Chapter 38:
No Ability Users Allowed
Deon meant to put Ian to sleep in his room.
While Ian looked bewildered, Liche, understanding Deon’s words immediately, grabbed Deon’s hand with a brightened face and shook it.
“Really? Thanks! Oppa!”
Sleeping in Deon’s room in the same building was better than sneaking into the girls’ dormitory.
After smiling widely at Ian, Liche whispered to Deon.
“Don’t use your ability on Ian. Got it?”
Deon bluntly replied.
“I don’t know.”
***
A moment later.
Deon and Ian stood in front of the bedroom door.
“…”
It shouldn’t be a nuisance anymore since it was a favor in the middle of the night.
Ian tried to quietly enter the empty room opposite, but Deon grabbed him.
“My sister told me to watch you.”
Deon tied a long string he had brought around his wrist and tied the other end around Ian’s wrist.
“What’s this…?”
“Don’t move, whether you have narcolepsy or not. I don’t like being disturbed in my sleep.”
After sternly warning Ian, Deon walked to the bed.
Ian quickly entered the room, tightened by the taut string on his wrist. Seeing a pillow and blanket thrown on the distant sofa, it seemed like his spot.
Ian cautiously lay down on the sofa.
Some rumors about Derkedion Roadwick were terrifying, and one of them was that if one crossed Derkedion, they would be found the next morning as a cold corpse.
“Perhaps it’s because they come from an assassin lineage that the rumors about them are so grim.”
Ian tightened the string around his right arm where it was tied. It showed his determination not to disturb Deon’s sleep. There was also respect for Deon, who offered him a place to sleep by taking up just one sofa.
He closed his eyes, but his mind was clear, so sleep seemed impossible.
“Liche.”
He finally knew her name.
Ian mentally repeated Liche’s name a few more times and smiled. So your name is Liche.
“Please stay here for a moment. I’ll come back soon with His Excellency…”
Even though Philip went to fetch Deon, leaving Liche and Ian alone, they couldn’t easily engage in conversation in the awkward atmosphere.
Talking through a mirror and speaking face-to-face were completely different.
Even in situations where words didn’t come easily, Ian only spat out what he desperately wanted to say.
“I’m alive.”
“Yeah. That’s really good.”
Although they didn’t say much, they understood each other perfectly.
When Liche responded with a smile, Ian truly felt that he was alive.
He wanted to have the same conversation in the distant future. To achieve that, he couldn’t easily refuse Liche’s proposal to monitor his narcolepsy.
“I heard that Derkedion senior doesn’t like people.”
Despite being his sister’s request, Derkedion must not have liked the current situation.
Ian looked at Derkedion’s sleeping face with half-closed eyes.
Naturally, he didn’t resemble Liche. Maybe the high nose was similar. Derkedion’s sleeping face seemed unfamiliar. He had never imagined being in the same space with him.
Derkedion Roadwick. Despite being scary, he had excellent grades, lineage, and superior looks. There were many followers in the school, though he seemed indifferent.
“Gerwer.”
Deon, who seemed to be asleep, opened his mouth. He reacted to Ian’s gaze as if sensing something.
“My sister will kill me if she finds out we’re dating.”
“Yeah…?”
He had his eyes closed, but just like Deon, sleep wouldn’t come to Ian either. He heard even his sister’s hallucinations, like “Liche, Ian’s getting married,” as if they were real. Absolutely ridiculous.
“Ability users, no.”
So, if Gerwer were to date Liche, I would step in.
Whenever it happens, my sister and an ability user are absolutely forbidden.
Deon, instead of his carefree sister, was wary of Ian.
“Don’t even dream about it, Gerwer.”
***
“There are no cores in the human body that produce mana. However, the mineral I’ve distributed to you, called a mana stone, is a mysterious substance that autonomously generates mana with its own core. Humans can use magic by harnessing the mana of mana stones.”
In the middle of a magic practice class at the training grounds.
Liche listened to Professor Rumbla’s explanation while looking at the mana stone in her hand.
Unlike the size of a single pearl, the mana stone she received was as big as a fist.
“I don’t know much except for the size. Is the mana stone not related to the unique properties of stars?”
She wanted to compare it with the star fragment in her pocket, but she couldn’t, so she carefully examined the mana stone in her hand.
The surrounding students murmured as they noticed Liche’s behavior.
Among them was Izra Cont, who had brought Liche’s magic affinity assessment sheet last time.
She looked at Liche confidently after acknowledging her existence, holding the mana stone in her hand.
“She’s confident in using mana stones. She practiced at home.”
While magic affinity was a definite talent, it couldn’t guarantee proficiency in magic alone.
Practicing controlling the flow of mana, understanding formulas, and all other necessary knowledge.
It was something Izra had acquired through tireless effort even before entering the academy.
This time, I might be able to beat Twariche.
“From today, we will start practicing with mana stones. Please come forward with your mana stones.”
When Professor Rumbla gave permission, the students climbed onto the wide stage of the training ground. They took their places, drawn at regular intervals on the X-marked floor.
In front of each place was a wooden desk that reached up to their waist, and on it lay a beaker and a pebble.
