Year 7442, Month 4, Day 19
The next morning when I woke up my head hurt from a terrible hangover. I know that I can recover from it with detoxification magic but a simple resolution is bad for
the health, or rather if I get strangely used to it, I just don"t want to get into a habit of heavy drinking. It"s not like there"s an urgent crisis I have to take
care of either, if I go running and sweat a bit I"m sure it"ll calm down. I drink plenty of water before going for a slightly long run, after taking a shower just as
I thought I felt refreshed so I decided to go and get some breakfast. I thought for a bit about where to go but since I promised to help with magic training I
decided to go to Binsil"s restaurant. If you say I have no taste then it"s true but being able to talk in j.a.panese is valuable and I want to leave Mary and Kuro with
as good of an impression of me as I can so I"m not particularly discontent. The food is good as well.
I head towards Binsil"s restaurant and break through the encirclement of poor people staring at customers that are eating then sit at the usual seat on the edge and
order a breakfast set. Black bread and soup, with some pickled vegetables on the side. Mm, it"s the usual menu. However, you can normally drink the soup and the
content of the vegetables always changes so there"s no getting bored of it. I think it"s profit to get this for 250 Z. I always ask for an additional parched egg for
50 Z though. If you add some salt and seasonings then place it on the black bread it goes together quite well.
After keeping an eye that I finished eating Mary sat across from me.
"I tried doing the magic training for the day yesterday but... I wonder if I have no talent? It was no good."
Mary said sadly.
"Then it might take some time but do you want to try the normal method?"
"Eh? The normal method..Yeah, would you teach me?"
Why is she getting red and embarra.s.sed? The fidgeting disease?
"Do you have a kindling magic tool?"
"We have one. I"ll bring it."
I was looking at Mary who went to the kitchen while somehow disappointed and started searching through my pocket. I thought there might be one magic stone or so left
but of course that wasn"t the case.
"According to what I heard this is the normal training magic. I think there are other methods but I don"t know them. To explain it simply you leave the flame from a
kindling magic tool running. And you use the small magic {Cantrip} mana detection and just keep repeating detection. If you do it enough times then it seems you"ll
be able to use the void magic mana detection."
"Eh? Leave the flame running, won"t that use quite a few magic stones?"
"Of course. Since it uses mana from the magic stone while the fire is going after all."
Mary bites her lower lip and a crease appears in her eyebrows.
"If that"s the case then it"s a bit impossible. I can"t waste magic stones."
"I see, then, I"m sure it"s difficult but there"s no choice than to do as I taught you yesterday."
Hmhn~ This might be the reason why only the people more wealthy than commoners can use magic in the city. In Bakkudo it was a custom for the lord to give serfs a
small magic stone when they become adults in order to practice acquiring magic. Even then o
nly about one in ten was able to acquire magic.
If you don"t have a magic stone then there"s no choice other than to buy one but even the cheapest ones from Goblins cost over 1000 Z. Especially when the only way
to obtain magic stones is a magic tool shop in a large city like "Magic Tool 7-9 Shop" and it"s rare for a low value magic stone taken from a single goblin to be
lined up as well I"m sure. Even if you had a lot of low value ones managing the stock would be annoying after all, if you"re taking stock at fixed periods it would
just increase the amount of office work as well. I doubt they count the inventory though.
I"m sure it"s only n.o.bles and wealthy shops that purchase magic stones. It"s easy to imagine it"s all corporate* youths. That"s why the magic stones that it"s
possible buy are all valued at several 10,000 or 100,000 Z in price. Of course they"re using both lighting and kindling magic tools at Binsil"s restaurant but that"s
using it as a business. Since it would take too much effort to often go and buy cheap magic stones and I"m sure changing them out is annoying as well. They probably
only go and buy a reasonably expensive one when the mana in the magic stone runs out.
Even a magic stone production family like mine where we went out hunting monsters on a daily basis and collected magic stones I was taught to avoid wasting magic
stones as much as possible. If they"re a consumer then I"m sure they would be far more stricter than my house with the usage of them.
If you were to use a kindling magic tool, which is said to consume a small amount of mana from magic stones, with a magic stone with a value of about 100 (900Z
selling price at 7-9 shop), then it can make a flame for about 100 seconds. So it uses up 9Z per seconds. It"s understandable that it would considered a waste. Even
in our village the magic stone father gave to serfs when they became adults was one combined from about 7-8 goblins. That means it would be able to make a flame for
about 1000 seconds. Hm, I wonder how many times you can use small magic in 1000 seconds. I"m sure you would have to split it into several days but around 200 times I
guess. If you do it about that many times then you can for the first time know whether or not you can learn void magic.
