Master and Disciple
Master and Disciple
The bond of master and disciple that mages formed was ultimately close to a formal procedure.
Unlike the contract I had with Merdela, it didn't involve an imprint contract, nor did it impose any other prohibition. It only officially made us master and disciple, but in reality, it was at a level that could be called no different from a schoolteacher and student relationship. Objectively speaking, it was merely that traditionalist mages, who believed in the power of words and language and even avoided lies, placed great meaning on such formal procedures.
But just as knights and nobles strove to follow codes like chivalry and noblesse oblige even though breaking them wasn't a death sentence, this too was an important code and rule for mages.
"A long time passed, and we have finally become master and disciple, so I will help you, and I trust without doubt that you will also help me."
Therefore, just through the utterly unremarkable words of Widra, he and I became master and disciple. I hadn't felt like I was reaching a turning point in my life or gotten sentimental for no reason.
Since nothing dramatic would change, we wrapped up our light chat appropriately and began discussing substantive work and the lesson plan for me.
"Regarding your lessons, we will have another meeting with Seneran to coordinate, but it seems we will need to start by improving the method of using your Magic Power."
Widra... no, Teacher's explanation fortunately gave me no trouble understanding.
The method I was using then to kindle a small flame or strengthen my body was, to use a simple analogy, close to just setting fire to the raw material called Magic Power to get heat.
Mages and aura users learned their own refining methods to refine Magic Power, and created a kind of fuel tank inside their bodies along with a brazier to efficiently kindle fire using it. The path to higher levels lay in expanding that tank, storing higher-purity Mana and aura, and strengthening and upgrading the brazier for more efficient combustion. Those who only learned refining and neglected the rest commonly used Mana and aura unstably, just like my method.
"Of course, you yourself would not have felt it was unstable. That's how Demonfolk are."
Demonfolk are born with an innate sensitivity to Magic Power. They are also born knowing how to refine it, so even simply kindling it lets them wield power. But that doesn't mean there are no drawbacks.
The appearance the Demonfolk I met in the abandoned dungeon had shown was exactly that result.
"Lighting a fire is fine, but it's like placing an ember in a field covered with dry grass without any preparation. If you don't extinguish it quickly, it becomes uncontrollable, and you burn to death in that moment."
That was why humans literally went poof and exploded when they tried to use Magic Power. Magic Power was such an enormous ember that it left no margin for even the slightest mistake.
"But the Magic Power flowing through your body... is probably your own way of using it. You didn't simply kindle a fire to pour strength recklessly into your body; you created a kind of pathway. And as for the physical side—I don't know what method you used, but you've maintained a state where one could say Magic Power has seeped into your body."
Roughly translating Teacher's words with modern expressions, it meant my muscle fibers had become composite fibers mixed with Magic Power fibers.
What came to mind as soon as I heard it was the process of my strength training where I had stressed my muscles with Magic Power.
It was something I did while recalling bits of information I'd picked up in my past life, wondering if I could accelerate the tearing and super-recovery process of muscle fibers, but it brought about a completely unexpected result.
I was a roider!
Oh, wait, or not? Magic Power is strictly a natural force, so could I consider this natural? More importantly, fuck, I wasn't going to end up like those demon bastards, was I?
"Do you have any guesses?"
"...Ah... no? I have no idea."
But no matter how he was my teacher, I couldn't tell him that. It wasn't like this world had no anatomy, but it was absolutely not information a five-year-old country brat could have been exposed to from a young age. In the end, I had no choice but to bury the truth related to what Teacher had figured out and brush it off as a product of chance.
"That could be. In the first place, the very fact that you, a human, can use Magic Power is a miracle, so it's not strange. I think it wouldn't be out of place to say you received the Demon God's blessing. Though I can't fathom why the god of the Demonfolk granted such a blessing to a human."
