Mask (2)

The Nano World.

A small log cabin on the outskirts of the Rodriguez territory.

A deep, resonant hum filled the air.

Illys was drifting through surging mana, free as if swimming underwater—like a little mermaid in her own private sea. Her golden hair floated and glittered in the air, and the surrounding atmosphere was pushed outward by the pressure of the mana itself.

A soft rustle of power.

A 4th Circle magic array bloomed beneath her feet—the basic formation she had used more than any other. Then the familiar pattern twisted and changed. A new cubic lattice rose above it, stacking frame upon frame as if building a structure on a flat surface. Points, lines, and planes. Spinning shapes and tangled threads of light. Every symbol crossed and interlocked until it formed a three-dimensional structure.

And Illys, eyes closed, felt the flow of every last thread of that mana.

"That's it! The world was a three-dimensional space all along!"

In the books she had studied, the world on the page had always been flat. Even when she learned magic, she had always learned from books.

"I never realized. The world we see with our eyes is only a plane."

What did that mean? The world on a television screen looked three-dimensional, yet the screen itself was flat. A picture drawn on paper, no matter how carefully shaded, remained nothing more than a plane. The human eye fundamentally recognized only the surfaces it could see; it could never perceive the front and back of an object at the same time. In other words, the eye could never grasp a true sense of three-dimensional space all at once. Front and back. Outside and inside. None of it could be known together.

"So this is space."

Through mana, Illys perceived space itself—the front and back of objects, the rear and the underside, the exterior and the interior—all at once. That stage of perception was a mage's 5th Circle: a level of awareness ordinary humans could never measure.

"It's beautiful."

Tears welled in her eyes. The fullness space offered. The regret of having lived seeing only one face of the world, and the deep satisfaction of finally feeling the world's true form.

A mage with four circles could already be called gifted. With talent, study, and effort, climbing to the fourth stage was within reach. But from the 5th Circle onward, it was a stage of enlightenment—something no one else could teach. If someone told you that you had to see front and back, outside and inside, all at once, would you then be able to see it? If they told you that was the true face of the world, would the vision simply appear? That was why a towering wall stood at the 5th Circle. Talent was only the foundation; enlightenment was required to climb higher. Even a life devoted solely to magical training might not be enough. Only by walking the path of a seeker might one catch the faintest glimpse of that truth. That was the kind of stage the 5th Circle was.

And yet she was a lord who governed worldly people—a path so far from the road of absolute truth.

The light slowly subsided.

A sparkle.

Illys opened her eyes.

"Ah… so this is the 5th Circle!"

The way she saw the world had changed. Tears she had not meant to shed ran down her cheeks. The seeker's path she had abandoned had returned to her arms once more.

"How can I ever repay this?"

Thanks to the Constellation's patronage, her impoverished territory had come back to life. She had been forced to give up on magical achievement as well… and now she was 5th Circle. Without the knowledge the Constellation had given her, she would never have reached it. That much was certain.

Illys thought hard. What should she offer? What would the Constellation like?

One idea rose clearly to mind. As far as she could tell, the Constellation was utterly sincere about semiconductors.

"If I make a mask for him, he'll like it, won't he?"

Like a girl baking cookies for someone special, color rose in Illys's cheeks.

"View Image."

Flushing prettily, she cast the spell—magic that projected the image in her mind so others could see it ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠as well. Even with the same spell, however, the 4th Circle and the 5th Circle were worlds apart. If a 4th Circle rendering of a semiconductor from a blueprint looked like the blocky, rigid shapes of a 1990s 3D game, the 5th Circle version was nearly photorealistic.

Through the 5th Circle she had grasped space. Now the entire three-dimensional circuit of a semiconductor was visible to her at once.

"So that's why they connected it this way."

Logic was the same. There was no longer any need to calculate each piece laboriously. Just as the answer "two" simply came to mind without grinding through one plus one, the logic circuits read like a language—and in three dimensions, no less. Having become 5th Circle and able to feel space all at once, everything was far too easy.

Illys lifted a single GPU.

"They made this fairly naturally."

