The Fruit of Wisdom (1)
I gripped my sword and faced Leon.
“Come at me.”
“Yes.”
With the new sword I had prepared in the imperial capital, I charged at Leon. Our blades collided, and I spun my sword overhead, aiming for Leon’s now-exposed right flank.
Clang!
Leon deflected it with the barest shift of his blade—just a finger’s width—then drew his body and sword back to create space before thrusting forward in the same fluid motion.
I stared down at the sword buried in my chest. Or rather, at the sheathed blade that had stopped there. It was as if the movement were the single predetermined answer to the situation.
Leon said, “Your fundamentals are steadily taking root in your body.”
“Sir Leon.”
“Yes?”
“Even if your opponent had been a succubus, would you still have gone for the chest? I’m purely curious.”
“……”
Leon silently withdrew his sword.
I beamed at him. “Just kidding.”
“Lady Ruina. I am not a succubus.”
“Just kidding.”
“Ahem.”
After clearing his throat, Leon pointed out the issue I was currently facing.
“Your memorization is excellent.”
“Memorization has always been my specialty.”
“However, you aren’t applying it.”
“I think I’m quite good at application, actually.”
“Are you good at applying it with your body as well?”
“Does a person really need good motor skills? I’ve wondered about that for a long time. Isn’t it enough if your head works well?”
At my words, Leon raised his sword and settled into a stance.
“Swordsmanship is ultimately simple. Vertical cuts, horizontal cuts, thrusts. It’s about applying these three infinitely.”
“What I did earlier was a horizontal cut, and what you did, Sir Leon, was a thrust. A chest thrust, specifically.”
“…The number of ways to apply these three is literally infinite. Pushing down into a cut, pulling back into a thrust, short rotation, long rotation, stepping sideways while delivering an upward cut, and so on.”
“I know how to do all of them.”
“But you cannot use them in the appropriate situations.”
Well, to begin with, I didn’t even know which technique to use in which situation. After observing Leon’s swordwork, I had tried to replicate the same applications in what I believed were identical circumstances, but Leon would only shake his head each time. It meant I was completely off the mark.
Leon sheathed his sword at his waist and continued.
“In any single situation, only one correct sword path exists. Keep that in mind.”
“Understood.”
I nodded, sat down on the spot, and activated a spell. “Shine forth, Blue Night.”
Magic rippled across the longsword, layering over it. I watched the length of the overlaid enchantment carefully, then sprang to my feet and shouted.
“Sir Leon! Look at this! Our baby grew by a whole 1mm!”
“Please refrain from calling refinement magic ‘our baby.’”
“Why?”
“If I tell you not to, then don’t.”
“Yes.”
When the teacher says not to, there is always a reason. It might even be harmful to the magic’s growth.
I spoke in a cheerful voice. “Today I’m treating! Order anything you want to eat!”
“Lady Ruina. This is a campsite.”
“I know. That’s why I said it.”
“Stingy.”
“Money demon.”
I sat beside Chris and spooned up the stew she had prepared. Chris’s cooking was always delicious. There had never been a single exception. The power of the cooking pouch was truly magnificent.
“Miss Chris’s culinary skills must be preserved for future generations. Even if it requires taxidermy.”
“Lady Ruina? Why are you staring at my chest while saying that?”
“When speaking of a dragon’s power, people usually look at its heart, don’t they? It’s the same idea.”
After finishing every drop of soup, I received an alchemy lesson from Muran.
“…Earth, water, wind, fire. These four are the foundation and root of alchemy.”
“The four major elements, I see.”
“…Earth is the heaviest, followed by water, then wind, then fire. When earth lightens, it draws closer to fire. When fire grows heavy, it conversely draws closer to earth.”
“Hmmmm.”
“…I’ll show you a simple example.”
Muran picked up a stone that had been rolling nearby and cast her alchemy magic. The stone immediately softened and began to flow.
“…This is alchemy’s basic technique, ‘Transformation.’”
“Oh ho.”
“…Did you understand?”
“Understand what?”
“……”
Muran shut her mouth, as though my answer had been completely unexpected.
From my perspective, your attitude is the unexpected one.
I realized something. This girl Muran was a genius type.
Presumably, the alchemy demonstration she had just performed was something her master once showed her. And from that brief display, Muran must have comprehended a great deal. So she had shown me the exact same thing, firmly believing I would do the same, only to become flustered when I realized nothing at all.
I opened my mouth slowly.
“You transformed a stone carrying the properties of earth and granted it the properties of water, correct? The property of flowing.”
