Chapter 20
WAKING UP AT EIGHT O’CLOCK the next morning, Mira ate breakfast and then immediately began her evocation research.
She couldn’t think of what to do next, and so she just focused on deeply exploring evocation.
While on her travels, she’d done research and tested things when she’d got the chance. However, it’d been quite a while since she’d been able to sit down and properly do so. All the things that Mira had wanted to do but been unable to up until then began popping up in her head.
“If I do this, then the distance from which I’ll be able to use Synchronized Senses will…”
“Hrmm… So the Spirit King can even effect something like this…”
“I see… The upper limit is set by the system, huh…?”
“If I can just figure out how to do this with this, then I’ll be able to…”
“So weapon spirits can be used for that, too…”
“Whoa, and you can even…”
Going over an extensive array of research, Mira continued carrying out various trials and experiments. And so, while determining what worked and what didn’t, she considered ways in which she might improve what wasn’t working. Thoroughly investigating and studying all of this, she paid no heed to the time, diving single-mindedly into her research instead.
However, there were two beings who gently helped bring Mira back to reality. They were none other than Mariana and Luna.
Just the night before, Mira had told Cleos that one shouldn’t push themselves too hard. That advice went for her as well. When it was time for lunch or dinner, Mira made sure to sit down at the dining table and eat. After eating, she played with Luna and chatted about nothing with Mariana before heading back to her laboratory.
After eight o’clock, Cleos came by, and Mira began instructing him.
Partially summoning a dark knight was difficult. However, as one might expect from the deputy of a Wise Man, it wasn’t impossible. When they wrapped up intensive training for the day, Cleos could see how it might be done much more clearly than the day before. Saying that he’d see her tomorrow, he went back to his quarters.
Her spirits buoyed by how capable he was, Mira got ready for bathtime.
Bathing with Mariana filled her with an incomparable sense of serenity. Coupled with how much Luna’s presence soothed her, Mira felt as if she’d died and gone to heaven.
After getting out of the bath, she enjoyed some dessert in place of a midnight snack, chatted with Mariana, and got into bed once she started feeling sleepy.
Things continued like this for quite a while. Each day was the same, with her more or less following the same routine. And yet, far from feeling bored, Mira felt the most satisfied she ever had been.
If happiness had a shape, it would probably look like the ones you loved. Mira realized this while watching Mariana sleep beside her and smiled softly.
The next day, Mira went with Cleos to Alcait Academy after hearing that they’d be holding a Spell Symposium. She had participated once in the past.
I’ve heard it changed a lot since then, so I’m excited to see what it’s like now.
She’d heard the emphasis was no longer on aesthetics, like it had been before, but students were now evaluated with practical considerations in mind. Participating as a spectator rather than a speaker, Mira was excited to see what kind of techniques the students would perform—particularly those belonging to the School of Evocation.
And so, she was waiting for the symposium to begin when she heard someone ask her a question.
“Miss Mira, I was hoping to speak with you about that matter regarding enrollment that we spoke of the other day. When do you think she’ll be able to come?” Cleos said, his face burning with excitement.
He was most likely talking about Rina, whom she’d recommended to Alcait Academy while in Haxthausen. Mira had recognized her talent, and so Cleos seemed to have pretty high hopes for her.
“Hrmm, good question. She’s with some other adventurers. They’ll need to persuade the others, get packed, and travel here first, so it should still be a while.”
Mira had made it home in a day via the spirit airship, but Rina and her companions would be going by land. Even if they took the continental railway, it would be quite a few days from Haxthausen. And it would take the adventurers she was traveling with a considerable amount of time to get prepared.
“Aaah, considering she’s a future summoner whose talent caught your eye…I really can’t wait to meet her.” Cleos continued that he was sure she’d be a welcome addition. It seemed like he genuinely was excited. He’d even finished all of her enrollment paperwork.
After discussing Rina and the man known as Bruce, who was going around teaching evocation, the symposium finally began. Representatives from each school of magic were to demonstrate several techniques that they’d been training for that day to use.
And that was where Mira noted one difference from the time she’d participated before: the number of representatives. This time, there were three. Cleos said this was to give even more outstanding students a chance to shine, as well as to show off a wider array of techniques from each discipline.
The techniques and spells shown off by the representatives would become the signature spells of each discipline. People would rush to learn them if they were powerful, potentially stifling the innovation and development of other spells and techniques. For this reason, they decided to choose three representatives who excelled at using different spells and techniques.
The symposium was undoubtedly much more meaningful than it had been back when Mira first attended. And yet…the representatives were still very much students from Mira’s point of view. Still, seeing how dedicated they were and how much they aspired to improve reminded Mira of when she was just starting out.
I’ve gotta work my butt off so they don’t beat me someday.
As she watched the students’ demonstrations, Mira once more burned with determination.
She’d spent the past week researching things that were doable at her level. But soon, she’d have to aim higher. Perhaps it was time to really give ascendent evocation a go.
As she was thinking this, it came time for the representatives from the School of Evocation.
“Oh ho, isn’t that…?”
