The Structure of Magic
At some point, the days in Bresen had settled into a similar shape.
It was July 1st of Sacred Calendar Year 1113—my thirtieth morning in Bresen.
I sparred with Garen in the morning, then spent the rest of the day ranging through the forest with Roy, Mari, and Kaya.
Facing the black wolves was no longer unfamiliar. They were still cunning, and they grew more vicious as the sun sank. The one thing that had changed was that their movements were starting to come into view, little by little.
Roy held the line, Mari laid down her magic, and Kaya called the timing. All I had to do was slip into the openings.
I no longer swung wildly or held on clumsily the way I had at first.
Money was accumulating steadily, too.
The problem was the fatigue.
Morning training, commissions, evenings spent on magic theory with Mari. The sword demanded its own attention, and the theory demanded the mind.
As evening came, my body grew heavier. Some days my finger joints ached and throbbed.
Without fail, Kaya would notice first and lay her hands on me.
Thanks to that, I never thought of stopping.
The sword was settling into my body, the party’s flow was becoming visible, and magic theory was finding its place in my head.
The more it started to take shape in my hands, the less I wanted to let go.
After dinner my feet naturally turned toward Mari’s room.
I knocked two or three times, and instead of an answer came a voice laced with a sigh.
“...Get lost.”
“Open up.”
“I said get lost.”
“Open up.”
A brief silence. Then the door opened.
Mari looked me up and down once. Not exactly a welcoming face. Still, she stepped aside.
“Haa... come in.”
The room was quiet.
A single candle on the desk, a few sheets of paper, a couple of books.
That was all.
An outer garment was thrown carelessly over the end of the bed. The mana lamp on the wall painted the room in a faint light.
I pulled over a chair and sat the way I always did.
At the sound of the chair, Mari lifted her head. Her eyes narrowed.
“What are you going to ask about today.”
“Magic.”
“I know that.”
Mari clicked her tongue. Even so, she lightly kindled a flame at her fingertip.
“You. What do you think magic is?”
I didn’t answer right away.
The flame floating beside the candle, the blaze that had blocked the black wolves, the heat that cut off paths, shook vision, made them afraid—
It all rose at once.
“...Taking what you picture in your head and pulling it out into reality.”
Mari’s hand paused for a moment.
“What?”
“Not so much using fire as... including how it moves, where it touches, what it’s going to do... just that kind of feeling?”
Mari looked at me without a word. Then she slowly stretched the fire at her fingertip long and thin.
“...Not completely wrong.”
The corner of her mouth lifted.
Mari held out her fingertip. A single flame stretched thin through the air. It wound once around an empty cup and slid toward the wall as if gliding. Just before it touched the wall, it quietly swelled at a single point.
Pop.
It burst small.
I blinked without meaning to.
“This isn’t just lighting a fire. I designed it from the start. The speed, the direction, when it would burst.”
“So... not the fire itself, but deciding first what the fire is going to do.”
“You can’t do it with results alone.”
Mari extinguished the residual flame. After a brief darkness, a very small flame rose again.
“Decide the result, then build the structure that has no choice but to produce that result. Mana is the power that makes that real.”
My mouth opened right away.
“Then the structure is ultimately the process.”
Mari’s eyebrows rose. Just a little.
“You could look at it that way.”
She continued.
“Magic isn’t attributes. Fire, water, wind, ice... those are all just names people stuck on for convenience. The essence is deciding the result first.”
“The result...”
“Whether you’re going to burn. Whether you’re going to block. Whether you’re going to draw something out. Whether you’re going to frighten. What you want to create—that comes first.”
The moment she finished speaking, Mari flicked her fingertip.
The flame spread wide and thinned. The form vanished and only heat remained. It brushed once through the air around the candle and passed on.
“This is the side that shakes vision.”
This time the opposite. The flame compressed to a single point, thinned like a needle tip, held for a moment in midair, then vanished.
“This is closer to piercing.”
Last, the flame was low. It spread slowly as if licking the floor, then stopped right in front of the edge of the paper.
“This is the side that cuts off a path.”
Before I knew it I had my chin propped on my hand.
“Interesting.”
“...What is.”
“If fire is the means, then what really matters is the concrete design and the result value, right.”
Mari looked at me once, then let out a short sigh.
“You understand better than I expected.”
“Well, I’m kind of like that~”
“What are you even saying.”
Even so, Mari brought out explanations she hadn’t given before.
“But there’s one thing that’s easy to get wrong.”
Mari lightly flicked her fingertip. The flame ballooned large, then immediately collapsed.
“See? Big, fast, intense. If you start with a flashy imagination, the result ends up like this.”
My eyebrows went up.
“Why?”
