「That beam was really pretty! It's hard to believe it's also dangerous…」

Cycelia declares while looking at the splattered pumpkins on the ground.

「It's a little weaker than I'd like… But I suppose it can't be helped. The fact the gems act like caseless rounds is already cutting edge stuff.」

With his fists on his hips, Straf shrugs, nodding while he looks at the chunks down the throne's steps.

「You said the last one jammed?」

「Yeah, the last one shattered gems by redirecting their mana into themselves until they shatter. I could technically use this solution in the IEDs, but it's inefficient…」

He nods in reply, adding a little tilt of his head to his shrug.

「…So what I did was- Before I actually explain, do you know what minimal monocrystalline mana threshold is?」

Straf raises his index finger, but stops himself short of beginning his explanation.

「Um… Nooo? Should I?」

Cycelia smiles awkwardly and asks with a tilted head.

「…Not really. It's stuff for nerds-」

After a moment of pause, Straf scoffs with a smirk, but it disappears of his face as quickly at it appeared.

「…Man, am I a fucking nerd now?… Anyhow, I'll just give you a layman's explanation…」

He grumbles under his breath with his fists on his hips, looking down at his feet with his brows furrowed.

「…When you hit a gem too hard, it shatters and violently unleashes its mana. When you overcharge a gem, it splits and unleashes its mana a lot less violently…」

Raising his index finger once again, he begins explaining. Cycelia nods along.

「…There is a very, very tiny delay in gems where they act like like they're full even if they just discharged some mana. I basically use that phenomenon to cause a feedback loop…」

「Uhh-huuuhhh…」

Cycelia's brows begin to furrow as she continues to nod along with rapidly decreasing confidence.

「…Now, it unleashes a little mana while retaining most of it in the split parts. There is a limit to how much it can split, however!…」

Straf raises his voice, as well as his finger. His eyes turn to Cycelia's.

「…How many grains of sand can you take away from a pile, before it stops being a pile, Lia?」

He asks, smirking.

「Huh? Ah- Umm…」

Cycelia's chestnut head perks up, and she lowers her gaze, thinking heavily.

「…That's a tough question, Straf. How big is the pile?」

She asks, blinking her emerald eyes up to the side at him.

「Yes it is, Lia. It's a real head-scratcher to philosophers everywhere. It doesn't matter.」

「It doesn't?」

She tilts her head, confused.

「It doesn't. I'm just bringing this up, because it's related to the most crucial part of how the new magic gun works.We're back to minimal monocrystalline mana threshold, Lia.」

Shrugging his hands, Straf nods with a smirk.

「…I still don't know what that is, Straf.」

「I'm getting to that. Basically, just like you can only pack so many magic books into your baggage, you can only pack so much mana into a gem…」

He continues his explanation, raising his index finger again.

「…Now, what if you split your baggage into two smaller ones, Lia? Would you be able to carry more stuff around? You'd lose some space due to inefficiencies for sure.」

He asks, shrugging his raised hand.

「…I'd be able to carry about the same amount? It'd just be split into more baggages.」

Snap!

「Exactly, Lia! Now what if for the sake of the argument you get dozens and dozens of tiny baggages, each perfectly sized to fit one of your books, and only one of them? What then?」

Straf grins as he snaps his fingers and points at Cycelia.

「…Now that'd be just a bother to carry with no added benefit.」

She shrugs her shoulders, stating the obvious.

「Here comes the million drake question, Lia… What if the baggage size halved again? Would the baggages do you any good then?」

He asks, then returns his hand to his hip in a fist, grinning.

「…If they were perfectly sized for my books, but then halved, wouldn't that just mean I can't pack any of my books anymore?」

Snap!

「…Here's minimal monocrystalline mana threshold, Lia. You can only split a gem so many times before it can't even hold mana anymore… But all that mana has to go somewhere.」

With a smug smile on his face, Straf snaps his fingers and points at Cycelia again. Her brows rise.

「…So minimal monocrystalline mana threshold is the lower limit of a gem's capability to store mana due to its internal structure?」

She asks, appearing enlightened.

「Yup. And with all that mana buzzing in there like an angry swarm of hornets with nowhere to go, it only needs a little poke of a metaphorical stick to fly out and sting.」

He nods in reply.

「Wow. I get it. I feel a lot more knowledgeable now…」

Cycelia looks down at her lap with a calm, yet amazed expression on her face.

