Early Spring
After a massive mana flow was observed in Luke Forest, the mages tentatively concluded that it was some unknown natural phenomenon—an anomalous weather event of sorts—caused by artificial mana generation.
"That's a rather convenient explanation."
Sprawled out as she listened to Daphne recount the story, Sorbi mumbled the words.
Thanks to that anomalous weather or whatever it was, things had become incredibly free, which was nice enough.
"Even the monsters have stopped being active."
"Well, a mana reaction of that magnitude would be enough to scare them."
Daphne wet her lips with tea steeped from the leaves Yerna kept on hand, watching Luke and Kirke play badminton over on the far side.
"Thanks to that, these past few days have been ridiculously free."
A rampage of mana flow throughout the entire forest.
No matter how drawn monsters were to mana, a current of that scale was bound to terrify them.
Fear of an overwhelming presence and of the unknown.
The monsters could only tremble in hiding, praying that whatever had caused that mana flow wasn't angry at them.
As a result, the forest keepers—whose main work was dealing with monsters that flocked toward the city—came to work but found themselves with nothing to do.
In truth, though she complained, Sorbi was thoroughly enjoying the situation. She even thought it would be nice if things were always like this.
"Unnie, there's no way someone could artificially create a mana flow of that scale, right?"
Hearing Sorbi's foolish remark, Daphne closed her eyes lightly and shook her head.
"Of course not. Not unless they were determined to blow the entire forest to smithereens."
With modern magic technology, there was no method for handling mana of that magnitude. More precisely, there was no way to do so non-destructively.
If one considered magic capable of handling that level of mana, the first thing that came to mind was the Class 9 military bombardment spell, Absolute Destruction Field.
Abbreviated as ADF, that magic's effect—as one might infer from its destructive naming—completely disassembled and annihilated objects over a wide area down to the mana unit itself, leaving not even residual mana behind: the ultimate destruction magic.
But the price of the disposable wand created to cast such a massive spell was a whopping twenty trillion. A level no individual could ever operate.
And there was no way the government would be crazy enough to drop something like that on a forest that existed to assist mana generation for the artificial urban World Trees, so it was practically impossible.
"Hmm."
Sorbi made a sound of agreement, adjusting her posture as she spoke.
"Then is it really a natural phenomenon?"
"We have no choice but to see it that way… Well, as long as it's not monsters, it's fine."
"That's true. It's not like I hate this either."
Sorbi mumbled as she watched a butterfly flutter past.
"And the weather suddenly got warm too."
In the forest that had gone from winter to spring in just a few days, no one was adapting easily. The experts' opinion on the sudden seasonal change was this:
"All the winter mana that had been pervasive in the forest has completely blown away. Looks like spring came a little early."
This too, they said, was the effect of the anomalous weather.
"Haa, I don't mind the warmth, though."
Sorbi mumbled as she stretched with a long, drawn-out motion. Being weak to the cold, she welcomed spring's early arrival. Her only complaint was having to hurriedly dig out the spring clothes that had been buried in the back of her closet.
While they were enjoying the free time like that, Yerna walked out from inside the lodging, tidying hair that looked a bit mussed as if she'd been napping.
Seeing her, Daphne offered a light greeting.
"Just waking up?"
"Yaaawn… Trying to. Daphne, how's Luke?"
"She's playing well with Kirke."
"Is she?"
Yerna smiled contentedly as she looked at Luke. With her hair in a ponytail Daphne had tied back for her, Luke was swinging a badminton racket. Tok, tooook, tok—the cheerful sounds continued one after another.
The sight of the child dashing nimbly around the clearing, her dress hem and tied-back hair fluttering as she swung the racket, was the kind of thing that could make time fly if you just stared blankly.
"But she's really good at badminton."
Kirke had always been athletic, so that was expected—but Luke was a surprise. She was moving far more nimbly than Sorbi had expected.
"Right? I thought she couldn't do that kind of thing since she only ever reads books."
As Daphne said, Luke's movements were impressive.
"Unnie, you should try making her an athlete later."
At Sorbi's words, Yerna briefly imagined Luke doing sports.
"Hmm, should I?"
That would be pretty cute too.
"Phew, shall we take a short break?"
"Hoo, yes. Let's do that."
Kirke suggested a rest to Luke, whose breathing was growing steadily rougher. Luke caught the slowly flying shuttlecock midair with her hand, straightened from her lowered stance, and accepted the suggestion.
Kirke looked at her with open surprise.
"Wow, really amazing. You're pretty good even though you're young."
As Luke regulated her breathing and calmed the circle of her heart that had been spinning constantly, Pai immediately stirred up a breeze to ruffle Luke's hair as if to say well done.
Luke!……!
"Haa, thank you. Pai."
