The Knight of Clingy Young Ladies

002.

The incident was trivial.

As always, Blamia was teaching Sinat magic.

Kalen stood by, sweeping the house and observing them.

Under normal circumstances, once Sinat’s concentration reached its limit, she would have thrown a tantrum and run to Kalen.

But this time, the slight change began unexpectedly with Kalen himself.

– Woosh

The vivid shape of flames, crackling sounds, and a warm heat erupted around him.

It was the manifestation of a first-tier magic, the foundation of magical skills.

“…”

Blamia suddenly turned her head at the scent of the magic in the air.

Her gaze halted at Kalen, who stood with a broom in one hand and a look of discomfort on his face as he manifested the first-tier magic with his other hand.

The sight was quite shocking.

Why wouldn’t it be? The very magic Kalen was naturally manifesting was the one that Sinat, her granddaughter, had been unable to master for months.

“Yo… you…”

Blamia approached Kalen with a trembling voice, stunned.

Sinat, on the other hand, was overjoyed at escaping the grueling study session for once.

As Blamia approached Kalen, she gazed at the flames still blazing in his hand, a sight that bewildered even someone with Blamia’s unparalleled knowledge of magic.

The gap between those who thrive and those who struggle due to the advent of magic is no exaggeration.

It’s based on the peculiar nature of magic.

What was once thought to be a gift from the gods has long become an exclusive luxury reserved for the elite.

From the royal family to the high-ranking nobility, everyone capable of using magic belonged to lofty families.

And those who followed were always members of the same bloodline.

Nowadays, if you want to use magic, there are only two ways: you’re either born into a family capable of wielding magic, or you hire a teacher for an astronomical sum of money.

Since birth is determined by fate, it was left out, but even so, mages no longer wished to share their secrets.

Thus, learning magic became a colossal expense, inevitably turning it into a luxury that commoners could only dream of.

It’s true that magic was originally intended for combat and war, but now it has become merely a decorative status symbol among the nobility.

— Or so everyone thought a few years ago.

Nothing lasts forever, as they say.

Just as the first nobles manifested magic, the common folk began to show signs of discovering it among their own ranks.

Though still rare, even those civilians who reached middle-tier capabilities are extremely few.

Blamia considered this an interim phase.

She believed that someday, regardless of noble or common birth, everyone would be able to use magic.

But this… it cannot be.

Eleven years old, that’s all.

At most, just eleven years old.

Though she often criticized her granddaughter for not mastering even the first-tier magic, it was a natural progression.

Most noble families’ young lords and ladies only start mastering magic one or two years before adulthood.

That is, around fifteen to sixteen years of age.

Blamia nagging Sinat was purely out of greed.

She thought that by pushing Sinat, it might lighten the emotional burden her granddaughter carried.

The reason Kalen was brought in was also tied to that thought.

There were house chores to oversee, and also to support Sinat, but…

This enigmatic boy doesn’t seem to realize what he’s done.

To Kalen, this was what Blamia said.

“You… try learning magic.”

To use magic, first you must feel and draw out the mana within your body.

That’s common knowledge, something even a novice entering the world of magic must know.

And Blamia? She was facing the complete negation of that common knowledge.

Kalen was using magic without mana.

It’s unclear how this is possible, but denying what’s happening right before her eyes would be folly.

This wasn’t the level of what is commonly referred to as a “genius.”

Without any prior instruction, even the royal heirs might compare to his ability.

Blamia directly inquired about Kalen’s past.

His mother was rarely seen due to her work as a courtesan, and he only knew his father as a baron from a rural village.

When one manifests magic, there is a verification process where the user must ultimately identify themselves.

At least in Blamia’s memory, no one above the rank of baron had ever undergone such verification.

So how on earth does one explain this speed?

All she had done was teach the very basics—just a few first-tier foundation spells.

And yet Kalen thought actively.

Unconsciously, he approached the underlying concepts of higher-tier magic to develop the basics.

The knowledge she had imparted was absorbed within less than a day.

Though she understood how difficult it was to break through the barriers between each rank, there was no denying his performance was admirable for someone his age.

Even if there were other intentions behind taking Kalen as a disciple…

His granddaughter Sinat.

Unlike her peers, she was the only one who didn’t outright refuse a hardheaded girl. If he took an interest in magic, Sinat might follow suite.

Thus, Blamia finds Kalen’s talent both astonishing and somewhat regret-inducing.

The only person left in Blamia’s life is Sinat.

It would remain this way until her last breath, the heart of a grandmother who had lost her own children.

*

Blamia never intended to keep Kalen for life.

She didn’t desire the responsibility of raising “just some kid” she’d picked up to befriend her granddaughter.

She was far from any kind of altruism, but she did believe that teaching him to at least ascend in rank was sufficient.

“Uses are always different. One can become a scholar, a teacher, or perhaps even a mercenary.”

Magic has long been classified into seven tiers.

