The Fourth Step of Mana Compression
“Lord Wilfried and Lady Rozemyne of the Thirteenth, please step forward.”
Wilfried and I stood, then walked over to where the professors were all lined up. We archduke candidates were being called up in order of duchy rank, with the ten professors split into groups of two. The candidates of greater duchies seemed to be a bit used to controlling their mana, and so they learned to compress it quickly.
The two ahead of us returned to their seats, frowning in concentration as they worked to compress their mana as much as possible. When I looked around, there were three other archduke candidates furrowing their brows, surrounded by professors as they tried compressing their mana. One of the professors was holding a magic tool while carefully watching the students, while another was instead closely observing a magic bracelet on his wrist.
I continued scanning the room to see that Fraularm was observing a very similar-looking bracelet. In all honesty, I still felt a little embarrassed about having made her pass out the day before, so I quietly thanked the gods that she wasn’t the one observing me today.
Okay... What should I do about this compression?
If my aim was to compress my mana even more than I already was, I would need to think up a fourth step of some kind to my compression method. I really wasn’t sure what I could do to further compress my mana though.
Maybe I could visualize a machine crushing it...?
Machine compression immediately brought to mind images of aluminum cans being crushed flat. This technique would almost certainly compress my mana, but I couldn’t say whether I would be able to decompress it again when I needed it. To make matters worse, I knew from experience that the second I lost confidence was the second it became impossible. Hardening my mana so much that I couldn’t even use it myself ran the risk of creating another situation where I would need to use a jureve to dissolve the blockages.
Please, no! I don’t want to time travel again!
I wondered what else I could use for inspiration, thinking back to the various examples the professors had given just moments ago. I was already using the “misty mana gathering at my core” and “push, push” approaches, which left me with removing water from fruit juice and boiling down a potion.
Hm... Maybe I can imagine boiling down soup in the same way Professor Hirschur boils down her potions?
Boiling down soup caused the water inside to evaporate, leaving behind a thick and concentrated broth. I wondered what would happen if I added that boiling technique to the first step of my mana compression method.
Okay, let’s try it. I’m going to pass this lesson without killing myself.
I pumped myself up, then stood in front of the professors. Hirschur was there with a muscular-looking man who probably taught the apprentice knights. I heard him mutter that I was somehow even tinier than the rumors had led him to believe.
“Rauffen and I will assist you with your mana compression, Lady Rozemyne.”
Rauffen nodded. “You’ve got nothing to worry about with me around. Compression’s easy if you just push, push, and push your mana down hard. Let’s get this done,” he said with a charming smile, but I already had him pinned as one of those hot-blooded gym teacher types I really didn’t care for. They had tormented me countless times in my Urano days by dragging me outside during lunch breaks, tearing me away from my books to exercise, and I would probably never forgive them for that.
“Now, Lady Rozemyne, hold out your left wrist. I will be attaching the magic tool,” Hirschur said.
I pulled my sleeve back until my wrist was visible, then held it out for Hirschur to attach the magic tool. It looked like a big bumpy wristwatch at first, but it soon shrunk to the size of a wristband and wrapped tightly around my wrist.
It’s so heavy!
Hirschur held up my arm to stop it from drooping beneath the weight, then eyed the tool carefully. “Everything is ready. Lady Rozemyne, please compress your mana.”
“Here we go! Pump yourself up and start compressing! Beat that mana and squeeze it aaall the way down!” Rauffen cheered in an annoyingly loud voice. I nodded with a polite smile before closing my eyes, focusing on the source of the heat within me and the way it moved.
My plan was to compress my mana by boiling it, but I would first need to release it all. This was only possible thanks to all the magic tools Ferdinand had given me.
“Good! Good!” Rauffen shouted. “Can you feel the flow of your mana?!”
Please shut up. I’m trying to focus... I thought while opening the box my mana was packed into and letting it all out at once. I then started steadily pouring it into the charms I was borrowing and the enhancement tools on my limbs. Once I had finished packing as much mana into them as possible, my body felt incredibly light—so much so that I thought a single jump might send me floating up into the air.
In this moment and this moment alone, I am stronger than even Grandfather.
