Chapter 639: Mafia Game
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 639: Mafia Game
Richard had a father who was taciturn but foolish, and a mother who was tenacious but foolish. They were a perfectly matched pair. They were even identical in the foolish way they loved their child.
He felt as suffocated as if he were wearing ill-fitting clothes. He thought he was different. He felt that his place was not in this unranked district, but with the glittering House Celsius.
If only he hadn't been born in the unranked district. If only his parents had a little more ambition, if only he were given the slightest opportunity. Richard believed he could become something greater.
As they say, heaven helps those who help themselves. An opportunity came to him. A magician who had descended from the Floating Castle to teach everyone equally. Missionary Casas had given him that information, and Richard seized the chance to sneak into the academy.
He was frustrated by the cold reality he first encountered, but the magician was neither arrogant nor base. He was simply cold.
“You have a talent. It's a shame to waste, but a nuisance to cultivate—an ambiguous talent.”
He affirmed the boy’s potential, coldly.
“If you had received a proper education in a normal school district, you would have become a magician without difficulty. Depending on your efforts, you might have even ascended to the Floating Castle. But you grew up in this unranked district, and you are severely lacking in foundational knowledge. The day you learn proper magic will likely never come.”
Richard knew it too. That no matter what he did now, it was hopeless.
That the game had already been decided in a place that had nothing to do with him.
“I can't say you lack effort. Magic furnaces, mana lamps, ice crystals… all these things are made of magic. They are too expensive for the unranked to own, and you can't afford the mana to fuel them. Huddled in a dark house, groaning with hunger and thirst, what results can you possibly achieve by studying in the short time after your labor ends?”
From a binary perspective, even the ignorant can use simple magic tools.
However, they cannot maintain or repair them, their own mana is too weak to use them to their full potential, and above all, they have no money. Even in the Mage Federation, where magic tools were common, they were not so accessible that the ‘unranked’ could use them freely.
“Furthermore, the grimoire crystals needed to learn magic can only be read if you already know magic. Ironic, isn't it?”
To learn magic, you needed magic.
This contradictory reality was the greatest wall separating the boy from magic.
“You do not have the talent to overcome such an obstacle. But that doesn't mean you are inadequate. You can't blame a seed for its failure to bloom in a harsh winter.”
Richard nodded. It was the absolute truth. They say blaming your environment is just an excuse? Even that excuse was a luxury for the unranked. For them, even life itself was a right that had to be granted, let alone magic.
“I will not teach you White Magic. Your talent is not special enough for me to look after and support you for three months. To me, you are utterly ordinary.”
Three months. It was by no means a short time, but Richard was so moved by those words that he could have cried.
The most brilliant magician Richard had ever seen had declared it. A talent that could make him a magician in just three months, if only he had sufficient support. That he was several times more gifted than the average student in that mediocre academy.
“Instead, I will teach you Standard Magic.”
When he heard the words ‘Standard Magic,’ Richard felt a sense of rejection. He knew enough to understand that the Mage Federation was a nation of White Magic, and that other forms of magic were treated poorly.
But he didn't feel more resistance than necessary.
Because Richard didn't even know what Standard Magic was.
“Standard Magic uses extremely simplified hand signs and chants to evoke evocation-class magic within your own body. The effects are weak, but with it, you can overcome a significant number of the problems that plague you. Not only will you be able to activate magic tools, but you will also be able to read grimoire crystals with light magic. By learning Standard Magic, you will finally stand at the starting line. Do you accept?”
The magician was speaking only the truth. If Richard could just overcome the vague fear of a new kind of magic in his heart, power would surely be his.
Faced with what felt like a devil's bargain, Richard asked.
“How long does it take to learn this Standard Magic?”
The magician looked Richard straight in the eye and said.
“One hour.”
*
Richard learned Standard Magic. It wasn't surprising. Although there were variations, the educational standards of the Mage Federation were superior to those of the Military State, and in the field of magic, they were more exceptional than anywhere else in the world.
The same was true for Richard, who had secretly listened in on magic lectures in the unranked district. He had a knack for studying to begin with, so he picked up something as easy as Standard Magic in no time.
“Set, Re. Lux.”
