Chapter 07

"You wouldn't have a method for dispersing formulas in the magical calculus area, would you?"

Hikimage looks at me strangely for my random question, but he decided to answer me, seeing as we were now teacher and student.

"Dispel formulas, you say? Well, I can understand that dispel doesn't use much mana, so maybe it gives you some hope." he looks at me a little not confidently, and says. "You wouldn't be trying to use some sort of anti-magic, would you? Because that would be simply impossible. You would have to have the magical knowledge of countless types of magic, every detail, and the structure of the formulas. Not to mention that to be really effective you would have to put anti-casting magic into practice before your opponent's final activation, that is, predict in milliseconds which spell you would have to disrupt. I don't even need to say how insane that would be."

"Oh?" That's not what I was asking, but I confess I was curious about this dispersion magic. "Does that use little mana??"

I didn't want to know how to undo someone else's spells, but how to erase my own.

"Umm? Isn't that why you wanted to try this?" He looks at me confused due to his mistaken assumption.

"I've never heard of this anti-casting technique," ​​I say bluntly and with a shrug.

"I didn't understand the reason for your previous question then. What did you mean by that?"

"Before I answer you," I hand him a 5000 yen bill and say, "There it is -- 5 months tuition payment in advance."

He looks wide-eyed at the note in his hands and then angrily says in my direction, "You!! Didn't you tell me you only had 1000 yen? You lied to me."

"Huh? Did I say that? Well --- my mistake then." I let out an awkward laugh as I look suspiciously in the other direction.

5,000 yen, let alone 1,000 yen, would never be enough to pay for a class with a magician. The correct monthly fee would likely be in the thousands of yen, I was very lucky to have the whole circumstance in my favor. That's why I say it again, Rias is my four-leaf clover.

He puts his hand in front of the hood, where I assumed his forehead is, and sighs.

"The contract is already done anyway, you will have the five months of classes," He says dejectedly and then asks, "So what did you mean by your previous question?"

"Oh? Sure," I give an innocent smile and pull my finger out of the bucket for the first time.

Seeing the flame on my fingertip, Hikimage falls into extreme silence.

A breath passed, two and he was still silent...

After a while, I lose my patience and swing my left hand to snap him out of that trance. "Heyyy!! Hikimage-san? Are you okay? You're standing like a statue and you're scaring me."

"What kind of trick is this?" He doesn't care about my questions and just says it in an incredulous tone.

"Well, that's what I wish to solve. Somehow I've been kind of -- Well -- Cursed shall we say that. And I can't dispel that flame." I lied so I wouldn't have to go into the details of my findings.

"Cursed?" he looks into my eyes, before turning back to face the flame and saying, "This is total bullshit."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"I don't feel your flame with my magic detection. By Merlin, I don't feel even a single fluctuation of magic or any other kind of supernatural energy in it," -I could hear his tone of disbelief clearly, but I chose to keep listening. "If you hadn't shown me I would never have known she even existed and that alone is impossible."

For me, that was a surprise as I previously thought I was using atmosphere mana or the like.

"If it weren't for me seeing with my own eyes the flame coming out of your finger, I'd probably think you were holding some kind of lighter or something."

"Oh?" I say really surprised as it seems that what was happening was even more special than I thought.

"Oh? You just say that? Haha. Of course, he would," He lifts himself off the floor with a mad laugh and grabs his own head and shakes it furiously. "You don't understand what's going on here boy. No magic, be it human, demonic, angelic or even from the gods has the ability to be so unfazed by atmospheric mana. The only conclusion I have is that it's really not using mana and this concept is ridiculous. I don't know what this is, but this is not magic!!!!"

Okay, I knew this was amazing, but it was still hard to deal with Hikimage's agitation. He looked like he was close to a nervous breakdown.

"How long have you been like this?" He looks at me intensely.

"Two days, almost," I say dejectedly.

"Two days? HAHA. Two days," he repeats this whimsically as he paces the room. "A miracle. This is a miracle. HUWAHAHAHAHA!!"

Hikimage's researcher instincts compel him to want to do experiments in this regard, but when he remembers one thing his body freezes in place.

The teacher/student contract prevented him from making any harmful moves without the permission of the other party. This was a contract that prevented both parties from working actively to harm each other.

The temptation was great, but he couldn't do anything, as he didn't want to lose his magic or worse, die. During all those five months he would have to really be honest with his lessons from him. He felt cheated and frustrated now.

"You didn't answer my question," I say pointedly. "Is there any way to dispel the formulas in the magic calculation area?"

"Huh?" Hikimage seems undecided about what to say, before making up his mind, and, "I may have the answer to that, but I don't know if--"

"Please show me."

