Bonus Short Stories
Spartan Loki
Loki was holding a study meeting in Alus’ laboratory in preparation for an upcoming quiz. Her two students were Tesfia and Alice. She was in charge of the meeting in place of Alus, and of course, she had no intention of going easy on them.
Tesfia and Alice had their individual study tasks to do, but Loki said she would teach them when they came to her with tears in their eyes. The result of the quiz would affect their grades, and if they got failing marks they’d have to take supplementary lessons. The biggest problem with the quiz was that its subject was specialized and very difficult.
Loki really got into it, wearing a lab coat and fake glasses that she’d pulled out from somewhere. “Then, I would like to begin the first quiz study meeting.”
“We’ve been waiting!”
“That really suits you, Loki dear!”
Tesfia and Alice cheered her on to lift her spirits. But contrary to their expectations, Loki furrowed her brows. “That won’t do! Right now, you will address me as Teacher.”
“Ah, okay. Loki... Teacher,” Alice awkwardly said.
Loki nodded to her. “That’s more like it.”
The two girls had their books open and their handwritten notes, which they’d prepared specifically to memorize the lesson. Input on a virtual screen was more effective, but it wasn’t suited for helping to memorize things.
“Today’s questions will focus on the points you need to study. So do your memorization and repetition on your own.”
“Okay.” “Yes, Loki dear.”
Loki brought up her textbook with deliberate motions, and flipped pages with a single hand. She then began walking towards the table like a teacher would... before slamming the book down on the table.
“Question one! What is the essence of magic, in both a broad sense and a military sense!”
Tesfia and Alice both raised their hands to answer, and Loki said, “Go ahead, Ms. Tesfia.”
“In a broad sense, magic has contributed to humanity’s development, and in a military sense—”
“That’s incorrect. It sounds like it would be something like that, but you’re wrong. If you want to be of use to people, however, I recommend that you move to some hamlet where you can dowse for water and work as a living lighter using magic.”
“Heeey!! You don’t have to pile it on me so hard just for getting it wrong!”
Loki ignored Tesfia’s protests and pointed to Alice, who still had her hand raised. “What a letdown. Teach her the right answer, Ms. Alice.”
“Uhm, can’t you put it a little more nicely, Loki dear?” The right to answer was handed over to Alice on Loki’s assumption that she already knew it. “I think magic is ancient wisdom gifted as a means to protect humanity.”
“Incorrect! That’s what it appears to be publicly, but it’s not the right answer. For someone so naïve that falls for the simplest of gestures like you, I recommend a life as a florist.”
“Yay, did you hear that, Fia? A florist. That’s my childhood dream.”
“No, she’s telling you not to become a Magicmaster.”
“Oh, right. Ahahaha.” Alice let out an embarrassed but carefree laugh.
In reality the answers the two had given were generally seen as correct. But with the quiz anticipated to be very hard, the study session’s difficulty was equally brought up a notch.
“Listen up, you two. While it’s not publicly discussed, the essence of magic has historically always been seen as a means to kill Fiends. It’s a system built up from blood and sacrifices lost during the battle between humanity and Fiends... in other words, if not for Fiends, magic would never have been developed this much.”
Loki slammed her textbook shut, and sighed as if to say, Don’t you even know something as simple as that? It sounded like a difficult question, but the answer was surprisingly simple.
The tricky part of the question was asking about magic in a broad sense. The militaries of the various nations deliberately misinformed the general public by telling them that magic was a means to live peacefully.
“That sounds pretty dark, huh.”
“That’s because it is. But without that misinformation it would have been much harder to establish the institutes. In fact, are you seriously trying to become a Magicmaster when you don’t even know that?”
“Naturally!!”
“Of course.”
The resolve of the two girls was firm.
“Then at least try to remember it. On to question two!!”
Several minutes later, an almost demonic Loki was mercilessly reprimanding Tesfia. “That won’t do! That won’t do at all! How do you not even know something like that! Why don’t you give up on being a student and go on a journey on your own. And once you’ve discovered yourself, please find a job that suits you just right so that you can spend your boring life peacefully.”
