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Chapter 102: The Ryu Family\'s Black Sheep (3)

Thus began the three-day crash course in magic.

Early in the morning, Berald and I gathered in the training ground, loosened up a bit, and dove straight into magic training.

"Alright, before we start, let\'s check your current magic level."

"Well... As you know, I\'m really terrible at magic..."

"But you\'ve been learning it since you were a kid, right?"

Even if he was from a branch family, as a member of the ‘Ryu’ family, he must have started learning magic as soon as he could walk.

I crossed my arms and stood in front of Berald.

"So, how many spells have you learned so far?"

"In theory, I know quite a few spells. I just can’t manifest any of them properly."

"Hmm... Then try creating a Mana Bullet."

A Mana Bullet.

It was a spell that created a sphere imbued with physical force in midair.

Among the numerous spells, it was the most basic one.

"Alright."

Berald nodded and focused his mind.

His Stigma glowed as an overwhelming amount of mana surged around us.

"Here we go!"

With a loud shout, Berald thrust his hand forward.

In front of his outstretched hand appeared a translucent sphere.

The most basic of basics.

It was the ‘Mana Bullet’ that even first-year students of the Magic Academy could use effortlessly.

"...Is this a Mana Bullet?"

I looked at the finger-sized translucent sphere with a disbelieving expression.

Despite the massive amount of mana he unleashed as if he was about to summon the fires of hell, the result was pitifully small.

"Ahem. Well, I told you I\'m not good at magic..."

Clearly embarrassed by the poor result, Berald coughed awkwardly and looked away.

"Hmm."

I took the Mana Bullet Berald had created in my hand.

\'Not only the size, but the strength is also pathetic.\'

It felt like I was holding a soft, squishy lump of dough.

"Now, try shooting the Mana Bullet."

"Shoot it?"

"Like an arrow. Fire it."

I pointed to the wall of the training ground.

"Uhm..."

Berald looked troubled after hearing my request.

"What’s the problem?"

"Well, sorry, brother. I... don’t know how to move the Mana Bullet."

"..."

So, he only knew how to create the Mana Bullet in midair.

And even that was poorly done compared to the amount of mana he had put in.

\'Wow, damn.\'

At that moment, I started to understand, at least a little, why Laios had looked down on Berald so much.

"I told you, I’m not confident in magic!"

Berald cried out, his voice full of frustration.

"..."

I narrowed my eyes as I stared at the Mana Bullet Berald had created.

The great sage Julius Bastian once said something about magic.

‘Learning magic is like drawing or singing,’ he said.

In simple terms, it meant that magic heavily relied on natural talent.

\'But even if someone lacks talent in magic, this is just absurd.\'

There\'s an old saying in the Republic: even a dog can recite poetry after three years in school.

Even if you\'re not gifted in magic, with effort, you should be able to improve, even if just a little.

Even I, who was often told I had no talent for magic, eventually grew to this level by grinding through time and effort.

\'But Berald hasn’t improved at all.\'

He’s been learning magic for at least 15 years, yet he can’t even use a Mana Bullet properly.

Clearly, something is wrong.

\'And knowing Berald, he wouldn’t have been lazy about his magic training.\'

Despite that, he still couldn’t use even a simple Mana Bullet properly...

"Hmm."

I looked at Berald suspiciously.

\'Something else must be going on here.\'

It didn\'t make sense for someone to practice magic for so long and still be at this level.

\'Come to think of it, in my previous life, Berald once learned a martial art that left him unable to use magic due to its side effects.\'

Maybe Berald had been unable to use magic even before learning that martial art due to some external factor.

\'Perhaps he was cursed as a child.\'

You know how in hero tales, the protagonist sometimes gets caught up in a conspiracy and has their immense talent sealed away?

Considering the ‘Ryu’ family held significant power in the Republic, it wouldn’t be too surprising if there had been some shady plot behind the scenes.

\'Or maybe he was poisoned.\'

There were indeed poisonous herbs that could prevent the manifestation of magic.

They were incredibly rare, to the point that even I, who had wandered the continent for thousands of years, only encountered them a few times.

But given the Ryu family’s deep history with magic, it wasn’t impossible that they had access to such poisons.

\'But if that were the case, he wouldn’t have been able to create a Mana Bullet in the first place.\'

I swallowed hard, looking at the Mana Bullet floating in the air.

He could manifest magic, but he couldn’t control it.

"...Could it be?"

An idea flashed through my mind like a bolt of lightning.

I looked at Berald and said,

"Alright, this time, try using a more advanced spell."

"...Didn’t you just see how I couldn’t even make a proper Mana Bullet?"

