I was wondering, if a wizard on round 1 cast a spell requiring 2 actions and ends its turn with preparing a silent spell, is he able to use the benefits of this feat at round 2?
If yes, can he then at round 2 cast a spell requiring 2 actions (for example fireball with somatic and verbal) and reduce it to 1 action requirement (1 somatic action only for the fireball example)?
Edit: after several comments and metamagic rule attached below, we found out 2 answers that leads to additional question.
According to metamagic rule: "You must use a metamagic action directly before Casting the Spell you want to alter. If you use any action (including free actions and reactions) other than Cast a Spell directly after, you waste the benefits of the metamagic action."
The term "directly" stands naturally for saying that no real time must occurred in-between the metamagic action and casting the spell. And so, the answer is no, there is no way to delay the benefits of this feat from the end of a round to the start of next one.
However, the rule specifies also that using a free action or/and a reaction in-between will waste the benefits of this feat. As far as I know, reaction can only be done when a character's turn doesn't occurred. So, if the rule specifies a case where it is possible to waste the benefits of the feat during a moment where it is not your turn, that should mean that there is no restrictions by delaying the benefits of the feat from a round to the next one. And so then, "directly" means here "no other action must be done in-between" wether than "the moment right after, no delays allowed". In this case, the answer should be yes.
In order to make a choice, we can extend the consequences to the balance and mechanics of the game.
If we rethink this (in the case where the wizard could delay the silent spell), it is basically a way for the wizard only to trade an eventual reaction (for example a counter spell) or several free actions for a 1 action discount the next turn. Or in other words, the rules wanted to specifie that a wizard cannot perform in the same round a delay silent spell and a reaction (for example a counter spell which could result to use 3 spells in a row : the counter spell in reaction, a spell with 1 action discount and a standard cost spell the same round).
IMO, it won't be shocking to have the wizard to be capable of such performance as in pathfinder 2e, wizard, bards, druids, cleric shares numerous spells due to the fact that arcane and divine type of spellcaster doesn't exist anymore. For example, a wizard share the exact same control or AoE spell list than a druid do. So they are technically equally effective to cast it but one have more versatility because he has access to all primal spells and the other has to add it in his grimoire (kind of poorly, 2 spells each level). Moreover, the druid have shild block reaction as standard which the wizard don't and so on...
In overall, I think that's fair for an exclusive wizard ability, balancelly and mechanically talking.
What are your thoughts?