“This is terrible!!”
The moment I showed my face at the academy building, Glen’s scream echoed throughout. Wondering what was happening, I looked down the hallway to see a flustered Glen and faculty members lined up facing the wall. The strange thing was the faculty’s condition.
The faculty members were facing empty walls without moving, and some were even on all fours on the ground, heads hanging down. The scene looked like a battlefield of corpses, making me tilt my head in confusion.
“…What happened?”
When I asked this, Glen turned around vigorously.
“Oh, Aoi-kun! We’re in trouble! This is terrible!”
“Glen-san, you’re losing your vocabulary. Please calm down.”
I told the unusually flustered Glen to calm down. He exhaled deeply, straightened his back, and stroked his beard with one hand.
“…Mm. I showed you something rather unseemly.”
Glen forced himself to appear calm, but his expression remained grim. He narrowed his eyes and slowly looked around the hallway, then exhaled shallowly.
“Actually, the students learning under you have been practicing lightning magic in the academy courtyard for about a week. The faculty witnessed this.”
“What was the problem with that? Did they perhaps destroy some of the faculty’s personal belongings…”
When I asked back, not understanding what Glen was getting at, he responded with a deep sigh. He groaned while holding his head with one hand before answering.
“…The faculty lost confidence in their own prepared presentations.”
When Glen muttered this, some faculty members groaned “Ugh” and held their heads. Looking closely, it seemed that general faculty members had gathered in the hallway. Incidentally, the hallway windows were flashing intensely with light from outside, so lightning magic was probably being practiced outside.
“…By the way, what kind of presentations were the faculty planning to give?”
When I asked, Glen nodded lightly and spoke.
“Mainly presentations applying existing magic. Manipulation of fire and water, combinations of two types of magic. Some even involved collaborations between two faculty members. Normally these would all be sufficient content, but this time the students’ presentations seem like they’ll surpass them.”
At Glen’s explanation, sounds of lamentation echoed through the hallway like spirits. It was eerily reminiscent of vengeful ghosts. Glancing at this sideways, I replied to Glen.
“I see. Then there’s no problem if we elevate each presentation to something better.”
When I answered this, Glen blinked.
“Starting now? That’s surely impossible, even for you, Aoi-kun…”
When I made the suggestion, Glen spoke with a troubled expression.
“It’s five faculty presentations, right? Let’s try it first.”
I said this and looked at the lamenting, groaning faculty members.
“Increasing the water in a cup to create an improvised river? Indeed, that might be a bit plain.”
“Ugh.”
I had spoken my honest impression, and one faculty member became dejected.
“Ah, I’m sorry. Well then, let’s think about the presentation content right away. For a simple change, you could create a small mountain and increase water on top to make a waterfall… but while we’re at it, let’s add ice transformation and create an improvised ice castle.”
“E-earth magic, water magic, and property transformation… that sounds quite high-level…”
“It depends on the incantation. Let’s devise the incantation content.”
One person seemed likely to make it in time for the presentation. I breathed a sigh of relief. Then I continued listening to each faculty member’s concerns.
“The next person… your presentation content is creating a fire tornado with fire magic? Depending on the scale, I think that would be a sufficiently impressive presentation. Let’s add wind assistance to the incantation. Initially suppress the fire’s intensity on purpose, then create an oxygen pocket at the top of the fire tornado.”
“The next person… earth magic, I see. You’re creating a tall tower on the spot. This could also be quite spectacular if you focus on details. If possible, it might be interesting to use the entire plaza to create a garden, then finally build a massive tower in the center. A garden? I’d personally like to leave it for half a day so people can tour it… ah, I’ll handle the cleanup, so please don’t worry.”
“The next person is… Strauss-san?”
As I was consulting with faculty members about their presentations in turn, somehow Strauss was there too. Strauss was looking down at me with his usual expression and didn’t seem troubled.
“Is there something wrong?”
When I asked this, Strauss tilted his head slightly forward.
“I heard I could get advice about presentations from a senior faculty member if I came here. I had a feeling Aoi was doing this, and I was right.”
“I was giving advice to those troubled about their presentations… ah, I suppose it’s similar. However, you’re not troubled, are you, Strauss-san?”
Strauss crossed his arms and groaned at my question.
“Personally, I don’t think there’s a problem, but I’m also interested in Aoi’s advice. Let me show you first.”