Feeling her mood lift from the moderate wind cooling her sweat, Luke spoke to Kirke.
"You were quite excellent as well."
As expected, simultaneous casting of 2-Circle Enhance Body and Wind poses no problem at all.
In fact, Luke had been enhancing her physical abilities with magic and slightly correcting the shuttlecock's trajectory with Wind as she faced Kirke. To Luke, magic was like breathing.
In the past she had been able to transform even simple spells into overwhelming magic no one could imitate through simultaneous casting; this time she had accepted Kirke's badminton proposal precisely to test the perfectly settled 2-Circle.
2-Circle was working properly as expected.
My body is much lighter, and this body has excellent efficiency with enhancement magic. More than anything, without that damned joint pain, exercise is actually doable.
If 1-Circle was basic control of mana, 2-Circle went a step further: control over non-material attributes. The authority to manipulate mana in forms similar to gases—including fire and wind. That was the meaning of 2-Circle.
Luke smiled involuntarily from the satisfaction of finally reclaiming it. Kirke smiled back at her, feeling the pleasant breeze that seemed to blow from nowhere in particular.
Kirke suddenly spoke.
"Oh, time's already like this."
"Hm? What time has it become?"
"Lunchtime!"
"Ah, is that so."
So they had been playing badminton until lunch. Apparently the sensation of hitting the shuttlecock with the racket had felt better than expected, and she had thrown herself into it without thinking.
When Luke turned, her eyes met Yerna's—watching from over there with a smile. Feeling awkward under that gaze, Luke scratched the back of her neck for no reason and looked away.
That gaze as if looking at a child… Still embarrassing.
Having that gaze on her no matter what she did felt a bit troublesome. Well, she was actually a child now, but she still couldn't easily get used to the embarrassing feeling it gave. Until now, no one had ever sent such a gaze toward an old person.
Moreover, since Luke had become an archmage at a relatively young age, she hadn't seen such a contented smile—as if looking at a child—at all since her twenties, making it even harder to adapt.
Geez, getting embarrassed.
But the problem was that that shy reaction simply made her look like a little kid to Yerna and everyone else. Luke could infer that fact as well, yet even knowing it, she couldn't react any other way than by getting embarrassed.
"Yerna, so you've woken up now as well."
As Luke approached, Yerna handed her a bottle filled with cool water.
"Was badminton fun, Ru?"
"Hmm… Yes. It was more fun than I thought."
Kirke grinned and said to Luke,
"Right? But Sorbi, that lazy one, absolutely refuses to exercise."
"What? Lazy? You done talking?"
"It's true, isn't it?"
When Kirke shrugged, Sorbi shouted as if that wasn't it at all.
"I'm not lazy—it's just that exercising makes you sweat! I hate that, that's why!"
"Yes, yes. Of course. Excuses and all."
"Ugh! Just you wait!"
Frowning at Kirke, who was laughing derisively behind a hand over her mouth, Sorbi stood up as if she wouldn't take it anymore, approached Luke with a manufactured crying face, and said,
"Hwing~, Luke, Kirke's bullying me!"
"Ah. Don't come near."
"Huk."
Sorbi froze mid-hug, her expression shocked by Luke's firm rejection. Luke explained as if clarifying the reaction.
"…Didn't you say you hate sweat. My body is covered in sweat right now, so it would be unpleasant for you."
Hearing that, Sorbi made a kettle-boiling sound as if extremely moved and hugged her anyway.
"Luke's sweat is an exception!"
"Ah."
Luke regretted saying it. Honestly, even for Luke, being hugged while sweaty was uncomfortable. But what could she do about already being hugged? She sighed and said to Sorbi,
"Well… Be careful not to get stabbed by the horns."
"Are you worrying about Unnie?"
"…"
Luke looked at the spirit circling beside her, making puppy-whimpering sounds as if delighted, and thought,
Is it even possible to hug a formless spirit?
Trying to touch a spirit's spiritual body just ended up passing through, so it seemed they couldn't interfere physically with the world beyond a certain level. The significance of hugging was ultimately sharing body heat with body heat, wasn't it? Spirits had no body heat and no form.
If one could touch a spirit, that wouldn't be touching the spirit. Strictly speaking, it would be closer to feeling the surface of a mana barrier—a mana shield generated by the spirit.
Yerna, who had been examining Luke's expression as she pondered that, spoke as if scolding.
"Sorbi, let go—Ru seems to dislike it."
"Eck, so mean! Luke, do you hate Unnie?"
When Sorbi asked, looking at Luke with a pitiful expression, Luke answered immediately.
"It's hot, so it would be nice if you got a bit away."
"So mean!"
Kirke shook her head and mumbled,
"Is there anything mean about it."