I Became a Murderer in the Academy. - Chapter 12

TN: Thank James Baily for the chapter.

A cold red gaze.

And that icy voice that seemed devoid of any emotion.

[There won’t be a second time, Lucia]

Lucia had another nightmare today as the memory came to her every time she closed her eyes in bed.

“Hah! Haa, haa……”

Waking up from sleep, covered in cold sweat, she exhaled roughly.

It’s a memory she just couldn’t forget.

It was the first time she had been treated like that as the second daughter of the Aster family.

At first, Lucia was angry.

She surely wouldn’t let it go.

“……”

Except for her, no one remembered what happened that day.

Not only her servants who helped but all the circumstances and situations seemed to be on Iria’s side.

[Did you have a bad dream?]

Iria’s last words to her seemed to echo in her ears.

Was it really just a bad dream?

Did it appear as a dream because she’s been following Iria recently?

“……How annoying.”

Lucia wiped the sweat from her forehead as she sat up.

Yes, if she dismissed it as just a momentary dream, it would make sense.

The scene from that day was too surreal.

Iria, whom she thought was a bubble* top student, subdued her without even laying a hand, knocked out her servants, and disappeared in an instant.

Certainly, there were too many strange points to consider it reality.

So Lucia made a conclusion that made it easier for her head to understand.

It was a dream.

It wasn’t reality.

So forget it.

It was something that couldn’t have happened.

Only after coming to that conclusion could Lucia accept it.

“Right… It couldn’t be.”

It didn’t make sense from the start that Lucia, a recommended student, was subdued by someone from the same year.

If it had been reality, Iria would have been seeing Lucia for the first time that day, so how could she have known and called her name?

That was impossible from the beginning.

It was just a momentary illusion.

So she had to take the top position from Iria as soon as possible.

It seemed like that was the only way to escape this wretched nightmare.

She had to prove that the memory from that day was wrong by breaking her down in reality, not in a dream.

Iria.

Lucia chewed on that person’s name for the rest of the morning.

***

“So… you’re saying you don’t know how to use magic?”

“Yes.”

Iria answered briefly, and Rena scratched her cheek as if perplexed.

Iria mentioned she didn’t know how to use even basic magic after entering the Combat Magic Department, but she used her status as the overall top student of the first year to support her admission instead.

It wasn’t an easy story to believe.

However,

“Wind!”

“Hmm……”

Watching Iria waving her hands in the air, it really seemed like she didn’t know how to do it.

It was amazing to think a top student would look like this. Although it didn’t match the image at all, Rena decided to let it slide because it was cute.

“So you want to learn magic? From me?”

“I don’t understand the class content well.”

Iria needed to learn magic.

If she couldn’t even use basic magic while sitting as the top seat in the Combat Magic Department, she would receive unnecessary suspicion.

The academy was a place where she could comfortably gather information.

It guaranteed Iria’s identity, allowed her to use the library, and she could monitor who might be the protagonist of the novel.

To achieve her goal, she couldn’t neglect her academy life.

However, Rena, unaware of that, smiled slightly and asked Iria.

“You said you’ve taken the magic aptitude test, right?”

Iria nodded.

The magic aptitude test is a kind of examination that finds out which attribute of magic one has an aptitude for.

It’s common to have one of water, fire, lightning, ice, or wind, but depending on talent, there are cases where one can have multiple elements.

“I can use fire magic, lightning, and a little bit of wind magic too. Of course, I’m most confident with fire magic.”

Rena was like that too.

Those who could handle two elements were surprisingly common in the academy, where only prodigies gathered. However, being able to handle three elements was a rare talent.

While speaking, she showed small flames, lightning, and a faint wind in order.

“That’s cool.”

“Umm… yeah, thanks.”

Iria responded lukewarmly.

Rena expected a more surprised reaction, but she was at a loss for words because it was typical of Iria.

Actually, it would have felt more disconnected if Iria had reacted passionately with her eyes shining.

Rena patted Iria’s head once and then asked.

“So, what kind of magic are you suited for?”

“I think it’s wind for me. It seems I can’t use multiple words at once like Rena.”

“Well, that’s normal.”

It seems that the standard for ‘normal’ has become a bit strange at some point, but that’s because the academy’s average is too high.

By ordinary standards, Iria wasn’t behind or anything.

Anyway, wind, huh.

Rena thought while looking at Iria.

‘It doesn’t seem to suit her, but strangely it does.’

In other words, wind matched Iria’s image somewhat, but other magic didn’t at all.

It was fortunate that it overlapped with her own magic.

She could demonstrate directly.

“Okay. Then, do you remember the basic incantation?”

“A little.”

“Then, I’ll show you just once, so watch carefully, okay?”

