Chapter 149: Akeno's Astonishment, Was the One Who Defeated Her a Magic Novice?
After the student council president left, Akeno frowned slightly and looked at Rias.
"Just letting her go like that? Aren't you going to say something? A warning, perhaps?"
Sona could be quite aggressive at times.
"Would a warning even work? She'd only investigate more vigorously. Besides, as the future head of the Sitri family, she's bound to approach him eventually,"
Rias sighed as she spoke.
"Ara, is that so? Or is it that you, President, also want your childhood friend to suffer a bit?"
Akeno responded with a teasing smile.
"How could that be? I'm not as mischievous as you, Akeno~"
"Really? Hehehe~"
Faced with Akeno's laughter, Rias averted her gaze slightly.
She did indeed want Sona to learn a lesson.
Then, if Sona fell into his trap and ended up having to assist, it would help share the burden, making things easier for Rias.
With Sona and herself working together, they could minimize the chances of him causing any mishaps that would throw the city into chaos.
By "minimizing mishaps," of course, they didn't mean protecting him—did he even need their protection?
Rather, it was about ensuring other devils, fallen angels, and church forces in the city didn't notice him or come into conflict with him.
So, Rias planned to inform him that Sona was keeping an eye on him, hoping he wouldn't seriously harm her if she overstepped.
Conversely, if he could gain Sona's trust, that would be beneficial too, since Sona was the next head of the Sitri family, one of the Seventy-Two Demon Gods.
Come to think of it, should she inform her brother about this?
Did she not trust her brother?
No, she trusted him, but if she told him, he might take some action.
The two sides could easily clash, and Rias had no idea what the consequences might be, leaving her quite uncertain.
At a Gremory family villa in the city, arranged for the two of them.
"These are our master's words,"
Meanwhile, Akeno was deeply puzzled by the condition of his arm.
"What happened to your arm?"
Had he been in a fight with someone?
"Ah, this was from studying magic with Solo... I mean, Mr. Renji,"
Asia explained helpfully.
Now that she knew his true identity, she had become even more reserved than before.
Speaking of which, wasn't she supposed to be a transfer student?
Why hadn't she gone to school today?
Of course, it wouldn't be that quick. The school procedures were still being processed, and she would only officially start school tomorrow.
So for today, she would first settle in here, spending the entire day cleaning the house.
"Learning magic?"
Akeno was somewhat surprised. Was this person also learning magic? Was he studying some special kind of magic?
Huh? She saw him casting a demonic spell—a lower-tier ice magic.
Was he learning this kind of magic? It was incomprehensible.
"Ms. Himejima, if possible, could you provide any magic you can offer? It doesn't matter which side's magic it is."
This sudden request left Akeno even more astonished.
"Any?"
"Yes, nothing particularly special. Just any magic you can provide will do."
"Alright, it just so happens this villa has a library with some magic books. Asia, come with me to bring them over."
"O-okay."
In reality, Akeno could have brought them over by herself, but she mainly wanted to probe this foolish nun for information about what he was up to.
After leaving the living room and arriving at a room deep inside the house, Akeno casually inquired about the situation.
"Well, Mr. Renji simply wants to learn magic. He hasn't studied any other magic before. It seems his first spell was learned on the spot from a devil just a few days ago. And it's amazing—he instantly knew how to use demonic magic."
Truly, he is the child of God, blessed by divinity.
However, God was dead, and Asia found it hard to recover from the shadow of that realization.
But now she had a new reliance. Renji was God's successor, so he would become Asia's new pillar of support.
"Wait a minute? Are you saying Mr. Renji didn't know any magic from the beginning? The magic he knows now was all analyzed and adapted from demonic magic?"
Akeno was genuinely stunned.
"Ah, yes, that's right. That's why Mr. Renji often gets injured from using demonic magic."
Every time he got hurt, Asia felt heartbroken.
This statement made Akeno even more incredulous.
Wasn't this too absurd? To understand demonic magic at a glance and cast it on the spot?
And the reason he used so many of those spells to stack their power yesterday was precisely because he hadn't learned any higher-tier magic.
Moreover, Akeno could clearly sense that every magic circle he used yesterday was operating at nearly optimal efficiency.
In other words, he had reconstructed the magic to achieve the most perfect and efficient state within its tier.
This was even more impressive than the legendary Archmage Merlin.
In fact, much of humanity's modern magic was derived from his analysis of demonic magic, which he adapted to suit humans.
Come to think of it, there were rumors that he could use magic in the past? Why couldn't he now?
Akeno thought of one possibility: there were records stating that the magic King Solomon used was actually the abilities of the Seventy-Two Demon Gods with whom he had formed contracts.
He borrowed their powers to cast spells, so it couldn't be considered him using his own magic.
In the blink of an eye—
"These are all the books here. I'll also inform the club president to collect more relevant magic books."
After placing the books before him, Akeno spoke respectfully.
"Thank you for your trouble."
Renji, who was responding, also opened a book in his hand. Upon seeing the content on the first page, he froze in astonishment.
It stated—the source of magical power is imagination.
Reading further, it explained that so-called magic could largely materialize directly through imagination, allowing magical power to manifest as whatever one envisioned.
As for why specialized spells existed, it was because spells enabled more efficient casting of magic.
Otherwise, magic released solely through imagination would be more wasteful of magical power and potentially lack sufficient strength.
So that's how it is. If this world's magical principles operated this way, then there was no real need for him to deliberately learn so many of this world's spells.
This way, it would be more convenient for him to adapt the spells from his original world to function here.
By then, he could also construct an environment where Noble Phantasms could operate.
In fact, ordinary Noble Phantasms didn't seem particularly restricted.
Why could he make such a judgment? It was because he had tried using other Noble Phantasms.
Of course, these Noble Phantasms weren't the original ones from other characters, as using those would require switching to that specific character.
Currently, in this world, switching wasn't possible because the logged-in ID was Solomon himself. Switching would cause errors and bounce him back.
The Noble Phantasms he took out were ones he had crafted himself, which was why he deduced this situation.
As for King Solomon's Noble Phantasms, they couldn't be activated because they required accessing this world's Akashic Records to function properly.
Therefore, he needed to come into contact with this world's Akashic Records.
Moreover, the form of Goetia also required a massive amount of magical power. He needed to study the root power of all phenomena in this world through magic.
Thus, he could obtain sufficient magical power.