Ninety-First Chapter
The Mysteries of Magic
After getting his hand on the Nox Somnia Grass, Alus left the main building and walked along the side of the half-destroyed research building. It wasn’t at risk of collapsing, but repairing it would be challenging.
As he passed by, he glanced at his former laboratory. It had become far more ventilated and fully exposed to the outside, like a model room with the exterior wall removed.
“Sir Alus, there were several Magicmasters around the main building, and while they all seemed skilled, they didn’t seem to be related to the military,” noted Loki, who had been keeping her eyes open.
“Yeah, I saw a few high-ranking-looking Magicmasters and servants.”
“Servants? So does that mean they’re related to nobility?”
Students were currently on what was essentially a vacation, but there were some children of nobility that had stayed behind.
“Yeah, some overprotective parents must have hired bodyguards. I saw some non-Magicmasters too, but they’re probably just there to look after them during the vacation.”
“What a sheltered upbringing,” Loki mused.
“Agreed. There’s also members of the military here as security. Although only a minimal number of them, to avoid any unnecessary friction.”
“Some of the noble children also have more bodyguards under the guise of being ‘extra caretakers.’”
“Having a bunch of fierce-looking Magicmasters would make it seem more like a military than an Institute. While there’s a limit to armed outsiders, the principal can’t exactly reject them either. After all, some of the guards were quickly killed and security was easily breached,” said Alus.
Loki found that hard to accept. “The attackers were all cruel but very skilled magical criminals. Not to mention that the Institute is not a military facility, so it was unexpected that they’d come here. It would have been hard to prevent that attack.”
“It was probably impossible. Mir and the weaker ones aside, even the principal in her prime would have struggled with Dante. Although that doesn’t matter to the public. The Institute is entrusted with the parents’ precious children, so they would naturally get emotional.”
Loki unhappily held her tongue. In the world, some things were just unavoidable no matter how much one tried. Not to mention that the escaped prisoners were on a completely different level from mere thugs. They were like an evil natural disaster. Like a storm.
Moreover, while teachers and security guards died in the attack, as well as two students, from an objective point of view, casualties had been kept to a minimum. From the principal’s point of view, not allowing even a single death would have been the best, but nothing could be done against the attackers who had escaped from the Trojan Prison.
Of course that didn’t matter to parents who lost their children. Society, and especially parents with children, wouldn’t be able to understand that.
Right now, Loki felt like she could sympathize with Tesfia.
Alus and Loki eventually reached the girls’ dorm. Their goal was to check up on Tesfia and Alice, since they hadn’t been showing up at Alus’s temporary residence. He assumed they probably hadn’t recovered yet.
The girls’ dorm had escaped damage from the attack, and the security system was as fortified as ever. A Triple Digit Magicmaster from the military was working as a gatekeeper and looking quite bored.
Perhaps the authentication system wasn’t working, but reception was being handled in a more analog way: names were being entered into a ledger and then checked against the Institute’s database.
Alus was checked particularly carefully, but that was to be expected.
Upon entering the girls’ dorm, they were greeted by a sight quite similar to what they saw near the main building. Servants for the noble girls were coming and going through the hallways and were also stationed in front of doors.
There weren’t that many of them, but the servants’ outfits weren’t something usually seen at the Institute, which created a strange atmosphere.
“Perhaps it’s because of where we are, but it seems most of the servants are women,” Loki said, indicating one of the servants who was pushing a silver wagon. The way she walked down the hallway was exactly what one might expect to see in a noble’s mansion.
The girls who were gaping at them from a distance were probably girls from commoner backgrounds. The attack on the Institute had made the gap between noble and commoner more noticeable in the girls’ dorm.
Alus disliked nobility, so he was uncomfortable, but that couldn’t be helped. Tracing his memory he made his way to the door leading to Tesfia and Alice’s room and knocked. However, there was no answer.
With the dorm security so strict, there was no need to be on alert, but a moment later, Loki ran out of patience and reached out to turn the doorknob.
“...Please wait a moment.” A voice belonging neither to Tesfia nor Alice spoke up. As the door opened, Alus felt a strange pressure and pulled Loki back by her collar.
The sudden pull on her neck caused Loki to let out a small groan as a figure peeked through the gap in the door. An imposing housemaid stood there, blocking the view of anything past the door and staring sharply at Alus and Loki.
That tension emanating from her body told Alus that she was definitely not a normal person. She had an ominous presence that would evoke a sense of alert even in the peaceful girls’ dorm. That presence was familiar to Alus.
“Ah...we’ve met before, haven’t we? You’re one of Selva’s maids,” he asked.
At the sound of his voice, the daintily clad maid stared at Alus. She was an expressionless woman, and she wasn’t showing any hostility. However, she calmly examined Alus, like a battle machine analyzing her opponent’s abilities.
