SWNOVELXO Chapter 40: Chapter 39: Study Sessions and Magical Supremacy!!
The Kitayama family, the cornerstone of the Hokuzan Group, one of Japan's premier conglomerates, stood as a titan of influence. The Mitsuya family, known for its international small-arms brokerage, conducted business with manufacturers under the Hokuzan Group's umbrella. Thanks to Yugen's efforts and the endorsement of Aoba Toudou, Ushio Kitayama—the true name behind the alias Ushio Kitakata, the Hokuzan Group's patriarch—and Gen Mitsuya, the current Mitsuya head, formalized a business partnership.
Yugen had met Shizuku three years prior, when Gousan invited the Kitayama family to the Joushima clan's stronghold. At a subsequent Kitayama party, he became acquainted with Honoka, carefully using mental interference to deflect her affection—a taxing effort, he'd admit. Why go to such lengths? His foreknowledge of the original story warned him of troublesome suspicions and meddlesome rivals tied to her events. Canon knowledge was invaluable.
"Wow, this place is insane…" Leo muttered.
"It's like a mansion out of a movie…" Mizuki added.
The study session's attendees included Tatsuya, Miyuki, Yugen, Leo, Erika, Mizuki, Touya, Honoka, Eimi, and Shizuku, the resident of this grand estate—ten in total. A sizable group, but Shizuku brushed it off, saying, "It's not the whole class, so it's fine." Eimi, new to the E-Class crew, hit it off quickly, though Leo was visibly exasperated by how fast Eimi and Erika—kindred spirits in a way—bonded.
Reflecting on it, Yugen noted the group's pedigree: himself from the Mitsuya family, Tatsuya and Miyuki secretly from the Yotsuba, Erika from the Chiba, Touya from the Rokutsuka, Honoka from an Elemental clan, Eimi a descendant of the prestigious British Goldie family, and Shizuku, the Kitayama heiress. For Leo and Mizuki, raised in relatively "normal" households (Leo's case being a technicality), the gap was stark.
"Come in, don't be shy," Shizuku said.
The study session aimed to prepare for the final exams. With Yuugen, Tatsuya, and Miyuki—top scorers in the entrance exams—present, it was no surprise questions would fly their way. To manage, they divided tutoring by subject. Yugen, who aced magical linguistics, took charge of that.
"Here, it's 'Fiat Lux' in Latin," Yugen said.
"Amazing… Beating me to a core liberal arts subject," Mizuki said.
"Didn't Yugen-san once call out in English over the radio?" Miyuki asked.
Now that she mentioned it, Yugen recalled the incident. Tatsuya, too, seemed to remember, a faint smile crossing his face. Prompted by Miyuki's question, Tatsuya spoke.
"Speaking of which, I saw you reading a German paper on your terminal," Tatsuya said. "Was that Rosen Magicraft's official release?"
"Yeah," Yuugen replied. "Auto-translations can skew interpretations. You've got to go straight to the source to avoid mistakes."
"Japanese, English, Latin, German…" Leo mused.
"Yugen, you could make a living as a translator," Erika teased.
"I'm aiming to be a magician," Yugen said. "I'll leave translating to those who want it."
His knack for languages owed to his "Linguistic Comprehension" ability. Decoding ancient Egyptian texts was a bit much, though—overkill, really. Later, he'd botch something with Sanskrit, leaving everyone floored.
Next was magical geometry, where freehand magic circles were key. As Honoka practiced, Yuugen fidgeted with his pen, sketching intricate details onto a magic circle barely a centimeter wide. Honoka gasped, spotting it.
"Yugen-san, what are you doing!?" she exclaimed.
"Oh, this? Just practicing the smallest possible magic circle," he said.
"Isn't that too small?" she asked. "How much power could it have?"
"For a heavy truck, maybe a meter of knockback," he said.
"Uh, blowing a truck a meter is already insane…" Honoka said.
A heavy truck, by regulation, weighed over 11 tons. A meter's knockback translated to roughly 100 times that distance against a human, accounting for air resistance. Yugen's benchmark came from facing peers of his school—hardly a sane standard.
Then came magical engineering. Unknown to most except Miyuki, Taurus Silver himself was present. The explanations from Yugen and Tatsuya were world-class, captivating Leo and Erika.
"Insane," Leo said. "Your magical engineering knowledge is beyond high school level."
"Just something I picked up tuning Miyuki's CAD," Tatsuya said.
"I dabbled as a hobby," Yuugen added. "Our family business let me test CADs from global manufacturers."
Their skills far surpassed "dabbling" or "hobby." Miyuki, fully aware, smiled brightly.
"As expected of the Mitsuya heir…" Erika said.
"Drop the 'heir' stuff," Yuugen said. "The Mitsuya are still pretty normal."
"No way," Touya said. "From a Rokutsuka perspective, the Mitsuya are plenty weird."
Yugen knew his family was odd but hearing it stung. Still, Touya—who treated Fuji hikes like jogs—had no room to talk.
Then came core magical theory, closer to general science or math than magic. Magic heavily relied on mental imagery; stronger visualization amplified its potency. A magician's mental fortitude underpinned spellcasting and resistance—a common trope in fiction.
"For hardening magic, the essence is 'fixing molecular positions,'" Yugen said. "It's used for weapon or armor reinforcement, but with the right imagery, it can apply to close or long-range combat."
"Hardening magic for long-range?" Leo asked. "Is that possible?"
"Simple: tie a stone to a rope, swing it, and activate hardening magic," Yugen said. "Instant long-range steel hammer. Most don't do it, but hardening magic can also 'intentionally reshape molecular structures via psions and fix them.'"
