The Genius Magician Hides His Swordsmanship - Chapter 23

Chapter 23. Instructor Aloy

“I am Aloy, appointed as an associate professor at the mage tower.”

Aloy walked over and took a seat on his table.

“My subject is basic mana manipulation. I’m a new instructor, but I’ll do my best to help you develop your magical skills, so please do your best!”

After a brief introduction, Aloy began the lesson.

“Why is instructor Aloy here…?”

Drew said my thoughts exactly. It didn’t make sense that he was here when he should be at Delemar Academy.

‘I thought he was going to stay at Delemar Academy this year.’

Whether we wondered or not, Aloy went on with teaching the class.

“Mana management is fundamental to mages. It’s something you have to do in order to use magic.”

However, unlike his enthusiasm, the reaction of the children was lukewarm, some children soon expressed their boredom. Some children yawned and some children dozed off.
All the children here can manage mana, so they didn’t have much interest in it.

“Look, I can understand your boredom. But if you neglect to practice your mana handling, you’ll never rise to the level of a high-ranking mage.”

I nodded my head in agreement.

‘He’s completely right.’

It was the same reason that a swordsman who used his aura well could emit sharper sword skills.
However, newbies who have just entered the school could not understand the true meaning of it.

“Professor, mana management is something we’re already good at. It’s like breathing to us at this rate, do we still have to practice it?”

A brown-haired boy raised his hand and shouted.
The children gathered here have special talent for magic, so they are full of pride. They must be children who feel mana as easily as Drew feels aura well.

“Yes, you may think of it that way. But the way mana is managed is also different from person to person. You think you’re really good at managing mana, right?”
“Yes!”

Aloy grinned at the boy, then Drew tapped me on the arm.

“Isn’t that his sinister smile?”

It was Aloy’s signature smile whenever he was about to bully kids at the academy.

“Yeah, that kid’s going to be in trouble.”

As expected, Aloy summoned the brown-haired boy.

“What’s your name?”
“I’m Zack Sudan.”

With that name, I could understand his confident attitude a little bit.

‘Sudan… I heard it was a recently emerging magical family.’

He was confident in his skills. Aloy, however, remained calm.

“Okay Zack, would you like to come forward for a second?”

The boy tilted his head and moved to Aloy’s side.

“Don’t you want to find out just how good you are at mana management?”
“Is that even possible?”
“To a certain extent, yes. If you’re competing with someone else who can manage their mana better than you, you are then able to directly compare.”
“What? What now…”
“You’ll think it’s unfair if you go against me, so why don’t you compare yourself to one of your classmates here?”

I suddenly became nervous.

‘No way. It wouldn’t be me, right?’

But these thoughts are always the ones that come true.

“Hmmm, you over there!”

Aloy pretended not to know me, and started pointing at me.

“Yes you, next to the chubby boy. Would you like to come over here?”

He deliberately called me to match with Zack, since he already knows my mana management skills.

‘Sigh… How could he use me like this?’

I approached the podium, and Aloy unleashed his own mana.
Chak!
A mana rope wrapped itself around Zack and my wrists.

“This is a rope made of mana. The two of you will play tug of war with this.”

It was the same mana tug of war we had in the first class at the academy. Zack frowned at the unexpected proposal.

“Hmph!”

Soon, we started struggling to control the mana. He took control of the mana rope at a high speed and began to pull the rope. I must admit he had good control.

‘How cute.’

Although it was at a level that I could see clearly. I pretended to pull the rope as well and, huah!
Then, I released the mana and let go of the rope.

“Oof!”

He fell on his back just like McDuff did.

“Hahaha!”

Eventually, some children in the classroom burst into laughter. Most were students from the academy.

“Now, do you see that there is a difference in skills when dealing with mana?”

Aloy helped raise Zack to his feet.

“Well, but I can’t accept this. It has nothing to do with handling mana well and doing magic.”

As if trying to recover his crumpled pride, he spoke passionately. Aloy twitched the corners of his mouth again toward Zack.

“Okay, then let’s compare it with magic implementation this time. Between you two, let’s see who makes more powerful magic.”

Aloy created a thick wall of earth right next to the podium.
Coo!
It was more than two packs thick.

“Let’s compare who can break more of the walls I just made.”

Then, Zack smiled contemplatively.

“Okay.”
“What’s your favorite element? Go with that.”
“I’m good with water.”

He shouted out loud, sounding quite confident.
Zack immediately began to create water crystals.
Chaaaah.
The droplets gathered at his fingertips merged into a stream of water. The stream swirled to form a circular sphere.
It formed a water ball. As if to defend his last shred of dignity, Zack was sweating.

‘That’s pretty good.’

Zack’s concentration resulted in a water ball being created.
Chaah!
It was as big as his face.

‘It’s still not as good as Ariel’s though.’

The water ball shot out and smashed into Aloy’s earth wall.
Kwah!
Water and dirt splashed everywhere.
A moment later, all that was left was a hole the size of the water ball.

“Wow! That’s amazing.”
“Oh, who’s that?”

The class exclaimed.

“Huh!”

Zack glanced over at me, satisfied with the result. He had his chin up high.

‘Alright fucker, let me show you what I can do.’

This should be easy enough.
Blup!
I immediately summoned the water drops.