Mari didn’t answer right away. Instead she raised a flame on her fingertip. Far smaller than before. But it didn’t waver.
“Mana can’t lie. If the structure in your head doesn’t hold together, mana won’t hold either. Not a cool-looking imagination—an imagination that’s actually possible comes first.”
The flame quietly went out.
Looking at the residual heat left in the empty air, I nodded.
So... the picture in your head has to be something that can work in reality too, or mana won’t support it.
The moment that thought landed, something unfolded wide in my head.
...No, wait a second. Then if there’s enough mana and the structure holds, the scale doesn’t matter, right?
I thought about it completely seriously for about three seconds.
Nuclear bomb.
The largest energy release humanity had ever created. A word that had stuck in my ear while I dozed through middle-school history class, something I’d seen until I was sick of it on YouTube thumbnails, the thing overpowered protagonists detonated at every climax in web novels.
If I could build the structure in my head?
If there was enough mana?
Oh, fuck... I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.
Mari was looking at my face.
“For a civilian.”
“Why does that line feel so annoying and so good at the same time.”
“Pervert.”
“Heh heh.”
Mari unnecessarily picked up a paper from the desk and set it back down.
“...Let’s stop here for today.”
“Ah, can’t we do just a little more for real?”
“I don’t want to.”
“Ah...”
I leaned back and pretended to be disappointed, but a laugh slipped out anyway.
“But Mari, you said you can use other attributes besides fire.”
“And.”
“Then why do you almost only use fire?”
Mari didn’t answer right away. She only folded and unfolded the flame at her fingertip once.
“It differs by person, the side that fits well.”
“The side that fits well?”
“In theory you can do everything. But when you actually try it, the body knows first. There’s a type that draws faster, sticks more stably, and takes less effort. For me that’s fire.”
My gaze went naturally to the flame.
The fire at Mari’s fingertip wasn’t just a flame. It was natural, as if it had been meant to be there from the start. It wavered, but it wasn’t unstable.
“...Cool.”
Mari blinked.
“What is.”
“Just. You.”
The words came out bluntly.
Mari said nothing. The fire at her fingertip wavered for a moment. It stabilized soon enough, but the tips of her ears were already red. Mari didn’t look my way.
“Don’t say useless things.”
Her tone was still blunt. But there was a little less force in it than before.
I gave a short laugh.
“Can I come tomorrow too?”
“If I’m in a good mood.”
“Then right now?”
Mari looked at me for a moment. Soon her gaze slid sideways.
“...Not bad.”
That was enough.
The next evening.
As closing time drew near, the guild grew a little quieter.
The settlement was the same as usual. Even while looking at the ledger, Luce scanned my body once. Only after confirming whether there were any wounds did she read out the amount. That order had become familiar by now.
When the settlement finished, the three of them left first. I put the coins into a leather pouch and turned.
That was when it happened.
Luce’s voice came low.
“Um... Siyun.”
I turned right away.
Luce was looking down as if organizing the ledger. So the others wouldn’t hear. Then for just a moment, she looked at me.
“After closing today... do you have a little time?”
The moment the words fell, my heart strangely trembled.
It hadn’t been this bad even in front of the black wolves.
I hesitated. Then I smiled.
“Yes. That’s fine.”
Luce let out a small breath.
“I’m glad.”
“Then... I’ll wait.”
“Yes.”
It had only been a few exchanges, yet my heart was beating strangely fast.
Ah... I’m going crazy.
When I came out of the guild the three of them were standing in front of the entrance.
“Why are you so late?”
Mari stood with her arms crossed.
“Ah, sorry. Go eat first. I’ve got something to take care of.”
“Something?”
“Yeah.”
“What kind of something.”
“Just something.”
Mari’s eyes narrowed. Her mouth opened as if to speak, then stopped.
“Got it.”
Kaya was first. Roy was already walking toward the restaurant as if he had no interest.
Mari followed without a word. Then after a few steps she stopped and looked back.
“Are you coming today?”
I hesitated a moment.
“Let’s rest today.”
Mari looked at me once in silence. As if she was about to ask something, then she simply turned.
The three of them disappeared around the alley.
I stood there for a moment, then scratched the back of my head.
“Haa...”
There was still a little time left until closing.
I stopped by the public bathhouse. I sank my body into the hot water. It felt like a day’s worth of fatigue was seeping out little by little into the water. The finger joints that had been throbbing heavily also gradually subsided.
I washed, came out, and fastened my collar.
I sat on the bench in front of the guild.
The night wind was cooler than I expected.
Light was still leaking from inside the guild.
I clenched and unclenched my hand.
It was strange.
It hadn’t been this bad even before a fight.
For just a “let’s talk for a bit,” my heart was far too loud.