Upon entering the room, I found it was neat and cleaner than I had imagined.
A small window was set in the wall, and there was a bed, a desk, a chair, and a sofa. Beyond that, there was only a closet and a bookshelf. The bookshelf held rows of magic books, with nothing else in sight.
Inside this room, Solare stood awkwardly in front of the bed. Although he wore pale, robe-like clothing, on him it almost looked like a child's pajamas.
"...May we sit?"
When Glenn hesitantly asked this, Solare gestured with both palms toward the chair and the sofa, likely meaning "please."
Glenn sat on the sofa, and I took a seat in the chair. Solare sat on the edge of the bed. For a moment, silence filled the room, and Solare's face grew anxious. As he looked back and forth between Glenn and me with a frightened expression, Glenn unintentionally broke the silence.
"Solare... Today, Ms. Aoi says she wants to talk with you. She's a very good teacher. Could you try talking with her, just a little?"
When Glenn pleaded, Solare glanced at me out of the corner of his eye. Then, he slowly opened his mouth.
"W-well... I-I wanted to talk to Ms. Aoi, too. So... s-so, I wondered if it was okay to meet..."
"With me?"
I tilted my head and asked in return, and Solare gave a slight nod.
"Um... the presentation at the culture festival... that was you, right, Ms. Aoi...?"
While looking somewhat downcast, Solare said this with shining eyes. It seemed he had seen the presentation from somewhere.
"You watched it, then. You recognized it was my work. To begin with, I thought we had never met before..."
Finding him a strange boy, that's what I'd been thinking when I asked. Solare offered a faint smile. He chanted softly and activated a spell.
"...Providence of the God's Single Eye."
As Solare muttered this and closed his eyes, the flow of magic power shifted. I sensed magic gathering behind me and turned. There, I found an almost transparent, thin film of water. I couldn't grasp its exact principle, but this hemispherical, watery membrane seemed connected to Solare's eyes and magic power, transmitting a distant view as if it were right there.
"...This is different from a 'camera.' You're converting magic power into something like electrical signals... In other words, you're artificially recreating your own eye in the air, correct?"
I analyzed Solare's magic and voiced my speculation. At this, Solare blinked his eyes.
"In... incredible...! As I thought, Ms. Aoi is amazing...! You understand how the eye projects images, don't you! I researched for years just to finally grasp that mechanism..."
Solare let out an admiring voice, sounding excited. But the one who should be surprised is me. Until now, not a single person had created such a spell. Aside from myself, who had studied in scientifically advanced Japan, only Owen had developed magic based on original ideas. Even then, it was nothing to this extent.
There had been many spells difficult to comprehend before now. Maple Leaf's healing magic was similar. However, those were the accumulation of spells built over long, long years, a result of research in the field of incantations.
You could say they were spells discovered by chance after groping through a pitch-black darkness.
In contrast, Solare's spell development was different. From a similar perspective as my own, he was researching magic scientifically. And he was doing this without any knowledge from Earth.
He was a heterogeneous genius.
That was the only way I could describe Solare's talent.
"I-I've seen many kinds of magic too, and studied in my own way, but Ms. Aoi's magic was completely different. It's, well... in a good way, it's not normal... From outside the window, I couldn't hear any sound, so I haven't been able to memorize it yet, but Ms. Aoi's magic has a different way of thinking and construction..."
I vaguely watched Solare, who was eagerly talking about magic, and nodded.
"Just understanding that is amazing. Your talent for magic is one thing, but your imaginative power is truly wonderful. I was the one who wanted to talk about various aspects of magic with you. However, before that, there's something I want to ask about your current spell..."
"Huh? W-what is it?"
Hearing my words, Solare blinked and tilted his head slightly. I nodded and looked back at his face with a serious expression.
"...You haven't been using that spell for any perverted purposes, have you?"
When I confirmed this, Solare released the spell and recoiled.
"Wh-!? T-that kind of use...! I haven't...!"
Solare's face turned bright red as he shook his head vehemently. I wonder. I imagined he was at an age where he might be interested in the opposite sex, but judging by how his face and even his ears were burning red, he probably hadn't used it for peeping or the like.
"...For now, let's keep it at the level of suspicion."
"I r-really, truly haven't used it that way...!"
"You look rather suspicious when you panic like that..."
"Why is that!?"
As the still-crimson Solare made a fuss, Glenn remained frozen in his chair, utterly dumbfounded.