"Will you show me an example one more time?"
"Sure. Let"s try doing it."
Mary brings the thin stick used for kindling the furnace. After setting fire to it I put my hands around Mary"s hands around the flame and start pa.s.sing mana through
them. Mary"s making a serious face she tries to feel the sensation of the mana pa.s.sing through. Honestly speaking, I think there"s only about a 10% chance that Mary
will be able to use magic so don"t think it can be helped expecting too much. Well, I think it should be fine if she does it until she"s satisfied. I can really
understand the feeling after all. I guess I"ll give her a bit of a hint.
"There"s a bit of a trick to pa.s.sing mana through. This is my method so it"s not definite but try matching an opened hand in your imagination. While you remain aware
of the mana circulating through your body. Probably..I guess so, just try to imagine as if the mana has melted into your blood. And then, in your imagination connect
your hands and think that the blood vessels in both of your hands are connected together. While making sure that the point where you"ve matched your hands together
in your imagination overlaps the flame. After that it"s patience and frequency I"m sure. If you have talent then you should be able to do it by today."
"I understand. I"ll try doing it. Thanks."
"It"s fine, I have plenty of time to spare for the time being after all. Give it your best. I"ll try coming back again tonight when Kuro should be here."
On my way home from Binsil"s restaurant I remember how it"s been over 10 years already since I started training magic for the first time. If I remember correctly
older brother, older sister, and I were all able to do it within the first 10 minutes. It"s probably no good for Mary. I feel it"s a bit of waste even though she has
16 MP.
Just like that I headed towards the headquarters of the knight group. I had something I wanted to ask about the Begulu A that they have their hands full with. I go
to the cabin on the side of the gate and check the jobs for adventurers while asking the 20 year old or so receptionist about it.
"It seems there"s no jobs today as well."
"Of course. If there were always subjugation jobs it would be terrible."
"That is true isn"t it. By the way, does the knight group not exterminate or arrest the outlaws in the town?"
"Exterminate... They"re not monsters..Well, I guess they"re similar."
Just like this I lead the conversation Begulu as if it"s social chat. And then it comes out and just keeps coming out, one after another crimes that Begulu was
supposedly involved with came out. It seems that the knight group really wants to take him out but can"t catch his tail. It seems that Sendehel the leader was called
out once to face down Begulu but there was no definite evidence, and he just acted as if he was a good citizen who was properly paying taxes, so blood vessel came
out in his head and went into a rage against him. It"s true that the knight group that protects the order and rules in Keel can"t arrest someone without evidence.
"But, if he"s just doing that all over the place won"t he buy someones resentment and get killed?"
I tried asking that but,
"You"d think so right? But you know, he"s extremely careful and almost never alone it seems. Since he"s always acting together with his partner the magician, so
supposedly they can"t manage a surprise attack on him."
And replied with that. And then,
"It seems that the magician with him has quite a bit of skill as well. Since he isn"t working as an adventurer no one seems to know his real name as well. No matter
if it"s a criminal or otherwise the temple definitely won"t tell us the status information as well. Since they"re always together it seems he"s called small Begulu
though. Well, since that"s the case if you want to surprise attack him it takes the resolve to make some sacrifices. Even though he"s obviously a villain because we
have no evidence we can"t go after him with force as well. Since the opponent is a skilled magician we can"t do anything that would make victims on our end as well.
I"m sure it"s painful for the leader as well."
And added that. I see, though he"s called small Begulu, it"s not known that magicians name is really Begulu. Depending on the circ.u.mstances he might really be Begulu
B.
"It seems the knight group has it tough. By the way, I"ve heard that they"re using the lower parts of Keel as a base but the hoodlums around that area are usually
doing various bad things. Since picking fights is an everyday occurrence. Isn"t the Boss Begulu doing things together with them? Wouldn"t there be a lot of evidence?"
"Yeah, that seems to be the case. But, he really won"t let us catch his tail. The ones who do the robbery and forcing protection fees out of shops is always the
underlings. We"ve done as much as we can to block it but it"s impossible to do perfectly. When it"s a more large-scale trick it seems that Begulu takes command of
the underlings himself."
The official says with a difficult face.
"He~? Large scale trick.."
"Ah, that"s right, like attacking a caravan and stealing the goods. In that case, he kills everyone so there"s no witnesses remaining."
How do they know it was Begulu if there"s no witnesses?
"He kills everyone that could become a witness huh... That"s cruel isn"t it. By the way, how do you know it was Begulu that did it?"
