“The west side, ma’am?”
Cameron was surprised by Balbrea’s words. However, when Balbrea’s eyes sharpened, he quickly fell silent.
“That’s all. For the rest, please follow Cameron’s guidance.”
After confirming that Cameron had fallen silent, Balbrea concluded the conversation. And so, we exited the headmaster’s office.
As soon as we stepped into the hallway, Alabaster let out a sigh of relief.
“Aoi, you had me worried…”
Being told this reproachfully, I turned back to Strauss and the others, wondering what he meant. There, I saw Strauss’s face with half-closed eyes. Strauss turned his face only towards Eliza, who was showing signs of fatigue, and opened his mouth.
“…Balbrea and Aoi are similar. Especially in their forceful approach and how they confront things head-on.”
“Despite their contrasting ways of speaking, they strangely seemed like sisters,”
Eliza agreed with a wry smile.
To this, I also tilted my head.
“I don’t understand. I thought we were completely different.”
Apart from appearances, Balbrea seemed like a woman with very high communication skills. She’s the complete opposite of me, who can’t easily put myself forward. Given my quiet personality, I think it’s amazing when people can actively speak up in spaces with many people gathered, like parties. Balbrea is exactly that type.
I was thinking about such things, but it seemed the two of them didn’t share my thoughts.
“No, it felt like a confrontation between two very strong-willed women…”
For some reason, even Cameron, whom I had just met today, agreed. When I glanced at Alabaster, he was nodding firmly as well.
Before I knew it, I had lost all my allies.
Having no choice, I decided to stop this fruitless discussion and move on.
“By the way, Cameron. Earlier, you seemed confused when you heard about the western rooftop?”
When I asked, Cameron hesitated for a moment. However, she quickly let out a short sigh as if giving up and headed towards the window in the hallway. From the window, a view of a small courtyard spread out, and the wall of the academy building on the entrance side was visible.
Pointing at that white wall, Cameron began to explain.
“This academy has the treatment wing right at the entrance so that injured people can enter easily. It forms a wall-like structure. Behind that are the lecture rooms for intermediate and above magic. And then there’s this central building. All of these are considered the eastern side of the academy. On the western side, there are faculty lodgings, the library, and research facilities. The western rooftop is difficult to see from outside the academy, so we conduct experiments with magic under development or confidential magic there. In other words, the western side houses many important secrets equivalent to the magic research labs in the Holy City…”
“That’s convenient,”
I inadvertently let slip my inner thoughts while listening to Cameron’s explanation. After all, it seemed that all the materials would be gathered there. I could efficiently learn about healing magic.
That’s what I thought, but Cameron and Alabaster exchanged glances with sour expressions.
“…Will she be alright?”
“You’re worried, right? I understand.”
In response to Alabaster’s comment, Cameron nodded deeply.
READ THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION AT LOCALIZERMEERKAT.PAGES.DEV
We passed through the courtyard and moved to the western wing at the back. It seemed Cameron had given up on thinking too hard and was now kindly explaining all the important facilities as she guided us.
“This is the library accessible to general faculty, and beyond that are research rooms for general faculty. Next is the library for senior faculty, along with research rooms for senior faculty. In this academy, only the healing magic user and one water magic user have attained senior faculty status. Previously, there were also senior faculty researching fire and wind magic, so currently, we have some extra research rooms.”
“Is the number of faculty small?”
“No, it’s not that the number of faculty has changed, but rather that there are few who meet the level required by the academy principal. So, at present, we don’t have faculty capable of teaching advanced fire, wind, and earth magic.”
After candidly discussing the current state of the Holy City Magic Academy, Cameron glanced at me.
As I tilted my head at her gaze, Eliza hugged me.
“I won’t give Aoi to you, okay?”
When Eliza declared this, Cameron let out a dry laugh and pointed down the hallway.
“I wasn’t saying anything like that. Now then, there are stairs to the rooftop further ahead. Please, this way.”
When we reached the rooftop, there was a larger space than I had expected, and a big magic circle was drawn there.
It seems that magic circle research is mainly conducted here, and it’s set up to be redrawn. Besides the magic circle, other items are prepared around it. Seeing glass bottles and ceramic jars, I wonder if they also make medicinal potions here.
As I was looking around closely at this unusual sight, Strauss and Eliza walked over.
