AI Grand Archmage – Chapter 04
Sometimes, as they live their lives, humans encounter phenomena that fall outside all reason—things that simply cannot be understood.
Even Lumia, hailed as a genius destined to be recorded in the annals of magical history, was no exception.
The expression on Lumia’s face right now was proof of that: the look of someone confronting something that defied all logic.
“……You’re saying a student knows a secret of my master’s that even I don’t know?”
“Yes.”
Sion shrugged his shoulders with an air of ease.
I never thought the nonsense you spouted when you came to my workshop would end up being useful like this.
He smiled as he recalled Belusian.
Without a doubt, Belusian Cabala was the strangest mage Sion had ever known.
Belusian himself was a grand archmage who had reached the pinnacle of orthodox magic, yet he did not revere that orthodoxy at all.
No—he disliked the very idea that magic was monopolized by a select few in the first place.
—Isn’t it strange, Altair? Magic is open to everyone, yet a single human dares to monopolize it as they please.
Whenever Belusian visited Sion’s workshop, he would complain endlessly about the current magical establishment.
And those conversations always ended the same way: with bitter pessimism about a reality that could not be changed.
After finishing his brief reverie, Sion turned his gaze back to Lumia.
As expected, she looked confused.
But it wasn’t something she could simply brush aside—what Sion had shown her was far too significant.
At last, as if she had barely managed to organize her tangled thoughts, Lumia spoke.
“I’ll ask just one thing. Can you swear, on mana, that what you’re saying is true?”
“I can.”
Without hesitation, Sion proved his words through mana.
Mana spread through the air, clearly declaring that his words were sincere.
“……Ah.”
“There can be no lies in an oath made through mana. In moments like this, magic really is convenient.”
Faced with Sion’s calm demeanor, Lumia fell silent for a moment.
Then, after a pause, she spoke again.
“Please… give me some time. Honestly, too many things happened today. Deciding this here and now is a bit…”
“Of course.”
It was the reaction he had expected, so Sion nodded without difficulty.
“Oh, and one more thing.”
Just before leaving the room, he rose and offered Lumia a piece of casual advice.
“That theory I mentioned earlier—if you lower the target mana value by about 0.3 points, you should see quite a noticeable effect.”
“……!”
Lumia’s eyes widened, but Sion, as if his business here was finished, left the room without hesitation.
After Sion left, it wasn’t long before the vice tower master, Serentia, entered.
Looking at Lumia with concern, she asked,
“Lumia, did Sion Rosterly cause some kind of trouble…?”
“Serentia, unni.”
As if possessed, staring blankly into the air, Lumia asked,
“The ‘Grimoire Reproduction’ research we were working on—didn’t we already finish verifying the mana values?”
“We did… didn’t we?”
Serentia tilted her head as she answered.
Only Serentia knew that Lumia was attempting to recreate Altair’s grimoire.
The research had been conducted in absolute secrecy.
With a stiff expression, Serentia asked,
“Lumia, did information leak out? Surely Sion Rosterly didn’t realize what we’re researching—don’t tell me the Rosterly family…?”
“No. That can’t be it.”
Lumia immediately rejected the idea.
If the Rosterly family had noticed, they wouldn’t have moved Sion in such a half-hearted way.
They would have seized the opportunity and relentlessly pressured Lumia.
Moreover, she had already confirmed through a mana oath that Sion was not lying.
“For now, I don’t see anything particularly concerning about Sion Rosterly. No—if anything…”
Lumia trailed off.
How should she even explain it?
Their meeting had lasted less than an hour.
Yet even from that alone, it was clear that everything she thought she knew about Sion Rosterly needed to be revised.
“…He’s an incomprehensible existence.”
That was the only way she could describe him.
“That Sion Rosterly?”
Serentia’s eyes widened in disbelief.
Evaluations of Sion Rosterly had always been uniformly negative.
He selfishly dragged others into his experiments, caused endless trouble while relying on his family name, and never produced results.
If not for the Rosterly family name, he would have been expelled from the tower long ago.
It was so bad that even the gentle Lumia openly showed her disgust toward him.
“Unni, about that student Sion—do you really think he’s incompetent?”
“Well… it’s been over three years since he entered the tower. And he’s consistently shown nothing but incompetence. You know it too—none of the experiments Sion Rosterly conducted, despite all the trouble he caused, have ever succeeded.”
“……That’s true.”
“If he truly had ability, something would have come of it. Talented people can’t hide it completely—some fragment always shows.”
And yet, Sion Rosterly’s incompetence had continued with uncanny consistency.
That wasn’t something one could simply fake.
But Lumia had already witnessed Sion’s dispel.
He had casually nullified her magic head-on.
No magic tools were involved—everything had been resolved purely by Sion’s own ability.
“Lumia, what’s wrong? Ever since you talked with Sion Rosterly, you’ve seemed strange…”
“Ha… I don’t know.”
Letting out a deep sigh, Lumia reached toward the subspace vault in her room.
She took out a roughly made box from inside.
