Copying Spells
Since time immemorial, the elf had symbolized many things.
Her golden hair, never once fading in color, stood for an unyielding will of resistance—
"Please, I'm begging you...! Just don't kill me. I-I really keep my promises, okay?"
—and her green eyes, as if holding all of nature within them, symbolized a calm that never lost its reason.
"Right? I don't mind being sealed away for another few thousand years, so please, please just spare me. I'll never show my face again."
"...."
Unable to bear the wretched sight any longer, Rucia looked over at me.
"Master."
[Yes, Rucia.]
"What will you do?"
[Hmm.]
I gazed down at the elf.
"P-please, just don't kill me! Okay?!"
The moment our eyes met, she clung to Rucia's legs with even more desperate persistence.
Watching her struggle so pitifully just to survive was genuinely heartbreaking.
Why is she suddenly like this?
I had no idea.
I just clicked a button and came in here. What's with the drama?
The elf kept fidgeting and spouting strange words long after that, too.
"Th-that's it! From the aura you're giving off right now, you must have only just broken free of your seal, haven't you?"
Well, it had been less than two weeks since my possession.
But that probably wasn't what she meant.
"I have things that could be of use to you. I'll give you all of them, so couldn't you spare my life?"
She'd hand over every hidden piece she had?
Now that was a tempting offer.
So what exactly is she talking about?
Something about a seal being broken recently. Don't tell me she's that one. Is this girl an incarnation?
She was rambling on and on, and honestly, I could barely follow.
Is she mentally unwell?
[...First, can you hand over everything you have?]
Not that it was any business of mine, really.
In the original story, the elf was an Easter-egg existence who only flitted past in a cameo.
She never appeared anywhere except here.
Probably just some hidden lore, then.
It had nothing to do with me.
With that thought, I plucked the hidden pieces right out of her.
The elf produced two items.
A white book adorned with red decorations, and a rather stylish black quill.
The book was the original intended reward—but what was this quill about?
[Is this everything?]
"That's really all of it! If you're suspicious, feel free to search the entire place."
[Hmm.]
It seemed genuine enough, so I examined the quill.
Asking how to use it would be so uncool.
The elf was under the impression that I was some absurdly powerful being.
The moment I asked, it wouldn't just be uncool—my entire identity could come under suspicion.
"Th-the quill is something I just finished making. If you stroke someone's head with the feather part... three hours later, it will grant them a fitting blessing."
That was a good explanation.
Wait, it grants a blessing?
A blessing—broadly speaking, a unique trait that a character possesses.
The number of blessings Rucia had was zero.
Having none at all and having even one were worlds apart.
[....]
I was so moved that even sending telepathy was an effort.
And the elf took it to mean something entirely different.
"Ah, hahaha... I suppose that explanation was unnecessary for beings like you? Sorry for wasting your time..."
[No, we'll put it to good use.]
"Th-then does that mean you're sparing me?"
[Hmm.]
I quietly stared down at the elf. She swallowed hard.
Her limbs trembled as if seized by convulsions.
Her breathing was fast and ragged. If I watched her a moment longer, I had a feeling she'd tip straight into hyperventilation.
...Was I really that terrifying?
[Rucia. Let's go.]
If I kept teasing her, she'd probably faint. This was enough.
"Yes, Master."
We vanished into the mist.
"I lived! I'm alive...!"
Someone seemed to be wailing at the top of their lungs behind us, but I ignored it and pressed on.
When I came to, I was lying in the cave.
[Let's head back. Today's haul wasn't bad.]
"...Yes."
Rucia's voice was listless.
Was it the shock of witnessing the elf's ugly side?
[That was a strange elf. Well, thanks to her misunderstanding us, we came away with some good items.]
"I suppose so."
Rucia nodded more fervently than usual, then added a remark.
"Master is an ordinary sparrow, after all—the elf must have gotten quite carried away with her imagination."
...Awkward.
It felt like she was forcing out words she didn't mean.
[Uh, right. Exactly.]
A strange undercurrent hung in the air the entire way back.
And so, around lunchtime, we arrived at the dormitory.
We headed straight for the bedroom.
Rucia sat on the edge of the bed, quill in hand.
"Master, I'll use it now."
She asked me carefully, as if seeking permission.
She'd always been polite, but today she seemed even more attentive than usual.
[Yes. Let's try it now.]
"Okay."
Swish, swish.
Rucia rubbed the feather against her own head.
The sight was so cute that I was starting to feel warm and fuzzy—when a single thought filled my mind to the brim.
What does Rucia think of me, like this?
Even on the way back from the cave, hadn't she seemed a little off?
As if she didn't quite believe I was a sparrow.
Come to think of it, it was like that from the very beginning.
Rucia had mistaken me for a great archmage on our first day.
From her perspective, she was living with a great archmage disguised as a sparrow.
It was obvious that would be unpleasant.
I'm sorry about that.
Worse still, I had originally been human.
Stripped down to fundamentals, I was basically the same thing—an imposter in a sparrow's skin.
"...Master, something just appeared before my eyes."
Rucia looked down at me.
Better not let any negative thoughts show.
I answered as casually as I could manage.
[What does it say?]