He couldn’t even create a basic Mana Bullet, and now I was asking him to use a more advanced spell?

Berald looked at me incredulously.

"I know. I just want to check something, so go ahead and try it."

"Hmm. Alright."

Berald swallowed and nodded.

"What spell should I use?"

"Hmm... Do you know Fireball?"

"I do."

"Then give that a try."

If we say the Mana Bullet is a level 1 spell, Fireball is about a level 3 in difficulty.

"Okay."

Berald closed his eyes and focused again.

Once more, his Stigma glowed, and a huge amount of mana swirled around him.

\'He sure has a lot of mana.\'

Of course, if you compare it to Yurina, it\'s lacking, but that\'s only because Yurina’s mana reserves are so extraordinarily large.

It wasn’t that Berald’s mana was insufficient.

He probably had more than most students and even many professors in terms of pure mana capacity.

‘The problem is that even with all that magic, the result is pathetic.’

What good is having so much fuel that it overflows if your fuel efficiency is terrible?

“Haaaap!”

Whoosh!

With a loud shout, flames ignited.

A small fireball, slightly smaller than a fist, was formed.

“Uuuugh…”

Berald, drenched in cold sweat, tried to move the fireball.

Fsss...

The fireball, which had been wobbling precariously, disappeared with a hissing sound.

"...Ah."

Berald let out a low groan, his face dejected.

I quietly observed the process, sinking deep into thought.

‘Once again, the manifestation itself was successful.’

However, as soon as he tried to move the fireball, it wobbled dangerously and then vanished.

‘He succeeded in manifesting the spell, but failed in controlling it….’

Magic can be broken down into three main processes.

1. The process of releasing the internal mana into the external world—known as the "release" stage.

2. The process of transforming the released magic into a spell through formulas—the "manifestation" stage.

3. Finally, controlling the spell to act according to one’s will—the "control" stage.

In Berald’s case, there were no issues with the release process.

‘In fact, he releases way too much, to the point where it’s worrisome.’

In other words, the fuel required to cast magic was more than plentiful.

‘Though the manifestation is a bit lacking in quality, it’s still successful.’

He succeeded in creating both the magic missile and the fireball.

‘Magic formulas are almost like memorization exercises, anyway.’

I once heard from Senior Sophia in my previous life that "perfect theory is the essence of magic."

What she meant by "perfect theory" was precisely the formulas needed to manifest magic.

‘Creating and modifying new formulas is something only true geniuses can do.’

But anyone who put in enough effort could memorize pre-existing formulas and manifest magic.

‘Of course, that only applies to low-level spells like magic missiles or fireballs.’

As the difficulty of magic increases, it becomes impossible to manifest spells through such brute memorization.

Right now, Berald’s method of casting magic could be compared to math.

It’s like memorizing that "5×5 equals 25" without understanding why it equals 25.

‘That’s why his magic missiles were more complete than his fireballs.’

The formula for magic missiles was much simpler.

‘But when it comes to the control process, that’s where the problem arises.’

He managed to succeed up to the manifestation stage by brute memorization, but controlling the magic required actual calculations.

Berald, however, was completely unable to handle the calculations necessary to control the spell.

“…Which means…”

As the hypothesis that had formed in my mind started becoming more and more of a reality, I felt my face harden.

“So, how about it, brother? Did you figure out what’s wrong with my magic?”

Berald swallowed nervously and stepped closer to me.

His clenched fists trembled slightly.

‘No, it can’t be!’

Closing my eyes tightly, I rejected the hypothesis that had formed in my mind.

"Hey, Berald, uh… Aren’t you getting hungry?"

"Oh, now that you mention it, it’s already this late."

I pulled out some bread from my bag, which I had bought earlier at the store on the way here.

He must have been quite hungry because Berald’s eyes sparkled like stars when I pulled out the bread.

“Wanna split this 50-50?”

“Hmm…”

Berald’s expression grew serious.

After contemplating for a moment, he asked in the most serious voice possible.

“So… who gets the 50?”

"...Ah."

At that moment, all my doubts became certainties.

A deep sigh escaped through my lips.

I slumped down and grabbed at my hair in frustration.

‘The reason why Berald hasn’t been able to use magic properly despite all his efforts…’

It wasn’t because he was cursed as a child.

It wasn’t because he was poisoned with something that blocked the manifestation of magic.

There was just one reason why Berald couldn’t even cast a basic magic missile properly despite all his painstaking efforts.

“You… you absolute idiot…”

No external factors.

No outside interference.

Nothing that could be overcome with years of hard work.

It was purely because he was just dumb.

“…What am I even supposed to do with you now?”

And I was supposed to teach magic to this guy?