Volume 1 - CH 3(2/3)
“..My, looks like 6th period has already ended.”
Because it had been quite a long time after the day’s classes had all ended, there weren’t that many students around. Leticiel decided to first head back to her classroom as she had left her bag there.
“You, you should at least know your place, right?”
“..?”
The moment Leticiel arrived at the door of Elementary 2’s classroom, she could hear a girl’s voice from behind it. When she peered through the opening of the door, she saw the figure of Mirandalette surrounded by three other girls.
“For a dunce like you to walk in front of an honor student like me, isn’t that quite shameless of you?”
“Good grief.. You’re just a daughter from a low-ranking noble family with almost no Magic Power. This should be common sense for you.”
“..”
Even though they were looking down on her, Mirandalette didn’t say a single word and just stood there.
Leticiel thought about what she should do for a moment, but remembered that in order to retrieve her bag, she would have to enter the room regardless. She then threw open the door without a speck of hesitation.
“..!?”
“D-Drossel..”
The noble daughters inside jumped at the abrupt noise before quickly spinning towards the source. Upon seeing it was Leticiel, they openly scowled at her.
“Oh my, if it isn’t the Magic Powerless Drossel. For you to be here at such a time, you sure do have a lot of free time.”
“Ah yes, being able to freely use my time after school is truly a wonderful thing. I’ve been thoroughly enjoying it until just now.”
Perhaps the noble daughter trio was making a sarcastic remark about how as a Magic Powerless, she was unable to attend any tea parties. However, Leticiel was truly grateful for her free time after school and answered without a second thought.
“Furthermore, I don’t think that having Magic Power or not should be the basis to determine someone’s worth. Or perhaps Magic Power is something that important to you?”
“..My isn’t it just natural? For nobles of this country, it’s, normal, that the higher your nobility, the more Magic Power you hold.”
In this country, higher ranking nobles tended to have higher Magic Power. Because of that, some nobles treated Magic Power level as some kind of status symbol. And within that group, there were many people like these noble daughters who believed that Magic Power was everything.
“I see. Then since everyone here has high Magic power, you must know a lot more than a Magic Powerless like me, right? If it’s you three, then you must be able to write something that surpasses the Formula I rewrote, right?”
With a smile on her face, Leticiel asked the trio with a voice full of admiration.
“What’s wrong? Didn’t you say a noble’s worth is determined by their amount of Magic Power? If that’s the case, then people with high Magic Power such as yourselves should still be superior to a Magic Powerless like me at Formula Studies.”
“..Tch..”
The three faces stiffened after hearing her words; however, Leticiel continued on as if she didn’t notice.
“The incompetent me is really looking forward to what kind of wonderful Formula you will write.”
“..Tch! Q-Quit saying something that absurd! You’re so annoying!”
While maintaining her haughty attitude, the girl who seemed to be the leader let out a ‘Hmph’. Her eyes were clearly filled with agitation and annoyance.
Although she knew it was an unreasonable demand, Leticiel still challenged the girls. While spitefully glaring at Leticiel and Mirandalette, the trio quickly left the classroom.
“Mirandalette, why didn’t you fight back at all?”
The things the group had said to Mirandalette could only be taken as provocation. And yet, the only thing she had done was stand there quietly and take it. Leticiel couldn’t accept her response at all.
“..My Magic Power is weak, and what they made fun of me for was also the truth.. There was nothing I could do..”
As she said that, Miradanlette let out a lonely smile and made a distant expression.
“Mirandalette, could you show me your Magic Power measurement results?”
“Eh..? I don’t mind, but..”
She hesitated for a bit, but Mirandalette still nodded her head at Leticiel’s request. After taking a few deep breaths to calm herself, she opened her bag.
“Let see.. Measurement results, measurement results.. Ah, there it is! Here you go.”
Mirandalette took out a small piece of paper and handed it to Leticiel. On it were the results of the Magic Power measurement made through the use of the ice crystals. It seemed that after the test, the teacher had written down the measurements and handed it to the students.
“It’s quite crumpled.”
