Eugene looked up at the Crown Prince, who was only four years older than him. Honein wasn’t just the Crown Prince of Aroth; he was also an excellent wizard in his own right.
‘He’s a Fifth Circle wizard,’ Eugene recalled.
From generation to generation, the royal family of Aroth continued to produce excellent wizards. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that they had continued to improve their bloodline’s affinity for magic over the course of hundreds of years.
And even among all those specially cultivated talents, Honein was particularly excellent. Every member of Aroth’s royal family was introduced to magic from an early age, but Honein was the first to have reached the Fifth Circle before even reaching adulthood.
He was a certified genius.
Even Eugene was familiar with the stories surrounding Honein. After all, he was the Crown Prince who was first in line to succeed the throne. Although Eugene had been warned by Hera in advance, it still felt strange to face this handsome prince in person.
Eugene contemplated, ‘I only met with royalty a few times even in my previous life, but since I’ve been reincarnated as Vermouth’s descendant, I get to meet a member of royalty when I’m just seventeen.’
He didn’t really have any ties to royalty in his previous life. Although Vermouth was often called here and there, the orphaned Hamel didn’t receive many invitations, and it had been common for him to ignore the few invitations that he did receive.
“Do you know the reason why you’re here?”
The one who spat out this question and marked the beginning of the interview was an uptight-looking wizard. He was the Blue Tower Master. Although he appeared to be middle-aged, his actual age should be much older than that. He glared down at Eugene with eyes full of dissatisfaction and irritation.
The Blue Tower Master continued, “Eugene Lionheart, I’ve heard many rumors about you, but for you to arrive here…. Both the Red Tower Master and the Black Tower Master have been praising you to the point that it seems like exaggeration.”
The Blue Tower Master then looked at Lovellian and Balzac with narrowed eyes. As they felt his gaze turned towards them, Balzac just shook his head with a faint smile while Lovellian snorted.
“Ah, but of course, I’m well aware of the fact that you are astounding, to the point where that criminal brother of yours can’t even compare,” the Blue Tower Master conceded. “However… being able to swing a weapon and emit sword-force, isn’t that completely different from being good at magic?”
The Blue Tower Master did not appreciate being put in this situation. The one facing him was just a seventeen-year-old kid. On top of that, Eugene was just a baby chick who had only just started practicing magic a few months ago.
A kid like that had been able to get letters of recommendation from two Tower Masters and was now in front of a panel who would decide whether or not to bestow him with permission to enter Akron. The Blue Tower Master absolutely could not accept or even acknowledge such an embarrassment.
No matter how he looked at it, this seemed to be a case of solicitation. Irrespective of how talented a seventeen-year-old kid who had just started learning magic a few months ago was, he couldn’t be all that great, could he? Of course, he recognized the fact that Eugene had talent, but that wasn’t enough for him to accept the idea that Eugene deserved an entry permit into Akron.
Currently, there weren’t just a few wizards in Aroth who had been called geniuses when they were young. All wizards permitted to enter a tower of magic must have been called a genius at least or twice in their youth. They were all diamonds in the rough with overflowing talent.
Even wizards like that would eagerly wait decades just for a chance to enter Akron, but a brat like Eugene, who couldn’t be considered more than a young chick in terms of his accomplishments in magic, was in the running for entry into Akron? No matter how much the Blue Tower Master thought about this, this felt uncomfortably like favoritism.
‘The Red Tower Master has long been friends with the Lionheart’s Patriarch, and as for the Black Tower Master… I would have to guess that he wants to use this shameful affair as a chance to better his relationship with the Lionheart clan,’ the Blue Tower Master speculated.
After all, wasn’t the timing of this offer too perfect to be true? Just as Eward, the eldest son of the Lionheart family, had failed to make much in the way of achievements, Eugene had arrived, and letters of recommendation had been written for him shortly thereafter.
The Blue Tower Master wasn’t the only one thinking something along those lines. Although the Green Tower Master and White Tower Master weren’t showing it, they also didn’t appreciate being called to participate in this sham.
“I understand what you are trying to say, but what do I need to do to prove that I am worthy?” Eugene asked without showing any hesitation.
Then, as if he had been waiting for this, Lovellian spoke up, “All you need to do is show us your magic.”
Eugene confirmed, “Is that really all you need?”
“Yes,” Lovellian said with a nod before turning to look at the other Tower Masters. “If you could cast a spell in front of us, Sir Eugene, these famous wizards who have gathered here today will take the chance to examine your skill in magic.”
The Blue Tower Master complained, “Usually, we would look at the results of your research and the papers that you have worked on. But since you’ve never done any research, let alone worked on a thesis, I guess that will just have to do.”
