Chapter 140 – Second Exam (2) November 10, 2022
Lynne’s statement was enough to make the other students surprised as well.
“What is she talking about?”
“No way, she won’t create a magic square? That’s why she said she doesn’t have any parchment. She doesn’t care.”
“In Professor Ludger’s test? She’s crazy.”
When the students spoke noisily like that, Ludger stared at Lynne without a word before slowly opening his mouth.
“Then what do you plan to do? Is it alright to say that you don’t have any magic squares to demonstrate?”
Lynne shook her head at that question.
“No. I obviously created a magic square. However…”
“However?”
“It’s difficult to move and draw it on a parchment. That’s why I want to show it directly using my technique.”
He wanted to ask about how great of a magic square she had created, but looking at Lynne’s unwavering eyes, it was obvious that it wasn’t a careless remark.
“Alright. Show it.”
However, if she fell even a little bit short of the expectation she had set, Lynne wouldn’t be able to avoid his scolding instead.
Lynne took a breath and invoked her mana.
There were a lot of worries she had to deal with in creating her magic square.
The other students could finish by showing their elemental property through magic squares, but as she possessed Non-property Magic, that was impossible for her.
Because she’d fallen behind from the start and had a disadvantage, Lynne decided to do her best in what she could do.
It couldn’t be helped that she was gloomy while thinking about where she should start.
It was obvious that she would have been like that if not for the Non-property Magic book that Ludger had lent her.
However, thanks to the book that she’d read, she could get the hang of what kind of method she should go with and didn’t give up.
And then…
She was going to prove it there.
‘I will show it to Professor Ludger… The fact that I’ve changed this much.’
She stretched both of her hands to the front and slowly invoked her mana. As she was perfectly focused, she felt a sort of illusion that she was the only person in the whole world.
Soon, a technique made of mana lines started to float in front of Lynne.
Slowly…
But clearly…
When he saw the lines forming a certain shape, Ludger wriggled his eyebrows.
Of course, his expression soon returned to his original one, and not a single student noticed the brief change in expression.
Everyone’s stare was heading to the magic square technique that Lynne had created.
“…So it’s a three-dimensional magic square.”
“As expected, you noticed it at a glance, Professor. Yes, you are right.”
Ludger had that kind of judgment while looking at Lynne’s magic square floating in front of him.
If the other magic squares were two-dimensional drawings on parchment, Lynne had created a three-dimensional magic square.
That technique which was similar to a Rubik’s cube was called a three-dimensional magic square in math, and a magic cube in the occult.
Ludger stared at the flow of mana engraved in the technique in detail to investigate whether she’d simply imitated the shape.
However…
‘It’s perfect.’
There wasn’t a single fault.
Not only did it have all the widths, lengths, heights, and three-dimensional diagonal lines that existed within a cube, but the sum of mana distributed throughout the cube was perfectly identical.
The strength flowed evenly in every direction without any dislocation, thus, it was a perfect three-dimensional magic square.
‘She researched magic constants this much? The amount of time she had must have been ridiculously short to create such a result, yet she did it.’
It seemed that Lynne was anxious because Ludger kept his silence without a word.
Lynne, who was confident at first, started to slowly hunch her shoulders.
“Lynne…”
After he tore his gaze from the three-dimensional magic square, Ludger opened his mouth.
“Your score is an A+.”
“Pardon?”
“No. On the contrary, it’s a shame that I can’t give any score higher than this. That’s how perfect the magic square that you created is. Excellent. Very wonderful.”
“What? What?”
Lynne was senseless at Ludger’s consecutive appraisals.
Perfect… Wonderful… Excellent…
All of those were high appraisals that had never come out of Ludger’s mouth, nor did she think that they would come out of his mouth in the future.
However, Ludger was sincere and didn’t say empty words.
‘Her ability is outstanding this way.’
Because Lynne had Non-property Magic, she couldn’t use Elemental Property Magic like other students. At the same time, it was very hard for her to release her mana.
However, it seemed that, as much as she was at a disadvantage in certain areas, she had gained a clear advantage in others.
