CHAPTER 115
Growing Mana
From the beginning, Idnia didn’t have a particularly impressive amount of mana. Even after some growth, she still couldn’t match students who had received prior magical training. But in terms of growth rate, no one could match her.
Because of her pulse-type mana circuits, she usually didn’t seem to have much mana. But right now, as she endured pain, her mana flared up visibly — it was almost blazing to the naked eye.
“This rate of growth won’t last forever. But should I be happy or sad that Flora’s daughter is growing this quickly?”
Baroness Bylem watched Idnia with mixed feelings.
As an educator, she was pleased to see Idnia rapidly improving in her class. But as someone who hated Flora, she couldn’t fully celebrate the success of her daughter.
If the Baroness had known the full extent of what Idnia was going through, she would have realized this mana growth wasn’t purely a good thing. But whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, she didn’t yet know the full story.
After the Baroness Bylem’s class, it was time again for Professor Magram’s lesson.
“Now, let’s continue with retrieval magic today,” Magram announced.
“Retrieval magic is basic, foundational magic for all summoning. But depending on how you perform it, it can become very advanced.
Yesterday’s lesson was too easy, right? Everyone succeeded — once you’ve learned telekinesis, simple retrieval is no challenge.
Except for one person… Idnia.”
All eyes turned toward Idnia.
According to the shop scoreboard, Karl had 9 points, and both Izolde and Idnia had 8. But Idnia had earned 9 points for her entire dorm by herself — no one questioned she was the top student overall.
Still, despite her top score, she had failed a basic task everyone else had succeeded at — even Mariz, who was the weakest in theory and technique, had done it easily.
“So, Idnia,” said Magram, “will you succeed today?
I didn’t assign homework, but unless you show success today, we can’t move on.
Please, show us now.”
“Ah… just a moment.”
Idnia walked forward and set down her wand.
“Heh. Yesterday you weren’t feeling well — had to run to the bathroom,” one student snickered.
“She’ll do fine today,” another added sarcastically.
Nora, Kate, and Mina — all from Zephyros dorm — mocked and laughed at her.
They were enjoying watching someone who usually dominated slip up.
“Fools. Do they know whose tail they’re stepping on?” Izolde thought angrily.
She was frustrated — she wanted to rebuild her relationship with Idnia, but she couldn’t just abandon her current friends. If she suddenly changed sides, people would start asking questions… and she couldn’t reveal she was the daughter of a demon.
“Come on, Lady Idnia… please succeed this time. If they see weakness, they’ll just keep mocking you.”
Izolde nervously watched as Idnia prepared to try again.
The night before and earlier that morning, Idnia had secretly practiced in the Wizard Ball room. She had also done farming and alchemy tasks.
Those higher-mana spells worked fine.
As her hypothesis suggested: spells that required large amounts of mana worked without issue. But low-mana spells didn’t. The pulse-type mana circuits were to blame.
So she had tested a method — she used up her mana until she was nearly dizzy and drained. Only then would low-level spells, like retrieval, start working.
“I’ve emptied my mana already, so it should work this time. The activation word was ‘Nae-son-eu-ro’ — ‘With my hand’, right?”
She reached toward her wand and cast the spell in her mind.
And this time, it worked perfectly.
“Oh, see?”
“She really was just feeling off yesterday.”
“These nouveau-riche types… They don’t get that Lady Idnia’s rank isn’t just for show.”
“Technically she’s not first — Karl has the top personal score.”
“Still, come on…”
Students from Euross dorm and noble families respected Idnia.
Even if the Betelgeuse royal family had fallen, she was still from a princely line. And the fall had come from being the first to fight the Demon King’s army, which made her even more admirable.
Meanwhile, many gentry students — wealthy commoners and merchants — saw Idnia as a symbol of old nobility. She was a thorn in their side.
“Alright, enough chit-chat. Interesting method, Idnia,” Magram said. “Looks like your pulse-type circuits are giving you trouble.”
“Ah… you knew, Professor?”
Idnia felt a bit annoyed. He had clearly known yesterday and said nothing.
