The two months of winter vacation were coming to an end. The students gradually began to return, while the professors hurried through the last of their class preparation. The cold and empty campus soon regained its usual warmth and bustle. However, the wind was still chilly, so there weren’t many people outside.

Still, one student seemed to ignore the weather as he ran laps on the campus grounds.

“Pant...! Pant...!”

Theo huffed as his legs propelled him through his 32nd lap. When he first started exercising, he couldn’t even do ten laps and vomited on the first day. But he stuck to it, and used the knowledge he had to exercise properly. His body, which he had trained systematically for two months, was gradually becoming more manly.

With this… Forty!

As soon as he completed his 45th lap, Theo dropped to the ground. Theo had read about a basic strengthening method used by northern knights that involved placing his palm against the floor and pushing up and down. As his arms trembled, Theo started to remember why he had started exercising. The trigger had been Alfred’s memories.

- If magic is the arrow, then the magician is the bow. A magician needs to hone both their magic and their body.

In fact, he remembered that Alfred Bellontes had been as fit as a knight. In particular, the arm which shot the Magic Missile had been as thick as a log. It was clear that physical training was necessary to withstand the recoil and release of magic.

So Theodore had added exercise to his routine. He didn’t miss a day of running every morning as he steadily conditioned his muscles. Although his body was fatigued and screaming with pain, Theo didn’t give in. Rather, he doubled his usual food intake and immersed himself in training.

“One...Ninety, Two...Hundred!”

Theo collapsed after fulfilling his quota. Despite the fact that his forearms had thickened over the last two months of exercise, it was difficult to increase the amount he did everyday. He could only sustain this level of training because a magician’s body recovered faster than an average person. A knight who refined mana could recover much faster, but Theo was satisfied if he could just get out of bed the next day without struggling.

Uhh, this is why studying is the easiest part.

It would be hard to find someone who agreed with him, but Theo was sincere in his own way. After all, his memory had always been good. His clothes were sticky with sweat, and his limbs felt like rubber, but he felt the same sense of accomplishment that he felt from studying magic. It was enough to allow him to endure one more day.

The fact that his body seemed to change every day when he looked in the mirror was a big motivation for Theo.

... Get up.

The winter wind was quickly cooling his body, and Theo didn’t want to catch a cold. He got up and brushed off the dirt on his hands. Ordinary people would need to go to the bath, but Theo was different.

“Clean.”

A simple spell stripped the dirt from his body in moments. Most students didn’t use the spell since they were used to a higher standard of living, but Theo appreciated the practicality of the spell. As magic power gently wove across his body, he felt cleaner than before.

Is this the 3rd Circle? I feel cleaner than the last time I used it...

He wasn’t mistaken. All spells required magic power to maximize its performance. A 1st Circle spell could be made more efficient by inserting more magic power. Therefore, the difference between a 2nd Circle and 3rd Circle magician was obvious. Theo’s 3rd Circle made him a qualitatively different magician than his former 2nd Circle self.

Wuuong.

The third circle around his heart was still strange. He touched his chest unconsciously; however, the number of circles didn’t change. He had visited the black market trader three times and eaten forty artifacts.

3rd Circle magician...

Theo was now at the same starting point as the other students.

***

“Oooh, warmth. It’s finally worth living.”

The warm air inside was a welcome reprieve from the cold wind. While heating had been turned off during winter break, Theo was more sensitive and realized that the walls and floor were now radiating heat again. He raised his cold hands and let the warmth penetrate his skin.

A simple, but efficient application of Heat magic.

He admired the person who designed this heating system.

Tak… tadak… tak...

Theo, who was warming his hands on the wall, opened his eyes as he heard the sound of footsteps. He unconsciously counted the number of steps.

Someone’s coming... Wait, there are roughly three people?

This ability was closer to the ability of an assassin or tracker than a magician. It was a type of sensory perception that relied on sensing the movement of magic power. Theo had gained the ability after experiencing Alfred’s memories from [Ballistics Magic]. As a war hero, Alfred Bellontes had trained his senses to a level comparable to tracking magic. Theo, who had obtained a little bit of the hero’s memories, had awakened a similar sense of perception.

Three uniformed students rounded the corner as they walked into the corridor leading to the dormitory. Four pairs of eyes met in the middle.

These guys...?

Theo glanced over the newcomers. They had loose ties and rolled up sleeves, along with accessories and shoes with heels that were technically against the school rules. Theo could tell what type of people they were just by the way they were dressed.

“Hey, isn’t he that bastard?”

“It seems like it? It’s obvious from that face.”

“Whoa, we’re in the same dormitory now. I can finally feel like I’m in the third grade.”

They spoke loudly to make sure he heard it. Theo kept walking as he suddenly felt like laughing. This wasn’t enough to be called harassment. Last year, someone had fired shock magic at his head from behind. There had also been someone who kept tearing holes in his bag with magic arrows. Mere words were nothing.

Step. Step.

Theo calmly passed the three students. But the students felt a rising sense of irritation. They wondered why the notorious dunce of the academy, the symbol of a loser since they’d entered school, seemed so confident. He didn’t even ask them to move out of the way with a subservient expression. Their sense of superiority boiled over.

Kiiing-

Theodore stopped as he sensed the movement of magic power. Magic... It was only 1st Circle at most, but it had been cast right under Theo’s feet. If he took one more step, then he would fall.

This spell… Grease? What a trivial trick.

It was a familiar trick. Everyone who attacked from behind was the same. They wanted to laugh while watching him fall. They wanted to ridicule the loser who was older than them but considered inferior. Theo would have been numb to it last year, but he had changed.

The suffering ends here.

As a 3rd Circle magician and the owner of Gluttony, Theodore Miller was a completely different person. Once Theodore identified where Grease had been cast using Alfred’s detection ability, he immediately counterattacked. At the very least, he should return what they were trying to do. His fingers twitched as he subtly cast Grease. The three idiots didn’t know what was happening beneath the soles of their shoes.

“Idiots,” Theo said softly before moving again.

As he stepped carefully over the spot affected by Grease, he heard a loud thump from behind him. The three students shouted loudly as they tried to scramble to their feet, but Theo didn’t turn back. He expected countless idiots like this in the future.

Theo murmured to himself, "The opening ceremony... is in a week.”

A new semester had begun. It was time to pay back the three years of scorn and taunts from the professors and students. He knew it would be simple, but he couldn’t stop his mouth from curling upwards.

A week later, Theodore Miller’s final year in the third grade began.