"Circ.u.mstantial evidence. Though they all hide their location all the time but every time there was an attack the day before they all disappeared from Keel, and after
that they start spending money wildly. Also, the goods that were supposedly being carried are being sold by the underlings."
"Even though he"s a villain he must be quite cautious and intelligent I guess."
After hearing my impression the official sights and says.
"Yeah, really. But, it seems that the one who is intelligent is his partner the magician. Well, it doesn"t matter which but it"s true we"ve got our hands full with
him. You should be careful as well. They probably won"t attack any caravans from Bakkudo. Since the luggage is too unique they"ll get caught trying to sell it. And
the caravan from your place has Lord Greed and the young miss together as guards, so I"m sure they"d be afraid of the damage they"d take as well. It should be fine
to rest easy I think?"
Oh~ Until I was told it I didn"t think about the possibility that a caravan from Bakkudo could be attacked. But, it"s true that it"s just as this official says.
Since there"s someone from the Marquis direct bloodline with them so if they were to take some damage it would be a huge uproar, I doubt leader Sendhel would care
about evidence in a raged frenzy as well.
"Hmn, I guess so. Well then, I"ll take my leave here. I"ll stop by again sometime."
I make a bitter smile while giving salutations.
I was able to gain several pieces of important information. Probably no one other than me would realize. It"s still not enough to be completely sure but I was plenty
satisfied with feeling the progress of a step forward.
Evening, I walk through the messy road along the central river and look at the poor people that I"m used to seeing as I head towards Binsil"s restaurant and Kuro and
Mary were doing something.
It seems that Mary is teaching Kuro the magic training method I taught her. I order a beer from the older lady, call out to the two of them and sit at the same
table.
"Al, will you really be able to use magic liek this?"
Kuro says discontent probably because he wasn"t able to get any results.
"Yeah, you"ll be able to use it. Should I show you an example?"
After saying that Kruo said "Then please do" while looking at me.
"Here, you hold your hands up like this to the sides of the flame. The distance is fine like that. And then like this."
After I put my hands outside of his and send mana through and he said "muo" in reaction to the mana.
"It"s {OK} if you can cause the feeling from just now yourself. Did you hear about the method to get a hold of the sensation from Mary?"
"Yeah, that thing about imagination palms of a hand and connecting the blood vessels?"
"That"s right. Well, try doing it."
While holding his hands to the side of the tree branch that Mary is holding with a serious face, Mary and I are watching Kuro. And then, what about it. After just
concentrating for a bit over 10 seconds Kuro"s face distorted and his hands shined with blue light for a bit!
When I identified Kuro in a hurry his MP had decreased by 1. The movement of the flame was close to a measurement error but the light of magic appeared and his MP
decreased. Yeah, I"m sure you can definitely say he was able to use magic.
"Congratulations, Kuro. If you put a bit more effort into you"ll probably be able to use void magic."
I said that while smiling at Kuro.
"..That just now was...Just now was magic huh...Ffu. Fufufuffu. Aha. Alright..Mary, you saw it right. I, did it. Even I was able to use magic."
Kruo is grinning while chewing through the joy as he reports happily to Mary. I"m sure she knows since you did it right in front of her.
"You hand...shined? Your hand shined just now... Amazing, so you can really learn to use magic with this method."
It seems Mary is a bit happy as well but, "this method" and "really" I heard some things that can"t be ignored. So she was doubting it.
"Kruo should...I guess so, you should do it another 2-3 more times so you don"t forget the trick to it. Don"t try to do it in a hurry. It"s fine if you take time so
slowly, concentrate as you do it. And Mary, you said that almost as if you know a method other than the one I told you that is more believable but for reference tell
me the method you know to train with magic."
I said it to Kuro with a smile and a grimace to Mary.
"Eh? Ah, since the two methods Al taught weren"t the normal method.. A bit, umm, I couldn"t believe it... I"m sorry."
Mary raises one hand as if begging while apologizing. Well it"s fine though. But, it sounds like she already knew the normal method to train with magic. I only know
the method that Sharl thought up this method and the method that uses a kindling magic tool that I heard from Sharl? So there"s another method...
"What kind of method is The normal method that Mary is talking about? Is it different from the method I told you about?"
The method that Mary told me about to train magic seems to be the method that the citizens of Keel use. When I tried asking I understood just how inefficient of a
method it sounded.
Eh? You"re interested in it? Then I"ll say. I think you already know but the method that Sharl created to move the flame is a training method to gain the void magic
special skill. Making a small flame sway is something that can done simply physically. It can be done with just a small movement of the air. It will sway from
electrical differences and depending on the type of fuel it"s burning on it will sway from magnetic fields. The ma.s.s of a flame is extremely small and thing so it is
easily influenced. That"s the same if you use mana to shake it. It"ll easily be influenced by a small flow of mana.
