Magic Beasts (1)
This world held a great deal of knowledge I had never known.
Mana, magic, Aura, magitech engineering, and more…
Among them, magitech engineering was a new discipline that fused magic with scientific technology. Studying it alone made each day vanish in the blink of an eye.
"Mana is part of the atmosphere — an invisible energy. Its source is spread across the entire continent, but in some regions the concentration can grow denser. We call those places mana concentration zones."
Saint, a mage in service to the Bladewyns, taught me magical knowledge day after day.
It was nothing more than the bare fundamentals needed to understand magic — but that was exactly what I needed.
"Hold on. How do you measure mana concentration?"
"Mages go to the site themselves and absorb the ambient mana, gauging it by the amount that converts. Otherwise, you can only guess from the natural environment that forms in the area."
"From mana stones or changes in the plants?"
"Yes. Ah — Vulkan might be able to do better."
"I'll have to ask next time I go to Vulkan."
I needed to check on the crossbow development progress anyway. What I had built so far was nothing more than a traditional design with a single teaspoon of magitech mixed in.
"Young Master! You need to come right away!"
Rachel burst into the room and called for me in a rush.
"Why?"
"Someone's come to the manor. He's waiting and insists he has to see you."
"……Me?"
Looking out the window, I could see someone in the distance facing off against the gatekeepers.
I headed straight there. My heart hammered the entire way. Surely not…
"You told me to come, so I came."
A man with a robe pulled over his head grinned, baring yellowed teeth.
"Glad you made it. He's my guest. Stand aside."
"Yes, sir!"
"We didn't recognize him. Our apologies."
The gatekeepers hurriedly stepped back.
He pushed the spear points aside and came toward me.
The face inside the robe looked even rougher than before — like a vagrant who hadn't washed in days.
"I lost my way midway, so it took longer than expected."
"How did that happen?"
"I'll tell you later."
"Of course. First, come inside, rest that worn-out body of yours, and then we'll talk."
"My thanks."
After asking Rachel to send a mage to look after him, I headed for the forge.
The Bladewyns' Iron Cliff Territory sat close to the Valces Mountain Range, and several mines had been discovered nearby.
Thanks to that, mining and mineral refining techniques were highly developed in Iron Cliff Territory, and it held the second-highest number of skilled blacksmiths in the principality after Eidras.
Among them, the family smiths were a cut above the rest.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Stepping into the Steel Forge, the rough hammer strikes rolled out like background music.
The arm muscles gripping the hammer writhed as if they had a life of their own. He wiped the sweat with his sleeve and pounded the metal again.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
He was so absorbed in the forging that he hadn't even noticed anyone had come. I couldn't bring myself to interrupt, so I sat off to the side and waited.
Incredible.
Even before I died, I had once watched a swordsmith at work. I had met him while restoring historical artifacts, and his hammering had been impressive — but this old man was on another level entirely.
Even someone as ignorant of metallurgy as I was could get so drawn in watching his quenching and hammering that I would end up staring blankly without realizing it.
If he was called a master smith of the Bladewyn Steel Forge, then of course he would be this good.
I waited, barely daring to breathe, until he finally stopped hammering and turned to look at me.
"How long have you been standing there?"
"A while now."
"What are you going to make me do this time?"
For all his blunt words, the old man's expression was bright.
"The things I asked for. I was curious how they were coming along."
"Suddenly in a hurry? Why are you already back?"
"I think we may need to pick up the pace."
"Don't worry. Those bearings of yours are almost finished."
"Oh — really?"
I hadn't even been expecting it, and a note of awe slipped out.
Truth be told, from the springs onward, none of this would have been possible without him. In work where precision was everything, this old man had never once made a mistake.
"Here. Drink."
"Heh."
Even the people of the family didn't treat this old man carelessly. He was a blacksmith who had devoted himself to the Bladewyns for generations.
Even Father respected him, they said.
"But this pyrite is something I'll have to handle carefully. The more the reaction picks up, the fouler the gas that leaks out."
"Right. So until we build a device that can store the gas separately, please don't overdo it."
Pyrite — called "fool's gold." Because the Pacific Trading Company had brought some out of nowhere, a path for sulfur production had opened.
Now that it had come to this, I would somehow have to build a device to extract sulfur from pyrite. The Claus process was needed, and for that I needed an apparatus that could oxidize and reduce sulfur dioxide and hydrogen sulfide with a catalyst.
