Chapter 2: Going to School
As the morning sun began to rise, a faint light appeared in the once-dark sky. Shion Ichinose finished his basic training, repeating elementary magic of various attributes. He drank a mana recovery potion and rested for about five minutes before picking up the sword he had brought from his dormitory room.
He was about to try a new spell he had been studying and experimenting with for the past few days, poring over academic books.
Holding the sword’s hilt in his right hand and raising it horizontally, Shion cast a magic circle with his left hand towards the sword and chanted:
“Lightning Magic – Enchant”
Immediately after the incantation, as the magic activated, blue-white lightning crackled along the blade of his sword, emitting small plasma sounds.
The attribute enchantment magic he had just cast was meant to enhance weapon power or gain elemental advantages against monsters and other magic.
However, the lightning currently sparking along Shion’s sword blade would only cause a static shock-like pain if touched. It couldn’t actually increase the sword’s power or provide any elemental advantage against monsters or magic.
From the perspective of proper enchantment magic, his spell was a useless failure. And yet…
“…Heh”
Shion, having successfully cast Lightning Magic – Enchant for the first time today, wore an extremely satisfied expression.
The reason for his satisfaction was simple: the lightning-clad sword looked purely awesome.
Staring at the blue-white lightning crackling along the blade with plasma sounds, Shion muttered, “Oh… hehehe,” with an entranced expression.
His face relaxed so much that he almost drooled, laughing like a dangerous pervert.
…After that, Shion experimented with changing the lightning’s color, making louder plasma sounds, and practicing sword techniques with the lightning-enchanted blade.
Despite being a magic academy student, he had some knowledge of swordsmanship.
It all started when he was thirteen. Learning about “magic swordsmen” who raced across battlefields wielding powerful magic and swords struck a special chord within Shion.
–From then on, combining magic and swordsmanship became Shion’s ideal combat style.
Since then, he began practicing swordsmanship alongside magic.
Once Shion became passionate about something, his enthusiasm was incredible. His parents, delighted, provided him with muscle enhancers and swordsmanship manuals, resulting in rapid growth of both his physical abilities and sword skills.
However, his skill level remained that of an amateur.
In this world, a swordsman’s prowess depends not only on sword techniques and strength but also on magical enhancement of physical abilities. Therefore, Shion, with his weak magical power, could never match true experts. His swordsmanship skills were merely at a basic level.
Currently, he was wildly excited about his lightning-enchanted sword, swinging it around single-mindedly like a child playing make-believe, imagining various scenarios.
After swinging the lightning-clad sword for a while, he set it down with satisfaction and drank potions for mana recovery and physical fatigue relief.
“…Well then. –Shall we?”
–Suddenly, as if a switch had been flipped, his gaze changed.
It wasn’t his usual act of being lost in delusions, but a serious, focused look.
Interlacing his fingers alternately, Shion took a deep breath while stretching his arms.
“–Here we go”
After completing some stretches to loosen up, he activated a certain magic…
–By the time he finished his magical training, the sun had fully risen, and Shion wrapped up his practice.
He carried the books, sword, and empty potion bottles back to his dorm room. Then he took a bath, washing away the sweat from his early morning training.
After his bath, he changed into the Crawford Magic Academy uniform and had his second breakfast in the dormitory cafeteria.
Once finished with his second breakfast, Shion cleared away his dishes, returned to his room to prepare his school belongings,
When he had finished preparing then headed towards the Crawford Magic Academy building, about a five-minute walk from the dormitory.
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During class, Shion was focusing on maintaining a bored expression.
While his classmates concentrated on taking notes, careful not to miss any of the lesson’s content, he intentionally avoided taking notes and consciously crafted a bored look.
There was only one reason for this pointless behavior: to exude a mysterious, unfathomable aura and look cool.
However, this wasn’t entirely an act. The truth was, he didn’t need to take notes or memorize the content of second-year classes anymore. He had devoted more time to studying magic than anyone else since childhood.
Although his magical ability was only C-class, his knowledge of magic far surpassed that of his C-class peers.
So, while pretending to look bored, he was actually contemplating more advanced magic beyond the scope of the lesson.
Occasionally drifting into his world of delusions, he spent every possible moment honing his magical knowledge.
…That being said, there were naturally teachers who became irritated by his bored expression.
These teachers would deliberately pose difficult questions not yet covered in class to Shion, who seemed to pay no attention.
When asked and responding with “…I don’t know,” the teachers would make snide remarks about his magical lineage or call him a dropout, while his classmates snickered. It was like a public demonstration to fuel the students’ competitive spirit.
But Shion brushed off the teachers’ sarcasm and paid no mind to his classmates’ mockery.
In fact, he welcomed being underestimated by those around him.
This was because the situation perfectly realized his ideal of “living a school life while hiding his true abilities.”
He could easily answer the teachers’ spiteful questions but chose to pretend not to know.
To be precise, he didn’t act completely clueless, but always let a hint of composure show through, subtly suggesting that he might actually know the answer.
He only wanted to “act as if he didn’t want to stand out,” always leaving room for doubt, making people wonder, “Could he actually…?”
That was Shion Ichinose’s particular way of doing things–.
When all classes for the day ended, Shion headed to the faculty document storage at the edge of the main school building.
On this day, his homeroom teacher, Lina Restia, had asked him, “I’d like you to carry some documents for me, so please come to the document storage after school.” It was to help prepare for her class the next day.
Shion usually helps with Restia’s class preparations, but there’s no special position set up for this. She simply asks Shion for help personally.
……Two years ago, the day before Shion took the entrance exam for the magic academy, he and Restia, who happened to be there, helped an old man in trouble in town. Restia had been concerned about him from the start. However, there was a reason why Restia tried to interact with Shion personally beyond that.
–Restia’s class teaches magic related to plants, and it’s a subject that doesn’t have practical or academic exams at Crawford Magic Academy. Therefore, the level of mastery and understanding of plant magic is not reflected in the academy’s grades at all.
Also, plant magic is less popular compared to other fields, and there are few plant-related jobs. With this background, hardly any students take her class seriously.
Most students use Restia’s class time to review and prepare for other classes or as a break time to concentrate on other classes in order to improve their academy grades.
Amidst all this, Shion takes her class seriously.
His knowledge of magic is quite extensive, and he doesn’t need to listen seriously to most classes anymore.
However, this is limited to magic classes he has been interested in studying until now.
He was only interested in magic that he judged to be useful for combat, basic elemental magic, or magic that looks cool, and he didn’t voluntarily study other types of magic.
And plant-related magic was one of the subjects outside his interest until just before entering the academy. The reason was simple: it doesn’t look very cool.
However, he fundamentally enjoys learning new magic, and after taking Restia’s plant-related magic class for the first time after entering the academy, he began to study it seriously.
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