Chapter 2 – The Cat-Eared Girl, the Spirit, and the Emperor of Ice
—The magic academy cafeteria.
We’d secured our place in the main tournament, so we were holding a celebratory meal in the academy cafeteria.
Incidentally, this is a custom of ours going back to my previous life.
When a disciple gets recognized—a tournament, a paper, whatever—we all turn out and eat and drink like this.
Being strict is necessary to raise someone, but there’s a saying that praise makes a child grow, and praise… or rewards, anyway… matter every bit as much.
So on occasions like this, I pay, and we make a racket.
“Still, that was a masterpiece, Ephthal. The faces on those student council brats—”
I brought a fist down on Merlin’s head. Hard.
“Do that again and I really will get angry.”
“…My apologies.”
“Merlin… you’ve been alive over four hundred years. It’s about time you stopped acting like a child.”
“And by the by. This fried shrimp is quite the fine article.”
Maria nodded hard at that distinctive way of speaking.
“You think so too, Sasha-sama? I love them!”
“Aye, and by the by, this cafeteria keeps a decent wine. Is this stock for the faculty?”
Washing the shrimp down his throat with gusto, my master… Sasha tipped his wineglass.
And it was Anastasia who answered.
“Yes. They won’t sell alcohol to students.”
And at that, Merlin and Anastasia and Maria and I all opened our eyes wide at the same instant—
““““What are you doing in a place like this!?””””
“Hm? There was a delicious smell.”
“No, Master!? You normally shut yourself up in your quarters in the World Tree and sleep, don’t you?”
Sasha tilted his head slightly at my question.
“Aye, well. I thought I might get to see a Level 10. There’s a festival on… is there not?”
I considered what he actually meant by that, and shrugged. Good grief.
“Do you honestly think I’d use a Level 10 here? It’d be nothing but trouble.”
At that Sasha laughed—“Ka-ka”—and took another mouthful of wine.
“Nay, not you. A Level 10 other than you.”
“A Level 10 other than… me? In this era the only ones who can handle a Level 10 are me, and you, Master, and… the Fire God Emperor, Cliff. Right? Because of the Magia Burst even Merlin can’t manage one.”
Sasha gave a small nod.
“That is how it stands. Officially.”
“Officially…?”
“For instance… take this.”
Sasha pointed at Anastasia and Maria.
“Ephthal. You used Vessel Transcription on these two, did you not?”
“…Nothing gets past you, does it.”
“Look at the flow of their magic power and it’s plain. In theory these two fledglings have souls the same as the lot from before the change… from over four hundred years ago. Train them and reaching Level 10 only stands to reason.”
The two of them went “Eh!?” and stood there dumbstruck.
“We can…”
“…use a Level 10?”
“Beyond training that beggars imagination, aye.”
“I told you back then, didn’t I, Maria?”
“Told me… what? Ephthal?”
“That I’d take you to the highest title a young mage can hold—the realm of the Hihiirokane.”
Maria swallowed audibly at that.
Well. Exactly as Sasha says, it’s an outrageous road.
In the end it comes down to their own effort… but if they want it, I intend to teach them how to walk it.
A hard road, with wall after wall and a guaranteed run of setbacks, mind.
Anyway, setting that aside—
“What do you mean, a Level 10 other than me, Master?”
“It means there are ways. Even in this world, changed as it is.”
“But… if you came to watch the Thunder God Emperor Ephthal Festival… that means they’re among the students?”
There’s no way. Not a chance.
Even back in that era four hundred years ago… no, in the whole of history, I’ve never seen or heard of a Level 10 in their teens.
“Say, Ephthal. Shall I tell you a piece of the secret of magic aptitude I’ve been keeping from you all this while? You’ve been hunting for a way to cure aptitude, have you not? For the other Level 10, we get nowhere unless I explain that first.”
“You knew about my aptitude too. Nothing really does get past you.”
“I am your master, for what it’s worth. So then… having no aptitude means, in short, being colorless. Fire is red, wind is green, earth is brown, water is blue. That sort of thing.”
“…I’m not following.”
“Faster to give you the conclusion. The only cure is the chain of phenomena connected to the Root of Roots.”
“The Root… of Roots?”
“You have a singularity at the level of your soul. There are those in this world who rarely happen to be colorless, but in your case it’s inevitable.”
“My lack of aptitude is… inevitable?”
At that, Sasha stood and murmured into my ear.
“So it was the second time too, was it not? It is inevitable. That fate of yours.”
A chill ran down my spine.
“Master. How much do you know about me?”
“I am your master. I knew from the start. And after your death… no, the Fire God Emperor knew too, did he not? Before he made the aptitude reagent.”
“…The Root of Roots. What is it?”