Richard's fingernail emitted a bright light. Having finally obtained the magic he had so longed for, Richard spoke with a look of disbelief.
“Was magic always this easy?”
“Even an idiot can learn White Magic. It wouldn't be cost-effective if Standard Magic, which is even easier, was difficult to learn.”
It was only natural that controlling one's own body was easier than controlling a machine. I explained briefly.
“Standard Magic uses your body, specifically your fingers, as a catalyst. To use a White Magic analogy, they are your magic wand. And just like the gems used as catalysts, their structure breaks down as a price for wielding mana.”
The reason magicians used gems as catalysts was because of their uniform structure. Depending on the type of gem, they emitted mana suitable for different kinds of magic, and as long as the same procedure was followed, anyone could produce the same effect.
The mana of a gem was, in a word, a brick. A solid, uniform element of a fortress.
In comparison, the structure of the body was heterogeneous and deteriorated over time. It was more akin to an ominous, damp chunk of meat.
If White Magic was building a tower with bricks, Black Magic was sculpting with chunks of meat. If one wanted to create a human form, meat might be better, but grand, systematic miracles like a tower could only be achieved with White Magic.
“If you use too much fire magic, you'll burn your fingers. Use too much water magic, and your fingers will swell and burst. Use too much light magic, and your fingers will soften. Use too much lightning magic, and you'll get shocked, dulling your senses. Each has its risks, so you must use them within the limits of your body. Abuse it, and you'll have to cut off your fingers.”
“…I feel like I've made a mistake learning this.”
“You're right. The reason Standard Magic wasn't chosen as the mainstream is because it wasn't all that useful. It's fine as long as you use your fingernails as a sacrifice. They produce a relatively uniform performance, and they grow back even if they crumble from mana. But avoid using your fingers as a medium as much as possible. If you lose your fingers, you'll lose your Standard Magic too.”
Of course, I almost exclusively used my fingers because I had to keep my fingernails pristine for card tricks. Well, I warned him grimly, but he didn't need to worry too much. His fingers wouldn't get damaged unless he used it an absurd amount.
“Remember, Standard Magic is also a tool. Your future will change depending on how you use it. And.”
Watching Richard look down at his right hand with a hint of regret, I added one last thing.
“If things get rough, you can just not use it.”
“What?”
“You can just learn White Magic without using Standard Magic. Or, use Standard Magic only to overcome your difficulties and continue learning White Magic as you are now.”
“Can I learn White Magic even after learning Standard Magic?”
“Of course. Whether it's Standard Magic or White Magic, they are nothing more than tools. Isn't it natural to start with an easy-to-use tool and gradually switch to more difficult and superior ones?”
It was commonly believed that learning Black Magic prevented one from learning White Magic, but that wasn't true. It was just that many dunces without the intelligence to learn White Magic were often injected with Black Magic as a shortcut.
His dream was not over yet. Even though he had learned Black Magic, his potential was still open. He had simply acquired a ‘good tool,’ so to speak.
“…I understand!”
Richard shot to his feet.
“Thank you, Teacher. Whatever this is, the important thing is that I now have magic. I can even read grimoire crystals now.”
Before, he had no way to read them, but now that he had learned Standard Magic, things were different. By shooting a beam of light at the crystal screen, he could project a page from the grimoire.
Richard now had magic. Even if it was wicked Black Magic, this magic would show its wickedness for his sake.
“I'll give it a try.”
With firm resolve, Richard left the mission. To use the new power he had acquired.
Silence fell upon the mission after the boy disappeared. A pure white light seeped through the window made of unmeltable ice. The half-shadowed statue of the Saintess looked down on us in silence.
A moment later, a clamoring sound came from the confessional. The wooden door burst open and a tightly bound Missionary Casas shot out. His eyes bulging, Missionary Casas shouted so loudly the entire mission hall echoed.
“You… you damnable fiend! Teaching an innocent child Black Magic… Mmph!”
“I'm sorry, Father! Please bear with it for a moment!”
The housekeeper who followed him out apologized profusely as she gagged the missionary. I gestured for her to stop as she tried to drag him back into the confessional. The housekeeper glanced at me, then hesitantly let the missionary go.
