How a Catastrophe-Level Magician Lives

A few days later.
A carriage bearing the mark of House Phoenix arrived at a location.

It was the mansion where the ballroom hosted by the House of Aust was located.

“Entering is Sunlight von Betelgeuse of the Count’s House Phoenix, and his fourth son, Free von Betelgeuse!”

The ballroom was already in full swing.

Numerous people had gathered.

It was filled mostly with nobles and servants.

The prepared food was also plentiful.

“Then, stay put quietly until the celebration officially begins.”
“Yes. I understand.”

At the words of Sunlight, the Count and head of House Phoenix, his son Free nodded and moved to another place.

In the waiting room for the young lady of House Aust.

“Oh my! Lady Aura! You look so beautiful!”
“……”

Sitting in front of a mirror, being helped with her appearance by a maid, was the protagonist of this birthday party. Aura, with her pure white ponytail and blue-green eyes.

Aura was wearing a pure white dress, the same color as her hair. The maid who had helped with her appearance was making a fuss alone, saying how radiant she looked.

“Lastly, let’s tie this red ribbon at the back of your hair! It goes extremely well with Lady Aura’s hairstyle and will surely make you stand out in the ballroom!”
“……”
Aura was still silent.
She just sat still like a doll.

Her expression was dark.

“…Thank you. I’ll take care of the rest myself.”
“Yes! Then I shall take my leave!”

The grooming was almost complete anyway, so Aura could be left alone.

After the maid left.

“…Sigh.”

Aura let out a light sigh.

‘…Father. What on earth is he thinking? Even if he says times have changed. Still, for someone who has trained with the sword all his life to suddenly tell his child to learn magic instead of swordsmanship.’

Aura was sad.
The person she had loved and admired since birth.

Her father, renowned throughout the continent as the Sword Saint, had told her, his daughter, to learn magic instead of swordsmanship.

‘I am a swordsman. I have no desire to become a magician.’

It’s not that she particularly disliked magic.
However, she was born and raised here in Aust, a sword family, since she was a baby.

Even at her first birthday, she had grabbed a small sword.

To that extent, Aura had a deep, inseparable relationship with swords.

‘Now it’s no longer the era of swords but the era of magicians? No matter what, how could he say such things to me, his daughter?’

As she thought again about what had happened then, she unknowingly felt tears welling up in her eyes and wiped them away with her hand.

However, one tear that couldn’t be fully covered rolled down her cheek and dripped onto the floor from the end of her jawline.

It was then.
Knock knock knock.

-Lady Aura. It’s time for you to come out.

It was time.

Time to go outside.

“…I understand. I’ll get ready and come out soon.”

With slightly reddened eyes, Aura wiped them alternately with both palms and finally stood up from her seat.

After all, since it was a birthday party held for her, she couldn’t not go out like this.

Because today, she was none other than the protagonist of the ball.

Thus, Aura took steps towards the ballroom.

“The House of Sword Saints…”

Currently, I was in the process of picking up a plate from a long table with a white tablecloth at one side of the ballroom.

Then, with my other hand, I was using a fork to pick up food placed on the table and bring it to my mouth.

Having eaten only mediocre food during the journey here until now, I was craving delicious and luxurious food after a long time.

While eating the food I was holding to satisfy my hunger, on the other hand, I was thinking about the House of Aust, the Sword Saint family hosting this party.

‘From what I learned before coming here, Aust was said to be one of only two duchies in the empire. Moreover, a family that mainly uses swords instead of magic.’

But why did this Sword Saint family, which had stubbornly used swords until now, suddenly decide to host such a party?

By such a party, I mean the nobles in various colorful attires that were currently visible everywhere.

Just by looking, the energy they possessed was not the aura used by swordsmen, but mana, that is, magical power.

Even their children, every single one of them, possessed magical power.

It was right after I had already checked this through the magic circle that appeared in one of my eyes.

‘They’re all magic users, not sword users.’

I had activated magic like this before, through the blue pentagram magic circle in one eye.

This was one of the representative magics I had frequently used on the battlefield in my previous life.

It was Magical Eyes.

This magic was more burdensome than expected, and it was generally difficult to deploy in both eyes. Usually, it could only be activated in one eye at a time.

This magic that he had independently developed by chance while devouring low-level spellbooks in his previous life.

These Magical Eyes were created by imitating the mana heart, also known as the second heart, which ordinary magicians concentrate mana in their heart to form.

It accepts the natural mana floating in the surrounding atmosphere, converts it into one’s own magical power, and through this, creates a mana heart, another heart in the heart.

The fundamental reason for creating a mana heart is to fix the magical power that has been painstakingly absorbed into the body so that it doesn’t scatter.

And ultimately, it was created to store magical power so that it can be used at will whenever one desires.

Through this organ, this medium called the mana heart, magicians could gain the ability to freely exercise the magical power within their bodies.

And I applied this to my eyes.

To be precise, it was to the optic nerve, not the eye itself.

When learning magic, some academic biological knowledge was inevitably necessary to some extent.

Although partially, I had also studied the structure of the human body separately in the past.

Based on the knowledge learned, one can understand that the cerebral blood vessels and cardiac blood vessels are connected to each other.

And through this, I was able to move magical power from the heart to the brain, and by transmitting the moved magical power to the optic nerve, I could make one eye another medium for magical power altogether.

To put it simply, I came to have a total of two magical power mediums called mana hearts in my body.

This artificially created magical power medium. The Magical Eye, also known as the magic eye, allowed me to activate silent magic that is cast at a faster speed by minimally omitting various processes without going through them, faster than the heart.

“It’s a bit chilly since it’s still January.”

This is the body of a young child, just ten years old this year, still full of soft hair.

Naturally, not being adapted to the cold, I couldn’t help but feel relatively colder than others.

Although the indoor temperature was quite warm, if it was going to be like this, I should have worn warmer clothes underneath.

While thinking such idle thoughts, I had already finished eating and put down the empty plate on the table, and was in the midst of looking for something to drink to quench my parched thirst.

Pwooo─!
Suddenly, along with a loud trumpet sound, a man shouted into the ballroom.

“The master of the Duchy of Aust! His Grace Duke Aus von Aust, the Sword Saint, and his daughter, Lady Aura von Aust, will soon enter!”

Finally, it was the moment when we could see the faces of the hosts and main protagonists of this party held in this ballroom.

A large man with gray hair, a sturdy and strong-looking impression, and tall stature, slowly descending the wide central staircase.
The tuxedo he was wearing seemed like it might burst at any moment, so tightly fitted was it over his well-trained muscles, showing quite a robust physique.

In contrast, walking demurely beside him down the stairs was a beautiful young girl with a pure white ponytail.

Her skin was so clean it didn’t have a single blemish, and a small mole under her blue-green eyes particularly caught the eye.

Her attire was also a pure white dress with frills, matching her hair color, and it seemed her hairstyle was finished with a large red ribbon fixed at the back of her head.

“……”

This young girl was Lady Aura von Aust, widely known as the only daughter and sole child of the Duchy of Aust, who happened to be the same age as myself this year.

By now, the boys of the same age around me were all uniformly losing themselves, their faces flushed red, at her beautiful, radiant beauty, despite still being so young.