“The first magic we will learn is transmutation. It negates existence and bestows a new existence. Let me demonstrate.”
Saying he would demonstrate, Professor Rumbla held a stamp with a mana stone in one hand and a pebble in the other.
After placing the pebble on the beaker, he began chanting the transmutation spell.
After a long chant of about 10 seconds, the mana stone on the stamp flashed, and the pebble turned into water, filling the beaker.
The students exclaimed with admiration. They had heard beforehand that the amount of water changed was related to the proficiency in magic.
Filling the beaker meant he was a high-level mage.
“As you have learned the transmutation spell in theory class, give it a try.”
It was their first magic practice.
As soon as Professor Rumbla gave permission, they eagerly attempted the magic.
Some students made mistakes in their chanting and the pebble still didn’t change, while others succeeded in filling the beaker with water.
Half a cup, a full cup, slightly more than that. Even with pebbles of the same size, the amount of water varied.
“Got it!”
Izra clenched her fist with pride as she looked at the water filling 4/5 of her beaker.
Then.
“St, Student Twariche!”
Professor Rumbla’s urgent cry rang out.
And then.
Splash.
“Water…?”
Feeling dampness under her feet, Izra looked down.
She couldn’t believe it. Clear water was flowing shallowly on the stage. No, it wasn’t shallow water. The water was gradually rising.
“What, what’s happening?!”
“Look there! Student Twariche’s beaker!”
The students wriggled as they looked at Liche. More precisely, at the beaker in front of her.
The beaker seemed to be spouting water as if a giant invisible faucet had been turned upside down.
Professor Rumbla urgently shouted to Liche.
“Student Twariche! Stop it!”
“Huh, how?”
“Use the counterspell!”
But Liche had no idea. She hadn’t learned it.
Even though Professor Rumbla performed the counterspell, it was not enough to stop Liche’s magic.
The water, which didn’t know how to stop, flooded the classroom.
Students evacuated, and Robenhaf, who was called while attending another class, arrived.
Robenhaf, who followed Professor Rumbla without understanding anything, looked perplexed at the flooded classroom.
“What’s going on? It’s a flood.”
“It’s Twariche’s magic. Since the water won’t stop, Robenhaf, please-.”
Liche’s magic. After wandering around cluelessly, Robenhaf found Liche on the second floor of the training ground, unable to do anything.
“Isn’t this all frozen?”
Professor Rumbla didn’t even have a chance to say that.
In the frozen classroom in an instant, Robenhaf skillfully stood in front of Liche on the ice.
“Wow.”
“Robenhaf, oppa.”
“You’re really cool, Liche.”
It wasn’t scary…?
The magic and first-year students nearby wanted to object to that statement, but they couldn’t. Robenhaf’s shining face was telling the truth.
***
“It’s dangerous.”
Headmaster’s office.
Professor Rumbla confronted the headmaster.
“Student Twariche has tremendous potential, but she lacks the ability to control it.”
“So, are you saying it’s dangerous, Professor Rumbla?”
“Yes.”
The headmaster looked at Professor Rumbla standing in front of him.
The flooding incident in the training grounds earlier in the morning was well-known to the headmaster. The fact that students had gathered and turned the training grounds into a playground was also circulating as rumors.
“If it’s dangerous, what do you want to do, Professor?”
“Please prohibit Student Twariche from learning magic.”
I couldn’t believe it.
The headmaster inwardly sighed at the absurdity of the suggestion.
“Forbid her from learning magic because she created that much water with a pebble?!”
She was a genius of the century, if not unprecedented. Twariche Lodwick.
Come to think of it, Rumbla Ismatic was the only magic department professor who wasn’t excited about Twariche’s magic affinity assessment.
“Professor Rumbla, do you dislike Student Twariche having a high magic affinity?”
“What are you trying to imply?”
“Are you unhappy that a genius like that is coming from the Lodwick family? Since you don’t seem to like Duke Lodwick.”
Rumbla fell silent for a moment.
The headmaster looked at Rumbla’s sunken purple eyes and said,
“Regardless of the professor’s thoughts, I can’t agree with the professor’s suggestion to forbid Twariche from learning magic. There’s no way to forbid magic to a student who has already been charged with magical offenses.”
“But, Headmaster. Twariche’s talent is dangerous.”
“That’s why we need to show her how to control the abilities she has. Twariche is not a student who hides her abilities. Treasures tend to shine wherever they are.”
“How can you control a great light that can’t be controlled?”
Rumbla retorted.
In the tense exchange between the two, the headmaster proposed a compromise.
“Then let’s confirm it.”
“Confirm?”
“In the end, Professor Rumbla, are you worried that Twariche, who has strong abilities, might become a dangerous person?”
“That’s correct.”
The headmaster tapped his temple with his finger.
“Then why not ask someone who can understand the child’s thoughts?”
“The person you’re thinking of…”
“That’s right.”
Rumbla’s voice became more serious. The headmaster nodded.
“I’ll see if Duke Gerwer can spare some time. Let’s discuss Twariche’s problem then, when the time comes.”
