I Got a Fake Job at the Academy

Chapter 795 - Side Story 68: The Importance of Basics (1)

The educational policy for Carlo and Robert had been decided. However, Rudger still had four students left to deal with.

And Rudger was now face to face with the child who seemed like she would be the most troublesome of the four.

"......"

A girl who kept her mouth tightly shut and said nothing. Her hair was white and her skin was white. Looking closely, mana was overflowing around her, and a bluish mana light was flowing out.

For Rudger, who had the memories and knowledge of a modern person, it was a scene that made him wonder if she was contaminated with radiation or something.

But because he was a mage, he could tell that this phenomenon was occurring because of mana that was too enormous and vast for one individual to handle.

"Mina."

When Rudger called her name, the girl's eyes widened as she looked at him. She didn't run away in surprise, but she still seemed unaccustomed to this.

Perhaps she wanted to run away, but stayed still because she knew it would be useless anyway.

"Do you know why I called you here like this?"

Mina seemed to ponder for a moment, then answered while moving her tiny lips.

"To have class?"

That voice was so small one could mistake it for an insect crawling on the floor, but Rudger decided to be satisfied with the fact that she answered.

"I'm going to teach you magic. After all, Theon is a place for learning magic." 

"I don't need it."

Like someone protesting, Mina spoke with a somewhat forceful voice. Of course, even so, she didn't really give off that feeling because she was so small and timid by nature.

Still, Mina firmly said what she had to say.

"I use magic better than the teachers." 

"Better than me?" 

"......"

With that one question from Rudger, the justification and logic Mina had put forward crumbled.

Mina herself knew it too. Through the magic duel she had with Rudger that day, just how absurdly amazing a mage he was.

That Rudger had shown even a part of his power was to avoid giving the special class students this very justification.

Mina had been able to feel it that day. The sight of Rudger breaking through the magic she deployed all too easily.

She didn't know about the other students, but she, who was particularly sensitive to mana, could tell. That Rudger was an existence in a different dimension from any mage she had ever met.

Of course, if she were to say that out loud, people wouldn't believe her. Even if they vaguely agreed, they would think it was an exaggeration.

The same would probably be true for Rudger himself, because to him, his master Grandel was still the strongest mage.

Whatever the case, having seen a fragment of the power Rudger possessed, it was difficult for Mina to refuse his words, especially because she was originally timid and fainthearted.

"Mina. You were born with a unique constitution. For a mage, it would not be an exaggeration to say that it's truly a blessing bestowed by heaven." 

"......I don't know." 

"I understand. It may be a blessing for Mina the mage, but for Mina the human, it's no different from a curse. Because of possessing excessive mana, you must have always suffered from strange phenomena."

Having excessively distributed mana didn't always bring only good things.

You could tell just by looking at places where the Night of Mystery occurred. What kind of strange phenomena occurred when dragon veins flowed and pooled in one place?

Similar phenomena also occurred in some forests existing in Theon. The same was true for Mina. It was fair to say that naturally occurring phenomena were confined to a single person.

Honestly speaking, Rudger thought it was a miracle that Mina was born and raised like this.

If she had been born with this level of tremendous mana, even a decent mage would not have been able to endure it and would have died.

The forms would probably be varied. The body might burst from being unable to withstand the energy due to high-density mana, or the body might decompose at the cellular level from being unable to endure the mana's energy. Or the body structure might break down and melt. The end of mages who were exposed to vast mana unsuited to their level could be easily encountered in academic papers.

Whatever the case, the fact that it was a terrible ending remained unchanged.

In other words, for Mina, the greatest blessing and talent was not this vast amount of mana, but her receptivity to endure and possess it.

"You are still alive. That alone proves your talent. However, I think you are still lacking."

Those words touched Mina's curiosity. The word she usually heard was 'monster.'

It couldn't be helped. This body that hurt people just by touching them wouldn't seem strange even if she was called a monster by her peers.

The next word she heard was 'genius.' Most of these were words spoken by mages. Of course, even they later came to fear Mina's excessively genius talent as time passed and called her a monster.

But definitely, if her talent was outstanding, it was outstanding - she had never once heard that it was lacking.

That would be something she would never hear in her future life either.

But Rudger was different. He was telling Mina outright that she was still lacking.

If someone else had said those words, she would have just thought they were saying things they didn't mean out of jealousy.

'But this person is different.'

Mina felt some kind of sincerity in words spoken with conviction by someone who surpassed even Theon's chancellor.

"What, am I lacking?"

Honestly speaking, it would be a lie if she said she wasn't upset. Being called a monster by others was painful, but she had been inwardly proud that her mana affinity was at least the best.

"You possess that vast mana and have become able to accept and handle it. But even so, your state is unstable. You can't easily make contact with people either. Am I right?" 

"......" 

"What do you think is the reason for that? Do you still think it's a problem with your constitution? Not at all."

Rudger thrust at Mina a reality she never wanted to know.

"It's because you have no will to completely dominate that mana. Is it because you lack ability? It's the opposite. It's closer to being able to but not doing it." 

"Ugh......!"

Mina became agitated for the first time. What do you know about me to say such things! Her hostile eyes were crying out like that.

