Thursday, March 20th, Year 958 of the Imperial Calendar.
[Level 9 clear. Congratulations. No higher levels available.]
"Thank you."
I focused on training until the day of the lecture.
I just cleared the stage while only using "Basic Psychokinesis" and as a reward, I got a bonus trait.
[Psychokinesis Master]
•Rating
:Common
•Description
:The result of intense training. Increases performance of psychokinesis by 11% and reduces mana consumption by 11%
The explanation was simple, but I was most grateful for this. I especially liked the "11%". As I grow, the value of this trait will also increase.
I sat on my office chair and looked at the clock.
It was 10 a.m.
The lecture started at 3 pm. I had plenty of time and I didn't have to get to the class early today either. I had to wait until 3:30 and just show up when Allen gives me the signal, that's all.
What we ambitiously prepared was the so-called "The first lesson is self-study" tactic.
* * *
The third floor of the University's Magic Tower.
Ifrin sighed in front of the Class A classroom.
"Huu..."
Deculein was in there. Moreover, she had to be in the same space as Deculein and listen to his lecture.
That was painful in itself, but... Would Deculein remember what happened in that lecture a month ago?
No, didn't he forget my last name in the first place?
Luna.
The last name of the magician he killed.
If the target of her revenge didn't even remember that name, then she'd probably be even angrier, she'd probably go mad.
So what was she supposed to do? Did she have to go to the trouble of reminding him of his evil deeds?...That kind of tension was strangling her.
"Ifrin, what are you doing standing here?"
Hearing someone's words, Ifrin woke up from her thoughts. A female classmate wearing a robe was looking at her with a smirk.
"Oh, I'm a little nervous. Go on ahead."
"Indeed. Me as well. I searched for information on Deculein on the Wiza board and it said that he was very strict. Still, he's pretty handsome."
Ifrin, who was standing next to her classmate walking and muttering, saw another woman approaching from the hallway.
And for a moment, she was speechless.
"...Oh"
With every step she took, her well-maintained blonde hair fluttered about seeming like a golden stream. The scent of roses seemed to waft from her elegant gestures, which flowed softly, sophisticated and naturally without revealing her thrones.
She was part of the class of people whose bloodline itself was recognized as dignity itself – Even in the pyramid of hierarchy among the 'nobles' she was on a particularly high layer.
A woman from the Iliade family, considered one of the most noble bloodlines in the Empire.
Sylvia.
Sylvia von Yossepin Iliade.
"...."
She already knew that that lofty young miss was a role model for many, but Ifrin took an openly combative stance. She glared at her and licked her lips with her tongue.
Ifrin looked down on Sylvia. It wasn't just simply feelings of inferiority. Theirs was a long lasting and tough relationship.
The Luna family has been the lord of 'Juhalle', part of the territory of the Iliades since ancient times. It was like saying they were relatives a long time ago.
However, 10 years ago.
Before she was even 8 years old.
Giltheon, the head of the Iliades, looked at her. She could vividly remember that look in his eyes. She remembered their act of besieging their mansion with the territorial troops to deal with them like difficult-to-dispose-of garbage.
She remembered that voice that sounded like they were speaking to some lowly thing.
All because they feared her and her father's talents.
However, this wasn't their territory, this was the Magic Tower and she wasn't young anymore. When it comes to talent, she wasn't in any way inferior to those bastards pretending to be the world's greatest nobles.
Above all, the magicians of the tower didn't have castles or families. They were only recognized by their given name and their talents.
Therefore...
"...?"
Sylvia only glanced at Ifrin and went straight inside.
There wasn't even a hint of an expression on her face. There were no emotions in her eyes, completely blank. It was as if she didn't even know a person called 'Ifrin' at all.
-Scratch
Ifrin, who was the only one standing there with a heavy expression, awkwardly scratched the back of her neck, before going in.
"...Huh?"
And then she was perplexed.
It wasn't a classroom, but a spacious gym. The ceiling was incredibly high, and there were wells, trees, dirt, sand, gravel and piles of iron on the ground.
"Wow. Professor Deculein's class was supposed to be like this? That's interesting."
"I know right? There was nothing about this on the WiZ Boards. Maybe it's because it's our first class."
Unlike Ifrin, who was only perplexed, the other magicians were half surprised and half curious.
"Oh, guys. Look at this."
One of them pointed somewhere. There was a sign stuck in the middle of this space.
[The Professor wants to measure your skills as the first class.]
[This place is full of elements. You can do anything you want by yourself.]
"Huh...?"
After approaching it and checking its content, Ifrin frowned.
"What is this?"
What were they supposed to do here? Whatever that is, how were they supposed to do it on their own?
However, the other magicians seemed to be familiar with this strange situation.
There must've been a lot of classes like this at the academy, huh? I didn't know about that because I taught myself.
"...Oh, maybe?"
Suddenly, the person next to her muttered as if they had realized something. She glanced over and it was someone named Geharon. The son of a famous magician.
Ifrin sneaked up to him.
"What is it ~? What do you think it is?"
