Chapter 0

Presently, there are nine magic high schools affiliated with the National Magic University across the nation.

First High in Tokyo, Kanto. Second High in Hyogo, Kinki. Third High in Ishikawa, Hokuriku. Fourth High in Shizuoka, Tokai. Fifth high in Miyagi, Tohoku. Sixth High in Shimane, San’in. Seventh High in Koichi, Shikoku. Eighth High in Hokkaido. Ninth High in Kumamoto, Kyushu.

These nine are the only magic high schools in the country. These are not the only nine schools affiliated with the National Magic University, but they are the only nine schools to teach magic formally.

In truth, the government wishes to increase the number of magic high schools. It cannot, however, because of an inability to secure more magicians that become teachers.

First High, Second High, and Third High have two hundred freshmen each. The other six have one hundred, bringing the nationwide total to twelve hundred. This is the upper limit on how many new magicians can be supplied to the country each year. This is thought to be roughly equal to the number of boys and girls in the entire population who possess enough magical talent to be useful. That being said, it is also believed that there is a nontrivial chance of discovering late-blooming children with latent magical potential if they were given the appropriate educational opportunities.

The reality, however, is that this country’s human resources are strained to the limit just managing these nine magic high schools. Therefore, it has no choice but to train these twelve hundred magic high school students as much as possible and raise the standard of their abilities to satisfy the important and precious manpower needs for trained magicians. With this method, the nation expects a positive feedback loop to resolve the lack of teachers, who can in turn go on to raise a greater number of magicians.

One of the policies created for this purpose is to have the nine magic high schools compete for points and rank in order to strengthen student aspirations. The greatest stage they have for this is the summer’s Nine School Competition.

The National Magic High School Goodwill Competitive Magic Tournament.

Every year, excellent magic high school students gather here from around the nation and stake their youthful pride on ever-expanding stories of glory and failure.

It is the biggest event in these students’ high school lives, drawing not only government officials and members of the magic community, but also common corporations, huge audiences, and those scouting future magical researchers, sometimes even coming from overseas.

And this year, once again, the curtains on the competition are about to rise.