Magic lecture
Some days before the drill William was giving a lecture on the theory of magic to fifth and sixth year students. "Steven, tell me what magic or sorcery is."
"Sorcery is a technique that manipulates magic essence and spell formulae to
cause a variety of phenomena to occur," Steven said, immediately offering
his own interpretation."
Ooh, what a wonderful first response. Brilliant, Steven ."
"Thank you, Professor," Steven answered modestly with a cool expression.
"Sorcery can be defined from many different perspectives, but the definition
Steven gave is the most general. There are also definitions that focus
on the activation process of sorcery, but what kind of process is that exactly? —
Mr. James?" William called on James, who eagerly stood up to answer.
Yes, Professor. Sorcery is activated by pouring magic essence into a spell
formula."
"Close. I'd give that answer 80 out of 100 points. What do you think you're
missing?"
"I'm... not sure." Lost for words, James frowned in frustration.
"Kyle, then. What about you?"
"If the formula for essence control cannot be created, then there'll be a need
to control the essence being poured in. Sorcery will not activate if that control
fails."
"Correct. 100 points." William gave a satisfied beam at Kyle's smooth answer,
while James's expression quietly darkened.
"So what is spell formulae? Princess Annora."
"Yes, Professor. Spell formulae are said to be formulae that can alter the
world."
"Correct. Wonderful answer."
"Thank you very much, Professor," Annnora said, blushing happily at William's
compliment.
Kyle looked at Annora with a sideways. Somehow she seems to get quite lively when she talks to professor Williamthat is quite different from cold self. This had not been just noticed by Kyle but also by many other students. "Sorcery is activated by controlling the magic essence within our bodies to
manipulate formulae, which can alter our world. It's almost like the work of
god, right? Well the formulas are created heroes during the divine war. Before that only few people were able to use sorcery."
On Vinyamar continent heroes are considered children of gods. They appeared 1000 years ago on the Vinyamar continent when demons were rising. They fought against those demons and ultimately defeated them. But they mysteriously disappeared after that.
"You may already know this, but essence control is also markedly related to
the formula contract that is needed to acquire and use magic. Lower class magic
can be grasped simply by instinct, but a high level of essence control is essential
to acquiring and using magic of a higher difficulty."
Professor!" James raised his hand to ask a question after William's evenlyworded explanation.
"Yes, Mr. James?"
"You mentioned that essence control is related to formula contracts for
acquiring magic. Does this mean that those with inferior essence control cannot
acquire higher level magic at all?" James looked at Kyle with a mocking grin. This caused
the students around him to giggle, but Kyle coolly ignored them.
"That is incorrect. Compatibility with formula contracts differs from person to
person, so there will be magic you cannot acquire no matter how efficient your
essence control is," William said with a delicate frown.
The art of magic involved storing the formula inside the body, to be activated
at will by chanting its spell name. Simple rites known as "formula contracts"
were necessary to store the spell formula inside the body. They were
performed by using a special catalyst to draw the contract formula on the
ground, standing on it, chanting the spell, then manipulating the essence. If the
ritual was successful, the formula would be stored inside the body, which would
allow the sorcery to be verbally activated without the need to draw the
formula.
Essence capacity had the tendency to be passed on through genetics, and
there was a noticeable difference in the power of those who could and couldn't
use magic. This meant that those who could use magic were able to receive
special privileges more easily, leading young royalty and nobility to believe that
magic was limited to the chosen elites. Furthermore, while it was discovered
that Kyle had sufficient amounts of essence to acquire magic, for some reason,
he failed to form any kind of formula contract and was yet able to use magic but for not gathering too much attentioon himself he creats a illusion that makes others see that he can use magic but he also deliberately showed others that he is not good at magic and only kept it at a average level. His fellow classmates had been growing envious because of the flawless
ease with which he accomplished everything, so the focus of all the ridicule
directed towards him suddenly shifted — Kyle's inability to use higher level magic proved he
wasn't one of the chosen ones.
"I see. So only the chosen ones can acquire higher level magic. Thank you very much,
Professor." James sat down smugly, despite the fact that William had refuted his
statement.
"...Now, back to the lecture. In the first place—" William resumed his teaching
with a small sigh. The rest of the lecture proceeded smoothly from there until
the end of class.
After class...
"That was wonderful, Professor William! It's no wonder they call you the 'Genius
of the Royal Academy.' Your profound opinions greatly moved me!" James breathed, approaching William after class to offer his emotionally-charged
opinion.
"Ahaha... Thank you," William said with a forced laugh. Meanwhile, Kyle was
trying to pack up his things as quickly as possible to leave the room, but...
"Oh! Kyle—" William attempted to call out to him, but James rudely interrupted
him.
"Hey, commoner. Why are you taking this class when you can' even hardly use
magic ? The only thing you have going for your is that silver tongue and brute
strength."
Kyle stopped and turned around to face James. "I may be unable to acquire
higher magic, but I am still capable of sorcery." This kind of conflict was a daily
occurrence for Kyle; as usual, he simply shrugged it off.