“What the—!?”

“Nnuuu?!”

The plaza filled with white, echoing with Ferien-sensei high-pitched scream, Headmistress Ortensia’s groaning voice, and the screaming and buzzing of the rest of the class.

…And me, who was extremely disoriented.

“…!?!?”

B-b-br—bright! S-s-sooo bright!! Why!? Why!?!?

I’m was too surprised to speak. I wanted to cover my eyes, but I couldn’t take my hands off of the Athame. There was something about the shaking and vibrations that made me feel like I was going to be blown away at any moment.

I turned my face away and squeezed my eyes shut, but the light was piercing through my eyelids. Ahhhh!!!

“Alice, use this!”

Flipping her long hair over, Headmistress Ortensia quickly rushed over to me. Protecting her eyes with one arm, she took out some kind of stone from her material pouch and hit it against my Athame.

“Power, dwell within the stone!”

Then about half of the light dimmed. But it did not completely disappear.

Ortensia-sama’s startled face could be seen in the light, but without pause, she took out some more stones and applied them, repeating the spell.

Finally, the light had completely subsided and the heat in my palms had cooled. The dangerous vibrations had subsided as well.

While in a dumbfounded state, the students looked around while wondering what had happened, their eyes blank.

In the distance, Ferien-sensei was foaming at the mouth, her eyes rolling back and collapsing.

—Wait, is she okay?!

“Well, this is…Alice, look at this.”

When I looked at the headmistress, I saw four (one large and three small) stones glowing faintly in her hand.

“This is a Yuda stone, which is also used in magic stone lamps. The spell we used to put magic power into these stones earlier is often used in daily life…However…”

Ortensia-sama separated once and then gingerly moved her face closer to mine and spoke in a whisper.

“To gain the power to fill even one of these stones with magic, an adult must endure five years of rigorous training. That is why lamps are so expensive…Do you have any idea what this means if you don’t keep using your magic power all the time?”

!!!!!

I was on pins and needles.

“…Yes, but I can’t talk about it here.”

Then the headmistress grinned wickedly.

“Hmm…there seems to be a reason for that. After school, come to my office.”

“U-Uh…Yes. I understand.”

As she replied with a wicked smile, the headmistress let go of my face, which was very close to her own, and spun around to face the class.

“It seems that she made a mistake and gave it her all. She doesn’t have that much magical power left, so it won’t happen next time…Right…?”

She looked back at me again and reminded me with a sharp look in her eyes, so I hurriedly nodded my head in affirmation in a snap.

I was told that I probably didn’t have any magic power left, but…frankly, I was not that tired. However, it wasn’t a situation where I could say that.

By the way,  Ferien-sensei who collapsed was apparently always timid and vulnerable and it seems that she fainted relatively often.

Ferien-sensei was rescued by the headmistress, who seemed to be familiar with this situation, and eventually, thanks to the efforts of the two teachers, the class regained its calm, and resumed until everyone was able to achieve a faint glow in their blades.

……Yup.

For the second time onwards, I stopped gathering power once my palm was only a little warm, so everything was fine.

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T/N: So Alice is showing her magical prowess! She has the power to replace as many lightbulbs as she wants, how useful~