Ranoa University of Magic
The school gates were packed with people.
It was spring in Armored Dragon Year 422, the day new students registered at Ranoa University of Magic. I passed beneath the stone pillars, the united coat of arms gleaming dully in the sunlight overhead. Beyond the gates was a spacious plaza, with seven school buildings arranged in a semicircle around it. New students and their families filled the plaza to bursting.
Faces from every country mingled together. Children of Asuran nobles in silk school robes chatted in the shade, while several northern exchange students with ornamental swords at their waists pointed at the barrier around the training ground. In a corner, two or three beastfolk students with fluffy ears crouched on the ground, chewing on rations. A jumble of languages filled the air, mostly Human Language, with the occasional guttural phrase in Beast God Language.
I made my way through the crowd toward the ceremony platform. Silver six-pointed stars were embroidered on the cuffs of the dark blue school robes, marking their wearers as special students. So there were probably only a dozen or so special students among the newcomers. I had barely gone a few steps before people started staring at my cuffs, and whispers followed me.
"It's like picking a hidden class in an RPG in my previous life. People stare at your gear wherever you go. I haven't felt this in a long time."
The ceremony platform stood in front of a stone sundial in the center of the plaza. Benches had been set up on either side of it, and quite a few people were already seated. I found Eris in the crowd. She stood beside the spectator seats on the edge of the training ground, a sword at her waist and her arms folded, her hair fluttering in the spring breeze. She wasn't a student, so she couldn't sit in the new students' section.
Our eyes met. The corner of her mouth twitched in greeting, then she went back to staring at the platform, an expression on her face that said, "Hurry up and start."
The VIP section was to the right of the platform: a few chairs covered in white cloth, two steps higher than the ordinary seats. Ariel Anemoi Asura sat there. Her golden hair was almost dazzling in the spring sunlight, her blue eyes gazed calmly ahead, and she sat as upright as a statue. I had seen a promotional portrait of the Asuran royal family on a notice board before, but she was far more beautiful in person. No wonder she was called "the most beautiful princess in history." Two guards stood behind her. One was short, with white hair and sunglasses, and stood ramrod straight in a dark uniform.
"That must be Fitz. Master said the only other person at the university who can use chantless magic is about my age and already on the student council. She's probably my opponent for the entrance test... Wait, no, is it he? Whatever, I'll find out when we get on the platform."
Vice Principal Jinas emerged from behind the ceremony platform.
He was a man in his fifties, with a neatly trimmed short gray beard and a black school robe buttoned all the way to the top. He glanced at the new students below and cleared his throat. His voice wasn't loud, but it carried across the entire plaza.
"This year's entrance test for special students will be a mock battle."
The crowd fell silent.
"Your opponent has already been arranged." Jinas nodded toward the VIP section. "Fitz."
The white-haired boy in sunglasses stepped out from behind the crowd. His pace was neither fast nor slow, and his face showed no particular expression. The students around him made way without being asked, and some murmured among themselves: "Fitz again..." "That chantless one..." "I heard she's the one who joined the student council..."
I stepped onto the combat platform. It was a circular stone platform, with the lines of a protective magic circle carved into its surface. Pale blue patterns of light flowed slowly beneath my feet. This barrier platform was specifically for entrance tests and could withstand the impact of magic below Saint Rank.
Fitz stood ten paces away, facing me. Sunglasses concealed most of his face, making it impossible to tell his exact age. His school robe looked a little too big on her, and the sleeves hung past her wrists.
"The test will be a contest of chantless magic. Stop before anyone gets hurt." Jinas stepped back to the edge of the platform. "Begin."
Fitz struck first.
There was no chant, nor any preparatory movement. A ball of blue-white light gathered in her right palm, then shot toward me like a bullet. Ice Lance, compressed intermediate water magic, moving at tremendous speed.
An ordinary person would have needed at least a second to dodge after seeing the mana gather, but unfortunately, I wasn't an ordinary person.
I opened my right hand, and mana spread outward from my palm. Disturb Magic. The Dragon God had used it on me in our battle at the Red Dragon's Lower Jaw, and it had taken me a long time to practice the technique until I could use it myself. It was designed to disrupt an opponent's mana flow and forcibly interrupt the activation of their magic.
Fitz's Ice Lance was shredded the instant it took shape. The blue-white light scattered into powder, drifted in the air for a few seconds, and fell onto the platform. He froze for an instant.
A low gasp went up from the plaza.
I gave him no time to react. I concentrated mana in my right palm and finished constructing the shape of a Rock Bullet in my mind. A gray drill the size of a fist shot from my palm, spinning at high speed as it hurtled straight toward Fitz.
The stone projectile grazed Fitz's shoulder and smashed into the barrier behind her. The barrier's surface flickered violently twice, then shattered. The projectile passed through and lodged in the magic-resistant bricks of the training ground wall beyond, cracks spreading outward from the point of impact.
The entire plaza fell silent for a moment.
Jinas rose from his chair, his surprise giving way to a smile he could barely contain.
"...Pass." He clapped his hands. "Very good! Very good!!"
Fitz stood where he was and looked at me for two seconds. Then she nodded and turned to leave the platform. She paused for a step as she passed me. Red eyes appeared at the edges of the lenses, looked at me, and then she quickened her pace and disappeared into the crowd.
"That look, like she was trying to confirm something, that look... I think I've seen it somewhere before."
Eris came over from the spectator seats. Taking long strides, she reached the edge of the platform in a few steps.
She tilted her head up to look at me. Sunlight reflected in her red eyes. The corners of her mouth curved upward. It lasted only an instant before her mouth returned to its usual straight line.
Was she smiling? I saw it clearly.
A few students nearby huddled together, whispering: "That silver six-pointed star... is he a special student?" "He broke the barrier in one hit?" "Who is he?"
Eris turned her head and glanced at them, just once. The students shut their mouths.
"Tsk, that's Eris's kind of pride. She just stands there with that presence of hers, and anyone who sees her shuts up."
"Let's go," I said.
She nodded and followed me out. After a couple of steps, she suddenly reached out and tugged at my cuff, then let go and pretended nothing had happened.
After the ceremony, I walked down the corridor toward the research room.
Jinas had given me a key. I had a private research room in a three-story building on the east side of the campus. He had also given me access to the grand library and a monthly living allowance. The terms were better than I'd imagined.
The key jingled in my pocket. The corridor was long, with portraits of past principals hanging on both walls. Sunlight slanted in through the windows, casting golden patches of light across the flagstone floor.
"Now I have a research room. I can gradually get the equipment I need, and my Miniature Magic for the prosthetic hand is improving every day. With a permanent workspace after enrolling, it'll go faster. I need to put the restricted books section on the schedule too; I can't keep putting off the clues about the Man-God. As for connections, today I met the vice principal and a chantless genius I defeated. Not a bad start."
At a corner of the corridor, I passed someone.
Short white hair, red eyes, dressed in men's clothes. He was short, a little shorter than me. He was the boy from the combat platform earlier. No, wait. He had worn sunglasses on the platform. Now, without them, his red eyes were fully exposed, looking especially bright in the dim light of the corridor.
His steps faltered as he passed me. Just briefly, for about half a second.
My heart skipped a beat at that moment. I couldn't put the feeling into words. It was a strange sense of familiarity, as though we had known each other for a long time.
I looked back, but that figure had already gone far down the corridor and disappeared at the end.