Too Kind and Too Perfect

The next day, someone was knocking on the forge door from the crack of dawn.

"I told them to come in four days..."

Beyond the door came a familiar rush of wind — the rustle of fallen leaves caught up in the current, the sound that always trailed a 3rd Tier movement spell.

"Does she want the staff that badly? Or have we run out of potatoes?"

Rubbing the sleep from my eyes, I stepped outside.

"Good morning."

"A drowsy morning, my lady."

"Shall I blow a little wind into your eyes?"

Arie was leaning lightly against the signboard, watching me.

"You've come alone again."

"Heh. That's right."

She slipped past me and into the forge.

"In a few weeks, I won't be able to come even if I want to."

I wanted to say something to that. For the moment, I decided to simply smile.

"You haven't even put the potatoes in the furnace yet?"

"I'll take tea in the reception room. I expect two more will be along shortly."

"Two more?"

Arie shrugged.

"The spare wand Eris left at the house broke yesterday. I imagine she'll be demanding a wand from you as soon as she can."

Ah. I'd forgotten. Between repairing Arie's staff and making the brooch, it had slipped my mind completely.

"That's a problem."

"Why?"

Scratching hard at my head, I grabbed the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠apron hanging on the wall.

"I'll repair Lady Eris's wand first, then come back."

"Pfft! It isn't done yet?"

Arie slipped into the reception room by the window as if she knew the place by heart.

"Even so, you do have to put the potatoes in the furnace."

"Yes, yes. I'll butter them and put them in."

"As expected of a kind person."

I fed firewood into the furnace and built up the fire, then set butter on a few potatoes and slid the iron plate, potatoes and all, into the coals.

Fix the wand first.

Compared with spending two days reading memories and forging a brooch charged with mana, this was several times easier. The problem, if there was one, was what I had already told Eris: if this piece broke again, I would not be able to repair it.

Knowing Eris, she'll smash the wand again before the month is out. No — not even the month. Before the Debutante, even...

The thought never finished.

"Wait. The Debutante?"

If she was going to the Debutante with the wand I had repaired, then perhaps the wand itself had been the starting point of everything.

Right. Why was I only trying to block the wind blades Eris created?

I looked at the broken cross-section of the wand I had set aside.

The wand that makes the wind blades could be the problem in the first place.

Crack. Crack. Listening to the firewood burn, I began to put my thoughts in order.

Yeah. When the original said she couldn't control her magic, I honestly didn't understand it.

The future I had seen for Eris in the novel was that of a witch. In this world, a witch was someone who wielded countless 6th Tier spells and black magic — which meant Eris's talent might well have been the greater of the two.

A girl who killed Arie at fifteen because she couldn't control a single 3rd Tier spell becomes a witch a few years later, casting 6th Tier magic without end?

More than anything, I was uneasy. I had planned to make a brooch and store the wind blades in it, but the moment I made that brooch the future would change, and on the day itself Eris might use an entirely different spell. That thought had been circling my head without rest.

I rose and headed for the reception room.

"Oh my. Karon. You're already fin—"

"My lady."

At the seriousness of my face, Arie's expression grew ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠serious as well.

"Speak."

"May I ask one favor of you?"

"If it is a request from you."

I dropped to one knee and bowed my head. Arie's eyes widened a little. I almost never knelt first.

"Until I come out, would you keep anyone from entering my workshop?"

"The reason?"

"I think I need to examine Lady Eris's wand more closely."

She looked as though she wanted to ask something more, but she nodded.

"All right."

"And may I ask just one thing?"

"What is it?"

I put the suspicion that had just occurred to me squarely before her.

"The spare wand Lady Eris broke again. Was that also something your mother left her?"

"Yes."

"Thank you."

With the answer that came back, suspicion hardened into something close to certainty.

When a blacksmith forges a custom weapon, two things are settled first: how much mana the weapon can hold, and what tier of mana it can control.

