Chapter 12

1.

Apostle of God, huh.

“May I ask how exactly you arrived at that conclusion?”

For the record, I’m not religious.

I didn’t believe in any gods in my past life, and I haven’t exactly developed a new faith since coming to this world.

Besides, it’s a bit late to start believing in a god who did nothing for me during the 20 years I spent rolling around as a beggar.

Iris cautiously raised her head.

“You said it yourself.”

“Did I say what?”

“That a god resides in your head.”

“That was just a flimsy excuse because I didn’t feel like explaining.”

“But no human could possess that kind of computational ability.”

Iris’s voice was serious.

“In just three days of learning magic, you overwhelmed a Lich head-on. You processed hundreds of Spell Formulas per second and completely obliterated its Death Mana with a single Fireball.”

“That wasn’t me. That was the AI.”

“And isn’t that AI a god?”

“I told you it’s not.”

“Then what is it?”

When she put it that way, the explanation got a bit awkward.

It’s not like I fully understand the principles behind the Nano AI myself.

If I had known all the details, maybe I would have lived a slightly different life in my past life, too.

“It’s like a Spirit that’s really, really good at calculations.”

“So you’re saying it’s a being that resides inside a person’s head and performs calculations beyond human limits on their behalf.”

“Yes.”

“And how is that different from a god?”

“…….”

Well, that’s a fair point.

By this world’s standards, I couldn’t really argue with that.

“Haa…….“

I pressed a hand to my forehead.

“……I was a beggar until three days ago, you know.”

Honestly, I didn’t want to reveal that much.

I went through all the trouble of cleaning up my identity to get into the White Magic Academy, and now I’m blabbing about my beggar origins with my own mouth.

Still, it’s better than being treated as a messenger of God.

Probably.

Iris’s eyes wavered.

“……To have endured such ascetic trials, there must be a purpose you must accomplish at all costs.”

“It’s not asceticism. I just didn’t have any money.”

“So you hid yourself in the slums to conceal your identity.”

“I was a genuine beggar with no agenda whatsoever.”

“Ah……!“

Iris clasped her hands together with a look of sudden realization.

“You lowered yourself to the same station as the poor to personally experience their lives…….”

No matter what I said, she kept attaching some noble reasoning to it.

At this point, I can’t even tell if she genuinely believes it or if she’s just messing with me.

“Hey, Miss Iris.”

“Yes.”

“Would you obey any order I gave you?”

“If it’s a condition for receiving your teachings.”

I thought for a moment, then deliberately said something absurd.

“Then strip naked right now and bow three times toward me.”

“…….”

Iris’s mouth snapped shut.

A perfectly natural reaction.

“See? A messenger of God would never ask something like—”

Slide.

Iris untied the knot at the front of her coat.

The fabric slipped down past her shoulders, revealing the thin undergarments she wore beneath.

“W-Wait a second!”

I hastily grabbed her coat and pulled it back up.

I expected her to curse at me or slap me.

That would have been the normal reaction.

“Ah, damn it! Why would you actually do that!”

“You ordered me to…….”

“You can’t just actually do it when someone says something like that!”

Iris blinked.

She looked genuinely confused as to why I was the one getting upset.

“I’m telling you, I’m not some messenger of God!”

“……I see.”

“Finally getting it now?”

Iris’s expression slowly hardened.

“I was far too reckless.”

“Right. Now we’re getting somewhere.”

“This must mean your identity absolutely cannot be exposed.”

“What?”

“But I, failing to know my place, called you a messenger of God…….”

Iris lowered her head again.

“I won’t breathe a word of this to anyone from now on.”

“I swear, I’m about to lose my mind.”

I explained several more times after that.

That the AI isn’t a god, that I’m not a messenger of God, and that my beggar life had no grand purpose behind it.

Iris listened to every word I said with complete sincerity.

And she didn’t believe a single word of it.

God, I’m losing it.

‘……Maybe I should just play along.’

I spread my arms out and opened my mouth for no good reason.

“Wahahaha.”

Iris raised her head.

“Yes. I am God’s proxy, a messiah sent down to save this world.”

“Aah…… As I thought……!”

She’s actually enjoying this.

