------------------
[Translator - Kiteretsu]
[Proofreader - Kyros]
------------------
Chapter 6
Lina de Florence.
In his original body’s memories, she appeared as a fantastically beautiful blonde girl...
But the first impression Kaylen had of her in person was different.
"She’s ordinary."
Average height, a slightly slim build.
Objectively speaking, she could be considered cute.
But for Ernstine, who had seen countless peerless beauties as the Unifying Emperor of the continent, she was not someone he could call a beauty.
"Still, she dresses well."
Due to the nature of magic studies and constant training, most students didn’t care much about their appearance and kept a plain look.
Most students walked around wearing drab robes and had their hoods pulled up...
But Lina was different.
A spotless white robe, a face with makeup.
Her brightly shining blonde hair was neatly arranged and sparkled—she stood out among the students.
Anywhere else might be different, but at the Magic Academy, she was treated as a beauty.
"You really are Kaylen! Wow. You lost weight? I almost didn’t recognize you. You’ve gotten handsome!"
As soon as she saw Kaylen, Lina approached with a full smile.
She touched his arm without hesitation and admired him.
"Wow, have you been working out lately? Your arm’s gotten firm."
She poured out compliments.
"See? I told you—you’d be good-looking if you just took care of yourself."
Then she gave a thumbs-up.
A faint scent of perfume wafted pleasantly.
A scent hard to find at the Magic Academy.
Kaylen could now understand why he had liked her.
Up to this point, she just seemed like a cheerful and friendly classmate.
"Kaylen, could you help me... just a bit today?"
But her real purpose was elsewhere.
"I tried really hard by myself over the break, but I just can’t... I need to recharge a mana stone."
Recharging a mana stone.
A mana-infused stone had value, but once its mana was depleted, it became worthless.
In Ernstine’s era, used-up mana stones were just tossed aside like pebbles.
"To think they can be recharged now—how curious."
According to Kaylen’s memory, recharging mana stones required a unique magic circle of the Florence family.
"They say that’s how they rose from mere commoners to counts. I see."
"You can help again today, right? Please?" Lina pleaded with a sorrowful expression.
At that, Kaylen’s head almost nodded by itself.
He had blindly followed her every word—his instincts as a pushover.
When a mage entered mana stone recharging, they’d lose an entire day and suffer from mana depletion for a week...
Yet Kaylen’s body seemed ready to obey her request.
"I can see right through you, girl."
But deep inside, Kaylen was Ernstine.
Even after countless flirtations from the peerless beauties of the harem, Lina’s theatrical expressions didn’t stir him in the slightest.
"Not today..."
Kaylen lightly waved his hand, trying to decline Lina’s request.
But his movement paused for a moment.
It was because Kaylen’s memories suddenly began to resurface.
How to recharge mana stones using the mana heart.
The entire process began coming back to him, step by step.
‘Not a single thing came to mind before this.’
It was only after a request from the girl he liked that the usage method of the mana heart finally surfaced.
Although most of it related to recharging, Kaylen couldn’t afford to overlook this clue.
"No, I’ll do it."
"Really?"
"Yeah. Should we go to the same testing area as last time?"
"Huh? Uh..."
"Alright. See you in a bit."
With those words, Kaylen turned his back and started walking again.
Lina blinked vacantly as she watched him.
‘What’s with him...?’
Today’s behavior was completely unexpected.
Not only had he lost a significant amount of weight compared to before, but that awful stench of food and sweat was also gone.
So far, Lina welcomed the change.
‘He’s changed.’
He used to turn beet red and couldn’t even speak properly.
Whenever Lina said something, he’d just follow along with a flustered "Yeah, yeah."
But now, he was different.
He looked her straight in the eye and spoke as if it were nothing.
The affection and longing that used to fill his eyes were nowhere to be seen—there was no emotion at all.
‘...Did something happen over the break?’
Maybe he went back to his family and got engaged or something?
Aside from that, she couldn’t think of any reason why the once-dopey guy had changed so drastically.
Lina gently bit her lip.
‘I’d better pay more attention to Kaylen.’
Mana stone recharging.
Many men had helped Lina several times because they couldn’t resist her requests, but no one poured their mana into it as earnestly and wholeheartedly as Kaylen did.
Kaylen—the top of the top when it came to suckers.
If she lost him, there’d be a snag in the mana stone recharging.
Lina’s eyes turned cold and calculating.
"Today, we’ll be learning how to utilize 2-circle magic." Srrrk.
The sound of pages turning marked the start of class.
"The optimal direction of circle manifestation is—"
In any case, a lecture he couldn’t understand at all for now.
Listening with one ear to the no-mage’s class, Kaylen looked around the classroom.
‘Technically speaking, not much has changed from a thousand years ago.’
Old wooden desks, parchment, the scratching of quills.
About twenty students were all busily taking notes while flipping through thick books.
The scenery was so uniform that it made the passing of time feel irrelevant.
