C140: The Second Test (2)
Rene's remarks were enough to surprise other students.
"What did she just say?"
"Isn't it possible that she didn't make a magic square? That's why she has no parchment."
"On Mr. Rudger's test? Crazy."
When the students were buzzing, Rudger stared at Rene silently and slowly opened his mouth.
"Then what are you going to do? Is it safe to say that there is no magic square to demonstrate?"
At the words, Rene shook her head.
"No, I definitely made a magic square. But…"
"But?"
"It's difficult to draw on a parchment so I'm going to show you in person."
Rudger was going to ask Rene what she made but seeing Rene's unshakable eyes, it was clear that she didn't speak empty words.
"Good. Show me."
Instead, if she doesn't live up to his expectations, even if she is Rene, she won't be able to avoid being scolded.
Rene cleared her breath and roused her magic power. She put a lot of thought into making the magic square for the test.
The other students ended up showing the attribute element through the magic square, but she couldn't even do that due to her attributeless magic power.
It was disadvantageous because she was lagging behind from the start, so Rene did the best she could.
She couldn't help but be at a loss at the start but thanks to the book that Rudger lended her, she was able to figure out how to move forward and not give up.
'I'll show it to the teacher. That I've changed this much.'
She stretched her hands forward and slowly generated mana. When she focused her mind completely, she felt like she was the only one left in the world.
Before long, magic lines drawn with mana began to appear in front of Rene slowly but clearly. Rudger's eyebrows wiggled when he saw them. Of course, his expression quickly returned to its original state and no student noticed the changes because everyone was looking at the magic square created by Rene.
"……It's a three-dimensional magic square."
"As expected, teacher recognized it at a glance."
Rudger looked at Line's magic square floating in front of him and evaluated it that way.
If the other magic squares were a two-dimensional picture drawn on parchment, the one that Rene made was a three-dimensional magic square.
This formula, resembling the Rubik's Cube, was called a three-dimensional square in mathematics and a Magic Cube in the occult.
Rudger scrutinized the flow of magic carved into the magic square to be sure that it wasn't simply imitating the shape.
'Perfect.'
There's nothing wrong with it. All the horizontal, vertical, height, and solid diagonal lines that exist in the cube, as well as the sum of the magical powers in the cross section, are all the same.
It was a perfect three-dimensional magic square, with the mana flowing evenly in any direction and there was no deviation.
'Did she study the magic constant to this extent? It would have been insufficient to produce this level of results within the given time period, but she did it.'
Rene's shoulders, which were confident at first, began to shrug a little since Rudger was silent for a while.
"Rene."
It was then that Rudger, who took his eyes off the three-dimensional magic square, opened his mouth.
"Your score is A+."
"What?"
"On the contrary, it is a pity that I can only give this much. That's how perfect the magic square you made."
"What?"
Rudger's successive compliments made Rene unable to come to her senses, she never expected him to complement her like that.
Rudger's words were not empty-handed but sincere.
'You're born with this kind of talent.'
Rene can't use attribute element magic unlike other students because of her attributeless magic. At the same time, releasing mana was quite difficult for her.
But her gains were as big as her losses. Rene's perception of space, especially her three-dimensional space, was significantly higher than that of the other students.
'No, she doesn't have to compare herself to other students. She's just overwhelming.'
Flora Lumos, who made Jisoo Gwimundo through the magic square, was also a great talent but even she had to admit that Rene magic square surpassed hers.
"Rene."
"……."
"Rene."
"What? Who? Me?"
"There is no one else here but you."
"Ah, yes. You called me……."
Rene was still out of her mind. She did my best with a determination not to disappoint Mr. Rudger, but she didn't know she would get such a good evaluation.
"Rene, how did you come up with this magic square? Even if you had the idea, it would have been almost impossible to actually implement it in such a short period of time."
"Uh, that's……."
Rene calmly explained her circumstances.
"At first, I just thought a lot about making something new but that wasn't enough so I tried to deal with the clashing magical power in various ways."
"Have you dealt with it?"
"Somehow……."
"How did you do it?"
Rene nodded shyly.
"I didn't mean to, but the flow of my mana is, um…Different? This is what happened when I left it to the flow and developed the magic square that I envisioned in my head."
She just did it and it became natural. Those were words that only those with extreme talents could say.
'You just did it and it worked? That's funny.'
'You should stop lying.'
When the students heard that, they thought that Rene was bluffing on purpose to look good to Rudger. However, Rudger's expression did not change much.
Rudger knew better than anyone else that Rene was not a person who would try to look good by lying so that meant that everything she said was true.
'The magic flowed naturally?'
Usually, there is no case where the magical power itself moves beyond the caster's will. It was most likely that she did that instinctively without realizing it.
And it was highly likely that the reason why she suddenly showed such talent was because she read the book Rudger lent her a while ago.
'Maybe the book I lent her served as a kind of trigger.'
