Reincarnated as a Genius Prodigy of a Prestigious Family

Chapter 22: Please Teach Me Magic (2)

Cidrane ended up staying at Count Sogres’ castle for a while, contrary to his expectations.

Recovery is recovery, but he had no choice but to accept Dane’s suggestion.

It was times like these when he really hated having to save face as the head of a mage tower. He said he would repay his debt, so he was reaping what he had sown…

‘Damn. I thought he would become my disciple!’

He was somehow unable to shake the feeling of humiliation after getting entangled with some kid.

Cidrane usually paid no attention to mages who sought him out to become his disciple, so this was the first time in his life he had approached someone in hopes of a master-disciple relationship. He had even promised everything possible!

However, he was unable to capitalize on his effort to establish a master-disciple relationship. Now, he has to write a letter of recommendation and was teaching the code arrangement for 2-chain level magic, to boot.

“You really are quite a bold one, aren’t you?”

But he was not out of options.

Cidrane had not given up. He thought that perhaps if he built up goodwill, he might be able to get a favorable response later.

Mentioning his reputation as the head of a mage tower was because of Dane’s incredible amount of talent and magic. Maybe he could even say he held a lofty sense of duty in this regard.

“People like this absolutely have to strive only for the path of magic.”

What was so important about Dane having formed a core instead of a circle? It was more important that Dane could use chain-level magic even without a circle.

It was the first time Cidrane had seen mana as pure and dense as Dane’s. Somehow, he believed it would not stop just there with Dane. He may grow into a mage of unprecedented levels as the first-ever mage without a circle.

“The code arrangement for 2-chain magic that I will now explain is very complicated. There have been countless individuals who weren’t able to do this and gave up. So, focus and listen well.”

“I understand.”

Cidrane tried to puff up his dignity as much as he could because of this and began to explain the 2-chain magic code arrangement in as ‘difficult’ a manner as possible.

“2-chain codes are on an entirely different level compared to 1-chain. In terms of formulas, it goes beyond simple calculations. You need to assess the situation around you, your current mana, the concentration of mana in the air, and the state of your body. Only after calculating all of that can you activate it. The reason most people give up on magic is because of this. It is very complicated…”

He was basically emphasizing how great he was and showing off. Cidrane was convinced once he saw Dane’s expressionless face.

‘Hmph, I’m sure he’ll try to ask me to explain it in simpler terms.’

He could go all day long about theory, as an 8-chain mage should be able to.

“First. Magic is a state of…”

And so, Cidrane continued with a boring lecture for an entire hour.

“And this concludes part one of the explanation of the basics. Did you understand?”

Dane immediately nodded his head.

“I understand. I think I was able to understand in real detail about mana, magic power, and arrangement.”

“Huh?”

“I had only thought of code arrangement for 2-chain magic, but you prepared the information in a way I was not expecting at all.”

The response he received was not at all what he had been expecting, and it dumbfounded Cidrane.

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“Tell me about the laws of rearranging magic.”

“First is coexistence. Magic can always coexist in space with matter and even with other magic. Mages can activate magic by enabling the magic they refined to coexist with the magic in their surroundings.”

This time, it was Dane’s theory being explained.

“Second is conservation. As long as no artificial mana is added, the amount of mana in a lump will be conserved. Third is…”

Dane was only recounting what Cidrane had said, without a single incorrect phrase, but he added his own interpretation.

“From that perspective, when enough magic of a unique property is gathered, that property can take on the aspect of similar properties. This allows each of the elemental properties of magic to manifest—at least, that’s what I understood.”

Cidrane was dumbstruck.

‘It didn’t look like he was sleepy or doing anything else…’

From his experience, kids would begin fidgeting after just thirty minutes, let alone an hour.

If it was a boring lesson on magic theory, even more so.

However, this kid had been sitting there taking notes from the very beginning. He had not been distracted even once, nor had he shown signs of being sick of it.

In other words, he had been devotedly paying attention to the lecture.

As a note, Cidrane had put an entire class of students to sleep with one class on theory in the past.

“Hm, I see.”

Cidrane glanced over at the notes Dane had taken.

The notes were full of the theories Cidrane had explained without any unnecessary details.

‘Where did someone like this come from?’

People with an excess of talent sometimes placed too much confidence in their talents, leading to them neglecting theory and disregarding the basics.

Then, they ended up falling behind those who worked hard because effort and luck had to add up to have talent finally able to play a role.

However, Dane was quite different.

Not only was his talent incomparable to others, but his enthusiasm for learning was also overflowing. He even had the patience to withstand Cidrane’s lessons on theory.

What did that mean?

‘I’m absolutely going to make you my disciple.’

He was even more determined to not give up on Dane now.

“Ahem. Your comprehension is quite excellent. That was amazing. Did you study by yourself?”

“My sister Arabella told me some, and I did some self-study in the library, as well.”

Self-study, he said.

Even when a dedicated teacher was assigned at a very young age to provide close care, whether one succeeded or not at becoming a mage was up in the air. Such was the profession of a mage.

It felt like Cidrane had more and more reasons to try and entice Dane.

In any case, since Cidrane had no more pretext left for explaining the theory, he went straight into explaining the code arrangement for 2-chain magic.