“…! You understood it perfectly. What? Then you should be able to replicate it now, right?”
“No?”
“…?”
Muran blinked. From my perspective, it was absurd. Had she really thought teaching someone would be that easy?
I could understand it in my head. I knew exactly what had happened. But I had no idea how to actually do it.
I tried casting the alchemy magic on a pebble the same way. The pebble simply melted. It did not behave like Muran’s demonstration.
I clicked my tongue softly. This alchemy magic is difficult.
Unlike the other spells I had obtained through Balance, it demanded an innate sense even at the moment of activation. If I had to compare it, it felt like I had to raise my understanding of the elements every single time. Yes. This was my weakest field.
I focused on the pebble. Flow. Flow. Flow.
—Right then, the image of the water rope spell flashed through my mind.
Water element. It flows. Its form is not fixed. It changes.
Splash.
Water burst from my hand.
I yelped in shock. “Water is coming out of a human hand!”
“Water is coming out of Lady Ruina’s hand!”
The water that had spurted from my palm freely shifted shape. I formed it into Chris’s likeness and proudly displayed it.
“Miss Chris. Look. It’s you, Miss Chris.”
“Lady Ruina? Why does it have a tail? What is that thing?”
Change. This was the new characteristic of the water element I had realized. The water element had finally reached the first tier. How lucky.
After playing with the water element for a while, I imbued the pebble with alchemy magic. The pebble flowed.
“…It worked.”
“Alchemy magic really is difficult.”
I could see a clue for learning it, but the road ahead was brutally steep. I had to comprehend the traits of elements that possessed properties similar to what I wanted to achieve with alchemy. It was a training method where the belly button was larger than the stomach. Still, that didn’t mean I wouldn’t do it.
“Now what do I do with this?”
“…You mix materials with various properties to create compounds.”
I roughly understood. It was pure grindwork.
I mixed a water-imbued pebble with ordinary pebble powder. What would happen?
A moment later, the pebble transformed into something resembling dough. Fascinated by the strange texture, I poked and prodded it.
Having sculpted a Chris out of pebble dough, I asked Muran, “What’s next?”
“After that, well—”
After receiving alchemy lessons from Muran all day, I headed to a nearby lake.
The first advantage of being a fire-element magician: the ability to wash with warm water anywhere.
I summoned a suitably small tree giant, made it lie down, drew lake water over it to form a bathtub, and heated the water with fire-element magic.
I slipped into the steaming water floating in midair and stretched luxuriously. It felt wonderful.
“Traveling with Lady Ruina has this perk. You can bathe anywhere.”
“Right? I really don’t understand why Sir Leon refuses something this nice.”
“Exactly, exactly.”
I had recommended this portable bath I created many times because it was so convenient, but Leon always declined. He must simply dislike bathing. Though it wasn’t that he hated washing itself, since he would quietly go bathe alone after we finished.
“But I actually know. Sir Leon is shy.”
“Lady Ruina, you’re evil.”
“We don’t mind at all, so there’s no need to decline.”
“I find losing money more embarrassing than showing my naked body.”
“For me, it’s losing magic.”
“I figured as much.”
“Money demon.”
“Magic demon.”
I looked up at the sky. Stars were pouring down. The night sky of Happy Mid-land was spectacular no matter how many times I saw it.
I poked the floating Star Silver lantern. It shivered.
Jeogyeng was protesting why I kept bothering her. I was just bored; there was no deeper reason.
“Every time I see it, I notice Lady Ruina’s hair color is almost identical to the Star Silver’s.”
The Star Silver that resembled the starlight of the night sky and my own hair that resembled the same starlight definitely shared many traits. It implied quite a lot.
“Perhaps I have an aptitude for the Star attribute.”
“Lady Ruina, your thought process is always like that.”
“Speaking of which, Miss Chris, you were calculating how much my hair would sell for, weren’t you?”
“You caught me?”
“Money demon.”
“Magic demon.”
After warming myself thoroughly, I washed with Happy Mid-land’s specialty soap and stood up. It was time to return to camp.
That was when it happened.
Jingle.
The lantern spun sharply and shone toward a certain spot.
Without needing to decide who moved first, Chris and I both turned our gazes to where the lantern pointed.
And we muttered.
“Hiding and peeping… Did you want to bathe with us?”
At my words, the boy opened and closed his mouth with a flustered expression. It seemed he hadn’t expected anyone to be here.
I dried the moisture from my body with magic, changed into clothes I had already washed and dried with magic, and approached the boy. Then I said,
“Hello?”