Chapter 2
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Translator: Wjin
Chapter: 002
Chapter Title: The Orphan and the Necromancer (1)
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"Playing pranks on a necromancer? You've got some nerve."
A brief silence followed.
Digori spoke up.
He didn't look pleased.
To clear up the misunderstanding, I quickly explained.
"A prank? No way! To be precise, it asked for food instead of corpses or cadavers. Maybe it's just frustrated because you haven't fulfilled its demands for so long, so it called you a blockhead behind your back?"
"The grimoire badmouthed me?"
With that, Digori fell silent.
'What nonsense.'
That's what Digori thought even after hearing Heros.
It was just too hard to believe.
A grimoire demanding food instead of corpses or cadavers?
And on top of that, calling him a blockhead?
That would mean he could understand everything the book said, which was nearly impossible.
At least by his common sense.
"Corpses... cadavers... offer them!"
The grimoire's voice came sporadically.
The words in between were garbled like static, but it was still easy enough to interpret.
That's how Digori knew the grimoire was demanding corpses and cadavers.
And that's why he'd been diligently providing them all this time.
But now it turned out that was wrong?
Digori couldn't accept it.
'Well, I'll know if I just do what the kid said.'
He pulled some jerky from his leather pouch.
Digori placed it on the grimoire.
Then something amazing happened.
The jerky began sinking into the grimoire.
He watched wide-eyed.
This proved it clearly.
Heros was right, and he was wrong.
Flip.
Once the jerky vanished completely,
the grimoire's cover flipped open on its own, revealing the first page.
The pages turned rapidly, and at the same time, the magical knowledge contained within flooded into Digori's mind.
What he learned was Corpse Preservation.
A spell to keep human or animal corpses from rotting, just as the name implied.
Thud!
The grimoire stopped midway.
It looked like it had read about half the book.
'Just how far does this kid's talent go...?'
The magic he'd craved for months.
Even after obtaining it, Digori wasn't all that happy.
A subject even more worthy of exploration had appeared before him.
Digori was called a genius among mages.
He had considerable pride in that.
But today, it had been shattered.
By a single orphan.
An overwhelming talent he'd never seen before.
Digori wanted to know its limits.
'Does this mean that old woman's prophecy was right?'
The aged witch who said taking the blond, blue-eyed boy in this village as his disciple would fulfill his long-cherished wish.
He vividly remembered meeting her.
Because he'd sensed vast, endless mana from her.
Something not human, wearing human form.
That was her true nature.
How could he ignore words from such a being?
'It feels like I'm moving according to someone's design.'
Digori briefly recalled his meeting with the witch, then looked at Heros.
The boy met his gaze.
Golden hair and blue eyes.
There was a strange sense of kinship since they resembled each other.
'Still... I can't give up talent like this.'
With that thought,
Digori decided to test Heros's talent from here on.
"I'll take back what I said earlier. Heros, you have a magical talent."
Digori set the grimoire down in front of him.
Heros could tell its name just by looking at the blank cover.
This was clearly the first time he'd seen it, yet its name floated naturally in his mind, as if he'd known it forever.
It was astonishing.
"Huh?"
While Heros was momentarily flustered,
Digori began explaining calmly.
"Heros, you heard the voice of the Gravekeeper Grimoire. And very clearly, too. This is the surest proof that you have talent in magic—specifically, necromancy."
Having said that much,
Digori paused.
He was deliberately giving the boy time to focus.
A moment later, he continued.
"But in truth, this is both good and bad. Having talent in necromancy also means it's hard to learn other types of magic."
"Why?"
Heros's question.
Seeing the blatant hunger for knowledge on his face, Digori answered with satisfaction.
"Because grimoires are picky. Most mages hone one type of magic their entire lives. Do you think they want it that way? No, they have no choice."
Right after that,
Digori pulled three grimoires from his bundle.
Each had a different cover: one like tree bark, another glistening with dew, and the last faintly glowing red.
"This one's the Old Tree Grimoire, this the Dewdrop Grimoire, and this the Little Flame Grimoire. As the names suggest, they probably contain plant magic, water magic, and fire magic."
