Reincarnated As Both The Villainess And Heroine...?

Lectures On Magic(Obsession)

"Magic, in essence, is a form of wish fulfilment. And much like wishes, they're practically impossible under normal circumstances, hence the word."

Normally that would be quite the common sense, but in this world, what that professor had just said was rather outrageous.

"Some of you are currently no doubt recalling incantations to prove me wrong, but I assure you, I have not spoken wrongly. Perhaps, the important distinction here, would be the semantics of what classifies as magic."

"Is summoning a flame within your palms counted as magic? In a sense, yes. What about time travel? What about the resurrection of the dead? The last two are, in essence, pipe dreams. With our current understanding of the world, it is simply impossible to bring someone back from the dead as they were, or to alter the natural flow of time."

Raising a single finger into the air, the professor continued, "Thus, the distinction. What makes the true form of magic different from the magic we use, frankly, is the difference of 'possibility'. Is it possible to create fire without the use of 'magic'? Sure, give me a fire striker. Even spells that interfere with the mind can be replicated without magic through clever manipulation. However, no matter how much I try in this lifetime of mine, I will never be able to bring a person back from the dead as they were before their death."

In other words, traditional magic was only usable for what was already fundamentally possible to do and create, hm? Intriguing thought. Was this background already established by the authors but they had no time to discuss it, or was it the world filling in the blanks for them?

"What I am trying to express in this lesson is the perspective one should hold towards magic. Those who wish to pursue their studies in magic, as all are in this academy in some way, must understand magic is not a wish granting tool. That is the realm of fables, 'true magic'. Do not think magic can do everything for you. Such foolishness will only lead to madness such as necromancy, a pale imitation of life, in an attempt to realize one's impossible wishes."

I suppose there was a degree of insanity involved in classifying the magic of allowing literal corpses to move as something completely logical and possible, but I'll refrain from commenting on that for now.

"The magic we study is merely a catalyst. A gift from the spirits to speed up the possibilities that the world naturally allows. I hope everyone has understood this point clearly."

An intriguing lecture. Unlike arithmetic, magic was a subject that I couldn't sleep during classes and still pass with flying colors. Besides, learning more about magic was key to understanding the events that were to come...

"With that out of the way, let us begin this class, children. As overkill it is for a professor to conduct such classes, I suppose..."

His true personality was starting to show. Can't disagree, though. Having professor teach children, as quickly they were forced to mature in this world was a bite of a waste, both of talent and time. The academy really didn't spare any resources, huh.

The lesson continued, but I was still sucked in by the concept of possibility and magic. It was such an odd restriction to be placed on something called magic, but it did make sense. However, that would severely complicate things, knowing some of the potential endings in the game. I wasn't all too thrilled about flat out denying the professor's words without knowing what made him believe it was so, either...

***

As the lesson drew to a close, I quickly stopped the professor in his tracks before he could leave. The classroom was still in its after lesson chaos, thus it was a good opportunity to discuss matters without raising too much attention.