Because she could see it, she could evaluate it—the flow of mana running through the semiconductor, the electrical mana the Constellation called electricity.

"But if this section connected like this, and that part linked through this line instead, it would be simpler, wouldn't it?"

Through 5th Circle eyes, she could simply see how the connections should go to make a cleaner circuit.

"Then shall I draw it properly?"

Illys floated mana into the empty air.

A soft rush of power.

"First, lay down the silicon."

She spread a layer of mana at the very bottom, and she called that mana-laid layer a silicon wafer.

"Then I have to plant the transistors into the silicon wafer."

Her hands danced through the air. She moved the mana as if playing a piano, drawing an extremely complex three-dimensional design.

A deep hum vibrated through the entire workshop, as though the air itself were trembling.

"The Constellation gave me a CPU and a GPU, and told me to take them apart and reverse-engineer them. He also said that the trend is shifting from concentrated calculation to distributed calculation."

She hummed as she worked, almost as if she were singing.

"A CPU is one brilliant genius. A GPU is a thousand ordinary people."

Her fingers danced on, playing with mana.

"The hard problems go to the genius; the heavy volume goes to the thousand. Heh. Then what if there were a hundred thousand people?"

The mana twisted and coiled—simple and complex all at once. She built a structure of a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠hundred thousand processing units, each with reduced CPU performance, linked in parallel.

"This is the Rodriguez Processing Unit. I name it the LPU."

Before Illys's eyes floated the design of a three-dimensional composite LPU—a semiconductor blueprint woven entirely of mana.

"Remember this. Mana Engraving!"

"Shall I head outside now?"

Illys opened the door of the log cabin.

"Huh?"

Outside, a great many people were waiting for their lord to emerge. Illys looked around with startled eyes. Administrator Bruce stepped forward.

"My lord… could it be… that your realm has…?"

Looking at the people tense with hope, Illys broke into a bright smile.

"Yes. I've reached the 5th Circle now."

"I knew it!"

The administrator turned and shouted to those behind him.

"Our lord has reached the 5th Circle!"

"Wow! Long live the lord!"

"Congratulations!"

"My lord! Long live!"

The 4th Circle and the 5th Circle were entirely different realms. If a 4th Circle mage was an ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠excellent mage, a 5th Circle mage was a strategic weapon. Of course, magic circles existed beyond the sixth as well—but to even see a 6th Circle, one had to go to a magic tower. At the 6th Circle, one could claim at least the position of deputy tower master at any tower one chose. In the first place, the masters of most ordinary magic towers were themselves 6th Circle. The 7th Circle was called a sage. Across an entire continent, one might count only a handful of them, and wherever they settled, a magic tower took root. An 8th Circle appeared perhaps once every few centuries across the whole continent, and the 9th Circle belonged only to myth. So a 5th Circle lord was, in any realistic sense, the highest caliber of mage-lord one could hope to see.

"My lord. Congratulations."

"Thank you."

Having received their congratulations, Illys called for Ralph.

"Ralph. Look at this."

She summoned the LPU she had just created. Ralph stared at the complex form floating in midair.

"What is this?"

"I designed it."

Seeing that three-dimensional figure, Ralph's eyes went wide.

"You ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠designed this yourself, my lord?"

Smiling, Illys raised her voice toward the gathered crowd.

"By the Constellation's grace, I have risen to the 5th Circle. There is no way to fully repay that grace—but I do know one thing the Constellation will surely love."

Every eye fixed on her.

"It is a mask! The mold used to print semiconductors!"

"Ooooh!"

Illys put steel into her voice.

"Ralph!"

"Yes, my lord!"

"We're going to make a mask."

Ralph answered with equal force.

"I'll make it the finest work we've ever done."

"I'm counting on you."

Illys set off at once for the prayer chamber. She wore a prayer robe like a white dress—and now that life had become just livable enough, there was even room to refine the garment a little. She looked as if she were wearing an elegant gown.

"Constellation!"

Illys offered a prayer calling upon the Constellation—and soon the Constellation answered.

"Constellation. Do you happen to have any glass plates?"

"Yes. If you give me glass plates, I will make a mask and offer it up."