The depths of her eyes were cold and stagnant as if a deep darkness was swirling within them.
A moment of silence was shared between them...before the edges of the woman’s lips were awkwardly raised into something like a smile. As if she’d just recalled how to smile.
“...It has been a while, Sir Alus Reigin,” the woman named Hest said in a horribly flat, inhuman voice that made one doubt the woman was really the one speaking.
Alus slightly furrowed his brow and noticed Loki at a loss for words in the corner of his eye. But the maid opened the door to invite the two in, bowing politely.
“Al, come in.” From past her came a familiar voice. Loki let out a sigh of relief when Tesfia invited them in and stepped inside.
The room hadn’t changed much since they last visited, but upon further investigation, there was another maid in the kitchen, doing the dishes. She hurriedly wiped off her hands and bowed deeply.
“It has been a while since you visited the Fable family mansion, Sir Alus. And I believe you are the young lady’s classmate, Lady Loki. It is a pleasure to meet you. I am Lady Tesfia’s maid, Minasha.”
“It is a pleasure to meet you... I am Loki Leevahl.” Loki returned the bow with one of her own.
Alice also joined in the greetings with a “Welcome in, Al and Loki dear.” With that done, Tesfia came down from her bunk, scratching her cheek, and introduced the two maids.
“Uhm, my mother sent these two over. This is my personal maid, Minasha, and the...guard maid, Ms. Hest.”
Minasha responded with a swift bow while Hest gave a dignified, yet mismatched bow with all the gravitas of a veteran mercenary. They both wore maid outfits, but if you asked a hundred people which one worked as a maid proper, they’d all get it right. The other certainly worked as an assassin or something.
Alus returned a plain introduction and felt his cheek twitch for the first time in a while. To think someone with this level of talent was a guard maid.
In the past, the Fable family mansion had been attacked by Aferka before its shift in leadership. And from what Alus had seen, this woman was a cut above the rest of the combat maids. That made sense, since the butler Selva had supposedly personally raised her as the most elite of elite fighters. She was a true powerhouse of the family.
When it comes to fighting people, she’s probably above Loki. She’s quite outstanding, thought Alus.
At present, he didn’t know more than that she was equal to or better than Selva. Once Alus gave up and finished his assessment of her, the imposing aura that Hest had disappeared and her presence turned dramatically faint.
Perhaps that meant that they’d been acknowledged as safe visitors.
Meanwhile, Loki was following Minasha with something like admiration in her gaze. Alus guessed that she wanted to emulate the waiting style of a real maid.
“Why don’t you help, Loki? It’s a small room so you can hear the discussion from anywhere,” he suggested.
“O-Okay...Ms. Minasha, please let me help. Also, is there something I need to watch out for when making tea?”
“Thank you very much!” After glancing at Tesfia, who nodded in affirmation, Minasha accepted Loki’s offer with a bright smile. She looked like the very caring person who anyone would be fond of.
While Loki received a lecture on tea from Minasha, Hest bluntly stood at the wall by the door. She was technically a maid, but it seemed she had no interest in helping.
What a strange pair. But for some reason I can’t put my finger on, it fits Tesfia so well. For now, Alus was just happy to finally see Tesfia and Alice face-to-face.
“Ever since Ms. Minasha came, I feel like I’m going to become a slacker.” The first to break the silence was Alice. Alice had been in charge of the room before, but with Minasha’s arrival, she’d lost all control.
“Your wounds still haven’t healed, have they? In that case, you should just stay under her care and rest up. It’s a vacation anyways, so you can’t use the training grounds,” said Alus.
“Huh, didn’t you hear? We got a message before that people can train at the practice block instead. You’re still lodging there, right, Al?” asked Tesfia.
“...Huh?” The unexpected information by Tesfia had taken Alus by surprise.
Considering possible places to train, the first thing that came to mind was right next to Alus’s room. But if inexperienced students would be practicing magic there, he wouldn’t be able to focus on his research, let alone leisurely read a book.
“What about the mana substitution system?!” he asked.
“It looks like there’s no need to worry about that. They’re using a device they’ve borrowed from the military to convert the damage, so it should function as a simplistic training grounds,” said Tesfia.
Alus wondered why they were always so fast when they didn’t need to be. However, he didn’t care how simplistic it was. Not only would it not block out the sound, it was also a matter of performance. It might not pose any problems with normal students, but what about excellent ones like Tesfia or Alice?
As if sensing his doubts, Tesfia continued, “But we still haven’t recovered, so we won’t be using it for a while. Even though they finally opened it up.”
“Yeah. I still haven’t gotten my grip strength back either... I wonder how long it’s going to take,” said Alice.
