Shadow Magic
I heard what happened. Are you hurt, Kael?
“No injuries.”
To show Elia I was perfectly fine, I waved my arms around. She let out a small snort of laughter.
“What’s so funny?”
“Nothing. It’s just amusing to see someone so famous in high society waving their arms like that.”
“Were you hurt?”
“The political science department was doing practical training on court etiquette in a neighboring territory. I only heard the news after I returned.”
Right now I was sipping coffee with Elia. Normally I would have just ordered something at the café inside the academy, but today she had invited me. Since I had something to ask her anyway, I accepted and we were enjoying a light tea gathering together.
“By the way, you’re in political science, right? Then you must know the law pretty well?”
“The law? Of course. There are several law-related courses among the ones I’m taking.”
“Then let me ask you something. How much do you know about black magic?”
What I wanted to ask her about was black magic. It was obvious that black magic grimoires were illegal, so I still hadn’t revealed anything about Shadow Magic to Professor Lapel.
Still, research purposes might be a different story, and laws always had exceptions depending on how you interpreted them. That was exactly why capable noble families involved in politics kept legal scholars who studied nothing but law and wielded statutes like weapons.
If I play my cards right, there might be a legal way to use black magic after all.
Of course, even if it was completely banned I planned to use it in secret anyway. I was confident I could handle black magic properly.
“Black magic… Isn’t that lost technology? The magic once used by the ancient empire.”
“Exactly.”
“Hmm… Did you know this? One of the empire’s laws states you’re not allowed to stand in front of the imperial palace holding a salmon.”
“What kind of ridiculous law is that?”
“It’s one of the first examples they give in law class. Even if a law exists on paper, some are enforced and some aren’t. The salmon law is one of them, and the black magic prohibition is another that isn’t enforced.”
“The black magic ban isn’t enforced?”
“Because there’s no one who uses it.”
I could only nod at that. It had been well over a hundred years since black mages disappeared. Who would bother paying attention to those particular clauses?
It really was lost technology.
“I’m not an expert on the black magic prohibition law, but in most magic prohibition cases only the use itself is banned. Interpretation and research have never been forbidden. Wouldn’t it be better if you looked into it yourself, Kael?”
Elia spoke elegantly while taking a graceful sip of tea. That was enough. So researching black magic itself might not actually be illegal…
I could have the servants check the exact legal details once I returned to the dormitory. That left Shadow Magic…
I should start practicing it little by little.
The book seemed to contain quite a few useful spells, so I decided to keep studying it steadily. Since I had asked Elia everything I wanted to know, I stood up to leave.
That was when she called out to me.
“Just a moment, Kael.”
“What? I thought you said I could leave whenever I wanted.”
“I have something I want to ask as well.”
“What is it?”
“That girl who’s been glued to your side lately. The one with pink hair and round glasses… Who is she?”
Pink hair and round glasses. She was talking about Hestia Claudi.
I almost said “my subordinate” but stopped myself. Elia Aventus’s expression had turned rather sharp. It reminded me of the restraint magic the draugr had used…
“You’re not seeing another woman behind my back, are you?”
“Hey, hey, it’s not like that.” I felt like I had to make excuses even though I hadn’t done anything wrong.
“Then what is it?”
“She’s my subordinate. I met her at the adventurers’ guild and took her on as one.”
“Really?”
“Why? Were you afraid she might become my girlfriend?”
I let out a small laugh.
Girlfriend? That was a relationship based on love. Something impossible for me.
“Elia. As you know, I’m different from other people. I’m the only normal one. I can separate public and private matters, and I’m not weak enough to be swayed by personal emotions.”
“…Isn’t it okay to be swayed by personal feelings a little?”
“It would be one thing if I’d only been burned once or twice… Anyway, Hestia Claudi is my subordinate. She’s earning pocket money by doing requests with me.”
At my answer her eyes narrowed, but she seemed to have nothing more to say and simply nodded.
