The Genius Magician Hides His Swordsmanship - Chapter 11

Chapter 11. Rio’s Test (3)

“Who wants to show me first?”

Rio’s eyes shone with anticipation.

“Me!”

I raised my hand, but McDuff was a little faster.

“Oh, McDuff, can you really do it?”
“Of course!”

McDuff exclaimed cheerfully.

[Oh, this sneaky bastard. Can he really do it?]
‘Yeah, what is he going to do?’

His mana sensitivity was clearly behind mine. It was a difficult task even for me, but it wouldn’t be possible for McDuff to do it by pure means.

“Watch!”

He dropped the orb to the ground and began to emit flames. In the dark night, the clearing behind the auditorium began to light up.

“What do you think?”

McDuff looked at Rio with a smug look on his face.

“What?”

But it was Rio’s clear reply that brought me back.

“I’ve filled the orb with mana.”

McDuff furrowed his eyebrows.

[What is he talking about?]

Oberon tilted his head as well. He had only created a spark, not filled the orb with mana. If there was a change, it was that the orb was a little brighter from the spark he had created.

“Where the hell is the mana?”

Rio finally asked.

“The light I created illuminated the orb, so we can see inside it.”
“So?”
“The source of the light that illuminates the orb is the flame, and the source of the flame is my mana. Light is mana, which means that the orb that’s glowing brightly right now is no different than if it were filled with my mana.”

His reply sounded foreign.

‘Something’s wrong with that.’
[That’s some serious bullshit, what kind of philosopher has he become all of a sudden?]

The evaluator was Rio not us though, so we focused on his expression.

“Puahaha!”

He laughed out loud once, then spoke up again.

“What are you saying? I asked you to fill it up with your mana. I didn’t ask you to find some Seon dialogue? Light is light.”
“Eh…what?”

At McDuff’s reddened face for some reason, Rio curled up one corner of his mouth.

“Who told you that? Who did you run it by?”
“What? I-I thought?”
“Don’t lie. You’re not fooling anyone.”
“Oh, No!”

Then I realized.

‘Oh!’

Why I felt a sense of foreignness in his answer.

‘He asked Helena for the answer.’

The adult tone of his voice was the cause of the foreignness. It wasn’t his usual way of speaking. He had memorized the answer Helena had given him without making a single mistake.

[Wow. Even today, he’d still act like this.]

He was a stickler, but Rio was no fool.

“It’s a pretense. Helena taught you that, didn’t she? That’s Helena’s way of answering questions. She’s got a way with words.”

McDuff blushed, because in the end the kid was still a kid.

‘You’re going to have to grow up before you can control your emotions, dude.’

My turn came next naturally, and I fumbled in my arms.

“Hold on.”

Rio raised one eyebrow at what I pulled out a moment later.

“Those aren’t marbles, are they?”
“They’re not, they’re mana stones.”

The 20 mana stones from the outdoor practice. I spread them all out on the floor.

[What are you going to do with these?]

Oberon and Rio had the same look on their faces.

‘Look carefully.’

I tried to mana-sensitize the mana stones. It is one of the foundations of becoming a mage. It was just a simple mana sensitization.
Woooong!
The 20 or so mana stones on the floor vibrated, and mana began to flow out of them. Up until that point, it was a normal phenomenon from mana stones.

“Eh?”

McDuff’s head sprung up. The streams of mana clustered together, forming a fountain of mana.

“Ho…”

Watching Rio stroke his chin, I set the orb down in the center of the mana pool. With a snap, the mana was sucked in. Little by little, the bead was filling up through the hole in the bead.

[Oh…?!]

Slowly but steadily, the mana filled the bead with blue waves.
Rio didn’t need to say if I had succeeded. A satisfied smile was already on his face.

“It’s a reverse idea.”
“Yes, because there was no need to inject mana into the orb from the beginning. I thought that by filling the outside with mana, it would naturally flow into the hole of the bead.’
“How did you manage to think of this?”
“I took a hint from the saying that a mage shouldn’t be trapped inside a field.”
“Field?”
“Yeah, I thought that might be the answer to this trick.”

The stereotype of filling a bead with mana is to force it into the bead. That’s the conventional wisdom of bead training.

‘I just made it so that it can’t help but flow in.’

It was a way that came to mind as I thought about breaking them. If the surrounding area is filled with mana, the inside of the bead will fill up by itself.

“Well done.”

Soon after, Rio’s mouth dropped open.

“Ian, you passed your homework.”

And then, as expected, McDuff scrambled.

“It’s not even his mana, is this okay?”

But Rio was firm.

“I told you to fill it up with mana, it doesn’t have to be yours. And even if you knew how to do it, you wouldn’t be able to.”
“Why not!”
“No, it’s not that simple to extract mana from a mana stone. Usually, it scatters in all directions. However, Ian concentrated 20 mana stones in one place. Can you concentrate 20 of them in one place?”

As he said. A cold sweat was running down my forehead. It was because I was so focused.
Nevertheless, he screamed.

“Then, why is mine wrong! Magic is also a product of mana!”

Eventually, Rio sighed.

“Yes, you said it right. Magic is a product of mana. But, it’s not mana, and even if you answered correctly, I can’t recognize it. I told you to think outside the box, not ask your mom.”

A wicked grin formed at the corners of his mouth.

