanship Department building were quite far apart.
From the theory lecture hall of the Swordsmanship Department at the east end to the classrooms of the Department of Magic at the west end would take a person who hadn’t learned martial arts an hour and a half to reach, but it took me fifty minutes.
Even if I had used Light Footwork, I couldn’t have gotten there in under fifteen minutes, and I had no reason to go to such a distant place.
Behind the Department of Magic building, beyond the fence, I stepped onto the wide lawn where the Magic Tower was visible in the distance for the first time.
In the Swordsmanship Department, even if they landscaped the open spaces, they would lay down dirt or stone floors in the center to use as a martial arts training ground, but the Department of Magic was different. I thought they just used it as a place for picnics.
Then, I suddenly realized. If I had called Edwin, I would have had to rack my brain for what to say, but because Edwin called me, I only had to listen to what he said and make judgments about whether it was right or wrong.
I had clearly heard Marianne babbling that Edwin was dangerous and bad, but even if he were dangerous, would he cut off my head or sever my limbs?
Edwin stopped, and I stopped too.
He was turned away, not looking at me. From my perspective, looking at his neatly combed, lustrous hair, I wondered if he had to act like a senior by showing his back like that, unless he was an elder of the Huashan Sect, but I silently waited for him to speak.
His question, asked abruptly without preamble, was easy to answer.
“Why are you curious about my Circle?”
“Because among the students taking this class, you seemed the strongest.”
“What?”
“The formulas you’re currently learning are all trivial. Purification, security, new creation… But you looked like someone who knew how to fight, so I asked.”
Perhaps it wasn’t the answer he expected, as the boy turned around.
Now that I was facing him, I felt like I was finally talking to a person. His eyes still held a faint fighting spirit, but it was just as difficult to gauge its level.
Martial artists could quickly tell if their opponent’s realm was low, similar to theirs, or impossibly high, without sparring.
But wizards were different.
They drew Mana from nature, circulated it within their bodies, used it freely, and then dispersed it back into nature, leaving no trace on their bodies. I would only know how weak or strong his Mana Circle was by seeing the magic he used.
Finally, I added one more sentence.
“It also seems like you want to fight me.”