Vasileo prepared thoroughly for the final exam.
He hadn’t even managed to win at Makia, and the Magic–Combat Combined class had been interrupted before the first lesson because of a fight that had nothing to do with him, so he hadn’t gotten to hear it.
The last look he’d seen on Frondier’s face had seemed extremely displeased, so the Magic–Combat Combined class itself might be canceled.
'If it’s come to this, I have no choice but to get a perfect score on the final!'
Frondier was the teacher in charge of magic theory. Of course, when you looked at what he did, you couldn’t help but wonder if that was really “theory.”
Naturally, what shows how much a student has mastered theory is the written exam.
And Vasileo had overwhelming confidence in the written exam.
For Vasileo, whose order and manifestation of magic followed the textbook exactly, that was not only Atlas’s teaching but also his own disposition.
In overall ability he might fall behind Pielot or Ias, but he had no intention of yielding even the test scores.
And at least when it came to magic, he was still the top of Atlas.
'If I get a perfect score on the written exam, Teacher Frondier might look at me again. Because he’s the magic theory teacher!'
His logic was excessively simple, but even so, Vasileo was desperate enough that you could call him frantic.
At Atlas, mages weren’t treated badly, but their role was highly fixed. Simply put, self-propelled siege engines.
This stemmed from what Frondier and Elodie evaluated as “leisurely magic implementation.”
Construct one spell as-is, without abbreviation or omission, in strict orthodoxy, and if you try it 100 times, make a 100% probability that not even once will you fail. This is the way Atlas teaches magic, and probably everyone on this continent does the same.
Vasileo didn’t dislike the textbook style. On the contrary, it suited his personality very well.
But that was separate from his frustration about the mage’s role.
You absolutely need someone to protect you, ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ and it’s a long, long spell-chant constructed only to produce high firepower and high performance. Vasileo had felt that limit early on.
He didn’t want to deviate from the textbook. He only felt that the textbook needed to change.
In that sense, Frondier was the most optimal person who could completely overturn Vasileo’s common sense and concepts and allow him to advance a step.
That was why Vasileo’s attitude toward this exam was unusual. He had always prepared faithfully for exams, but this time even his mindset was different.
And then, the long-awaited midterm exam: the magic theory written exam.
Vasileo solved the problems smoothly.
'Good. There hasn’t been anything difficult among the problems so far. As long as I don’t make a marking mistake......!'
Even upon reaching the last page of the test, there were no problems that gave him trouble. There were some that demanded slightly new thinking, or whose calculations were difficult, or trap questions, but he passed them all without issue.
And the final problem, too, was certainly the hardest among today’s problems, but Vasileo could sufficiently solve it. Rather, the answer that came out was so exact he didn’t even need to review it.
'Good, perfect. Now I just have to check if I miswrote any numbers.'
Vasileo lightly clenched his fist.
He had come thoroughly prepared because he’d heard Frondier would be writing the problems, but maybe that was pointless—he had time to spare.
'A perfect score is certain...... Hm?'
And the moment Vasileo absentmindedly flipped the test over,
“Hmm?”
Vasileo unconsciously let out a small sound, then quickly closed his mouth. It was exam time.
He found that there was one more problem on the back.
[Thank you for your hard work on the written exam.]
[This problem is a bonus. It does not affect the test score.]
[Students who are interested should try solving it.]
The moment he read that passage, Vasileo’s eyes shone.
No doubt about it. This bonus problem was precisely the one Frondier had written.
After checking the time left on the clock once, Vasileo carefully read the problem.
'......Easy....... No, wait?'
His thought process was almost identical to Principal Carla’s.
The moment he thought it was an easy-difficulty problem and tried to solve it, he sensed that something was wrong.
A formula he already knew, and a combination constructed by rigorous theory. And yet he felt a certain sense of incongruity.
Only, the issue was that his magical knowledge and attainment still did not reach Carla’s.
'Does this magic even activate?'
Vasileo tilted his head. Unlike Carla, who had immediately realized it wouldn’t manifest, he couldn’t be sure what would happen.
He was already far ahead of most students, who would mechanically write out the effect of the magic to be manifested, but Vasileo felt an unresolved thirst parching him to the bone right now.
'Ugh, damn. I can’t test it here, either.'
The strictest rule of the magic theory written exam.
You must never test a formula. Partly, it’s that your skill is to understand the content with only the written passages and figures, but more importantly, it’s to prevent unspecified variables that could arise from testing it incorrectly. Simply put, it’s dangerous.
So Vasileo merely wiggled his poor fingers and stared holes into the formula written there.
And when about roughly one minute remained in the exam time, he could make a definite conclusion.
It was a magic that would not manifest. He had consumed almost all his time coming to know that.
And when he knew that, he realized the shocking difficulty of this problem.
'A formula constructed according to theory does not activate. Explain that result and the reason.'
In other words, a gap between theory and reality had occurred, and to put it more simply, some portion of the theory up to now was wrong, so find out why it’s wrong and fix it.
'Teacher! We’re just students who aren’t even adults yet!'
His voiceless outcry fluttered under his tongue.
At that moment, the teacher watching from the front said,
“Time’s up.”
Gasp!
Most of the students other than Vasileo were getting ready to collect their test papers.
'Ah, ah, ugh, agh.'
