The Fruit of Wisdom (6)
The flame inside the lantern flickered. I stared at it endlessly before turning to Noa.
“Magic isn’t something that can be taught to someone else. Magic is the endless process of driving yourself forward to discover something within. And only you can know what lies inside your own heart.”
What I was doing was nothing more than helping Noa discover his inner self faster. If there was truly nothing inside him, that would be the end of it. I wouldn’t be able to help anymore. It meant it was impossible to fill the empty void inside a person who had nothing. In the end, my belief was that only those destined for magic would ever attain it.
“Focus on why you want to learn magic. Recall why you tried to learn it in the first place. If you dig deeper and deeper into that desire, you’ll find a single answer waiting inside.”
Why had I wanted to learn magic? Why had I staked my very soul on it?
I simply liked magic. I had done everything I possibly could for it. I didn’t know exactly when it started, but from the moment my memories began, I had been searching for magic. Of course, when I was very young—before I could even properly perceive the world—I hadn’t specifically wanted ‘magic.’ It was closer to the truth to say I had instinctively chased after mystery, only realizing later that what I had been reaching for was magic.
Why had it turned out this way? I wasn’t sure. I sometimes wondered if something had happened during my infancy, a time I couldn’t remember, but that was something I would never know. So I decided to focus on something else.
What did I want to do with magic?
Honestly, there wasn’t anything specific I wanted to do with it. If I had to say, collecting magic itself was what I wanted. I wanted to obtain every single spell that existed in this world—those from the past and those yet to come in the future. And I wanted to use them. That was what I desired.
Why? Why did I harbor such a craving?
And so we return to the very first thought. Because I like magic.
“Master?”
Noa’s call pulled me from my thoughts.
“Yes? What is it?”
“What are you doing?”
“What do you mean, what am I… what is this?”
I blinked at Jeogyeng, who was squirming desperately to escape my grasp. She was literally invisible, but the lantern she was holding wasn’t, which made her movements easy to predict. Why exactly had I been holding her near my mouth? I couldn’t quite remember.
“You were trying to eat her, Lady Ruina.”
“That startled me. Please make some noise when you come in.”
“Lady Ruina, have you finally reached the point of trying to eat lantern slaves now?”
“When you say it like that, I sound like a crazy person who wants to eat magic. Besides, I don’t think I’ve ever shown you me eating magic in front of you, have I, Chris?”
Ever since I made that promise with Kelton, I hadn’t eaten any magic. Even when the urge rose, I endured it. So there was no reason for me to hear such things.
“You’ve shown us plenty of times how your body twists when you want to eat it.”
“So you finally caught on to what that meant.”
This was exactly why I disliked sharp-witted succubi.
I checked on Noa’s condition. He was concentrating with lightning held in his hands, and the sight reminded me so much of my old self that I felt a warm satisfaction. There had been a time when I was like that too. Not that I didn’t still do it these days. I suddenly understood why mages went mad. Doing that for an entire lifetime would drive anyone insane.
“How is it going, Noa?”
“…I’m not sure. Doesn’t it usually take a year to reach the second tier?”
“For most people, yes.”
It had only been a few days since Noa reached the first tier, so it would actually be stranger if he were already showing results. Still, I had hoped for some kind of change, but unfortunately Noa hadn’t gained any notable progress.
I crossed my arms. I had just been talking about how magic was something one had to learn on their own, but if a master truly provided no help at all, why would people come carrying fortunes just to learn magic? At the very least, a master’s presence was essential for raising one’s level faster. In other words, if I couldn’t help Noa grow quickly here, my existence as his master would be meaningless.
How could I be of help to Noa?
Hmm.
In this world, all things were fundamentally based on the four major elements. Everything was determined by the ratio in which those four elements were mixed. As far as I knew, the lightning element required water, wind, and fire to be mixed in the proper proportions. Perhaps that was why he wasn’t making any progress at all. It was a complex combination, after all. In times like these, it was best to start from the beginning and take it step by step.
I took Noa outside. He muttered with a suspicious look on his face.
“Are you planning to do that play again where an evil god’s priest attacks us?”
“How was that? The twist where I was the evil god’s priest.”
“It was so ridiculous I could only laugh dryly.”
“How disappointing.”
I summoned a wooden giant, climbed on top of it, and then had Noa ride as well. Being high up always felt good. It gave the feeling of having everything beneath your feet.
“How is it, Noa?”
“It’s cold.”
“Close your eyes and feel the wind.”
At my words, Noa closed his eyes. He really was an obedient disciple.
