episode_0080

[Actually, black magic is similar to the act of unleashing one’s own thoughts and ideologies upon this world created by God. That is why it was ostracized by the Church, branded as heresy, and even expelled from the society of fellow mages. Of course, the fact that mages turned away from us is caused by the black mages’ own faults, but if the Church hadn’t ostracized us in the first place, we wouldn’t have gone astray.]

He lightly skipped the introduction of the book, which was full of excuses. However, even as he turned page after page, the black mage’s lamentations did not end.

He must have held grudges to an extreme extent, as he was cursing mages, the Church, and even lumping together and cursing fellow black mages. It seemed he had suffered a lot during his lifetime.

That said, the author of the grimoire likely did not live a clean life. The mere fact that the book he cherished was in Asel’s hands painted an obvious picture. He was probably caught and subjugated after conducting research on citizens.

So Asel didn’t feel any particular sympathy. He just frowned and quickly flipped through the book to the middle section.

[What a horribly self-loving personality. And he blames others to a teeth-grinding extent. He’s exactly the type of person I dislike.]

Alef, whom he had opened out of boredom, evaluated the grimoire’s author. Asel chuckled lightly and agreed with her words.

Fortunately, past the middle section, there was a detailed explanation of black magic. Although it was quite long, summarizing it wasn’t particularly difficult.

The Lightning Formula converts the magic power in the core into lightning. It’s a magic that carefully controls the shape, firing speed, direction, power, etc., using the formula. Other types of magic weren’t significantly different. First, one learns the formula, realizes one’s uniqueness, becomes a Archmage, awakens their inner image, and then unleashes it.

However, black magic was the complete opposite. One had to awaken their inner image to some extent first to be able to use basic black magic.

This was because, to draw a boundary line between the world and oneself, that line had to be clearer than anything else. The inner image was the most fundamental part of this.

“Hmm.”

Of course, Asel could handle the magic in the grimoire with ease. When he tried activating it as a test, it manifested immediately without any hindrance.

[First Precept]

[I stand firmly in the world]

Quajijijik!!

The moment the formula was activated, a black mass that popped out of the air gaped open its maw and chewed and swallowed the air. Then, as if nothing had happened, it scattered into smoke. Asel withdrew the hand he had extended and quietly muttered, clenching and unclenching his fist.

The consumption of magic power was unusual. It was likely a side effect of forcibly using magic derived from the inner image of the black mage who wrote the grimoire. The price for imitating the inner image was taking half of the magic power in the core. While its power was significantly lower than high-level lightning formulas, the amount it consumed was simply greedy.

In this state, it was difficult to use in a real battle. Ultimately, to handle black magic seriously, one would have to awaken their inner image to some extent.

[Master, it is time.]

As he was doing that, Alef suddenly spoke to him. Asel glanced at the clock placed in the corner of the table and got up.

“Is it already this time?”

[Have a good trip.]

Asel heard Alef’s greeting and turned off her consciousness. Then, he took off his shirt, changed into clothes suitable for activity, and left the dormitory. After walking for a bit, he saw Elena sitting on a bench. Asel approached her from behind, tapped her shoulder, and said,

“I’m here.”

“Ah, Asel!”

Elena turned her head back and smiled brightly. Asel leaned his upper body on the bench and slumped his body down.

“You weren’t waiting long, were you?”

“No! I just got here too! More importantly, is your neck okay?”

“Ah, my neck…”

Asel gave a wry smile and scratched the mark where the fang had pierced him with his finger.

What happened a week ago at the Clock Tower. Fortunately, he wasn’t discovered by anyone else, so he didn’t need to be disciplined, but what happened with Elena that day remained vividly in Asel’s mind.

How long Elena’s act of drinking blood had continued, and when she had licked up all the blood around her mouth, Asel’s face had been much paler than hers. There had been a pool of blood on the floor as well.

If Elena hadn’t urgently transfused blood into him, Asel would have collapsed from anemia on the spot.

“It’s fine. My body’s okay too.”

Fortunately, the blood that had drained out had finished regenerating in his body a long time ago. There was still an unerasable mark left on his neck, but it wasn’t very noticeable, so it wasn’t a big problem. Just wearing the academy uniform was enough to cover everything.

“That’s good.”

Elena giggled and got up from the bench. Her unique sweet scent wafted strongly.

“Then let’s go today too! Three laps today!”

“…That’s one lap more than yesterday.”

“Your stamina has improved, hasn’t it? So we should do one more lap.”

Elena stood on the walking path and stamped her feet as if urging him to come quickly. Asel smiled wryly and stood next to her.

The three wishes Asel had to grant in exchange for borrowing Elena’s money.

One of them was used for drinking blood. And another one was used for running together every morning and going to school together. Thanks to that, she only had one wish left. They were decreasing at a much faster rate than he had expected.

