C40
It had been a month since Shirone was promoted, but it was his first time having a direct conversation with Yiruki.
It wasn't like he was purposefully avoiding him. It was because there were more days of Yiruki missing classes than attending them.
“Yo, Shirone Arian. Aren't you the genius who caught the academy's attention? I'm so honored I'm going to record this moment in my diary.”
Just by his first words alone, Shirone could understand why his classmates tended to keep away from Yiruki.
“Hi, I'm Shirone. Please take good care of me.”
“Kekeke, why is the genius asking for such things? Actually, I've been watching you ever since you were in Class 7. When you succeeded in the Deviate Form and also when you crossed the Bridge That Cannot Be Crossed. I was there.”
Shirone had a look of surprise.
“You watched me?”
And that's when he noticed.
'This voice…'
The thin voice… It was the voice that encouraged him when his Spirit Zone was shaken by the students' criticisms back when he was in Class 7.
“Are you the one who cheered me on back then?”
“I wouldn't call it cheering. I was just frustrated, so I said something. And I also didn't like you being swayed by the kids.”
Yiruki said it as if it was a small, troublesome thing to do, but Shirone was still grateful nonetheless.
“No, it was a huge help.”
At that, Yiruki stared hard at Shirone.
“You are quite a boring kid, aren't you?”
“Huh?”
It was Shirone's first time hearing such a thing, and it strangely offended him.
That was when Nade butted in.
“Hey, hey Yiruki! He's still thanking you. It's rude to say that.”
Yiruki twisted his head and turned around.
“Yeah? I was complimenting him. Anyway, do your best. Of course, things won't be easy. Class 5 harbors lots of obnoxious kids.”
Then he walks away with a cackle.
“Hey, where are you going? Let's practice together.”
“It's tiresome. I'd rather just sleep.”
'The magic academy classes are tiresome?'
Shirone was left dumbfounded. Class 5 was an Intermediate class. He couldn't understand how such a student got all the way up here.
“He seems to have a little bit of a… Strange personality.”
“Sorry, Shirone. He's not that bad after you really get to know him.”
“But…”
“I know what you're thinking. We will be the only ones left tired if we try to pry. That guy's a genius too. The problem is that he's a different type of genius compared to you.”
“Genius? Yiruki is a genius?”
“Ah! You probably don't know because you haven't been here for too long.”
Nate told Shirone who Yiruki was. Contrary to the word genius, his grades were similar to that of Nade's, but none of his classmates looked down on him for it.
Yiruki was the epitome of a master-of-one human being. He was a genius who received zeros on all subjects that were influenced by emotions, like literature and art. But for subjects that required computational ability, he was a genius who would get full marks with his eyes closed.
At first, the instructors went nuts over Yiruki's talent and fought over who would be his homeroom instructor and be in charge of him.
However, because of his eccentric personality, most of them gave up and paid no more attention to him.
Nevertheless, talks about him possibly surpassing those in the Advanced class in terms of mathematics arose, and many instructors started to observe him in order to see if he would be promoted in the near future.
Though, if Shirone continued to raise all his subjects together, he would eventually overshadow Yiruki, who tended to cover up his weaknesses with his strongest strengths.
The field Yiruki performed best in was computational physics, which only a limited amount of people with special brain functions could do.
For example, calculating phenomena that occurred in extreme conditions such as absolute zero or high heat in the 100,000,000 degrees range or more using numerical figures.
A person with a brain capable of such calculations often had such a thing called the 'Savant Syndrome.'
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Infinite Mage (Novel)
