Chapter 15

Somehow, I ended up sitting next to Celia.

I leaned a little closer to her.

“When exactly did I become your boyfriend?”

“…Just play along for now.”

Celia whispered in a small voice while keeping a smile on her face.

“That guy is so greasy, I can’t stand it…!”

“With an empty mouth?”

“….”

“I have some pride too, you know.”

Celia’s eyebrow twitched.

“Thirty gold coins.”

I shot up from my seat immediately.

“Waaaaah!!! Who dared mess with my sweetie?! Who the hell are you!!!!”

The restaurant went silent.

Celia’s expression also stiffened.

Why are you looking at me like that?

I’m just being faithful to my role.

For thirty gold coins, this level of service is only fair, isn’t it?

The blonde man across from us let out a hollow laugh.

“Hah, hahaha… That boy is Miss Celia’s lover?”

“Y-yes…!”

Celia snapped back to her senses and grabbed my arm.

The man studied me for a long while before asking.

“Hey, kid. How old are you?”

“I’m twenty.”

“…A ten-year gap…?”

Now that he mentions it.

We’re practically a full zodiac cycle apart.

Celia cut in a bit urgently.

“W-why? Is there something wrong?”

“The age gap seems quite significant.”

I shot right back.

“Love doesn’t need age!!! Right, sweetheart?!”

“Y-yeah… Mm-hmm…”

The man pressed his temple and then looked at me again.

“…Kid. What’s your name?”

“Leon.”

“Occupation?”

“Well, I’m a mage.”

“When did you start magic?”

“Five days ago.”

The man’s gaze slowly turned to Celia.

“You’ve taken a mere twenty-year-old boy as your lover? And a novice mage who doesn’t even fit your station at that?”

“T-that’s my own choice…”

“I cannot accept this.”

I don’t really get why you need to accept it or not, but either way, I’m not feeling great about this.

I casually grabbed a cookie from the table and popped it in my mouth.

Crunch.

The man sank into thought for a moment, then set down his wine glass.

“You there. Leon, was it?”

“Yes.”

“Would you care for a wager with me?”

“Suddenly?”

“As a mage, there’s one contest you’d have no reason to avoid.”

The man curled his lips.

“Let’s make it a Formula Reading Contest.”

“A Formula Reading Contest?”

I’d never heard of it.

But Celia’s expression was the exact opposite.

“Wait. That’s way too favorable for you!”

“It’s a traditional contest passed down among mages for hundreds of years. What exactly is unfair about it?”

A traditional contest, huh.

As I listened, the method itself was simple.

A third-party mage with no connection to either participant spontaneously constructs a random spell on the spot.

The contestants watch only the spell’s activation and the flow of mana, then reverse-engineer which Element Formulas and Magic Formulas were used.

Which elements were involved, how many Magic Formulas were used, and which ones.

The one who answers more, and more accurately, wins.

Apparently, this was a common way for mages to test each other’s skill in the old days.

“I merely wish to ascertain talent.”

The man looked down at me with an arrogant gaze.

“To see how qualified this kid is to stand by Miss Celia’s side.”

“Why is that something you get to judge?”

“If I lose, I’ll quietly withdraw from this blind date.”

Celia fell silent.

I scratched my chin.

“Too much trouble.”

Honestly, whether the blind date continues or not doesn’t matter much to me.

I’ve already agreed to take the thirty gold coins, and I’ve eaten my fill.

I can just walk out.

“…Leon.”

Celia tugged lightly at my sleeve.

“Let’s just leave. You don’t need to accept. No matter how much of a genius you are, a Formula Reading Contest is a match where experience matters.”

“Hm.”

“That man is about to be promoted to Archmage. The number of spells he’s seen in his lifetime isn’t even comparable to yours.”

That’s probably true.

I only barely learned what Propulsion Formulas and Direction Formulas are this morning.

But that’s a separate matter.

“I’m a little pissed off?”

Kid, novice.

He’s been subtly grating on me this whole time, and I’m not really the type to just sit there and take it.

“Fine, let’s do it. I’m not the kind of person who can live with being looked down on.”

Besides, this is a chance to put what I learned today to use right away.

“Leon…!”

Celia looked at me with a worried face.

I smirked and gave her shoulder a light pat.

“Don’t worry, sweetheart.”

“…?”

“I’ll win.”

“….”

Celia’s eyes went wide.

Why do you keep making that face?

I’m just being faithful to my boyfriend role, you know?

“Very well.”

A smile spread across the blonde man’s lips.

At a table a short distance away sat a middle-aged man in a gray robe.

When the man approached and politely explained the situation, the middle-aged man set down his glass with an intrigued expression.

“A Formula Reading Contest. Been a while since I’ve heard that.”

“Would you be willing to lend your assistance for a moment?”

“No problem. I used to do this quite a bit in taverns back in the day.”

So they really did this kind of thing in taverns.

Mages really do all sorts of stuff when they’ve got nothing better to do.

We stood a few steps apart from each other.

As the middle-aged mage raised his palm, blue mana slowly began to gather.

The blonde man spoke with a smile.

“Please go easy on the first round. He’s still a child.”

Twenty years old isn’t really an age to be treated as a child, is it.

I appreciate being seen as young, but it’s a bit irritating.

‘I might end up getting a little serious.’

The middle-aged mage began his incantation without much fanfare.

Four blue orbs materialized in the air.

The orbs scattered in different directions, traced large circles as they spun, then converged back to a single point moments later.

The man’s gaze moved rapidly.

“Water Element Formula. Shape Formula for the orbs. One Output Formula, one Branching Formula. Two Propulsion Formulas. One Direction Formula and one Coordinate Formula each.”

