The First Blessing
Simon and Lethe rose from their seats.
After kneeling for hours on end, Simon couldn't even manage to stand in one go. When his legs wobbled beneath him, numb from kneeling, Lethe clicked her tongue as if he were a pathetic sight.
"Ugh, what's a man doing whining like that? Can't even pop right up?"
...Just as expected from a priest — every single word out of her mouth was conservative. Still, he was in no position to complain while receiving instruction, so Simon kept his smile plastered on.
"The first subject we'll tackle is 'Blessing Studies,' the heart of a priest's craft. It's white magic that strengthens yourself and others through the god's grace."
Lethe rested her hands on her hips and explained in a clear, resonant voice.
"And the blessing we'll practice is Strength. It's the most basic blessing of physical power enhancement. We'll start with this one."
Lethe pulled out her Blessing Studies textbook and opened it to the page bearing the magic circle for Strength. She walked him through each divine rune one by one until he understood, then closed the book and made him draw the circle over and over on the ground with a tree branch until he could reproduce it perfectly. Only after that did she tell him to try forming the circle with divinity itself.
Simon absorbed every scrap of information like a sponge, then gave it a try.
I can do anything I set my mind to.
Vrooom!
Raising divinity from his fingertips was simple now. Next, he set about sketching the magic circle etched in his mind using the divine power.
Whoa.
The divinity rippling in Simon's palm brought to mind an obedient, well-behaved child.
It was nothing like jet-black, which had taken him years just to achieve simple release, let alone shape transformation. Divinity moved exactly as Simon willed it, smooth and responsive.
Of course, that was only as far as responsiveness went — actually building a magic circle with it was another matter entirely.
He could just barely manage the shape of the circle, but completing the divine script and the internal details proved considerably harder.
"Phew."
Twentieth attempt.
This time, too, he drew the circle and then failed at the runes.
"It's because your faith is lacking. Faith."
Lethe had been doling out pointers at his side the whole time. At some point, she'd flopped down onto the grass and was busily scribbling something in her textbook.
"What's that?"
"Homework for break."
"......."
Lethe pulled an irritated face.
"What, you got a problem with that?"
"No. Just — hang in there."
Simon was a student too, and he understood full well how brutal vacation assignments could be. He left her to it and gathered his focus once more.
Lethe's method is the standard priest's approach. I'm going my own way with this.
In Simon's view, the biggest obstacle right now was habit. The ingrained habits of drawing magic circles with jet-black kept unconsciously bleeding into his divinity.
Jet-black had a property of memory. In the case of simple dark magic, he had reached the point where merely recalling a spell's name and main rune caused the entire formula to complete itself, chain and all.
Divinity had no such courtesy. If he got partway through a circle and slipped, even briefly, into the realm of the subconscious, the whole thing would fall apart on him.
So then —
Simon clenched his teeth.
I'll render the whole image in one stroke.
Divinity was freely controllable and deeply bound to the human mind, which meant it didn't need to be drawn out piece by piece the way jet-black did.
The completed magic circle, in my head.
Summoning every ounce of concentration, Simon pictured the finished circle in his mind, then lowered his gaze to his left hand.
Now drag it out!
Vwoom!
The divinity stirring in his palm spread out like a wide slab of bread dough. One by one, the divine script he'd learned from Lethe began to embed itself within.
Not enough!
Simon bit his lip.
Imagination and concentration alone won't cut it! I'll cover the rest with insight!
Mana, jet-black, divinity — what difference was there, really?
Wizard, necromancer, priest — where did they truly diverge?
All three flowed from the same wellspring, and the truth waiting at the end of the road was one and the same.
The letters on the magic circle began to crawl forward, slow and deliberate. Simon threw every scrap of knowledge he'd learned at Kizen into the effort.
He laid paths of script for the divinity to flow through, carved breathing holes so the whole thing could draw breath. Where resistance built up, he twisted the route around it.
There was no need to overcomplicate it. All he had to do was let the divinity pass freely through every part of the circle.
Simon solved the circle like a puzzle, piece by piece, until at last —
Vuuuuuum!
The magic circle was complete. Lethe, who had been sprawled on the ground working on her homework, whipped her head up, eyes wide as a startled rabbit's, and stared at Simon.
What in the world IS this guy?!
He'd actually completed a magic circle.
After casting white magic for the first time a mere day ago!
Her whole body was trembling.
"Let's test whether it works."
With that, Simon carefully placed his palm over the white magic circle.
"......!"
He felt the circle being drawn into his body, and with it, an unknown energy welled up from within. At the same time, a tail of red-white light could be seen winding itself around Simon's frame.
Power's overflowing!
Simon walked over to a nearby tree and threw a punch — no Internal Jet Black Operation, nothing — just raw muscle.
THOOM!
As leaves came raining down around him, Simon balled his fist tight.
He could feel it, unmistakably — his strength had gone up.
"I did it, Lethe! I cast the blessing properly, right?"
"......."
Lethe, who'd been wearing a blank, stunned expression, suddenly turned her back to him. Then she started scraping at the ground with her fingertips, sweep by sweep.
This can't be real. It took ME a whole week, and he made it in one day? And he doesn't even believe in the goddess?
The boy seemed intent on shaking the very foundation of the faith she'd labored so hard to build.
When Lethe went nearly ten whole minutes without saying a word — though someone in her position ought to have said something — Simon carefully broached the silence.
"What are you thinking about?"
"......About how much I want to beat you to a pulp."
