The AI Archmage - Chapter 12

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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AI Archmage Episode 12

Eira Kobella is the only daughter of Casen Kobella, the current head of the Workshop Alliance.

This means she possesses knowledge about Magic Engineering that is incomparable to most mages.

Though she has no particular interest in workshops, she was still born with a mind capable of understanding complex engineering theories.

The reason she came to this Magic Tower in the first place was to escape from that tiresome Magic Engineering…

‘Of all things, Magic Engineering?’

She gritted her teeth.

– Daughter, with your talent, you can resolve my master’s resentment.

Her father, who spoke of his master with a dark expression and instilled ‘duty’ into her.

Altair’s sudden disappearance.

The resulting turmoil in the Workshop Alliance.

It was inevitable that the representative had to run around busily to handle the situation.

And it was also a natural progression for the disciple to be enraged by the end of the master he respected and followed.

However…

‘Why exactly do I have to bear that burden, Father?’

Eira didn’t like that.

The fact that her path had been decided from the start, regardless of her own talents or dreams.

“You are deceiving everyone.”

Eira spoke to Sion with contempt and disgust.

“This is a Magic Tool that even countless craftsmen from the Workshop Alliance couldn’t create despite their efforts. And yet… you, who isn’t even that much older than us, made it?”

Eira made this assertion while observing Sion’s reaction.

Would he be flustered?

Or would he be angry?

Perhaps it might be both.

However, Sion’s reaction was completely unexpected.

“You know well.”

“…Excuse me?”

“You have quite a bit of knowledge about Magic Engineering. Right? You have enough knowledge to judge that what I just showed is impossible at this point in time. Isn’t that right?”

“Th-that’s…”

Eira stammered, rolling her eyes back and forth.

‘What, what is this? This isn’t the reaction I expected?’

These were words she had spoken after going through various calculations in her head.

“Uh, th-that is…”

If things went according to what Eira had planned in her head, she could speak as smoothly as flowing water.

But when that plan crumbles, her mind becomes confused and her momentum dies.

“Uh, th-that, yes, th… I do have some knowledge…”

“Are you interested in being a teaching assistant?”

“Te-teaching assistant? I don’t want to.”

“Tsk, that’s unfortunate.”

Sion clicked his tongue and shook his head disapprovingly.

But he had no intention of giving up.

He continued speaking while thinking that he would definitely make her his teaching assistant somehow.

“So just now, you said that I’m deceiving everyone.”

“Y-yes, that’s right!”

Eira shouted.

“To handle magical calculations, you need high-performance circuits and high-quality magic stones! Even that is theoretically impossible to achieve at this point in time!”

“Impossible to achieve…”

Sion stroked his lips, nodded, and said.

“But it can be made?”

“N-no, with current technology it’s impossible…”

“Altair did it though.”

“H-he did!”

“Then I can do it too.”

“You’re not Altair!”

Eira lost her composure and shouted at the continued sophistry, but Sion remained relaxed.

He suddenly thrust his arm into thin air.

The students who saw this widened their eyes greatly.

“S-subspace?!”

“Wait, putting his hand into thin air means it’s a storage-type subspace, doesn’t it?!”

Even if they hadn’t seen it directly, subspace was something any mage would know about as common knowledge.

Naturally, all the students in the lecture hall understood what Sion’s action meant.

Sion, leaving the students’ shock behind, pulled something out from the subspace.

What he pulled out was…

“…An orb?”

To all the students, that’s all it looked like.

But Eira’s eyes shook greatly when she saw it.

“Huh?”

Her eyes, even without intending to, allowed her to vaguely grasp the orb’s structure.

“Th-that’s…”

“As you can see.”

Sion said with a grin.

“It’s the ‘calculation magic tool’ I mentioned.”

“…!”

* * *

[It was good that you made it.]

‘Yeah, even though there’s only one.’

Using the crafting table he found in Belusian’s Workshop, Sion immediately began working on creating various magic tools.

However, there were immediate limitations.

Due to insufficient materials, they had to produce only what was absolutely necessary.

Therefore, Sion clearly distinguished between what needed to be mass-produced and what didn’t.

And this calculation magic tool was clearly in the latter category.

So he had made only one.

[We could mass-produce them, but they break down easily by nature. Making several at this point would be quite burdensome.]

‘That’s right.’

Anyway, Sion’s immediate goal wasn’t to create a chantless magic squad or anything like that.

It was to spread magic engineering throughout the Blue Tower and establish a solid purpose.

Chantless casting was merely a tool to achieve that result.

Sion gripped the magic tool and called for Eira.

“Student Eira, come up here.”

“Y-yes…?!”

Eira, who had just been claiming that Sion was a fraud, trembled violently.

“Uh, um, I… d-do I have to go? I could just stay here…”

“…”

“…I’ll come up.”

Eira staggered to her feet and climbed up to the podium.

She quietly examined the magic tool that Sion had presented.

Her eyes widened considerably.

“Uh, um… this?”

“I don’t think I need to explain how to use it to you. Would you like to try?”

At those words, Eira carefully placed her hand on the magic tool.

‘No way.’

Honestly, the moment she confirmed the magic tool, she thought something seemed off…

But it wouldn’t actually work, right?

No matter what, surely not…

“【Fire】.”

Whoosh!

