1.
Late at night.
I sat with my back against the bed in the dormitory, staring at the ceiling for a long while before finally failing to hold back a laugh.
“Heh heh heh.”
A harem, huh.
For someone who had Confucian ideology properly drilled into them in their past life in the Republic of Korea, this felt a bit awkward.
Having lived in a world where monogamy was the norm, suddenly finding myself in a situation where two women were showing interest in me.
But well.
“What a stroke of luck.”
A captivatingly beautiful boss lady, and cute Iris, who looked to be around my current age.
“This is a real reincarnation jackpot.”
Considering that until recently, I was counting copper coins on the street,
this was no ordinary turnaround.
Truly.
[The user’s logic is not valid.]
“Out of nowhere?”
You just had to throw cold water on my good mood.
“What’s that supposed to mean, AI?”
[First, even in Confucian societies, systems allowing multiple spouses existed to continue family lines.]
[A prime example is the concubine system.]
“Ah… I guess that’s true.”
Now that I think about it, that’s right.
I may not care much about history, but I do recall seeing in textbooks how kings and nobles kept several concubines.
[Furthermore, right after the user judged that they had engaged in intimate relations with the entity Celia, you worried about the possibility of pregnancy and subsequent responsibility.]
[This contradicts your current attitude.]
“Hey, I did say at the end that I’d take responsibility, didn’t I? Isn’t that good enough?”
[It is presumed to have been said reluctantly.]
[At the time, the user was in a state of self-abandonment.]
“You son of a bitch.”
I can’t win against that with words.
I clicked my tongue and pulled the pillow toward me.
There’s no point in arguing with the AI—there’s no way to beat something that remembers every word and action I’ve ever said.
Just then, a small knock came from beyond the door.
Knock, knock.
Who could that be at this hour?
“Who is it?”
A familiar voice answered after a moment.
“It’s me. Iris.”
I sat up from the bed.
“Can I come in?”
…What is this.
A girl coming alone to a boy’s room late at night and asking if she can come in.
My dating experience, even counting my past life, is so pathetic that I can’t tell if this is genuine flirting or not.
Anyway.
I’m more than ready, you know?!
I roughly ran my fingers through my hair and opened the door.
Iris stood alone in the hallway.
She was dressed neatly as always, but something about her coming empty-handed—no books or staff—made me oddly uneasy.
“What’s going on at this hour?”
“…I have something I want to consult you about.”
Iris raised her head to look up at me.
“Leon.”
“Yeah?”
After hesitating for a moment, she carefully spoke.
“…Tell me.”
“…Tell you what?”
“How to do it.”
“…!”
She’s more forward than I expected.
I froze for a moment, then stepped aside.
“Come in.”
Creak—
Iris stepped into the room, and I slowly pulled the door handle.
Thud.
The door closed.
2.
The next morning.
Sunlight streaming through the long windows of the Head’s Office cast a slanting line across the desk.
The approval documents that needed processing today were already piled up like a mountain, but Celia’s gaze refused to move past the first page.
Because she kept recalling that voice from the other night.
‘Let’s do it once more. I’m disappointed because I don’t remember a thing.’
Puff.
Celia’s face flushed in an instant.
“…What the heck, seriously.”
She picked up her teacup as if nothing had happened.
She slowly sipped her tea, forcing her eyes back to the documents, but whatever she had been reading moments ago had already vanished from her mind.
‘What does this older woman even have that he likes…’
A man 12 years younger than her.
Of course, nothing had happened that night, and Celia’s chastity was still intact.
Still, her heart had already fallen to a considerable degree.
And that brat probably made a face like this and is now walking around without a care in the world.
Then, a sudden curiosity struck her.
What is Leon doing right now?
“Hey, Herman.”
Herman, who had been organizing documents at a table by the window, looked up.
“Yes.”
“Where is Leon right now?”
“Are you referring to Leon?”
“Yes.”
Herman neatly straightened the documents in his hand while sifting through his memory.
“He should be at the Training Grounds with Iris. He submitted a usage request this morning.”
