"It's Princess Elaria… she stood up!"
"Is she seriously challenging the teacher's authority…?"
Soft whispers rippled through the classroom, filled with tension and curiosity.
Sephina's gaze fell on the princess—her golden hair glimmered like sunlight, her emerald eyes calm yet proud. A faint, intrigued smile touched the teacher's lips.
"Go on," Sephina said evenly, "tell me what you think."
Elaria rose gracefully, her every move exuding the elegance of royal upbringing.
"As everyone knows," she began clearly, "magic has always been an individual's art. The focus of mind, the control of mana, and the construction of a spell structure must be completed by a single mage."
"Since ancient times, there has never been a reliable case of low-tier mages successfully cooperating to cast a higher-tier spell. Crossing tiers directly violates the basic laws of mana capacity and mental endurance."
"No genius has ever achieved it. Even the Archmages of legend left no record of such a feat. Yet you, Professor Sephina, claim to make third-tier mages cast a fourth-tier spell. I simply cannot believe that."
Her words carried strength and reason, perfectly voicing what nearly every student in the room was thinking.
And she wasn't wrong—it was one of the most basic, unshakable rules taught in every magic theory class.
But Sephina didn't rush to argue. She turned away, walking calmly back toward the center of the podium.
Her petite frame looked almost delicate under the oversized school uniform, yet every step carried a strange weight, steady and certain.
Elaria watched that small figure and, for some reason, a fleeting thought crossed her mind—
She's… kind of cute.
But that thought shattered the moment Sephina's cool, confident voice cut through the silence.
"What if the reason it hasn't been done…" Sephina stopped and glanced over her shoulder, her wine-red eyes glinting, "…isn't because it's impossible—but because no one dared to try?"
"What—?" Elaria's pupils shrank. She whispered the word like she couldn't trust her own ears.
Sephina fully turned around, facing the entire class, her voice clear and steady.
"The study of magic has obsessed over tradition for too long—drowning in the glory of ancient theories. That obsession has turned innovation into heresy, and curiosity into taboo. But the potential of magic goes far beyond what you've been told."
"You're serious about this…?"
Elaria still sounded doubtful, but as she looked into Sephina's unwavering eyes, the iron wall of logic she'd built over years began to crack—just a little.
After all, this was the same teacher who had casually used a sixth-tier spell and exposed every prankster on the first day.
"Of course, words alone prove nothing," Sephina said, as if reading all their thoughts. She clapped her hands lightly.
"Practice is the only proof of truth. I'll show you right now. I need five third-tier mages—step forward if you're willing to try."
In the first-year class, most were only first or second-tier. The few who'd already reached third-tier were considered elite—geniuses who usually acted like they ruled the academy.
Soon, five students—including a visibly curious but still wary Elaria—stepped onto the platform.
Sephina handed each of them a sheet filled with strange, intricate symbols.
"It's simple," she said. "Four of you will draw the formations exactly as shown on your sheets. Once your arrays are complete, keep them stable and channel your mana through them—pass it to Elaria."
Then she looked at the princess.
"Elaria, you'll receive their combined mana, and using the pattern on your sheet, draw the final core array. You'll be the one to guide and release the spell."
Elaria glanced down at the parchment.
To her surprise, the formation wasn't overly complex—it looked almost too simple. None of the usual tangled runic loops or dense mana nodes seen in high-tier spells.
She had studied countless array patterns, but these… these were unfamiliar. The structures looked strange—clean, compact, and unlike anything she'd ever seen before.
Still, she wasn't the type to back down from a challenge. She nodded once, then began working.
The four other mages spread out, surrounding her. Mana light flowed from their fingertips as glowing lines took shape on the floor.
Soon, four similar yet distinct arrays pulsed faintly, each radiating its own hue.
"Now," Sephina commanded softly, "guide your mana—into Elaria."
The four streams of energy, each a different color, converged toward the princess like flowing rivers joining a calm lake.
Elaria immediately felt the surge—massive, yet not violent. The mana entering her body was surprisingly stable, as though it had already been filtered and refined by those strange patterns.
She took a steady breath and began drawing her own array—the "core."
When she completed the final stroke, her circle connected perfectly with the others.
Hum—!
Five formations flared at once, their light intertwining into a breathtaking, intricate network—one grand composite array, alive and humming with energy.
The mana swirled faster and faster, merging, fusing, ascending.
Elaria's staff grew hot in her grip. A spell was forming—a powerful one, far beyond anything she could normally cast.
Without thinking, guided purely by instinct and the diagram's markings, she raised her staff and aimed toward the open air above.
BOOM—!
A deafening roar filled the room. Not an explosion, but the sound of magic compressing and bursting outward.
A blazing torrent of fire erupted from thin air, coiling like a freed dragon, tearing upward with unstoppable force.
The heat wave hit like a blast furnace. The classroom's protective barrier flared instantly, rippling as it struggled to contain the impact.
Then—silence.
For several seconds, no one even breathed.
Until someone finally stammered, voice shaking, "F–Fourth-tier magic! That's Blazing Tempest! That was a real fourth-tier offensive spell!"
"Wait—seriously? Those five… they actually did it?!"
"It worked? It really worked?! I'm not dreaming, am I?!"
On the platform, the four assisting mages collapsed onto the floor, drained and pale—but their faces were lit with disbelief and awe.
Elaria stood frozen in the center, eyes wide, her emerald irises reflecting the faint flames flickering on the ceiling. Her hands trembled as she stared at the lingering scorch marks.
Impossible… absolutely impossible.
Those patterns—separately, they didn't even look like functional spell circles! Some lines seemed meaningless!
Yet together, combined in just the right order… they formed a complete fourth-tier array.
It overturned everything she'd ever learned about magic.
Completely.
Sephina smiled slightly, utterly calm—as if the outcome had been obvious all along.
After all, as someone who'd once been a science-and-engineering student from another world, she had long realized something remarkable—
The world of magic worked just like a giant computer.
Spell arrays were executable programs, and the runes and lines were simply… code.
The principle behind collaborative spellcasting was the same as modular programming.
Take a massive, complex high-tier spell, break it into smaller, specialized "functions," and let each mage handle one. Then, one "main function" brings them together, integrates the data—and outputs the result.
The key lay in the "interface," which allowed mana to flow like a stream of data—smooth, precise, and perfectly synchronized.
"This," Sephina's bright, clear voice cut through the stunned silence, "is my personal field of research."
"I call this theory and technique—Source Code."
She looked around, meeting the wide, shining eyes of every student in the room—lingering a little longer on Elaria's astonished face.
"In theory," Sephina continued, "this study is far beyond first-year curriculum—truthfully, beyond most high-tier mages' understanding. It isn't part of my regular teaching."
She paused deliberately, watching every gaze lock onto her.
"But," she added with a teasing smile, "I'll make it the special reward for the top five students at the end of the term. Only the best will have the right to learn it."
"Seriously?!"
The class erupted instantly. Excited chatter and shouts of disbelief filled the air.
"We can actually learn that kind of magic?!"
"Oh my god, that's insane— I have to get into the top five!"
"This is revolutionary! Professor Sephina's amazing!"
The classroom's atmosphere flipped completely—from tension and doubt to awe and wild enthusiasm.
Sephina had conquered them—not with force, but with undeniable brilliance and vision.
Elaria stood at the side of the podium, staring at the small figure who had just shattered her understanding of magic.
For the first time in her life, someone had completely, utterly humbled her.
And strangely enough…
She found that feeling interesting.