“What about living as a Magicmaster?”
“Try again in your next life.” Loki relentlessly gave Tesfia her verdict after seeing her fail to get a single answer right so far. Then she turned to Alice. “You could use some more studying if you want to become a Magicmaster too, Ms. Alice. But I’m sure you would be a wonderful kindergarten teacher.”
“Ahahaha, I’m a little happy to hear that actually. Oh, but I can’t rejoice over that right now.” Alice had been getting scolded too, but she responded to those harsh words with joyful yet irrelevant answers.
“You sound like you’re having fun. So, what are you doing, Loki?”
Loki had taken over the bothersome task of holding the study meeting in Alus’ place, but when he came over to take a look, he let out an exasperated sigh over how she seemed to have forgotten the original goal.
Hearing Alus’ voice, Loki snapped out of it and recalled the past two hours... “Uhm... I suppose I’m giving them guidance on new careers.” Tilting her head and giving Alus an awkward smile, she tried to hide her blunder.
Heartrending Defeat
There was a girl in the Second Magical Institute that attracted a lot of attention. She had transferred into the Institute about a month after the entrance ceremony.
When she did, the typical pubescent atmosphere found in mixed-gender schools grew even more heated than usual. It appeared that more male students would be falling lovesick than usual.
That said, the number of eye-catching beauties in the Institute was especially high, and the male students worked extra hard to raise their rankings to catch their attention. The girls’ rankings were exceptionally high as well. That included Tesfia and Alice who had the highest ranks among the first-year students. There were plenty of male students attracted to them that felt the girls wouldn’t pay any attention to them if the gap in rank was too big. And so they spent their days studying and training.
That’s when the super student appeared. The beautiful girl named Loki Leevahl transferred in. Her small and cute appearance was popular even with the other female students, and her cool expressionless face struck home with the male students.
Then there was the explosive power of the uncharacteristic adorable smile she’d sometimes show. Even if it was directed at a specific person, the male students around that saw it would get excited and misunderstandings resulted. So it wasn’t strange for male students with foolhardy courage to appear.
Even today, another brave soul was making his confession behind the normally empty Institute building.
“... It was love at first sight!” Without a trace of embarrassment, the male student kneeled before Loki and held his hand out to her.
Loki, meanwhile, remained expressionless as always, but a furrow on her brows gave away her irritation. As if completely disregarding the male student’s feelings, she clearly spoke out. “Try again next time.”
The male student looked like he’d fallen into the depths of despair, as he got up and turned around to trudge away with his shoulders slumped.
“Okay, next!” Loki said to the newly formed line of male students that seemed to have the same business with her. She wanted to end this situation as soon as possible, so she couldn’t help her behavior turning so mechanical.
Wondering how many there were, she looked at the line but found no end in sight. Even as she sighed, another male student confessed his feelings to her.
“I would love it if we could go on a date...”
“Ah, take that kind of thing somewhere else, please. In fact, who are you?”
“Urk...” The student was showered in cold words, yet for some reason he left with an almost gleeful expression. These kinds of scenes continued to play out...
Loki spoke to the next student who was professing his superficial feelings: “You might stand a ghost of a chance in your next life.”
And to the student visibly too immature to be a Magicmaster: “I can at least praise your nerve.”
She smiled coldly at the disgusting behavior of a noble son: “Please get out of my sight within five seconds.”
“Ack?!”
In spite of Loki mercilessly striking down her love interests, the massive line showed no signs of shrinking.
She no longer understood what their goal was, but she had no choice but to continue dealing with them. She wished they would just learn their lesson already, but if she let the male students’ approach turn any more intense they might end up causing trouble for Alus.
“Huh? You’re really grating on the nerves.” Loki wound up blurting out some bitter words. And that was only natural since her time and sense of duty were meant for just a single person. Of course, she revered him far too much to have feelings for him. At any rate, she believed that supporting him was her reason for existing. As she felt this way, she couldn’t imagine falling in love with someone right now... in fact, she couldn’t.