“…Is that so?”
Celia’s hand, which had been setting down her teacup, paused momentarily.
So Leon and Iris are together right now.
Of course, there’s nothing strange about that.
She was the one who had entrusted Leon’s foundational education to Iris,
and she was the one who had directly ordered Iris to teach the boy—who didn’t even properly know what a Magic Formula was—from the very beginning.
So it’s only natural that the two would spend a lot of time together.
I’m the one who ordered it, after all.
“…”
Then why does it bother her so much?
Celia stared down at the documents on her desk for a moment before finally rising from her seat.
“I’ll make a quick trip to the Training Grounds.”
“Suddenly?”
“What do you mean, suddenly. I’m just going to check whether Leon is properly learning his fundamentals.”
Now that she said it, it sounded like a fairly plausible excuse.
Celia nodded once to herself as if she was convinced and headed toward the door.
But just as she was about to place her hand on the handle, Herman called out from behind.
“One moment, Head.”
Celia turned around.
“Why?”
“There’s something I need to confirm before you leave.”
Herman set down the documents with his usual composed expression.
“I heard a rather unpleasant rumor this morning.”
“What rumor?”
“It’s a story that the Head has taken a lover 12 years her junior.”
“Ah, hahaha…”
Celia’s pupils subtly shifted to the side.
Herman didn’t miss that reaction.
“At first, I thought it was a baseless malicious rumor. But the description of the man in the rumor was remarkably specific.”
The smile hanging at the corner of Celia’s mouth gradually stiffened.
“It even included a story about winning a Formula Reading Contest against a Mage about to be promoted to Archmage at a restaurant in the Central Plaza two nights ago.”
Herman finished organizing the last document and set it down at the edge of the desk.
“And coincidentally, Leon did not return to the dormitory that night. Nor did the Head return to the Magic Academy.”
‘This old man is way too sharp…!’
“I-It’s not like that, okay?! Nothing happened!”
Herman’s eyebrow rose ever so slightly.
“I never claimed anything happened, though.”
“…”
Herman gazed at Celia for a moment, then let out a deep sigh.
“Head.”
“What…”
“You’re still 20 years old.”
“I’m telling you, nothing happened!”
“Please have some conscience.”
“I said it’s not that!”
Her face burning bright red, Celia flung the door open.
“Anyway, I’m going to the Training Grounds! If there’s something urgent, call me later!”
Bang!
The heavy door slammed shut, followed by footsteps quickly receding down the hallway.
Herman held his teacup and stared at the closed door for a while.
Celia, the Head of the White Magic Academy.
Normally, she was someone who wouldn’t even sneer at whatever rumors the nobles spread about her.
And yet, here she was, flustered to this degree over a single man.
A small smile spread at the corner of Herman’s mouth.
He slowly turned his gaze toward an old portrait hanging on one wall of the Head’s Office.
“…Still, it’s good to see.”
He raised his teacup lightly toward the portrait.
“Wouldn’t you agree, Former Head of the Magic Academy?”
Then, as if nothing had happened, he took a quiet sip of tea.
3.
“Frost Blade!”
Swoosh—!
Three blue blades streaked across the Training Grounds at different heights.
As the first one sliced past the left side of the Stone Target, the two trailing blades curved and struck the exact same spot in succession.
Crack!
The top portion of the target split diagonally and slid to the ground.
“…Done.”
Iris confirmed the severed cross-section while holding her staff.
A moment later, the corner of her mouth curled up, and she dragged the remaining Magic Formula from the air with the tip of her staff, spreading it out before her.
“…Yes! Mana consumption is down, and it’s much easier to control.”
Judging by how she was tapping several parts of the Spell Formula with her finger, it looked properly done.
But more importantly.
‘…So that was why she came to my room.’
Last night, Iris had asked me to tell her how to do it.
How to modify the Frost Blade.
She’d been stuck on it by herself for ages with no progress, so she’d ended up coming to my room late at night.
There I was, getting my hopes up for nothing.
