Chapter 8

08 . Magic power measurement

“The practical exam is complete . Arnos VoldiG.o.d has pa.s.sed . Please move on to the mirror room . ” The owl’s voice calls down from the sky .

After confirming that the barrier has gone I retrace my steps to the entrance where I came in .

“Aaaaaah… . waiiiiiiit…… . . it hurts……it hurts… . . it hurts…… . kill… . kill……”

“Oops . I forgot about you . ”

I turn around and return to zombie Zepes . He’s pretty pitiable .

I use resurrection

to undo his zombie state and bring Liorg back as well .

“Good grief . You actually killed each other . You became a zombie and lost all reason . You’re a troublesome pair . ”

Liorg and Zepes watch me like they want to say something but nothing comes out . I guess they don’t have a valid argument .

“See you . Come again when you get stronger . I’ll play with you anytime . ”

With that, I walk out of the arena .

“… . . Never again………monster…… . ”

A voice reached my ears from behind .

As the owl instructed I move to the mirror room .

It’s a room with a great number of full-length large mirrors installed in it .

There’s already a number of mazoku in there . About a 100 I’d say . Presumably, all people who have pa.s.sed the practical exam .

Aah, there’s a familiar face .

“Yo Misha . ”

The girl turns around with her long platinum blonde hair shaking gently .

“Although you said you were not good at fighting you seem to have broken through the practical test . ”

“… . . By chance……”

So Misha says but it would be impossible to beat 5 people by chance . Unexpectedly, she might be more powerful than Zepes and Liorg .

“By the way, what’s happening now?”

I’ve got the vague feeling that this was explained but I wasn’t interested so I didn’t listen .

“If you pa.s.s the practical exam you are admitted . All that’s left is magic power measurement and an apt.i.tude test . ”

“Then all these people are our cla.s.smates?”

I look around but everyone’s state is odd . n.o.body will make eye contact with me .

The moment I meet their eyes they look away as if frightened .

“What’s this? Why is everyone so shy?”

“…… . I don’t think that’s it……… . ”

“But n.o.body will look at me . ”

“They are frightened by your magic Arnos . ”

“What do you mean?”

“Decaying Death

”

I see .

“If you know that were you in the audience seats Misha?”

With her usual expressionless look, Misha shook her head from side to side .

“Successful applicants can watch the exams of other applicants . ”

Misha points to a large mirror in front of us .

Aah, I see . Got it .

All the mirrors in this room project images from all around Deruzogedo so Misha watched my match from here .

“I don’t get it . Why are they frightened of

? It’s not much of a spell really . ”

Misha stares at me expressionlessly .

“…… . . Is it bad?”

*Kokuri* Misha nods .

“How bad is it?”

Misha thinks about it without changing her expression .

“… . . Something a brutal demon would use……… . . ”

“Haha . No . It’s ultimately a good magic to restore a body . ”

I let out a refres.h.i.+ng voice .

“……………”

Misha thinks carefully and lets out a small voice .

“…… . I take it back……… . ”

“That’s right . You get it . ”

“It’s not the magic at fault . Arnos is a brutal demon . ”

“Surely you jest . ”

I need to correct this to avoid being labelled as a brutal demon . Some lies will be unavoidable .

I’ve only just reincarnated so I don’t understand the values of this age .

“… . . Got it…… . ”

I heave a sigh of relief that Misha has accepted it .

“Aren’t you frightened Misha?”

“It wasn’t scary . ”

That’s a very very unexpected line .

Despite her appearance, she’s obviously very courageous .

“Normal . ”

It’s hard to imagine what exactly could scare Misha . Though she seems absentminded she’s not timid .

An owl flew in while I was thinking this .

“We will now be performing the magic power measurement . Please line up before the magic crystals . After you are done please move to the next room for the apt.i.tude test . ”

Magic crystal? I’ve never heard of this magic tool .

In the age of myths, there was no way to measure magic power . It seems like not everything has degraded . Some things have moved forward .

“And? Where is this magic crystal?”

“Here . ”

Misha starts to walk off so I follow her .

