Over the past seven years, Mirac had absorbed a vast range of knowledge during his lessons.

  History, politics, eics, and—though to a lesser extent—even Math!

  And as Mirac himself had expected, all of this had led to the acquisition of new magical abilities!

  In fact, during those years, Professor Warnock had introduced the fual physical quantities: mass, length, volume, and temperature, expining their meaning and importan the real world.

  Every time Mirac assimited a new cept, at night, during his dreamlike visions uhe starry sky, the usual white, floating messages would appear:

  [ You have learhe cept of: Length ]

  [ You have learhe cept of: Mass ]

  [ You have learhe cept of: Volume ]

  [ You have learhe cept of: Capacity ]

  [ You have learhe cept of: Temperature ]

  [ Length: A physical quantity that measures the distaween two points in space. Length describes the extent of an object or a segment in a specific dire and, depending on the text, be referred to as width, height, distance, or depth. Its fual unit of measurement is the meter ]

  [ Meter: Defined as the distaraveled by light in a vacuum in a time interval of 1/299,792,458 of a sed ]

  [ Mass: A fual physical quantity that represents the amount of matter tained in a body, as well as a measure of its iia—the resistance of a body to ges in its state of motion. Its fual unit of measurement is the kilogram ]

  [ Kilogram: Defined iion to Pnck’s stant (h), which is precisely set at 6.62607015 × 10?3? Js, through a retionship involving frequend the speed of light ]

  [ Volume: A derived physical quantity that represents the space occupied by a body or substance, defined as the three-dimensioent of an object. Its fual unit of measurement is the cubic meter (m3) ]

  [ Cubic Meter: Defined as the volume occupied by a cube with edges of oer ih ]

  [ Capacity: A physical quantity indig the maximum volume of fluid (liquid as) that a tainer hold. It is expressed in volume units such as liters (L) or cubic meters (m3), but specifically refers to the usable internal space of a tainer, distinct from the total volume of the object ]

  [ Liter: Defined as one cubic decimeter (1L = 1dm3 = 0.001 m3) and is therefore closely reted to the cubic meter ]

  [ Temperature: A fual physical quantity that measures the average kiiergy of the particles in a system, describing the degree of thermal agitation of the molecules. Its fual unit of measurement is the kelvin ]

  [ Kelvin: Defined iion to the Boltzmann stant (k), fixed exactly at 1.380649 × 10?23 J/K. One kelvin corresponds to an increase in thermal energy equal to k for each thermodynamic degree of freedom of the system. Absolute zero (0 K) represents the state of minimum thermal energy, where the thermal motion of the particles ceases at the cssical level ]

  [ You have learned so many things tely! ]

  [ Math is truly proud of you! ]

  [ Math wants to reward you… ]

  It recisely among these messages that, one day, Miraoticed something he had initially overlooked: the definitions of the cepts that appeared in his dreams did not match at all with those taught by Professor Warnock.

  They were more detailed, more precise… and, most importantly, they were identical to the ones he remembered from his previous life!

  From this discovery, Mirac realized that even though he already possessed prior knowledge, it only transformed into actual magical abilities after being reviewed or restudied.

  Otherwise, by now, he would have acquired far more abilities than he currently had…

  But there was another detail that intrigued him: learning a new subject did not always result in gaining a magical ability!

  For example, after fully uanding the existend use of ive numbers, Mirac had not obtained any new power.

  This led him to hypothesize that there was an additional, still unknown factor that determined whether and when a new mathematical power would be unlocked.

  Not that he particurly cared about it, actually.

  The future Prince of Ardorya had no iion of dedig himself to the study of Math just to gain new abilities. If the powers came, all the better, but he certainly wouldn’t start studying Math solely for that purpose!

  However, from each of the lessons and “learnings” about physical quantities taught by Professor Warnock—although they were cepts more reted to physics than math—Mirac had still acquired several magical abilities:

  [ gratutions! ]

  [ You have obtained: Instant Knowledge of Dimensions ]

  [ You have obtained: Instant Knowledge of Distanbsp;]

  [ You have obtained: Instant Knowledge of Mass ]

  [ You have obtained: Instant Knowledge of Volume ]

  [ You have obtained: Instant Knowledge of Capacity ]

  [ You have obtained: Instant Knowledge of Temperature ]

  [ Instant Knowledge of Dimensions: You instantly know the dimensions of an object or an individual with a single gnce ]

  [ Instant Knowledge of Distance: You instantly know the distaween yourself (or another entity) and an object or another individual ]

  [ Instant Knowledge of Mass: You instantly know the mass of an object or an individual with a single gnce ]

  [ Instant Knowledge of Volume: You instantly know the volume of an object or an individual with a single gnce ]

  [ Instant Knowledge of Capacity: You instantly know the capacity of a tainer or a three-dimensional space with a single gnce ]

  [ Instant Knowledge of Temperature: You instantly know the temperature of whatever you are ]

  Meanwhile, by learning to name increasingly rger numbers, Mirac had expahe range of his “Instant ting” ability:

  [ Current Range of “Instant ting”: 0 → 999 999 999 999 999 ]

  However, Mirac cared retively little about all of this.

