WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 632: Outcast

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Every child from the academy districts in northeastern Celsius territory flocked to the academy where I was staying. There were no fewer than a hundred and fifty of them. Every morning, the children came streaming in one after another.

I wasn't an enthusiastic teacher, but I was certainly a capable one. I used mind reading to assess their aptitude, interests, and level of understanding, then stimulated their magical energy with magical devices and offered a few pointers. A child who gained some insight from that would awaken magical energy sensing and take one step closer to becoming a mage.

It had been eight days since I came down to the lower realm.

Out of a hundred and fifty, forty-three children had awakened magical energy sensing.

And one had even awakened magical energy control.

"You who have set foot upon the great path of magic. You who have earned the right to climb the steps of knowledge. Today, I feel boundless joy at the birth of one who will follow in our footsteps. With your radiant intellect, pluck the lofty stars of knowledge and scatter them across this world."

With an emotional look, the elder placed a tower hat on the child. The hat, shaped like the peak of a high spire, was proof that the child had just become a mage. Still looking as though they couldn't believe it, the child received an apprentice's wand and a cheap magic manual.

That child was now undeniably one of the chosen.

No longer the same as the children who had studied alongside them.

I let them use the academy yard for the ceremony. They asked me to host it, but I had no desire to do something so bothersome, and I didn't know how anyway. I left it to an experienced mage and focused on my new task.

"Those of you who have just awakened magical energy sensing must be very happy. A new color has been added to the world, and simply watching how this newly discovered thing moves must be enjoyable. Enjoy it if you want, but remember this. Magical energy sensing is no more than learning to walk."

I sent the failures away. The children who remained had awakened magical energy sensing. Since they had already passed the basic level, I began a lesson aimed at their second awakening.

"The reason magical energy sensing is easier than magical energy control is simple. Magical energy control requires your own magical energy."

That was also why I couldn't use proper magic despite possessing perfect theoretical knowledge and the indirect ability to sense magical energy through mind reading.

"No matter how excellent a machine is, you can't operate it properly if you're too weak. Magic is similar. Even when using magical devices, you need magical energy to start them, and the larger the spell, the more magical energy it requires. The same logic works in reverse as well. Even ignorant people with no magical energy can use small magical devices capable of causing phenomenon-class magic."

The Arcane Federation overflowed with such magical devices. I clapped, and the housekeeper brought over a large pile of them.

Magical lamps, magical furnaces, ice crystals, resonance crystal orbs, and more. There were many phenomenon-class magical devices that required so little starting magical energy that ordinary people could use them. As I laid them out, I spoke.

"If you've learned magical energy sensing, you'll be able to sense the fluctuations in magical energy caused by your own actions. If you repeatedly observe the flow of magical energy inside magical devices, one day you'll intuitively learn magical energy control. That child who became a mage also awakened magical energy control while walking home through darkness so deep they couldn't see an inch ahead, watching a magical lamp."

I had told the child to do that, but I hadn't expected them to awaken control so quickly. Even if I had been the trigger, that child was close to a genius.

The children gathered here? Aside from one, none of them would even dream of awakening it before I left. Well, after magical energy sensing became part of their everyday lives, they might gain control if they worked harder. That would no longer be my concern.

"Try it. Focus on the magical energy and sense how it flows. The movement of magical energy has a purpose. Watch it carefully, and one day, you'll be able to control magical energy like that too."

"Yes!"

The children shouted energetically and rushed in with a clatter, grabbing magical devices. Some even squabbled to get the ones they liked. As the housekeeper sighed at the thought of cleaning up afterward, a large child snatched an ice crystal from a scrawny child.

"Give it back!"

"Ah!"

The scrawny child screamed and tumbled over. Everyone's attention turned there. The large child had been grinning, but upon seeing my gaze, hurriedly made an excuse.

"No! It was mine in the first place!"

I answered reflexively.

"It's mine, you thief. Do you know how much that costs?"

Even if I had only kept them as a student for a short time, I wouldn't forgive anyone for stealing my things. When I answered coldly, the child frantically waved their hands.

"Ah! N-no, that's not what I meant! I picked it first, but that bastard suddenly stole it from me!"

"Ugh..."

The scrawny child clutched his head and glared sharply at the large child. There was desperation in that resentful gaze.

The large child only snorted.

"What are you glaring at? You're Unaffiliated!"

Unaffiliated. A discarded child who didn't belong to any academy district.

Academy districts were groups of parents who could afford tuition. Those who admired mages pooled their money, built academies, hired teachers, and received instruction.

Parents had differing levels of wealth. If some paid much more than others, naturally the bigger contributors would object. Parents with similar means gathered together to form academy districts, and as time passed, those districts gradually became stratified.

And at the bottom of that hierarchy.

Those who couldn't even afford to hire a teacher became Unaffiliated and were excluded from all education.

The final destination of the ignorant. If there was no mage in the family, no technician who even knew how to use magical devices, or no will to teach one's children because the parents themselves had never learned.

In the end, they became Unaffiliated.