‘These students aren’t much different from the mages back then.’
Even though it was the first day of school, there were plenty of students sloppily dressed in dull robes, many of whom hadn’t even bathed properly.
They were absorbed only in magic, constantly repeating research and training—just like mages were supposed to.
‘That’s why I told the Tower mages to develop a cleaning spell.’
Ernstine had issued a special order to the mages who constantly neglected bathing in the name of research.
But looking at this scene, it seemed the project had ultimately failed.
‘No wonder I couldn’t help but fall for Lina.’
Since hardly anyone kept themselves clean...
Lina, who always dressed neatly and even took the time to accessorize, inevitably stood out.
‘But no matter how much I liked her, the mana charging went too far.’
To recharge a mana stone, a mage’s effort was essential.
That’s why mages of the 3rd Circle or higher typically offered recharging services for a fee—but the issue was the number of times required.
A single recharge wasn’t nearly enough; it usually took dozens of charges to fully fill a mana stone, making the cost substantial.
It’s not that 1st or 2nd Circle mages couldn’t recharge it,
But a 1st Circle mage risked breaking the circle if the charging went wrong, and even 2nd Circle mages might deplete their mana and hinder their progress as mages.
‘And yet he did this every week, despite only being a 2nd Circle... tsk tsk.’
The competition at the Magic Academy was fierce.
All the students were elites from across the land.
Since magical talent was rare, many here were of common birth, and that meant many were desperate for success.
What was needed to rise as a mage was the number of mana circles.
You had to at least reach the 3rd Circle and advance to your third year to graduate and be scouted with good treatment by noble families or magic towers.
So while most students were burning with determination to somehow reach the 3rd Circle—
Kaylen, caught up with a girl, kept using up his mana for her, and ended up too exhausted to train.
‘Even that girl’s putting in that much effort.’
Among the dull, unkempt mages, Lina shone like a crane among chickens.
She had rolled up her sleeves and was focused on taking notes during the no-magic instructor’s lecture.
Despite being the daughter of a count, she worked hard for success as a mage.
That was the kind of attitude a student at the Magic Academy was supposed to have.
‘No wonder they act like Kaylen doesn’t exist.’
Even after entering the classroom, aside from Lina, everyone ignored him like he was invisible. Now it made sense.
The Academy’s Magic Experiment Zone.
A space created to encourage students’ free magic experimentation, located in the basement of the main academy building.
“That pig again. He comes here the moment school starts?”
“Saying he’s charging mana again for Lady Florence, huh?”
“Mana charging? Guess he’s completely given up on advancing.”
The mages whispered as they mocked Kaylen.
But as soon as he turned his gaze, they cleared their throats and went back to what they were doing.
‘Being ignored and coldly treated is routine here.’
A kind of gaze he had never experienced in his previous life.
But maybe because it was so new to him, Kaylen actually found it refreshing.
Being stared at like that, he kept walking forward until the innermost part of the experimental zone came into view.
“This must be it.”
It was a privileged space granted only to powerful noble families.
Soon, a man approached and bowed respectfully.
“You’ve arrived, Young Lord Kaylen.”
He was a knight of the Florence County family, assigned to guard the academy's experimental zone.
“Oh, you’re looking very handsome.”
“Hardly. Still a long way to go.”
His flesh still jiggled with every step he took.
Perhaps acting on someone’s orders, the count’s knight kept praising Kaylen.
“The young lady also said you’ve become very good-looking. She was full of compliments.”
“She’s also quite hopeful that you’ll do well with the mana charging today.”
At those words, Kaylen shrugged his shoulders and followed the knight into the Florence family’s area.
“Kaylen, you’re here?”
Waiting inside was Lina, now changed into a dress.
Her skin looked more radiant than it had in the morning, and she radiated a fresh beauty.
Seeing her made his heart race.
It was his first time seeing her in a dress, and his mind couldn’t keep up.
In his memory, even in the experimental zone, she had always worn a robe.
Perhaps she picked up on Kaylen’s changed demeanor and tried to impress him.
Her intuition was sharp, but Kaylen remained indifferent.
‘When did she change clothes, and when did she redo her makeup? Doesn’t matter—she’s still average.’
Ernstine, after all, had been adored by the most dazzling women of his time.
No matter how much Lina dressed up, she never rose above being “just average.”
“Come, sit down.”
Meanwhile, Lina had even prepared a tea table and beckoned Kaylen over.
Normally, she would’ve put him straight to mana charging, but starting today, she planned to put in a little more effort.
After all, she couldn’t let the fish she’d hooked escape from the tank.
But Kaylen, whom she naturally expected to be happy…
Slurp.
“This tastes good.”
…drank the tea in one gulp without even sitting down.
“Tea time is a waste of time. Let’s start the charging right away.”
He got straight to the point.
------------------
[Translator - Kiteretsu]
[Proofreader - Kyros]
------------------