Lynne’s perceptional skill toward shapes and especially three-dimensional space was extraordinarily high compared to other students.
‘No. I don’t need to compare her with other students. She’s just beyond them.’
Of course, Flora Lumos, who’d created the hexagonal tortoise problem through magic squares, could be called someone who possessed great ability as well.
Lynne had even beaten Flora by one score.
“Lynne…”
“…”
“Lynne.”
“Pardon? Who? Me?”
“Is there another Lynne here besides you?”
“Oh, right. So you called me…”
Lynne was still not in her right mind.
Sho had done her best with the determination to not disappoint Professor Ludger, but she didn’t expect that she would receive that much of a good evaluation.
“Lynne, how did you come up with this magic square? Setting the idea aside, it has to be nearly impossible to embody this technique in real life within such a short period.”
“Oh, well, that’s…”
Lynne smoothly explained the details of how she could create the technique.
“At first, I contemplated just creating a new one. However, when I thought too hard about it, everything just seemed lacking, so I instead just controlled my mana until it worked.
“And?”
“Somehow…”
“Somehow it just built itself?”
Lynne embarrassedly nodded her head.
“It’s not that I aimed for this shape, but the flow of my mana just somehow, hm… naturally? Should I say it flowed like that? As I trusted the flow of mana while picturing a three-dimensional magic square in my head, it just happened like this.”
—It naturally became like that after she just went with the flow?
It was something that could only be said by a person with extreme talent.
‘She just did it and it was done? Funny.’
‘She should at least lie properly.’
After they heard it, the students thought that Lynne was deliberately showing off in order to look good to Ludger.
However, Ludger’s expression actually didn’t change much.
Ludger knew more than anyone else that Lynne wasn’t someone that was good at lying.
All of her words were true.
‘The mana flowed naturally?’
Mana didn’t usually move outside of the wizard’s will.
There was a high probability that it became like that by instinct without her realizing it.
Also, there was a high probability that it was thanks to her reading the book about non-property magic that Ludger had passed to her some time ago that she suddenly showed that ability after not distinguishing herself much from others.
‘Perhaps the book that I passed to her might work as some kind of trigger.’
Non-property Magic was an unknown strength whose origin hadn’t been revealed yet.
However, looking at the magic square that Lynne made, he got a bit of a feeling that it was somewhat specialized.
“Professor? Are you alright?”
“…It’s nothing much. Anyway, it’s an excellent magic square. You worked hard.”
“Oh, yes.”
Lynne couldn’t get rid of the feeling that Ludger was wrapping up the situation in a hurry for some reason.
She couldn’t bring herself to ask him about it because she had seen Ludger make a very serious expression, albeit for a moment.
“I believe everyone remembers each of your scores. If there are any who forget, you can check it through the class notice board. I will order my assistant in a moment and announce it.”
The students who’d received low scores sighed long at the remark.
“The top five people from the second exam are Flora Lumos and Lynne, who received A+, Julia Plumheart, who received A, and Iona Obeli and Aidan, who received B+. It wasn’t intended but the numbers matched perfectly.”
The five people whose names were called had the right to receive the second framework.
Ludger said that it would be hard to give the framework right away, but he said that he would give it after the magic festival that would soon be held ended.
“Haah. I really want to die. What the hell is D?”
“You’re still better. I’m E-. It’s not the lowest score, but what’s the difference with an actual lowest score?”
“I should have tried a bit harder.”
The aristocratic students’ expressions were severely distorted by the fact that there were only two aristocrats among the top five in the exam that time.
Moreover, one of the top five people wasn’t a commoner but a demi-human, a beastperson at that.
To think that the students who had received their education for a long time received a lower score than that barbarous beastperson… They still honestly thought that it was a dream.
“If, perhaps, there are any students who aren’t satisfied with the results of their test, say it to me directly. If you really feel wronged, I will individually make time for a reexamination.”
When Ludger said that while straining his eyes, the students who’d stealthily mumbled their dissatisfaction shut their mouths tightly.
That was how the second exam ended.
