I Think My Fiancé Has Regressed

Chapter 46: Second semester begins (1)

After a long summer vacation, the second semester has finally dawned.

As it turned out, I didn’t return to Anastasia Manor for the entire summer vacation, and returned to Leavrov Academy in a carriage directly from the palace a few days before the start of classes.

Since the carriage was coming back from the palace, of course I had Alex with me.

“Isn’t that the royal carriage? Isn’t Lady Ariana getting out of it?”

“Judging by the way she’s alighting with the First Prince, it looks like the rumors that they’ve completely mended fences were true.”

“Speaking of which, I believe Miss Sierra was expelled from the school…. Could it be that Lady Ariana retaliated?”

“Shh, be quiet, I don’t want her to overhear.”

The fact that Alex and I were getting off the carriage together was good fodder for the other students to talk about.

As long as it wasn’t too gossipy, I let it go, because it was good for me and good for Alex.

In my case, it would go a long way toward reuniting my forces, which had been temporarily scattered by Miss Sierra, with the suture of my relationship with Alex.

It would also help to dispel, at least somewhat, the rumors that Alex, being Alex, had abandoned his fiancée for a commoner girl.

“…When you said you were going to spend the whole summer with him, you weren’t kidding, sis.”

“That’s what happened. It took a long time to finalize things anyway, and even if I had returned to the family home, I wouldn’t have stayed more than a few days.”

“Father looked depressed, almost like he had resigned himself. In the end, his daughter left his arms and crossed the stairs of adulthood.”

“…Not yet.”

“Didn’t you go to the royal villa on the coast of Canbina? That’s what I’ve heard, I’m sure.”

“Yeah, that’s right. I spent a month or so on the coast of Canbina, gave Alex a lap pillow, and showed him my swimsuit on the beach.”

“… It may be rude to say this, but I can’t believe it…”

“It’s rude, don’t do that.”

Kael’s attempts to criticize Alex for going out of his way to think of me were so inconsiderate.

So, back at the Academy dorms, I organized my things, resumed my student council duties, and caught up on work I hadn’t done over the summer.

I arrive at the academy, and before I know it, it’s been a week since school started.

Since there’s nothing dangerous and hard to do during the semester, I can relax a bit.

In fact, during summer vacation, when I was supposed to rest, I had to ride a carriage far away and risk my life fighting, and during winter vacation, which would come right away, I would have to go to the next country and suffer again.

For a while, it seems like my life would be upside down.

Then a new semester dawns, and it’s time for Mr. Del’s lecture as usual.

I’m making magic as I always do, based on other magic I’ve read about in books, with a twist of dark magic.

The spell I’m working on right now, it’s called Detect Magic.

It’s an important and fundamental spell that might hold the key to curing Alex’s heart disease.

To summarize, I think I’ve succeeded in replicating the magic itself.

It wasn’t difficult to create the shape of the object that the magic was flowing through.

It’s just that it’s limited to simple shapes, with no holes or dents.

If it encountered even a small hole, the magic would often dissipate without properly detecting anything.

…This is a bit of a problem.

The most important thing is to measure the exact size of the hole, otherwise there’s no point in learning this magic.

Nothing is flowing easily, really.

“Is something not working for you, Student Ariana?”

Seeing me struggling with my magic, President Dell approached, asking if there was anything he could do to help.

Now that he’s not stuck with someone to correct, as he usually does, he seems to have a little more time to watch my magic.

“Mr. President.”

“It’s been a while since I’ve seen you struggle with something, Arianna, though you’re usually quite good at researching magic on your own without my guidance.”

“I’ve been trying out some new magic today, and it’s not going as well as I thought it would.”

“I was wondering if you could explain what kind of magic it is? I might be able to help, even though it’s not my area of expertise.”

Obviously, he’s been around a lot longer than I have, so his sense of magic must be different than mine.

Even if the magic of this world is a variation of coding, it feels a little different when you use it.

Maybe he can give me some advice from a perspective I haven’t considered.

“Could I get advice on how to specifically identify this handkerchief’s form through magic detection?”

“If it’s a normal handkerchief, you should be able to detect its shape just by channeling magic through it.”