“Well, the results weren’t good, so..”
After opening up the piece of paper that was crumpled into a ball like a piece of trash, Leticiel looked at the numbers written on it.
Leticiel was frozen solid while staring at those Magic Power values.?She has.. amazing Magecraft potential.
When she was a princess, Leticiel also had her Magic Power measured and all of her Elemental Ratings were between 10 and 15. In other words, someone with an average rating of 20 like Mirandalette was surely a great Mage in the making. Finding an existence like Mirandalette caused the Magecraft Maniac to burn with excitement.
“Mira, these are wonderful numbers.”
Leticiel said, while using a nickname for Mirandalette.
“Whaaat..?”
Mirandalette’s eyes opened wide from the unexpected remark coming from Leticiel.
“What’s wrong?”
“I-it’s nothing.. I just didn’t expect a nickname..”
Leticiel hadn’t noticed that she had used a nickname for Mirandalette until it was pointed out by the person herself.
“Oh my.. I’m sorry, I got a bit too excited.”
“You don’t have to be sorry! I’m actually glad that you called me by a nickname.”
Leticiel thought that she would be offended by being called a nickname out of the blue, but Mirandalette seemed to be happy about it.
“..Um, why did you say that my results were wonderful? With my Magic Power that low, it only showed how incompetent I am..”
“No, having high Magic Power is actually a bad thing. Because people with high Magic Power are unable to use Magecraft.”
A thousand years ago, people with high Magic Power had to choose between working at home and doing housework or honing their physical ability. In those days, bands of mercenaries were almost exclusively composed of people with high Magic Power.
“Uh, um.. Magecraft? What in the world is that..?”
Using Mirandalette’s question as a starting point, Leticiel started to thoroughly explain what Magecraft was. Furthermore, she planned to explain until there was nothing left, no matter how much time it would take.
“..and that about sums up the basics of ‘Magecraft’.”
“Oh.. So there’s a power like that too..!”
Although Mirandalette had been wearing a dubious expression , after hearing the general explanation, it had transformed into a dazzling smile filled with hope.
Even a thousand years ago, Leticiel was unable to stop herself when it came to Magecraft. Because of that tendency, even her vassals had to chide her with a bitter smile on their faces.
However, more than just being interested in the topic, Mirandalette listened attentively and took in everything Leticiel said. Meeting someone like her made Leticiel a little bit thankful and happy.
Thus, Leticiel started to view Mirandalette as a ‘comrade who wants to master Magecraft’.
“This really feels like a dream..! So even someone who is only able to use weak Magic like me can still use it, right?”
“Yes. That’s why you don’t need to feel bad about having low Magic Power. Unlike people who can only use that dull thing called Magic, you’re able to use the much stronger Magecraft. So Mira should be proud of the fact that you have no talent for Magic.”
“Okay..!”
Mirandalette still wasn’t sure if she was being praised or being mocked. But seeing that dead-serious expression on Leticiel’s face made her even more willing to try it.
Afterward, the two moved to the Magic Training Field to practice Magecraft.
“Then let’s start by practicing assembling Mana. Try summoning the Mana in the atmosphere into your palm.”
“Mmm.. Mana, Mana Mana Mana Mana..”
“Y-you don’t need to mumble it like that..”
For someone who only knew about Magic like Mirandalette, it was understandable that this would be the result when she was asked to call for an unknown object like Mana. However, it was still somewhat of an eerie sight.
“..Ah! I kind of feel something warm in my palm!”
“You’re doing great. Next, try to recall the Basic Fire Formula.”
“Basic Fire Formula? Um.. The one taught by the teacher? Or the one you rewrote it with?”
“The one you were taught is fine. It should be better for your first time, right?”
Following Leticiel’s instruction, Mirandalette closed her eyes and started to groan while making a serious face. Unlike Magic which could be invoked with a chant utilizing the user’s feelings regardless of the accuracy of the Formula, a precise image of the Formula was vital to Magecraft.
There was no reaction at first, but before long, the air above Mirandalette’s palm grew hazy, little by little. Then, suddenly, an orange fireball appeared with a popping sound.
