Magic Lesson (1)
I stepped into the room with Letisia and stood there a little blankly. How exactly was a magic lesson supposed to work, anyway?
Magic itself was something I knew inside and out by now—games, novels, manga, the works. But how you actually learned it? That was a blank. Sure, some media leaned hard into the imagination angle and made the learning process the whole point, but most of those just felt like regular school classes with the serial numbers filed off. Instead of math, you studied circuit formulas… that kind of thing.
So what about this game?
Dungeon in Evil was a straightforward RPG. It never bothered showing anyone teaching anything. When your whole job was beating the Demon King's army and clearing dungeons, there was no real need for classroom scenes. You just unlocked the skill tree and that was that.
Which left me curious. How was Letisia planning to teach me magic?
I asked her as she wandered casually around the room.
"How does a magic lesson even work?"
"Pardon? Ah… you mean the teaching method?"
"Yeah."
"Normally, if you start young, you begin with books. Theory has to come first before practice is even possible, right?"
"Uh…"
So was I going to spend the entire day staring at textbooks?
"But that would be boring, and two months… well, a month and a half now. You wouldn't reach a level where you could support us in that time."
"Then what do we do?"
Letisia gave a little snort of a laugh. She lightly touched her head, revealing the twitching cat ears underneath, and said,
"What else? Straight into practice."
"Is that okay?"
"There's no need for me to cling to the traditional mage teaching methods. And more than anything, it's faster."
She smiled at me, soft and bright.
"As long as Allen has the talent for it."
"…Do I have talent?"
"We'll only know once we try. Already making weak noises?"
She smirked and beckoned me over. Settling onto a plush sofa, she told me to sit in front of her.
"Dark-attribute magic, is it. You have rather… damp tastes, Allen."
"Damp…?"
"Not you personally—the attribute itself just has that feel. For example…"
Spirit Mage Letisia has activated [Veil of Night]
A message flashed, and mana stirred at Letisia's fingertips. In an instant the spell unfurled, swallowing the surroundings in darkness. Even Letisia, sitting right in front of me, vanished from sight.
Only when she withdrew her mana did the world reappear.
"That sort of feeling, you see?"
"…That was fast."
"It's a simple spell. You just spread mana to block a little light. Even that much is enough to leave a human's eyes seeing nothing at all."
"So a cat could still see?"
"They could. Cats can make out objects with far less light than we…"
Mid-sentence, Letisia fell quiet. Her face colored faintly as she said,
"…Were you talking about me just now?"
"…No?"
How did she know.
She narrowed her eyes at me. When I quietly looked away, she let out a small sigh.
"I can see, but not as well as a true cat-kin."
"Aha."
"So you were talking about me."
"……Anyway. So it's a disruption-type attribute?"
"There are offensive spells too, but that kind of underhanded quality is the hallmark of dark-attribute magic."
It felt a little different in nature from the void-attribute magic I knew.
"That was just a demonstration of dark-attribute magic. For today, we'll start with the basics—non-attribute magic."
"Got it."
"You copied what I showed you last time, didn't you?"
"Hm?"
Gathering mana, she meant?
"Try it now."
"Uh…"
I did as she said and drew out my mana. It still took concentration, the way it had before, but this time I pulled it out more smoothly.
"Well done."
"What now?"
"I'll show you, so follow along exactly. Don't get a single thing wrong."
"Not a single thing?"
"Not one. If you do, the spell won't complete."
With that, Letisia drew out her own mana.
And in that moment, something strange happened.
Magic Condensation
"…?"
"What's wrong? You're suddenly just staring blankly— Kyaah!?"
Letisia's mana began to thrash. The furniture around us started rattling hard, and at the sight of that unstable spectacle I called out to her.
"Le-Letisia? What's going on with that?"
"Just a moment, something's wrong… Ah, Allen? What did you do?"
"……Huh?"
What did I do? Nothing in particular…
Ah.
That trait activation message had just appeared. Was this because of that?
The instant the question formed, something astonishing happened. Letisia's mana slipped completely free of her control, scattered, and then got sucked straight into the place where I'd gathered mine.
"Uh…?"
"A-Allen… what on earth did you just do?"
Even so, I still couldn't control Letisia's mana. Which meant it wasn't mine. So I hadn't stolen it from her. Her mana had simply clumped together with mine, still itself.
Magic Condensation…
Exactly as the name said. It forced mana to gather in one place.
So this… was what the trait did?
"…Allen?"
"…Yeah?"
"What is this? Why won't my mana respond to me… and why is it clumped together with yours?"
If even Letisia didn't know, it clearly wasn't a common phenomenon—or a common trait. I gave a small shake of my head.
"I don't know either…"
Did it forcibly clump other people's mana like this too? Or were there conditions—being this close, maybe…
"More importantly, are you okay? Your mana just vanished all of a sudden…"
"Pardon? Ah… I'm fine. I haven't lost it. It's right here, perfectly intact."
So it was still definitely her mana. The strange part was… if she hadn't lost control of it, it should have moved according to her will. And it wasn't.
…Meaning it's being held together by a force stronger than the owner's control?
Letisia studied the mana gathered over my hand in silence.
"……How strange."
She gave the neatly rounded mass a light poke. Even then, her mana refused to return to its master, still tangled up with mine.
"It has no intention of coming apart."
"……Want me to try withdrawing mine?"
"Would you?"
I did as she asked. Remarkably, only my mana moved—leaving hers behind—and once free of the clump, her mana answered her control again.
