Chapter 35: Ancient Magic?
Chapter 35: Ancient Magic?
“Um, Miss Pana.”
“Yes?”
Pana, who had been deeply focused on adjusting the cavalry sprite dots, answered in a noticeably higher pitch, apparently startled. Ras waited until she turned around before continuing.
“There’s something I wanted to ask. Do you happen to know anyone around you who has a good artistic sense like you and is interested in games?”
“Ah! Are we increasing the graphics staff?”
Pana’s face brightened immediately. In the beginning, she had endured the work because of money, and now she had gradually gotten used to it and found satisfaction in seeing the games she participated in receive praise. But every now and then, she still wondered whether she could keep doing this forever.
“Yes. It feels like you’re working too hard, Miss Pana, and the workload just keeps increasing.”
“Yes! Yes! Please hire more people!”
Ras gave a bitter smile at Pana’s reaction. He hadn’t expected it to be this extreme. Even though they had grown fairly close, it seemed she still found it difficult to complain first or ask for more staff.
“Alright. But do you know anyone suitable?”
“Ah, well... I do know quite a few friends who are good at drawing. I’ll ask around after work today.”
“Yes, please do. Since they’ll be working together with you, try to recommend someone reliable if possible.”
“Yes!”
The way she answered with such a bright smile, combined with her small frame, almost made Ras give her a fatherly smile. If he hadn’t remembered she was actually much older than him, he really might have.
Working together all this time had made him realize that Elves weren’t drastically different from humans.
Then again, perhaps things would have been different in the distant past when races lived in entirely separate environments. But now they all lived together in cities, so naturally the differences had become less noticeable.
As Ras was about to return to his seat, his gaze suddenly shifted toward Garazt.
For graphics and computer-related work, there weren’t really any established professionals, so he had naturally thought of relying on personal connections. But then he realized there was no need to post recruitment notices and gamble on complete strangers for programmers either.
After all, Garazt attended university. Surely he knew at least a few talented people.
“Mr. Garazt.”
“Yes?”
Garazt reacted quite defensively. Since Ras had already piled so much work on him, he was probably afraid more assignments were coming.
“Do you happen to know any talented people from your university who you’d recommend? I’m thinking of hiring more programmers.”
“Ah... Ah! Of course I do!”
At Garazt’s reaction, the first thought that popped into Ras’s head was: I made games entirely by myself at first, so what’s with all this fuss?
But he quickly realized that was an old-fashioned mindset, which internally shocked him.
No, no. I’m still a teenager right now, aren’t I?
By now, Ras had become so accustomed to his youthful appearance that he had practically erased the image of himself as a middle-aged man from his mind. Though if he thought about it more carefully, he might have realized that being shocked by his own old-man mentality was itself perfectly appropriate for the age he had been back on Earth.
In any case, Ras asked Garazt for talent recommendations as well.
Unfortunately, there didn’t seem to be anyone currently free, so they couldn’t hire anyone immediately. Still, Ras had expected it to take a month or two anyway, so he simply asked him to look around during that time.
After returning to his seat, Ras continued working on logic design until 6 PM, when he finally left work. Working at the company itself was manageable enough, but going to Bert’s house afterward for lessons was honestly exhausting.
He had still been motivated while riding there in a taxi, but the very first thought that came to mind when Bert declared the lesson over two hours later was this:
This is brutal.
In any case, since class was over, Ras slowly gathered his belongings.
By the time the lesson ended, it was around 9 PM. Naturally, the view outside the classroom window was pitch black. Bert followed Ras’s gaze toward the darkness outside before speaking.
“Good work today. But nights can be dangerous, so I’ll at least walk you to the bus stop.”
“Ah, no, it’s fine.”
Ras initially thought there wasn’t much meaning in a frail-looking woman accompanying him. But then he belatedly remembered she was a mage.
He didn’t know much about it, but even though mages had supposedly lost much of their combat significance in the modern age, he figured someone with a doctoral degree in magic could probably manage basic self-defense.
After all, he had personally seen Nebrania tie up robbers before.
Still, there was no need for her to escort him.
“I’m just going to take a taxi. Could I borrow your phone for a moment?”
He could simply call one. The beautiful mage looked momentarily surprised, as though it hadn’t occurred to her. Apparently she wasn’t wealthy enough to casually ride taxis everywhere herself. Then she nodded.
“Ah, of course.”
Being escorted at night by a beautiful mage sounded like it could have been an interesting experience. But Ras was too exhausted to suffer through a crowded bus ride.
This world didn’t even have mobile phones, much less portable radios outside of bulky military-use equipment strapped to people’s backs, so even calling a taxi required quite a wait. If he had anticipated it, he would have called in advance, but tonight all he could do was wait.
Bert had briefly disappeared while Ras was using the phone earlier, and apparently she had gone to brew tea.
“Here, have some.”
“Thank you.”
Maybe he was assigning too much meaning to everything, but the thought of tea brewed by a mage felt oddly mysterious. Though the taste itself was completely ordinary. It wasn’t any different from the tea Diska brewed at the office. It was probably even the same brand.
Ras quietly sipped the tea while gauging the atmosphere and choosing his words carefully. Waiting for a taxi that might arrive at any time was boring, and naturally, he also wanted to become closer with a beautiful high-ranking mage.