“However, my god has not yet bestowed upon me a proper mission. I was merely commanded to live among mortals and observe this world.”

“Such profound meaning…….”

I was starting to regret this more and more.

But since I’d started, I might as well see it through.

“Therefore, I shall ask you this.”

I put on the most solemn voice I could manage.

“Why is it that you wish to pledge your loyalty to me?”

The awe on Iris’s face faded.

Her hands, resting on her knees, slowly clenched into fists.

“……The truth is.”

She hesitated for a moment before speaking.

***

Iris Meirude.

The second daughter of House Meirude, child of the Second Wife.

The First Wife already had a daughter four years older than Iris.

Jenice Meirude.

Iris’s half-sister, treated as the official successor of the family.

While the Second Wife was still alive, Iris’s position wasn’t bad.

Her mother, favored by the Family Head, was by her side, and neither the First Wife nor Jenice dared to touch her carelessly.

But when Iris turned 11, the Second Wife fell ill and passed away.

After that, the servants her mother had brought with her gradually vanished from the estate one by one.

The tutors and attendants assigned to Iris were reduced as well, and even the Magic Tools her biological mother had left behind were taken by Jenice.

“That staff was meant to be inherited by me.”

“Father gave it to me, didn’t he?”

Jenice spun the staff with its pale blue gem lightly in her hand.

“Wouldn’t it be better for the successor of House Meirude to use it?”

Iris couldn’t say a word.

There was no one left to testify to her dead mother’s promise.

So she threw herself into magic.

She memorized more Magic Formulas than anyone else so that no one could use her skill as an excuse, and she repeated calculations every night.

Through that effort, Iris graduated at the top of her Magic School.

She even received praise from her father in front of the assembled family members.

Finally, she thought, she was being acknowledged.

“Top of your Magic School?”

Jenice set down her wine glass with a smile.

“Still bragging about being praised at school?”

In the end, the two of them stood in the estate’s Training Grounds.

Iris deployed her twelve Ice Spears, her most confident spell.

The coordinates, output, and Mana distribution formed a perfect Spell Formula.

But Jenice vaporized all of them with a single gesture.

“Your Spell Formulas are neat.”

She lightly pushed Iris’s staff aside.

“Like someone who only memorized answers someone else taught them.”

Those words stayed with Iris for a very, very long time.

That’s why she entered the Tower.

To build achievements no one could deny, and someday become the Head of the Magic Academy.

If she could rise to a position higher than Jenice, the family’s successor, she could prove that she wasn’t wrong.

But the Lich she encountered on the 30th floor laid bare Iris’s inadequacies.

Even when she shattered its body with Ice Spears, it rose again, and even when she used every spell she knew, she couldn’t stop its regeneration.

That was when Leon stepped in.

Just three days since he’d learned magic.

That Leon overwhelmed the Lich’s Multiple Incantation with his Homing Bullets and burned away even the Death Mana with a single Fireball.

To Iris, it didn’t look like human capability at all.

A being who conversed with a god residing in his head and wielded magic that surpassed human limits.

Leon was undoubtedly an Apostle of God.

And now, the chance to receive teachings from such a being was right before her eyes.

If she could learn even a fraction of the magic Leon understood, she might take a step closer to her goal of becoming the Head of the Magic Academy.

She didn’t want to let that opportunity slip away.

That was the reason Iris knelt before Leon.

***

“……That’s how it came to be.”

This is heavier than I expected.

I thought it was just a matter of getting belittled by her sister a few times, but it sounds like a lot has piled up since childhood.

“So you want to receive teachings from me?”

“Yes.”

Iris clenched her hands tightly on her knees.

“I want to grow stronger.”

Her voice trembled slightly.

“Strong enough that my sister can’t look down on me anymore.”

It’s a pitiful situation, sure.

The problem is, I’m not exactly in a position to teach anyone.

I’ve only been learning magic for three days now.

Iris was the top graduate of her Magic School.

If anything, I feel like I should be the one learning from her.

“AI.”

I lowered my voice so Iris couldn’t hear.

“Is there any way to help her?”

[Analyzing.]

Iris’s eyes went wide.

