The Berner Marquis family is one of the oldest and strongest magic families of the Hela empire.
If the Tardema family possessed the battle mage organization âNorthancâ, the Berner family was in charge of publishing the Magical Journal, the single most-authoritative magic academic journals in the continent. Traditionally, the family was that of researchers.
The capital of Berner territory, âBeheranâ, was not that far from Helarion. As such, Sibelius visited his father, Marquis Berner every weekend.
Marquis Berner laughed heartily after looking at his sonâs grades report. He looked very proud as well.
âHahaha, you were third, my son!â
âIâm sorry, father. Iâll definitely take first place next timeâŚâŚ.â
âNo. Iâm very satisfied with you coming in at 3rd place. 2nd was the son from Junerheart family⌠and who is this first fellow?â
âHeâs called Abel, and heâs ridiculous. He finished a spell in 5 seconds! I can never win against him in practiceâŚâŚ.â
âHa, is that so? Thatâs amazing⌠No +matter how fast his calculations are⌠HmâŚâŚ.â
Berner was surprised by his sonâs words. They were quite unbelievable
To him, his only son Sibelius was a precious child that he dearly cherished. He was born when he was in his 40s. Sibelius was also the only heir to the family.
Because of that, he was always worried when he thought about his son. His son listened to his words well, but his downside was that he trusted too much in people who flattered him. He was a pushover.
He was smart enough to be called a magic genius since young, but he had no eyes for peopleâŚâŚ.
But Berner believed that there will be a day his son would realize that.
âI want to see him once. Why donât we invite him over?â
He was curious since it was his sonâs friend, and also because he was curious about how he could cast spells that fast.
âTh, the thing is, Iâm not close to himâŚâŚ.â
Bernerâs suggestion drove Sibelius into a panic and he stuttered.
âDonât you just need to get closer to him starting nowâ
âYesâŚâŚ.â
To Sibel, his fatherâs words were absolute.
Humans are cunning creatures. They always have been. They treat others like nothing if they look nothing special, but once they rise, then people would flock. Like hyenas lurking round to see if there was anything to eat.
Abel was feeling exactly like that right now.
Now that he took 1st place, all sorts of people wanted to meet him.
âWhatâs this? You want me to join your club as well?â
Abel grumbled seeing Sibel in front of him.
(T/N: Anyone notice that Abel rhymes with Sibel�)
Abelâs first impression of Sibel wasnât that good. The two clashed at the school uniform store âEriteâ. To be exact, it was Abelâs clash with Sibelâs right hand, Goel, but birds of a feather flock together.
âYou too?â
âLooks like Cain asked you first⌠If you didnât join MARIO, then come to us MEAT.
We have meetings every day except weekends, and on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, we have discussions, while on Tuesdays and Fridays, we do actual practice. Also we can read the latest versions of the Magical Journal a week early when I ask my father. How is it?â
Sibel spoke about his club MEAT.
That was unexpected. Abel thought that he was going to offer an employment after graduation with the halo of the marquis family, but this was actually a pretty good deal.
âMEAT?â
âItâs an acronym for Magical Exploration & a.n.a.lysis Team. Cain, that p.r.i.c.k bought all of my members with money, and that reduced the membersâŚ. But weâre all eager, so try it out some time.â
MEAT, huhâŚâŚ Yum.
(T/N: There is some missing translation here because the original club name is âmajang-dongâ which stands for something else. Majang-dong is a place in Korea that is usually a.s.sociated with butchery. And thereâs some episode about extortion and blackmailâŚ)
âNow Iâm hungry againâŚâŚ.â
In any case, Sibelâs offer wasnât that bad. Sibel looked unexpectedly(?) normal. He also liked the fact that he could try it out.
Now, he felt slightly different about him than when he clashed with Goel. You need to make good friends. The older generation always said that, and it was true.
âOkay, Iâll seek you out once. I can take another person, right?â
âYeah, and do you mind coming over to my house and eating together once? My father wishes to meet youâŚâŚ.â
âMe? Why would he?â
Sibelâs father? Wasnât he the Marquis? But why? Was it perhaps to erase his sonâs compet.i.tor? Heâs a marquis for G.o.dâs sake. He wonât do that, rightâŚâŚ?
âBecause your casting speed is so fast. He seemed to be interested in thatâŚ. He also wants to do an interviewâŚâŚ.â
âAn interview?â
âOh, we publish the Magical Journal, and he wanted it to go there.â
âDo I get money if I do that?â
He was getting money from Reina, but it was slightly lacking if he wanted to eat meat 3 times a day.