He seemed undecided whether to withhold the information or not. But his curiosity got the better of him and he brought a book from the library.

"Here, page 132," He hands me an old-looking brown book and orders, "Read it."

After analyzing every aspect of it in great detail, my eyes sparkle with hope. Maybe that was my solution.

"This technique is used for mages who regret using a certain long cast spell, whose calculation cancellation can blow up in their own faces. It's not widespread knowledge, after all, this is a rather unusual situation, to be honest." He fills his chest with pride and says, "I have one of the biggest libraries with diverse themes, so I don't lack knowledge."

"I see, Hikimage-san is really amazing," I massage his ego a little, but I don't worry about it for a long time and close my eyes.

In a total state of meditation, I enter my inner world.

Everything was as I had left it before, 7 statues with only two of them currently occupied with formulas.

Following the approach written in the book, I touch the statue of the woman with the spear and try to do as I memorized.

To my surprise, the results begin to take effect, and the magic formulas that used to circulate begin to lose strength, until the last vestige has disappeared.

Opening my eyes, I look at my hand excitedly. The flame had disappeared to my great delight.

Damn it, I thought I'd have to cut my fingertip, and worse, I couldn't tell if it would have worked. Glad it all worked out.

Hikimage just looks at that scene with his mouth open and his face completely horrified.

An ache in his heart surged at the sight of that precious flame disappearing. He almost wanted to cry there.

"The flame -- Disappeared. No, why?" Hikimage said in a tearful voice while holding my finger as if to check that he was not seeing wrong and that it was not all just his imagination.

"Hey, what's the reason for crying? And please let go of my finger," I say as I pull my finger out of his grip.

"You! Why did you do that, you monster? Don't you realize that we missed a golden opportunity? We could have found out--"

Before he can go on complaining, I say, "No thanks. I couldn't wait to get rid of that flame."

"Can you undo it?" He asks me in anguish and regrets having given away the previous knowledge.

"Huh? No, it's over. I can't undo it, unfortunately."

"Lies. You're lying to me."

I raise an eyebrow at his tone, but reply politically, "I'm not lying. As I said before, I had been cursed, for one item to be specific. Upon touching this, the item disappeared and left this disastrous flame on my fingertip. But now I'm free of it."

His posture deflated a lot, but of course, he still didn't fully believe my justifications.

And so begins a new stage in my life.

No matter what happened, I could already dazzle my ascension, it was just a matter of time and luck.

----------------------

Motohama's Records.

Tier: 0 (- Lower)

Race: Human.

Age: 15 years and 7 months.

Physical Strength: Not rated or tested.

Mana Reservoir: Less than an average human.

Number of Books eidetically registered by Apraisse Magic: Human Magic (13), Natural Science Books (2), Exact Science Books (4).

Hazard Level: Undetermined/Untested.

Magic calculation area:

1 Slot : Appraise Magic. (Statue with the Sword)

2 Slot: Empty. (Statue with the spear)

3 Slot: Empty. (Statue with the shield)

4 Slot: Empty. (Statue with the hammer)

5 Slot: Empty. (Statue with the dagger)

6 Slot: Empty. (Statue with the grimoire)

7 Slot: Empty. (Statue with the bow)

[Energy Levels]

Tier 0: Normal humans, animals, and other creatures with little or no magic power.

Tier 1: Energy levels almost reaching the level of low-class devils, weaker Sacred Gear users, and etc...

Tier 2: Various magicians categories, sacred gear users, low-class devils, two-winged angels, two-winged fallen angels, and others...

Most magical creatures fall into this category.

Tier 3: middle-class devils, four-winged angels, four-winged fallen angels, superior mages, miscellaneous magical creatures, and Sacred Gear users.

Tier 4: High-class devils (Riser), 6-winged angels....

Tier 5: Ultimate class devils, 8-winged angels, weaker demigods, etc...

Tier 6: Final Class Devils, 10-winged Angels, 10-winged Fallen Angels (Kokabiel), Demigods, etc...

Tier 7: Satan class devils, example: Serafall Leviathan, Falbium Asmodeus. Archangels, Azazel, Metatron, and some minor gods...

Tier 8: Super devils, mighty gods or pantheon leaders, celestial dragons, etc...

Tier 9: Trihexa, Great Red, and Ophis.

Note: Energy levels do not necessarily reflect a creature's hazard level, they only give guesses about the outcome of a fight.

Example: Any Tier 3 can have magic power situated in that category, but by having a sacred gear OP it can increase the level of hazard in several categories and defeat a Tier 4 or even a Tier 5.