Unlike Tesfia, who was frowning, Alice smiled while holding her right palm over her left hand. There was a scar there from an attack she’d taken from one of the escaped prisoners. It was still wrapped around in a bandage, and whenever she recalled her inexperience, the scar ached.
She’d been through her initiation into real combat. And the experience had left a lingering shadow on her expression.
“I see. That’s a relief for now,” said Alus.
Tesfia wanted to retort and ask him what that was supposed to mean, but Alus gave her a sharp glance. “Fia, I heard that you still can’t raise your arm. Are you okay?”
“What?! ... Y-Yeah, I broke my collarbone, and my hand still feels a little numb at times. But, I still have my life,” she answered, putting on a brave front.
The fierce battle with the escaped prisoners had left deep scars on the two girls’ minds. It wasn’t a battle against Fiends like Magicmasters were expected to fight, or even against Godma’s Dolls, but vicious humans. They had been in a battle to the death against opponents with a real intent to kill them.
The two of them lived a life that had nothing to do with death matches...
It must have been terrifying.
It must have been shocking.
“The malice of man is much more terrifying than Fiends, isn’t it?” Alus asked.
Tesfia looked like she wanted to say something out of reflex, but when she saw Alus’s expression, she closed her mouth. What Alus was about to say was something that could be considered meddling, but he had made up his mind.
These would be the first earnest words he’d said to them as their mentor. It was strange to realize, but up until now he’d only really been teaching the girls with a half-hearted resolve. He’d never left the realm of pretend teacher. But from now on, he would take responsibility and resolve himself to guide and teach these two novices.
“I came to ask you two something. I’ll need you to answer now,” he said.
He could see the two of them gulp. They were probably imagining him dissolving their current teacher-student relationship. Strictly speaking, there was no such relationship, but he wasn’t going to dwell on that now. He’d already taught them enough to cross that line.
“The escaped prisoners have all been killed or captured. But I think this incident was just a trigger. So far, common sense has been that Magicmasters only fight Fiends and that fighting people fits into a different category. But like you may have seen for yourself, humans transforming into Fiends might be a concern from now on, so I would say that the situation has changed.”
The toxin that had been gathering in the belly of humanity was starting to affect the entire body. Within the false peace, the evil poison one might call sin had been allowed to grow too large. Like Kurama, it was no longer possible to hide that the power of magic could be turned against not just Fiends but against fellow man as well.
Alus raised three fingers. “So, I’ve been thinking about what I should do with your teaching. Specifically, I have three different paths you can take.”
Tesfia and Alice audibly gulped.
“Naturally, because of the promise I have with the principal, I won’t abandon you halfway through. So the first option is to pretend that nothing happened, focusing on your peace of mind and focusing on the path of a normal Magicmaster who only needs to defeat Fiends. The nation’s likely going to cover up the Human Fiends as much as possible, so the majority of the students will follow the Institute’s established policy and graduate. Frankly, you two are talented and you’d achieve much this way.”
The two girls opened their eyes wide. This was the first time Alus had praised them without reserve.
While it pained him slightly to admit it, the two were already strong enough to make it in the Outer World, Tesfia in particular. They’d be able to handle any low-class Fiend alone. If anything, all they lacked was experience.
Alus then continued with the next path. “The second is to acknowledge the dangers your fellow humans pose and acquire the necessary power and resolve to kill them. It would be different from the military’s Magicmasters. I wouldn’t call it justice, but it would be the power necessary to protect order. In a sense, this would be similar to the Guardian Magicmasters of old. The abilities required will also change if you’re going to fight people.”
“You mean like Lilisha?” Tesfia managed to squeeze that name out.
She had probably noticed that the Fable family butler, Selva, had worked in the underworld. Moreover, Tesfia had taken down several of Godma’s Dolls, which were incredibly close to humans. Even if they weren’t aware of it, Tesfia and Alice must have felt the darkness within the seven nations.
“Something like that,” answered Alus. “Lilisha is mostly gathering information and working behind the scenes, so it’s not quite accurate. But you can consider the kind of thing Aferka does to be in that realm. Some of the secret missions that reach me are of that nature as well. Acquiring the skills to overwhelm people who make their living from killing and violence would be a difficult path.”
To do so, they would need to get stronger, but they would also need to learn the shortest procedure to kill a person. They would have to steel their hearts, so they would never waver or hesitate to kill. Alus didn’t say it out loud, but Hest was such a person.
But just like Lilisha, Tesfia and Alice’s suitability for shady work was questionable. So increasing their ranks while specializing against Magicmasters like the Guardian Magicmasters of old was a possible method with which they wouldn’t need to actively work behind the scenes like Alus or Lilisha.
Regardless, they would need to get used to killing people. And while they could cheat their conscience in the beginning since it would be villains, it would eventually become unbearable.