With wandering eyes, Vasileo looked again and again between the formula and his explanation.
The result and the reason. He had already written the result: “It does not manifest.”
Then what about the reason?
Write something. In these few seconds.
And in that brief instant, one intuition brushed across Vasileo’s mind.
'Huh......?'
It was a flimsy strand of a thought hardly worthy of being called an idea. There was no time to verify it now.
'Whatever.'
Vasileo scribbled whatever came to him. In those few seconds that weren’t even seconds.
“Ah—ah!”
Even that was snatched away mid-sentence as they took his answer sheet.
***
Immediately after Carla checked the final problem.
Carla gathered all the magic theory teachers.
It was a second meeting, with she herself present.
“There’s a small—no, a big problem with the final problem Teacher Frondier wrote.”
Carla explained to the teachers the content of the final problem.
Having heard the entire explanation, all the teachers were surprised and checked the problem again. And soon they could clearly see what this problem implied.
“N—no! Teacher Frondier! This is not a problem you can solve!”
“To point out a contradiction in the theory and then tell students who learned the theory to explain the theory’s inaccuracy and the reason......!”
All the teachers showed dismay.
“How can you give this kind of problem to the students? A problem that no one can get right is nothing but tormenting the students.”
“You’re demanding an answer we’ve never taught!”
At that, Frondier, who had been listening quietly, spoke.
“This is a different matter from producing an answer you already know.”
Looking around at everyone, Frondier said,
“What we should be teaching students is not the answers to problems, but the ability that makes them solve problems.”
“However, Teacher Frondier, that’s too idealistic. This is a failure of difficulty.”
“There’s no need to hit a perfect, complete answer.”
Frondier picked up a pen and drew a question mark on the paper.
“The most necessary virtue for a mage is thinking ability. For mages, more than writing answers to known problems, the way they go about solving unknown problems is important.”
“But in this case, there’s a high probability the students won’t even be able to approach the correct answer.”
“Even if it isn’t the correct answer, if there are traces of moving forward with logical thinking, I’ll give points. That’s why it’s written-response. Even one line is fine. I’ll give sufficient points for discovering just the trap in this problem.”
With this problem, to begin with, the premise itself is a trap.
A combination of formulas with explicit effects clearly indicated, and orthodoxy itself in theory. The illusion of thinking that if you just do it this way, the magic will definitely manifest.
If you can’t break free of this trap, you’ll simply list out the effects of the formulas as they are.
Knowing just the fact that “that’s not so” is a passing score.
At Frondier’s words, one teacher scratched his head and spoke.
“This problem—does it even have an answer?”
“Isn’t this the kind of problem we should verify first before giving it to the students......?”
Another teacher agreed.
But looking at the two of them, Frondier said,
“Of course it does.”
“Th—there’s an answer?”
“Yes. No matter what, I wouldn’t put out a problem with no correct answer.”
At those words, everyone, including the two teachers, fell silent.
And then the meeting grew noisy again.
The sound grew louder and louder, until it could be heard even outside the conference room.
“What’s going on? Has the conference room ever been that noisy?”
“Judging by the timing, it must be because of the exam problems?”
“Is that something to get angry about?”
Teachers unrelated to magic theory tilted their heads at the voices coming from the conference room.
Sure enough, fairly sharp words were being traded.
In truth, one reason the teachers reacted this sensitively was that there wasn’t a single teacher who had realized there was an issue(?) with the problem Frondier had put out. It was, in a way, a matter of pride.
Practical teachers like Elodie only knew from the sounds coming from the conference room that something was happening.
Even Elodie didn’t know exactly what had happened, but she knew Frondier had pulled some stunt. He had scraped together that level of knowledge inside the Workshop, organized and integrated it all, and put out a problem—how could it not turn out like this.
And when the conference room became confusing enough that it was hard to tell who was saying what, Carla finally stepped forward.
“Teacher Frondier.”
“Yes.”
“This is disqualified from the regular problems.”
Carla’s decision was firm.
“I understand your intention, and I understand that the quality of the problem itself is faithful, but that kind of grading method will be hard for the students to accept. And grading they can’t accept does not give students an opportunity to learn. It wasn’t even announced that a problem like this would appear, and students must be able to accept their own scores.”
“......I see.”
“Instead, we’ll include this as an appendix that doesn’t count toward the score. Teacher Frondier, what you want to see is the students’ will to solve problems, isn’t it? It doesn’t have to be included in the score.”
Frondier nodded.
Certainly, there was a point where he had been buried only in the quality of the problem. No matter how proper a problem is, to students who are not prepared to accept it, it won’t be of any help.
Just as spouting only orthodox theory isn’t persuasion. On that point, Carla’s remark was certainly correct.
“Understood. I wasn’t thinking it through.”
Frondier admitted it cleanly. In fact, whether it was reflected in the test score didn’t matter at all. It was enough if it merely appeared on the exam.
And after the midterm, on grading day.
“......Hahaha!”
Frondier burst out laughing. Everyone in the staff room was startled to see it.
It was rare for him to laugh so openly—rare enough that anyone would stop and look.
'As expected.'
Frondier was looking at a single test paper.
There was one who was prepared.
On that final question, there was a line scrawled in haste, as if written in the very last seconds.
[Depict the formula that would be constructed in three dimensions upon a plane—]