I slowly opened my eyes. My vision was augmented to such a degree that I could clearly see the faces of students standing far away from me, and my hearing was enhanced enough that the chatter and bustle in the room was unbearably loud.
“That’s the spirit! Your mana sure is moving around a lot!” Rauffen exclaimed. “Just keep pushing! You can do this!”
Since I had poured a ton of mana into the charms Ferdinand had given me on top of pouring mana into the enhancers, the mana that remained in my body was much lighter than usual. I would be trying out my new compression ideas on this mana, so I visualized a pot, poured mana into it, then lit the fire underneath.
Okay... Time to boil down the mana until it takes up about half as much space.
In the back of my mind, music was playing from a cooking show my mom back on Earth always used to watch. I was certain I could even hear a peppy announcer say, “And here we have freshly boiled mana!”
Once I had finished boiling my mana into a more concentrated form, I simply needed to begin my usual compression process. I folded my mana carefully and then stuffed it into the box without leaving any space whatsoever. When that was done, I used my body weight to crush it down even further, flattening it completely.
With my mana back in the box, I started withdrawing the mana from the enhancers back into my body. I was used to pouring out my mana, but sucking it back in was still new to me. It took some time, but I successfully regained some of my mana from the magic tools, then compressed it the same way.
As I was focusing on compression with my eyes closed, I heard Wilfried—who was doing the same with two professors nearby—get a passing grade.
“You have talent, Lord Wilfried. Be sure to frequently compress your mana from now on.”
“Understood,” Wilfried said proudly.
I need to blast through this too.
I tensed my muscles and started compressing my mana as tightly as I could. The boiling stage was the only part I was unfamiliar with, so the overall process wasn’t taking me too much longer than usual. Speeding up the boiling would need to be my homework for a while.
Once all of my mana was compressed, I let out a long sigh and opened my eyes. Hirschur was glaring at the magic tool on my wrist with narrowed eyes and a difficult frown.
“Was that enough? I think I was able to make my mana more compressed than it was before,” I said excitedly, carefully watching to gauge her reaction.
Hirschur eventually tore her eyes from the magic tool and exhaled slowly. Rauffen, meanwhile, was rubbing his chin, most likely surprised that she hadn’t yet said I had passed.
“Do we need to start over?” he asked.
“No, everything is fine. Quite fine. You pass, Lady Rozemyne,” Hirschur announced, her voice trembling slightly as she removed the magic tool from my wrist. She then quietly murmured, “I can tell you worked exceptionally hard,” though it was almost entirely drowned out by Rauffen’s congratulatory cheers.
“Alriiight!” he exclaimed enthusiastically. “You’ve just gotta keep building up your mana capacity like that. You’re a tiny girl, so it’s probably gonna grow more than anyone else’s. Just gotta put in the work. Compress your mana a little each day. Don’t do it all at once, otherwise you’ll get sick.”
“I will do my best. And thank you for your help, Professor Hirschur.” By the time I turned back to thank her, however, she was already facing away from me, stroking the magic tool. She was most likely preparing for the next student, since there were still plenty of people coming up after me. I went back to my seat so as to not get in their way.
“They said I had talent,” Wilfried said smugly as I sat back down. When I looked at him a little closer, I noticed his body was tensed up in a bunch of weird places. He was probably stealthily compressing his mana even as we spoke.
“Don’t overdo it,” I warned him. “If you compress your mana too much, you’ll end up with a mana hangover and start feeling sick like Ferdinand.”
“But I finally learned how to do it. How could I not want to compress the heck out of my mana?”
“I understand how you feel, but there are students each year who adopt that mindset and then end up with terrible mana hangovers. This is why there are professors watching over those who’ve passed. It would be supremely embarrassing if you ignored their warnings, continued to compress your mana in secret, then got sick and collapsed in front of everyone,” I noted, gesturing with my eyes toward the professors watching us. Wilfried jerked in fear, as did some of the archduke candidates from other duchies who were sitting in earshot, causing the observing teachers to chuckle.
Once the archduke candidates had all been reviewed, the archnobles began trying their hand at mana compression. It was then that students started collapsing all over the place.