“Uhm, Ms. Loki, are you and Alus...? You’re always together after all...” Eventually, the final person in line arrived as the sun began to set, and he timidly asked Loki this question.
The next moment—
A knife was pointed against his throat. “That’s some guts. Fortunately, it’s getting dark and there are no witnesses. Perhaps you’d like to be sliced up?” The street lights didn’t reach this far, but a fearless stare could be seen on Loki’s face.
“I-I-I’m sorry!!”
Seeing the male student run off as fast as he could, Loki dropped her shoulders. Her cheeks turned red, and she could feel the heat coming from them as she pressed her hands to her face.
“T-T-That’s not possible! There’s no way someone like me... could... aahh.”
Alpha’s Eye
In the heart of Alpha was a palace where the ruler resided. But it was less of a residence and more of an administrative center of activity, and it was always manned with servants. It was also one of the most protected locations in the nation, filled with high ranking Magicmasters that patrolled the palace at all times.
The palace never slept, but at this hour—just before dawn—it was calm compared to the liveliness during the day.
There were still some that were finishing up their work. But their reserved footsteps weren’t enough to wake up the exhausted servants that had fallen asleep. As of late, things had been extra busy, with plenty of personnel that hadn’t gone home in quite a while.
The owner of this palace and head of the nation was doing more work than anyone else. She also had a maid, entrusted with an important mission, assisting her.
But even during this situation, said maid—Rinne Kimmel—had to maintain a proper lifestyle. That was because her mission wasn’t just to serve her whimsical master.
In a private room assigned to her, Rinne was busily getting prepared. Without an order from her master, however, she wouldn’t leave her side even during her days off. Moreover, she was the picture of loyalty, not asking for anything in return. Aside from a few pieces of furniture, she only had some bookshelves to fill up her large room.
Rinne stepped inside her walk-in closet, picked one of the dozens of maid outfits, and swiftly changed into it. Next, she carefully set her hair without wrinkling her outfit. And finally she put on her apron and entered into her work mode.
The time was around 5 a.m. The street lights outside were still on, but they would soon be done for the day.
Rinne’s first task was to get a complete grasp of everything within a 1km radius. She took a deep breath and activated her Magic Eye called the Eye of Providence. Magic formula after magic formula appeared in front of her, and her field of vision multiplied exponentially.
Hundreds of fields of vision could be seen all at once. As a possessor of a Magic Eye, she was able to process and analyze that massive amount of information.
She then turned her attention to inside the palace. Despite the strict security, there were existences that were beyond the realm of normality, so she couldn’t neglect any security checks. Exceptions could happen anywhere. The existence of someone like Alus was more than proof enough of that.
Rinne also used her Magic Eye to check on the servants. Finally, she checked on the progress of Cicelnia’s breakfast. Inside the kitchen, she could see the palace’s chef working on preparations.
She confirmed that there appeared to be no problems—aside from one thing.
Incidentally, Rinne wasn’t able to set fixed coordinates for all of her ‘Eyes.’ Instead she controlled a portion of them, while the rest randomly deployed around her center of focus.
That’s why things like this would sometimes happen.
“Wait!! Wha—?!”
Rinne’s normal calmness disappeared as she let out a panicked voice. Her field of vision had included the large bathing room in the palace. And she could see the exhausted male servants taking baths after working all night.
She immediately shut her eyes. Her cheeks were dyed a faint red, and she let out a guilt-filled sigh while covering her eyes with her hand. “That’s not a sight I meant to see...!”
While it wasn’t on purpose, the fact that these things would happen on occasion was problematic. It was definitely a useful ability, but the scene from before wasn’t something she wanted to see so early in the morning.
She sighed. “That really surprised me. Geez...”
Having finished looking over the palace, Rinne canceled her Magic Eye and went around to give her usual morning greetings to the people in charge of security of the most important places in the palace.