"That's nothing new."
Simon gave a small laugh.
"So what are you teaching me next?"
Lethe stared at him for a long moment.
A necromancer who wielded divinity.
Yes, this was for Anna's sake, and yes, she needed a collaborator — but was she, in truth, committing an act of pure madness right now?
Was teaching this man white magic going to send him back to Efnel one day as a genuine threat?
If she became a Saint and faced him across a battlefield someday, would she regret what she was doing today?
"What's wrong, Lethe?"
"......."
She let out a long sigh and slowly rose to her feet.
However many times she turned it over, the conclusion came out the same.
It was a fool's errand to try to read the goddess's will through the narrow lens of a mortal, short-lived human like herself.
"Divinity is the power of those blessed and recognized by god."
Strength gathered in her eyes.
"There must be a reason, without question, that the goddess granted you divinity. That is what I choose to believe."
She could not commit the error of warping the goddess's will through her own judgment alone. Wasn't that exactly what they taught, over and over, at Efnel?
"Promise me just one thing."
She said it with steel in her gaze.
"Whether you believe in the goddess or not, whether you and I end up fighting someday or not — when you use white magic, you will never, ever cross the line."
"Alright. I promise."
Hoo. Lethe exhaled and gave a curt nod, her expression cooling.
"Then, moving on to the next lesson."
From Lethe, Simon learned the foundational white magics — the basics that doubled as the core of the craft.
Blessing Studies' Strength, Divine Mechanics' Holy Arrow, and Healing Studies' Heal.
He'd only just learned them, so they were far from combat-ready; they would demand a great deal more practice.
And there was one more thing. Simon could now wield both divinity and jet-black, but using the two powers simultaneously was a completely uncharted territory.
For instance, if he kept Internal Jet Black Operation running while wrapping himself in Strength, the two energies would collide, and one of them would collapse more often than not.
Dual simultaneous operation — fighting with a double core would require its own separate training regimen.
For now, Simon focused purely on mastering white magic on its own. Lethe, too, kept the first day theory-heavy, then from the second day onward pushed him into repetition drills to build stability.
This is fun.
Simon was running with Strength wrapped around his body, practicing how to hold the blessing steady.
Casting the blessing wasn't the end of it. He had to work constantly at managing his divinity so the blessing never winked out.
Learning something new is the BEST!
Beaming from ear to ear, Simon abruptly kicked his running pace into high gear. Lethe, jogging beside him, barked in outrage.
"Hey! What do you think you're doing? Why are you suddenly sprinting?!"
"Felt like running!"
"Do the drill the way you're told! Ugh, seriously!"
Sweat flew off him in the cool headwind. Not once did Simon let the blessing falter.
After lessons ended and he returned home, a new task was waiting for him.
"Simon, make a round of Btant Village."
"Yes, sir!"
It was a patrol mission covering the villages under Les Hill Territory. Nestled in treacherous mountains, Les Hill had no large cities to speak of.
Dozens of small villages lay scattered across the mountain range, and patrolling them was among the duties of the heir to Les Hill.
"Father."
"What is it, Simon?"
"If I complete the patrol without incident... would you teach me some dark magic?"
Richard, who had been sweeping the floor, went wide-eyed. Lethe, sprawled bonelessly across the sofa in exhaustion, turned to stare at Simon as though he'd lost his mind.
"But haven't you been practicing white magic all this time?"
"I can't let my dark magic studies slip, either."
He didn't intend to waste a single second of the vacation. Over these two months, Simon planned to push his achievements in both dark magic and white magic as far as they would go.
"Hahaha! Once you're back at Kizen, you'll be learning until you drop whether you like it or not — what's the rush?"
"Because even back at Kizen, this is a spell I won't be able to learn right away."
"What do you want to learn?"
Simon drew a light breath and answered.
"Corpse Explosion."
KUAHAHAHAHA!
At those words, Richard threw his head back and roared with laughter like a madman.
Simon was taken aback. He was fairly certain he'd never seen Richard laugh with his mouth open like that before.
"Isn't that an advanced dark magic spell reserved for the second year?"
Simon caught a flicker of lightning in Richard's eyes and startled for a moment, but he quickly masked it and pressed on.
"Yes, sir. I had a small taste of it once, and I'd like to finish mastering it before that feel fades."
If the vacation hadn't come so suddenly, he'd been planning to pester Aaron into teaching him — but circumstances had changed. And with a masterful necromancer standing right in front of him, Simon was hardly the type to let the opportunity slide.
"Teaching you isn't the hard part, but expecting a Kizen-professor-level education from this old father of yours would be asking too much. Those people are professionals among professionals. As instructors, they're leagues beyond me — several times over."
"Just pointing me in the right direction will be more than enough. Please, sir!"
When Simon bowed his head, Richard stroked his chin thoughtfully.
"Very well. In exchange, I have one condition."
He drew a bracelet and an anklet out of his subspace and dropped them onto the floor.
"All of these are artifacts inscribed with the Exhaust Curse. Wear them for the full round of the village, and I'll consider it."
"You mean it?"
"Of course I mean it! Hahaha!"
Simon plopped down on the spot and clicked the cursed bracelet around his wrist.
Watching him, Lethe rose to her feet with an expression of utter exhaustion and trudged toward the inner room.
There lay Anna, wrapped in bandages of jet-black. She dropped down beside her, leaning her body against the bed, and spoke with a drained look on her face.
"......Miss Anna. I'm now quite certain the men in this house are all insane."