In the novel, Arie and Eris's mother had been a grand archmage who carried the Olivia family's magic a full step further.

First, read the memories. Back to the moment their mother left her last words.

I locked the door, then laid a hand on Eris's broken wand.

I had every clue I needed. A moment later, I opened my eyes.

Forgive me for looking through your memories, Lady Olivia.

In the original, Eris's awakening as a witch after Arie's death did not seem to come from her sister's death alone.

Arie was the elder sister — and, at the same time, the one who tuned Eris. Overwhelming mana on one side, and on the other a person to give that mana its direction.

At the Debutante, Eris succeeds at 3rd Tier magic for the first time. But Eris, in that moment, will not be able to control it. The full shape of an incident the novel had never written seemed to be falling into place.

So Arie throws herself in to take control, and Reflection Magic introduces the variable.

Arie's death was the loss of an emotional Tuner and, in the same breath, the loss of the person who had actually been tuning her.

After that, Eris reached for black magic because she had lost her sister, and the talent she had always possessed exploded. That may be how she became a witch.

I had to draw a line between what I could not touch and what I could.

Eris succeeding at 3rd Tier magic is as good as fact. She was a child who practiced 4th Tier magic on her own; once everyone acknowledged her, her potential would have burst wide open.

In that case...

"...Ha. Damn it. Do I really have to go this far?"

Gripping the brooch I had made the day before, I let out a long sigh.

"I suppose I do... for the sake of my easy life."

My gaze went ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠straight to Eris's wand — the wand her mother had used. It was, without question, an armament made to receive overwhelming mana. For Eris as she was now, that was precisely the problem.

The wand is too kind, and too perfect.

However much mana its wielder poured in, the wand accepted every drop right up to the brink of breaking, then spat it back out. The stronger the mana, the stronger the release.

Even if Eris had wanted to control it, she couldn't have. The wand in her hand was a weapon that did nothing but raise its power, faithfully, exactly as given.

Eris had not failed to control her magic. The wand had simply taken her mana in too loyally.

Then what I had to do was clear.

Open a channel.

Not convert the overflowing mana into a spell, but let it drain away in a form that meant nothing. Leave only as much as the user could bear, and scatter the rest into the air.

And the limit Eris can bear...

I tightened my grip on the brooch. There was no way I knew Eris's exact limit. But Arie's mana, sealed inside this brooch — that, I could read. If Eris drew a 3rd Tier output, how far she would be able to endure.

"Ah. This isn't even going to cover the cost."

But my hands were already moving, quite apart from my will.

"Waaaaah!"

The instant the wand was finished, a shout tore out of me before I knew it.

Measuring the limit had burned through every trace of mana dwelling in the brooch. But because of that, I had finished. I joined the broken length of the wand and set the emptied brooch into the seam. From now on, the brooch would serve as an auxiliary battery, able to store mana.

"Better to keep it stored like this than to throw the mana away."

Staff and wand were both repaired, and I had laid every defense I was capable of. Only one problem remained.

Uh... how am I supposed to explain this?

She had told me, quite clearly, not to melt her mother's wand. And I had gone and modified it as I pleased. Was I supposed to say, Your sister was meant to die on the day of the Debutante, so I altered the wand to keep you from losing control?

Easy life or not, I had no reason to reveal my ability to anyone else.

"Karon?"

Just then, Arie's voice came from beyond the door.

"Ah? Yes?"

"Are you all right? There was a sudden shout from in there..."

Right. I had asked her to watch the door.

"I'm fine."

"Are you finished? The sun is already high."

"Yes. The potatoes are done."

The voice outside went quiet for a moment.

"A person who knelt with such a grave face shouldn't turn around and say a thing like that."

"Are you angry?"

"Come out first. Sir Joaquin and Eris are waiting in the reception room."

I looked at the door for a moment, then sighed.

"Well... it'll work out somehow."

Staff and brooch in one hand, wand in the other, I opened the workshop door.