This was good news for Asel. Elena, too… judging by her bright expression, it seemed she thought she had used her wishes quite effectively from her perspective.

Whether she liked seeing his face every morning so much, or just liked having someone to run with, he wasn’t sure, but honestly, it didn’t matter. It was enough that he could replenish his insufficient stamina this way. While he couldn’t keep up with Elena’s pace, he felt his stamina improving day by day, which was satisfying.

“Get ready and…”

Elena gazed at Asel and smiled playfully.

“Go!”

***

“I feel like I’m going to die…”

“What is it now?”

Celine sat on the sofa, flailing her legs and making all sorts of contorted expressions. Asel sipped his coffee and indulged her complaints.

“No, the role I was given. Isn’t the activity level too much? There’s a scene where I swing a sword in the middle, and a scene where I’m running around like crazy. I’m supposed to be a wicked lady. Why am I moving around so much! Get a servant to do it!”

“That’s discriminatory towards nobles.”

“Nonsense!”

Celine swung her leg and kicked Asel’s shin with her toe. The shield, which manifested naturally, nullified her attack. Several more exchanges followed, but Celine couldn’t even touch Asel’s body.

“Get rid of this!”

“No, My Lady. If you use that method as well, Her Highness the Princess will execute us.”

When Asel read his lines in a stiff tone, Celine pouted her lips and wiped the sweat from her forehead.

Drama club time, which came after regular classes. The drama club room was bustling with preparations for the performance to be held just before the final exams, after the midterms ended. The two people, chosen as the villain couple solely based on their looks, faced each other and recited the lines they had memorized perfectly. Both of them were mages, so their memorization skills were excellent.

“Silence, Marcel. Don’t you know we are already dead if we don’t succeed this time? Don’t stop me.”

“My Lady, let’s just kill that cursed commoner girl instead of Her Highness. After all, isn’t it because of her that our plan failed? I will hire an assassin to take her head, and you can go with the scenario of cleaning up the mess, My Lady.”

“Oh ho! That’s a truly excellent idea, Marcel. Come to my chambers tonight. I’ll be nice to you.”

“Thank you, My Lady. Hahaha!”

“Ohohohoho!”

“…What are you two doing?”

Suddenly, Saya, who had tied her hair back for ease of movement, appeared. She wiped the sweat from her face with a towel and looked down at the two with a displeased expression. Celine rolled her eyes and stared at her chest, which was dotted with sweat.

“Oh, what a tragedy! Why was I not given such monstrous breasts! Where have my mother’s genes gone!”

“…What are you saying, all of a sudden? Are you crazy?”

“Leave her be. She moved so much her brain melted.”

“Oh, what a tragedy!”

Saya looked down at the completely deranged Celine with disgusted eyes, then sighed deeply and sat next to Asel. She kept a slight distance, just in case there was a smell of sweat. Although not as much as Celine, her role also had a considerable amount of physical activity.

Asel had less compared to the two of them. So, with the performance still far off, instead of moving and practicing together, he was focusing on reading the script to deepen his emotional understanding and role interpretation.

“Is it going well?”

Saya asked. Asel gave a wry smile and shook his head.

“He’s a noble male steeped in authority. It’s too far from me. Honestly, I’m not really immersed.”

“There’s still a lot of time until the performance. Take it slow. I’m doing the same.”

“Right,”

Asel took a sip of coffee, then put the script down and leaned against the backrest of the sofa.

“More importantly, how’s the merchant guild work these days? Is it going well?”

“For us, it’s always the same. Selling reserved items, investing, supplying ingredients… We’re not that busy. So please feel free to visit if you need anything.”

“Even just the thought is appreciated.”

“I mean it. I’m even willing to do it for free, so come whenever you want.”

Saya said that, then suddenly remembered something and turned back to Asel as she continued speaking.

“Speaking of which, we recently brought in a new product. It’s a product that was popular in a neighboring town, that is, a neighboring kingdom, and we’ve now launched it in the Empire through a exclusive contract, you see? And the reaction has been really good. We’ve already made several hundred gold in net profit alone.”

“Hmm… Is that so? Is it a magic tool?”

“No, it’s a board game.”

“…Board game?”

A familiar word popped out to Asel, who held memories from his previous life. He furrowed his brow slightly and tilted his head to the side. Just then, Celine suddenly opened her mouth.

“Board game, doesn’t that mean that thing? Where several people sit around and do various things with dice?”

“Yes, that’s right. You know it well?”

“I saw seniors doing it for a bit when I was at the magic tower. But they all seemed boring? And that hit it big?”

“The new board game that just came out even has simple magic added to it. Thanks to that, the immersion level greatly increased, and its popularity consequently rose as well.”

“Oh… adding magic?”

Celine’s eyes sparkled as she sat up.

“What’s the name of the game?”

Saya smiled faintly and replied.

“Life Game.”