"Yes. I designed one. Thanks to you, Constellation, I've reached the 5th Circle. You said GPUs are the trend in your world these days, so I'll design one with greater computational throughput than the GPU you gave me and record it on a mask."

"Not at all. It is entirely thanks to your knowledge, Constellation. If anything, I am the one who should be grateful."

"Yes! I'll work hard to make them!"

Illys smiled radiantly.

A few days later.

Illys summoned Ralph and the other master craftsmen.

"The Constellation has sent us something."

"Ooooh!"

"Let's go!"

"Yes, ma'am!"

On a broad open lot, what Illys summoned were four black buildings.

"What are those buildings?"

"Glass plates."

"Glass plates for masks?"

"That's right."

As always, Ralph understood at a word.

"Each black building holds twenty-five layers of glass. On each layer, I will draw the pattern in mana, and all of you will paint that design."

"So we need to draw a hundred pictures in total?"

"Exactly."

Illys and the dwarf craftsmen gathered atop the glass of the first floor of the first building.

A vast surge of light!

As Illys raised her mana, a magic array of blue light was carved into the empty air. To the people of the Nano World, the enormous glass plate was the size of a sports field—and the mana pattern Illys created was just as large, though it towered far higher still.

"I have projected the first layer of the LPU semiconductor design I created onto the glass plate we are standing on. You will engrave these drawings into the glass with metal."

"My lord. So if you draw a portion of the three-dimensional figure onto the glass plate, we just redraw that same picture in metal?"

"Precisely."

"Meaning you divide the three-dimensional figure you made into a hundred layers, and we engrave each layer into a glass plate with metal, one by one?"

"Yes. That's correct."

Ralph bellowed.

"Listen up, lads! You got that?"

"We got it, boss. We just follow the picture the lord draws and engrave it in metal, right? Even a newborn dwarf can trace lines."

"Oi! This is an offering to the Constellation! Put your heart into every single line and every last dot!"

But as they prepared to draw on the glass, a few of the dwarves raised a problem.

"Boss. There's curvature in the glass."

"Whoa, you're right. It's bumpy."

"Boss. Looks like we need to start with a planarization job."

Ralph examined the glass plates that had come from the Constellation. The unevenness was not severe, but to nano-scale eyes it was unmistakably present. He gave the order.

"Right. Everyone starts with planarization."

"Yes!"

And so the planarization work began. First they smoothed the glass, then they traced Illys's drawings. Ralph supervised the work as he moved among them.

"Oi! That one's crooked!"

The dwarf he pointed out looked at the line he had drawn. It was a perfect straight line, and he stared at Ralph as if to ask what he was talking about. Ralph clicked his tongue and strode over.

"Tsk, tsk. Look here. You're holding this metal in your hand, aren't you?"

"Yes."

"If you're holding it by hand, the temperature went up, right? And that side's cold. But you're going to let go eventually, aren't you? Then the metal cools and contracts. That means error."

"Ah!"

Dwarves of the Nano World, who would not tolerate even an error on the scale of atomic vibration from body heat. They focused with absolute intensity and engraved metal patterns onto the glass plates. Precise designs were carved, layer by layer.

The scale of the work meant it did not finish quickly. But dwarf craftsmanship was always accurate, and it always produced results.

"Done!"

"Yes!"

When a hundred masks were completed, applause erupted across the plaza. Ralph wiped the sweat from his brow.

"The Constellation will definitely like this."

Illys nodded as well.

"Of course. This isn't just a design. This is Rodriguez's heart, offered to the Constellation."

On the outskirts of the Rodriguez territory stood four black buildings. The hundred glass plates within them had been reborn as masks marked with intricate patterns.

A soft rustle of cloth.

Illys spun in place, and in a moment her clothes had changed into a white prayer robe. Spreading her dress wide, she sank to her knees. Before her eyes rose the four enormous black buildings—structures holding a hundred glass plates engraved with patterns.

"Constellation. I offer this prayer. Please accept our tribute!"

Turning her face slightly to the left, Illys raised a prayer offering their gift to the Constellation.