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At Teacher Lionel’s signal, classmates simultaneously began flipping through their textbooks. The commencement of serious classroom learning was imminent, and it was apparent that Teacher Lionel effectively drew out the students’ interest and curiosity by providing examples from familiar objects.

Teacher Anais, too, left an impression of being quite adept in her teaching methods. Although I already had the knowledge and there was no need to listen attentively, I couldn’t help but lend an ear.

“The simplified formulas are written using the well-known runic characters. However, a new set of characters called Newtype is being created and researched daily for practical use. Someday, I might introduce to you the new characters I’ve created as well.”

Rather than reading aloud what was written in the textbook, Teacher Lionel began to explain in simpler terms. The fact that he, a researcher, had created new characters caught our interest.

The expression ‘newtype’ mentioned in the conversation hadn’t appeared on the open page. Presumably, we could easily imagine learning about it in the practical section and beyond.

It was originally a topic in my field of expertise. To avoid overdoing it, it seemed prudent to advance through the textbook ahead of time.

Since the basics were within the scope of my preparation, I decided to progress to the applied section.

I decided to try solving the example problem titled ‘Flame Vortex Magic’ when I was over halfway through.

What was required was a simplified formula for creating a flame vortex. It should be enough to just channel aether to activate it, so a mere list of words should suffice. In that case, the model answer would be something like ‘flame, spiral, high temperature, projection.’ I hesitated on whether to include wind, but I decided to prioritize forming the vortex shape.

Upon checking the answer list at the end for verification, it only mentioned ‘flame vortex, projection.’

I see… Using the new rune ‘Flame Vortex’, they processed ‘flame, spiral, high temperature’ with a single character¹.

Examining the separate list of new characters compiled, I did find the newtype character ‘Flame Vortex’.

Considering learning the old characters in the basic section, it seems certain that the runic characters used during Glass’ era form the foundation. However, in practice, it appears that the newtypes are more commonly used.

They have probably attempted to expand the range of expressible concepts in a single word and simplify magical devices, as well as reduce their size by increasing the basic runic characters.

With a rough understanding, I returned to the page to reanalyze the newtype character

Even though they were newtype characters, it quickly became apparent that the underlying characters used when breaking down the symbols remained unchanged.

In other words, combining Cen, the rune character representing flame, Sigel, the symbol of sunlight representing potent energy, and Thorn, representing impulsive emotions, seemed to create the swirling flame of intense heat².

Without understanding these fundamentals, comprehending the newtype characters would not be easy. Hence, it seems they teach the old characters as the basic runic characters.

However, the number of people who still used the runic characters I used back in the Glass era was quite limited nowadays. The current trend was to use what was commonly known as ‘newtype,’ while the older ones were unlikely to be used by people of Leafa’s age. I had to be careful not to absentmindedly write with characters that were no longer in common use.

Nevertheless, since the nuances and shapes were not fundamentally different and were quite similar, it seemed like I could quickly memorize them. Creating one’s own characters as a childlike idea wasn’t bad either. That way, I might have avoided revealing any flaws. I enjoyed thinking theoretically, and studying new runic characters could be an interesting endeavor. With a little learning, I should be able to optimize my knowledge for current technology.

“…Leafa, Leafa…”

As I pondered such thoughts, Alfe shook my thigh, bringing me back to reality.

“Your notebook…”

When told to look around the classroom, I saw my classmates earnestly taking notes. The class had progressed, moving on to the next stage.

On the blackboard, Teacher Lionel’s writing stood out. Important words faintly emitted light, cleverly designed to catch the eye.

At a glance, I could understand that it was an explanation of the foundations for the simplified formula.

To put it simply, the formula foundation involved combining basic runic characters to create words, combining these words to form sentences, and activating the mechanism by flowing aether through these sentences.

By compressing information into a written medium, it supplemented imagination and made magic activation easier.

1. TLN: The raw is 炎渦 which isn’t doing a great job representing the fact that it’s talking about runes. For those confused, it’s referring to a single runic character that means “Flame Vortex”, and combines the concepts of three runic characters.
2. TLN: I think the author’s talking about Futhorc runes so it would be like ᚳ(Cen) ᛋ(Sigel) ᚦ(ðorn), but I think the author added his own definitions to said runes. You can check https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Saxon_runes for more details.