The two lightly sighed and looked at each other. Alus knew what that meant and lightly smiled.
“Well, I figured I’d suggest it at least. I don’t think you’re suited for it either. You could work in information like Felinella, but since fighting people would be the core of that too, it’d be more or less the same.”
“That’s true... Fia definitely wouldn’t be suited for it since she lets her emotions show so easily. Not that I’d want to see Fia like that,” said Alice.
“Ugh...!” Alice had hit the mark, causing Tesfia to wince and then scratch her cheek.
“But I don’t think I could do it either...” said Alice.
“I-I can do it when I have to!” Tesfia exclaimed, cheeks puffed up in a pout, but she eventually muttered in resignation. “But this time I was made painfully aware of how powerless I am. After being so reckless against those beasts, I ended up paying for it. If possible, I’d like to avoid that ever happening again. Justice and emotion alone won’t help against an overwhelming difference in power. And when things are impossible, nothing will change no matter what you do...” Tesfia said, lips trembling.
Upon hearing that, Alus closed his eyes. He could feel a chill in the pit of his stomach. Of all things, he was feeling a hint of disappointment. On the flip side, that meant he had expectations as well of this redhead in front of him, whose only strength until then had been her unyielding spirit.
“Do you regret it?” Alus asked as if it was someone else’s words. He’d restrained himself to keep from sounding accusatory, and his voice was still surprisingly flat.
He’d felt it when he paid the two a visit. They had acted so that they wouldn’t regret it, pushed forward by heartfelt impulses. They entrusted themselves to the righteousness in their hearts and stayed true to themselves.
They had gone past recklessness and into the territory of idiotic, but that was why Alus had felt a faint feeling of admiration. They had acted in the way of righteousness for the sake of all that was good in the world.
Alus had seen plenty of Magicmasters discard their lives for the sake of their comrades. At the time, he’d dismissed such behavior as the height of irrationality and looked down on it. No matter how much he thought about it, there was nothing logical about the decision. But the act contained something that Alus lacked.
To him, they were just a sequence of dead things inorganically growing. One after another, they stood up to resist something until they burned out, and even though it was a dog’s death, deep down he couldn’t despise them. He felt like there was something there that he had dismissed and easily left behind in the past. Something important that he was lacking.
Alus had constantly been looking after Tesfia and Alice, all the while grumbling and thinking it wasn’t worth it. He felt like the two of them had a piece of the difficult puzzle that was humanity.
But once lost, one might never find it again. Even so, he wanted to know what he was missing. After all, it was something beautiful that he would never be able to understand no matter how much research he did.
Tesfia must have felt a hint of accusation in Alus’s tone of voice because she shook her head, getting worked up and rebutted, “Of course not!!! I just hate not being able to oppose the overwhelming violence when people close to me are in danger! I hate standing up to protect someone but being unable to do anything! I never want to feel that helplessness ever...ah, ow!” She clutched her collarbone in pain.
“Al, we’re okay! There might be a next time, but we won’t fail the same way again. We’ll get stronger, and next time we won’t lose!” She didn’t say it as fiercely as Tesfia, but Alice spoke with firm resolve.
It must have always been on their mind. They must have talked a lot about it.
There were always two sides to the world. Lately, it had been nothing but the cruel side, stained in grief and blood, but if possible he wanted to show them the beautiful side.
He was missing something himself and the only beauty he knew was the outside world. But he hoped he’d have a chance to show them a sliver of beauty.
“All right, I understand. Then I won’t test you anymore,” said Alus.
With their path decided, Alus realized he felt somewhat relieved. It was some strange parental feeling, hoping they would continue to walk as straight a path as possible. Once they were strong enough not to lose to anyone, they would be able to fight the way they wished no matter what battlefield they stood on.
He believed that they could one day become real Magicmasters, not heartless shams like himself.
Feeling like he wanted to run away, Alus’s gaze dropped and he hung his head. Or rather, they were simply too bright to look at directly. Despite their defeat, the girls didn’t get disheartened. Foolhardy justice remained in the world.
Alus recalled the words Selva had once said to him. He didn’t want Tesfia to see the underbelly of the world. Now Alus felt like he could proudly tell that overly upright old man that there was nothing to worry about. On the path to becoming a Magicmaster, there might not be anything that she didn’t need to see.
Suddenly, a gentle voice called out to Alus. It belonged to Alice. “Al, we won’t lose. Not even to ourselves.”
“What?”
“Hmm, it’s not like I’m thinking about anything deep. I was just thinking that you might be worrying about it.” She giggled with a mischievous smile.
She’d unintentionally read into the subtleties of his heart, but in this moment, it didn’t feel so bad. They may have come at the spur of the moment, but they were quite kind words coming from Alice.
“She’s right. We won’t lose heart from something like that! Don’t underestimate us.”