Tsk.
I stepped back a few paces to the side of the Training Grounds, leaving Iris behind as she diligently checked her Magic Formula.
Well, since I’m here anyway, might as well run an experiment of my own.
I nudged aside the target fragments scattered on the floor with my toe and positioned an intact Stone Target in front of me.
“Hey, AI.”
[Standing by.]
“Let’s try cramming 50 Propulsion Formulas into a lightning attribute.”
[Simple stacking of 50 Propulsion Formulas is not recommended.]
[Probability of Spell Formula collapse is high.]
“Ugh.“
I guess you really can’t just shove them in randomly.
Still, this is something I want to try.
There was a technique in a comic I read in my past life—a railgun or something.
A girl would hold a single coin in her hand and fire it at incredible speed,
using electromagnetic force to accelerate it to devastating destructive power…
What was it again?
Anyway.
The point was that shooting something really fast makes it really strong.
“Let’s just build it.”
[Constructing structure.]
The Magic Formula floating before me rapidly expanded.
Air and fire overlapped to create the lightning attribute, with Propulsion Formulas trailing behind like a chain.
At first, there were no issues, but once it passed around 10, error markers began appearing across the Spell Formula.
I squinted one eye and leaned my face in closer.
“Hmm… Is it because they’re all packed into one spot? Looks like a bottleneck is forming. Try spreading them out a bit.”
[Rearranging Propulsion Formula placement.]
Several Propulsion Formulas split off and shifted to the left and right.
But one section was still glowing red.
“Why here?”
[The Output Formula and the Mana Supply path are interfering with each other.]
“Let me see…”
Following the red-highlighted line with my index finger, I could see one line extending from the Output Formula overlapping with a Propulsion Formula in the middle.
In the past, I wouldn’t have even understood why that was a problem and would’ve dumped the whole thing on the AI. But now, at least I could see what was tangled up.
“It’s right here. Can’t we just pull these few Propulsion Formulas back?”
[Possible.]
[Probability of Mana backflow decreases.]
“Then remove them. We’re shooting in a straight line anyway, so we don’t need a Trajectory Formula either.”
When I pushed the Trajectory Formula aside with my finger, that section faded.
[Removing Trajectory Formula.]
It continued in a similar fashion from there.
Move one thing, and an error would pop up somewhere else. Remove a Formula to fix that, and now the output would drop.
Every time the AI flagged a problem, I’d reposition or reinsert different Formulas—repeating the process several times.
“No, it should go here instead of… yeah. Over there.”
[Recalculating structure.]
“What if we remove this one?”
[Projected output decreases by 8.1%.]
“Then leave it.”
What had initially looked like a tangled mess of vines began to slowly take shape.
“…This is actually kind of fun.”
This was exactly the feeling of building a deck in a card game, I remembered.
Cutting out what you don’t need, grouping things that work well together, and before you know it, it’s running smoothly.
[Spell Formula stability has entered acceptable range.]
[New magic composition completed.]
Nice.
“Leon?”
Turning at the voice, I saw Iris walking toward me with her staff resting on her shoulder.
“What have you been doing since earlier? Your Magic Formula kept changing.”
“Oh, this? Just working on a Super Fast Lightning Gun, I guess.”
I casually tapped the Spell Formula floating in front of me with my finger.
Iris stepped closer and examined the Formula, tilting her head.
“…Super Fast Lightning Gun?”
[Registering new magic.]
[Registration name: Super Fast Lightning Gun.]
“Wait, hold on. That’s not a name, I was just roughly describ—”
[Registration of Super Fast Lightning Gun is complete.]
“…Fine. Let’s just go with that. What’s so important about a name anyway.”
Iris still looked confused.
“Super Fast… what?”
“You’ll see.”
I gently pushed Iris’s shoulder to move her aside.
“Step back a bit.”
“Is it dangerous?”
“I don’t know, that’s why I’m telling you to stand back.”
I moved to a position in front of an intact Stone Target.
The distance was roughly 30 meters.