"It says to wait three hours. It seems the elf was telling the truth."
Rucia held out her hand with a near-expressionless smile.
I stared quietly at her palm. Even after several seconds passed, she didn't withdraw it.
...She wants me to perch on it, I suppose?
She did this often enough normally, but after the thoughts I'd just been having, I hesitated.
And so, just as the conflict in my heart reached its peak—
Rucia spoke.
"Master."
[Yes?]
"This may sound strange all of a sudden, but it doesn't matter to me what you are."
She met my eyes with a serious gaze.
"Whatever past you carry, whatever you may do from now on... you are my Master, and that's all there is to it."
[...Rucia.]
Had she noticed what I'd been thinking?
"May I stroke you?"
I answered by extending the sparrow's short legs into her waiting palm.
And for the next three hours, we stayed exactly like that.
On the walk back through the forest, Rucia had been organizing her thoughts.
...So much has happened.
Rucia was deeply shaken.
The elf had clung to her legs, wailing and begging for its life.
Seeing a legendary creature was astonishing enough—but witnessing it in such a state, on top of that?
And then there was the other matter.
What exactly is my Master?
The elf seemed to know Master.
Judging from the conversation, Master must have gone to the cave intending to kill the elf in the first place.
Enemies, then. They're enemies.
Going by the nuances in the elf's words, the beings she feared weren't one but many.
And those beings had awakened from their seals only recently.
Master is one of them.
Her head hurt.
She had already assumed Master was a being far beyond any great archmage, but she'd never even imagined it was to this extent.
And then, one thing the elf had let slip in passing.
...She said I was an incarnation.
She didn't know exactly what it meant, but she could grasp the general gist.
Master chose me.
By the time they left the forest, her thoughts had roughly settled.
Master was an overwhelming existence, feared even by elves.
An existence that would kill on sight.
Elves were creatures friendly toward humans.
So a Master who stood opposed to such beings had to be close to evil.
But still.
...It doesn't matter.
Whether Master was hostile to humanity.
Whether Master had tried to slay the elf.
Whatever kind of being Master was—none of it mattered.
I believe the Master I've seen with my own eyes.
To Rucia, Master was a cute sparrow.
A sparrow that was sometimes kind, sometimes gentle beyond all measure.
And that was precisely why—
...Because it makes me happy.
Rucia believed in the Master she had seen.
I was thoroughly pampered in Rucia's hands.
This is the life of a sparrow.
It was a satisfying stretch of time, but I couldn't just sit still until the blessing finished forming.
The next event is right around the corner.
Two days from now, on Tuesday.
One of roughly forty-one events would occur at random.
Even the event with the fewest deaths claimed eight lives.
I have to prepare, no matter what.
To do that, I needed to test the other items besides the quill.
[We have the book the elf gave us, right?]
"Yes."
A book inscribed with a blue magic circle.
This was the hidden piece we'd originally come for.
[Hold it in one hand and try channeling mana into it.]
Rucia gripped the book in her right hand and concentrated for a moment.
"Like this?"
The book opened on its own, blue light swirling around it.
[Yes. Want to push it a little further?]
"Of course."
The light circling the book intensified, and—
Vmmm.
It rose a few centimeters above Rucia's hand.
[Magic cast in this state ignores the target's magic resistance. You should be able to use it two or three times a day.]
An absolutely broken item that bypassed magical resistance entirely.
"So a magical tool is capable of such a thing."
[Yes.]
Hearing my reply, Rucia fell silent for a moment.
Don't tell me she dislikes relying on tools?
I wondered if I'd made a mistake—when—
"...Thank you. I'll put it to good use from now on."
Rucia gently rested her hand on my head.
Gotta farm those hidden pieces even harder from now on.
Just as my mood hit its peak, Rucia tossed me another hook.
"Master. My blessing has just been created."
Yahoo.
[Can you tell me what kind of blessing it is?]
"Yes."
A full three hours had passed since she'd used the quill.
The anticipation of what blessing she might have gained was swelling by the second.
"I've received a blessing called Spell Multiplication."
A familiar name reached my ears.
"The power of a spell increases in proportion to the number of spell formulae it contains."
On paper, it sounded like a fairly impressive blessing.
However, magic with a high formula count was notoriously difficult to develop.
Moreover, modern magic was engineered to use as few formulae as possible.
Adding even a single formula multiplied research time severalfold.
Iterating improvements with fewer formulae was simply more efficient.
What a shame.
It was the kind of blessing that made spells about ten percent stronger—something you'd rate as "better than nothing."
I told Rucia a little white lie about it.
[That's not bad at all. Your base spell power gets stronger, after all.]
I didn't want to reveal that it was a dud.
"Is that so?"
[Yes.]
Just as I was swallowing my disappointment all alone—
...Huh?
I realized something blindingly obvious.
I could just make the magic myself.
Research time increases? So what?
I don't do research.
Rucia's the one who'll be casting it, so I'll just make it as simple as possible.
The first spell slated for overhauling was the Mana Bullet.
A standard Mana Bullet used two formulae.
Therefore—
Give me a simple Mana Bullet with fifty formulae in it.
For now, let's copy just this much.