"It really works."
"…What is this."
"Hmm…"
Letisia moved her mana this way and that, confirmed it was responding properly, and then reined it in.
"It seems I shouldn't be the one teaching you magic. We'll need to find another approach."
"Huh?"
"Well, wouldn't we? The moment I draw out my mana to teach you again…"
…She was saying she wouldn't teach me right now?
That could not happen. Absolutely not. If I didn't show results within a month and a half, that mesgaki Hero brat was going to grab hold of me and make sure I never got stronger for the rest of my life!
I clasped both hands in front of Letisia and begged.
"Th-then we don't have to do the practical part—just theory! Can't you at least let me learn by watching?"
"Learning by watching alone will be difficult. As I said, another method…"
"You know how urgent this is…!"
"…Allen, I think you're misunderstanding something. I'm not saying I'll stop helping you."
"Huh…?"
Letisia looked at me as if to ask what I was even confused about. Then she explained the "other method" she'd mentioned in a little more detail.
"Back when I was still walking the path of a mage, I had a teacher who instructed me."
"A teacher…"
"Yes. She's still active as a mage. When we return to the Empire, I'll arrange a meeting. We can get a proper consultation on that phenomenon just now, and you can learn magic properly as well."
"…So I can't learn anything right now?"
"Not through practical work, I don't think. But…"
Letisia smirked.
"You seem so determined to learn somehow, so we'll do as you said—learn by watching. You can try it on your own later, too."
"Please do that!"
"Very well. Then I'll show you slowly…"
Our eyes met. She smiled, and raised her mana.
Since I wasn't drawing any out, the earlier situation didn't repeat. Letisia moved her mana with complete freedom and finished a spell in the blink of an eye.
"Can you see them? These tiny points are the elements that make up a spell—Circles."
"Uh… Circles? Isn't that the term for a mage's rank?"
"You know it well. That's right. The spell I just made is the most basic of basics—Basic Force, something you only learn in the first stage of training. Think of Force as a collection of these small Circles…"
She continued.
"How many of these Forces you can compress and wield as a single spell—that's what determines a mage's rank. Cast a spell with one, and you're a 1 Circle mage. With two, a 2 Circle mage… and so on."
"Then what about you, Letisia?"
I already knew how exceptional she was as a spirit mage, but I was curious how far she'd gotten as a regular mage. Letisia tilted her head.
"Why ask a spirit mage that?"
"Uh… just curious?"
"When I was studying magic I made it to 4 Circle, but I stopped studying after that and switched paths to spirit mage, so it doesn't really mean anything."
"Hmm, but how many can you actually create?"
"It doesn't mean much to me anymore, but…"
In an instant, Letisia's mana surged. A vast quantity of it—rivaling a Hero's—manifested entirely as Force.
"About this many?"
…How many was that? There was no end to them.
"But it doesn't mean anything."
"With that many, couldn't you still work as a mage?"
"No. Simply creating a lot doesn't make you a high-Circle mage. You have to be able to fuse all of that Force into a single spell. I stopped studying at 4 Circle, so I still can't combine more than four."
She said,
"If I could use all of this, I'd still be a mage on the side, wouldn't I?"
"That's true…"
"Anyone can make these as long as they have enough mana and a basic understanding of Force. Until their mana runs dry."
"…How do you make them?"
"I'll show you again, slowly."
Letisia never once seemed annoyed by my questions. She kindly demonstrated each thing one by one and explained it. Most of what she talked about was unfamiliar vocabulary, content I'd never heard before… and yet, without realizing it, I found myself completely absorbed in her lesson.
And so, without any sense of time passing, I learned magic.
Before I knew it, quite a lot of time had gone by. Letisia let out a small yawn.
"Haah… it seems rather late. Shall we stop here?"
"Ah, yeah. Let's."
Looking at her eyes, they were heavy with sleep. The darkness had settled thicker, and the moonlight had grown that much sharper—past midnight, by the look of it.
I'd learned a great deal and seen a great deal. Whether I'd truly understood any of it without being able to try it myself was another question…
"Practice on your own, and show me next time."
"Hm?"
"Then I'll be able to tell whether you understood or not, won't I?"
"Ah, right."
Letisia stretched, looking a little stiff, and stood. Watching her, I said,
"Thanks, Letisia. I put you through the trouble, and you still made time without a single complaint."
"Not at all. I was the one who offered to help."
She started toward the door, apparently heading back to her room. I rose to see her out and followed.
"Ah."
Suddenly she stopped and turned back to me.
"That man from earlier might come again."
"Hm?……Ah."
I'd completely forgotten, absorbed in the magic lesson. Kael had been in my room earlier…
"Right. What was he even trying to do?"
"…Kael. That man has something of a bad reputation."
A reputation? The words jogged a late memory.
"…I think I know what you mean."
Things Freya had told me. That Orlando's party members were far from normal—and that among them, Kael was…
"But would he really try something with me? I'm still one of Erinn's party members…"
"Not if no one ever finds out."
"…That's true."
Come to think of it, they'd said Kael had never once left evidence, so nothing had ever been proven. All that remained was speculation—and you couldn't condemn a member of a Hero's party on speculation alone.
"…This won't do."
"Hm?"
Letisia was facing the door, so all I could see was her back—but I could tell something in her emotions had shifted.
Her cat ears had started twitching, and her real ears had flushed red all the way to the tips.
"I'll just sleep here tonight…"
"……?"
Come again?