Arcane engineering and architecture

 The moment Hugo entered the arcane engineering class, he fully understood why Arielle was so excited for him to join.

The lecture hall was identical to the class of stewardship in nearly all aspects—all but one.

There was almost no one here.

The lesson was scheduled to begin in just one minute, and the class currently consisted of him, Arielle, and five people sitting at the very back row who were all fast asleep.

“Are you sure this is the right class?”

“Of course!” Arielle dragged him along by the collar, seating the two of them at the very front row.

A minute passed, and there was no teacher.

Then it was five minutes, then ten, then thirty.

Still no sign of a teacher.

Hugo never got the chance to question their absence, as Arielle never once stopped ranting at him about magic. He did his best to catch what was being said, as futile as it was with the sheer rate at which the girl switched topics.

Magic was evidently a very broad subject as she never seemed to run out of things to talk about, but there was also a very real possibility that she was repeating herself over and over—God knows he wouldn’t be able to tell.

Hugo took notes of what she was trying to teach him, or at the very least attempted to.

Supposedly, nearly every living creature has an invisible ‘organ’ of some sort that allowed them to control something called ‘mana’ which, somehow, resulted in the casting of spells.

Arielle kept claiming that it was all very intuitive, which evidently wasn’t the case for Hugo as his journal was filled with more question marks than anything else.

What was this supposed ‘organ’ and why is chanting with words necessary if the mouth has nothing to do with it?

How does a mage make fire out of thin air? Where is the fuel coming from?

How do enchantments and arcane engineering relate to all of this? He was fairly certain a steel gate or an aqueduct didn’t have invisible organs.

Why are some people capable of casting spells while others aren’t if every living creature had this organ?

A dozen different plausible explanations formed in his head, all thrown away after just a few seconds of consideration as the next topic Arielle came up with contradicted his thoughts.

An hour and a half had passed since the beginning of class, and he had a hundred questions with no answers—not one teacher in sight to explain a thing to him.

Arielle didn’t count, she was just talking into nothing at this point.

When the door opened to reveal a figure clutching a book, Hugo nearly jumped in excitement. His enthusiasm died down very quickly however when the woman stumbled on her way in, deep bags visible beneath her eyes.

“Sorry for being late, I had to stay up late for a project…” Who he assumed to be archmage Divara yawned loudly, her unkept navy hair giving the appearance of a wolf that just woke up from a hundred year slumber.

A glance at the clock would reveal the current time to be almost two hours past noon. Hugo had to admit, after all the praise Arielle levied upon her, he was expecting someone a little more competent in appearance and demeanor.

“Archmage Divara! This is the most recent addition to our class: Hugo! I’ve taken it upon myself to teach him the basics since he’s new to the field.”

He normally would’ve been annoyed by being put in the center of attention like this, but fortunately for him, there was currently no one awake enough to look his way.

“T-that’s great…” The woman let out another long winded yawn.

“I’ll leave you to it then…” Divara promptly collapsed onto her desk, joining the five students at the back in the land of nod.

“Incredible isn’t it? To be able to rest in any situation! As expected from someone who came from the frontier, such skill!” Hugo was confident skill had nothing to do with it, though he didn’t have the heart to break her fantasy.

Arielle cleared her throat before turning towards him. “Anyways, about the leaf cutter majors and their plates—”

Realization suddenly flashing across her eyes, the girl stood before running over to where her teacher lay with a journal in hand. Hugo sighed in relief, he has been allowed a few moments of peace it seems.

“Archmage Divara! I wished to ask you about how the metal plates of leaf cutters retain their enchanted properties in spite of having no routing carvings. Does that not go against Divara’s third law of mana?”

In spite of the fact that their teacher was snoring the whole time, she somehow seemed to have heard and understood Arielle’s question.

Slowly, painfully, she raised her body off the table.

“...There is no contradiction. Leaf cutter armor is formed from two separate plates melded together, the carvings simply lay on the inside.”

For once, Hugo wasn’t the only one confused, as his ‘senior’ scratched the back of her head with an unsure frown. “Then how would the leaf cutters run maintenance? The constant flow of mana should eventually corrode the carvings of the plate, correct?”

Divara seemed to regain a bit of energy at the question, the bags under her eyes growing smaller as she bore a small smile. “That is the advantage of their superior forging techniques. Giant leafcutter ants make their armor from extremely hard metals, resistant to corrosion. Humanity unfortunately does not have a smith capable enough to carve router carvings into such metals.”

Arielle nodded along enthusiastically, quickly taking notes into her journal. Hugo would’ve loved to do the same if he had a single idea as to what was being said. However, he unfortunately knew nothing about magic, and was forced to sit by silently with nothing he could possibly do.

Not once did he move to ask the instructor who sat in front of him.

Arielle bowed to her teacher. “Forgive me for my doubt, archmage Divara.”

The woman waved her apology away with an easy smile. “There is nothing to forgive. I will not reject the possibility of flaws as my laws have no true proof beyond experimentation. There is little explanation of why things are the way they are, so never let go of doubt, maybe you’ll prove yourself my superior one day.”

The girl’s smile at Divara’s words was bright enough to light the entire room, so much so that Hugo was surprised the five at the back were still asleep. He had to admit, for all her eccentries, she was a beautiful and cheerful girl.

With a pep in her step Arielle came running back, taking her seat beside him. “She’s incredible, isn’t she?”

In spite of subpar first impressions, Hugo couldn’t help but nod. There was much to be respected in a master willing to admit to their limitations, especially so when it was used to encourage one’s students.

It still did little to change the fact that he understood almost nothing however.

“Ah right! I was showing you a few router carvings and what their effects are. This one is called—” Hugo wished to exclaim that he didn’t even know what router carvings were, but was thankfully saved by the ring of a bell.

“I should get going now, wouldn’t want to be late for my next class.” Hugo hastily stood up to escape the scene, and felt a chill run down his back the moment Arielle moved to follow.

“What is it? I’ll lead you there—” The girl took a glance at his schedule, and very quickly her face turned pale as death. He thought he could see her body quiver in terror.

“A-actually, I have something I need to do as well. I’ll see you tomorrow.” All of a sudden, it was Arielle who was running off, leaving him behind after a full day spent pestering him non stop.

Hugo also froze when he saw what his next class was, dread quickly filling his heart.

He found himself wishing that Arielle was still here, talking his ears off. Then he’d at least have something to distract him from the reality of the situation.

‘Training in martial prowess: duels and jousting.’

From the pan, into the fire he goes.