It couldn't be helped. She had been told that this constitution that hurt others and moreover hurt herself as well was her own fault. If someone who didn't know how painful it was said such a thing, even the meekest lamb would have its eyes turned upside down.

The mana reacted according to Mina's anger. The mana that inherited the will of Mina, who thought of it as her friend, overflowed from her body and began to spread around, seeping out.

Sssssss.

Just revealing her will caused a mana fog phenomenon. And that fog was approaching, wriggling ominously as if to swallow Rudger.

"This is why you're a greenhorn."

Rudger responded to that scene with a snort.

Bang!

When he stomped his foot once, a huge shockwave spread and the mana fog swayed greatly once.

The fog that had been approaching Rudger shrank back as if frightened of something, then returned to Mina because mana also burst out from Rudger's body.

It was much more ferocious and sharp than Mina's, and even contained killing intent that would tear apart anything it caught.

At the appearance of mana fog with an extraordinary presence, Mina shut her mouth tight.

It was after the released mana returned back to her body.

"Did you see that?"

As they entered a lull, Rudger said while collecting all the mana he had released.

"How the mana that flowed out just from being a bit upset returned to its original state again not by your will but by another's."

Mina, whose tension had eased, plopped down on the spot. She couldn't say anything. She had directly seen that scene with her own two eyes and even clearly felt it.

"I don't know what to do."

Was it because her own ability was lacking that the mana ran wild? Then did that mean everything that had happened until now was her own fault?

Mina felt like she would burst into tears right then and there. She certainly would have if not for the warm hand that came down on her head.

"That's not a mistake. You were just young, and you just didn't know how to handle it. I don't consider ignorance a great sin."

This was Theon to begin with. A place of learning, to learn what one doesn't know.

"The truly great mistake is knowing one's ignorance but not trying to learn. Mina, what will you do? Will you run away in that state for your whole life? Or will you try somehow to overturn this regret?"

Whichever she chose, there would only be a difficult path. But Mina thought this situation itself was strange.

Because until now, the thing called choices didn't exist in her life.

No, perhaps they existed but she deliberately turned away from them.

"Can I do it?"

"That will depend on what you do. It will certainly be difficult and may take a long time. But I can tell you this one thing for certain." 

"What, is it?" 

"If you say you'll do it, I will do my best to help you."

Mina's eyes widened as she asked.

"Wh-why on earth?" 

"A student wants to be taught, and a teacher says he will do so - what reason is needed?"

In fact, it wasn't that there was no reason at all. A strong sense of professional duty was one of the reasons, but another was that he didn't want to watch anymore people suffer losses in their lives due to ignorance.

Rudger knows someone who died due to an undiscovered constitution. And he knows someone who burned their life and made lifelong efforts to uncover it. Someone who survived as the fruit of those efforts. Even how that survivor saved him.

They were people who had now disappeared into the flow of time called the past, but Rudger clearly remembers them and will do so for his whole life.

Therefore, as someone who remembers, Rudger had a duty he must fulfill.

He must help people like Mina now, who don't know much about themselves.

"The choice is yours. Will you do it, or won't you?"

Mina pondered, but that time wasn't long. For her, just having a means to fix this constitution of hers prepared was enough reason to follow.

"I'll do it. I want to do it."

At that answer, Rudger wore a gentle smile. As if feeling proud and pleased.

"Yes. You chose well." 

"But, what should I do first?"

Mina had never seriously thought about her magic because if she wished for it, mana would implement magic on its own.

It was a strange method that required no incantations, formulas, or magic circles. Magic that was truly like a miracle, achieved simply by wishing. She had no idea where to start handling controlling it.

"Mina. Your magic is too blurry." 

"Blurry, you say?" 

"Yes. The magic certainly activates, but its form is not clear. It's like it's lumped together as if a child roughly drew what they imagined. What you used that day was 6th-circle magic. But did it really have the power of 6th-circle magic?"

Mina shook her head because it had been blocked all too easily by Rudger, who had used real 6th-circle magic.

"Honestly, being able to implement it even in that way doesn't make sense either. But thinking of the future, you can't be satisfied with that. The way you implement magic is like if you wish for it, the mana around you reacts to it and handles things on its own. That is certainly convenient, but it's far from your will."

To truly use magic, one must use it properly with their own will.

"Your mana's reaction just now was the same. It burst out in anger, but immediately got scared of me and hid, as if it had its own will. It means you're not properly controlling your own mana yet."

Rudger picked up a piece of stone lying on the ground with telekinesis. The stone fragment floated above Rudger's palm, and its rough surface began to be sharply carved.

The carved stone became a cube, which was then meticulously broken down into uniform sizes and turned into fine powder.

"Don't be swayed by mana. Dominate mana. You are a mage. A seeker who explores the unknown and makes it your own."

The fragments that had been broken down into powder were drawn again by telekinesis and reassembled back into the original cube form.

It was mana control that was hard to believe even while watching it.

"Fix your lowly attitude of asking mana for favors. You don't need an equal relationship."

Rudger crushed it by squeezing what was placed on his palm with his hand.

"The master of your will is only yourself. So, suppress and dominate mana. That is the mindset you should have as a mage."