CHAPTER 8 – PRACTISING MAGIC It’s been half a month since ‘the case of the burnt soup’.
Reflecting on my mistake, I decided that I should confirm the power level1 of the spells in the grimoire. At any rate, I was far too excited. In spite of being a five year old child in this world, it was still quite embarra.s.sing since I used to be 19 years old in my past life.
Even if no one knows that apart from me&h.e.l.lip;
At the very least, I should act a little more like an adult. Magic carries a potentially deadly might. Nevertheless, I had the confidence to handle these spells, whatever their effects.
The magic language is j.a.panese, and I was formerly j.a.panese.
There’s no way I couldn’t use magic.
However, as easy as it was to use, I was far from being a master. My first step towards mastery should be to find out what effects an incantation manifests.
And I knew the quickest and easiest method to do so; cast all the spells and record their effects.
“Okay.”
I left the house through the back door and opened the grimoire. On the page, a variety of spells were written in kanji and hiragana. Although I had read it through from start to finish, I had only experimented with 10 incantations.
In all seriousness, how am I supposed to know in what situation I should use ‘Mr Careless’?
I learnt from burning the soup how scary it can be not knowing the effects of a spell; not to mention a spell whose effects I can’t predict at all. No matter what, I will not let the soup’s sacrifice be in vain.
“I guess I’ll practise.”
If nothing else, I should at least try out all the incantations I’m not sure about. I even came to the backyard, just in case.
The backyard was a substantially s.p.a.cious s.p.a.ce. There weren’t any trees or houses, just a large empty expanse. It should reduce the chances of any accidents occurring. Also, it was hidden from the other houses in the village, making it the perfect spot for me to practise unseen.
Just because I’ve been accepted by my parents, I can’t say the other villagers will too. Hence, I decided that it would be better to hide my powers.
“Okay, let’s start with this one&h.e.l.lip;”
It was getting dark.
I wiped the sweat off my forehead and took a deep breath. Naturally, while I managed to test a lot of incantations, casting spells repeatedly really tired me out.
Even though I was still at the stage of using the surrounding æther to fuel my magic, chanting incantations all day is fairly tiring. At least it didn’t consume my internal æther as well, to say nothing of the fact that my body was merely 5 years old.
There’s no way it wouldn’t wear me out. In particular, my throat was parched. I needed water as soon as possible.
“Hah&h.e.l.lip;hah&h.e.l.lip;wheeze2&h.e.l.lip;”
At the moment, I was still unable to sense æther or manipulate my internal æther at will.
I hope I’ll be able to soon. No, I will learn to sense æther.
Once I figure it out, I’ll probably be on the way to becoming a great magician.
“Eurgh&h.e.l.lip;this is bad, I’m so tired&h.e.l.lip;”
I fell flat on the ground, panting. Even though I was exhausted, it felt good. I was filled to the brim with a sense of accomplishment and was about to fall asleep. I can’t fall asleep yet though.
I discovered several things during today’s experiments.
First and foremost, the effects and power of the incantations written in the grimoire. Despite the many cryptic and unclear incantations, I was able to determine their effects just by using them.
Next, I uncovered the relationship between an incantation and the resulting spell. In a nutsh.e.l.l, spells manifest according to their incantations.3 If you say ‘burn’, it burns. If you say ‘freeze’, it freezes.
In ‘the case of the burnt soup’, I said ‘burn to nothingness’ and that was probably why the soup was burnt to cinders.
“Oh, so, if I had said ‘heat up the soup’ instead of ‘burn to nothingness’&h.e.l.lip;”
I imagined that, at that time, my magic was smiling at me and said,
“I burnt it to nothingness!”
My mind stalled on the image of ‘flames of purgatory heating stuff up’ and entirely disregarded the ‘burn to nothingness’ part. If I had said ‘with the flames of purgatory, heat it up’, it probably would have been completely different&h.e.l.lip;
Though I should have noticed straight away that something was wrong with such a dangerous word as ‘purgatory’.
I was totally and utterly taken with the fact that I could use magic.
In reality, nothing goes well when you get carried away.
I was lucky that only the soup got burnt. I shiver just thinking that I could have burnt my family to ashes instead. I now keenly understood how an incorrect incantation can result in manifesting unintended phenomena.
I need to carefully consider my phrasing&h.e.l.lip;
Also, whether it’s because of this relationship between spells and their incantations, there are multiple incantations that result in the same spell. For example, if I chant ‘O flames’ a flame will materialise. In the same way, ‘O flammable robes that cover the sun’4 will also materialise a flame.
Obviously, covering the sun with flammable robes will end with a fire5, and it suggests that incantations with the same nuance will have identical effects.
However, ‘in this place, show me a ruby’s radiance’ also materialised a flame. This is just a guess, but it could be because when I imagined a ruby’s radiance, I imagined a brilliant red flame.
I haven’t figured out how the image, the magic language and æther work together, but it should be safe to a.s.sume that a spell is cast by directing æther with the magic language according to an image you hold in your mind. As a result, it should be possible for a flame to appear with the words ‘ruby’s radiance’.
That said, no matter how impressive an incantation may be, a simple chant like ‘O flames’ is far more practical.
“Whatever, I’ll just use these incantations for now.”
With a basic grasp on the laws of magic, I can potentially make my own original incantations. However, it’s more important to learn to sense æther first.
I can come up with incantations later.
1 It’s a valid translation!
2 I am surprised to say, wheeze is a legitimate onomatopoeia.
3 No way?! How is this possible?!
4 I’m having a hard time deciding which is worse, flammable robes or abominable clamminess&h.e.l.lip;
5 No, I’m pretty sure it just vaporizes way before you get close.