Chapter 6: The First Afternoon Class

Her raised hand paused momentarily in mid-air, then simply brushed her side hair behind her ear before lowering again.

“……I’ll be going now.”

Then she turned her body to return to her seat.

Soine and Miner hesitantly followed her.

‘What emotion prompted that raised hand?’
‘To hit Nell?’
‘To pat Nell’s head?’
‘Which impulse was stronger…’
Sayo couldn’t tell.

On the way back, Sayo’s eyes met Emelly’s, who had been staring intently this way with a sullen expression, but they both quickly looked away.

As long as Sayo didn’t bother her or her acquaintances first, Emelly likely wouldn’t pay her any mind either.

“Don’t do it again from now on.”

The two looked hesitant, their faces asking ‘Why suddenly now?’, before acknowledging and sitting down.

After that, the morning classes ended uneventfully.

Nell was kind and gentle, but she wasn’t a fool.

Perhaps she was even quite perceptive?

Therefore, she had immediately noticed that the two had been bullying her due to ‘Sayoreinne’s’ instigation.

Nell lightly bit the back end of her pen with her lips.

It was a habit of hers when thinking.

What she was thinking about now was Sayoreinne’s final words.

‘Sorry… I’ll be going now.’

‘Sorry?’
‘Now, of all times?’
Nell found it absurd.

She didn’t know the intention, but it surely wasn’t normal.

Nell curled up even tighter.

The academy’s schedule is roughly as follows:

Morning classes consist of common subjects taken in the class’s respective classroom.

In the game, this time is used to raise ‘Intellect’ and ‘Character’ parameters, and occasionally build favorability with the ‘A’ class heroines through events.

Next is lunchtime.

In the game, one can eat alone to rest or eat with a desired heroine to build favorability.

Afternoon classes are electives.

Students take classes according to their chosen specialty.

This is effectively the main part of the day.

In the game, one chooses a specialty—Swordsmanship, Spearmanship, Elemental Magic, Spirit Magic, etc.—and builds proficiency in it.

Saturdays are holidays, but supplementary classes are held for students falling behind or those who volunteer.

In the game, parameters or proficiency could be raised during this time.

The morning common subjects had low weighting in exam evaluations and were useless for fighting magical beasts, so they were largely neglected.

People didn’t care unless they were naturally diligent, couldn’t stand seeing someone they considered ‘inferior’ above them like ‘Sayoreinne’, or were aiming for scholarships.

Even in the game, morning time was skipped immediately if there were no events.

And then there are the elective subjects, which are the core of the academy.

Students choose subjects based on their aptitude and study them.

Usually, they follow their natural talent.

In Sayoreinne’s case, she has a talent for Elemental Magic.

Euru also has talent in Elemental Magic, while Nell has talent in Divine Magic, so they take those respective subjects.

The start of the two-and-a-half-hour lunch break before the afternoon elective classes.

After shaking off the two clinging noble daughters, Sayo went looking for her maid who hadn’t arrived no matter how long she waited, and found the situation absurd.

“Haaah.”

What should she do with this maid, fast asleep as if the world didn’t exist?

In this spacious servants’ waiting room, other servants had gone to find their masters, yet here she was, alone on the sofa, drooling in her sleep.

‘Still, seeing her like this somehow calms my heart.’

Seeing that comical yet cute sight, Sayo gently sat down next to Ahrin and placed Ahrin’s head on her lap.

It felt strange for her, someone unaccustomed to girls, to take such proactive action.

While stroking the head of Ahrin, who slept with her mouth agape, a question suddenly arose.

‘Come to think of it, Ahrin is definitely a commoner too, so why isn’t there a problem dealing with her?’

Sayoreinne, for reasons unknown, disliked commoners.

Actually, since she disliked everyone, perhaps ‘disliked slightly more’ is more accurate.

‘Has ‘Sayoreinne’s’ anger ever boiled over when I was alone with Ahrin?’

‘And neither ‘I’, who am unused to girls, nor ‘Sayoreinne’, who dislikes people in general, seem like the type to initiate such skinship.’

Of course, she was aware that while ‘she’ was much closer to ‘Juseong’, she was in a subtle state where the two were mixed, neither fully ‘Sayoreinne’ nor ‘Juseong’.

The polite speech patterns, habits, and occasional feminine actions were basically ‘Sayoreinne’s’ influence.

Basic behavioral patterns, emotions, and thoughts—the mental aspects—were closer to ‘Juseong’.

If that’s the case,

‘…….’

‘Thinking about it won’t reveal anything, will it?’
‘Not many of Sayoreinne’s memories have crossed over yet, and I don’t think I can figure anything out.’

‘…Let’s put these thoughts aside for now and think slowly later.’

Stopping her thoughts, Sayo stared intently at Ahrin’s face.

It wasn’t exactly a comfortable environment, and her body must have been jostled around while being moved, yet she slept soundly, oblivious to the world.

Sayo gently poked Ahrin’s cute cheek with her finger.

