“Of course I came, because of someone’s outrageous lie.”

Alon was only bewildered for a moment under Sharan’s gaze, packed with blatant hostility.

“A lie? Did someone tell you a lie or something?”

Selaim asked as if he truly had no idea, and Sharan lightly furrowed her brow.

“They did. The lie that you can make a sixth-tier— no, magic with an even more complex formula than that, with Light.”

“And why is that a lie?”

“Ha— you’re saying it isn’t?”

“Sharan, you know how many mages the Marquis demonstrated magic in front of.”

When Selaim shot back, Sharan shook her head and declared,

“It must’ve been a trick.”

“A trick?”

“......Do I really have to say that out loud myself?”

As if it was ridiculous, Sharan stared at Selaim with a sour expression.

“Hm—”

“If it’s you, you should know how baseless that nonsense is.”

“Well— if it’s Marquis Palatio, I think it might be possible.”

“......You’re even more infatuated than your own disciple, seriously—”

“No, it’s purely a probability issue, is all.”

“......Ha.”

After shaking her head over and over, Sharan looked at Alon and then—

“If you really achieved the next step of Light magic— in other words, reconstruction, then I’ll just bark like a dog and become your disciple.”

After saying that, as if there was nothing more to say, Sharan simply spun around and vanished.

Alon, who had been staring at Sharan disappearing far away without even waiting for an answer—

“Try to understand. That one has a bit of pride about magic.”

“......Ah, yes.”

Even while nodding at Selaim’s explanation, Alon thought,

‘......What is this?’

Of course, he could tell well enough that Sharan had been ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) blatantly trying to demean him.

But from Alon’s standpoint, her words were too disorganized.

“Obviously it’s pride.”

Penia, who was beside him, let out an ehu— and sighed.

“Pride?”

“Yes. The Green Mage Tower master is famous for overflowing with pride. Because they’re the youngest tower master.”

“......Was that so?”

Alon briefly rummaged through his memories.

......It felt like there had been a setting like that.

‘They’re definitely younger than the other tower masters.’

The other tower masters basically looked past fifty, but even when Sharan showed up late in the game, Sharan was still in the late twenties.

‘In the original story, Penia was the one who became a tower master. So the title of youngest got handed over to Penia, and I didn’t think about it.’

While Alon was understanding the situation in his own way, Penia muttered to themself as if it was strange.

“But— even if the Green Mage Tower master’s personality is nasty, they’re not the type to slam into someone that hard....... What’s with them?”

“Is that different from usual?”

“Ah, it’s true they’re originally kind of like that. But it feels a bit more vicious than usual....... Marquis, do you have something going on with the Green Mage Tower master?”

“No way. As a mage, there really aren’t many people I have ties with.”

“Mm— that’s true. Well, it’s not strange for that kind of reaction to come out....... Still, what is it—”

Penia fell into thought.

But only for a moment.

“Either way, once you do the demonstration tomorrow, it’ll all be over.”

“That’s true.”

That was the end of Penia’s agreement with Selaim’s words.

“I’d like to at least talk for once, since it’s been a while. How about it, Marquis Palatio?”

“I think that’ll be fine.”

Alon moved to have a conversation with Selaim.

The next day.

Even though the Marquis Palatio’s demonstration had been set up suddenly, the arena was packed even more tightly than before.

And the atmosphere split into exactly two branches.

“Is it Light magic again this time?”

“Finally—! Last time, the mana orb that records video completely burned out, so I couldn’t even check it properly.”

“This time, I brought it myself just so I could confirm it.”

“What— you brought something that expensive?”

“Of course it’s Mage Tower property.”

One side was the people who had seen the Marquis’s demonstration before.

And the other half—

“Hm, what do you think? Marquis Palatio’s magic.”

“Honestly, I don’t really believe it.”

“But even so, I don’t think the Marquis would lie— there were witnesses too.”

“Until I see it with my own eyes, it’s hard to believe.”

—were the people who hadn’t seen the demonstration.

Every last one of them was looking down at the demonstration ground with a slightly suspicious expression.

And.

“You were here.”

Sharan Poranu was the same.

“You came, Selaim.”

As Sharan greeted him curtly, Selaim nodded.

“Of course I came. It’s such an important moment.”

“......Do you sincerely believe it?”

“Then what is there not to believe?”

At the carefree response, Sharan let out a sigh.

“I know other mages believe Marquis Palatio’s magic. But you shouldn’t be doing that, should you?”

“Well. You still haven’t seen anything.”

“Because you haven’t seen it, that’s why you’re like that.”

“I really think there’s a possibility.”

“......I said it yesterday too, but you’re seriously so cheap and infatuated.......”

“And you— why are you acting so emotional toward the Marquis?”

“.......”

The Green Mage Tower master Sharan Poranu sighed again.

Sharan had originally held a sense of antipathy toward Marquis Palatio.

It wasn’t that the Marquis had done anything to Sharan.

Sharan had never properly met Marquis Palatio even once.