"Huh? Ooh. I think it's something like this."
Geharon touched the pavement. Then, water and soil congealed around his hand, rose into a long and slender shape.
It was a mud tower.
"It told us to try anything. And this class is called 'Understanding Elemental Attribute Magic'. So, wouldn't that mean to make something out of the elements available? It's about 'Handling pure elements'."
"Oh~ that could be it."
The majority of the magicians, including Ifrin, agreed with Geharon's words. In the first place, this lecture's name was [Understanding Elemental Attribute Magic].
"That'll be easy then."
Ifrin crossed her arms and grinned.
Should I make a statue? Or should I make a tower?
They could do anything.
Ifrin habitually fiddled with her bracelet hanging on her wrist.
It was an artifact her father gave her as a gift one day. Now it has become the 'attribute' of the magician named Ifrin.
The so-called — Vessel.
The most restrictive and most colorful attribute.
As long as he had this bracelet close to her, she could freely manipulate 'all elements'.
"I've decided."
Ifrin, contemplating which element to choose, sat down near a pile of metal. As she squatted down to prepare her magic, someone patted on her back as they passed by her.
"Ack, what the hell?"
After almost tumbling onto the metal, she looked back, it was Sylvia.
She left Ifrin behind like she would a piece of trash on the side of a road.
"...How ridiculous! Why did you hit me? Do you have no eyes or are your feet to fricking big?"
Ifrin pouted and grumbled to herself. Then whimpering, she picked up the pieces of metal and gathered them in one place.
"Phew, it's heavy."
She shook her hands and put them on it.
Whoo... She took a breath to prepare her body.
Then, with her eyes closed, she released her mana.
–Brzzzzzt!
It flew around like sparks. Before her hands, her bracelet glowed blue, Buwaaah!
A small, ugly tower rose from the ground.
"Hmm."
It had been only 3 years since she started magic again, so she was lacking in every way. Still, as a demonstration, that was enough.
Now that I have the base, let's make it as big as possible.
"…..Hm?"
It was at that moment. Suddenly, the size of the tower she had begun to build began to shrink and got sucked somewhere.
"Whe, where is it going?"
She tried to block it with her hands, but it didn't work. Ifrin simply stumbled after the fleeing remains of her tower.
"...Huh?"
Sylvia. She was absorbing her tower as materials to create a statue. At that moment, a fake laugh leaked out of her mouth.
I wanted to dismantle it anyway, so why is she like that?
"Excuse me. What are you doing? I made that just now, didn't I?"
Ifrin strode over to her and spoke as such. Sylvia just looked at her and blinked a few times. Then she replied in a languid voice.
"I made a mistake. It was so small, I thought it was scrap metal."
"...Pardon?"
Ifrin's forehead wrinkled.
Did she eat something wrong? No matter how much my tower looked like scrap metal...It doesn't look like that!
Wait a minute.
A thought flashed through her mind, then she smiled triumphantly as if she understood something.
"Oh~ Sylvia. You know me, right?"
Sylvia didn't answer and just looked up at the tower she made. From an objective point of view, it was far superior to Ifrin's.
"Knock, knock. Someone home? You know me. Why are you pretending that you don't?"
"...."
Only then did Sylvia's gaze shift to Ifrin. There were no emotions hiding behind these eyes. No, she just pretended there were none.
Ifrin grinned- covering her mouth with one hand. Her curved eyes resembled those of a fox.
"Aha~ I see now~ Are you afraid of me catching up to you~? I had to leave 7 years ago and only started learning 3 years ago. In the meantime, you must have received elite education from high-ranking magicians, and now you're scared?"
Sylvia looked at Ifrin without a word. Her gaze was even heavier than before. Although she didn't reveal her emotions, her eyes seemed to gleam a little darker while resting on Ifrin.
Sylvia's moist lips twisted as an emotionless voice flowed out.
"I don't know you."
"What do you mean, you don't know me? Why would you lie? You've been talking informally to me. Why would you talk down to me if you don't know me?"
"I don't know you, but your father."
"...What?"
For a moment, Ifrin thought she misheard.
'Your father'?
Did she just say 'Your father'?
"That arrogant one. That useless nobleman."
"..."
"He's dead."
He's dead.
She didn't have any fluctuation in her intonation while saying this. A voice that sagged low like a corpse, as if dealing with an inanimate creature, something that wasn't alive in the first place.
It held more than disdain or contempt. Disregard.
Something snapped in Ifrin's head. Sylvia turned around, but Ifrin's bracelet was already filled with mana.
When Ifrin, enraged, reached out to Sylvia – The mana turned into the shape of a ring.
"O, oh! Behind!"
Sylvia turned her head at someone's shout. The torrent of magic was intensifying. Sylvia, however, simply blocked it by releasing her mana.
Two magic powers collided and canceled each other out.
"...Ptoey! Hey. Hey, you bitch. What did you say just now? Say that again, would you?"
Ifrin spat out some sand and saliva that gathered in her mouth and swore. This was judged as the worst attitude one could assume in this world. Seeing that familiar figure of rolling up her robe sleeves, Sylvia looked at her as if saying "That is so like you".