The fireball was just the size of a fist; its small size was a consequence of the terrible Magic Formula used to invoke it.
“Now try imagining a Formula like the one wrote.”
“Ah, give me a moment in that case! I’ll take out my notes!”
After saying that, Mirandalette started to rummage through her bag once again. Many things were excavated from her bag. Textbooks, a pencil case, an accessory case, a memo pad..
Leticiel suddenly came up with an idea and picked up Mirandalette’s memo pad. It appeared to be empty.
Leticiel then held her hand over the notepad and developed a transcription Magecraft. It was a Magecraft for imprinting the image inside the practitioner’s head onto an object using words and figures. The fact that it currently could only transcribe what was inside the practitioner’s head was its greatest flaw; but for the time being, that was irrelevant.
After she had completed the transcription, Leticiel flipped through the notepad. The first few pages now contained eight perfectly imprinted Sorcery Formulas.
“Mira, you can stop looking for it. I’ve transcribed the correct Sorcery Formula into this notepad.”
“Ehhh!? Since when!? Was that also Magecraft? And, what’s the difference between Magic Formula and Sorcery Formula?”
“You see, the inferior Formulas taught at this academy are Magic Formulas, while the ones here are Sorcery Formulas. You can still use Magic with Sorcery Formula, so why don’t you try it out? It’s really fun.”
“Really!? Then I’ll start using Sorcery Formula instead!”
When she tried to invoke Magecraft using the Sorcery Formula, the resulting fireball was twice as large as before. Seeing the difference, Mirandalette got so excited that she was like a child.
Afterwards, Mirandalette continued to practice Magecraft following Leticiel’s instructions in the most secluded practice space within the Magic Training Field. She became quite familiar with handling Magecraft after about an hour.
“..By the way, the lower your Magic Power, the easier it is to invoke Magecraft, right?”
While taking a break on the bench, Mirandalette suddenly asked a question with a serious face.
“Yes.”
“In other words, someone without a speck of Magic Power like Drossel would have an appropriate affinity with Magecraft then?”
“That’s right. Being a Magic Powerless is the greatest condition to be Mage.”
“Then can you let me see you use Magecraft once? I’m really interested in your Magecraft!”
Leticiel thought about what she should do for a moment. Seeing Mirandalette staring at her with eyes full of anticipation, Leticiel ended up conceding.
There, within the deepest booth inside the practice space, was a shabby wooden target that was used for class yesterday. As Mirandalette had been using it for practice up until a short while ago, it was charred black here and there.
When she thought about it, since her awakening in Drossel’s body, Leticiel had only used a healing Magecraft yesterday morning, detection and memorization strengthening this morning and transcription just now. The fact that she now had an opportunity to use offensive Magecraft for the first time got Leticiel a bit excited.
(Okay.. It doesn’t seem like that target can hold out for much longer. Maybe a Basic Fire Formula with reduced power would be enough?)
Leticiel held out her hands and a fireball of about 15 centimeters in diameter appeared before her. Originally, the fireball would have been twice as big, however, its scope had been reduced, which in turn also reduced its power by half.
She then molded it into a long and narrow shape before shooting the fireball like a bullet. She paid extra attention to its speed as it could pierce the target if it went too fast.
The fireball swayed through the air, leaving a trail of flame behind as it flew toward the target at a speed that was neither too slow nor too fast, as fast as a typical Magic.
BOOOM!!
A loud roar reverberated as the target burst into pieces. It was a flashier explosion than she had expected, but according to Leticiel’s calculations, the fire bullet should have?dissipated?upon impact.
However, after crushing the target, the fire bullet showed no sign of slowing down or decreasing in power as it continued straight for the wall behind the target. At the sight of this, Leticiel’s eyes showed the signs of frustration for the first time.
(..Huh? That target should have been able to stop a Magecraft of this level.)
She quickly tried to reverse the fire bullet’s movement vector at the very last moment, but she couldn’t make it in time. The fire bullet crashed into one of the walls that enclosed the Magic Training Field.
