Book 5: Volume 3 Chapter 8, Assignment from the Master

Translator: Kazumi

Editor: Silavin

 

As Luka sat at his desk at school with a piece of paper before him, his arms folded and a serious look on his face, one of his friends, Eugene, called out to him.

 

“Hey, Luka! What are you looking at with such a serious expression?… Whoa, what’s this!?”

 

Eugene frowned at the paper on the desk, and Luka gave him a puzzled look.

 

“It’s a Magic Circle?”

 

“Obviously I can tell it’s a Magic Circle! The problem is this incredibly complex pattern!”

 

Eugene was also an academy student who had thoroughly studied the basics of Magic Circles. He could determine the effect of a Magic Circle to a certain extent, but the one on this paper was beyond that level.

 

At a glance, the symbols used were only the basic ones learned in class, but the sheer complexity and detail made it nearly impossible to decipher. Deciphering a Magic Circle required more than just knowing the meaning of the symbols, it also required an intuitive grasp of the intricate connections between the intertwined elements.

 

Luka’s classmates already knew how easily he could decipher Magic Circles. That was why they were left speechless when Luka said,

 

“It’s complicated, and there are a lot of symbols, but it’s not that difficult, you know?”

 

“Look, don’t compare us to you. You can even correct the teachers! This is obviously difficult no matter how you look at it!”

 

The others listening to their conversation nodded in agreement.

 

Luka shook his head once.

 

“No, it’s true. Everyone actually knows what this Magic Circle is, right?”

 

“Huh…? No, you’re kidding, right? I’ve never seen anything like it before.”

 

Eugene and his classmates looked genuinely surprised at Luka’s words.

 

Luka had been studying the Magic Circle all morning, so everyone except Eugene had been curious and glanced at it. However, after just a quick look, they had quickly decided it was too complex for them to handle.

 

Seeing the reactions of those around him, Luka shook his head again.

 

“No, it’s true. This is the <Barrier> Magic Circle, which we learn right after the abbreviated characters.”

 

“What!?”

 

Everyone around exclaimed in surprise at Luka’s words, and their eyes focused intently on the Magic Circle.

 

Barrier Magic Circles were widely used to protect against monster attacks at night. The strength of the barrier varied depending on the level of the caster, and unless created by someone exceptionally skilled, it only had a temporary effect.

 

Even so, it could protect against minor surprise attacks from low-ranking monsters, so it was mainly used to protect merchants’ cargo. Because it was commonly known, it was one of the first Magic Circles learned in the academy’s advanced course.

 

“No, no, that’s impossible! How could such a simple Magic Circle become so complex and bizarre?”

 

At Luka’s words, a classmate grabbed the paper from his desk, and Eugene protested loudly that it couldn’t be true.

 

The classmates examining the Magic Circle on the paper all shared Eugene’s skeptical expression.

 

“No, it’s possible. If you convert all the simple and abbreviated characters in the <Barrier> Magic Circle to basic characters, this is what you get.”

 

“You’re kidding…”

 

“It’s true.”

 

Eugene remained skeptical, and Luka shook his head firmly.

 

Later, his classmates verified the Magic Circle and confirmed it was indeed a <Barrier> Magic Circle.

 

If one knew of the original, it was relatively straightforward to revert it to its basic form. Of course, this presupposed knowledge of the proper conversion method, but that was something they learned thoroughly at school.

 

It was like converting a sentence written in kanji to hiragana, so it was not particularly difficult. However, as evident from Eugene’s earlier reaction, unlike a sentence that remained readable even when written entirely in hiragana, a Magic Circle was impossible to identify at a glance when expanded this way.

 

“…I can’t believe it was actually true…”

 

“I told you it was.”

 

Luka looked at him pointedly, and Eugene clasped his hands together apologetically.

 

“No, sorry, sorry.”

 

“Well, it’s fine.”

 

Luka had no intention of actually blaming him for the doubt, so he simply stopped glaring.

 

“So? Why were you studying this Magic Circle so intently?”

 

Eugene had no idea why someone would go to the trouble of converting a simple Magic Circle into basic characters.

 

He asked Luka while looking at the Magic Circle on paper again.

 

“…It’s an assignment from my Master.”

 

The master Luka was referring to was Kousuke. Luka had been learning about Magic Circles directly from Kousuke for some time now. He had not told his classmates exactly who his Master was. He knew that if he did, he would be inundated with students begging to become Kousuke’s disciples.

 

“Assignment? …This?”

 

“Yes. I need to simplify this expanded form in a way that’s different from the commonly known version.”

 

“I see. …Is that even possible?”

 

Eugene was almost convinced by Luka’s explanation, but then looked at the Magic Circle with fresh doubt.

 

“I said the same thing to my Master, and he replied, ‘I wouldn’t assign you something impossible.'”

 

“Who is this Master of yours…”

 

Eugene replied with a mixture of exasperation and awe, and Luka could only offer a wry smile.

 

Magic Circles were generally created by simplifying complex forms, and no one typically went to the trouble of expanding a simplified version and reconstructing it from scratch. Furthermore, even commonly known Magic Circles like <Barrier> were already considered to be in their optimal form.

 

For this reason, almost no one would attempt such reconstruction.

 

Of course, if more people actively created and studied Magic Circles, such attempts might increase. However, for the time being, such trends had hardly taken hold.

 

That’s why it was only natural that Luka would be puzzled by the instructions he had received.

 

“Yeah. Well, I’m sure he’s no ordinary person.”

 

“Well, that’s probably true.”

 

Luka meant that his Master was not truly ordinary in the ‘Human sense’, but Eugene interpreted it in a more abstract way. Not wanting to reveal that he was receiving direct instruction from a Living God, Luka deflected the question with a vague smile.

 

“So?”

 

“Huh?”

 

“Do you think you can actually complete this assignment from that eccentric Master?”

 

Luka sighed in response to Eugene’s question.

 

“If it were that easy, I wouldn’t have brought it to the academy to work on.”

 

“Hahaha. I suppose that’s true.”

 

Whenever Luka was seen struggling like this in the academy classroom, it was usually because he was facing a genuinely difficult problem. This assignment was no exception.

 

“It’s much harder to create a new simplification than to work with the existing simple Magic Circles…”

 

Luka said, looking at the Magic Circle again with determination.

 

After watching this, Eugene shrugged and said, “Well, don’t push yourself too hard. You’ll probably end up walking around with that paper in front of your face and crashing into a wall.”

 

“I’ll try not to.”

 

Eugene’s half-serious warning made it clear he’d seen this happen before, so he walked off toward another friend, leaving Luka to his challenging work.