Genius Wizard Conceals His Origins

Wherever people gather, conflict inevitably follows.

Even pure children, virtuous religious figures, and wise sages cannot be exceptions to this proposition.

Universities are no different.

The Frauzen Federal University of Magic, a universally acknowledged gathering place of intellectuals, had a flaw that it had kept hidden for decades.

Discrimination based on place of origin and factional disputes. 

In a university where knowledge is power, students from prestigious Frauzen schools naturally held power. At first, it was a natural phenomenon. Because they knew more.

However, as time passed, coming from a prestigious school itself became a source of power.

The factions they formed gained power.

The name of the faction changed several times, but this trend itself never changed. It was a wound that had been festering quietly and steadily.

That wound burst open once again.

The Coffee Club on June 20th. That debate made Johannes, who had been a quiet model student, speak up.

“We need to unite.”

Johannes Born, second in his fourth year of undergraduate studies, seriously declared to a few of his close friends.

“We’re about to graduate. While we were undergraduates, we could endure the humiliation, but to live as magic scholars in the future, we need to join our voices. Are we going to live being disrespected until we get our doctorates?”

It was a reasonable opinion and a radical one at the same time.

Half agreed, but the other half refused to join.

That was enough. From that day on, Johannes Born began to gather people.

It took less than four days for Johannes’s group to be restrained by the faculty.

The pretext was “private activities that go against the academic atmosphere” or something similar, but it was ultimately just an excuse.

“It must be the work of those Black Shield faction bastards. They must find us unpleasant to look at.”

The one fortunate point was that there were quite a few professors and students who were favorable to Johannes.

Most of them were people who had grown tired of authoritarianism or those who had been the targets of criticism from the Black Shield faction from the beginning.

Johannes slowly gathered them together.

In just ten days, a new faction was born at the Federal University of Magic.

Although not an official school of magic, they, too, began to wear badges one by one.

Their symbol was a silver arrow breaking a black shield. [Only on Galaxy Translations! / Axiomatic]

Meanwhile, Johannes remembered the brilliant junior he had seen at the Coffee Club.

“There should be a gray-haired friend of mine in the first year. Let’s make an offer to that friend too.”

The next day.

“Johannes. You mean the first-year top student with gray hair, right?”

“Was he the top student? Probably. A tall young man with gray hair.”

“He said no.”

“Huh?”

“He said no. Said he’s busy.”

Johannes was slightly puzzled. After getting so angry at the debate that he almost broke the table, he now says no when offered? It didn’t make sense.

But it wasn’t much of a problem.

He’s just a first-year student anyway. If he can’t join, it’s only slightly disappointing.

So, the Silver Arrow continued to grow in numbers.

A week passed from then.

The number of people wearing Silver Arrow badges exceeded 50.

It was quite a large number, but still not enough, considering that those Black Shield faction bastards had about 120 members.

Johannes and the Silver Arrow had no intention of stopping.

About a dozen promising graduates had not been assigned to good research labs just because they had fallen out of favor with the Black Shield faction, and it was clear that some current Silver Arrow members would soon become those “promising graduates.”

Once, they even tried to meet Klaus Müller, who was at the center of this situation, but.

The answer was always the same.

It was typical of Professor Müller.

He was a man who remained silent even when the Black Shield faction ran wild using his name and when the opposition tried to tarnish his reputation.

It was well-known that Professor Müller did not get involved in factional disputes.

So, Johannes came up with a plan.

“Professor Müller’s daughter. How about trying to bring her in?”

Even if we can’t move Professor Müller, we might be able to move his daughter. After all, it was she who stepped in to mediate the situation at the Coffee Club that day.

Action was swift.

They immediately sent a member, and an answer came back within a day.

“She says she can’t.”

“Huh?”

“She says she can’t do it. Says she’s busy.”

Johannes got that feeling of déjà vu. *1

Two more weeks passed from then.

It was now late July. As the final exams were coming into view, the Black Shield faction and the Silver Arrow faction simultaneously received a notice from the Student Affairs Office.

Johannes blankly repeated the contents of the notice.

“Mock duel?”

An order to immediately cease external factional activities and to conduct a mock duel after the final exams are over.

Perhaps it was because the factional disputes had become so intense that they were affecting even ordinary students. It seemed that even the faculty, who had been turning a blind eye until now, could no longer just stand by and watch.

Mock duel. [Only on Galaxy Translations! / Axiomatic]

The conflict resolution method of the Federal University of Magic can be written as a time-honored tradition and read as old-fashioned.

It is a group duel using only two old combat spells, [Shoot] and [Barrier], whose power has been significantly weakened, where the losing side must disband their faction within the University of Magic for the next year.

This was the strongest hard-line measure that the Student Affairs Office could take.

“Damn it…”

Johannes was in a dilemma.

If they won, it would be the best thing for the Silver Arrow, but if they lost, it was obvious that the Black Shield faction would become even more arrogant and block the path of students in the same situation as himself.

In other words.

They had to win by any means necessary.

A mock duel consisting of 50 versus 50. Both the Silver Arrow faction and the Black Shield faction would select their participants from among their best students so their skills would be evenly matched.