Even in her prime, there were no users capable of breaking the sixth tier.

Blamia, famed as a “Grand Mage,” reached the sixth tier herself. She claims that, in her old age, she’s probably at the peak of the fifth tier.

Thus, even being a first or second-tier mage is not something to scoff at.

Being a mage at all is the equivalent of nobility. To Blamia, attaining the second tier would already make Kalen formidable.

“And to make a living… the teacher or mercenary route might be better.”

Even though their master-student relationship was abrupt, Kalen devoted himself wholeheartedly to his lessons.

Not only out of gratitude toward Blamia, but also understanding her efforts to teach him ways of survival.

“Even at the second tier, you could teach the aristocracy, those who seek magic for their titles. Of course, your background might hinder things… but that’s beyond my control.”

“Yes.”

“While you’re at it, you might influence my granddaughter, too.”

“Grandfather!”

She shares Blamia’s blood, after all. Surely some sense of rivalry would emerge.

Using Kalen to stimulate Sinat’s interest in magic, along with guiding him to a reasonable means of living, seemed reasonable to her.

Paying off a random street find with this much effort was plenty, right?

And so, Blamia began to tutor Kalen thoroughly.

*

At first, Sinat complained endlessly about the magic lessons.

Still, she eventually developed an interest in magic.

Though Blamia’s explanations were often hard for her to follow.

What piqued her interest was Kalen.

The “friend” who came over found himself trapped in magic studies under her grandfather, so the boredom returned.

It wasn’t easy to ask for a new friend when Kalen suited her so well.

He was serious, listened attentively, balanced magic and housework, and his compliance with her moody nature impressed her.

She recognized her own difficult personality and understood the effort Kalen put in to get along with her.

It wasn’t long before these thoughts turned to gratitude.

And so, this perfectly compatible friend suddenly got absorbed in magic, leaving her no choice.

She figured if it was inevitable, better to study faster.

Thus, Kalen and Sinat began their collective magic study.

“Sinat, tell me about the attributes of magic.”

“Eh… well…”

Sinat subtly nudged Kalen’s side.

“Nature, manufacture, combat, contract, scholarship.”

“Hey! Stealing my lines, Kal!”

-Snap!

“Eep!”

“Next time won’t just end in a slap on the head, Sinat. Anyway, the magical attributes are classified into five categories. You usually choose what coincides best with your mana’s nature.”

“Can’t I just pick them all?”

“Magic is… kind of like a computation. Though you may be different, normally, merely drawing out mana isn’t enough. Remember how I taught you to constantly visualize magical arrays in your mind? The higher the rank, the more complicated those computations grow.”

Kalen recalled the first-tier spells he’d been taught so far.

Even the basics take a slight moment of contemplation, so he could scarcely imagine what a high-tier spell like those mastered by Blamia would entail.

“To put it simply, trying to learn both nature and manufacture would require dividing your mind into two sections. If you try to master all five, you’d have to compartmentalize accordingly, and perform completely different computations in each section.”

It’s not like drawing a square and triangle simultaneously; imagine designing five different mansion blueprints at once.

The reason high-tier individuals with multiple attributes are so rare made perfect sense now.

“Could it have something to do with mental imagery?”

Kalen’s question left even Blamia momentarily stumped.

“It’s a bit different.”

Mental imagery.

Wizards are often said to have a strong, personal worldview.

Although, this only applies to some and not to others.

Not all magicians possess their own distinct world.

The wizardly world is referred to as a “mental image.”

Like a painting or a still life, it reflects an instant scene from their minds.

A mental image showcases a person’s essence.

The beauty and grandeur of one’s own world serve as one of the most clear-cut proofs of their being.

“Sure, if you’re okay with going crazy, you can choose multiple attributes. But a mental image is given, not chosen. It’s not up to you.”

“Complicated…”

“Stop slacking and focus on mastering first-tier magic, you brats.”

Blamia chuckled as she continued.

“Well, since we’re talking about it, let’s check your aptitudes. Come here.”

“Aptitudes?”

“Hearing with your nose, Sinat? I said I’m checking which attributes suit you.”

After Blamia’s hand gesture, Sinat leaned forward.

The stimulation of internal mana would reveal compatible attributes.

“Sinat, you’d likely be good at Contracts.”

As Blamia’s hand hovered over Kalen’s back, she suddenly halted.

“Now that I think about it, you don’t use mana…”

Right as she remembered this key fact about Kalen.

“Cough!”

Kalen convulsed slightly, and Blamia’s eyes darkened.

In the view of Blamia and Sinat, a murky world unfolded.

A world that mirrored Kalen’s hair, filling their entire vision.

“Gr… Grandfather… What is this…”

“Wait a moment, Sinat.”

Blamia, suppressing Sinat’s shock with a single word, gazed deeply into the dim world with lowered, thoughtful eyes.

The bearded mouth parted quietly before uttering one single word.

“…Mental Image World?”

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