“The lightning element you possess is a combination of the three elements—water, fire, and wind. Therefore, in principle, raising your understanding of those three will also raise your understanding of the lightning element.”
“Yeah.”
Strictly speaking, I didn’t really know how to raise one’s understanding of the lightning element. I didn’t possess it myself, and more importantly, I was still only at the third tier. My experience was limited. Therefore, all of my teaching came from inference. Everything I did was based on logical assumptions of “this is probably how it works,” not on things I had truly experienced. There were many shortcomings, which was why—even though I believed everyone should learn magic—I had never taken a disciple until now. I had only accepted Noa because the foresight mage had insisted that it had to be me. Otherwise, I would never have been teaching a disciple like this.
Feeling the refreshing breeze, I asked Noa.
“Do you feel anything?”
“No.”
“Let’s move on to the next course.”
If he had tried feeling the wind, next was water. I took him to the lake where I had first met him, drew the lake water up, and let it float gently above the wooden giant. Then I heated it. Standing in front of the steaming water, I spoke to Noa.
“Take a leisurely bath and try to feel the water element.”
“No way!”
“What are you being shy about? Come here.”
“Kyaaaaah!”
I forcibly put Noa into the water. He absolutely refused to take off his clothes, so I had no choice but to put him in fully dressed. Since I could dry him with magic afterward, it didn’t really matter.
“……”
“Do you feel anything?”
“No, nothing.”
“That’s probably because you’re wearing clothes. This won’t do.”
“Wait! I’ll try to concentrate as much as I can. Just wait.”
“Alright.”
Noa closed his eyes and submerged himself completely underwater. Bubbles rose steadily, and a moment later, Noa burst back up.
“Pwah!”
“How was it?”
“I’m not sure… what the hell are you doing?!”
What was I doing? Couldn’t he tell just by looking?
“I’m taking a bath.”
“Why are you suddenly taking a bath?!”
“Did you plan to bathe alone, then?”
“That’s not what I… no.”
“I blocked the view with wooden soldiers. Isn’t this fine?”
“That’s not the problem…”
What do you mean it’s not? I leisurely enjoyed my bath, then came out and dried Noa’s body with magic.
“Did you gain anything?”
“…A little? I think I might be starting to get a feel for it.”
“That’s a relief.”
It seemed experiencing the components that made up lightning with his own body had loosened the knot. Finally, I lit a campfire and sat in front of it.
“It’s cold, so come sit here. It’s warm.”
“……You’re just going to sit?”
“If you don’t like it, you can lie down.”
“You’re not going to eat the fire, jump into it, or pour fire on your body?”
Of course not. What did he take me for?
“I would never make my disciple do something like that. I might do it myself, though.”
“So you do it yourself.”
“I don’t anymore. Because I made a promise.”
While adding more firewood to the campfire, I continued.
“What kind of clue did you get, specifically?”
“How should I put it? It feels like I understand lightning a little better? Or that I’ve gone deeper? Is this right?”
“It’s probably right.”
I had felt a similar sensation when I gained clues to raise my own tier. The feeling of drawing one step closer to the core of the world. If he had felt that, then today’s training had been meaningful in many ways.
“I think I understand why lightning feels tingly. It’s because lightning contains fire—”
Noa began explaining magic with excitement. Seeing him act his age for the first time, I smiled warmly and took out my pipe. I had been the same. Whenever I intuitively realized why fire was hot, why it burned, why it swallowed everything, I would run to Kelton and pour out my explanations.
‘Sir Kelton. Perhaps the fire element contains everything in the world. If you think about it the other way, fire burns something while simultaneously giving birth to life, right? So—’
…Looking back, it might have felt a little different from the current Noa, but anyway, it brought back nostalgia.
Chik. The pipe lit.
Blowing out a long puff of smoke, I looked up at the sky. The smoke scattered. I stared blankly at the sight and reflected on the day. The memory of standing on top of the wooden giant, feeling the wind, remained particularly vivid.
…….
Whoosh. Wind gathered in my hand. I gazed intently at the newly acquired element, the wind element, and murmured softly.
“So, when exactly did you arrive, Sir Jerry?”
“Just now.”
“The first thing you do upon arriving is light my pipe. You really are quite the peculiar person, aren’t you, Sir Jerry?”
“Would I be more peculiar than you, Lady Ruina?”
How peculiar could I possibly be? I stood up from my seat and spoke.
“Shall we go have a meal?”
*
Come to think of it, it had been a long time since I had lived this leisurely. For the past several months, I had been running all over the place searching for the Holy Grail. It was true that I hadn’t had any personal time. Good. It had been a while—maybe I should properly focus on magic training for once.