“Um... Teacher, do you usually conduct magic research?”
He was genuinely curious as well. From what he had observed while coming here repeatedly for lessons, she didn’t seem particularly poor.
Ras paid considerable tuition fees, but there was no way that alone could maintain a house like this while also filling it with books and various items. She clearly had some sort of main profession. But since they still weren’t close enough to call it personal friendship, he carefully phrased the question indirectly.
“Hm? Ah, yes. I do.”
Bert answered reflexively at first.
But after thinking about it, there wasn’t really any reason to hide it. Over the course of several lessons, she had found him to be a polite young man, and in any case, he was now her student. Besides, Ras had already told her that he made games.
It didn’t seem inappropriate to at least tell him roughly what kind of work she did.
“Well... actually, I research ancient magic.”
“Ancient magic?”
Immediately, terrifying magic from the books flashed through Ras’s mind. Human sacrifice, offerings, walking dead, demons — the dark past of magic, all thoroughly forbidden in the present age.
But since Ras was deeply interested in magic, he had also studied quite a bit of magical history and theory. He knew such things represented only one portion of ancient magic, so instead of reacting with horror, he simply waited quietly.
“Yes. Magic that fell into obscurity because it’s no longer used in the modern era. Most people believe such magic became obsolete as civilization advanced, but many people disagree with that view.”
Bert awkwardly smiled while fiddling with her teacup. Unless someone suffered from delusions of grandeur or excessive self-consciousness, admitting that one belonged to a non-mainstream underdog field naturally felt embarrassing.
Still, she believed her work was meaningful, which was why she had chosen this difficult path in the first place. So she decided to speak more confidently.
“But I think that viewpoint is far too arrogant. Certainly, ancient magic may seem useless right now, but since nobody knows how the world will develop in the future, useful applications could still emerge someday. Even spirit magic, which is considered mainstream today, received very little attention just three hundred years ago.”
In other words, all forgotten magic should be excavated and preserved for the future. Ras didn’t find her opinion unpleasant or unreasonable, and since it was a fairly moderate viewpoint, he simply nodded quietly.
“And even aside from that, magic itself is a great body of knowledge left behind by our ancestors. Preserving it is simply the right thing to do.”
She had spoken cautiously at first, but by this point, passion had entered her voice. Seeing her reveal emotion like this slightly diminished her mysterious aura, but it also made Ras feel like he understood her better and had grown closer to her.
“That’s true. Knowledge shouldn’t be judged solely by immediate usefulness.”
Ras nodded along while recalling arguments back on Earth about increasing investment in basic science research. Bert seemed pleased by his response and gave him a faint smile.
After exchanging a few more words, the sound of a horn came from outside the window.
Honk honk!
“Looks like the taxi’s here.”
“Yes. Then I’ll be going now. I’ll see you again tomorrow.”
Perhaps because of their conversation, his fatigue felt somewhat lighter. Ras descended the stairs and returned home in the taxi waiting outside the dark apartment entrance.
A week passed before he knew it after vacation ended.
The war game was already charging straight ahead since the planning and logic design had been completed. Meanwhile, Nebrania had just finished inputting the fifteenth track for the rhythm game and handed it over to Ras.
“How is it?”
“Yes. It sounds good.”
By now, Ras had already become accustomed to music of this quality, so he merely nodded with a calm expression. Nebrania honestly still felt like the sound quality was awful, so the praise didn’t particularly please her.
Still, she now had a rough understanding of the computer’s performance limitations, so instead of arguing, she simply gave a bitter smile. But there was still something she wanted to say.
“By the way... are you really sure we don’t need more songs?”
The work definitely hadn’t been easy. But from Nebrania’s perspective, the number of tracks still felt far too low.
“Yes. This is enough.”
“Even so, fourteen songs feels way too few. This thing costs fifty Del.”
Since joining the game company, Nebrania had learned various things through magazines and newspapers, and one thing that shocked her was the price of games. She had always known computers were expensive, but she never realized simple entertainment software could cost this much.
The type of recording medium she was familiar with was music records. And people naturally judged things according to what they already knew. To her, selling fourteen low-quality songs she had worked on for fifty Del felt absurdly excessive.
“It’s fine. It’s still an unfamiliar genre, so this amount is just right. And if it succeeds, we can always sell additional songs later, so don’t worry.”
“Okaaay...”
Nebrania still didn’t really understand his reasoning, but since the responsibility for decisions belonged to the boss anyway, she simply nodded.
Ras grinned at her and returned to his seat holding the diskette. Once he finished placing the note nodes for these songs, the game would essentially be complete, which put him in a good mood.
And even the node work was mostly automated now thanks to the tool he had running. It only required minor adjustments, so in reality, the game was practically finished already.
Thus, he worked with a light heart until the telephone rang.
“Boss, it’s Barbal Soft.”
Ras, who had wondered who was calling, immediately stood and headed toward the telephone after hearing Diska’s words. He had planned to contact them after finishing the rhythm game, so he wondered why they had called first instead.
As always, President Roxy himself was on the line. After exchanging a few greetings, he got straight to the point.
“Mr. Ras, do you have any interest in overseas markets?”