Attributeless mana is an unknown power whose origin is still unknown. However, looking at the magic square created by Rene now, he had a sense of where it is specialized.
"Teacher, are you okay?"
"……It's not a big deal. Anyway, great magic square, I enjoyed it. Thank you for your hard work."
"Oh, yes."
Rene couldn't get rid of the feeling that Rudger was wrapping things up in a hurry. However, the reason why she couldn't bear to ask why was because, although it was only for a moment, Rudger's expression was too serious.
"I believe everyone remembers their scores. If there's anyone who erased it from their memory, check the classroom bulletin board. I'll send an assistant soon and announce it."
The students who scored low sighed deeply at his words.
"The top five in the second test are Flora Lumos and Rene, who received A+, Julia Plumhart, who received A, Iona O'Valley and Aidan, who received B+. I didn't mean to, but the numbers are just right."
The above-named five were eligible for the second framework.
Rudger said he would give it to them after the upcoming magic festival because he was busy right now.
"Ha. I really want to die. Why is it a D?"
"You are better off. I got an E- and although it's not the lowest score, what's the difference from the lowest score?"
"I should have worked harder."
The expression of aristocratic students was seriously distorted by the fact that there are only two nobles among the top five in this test.
In addition, one of the top five is not a commoner, but a Suin.
The students who have been educated for a long time got lower grades than the barbaric Suin people. This made them feel like they were in a dream.
"If you have any complaints about your test results, tell me directly. If you really feel it's unfair, I'll review it individually."
When Rudger spoke with his eyes tightened, the mouths of the students who were secretly muttering complaints closed.
That was the end of the second test.
The students packed their own bags, so some students wanted to go back to the dormitory and rest, and some students went to take other tests.
Rudger stared at Rene, who was still standing there with a puzzled face.
'Is it the non-attribute magic?'
Non-attribute magic is an unknown power and even Rudger does not yet know its origin. Even in the research book on non-attribute magic, the details of what kind of power this magical power was were not written down.
Most of the things included were explanations of how to use the non-attribute magic.
'Mana flowed naturally into the three-dimensional magic square. It didn't feel like I was forced to move. Is the magic rate that high?'
Magic rate it's a measure of how well a wizard's mana matches magic when performing a specific spell. This is because even if the same magic is used, the magic power varies depending on the attribute of the wizard.
[Fluttering flame], which is considered the most representative attack magic, is stronger when used by a fire attribute wizard than by a water attribute wizard. That's because the magic rate ratio is higher.
'The non-attribute magic had the lowest magic damage rate for any magic. The fact that this magic square is different means that it specializes in that direction?'
Perhaps.
Rudger made an assumption in his mind.
Non-attribute magic is not just magic specialized for elements that exist in nature. It is a much higher level than that, yet it is impossible for people in the world to measure it.
'For example……space.'
There are many types of magic in this world, but the only one that does not exist is space magic.
Teleportation and Blink were treated as false legends in this world.
'It's quite funny. There's anti-magic, dreams, divinity, paintings, origami, and everything else, but there's no space magic.'
What's funnier is that there's also magic to interfere with "time," but there's no space. Of course, this time magic is not very useful compared to its name, but it exists.
In other words, Rudger was the only one in the world who knew how to use spatial magic.
'If Rene magic is really about space…….'
It was still only a hypothesis, so he couldn't be certain but if the hypothesis becomes true, then.
'That power is essential to me.'
* * *
Flora Lumos moved with her best friend Cheryl Wagner to take the next exam.
Cheryl asked Flora, who was walking silently down the hall.
"Flora, how did you do that?"
"What?"
"The magic square. Mr. Rudger's class seems different, but it's very difficult but Flora was number one. How did you do it?"
Cheryl's intentions must have been pure praise for her genius but Flora couldn't be happy.
"I'm not number one."
"But Flora got the highest score."
"……Should I say it myself? It's because there are other people who got the highest score besides me."
"That kid named Rene?"
"What was that magic circle? And also teacher, he never complimented me like that……."
To be honest, I was upset and it occurred to her that she encountered Rene near Rudger's office. They didn't know each other, so she just ignored it at the time, but it was very suspicious when she thought about it.
'…That little girl.'
Flora bit her lip slightly, recalling Rene. It was hard to imagine he approached the student first because of the iron walled character of Rudger but if it's the other way around, it somehow made sense.
'No, I'm sure. If it was anyone else, they would be overwhelmed by Mr. Rudger's spirit and they wouldn't be able to talk to him, but if it was someone with the audacity to walk around with the Third princesses…….'
Flora thought she was docile, but she was more like a fox than she thought. She seemed to understand why Rene had frequent conflicts with other aristocratic students before. However, Flora decided to ignore Rene for now because the tests came first.
"……."
"……."
Until she met Rene and the Third Princess at the entrance of the classroom where her next exam would take place.