  Aside from knowily how many trees surrouhe castle, hoeople were, the dimensions of rooms, or the number of books in the library, there was one ability in particur that had caught his attention and ied him more than any other: “Instant Knowledge of Distance.”

  After all, it had turned out to be a very useful skill for bat!

  * * *

  An almost unreal silenveloped the training field as the two swordsmen assumed their guard—ready for the duel.

  Only the wind dared to move, lifting light swirls of dust and making the leaves of nearby trees dance.

  Suddenly, one of them detached from the highest branch, slowly swirling through the air befliding precisely between Mirad Leonard.

  Their hands gripped the hilts of their swords tightly, their fingers perfectly adjusting to the grip.

  Their gazes met.

  And in that instant, the battle began!

  Mirac attacked without hesitation, ung himself forward towards Leonard.

  As soon as he reached him, he struck a quid precise blow, a round jab aimed at the ter of his oppo’s torso.

  Leonard, with the calm of a veteran, blocked the strike with a fluid motion, as if he had anticipated every move of the young Prince.

  Mirac, however, was not disced!

  ‘Let’s try a thrust!’ he thought, exeg the attack with fwless teique.

  Then, with surprising agility, Mirac began delivering a series of blows, oer another, stantly ging angle and rhythm, trying to find a gap in his oppo’s defense.

  Leonard, instead of terattag, began to retreat, step by step, forced to give ground uhe relentless barrage of attacks.

  Yet, despite the pressure, his face showed no sign of worry.

  Leonard’s left hand, resting behind his back, highlighted his mastery with the sword, making the fight seem almost like a game to him.

  “Very well!” he excimed fidently, parrying arike with disarming ease.

  With his heart rag, Mirac stepped back, gathering his energy for a new assault. Then he sprang fain, his body charged with primal strength.

  He attacked once more, this time with greater iy, delivering an upward thrust.

  But once again, the Master blocked with surgical precision, his sword defleg the blow at the perfegle, with seemingly no effort.

  Still, Mirac didn’t stop: he tio attack, strike after strike, with growing fidence, his gaze determined, as if to prove his worth.

  At one point, wanting to take a step bad catch his breath after the barrage of attacks he had unleashed, Mirac made a long leap backward.

  But at that very instant, Leonard moved.

  With astonishing speed, the Grand Knight charged towards him, closing the distaween them in the blink of an eye.

  A few years ago, for Mirac, this would have been the moment whe was iable.

  However, now the speed of his oppo was no longer an insurmountable problem!

  It recisely in these moments that his ability, “Instant Knowledge of Distance,” came into py!

  This magical ability, in fact, provided him with a stant and immediate perception of the distaween him and anything within his line of sight.

  As soon as someone or something moved—whether approag or distang itself from him—his mind instantly registered the ge in that distance.

  And this also applied to ons!

  In this duel with Leonard, for example, Miraly o observe his oppo’s sword to kly when it roag or moving away from him, allowing him to intercept each strike with millimetric precision.

  There was just one small problem, though: knowily when an attack was ing didn’t automatically mean being able to block it.

  Mirac’s rea and movement speed pyed a crucial role. If his body couldn’t keep up with the speed of the information fshing through his mind, the ability would lose some of its effectiveness.

  Additionally, the ability only helped him with things within his field of vision, meaning he couldn’t predict attacks ing from dires outside his view—like those from behind him.

  But despite these “fws”, Mirac was still signifitly advantaged!

  His ability to sehe distaween him and his oppo iime, and sequently their movements, gave him almost superhuman reflexes!

  This was exactly the potential of the ability “Instant Knowledge of Distahat Mirac had reized and tio refine over the years!

  And it was therefore thanks to this that Mirac was able to perceive the exaent when Leonard moved suddenly towards him.

  ‘He’s ing!’ thought Mirac, as the distance value between him and the Grand Knight began to drastically decrease.

  In the blink of an eye, Leonard appeared in front of him, his sword already raised for an overhead strike: a blow that could end the fight instantly.

  But Miratercepted it, proteg his head, as his sword cshed with Leonard’s in a metallig that echoed through the training field.

  The exge was so quid precise that it even surprised the Grand Knight.

  ‘Did he just block that?’ Leonard wondered, a fsh of astonishment in his eyes.

  A few meters away, General Rassing held his breath, his eyes wide open.