The first of the representatives was the blonde girl with pigtails. The day she’d come back to the Kingdom of Alcait, she’d seen the girl as she was passing through the academy’s grounds. It definitely felt like she’d met her somewhere before. Mira leaned over and casually asked Cleos about her.
“Oh, her? Well…”
Speaking confidentially, Cleos explained the girl’s situation without pretense or concern for it being privileged information. Her name was Emilia Flores, and she was one of the three daughters of house Flores, which belonged to the noble line of Ozstein. Despite being only fourteen years old, she was standing on the stage as one of the most talented students in the School of Evocation.
“Oh ho, so she’s a noble lady, huh? I see…”
That would explain why she’d seemed a bit full of herself. Mira was clearly prejudiced by knowing that she was the daughter of a noble family, and yet, Emilia did give off that vibe.
However, from what Cleos explained, she was very dedicated and passionate about her studies. Also, she was very righteous and disliked anything unfair.
“Most importantly, and she’s mentioned this to me before, she’s the leader of a coalition of fans that love Master Danblf.”
“You don’t say?!”
Mira recalled a story she’d heard about a girl of noble birth going after students from another department who were making fun of Danblf. That must have been Emilia.
Perhaps as a testament to this, the technique she’d begun to demonstrate was the simultaneous dark knight evocation that Danblf had been so skilled at. Danblf, the One-Man Army, was capable of simultaneously summoning a thousand evocations. And his ability to do so was an indispensable part of the myth surrounding him.
Having deep respect and admiration for Danblf, the girl had spent all her time training obsessively to do the same.
“Oh ho. She’s only just learned that technique? And yet, she can already summon two at the same time? She’s quite skilled. Hrmm, yes, this one has got potential.”
The thought she’d had about the girl being a bit full of herself went out the window. Watching her like a parent during a school play, Mira now fully approved of her. Emilia’s skills were the real deal. She couldn’t summon instantaneously like Mira and needed some time to prepare. But the fact that she could do it at all was huge.
In the art of evocation, there existed a factor known as the maximum number of summoning slots. And so simultaneous evocation didn’t involve simply calling forth multiple evocations to help one do battle. The major benefit of simultaneous evocation was that it allowed one to summon multiple armor spirits using only a single summoning slot.
Those at a student level were likely limited to three slots. In other words, were they to summon three individual dark knights, then they wouldn’t be able to summon anything else. However, if they were to summon three at once, then they’d still have two summon slots open. This increased the number of options available when coming up with a battle plan.
Mira felt as if she might have some things to teach the girl who’d devoted herself to learning simultaneous evocation. She looked closely at the evocation techniques she was demonstrating while carefully studying the flow of her mana and how exactly her techniques were formulated.
The Spell Symposium concluded without incident.
The judges gathered around and assessed how each school had done, something which Mira was present for as well. Once judging had been concluded, it was the School of the Holy Arts that came away with the most points. The School of Evocation came in sixth.
Emilia’s simultaneous summons didn’t end up getting much attention. It was impressive from a technical perspective, but since she hadn’t demonstrated how to make practical use of such a technique, it left something to be desired. Mira could understand their assessment. Given how the symposium now emphasized practicality, if one were to demonstrate simultaneous evocation, it’d be important to show how their remaining summoning slots could be utilized.
Even so, the School of Evocation managed to get sixth place because the other two summoners had summoned a griffin and a red-footed pony, showing off not only how to use them as transportation but the different ways one could fight while mounted.
While they still hadn’t won, they managed to escape last place, where the School of Evocation had perpetually languished. It was all thanks to Cleos, Professor Hinata, and all the other students.
“Still, that’s a bit of a shame…”
The results of their assessment and the details of their rationale were delivered to the students by the teachers individually. Emilia was probably getting the bad news right about now.
On her way to the dressing room with Cleos to congratulate the representatives from the School of Evocation, Mira thought about how Emilia must’ve felt. She must’ve really put in a lot of work to pick up simultaneous evocation. And yet, the score she got reflected none of the hard work she’d put in. Despite going up on stage as a representative and doing her best, she’d ended up bombing. That must’ve felt pretty rotten.
Approaching the dressing room, they heard a voice ring out from the other side.
“Stupid! I’m so stupid! I let myself get carried away because I learned how to use simultaneous evocation like Master Danblf! Sixth place doesn’t cut it! Master Danblf would laugh his pants off at anyone who’d be happy with that!”
Considering the words, the voice had to be Emilia. It seemed like she was beating herself up over what’d happened.
“You’re wrong. You did very well!” Mira called out as she opened the door to the dressing room before walking imperiously over to Emilia. She wanted to tell her this so badly that she couldn’t even bother to worry about how it might look to open the door to a girls’ dressing room unannounced.
Despite jumping in shock at Mira shouting out to her, she turned to look at Mira. Then a look of surprise washed over her face as if she’d realized something.
“Huh? Ah…! You’re…!”
“Sorry for bursting in, Emilia. Um, this is Miss Mira. She is Master Danblf’s disciple, whom I told you about the other day.”
“Ah… I thought as much…”
Emilia also remembered seeing her while she was passing through the campus grounds the week before. After discreetly checking on the situation, Cleos had gone in to introduce Mira. At first, a faint look of joy flashed over Emilia’s face, but it was soon replaced by visible embarrassment.