A variable was needed.

As it happened, Johannes knew well what variable to apply.

A point system determines the outcome of the mock duel. One point for a soldier “eliminating” a soldier.

However, soldiers are not very important in determining the outcome.

It’s the king that is.

In the case of the king, who must be selected from among first-year students, “eliminating” them earns 25 points.

In other words, the mock duel was essentially a game of protecting your own king and eliminating the enemy king first.

Johannes knew a reliable first-year student.

“I need to meet that top student junior.”

Eugene. That was his name.

Last time, he was rejected with the excuse of being busy, but this time, he had no intention of letting him go.

Johannes went directly to the lakeside, where he had heard from friends and juniors that he had been staying recently.

As he crossed the campus, passing through the lawn, a question arose in Johannes’s mind.

The lakeside. It’s certainly a scenic spot, but due to its location at the edge of the campus, it’s a place where students rarely set foot.

What could he be doing there?

And.

That question remained unanswered even after arriving at the lakeside.

“?!”

Johannes saw.

The scenery of the blue lake.

In front of it, Eugene standing with his arms crossed as if displeased, and Julia Müller sitting on the grass, catching her breath.

“W-What on earth are you doing?”

It was a somewhat embarrassing sight, so he retreated without even thinking of asking.

Only then could Johannes understand why those two had said they were busy.

“…Youth, I guess.”

#July 22nd. Clear.

If the two had heard Johannes’s words, they both would have frowned and shaken their heads.

“Haa…”

With a sigh mixed with fatigue, Julia sank into her memories.

She couldn’t erase the memory of that day.

The memory in the infirmary after the debate ended. The day she poured out her emotions to someone other than her family and servants for the first time.

It was embarrassing and made her want to die.

For Julia, showing her bare face to others meant just that.

Because if you take away her appearance and her status as a child of a prestigious family, all that’s left is her twisted personality and her disability.

So Julia had resolved not to mind even if Eugene hated her and then poured out her words.

It seemed that it had actually turned out as she expected. She had heard words like “I don’t like it” after all.

However.

“I didn’t expect the following month to be like this…”

“Are you done resting? We’re going again.”

“J-Just a little more, please.”

“No.”

The rest time was over.

Before she could even protest, Eugene grabbed Julia’s arms and lifted her up.

With just that, Julia’s body, which had been sitting on the grass, was brought to a standing position. [Only on Galaxy Translations! / Axiomatic]

Immediately after.

“Ten seconds. Just hold on for ten seconds. Start.”

“Hnngh…!”

Eugene let go of his hands.

Julia was now standing solely on her two legs without her cane.

Right now, Julia’s legs, drained of all strength, resembled those of a mollusk. Therefore, it would have been natural for her to collapse immediately.

“[Move]…!”

Julia recited the activation phrase, half screaming.

At the same time, a blue light emanated from the brooch on her chest.

Type I Magic [Move] activated.

It was successful.

Creak. 

The leg muscles that were about to crumble from loss of strength suddenly gained support.

Type I Magic can even levitate a person’s body if given enough magical power.

Just as the professor’s grimoire is not in the form of a book, Julia’s brooch is also a kind of magic book, and it is even a high-quality item with enough capacity to not worry about running out of magical power.

In other words.

As long as she maintained concentration, Julia could stand indefinitely.

However.

“Ugh?!”

It was only two weeks ago that she succeeded in casting Type I Magic itself. Julia couldn’t possibly have that level of concentration.

Whoosh—

As soon as her mental image wavered, the magical power scattered, and strength left her legs.

Her body helplessly fell forward.

The future of falling face-first onto the grass and getting dirt all over her body was clearly visible.

The next moment.

Julia’s slender body was enveloped in Eugene’s arms.

He had caught her as she was about to fall.

Eugene grinned.

“Twelve seconds. Well done.”

“…Ha ha, ha.”

Julia could guess her own state.

Sweat ran down her cheeks, and her whole body was covered in dirt. It was a state that would be believable if someone said she had rolled twice on the street.

However, Eugene was smiling more refreshingly than ever before.

I don’t like it.

It was a contrasting expression to when he had frowned at her on the first day of the entrance ceremony when she had come all dressed up.

That wasn’t the only reason she didn’t like it.

This was the fifth time Julia had fallen into Eugene’s arms since she started “standing.”

His broad and firm body was enough to make even Julia, who was skilled at acting expressions, blush slightly.

Yet Eugene just smiled refreshingly, showing no sign of minding at all.

This was quite vexing for Julia, who had confidence in her own appearance.

Whether knowing this feeling or not, Eugene carefully set Julia down on the ground and then spoke.

“We’ll rest for five minutes and then go again. This time, try to balance your joints by also using [Rotation] along with [Move]. Just using [Move] alone will stiffen your body, so you won’t be able to walk properly.”

“…”

Julia silently glared at Eugene.

It was the afternoon of the first month of walking practice.

T/N

Ever get that feeling of déjà vu? This line was a personal addition; it wasn’t in the original text.