“…Well?”
“Well, what?”
When I asked back to his overly brief question, Eliza laughed and pointed at the magic circle.
“I think he wants to know if you think this magic circle will function properly.”
“I see. By the way, Eliza, what do you think?”
When I deliberately asked back, Eliza swallowed hard.
“Me…? Well… I understand the part about changing the shape of fire, but the rest of the connections are a bit complex…”
Nodding at Eliza’s response, I checked the magic circle again. It’s an orthodox magic circle based on a circle. However, the use of characters and patterns is inconsistent. Even so, it should activate somehow, even with a lot of waste.
“It will activate. But it will consume a lot of magical power due to the waste.”
The moment I said this, hard footsteps echoed from behind.
“…Hmm, a lot of waste, you say?”
The one who appeared was Balbrea. Her voice carried more weight than before, giving off a more intimidating atmosphere. Perhaps because she was going outside, she wore a pitch-black cloak, exuding an air of a dark magician. With her arms crossed, Balbrea looked at me as if seeing something interesting.
I didn’t come here to pick a fight, but when it comes to magical research, it’s better not to lie or deceive. That should ultimately lead to the improvement of Maple Leaf’s magic.
With that in mind, I began to speculate about the drawn magic circle.
“Judging from the characters, this is for using fire magic. I was a bit surprised, as I thought you were researching healing magic circles. However, the magic circle is for fire shape change, wall, separation, and movement. Also, shape change and wall are duplicated twice, which is likely causing a significant loss.”
I analyzed the magic circle and answered. Then, Cameron’s eyes widened.
“How… you understood the effects of the magic circle at a glance…”
Glancing at the astonished Cameron, Balbrea then put her hand to her chin and spoke.
“…Hmm. So, Aoi, how would you redraw this magic circle?”
When asked that, I began to answer, incorporating the characteristics of the magic circle.
“First, considering this shape of the magic circle, it would be better to infuse magical power flowing in one direction, treating this side as the front. Then, we’ll draw the characters and patterns clockwise from the arrangement of characters. Keep this shape change and wall as is, and add increase in momentum and temperature rise. The problem is with separation and movement, as it’s unclear how it will move as it is. If you want to move the wall of flames, you should decide on direction and speed, but what do you want to do?”
After sharing my thoughts, I left the final decision to Balbrea. Then, everyone’s gaze turned to Balbrea.
Balbrea recrossed her arms and closed her eyes for a while. It might have been several seconds. When she opened her eyes, she smiled with a refreshed expression.
“…I see. Based on past experimental results, I judge your words to be credible.”
Saying only that, Balbrea passed by me and stood in front of the magic circle.
“From the experiments conducted so far, we know that it will most likely fail unless magical power is infused from here. Also, the way of infusing magical power is just as Aoi said earlier. If magical power is infused from the right, it often fails or doesn’t activate properly.”
As Balbrea answered, everyone’s gaze now concentrated on me. Feeling that, I stood next to Balbrea and looked down at the magic circle.
“What do you want to do? If this magic circle can be redrawn, shall we try redrawing it as a test?”
When I asked, I heard laughter that sounded like it was about to burst out.
“Fu, hahaha! Even with this magic circle, it took several faculty members gathering together to research ancient magic circles, and only after many trials and errors did it finally take shape. To think that words about easily redrawing it would come out…”
“I apologize. If you want to keep this one, I can draw it in another place, so it’s fine.”
“No, that’s not it. It’s simply that we’ve been groping in the dark, trying and failing repeatedly, and finally managed to create a few functioning magic circles. Yet Aoi can redraw a magic circle at first sight. It’s beyond surprising—it’s laughable.”
Balbrea said, laughing. At those words, Cameron opened her mouth, looking confused.
“That’s… in any country, magic circle research shouldn’t have progressed that far…”
It was a small murmur. However, Balbrea reacted sensitively to such a murmur.
“Cameron. Don’t escape into wishful thinking. In magical research, results are the most important. Rather, rejoice that we’ve gained valuable clues to advance our research. It’s far better than being surpassed by other countries without even knowing it.”
“Y-Yes…!”
At Balbrea’s words, which carried a slight hint of anger, Cameron straightened her back and responded.
She has a military-like disposition. Indeed, I feel that Balbrea and I are not alike at all…
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