His mouth freed, the missionary pointed an accusatory glare at me and shouted.
“Are you out of your mind! Do you have any idea what Black Magic is?!”
“Of course.”
“Black Magic is forbidden knowledge that leads to self-destruction! A wicked and terrible power that defiles one's soul! And you taught it to a young lamb who came to the church! That is an act that will cast both you and Richard into hell!”
I shrugged and replied.
“You didn't stop me while I was teaching him Standard Magic, did you?”
“That's because I didn't know it was Black Magic!”
Correct. Standard Magic's form is simple, and the phenomena it creates are similar to White Magic, making it difficult to identify as Black Magic at a glance. To an ignorant person with no mana-sensing ability, it looks exactly the same as White Magic.
“To think there was a secret art for passing on Black Magic without even a ritual…!”
“Oh, you even know about the rituals?”
“Of course I do! Who doesn't know that when a wicked black magician tempts someone with power, it's to use them as a sacrifice!”
Why was Black Magic said to be easy? Because it used the body as a catalyst. It was self-evident that using one's body was easier than using a tool.
However, there were two types of people who chose that path.
The ‘sacrifices,’ who learned Black Magic through a ‘ritual’ like a body-catalyst procedure performed by another black magician.
And the black magicians who controlled countless such sacrifices.
Missionary Casas must have seen me as the latter. An evil being who tempted an ignorant child, planning to steal his body later under the pretext of giving him power.
But his assumption was wrong.
Standard Magic was not that kind of Black Magic, and I was not that kind of black magician.
“I didn't do anything to Richard's body, did I? You watched the whole thing, you should know.”
“That… can't be! You must have used some kind of trickery!”
“Give me a break. What kind of trickery could I have used when all I did was fiddle with his arm right in front of you? This is a church, and the statue of the Saintess is watching us. If she felt something, she would have stopped it long ago. Wouldn't she?”
Did he think I came into a church and taught Black Magic in front of a missionary for no reason?
It's a well-known fact among law-abiding citizens that it's not a crime if no one sees you do it.
In other words, if you want to commit a crime, you need to create a witness. And if that witness is a diligent, just, and honest missionary, all the better.
“But the dark, ominous mana I saw was definitely Black Magic!”
“Originally, the Military State's Standard Magic requires a Bio-receptor to be implanted before it can be used. That's similar to the ritual you're talking about.”
The Bio-receptor is a trace of the body-catalyst procedure. The Military State uses it like a citizen ID card, but that's just its public-facing purpose.
Teaching Standard Magic to unsuspecting children, performing all sorts of taboos on criminals—all of it was possible because of the Bio-receptor.
“However, I can engrave the method of using the body as a catalyst without leaving any trace. Just as you saw.”
I was the one who had even recovered Tyr's memories. With the power of the Lightning Thief and Tyr's Divine, engraving Standard Magic into the nerves of an ignorant child was a trivial task. What's more, my Divine left no side effects or traces.
The missionary, who had watched up close, knew this better than anyone.
And he also knew what it meant.
“Impossible… Th-that means.”
“You finally understand.”
Now. Here is one black magician. He has no trace of a ritual, nor has he become someone's puppet through drugs or spells. On the outside, he is just a talented and clever child.
So, what is the basis for defining this child as a black magician?
“Without leaving a trace, without any change, having gained nothing but a piece of knowledge.”
That man holds no malice toward Richard…! On the contrary, he favors Richard! He truly made a choice for Richard's sake!
Standard Magic? If he doesn't use that magic, which is too trivial to even be called Black Magic? If he just stays quiet, if he's no different from an ordinary ‘unranked’ person?
“Who is the black magician, and who is the innocent citizen? Will the Mage Federation be able to tell? On what grounds will they judge? How will they punish them?”
His malice is directed at the order of the Mage Federation itself!
A society that exists for the sake of learning magic. A stratified education system. And the alienated unranked.
What if they, completely abandoned by magic, born into the shackles of ignorance at the very bottom of the class system, unable to climb back up, were to obtain the power and knowledge the Mage Federation never wanted them to have?
“Do they have the right to trample the ‘unranked’ they themselves excluded, using their own system of order?”
I posed the question to the missionary.