Assignment (2)
The image he built in his mind was of a key turning in a lock.
He lined up the teeth and gave it a twist.
It wasn’t something you forced into place.
What mattered most was the mental image of a key that fit the lock exactly.
His mouth had gone dry with tension.
Lawrence inserted the key into the lock and spoke the activation word.
“Unlock.”
Click.
He heard the lock give way.
Gripping the doorknob, Lawrence turned it slowly.
The door to Workshop 13 opened.
“Congratulations on your success.”
Number 14 clapped his hands together.
“It was all thanks to you, sir.”
“Ahaha. What have I done to deserve that? Your effort is what made it shine. Though it’s a bit late to say this, I honestly never thought you’d study Unlock with such diligence.”
Today marked the twentieth day since Lawrence had started learning Unlock.
He still had some rough edges, but actually casting the spell wasn’t difficult anymore.
“Telekinesis is similar in principle to Unlock. Since you’re bringing something visible to you, it’s actually easier to form the image. If you get the chance later, you should try learning telekinesis too.”
Lawrence handed over the promised money pouch.
Twenty-five silver in all.
When he confirmed the amount, Number 14’s face brightened.
“You’re heading to the Magic Tower to submit your assignment now?”
“Yes. I don’t know how the result will turn out, but I’m planning to submit what I’ve researched so far.”
“You’re quick. Feels like you only just stepped into the workshop yesterday.”
“Sir, it’s already been two months since I arrived at the Magic Tower.”
Two months.
It was not the kind of time you could dismiss as “yesterday.”
“Still, that’s quick enough.”
“Two months is quick?”
He wondered if he’d misheard, but Number 14 nodded.
“You probably don’t know this. It’s not unusual for an assignment to take more than half a year to finish.”
“By the time that much time passes, the Magic Tower will have forgotten the assignment entirely.”
“Don’t worry. I’ve been around long enough to know. I’ve never actually heard of that happening.”
“That’s not reassuring at all.”
If that was true, then it meant that when the Magic Tower handed out assignments, it took at least that much time into account.
Three or four months for a single assignment.
It really was the kind of work that ground time into powder.
“So how prepared are you?”
“Blank paper.”
“You mean you haven’t written a thing?”
“I’m planning to show the examiner Water directly.”
That would be much better than writing something he could barely put into words anyway.
“That’s very much like you. Then the real challenge starts now. Don’t get too tense. At your level, especially after what you just did with Unlock, I’m sure you’ll get a good response. And even if you don’t pass, that’s all right. Failure is the mother of success. You simply try again.”
It was advice born of experience.
There was real sincerity in Number 14’s voice.
“Could I possibly ask you to look over my assignment?”
“I appreciate the offer, but that’s the result of two months of research on your part. It would be against the proper order of things for me to look at it without any compensation.”
“That’s a little hurtful. Must we really be so strict about things between you and me?”
He did understand what Number 14 meant.
But Lawrence’s assignment was about the practical uses of Water magic.
It had nothing to do with Number 14’s research into the Arme Empire.
“No. The closer you are to someone, the more clearly you have to draw the line in matters like this. So there won’t be any problems later.”
He hadn’t expected to be turned down so cleanly.
Watching the old mage shake his head, Lawrence said, “To be honest, sir, you’ve spent so long in the workshop that your eye for things is probably better than mine. That’s why I wanted to ask for your opinion. I’d like to know whether what I’ve researched will pass muster with the Magic Tower.”
If he were being honest, he just wanted to show it.
It was Lawrence’s own way of expressing gratitude to Number 14 for teaching him Unlock so earnestly.
“I’ve been stuck in this workshop my entire life. How sharp can my eye really be at this age?”
“I think that’s a different matter. If anything, I believe good judgment is something that comes from years.”
Age did not lie.
Of course, there were people whose vision narrowed because they’d been trapped behind the walls of time for too long. But the mage before him did not belong to that sort.
“No helping it, then. If you insist, it’d be rude of me to refuse any further. Mages ought not to leave debts between them.”