It took him barely a few seconds to answer.

The middle-aged mage nodded.

“Impressive.”

Small murmurs of admiration came from around us.

So the talk about him becoming an Archmage soon isn’t just hot air.

But so what?

[Reverse-engineering spell formula…]

[Analysis complete.]

I skimmed through what appeared before my eyes.

“There’s one more Maintenance Formula in there.”

“…?”

The blonde man turned to look at me.

“There’s also one Rotation Formula, and when the four orbs merge at the end, one Synchronization Formula.”

The middle-aged mage’s eyes widened slightly.

“…That’s correct.”

This time, the surrounding area got a bit noisier.

The blonde man stared at me, then let out a snicker.

“…Just got lucky, I suppose.”

“Luck? Well, you’re free to think that.”

I looked at the middle-aged mage.

“Please make the next one a bit more difficult.”

“Are you sure?”

“Of course.”

A smile tugged at the middle-aged mage’s lips.

“Then let’s do this properly.”

This time, even the mana gathering phase was different.

Red and blue light tangled together as six long spears formed in the air.

The spears flew in a line, then split into three branches mid-flight. They curved their trajectory, crossed each other, then all flew toward a single point before vanishing.

That looks pretty complicated.

Even the blonde man’s expression had grown more serious than before.

“Fire and air… No, a triple-element Formula with fire, air, and light.”

The answers came one after another.

“Shape Formula. Output Formula. Branching Formula. Three Propulsion Formulas. Two Direction-Change Formulas. One Coordinate Formula, one Synchronization Formula, one Maintenance Formula… And one Compression Formula. Sixteen total.”

By now, several people had stood up from their seats to watch the commotion.

“He got all sixteen from a single look?”

“As expected of someone about to be promoted to Archmage.”

“At that level, he basically saw everything, didn’t he?”

Ease returned to the man’s face.

“What do you think?”

The middle-aged mage didn’t give the answer.

Instead, he looked at me.

‘Did you see all of it?’

[Analysis complete.]

“Fire, air, light.”

I folded one finger at a time.

“One Shape Formula, one Output Formula, one Branching Formula. Three Propulsion Formulas, two Direction-Change Formulas, one Coordinate Formula, one Synchronization Formula, one Maintenance Formula. One Compression Formula.”

The blonde man let out a small laugh.

“In the end, you got the same as m—”

“And two Rotation Formulas.”

The laugh stopped.

“One Collision Formula. One Delay Formula. Two Safety Formulas. One Linking Formula, and one Circulation Formula.”

I checked the final number and finished.

“Twenty-four total.”

Silence fell.

The middle-aged mage said nothing for a while.

Then, slowly, he nodded.

“…All correct.”

The restaurant buzzed.

“Did he really say all twenty-four are right?”

“Not a single mistake?”

“Just who the hell is that absurd kid?”

The blonde man’s face stiffened.

But in my eyes, there was still one more thing left.

[Redundant structure detected.]

[One Safety Formula can be removed.]

[Expected mana consumption reduced by 6.2%.]

“And also.”

The middle-aged mage looked at me.

“You could probably drop one of the Safety Formulas.”

“…What?”

“The Linking Formula up front is already preventing backflow. The Safety Formula behind it is doing the exact same job.”

I traced the faint trail of mana left in the air with my finger.

“If you connect the Circulation Formula to this side and remove one Safety Formula, it’ll work just the same. And it’ll use a bit less mana too.”

“….”

The middle-aged mage stared at the traces of the spell for a moment, then raised his hand again.

He modified a portion as I described, then recreated the same spell exactly as before.

Six spears were created, scattered, crossed, and flew toward the same point before vanishing.

“…It truly does.”

The middle-aged mage checked the remaining mana.

“The mana consumption has decreased as well.”

This time, it didn’t end with just murmurs.

“He improved the spell on the spot after seeing it only once?”

“They said he’s a novice mage who just started?! That makes no sense!”

“Did they say his name is Leon? Just what the hell is that kid?”

Celia grabbed my sleeve.

“L-Leon.”

“What?”

“You said you’d never learned Magic Formulas before…”

“I learned them today.”

“…Today?”

“Iris taught me really well.”

Celia’s mouth fell open.

What’s so surprising about that?

If a teacher teaches well, the student learns well, right?

[Negation—]

Shut it.

Being good at using AI is a skill too.

The blonde man across from us said nothing for a long while.

The relaxed expression he’d had just moments ago was completely gone.

Eventually, he slowly rose from his seat.

“…I’ll keep my promise.”

“What about the blind date?”

“Let’s pretend it never happened.”

“And the sponsorship?”

The man’s footsteps paused briefly.

“…I’ll send it as promised.”

That’s right.

A man shouldn’t go back on his word.

I like that attitude.

Without another word, he exited the restaurant.

And then someone started clapping.

Clap.

One by one, more applause followed.

“That’s insane! And they say that’s the skill of a novice mage who just started walking?”

“To have such overwhelming reverse-engineering at that age!”

“Head Celia really struck gold. Having a monster like that by her side!”

I slowly rose from my seat and spread my arms wide.

“Hahaha!“

Yes.

“Praise me!”

Keep going.

“Worship me!”

As expected, people shouldn’t hide their strength.

As I basked in the applause for a while, Celia came up beside me.

She was in such a good mood that her previously stiff face was nowhere to be seen.

“Leon.”

“What?”

“Can you drink?”

“…Alcohol?”

Now that I think about it, I haven’t had a single drink since reincarnating.

Celia heard my answer and broke into a wide grin.

“Want to grab a drink? I’m treating you today.”

Why is she smiling like that?

“Sure, why not.”

I should have said no.