Even though he kept producing reasoning and hypotheses close to the truth, I couldn't confirm them, so I was really in an awkward position. I had to hide my twitching expression and pretend to be a disciple listening attentively to his teacher.
"The story's gone on a tangent for a moment. Anyway, it's certain that it's a highly desirable phenomenon for both you and me. Even the Magic Organ that Demonfolk construct inside their bodies isn't perfect. That's something only dragons can do. So even Demonfolk, if they make a mistake when using Magic Power, can suffer irreversible damage from backflow or rampage. But you have a safety mechanism... no, you could say you have a condition where you'd never suffer that kind of damage at all."
Magic Power was ultimately a force that filled the world like air. Lighting a fire without generating one's own Magic Organ was no different from striking a match on a floor overflowing with oil, claiming you'd only burn as much as you wanted. So Teacher's confident hypothesis was that if there were going to be a problem, it would have already occurred long ago and killed me.
Having suddenly gained a systematic understanding of why people died when they tried to use Magic Power, I offered a prayer of thanks to Epaga and then asked a question.
"Then the difference in strength among Demonfolk comes from the completeness of their Magic Organ?"
"That's right. Unfortunately, that area was something both Seneran and I could only approach theoretically, so I can't give you a clear answer right away. Still, I can help you with the process of creating the Magic Organ itself, so rest assured."
It was one of my long-standing questions.
There were methods to raise the purity of aura and Mana close to the raw stone of Magic Power, but assuming Demonfolk weren't much different from me, it was clear they also used raw Magic Power.
But that nail-wielding bastard I encountered during the Esmue kidnapping incident was clearly beyond my ability to defeat. There was a definite limit to my method, so I couldn't figure out how to get stronger, and the answer turned out to lie in a structure like a car engine.
I didn't regret not having thought of it. The aura and Mana usage methods I could access up close were closer to a brazier, not an engine, as I described earlier, so I naturally assumed that was just how it worked. It wasn't like I had deep knowledge about engines from my past life, and if I hadn't heard this explanation, it would probably have taken me a long time to figure it out on my own.
Just learning the reason was a huge gain, so I could nod in satisfaction.
After finishing with the words, "So the first thing we need to do is to create a Magic Organ," Teacher suddenly, as if it had just occurred to him, brought up a different topic.
"Come to think of it, the young lady of House Ogatorf visited today."
"Sheryl? She's not learning magic, is she?"
"Right. She came to ask if you'd be enrolling as a student at the academy. I said it probably wouldn't happen, and she looked extremely disappointed."
"Reading her expression must be no easy feat—you're impressive."
"Well...? I think it's more like she showed such a definite reaction that anyone could have noticed back then..."
Hmm. I only learned the concrete details of how things would proceed two days ago, so I meant to bring it up once everything was settled. Looks like things got a little tangled.
"Anyway, my lessons will be close to magical defense arts, so the young lady of Ogatorf will end up attending them anyway, and it will come out naturally then, but since I've been indebted to them, going to talk to her in person might be a good idea."
He seemed to be offering his advice while recalling Sheryl's likely disappointed reaction, but at his naïve suggestion, I could only shake my head and stand up.
"That won't be necessary. She's probably already at my house."
"...Huh?"
With her personality, there was no way she'd meekly return to the dorms while still disappointed. I'd bet my damn hand she'd headed to my house to demand why I hadn't given her a heads-up. Maybe by now she was feeling frustrated after realizing we'd missed each other on the way.
"So I think I should head home first today before her whining gets worse. The work starts tomorrow, right?"
"It's not exactly 'work,' but yes. You can come at 2 p.m. tomorrow. It's a kind of experiential learning to prepare before the real lessons begin, so it won't end too late."
"Understood. Then I'll see you tomorrow, Teacher."
After agreeing to settle the details afterward, I said goodbye politely and slipped out of the professor's office. There was no way a frustrated Sheryl would act rudely to Asilie, but if she got upset for no reason, I'd be the one who had to deal with it, so it was a pain.