“Rauffen, carry this one back to his seat,” Hirschur said, indicating a student who had fallen to their knees. The energetic professor promptly did as instructed.
“This one’s mana is on a rampage!” Fraularm yelled from elsewhere in the room. “Bring a magic tool over! Hurry!”
Another professor rushed over at once with a magic tool. They pressed it against the neck of the student in question, who then collapsed to the floor.
“Is this normal...?” I asked. It hadn’t occurred to me that mana compression could be so serious, since all the archduke candidates had learned it so quickly, but the archnobles were evidently struggling a great deal. It seemed more unusual for them to succeed with their mana compression than not.
As I worriedly glanced around the room, Wilfried crossed his arms in thought. “Eh... I’m guessing what makes this process so much more manageable for us archduke candidates is that we’ve performed Mana Replenishment on the foundational magic and are used to moving our mana.”
Now that he mentioned it, I had also ended up collapsing and losing the ability to move the first time I offered up my mana. Skipping lunch obviously hadn’t helped, but Wilfried had fallen to his knees and been rendered immobile for a short period as well.
“They should recover after some rest,” Wilfried said. “Charlotte and I got better in no time.”
“But with the state the archnobles are in, I’m starting to worry about the laynobles.”
“Oswald said mana compression is easier for laynobles. The more mana you have, the heavier the load is before you get used to it.”
“I see... I’m surprised you know that, Wilfried.”
Wilfried looked at me with a bemused frown. “I’m surprised you’re unaware of such basic facts when you seem to know everything. Two years is a surprisingly long time, huh?”
“I only know the information I can get from books; the stuff you’re supposed to learn naturally through living is pretty much a mystery to me. It doesn’t help that I was raised in the temple until my baptism, unlike most nobles.”
The fact that I hadn’t even lived two full years as a noble meant I had yet to encounter a lot of the things other nobles considered to be common sense.
“Yeah, I worked pretty hard over the past two years. I wanted to be capable enough to help you, even if just a little bit.”
“I appreciate your efforts.”
Our class eventually came to an end with over half of the archnobles having failed to pass; they would probably need to take their time getting used to moving the mana around inside them. The professors dismissed the class, and with that, we returned to our respective dormitories.
Since I had completed everything else I needed to do today, I immediately got to work making study guides, all while the mednoble and laynoble first-years told me about their practical court etiquette lessons. In return, I described the first step of the mana compression method to them, then mentioned that the archnobles who weren’t used to moving their mana had dropped like flies.
“That sounds like quite an exciting time,” one student said.
I nodded. “Though Wilfried did mention that those with less mana find their first mana compression easier than those with more.”
“That just means we’ll have a harder time increasing our capacities though, right?”
“Correct. Only by dancing on the verge of death is one able to noticeably expand their mana capacity.”
Following that remark, a few people started whispering about how scary the prospect of risking their lives for more mana sounded. Everyone ultimately agreed not to push themselves too hard, and that was when Hirschur burst into the common room. She threw the doors open, scanned the room with an unmistakable glint in her purple eyes, then locked her sights on me.
“What? Professor Hirschur?!”
“Did something happen?!”
A stir immediately ran through the common room. Under normal circumstances, there was nothing unusual about seeing one’s dormitory supervisor actually inside the dormitory, but here in the Ehrenfest Dormitory, that could not have been further from the case.
Hirschur looked straight at me before striding over at once, her steps graceful and silent yet also incredibly quick. She ignored every single student who attempted to question her along the way, such that I started to wonder whether she even acknowledged they were there.
Due to either the speed at which Hirschur approached or the sharp gleam in her eyes, Leonore instinctively whipped out her schtappe, while Cornelius quickly stood in front of me. Angelica wore an excited expression as she placed a hand on Stenluke’s hilt and skipped over to protect me, while Judithe and Traugott—young students not quite used to serving as guard knights yet—raced over only upon snapping back to their senses.
“Lady Rozemyne. You have quite a skilled set of retainers,” Hirschur said with a chuckle as she looked over my guard knights. “I have urgent business with you. May we speak in your quarters?” She wore a pleasant smile, but the sharp look in her eyes hadn’t softened in the slightest.