Number 14 gave a wry smile.
“I’m glad you see it that way. Then let me show you to my workshop.”
Lawrence returned to the workshop with Number 14.
Once he’d gone downstairs, he lit the lamps.
“That’s a lot of target boards. I wondered how you’d managed to finish an assignment in two months while learning Unlock, but seeing this, I think I can guess.”
“You haven’t even seen the magic yet. It’s too early to be surprised.”
“Hoho. You don’t need to see the real thing to be surprised. Didn’t you say it yourself? That my eye was different? A workshop like this tells a mage everything they need to know.”
He set up three target boards on the opposite side.
He fixed them to the iron bars and returned to his place.
“I’ll begin.”
“I’m looking forward to it.”
In a different sense from Unlock, he was nervous now.
From this point on, everything mattered.
Depending on Number 14’s reaction, Lawrence’s attitude toward the Magic Tower would change.
He could not afford to seem too exceptional.
He had to decide how much to reveal, and how much to hold back.
“Water.”
A fist-sized sphere of water floated into view.
“Cleanly done. Your casting speed is quick, too.”
That reaction was still ordinary.
The problem came next.
Lawrence clenched his fist.
The Water, which had been spread out loosely, began to gather into a single point.
Its size steadily shrank.
Like something being compressed, the Water contracted until it was the size of an egg.
But the change did not end there.
He squeezed tighter. Tighter still, as if wringing the mana out of it.
At last, the Water shrank to the size of a marble.
“What did you just do?”
“I made the Water smaller.”
Number 14’s eyes went wide.
“Smaller? That isn’t just making it smaller, is it? You didn’t shave it down, and you didn’t remove any part of the Water. You compressed the mana to a ridiculous degree. What on earth did you do to make Water into this?”
Lawrence did not answer.
He hadn’t shown everything he wanted to show yet.
He pointed at the target board.
Maybe Number 14 understood his intent.
The old mage closed his mouth and focused on the Water as well.
While preparing for the assignment, Lawrence had agonized over this many times.
The water sphere controlled by the Vodyanoy was not the same as Water.
No matter how much he manipulated Water while keeping it at a fixed size, he would never produce that kind of power, not even in his dreams.
No—more precisely, he could imitate it.
But the cost of the effort and skill involved was absurdly inefficient.
First, the mana consumption was far too heavy.
Second, the preparation time was far too long.
Those were fatal flaws in actual combat.
So he had combined Water with one more idea.
The stream of water spat from the Sea Horn Boar’s mouth.
That had been strong enough to smash even the giant axe Ulrick wielded.
It wasn’t a wide spray.
It was a stream fired at a single point, with the force of a spear thrust or a sword strike.
That was why Lawrence had shrunk the Water as much as possible.
He compressed it, again and again, until the marble-sized sphere of Water was ready, then launched it at the target board.
There was a sharp ping, like a marble striking wood.
The Water shot forward at a speed too fast to see and pierced its target.
It went straight through the center of the target board.
The board could not withstand the impact and toppled backward.
“……”
For a moment, silence fell.
“This is my first research result. As you can see, it isn’t especially powerful. The second result is….”
“Not especially powerful? I’ve never seen a mage handle Water like this in my entire life—not once, apart from you!”
Where his usual composure had gone, no one knew.
Number 14’s voice was thick with excitement.
“L-let me check first. That’s Water, right? It really isn’t Water Ball? No, no, I clearly heard you say Water. But what is that power? How can Water be used like this? The Water I know is supposed to be….”
He rambled on and on, unable to contain his excitement.
“Please calm down, sir. It is Water.”
“It is, right? I knew it! Hoho. This is absurd. If this is possible with Water, then what exactly is Water Ball supposed to be? And this kind of force, too! Maybe the idea that water magic is weak has always been nothing but prejudice!”
Number 14 looked delighted, almost childlike.
As though he had just glimpsed a new possibility for magic, he could not easily rein in his emotions.
Lawrence waited until the old man had calmed down a little.