This technique evolved into the Shin'iinryuu sword art's physical nullification skill, [Phase Shift Hardening]. Was it okay to reveal? In "public" sword and martial arts, upper-tier practitioners had to master it to survive—dead serious. The catch: without precise pre- and post-transformation imagery, weapons or armor became single-use. Bamboo and wooden swords were common for practice. Yugen still recalled accidentally turning a wooden sword into a carbon nanotube lump, shocking everyone.
His words stunned the group, with Tatsuya showing rare surprise, muttering, "That's possible?"
"Magic gets tangled when overthought," Yugen said. "There are machines and catalysts using similar energies. Information terminals make research easy."
"I get it, but…" Leo trailed off.
Unspoken, Yugen's [Mirror Dispersion] drew from a sci-fi anime's solar convergence cannon, layered with decomposition magic. Sticking to realistic limits capped potential, he mused. This world, diverging from 1995, lacked the entertainment scale of his past life. Post-Third World War population drops and magic's systematization left little room for such luxuries. His reincarnated exposure to vast entertainment was a unique edge.
Taking a break, Eimi spoke up. "Speaking of magical practice, those scores factor into Nine Schools Competition selections, right?"
"We're not involved," Erika said. "You neither."
"Mind your own business!" Eimi snapped.
"Now, now," Honoka interjected. "Shizuku?"
The Nine Schools Competition picked members by skill—Course 1 students. The topic felt distant to Course 2 students like Erika, Leo, and Mizuki, whose reactions were tepid. But Eimi's words lit a fire in Shizuku.
"Exactly!" Shizuku said. "This exam's results are critical…!"
"Whoa," Leo said. "Never seen Shizuku this fired up."
"She gets like that about the Nine Schools Competition," Honoka explained.
Even Eimi, stunned by Shizuku's intensity, nodded at Honoka's clarification. Miyuki couldn't help but comment.
"I see," Miyuki said. "I'm surprised. I watch the competition, but Shizuku's passion outshines mine."
"Rare words from Miyuki," Tatsuya noted.
"Oh, Honoka, I have my limits too," Miyuki teased.
Whether she was joking or humble, Honoka and Eimi could only nod, murmuring, "Uh, yeah."
Shizuku, now ablaze, displayed a decade of Nine Schools Competition data, listing First High's main and rookie team members. Eimi noticed several entries marked "UNKNOWN" for parameters.
"Hey, Shizuku," Eimi said. "Some members' parameters are missing. What's up?"
"I heard the machines gave weird readings when they tried measuring," Shizuku said.
"This name, Mitsuya Mototsugu… and others, all Mitsuya…" Eimi trailed off.
All eyes turned to Yuugen. With a resigned sigh, he spoke. "Mototsugu's my older brother, Shitsume's my eldest sister, Kana's my second sister, Mika's my third… All my siblings."
"What kind of strength doesn't register?" Leo asked.
"That makes you unmeasurable too, Yugen," Erika said. "Shizuku, you watch every year, right? Know anything?"
Parameters quantified magical aptitude. Unreadable ones meant opponents couldn't predict strengths or weaknesses. Erika pressed Shizuku.
"Five years ago," Shizuku said, "I watched all of Yuugen's brother's matches. They were breathtaking. I still remember them vividly."
Five years ago, First High claimed its first overall victory. Mototsugu, then a third-year, and Shitsume, a first-year, stood out, overshadowing even the Saegusa family's second son. Mototsugu single-handedly knocked out all opponents with magic, securing victory without allied losses. Foes claimed, "He was right in front of me, but my magic missed, and I blacked out."
Mototsugu's BS (Born Specialized) magic—a faint perception-disrupting field—constantly enveloped him. Consuming no psions, he'd mastered controlling and amplifying it, with Yugen's help. Shitsume's spatial awareness and calculation ability, honed by Yuugen's training, let her instantly detect objects within a kilometer. Her custom [Nine Loader] led her to a perfect, scoreless victory in the main women's Cloud Ball as a first-year.
"Your sisters were unreal," Shizuku said. "Beyond high school level. Even current third-years couldn't beat them."
"Mika-neesan beat President Saegusa in the Cloud Ball finals," Yuugen added. "She still holds the women's Battle Board speed record."
"That overshadows our strongest third-year generation," Eimi said. "Yuugen, I heard you've been tapped for the team."
"Huh!?" Eimi gasped. "Well, he's a Mitsuya, so it figures."
Touya's question surprised Eimi, who nodded, acknowledging Yuugen's Ten Master Clans lineage. Yuugen sighed and muttered, "I was shocked too. Juumonji-senpai offered me a spot, not just for the rookie events."
"Seriously!?" Touya exclaimed.
"Yeah," Yugen said. "I requested the main men's Ice Pillars Break and rookie Monolith Code, but it's pending exam results."
It was practically a done deal. Miyuki, it turned out, was set for rookie women's Ice Pillars Break and Mirage Bat, while Touya would compete in rookie men's Speed Shooting and Cloud Ball. Course 1 students yet to be approached envied them.
Tatsuya, however, raised a question. "Monolith Code, huh? You can't use martial arts."
"I've chosen magic to enhance my combat," Yugen said. "Got an idea and cleared it with the organizers."
Monolith Code banned high-lethality magic and direct physical attacks. Normally, martial arts were out, but not if contact was avoided—magic-enhanced combat was fair game.
"Third High's got 'Crimson Prince' and 'Cardinal,'" Yugen mused. "Not unbeatable, but not guaranteed wins either."
With direct attacks, he'd use joint locks, but Monolith Code's rules forbade it. Third High's likely roster wasn't easily toppled. He'd have to force retirements somehow, he thought, feeling a twinge of guilt for his teammates.