Plain and Profound

"The principle behind casting magic is to guide mana through the channels inside your body, then release it to produce a certain effect."

"Guiding mana through different channels, and controlling its flow at different speeds and in different ways, will produce different magical effects—and thus different spells."

"Every race has a different physical makeup. Even within a race, people of different ethnicities have subtle differences in their bodies. This means that the channels inside each person can vary, too."

"So some spells can only be used by the Elf Race, while others can only be used by the Gnome Race. That's because the mana flows through channels that don't exist in other races, making those spells impossible to replicate."

"And magic circles are the miracle that breaks through this limitation!"

Ilya explained the principles behind magic circles from the lectern, while Ron listened with rapt attention.

It was clear that this Elf saint was fascinated by magic circles. Once she got into her stride, her whole being seemed to shine with a different light.

She had a rather quiet air about her, but the moment she started talking about magic circles, she became full of enthusiasm.

"Magic circles are a technique that imitates the channels inside a mage's body. They use various magical materials to trace those channels, then guide the elements through these 'artificial channels' to cast spells."

"Unlike the limitations of an individual, once you learn how to use magical materials to construct a magic circle, even ordinary people can produce magic and stand against mages."

"That is the true significance of magic circles!"

Hearing this, Ron couldn't help shaking his head. He didn't entirely agree.

Leaving aside how expensive magical materials were, getting ordinary people to learn how to construct magic circles was already an extremely unrealistic idea.

Mages had spent years meditating, so their minds and souls were far stronger than those of ordinary people. Their concentration and comprehension were beyond the reach of ordinary people.

And even mages like that often felt their brains weren't up to the task when studying obscure and abstruse magical knowledge.

The field of magic circles was said to be the most difficult and incomprehensible branch of magic.

Ordinary people thought mages were a bunch of weirdos, while ordinary mages thought those who specialized in magic circles were a bunch of weirdos.

That showed just how difficult it was to learn magic circles.

Looking at Ilya's thick head of hair on the lectern, Ron had to admit that some middle-aged and elderly mages would envy it.

For someone as young as Ilya to have achieved so much in the field of magic circles showed that she had exceptional talent for it. Otherwise, she wouldn't have been allowed to teach the subject.

Aside from Ilya's belief that "making the study of magic circles accessible to everyone is the trend of the future," which Ron didn't quite agree with, the theories she discussed in class suited him very well.

In Ron's view, Ilya's idea of making magic circles accessible to everyone was far-fetched.

As far as he was concerned, it would be more practical to promote the study of magic circles among mages.

As for ordinary people, he thought it would be more useful to make the use of magic circles commonplace. The work of learning how to draw them and apply the materials should be left to professional mages.

But mages in this world held themselves above everyone else. Why would they go out of their way to construct magic circles for ordinary people?

It was a dead end.

Ron didn't dwell on it. With class almost over, he fished a silver coin out of his pocket and stuffed it into Baby Fat's arms. Then, without a hint of shame, he pulled several illustrated books from behind him, tucked them into his clothes, and got up to leave.

"Hey..." Baby Fat didn't dare speak loudly, so he lowered his voice to call Ron back. "One silver coin only gets you one book..."

Ron ignored him and walked straight out through the back door.

Baby Fat muttered a few words under his breath, but in the end, he happily pocketed the silver coin.

The illustrated books had all been produced in batches, and each one cost only a few copper coins to make. Even if Ron took another dozen, Baby Fat would still make a tidy profit.

So he didn't mind Ron taking a few extra.

He'd just call it a discount for a new customer.

In the corridor outside the classroom,

"Prince Ron?"

As soon as Ron stepped out the back door, a familiar voice called out to him.

He turned his head. Two enormous snowy peaks came into view, making him raise an eyebrow. "Edith?"

"So it really is you?" Edith looked surprised, then realized something. "You're here to see Professor Hicks, aren't you?"

They'd talked about it over barbecue before. Ron was going to study magic with Professor Hicks at the academy, so Edith immediately understood why he was there.

Ron felt a little awkward, since he had several "interesting" things tucked inside his clothes.

Thinking back to his conversation with Baby Fat, he guessed that Edith was the other Saintess of the Elf Race.

In other words, what he was carrying might well be pictures of her younger sister.

Of course, the pictures were drawn, not photographs, so strictly speaking, they weren't portraits—but it was more or less the same thing.

Fortunately, he had thick skin. After greeting her, he said, "I've been looking around the academy and sat in on a class. It was pretty interesting. I was just about to go see the professor."

"What a shame." Edith looked apologetic. "The professor went out of town with the dean today to visit the Gnome Race. He probably won't be back for a couple of days."

"Oh..." Ron froze for a moment, then shrugged. "What bad timing. I'll come back in a couple of days, then."

In any case, he'd better leave quickly, before anything in his clothes fell out and embarrassed him.

"Wait!" Edith quickly called after him. "You don't have to wait for the professor to come back. If you just want to learn some basic magic, I can teach you."

"But you'll have to wait a moment. I need to talk to someone. It won't take long."

Ron had been about to say there was no need, but then he thought better of it. If he had to wait two more days to learn magic, wouldn't that mean another two days before he could use Seed Germination Technique and Plant Growth Technique?

As for the good stuff tucked against his chest... Ron almost smacked himself on the head. With an amused smile, he shifted his thoughts and put the illustrated books away in his Inventory.

He'd forgotten he could do that...

Then he wondered why Edith had come to this corridor and asked curiously, "You came to see your sister, right? The one teaching in there?"

"Huh? You mean Ilya?" Edith was taken aback, then smiled. "She's my older sister, not my younger sister."

"Uh... she's your older sister..." Ron couldn't make sense of it. He glanced through the window at the utterly unremarkable Ilya on the lectern, then looked at Edith, whose bosom was strikingly ample. He could only marvel at the whims of fate.

Had all the nourishment meant for the older sister gone to the younger one?

Wasn't that embarrassing?

Ron clicked his tongue and shook his head.

Loser's Diary: I recently heard about a way to break a bad habit: make it more costly to indulge in it. So I bought a lockbox for my phone and plan to lock it inside, then leave the key on the first floor. I usually write on the third floor, so if I want to use my phone, I'll have to run down to the first floor to get the key, then run back up to the third floor. I'm pretty lazy and avoid moving around if I can help it, so this should make using my phone more costly—and let me focus on writing.

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