KABOOOM!!!
A terrific thunderous sound reverberated as the ground trembled. The wall was covered in a cloud of dust, but it was clear that it had been blown away by the explosion. Even the ground around the point of impact had been slightly gouged out. It was truly a dreadful scene.
Leticiel was shocked at the carnage before her.. or not. Instead, she was flabbergasted about the fragility of both the wall and the target.
Wooden targets had also been used for Magecraft practice in the olden days, but they were all imbued with Structural Strengthening Magecraft. Something on the level of a Basic Formula would never have had any effect on them.
Leticiel was racking her brain over the target’s worthless level of fragility. She had already reduced the power of the Basic Formula by half, and yet the target was still smashed into pieces in an instant. Furthermore, as if the target hadn’t been there at all, the fact that it had not slowed or weakened the bullet even by a bitleft her beyond speechless.
It was only natural for her to wonder why the people of this age would be satisfied with a target this fragile.?Would they not have to constantly replace to even be able to practice or something?
Once again, her common sense was in stark contrast to that of the current world’s, and yet, Leticiel still hadn’t realized it.
“..Can, can I ask you a question..?”
“Of course.”
“Just now, did you go all out..?”
“No? I thought I held back enough, but I guess my estimate was off because of how long it’s been.”
“..Y-you were holding back..?”
A shocked Mirandalette looked back and forth between Leticiel and the broken wall with an incredulous expression.
”Don’t worry. With some more practice, you’ll be be able to easily do something of that level.”
“I’m actually scared about being able to do that..”
“Why? You could just fix it if you destroy something, you know?
“No.. That’s not the issue here..”
The idea of an unknown power like Magecraft that didn’t need Magic Power, something that could release power manyfold higher than Magic, even while suppressed. If anyone heard of it, they would scream out in terror.
It wasn’t something as simple as fixing something after you destroyed it. Realizing that she would graduate from being human once she mastered this power, Mirandalette began to worry about her own future.
(First things first, leaving it like this would be bad..)
After casting a sidelong glance at Mirandalette, who was turning into a stone statue, Leticiel faced the broken wall and promptly invoked Magecraft to repair it.
Unbeknownst to Leticiel, whose back was to Mirandalette, the sight of the wall reassembling itself only further accelerated the girl transformation into a statue.
“..Drossel?”
Suddenly, a familiar beautiful tenor voice resounded within the booth.
Without even considering it could be someone else, Leticiel took her time to slowly turn around.
Just like she thought, what she found was the handsome face of Sieg dyed with surprise. Leticiel wondered why in the world he would be in this place.
“..What’s going on here? You were supposed to have no Magic Power, so why is the wall like this..”
Contrary to her blank expression, deep inside, Leticiel was trying her best to think about what she should do but all she could do was to keep blinking her eyes repeatedly.
“Drossel, what exactly.. is that power..?”
“Um..”
“I promise I won’t tell anyone. So, can you explain it to me?”
Being stared at by those green right eye and purple left eye caused Leticiel to blink both her red left eye and blue right eye.
While she was worrying about whether she should tell Sieg or not, she remembered that she had just told Mirandalette about Magecraft earlier, so increasing the amount of people who knew about it by one wouldn’t change anything.
“..That’s, an extremely interesting story, or rather power.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes. And I think it’s better for the public to not know about it.”
“..? And why is that?”
Hearing what Sieg said while holding his chin, Leticiel tilted her head.
“It’s because this power is too unusual. Think about it, a power that exceeds Magic in a world where Magic is flourishing, a power that doesn’t require Magic Power in a world where nobles place great importance on Magic Power.. If it gets into the hands of commoners, it would be the same as giving them the power to overthrow the nobles.”
“That would be..”
After the situation was pointed out by Sieg, Leticiel thought about the role of Magecraft in the current age for the first time.
“..You’re right, since commoners don’t have much Magic Power, it would be easy for them to master Magecraft..”
“Yes. Moreover, commoners don’t have much knowledge about Magic. They don’t really use Magic in their daily lives; it’s something exclusive for the nobles so to speak. And because of that, commoners don’t have any preconceived notions about Magic, so if they get their hands on this technique, it would quickly spread throughout the world.”
