The ruckus abruptly died down as Lord Lockefeldt sagely stood up. Though, he was confused why they had suddenly stopped, and there was a moment's pause.

"Yo. Teach."

The other students turned towards Arnor Steelmore with this incredulous look. How can you say that with a straight face?

They were more surprised that the dark knight that was originally there had been replaced by a brown-skinned guy donning the school's official uniform.

On that note, XML could get away with wearing black attire because he was a transfer student, while Lilian was a member of the Magilian Imperial Family, so a little bit of textile nonconformity was permitted.

"Arnor Steelmore, was it?" Lord Lockefeldt said, "A Transmutation Magic user is quite rare to see these days, but for one to come from commoner ranks—you wouldn't only be talented. Do you have a question?"

"Well—yeah! How do we know you're any good, teach?"

His classmates were in an uproar again—How can you ask that with a straight face!

Zanderfon's hand shot up, surprising Miki, and then everyone else.

"If I may aid in answering Arnor's inquiry…"

"Interesting." Lockefeldt nodded. "Do continue."

"Right—if I may be so rude, but may I pose you a magical problem that I've been having difficulty with lately?"

"You wish to have me demonstrate why I am a Master Deluxe? Very well."

"Then, as I was saying. I use a common type of spatial magic that virtually expands the apparent volume of a space. In application, it can virtually expand the capacity of a bookshelf way beyond what its physical volume implies—was what I thought to use it for. However, it is so far impossible to simply cast the spell and toss any number of volumes into the expanded space, as the inside of the magical space is as if it was made of a hundred portals scarring it in random places."

"Yes, I have heard of this from Miss Dale. It is a special type of Archive Magic, isn't it?"

"Yes, that's so. Simply tossing volumes into a place like that would leave many air gaps, and hence, it would be inefficient. It would be inadvisable to enter the space to manually arrange the volumes, as oneself would also be in a hundred places at once—an experience I would rather not repeat…"

At that last comment, Miki perked up and looked at her fiancee with a mix of worry and upset.

—You, why didn't you tell me you did something that dangerous?!

That's what Zanderfon gleaned from 0.4 seconds of eye contact.

"A- Anyway, I initially worked around that issue by placing tracking and kinesis sigils on each item, and then having several control sigils optimize their placement and move those items around."

"An ingenious solution that few could imagine—though, why do you find issue with it?"

"Firstly, my objective remains to create a 'set-and-forget' Archive magic that will allow me to leisurely toss in new volumes with little oversight."

"Leisure? You're a good student…"

"Sorry?"

"N- Nothing. Carry on."

"Oh…kay—uh, the fact still remains that I must individually set tracking and kinesis sigils on each volume. Furthermore, after the control sigils calculate the optimal placement, if I attempt to add a new volume, the new optimal placement is often so much more different from the current placement, that if I were to allow the archived volumes to rearrange themselves, I would inadvertently create a hundred-portal literature blender dimension, apt to destroy most things thrown inside."

"A blender dimension? Interesting…"

"I- I don't want one, though…"

"Ah. Right. Easy, then."

Zanderfon perked up—He just said 'easy' didn't he?

"First, there is an automata technique for the setting of sigils by the use of Fields."

This fact shocked Zanderfon—and Ruan, as well. The latter sprung up and slammed his hands into his desk.

"How?! Fields are for manifesting phenomena! They can't carry enough Information to etch a sigil!"

"That is correct, Mr. Zotelo—however, remember that certain Fields repel others. With enough skill or preparation, it is possible to momentarily increase the density of a Field—"

"…and increase the Information density beyond the Etching Point, my god…"

Ruan collapsed back down on his seat and worked through an intellectual crisis. there were only two other people in the room who completely understood what such a thing entailed, but those same people also carried an attitude of ""Eh, he'll get over it.""

Though, Zanderfon shook his head.

"It takes an entire casting chamber to execute that technique!"

He said, leaning forwards with a gesture. Indeed, a casting chamber was beyond his budget for crafting a gimmicky bookshelf.

"Nonsense."

Lord Lockefeldt began scrawling a sigil into the blackboard—though, it was less of a circle and more like a squirly ellipse. The ends didn't even connect. For some reason, Ruan was further blown away.

"N- No way… cursive sigils? You can get that to work?!" he muttered to himself. His head hit the desk and he started foaming at the mouth.

Lord Lockefeldt finished up on the blackboard, and started doing the same on a piece of paper. The scribings were indecipherable.

He acquired a sacrificial volume from somewhere—probably a personal pocket dimension, which powerful sages ought to have by the time they get tenure.

"BEHOLD!" he announced, "BUDGET FIELD COLLAPSE TECHNIQUE!"

He slammed the volume against the cursive sigil on the blackboard, then slammed the piece of paper against the back of the volume. There was a flash, and a disk of foggy aura exploded out, but compared to Larissa's smile, this was just a gentle splash upon the reflection of a lakeside moon.

Lord Lockefeldt held the volume up in the air, showing everyone the sigils imprinted upon the book—front and back. Zanderfon was aghast.

Though, the paper that Lockefeldt had used had turned to ashes. Not that Lockefeldt would dare ruin the moment for his students. Downsides were for researchers to deal with, not with students still exploring the depths of magic!

"Lord Lockefeldt—no, Master Lockefeldt, that was amazing! How did you—"

Lockefeldt put up a finger, canning up Zanderfon's excitation.

"The intellectual distance between us is too great for me to explain it in simpler terms. Rather—and this, I originally intended—we shall collect the textbooks that you are to use."

"Collect…? Not buy?" Casa said under her breath.

"Yes, Miss Ley. Collect."

Casa was surprised. Neither Larissa nor Miki even heard her—how did Lord Lockefeldt hear that?

"Tomorrow, at this same time, we shall instead assemble at the main lobby of the Library. Please prepare for a 5-day expedition. Class dismiss—"

""Ehh?!"" "Sad react."