They had no way to encounter knowledge or magic for their entire lives.

They became ignorant people beyond saving.

Ahead lay admiration for mages. Behind lay the fear of falling into the Unaffiliated class. Those two emotions were the force that made the Arcane Federation a nation of magic.

"Why is an Unaffiliated here?"

"He can't even pay tuition."

"Is he trying to steal lessons? Students from so many academy districts are mixed together here..."

"Then nobody would notice if he slipped in."

The educated children were clever and quick with their calculations. They quickly understood what had happened and slowly backed away from the Unaffiliated child.

Just as the exposed child gritted his teeth, I walked over with cards in both hands and looked straight at him.

"Can you sense magical energy?"

The Unaffiliated child spotted me and answered quickly.

"Y-yes..."

"My left hand or my right hand. Which one has my magical device?"

"Y-your left hand."

"The answer is both. Liar."

I opened both fists to reveal club cards. The Unaffiliated child looked flustered.

"It was a good attempt, but shallow lies reveal themselves quickly."

He chose the left hand without a moment's hesitation? He was betting his fate on a simple fifty-percent chance. Quick to decide, and his mind worked fairly well too.

But that wasn't enough.

I knelt on one knee in front of the child. The Unaffiliated child, who had been hoping I might show mercy, flinched when he met my gaze.

There was no mercy or warmth in my eyes.

"Kid. It doesn't matter to me whether you listen to my lessons or not. Everyone here is nothing more than an ignorant person to me anyway."

It was cold, but it was reality. The children didn't even look disappointed and simply nodded. For a lofty mage, or rather, a future lofty mage like me who had come from the floating castle, teaching children in the lower realm was no more than charity.

"But I gathered only the children who succeeded at magical energy sensing, so that I could give lessons suited to them. This isn't where you belong."

"Why...?!"

He would be driven out if things continued like this. Realizing that instinctively, the Unaffiliated child shouted in desperation.

"I heard you were teaching at this academy without asking for much in return. Then I can listen too! Why can't I? What, are you not confident you can teach me?!"

'I have to attend these lessons somehow! Appealing to kindness won't work on someone like him! Provoke him. It might be dangerous, but if I miss this chance, there won't be a future for me!'

...Oh? He wanted to provoke me into letting him attend?

He hadn't learned anything, but he had plenty of experience. Perhaps he had been pushed around a lot as Unaffiliated. Very clever.

But still.

"Students at academies study magic for at least three years and as long as seven. They learn letters, mathematics, geometry, and history. They build all that basic knowledge while practicing magic whenever they have time."

I wasn't shaken at all by such a childish provocation. I kept my voice as cold and emotionless as possible and told him only the facts.

"My lessons are the best. But listening to them won't fill a gap of three to seven years. If it could, why would anyone train? Why would anyone diligently read books? Magic is an honest discipline. It causes phenomena in proportion to the magical energy invested. Have you invested that much time?"

"I, I..."

"Was your environment poor? Did you lack time? Your environment and your time are parts of what make you who you are. If so, you should have shown talent that surpassed them."

To the Unaffiliated child, I must have seemed like a miracle. A mage who had come down from the floating castle and was giving fair instruction in a frontier academy district. He must have held the fantasy that I, a person doing something no different from volunteer work, might teach him too.

But that miracle shoved harsh, cold reality in his face, denying the heart that held even the faintest hope.

"I can only remain here for a little over a month. It's impossible for me to awaken you in that time. I don't attempt the impossible."

"Ah...!"

"Listen if you want. It won't help you at all."

"Ahh...!"

Tears welled up in the Unaffiliated child's eyes. Abandoned by the Arcane Federation, he had now been abandoned by me as well. Trembling with despair, sorrow, and misery, he could no longer remain here.

My words were clear facts. Staying here wouldn't help him in any way.

"Aaaaaah!!"

The Unaffiliated child howled like a beast and ran out of the academy. He threw his shoes aside without even putting them on properly and ran barefoot through the icy streets. His feet must have been cold, but could that compare to his heart?

Laughter and whispers rose throughout the academy, saying they had known it would happen and that an Unaffiliated child had been punished for sneaking in. I called the housekeeper.

"Housekeeper."

"Yes?"

"He left his shoes. Take them to him."

"What? Me? Alone in this cold?"

"You can handle that much."

'He's cold. Unfamiliar enough to be unsettling. But if he were truly cold, he wouldn't send me after him, would he?'

The housekeeper looked between me and the outside of the academy, then murmured with a slightly pitying expression.

"May I comfort him when I get there?"

"Do as you like."

"I'll be back!"

The housekeeper hurried after the Unaffiliated child. I watched for a moment, then felt the students' eyes on me and spoke.

"Are you done with the practical exercise? Can I collect the magical devices?"

"N-no!"

They had only whispered about the Unaffiliated child's appearance for a moment. The children immersed themselves in training with the magical devices. Before long, they would either forget this incident entirely or turn it into something to joke about.

The northern wind was as cold as ever. I closed the door the housekeeper had left open.

Footnotes:

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