“That’s true, but I have a specially shaped handkerchief.”

“It’s a special shape….Do you mind if I take a look at it?”

“Of course, Mr. President.”

He took the handkerchief from me, looked it over, and noticed a small hole in one corner.

“There’s a hole here.”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“When you say special shape, do you mean the shape of this handkerchief with a hole?”

“Yes, it’s the shape of a handkerchief with a hole in it.”

“And you must be able to draw this shape using only magic power?”

“Yes, sir.”

At my answer, President Del nodded and began to channel arcane energy into the handkerchief he had taken from me.

The arcane energy left his hand, traveled down the handkerchief, and dissipated at the point of the hole, just like my own magic.

No matter how many times he switched the spots, the magic always dissipated at the point where the hole was punched.

“Surely this form would be a bit difficult for normal magic detection.”

“…That’s true.”

“But for Ariana’s magical research, you must have a way to draw the shape of this handkerchief using only magic power, right?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“Then I suppose we could use a method like this, though it’s not a normal magic detection.”

After draining the arcane energy from the handkerchief, President Del once again traced the handkerchief and let the energy flow from his fingertips.

This time, however, instead of stopping at the hole and disappearing, the energy seemed to take a natural detour and fill the empty space in the handkerchief.

Soon, my handkerchief was completely enveloped in arcane energy, and had taken on a form that could only be identified by its energy.

I have no idea how it happened.

“Uh, how did you do it?”

“You don’t channel the energy directly into the object, but instead, you drape a thin cloth over it.”

“You put a thin cloth over it?”

“Yes. When you energize an object, you have to keep it in a linear form, which makes it difficult to react when it encounters an obstacle, but the concept of overlaying allows you to keep the energies in a plane shape.

Unlike linear shapes, it maintains a bond with the surrounding energies, so it doesn’t disappear in the middle, and it can naturally draw the shape of the entire object.

And because the entirety of the energy is wrapped around the object from top to bottom, the precision is such that it can be drawn down to the thickness of a thin handkerchief.”

It was magic in a way I’d never seen before.

Normally, when using magic detection, you only need to know the approximate shape of an object, so you don’t need to detect holes or gaps in the middle.

As a result, linear detection became the most common method, as it was the fastest and used the least amount of magic, and anything else was pretty much dead.

The only thing that remained in the literature was that it existed, but not how to use it or how much magic it took.

This was one of those missing types of magic, and now, right in front of me, Mr. Del, was showing me.

“I can’t recommend using it often, though.”

“What? Why?”

“This detection method consumes quite a bit of magic. Since you’re emitting it in the form of a plane means you’ll need to use at least twice as much magic to get it to work properly.

I have a large magic reserve and I can borrow energy from nature, but it might be…a bit difficult for Arianna to use.”

“When you say it’s a lot of magic, how much do you mean?”

“I’d say it’s about the same as a student of Arianna’s usual creative magic, though of course dark magic is a bit different in many ways than other magics, so the actual drain will probably be subtly different.

Still, one way or another, I’m going to have to expend a spell’s worth of magic, and if I’m just sensing the shape of things, a spell’s worth of magic is probably too much.”

“…….”

“That’s why general magic detection is the best spell for practical use, even if it is a bit inaccurate.”

An entire spell’s worth of magic is definitely more than I expected.

I’ve barely gotten a clue as to how to cure Alex’s heart disease, and I’m stymied by another restriction.

If I have to take this much of a drain on the first step, will I have any magic left for the second and third steps?

…But I can’t just throw away the clues of the first step, which I’ve barely gotten a hold of, and let it go to waste.

“Still, let me know.”

“…I suppose it’s the magic you need somehow.”

“Yes. It’s a magic I need to learn somehow, and it’s a magic that can’t be replaced by any other magic.”

“I see, it’s my duty as a teacher to teach you what you want.

Still, arcane magic and dark magic are a little different, so I’ll leave that to Ariana’s discretion as to what she wants to learn.”

“Understood.”

It was an inefficient spell, to be sure, requiring me to use up all of my magic just to practice it twice a day.

For a while, my lessons with Chancellor Del on detecting special magic continued.

I could only believe that the right path must be this way for now.