How a Catastrophe-Level Magician Lives

Several days passed after that.

Finally, Rekas came to school.

With a bandage connecting his shoulder to one arm, as if he hadn’t fully recovered yet.

It seems he had particularly badly injured his right arm, which was his main arm during that duel.

Still, he didn’t appear to have difficulty moving, so he must have recovered enough to attend classes.

Rekas approached me.

“Hey.”

The guy who spoke to me first paused for a moment after making eye contact with me, then said:

“…As promised, I’ll lend you a magic book of any magic you want for a week.”
“……”

Ah, so that was it.
I had been waiting for this.

Until he recovered enough to return to the academy classes.

Nod.

“Then write down on a piece of paper what magic books you have and pass it to me.”
“…Alright.”

After that conversation, Rekas quietly returned to his seat.

Somehow, he seemed different from how he had appeared before.

Could it be that his strong pride and hot temper had been somewhat lowered through this defeat?

‘He’s the one who said things like explosion magic is the strongest at the end. He must be feeling quite complicated about this defeat.’

I understand.

How he feels.

However, if he experiences war a few times like my previous life, such pride will quickly disappear.

Solely survival.
It was a time when I had to struggle just to live. Back then.

Well, he might have met a different end than my previous self, since he’s quite a high-level magician.

“……”

More problematic than that is this obvious gaze piercing the back of my head.

When I slightly turned my head towards where the gaze was coming from, I saw Aina startle and quickly avert her eyes to the side.

“…Hmm?”

Honestly, I don’t know why she’s acting like that.

She’s been like this continuously since coming to school today.

Could there be some magic I taught her that isn’t working as she thought?

However, I didn’t think it was something I needed to go and ask directly, so I decided to quietly leave it be, thinking she would approach me first if she needed help.

I turned my attention away and looked at the teacher who had just entered through the classroom door and stood at the podium.

Soon the class began, and I listened to the lesson about the mechanical relationships of magic that the teacher was explaining.

“……”

During the class, Aina von Frost was half-listening to the lesson, her gaze fixed on the back of Frey’s head, who was sitting in the front left seat.

With an obvious stare and an expressionless face showing little change in expression, she quietly thought:

‘…Since coming to class today. He hasn’t shown any signs of having an intimate conversation with anyone other than Rekas even once.’

He’s just like me.

Aina inadvertently thought this.

She narrowed her eyes.

‘Am I his only friend? I guess he’s really not interested in anything but magic as usual?’

For some reason, this thought made Aina feel subtly good.

‘…That smiling face too. He probably only showed it to me.’

For some reason, Aina felt strangely proud.

‘I’m embarrassed…. Why am I acting like this? What is this emotion?’

Aina von Frost.
Fourteen years old.
She was at the blooming age experiencing puberty, the second sexual characteristic.

It was also the point when Aina, who usually had little interest in her surroundings, became interested and curious about someone other than magic for the first time.

Later, during the first break after the first period.

As soon as the class ended, Aina noticed Rekas standing up and going to Frey.

Rekas’s seat was quite a few rows in front of where Aina was sitting, towards the center.

Rekas spoke bluntly in front of Frey, who was sitting at his desk. He handed over a white paper memo with something written on it with the hand of his uninjured arm.

“Here. This is the list of magic books I can lend you.”
“……”

In Aina’s view, Frey silently received it while sitting in his seat, only turning his body towards Rekas.

Then he began to examine the list written on the given paper.

A moment later.

Frey handed the paper back to Rekas, who had been standing quietly until the end after giving the memo, and said:

“I’ll take this one. [Magic to Minimize the Presence of Magic].”
“…Understood.”

A book of just 1 volume.

On the spot, Rekas produced his grimoire and took out the magic book Frey had requested, handing it over.

“Then I’ll return to my seat now. With this, I’ve kept my promise to you.”
“Alright. I’ll return it according to the time limit.”

With that conversation over, Rekas really returned to his seat.

Frey, left alone in his seat, was seen immediately opening and starting to read that magic book.

“……”

Aina secretly thought to herself, ‘He really loves magic…’ at his desire to explore magic even beyond herself. She even inadvertently muttered it out loud in a small voice without realizing it.

Aina came to think that he was truly a boy with similar interests to herself.

“Hup…!!”
Swish──!
At the private training ground of House Aust.

