"I'm home!"
Having successfully passed my exam, I returned to find Alicia greeting me in her school uniform.
She looked so incredibly lovely and elegant that, for a split second, I wondered if I’d accidentally opened the doors to heaven instead of my own home. She wasn’t bare-legged, opting for black tights instead—but hey, that’s a style choice that scores pretty high in my book too.
Full marks!
"Laguna! Are you all right? Did anyone say anything awful to you?"
"I'm fine, really."
She rushed over to me, looking like a worried, overprotective mother. I, meanwhile, was busy giving her outfit a serious mental evaluation.
"The students here—myself included, once—are prone to severe discrimination because of our parents' influence," she explained. "And there are plenty of teachers who condone it."
"That's true."
Alicia had attended this academy before, and back then, her followers had practically worshipped her as the queen of discrimination. Knowing that history, it was no wonder she was worried sick.
But honestly, in Alicia's case, it was understandable. It was simply a matter of status. Even within the Academy, there was no reason a commoner should have been allowed to flirt with a prince while completely disregarding his fiancée from a House of the Duke.
Even I wouldn't be allowed to marry a commoner Adventurer. For a noble, marrying another noble is a necessity to maintain the standing required to exercise privilege, keep connections with other houses, and ensure the family’s long-term survival. I’ll just chalk the whole mess involving Alicia’s broken engagement up to a tragedy born of those rigid societal expectations.
I didn't blame the other students for overreacting, but I really had to wonder about the Prince. Why didn't the man who started it all realize how people would respond? Using another woman just to break off an engagement is the kind of thing a scumbag does, even in modern Japan.
I spoke up to put Alicia's mind at ease. "I passed the Magic Practical Exam with flying colors. They even waived the Written Exam for me."
"If it's you, Laguna, I suppose that’s possible. But what exactly happened?"
"The examiner was hell-bent on failing me no matter what I did, but after I beat him up, the Headmaster stepped in and gave me a passing grade."
"...No, really, what did you do?"
She gave me a skeptical look, but I had told her the literal truth.
"The Headmaster seems like a pretty reasonable guy, doesn't he?" I asked.
"Yes. My old self might have found him annoying, but now I can see he’s a person of character who puts the students first."
If the Headmaster hadn't been there, things probably would have been much more complicated. Since I’d feel bad about causing a scene for Alicia’s sake, I was just glad it had worked out.
"By the way," she said, "I've been wondering for a while now."
"Yeah?"
"What kind of Magic do you use, exactly?"
"It’s just normal stuff. I can do a bit of everything, but I suppose Barriers are my specialty."
Even then, a Barrier is a spell almost anyone can use, even without a specific aptitude for it. It’s one of the Holy-attribute spells that creates a transparent wall to block physical or magical force—the same concept as the dome covering the Royal Capital.
"No, the largest Academy in the Magic Kingdom isn't so soft that being 'good at Barriers' gets you out of a Written Exam. Besides, honestly, it should be impossible to fight a dragon to a draw. Is it really just a Barrier?"
"Well, it might be a bit different from the Barrier most people envision."
I don't usually like explaining my specialty to others, but I decided I could tell Alicia. As I sipped the coffee she had brewed for me, I deployed a Barrier right in front of her.
"Most people think of a Barrier as just a flat wall, right?"
"Yes. Though the fact that you can cast it Chantless is surprising enough... For now, I'll just accept it because it's you. Please, go on."
As Alicia urged me to continue with a smile—even though her mouth was twitching slightly—I felt like she was truly getting used to the House Brave way of doing things. Accepting it because it's me? That felt a little rude, but I let it slide.
"With Chantless casting, I can make it into various shapes, not just a wall."
"What?"
Normally, you’d need some long-winded chant like, 'In the name of the Holy Goddess, I summon a wall of protection,' which limits you to a simple rectangular plane. But with Chantless casting, I can create domes, cylinders, or almost any other shape.
To demonstrate, I shaped a Barrier into a cup and poured the coffee from my mug into it.
"Whoa!"
Alicia panicked as she watched the black liquid hovering in mid-air. How cute.
"A Barrier can do that...?"
"Think about it. The Barrier covering the Royal Capital is a perfect example."
"Ah, I see."
Alicia looked convinced. That dome is a magnificent example of a shaped Barrier.
"There are other differences between a standard Barrier and the one over the Royal Capital, right?" I prompted.
"...You can choose what it allows to pass through?"
"Exactly."
As expected of a Gifted Woman, she was quick on the uptake.
"A high-level Barrier can freely determine not just its shape, but what to let through and what to repel."
The Royal Capital's Barrier lets people pass but blocks hostile Magic. It’s a ridiculous piece of work that repels spells coming from the outside while allowing spells cast from the inside to pass through to the exterior. Covering the entire city like that requires a massive amount of Magic Power, though I have no idea how they provide it.
"Does that mean you can do the same thing the Capital's Barrier does?" Alicia asked.
"I can manage much more precise control than that."
Unlike that massive city-wide spell, the Barriers I use are limited in range, making them highly efficient. I can specify what to filter in great detail.
"Like this... there."
I returned the coffee from the Barrier-cup back into my original mug by "scooping" it from below. I did this by making the Barrier permeable only to the ceramic of the mug.
"This is certainly enough to earn an instant pass on a practical exam..."
"It’s close to being omnipotent, but there are things it can't do."
For instance, I couldn't separate the sugar and milk from the coffee in Alicia's cup. If it’s something like silver coins mixed into a pile of gold, or a bug clinging to a leaf, I can handle it. But once substances have physically blended together, my Barrier can't tell them apart.
"So, how do you use that to fight a dragon to a draw?" Alicia asked, leaning in close.
"Well..."
Before I could explain the more complex physics involved, a loud sound interrupted me.
Grumble—
It was the sound of Alicia’s stomach.
"L-Let's have dinner!" she stammered, her face turning bright red as she scurried toward the kitchen. "I finally learned how to cook, so leave it to me!"
"Oh, uh, thanks."
I watched her retreat, wondering for a moment why she’d been wearing her uniform in the first place. Classes didn't start until tomorrow, and unlike me, she didn't have an exam today. There was no real reason for her to be dressed up... but she looked great, so I decided it didn't matter. She was probably just checking the fit before the first day.