“Normally, what one calls ‘magic’ and uses to simply utilize magic is not actually considered so. It is basically the same as catching the flow of magic and releasing it to activate it. You disperse magic and purify the surrounding air, to put it simply. That is how magic bullets work.”

He was speaking of the magic bullet Dane had used to teach the Tyren brothers a lesson.

“And the most decisive reason is that once you enter the realm of chain-level magic, the code becomes incomparably complex. For each higher level of chain, the code’s complexity increases exponentially.”

Cidrane went straight into demonstrating. He waved his hands in the air and magic threads appeared, weaving themselves together.

“For example, if 1-chain looks like this…”

Magic threads began to form a square grid and did not look too complicated. In fact, it was not.

1-chain magic code arrangements could be cast using simple rules. Of course, knowledge of magic was required to make that possible, but it was not that difficult.

However, that changed from 2-chain onward.

“Then, 2-chain’s complexity cannot even be compared to 1-chain.”

The grid in Cidrane’s hand began to change, and the threads of magic began to move and twist. The magic threads began to intertwine dizzyingly and change into no particular shape.

“This would be the magic code arrangement for 2-chain.”

Finally, what appeared seemed to be netting that had been used for so long that it had been broken in various places. The rest of it was so complex it could induce motion sickness just by looking at it.

“How’s that? This is the code that forms the 2-chain fire magic, ‘Fire Arrow’. Also, if you want more of them, you’ll need to use the same code many more times.”

“……”

Dane was looking wordlessly at the magic threads. Cidrane suppressed a laugh.

That’s right. He had to be surprised now. After all, he had never seen the code arrangement of 2-chain magic before.

He would probably stare at it for a long while and frown. Everyone that he had taught it to before reacted the same way, without exception. Cidrane was willing to wait for however long was required to see that extremely talented kid be flustered.

“Doesn’t it look complicated? Most people will take at least a year after mastering 1-chain code arrangements enough to freely use them before they can even understand a little bit of the code arrangement for 2-chain.”

Cidrane was giggling inwardly as if goading Dane on to give it a try. No matter how good Dane was, Cidrane was sure Dane would understand only a part of the code.

However, the important part was the rule.

Even though it looked like there was no rhyme or reason to it, a rule was hidden beneath it all—a so-called formula. If he was unable to figure that out, then nothing else mattered.

‘I’ll observe him for about a week and slowly teach him the technique.’

Cidrane was not being childish about it. All mages were like that because the formulas and rules for understanding theory were a type of bread and butter for them.

However, it did not take long for Dane to speak again.

“Should I try, as well? The formation of the code arrangement.”

“Hmm? You?”

“Yes.”

Cidrane nodded his head without thinking. Then, Dane waved his hand and formed magic in the shape of threads.

Cidrane was astonished by the very beginning of the process.

Releasing magic in the shape of threads of uniform thickness and of a certain length was an incredibly difficult feat. Actually, it did not have much practical use in and of itself. It was mostly used for lectures or teaching.

However, because the structure being complex made it difficult, one needed basic sense and experience, but…

“This is 1-chain, right?”

Dane tossed aside such stereotypes and wove threads into a grid. It was amazing. Each grid was of the same size and had a perfectly square shape.

Cidrane stared blankly and swallowed dryly.

What was he witnessing just now? It was a far cry from a simple arrangement or showing the process of arrangement.

However, the surprises did not stop there.

“And this was what you just showed me…”

The magic threads that had been closely woven into a grid began to twist into the messy shape that Cidrane had shown him.

‘Unbelievable…’

The magic threads moved with a ‘rule structure’ clearly in place.

Finally, what was completed was the same code arrangement structure Cidrane had just shown a moment ago for ‘Fire Arrow’.

“This is the code arrangement for ‘Fire Arrow’, right?”

“……”

He was right. It was a perfect code arrangement, too.

Cidrane asked blankly, “How… did you do that?”

“I was watching you and I could see the rule’s structure. Arranging the code with the rule’s structure in the center was not that difficult.”

There had been mages who, at fourteen years old, were able to materialize 3-chain and even 4-chain magic.

However, even among them, there was not a single one who could see the code arrangement of a 2-chain spell ‘exactly just once’ and immediately materialize it, themselves.

Cidrane, who had been called a genius, knew this because he was a living witness to it.

But this kid somehow had done it. He was able to understand the rule structure for a 2-chain spell without a circle by just seeing the code arrangement once.

Maybe even…

“Shall I try to cast it?”

After asking that question, Dane scattered the threads of magic.

A moment later—

Foooosh-!

Fire arrows appeared in the air.

“Wow, it worked.”

Dane was smiling with an innocent expression on his face.

Cidrane became despondent. Then, he became jealous. If only he had such talent for himself—

He was hit with the type of regret that came from thinking that then maybe he would have been able to reach the realm of 9-chain that he had only been able to dream of.

‘A mage without a circle… others would lose their minds when they hear of this.’

Cidrane thought to himself that he needed to hide that fact. The moment it was revealed, all sorts of people would try to get closer to Dane and interfere.

He at least needed to hide it until he was able to make Dane his disciple.

‘I’ll need to think about how I’ll write that letter of recommendation to the academy.’

Cidrane, the head of the Nixion Mage Tower.

That was the moment he decided to volunteer to write a letter of recommendation for the first time in his life.