She must’ve really felt bad about the results of the symposium. Sensing as much, Mira let Emilia know that her simultaneous summoning was very impressive.
“Was it really? Thank you,” Emilia said despite still being a bit bewildered.
It seemed hearing as much from the disciple of her hero managed to cheer her up a bit. The disappointment on her face lessened, and she began to recover a bit of her pep. Yet she still looked quite bewildered. The reason for this look was Mira…
Looking a bit unsure but finally resolving to speak, Emilia bowed. “Uh… Um. I’m sorry about before!”
Now it was Mira’s turn to be bewildered. “What do you mean by before…?”
They’d been far away from each other when she’d seen her at the academy, so there wasn’t really anything that could’ve happened then. What exactly was it she was referring to?
Clueless, Mira stared at Emilia to see if she could recall something. As she did so, the feeling she’d previously had came rushing back to her. It really did feel as if she had seen her somewhere. Perhaps because she was being ogled so intently, Emilia began to look embarrassed. Paying no heed to this, Mira continued racking her brain.
Nothing was really coming to mind.
Emilia quickly interjected, “…At the continental railroad station.”
“O-oh! That’s right. You were the young girl with that grizzled, old gentleman, weren’t you?!”
Having remembered who she was from the hint Emilia had given her, Mira finally remembered what she’d been referencing. She had been standing on the platform for first-class passengers at Silverside Station when an older gentleman and a younger girl had gotten off the train.
At the time, she noticed the archetypal steeliness of the elderly gentleman, accompanied by a younger girl. Now that she thought about it, the young girl had had all the same features as Emilia. The train had arrived at the platform coming from Ozstein…
Long story short, she’d passed by Emilia while on her way to Alcait Academy.
“What a coincidence, bumping into you again like this,” Mira said, recalling their encounter.
Emilia still seemed agitated. “So um…” she said before glancing furtively at Mira.
“Hrmm, I’m glad I remembered… But did you do anything that would require an apology?”
She remembered their first meeting now, but what made her want to apologize? Mira only recalled it having been a brief moment, and so she really had no idea what it could be.
And so, Emilia began to explain, despite it seeming difficult for her to say. At that time, she’d blown up at Mira because she thought Mira had been staring at her.
Hearing this and finally understanding what she was talking about, Mira let out a laugh. She had cared so little about the incident that she didn’t even recall it. She let Emilia know that there was no need to worry about it.
“Th-thank you,” Emilia said, seeming both happy and relieved. To a girl like her, who looked up to and admired Danblf, his pupil was also someone to be held in high esteem.
However, she’d acted very impolitely toward Mira. And ever since she saw her at the academy, Emilia had been worried sick about how she’d acted. But Mira’s magnanimous words came as a relief.
“I saw just how skilled you are at the symposium. Your simultaneous evocation was quite impressive,” Mira said, getting back on track and praising Emilia once more. But that wasn’t all she had to say. “But if I could help you make a few small changes, I think you could do it even better. So, Emilia…do you have any time after this?”
Mira was ready and willing to immediately show her the ropes when it came to simultaneous evocation. A private lesson from Danblf’s pupil was something she couldn’t even have dared to wish for. The idea must’ve really pleased Emilia, as her face immediately lit up.
But it fell the very next moment, having seemed to remember something.
“Today…I’ve got sword-fighting lessons…”
She had something to do afterward. Cleos chimed in that in order to sharpen the students’ dark and holy knights’ skills, an instructor employed at the castle had been coming by once a week to give special lessons. Up until recently, Cleos had been acting as their dark knights’ sword-fighting teacher, but there was only so much he could teach. He added that ever since the instructor from the castle had started coming, he’d been learning a lot as well. In short, the instructor was even more skilled than Cleos’s dark knight.
“Oh ho, that sounds interesting!”
Mira was interested in this training herself now, hoping that she might be able to help her own dark and holy knights grow. Perhaps it was due to the Spirit King’s blessing, but within the past week, she had learned from her research that the upper limit that’d been set for the growth of her armor spirits had increased. They now had a higher level cap.
Considering this, sword-fighting practice was the perfect opportunity to see whether or not they could learn some new moves.
“Why don’t we take a rain check on my lessons then?” Mira said to Emilia before turning to Cleos to say that she wanted to watch these sword-fighting lessons. Her study of evocation was always her top priority.
“All right. We’ve still got some time, but how about we head over to the training area?” Cleos answered, beginning to walk away. He must’ve picked up on what Mira had been thinking.
“By rain check, you mean…” Emilia said, sounding troubled, before following after them.
She’d been worried that that day would be her only chance to get special lessons from the Wise Man’s pupil. But there was no way that Mira wouldn’t give special treatment to an aspiring summoner, especially when the summoner in question was a Danblf fan.
And so, Emilia’s special lesson was already a done deal.
Of course, Emilia had no way of knowing how Mira felt. She wondered if Mira hadn’t just said all that to be nice and whether she could believe her. Worried and anxious, she kept her eyes fixed on Mira and Cleos, who’d gone ahead of her.
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