Rena closed her eyes and reached out into the air.

It’s the process of bringing out the mana flowing inside the body.

Her golden hair fluttered.

And.

“Can you see? Focus on the flowing mana and bring it out. Then, you apply the incantation to the mana.”

With a short chant, a blue-green light enveloped her body.

It’s the natural element of wind.

With her hands, Rena gathered the wind surrounding her body and blew it towards Iria.

The gentle wind that blew ruffled Iria’s hair.

It wasn’t a strong wind, just pleasantly cool.

“I’m not skilled at handling wind magic either, so I can only do this much. But in actual duels, I can use it to deflect incoming magic. Want to try?”

Iria nodded.

She, too, closed her eyes and reached out into the air, just as Rena had done.

Finding a tiny amount of mana in a body full of magical energy is difficult.

Iria concentrated a bit more and drew out the mana to her fingertips.

It’s an unfamiliar substance that she was feeling for the first time.

What’s natural for a person is strange for her.

Iria had a substance called magical energy that substituted for mana.

That’s why it was difficult.

She struggled with the most basic step of finding mana.

But.

“Concentrate, Iria. Not like that, handle it a bit more gently.”

Rena grabbed Iria’s hand.

Iria’s unstable mana gradually stabilizes.

With Rena’s help like that, she was able to bring out her mana.

After that, it continued smoothly without any hitches.

Bring out the mana, apply the incantation, and implement the element in the form of magic.

-Whoosh.

Just like Rena had shown earlier, a blue-green light surrounded Iria’s body.

“That’s right! That’s it!”

Rena shouted.

When Iria opened her eyes, she had already succeeded in creating magic.

She learned the sensation of implementing magic with her body.

‘I think I can do a bit more.’

Once you’ve drawn out mana, operating it isn’t difficult.

It would normally be difficult, but not for Iria.

As always, she could borrow someone’s memory.

Iria wrapped the blue-green wind around her right hand.

A fierce wind swirled like a storm.

It’s a wind far larger than what Rena had shown.

“Iria…?”

It wasn’t the proficiency of someone learning magic for the first time.

It was far sharper, more precise, and more powerful than what Rena cast.

Rena watched the unfolding scene in a half-dazed state.

With wind wrapped around her entire body, Iria quickly leaped and punched the tree in front of her.

-Bang!!

The sound of a hole being punched through a large tree burst out.

The sight of the tree falling with a crashing sound seemed somewhat surreal.

After the tree fell, Iria was standing in front of it.

Did she really break it with her fist?

Such a huge tree that must be at least 1 meter thick?

Rena rubbed her eyes as if she couldn’t believe what she saw and approached Iria.

“What did you just do…?”

“Magic.”

“…?”

“Wind punch.”

Was Iria actually a magic genius?

Rena scratched her cheek and looked back and forth between the fallen tree and Iria.

Well, that must be why she’s the year’s top student.

Rena knew she was an extraordinary person.

***

“Now the wind isn’t coming out.”

I said, stretching out my hand, but nothing came out.

“You must have used up all your mana. No matter how I look at it, the power just now was excessive, Iria.”

“Ah.”

I didn’t have much mana.

It was at a level far below the average of academy students and even the average of ordinary people.

It was only natural that using such a powerful spell would completely drain her.

“Are you feeling okay? Not dizzy?”

I nodded.

“Iria, you’re strange. Usually, people collapse from exhaustion when they use up all their mana.”

“Is that so?”

“Of course. Mana is a substance that makes up the composition of blood. If you use it to the limit, your skin can discolor, and you can show symptoms of anemia. So it’s better to be careful. It’s commonly called mana exhaustion.”

But no such symptoms could be found in me at all.

“But, it’s a bit like…”

Rena paused for a moment.

“It’s like you’re full of a different substance rather than mana? So it seems like there’s no problem even when there is none of it in your body.”

“……”

“But that can’t be, right? Because Iria is human. Right? Maybe your body has a natural limiter on it?”

I couldn’t answer for a moment to Rena’s question filled with pure curiosity.

She suspected my identity, which even several top-class mages hadn’t noticed.

Did she see it during the stage when we held hands and used magic earlier?

I briefly considered whether she should erase Rena’s memory.

But I stopped.

The act of erasing memories had more side effects than expected.

Erased memories remain blank in the mind for a long time.

And someday, they come back and create a sense of discomfort.

It could be used freely on people I would see once and never again, but Rena wasn’t like that.

The moment she sees my face again, the erased memory will probably create some discomfort.

That’s why I didn’t erase it.

For now, it was just a slight suspicion.

“Let’s go to our class.”

“Is it that time already?”

“Yes.”

However, I should refrain from using magic in front of Rena for now.