After walking to the various locations and receiving reports, she headed for her master’s room. When Rinne last saw her with her Magic Eye, Cicelnia was still hard at work at her desk. Normally Rinne would be helping her, but Cicelnia wouldn’t allow it. The ruler usually wasn’t this extremely busy, but these last few days she definitely had been.
Rinne silently walked down the hallway, squinting from the light coming in from the windows lining the side.
Suddenly, she noticed a female servant standing outside the office with a troubled expression. At a closer look, hers was a familiar face.
“What’s the matter?”
“Ah! Ms. Rinne, thank goodness. I couldn’t find Lady Cicelnia and wasn’t sure what to do...”
“I see.”
“Do you have any idea where she might be?”
“Yes, she has probably gone back to her room.”
Rinne and the servant walked through the palace toward Cicelnia’s room, when the servant timidly spoke up on the way. “Lady Cicelnia asked me to make preparations for a bath, so I brought a towel with me... I also need to prepare the water.”
This was usually Rinne’s job, but it appeared Cicelnia had finished her work faster than she’d anticipated.
I thought she’d take a little longer. Rinne turned to face the servant just outside of Cicelnia’s room. “Please leave the rest to me. Lately, Lady Cicelnia has been taking her baths in her own room.”
“Is that so? Then please, take these...”
Rinne accepted the bath towel and robe handed to her, and entered the room without knocking. Only she could get away with stepping inside without knocking.
When she saw the messy room, she let out a sigh and headed towards the bathroom. Through the shower curtain she could see a silhouette soaking in the bath.
And when she pulled it aside... she sighed heavily. Cicelnia had fallen asleep in the bath.
She’d made a point of warning her about this, but with Cicelnia not getting any decent sleep while performing her official duties until dawn, Rinne didn’t have it in her to get angry. If anything she was almost grateful.
“Thank you for your hard work, Lady Cicelnia.”
Rinne showed no sign of worrying over her clothes getting wet as she scooped Cicelnia out of the water. She’d had a feeling something like this might happen, which was why she’d urged her to go to sleep earlier. Perhaps Cicelnia preferred this to taking up too much of Rinne’s time.
But even if that was the case...
I would never find that troublesome, she thought to herself, as she wore a gentle smile, looking down at the master in her arms.
Response Meeting
It was late summer, before the Friendship Magical Tournament.
Felinella had her hands full of work during this time. Not only was she the student representative, but she was also the chairperson of the selection committee. She’d had a feeling that the ball would fall in her court, but once it did, her headache grew constantly bigger.
Right now, the large multipurpose room that served as the selection committee headquarters was completely quiet. After all, Felinella was the only one present. She would need to begin the massive task of selecting contestants by herself.
With this huge amount of work and no one else around, she could afford to look a little slovenly. She was slumped over the desk as she read through the information on the virtual screen. To her side were documents with the grades of all the students, as well as their rankings as Magicmasters. These were closely guarded secrets, and only the selection committee chairperson was allowed to read them.
She sighed. “I wish they wouldn’t put so much pressure on me to make us win this year,” she unconsciously blurted out, as she racked her brain as to how she was going to sort through this annoying mountain of data.
But that was when an unexpected voice called out to her. “It only means the expectations for you are just that high. You’re the only one who won individually.”
Felinella showed no sign of surprise at the sudden voice interrupting her thoughts, as she turned off the virtual screen and raised her upper body off of the table.
She then looked over to the owner of the voice, her childhood friend, who wore a somewhat surly expression. Her friend was an intelligent-looking girl who’d cut her glossy black hair when they entered the Institute. Her hair was much shorter compared to Felinella’s, and her facial features were clearly visible as she’d pinned her cleanly parted hair behind her ears.
She had sharp eyes that gave off the impression that she was cautious. Those eyes had given off a poor first impression more times than she would’ve liked. But speaking of her personality, that sharp impression wasn’t far off the mark.
Felinella shrugged, and said, “Illumina, your cooperation is a big help. You’re especially reliable when it comes to things like this. Good friends are the best things to have. Connections are so important...”
“Well, I can understand your anxiety. The Socalent family’s social circle isn’t that large, after all.”