“I can see that..”
“If something like that happens, our government structure of nobles ruling over commoners would collapse. If the public know about this power, this country might..”
“Oh? Why if it isn’t Sieg!”
Before Sieg could finish his words, the voice of Lucas rushing into the training field rumbled toward them.
“What the hell? So that thundering sound had to be your doing! That’s why I kept telling you to not go so far!”
“..My apologies, Dean. I’ll be careful from now.”
Lucas smacked his forehead with his hand and looked up at the sky before turning his gaze to Sieg as if goading the boy to say something. He then cast a subtle glance at Leticiel and Mirandalette.
Even though she didn’t know why Lucas glaring scornfully at Sieg, Leticiel decided to make full use of her status as a witness at the scene of the crime by making use of the conversational skills she had acquired in her past life to make Lucas drop the issue.
She then gave the following fabricated account chock full of lies:
Drossel and Mirandalette went together to practice after school. They coincidentally ran into Sieg at this booth. When the three started to practice Magic together, Sieg’s Magic Power went out of control and led to the state of affairs.
The reason Leticiel threw Sieg to the wolves was because Lucas had already misunderstood that he was the culprit. The person in question was making a bitter smile as his name had been used without his consent; Leticiel could only hope that he would forgive her when she apologized afterwards.
Her fabricated testimony proved to be effective as Lucas was easily tricke.. no, persuaded. The incident was resolved without issue.
“That was a bit surprising. I thought you would tell the Dean about it.”
As the departing figure of Lucas got farther and farther away, Sieg turned to Leticiel with a troubled smile. Seeing that serene smile prompted her to quickly avert her gaze.
“Drossel Noa Filiaregis is a Magic Powerless who can’t use Magic at all. That fact is enough.”
“..Like I thought, it was something you didn’t want others to know?”
“No, I only learned about the role of Magecraft because of you, Sieg. I don’t regret telling you about it at all. More importantly, I’m sorry for using you like that.”
“It’s fine. I believe that was the best course of action too.”
The fact that Sieg wasn’t angry made Leticiel let out a sigh of relief in her mind.
“By the way, what were you doing here, Drossel?”
“Me? I was teaching my friend over here about Magecraft.”
“N-nice to meet you! My name is Mirandalette Lulu Wald!”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you too. I’m Sieg Viollis.”
Leticiel was keeping her eye on the two people exchanging greetings.
The reason she had kept the Dean in the dark about Magecraft was to prevent the chance of any more rumors about her from spreading through the academy.
Leticiel didn’t want to be deeply involved with someone who stood out. In the academy, she was already known as the worthless Ice Demon. She had no interest in having extraneous information spreading around and attracting undue attention.
The Dean had placed a gag order about the incident in the Large Conference Room. However, unlike teachers, she didn’t expect something like that to work on students. She could see that even a tiny bit of information would spread in no time at all.
Moreover, it was bad enough that she had acted recklessly on multiple occasions today. Luckily, it seemed that other students hadn’t noticed; but she would need to be more careful from now on.
Leticiel didn’t hold any grand plan like proving everyone else wrong. She didn’t care what those people thought about her in the first place. For that reason, she would rather have a quiet life rather than one under the spotlight.
Magecraft was a technique that didn’t exist in the current age. If the information about it happened to reach the upper echelons of the kingdom, it would be extremely troublesome for her. She wouldn’t be able to live her life like before, and in the worst case scenario, there was even a chance of her being confined for life as a research subject, a life of being used by others that Leticiel abhorred.
“You two, can I trust you to not tell a single soul about Magecraft?”
“”Of course!””
Leticiel slightly lowered the surrounding temperature as she confirmed that Mirandalette and Sieg would keep the secret. The pair immediately straightened their backs and answered in the affirmative.
“Shall we go too?”
“Yes, it’s pretty late already! Thank you for today, Drossel!”
“Don’t mention it. Oh right Mira, you have to keep it a secret from your family too, okay?”