The biggest problem was that I had no way to obtain hydrogen sulfide. The rest, I figured, could be substituted to some degree with magic…
"Anyway, I'll come by again later."
"Don't keep pestering me by wandering in and out. That Wendy girl is already enough of a nuisance when she drops by."
He waved me off with a flap of his hand. Of all the places in Bladewyn, this was the only one that felt warm while the cold wind howled outside, and I would have liked to stay a little longer.
Leaving that regret behind, I went to the reception room.
Fresh from a shower and cleaned up, the mage sat in his seat…
"Mage?"
"Ahem. What's with that look?"
He cleared his throat and shot me an uncomfortable glare.
"Ah — no, no. I was just a little surprised."
His face was clearly that of a fairly handsome middle-aged man… but with the robe off, his gleaming scalp was on full display.
I couldn't help but be flustered.
"There are circumstances."
"Yes. That can happen. Hair loss comes for everyone—"
"It's not that!!"
He slammed the table in a fit.
Look, I understood. Why make excuses like that? Even in the time I had lived in, hair loss had never been solved — it was the age of twenty million bald men.
It was only a matter of degree.
"Aww, I get it. I had hair loss myself, you know?"
"…Are you joking with me right now?"
"Huh? It's not a joke, it's the tr—"
In that instant, the killing intent rolling off him made me freeze. Right now, my own head was covered in a thick head of blue-black hair.
I had been so stressed about hair loss in my previous life that I had momentarily mixed things up. My bad.
"…Ahem. Welcome to Bladewyn. Do you have any idea how long I've been waiting for a mage like you?"
"Why do you want me so badly? Is it because of that magnetism back then?"
"Yes!!"
I nodded so hard my neck might have snapped. A Sixth Circle mage. From what Saint had told me, that was a level high enough to command an imperial magic corps.
Why had a talent like that been rotting away out there? Well, the reason didn't matter. With high-end talent, what mattered was who claimed them first.
Where else was I going to find a Sixth Circle mage in a tiny independent nation on the frontier?
"I cannot use that magic at present."
"…What?"
"I tried to break through the wall of the Seventh Circle and shattered my Circles. This head of mine is the aftereffect of that."
"Ah… I see."
So much for getting my hopes up. Did that mean he couldn't use magic at all right now?
"…It's the truth."
"I understand."
"Really. Truly. My hair is gone because of that incident!"
"Yes, yes. Of course it is."
Bald men always followed the same script. Why bother making excuses when you didn't have to…
Did grinding magic until your hair fell out even make sense?
Boom!
He suddenly slammed his palm down on the table and stood. His face flushed red and pale by turns — I had clearly hit a nerve.
Suddenly I felt a little guilty.
"I'm leaving."
"W-wait a moment! You came all this way — where do you think you're going?"
"I cannot work with anyone who does not believe my words."
"Who said I don't believe you? I believe you! Going bald because of magic — that can totally happen!"
"……"
"……Hahaha."
I barely managed to catch him and sit him back down. Hair was a sensitive topic, so I needed to change the subject.
"So you're Fifth Circle right now?"
"Not that either."
"Then what?"
"I am still Sixth Circle. I simply cannot cast Sixth Circle magic."
"Why not?"
"I cannot properly generate mana. Nor can I accumulate it."
The spark of hope for my large-scale generator went out right then. Damn it.
"But it is not as though there is no method."
"What? Really? What method?"
"If I can temporarily draw upon mana from outside myself, it will work. Create a mana concentration zone in a sealed space with high-quality mana stones, then absorb and use the mana from it in real time."
"That's easy! We just need mana stones, right? Let's do it right now! Right now!"
I ran straight to Samuel.
But then…
"We don't have any."
My soaring excitement crashed to the ground.
"Why! Why! Why is it that every time I ask for something, we never have it?"
"Do you think high-quality mana stones are common? Even B-grade and above, fewer than ten thousand are produced in a year. A-grade stones number only about a hundred. Where do you expect me to suddenly procure five A-grade mana stones?"
"Then mix in B-grade ones! I'll give you all the money!"
I currently had roughly six hundred gold on hand. Enough to buy a fairly nice house within the territory.
"That won't be enough."
"There's still plenty of money coming in. Once all of that—"
"Just what are you in such a hurry to do?"