He understood the inability to stay composed.
He was a mage, too.
If he saw a new application of magic, Lawrence himself would probably be unable to suppress his excitement and would want to test a dozen things at once.
To learn magic was to learn the world.
Encountering a new mystery was always thrilling.
“Mm. I suppose I made a fool of myself.”
“Not at all. I’d have done the same.”
A little later, with an awkward expression, Number 14 cleared his throat.
“All right. What’s the second idea?”
“I’ll show you now.”
Lawrence cast Water again.
This time it was much larger than the sphere he had made a moment ago.
He placed a sphere as large as a human face against the target board.
“Hmm… is that all?”
Disappointment showed on Number 14’s face.
“Imagine that something inside the Water is a person or a monster. If they can’t breathe, even the strongest creature will die.”
“No, no. Right now, the one maintaining the Water is you. The moment they realize they can’t breathe, the target will struggle all the harder. Holding this state under that resistance would be extremely difficult.”
He was right.
It would never work against a monster, though perhaps it might against a human.
“I’ve practiced the technique already. I can flexibly enlarge the Water and follow it along.”
Lawrence moved the Water toward the target board.
Up and down, he expanded it to close off any possible escape.
As he moved the Water roughly, the target board swayed with it.
But the Water never lost its target.
No matter how he handled it, the board remained centered inside the sphere.
“What kind of control is this…? I’ll say it plainly: if there’s any mage in the workshop district who can use Water like this, it’s you and you alone.”
Number 14 clicked his tongue, as though all he could do was laugh helplessly.
“But this won’t be enough.”
“It won’t?”
The Magic Tower’s assignment didn’t sound like it would be easy.
Had his worries about how much to reveal just been needless caution?
“So the first method was the one to use after all….”
“No. That isn’t what I mean.”
But Number 14 shook his head.
“There’s nothing wrong with using it against a target board. If you showed this, depending on the examiner, they might even pass you on the spot. But that usually won’t happen.”
“I’d like to know why.”
“It’s simple enough. Practice and real combat are different beasts. Number 13, could you use Water like that against a real person? Against someone choking and suffering for breath? Could you control Water while looking at their dying face?”
“If I don’t do it, I die. If I think of it that way, it’s not so hard.”
A cold light flickered in Lawrence’s eyes.
“That’s a frightening assumption. Then let me rephrase. Not an enemy trying to take your life. An unarmed person. Say, for example, a slave sold in this workshop district.”
“……”
The boy could not answer at once.
People locked behind cages with dead eyes.
Even now, the image of slaves—human beings who were not treated as human—remained vividly etched in his mind.
Using magic against such a slave.
That was different from monsters or thieves who had come at him to kill.
“I don’t want to use it.”
“Not can’t use it, but don’t want to use it. Is that right?”
Lawrence nodded.
Some might call it hypocrisy.
But the boy who had been raised in the teachings of the Church did not want to treat a pitiful slave that way.
“Perhaps not as a mage. But as a person, that’s a good answer.”
“Do you use slaves in your own research, sir?”
“No. I don’t. My research, as you know, doesn’t require slaves. Of course, there could be situations where there’s no other choice. If that time comes, I can’t say with certainty that I wouldn’t use them.”
Number 14 said it as though his thoughts were no different from the boy’s.
“Do you know why I brought this up?”
“A Magic Tower examiner might bring a slave. And they’d want me to use magic against them, wouldn’t they?”
At Lawrence’s answer, he nodded.
“Exactly. Given the Tower’s policy, you might as well assume it’s almost certain. No matter how impressive a spell may be, if you can’t use it against an enemy, it’s worthless.”
“One human life for one assignment. We’re doing something pretty awful, aren’t we?”
“It isn’t that simple. Every mage must confirm their aptitude. Sitting in a workshop and researching is one thing; real combat is another. Can you really call a mage someone who is swallowed by fear when an enemy stands before them?”
“……”
If that was what one called a mage’s aptitude, then it was fair to say the boy had already shattered his shell long ago.