How a Wizard Survives (56)
How a Wizard Survives (56)
Immediately after Everhart's retreat, the Reshutal Inquisition Branch welcomed a new member.
Someone everyone knew, but who had kept their distance until then.
Princess Alina finally moved into the branch.
The arrangement was meant to ease the king's near-panic, if only slightly.
The Inquisitors were flustered by the royal guest, but Alina adapted to life at the branch with ease.
She could not take on combat duties, but she helped the librarians enough to avoid becoming a burden.
Perhaps because of that, Katrina's mood took a sharp downturn.
Sensing the odd atmosphere, Angelica brought a toy she had apparently purchased over the weekend to the branch.
I recognized it at a glance and clicked my tongue.
"Ah, this is that thing I saw at the gambling den last time..."
"How is it? Nice, right? I asked my father to buy it. It's way more fun than simple card games."
I had enjoyed it reasonably well myself, but...
Technically, this is a gambling game—is it really all right to play it at the Inquisition Branch?
Before I could say anything, Angelica borrowed a table in the archive and set up the game.
Wikia happened to pass by and recognized it at once.
"Ah, is that mahjong? You should only play that during break time, right?"
"You're interested in gambling too, Wikia?"
"I prefer board games over gambling, actually."
"Well, that does suit you."
I had just accepted that easily when Princess Alina approached to join us for tea.
"Hmm? Mahjong. I think it might be a bit difficult for Lady Angelica..."
"Difficult? Hardly!"
"You know how to play as well, Your Highness?"
"Yes, if it's all right, may I join you?"
When she asked with a pleasant smile, Katrina tilted her head, looking displeased.
"Can it be played with four people?"
"It's originally for four. There are rules for three, too, but it seems you all heard about the four-player version."
I glanced at Wikia, and he swiftly explained the differences.
But before his skillful explanation could end, Reinhardt called us out.
Fortunately, he didn't say much even after seeing the mahjong tiles.
"Katrina, Jaeger. Step outside for a moment."
"Yes, sir!"
After leaving the archive, Reinhardt led us to the branch's warehouse.
A place where dangerous confiscated items and supplies were stored in large quantities.
He took out the spheres he had used to charge Holy Relics last time and handed one to each of us.
"Eat them."
"Huh?"
"It's an order. You need to replenish your mana."
It was true that the mana source used to charge Holy Relics was cleanly refined, so eating it wasn't harmful, but...
Maybe for Katrina, but I'd have a hard time seeing any effect.
In truth, I would benefit more from it, but Reinhardt believed otherwise.
He had already made up his mind.
"I'm not telling you to make a contract again. It's just that having some mana in you helps when fighting demons..."
"Ah, I see. Understood."
Reinhardt wanted me to acquire at least a minimal degree of Magic Resistance.
In truth, it would be hard for an ordinary person with no mana aptitude, but still, it was better than nothing.
I pretended to absorb the mana as diligently as I could and went about my routine.
"... Don't you think it'd be okay to tell him now?"
"Absolutely not."
Left alone together in the warehouse, Katrina turned stern the moment I brought it up.
She still judged that revealing I was an Awakened One would be dangerous.
True. If I revealed it now, I'd be a complete traitor.
After struggling to digest her own portion, she said to me, "Instead, just tell them you awakened after eating this."
"Wouldn't that be dangerous too? To awaken at my age, now..."
"That's true. If we get found out later, we'll say I ordered you to hide it."
Katrina was now actively conspiring.
I already had two accomplices in the Reshutal Inquisition Branch.
I was about to thank her when Reinhardt's shout thundered in from outside the warehouse.
"Get out here, hurry up!"
"Coming, coming..."
After a round of mahjong, I left work at an easy pace and returned home to an unexpected gift.
My teacher, whom I had sorely missed these past few days, had returned at last.
He had apparently finished speaking with Ash and waved to me awkwardly.
"You've been well, Jaeger? The neighboring kingdoms were a complete bust."
"Yes. That bastard Everhart was a pervert beyond imagination."
I replied with a bitter smile, and Ulysses got straight to the point without hesitation.
"I already heard about the contract attempt. That Reinhardt fellow seems more reasonable than he looks, doesn't he?"
"Not necessarily. Anyway, do you think there really is something wrong with my body? The way the demons react..."
"That's not it."
Ulysses denied it unexpectedly, like a single clean stroke.
"I didn't examine you that sloppily. The reason I didn't catch that you were from Einhold was simply because I lacked a reference group."
"Then..."
"Your body is that of an ordinary mage, plain and simple. If there's something strange, it's likely in your bloodline or your soul."
So the clue really did lie with my mother's side after all.
Right. If I had inherited demon blood like Alina, Ulysses could not have failed to notice.
He belatedly praised my achievements.
"You did very well repelling Everhart and bringing Alina over. It must have been tough not being able to use magic."
"To be honest, even if I could use it, there wouldn't have been much difference. It seemed like he wasn't the kind of opponent I could land Ultimate Mimicry on."
If I could use a cheat skill like teacher's Adamantite Alchemy, it would be different, but...
I still had a long way to go for that.
Ulysses clapped his hands, as if a good idea had just struck him.
"I told you, Ultimate Mimicry is a flawed technique. You need a skill that works without contact, don't you? All right, since it's come up, why don't we make you a personal finishing move?"
"... Finishing move? You mean the kind from old hero tales?"
I gave the childish term a cool reception, but Ulysses scolded me instead.
"Hey, that's historically accurate."
"His... historically accurate? In what way?"