There was someone swinging a sword along with the wind.

It was Aura von Aust, with her pure white ponytail and blue-green eyes.

She had now grown into a completely proper young lady, prettier than before.

Aura, who had been honing her sword skills infused with magic alone in the training ground, stopped her sword-swinging motion and wiped the sweat that had flowed down her forehead with the back of her hand.

“Phew…!”
The swordsmanship Aura had just shown was not pure swordsmanship, but sword techniques accompanied by supplementary magic.

It was her own new swordsmanship that applied wind magic.

She stood still, taking a rest, and inadvertently looked up at the clear sky above.

The blue sky where clouds were floating.

“……”

‘…I wonder where he is and what he’s doing now?’

The person she recalled was none other than the young boy she had accidentally met and received help from on the terrace during her tenth birthday party when she was young.

It was Frey at the age of ten.

Although she had been holding back until now, thinking that conducting a sinister background check was not desirable as a knight from a knight family…

‘…Should I try to find out in detail now?’

In the end, Aura couldn’t hold back anymore and had such thoughts.

And as she turned around, stopping her training and leaving the private training ground through the attached passage,

On the training ground floor, countless traces of sword spirits were clearly revealed, as if sharp wind trajectories had passed through several times.

It was another proof that her pure skill had already far surpassed the ordinary level.

Thud-

He quietly closed the book he had been holding in both hands.

It was a quiet classroom, probably lunchtime.

In the empty classroom, Frey had finished reading [Magic to Minimize the Presence of Magic] that he had received from Rekas, using the break time and lunch time.

‘It was good magic. The trap explosion magic with high stealth that I saw in the middle of the fight with Rekas back then. This magic must have played a big role in that.’

Frey understood.
After reading the entire magic book, he realized what was the most important and crucial role in Rekas’s seemingly highly stealthy secret magic.

The list that Rekas had handed over to him during the first period break time didn’t seem to have many magics that particularly appealed to Frey himself, who possessed light magic stronger than any other attribute.

Most were just lists of flame explosion magics, the main and core magic of House Burst to which Rekas belonged.

Even if not such magic, all of them were just lists of magics that helped with flame explosion magic, which was only assumed for explosion-type magic.

Therefore, the magic that caught Frey’s attention and appealed to his magical curiosity the most, which could be learned in just 1 volume, was

This [Magic to Minimize the Presence of Magic] book, which he ultimately chose and requested from Rekas.

‘An application magic of nature change that can give stealth to all attack and defense magic, not just explosion-type magic.’

For example, the magic that Frey himself had come to use frequently.

Ray.

A beginner light magic that can aim by pointing with just one index finger and shoot a compressed point of light as a line.

The element of stealth was being added to this magic, which could attack enemies with its fast speed.

That alone might give him an almost invincible silent casting attack magic.

‘Ray is very suitable for silent casting. The speed to reach the target is literally almost the speed of light. If this magic, which is already difficult to avoid even if known, is given stealth to minimize its presence, it would be quite troublesome for the opponent.’

It was magic he had finally decided on after considering and assuming that as well.

‘Rekas said he would lend it for a week… But there’s no need to make him wait until then.’

Frey’s speed of thoroughly reading and completing magic books was truly astonishing.

Usually, it takes several days and needs to be read several more times even then for magic books.
That’s why Rekas had given him a full week.

It meant that his speed of not just reading the magic book, but immediately understanding each phrase and sentence in his head, and accepting it while running simulations in his imagination, was unparalleled compared to others.

It was the result of his desire for magic and endless curiosity. A product of excessive passion and his own special talent that was extraordinary.

‘It was the same in my previous life, but even when I was young in House Phoenix, I was holed up in the library all day. The speed and time it takes to read books and magic books I encounter for the first time have been greatly reduced. I wonder if this is also considered a talent to others…’

Thinking such unimportant thoughts, Frey was now walking down the corridor to go to the cafeteria for a late meal.

He was hungry.
Very much so.
To the point of feeling an infinite sense of emptiness, being hungry no matter how much he ate…

Unaware that he was gradually turning into a monster himself.

That day ended quietly without any other particular events.
And some time later, after a few months passed.
The first semester of the first year, along with his first midterm evaluation, the first vacation season approaching summer vacation arrived.