"What insolence."
"Insolence? Don't you know that the Tower doesn't care about someone's identity. No, do you want me to show you something even more insolent?"
Even Sylvia might not have expected what happened next. Ifrin ran up to Sylvia in an instant and grabbed her by the hair.
Punch!
Looking at her, head held in her hands... Sylvia said indifferently:
"Let go before I cut your hands off."
"Do it then."
"...."
"Hey bitch."
Their conversation was very bloody, but strangely, the people around them weren't interested in them at all.
"Hey, hey, hey! That one, that one!"
Rather, they were causing even more uproar and commotion.
Kyaaak-! Uaaak-!
People screaming and sprinting away resounded loudly. Only then did Sylvia and Ifrin look back.
"Huh?"
A 'void' occured at the place where the two magic powers collided. A hole where both magic powers intertwined. It functioned like a vanishing point, sucking in the soil, wood, wells, stones and metals scattered everywhere.
"...What is that?"
Inside the cramped hole, things were smashed into pieces. The wood, stone and soil sublimated through the frictional heat, the metal, however, remained in its form and turned red hot.
"Ex, explode. It's going to explode!"
"Ru, run away—!"
The mana that compressed and contracted into a single point would explode at some point, tearing up even the metal.
If that void burst,
the metal would shoot out like bullets flying through the entire space.
The magician's, who foresaw this disaster, quickly made barriers.
Creeeeaaaaaak–!
An ominous sound, that was similar to something getting torn out, echoed.
The cry of metal getting crushed.
Then, a huge explosion raged through the area.
–!
"Urg!"
Ifrin closed her eyes tightly. The barrier that she ejected from her bracelet, wrapped around her whole body.
She prayed and trembled like a newborn chick. 1 second,
2 seconds,
3 seconds,
4 seconds.
Whooooosh...
A strong wind blew.
And then,
It just stopped.
That was all.
"...?"
No matter how long she waited, the shock that she was preparing for didn't happen.
Ifrin, who was trembling, slowly opened her closed eyes as she found this situation quite strange.
"...Uh!"
Her whole body was stiff from the shock. A sharp piece of metal was floating right in front of her retina.
But, it was truly bizarre. It just stood in mid-air without any movement.
"What... is this?"
It wasn't just at one place either. It was like this everywhere.
The torn metal floated as if gravity had disappeared, like stones floating in space, they were just floating around.
....
A belated calm spread through that agonizing chaos, and magicians, who's hearts nearly stopped, simply looked around the area.
No one was saying anything.
Complete silence with a total absence of sound.
It was a world where metal fragments, which were shot around as the result of a mana explosion, were floating around like clouds.
This miracle, which couldn't be explained by simple words, was indeed magical.
"...Did you do this?"
Ifrin asked Sylvia. However, Sylvia showed some expressions on her face for the first time ever since she saw her today.
Question, wonder and surprise.
"Psychokinesis?"
"That can't be. Who'd be able to stop so many objects with just psychokinesis?"
"Right? I was just saying."
As it was such a mysterious sight, the magicians were all interested in this phenomenon. They were so completely immersed in the analysis of this magic that they quickly forgot about the dire situation they were in before.
When they tried to look into that metal, tap it and instill it with mana.
-Do not move from your spot. No one.
A certain frosty voice echoed through the area. The veiled sharp tone sliced through all the magicians.
Step- Step-
It was followed by the daunting sound of footsteps.
Gulp.
The magicians swallow their saliva at the sudden appearance of this oppressive presence. There was cold sweat on their backs. It was as if tree roots bound their entire lower body....
"Attention."
A single word controlled 150 magicians all at once.
There was one place everyone turned to–
It was towards the Professor in charge of this lecture, who suppressed this situation in a flash.
It was Deculein.
"...You have done something rather foolish"
He looked at the magicians like a bird of prey, wearing his tailored suit, like always.
These sharp blue eyes seemed to grab the hearts of the newbies.
It was then.
Flutter...
Countless metal pieces lined up after each other, floating beautifully as if they were alive dancing about, before they all fell down behind the professor.
Even to the last moment.
Deculein didn't lift a single finger.
"Wow."
"Uwah."
Instinctive exclamations burst from various places. Even Ifrin, who hated Deculein, couldn't help but admit it.
His magic was graceful.
It was more than graceful, it was artistic.
Ordinary people may think of it as "Some kind of pretty magic", thinking he might have put in some effort or something. The magicians, though, who studied and were taught, could feel it.
It was terrifyingly serious, chillingly beautiful control magic.
It was enough to make their heart ache and wonder "Will I ever reach that level...?"
"I shall stop the lecture now. Only those who have caused this commotion shall remain, the rest of you may leave."
The exhilaration quickly subsided. Everyone bowed in front of Deculein's wrath-mixed dignity.
"What! What's going on?! I could feel a lot of magic energy!"
It was the board chairman.
The board chairman ran around and looked inside the classroom. That was the moment Ifrin realized that she had been fucked.