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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Simzy
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“Basics of Wind, Introduction to Elemental Properties, Understanding of Representative Forms, and Theory Explained for Ten-Year-Olds. Four books, correct?”
“…Yes.”
I was sure I had asked him not to list them out one by one before, but seeing his goofy smile, it seemed it was no use this time either.
“This is the next stage, isn’t it?”
“Indeed. These are the books you use to learn 2-star magic.”
“Has he already mastered all the theories?”
Even if I tried to avoid peak hours, there was no way to avoid drawing onlookers when going back and forth to a busy place like the library.
Now that I had barely mastered 1-star wind magic, it was time to learn the 2nd star.
“Hey, you guys over there.”
“Yes, yes? Us?”
I called out to the students who were hiding behind a bookshelf, stealing glances at me.
Even though they were fellow freshmen, the commoners addressed me with honorifics. They were faces I had seen a few times in the lecture hall.
“I have something I’m curious about.”
“Yes! Uh, please ask anything.”
“How long would it take for a mage who has just mastered 1-star wind magic to reach the 2nd star with these books?”
“Aha, so you’re planning to teach someone else.”
No, I’m talking about me.
It seemed they didn’t even consider the possibility that Lockstryn Aindarok was a 1-star mage.
“Hmm, they’re all famous books.”
“Still, for the 2nd star, it takes about a year if you work hard. It took me a year and a half, though.”
“It took me two years!”
“I see. Thank you for telling me.”
“You can ask us anytime! We’re always in the library.”
Unfortunately for me.
I won’t be coming to the library for a while.
As soon as I returned to my room with the borrowed books, I washed my face with my dry hands. My mind went blank.
What, two years?
‘The game is almost over in two years, isn’t it?’
Most students remain between the 2nd and 3rd star. If you were to average their achievement, it would be about 2.5 stars.
But in this world, children with a talent for magic begin learning it from the age of ten.
A small comfort was that it was discouraged to learn magic at an age younger than that.
The body had to be mature enough to handle the flow of mana.
“You’re completely useless to me, aren’t you.”
I muttered in lament towards the handsome face in the mirror.
In other words, there is a six-year gap between me and the other students. Even the 1-star wind magic I just barely learned was achieved by starting from absolute rock bottom.
Still, if there was one thing to be hopeful about, it was that it didn’t take me as long as it took others.
‘I do have a few ideas of my own, after all.’
The few theories that appeared briefly in the script were ones I had conceptualized and inserted myself, so my understanding of them was quick.
According to the ‘Introduction to Basic Magic Theory’ I first borrowed from the library, it took a person with no knowledge of magic several months to grasp even one of the three elements of a formula.
If that had been true, I wouldn’t have even been able to proceed properly with the night raid episode.
It took me two weeks to understand all the basic theories. Though, I did sleep a little less.
After that, I just practiced like hell.
‘And I am getting better.’
It seems there’s always a way out.
At first, even reading was slow.
Sluggishly, like a lazy cow, turning a single page of a book had never been so frustrating. Now, I’ve become capable of speed-reading to some extent.
I’m starting to get the hang of it.
I can feel that my own innate talent, not Lockstryn’s, is reawakening.
Though I’m not sure if I should call this kind of thing ‘adapting’.
“Two months.”
It is better to say a resolution out loud. But while I call it a resolution, it’s more like a time limit.
In June, to proceed with the third episode, which includes the midterm exams, as planned, I must have reached at least the 2nd star.
That’s the theme of the second episode in the first place. And there’s plenty of time given.
There was no need to read further.
It was an episode about adapting to academy life through various events.
This one didn’t even have a clear reward.
Instead, from the protagonist’s perspective, they reach the 4th star no matter what, a level only four other freshmen have achieved. Because they’re the protagonist, after all.
“I am Lockstryn.”
Innate talent? I have none.
It’s not precociousness, but late blooming.
This isn’t a game where you can just pick a few choices, skip through some scripts, and have a month or two pass in a flash, with a message like 「Lockstryn Aindarok has reached the 4th star!」popping up. This is reality.
“Sigh.”
What’s the point in complaining?
I pulled my chair up close to the desk. I had about 70 days until the midterm exams, and I had to make full use of that time.
“Why is this so thick?”
It was about twice as thick as the basic theory books.
Fortunately, aside from the process of deciphering these tedious theory books, I was actually finding some enjoyment in learning magic itself.
It was fascinating to feel the squirming of mana, something I had never felt in my life. Things that were only imaginable on Earth, like shooting fire from my hands, were real here.
“Even though all it’s good for is killing.”
In [Academy Somerbadge], magic had developed strictly as a weapon for survival.
No matter how elegantly it was packaged as a noble field of study, its foundation was simple, so there was no reason to take it as something overly complex.
‘Wind is freedom, indulgence, an untethered flow, an escape from a predetermined future.’
Resting my chin on my hand, I turned the pages one by one.
With the first read-through, I grasp the overall flow.
I remember the title and subtitles, repeating sentence structures or keywords, and form an abstract image.
The author’s perspective is always hidden in the composition of the paragraphs, in every single particle within a sentence. The sentences they want to emphasize stand out.
[Wind has no form, thus it is difficult to clearly materialize its concept. Therefore, by observing the form of examples…….]
As night deepened and dawn approached, the only sound in my room was the turning of pages.
“Look over there, Maria. Loc has those dead eyes again.”
The Somerbadge Academy’s commissary.
Ainim, whose sleep schedule was erratic, often missed her meals.
That’s why she often found herself visiting the commissary in the late afternoon, and whenever she did, she would often run into Lockstryn.
“Back when I was training, I often saw that look in my comrades’ eyes.”