  ‘Incredible!’ he thought, almost with his mouth agape. ‘He has superhuman reflexes!’

  Around Mirac, dust and shards of grass were kicked up with every step, while his sword cshed with Leonard’s.

  Both moved with incredible precision and speed, their strikes following an uing rhythm.

  The young Prince, wielding the sword with the only hand he had, dispyed a surprising mastery.

  Each thrust was more determiha, each parry more fwless.

  Even Leonard, though a master swordsman, had to exert himself to dodge and block those quid powerful attacks.

  “Excellent work, young Prince! Keep it up!” excimed the Grand Knight, pride evident in his voice.

  At one point, Mirac spotted a gap in Leonard’s careful defense and struck from above.

  The bde came down with force, f the master to step back.

  The swords vibrated on tact, the metallic eching in the air, and Leonard smiled, proud of his student’s progress aermination.

  But just as Leonard made an agile leap backward tain trol of the situation, Mirac disappeared from his sight.

  ‘What the-?!’ thought Leonard, his heart rag with surprise. The same thought crossed General Rassing’s mind, as if they were in perfect sync.

  As soon as Leonard’s feet hit the ground, a shiver ran down his spine: he sensed a presence behind him.

  ‘Impossible!’

  He spun around quickly… and saw him!

  Mirac was behind him!

  Normally, such a rapid, almost instantaneous movement would have been impossible for ao make.

  However, Mirac had focused his mana into the muscle fibers of his legs to achieve it, turning them into a sort of spring loaded with energy.

  What he had used was an advanced variant of Body Magiha, a teique that involved cirg one’s Mana through the body to enhance physical performance.

  Mirac had spent years perfeg this skill, learning how to focus the flow of energy into specific parts of the body to achieve different effects.

  And at that moment, to make that quick dash, Mirac had chosen his legs.

  It recisely because of this targeted application that the young Prince had moved with lightning speed, a fsh that caught Leonard pletely off guard.

  The Grand Knight, in fact, had not expected it at all: after all, it was the first time Mirac had used the teique solely on his legs.

  Although initially disoriented, Leonard reacted almost immediately, spinning around and finding himself face to face with the young Prince.

  But at that very instant, Mirac transferred all his Mana into his right arm, which seemed to glow with a barely perceptible light.

  Then, with superhuman strength, Mirac struck the master’s sword with such force that the on slipped from Leonard’s expert grip, flying and spinning through the air.

  Leonard stood still for a moment, stunned.

  “What the-!” he excimed incredulously, his eyes fixed on the sword spinning high above him, far from his reach.

  ‘Perfect!’ Mirac thought, feeling the adrenaline rush through his veins. ‘And now… the final blow!’

  With a lightning-fast movement, Mirac delivered a teral ssh, spinning on himself to increase the speed of the strike.

  But just as he expected to nd the attack, Leonard’s hand lit up with a red glow—a magical, vibrating light that pulsed with power, radiating warmth into the air.

  With a decisive gesture, he caught Mirac’s bde barehanded, stopping the strike with ease, as though the sword were nothing more than a simple wooden stick.

  “Huh!” Mirac huffed, surprised but uerred. ‘He used Body Magihaoo!’

  He smiled, because that was also part of his pn!

  Without hesitation, Mirac let go of the sword, eling the Mana bato his legs. With a lightning-fast movement, he unched into a long leap upwards, defying gravity.

  As he floated mid-air, his hand shot quickly towards the hilt of Leonard’s sword, which had remained suspended until that moment, as if time itself had fotten it.

  With breathtaking agility, Mirac performed a somersault in mid-air, building speed and momentum. His body twisted in a perfect spiral, ready to strike his master with an overhead attack.

  Leonard, impassive, lifted Mirac’s sword—the very same bde the young man had abandoned just moments before. His blue eyes carefully followed the student’s movement, calg every possible trajectory.

  As he was falling, Mirac eled half of his Mana into his legs and the other half into his right arm.

  Meanwhile, Leonard had already prepared to intercept him.

  And just as the young Prince was mere timeters from nding and toug the ground, his sword struck down with force.

  His downward ssh was so powerful that his body remained suspended in the air for a moment, held up by the sheer iy of the csh.

  The bdes met with a deafening g, the metal screeg as the impact shook the grouh them.

  A crack ope Leonard’s feet, a tangible sign of the forleashed by their duel.

  For a moment, suspended in time, master and student locked eyes, both smilirified by the adrenaline of the battle.

  Mirac, more than anyone, was excited: he had learned and perfected several Mana-based magical teiques, many of which he had not yet shown to anyone.

  But now, things were about to ge: sidering this would be the st time his father would assist him during training, Mirac had decided he would give his all!

  And in doing so, he would showcase all the magical teiques he had learned so far!