Divide.
Why couldn’t I think of this from the beginning?
-Write a two-dimensional single spell that combines the core of the fire system and the ice system.
I had been so absorbed in drawing in two dimensions until now.
Three-dimensional is nothing more than stacking two-dimensional drawings.
If you can create three dimensions by stacking two dimensions, the opposite is also possible.
It’s about slicing three dimensions into a continuous two-dimensional expression.
If I had approached it mathematically, it would have been a problem solved long ago.
“Thanks, Trie! Really, thank you!”
“Huh? I’m soaked in sweat?!”
Without realizing it, I had hugged Trie tightly.
Trie, who always felt like a mountain, was strangely light today.
I lifted Trie up and spun her around…
“I’m so embarrassed, Sensei…”
“……”
That’s when I noticed the gazes around us.
I put Trie down, who was covering her face with both hands, and turned away, clearing my throat.
I felt like I could die from embarrassment…
“What, what is it? Schlus?”
“I think I’ve solved the problem. Thanks to Trie.”
“What?!”
Aintz’s expression changed oddly.
Why did he suddenly look so shocked?
“I—I haven’t even grasped a clue yet!”
“Aintz, I have a favor to ask.”
“What is it? Just say anything!”
It seemed that he felt gloomy for not being able to help with the problem I had posed.
But there was something only Aintz could do.
“Can I ask you to escort me to the residence?”
“Escort? What escort inside the school?”
“For safety’s sake.”
“If it’s for that, I can definitely do it. You’re my benefactor, after all.”
Aintz said confidently, thumping his chest.
Despite his looks, Aintz is the heir of one of the three major magic families, Wiegenshtein.
He is as precious as or even more than Erica.
With this guy around, I should be able to go home without the risk of being attacked.
“What? Escort? If that’s the case, I want in too!”
“Who are you?”
“Why are you speaking informally all of a sudden?”
“Who do you think you are?”
“The tournament champion. I think I’m more suited for the escort than a weakling who got knocked out in the Round of 32.”
“No, that’s because the opponent was Schlus!”
“Anyway…”
“And why do you keep speaking informally?!”
I felt like I hadn’t seen the two of them interact much.
They seemed to have become quite close.
Though their level of conversation was still at an elementary school level.
But having them grow closer was good news.
Trie excels in close combat.
And Aintz can unleash superior magic.
If they coordinate well, they could become a powerful combo.
As for me… I’m just a mediocre guy in both magic and close combat, so maybe I’ll just dance between the two.
“Thanks for everything.”
“No, it’s nothing. I just walked with you.”
“That’s enough.”
Walking together with Aintz and Trie, I could reach the Chairwoman’s residence without any threats.
I kept my guard up and noticed some glances directed my way, but there were no actual attacks.
Even if some crazy idiots tried to attack, Trie would have defeated them all.
“Thanks, Trie.”
“Ahaha, no problem. But…”
“…?”
“I didn’t know you had such weapons, Sensei. If I’d known, I would have given you a different gift…”
Trie smiled awkwardly.
Ah, was she talking about Vafe?
“There’s a lot of advantages to having a real sword. I’m sure you’ll need the sword you gifted me too.”
“Oh, really?”
Vafe is a handy light sword that can be pulled out from the palm of your hand…
Or not.
It can’t fall from my right hand.
No matter how much I try to move it to my left hand, it doesn’t work, as if it’s bound to my right arm.
And above all, I can’t even pull it out without powering on the internal circuit, which is a huge downside.
“I see. I was worried I gave you something useless as a gift.”
“That’s impossible.”
“Is the elemental magic exam still ongoing? I hope you do well on the rest of the tests!”
“Thanks.”
After sending off Aintz and Trie, I headed straight back to the mansion.
As expected, Emilia greeted me today with her neat and upright appearance.
Having someone in the house every time I come back makes me feel at ease.
Is this why everyone gets married?
I guess it’s the same reason for divorces too.
“I’ll be in the training room.”
“Hainkel! Just a moment!”
“Yes? Urk…”
When I suddenly turned around, a spoon flew towards me.
I almost dodged it reflexively, but I ended up catching the spoon in my mouth.
Is this… risotto?
“It’s dinner. Don’t skip meals again; take it and eat it.”
“Yes. Thank you.”
She used to tell me to eat at the table, but after I repeatedly ignored her and starved, it seems she’s given up.
Even Emilia, who insists that meals should only be eaten at the table, has retreated a step. I must have been really stubborn.
The rose risotto tasted really good.
It was bound to get cold if I focused too much, but I didn’t mind.
Emilia’s food is delicious even cold.
“Hainkel.”
“Yes?”
“Um… Would it be a bother if I came in with you?”
“No, would you like to come in?”
“Oh, really?”
Emilia looked momentarily stunned.
Her flustered acting was excellent.
“Yes! I want to come in!”
Well, Schlus must have been curious about what I do inside since once he goes in, he stays for hours.
Today, all I had to do was focus on the exam questions, so there was nothing sensitive to show.
Unless I count the possibility of the exam questions leaking to the Intelligence Agency?
“I’ll just stand quietly like a screen.”
“Then that would be appreciated.”
After entering the training room, Emilia went to a corner and stood still, really not moving at all.
At first, I was a little distracted by her occasional glances, but eventually, I forgot Emilia was even there.
She was that quiet.
Isn’t she going to cramp her legs?
“Let’s quickly solve the problem.”
I took a spoonful of risotto and focused back on the exam paper.
Combining the cores of the fire system and ice system itself wasn’t complicated.
Although it’s in 3D, it was certainly possible to decompose it into a continuous two-dimensional representation.
The problem was that this was an endlessly inefficient task.