Each of the students carried their belongings away with them. There were some students who went back to the dorm to take a rest because it was the end of their exam day, and there were also students who went to take exams from other classes.
Ludger stared at Lynne, who was still standing with a dazed face among them.
‘Non-property Magic, huh.’
Non-property Magic was still an unknown strength to Ludger, who didn’t know its origin and cause.
Even in the research book about Non-property Magic, the detailed part about what kind of strength the magic had wasn’t written down.
What was mainly included in that book was the explanation of how Non-property Magic could unfold a spell.
‘Her flow of mana naturally flowed in a three-dimensional magic square. It wasn’t a feeling that was brought about by force. Does that mean that her magic accuracy rate is high?’
Magic accuracy rate…
It was a numerical value of how suitable the wizard’s mana was with their spell when they performed a certain spell.
Because, even if wizards used the same spell, the power of the spell was different according to their magical properties.
Fluttering Flame, which was selected as the most representative offensive magic, would be stronger if it was used by wizards with fire element magic rather than wizards with water element magic.
—It was because their magic accuracy rate was higher.
‘The secret Non-property Magic hovered around the lowest magic accuracy rate in all kinds of magic. The fact that it’s different in regards to the magic square this time… does she perhaps specialize in that way?’
Perhaps…
Ludger inwardly formed some hypotheses.
Non-property magic wasn’t simply magic that was specialized in elements existing in nature.
It was way higher-dimensional than that, it was something that was impossible to measure by people of that world.
‘For example… space.’
Various magic existed in that world, but the only nonexistent one was Space Magic.
Whether it was teleportation or blinking, they were regarded as absurd legends in that world.
‘It’s funny. There’s Anti, Dream, Holy, Drawing, Origami, etc., all kinds of magics exist, but the only thing nonexistent is Space Magic.’
What was even funnier was that magic that interfered with ‘time’ existed, yet there weren’t any that interfered with space.
Of course, the utilization of that thing called Time Magic wasn’t that excellent compared to its name, but still, the magic wasn’t nonexistent.
Thus, the only one who knew how to use Space Magic in that world was Ludger.
‘If Lynne’s magic is really involved with space…’
Since it was still a hypothesis, he couldn’t be certain of anything.
However, when the hypothesis became a reality…
‘I definitely need that power.’
* * *
Flora Lumos moved with her best friend, Cheryl Wagner, to take the next exam subject.
“Flora, how did you do that?” Cheryl asked Flora, who silently walked through the corridor.
“Do what?”
“That magic square… You ranked first there. Professor Ludger’s class, it’s different and very difficult, but how come you keep doing that?”
The intention behind Cheryl’s words was purely out of envy of her genius and was a compliment.
However, Flora couldn’t be purely happy.
“I’m not the first rank.”
“But you received the best score.”
“…Should I say it with my own mouth? It’s because there’s another person who received the best score apart from me.”
“That Lynne kid?”
“What the hell was that magic square? And the same goes for that professor. Why did he give her so many compliments and not have any for me…?”
So many compliments…
To be frank, she felt disappointed and angry.
She suddenly recalled when she’d encountered Lynne near Professor Ludger’s office.
She’d just ignored her and passed her by because they hadn’t known each other, but when she thought of it again, it was very shady.
‘…That kiddo.’
Flora recalled Lynne while slightly biting her lips.
It was hard to imagine from the personality of the impregnable Professor Ludger that he’d affectionately approached a student first.
Perhaps it was the contrary instead…
‘No, I’m certain. Other people would be pressed down due to Professor Ludger’s vigor and wouldn’t even say a word, but if she’s someone with the audacity to get along with the third princess as if it’s nothing…’
She’d thought that Lynne was modest, but Lynne had a more cunning side than she’d thought.
Lynne had also come into conflict with other aristocratic students previously, and it seemed like she knew the reason why.
However, for the moment, the exam was the foremost thing, so Flora decided to pull back her interest in Lynne.
“…”
“…”
—Before she encountered Lynne with the third princess at the entrance of the classroom where she was about to take the exam.
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