“Of course,” I said with a nod, having no way to refuse. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw both Rihyarda and Lieseleta instantly spin around to go prepare my room for a visitor. Brunhilde, my remaining apprentice attendant, pulled my chair back so that I could stand up.
In an attempt to buy Rihyarda and Lieseleta some time, I stood up slowly and took a moment to look over the common room, which was now unusually tense.
“Hartmut, Philine—continue making study guides,” I instructed. “As for my guard knights, I will need only girls to accompany me, since boys cannot go to the third floor.” My mind was racing despite the graceful smile on my face.
It feels like she’s going to yell at me. Why? What have I done? Is this about me knocking Fraularm unconscious yesterday? No, that can’t be it... I thought I avoided a lecture on that when Hirschur went nuts over Lessy and started gushing about how great he is. Maybe Fraularm complained to her after getting better, or something... This is terrifying beyond words. We’re talking about Ferdinand’s teacher here... Just what are her lectures going to be like?
I took my female guard knights and went to my quarters, with Brunhilde at the lead. The stress of the situation was causing my stomach to churn, but Rihyarda and Lieseleta having returned before us meant my room was at least ready for a visitor.
Rihyarda poured tea for us both. I sipped from my cup and took a small bite of a sweet, then encouraged Hirschur to do the same. She took a bite herself, then widened her eyes.
“...What manner of sweet is this?”
“It’s called a pound cake. They’ve recently become quite popular in Ehrenfest.”
“Oh my... New sweets, I see.”
Relieved to see that Hirschur’s sharp eyes were starting to soften, I asked the question on everyone’s minds. “What urgent business were you referring to...?”
“I wish to discuss what occurred during today’s mana compression lesson. Please clear the room.”
When it came to mana compression, there were many things I needed to keep secret. I nodded and waved a hand, at which my retainers swiftly exited the room. Once Hirschur had confirmed that they were all gone, she set a sound-blocking magic tool in front of me.
“This is a magic tool for blocking sound,” she explained.
“I am aware. Ferdinand uses them often.”
“Oh my. So you are close enough to the Ferdinand to warrant engaging in such private talks?” she asked teasingly before letting out a sigh and shrugging her shoulders. “I imagine he uses them for the same reason I am using them now, but in any case... Please explain to me what you did in class today.”
“I mean... I simply compressed my mana. What would you like me to explain?”
She was leaning forward expectantly, but I really didn’t know what to tell her. I hadn’t done anything aside from compressing my mana, so as far as I was concerned, there was nothing to explain.
Hirschur shut her eyes tightly. “Does she simply lack self-awareness...?” she muttered to herself.
“Um... I did pass the lesson, right? Was I lacking in some area?”
“Oh, no. Quite the opposite. I am here because of just how much you exceeded my expectations. I have never encountered such an abnormality in all my years of teaching, and I merely wish to understand what happened.”
“An abnormality...?” I repeated. I knew that she wanted me to explain something to her, but I couldn’t remember anything happening that seemed out of the ordinary. “What do you mean exactly? I imagine you’re saying that I did something unusual, but I’m not entirely sure what that might be.”
Hirschur’s eyes widened in surprise; then she detached something hanging from her belt and set it down in front of me. It was the magic tool she had put on my wrist during the lesson, and at the moment, the needle on the meter-esque protrusion was resting right in the middle.
“This is a magic tool for measuring the density of one’s mana,” she explained. “By placing it on a person’s wrist, we can measure their current density. We consider this a baseline, which allows us to measure how their mana is compressed from that point onward. The needle moves to the right when the compression is successful and the mana becomes more dense. A student is expected to show a gradual amount of growth over time once they’ve learned the basic principle behind compression, so in most cases, the needle moves only slightly to the right before we pass them.”
It seemed they didn’t measure the density or amount of one’s mana with numbers, but rather checked to see whether the needle moved at all. Once a student successfully managed to compress their mana, it was up to them to work out what the most efficient method was and then use that to compress larger and larger amounts. Professors did not involve themselves in this part of the process.
