As I asked sensei the important question of why no one had made this rediscovery yet, she faced me with a troubled smile.
"Student Ava, do you know of the Unitary War that occured 337 years ago?"
I nodded my assent.
"Before the war, the predecessor of the Academy was the Avena Athenaeum. It was ten times larger than our Academy library. All the knowledge of [Illrya] could be said to have been stored in there. The Athenaeum stood on neutral land, separate from the warring nations, in a country known as the Avena Technohub. Craftspeople, nobility, merchants, people of every kind flocked here to produce wares, magitools, magitech, and sold them to other nations and continents. It was the locus of trade on this continent. As you should know, trade secrets are stringently kept, but a copy of each method of manufacturing was stored in the archives of the Athenaeum under lock and key as a record.
Direct mana enchantment was one of such methods. It was at that time that the ancient teleportation arrays used for intercontinental travel were created. Initially, they were built in the city squares of each major trading nation. Due to the explosive growth of wealth in the Technohub, the surrounding nations turned their greed towards it when the war began. Overwhelmed by a multi-front invasion, the Technohub became the most severe battleground. As a result of the war, over 95% of all materials within the Athenaeum were destroyed. The Kingdom of Avena at the time was a much smaller Kingdom, but one which ruled over 30% of the continent. At the time, the King was immensely incensed that the war had destroyed such a valuable resource of the continent. Initially uninvolved, he commanded his armies and took over the entire continent. To this day, it is why only nobles are allowed to work and study at the Academy.
Of the materials that were destroyed, one such record was of direct mana enchantment. What we have today is a preservation of cruder methods of enchantment that require injecting mana while carving or painting a runic array. At the time, direct mana enchantment was a huge step forward in enchantment technology, but due to its newness, it was not commonplace, and was only used for large arrays such as the teleportation arrays. After the war, the teleportation arrays in each major trade hub were excavated and changed hands multiple times, eventually ending up in the Palaces of various royals all over [Illrya]. The technology itself was not passed down to many people, and all of them were killed in the war or died later from various circumstances without being able to pass it down further.
As the primitive form of enchantment has worked for so long, and has always been so useful, it never again became a priority to recover direct mana enchantment. Even for scholars who research runic arrays, the point had always been to improve upon our current technology, rather than attempt, possibly in vain, to rediscover direct mana enchantment. Do you understand now why it is such a surprise that you were able to use it?"
"Nn. Certainly, it seems that the circumstances of history have conspired to make such a method lost to time."
Everyone else in the classroom was looking at us and staring with their mouths agape, the two boys in horror and rage, Miszia and Eliszia in awe, Delmia in stark shock, and Simarel in wonder.
I moistened my lips and asked my question in a wavering voice.
"Then...does Ivar-sensei know the rune for [Time]?"
Her eyes widened as she replied, "unfortunately, I do not. I also am unaware if there are any archives which contain records of the rune. Is there a particular reason you are searching for such a rune?"
"Of the magics that I can use, [Time] is one of the missing ones. I had hoped to be able to use the rune to retroactively gain the skill." I gave a non-committal, yet not completely false answer.
"Oya? Student Ava, you are certainly the interesting one. Out of curiosity, how many magics can you use? It may be a rude question, so I understand if you wish to not answer."
"Nn. I can use nine basic magics."
"Nine??? Aren't there only twelve total base magics?"
"Yes. I'm missing [Time], [Gravity], and [Sound]."
According to what Ivar-sensei had told us during her lecture regarding attributes that we could use in our arrays, there were twelve base magics: [Fire], [Water], [Wind], and [Earth] were the four elemental magics, [Time], [Space], and [Gravity] were the three foundational magics, [Blood], [Poison], and [Sound] were the three biological magics, and [Light] and [Dark] were the two ethereal magics. Perhaps it would be fruitful to explain why [Blood], [Poison], and [Sound] were the three biological magics. Ivar-sensei had explained that [Blood Magic] affected the medium of mana in living beings, [Poison Magic] affected the biological functions of living beings, and [Sound Magic] affected the minds of living beings. She had also explained that it was rumoured that there was a fourth biological magic, known as [Spirit Magic], but records of such things were so old and unreadable that it was but an unconfirmed hypothesis. Regardless, there were no records of its usage anywhere. By the way, in the catalogue that was given to us, there were only runes of the four elements and two ethereals.