âHmm⌠probably?â
âOkay then! Where is it?â
âCome to the front gates of the Academy around sunset tomorrow,â
By this point, Abel was addicted to meat.
âWhy do you want to follow? Iâm really just going there to eat.â
Abel grumbled seeing that Reina didnât want to leave him.
âFather told me that you couldnât be left alone Because itâs dangerous.â
âThat old guy⌠I said that I wonât cause trouble, and he canât trust me a single bit.â
Actually, this had more to do with protecting the safety of the successor to the Duke rather than Abel causing accidents. Though, Abel seemed to be completely misunderstandingâŚ.
âHaaâŚ. Okay, then. Act like you arenât here, okay?â
It was a bit awkward since he was the only one invited, but it should be fine to bring another one along, right?
The two arrived at the front gate of the academy. Sibel was waiting in front of a large yellow carriage for 6 people.
âYouâre here. But whoâs that next to you? Your girlfriend?â
Sibel asked while looking at Reina.
Every, single, person, misunderstood Reina as Abelâs girlfriend.
âJust a friendâŚ. Can I take her along?â
âWell, it doesnât matter. Hop on! It wonât take long.â
In fact, the Marquis would probably like it if he took more people. He always like it when he brought friend home.
That was one of the reasons why Sibel took many people around
The golden carriage with 4-horsepower was very fast and comfortable, and it seemed that Sibel was right when he said that it wasnât far, and they arrived quickly when they chatted.
The inner castle of Beheran wasnât that much different from Sellionâs. Abel deemed that this was because they were both magic families.
When they entered a separate mansion, they could meet Marquis Berner, who was waiting for them after setting the table.
âHaha, nice to meet you. Iâm Sibeliusâs father.â
Marquis Berner extended his hand to Abel.
âNice to meet you too, sir. My name is Abel.â
Said Abel as he grabbed that hand.
âYou should be hungry after your journey here. Make yourselves comfortable.â
While dining, their main topic of conversation was about Abelâs life in the academy, and unlike Abelâs expectations, he felt that the Marquis was quite the gentle person.
After dinner, Abel had a private tea time with Berner as Berner had requested.
When Abel drank a sip, Berner spoke up first.
âHaha, I heard a lot from Sibelius. I heard your casting is very fast⌠what is your secret?â
âIf I told you that I can calculate quickly⌠you wonât believe me, would you?â
Obviously. Although Berner looked ordinary, he was a high-cla.s.s 7-circle mage.
âI am also confident when it comes to casting speed, but from what I heard from Sibel, that kind of speed⌠is impossible.â
âActually⌠I used a bit of mathematics.â
âMathematics? Do you mean the study of numbers?â
This subject really doesnât seem that familiar to the people of this world.
âYes. FirstâŚ.â
âWhoa! I cannot understand all of what youâre saying, but that is a very interesting story! Why donât you try publishing it through out Magical Journal? I will pay decently for your ma.n.u.scripts.â
âThe ma.n.u.scripts?â
Gulp.
Thinking that he could eat late-night meals every day, Abel gulped subconsciously.
âInstead, you will exclusively publish them through our journal.â
âWell, okay. Then can I ask for something as well?â
Actually, the ma.n.u.script fees were one thing, but he wanted something else after looking at the castle.
âWhat is it? Just tell me.â
âYou had a lot of research materials, as well as magical records. Can you lend me the books about s.p.a.ce and time?â
He had already read through the books that Kyle had sent over. The only useful thing there was Kyleâs research about the dimensional gate that summoned Abel.
The part about mana was quite complicated, and it seemed as though he would never understand unless he had enough insights of an 8-circle mage.
As said before, the Berner family is a magical research family. The quality of their books should be better than the ones at Tardema.
âBooks about s.p.a.ce-time, huh⌠Haha. Sure. Iâll sc.r.a.pe even the published papers and send them over to you.â
It wasnât that hard for Berner to do that.
Actually, Berner didnât know what kind of effects this contract would bring to the Magical Journal and the field of magic as a wholeâŚâŚ.
-Oh my word! I cannot believe this, but I cannot deny it either!
-What in the world⌠this is the best discovery since the apocalypse.
-History will split in two starting today. Before this discovery, and after this discoveryâŚâŚ.
-How unfortunate⌠How unfortunate that I was born before this journal.
-It will take a lot of time for this to sublime into the world, but this is a revolution that will drag technology by ten thousand years.
Not to mention the field of magic, the entire world was flipped over. This was thanks to one paper on the Magical Journal. The discovery of 0 and its uses.
Hela empire said that it was written by a student at the academy,
but this might as well be used as a textbook instead.