Anyway, He Knows a Good Thing... (5)
One day — specifically, two days before now — a strange letter arrived for Roy.
There was no sender listed.
Its contents simply warned that someone might be targeting him.
Doesn't seem like the kind of prank anyone I know would pull...
In truth, Roy had already been preparing for something like this. No one valued his own life more than he did. Beyond the guardian amulets he had carried since childhood, he had layered barrier after barrier of protective magic across both the manor and his laboratory. Of course, he knew full well that none of that was enough to answer every threat perfectly.
In the end, getting stronger myself is the best defense.
Still, having received a warning in advance, he put a few additional precautions in place. First he assumed someone would try to attack or abduct him, and ran through various simulations.
If I were hunting me... the first thing I'd do is map out my range of movement.
He put himself in an enemy's shoes and thought through the best places to watch him: school, the manor, the commute to and from class, even the laboratory. And then—
Huh? There really is a suspicious guy...
Near the laboratory, Roy spotted someone watching him. With his Golden Eyes, it wasn't difficult. Naturally, he gave no sign that he had noticed. Then he quietly investigated from behind and identified the man.
A mercenary? Don't tell me Padec betrayed me.
From that moment on, Roy calmly played the part of his ordinary self — all while thinking. If they meant to kill him, where would be best? If they meant to abduct him, when and where, and at what timing? He distilled the results into a handful of hypotheses with the highest probability.
For the time being, I'd better conserve my mana.
Even drinking mana solution only restored a trivial amount. Better than nothing, of course — so he minimized his everyday mana use.
That was when the second anonymous letter arrived.
This is Padec. Suspicious individuals have entered the country from the Isco Kingdom and are currently staying within Crown City. It appears they are after you, Lord Roy. It could even be today — please take every precaution. There is a movement within the mercenary group to remove me, so I cannot offer active assistance. I am sorry. Burn this letter the moment you have read it.
— Padec
Even after receiving the letter, Roy did not drop his suspicion of Padec. Whether its contents were true or false made no difference. Every preparation was already in place.
Well. Might as well take the bait and test it.
Assuming the enemy would strike that very day, Roy sent his three assistants home early. Naturally, he used almost no mana either.
And so night fell.
Roy called Noah forth.
"Hm? You told me only to come out inside the manor. Why summon me in a place like this?"
"Can't you tell just by looking?"
"Hmph. Doesn't seem like there's anyone stronger than you here."
The people who had broken into the laboratory could only stare in shock at Noah's sudden appearance.
"What the hell is that little brat? Where did he come from?"
"You don't need to know. More importantly — is your goal to kill me, or to abduct me?"
"So the so-called disciple of Geren has sharp instincts after all. From this moment, we're taking you with us. All you have to do is keep quiet!"
"Judging by the look of you, you seem to be a knight from somewhere. Did they not teach you chivalry at school? A nobleman, stooping to such a vulgar abduction..."
"Mouthy little brat. What are you all standing around for? Seize him!"
"I'm sorry, but I have no intention of letting a single one of you leave alive. You'd best prepare yourselves."
Watching the men close in to capture him, Roy called out.
"Noah! I'm using it — now!"
"As you like."
Once you gained power, you had to test it, didn't you? Roy had not the slightest intention of drawing a sword against the enemies before him. Magic alone would do.
Rapid Arthema
Time-spirit magic — brain calculation speed accelerated to near-instantaneous casting
With Noah's aid, Roy unleashed his new power. The blood vessels in his brain dilated; the blood racing through them surged faster. His vision brightened by a degree even as his blood pressure climbed, the vessels at his temples standing out in sharp relief. His mind activated to its absolute limit, and the calculation speed of his spellcasting soared. A temporary state of awakening. The boy's eyes flooded with a deeper gold than they had ever held. Noah's eyes had changed to match.
And then—
"Th-that's impossible...!"
"Magic completing at that speed? Is that even real?"
Every mercenary watching — the knights among them as well — was struck dumb. Roy's casting speed had blown past anything they could imagine. Haste, a high-tier spell of considerable difficulty, activated in the span of a blink, and Roy's movements accelerated beyond anyone's ability to follow.