Next, Alus felt a soft finger on his cheek. Looking to the side, he saw a smiling Tesfia with her index finger extended. It was her usual cheek and fearless smile.
“Here you go,” a happy voice said as a cup of steaming tea was gently put on the table.
Just the gesture and tone was enough to know Loki’s expression. She must have understood what he was thinking and naturally ended up smiling. So Alus didn’t let himself look at her face.
With his eyes cast down, Alus caught sight of Minasha in the corner of his eye, wearing a gentle smile as she put down cups in front of Tesfia and Alice. Steam rose from the cups and a refreshing, fruity aroma tickled his nostrils. Enveloped by that smell, Alus felt himself being watched over by a lot of people. There was nothing miserable about it.
“Al, what’s wrong? We still haven’t heard all paths. What about the third?” Tesfia urged Alus, looking somewhat pleased with herself.
At this point, it no longer felt aggravating. Above all, the details on the last path would fork depending on their decision. With their answer to the second path, they would surely find this path the most meaningful.
After taking a sip of hot tea, Alus spoke. “Are your two maids tight-lipped?”
“Huh? Well, I think it should be fine,” Tesfia said, glancing over at Minasha and Hest.
“That won’t be a problem from me.” Minasha put her hand over her chest.
Hest on the other hand tilted her head. “Unfortunately I can’t promise anything.”
Apparently she would need to tell Selva, Sithaima, or Frose anything she heard. Her inflexible answer made Alus hesitate.
“Then if asked about it, how about you only tell Lady Frose? That should still just barely be complying with your instructions. Moreover, it would be best if she heard the answer directly from the young lady,” suggested Minasha.
“What?! But that would just come back to me in the end,” Tesfia exclaimed in surprise, but her shoulders slumped at Alus’s urging gaze. “Okay, okay, I get it. Could you please do that then, Ms. Hest?”
“Understood,” Hest answered without changing her expression. It was like she was a puppet that could only give simple answers.
“With that settled, the third path...” Alus said, going back on the topic. “Simply put, I further enhance you. If you keep training as is, you will only ever fall within expectations. I thought that would be enough if you were aiming to become first-rate Magicmasters that adhere to the norm.”
“R-Really?! But thanks to you, my grades and abilities have improved tremendously, Al,” said Tesfia.
“Mine too! I even learned how to use a new spell!” exclaimed Alice.
Tesfia and Alice spoke in surprising unison, but Alus stopped them by quietly raising his hand. “You’ve already distinguished yourself with your training so far. But that is still only on the level of a student, and under the assumption that you’ll become Double Digits at best. You wouldn’t be able to aim beyond that as is, with your limits already in view. That’s what this new plan is for.”
“Hold up! By aiming beyond that, you don’t...” said Tesfia.
“Yeah, you mean Single Digit Magicmasters, right?” asked Alice.
As the two girls’ jaws dropped, Alus looked at them with a serious expression. “More or less. Slight as it might be, there is a possibility.”
Frankly, he didn’t really want to discuss the details. It would do nothing but cause harm. These two were in the middle of growing their abilities, so if he held a carrot by the name of hope in front of them, it would only make them despair if they couldn’t reach it.
“What?! We can become Singles?! Really?!” Tesfia leaned forward and peered into Alus’s eyes as if trying to discern if he was lying. Alice also couldn’t hide the sparkle in her eyes or the excitement turning her cheeks red.
But Alus to spoke up to cut down on their expectations. “Don’t be so rash. I’m just talking about the possibility. Do you know the reason Singles like the principal are called monsters?”
“Monsters? Doesn’t that just mean that they’re way stronger than a normal Magicmaster?” Although abstract, Tesfia was right.
As rank 1, it was easy for Alus to demonstrate what makes one a monster. “The fundamental difference between Doubles and Singles is simple...their amount of mana. In a sense, your natural talents, including your bloodline, determine it. No matter how talented or how much effort you put in, no matter how much you improve upon yourself, there’s a limit to your potential amount of mana. You could say there is an insurmountable gap between rank 9 and 10. They’re in a different league entirely.”
“Go on!” With unbridled excitement, Tesfia pressed her flushed face closer. Alice was likewise very enthusiastic, as could be seen from her clenched fists.
Alus put aside the discussion of whether the current rank 9 was worthy of being a Single. “On top of that, there is another gap between Singles of rank 3 and 4 and those below. I won’t bore you with the details, but even Lettie at rank 7 has an extraordinary amount of mana compared with a normal Magicmaster’s standards.”
Alus used to draw the line at below rank 3, but after a clash with Fanon Trooper, he revised it to rank 4. By Alus’s understanding, based purely on amount of mana, those of rank 4 and above were the ones who could truly be called Singles.