“I got it!”
With a vigorous nod, Mirandalette left in such high spirits that her feet seemed to be skipping.
As she gazed at Mirandalette’s retreating figure, Leticiel thought that she should leave as well, and began to walk. However, as she noticed that Sieg hadn’t moved from his spot, she turned her head around.
“..Sieg, you’re not going home?”
“I live in the dorm, so I’ll just head to lower campus straight through this wall.”
While Sieg seemed to be joking, Leticiel only gave him a simple shrug while maintaining her never changing expressionless face.
“I’ll teach you more about Magecraft later, okay?”
“..You want to teach me too?”
“Yes, the amount of people who know about it only went from one to two anyway. As long as you keep your promise, there shouldn’t be any issue.”
“Of course I’ll keep it. Thank you very much..! I’ll look forward to it.”
Hearing Leticiel words, Sieg’s face beamed with delight. Unlike his usual forced, faint smile, it was a smile that seemed to come from the bottom of his heart.
That slightly childish yet beautiful smile brought Leticiel’s mind to a complete halt for a moment. After a few moments spent frozen, her mind resumed activity and she came to a single realization.
(I see, the destructive power of a beautiful smiling face is nothing to joke about.)
By the time she returned to her senses, the smile that looked like a blooming flower had already disappeared, replaced by a worried expression.
“Actually.. Your carriage should have already left by now, right?”
“Oh, you don’t have to worry. I can just use transference to return home.”
“..Is that also a Magecraft?”
“Yes. There are some restrictions on the location, but it can reduce travel time and distance to zero.”
“Truly an intriguing power.”
Sieg smiled once again. While thinking that it might be lip service, Leticiel managed the almost impossible feat of maintaining her usual expression.
“Then I’ll also be going now, Drossel.”
“Okay. Let’s meet again tomorrow.”
“Yeah.”
Maintaining his refreshing smile to the end, Sieg gallantly left the Magic Training Field. After his figure had disappeared from her sight, Leticiel invoked a transference Magecraft.
Transference was a Magecraft to create warp gates between two locations by utilizing the Mana around the user’s current position and their target destination. However, it required the user to form an image of where they wanted to go, so they could only use it between places they had been to.
Her surroundings distorted, and by the time it subsided, Leticiel was already in her own room.
(..Excellent, I just need to use Magecraft a few times to refamiliarize.)
While thinking that, she casually looked around the room and ended up making eye contact with the tailcoat-wearing man standing before the table.
“..Huh? My.. lady..?”
Her exclusive butler.. Ruvik was surprised by the sight of his own master’s back appearing out of thin air.
She always came home along with Christa, yet she didn’t return at all today. Thinking that his master had been acting strange lately, Ruvik couldn’t calm down at all. He began to wander aimlessly around the residence, constantly checking back in on his master’s room.
He couldn’t come up with a single reason as why she had suddenly appeared inside the room like a ghost. She had no Magic Power. She was not supposed to be able to use Magic. Beyond that, Ruvik didn’t know such a grand Magic existed.
Ruvik started mumbling incomprehensible words as his head was spinning in complete chaos. He was in such a state that he was completely taken in by his master’s voice and words.
“Ruvik, you didn’t see anything. I was already in this room when you entered it. Isn’t that right?”
Drossel said those words to Ruvik. That he should pretend nothing happened. That he shouldn’t disclose it to anyone. Ruvik gulped as he experienced an indescribable force from that gaze. Facing such a fleeting, yet awe-inspiring beauty, he was captivated by her dignified air.
“Your wish is my command, my lady.”
Receiving confirmation of the highest degree, Leticiel heaved a sigh of relief in her head as she stared at Ruvik. She then remembered that he was Drossel’s exclusive butler. The fact that he was in this room was nothing strange at all.
“I assume that you have a reason for it. And I don’t plan to be unreasonable, but, could you at least tell me how you returned to this room, please?”
Leticiel was at a loss. She had just heard from Sieg about the peculiarity of Magecraft in this day and age. She understood that she should be caref-->>