𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐀𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐧ᵐᵏʳ

Freshman 007

The next day Tatsuya was practicing while Haruto and Mizuki watched from the sidelines.

He raised his hand as he began to cast magic while the magic sequence enveloped his arm.

940 ms

"940 milliseconds. Tatsuya, you passed." Mizuki praised.

"Congratulations." Haruto clapped.

"Oh my. It took me three tries to pass, huh?" Tatsuya sighed.

"You'd think you'd be more satisfied with your achievement, there's a saying...third times the charm." Haruto said.

"I-It was also surprising. Tatsuya-san you really are bad at practical skills, aren't you?" Mizuki said.

"Surprising? I've talked about my low skill level a number of times." Tatsuya said.

"Yes, I know, but I thought you were just being modest." She said.

"I'm not sure I should be saying this myself, but if I had average practical skills, I probably wouldn't be in this class." He said.

"He has a point." Haruto said.

"But the same could be said for you Haruto." Tatsuya said.

"What are you talking about?" Haruto asked.

"After all, you're far ahead of me in terms of practical skills." He said.

"...There you go again talking nonsense Tatsuya." Haruti sighed.

"But it's the truth." Tatsuya argued.

"If either of you were good at practical skills, you would be too perfect and seem unapproachable." Mizuki smiled softly. "You guys?" She said.

"Hm?"

"Aren't you two frustrated?" She asked.

"About what?" Tatsuya asked.

"Even though you have some amazing abilities, you're evaluated as having none. I think people usually find that frustrating. But you two don't seem to care about it." She said.

"Processing speed is also an important factor. It's not wrong to assess us as having no practical skills." Tatsuya said.

"But in an actual fight, you could activate faster, couldn't you?" She asked, causing Tatsuya's eyes to widen ever so slightly.

"Why do you think so?" Haruto asked.

"During the first incident, you discarded your magic sequence and rebuilt it in an instant, didn't you? Considering the timing, reading the activation sequence and building the first magic sequence occurred simultaneously. That reminded me. With a spell of that level, you could probably construct a magic sequence without using an activation sequence." She said.

"Your perceptiveness really is surprising. I doubt either of us could've known that you saw that. You really do have good eyes." Haruto said and she gasped slightly.

"Yes, with a basic single-system level, it's possible to activate a little faster by directly constructing a magic sequence. But that technique can only be used for spells with fewer processes. For example simply moving an egg from the kitchen to the table requires four different processes. But if you were to skip the Movement and Stopping processes, the activation is faster, but the egg will break." Tatsuya said.

"But, when blasting somebody away in a fight, there's no need for you to absorb the impact, so only a single process is needed. Since his maximum if five different processes and mine is seven, that's probably the most we can do...but now that I think about it..." Haruto trailed.