Serentia gasped when she saw it.
“Lumia, this is…!”
“Yes. The prototype we created in our ‘Grimoire Reproduction’ research.”
It was still riddled with problems.
And Sion had mentioned those problems as if he had seen them himself.
Mana leakage.
Magical distortion.
Considering that Lumia’s goal was Altair’s grimoire, these were fatal flaws.
Recalling the advice Sion had left behind, Lumia began adjusting the prototype’s values.
Alarmed, Serentia tried to stop her.
“W-wait, Lumia! If you mess with that recklessly, it could explode! You know that! It’s unstable—it’s a prototype!”
“One student’s room already exploded and it’s a disaster. What’s one more going to change?”
Mages, by nature, live by curiosity—and die by curiosity.
And Lumia was, above all else, a true mage.
……He definitely said 0.3 points.
Once mana values reached decimal precision, the difference became almost negligible.
Lumia wasn’t even prepared to test values at such a detailed level yet.
In other words, this was practically a gamble.
How can I not be curious?
In the end, Lumia was a mage through and through.
Her eyes gleamed as she continued adjusting the prototype.
“W-wait…!”
Serentia crouched down, her face pale with fear.
But even as time passed, the prototype did not explode.
“Huh?”
After a while, Serentia cautiously opened her eyes and looked at it.
It was fine.
No—it was more than fine.
It emitted a soft glow, maintaining mana in a stable, systematic form.
“Wait, Lumia. Don’t tell me this is…!”
“Yes. The magical distortion has been resolved.”
Lumia nodded and lifted the prototype, examining its condition.
A grimoire is a magic tool that exists for those not chosen by mana.
That is why it absorbs ambient mana and stores it artificially.
Until now, the problem had been that mana could not be stored properly.
But now…
“It’s functioning normally.”
“I-it really is…”
“Mana leakage is still there, but to think that simply lowering the value a little would solve one problem…”
“Lumia, what did you even do to make this happen?!”
“…….”
Despite Serentia’s repeated questioning, Lumia said nothing.
Instead, she stared intently at the prototype, thinking of a single person.
……Sion Rosterly.
What in the world was he?
A long-standing problem had been solved, yet instead of relief, Lumia’s mind filled with even more questions.
The next day.
[Returned, Human.]
“Good. Let’s get to work.”
At those words, Akasha replied,
[For reference, the functional issues remain. As you know, Human, the number of mana modules poured into procedures to enhance your body is beyond imagination.]
“I know.”
[If we can obtain suitable facilities and materials at your workshop, it should be possible to normalize functions quickly. However, at present, please remember that magic is limited to a maximum of six circles.]
“Got it.”
Though Sion answered casually, he was calculating carefully in his mind.
So if I burn Akasha, I can reach seven circles.
Of course, he wouldn’t use it unless absolutely necessary—but in a truly desperate situation, what choice would he have?
[Ah. Why do I feel uneasy?]
“Heh.”
Noticing Akasha’s sharpened intuition, Sion quickly stood up.
A full day had passed, yet his body showed no major problems.
No side effects or abnormalities either—it was safe to say there were no issues.
Still, he wasn’t entirely satisfied.
“But it’s a bit disappointing.”
[What do you mean?]
“No one’s picking a fight with me. This isn’t the tower life I dreamed of.”
Clicking his tongue, Sion continued,
“I’m already annoyed because of those old academic geezers. Won’t someone come along so I can vent a bit?”
[No, Human……]
Akasha couldn’t understand why someone would wait for a target to vent their anger on.
[A law-abiding human with basic morality does not think about beating others up to relieve stress.]
“Why not?”
Sion genuinely didn’t understand.
“If the other side starts the fight first, doesn’t that clearly count as self-defense?”
[That’s true. But, Human……]
If it were truly justifiable self-defense, Akasha wouldn’t even bring this up.
[Are you not currently waiting after laying out bait, specifically so you can vent your anger?]
“…….”
[According to calculations by this ultra-high-performance AI, your psychology is closer to insurance fraud than legitimate self-defense…….]
Faced with logic he couldn’t refute, Sion’s response was simple.
“So what?”
[Ah… yes.]
Having experienced this more than once, Akasha readily conceded.
Still, it thought to itself,
The Azure Tower may be declining, but would anyone really pick a fight in a situation like this?
Especially when Sion now possessed the body of the Rosterly family’s heir.
As an ultra-high-performance AI, Akasha understood how important lineage and background were to humans.
Thus, it believed that this time, unlike Sion’s expectations, no idiot would willingly bite the bait.
However, that thought was shattered—
—Come out, Sion Rosterly!
By the existence of a loud, shouting “idiot” beyond the door.
“He’s here.”
Sion grinned and rose to his feet.
“The sacrifice of self-defense has come willingly to accept my burning rage.”
[Isn’t the justification on their side?]
“Akasha, remember this.”
With a gentle smile, Sion instructed the AI.
“Justification is something you make.”
[…….]
Not even worth the energy to reply, Akasha chose silence.