“But if you keep using that method, it’ll only get harder as your mana capacity grows.
Lucky for you, I have a solution. I offer private services at a reasonable rate.”
“Wait — a fee? You’re charging money?”
“Of course. You’re the only one suffering from pulse-type mana circuits. It’s a personal issue, not something that benefits the whole class.
And as a practitioner of Wish Magic, I can’t offer it for free.
But enough about money — let’s continue the lesson. You may return to your seat.”
Magram waved her back to her desk.
Idnia was speechless at his shamelessness.
“You brought up money, and now you say it’s ‘vulgar’ to talk about it? Unreal.”
She wasn’t expecting every teacher to sacrifice their life and wealth out of pure passion. But for a professor to charge extra just to help a student learn was still ridiculous.
“Hm? The class feels tense…”
While Magram was talking to Idnia, a quiet standoff was brewing among the students.
Nobles and gentry, and even sub-groups within the gentry — landlords, lawyers, scholars — were starting to argue.
At the center of it stood Prince Karl of House Oxbach.
“Who just disrespected a princely house? Name yourself, coward!”
Apparently, someone had mocked Idnia, and Karl was furious.
“Karl, this is class,” said Magram, clearing his throat. “If you keep going, I’ll have to assign a penalty.”
“Understood, Professor. But please stop others from making unnecessary comments as well.”
“Understood.”
With a grin, Magram suddenly pulled out a scimitar.
— Fwoosh!
He threw it — and it created a blazing wall of fire, flying through the air about a meter above the ground between Karl and the other students.
Everyone froze. The heat was intense, even from far away.
“Let’s move on,” Magram said, smiling.
“So far, we used line-of-sight telekinesis. Now, we’ll mark objects in advance and retrieve them without seeing them — like this.”
He stretched out his hand.
The scimitar flew back through the fire toward Karl — but just before it hit him, it curved and returned to Magram’s hand.
“It needs to avoid obstacles and return to your hand.”
“What was that?!”
Karl didn’t speak, but Rudolph stood up angrily.
“That was just a demonstration,” said Magram.
“It was dangerous!”
“Relax. It’s an illusion.”
Suddenly the fire cooled. The sword shimmered and turned translucent. Magram bent it with his fingers — it was soft, like rubber.
Just moments ago, it had been real flames and steel. Now it was clearly a harmless toy under illusion magic.
“Unbelievable…”
“Brother…” whispered Izolde.
“He scolded a student for eating a donut yesterday and nearly burned Karl just now. This professor’s insane… If Rudolph draws attention, he’ll be next.”
“Still…” Rudolph started.
“A-anyway, this class just got a lot harder,” Izolde interrupted, quickly changing the subject.
“Yes, retrieval magic is like that,” Magram said. “Would you like to try solving it yourself, before I explain how?”
“Yes, I’ll try,” Izolde volunteered.
She stepped forward to draw attention away from Rudolph.
She handed her wand to the assistant, placed a chair on her desk, and stood behind it.
“Nae-son-eu-ro!”
With the activation word, the wand flew around the chair and landed in her hand.
She had successfully retrieved it without line of sight, and without moving.
“Oh? I didn’t expect anyone to succeed at this level without knowing the structure. Izolde, you earn 1 point.
And if you explain how you did it, I’ll give you another point.”
It was exactly what she hoped for — Magram’s interest was off Rudolph now.
“I cast a Wizard Mark on the wand to tag it in advance. Then I summoned an air spirit to bring it to me.”
“Ah, remote summoning with a spirit — clever. No need for sensory linking; the spirit avoids obstacles on its own.
And how did it feel when casting it?”
“It felt like the incantation already had something built in. I think other mages in the past used this method too.”
She had rediscovered an existing variation of the spell on her own.
“Excellent. That earns you 2 points total.
Your method matched the existing spell structure almost perfectly — less than 1% deviation.”
Magram smiled and praised her.
Izolde was now at 10 points, surpassing Karl for the top individual score.
Though if Idnia’s shared dormitory points were counted as personal, she would have 17, and still be far ahead.