Behind the target stood a thick protective barrier, and much further behind that, the outer wall of the Training Grounds.
This should be enough.
I set my feet at shoulder width and extended my right arm forward.
Crackle.
Blue sparks leapt from my fingertips.
Crackling—!
As the current spread across the back of my hand and up to my wrist, Iris also pulled her staff close to her chest and took a step back.
Before my eyes, the completed Spell Formula rapidly layered together, and the Propulsion Formulas began to glow in sequence from the outermost ones.
[Beginning Spell Formula deployment.]
[Current computation rate: 82 per second.]
The strain wasn’t as bad as I thought.
Just a slight tingle in my fingers?
Honestly, I was more curious than anything.
After cramming in 50 Propulsion Formulas, just how fast would this thing go?
I adjusted the angle of my arm slightly, aligning my fingers at the center of the target.
“Go. Super Fast Lightning Gun.”
FWOOSH—!
My fingertip flashed.
And then I couldn’t see anything.
“…?”
Did it fire?
As I craned my neck toward the target with my arm still extended—
Creak—
The door at the back of the Training Grounds opened.
“Leo—”
KABOOOOM—!!!!!
The thunderous roar exploded a beat late.
A shockwave swept across the Training Grounds, sending dust and small stone fragments scattering through the air.
I reflexively covered my face with my arm, and Iris behind me also ducked down, clutching at her robe.
A moment later, the dust settled.
The center of the Stone Target had a hole blasted clean through it.
The protective barrier behind it was the same, and the outer wall much further back now had a massive hole in it—large enough to see the outside scenery through.
Pitter-patter.
Stone dust crumbled from the cracked wall.
…Success, then.
“That’s goddamn fast.”
“…Leon.”
At the voice from behind, I dusted off my hands and turned around.
Celia was standing at the door.
“You’re here, boss.”
There was no answer.
Celia stood holding the door handle, staring at the target.
Then her gaze moved to the protective barrier, and finally to the hole in the outer wall.
Slowly, she released the door handle.
“…Leon.”
“Yes?”
Celia’s shoulders, with her head bowed deeply, were trembling violently.
This is extremely ominous.
“YOU LITTLE SHIIIIIT!!!!!”
Celia raised her staff and charged at me.
“Wh-Whaaaah!!!”
I spun around on the spot.
WHOOSH—!
The staff swept past where the back of my head had been just a moment before.
“W-Wait a second! That almost actually hit me!!!”
“Just how many times do you plan on destroying the Training Grounds?!!!!”
I leapt over a fallen target and ran to the other side, while Celia gathered her robe in one hand and chased right after me.
“This time only one hole got made!!!”
“Is that supposed to be an excuse?!!!!!”
Just as we’d made about one lap around the middle of the Training Grounds—
Creak.
The door opened, and a Magic Academy staff member hurried in.
“Head.”
Celia, who had been chasing me, came to an abrupt stop.
“What? What’s going on?”
The staff member glanced between me and Iris for a moment, then approached Celia and whispered something in her ear.
“…”
Celia listened silently, then glanced toward Iris.
“…I see. Understood.”
What’s going on?
I watched the two of them while catching my breath.
Celia smoothed down her disheveled hair with her hand, dusted off her crumpled robe a few times, and walked toward the door.
Just before crossing the threshold, she turned back to look at me.
“Leon.”
“Yes?”
“We need to talk later.”
Celia paused for a moment.
“Just the two of us.”
“…!”
The door closed.
I stood frozen in place.
Just the two of us?
A staff member came to tell her something, and Celia suddenly got serious.
No way.
‘…Is she actually pregnant?’
Did the results already come back?!
And can that even come back in just one day?!
I’d talked big about taking responsibility and all, but with the results right at my doorstep, I couldn’t stop a chill from running down my spine.
Just then, I felt a sharp gaze from beside me.
Turning my head, I saw Iris alternating her gaze between my face and the door Celia had just exited through.
“…”
Iris’s eyes narrowed.
“…Just the two of you?”