“The Roots… the road that leads to the goddess. The ancient artifact the Fire God Emperor was after… well. It’s a bit much to tell you for free.”
“The goddess… and the Fire God Emperor!? Hey, what the hell are you actually saying?”
“Are you not better versed in the goddess than I? Unfortunately, I’ve never met the thing. I’m wild-caught, you see.”
Hey now. So Sasha knows about the goddess of reincarnation herself?
At that, Sasha grinned.
“You’ll run into that Level 10 at the festival whether you like it or not. Better I tell you once you’ve seen what it is.”
And with that, Sasha waved a hand behind him—“Be seeing you. Come to my quarters once the festival’s done”—and started to walk off, and—
“Hey, Master! We’re not finished—”
I clicked my tongue.
—Level 9: Ex Teleport.
“He ran. Still… he’s a genuine monster, that one, no mistake.”
He vanished without letting me feel so much as the first stir of his magic power.
Honestly. Wily old man. And I shrugged.
Saturday, our day off.
“So! We’re heading for the dorms to drag in our last member!”
At Maria’s clarion call, we set off for the student dormitory.
Incidentally, Anastasia and I are day students, so I don’t really know much about the dorm.
Anyway, the six-story building in the corner of the school grounds is the dormitory. And inside, I’m told, it isn’t shared rooms—every one is private.
Word had it the interior was fairly luxurious, and the instant we stepped inside I knew that was true.
Well, for all its faults this school is a prestigious one, with plenty of demon nobles from far-off places, so that much is a given.
“So whose room are we heading for?”
“Remember I said our classmates are useless as fighting strength? There’s exactly one exception. She’s got a difficult personality, but… our candidate lives in the dorm.”
I don’t think she wants to hear “difficult personality” from you, of all people.
I nearly said it out loud, but it looked like trouble afterward, so I stopped.
“Um… Maria-san? What sort of person is she?”
“Special recommended admission, affiliated with the human religious organization—the Holy Church. A genius girl who entered the magic academy at six years old.”
Anastasia and I opened our eyes wide at the same time.
“Six years old… that’s incredible!”
It really is. There were skip-a-grade systems in my era too, but I’ve never heard of anyone being admitted to a magic academy at that age.
Anastasia tilted her head.
“But why would someone from the Holy Church be at a demon school?”
“Seems she’s got circumstances. The Holy Church affiliation is her being dispatched from her family, and then dispatched on from there. Part of her magic training, basically. From the day she was born she was knocking on the doors of one school after another, learning magecraft from all sorts of traditions until she was six.”
“Sure, but she’s six, right? All those traditions, at that age? There isn’t even time to learn the fundamentals…”
“No, she’s got them down to a serious level. Bluntly? That girl is the one person who—and I don’t even need a ‘maybe’ here—has surpassed the genius beauty that is me.”
For Maria to go that far… This might genuinely be quite the talent.
“But then why… wasn’t she picked for the class selection to begin with?”
Maria let out a deep sigh on the spot.
“…She’s a shut-in of monstrous proportions.”
“A shut-in?”
“Yeah. I mean… she’s already repeated three years. Disowned by her family, expelled from the Holy Church—seems it hit her pretty hard. And she’s repeated so many times the academy’s about to throw her out too. Cornered, is what she is.”
“Hold on, Maria. I don’t follow. The girl was a genius, wasn’t she? Three years repeated…?”
“Er… a child prodigy at four, a bright kid at five, and by six just an ordinary person. Sure, compared to the normal crowd she was miles ahead, but the plan was to skip her up a grade in two months and instead she got a normal promotion, and that’s where she broke.”
“So… she fell from grace at a spectacular rate. Is that about right?”
“That’s about it. Anyway, from what I hear there’s no question she’s head and shoulders above the first years. She’s obviously a usable piece as things stand. And besides?”
“Besides?”
“Like I said, she’s repeated three times, so her scholarship waiver on tuition and dorm fees expires with this Thunder God Emperor Festival. It’s a fact she’s cornered enough that without a result here she’s got nothing left. Depending on how we pitch it, I think she’ll cooperate.”
“I see… all right, let’s go.”
And after a few minutes’ walk through the dorm, we arrived in front of the room.
Knock knock. I rapped on the door, and something snagged in the back of my mind.
Entered at six, three years since, and a shut-in… meaning she never goes out.
And that girl did say she doesn’t live with her parents. Come to think of it, an outsider selling things inside the magic academy grounds was a question in itself.
The soft pat, pat of someone padding toward us from beyond the door.
And then the door opened. A cat-eared girl with sleepy eyes stood there, expressionless.
“…And here I was enjoying my shut-in life in peace. What do you want?”
Well. Needless to say, the girl in question was that light-blue-haired girl… Sheryl.
And I sighed.