For some reason, Strauss arrogantly told me to watch his presentation. It seemed he had prepared presentation content he was very confident about. Looking down at me with what could be called a smug expression, I felt slightly irritated.
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When we went to the academy’s back garden, tools for Strauss’s cultural festival presentation were lined up. While other faculty had stored their materials away somewhere, Strauss apparently didn’t mind being seen by anyone, leaving his presentation tools and such out in the open.
“What is this airplane-like thing?”
“airplane? It’s a model I made imitating a dragon. I thought the craftsmanship was quite good…”
Strauss was hurt by a word I unconsciously muttered. However, even upon closer inspection, it didn’t look like a dragon at all. The wings were shaped closer to a dragonfly’s, and the body resembled a sausage. At worst, it could be mistaken for a flying hot dog.
But I certainly couldn’t say that.
“So it was a dragon. Indeed, it has wings and horns. You might get a more impressive dragon if you made the head and tail more recognizable.”
“…Do you think so?”
My attempt at covering apparently failed. Strauss looked at his self-made dragon with a subtle expression.
“S-so, how were you planning to use this dragon?”
When I asked, Strauss looked at me with unusually sulky eyes, then immediately returned his gaze to the dragon.
Then he began chanting magic. Wind converged and blew upward from below, trying to lift the target. Through precise magical control, the dragon model floated up gently in a stable posture. Then a board that had been lying on the ground was lifted as if attached to the dragon by string. It appeared to be a panel imitating a mountain. The dragon skillfully circled around it once.
Interesting. Seeing such delicate magical manipulation that any magician would admire, my image of Strauss changed a little. But amazingly, Strauss’s presentation didn’t end there. He stirred up earth to topple the panel, and a tornado of dust rose toward the flying dragon.
The dragon was about to be blown away. Though it should have looked ungainly, somehow I found myself emotionally invested in Strauss’s dragon model.
While I panicked, the dragon gently rode the tornado, gracefully flew around its exterior, and slowly descended to the ground.
“Ooh…!”
An exclamation had escaped me.
Satisfied that I had reacted, Strauss laughed with what sounded like a puff of breath.
“It seems like it was quite a good presentation. Now, how can this presentation be improved?”
Strauss immediately became assertive, demanding improvements to his own presentation. His proud demeanor was somewhat childish.
“Well… Troublingly, I couldn’t think of many places that need improvement.”
“Is that so?”
“For now, since I’d feel bad not helping at all, shall I modify the tools?”
“Eh?”
Ignoring Strauss’s noncommittal response, I performed magic. Using earth magic applications, I tried creating a dragon model and mountain panel. Next to Strauss’s dragon, a white dragon with properly detailed features appeared. It was made of thin metal and hollow inside. Despite its appearance, it was unimaginably light.
And I made the mountain panel into a beautiful iceberg like Everest. It should go well with the white dragon.
“Whether you use it or not is up to you, Strauss-san.”
I said this and bowed, then offered the newly made white dragon and mountain model to Strauss. Perhaps from extreme happiness, Strauss received the white dragon with an even more stern expression than usual, gazing at the dragon’s face while nodding.
“…Ah, thank you.”
He expressed gratitude in a grave voice.
“You’re welcome.”
I bowed in return to Strauss’s thanks and left the scene.
After that, I also helped finish Speyside’s presentation, finally catching my breath. Before I knew it, I had worked steadily until the evening before the cultural festival. Walking through the academy courtyard as the sun was setting, I looked at the long shadows and stretched lightly.
I raised both hands above my head and exhaled.
The town was already in festival mode, but the academy was also very noisy. Perhaps because the faculty were bustling about, the students also seemed restless and unsettled. But the atmosphere wasn’t bad. It was the excited restlessness appropriate for the night before a festival.
I sat on a bench in the courtyard and looked around the academy illuminated by the sunset. Some faculty were apparently still doing presentation rehearsals and such, as sounds of magic being performed echoed from distant locations.
Well, tomorrow will be busy again.
As I was thinking this, an intense flash shot skyward from beyond the academy. The sound of violent electrical discharge rang out, a phenomenon like lightning strikes.
“Lightning magic… it seems someone has taken a step forward.”
While I certainly taught the basics, someone had applied them with their own hands. This was wonderful. Creating better magic, stronger magic, newer magic… if even a few more magicians could be like this, magic would probably advance greatly in just one year.
This cultural festival would be the first step in making that known.
“…I’m looking forward to it.”
I murmured this and looked up at the stars beginning to appear in the sky.
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