"I'm going to build a large power facility in the territory."
"A power… facility?"
"Yeah. I'm going to make electricity."
For the first time, Samuel's expression twisted ever so slightly.
So even this robot of a man can change his face.
"Without magic?"
"No — if magic is needed, we'll use it. That way I think we can build an even stronger generator."
The more I studied magitech engineering and the history of the ancient Tesreia Empire, the stronger that conviction became.
Tesreia of that age had clearly used power facilities. Ones that surpassed even modern power plants.
That must have been the power of magitech. I can do it too.
A magitech power facility.
Living here, I had realized that no matter how advanced the mining techniques were, without equipment the pace was painfully slow.
And without electricity running twenty-four hours a day, there simply wasn't enough time in a day, and the inconvenience was endless.
I needed to build a power facility as soon as possible and turn Iron Cliff Territory into the greatest industrial city there was.
Then the money would pour in, and with that money I would fund my research, heh heh…
"I will discuss it with the family head and report back."
"Got it."
Still, it seemed I had earned at least a little of Samuel's trust. If that hard-headed stubborn man was actually considering it, that said something.
Even so, I couldn't help but feel drained.
"It didn't go well, I take it."
"No. It looks like it will take some time."
"Then shall I remain here in the meantime?"
"Yes."
"I saw something being built over there. What is that?"
"Ah, that's my magitech research laboratory. It's called RMEL."
"RMEL…"
"I have a proposal for you, Mage. I was going to wait until it was finished, but…"
"Speak."
"Please become the magical advisor of my RMEL. Going forward, RMEL will become the greatest magitech research laboratory on the continent. And who knows — we might even be able to cure baldness."
The mage's eyes wavered for an instant.
He immediately turned his head away as if nothing had happened, but I saw it. In that fleeting moment, he was tempted.
"That is impossible."
"Making the impossible possible is what magitech engineering is for."
"It is something even magic cannot do."
"If you don't want to, then don't. I have no intention of forcing you. Get some rest."
I turned on my heel at once.
One.
A tactic that had already worked once — why wouldn't it work a second time?
Two.
And then I saw it. That deep, burning craving laid bare in his eyes!
Three.
"I will do it."
Just as I thought. He had clearly wrecked his Circles trying to fix his baldness.
"Wise decision. Heh heh."
"…Shall we draft a contract first?"
Tap. Tap. Tap.
Bladewyn and Lobel launched a large-scale search to subjugate the magic beasts.
Lostwood.
A forest so named because those who ventured deep inside lost their way and never came out again.
Of course the stories were exaggerated, but the place was vast enough to earn them.
Fertile and dense, Lostwood was home to a great many living things.
The forest interior was the domain of beasts; beyond it lay the domain of humans. The two races rarely crossed into each other's territory.
But the magic beasts had broken that unspoken rule.
Rustle rustle.
Lobel's soldiers pushed deeper into the forest as they searched. Amid the sudden human assault, the forest's residents scrambled to hide themselves.
And the very culprits of this whole affair struck at them without warning.
Thwip-thwip-thwip-thwip!!
Dozens of stones rained down on the soldiers. This was no ordinary stone-throwing.
"Damn it — take cover behind the trees!"
Crack!
One soldier took a stone and his shoulder dislocated.
"Aaaagh!!"
Whiiiiish!!
Crunch!
Among the flying stones, one especially vicious projectile shattered a soldier's skull and broke apart.
"Magic beasts! Send up the signal!"
"Yes, sir!"
Thick smoke rose from within the forest.
Knights who had been hunting the magic beasts confirmed the signal and gathered.
Among them was Burgess Bladewyn.
"Kieeek! Kik! Kik!"
Monkey-like beasts leapt from branch to branch, pelting stones. And leading them was an alpha magic beast.
Even as the knights charged in, it spat mocking laughter and then bolted away in a flash.
The forest was its domain. Catching a creature that attacked from range was no easy task.
But then—
Too much free time on its hands.
Burgess, who had been quietly waiting for the right moment, drew the string of his crossbow.
Creeeeak…
His target was the monkey magic beast with the pitch-black tail.
Twang—!
The bolt flew true through the dense gaps between the trees, punched through the beast's belly hide, and buried itself in the wood beyond.
The Lobel knight who had been chasing the creature flinched in shock and tore off his helmet.
"What in the world…?"