“No way, this is crazy.”

Eira, the very person who had cast the magic, stared at the flame floating above her palm with her mouth agape.

It was Fire.

With chantless casting applied to it.

Eira couldn’t contain her shock.

This actually works?

No, this doesn’t make sense.

If something like this was really possible, the moment it got out into the world, it would cause absolute chaos.

She couldn’t believe that she now held a magic tool of such immense value in her hands.

“H-how, how is this…”

Eira dispelled the magic and looked at the magic tool with an expression of disbelief.

Just now, the magic tool had definitely processed the magical calculations that she should have done herself.

She simply couldn’t believe it.

That such a thing was possible.

And that this had been created by the hands of that Sion Rostery.

However.

‘…From the finishing touches onward, it hasn’t been long since it was made.’

This meant that Sion Rostery hadn’t just happened to get his hands on something belonging to Altair.

And seeing Eira’s reaction, the other students also began to murmur.

“Is, is it really true?”

“That senior… judging by her reaction, it seems to be real?”

Eira stared blankly, unable to take her eyes off Sion’s magic tool.

It was almost instinctual.

And Sion watched Eira’s appearance with a satisfied smile.

‘Excellent.’

Touching a magic tool and instantly understanding its general structure and usage.

This was talent.

Eira definitely had talent for Magic Engineering, just like her father.

Though for some reason, she didn’t seem to like Magic Engineering very much.

“So, do you still think this is deception?”

“Th, that’s…”

Eira lowered her eyes, fidgeted with her fingers, then spoke carefully.

“…No, it’s not.”

“Good. That’s all I needed to know.”

At those words, Eira carefully bowed her head to Sion.

“I, I’m sorry. For doubting you without any basis…”

“No, I understand that it’s not easy to trust me.”

Sion forgave Eira’s rudeness with a benevolent expression.

“It’s fine. Everyone makes mistakes.”

His ulterior motive was simple.

‘I need to win her over properly.’

Excellent teaching assistant material must be carefully cultivated.

He was also personally concerned about her.

Sion turned his head to look at the students and said.

“Well then, today’s class ends here. Go and think about whether you’ll continue attending or not.”

Then he turned around without hesitation and left the lecture hall.

* * *

Sion’s lecture had ended.

Though various things seemed to have happened, in any case, the students who attended the lecture all had one thing in common.

They came out of the lecture hall with dazed expressions, as if enchanted by something.

Briella and Eira were no different.

At first, they had looked down on it somewhat.

But after experiencing today’s class, the two had no choice but to acknowledge it.

‘…This is no ordinary matter?’

The two looked at each other and nodded.

And Briella cautiously spoke first.

“Eira, that thing earlier… did it really work?”

“…Yes.”

Eira nodded slightly.

Honestly, she was the most shocked of all.

She had come to dislike Magic Engineering because of her father, but that didn’t mean she had lost the ability to understand it.

That Magic Tool definitely contained technology at a level that even her father couldn’t create.

“Definitely, that thing…”

“Hm?”

“Oh, it’s nothing.”

Eira shook her head.

No matter how much she thought about it, she couldn’t judge that Sion Rostery was more impressive than her father based on that alone.

That’s when it happened.

“Hey, you two.”

Then, a somewhat triumphant voice came from behind.

At the same time, Briella’s face scrunched up.

“Ah, damn, that bastard.”

The culprit who ruined her mood was none other than Tult.

“How do you feel? You have no choice but to acknowledge it now, don’t you?”

“…Damn it.”

“It’s not too late even now. You remember what I said, right?”

Tult’s eyes were nothing but arrogant.

“Buy when the stock is at its lowest.”

“You, don’t you have any pride?! After being so hostile…”

“Yeah, I have no pride.”

There wasn’t a trace of shame in Tult’s voice as he said that.

Tult emphasized with a confident expression.

“Because the knowledge Teacher Sion showed is worth that much.”

“…”

“Now is the time. Not as much as me, but you should buy in now too.”

“…”

Briella couldn’t bring herself to immediately argue back.

Honestly, she too had realized that Sion’s existence was no ordinary matter.

But she still didn’t feel like following him the way Tult did.

“Not yet… Not yet.”

“Hmm.”

“I’m still going to watch a bit more. The memories of that ‘scoundrel’ are still vivid in my head!”

“Is that so.”

Tult made an expression as if he was looking at something truly pitiful.

“I’ll respect that. But don’t forget that I’ve already given you my advice.”

With those words, Tult shook his head from side to side, patted her shoulder a couple times, and walked past.

“What, what’s that about?”

Briella was dumbfounded, but she didn’t try to stop Tult.

After watching his retreating figure for a moment, she turned her gaze back to Eira.

Eira was the one who had directly experienced that Magic Tool, after all.

“That Chantless Casting… what exactly was it like?”

“The Magic Tool interpreted my mana wavelength, configured the magic, then performed calculations with the inputted values.”

“…Huh?”

“It sounds simple when you put it like that, but it’s nearly impossible with current technology. Yet the fact that he accomplished the impossible means…”

Lost in thought, Eira conjured up one hypothesis in her mind.

‘The possibility that Sion Rostery is a genius who surpasses even that Altair.’

If not that…

Eira couldn’t help but bite her lips as her thoughts turned to that possibility.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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