After organizing up to there and thinking about it again, but Sharl might have really thought it through quite a bit when she created this method. It"s unfortunately
while the flame will easily be influenced, since it"s not a flame that you created yourself it requires a considerable amount of concentration to influence it.
Though objects (I"ll intentionally use object for the expression here) other than ones you"ve made yourself require consuming more mana than normal in order to
influence them, if it"s something as small as a flame on a tree branch it only takes about 1 MP to shake it. It"s a magic training method that only uses 1 MP and you
can quickly confirm the results and simultaneously use mana (MP), so I think it"s a truly rational and good method for training.
Compared to that, the other method I said. The method I heard from Sharl in the past about feeling the mana in the flame from a kindling magic tool, this is a method
of acquiring void magic as well. At first you use the small magic {Cantrip} detect mana and once you"ve gotten used to that you just keep on using it over and over.
If you repeat it several times a day for several days then there"s a possibility you could acquire void magic. If I were to explain the trick, this is getting used
to the small magic {Cantrip} detect mana and while getting used to touching the flowing mana countless times you wait until you awaken to the special skill of magic,
that sort of pa.s.sive method. I thought that this was the normal method.
However, the method that Mary told me about with her face red wasn"t a method to learn void magic but a method to learn elemental magic. What they all have in common
is that you go to sleep early the day before and take plenty of sleep, after waking up the next day you carefully clean your body, have s.e.xual intercourse with your
partner, eat plenty of breakfast, and then do it in a quiet environment where you"re alone it seems. It seems that s.e.xual intercourse or masturbation is fine but
since this is thought be necessary they say it"s a method that you can only start training once you become an adult. Well, up until here there"s things like a secret
ceremony involving s.e.x and masturbation but I can feel the consideration over running out of mana so it"s not that I can"t understand.
After making such preparations the next thing you do to actually start the training is what I say next.
You hold something small and burning (you pour a bit of sperm or juices gathered in the morning on to a paper) in your hand and stare at that while just repeating
"burn" in your mind or put your clenched fist above a cup or something and just keep thinking "sperm/love juices come out" and that sort of thing that would make you
wonder if they"re developing a love potion or training ESP? Or at least it"s a method that"s close to that. I wanted to ask about earth magic and wind magic as well
but I was told "stop with the s.e.xual hara.s.sment already" so I gave up. In other words, if you were to ask me, if you can learn to use magic like that aren"t you a
genius? was my opinion.
For the most part, I think they"re all active methods of acquiring magic like shaking the flame but I don"t think it"s even worth a comparison in how difficult they
are. Furthermore, the method of learning void magic that Mary said was to materialize void magic using the small magic {Cantrip} Reservation. I think that"s a pretty
high hurdle to do from the start.
However, since there"s actually people who can learn the special skill magic using that method it seems it"s normally believed in. Mary was saying that this is a
method that was made more efficient and polished over a long period of time it seems. Of course, since the j.a.panese that reincarnated in this world won"t have used
magic so if you were to say that this is the correct way to learn magic and there"s actually been people who learned it using this method, if several people were to
say that there"s no option other than to believe it. I"m sure even I would have believed it. Since it"s a content where you have s.e.x and use your own body fluids as
a intermediary for the magic, cabaret was it? Since it seems like a secret art I think it"s easier to believe.
Most likely, in order protection against mana exhaustion to some extent, in order to make sure they"re older than an adult they probably used s.e.x and masturbation to
leave an impression, since there"s not much other amusing things they probably made sure the content was connected with s.e.x. When I tried imagining a young couple of
15-16 years old holding a piece of paper with their fluids stuck to it staring at it with a serious face and saying "Come my!/Burn!" and I felt this somehow
inexplicable helpless feeling.
At the very least I"ve never heard of this method in Bakkudo, and I"ve never heard anything like that talked about in the indecent conversations between rubber
production so it must be a difference between what they"re told in the countryside and city. If it"s a city other than Keel, for example the capital Rombertia I"m
sure it was handed down quite a bit different. Well, culture is something that develops with roots in the customs of that area and the majority of people will never
move from that land so even if it"s the same it will different based on the area I"m sure.
By the way after concentrating for another hour until he was exhausted Kuro used up another 3 MP and was safely able to get void magic to level 0. I think there"s a
90% chance that Mary can"t use magic but it seems she"ll put a bit more effort into it.
Well, do as you please. I"ll be rooting for you from the shadows.