“You’re conversing with your god again, aren’t you?”

“Huh?”

I thought about it for a moment.

It was obvious she wouldn’t believe me if I said no at this point.

“Yeah. That’s right.”

“As I thought…….”

Iris bowed her head with a reverent expression.

[Analysis complete.]

[What the entity named Iris lacks is experience.]

“Experience?”

[The entity named Iris possesses sufficient Mana and computational ability to defeat a Lich on her own.]

[The cause of her defeat was insufficient knowledge of her opponent and poor attribute selection.]

[If she had used fire-attribute magic, she could have cut off the Death Mana’s regeneration.]

“Hmm…….“

So she didn’t lose because she lacked skill.

“In other words, if she had used fire-attribute magic, Iris could have beaten the Lich too?”

[Her win rate rises to 32%.]

“……!”

Iris drew in a sharp breath.

“C-Can you explain in more detail?”

“Pardon?”

“Please!”

She bowed her upper body all the way down.

Her forehead nearly touched the floor.

“Hey, you don’t need to go that far…….”

“Please bestow your teachings upon me.”

Wow.

She really is desperate.

I thought for a moment, then walked up to Iris.

I’d already started playing along, so I might as well see it through to the end.

Besides, I had one very urgent and critical problem of my own.

A problem I couldn’t possibly solve with my current abilities.

“Iris.”

“Y-Yes!”

Iris hurriedly raised her head.

“Very well.”

I put on the most solemn expression I could manage.

“I shall bestow my teachings upon you.”

Iris’s eyes lit up brilliantly.

“Really?”

“On one condition.”

“I’ll do anything you ask!”

Her gaze was so earnest it was almost overwhelming.

I paused for a moment.

Then, with as much gravitas as I could muster, I asked:

“You got any money?”

“……Excuse me?”

2.

This place is a shabby restaurant on the outskirts of the city.

“……Are you sure this is really enough?”
“Munch munch…… Huh? Yeah, it’s fine. It’s fine.”

I roughly chewed and swallowed the meat in my mouth.

Warm soup, freshly baked bread, and thickly sliced meat.

A true feast.

She must have asked me several times if this was too modest a price for my teachings, but nothing mattered more to me right now.

I was hungry.

“This is enough for today.”

I dunked the bread into the soup.

“But I expected you to demand gold coins at least.”

“Gold coins?”

“It’s the price for receiving divine teachings, isn’t it?”

Gold coins.

Just hearing the word makes my heart feel warm.

Still, the meal had already been served.

It would look a little pathetic if I asked for gold coins on top of it now.

“More importantly.”

Iris set down the fork she was holding.

“About what you said, about using fire magic to block the Death Mana’s regeneration.”

“Yeah.”

“I’ve never learned anything like that.”

“Really?”

“At the Magic Academy, we only learned how to destroy a Lich’s body. I’ve never even heard of a theory about burning the entire Death Mana to prevent regeneration.”

Iris’s expression was serious.

“In fact, I wonder how many people even know something like that.”

“Is it really that impressive?”

“It’s beyond impressive.”

A Lich is a High-ranking Undead, mostly found on floors beyond 300, she said.

It’s rare enough for a Mage to survive an encounter and come back alive, so what kind of opportunity would anyone have to analyze its regeneration structure?

Records of defeating Liches mostly involved endlessly destroying the body until the Death Mana ran dry, or purifying the soul with holy magic.

Apparently, there was no precedent for converting the Death Mana into fuel for a Fireball and burning it all at once.

“Hmm.“

I nodded and took a spoonful of soup.

I was just doing what the AI told me.

But they’re treating it like I discovered a brand new magic theory.

“……You really are an extraordinary person.”

Iris stared at me intently.

“What do you mean?”

“Someone who does something like that and then casually starts eating.”

“Well, I was hungry, what was I supposed to do?”

When you’re hungry, you eat first.

It’s not like catching a Lich fills your stomach automatically.

Iris was silent for a moment.

She ate quietly, as befitting a Noble.

She cut the meat into small pieces, put them in her mouth, and only after fully swallowing would she take a sip of soup.

She certainly wasn’t tearing off a whole piece of bread and dunking it into her soup like I was.