“By the way, are you allowed to contact your mom while at the academy?”
“Wait, what?”
“If you contact people outside during the training period, you will earn a penalty point, and you know what happens if you get expelled from the academy, right?”
“Hmph!”

He sharply raised his index finger and brought it to the corner of his mouth, then looked at me.

‘I’ve heard it all, you punk.’

With 9 penalty points, McDuff had to be cautious. He had no choice but to keep his mouth shut.

“Ian, now that you’ve done your homework, you can think of a wish. As long as I can grant it, I will. I’ll be back next week, so tell me then.”
“I’ve already thought of what I want.”
“Oh, really, what is it?”
“I want you to take me to the library.”

Rio tilted his head, as if he were surprised.

“The library? You can go to the library by yourself. Why would you want me to take you?”
“Not the one that’s open to everyone, but the one where only members of the family are allowed to go.”

Titania had told me about it once. Once you’ve graduated from the magic tower, and you’ve been recognized as a member of the house of Delemar, there is a study you can enter.
It contains all the spellbooks the Delemars had compiled, and you can find them all there…

“Hmm, aren’t most of them in ancient languages?”

Rio was right, the shelves were lined with books written in ancient languages.
But I had a hunch. That the books there would be my milk and honey.

‘Maybe there’s a book on black magic there.’
[We’re finally going to go there.]

I’ve asked Titania many times. I told her how much I wanted to go there, but all she would say was that I would have to become part of the family, but that would be in the distant future.

“That’s a little hard for me to do now.”

Rio frowned.

“Rather, I need some time to think about it. For now, I suggest you return to your dormitory for the night.”

It’s a good thing he didn’t say no.

“Oh, and I’ll be here every week from now on to give you homework, so I’ll see you next week.”

Rio came to take my homework, and then left with it.

‘Now, let’s see how this guy’s doing.’

I turned to look at McDuff, who was standing next to me.

“What, what, why are you staring?”

He didn’t seem to notice our conversation.It was obvious that he was still nervous.

‘He’s thinking about being expelled.’

I was going to threaten him with penalty points. If he tells Helena about what happened with Ariel today, he’d have gotten 10 penalty points. But he’d already been in touch with Helena about Rio’s homework.

‘That’s easier then.’

As long as I’ve found out about it.

“Are you getting expelled now?”

This lamb was in the palm of my hand.

“What do you mean expelled?!”
“You contacted aunt Helena. If you get one more penalty point, you will be expelled. You know what will happen then right?”

There was only one reason he was afraid. Being expelled from Delemar’s academy meant that the Delemar’s support for him as a mage would be cut off.
That was the family rule.

“You…!”

He clenched his fists, but he couldn’t say anything.

“But, after looking at you. I might leave it and not say anything.”

Only then did a ray of hope shine on the boy’s face.

“Uh, how?”

The boy’s anxious face was suddenly cute.

‘At times like this, he’s like a child.’
[He looks foolish!]

I opened my mouth with the most stern expression on my face.

“What happened with Ariel today. Don’t tell aunt Helena about it.”
“What? That’s…!”
“If you don’t like it, you’ll get expelled. By the way, even aunt Helena won’t be able to stop that. You know?”

His eyes widened for a moment,

“Do I even have a choice?”

Eventually, McDuff bowed his head.

“…Okay.”
“And from now on, don’t bully your classmates. You’ll be kicked out of school if you get into one more accident and get a penalty point. Then, it won’t be my fault?”

McDuff’s shoulders trembled and stopped. So I patted him on the shoulder and headed to the dormitory. It was a refreshing night in many ways.

“Hee-eok… Hee-eok.”

Apart from Drew, who is sweating hard

‘Why is he doing this in my room?’
[He must be thankful to you.]

Crunch! Crunch!
Ariel was biting into a cookie the size of my face.

“Anyway, I’ve already talked to Mcduff, so don’t worry. And from now on, he’s going to be quiet in the academy.”

Putting down her cookies for a while, Ariel gave a small smile.

“Thank you. For your help.”

Soon, her gaze fell on Drew. with his head tilted to one side.

“Drew, what are you doing?”

Drew was doing push-ups.

“Oh, I’m trying to lose some weight.”

I told Drew to keep quiet about this training method to others. He seemed to have found a suitable excuse.

“Really? Well, you are going to have to lose some.”
“Ah? Ah, eh…”

Ariel’s reply seemed to be hurtful.

“But, aren’t you guys leaving?”

It’s already been an hour since they came into my room. I also had to do my own training.

“Eat all of this.”

After another 30 minutes, the children went outside.

‘Such cute kids.’

I immediately turned to a cross-legged position and sat down on the bed.

[What are you trying to do?]
‘I’m trying to experiment with what I felt thanks to Ariel.’

I started by implementing the elements. It wasn’t that I was using water-attribute magic from the beginning.
Let’s not try to use magic from the start. I won’t try to do something difficult. Instead, I’ll do it in the most comfortable form. And the answer will eventually come.
Just like when creating a sword, I stretched out my hand and let the mana flow naturally. In the most comfortable way for the body, mana was expressed.

‘Oh, is something going on?’

The fluctuating energy was concentrated into my fingertips.

‘…!’
[What the hell is this?]

Smoke billowed from my hands in various colors.