But shockingly, Alus was even more extraordinary...the difference between him at rank 1 and rank 2 Vajet Olagram was worlds apart. Truth be told, Alus’s mana had explosively increased since his battle with Demi Azure. If numerical measurements could be made, even compared to his previous self, the difference would surely be two orders of magnitude more.
But it would be cruel to crush the two girls’ hopes with that ruthless reality. So he kept quiet about that and continued.
“Since powerful magic consumes a lot of mana, it would take a lot of time to even attempt. Even more so when someone inexperienced and unable to optimize the spells tries their hand at it. And so, one’s amount of mana can be a shackle that keeps them from learning magic. But when talking about Singles, mana is a large factor. Are you with me so far?” asked Alus.
Unfortunately, the more earnestly one tried to walk up the ranks, the more the cruel reality of the world hit them. It was questionable if a peerless genius desperately working for it could even reach rank 9. Attempting to reach even higher heights would have them face yet another tall wall.
When it came to Singles, the higher the ranking, the less often change happened. Since everyone was monster-class, few monsters would appear to change things up, so rankings rarely changed until the Magicmaster died.
“And then we get to you. Anyone with potential to become a Single would show results from the moment they enrolled in the Institute,” said Alus. “Lettie is a graduate from here, but her talent should’ve been clear from the moment she started. It’s not exactly the kind of talent you could hide even if you wanted. Next time you see her, you should ask the principal about Lettie’s time in the Institute.”
That was when Loki poked Alus’s shoulder. “How strong was Lady Lettie back then?”
“Do you want to know? This is just my guess, but by mana amount alone, she had to have been on the level of a Double. Incidentally, between the two girls, Fia has the most, with the mana of a lower Triple. Alice’s mana stands out too, compared to other students, but judging purely from the amount of mana, she wouldn’t be of much use if she joined the military as is. She’d be a beginner who could handle herself a little.”
“Aww, you don’t have to bring me into it,” the girl complained. Loki ignored Alice and waited for Alus to continue.
“Hmm? Well, Loki is the same as me, having gone through special training since childhood and then working in the Outer World. We began differently from the two of you starting out as students. But were you even interested in that kind of thing, Loki?”
“Yes, if it would be of help to Sir Alus, I thought having the power to bring fools to their knees wouldn’t be bad,” Loki enthusiastically said.
But Alus couldn’t approve of her motive. At present, the military and state stood above the people, but if she was careless, she’d only end up being used up by someone else. But he knew it was probably just something she’d said in the heat of the moment.
“Loki has a higher possibility of becoming a Single. There’s practically no Magicmasters that could master ultimate-level magic at her age. But she still lacks mana, so she’ll have to steadily increase it the normal way. Or rather, as my partner, I was going to have her pick up power on the level of a Single eventually.”
“I see, I see,” Loki said, clearing her throat. “I mean as Sir Alus’s partner it is only natural to set my aim high.” She spoke calmly, but she was very happy inside.
Of course Alus couldn’t bring himself to say that Singles weren’t all what they were cracked up to be. “We got off track, but going back to the third path. Simply put, I have a secret plan to increase your mana for the sake of reaching toward the peak that is a Single and considering the path of a Guardian Magicmaster. So what do you—?”
“We’ll do it!” The two immediately answered in unison before Alus even finished speaking.
“Hold on, I still haven’t talked about the risk involved. If you fail here, your lives as Magicmasters will end. Of course, you won’t actually die, but you won’t be able to use magic again. That’s how heavy the stakes are.”
This time, they were both at a loss for words.
“The decision is up to you. I put it nicely with the term ‘Guardian Magicmaster,’ but there’s a way of life for you without learning the skills to kill people. You can still walk the path of a normal Magicmaster and forge a path with your talents and power. So think it through and...”
“I’ll do it!” said Tesfia.
“Me too!” agreed Alice.
The girls had no hesitation, their eyes filled with determination. They had complete trust in Alus.
“I see.”
Alus closed his eyes, and Loki whispered from his side, “Isn’t that enough, Sir Alus? It’s a little vexing, but their resolve is real. Also I want to take part in that secret plan.”
“You too, huh?”
“Yes. As your partner, I am equally resolved to become stronger. As you admitted, I might be able to reach it one day through training without overdoing it. But just by being by your side, I can feel how lacking in power I am. I never intended to take the safe route in the first place. Patiently waiting for ‘one day’ was never an option,” Loki bluntly said. “Besides, I don’t believe in a pipe dream like becoming stronger without risk. Even the strength you praise comes from losing everything once. It is all thanks to your presence in this world, Sir Alus.”
The silver-haired girl stared directly at Alus. “Besides, by the time you decided to tell the two of them, you must have already ruled out some of the risks. No, knowing you, there must be next to no risk anymore. I only need to believe in you, Sir Alus.”
