episode_0014

“The black seal… a staff made from the heart of an ice dragon, with silver hair… So, you are…”

“I don’t know what you’re trying to say, but surrender. I’m not particularly patient.”

Naturally, tension filled the air during their standoff. Erica’s defeat did not occur in my mind, and a chill had already surrounded us. At any moment, with just a word from her, she could have swallowed up the villain. I watched silently as Erica’s magic unfolded. As soon as she arrived, it seemed like the cold had filled the surroundings.

So, does she usually envelop herself in cold? However, even facing her directly, the cold had never directly affected me. What kind of magic was this? Even if I knew the spell, I couldn’t produce a similar effect, but understanding the magic seemed possible.

“In the directive, it said to flee if encountering a 5th grader, but I’m a magician, so I guess I have to disobey this.”

“…Directive?”

And at that moment, the man aimed his staff at Erica, quickly uttering a spell. But before the spell could finish, Erica’s voice was heard.

“Unleash.”

It was just one short word. As soon as she finished speaking, the surrounding cold burst out like an explosion. A deafening blast, and amidst it all, Erica stood unwavering, and the released cold swiftly engulfed the surroundings. In the blink of an eye, all that could be seen around us was ice.

My whole body shivered. It was different. As she had said, if she had intended that night, she could have killed me with just a word. Slowly swallowing my saliva, as I looked around, I noticed that the villain was frozen solid. Within the thick ice, where not even a finger could move, the eyes of the villain staring at Erica were filled with astonishment.

“…So, he’s Arnold’s disciple.”

“More knowledgeable than I thought? I wonder who you really are… I’m curious. If it were up to me, I’d like to ask you one by one, but that seems difficult.”

At that moment, the shouts of the guards were heard.

“Drop your weapons and surrender!”

“I have many questions, but I don’t like troublesome things much.”

After saying that, Erika placed her staff on the ground and raised her hand. In response, I also raised my hand in surrender. The guards rushed over and surrounded us with their weapons, then loudly demanded,

“Who are you people?”

“I am Erika Pórnas, a 5th-year student at the Academy. If confirming our identities is not possible, you may request verification from the professors at the Academy.”

“I am Astan, a 1st-year student at the Academy.”

In response to our answers, the guards nodded and approached the stranger. Erika picked up her fallen staff and began to converse with the apparent leader of the guards. As I watched her slowly, I stood up and locked eyes with the stranger.

The stranger’s gaze remained fixed on me. Surely, I thought, I couldn’t be the target. They must be aiming for someone else, moving towards the Academy or fleeing from somewhere. Amid these thoughts, something began to dawn on me.

This situation was familiar.

I had seen it somewhere before.

“I’m tired.”

Walking with Erika senior toward the Academy, I nodded in agreement at her words.

“There were various things happening, after all.”

“I have many questions, but there are too many guards. If they weren’t here, I would have taken you with me.”

“I wonder who you really are.”

“If we knew that, we wouldn’t be thinking like this.”

“That’s true.”

I spoke slowly, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was amiss. This situation was definitely familiar. Where had I seen it before? Where, exactly? Did this scenario come from the first volume of a novel? No, such a scene didn’t exist. I remembered that it didn’t exist. But why did this keep bothering me?

“So, what about the assignment I gave you?”

“Oh, um… I haven’t mastered the cold yet.”

When she took out a glass bottle filled with mana from her pocket and looked at it, she turned her head and started walking again.

“Try to contain the cold.”

“Now?”

“Yeah, if you look at that, you’ll know what the problem is.”

As she said, when she held the glass bottle containing mana and momentarily stopped to transform the mana into cold, the glass bottle broke. At the moment the glass bottle broke, at Erica’s gesture, the glass bottle returned to its original state.

“You’re thinking about the method wrong.”

“I think I can contain the mana now. If I fill the glass bottle with just a little bit of mana, it should be enough, but I can’t stop the cold. Even if I try to stop the cold with magic, I don’t know why it doesn’t stop.”

“The mana is already stopped, and I attached the cold on top of it, so I can’t prevent the cold from flowing.”

“Even if I make the cold into ice, I don’t think that’s it either. I couldn’t see the decision in the glass bottle you gave me.”

At my answer, Erica pointed her finger at me.

“If I release the cold here, where do you think the cold will go?”

“I don’t know.”

“But I should be able to control the direction the cold goes, right?”

“…Yes.”

I still don’t know how to use that level of magic, but if it’s you, senior, you can do it anytime. A spell to guide the cold in the desired direction, you are someone who can spread the cold around you.

“Have you ever thought about how to control the direction of the cold?”

“…No, I haven’t.”

Then she blew the cold towards me from her outstretched finger. The cold flowing down to the ground was no different.

“When dealing with cold, it usually turns out like this, but if I want to send it to you, what should I do?”

“Shouldn’t you specify the direction with a spell?”

“So, easily put, I’d say ‘Cold, move toward the person in front of me,’ right?”

And with her spell, the cold came towards me. However, it didn’t come directly from her finger, but the cold on the floor moved towards me.

“If it’s like this, then it becomes the wrong way.”

“… I don’t know.”

At my words, Senior Erica smiled, dispelling the chill around her.

“Well then, what should we do? Have you ever thought about it?”

“I don’t know about dispelling the chill…”

In that moment, she created something in her right hand. It was a small, round ice crystal. Incredibly small, it seemed like it would shatter if touched.

“Coldness revolves around ice, probably you wouldn’t know, so I’m showing you the method.”

“Coldness revolves around ice.”

“What is ice?”

“The aggregation of coldness.”

“Flames turn everything around them into flames, ice freezes everything around it, lightning flows through surrounding objects, and wind pulls and pushes things around. These are things first-years haven’t learned yet; they are the basics of attributes.”

“So, you were given such an assignment.”

At my words, Senior Erica shrugged slightly.

“It was to test your talent. Magic is difficult without both talent and creativity. Maybe I should have given a different assignment. Using attribute magic is also difficult for first-years.”

“There are students who can already do it.”

“They say those kids overflow with talent, my junior. There are many talented first-years this year: Princess of Flames, Manifestation of Light, Witch of Thunder, Clown of Wind, Apothecary. I thought you would be at that level, but it seems not.”

“You expect a lot from a commoner-born magician, don’t you?”

At my words, Senior Erica laughed heartily. It was the first time I had heard her laugh. I wondered what was so funny.

“You may not know, being a first-year, but do you know who the strongest student is at our academy?”

“Is it you, senior… or perhaps Senior Leonar?”

“There are a total of six fifth-years. I am third among them, Leonar is second. Who do you think is first? You’ll never know.”

“Is that person… a commoner?”

“Right, he’s from the northern part of Aren. I agree with his title, our 5th grader has a somewhat strange title. I am the Ice Queen, Leona is the Flame Goliath, and that friend’s alias is right there.”

She smiled at me.

“It’s the reincarnation of Denatus.”

At that moment, my saliva was swallowed. Denatus.

There was no one who didn’t know that name. Of course, every human living in Jingga, or rather every living being, feared that name. The goddess of death, appearing to everyone fairly and taking lives, receiving the name of a god as a title was a great thing. It was beyond a great level, it was a feeling of awe-inspiring.

“You have talent too, there’s no 1st grader who can treat my cold, you have talent but you still don’t know that talent. So let’s change the method.”

“You’ve decided to teach me magic.”

“I felt it when I saw you fighting earlier. Still, you’re a brave child.”