[You’re going to use a water ball too?]
‘That’s so I can stomp a little on his big ego.’

An eye for an eye. If it’s the same magic, but with a bigger effect, he’ll have no choice but to accept defeat.
Chaaaah!
The spinning water droplets came together to form a sphere. It was a fist-sized water ball.

“Bam!”

Zack laughed at the sight. It was tiny compared to what he had created.

‘Watch this.’

I raised one corner of my mouth and shot the water ball.
Whoosh!
The little sphere traveled forward with a strange sound.

‘This is the water ball that contains the ritual of the Suseaur family.’

Soon after, the water ball collided with the earth wall.
Kouuu…
It made a calm sound.
Zack, who seemed excited by that appearance, immediately shouted.

“Look at that! What did I say…!”

But, he couldn’t finish what he was saying.
Crack… crack!
The water ball didn’t disappear and was eating away at the earthen wall. The water ball, which was rotating nonstop, eventually created a crack in the wall.
Zap!
The cracks that started to spread from there soon took over the entire earth wall.
Pua!
In the end, all the thick soil walls collapsed.
The sight was enough to plunge the entire classroom into silence.

“Huh…”
Even Aloy, the professor in charge, had his mouth wide open.

‘Did I overdo it?’
[Never mind that. You saved Aloy’s ass.]

The Suseaur family members were called the masters of water because they controlled the flow of water. It was not simply shooting it in a straight line, but generating rotational force with the flow of water. That was their trick.

‘It can be applied to a water ball of this level too, huh.’

Instead of increasing the size of the water ball, I made it spin continuously with the remaining mana.

‘Well, the earth wall wasn’t proper defense magic either.’

Of course, if Aloy had decided to use defensive magic, I would never have been able to break it, but it was possible because it was earth wall magic.

“Ian! You’re awesome!”

Drew clapped with a shout.
The applause that started on one side of the classroom soon spread throughout the entire classroom.

“Wow!”
“Amazing!”
“As expected of a Delemar!”

Aloy regained his composure from the cheers that filled the classroom.

“Alright, quiet down everyone! Ian and Zack, you can both go back to your seats.”

Aloy, continued class with the flow.

“Did you see that? If you are good at managing mana, your magic will be more powerful. That’s because you can control mana in such detail. What Ian just showed you just now, you can’t do it if you can’t properly handle mana.”

Only then did my classmates’ eyes brighten.

“Yes!”
“We’ll study hard!”

Enthusiasm for the class was welling up. The brown-haired boy, Zack, had puffy cheeks that could be seen from behind.
Aloy, with a satisfied smile, winked at me and continued the afternoon class.

* * * 

After that, Aloy finished his first class smoothly.
Drew and I followed him down the aisle.

“Wow, instructor! No, professor!”

Aloy gave a friendly smile at Drew’s call.

“Oh, Drew! Long time no see! You seem to have gotten a lot bigger in the time we’ve been apart?”
“Hehe, thank you! But what are you doing here?”
“I also had the idea that I would like to research here someday, the Delemar family just supported me to come to the mage tower.”

Only then did I nod.

‘Oh, that’s why he came.’

To improve while working as an associate professor under a good professor. It was the most common way mages build up achievements.

‘He’ll be able to accumulate research results and learn magic at the same time.’

Gaining honor and achievements. This was a way to kill two birds with one stone.
Aloy was a talented man who reached the 5-star level at a young age, but he had been an instructor at the Delemar’s academy. He must have had a desire to grow even further.

“Anyway, it’s nice to see you again.”

His gaze turned to me.

“Oh and, Ian. Thanks for today, I was trying to figure out how to set the tone with these kids with huge egos, and you made it really easy for me.”
“Oh, sure. A student who doesn’t listen to their professor deserves to be put in their place.”

He shrugged his shoulders.

“Yes, yes. We’re all here anyway, so we’ll see each other often.”

Aloy left with a hearty smile.

“Let’s go too.”

Today’s classes were all over, so we immediately grabbed the moving ball to go to the dormitory floor.

“Wow, it was really awesome to see instructor Aloy again.”

Drew, who had been excited for a while, suddenly turned serious.

“What’s wrong?”

Drew had a very serious expression. His serious voice followed.

“Are we going out to dinner tonight again?”

Eager eyes were shooting at me.

‘…I suppose I can’t refuse.’

It would be nice to get something nice to eat. Thinking of that, I nodded my head.

“Okay. But before that, I have to stop by my room, there’s something I need to do.”
“Yay! Then I’ll go to my room too. You have to be quick though!”

When the moving orb arrived on the 10th floor, Drew suddenly ran to his room.

‘How cute.’

I also opened my door and entered. Then, a different scenery from yesterday came into view.

‘It’s been a while.’

I lifted the curtain covering one corner. Something that wasn’t previously there was revealed. It was the sword I brought from the hideaway yesterday.

[Are you going to try it out now?]

There sat an iron sword that looked shabby. If someone saw it, they’d ask if it’s an antique.

‘Huh, I’ll have to check to see if it’s been doing well after a thousand years.’

This was the sword I used most in my previous life. As I gripped the handle of the sword with my right hand, the energy of the cold metal that had been transmitted for a long time felt unfamiliar.

‘Respond Pragarach.’

Wooosh…
All the aura I had built up, flowed into it.

[To be continued…]