「…You'd make a really good professor, Straf. I bet you'd cut my study time in half.」

With a tilted head, she beams a warm smile at Straf.

「I am already making IEDs, teaching stuff at a magic university would only add to the list of unfortunate coincidences. I'll pass. I'll consider it when I get an urge to live in the woods.」

With a shrug of his arms, Straf replies as he slowly makes his way down the steps. When he reaches the bottom, he slips his hands into his pockets.

「Huh?…」

Cycelia tilts her head, blinking at his back with confused eyes as he's heading for the exit.

「…By the way, what was in that letter, Straf? Can I know?」

She asks, and Straf stops in his tracks.

「…Letter?… Ah, from the mage thing…」

He furrows his brows as he thinks for a few seconds, then slowly nods as he recalls the blue wax-sealed letter.

「Yes, from the Mage Federation-」

「…I didn't read it.」

Straf nonchalantly shrugs his shoulders.

「Huh!? Straf! It might be important! You should!」

Cycelia almost jumps out of her throne as her emerald eyes widen in surprise.

「Tsk… Fine, I'll just read it here…」

With a sigh, he reaches into his [Portable Storage] and pulls out the sealed letter.

Crack.

The wax seal makes a soft cracking sound as Straf opens the envelope and pulls the contents out.

「Let's see… To Straf Katastrof Vindict of Redwing Kingdom… Blah blah blah bunch of meaningless shit…」

Straf reads the letter out loud with no enthusiasm in his voice, while scanning through it for anything interesting with his bored eyes.

「…It is is my pleasure to relay to you that with a recommendation from the headmaster of the Academy of Magic, you have been promoted to?…」

His voice trails off, and Straf crushes the envelope in his hand.

「…Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!」

Stomp! Stomp! Stomp! Stomp! Stomp!…

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

Straf stomps the ground in a tantrum while shouting in fury.

「Straf!? What's wrong!?」「…Fuck! Fuck!…」

Alarmed, Cycelia perks up while he continues shouting…

…

Around the same time, in Murusburg, in the mages' guild…

A man squeezes his wide-brimmed hat in through the door, and after just a brief moment of looking around, heads directly for the guild girl's long counter.

「…I bring a letter. You're the guild master, I assume?」

He declares, and produces a blue wax-sealed envelope from the satchel hanging off his shoulder.

「Ah! From the Federation!? Someone must have moved up, huh?」

When she notices the letter, the woman at the counter jumps out of her bored slouch.

「Don't know, I'm just here to deliver this… Stamp please.」

The man shrugs, sets the envelope down on the counter, and takes out a document from his satchel. He slides it across the counter towards the woman.

She quickly fetches a small circular stamp and a container of ink from beneath the counter.

Thunk.

She opens the small container, rubs the stamp's bottom in its damp, red contents, and presses the stamp down on the document with more force than necessary.

「Thank you. Good day.」

With the formalities over, the man nods, takes the stamped document, and heads for the exit. A bespectacled woman peeks her curious face in from the backroom.

「A letter?」

She asks the woman at the counter while holding her large, pointy hat's brim up.

「Yup! From the Federation, Emy! Someone must have gotten promoted! Put the potions on hold for a second and come have a look!」

Crack.

The woman at the counter breaks the seal and quickly pulls the letter out. The two read through the letter together while the woman with glasses holds the hat's brim above their heads.

「Aaaaaahhhhhh! Finally!…」

Fwomp.

The guild master wraps her arms around the girl with glasses, grinning ear to ear and rubbing her cheek into her robes.

「What? I only got to the first line…」

A little discomforted by the hug, she adjusts her glasses.

「Remember that handsome guy from some time ago!? The one with a really bad attitude?」

The guild girl pulls away and asks with a massive grin on her face.

「…The one who saved me from the burrowers? Yes, what about him?」

Emilia nods her head and covers her face from the rest of the guild with her hat.

「They just promoted him to an archmage! We're finally going to get some money, Emy! We'll be able to pay off the debt for the resistor crystal he broke too!」

「He's already an archmage?… That took no time at all…」

「I know, right?…」

The guild master lets go, then places her fists on her hips.

「…Heh. I knew my little guild would sprout some great people.」

She adds with a huge, smug smirk on her face, and lets out a triumphant huff out of her nose.