“Lady Illumina Solsoleek, the talented daughter of the Solsoleek family, has me beat in that regard, with connections even in other nations.”
This exchange was typical for the two. Illumina was in the same grade as Felinella, as well as being her friend since childhood. And she helped to serve as a mediator for the Socalent family in circles they had little influence in.
That was why—the moment she was made chairperson—Felinella immediately made her friend the vice chairperson. Once this preliminary work was done, the two were set to begin the selection process and gather information on other nations.
“Just so you know, even the Solsoleek family can’t investigate the students from the really prominent families. And Feli, once you’re done with them, make sure you properly dispose of the documents.”
“Yes, yes, I will make sure of it. Thank you. I will put them to good use. Incidentally, I’ve picked up information on the prominent players from four other institutes, though not Rusalca.”
“Oh, you’re fast. Just where did you get the information from?” Illumina asked with a wry smile. Gathering data on students from foreign magical institutes was difficult, even for nobility. Knowing this, Illumina was half impressed, half exasperated by the Socalent family’s information gathering abilities, and let out a sigh.
In response to Illumina’s rhetorical question, Felinella held a finger against her lips and closed one of her eyes. “That’s a trade secret.”
“But that won’t be necessary until our contestants are decided, right? Though I guess some of them are chosen based on grades... but I suppose the third-year students will be the problem this year too.” Illumina had participated in last year’s tournament as well, so she knew what was up. And she mentioned what was likely to be the first obstacle.
“The selection method is already set at this point, but the problem is with the selection of the third-years. The ones that have been assigned to units are naturally going to be the ones with the highest grades. But if we want to win the tournament, I’d prefer that they abstain from squad activities.”
Every year, the high-scoring third-year students were given unofficial offers from the military. And those with predetermined assignments even began preliminary inductions before graduation. Many of those students stopped showing their faces at the Institute. Because of that, the pool of selectable third-years was limited every year.
As part of the selection committee, Illumina gave a suggestion. “For the third-years, we shouldn’t stress the grades as much. I think it would be better to individually call out to promising students. Fortunately, you are the one who will be choosing, so I doubt there would be any complaints.”
“Of course not. The top scorers have always been chosen for some of the tournament slots as a way to maintain a degree of fairness. But if we don’t change things up this year, I’m sure it won’t go well. We will have to put less focus on grades and affinities, and take their abilities that aren’t as easy to measure into account.”
“You’re awfully motivated this year, Feli. But this year’s crop of first-years is truly fantastic, so we might actually be able to win the entire thing. There’s the Fable family girl, as well as the light user, Alice Tilake. And even Loki Leevahl, the transfer student who’s after you in the rankings. Her transfer came at a strange time, but I think we can expect a lot from her.”
Since the two were working together, Felinella felt like she needed to explain some things to Illumina. “That’s true. We can’t afford to leave them out. Among the first-years, Fia and Alice are in a league of their own, and Ms. Loki is incredibly powerful. To be frank, I’m convinced that we will secure a victory in the first-year division.”
Illumina looked at her suspiciously. That wasn’t something Felinella would usually say. She’d never heard her say that she was convinced of something before. Those who understood Magicmasters to some degree knew that those words weren’t something said lightly. Felinella in particular had experience in the Outer World, so she definitely wouldn’t do that. “You seem to be awfully trusting in that Loki girl. There might be someone like Karia who you fought last year amongst the first-years, you know.”
She suddenly wanted to ask why Felinella could be so sure of Loki’s skills and declare that she would win. As they shared positions of responsibility, she had a duty to understand so they could form a clear plan.
“T-That’s true. Being overly optimistic isn’t good... but it will be fine.”
Illumina couldn’t find anything to back up those words, but the bright smile on Felinella’s lips showed just how much she trusted Loki.
That said—Felinella’s smile was, of course, because of her thoughts of Alus... however, because of his behavior and bad grades she knew that he would never be chosen. When she realized that, she became really dejected, and it wasn’t until later that she learned he would take part in the selection matches.
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