Chapter 1 (continued)

"The restoration experiment for the ancient constant teleportation array will now undergo its first spellcasting test." Standing on the magic array, I said, "This is a purely magical teleportation array that uses no modern technology whatsoever. According to ancient texts, however, ancient mages used this very array to achieve the same safe, stable spatial displacement as modern technology, without the pollution that magitech inevitably causes. If all goes well, activating it will teleport me to the preset exit. The exit is located..."

I faltered a little, because the exit was... well, I had set it in my ex-boyfriend's courtyard a month ago. Considering I had only decided to break up with him that morning and hadn't formally brought it up yet, calling him my ex-boyfriend was premature, but that future was already set...

Forget it. Since there's no way for me to change the array's location at the last minute anyway, it's a good thing there's no chance he'll be home during working hours. In all the time I've known him, he's never skipped work.

"Starting now." I cleared my mind of distractions and alerted Moli, who was in charge of keeping the record.

I opened my mouth and perfectly recited the incantation I had practiced for so long. Magic Power began to flow as predicted, and the teleportation array activated. Magic blazed brilliantly. I opened my eyes wide in the dazzling light, which kept growing brighter until tears welled up from the irritation. I felt the fluctuations in space. Subspace was being torn apart-

But at that very instant, the energy began to behave erratically!

This is bad! I shut my eyes instinctively. Everything spiraled out of control in the space of a thought. Magic Power surged wildly, breaking free of the magic array's restraints. The magic crystals supplying its power exploded one after another, bursting into magical flames of every color. The alarm in the room immediately began to scream. I locked onto every assistant in the room with my mental power and withdrew the power I had used to activate the array. There was so little time that I couldn't explain things to them first (I certainly couldn't guarantee they would all quickly realize that what they were seeing wasn't an experimental effect but an accident). Fortunately, when I shouted the incantation, the assistants recognized what I was casting (thank goodness my constant reminders in the past had worked) and immediately gathered around me of their own accord. Moli even wrapped both arms tightly around my waist. The next instant, we teleported outside.

The moment we landed, I raised a shield. A tremendous boom erupted behind us, and we turned to see the laboratory engulfed in a sea of fire.

Hmm... well...

"The first experiment with the ancient teleportation array failed. Write that down," I said.

Moli clutched my mage robe, her round eyes wide. She gasped for a long time before remembering to breathe out, her face flushed bright red. Her strange, devil-like makeup had been smeared, and with her face looking even more frightening, she took quite a while before roaring at me:

"Teacher... you blew up the lab, and you still give a fuck about the experiment record???"

The air froze for half a second. Everyone jumped at Moli's shriek, which sounded like the wail of a banshee.

I sighed. "Don't swear, Moli."

But none of my assistants were in the mood to listen to me. Judging by their expressions, I thought Moli had spoken for these young people. They looked at the fiercely burning laboratory, too distressed to cry, while quite a few colleagues from the institute gathered nearby to watch the spectacle.

Seeing their excessively mournful expressions, I couldn't help reassuring them. "Isn't it perfectly normal for a mage's experiment to go wrong? Even a legendary archmage can't guarantee success on the first try every time. As for the explosion... explosions are a known, common result of failed magical experiments. Don't be so discouraged."

Moli looked as though she had just seen an abyssal demon performing a sexy dance.

"But teacher, this is a fucking laboratory! A damn laboratory paid for with public funds allocated by the National Magic Research Institute! You only had the right to use it; it was state property, for fuck's sake!!!" Moli looked up at me, her expression as fierce as a real little devil's.

I sucked in a breath... Now that she mentioned it, I frowned too.

I was the first mage in all of history to blow up a laboratory at the National Magic Research Institute!

What did that even mean?

Heaven knew why our predecessors at the institute had never blown up a single laboratory. Even apprentices at elementary academies could make a mistake throwing a fireball and cause an explosion. These were mages' spells!

Was the safety award really that important? Could you even call yourself a mage if you'd never blown up a lab?

I looked at the flames and sighed. The institute's safety officers were frantically spraying them with water. Oh, come on... those are magical flames! I couldn't be bothered to say anything to them. If magical flames could be put out with ordinary tap water, did they think mages carried fire pokers? Before the flames caught one safety officer's clothes, I had to start putting out the fire with an air shield. Fortunately, the institute's mage laboratories were all separate, single-entrance buildings. The explosion had only burned down my own laboratory and hadn't harmed any innocent bystanders. (Moli gritted her teeth beside me and said, "God of Light, bless us. I hope the accident can be rated below level three.")

My laboratory was at the very back of the building complex, and it took a long time for the specialized fire engines to drive in. I knew they had special extinguishing agents specifically for magical flames, so I promptly stopped using up my own Magic Power.

Although no one had been injured—I had gotten all my people out as soon as I noticed something was wrong—an ambulance also arrived shortly afterward. The commotion was so great that institute officials appeared beside the blaze, pointing and commenting. I couldn't say whether reporters would show up later; perhaps they were already hidden in the crowd. Their ability to hide and listen to gossip was even more impressive than an archmage's invisibility spell.

Oh... why is a peace officer here too?

The guy in uniform asked me, "What happened? Why was there an explosion?"

I wanted to know what had gone wrong too! Everything had clearly been going very smoothly, just as expected... I needed to think it over carefully and review everything before I could determine where the experiment had gone wrong. So I didn't answer right away, and Keweite dealt with the peace officer for me.

"Our group was conducting an experiment on ancient magic, and something went wrong during the experiment..."

"What kind of magic?" the peace officer asked sharply. "An academician wouldn't knowingly break the law by researching some high-risk forbidden spell, would they?"

"Of course not!" Keweite was startled. "Although ancient magic is generally more powerful than modern spells, that doesn't make it the same thing as dangerous magic. Besides, we were only researching an ancient teleportation array."

"Teleportation? Is it a new kind of teleporter? Aha, the public teleporters we have now really make you dizzy. Can you make a new model that prevents that?"

Keweite seemed to blush. He stammered for a long time without managing to say anything. Seeing him like that, the peace officer clicked his tongue and shook his head as he rattled off a string of words on the smart computer's light screen. I clearly heard him mutter to himself, "Tsk, the institute's mages just work on useless stuff."

Keweite's face went from red to white. My assistants were watching me nervously, and Moli's arms tightened around my waist, even pinning my arms against me.

I was silent.

I'm not going to argue academic matters with an ordinary person, so let go of me... Besides, this won't stop me from casting spells. Don't any of you have any common sense? Even a mage with high-level paralysis can still cast spells. I don't believe you'd actually dare knock me out.

And although I've blown up a phone before, I've never laid a hand on an ordinary person!

"Teacher, this is a pretty big incident, after all. We're afraid you might be in a bad mood and act on impulse," Moli explained rapidly. Even after the peace officer left, she still refused to release her grip on me. She said loudly, "The most important thing is that everyone's all right! With your abilities, teacher, you'll find the key to the problem in no time!"

I answered helplessly, "I'm not your teacher, Moli."

...And even if you flatter me, I'm not changing my opinion of your makeup.

Because I hadn't done anything extreme, my assistants all seemed to breathe a temporary sigh of relief and straightened up one by one, though their expressions remained worried.

I didn't really understand what they were worried about, so I didn't know what to say. The supervising mage—that is, me—was responsible for every accident during an experiment. In the field of magic, their abilities were only good enough for them to serve as assistants doing odd jobs. As far as I was concerned, they were no different from the beakers in the laboratory; they were all experimental tools for the supervising mage. I believed this was one of the rare points on which the institute and I agreed.