「…But you really only registered him, Tahandra. Stop being so smug,」

Emilia furrows her brows

「Shush. I deserve to feel victorious for all the trouble he gave us. At least he made up for it a hundred times over!」

Tahandra shrugs her hands with a satisfied smirk…

…

Around the same time, in the Academy of Magic…

With his hands behind his back, Corvus is leisurely heading down the central stairs to the foyer. With the semester over, the halls are now quiet and mostly empty.

「Ah, good morning headmaster.」

A young professor bows his head as they meet on the stairs.

「Good morning. Back from a morning stroll?」

Corvus asks with a soft smile, adjusting his glasses.

「Ah, no. I was just looking up some things at the library.」

The professor shakes his head, and nods towards the general direction of the Academy's library.

「I see. I am heading for one myself, though.」

Corvus nods, and looks over his shoulder when he hears boots thud on the steps behind him.

「I find it incredible that you find the time and energy for your walks, headmaster.」

Aria says as she stops by the two, lifting the brim of her hat with her gloved hand.

「I owe my good health to my frequent strolls, Professor Aaa… Aaaaah…」

「Aa?-」

Aria tilts her head, furrowing her brows.

「Aachoo!」

Corvus sneezes loud enough for the sound to echo through the halls. A janitor in the foyer stops mopping the floor and snaps his tight-lipped grimace to the headmaster, as does everyone else.

「…Everyone calm down. My nose was just itching for a while now…」

The headmaster looks around, and realizes at least 8 different people are looking at him with nervous faces, including Aria and the young professor standing near him.

「…I'm already better. Calm down, nothing is happening. I invite you all to join me on my walk.」

He adds, and quickly descends down the stairs. After a moment, they let out a relieved sigh while watching him leave through the front door.

「…Good grief. The curse did a number on everyone.」

After one last glance over his shoulder, Corvus shakes his head and heads for his foggy morning stroll…

…

A mere moment ago, in the Redwing Kindom's royal palace…

「…That walking ripoff! Who asked him to promote me!? I don't want a promotion, take it back!…」

Stomp! Stomp! Stomp!

Straf continues ranting and stomping the floor.

「Straf! Calm down! Isn't it a good thing!?」

Shaking her hands in front of herself, Cycelia desperately tries to calm Straf.

「…If I knew that's how you'd repay me, I'd have abracadabra'd your ass out of your shitty fucking office! Fuck!」

Stomp!

Straf stomps the floor one last time, then places his fists on his hips. Her shoulders slump as Cycelia lets out a relieved sigh.

「Tsk… No, Lia. It's not a good thing. That shitty good for nothing guild will now get free money, and they did nothing to deserve it.」

He throws his hands up with his mouth heavily aslant.

「…But now when you tell people that you're Archmage Straf Katastrof Vindict, they'll that know you really mean business, right?」

Cycelia tilts her head with a pacifying smile on her face. Straf sighs and takes another look at the letter.

「Tsk… There's some more shit written here… Blah blah blah… Deeply concerned about recent developments… Yeah, whatever.」

Crrrkcrrrk…

Straf crumples the letter up and throws it aside.

「What does the rest of it say?」

「They're deeply concerned about you vassalizing Telas Kingdom and they want you to hand over the grimoire.」

He scoffs and shrugs his arms.

「I'm not going to just hand it over!」

Cycelia says in a voice full of indignant outrage, her brows furrow in anger as her head perks up.

「Yeah, I know. That's why I told them to fuck off the first time they asked…」

Smirking, he lets out an amused huff, and shrugs.

「…Listen, Lia. Since the deadline for the ultimatum is coming up soon, I'm going to head out to the countryside to attend some business. I'll be back in a day or two, three, tops.」

He adds, placing his fists on his hips.

「Eh? The countryside?… That's fine, but why?…」

Blinking at him with confused emerald eyes, Cycelia tilts her head.

「Securing goods for a trade deal, Lia. Boring stuff, so I won't bother you with that-」

「Can I come with you?」

She asks, blinking her large, green puppy eyes at Straf. He grimaces heavily for a prolonged moment as he thinks.

「…Sure, if you want to… But it'll be sleeping in inns and around a campfire again.」

He lets out a sigh, and shrugs as he warns Cycelia.

「That's great!- I mean, I don't mind!」

Cycelia stands up and quickly hops down the steps with a large smile on her face.

「…Alright. Let's go, then.」

Placing his hands in his pockets, Straf turns for the exit and nods towards the door. Cycelia jumps over the splattered bits of the pumpkins…