The other examinees seem to know the place as well . Several lines begin to form .

Apparently, there are several of these magic crystals .

I try to see what’s going on .

The magic crystal is a huge purple crystal paired up with a large mirror .

When you touch the crystal it reads your magic and displays the number on the mirror .

[126]

[218]

[98]

[145]

The owl sits in front of the mirror and reads out the numbers .

To be able to turn into numbers something that I could only tell through my senses before . This is truly a convenient age .

It only takes several seconds to get a reading . Soon enough it was Misha’s turn .

“Do your best . ”

“……… . . Same result…… . . ”

Doesn’t magic power increases or decrease through effort?

“Well, good luck anyway . ”

The everpresent deadpan expression looks at me .

“… . . Nn…… . ”

Touching the crystal her power is displayed after several seconds .

[100246]

Instinctively I was impressed . It was only 3 digit figures until now but Misha is in the hundred thousands . She’s got even more talent for magic than I thought .

“That’s great Misha . ”

After praising her a little she became a bit shy and looked down .

“…… . . Arnos…… . . more amazing…… . . ?”

“Aah . ”

I touched the magic crystal . This is my first experience of having my magic power measured . I wonder what it will be?

Perhaps it will exceed a hundred million? If that’s the case then the people of this age have severely dulled .

With this, they should understand that I am the founder .

[0]

As the owl speaks a noise rings out and the crystal breaks into pieces .

“The measurements have finished . Please proceed to the apt.i.tude tests . ”

Hmm . The crystal broke but they don’t seem to care .

“I know I’m the one saying it but I think 0 is impossible………”

That would mean that I would be unable to use magic at all . That should be easy to understand but the owl said .

“The measurements have finished . Please proceed to the apt.i.tude test . ”

*tsk* This useless familiar .

“The familiar is just obeying orders . ”

Misha says to me .

“Well, I guess so . ”

Misha stares at my face .

“What’s wrong?”

“…… . First time I’ve seen it…… . . ”

“What?”

“Where the magic power is so strong the crystal broke . ”

Oh, I see .

I use my demon eyes on the broken crystal fragments . After a.n.a.lysing its structure it seems that it enlarges in response to the power of the person touching it . The volume that it has enlarged by is then measured and converted into a numerical value .

I exceeded its limit causing an intense magic reaction which led to it shattering . Though it is a convenient thing it’s not possible to use it to measure my power .

“It’s not 0 . The decision should have been immeasurable . ”

“Impossible . ”

“Why?”

“The magic crystal does not break . ”

“It broke . ”

Misha responded in an indifferent tone of voice .

“Arnos is out of the norm . ”

“Why do you know this Misha?”

“I’m proud of my demon eyes . It is impossible for other people to do it . ”

My magic power was too strong causing the crystal to break but other people won’t understand this .

Also, all decisions have been left to these familiars, but they can only act as instructed . There’s no way the familiar would know what to do when it broke .

At best and if I was lucky it might have prepared a new one .

The fact that it broke and that an impossible reading of 0 was given was irrelevant .

“Some people will understand what it means but even so it’s still supposed to be almost impossible . ”

Yare yare . There’s supposed to be talented people running this academy .

If I’m being fair, I suppose they would never have guessed that someone with enough power to break the crystal would turn up for the entrance exam .

On the other hand the story of the founder demon king reincarnating has been pa.s.sed down . Also, Misha said it was the first time she’d seen it . My breaking it may actually count for something .

Another thing I’ve found out is that the demon eyes of the current mazoku are also weak .

If they had even a bit of talent anyone looking at the crystal using their demon eyes could have seen what happened .

Has the thought not occurred to anyone that the demon king Arnos would be outside of the standards of magic power?

I’m going to be looked down on here .

I’m probably being a bit childish getting obsessed over these numbers .

My magic power has not decreased at all .

“Oh well . It’s fine because Misha knows . ”

“Really?”

“Yeah . Thank you . ”

After thinking in her usual deadpan expression Misha says .

“You’re welcome . ”