"Student Ava, I'm getting a little dizzy at your excellence..."
"I imagine that learning [Gravity] and [Sound] runes would not be difficult, which is why I asked particularly for [Time], which I imagine would be the hardest to obtain."
Finally, someone in the classroom recovered enough to cut into the conversation. Naturally, it was Simarel.
"Wait, wait, Ava-sama. Just what do you mean by being retroactively able to learn a kind of magic just from reading the runes?! I mean, we all are reading and using these runes in our enchantment class, but I've never heard of anyone gaining a new skill out of that!"
"Ah, it's because I can construct runic arrays out of mana itself. It means that I can use subskills of the skill attribute, and retroactively gain the skill from accumulating subskills."
"Wha-"
Ah, it feels like everyone's common sense has imploded. Oops. After all, it seemed like it took a pretty rare combination of skills to achieve this. Not only did one need [Mana Manipulation] and [Mana Sensing] to achieve [Mana Vision] if they didn't cheat like I did, they also needed to somehow gain [Runic Magic] or [Runic Manipulation] from the process of studying magic. Of the different branches of scholarly research at the Academy, there was no one department that could stumble into such a combination. The departments that studied magitech and magitools had the highest chance of such an occurrence, but there was a greater focus on optimising the use of [Mana Cores] as a power source, as well as tools for day-to-day use, such as communication crystals, lighting crystals, and so on. As the common understanding was that they could only work with three to five nodes, the bulk of research was being done on how to cram as many functions as possible into the inscribed array rather than fundamentally learning and understanding how to use the arrays.
In fact, it seemed as though the Academy was more like an R&D department that one might find at a large company rather than an institute of scientific study. Thinking about this, I realised - there was no formalised scientific method in this world. Research went as research did, following traditions and conventional wisdoms rather than probing the nature of these conventional wisdoms and ensuring that they held up. Although, I suppose this would certainly be research characteristic of a society ruled by nobility. It was not that there was anything wrong with the society per se, but noble society tended to uphold and preserve precedence, tradition, and rigidity. If the amount of resources that were available here could be poured into, say, a Technocracy of Intia that was not currently in tense opposition to the Empire of Daceli and the Rict Warpath, I wonder just what kind of discoveries we would make.
However, that was besides the point. I ignored my dumbfounded classmates and faced Ivar-sensei again.
"Sensei, do you know of any scholar or professor who is researching runes and would like an assistant?"
Her eyes shone. While it was rare for students enrolled in the Academy to become research assistants, it certainly wasn't unheard of. Often, particularly talented students would be taken in to become research assistants. As with any major academic institute, research assistants were always in short supply, so much so that there was a yearly "Assistant Recruitment" event at the Academy, whereby students interested in research would present their areas of interest and competencies to faculty and scholars, and research assistants would be selected. Despite the shortage, though, if a student was not competent enough, they would definitely cause more trouble than they were worth, meaning that not everyone could become a research assistant.
"Umu. It just so happens that I've finished my most recent research project on optimising the waste filtration system using runic arrays at key points in the process. I suppose now would be as good a time as any to research runes themselves, what do you think?"
"In that case, sensei, I think I shall see you at this year's Assistant Recruitment event."
"Excellent. In fact, I would like more than anything to take you on as a research assistant right this moment, but rules are rules. Furthermore, we can't take on research assistants that the Dean of Research has not approved. Although you may have some difficulties owing to your unique circumstances, all the scholars and professors here have a heart that is more dedicated to research and knowledge than anything else. If you display your capabilities, you should be able to blow them away."
"Un. I just hope that these circumstances do not become a hindering factor. I would not enjoy having to explain to the Archdean that I made a mess that he has to clean up." I muttered darkly, thinking that if my research was hindered, I might just end up severely injuring the judging panel.
Seeing my expression, Ivar-sensei's face went white, and she hurriedly exclaimed, "student Ava, just what are you thinking?!"
"Sensei, this research is critically important to me. It is imperative that I conduct it. That is the whole reason that I am here."
"I understand that, but... it would be best not to cause a scene, you know? Especially one that the Archdean has to personally be involved in???"
Ah, I just realised, but... for the past half an hour, sensei and I have been talking in our own little world. Wasn't she supposed to teach the class?