“What kind of training was it?”
“It was a training to not sleep.”
“Is something like that necessary?”
“I am not the one to judge necessity.”
I just do as I’m told.
It was only because Ainim was a very special case that they could walk through the school grounds side-by-side like this; normally, the position of a royal attendant was an extremely heavy one.
To speak without being spoken to was disrespectful, and a minor mistake or a clumsy movement could immediately become grounds for disqualification.
It took Ainim’s tireless efforts for Maria to become like this.
“Of all the training I’ve experienced… I can say with certainty that it was the most horrific.”
She could still recall it vividly.
Those were nightmarish days.
‘Just one thing. Do not fall asleep. That is all.’
It sounded simple at first.
Surprisingly, nothing else was required. They could even enjoy the finest food prepared by the royal chefs to their heart’s content every day.
Maria, as a direct royal guard, had undergone high-level training that was on a different dimension compared to even the most valiant knight orders.
Days spent enduring the fiery pits of hell. By then, Maria and her comrades were confident they would not yield to anything.
“It was also the final training.”
“You passed?”
“I just barely made it with nine days.”
Sleep, along with hunger, is one of the most fundamental desires. Everyone had overlooked that.
Those who had endured well in the training to control their appetite, how different could it be to simply reduce sleep?
“This body of mine is not, in truth, entirely my own. For instance, while it is possible to refuse food and starve to death, shouting at one’s beating heart to stop would be the act of a fool, would it not?”
“I don’t know why you only think of ways to kill yourself, but you’re right.”
“In that regard, sleep was the most vicious desire.”
Even a titan who can lift a thousand pounds with ease cannot do anything about the weight of their own eyelids.
Even a person with an iron will become a witless fool after five days.
After seven days, not a single person remained in their right mind. They stopped thinking, stopped moving, and focused all their senses merely on maintaining consciousness.
That was how they barely endured.
“Anyway, you’re saying Loc hasn’t slept for days?”
“Yes. From what I can see, it has been at least four days—”
“Loc!”
Though an unapproachable darkness seemed to be cast over his dry face, Lockstryn’s head turns toward Ainim, who is running towards him, waving her arms enthusiastically.
Slowly, life returns to him. A light kindles in his blue eyes. Maria could see it clearly.
That’s why she could be at ease.
He undoubtedly cherished Her Highness. More than he worried about his own well-being.
‘Why?’
An answer to that did not come easily.
It was a feat difficult even for the most loyal knight who had dedicated both body and soul to their lord from birth. Yet that boy did it so willingly.
It was an exploit that could never be accomplished with a half-hearted emotion like affection.
“You visit such a humble place too often.”
“What are you eating? Is it good?”
“This? It’s not good. Your Highness shouldn’t eat it— no, don’t take it away. I bought this with my own money.”
“Munch, munch. Buh why wud oo eet dis den (But why would you eat this then)?”
“It’s always left unsold and looking pathetic, just like my own situation…….”
“Ah, you’re reading a book here too! I saw you fall and scrape your knee yesterday because you were reading while walking!”
“That was at 8 PM, how did you even know about that? Please go to bed early. You won’t grow taller.”
Throughout their trivial conversation, the smile never left Lockstryn’s face.
Rongruet was someone who made those around her burst into laughter with her overflowing energy, but this time, the situation was different.
“Looking at you, you’re just like my father from the old days.”
“Please, you must not say such things anywhere else.”
“Hmph, Locks is such a nag.”
Watching the two of them from a distance, one might fall under such an illusion.
Don’t they look like a father and daughter?
Seen that way, Lockstryn’s affection was endlessly close to that of a father’s love. Surprisingly, thinking of it that way made all his actions fall into place.
Of course, it was an absurd idea. The two were the same age.
“It’s getting cold, so please button up your robe all the way. And your hair, did you run away in the middle of getting it done?”
“Wow, how did you know? Hira used to do it for me often.”
“Ah, um. Yes.”
The hand that was about to unconsciously reach for Ainim’s hair comes to a halt. If there had been a single grain of malice or selfish desire, Maria would have stopped him immediately.
But there was none.
“Still, I can’t do it, so please call an attendant.”
“Maria only knows how to swing a sword, she can’t do hair. Right?”
Only then did Maria approach Ainim. She had no talent for hair, so she intended to at least button up her robe for her.
“Wouldn’t it be best for you to get some sleep?”
Maria spoke first as she fastened the button on Rongruet’s sleeve. It was a warning.
Lockstryn answered calmly.
“Is it that obvious?”
“Not particularly.”
“Yeah, you look fine!”
You wouldn’t know unless you looked closely.
The bloodshot eyes, the dark shadows, the tightly contracted facial muscles. He skillfully concealed them all with his supreme good looks.
“…Yes. That’s a relief.”
A relief?
Was it because while he always spoke words of concern to Ainim, he could in turn hide his own fatigue just enough so that she wouldn’t worry about him?
“I’ll be heading back now.”
“Aren’t you going to the tower?”
“I have to return some books.”
With that, Lockstryn left the commissary.
His gait was precarious.
“Maria.”
“Yes.”
“That is still dangerous, right?”
“Very dangerous. My previous remark was rash. The world is a vast place.”
“Loc is the one who’s special.”
He was overworking himself.
It wasn’t a simple story that ended there; he was so engrossed that he was burning his own life force. It didn’t seem like he was unaware of that fact either.
That, the fact that he knew, was the most dangerous part. What Maria had said just a few minutes ago was wrong.
“He is in control.”
Lockstryn was, of his own will.
A man who could stop his own heart.
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“Kanin spoke first” I believe the wrong name was applied here.
Corrected. Thank you.