The number of two-dimensional cross-sections would increase endlessly, becoming too wide horizontally.
It would end up being a result that was bigger in size but just a load of useless rubbish.
“It doesn’t seem like this was anticipated.”
I couldn’t believe this was the answer to a problem posed by Ludwig, who loved beautiful spells so much.
Perhaps the answer Ludwig had in mind was different, and I was just trying to use a trick.
But it didn’t really matter.
As long as I met the demands of the prompt, even if Ludwig gets flustered over the report, they can’t mark it wrong.
“It’s just manual labor.”
The process of breaking 3D into 2D was quite tedious.
It was just repeating a relatively simple operation almost infinitely.
After wrangling with the spells for a while, I finally realized something after picking up the spoon and putting it in my mouth.
“Oh.”
A significant amount of time had passed.
The rice was cold.
Only then did I remember I had completely forgotten about Emilia’s presence and looked up at the spot where she had been.
Emilia was still there.
In the same posture, perfectly still.
Suddenly, waves of shame flooded over me.
I had acted as if Emilia wasn’t there and just as if I were by myself.
What if I had exposed some embarrassing side of myself?
I didn’t even remember what I had done.
A while ago, Ari had told me that I would curse when engrossed in my own world…
I suddenly worried that I might look like a crazy person cursing at the empty air.
“Yawn… I’m going to bed now, Hainkel.”
“Do so. It wasn’t anything special, right? It must have been pretty boring.”
“No, not at all. I think I got to see something unique about you, Hainkel.”
“……”
I was rendered speechless by Emilia’s cheeky reply.
There must be countless men in this world who fell for that smile.
But I was now acutely aware that that smile was directed solely at me.
Right here, it was just me and Emilia.
In this barrier, no information could leak outside.
Then maybe I should just pounce on Emilia right now…
‘Should I really go for it? Self-destruct technique.’
The impulse to carve the self-destruct technique into her heart welled up.
It had been a lie to control Hertlocker, but it was an opportunity to make that a reality.
Maybe at the beginning, I wouldn’t have thought so, but now I could easily overpower Emilia.
If I inscribed a spell into Emilia’s heart, I wouldn’t have to worry about getting stabbed at night, and I could control Hertlocker more easily.
There was no discernible downside to that method.
“Why do you look like that?”
“It’s nothing. You must be tired from standing; go up and rest.”
“Hehe, got it. I can’t tell you not to overwork yourself during exam season… but still, try not to push yourself too hard!”
“I’ll do just that.”
“And even if I’m not there tomorrow morning, don’t panic. I’ll probably be out shopping.”
I let Emilia go.
There will be many more chances for me to be alone with Emilia in this barrier.
So there was no need to rush.
There was no need to ignore these chaotic feelings and force an action.
“Why? Why are you so agitated?”
But all that was just an excuse.
The result had already been predetermined, and I was forcing excuses to fit it later.
I… didn’t want to hurt Emilia.
I didn’t want to break even the flimsy trust I had with her.
I had unknowingly started to think of the characters in this novel as people.
“Pull yourself together, damn…”
I had to gather my thoughts.
Emilia and every character are ultimately just tools.
They are tools used for me to see the ending of this novel.
Tools to send me back to my original world.
There’s no need to grow attached to things I’ll end up throwing away, things I’ll have to part with someday.
*
Thanks to the idea provided by Trie, I managed to solve problem number eight fairly easily.
Though my answer sheet became quite messy…
Next was time to use the abilities I had been saving.
Today, except for the one second I used during my fight with Aintz, I hadn’t used ‘Selection and Concentration’ at all.
That meant I could dedicate all four remaining seconds to solving the problems.
‘Selection and Concentration. Using 4 seconds on computational power.’
Of course, just because my computational power improved doesn’t mean my intelligence skyrocketed, making spells I couldn’t create pop into my mind dramatically.
It just means that my processing speed increases tremendously.
So when the conditions of the problem are given, even if I don’t know the exact answer, if I draw all the spells that satisfy those conditions…
“Bingo.”
The answer is bound to come out.
If I used a method like this under normal circumstances, it would have taken me days and nights to figure out.
But with computational power exceeding a stat of 100, this was possible.
It was a method of sifting through all possibilities…
I never imagined I would end up solving the problems this way.
“Done. Up to number nine.”
Just before my ability ended, I obtained the answer at a very close timing.
And then, in perfect timing, it surpassed midnight, extending the limit time for ‘Selection and Concentration’ back to 5 seconds.
Shall I challenge the final problem, number ten?
“Ugh…”
What a mess. Just looking at it, the number of possibilities was astronomical.
It was highly unlikely I was going to be able to find an answer even investing all five seconds of my ability.
So it might be better to use my brain to narrow down the conditions…
Since the submission deadline is until 9 AM, I think I’ll try to put in some effort and pull an all-nighter.
While I concentrated on the exam paper for a bit…
“Oh.”
I broke my focus by touching the cold dish.
“Ugh…”
Now that my concentration was broken, I stretched a bit.
Checking my watch, thankfully, it was still 6 AM.
I had recently rushed to procure and set up this watch since missing the midterm submission deadline would be a disaster.
Outside, the sun was already starting to rise.
By now, diligent Emilia had probably gone out shopping.
“Wait a minute.”
In that moment, my mind snapped back to reality.
I rolled the exam paper up and stuffed it into my pocket, then rushed outside.
What the heck? Why didn’t I think of this earlier?
[Quest: Find Emilia Siegfried.]
[Difficulty: ★★★★★]
[Reward: 8 Shop Coins]
Was it a quest to get me to raise some level? The quest window popped up.
Damn it.
This is bad.