Lovellian narrowed his eyes at the grumbling from the Blue Tower Master. Although Lovellian understood the Blue Tower Master’s displeasure, he was offended by how his fellow Head Wizard kept openly showing him such disrespect in this formal setting.
“If that’s what you need,” Eugene slowly nodded his head in acceptance.
Eugene had already prepared himself for the fact that he wouldn’t always be treated favorably, so he didn’t take offense from the Blue Tower Master’s rudeness. Taking a deep breath, Eugene drew on his mana.
As the Stars around his heart began to shine, all the wizards in the room were staring at Eugene with calm expressions. Their eyes weren’t focused on Eugene’s body but instead on the movements of his mana within his body.
Honein, who wasn’t unable to see such things with his own abilities, lowered a pair of thin glasses onto the bridge of his nose.
After a few moments, Honein’s lips parted, and he released an appreciative hum, “...Hm….”
The Blue Tower Master’s expression shifted. Indeed, Eugene certainly wasn’t using a Circle, but he wasn’t just using a Core either.
Eugene was using all three of the Stars generated by the Lionheart main family’s White Flame Formula. As the three Stars resonated with each other, they gathered Eugene’s mana and amplified it. Brilliant white flames engulfed Eugene’s body. Up until this point, there wasn’t anything particularly remarkable.
Then, the moment that the White Flame Formula began operating in earnest, the movements of the Cores began to change. The resonating Stars started to rotate in an interlocked pattern. Like this, the three Stars became one Circle.
‘It’s a Circle.’
‘So the Cores and Circles aren’t separate from each other. By making the different Cores resonate with each other, they form one Circle….’
Eugene had only created a single Circle. But not a single wizard here believed that to be just a simple First Circle.
‘The density of his mana… it’s ridiculous.’
‘Although he’s been training his mana for several years now, this is…. No, that just makes it even more unbelievable. Eugene Lionheart has only been training his mana for four years now.’
‘I don’t know about his talents for martial arts, but they do say he was born with a talent for mana control.’
‘But that still isn’t enough,’ the Blue Tower Master judged, his eyes growing cold. ‘Having excellent mana control is a completely different matter from having an excellent understanding of magic.’
You couldn’t become an Archwizard just because you had great control over mana. The description of ‘Great’ in front of the name Vermouth Lionheart and the title attached to him as the ‘Master-of-All,’ was because he had risen to a never-before-seen level not just in martial arts but also in magic.
Combining the Core and the Circle was extremely wasteful in terms of mana. Although many people in this world called themselves magic swordsmen, most of these magic swordsmen were only of so-so strength if you considered their martial arts and magic separately.
It had been three hundred years since the time of the Great Vermouth. Since then, there had been many talented individuals in the Lionheart’s direct line, but not a single person among them had shown the same level of prowess in magic as they had in the martial arts.
Their ability to use the mana from their Cores to create sword-light and sword-force, and their skill at handling weapons, did not present any great advantage when plumbing magic’s infinite depths.
The opposite was also true. Among those Archwizards whose names had gone down in history, not a single one had been good at fighting while personally swinging a weapon in close combat.
Even if the mana control required by both was similar, martial arts and magic were always meant to be two separate disciplines.
One by one, Eugene showed off all the spells that he could cast. The white flames of the White Flame Formula transformed into a blade of wind and then into a red fireball. For a moment, it looked as if the fireball was about to dissipate, only to reform as dozens of bullets, then the bullets united as one to form an elongated blade.
During the transformation process of his magic, Eugene never once uttered an incantation. And there was no wastage of mana, even when the magic was broken down to be reformed. Instead, all of the mana that had been used for the first spell was saved to be used in the next spell.
The Green Tower Master, who had been watching silently, asked, “...Are you able to use magic and sword-light simultaneously?”
Instead of replying immediately, Eugene directly showed it to them. Without stopping the transformation of his magic, he extended his right hand forwards.
There was no need for him to pull out a sword or some other weapon. Instead, the flames of the White Flame Formula were concentrated in his right hand and became a blade of pure mana. Its appearance was enough to finally astonish the wizards watching him.
His Circle hadn’t collapsed. While using a Core in place of a Circle, he had still been able to use it as a Core as well. Since it had come to this, the Blue Tower Master’s expression couldn’t help but harden.
Was it really possible to construct a working mechanism from the parts of two completely different machines? And not just their appearance; could he really have fully combined their functions as well?
Even if it were possible, how could a boy who had only been practicing magic for a few months have been the one to do it?
‘And incantation-less at that.’
Eugene had used mental calculations to link his techniques and his will alone to activate them. This meant that he must have fully comprehended all the magic he had learned. The Blue Tower Master let out a low groan of frustrated admiration.