“I understand. By the way, Kael, strange rumors have started following you.”
“What rumors?”
“That you’re the adopted son of House Lotus, that you’re an agent from the empire’s intelligence division, and even that you’re a mafia boss from the back alleys. What exactly have you been doing?”
I chuckled at Elia’s question. What kind of absurd fiction was spreading out there…?
It was probably because of how I acted during the monster rampage event. As expected from a female-oriented romance fantasy world, the nobility loved trading rumors. I wished they would at least do some proper fact-checking…
“They’re all nonsense, so ignore them. Anyway, I’m really leaving now.”
I waved and left Elia behind, returning to my dormitory.
Three days passed.
I dug deeper into the laws concerning black magic and realized that even “use” for research purposes could be permitted depending on legal interpretation. After that I spent my time reading Shadow Magic, and I was finally able to completely master one spell.
Swoosh—
“Hmm… Not bad.”
Lying on the bed in my dormitory, I reached out into empty air. I formed a thought in the language of stars and activated the magic. A black rift appeared in the air.
First of all, subspace magic could literally be used like a game inventory. I had stored a cup of cold water inside it, and when I took it out two hours later it was still cold. It seemed the state at the moment of storage was perfectly preserved.
Then there’s no reason to keep carrying a sword at my waist.
Back when I entered the dungeon with Lapel, my sword had broken right after I killed the draugr. Of course I had taken the draugr’s weapon and was still using it—now named the Grey Sword—but there was no telling when it might break too. The current Grey Sword could stay at my waist, but auxiliary weapons could be kept inside the subspace.
It would also be useful when catching spies and collecting evidence.
Shadow Magic
“Pretty useful… I should tell Lapel about it soon.”
If I could understand magic intuitively, Lapel had a natural genius for finding ways to apply it and coming up with ideas. What had started as a hobby might advance dramatically with his help.
“Next is…”
I opened Shadow Magic to the middle section and began reading. Subspace magic was done. The next spell was another utility-type rather than combat-oriented.
Cognitive impairment magic…
The second magic introduced in the book was cognitive impairment magic. It would definitely be good to have. Invisibility was a light-attribute spell so I couldn’t learn it right away, but this could serve as a substitute.
It didn’t completely hide my appearance, but it tampered with other people’s perception so that even if they saw me they would only register me as “random passerby number one.” It would be extremely useful for escaping or operating within groups rather than for infiltration.
It’s a magic circle.
When learning magic, the first step was always examining the circle. Reading it sent thoughts written in the language of stars directly into my mind. It wasn’t that I couldn’t understand the language of stars—I could instinctively grasp their meaning.
I shall coat my form in darkness so that my enemies cannot see me.
Some people supposedly took decades to realize a single thought like this. Most mages who couldn’t read the thoughts themselves had to reverse-engineer the magic circle to reach the same understanding.
In that respect, Kael Lotus’s magical talent was undeniably insane.
If this were a computer, it would be like looking at a string of zeros and ones and instinctively translating it into readable code.
A human interpreter. Still, while reading Shadow Magic I realized that black magic was noticeably less intuitive than regular spells. Even after reading the circle and grasping the thought, I couldn’t use it immediately. The sensation itself felt completely different.
It wasn’t the feeling of twisting phenomena with mana, but rather using mana to interfere directly with the world’s fundamental laws.
Unlike ordinary magic that imitated phenomena, this transmitted my will straight to the world itself that allowed phenomena to exist. That was why learning it took so much time.
“Now I understand why it’s treated as lost technology…”
I was willing to bet that unless you had talent on Kael’s level, you couldn’t even touch black magic. On the other hand, studying it meant I could become uniquely powerful. While others were shooting fireballs, I could infinitely pull potions out of subspace magic. Nothing could be more overpowered than that.
I’m looking forward to it…
Honestly, recruiting Hestia had been an excellent decision.