Chapter 26 Strongest Sage, Gets Surrounded by Teachers

 

"Now introduce yourself starting from... Well anyone's fine. Alright, Mathias the top grade of the school year! Let's start from you!"

Looks like the principal is calling us by our names.
He's not calling the surname probably because your houses, upbringing and such are irrelevant in this school.

If there's someone with a famous noble name or something among us, the other students will be conscious of that person even if they don't intend to after all.
I'm in agreement with the goal and only tell my given name for my introduction.

"I'm Mathias. Just call me Mathi. Err..."

Come to think of it, I haven't prepared what to say here at all. This is my first self-introduction in hundreds of years after all.
....Well, there should be no need to say superfluous stuff since this school is kinda like a military academy. Guess I should just tell my combat orientation.

"My crest is the Fourth Crest.... I mean. Disqualified Crest. My specialty  is in the short-range magic and physical mixed combat. Nice to meet you."

The crest isn't commonly known as the Fourth Crest in the present age, so I called it as they would.
The classroom rustled a bit after hearing my introduction.

"Magic and physical mixed combat, what's that?"

"Rather, can Disqualified Crest even use magic?"

"I also have Disqualified Crest and I can't use magic you know?"

The principal is grinning to see the classroom.
However, it doesn't seem like he's going to explain about short-range magic and physical mixed combat and the Disqualified Crest.

"Next! The runner-up, Ruli!"

After my introduction was over, the principal looked down at the paper on his hand and called Ruli's name.
That paper probably has our grades on it.

"Yes! My name is Ruli. I'm good with magic and a little bit with swordsmanship. I want to become a magic augmenter! Um... Nice to meet you!"

Ruli introduced herself while looking slightly tense.
The classroom rustled again, though not as loud as with mine.
Apparently, it's rare for a First Crest like Ruli to be wanting to become a Magic Augmenter. The First Crest IS the crest for Magic Augmenters though....

The current world values Crests the complete opposite.
It's so bad that I begin to suspect that someone with a malicious intent made it this ineffective.

"Next! Ace!"

"Yes!"

The class continues with the introductions.
All the second to seventh ranked people had the First Crest.
And five of them besides Ruli wanted to become magicians.

"The next one's the last. ...Alma!"

"Yes. The name's Alma. I've got the Regular Magic Crest so I'm aiming to become a warrior. Though I can't win in either magic or sword against Ruli.... I've got some confidence with a bow though...."

The introduction was quite unfortunate somehow. Well, I guess it's only natural since the other party is the runner-up of the whole school year. The difference in their swords' performances is also quite huge.
And for some reason she's aiming to become a warrior even with the Regular Magic Crest which is well suited for magic.

"And that's a wrap. Anyone has a question?"

"Sensei, I have a question!"

Alma raised her hand.

"What is it?"

"Mathias-kun's scores on the passing announcement were weird, was that a mistake!"

"Ah. That huh. The weird one here is Mathias, not the scores. How he is weird, you can check for yourself during the practical lesson. For the time being, S class and A class will have joint lessons. I've got talk about that with you, Mathias, come to the principal office later."

After such and such, our first homeroom ended and I was taken to the principal office.
What do they want from me I wonder.

"Alright. I see that everyone is here."

A lot of adults were already inside the room when we entered.
They're most likely this school's teachers. Several faces look familiar from the exam and the entrance ceremony.

30% are of scholar type, 40% are of magician type and 30% are of warrior type huh.
The fact that there's not even one mixed physical and magic combat type slightly bothers me, but they have good balance if we put that aside.

"Sorry for being so sudden, Mathias, please solve this problem. And this too."

The principal said that and handed me a paper with two problems.
And then, the scholar-type teachers begin to observe me as to not miss even a beat of my hand movement.
One of the problems is the same problem from the entrance exam back then.
Perhaps they're doubting me of cheating.

Fortunately, both of the problems are of rudimentary magic circle mathematics. The first problem can be solved in 20 seconds as long as you know Pythagorean theorem. The next problem is a bit more complex, but three minutes are enough to finish it.
I write the formula on the provided paper and derive the answer while being careful with mistakes.

Well, I can do it with my intuition without calculations for this level of magic circles.
Rather, magic circle maths are the basic for magic augmenters, they won't be able to do even fivefold augmentation if they can't do this much.
I finished solving the problems while thinking that.

"...In...an instant...!?"

"Oy, is this correct?"

"It's an unsolved problem. There's no way we can make sure of it unless we construct the magic."

"But I can't see anything contradictory at the very least. Perhaps this is...."

"The teacher in charge of magic augment should be able to test and confirm it shouldn't he?"

"P-please wait, I'll bring back magic stones for experiments!"

The principal office clamored the moment I finished the problems, some teachers even ran off somewhere.
Huh? This seems different from them doubting me of cheating somehow.
'Did I do anything wrong', I looked at the principal with that in mind.

"Principal-sensei, this is--"

"Mathias, do you know what you just solved?"

"The problem in the entrance exam of this academy and the extended version of that problem right?"

The principal grinned when he heard me.

"That is certainly a question in the Second Royal Academy's entrance exam. ....Under the assumption that it won't be solved that is."

"Assumption it won't be solved?"

"Yea. It's there for us to see how far would the participants think it through, even if they can't solve it. ...You seem to have done it though."

Such a simple problem is assumed to be unsolvable, what a weird thing to say.
If magic augmenters can't even construct this level of magic circle, that means no one in this world can make a proper magic sword.
Don't tell me that the magic swords in Bass's store are treated as proper ones, there's no way, nuh uh.

"Let me tell you the correct answer. The first problem is a question in the Royal Magic University entrance exam, the second problem is an unsolved problem that hasn't been solved even after the country gathered the entire magic scholars."

....Ha?




















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