Kousuke stopped Luca, who was eager to start, saying he needed a little more preparation, and decided to gather a few members.
He asked Towa to act as a messenger and call Luca’s mother, Silvia, and asked Shurein and Colette, who were managing the control rooms of their respective towers, himself.
Seeing Luca showing his eagerness in the lounge space, Haku had also come to watch.
Once all preparations were complete, Kousuke gave Luca permission to activate the magic circle.
Kousuke and the others were currently in a room protected by a strict barrier on the management layer.
Originally, it was prepared for times like when Kousuke developed explosive magic tools, but it had hardly ever been used.
There was also the fact that there was no opportunity to create such magic tools, but he was satisfied with just testing how strong a barrier he could make.
Upon seeing the result, Shurein had marveled, “Are you planning to develop magic tools capable of destroying an entire country?”
Fortunately or unfortunately, it had never been used for its original purpose.
By the wall of the room, the people Kousuke had gathered were watching Luca.
“So? You wouldn’t have called us all here unless there was something important, would you?”
To Shurein, who said this with half-certainty, Kousuke grinned.
“Well, I suppose. I’ll leave the results to your imagination, shall I?”
“Oh? That sounds interesting.”
As Shurein said this with a smile, Silvia placed her right hand on her cheek and sighed.
“What has that child done now?”
“Now… wait, has he done something before?”
“Yes. Well, it didn’t lead to anything serious that time, but it didn’t.”
Silvia, her expression becoming slightly worried, had completely taken on the face of a mother.
Seeing that expression, Kousuke smiled reassuringly.
“It’s alright. That magic circle won’t go berserk.”
Upon hearing Kousuke’s words, Silvia breathed a sigh of relief but then tilted her head.
“If that’s the case, why did you call us here?”
“Ah, well. That is, um, I’d like you to judge after you see the results?”
“…Understood.”
Given Kousuke’s somewhat ambiguous explanation, Silvia nodded vaguely.
Unbothered by the surrounding gazes, Luca was preparing to activate the magic circle.
The reason he wasn’t paying attention to the gazes around him was probably because he was used to being the center of attention since childhood.
Being a half-sibling of the royal family of Razek Amamiya alone made one a focal point.
The preparations Luca was making didn’t involve any special tools.
He couldn’t draw magic circles in the air suddenly without any preparation like Kousuke, so he needed a magic circle drawn on special paper, and that was all.
He had dreamed of activating this magic circle and had drawn it countless times, so he could confidently say there were no mistakes.
That was how much this magic circle meant to Luca.
After all, it was the first magic circle he had ever made entirely from scratch with his own power.
As if tracing the magic circle drawn on paper, Luca slowly began to activate it while chanting incantations.
In response, the paper magic circle glowed, and following the trails of light, a large magic circle took shape in the air.
To Kousuke, who could create magic circles on the ground instantly, it seemed time-consuming, but this was the normal method of activating a magic circle.
In fact, it was quite simplified.
The fact that it only required this many steps was a testament to Luca’s skill, which had earned him high praise from the academy’s teachers.
Each time Luca chanted an incantation, the magic circle in his hand glowed, and various patterns were added to the magic circle in the air in conjunction with it.
Then, at the final moment, the magic circle shone brightly, and nothing remained of its trace afterward.
Only Luca’s shout of “I did it!” echoed in the room.
However, the very next moment after exclaiming that, Luca let out an indescribable sound, “Uwahya!?” and then collapsed on the spot.
Furthermore, something seemed to spill from Luca’s hand and roll across the floor of the room.
“Luca!?”
Seeing Luca suddenly collapse, Haku rushed to his side, but Kousuke stopped her.
“Ah, Kouhi. I don’t think it’s anything serious, but could you check if he hit his head or anything?”
“Understood.”
To Kousuke’s casual remark, Kouhi nodded once and approached Luca.
Seeing this, Haku started to say something but fell silent upon noticing Silvia, who, like Kousuke, showed no signs of panic.
She realized that she was the only one panicking; the others understood why Luca had collapsed.
Kouhi, who had been checking on Luca at Kousuke’s instruction, eventually nodded, indicating there was no problem.
“…It seems there are no particular problems. He didn’t seem to hit his head hard either.”
“I see. That’s good.”
Kousuke nodded at the expected result.
Seeing this, Haku tilted her head and asked Kousuke.
“Father, why did Luca suddenly collapse?”
Haku asked this because her true nature was that of a dragon.
She hadn’t noticed the fundamental issue.
Meanwhile, the others had understood Kousuke’s ambiguous assessment of Luca’s magic circle through this experiment.
“Hmm, let’s see… Well then, Towa. Could you explain it to Haku?”
“Me!?”
Not expecting to be chosen, Towa, who had been watching silently, showed a surprised expression and began to explain to Haku.
“Simply put, he collapsed from magic power depletion.”
“Magic power depletion?”
Haku tilted her head at this, but in a way, it was understandable.
As a dragon, Haku possessed immense magic power.
Seeing the magic power that had moved in the previous magic circle, she hadn’t thought that such an amount would deplete her magic power.
However, that was a reaction from Haku’s perspective, and anyone else would have had the opposite thought.
Unfortunately, since everyone present could hardly be called normal, that wasn’t the case.
While Kouhi was tending to Luca, Shurein picked up the object that had fallen from Luca’s hand.
“…I see, ice.”
What Shurein picked up was a block of ice, about five centimeters on each side.
The magic circle Luca had created was for producing ice.
By the way, the reason Shurein didn’t look like she was feeling the cold, even though she was holding it directly in her hand, was because she was protecting her hand with magic.
“I suppose one could say, ‘As expected of Kousuke’s son.'”
Shurein’s expression was one of half disbelief.
“That’s right.”
Silvia nodded in agreement with Shurein.
“Wait a minute. He’s also Silvia’s son, you know?”
Kousuke hastily protested, but the women, looking at him with narrowed eyes, made him flinch.
Indeed, Kousuke himself couldn’t deny it.
“Well, yes. It’s fine if you put it that way. Yes.”
In the end, Kousuke could only say that while looking away.
This took longer than expected, so the examination of the magic circle will be in the next chapter.