And the rumors Sharan had heard, if anything, were mostly things that would make his image better, not drag it down.

But the reason Sharan couldn’t help looking at the Marquis with slanted eyes was because of Selaim Mikardo.

Selaim, the Blue Mage Tower master, standing in an equal position with Sharan.

Of course, it wasn’t that Selaim Mikardo had talked trash about Alon to Sharan.

If anything, he’d praised him.

Of course, he hadn’t passed along the guess that the Marquis might be a True Mage, but he’d praised the Marquis to the point his mouth went dry, saying the Marquis had tremendous talent as a mage.

Ridiculously, Sharan got scratched by those “Marquis Palatio compliments” from Selaim.

Yeah. Sharan got scratched.

Why?

Simply because the speaker was Selaim Mikardo.

‘......This is absurd, seriously—’

Sharan sharply frowned and looked at Selaim, who was sticking out his neck beside her with a relaxed attitude.

At this point, it was the accepted line that Sharan was even closer to the ninth tier than Selaim.

However, before she became a tower master, the person evaluated as closest to the ninth tier was Selaim.

And Sharan, even if it was a different Mage Tower, back then— no, even now.

As a mage, Sharan admired Selaim.

In the first place, even putting talent aside, the reason Sharan became a tower master faster than anyone else was—

because Sharan’s goal was to be acknowledged by Selaim.

But Selaim had never really praised her or lifted her up as amazing.

Even when she achieved something.

In short, the antipathy Sharan had toward Marquis Palatio—

to put it nicely, “pride,” and to put it badly—

was “inferiority.”

“I’m not acting emotional, it can’t be helped, can it?”

Of course, the reason for this pushback wasn’t only that.

‘In the first place, do you really think it makes sense that there’s a next stage to Light magic.......’

Basically, tier magic is relatively free in how the magic is constructed.

That’s why, depending on the Mage Tower, there were also cases where a specific magic used a unique pattern or arrangement and got changed.

But that was only limited to the level of changing the arrangement and structure.

“You know too, right? No matter how easy it is to arrange tier magic, a next stage can’t exist. Our predecessors have already proven it for hundreds of years— and you’re saying you believe that? Does that make sense?”

Basically, tier magic is—

knowledge that came down to all mages like a private possession, and at the same time, completed magics.

Already perfectly systematized over the course of hundreds of years—

to be more accurate, it meant magics where the ‘research’ was already perfectly finished.

But they found the next stage of that kind of magic?

That was no different from treating the Mage Tower mages with hundreds of years of history like idiots.

It meant that for all the people who’d researched tier magic— tower masters and mages alike— not a single one had found that fact until now.

That was why the people who hadn’t seen Marquis Palatio’s magic yet were all wearing uncomfortable expressions.

“Hm—”

After briefly thinking and trying to say something, Selaim—

“Oh, there he is.” 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

—noticed that Marquis Palatio had come out, and stopped talking.

“Well— we’ll see in a bit.”

Leaving that behind, Selaim turned his gaze.

And.

“.......”

Sharan, following Selaim and looking down at Marquis Palatio with an expression that said she didn’t like it, the moment she confirmed that Light magic was being cast from his hands as he took his place in the center of the demonstration ground, immediately focused on the magic.

What Marquis Palatio produced really was Light.

Light with no special traits or arrangement added.

“──────”

Along with that, the mages who had been chattering just a moment ago all focused on Marquis Palatio at once.

‘No way— could it be......?’

At the Marquis calmly unfolding magic, the moment Sharan’s heart held even a “maybe,”

Took—!

The Light magic that had been spread out in front of Alon until just a moment ago disappeared.

No, to speak more accurately, it didn’t disappear.

That was—

‘......Failure?’

Failure to manifest the magic.

The mana structure in front of Alon breaking apart flashed across the mages’ eyes.

“......What was that just now?”

“Did he erase it on purpose?”

“No— it’s a failure, isn’t it? The structure is breaking.”

“......It really is?”

And with that, the mages started to stir.

“What— a failure? Light magic?”

“Did he get nervous?”

“No, even if so, is Light the kind of magic you can fail?”

The voices of the mages who’d been doubting Alon grew louder—

“I definitely saw it back then, though?”

“......Did we see it wrong?”

“No— there’s no way. That was definitely Light— the professor said so too, didn’t he? Back then, that was definitely—”

“What happened?”

Even among the mages who hadn’t doubted Alon’s magic, whispers started to spill out.

An atmosphere that flipped in an instant.

“Ha—”

As Sharan let out a hollow sneer and was about to look at Selaim, Marquis Palatio, whose face didn’t reveal what he was thinking at all, suddenly raised both hands.

At that, the mages’ eyes gathered again.

And Alon’s hands—

“That’s—”

—formed hand seals.

And then.

As Alon muttered something, everyone there witnessed it.

Something that was devouring the Light in front of Alon—that light.

And then.

“Light.”

From Alon’s mouth, a spell phrase flowed out.