Seeing Loki smile, Alus stopped trying to add any more. Loki had clearly read him from the start. While he’d called it a secret plan, it was close to a hidden trick. For that reason, Loki was half right and half wrong. Alus couldn’t put any guarantees because risk was always present.
“Then you listen in too, Loki,” he said with a sigh. “From here on out, it’ll be a bit of a tedious lesson.”
Tesfia looked confused, but she was still fully motivated. Alice also smiled and readjusted her posture in her chair as Alus grimaced. The Institute might have seen mass destruction, but the atmosphere in this room was the same as it had been back then.
Alus sighed and looked up. Outside the window he could see the blue sky for the first time in a while. No matter what storm blew through, that blueness remained in the world.
He’d at least waited until teatime was over. Facing Tesfia, Alice, and Loki, Alus began explaining. It was a bit of a complex topic for them, but none of it could be omitted.
“Before explaining the hidden trick for increasing your mana reserves, I’ll need to give you the basics,” he said.
“G-Go ahead.” The motivation from before seemed to have vanished as Tesfia gulped and her hand slightly trembled.
“That’s the spirit. So do you know about mana territory?” asked Alus.
Tesfia stopped to think, but Alice beat her to the punch and timidly answered, “...Uhm, is that the area that mana can interfere with?”
“It’s like you quoted it straight out of a textbook. No matter. Mana territory is the academic name for the space where mana can stay for a prolonged period of time. To put it simply, before magic can interfere with the world, mana territory will always appear first. You could say that the worlds temporarily overlap.”
Alus wore an exasperated expression as he continued his lecture for the two confused-looking girls. “Loki using her mana sonar begins with perceiving the mana territory. Moreover, magic itself begins by acting in the mana territory before the phenomenon materializes. So all Magicmasters are unconsciously influencing mana territory.”
“So it is like a subspace of mana particles or a different world?”
Alus nodded at Loki’s interpretation. Academically speaking, there was a deeper meaning to it, but that was an easy example to understand when explaining it.
“Yes, it’s fine for you to understand it as that for now. The latest theory on the space is that there are multiple overlapping layers, specifically that there is an area that could be considered the deepest, innermost area. The technical term for it is the ‘mana depth.’ It is considered impossible to even observe because normal magic can’t affect it.”
“What...?! But if it can’t be observed, how can you be sure it even exists?” Alice asked with a puzzled look, and Tesfia nodded with her. If its existence couldn’t be proven, then in a sense it might as well not exist.
However, Alus didn’t doubt the existence of the mana depth. Generally speaking, there was no way to confirm its existence, but it was supporting evidence that could successfully explain various magical phenomena.
A Magicmaster on Alus’s level, who knew more of different magical theories and the depth of magic, could intuitively feel that it was correct. Specific means weren’t yet clear, but the same could be said for first-rate Spotters such as Exceles Lilyusem and Rinne Kimmel. Alus believed that, unconsciously or not, by touching the mana territory and at times the mana depth, they could exhibit their extraordinary powers.
“Think about this. Where is the mana that you use stored?” Alus asked.
“Where... Well, when using mana focus and the blood circulation is important, so inside the body?” asked Tesfia.
“Yeah, that’s what they teach in class,” said Alice.
Tesfia and Alice looked a little confused, but Alus continued. This kind of intellectual discussion always excited Alus. He was a magic researcher at heart; it was his natural disposition and there was nothing he could do about it.
“True. You can perceive the mana within you when casting. But I’m sure you’ve heard of Magicmasters going beyond their limit to draw on even more power to cast a spell, beyond what the mana in their bodies can support. Besides, going back to the concept of how much mana Singles have, how do you think it’s possible for us to see that when it’s typically invisible?” he asked.
Tesfia answered the question with a troubled expression. “Well, it can be measured with a machine, so I’m sure that gives you some sort of clue.”
“Yes, the concept of a mana vessel will be useful for that,” he responded.
“Yeah, and that vessel is where the mana is stored right? So even if there’s a limit like you said, we will have to train as hard as we can to make the vessel as large and wide as we can. And using up our mana on a daily basis will increase our amount of mana.”
Alice nodded in agreement while Loki kept quiet and just listened.
“Another textbook answer for you. Increasing your amount of mana depends on the size of your mana vessel. The amount of mana we are born with is the same as the size of that vessel.” Alus paused for a moment before moving on. “Then moving on to the main issue, what is the vessel? Say your heart is what produces mana. What would the vessel be?”
“Now that you mention it, where is it? Around the stomach?” asked Alice.
“Yes, I think it’s around there too for some reason,” said Loki.