“This is a special magic tool unlike the others—one I made to measure Ferdinand’s mana density in particular,” she continued. I could guess that Ferdinand had compressed his mana to such an extent during his school days that the needle had immediately slammed all the way to the right, necessitating the creation of a measuring tool able to measure a broader range of mana compression. “I elected to use the tool I made for Ferdinand on you, Lady Rozemyne, just to be safe. You had caused Fraularm to pass out with your highbeast the day before, so I had no way of knowing what might happen today.”
S-Sorry.
“And then, just as expected—or perhaps not as expected, seeing as you surpassed my expectations—something happened. When I instructed you to begin compressing your mana, the needle immediately went all the way to the left. It was the first time I have even seen someone lower their mana density enough to reach the limits of the magic tool I made for Ferdinand. No matter how I approach the situation, there is no way a child should be capable of compressing their mana to such a degree.”
Oh, right... My mana density must have dropped so much because I undid the compression at the start.
“The needle then returned to the center, entirely as if you are used to compressing your mana, before shooting to the rightmost side,” Hirschur concluded.
“So what you’re saying is... my mana ended up more dense than it was originally? There’s no mistaking that I successfully compressed my mana?”
“Correct.”
Whew... It was my first time trying out the new technique, but it seemed the new four-step Rozemyne Compression Method had ended up a success. But as I cheered on the inside, Hirschur shook her head and muttered in exasperation.
“I should have expected nothing less from Ferdinand’s disciple...” She sighed quietly, then looked straight at me. “Now, Lady Rozemyne. Please explain to me exactly what you did.”
“Okay. At the start of the lesson, you said that the density of our mana was going to be measured and that we needed to compress it more to pass. I assumed that meant I needed to compress my mana even more than I was already, so I decompressed it all at the start of my turn, then recompressed it using a new technique to make it denser than before. Oh, and your advice really helped with that, Professor Hirschur.”
Hirschur quizzically tilted her head to one side. “While I am glad to hear that, it was not necessary. You could have simply decompressed your mana before the tool was attached and then recompressed it as usual. No normal person would think to compress their mana even further.”
Eep. I didn’t think of that...
“Sorry. That thought hadn’t occurred to me...”
Hirschur looked at me with an exhausted expression. “Well, I now understand that you truly are Ferdinand’s prized disciple. I do not know whether I should say you surpassed my expectations or surpassed normality itself, but either way, it seems the time for Ehrenfest to rise has come again. That said, you will certainly be even more of a handful than Ferdinand was, since you clearly have no self-awareness whatsoever...”
She trailed off, realizing she had gone on somewhat of a tangent, then raised her head to look at me. Her eyes were sparkling with interest.
“Now then, Lady Rozemyne. You said that you learned from my compression method, yes? In that case, I would like to learn from your method in turn.”
“...Do forgive me, but my compression method is a confidential Ehrenfest secret. I cannot tell anyone without permission from its six leaders.”
“Oh my, that is unfortunate... And who might those six leaders be?” Hirschur asked. She was completely undeterred, no doubt already plotting out how to get her hands on my technique. “I assume the archducal couple, plus the knight commander and his wife? Ferdinand is also likely included, since he is your guardian, but who is the last person, I wonder...? Rihyarda, since she was previously Sylvester’s head attendant? Or Lord Bonifatius, member of the archducal family?”
Hirschur was familiar with Ehrenfest’s internal affairs, given that she had been born there. I broke out into a cold sweat as she continued.
“I won’t have any trouble wrenching permission from the archducal couple, and with how many favors Karstedt and Elvira owe me, conquering them should be just as trivial. Who is this last person though...?” she asked again, her lips curving into a grin as she stared me down.
Gaaah! Professor Hirschur has Ehrenfest’s leaders under her thumb! She knows all their secrets and weaknesses! HELP ME, FERDINAAAND!
I shrunk in fear, feeling like a mouse backed into a corner by a hungry snake, at which point Hirschur stood up with a chuckle. “A new highbeast, a new mana compression method, and these new sweets... I am quite looking forward to seeing what new changes you bring to the Academy, Lady Rozemyne.”
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