Under the little elf's glare, the "culprit" couldn't help feeling a bit guilty.
He nodded hurriedly in acknowledgment, and under Laurier's curious eyes and Aura's blank stare, hurried down the stairs, grabbed the new grimoire he'd sorted out the day before and left on the coffee table, and headed straight for the small courtyard.
Though from the little elf's perspective, there was something more than a little sheepish about his retreating figure...
...
The moment he stepped through the door, a gust of cold wind swept over him, making Leon shiver violently.
"Hss... it's already this time of year?"
He glanced at the sky, then looked out toward the banyan trees lining the street beyond the courtyard, now bare of all but withered branches, and let out a wistful sigh.
"Before you know it, winter's here. Feels like the golden days of the Harvest were only yesterday."
He strolled leisurely around the courtyard for a while, stretched his body, then brewed a pot of hot tea, threw on a thick fleece-lined winter cloak (the quilt model), and settled into the brightening morning light to read the grimoire with full focus.
As someone who'd been through nine years of compulsory education and higher education, and a career wage slave to boot, he knew well that early morning was the time of day when learning efficiency and memory were at their peak, so naturally he wasn't about to waste this precious time.
After all... even in another world, the weight of the saying "knowledge is power" hadn't lightened in the slightest. If anything, it had become even more concrete.
Take magic, for example!
"Magic, White Art..."
"Using Magic to create solid ice clones... powerful, but just to get a foot in the door you need at least a Lv. 2 Magic reserve."
After finishing the introduction, Leon took a light sip of hot tea and studied the explanation of White Art in the book thoughtfully.
"Compared to attack magic that's just simple shaping, this kind with curious functionality really is more complex, and precisely because of that, it demands more of the learner."
"Never mind the entry threshold, becoming skilled at controlling ice clones is itself painstaking work with no shortcuts. You have to put in a mountain of tedious practice before the magic can deliver the effect it's supposed to in actual combat."
"Especially in fights against people. If your proficiency isn't high enough, the ice clones' fakery is easy to see through, and they can't confuse, lure, or deceive at all. So at low proficiency, the only value of the ice clones is probably to add firepower output for the Mage, simply controlling them to fire off Fireballs or cast something like Scorch. Hmm... that part's still relatively easy. Though it actually raises the demand on shooting accuracy even more."
"All in all, at low proficiency, dealing with monsters is no problem, since exceptions with high intelligence like the Moss Giant are still rare."
"But for PVP, only with a high level of mastery can you actually bring it out. Otherwise you're just a clown."
Stroking the grimoire's cover, Leon pursed his lips.
"Ah, to learn White Art, Divided Concentration is the foundation, while the strength and control of your mental power determine whether the ice clones can pass for real, and the ceiling of their combat ability."
"Tch... the difficulty of learning this is worlds apart from the single-function magic I mastered before."
"If it were an ordinary Mage, mastering this trick would probably take an enormous amount of effort and time."
At that thought, he silently called up his own panel.
Scholar's Heart
Bearing improves.
Diligence makes up for shortcomings; effort yields reward.
Academic ability and artistic talent improve (learning, comprehension, analysis, calculation, aesthetic sense, imagination, insight, conception, and so on);
Refinement, making the magic and techniques used more delicate, improving their appearance and effect; improving the performance and appearance of equipment worn;
...
"But then again..."
"Good thing I've got a cheat."
The corner of Leon's mouth tugged sideways, and he hummed lightly to himself.
With the boost from the Scholar's Heart skill, he didn't need to rack his brains over how exactly to master this magic at all.
He only had to follow the grimoire's tutorial step by step, and as he practiced over and over, the knowledge and key points of this magic would naturally flow into his mind and gradually click into place through the training.
In other words, as long as he was willing to put in the tedious practice, his mastery of the magic would keep climbing, driven by the Scholar's Heart skill, until he had it down completely.
As for whether his application of it in combat was impressive, well, that was another matter entirely.
"All of this is the fruit of my hard work and sweat."
"Scholar's Heart, activate!"
A deep blue glow of magic light rose in Leon's eyes as he threw himself once more, fully absorbed, into his studies.
His goal for this morning was to memorize the contents of the grimoire and reach a preliminary understanding, and that would count as mission accomplished.
And once he got White Art off the ground, the rest of his work raising his mastery could be done while running the Dungeon.
Training the magic didn't conflict with grinding gold and farming experience, three birds with one stone, so why not.
Inside the house.
Aura and Laurier, who had just set the various breakfast dishes out on the table, were wiping their hands on their aprons when they were both drawn by the faint commotion coming from outside the window.
"That's... a fluctuation of magic? Seems like it's coming from where Mr. Leon is? What's he doing out in the courtyard? It's so cold out there."
Compared to the composed Aura, Laurier bounced over to the window, stuck out her little head, and peered curiously at Leon sitting motionless on the stone bench, her face plastered with "I want to know."
"Looks like he's studying."
Aura walked over too, and with just one glance understood the source of that fluctuation from earlier.
"?"
A question mark seemed to float above Laurier's head as she widened her eyes at her friend.
"You mean... using magic to help you study? That's way too much like cheating!?"
The moment she thought of Leon being able to give himself private tutoring with magic, Laurier, a struggling student herself, scrunched up her whole face with envy.
"Aaaargh! I want to study with magic too!"
A vein throbbed at Aura's forehead, and she said irritably.
"Don't you have the Gale-Force Reading Glasses? Reading with those is fast enough, isn't it!"
At that, Laurier's little face flushed, and she stammered.
"The Gale-Force Reading Glasses are handy, sure, but... but..."
"?"
"But... they can't solve those math problems!"
"Math?"
"Mm-hmm-hmm..."
Aura shot her friend an expressionless glance and turned to head back to the kitchen.
"When it comes to math, you might as well give up. Forget magic, not even a miracle could help you. If you don't get it, you don't get it."
"Huh?"
...
"Laurier, what are you having a fit about this time?"
Just then, Jeanne and Rose's figures appeared in the second-floor corridor, standing at the top of the stairs looking down at Laurier clutching her head in "meltdown" below.
Aura: "..."