Alus paused for emphasis. “The truth is that nobody knows. Equipment doesn’t mention the shape or size of a vessel. It visualizes and assesses the effect on real space in the form of a mana wave. The concept of the aura we can sense to detect the presence of other Magicmasters is similar to that. It’s just a difference of whether the approach is mechanical or a Magicmaster’s intuition.”
“What?!”
While Tesfia and Alice were shocked, Loki put her hand on her chin to carefully consider what she had just heard.
“That’s true, if there was a mana vessel inside the body, it would be easy to find if an autopsy was performed on a Magicmaster’s body.”
“A good conjecture. No matter how many Magicmasters you dissect, you won’t find any organ storing mana. And so the question goes back to square one. Where is the mana?” asked Alus.
“Is that what the mana territory is related to?”
Alus nodded at Loki’s question. “That’s correct. Everyone, Magicmasters and humans, have it. There must be a vessel in a subspace that overlaps the physical body and mana territory both, which normally can’t be seen or touched. So what do you think the shape of the vessel in that territory is?”
In response to Alus’s clear enthusiasm, Tesfia and Alice answered sounding perplexed.
“Uhm...like a bucket?” guessed Tesfia.
“A cup maybe?” said Alice.
“Well, there’s the expression of mana overflowing, so those aren’t bad answers. What about you, Loki?”
“M-Me?! I imagine it’s a sphere wrapped in a thin membrane.”
“Oh, an interesting answer,” the rank 1 Magicmaster said.
“What do you say, Sir Alus? I believe that the vessel is a metaphor,” said Loki.
“The answer is...it’s undefined. Mana territory and the mana depth exist in a dimension that’s different from the real world. The concepts of distance, time, depth, length, and width don’t apply, so the idea of a shape is nonsense.”
“What? But that’s unfair.” Tesfia frowned.
Alus grinned at her. “But if you go through old tomes, that’s not necessarily the answer. If a human gains some form of supernatural power and their brain forcibly tries to perceive the vessel’s shape we get an answer.”
Alus drew a circle in the air with his hand, dividing it with a horizontal line through the middle. “The vessel containing mana most likely looks like this, a crescent-shaped grail with a semispherical bottom. Relics and Lost Spells also have hieroglyphs that indicate a grail. In any case, if we take the image of overflowing from above into account, Alice’s answer is the closest. Congratulations. Not that I have a prize for you.”
Alus made a lighthearted remark before finally cutting to the heart of the matter.
“If my conjecture is correct, you can make this grail bigger. Meaning that you increase your amount of mana itself, rather than the connection to your vessel. But since that would mean forcibly expanding the grail, it will put a strain on you. If the grail were to be destroyed, you would lose the ability to store mana. To explain the level of risk—it would be the worst possible outcome for a Magicmaster.”
“So we’ll need to go at it while feeling for the vessel’s limit?” Loki earnestly asked, no anxiety or fear present in her eyes. They couldn’t afford to be unclear about this.
“That’s right. It would be impossible to interfere with the vessel while it’s in the mana depth, but my theory is that if we use a special method of absorbing mana from the outside, it should work.”
And while he couldn’t explain it to the girls, doing so might be possible thanks to him partially using his special ability Gra Eater and his recently acquired Nox Somnia Grass.
On top of that, Alus’s power had changed from before. Having glimpsed into the Akashic Records and gleaned its knowledge, his chains as a Magicmaster had been removed and Alus had reached even greater heights.
His ability to manifest the complete Sword of Damocles in the battle against Dante was the proof of that. It was a compound phenomenon of his special ability and magic. Having gone through the experience of using it freely had deepened his understanding of his special ability.
Alus continued to explain to the three girls.
More specifically, in order for Alice and Tesfia to do it, they needed a space that was separate from their living space. It needed to be airtight and sterile and not allow any interference from the outside, not even sound from mana waves.
He’d experimented with Loki and felt that the success rate was not as low as he’d expected. Even so, an accident could cause everything to fall apart.
Once he had the girls’ approval, the rest was a matter of procedures. For the time being, they decided that the procedure would take place tomorrow. Alus would get the principal to reserve the entire practice block and forbid anyone else from entering for the duration.
Not only was this secret technique impossible for anyone but Alus, it wouldn’t be unheard of for nations to classify it as taboo. No amount of precaution was too much. It was a frightening technique that would take time and effort, and if misused it could leave a talented Magicmaster crippled.
Maybe I didn’t need to go this far for them, Alus thought and closed his eyes.
The girls had made their decision. He was only granting those who wished for it the power to stand up against the cruelty of the world.
And for him it would be a very interesting field to research. That being the case, the risk of touching on taboo wasn’t much of a problem.
Naturally, failure is unacceptable. But with the power I have now, there’s more than a 90 percent chance of success.
With an indescribable excitement, Alus opened and closed his hand as if to test his strength.
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