Perhaps due to the sensation on her cheek, Ahrin made an “Uuung” sound, then rubbed her eyes with her hands and woke up.

Ahrin, opening her eyes to immediately meet Sayo’s gaze, stared blankly, unable to grasp the situation.

“My lady…? Why are you here…?”

Only then realizing she was resting her head on her lady’s lap, Ahrin hastily sat up.

“Wh-wh-wha? H-how long was I asleep? N-no, why was my lady giving me a l-l-l-lap pillow? S-sorry!”

Ahrin, her face flushed crimson, was utterly flustered.

She fidgeted restlessly, unable to keep her hands still, tapping her feet anxiously.

Seeing that adorable sight, a slight smile touched Sayo’s lips.

“It’s alright.”

Just having someone like that around was a comfort to Sayo.

Having even one person towards whom she didn’t need to be swayed by negative emotions meant there was a possibility she could get along well with others too.

“Let’s go get something to eat.”

After lunch, Sayo rested in her dorm room before heading to the classroom for one of her elective subjects, ‘Magic Mana Technique’—a rather plainly named course—at the scheduled time.

Even among mana users, the way mana is used differs greatly between martial artists engaging in close combat and magicians.

This class teaches the correct way for magicians to use mana.

Since it’s a lecture attended by all magicians regardless of elemental, divine, or spirit magic specialization, and requires individual guidance, several teaching assistants enter along with the professor for this class.

The basic method of mana usage for a magician is as follows:

Step 1 – Draw mana from the heart.

Step 2 – Spread the drawn mana throughout the entire body along ‘pathways’.

Step 3 – Circulate the mana along the internal ‘pathways’, creating a ‘flow’ which amplifies the mana’s power itself.

Step 4 – Shape the amplified mana moving along the flow into very thin, fine threads.

Step 5 – Draw the required amount of mana threads out from the body.

Step 6 – Control the drawn mana threads to create a magic formula.

Step 7 – Pour mana into the magic formula to complete the spell.

These seven steps constitute the basic stages of magic manifestation for now.

This class could be described as one for finding the efficient mana ‘pathways’ and ‘flow’, which differ slightly for each person.

The goal is to find the shortest, best path to amplify mana and create and draw out threads more quickly.

-This was something not explained in the game or lore, information Sayo only learned after coming to this world.

When she first used magic, it was incredibly exciting for Sayo, who had lived in the modern world where such supernatural powers didn’t exist.

How thrilling it was when she first practiced alone.

But that excitement was quickly extinguished by Sayoreinne.

Shuk

A glowing orb of mana continuously floated up in Sayo’s hand.

It was a simple spell emitting light and some heat, but this class was foundational, determining if one was using the correct pathways and flow by how quickly the orb could be created and how strong its light was using the same amount of mana.

Here, with the help of the professor and assistants, one continuously refines the pathways while manifesting the mana orb, and that’s it.

‘Simple enough.’

It took Sayo less than 5 seconds to create the brightly shining mana orb.

“As expected of Lady Sayoreinne! Not only fast, but the bright light is perfect too!”

“We still have a long way to go, that’s amazing!”

‘Seriously, shouldn’t you be concentrating instead of talking…’
‘Of all things, these two also had Elemental Magic as their major.’
‘Having them stick close and flatter me feels somewhat weird.’
‘It doesn’t irritate me, nor does it make my mind unstable; did Sayoreinne actually like this sort of thing?’

Sighing inwardly, Sayo ignored the two, rested, and looked around the classroom.

The protagonist, Emelly, had just managed to float her mana orb.

Looking at Emelly soured her mood, so Sayo quickly averted her eyes.

Besides her, Princess Euru and a male heroine named ‘Lutz’ had also completed their mana orbs.

Those three were also considerably faster than others, but slow compared to Sayo.

Other familiar faces were visible, but still only at steps 3 to 5.

‘Yes, this is the level of the inferiors.’

A sense of superiority welled up.

‘I am different from those mediocrities.’

‘No, no. Calm down.’

It pops out immediately if I let my guard down for a second.

‘Let’s just focus on myself.’

Sayoreinne’s talent as a magician is certainly the most outstanding.

Even more so than the protagonist, Emelly.

Though eventually, towards the end, she is defeated by the protagonist whose ‘talent’ itself grows.

And-

‘Sayoreinne was more hardworking than I thought.’

Based on the memories that had crossed over, she put considerably serious effort into magic.

Of course, the reasons weren’t positive, arguably base, but still, reaching this level of skill through effort is something.

Manifesting a mana orb in 5 seconds without pre-warming.

She wasn’t sure exactly how good that was, but seeing the reactions around her and the speed and light intensity of the three main characters, wasn’t it overwhelmingly superior?

As Sayo mulled over these thoughts, negative emotions surged up again for some reason.

‘She even throws a fit when praised.’

Calming her mind and shaking off distracting thoughts, she started practicing again.

There was no advice from the professor or assistants.

Her pathways and flow were already nearly perfected.

Power is necessary for the future too.