As a professor had explained in a recent Knight Academy lecture, in a one-on-one confrontation a mage facing a martial artist was at a severe disadvantage. At equal levels of power, it was nearly impossible. Manifesting magic required the time to recite a lengthy incantation — and an enemy would never grant that time. Standard practice was to disrupt a mage and keep them from casting at all. For a mage to use magic effectively in real combat, they needed allies to buy them that casting window. That was the tactical limitation of the mage.
The professor had gone on to explain that high-ranking mages had created golems specifically to overcome that limit.
Allies can't always be at your side. A tool you can keep with you and command at will — a golem. Build one properly, and you could overcome a great many of a mage's weaknesses.
A golem was exactly what Roy needed most. Unlike in his previous life, his mana reserves had grown ample; if he set his mind to it, he could have produced a golem superior to anyone else's. But that was no longer necessary. With his mana capacity surpassing even that of a count's bloodline, he had unlocked another power belonging to the Time Spirit, Noah.
What if a mage could slash their casting time to a fraction of what it once was? Then the mage's weakness simply vanished — exactly as it had for Roy now.
In the space of a gasp, Roy's second spell was complete.
⟨ Frozen Earth ⟩
In an instant the entire parlor floor became a sheet of ice. The enemies lost their footing — some barely managing to stay upright, others sliding and scrambling across the ground. Bolstered by Haste and his internal mana control, Roy moved with devastating speed. The mercenaries who had tried to seize the boy flailed at empty air.
"Damn it all! Somebody grab that little brat already! Stop him from casting — cover his mouth!"
"You think we're not trying?!"
"Aaaargh!"
Before they knew it, a third spell was finished. A razor-sharp ice spear punched through one mercenary's throat and drove into the floor. Scarlet blood sprayed across the ice.
"Guh! What the hell are you all doing?!"
—CRASH! —CRACK-CRACK-CRACK!
Needle stomped down hard with one foot. Channeling mana into the blow, he shattered the ice sheet to pieces. The ice exploded, and a gaping hole opened in the wooden floorboards beneath. But even in that brief span, Roy's fourth and fifth spells were already complete. These were relatively simple spells, and so they came even faster. A massive mass of water formed in midair and crashed down over the enemies. They were soaked to the bone, like half-drowned rats.
And in that state, a sudden cold flooded the space. The mercenaries' entire bodies began to shiver violently.
"Hhh— wh-what is it this time?"
This one was a compound spell — a collaboration of wind-attribute magic and ice-attribute magic.
Compound magic — Wind + Ice
In a heartbeat the entire parlor was transformed into something beyond mere winter — the killing cold of the continent's far north. Already soaked, the cold drove through their skin and into their bones. The hands gripping their weapons went numb. One and all, they could do nothing but tremble under the merciless chill.
High-tier magic was not always the answer. Using the right spell at the right time and place was the fundamental discipline of a true mage. Leveraging basic magic to extract maximum efficiency from minimum mana — that was the path Roy pursued.
High humidity. A space saturated with cold. His next spell would make full use of this environment. Lightly dodging the enemies' frozen, clumsy attacks, Roy granted them no time to breathe as he began the next incantation.
"......"
One secondary benefit of accelerated casting: the concentration required to complete a spell could now be gathered in brief, concentrated bursts. Between each movement and each evasion he rapidly stitched the chant together, and at last the next spell was complete.
"Something's coming again! Watch out!"
Moisture in the air gathered point by point, then froze solid, forming needles — sharp and pointed. Hundreds, thousands of them blanketed the air overhead. The instant Roy released his mana, they drove down like daggers into the enemies.
Thuk! Thuk-thuk! Thuk-thuk-thuk-thuk! Fsssh! Fssh!
"AAAAAARGH!!"
"Gahk...!"
Dozens of ice needles punched through the flesh of mercenaries and knights alike, riddling their bodies. Disguised as merchants, none of them had worn metal armor. They had been left utterly defenseless. Blood poured from every wound.
The existing single-needle ice spell known as Shardsting, amplified through Rapid Arthema — his accelerated calculation speed allowing dozens of identical spells to be computed in parallel, forcibly evolving it into Shardrain.
Hmm... is "Rain" a little too soft?
The boy was more absorbed in naming his evolved spell than in the men collapsing at his feet.