“……Please eat slowly.”

“Huh?”

“You might choke.”

“Ah, I’m fine. I’m fine.”

My stomach has been forged over years of moldy bread and leftover scraps.

There’s no way a meal like this is going to upset it.

If anything, I’m more worried my body might go into shock from suddenly receiving proper food.

“Anyway, could you speak more casually?”

“How could I possibly…….”

“It’s kind of uncomfortable, you know.”

Someone who’s better at magic than me, and around my age, keeps using the most polite speech while calling me an Apostle of God and talking about teachings.

Honestly, it’s more exhausting than you’d think from the listener’s side.

“Iris.”

I set down my fork and lowered my voice.

Iris immediately straightened her back.

“Yes.”

“If you use honorifics with me again, consider the teachings off.”

“……!”

Iris’s face stiffened.

“B-But…….”

“That’s an order.”

“……Understood… no, got it…….”

Her voice was barely a whisper.

“What was that?”

“Ah, I got it…….”

Iris pressed her lips tightly together.

Her ears were slightly red, so she must have been incredibly awkward about it.

Man, this might be more fun than I thought.

“……Anyway, Leon.”

“Yeah.”

“I think it would be best to hide that power of yours.”

The mood shifted slightly.

Iris checked her surroundings before lowering her voice.

“Why?”

“About the god residing in your head, I mean.”

“I keep telling you, it’s not a god.”

“I know.”

“Really?”

“It means you need to hide your identity, right?”

She doesn’t understand at all, does she.

Iris continued explaining.

If word spread that someone could converse directly with a god, the temples would likely make their move first.

They’d try to determine which god’s apostle you were, and if it turned out you had no connection to the god they served, you could be branded a heretic.

Furthermore, the Magic Academy and Noble houses wouldn’t stay still either, she said.

A power that processes hundreds of Spell Formulas per second, analyzes unfamiliar magic on the spot, and even creates previously unknown Spell Formulas.

The chances were high they’d use every means available to uncover its principles.

“What kind of means?”

“They’d start with persuasion.”

Iris paused for a moment.

“After that, it might be confinement.”

“Oh.”

“In the worst case, someone might appear who tries to check inside your head directly.”

Check inside your head directly.

The phrasing is polite, but that basically means they want to crack open my skull.

“I don’t like the sound of that.”

“Which is why you need to be careful.”

Iris leaned forward slightly.

“No matter who asks, don’t mention the god. And hide the fact that you defeated the Lich as much as you can.”

“Got it. I’ll take that to heart.”

I nodded seriously.

3.

The next day.

Celia asked with a look of disbelief.

“……You’re saying you actually took down a Lich?”

Celia stared at me from across her desk.

“Iris was there too, but I was the one who finished it off.”

“How?”

“At first, I fired thirty Homing Bullets, but it kept coming back. So I burned away every spot connected to the Death Mana with a Fireball.”

“……With a Fireball?”

“Yes. About ten meters across?”

Celia’s eyebrow twitched.

Beside her, Iris was already pinching the bridge of her nose.

She did warn me earlier not to go around bragging about it.

No wait, I did say I’d take it to heart?

I just didn’t have any intention of following through.

“Leon.”

“Yes.”

“You’re messing with me, aren’t you?”

“No, I’m not.”

“You made a ten-meter Fireball?”

“Roughly that size.”

“That’s enough.”

Celia stood there in silence for a long moment.

Then she shot up from her seat.

“Follow me.”

“Where to?”

“The Training Grounds.”

Celia opened the door without waiting for an answer.

“Show me with your own eyes.”

Ah. She doesn’t believe me.

Well, if someone suddenly told me they’d made a ten-meter Fireball, I’d be a little suspicious too.

I got up from my seat and followed behind Celia.

“Should I fire at full power?”

“Full power.”

“Are you sure?”

“Did I hear that the White Magic Academy Training Grounds are protected by a Spatial Barrier created by the First Head of the Magic Academy? It won’t take a scratch from any ordinary magic.”

“If it breaks, it’s not my fault?”

“Right. It’s not your fault, so just fire.”

She said it, right?

She said it’s not my fault.