"High-Rank Demons are so damn tough that stabbing them with a sword doesn't kill them easily, right? Even Everhart fled with a sword stuck in him and arrows lodged in him, didn't he?"
That's true.
To kill a demon, you need a technique with tremendous power, like Ultimate Mimicry or Adamantite Alchemy.
A technique that, once landed, could finish off even a High-Rank Demon!
Ultimate Mimicry and Adamantite Alchemy were excellent finishing moves, but neither suited me particularly well.
If it had been my teacher instead of me, he would have found a way to land Ultimate Mimicry on Everhart.
"... Now that you put it that way, it's convincing."
"Right?"
As if he'd already settled on a direction, my teacher pushed ahead without hesitation.
"Let's make Gravity Magic the main basis. You're most comfortable with it, right? It's versatile and powerful."
"Gravity Magic..."
I had no objections to that decision either.
It was true that Gravity Magic felt especially easy and familiar to me.
But his next words were something I couldn't really accept.
"But not Gravity Reversal."
"Wh-why?"
I had been leaning toward Gravity Reversal, so his refusal caught me off guard.
A pushing force seemed far more convenient for offense than a pulling force.
Ulysses promptly explained his reasoning.
"Gravity Reversal is difficult to increase in power beyond a certain level. If you doubt it, try it yourself."
"Still, last time it worked on a Demon Thrall..."
"That guy was only at the level of a Mid-Rank Demon. No way it would work on Everhart."
I listened to Ulysses's explanation and began experimenting at once.
Ash, who had gone to the trouble of preparing dinner, couldn't bring herself to interrupt the overly serious atmosphere.
Just like last time, I loaded a Gravity Reversal spell into my right hand.
I tried to shape the mass into an arrow, but...
'What the? Why isn't this working?'
Ulysses was right.
At a certain point, the output of Gravity Reversal Magic just stopped increasing properly.
I was clearly pouring mana into it nonstop, but the power was no different from before.
Ulysses smiled as though he had expected this and resumed his lecture.
"The term 'Gravity Reversal' is itself misleading. Gravity Mages merely alter the force's direction, or vector, by a small degree."
"But Gravity Reversal Magic does work in practice, doesn't it?"
"It does. Our planet rotates at high speed, so even a slight tweak to gravity lets you exploit inertial force."
But that alone isn't enough.
According to Ulysses's explanation, Gravity Mages can't even properly control that inertia.
That made sense; no mage could fully control forces on a planetary scale.
If you seriously tried to control it, the first thing that would happen is your own body would disintegrate.
More importantly, completely eliminating gravity would leave no room for further growth.
In other words, Gravity Reversal is a force with clear limits.
On the other hand, ordinary Gravity Magic yields results proportional to the mana you put in.
That was why Ulysses recommended the straightforward approach.
Ash, who had already set the table with spoons and chopsticks, butted in unnecessarily from the side.
"Can't you just adjust the reference point to turn it into a pushing force? Like generating gravity beyond the opponent's body..."
Ash even drew a picture in the air to explain, but...
We quickly sat down at the table and immediately retorted.
"No. The direction of Gravity Magic is always relative to the caster. You can't move the reference point more than a certain distance from the body. And even then, it has to be close to the ground. Usually, strengthening existing gravity is cheaper than creating new gravity."
"After all, the foundation of Gravity Magic is using your own body as the planet. Losing power with distance from the mana source is basic magic. To do it the way you're suggesting, you'd probably have to use a puppet."
"Ah, you're right, Puppet Magic is free in that regard. The puppets store mana themselves..."
Without further delay, we continued pondering while eating dinner.
As my teacher said, ordinary Gravity Magic has an extraordinarily high ceiling, but...
This approach faced an obstacle much like Gravity Reversal.
Since gravity is a force that acts broadly on all things, you have to protect your own body while increasing the output.
Ulysses chuckled, apparently finding it amusing that I was struggling with a good problem for once.
"Think slowly for a few days. Even for you, creating a technique effective against demons won't be easy."
"Mm..."
I swallowed my groan and stabbed a dumpling with my fork.
Juice trickled out of the dumpling skin Ash had handmade.
In that instant, a lightning bolt struck my mind.
'Huh? Wait. If I do this right...'
I kept doing mental calculations until dinner ended... and concluded it wasn't entirely hopeless.
I tested the technique without hesitation.
"Teacher, watch out."
"What? You've already got something to try?"
"Yes. Just a moment..."
Right after he spoke.
A small black sphere was born in my hand.
Ash tilted her head as I pushed a fork into the sphere.
Crunch!
With the sound of tearing metal, the end of the fork was cleanly severed.
Ulysses froze halfway to his after-dinner tea, mouth hanging open.
"Wait, that...?"
"Yes. I concentrated gravity to its limit. Since it's compressed so small, you could say it's effectively annihilated. When the force is this strong, direction doesn't matter much."
"But why isn't it leaking? With gravity that strong, it should affect the surroundings too."
"I fixed the surrounding space with Immobility Magic. That is also why the gravity is so concentrated: the force that should spread outward is trapped, circling endlessly inside. Magic has created a physical impossibility."
This black sphere wasn't something I deliberately made black.
It merely appears black because the light sucked inside can't escape.
I looked at the faces of my two teachers and smirked.
"This counts as a success, right?"
"If the space is fixed, external matter can't get in... no, I guess not. You just need to partially release the Immobility Magic right before impact. You cocky brat."
Ulysses, who had been trying to find some fault, reluctantly nodded.
Ash, with a thoroughly fed-up expression, smiled as if she was just glad it ended quickly.