The new grimoires appeared.
Heros's eyes went wide.
"I didn't hear their voices before, so I didn't even know they existed. But now I can hear them fine? Why's that?"
"Because you recognized the grimoires. They only speak to those who sense their presence."
"Aha!"
"Now, listen to these grimoires. The situation will be a bit different from the Gravekeeper Grimoire."
Just in case, Digori carefully listened to the three grimoires he'd brought out.
"......"
"Death... hate it."
"Go away!"
But there was no new gain.
Silence, blunt rejection, or outright dismissal.
Familiar responses.
In this situation, Digori had no idea what the grimoires wanted.
And that meant he couldn't learn the magic inside them.
"Still, don't be too disappointed. Mastering even one type of magic diligently is enough to live as a mage..."
Heros's situation had to be the same as his own.
Assuming that, Digori consoled him in advance.
But before he could finish,
Heros dropped a bombshell.
"There's no real difference from the Gravekeeper Grimoire. They're all asking me to fulfill their requests. Does that mean I can learn plant magic, water magic, and fire magic too?"
"What?"
No difference.
This meant Heros had talent not just in necromancy, but in plant, water, and fire magic too.
Naturally, Digori didn't believe it.
It made no sense.
'Just showing off.'
Probably wanted to impress his potential master.
With that assumption,
Digori slightly downgraded his evaluation of Heros.
"Then prove it. Grimoires only allow those who fulfill their requests to learn their magic. If you truly heard their wishes, grant them and learn the spells inside."
Digori declared, looking down at Heros.
'He'll admit he was wrong now.'
No matter how talented, he was still just a fifteen-year-old boy.
Digori planned to point out the mistake and continue the conversation if he apologized.
But Heros's response was unexpected.
"Right now, I can only open two of them. The other one's not suitable for this location."
Heros was brazen.
As if there was no lie in his words.
"Ah, it's been so long since I felt the earth. Child of the soil, please bury me in the ground."
"Mortal! Take me somewhere with clean water. Soak me thoroughly there."
"Fire! Set a fire! Burn anything!"
The three grimoires were chattering noisily.
I moved to soothe their complaints.
Scrape, scrape.
First, I dug a hole in the ground with my hands and buried the Old Tree Grimoire, covering it with soil.
Then I tossed more firewood into the bonfire.
That took care of two.
'I'll have to open the Dewdrop Grimoire later.'
With that thought, I checked their reactions.
"Yes, that's it! Ahh, the fresh scent of earth."
"Good! Bigger! Make the fire bigger!"
Joy seeped from the voices of the Old Tree Grimoire and Little Flame Grimoire.
"Why only me... Water! At least pour some water! I'm so thirsty. Please..."
The Dewdrop Grimoire's voice drooped sadly.
But there was something unusual.
"Huh? Digori, do the requests grimoires make ever change?"
"Their requests change?"
Digori, who had been watching me intently,
twitched an eyebrow.
"The Dewdrop Grimoire used to ask to be soaked in clean water before. Now it's begging for any water. Maybe it's jealous that I fulfilled the others' requests?"
"The grimoire's request changed?"
"Yeah, seems like it. Oh, I'll borrow some water."
Whether Digori was shocked or not,
I grabbed his waterskin and sprinkled it over the Dewdrop Grimoire's cover.
Splash.
As the water soaked the surface,
"Ah! Is this how a drought-stricken farmer feels when rain finally falls? Thank you!"
The Dewdrop Grimoire expressed its gratitude to me.
And its cover opened on its own.
"Whoa!"
The book flipping open automatically.
I couldn't help but exclaim in awe.
Soon, new knowledge flooded my mind.
Flip, flip!
The pages turned rapidly.
Unlike the Gravekeeper Grimoire, which stopped midway, the Dewdrop Grimoire kept going to the end.
Thud!
As it closed, revealing the back cover,
I realized what magic I'd learned.
The spell in the Dewdrop Grimoire was called Moisture.
The ability to make things wet.
Whoosh.
The moment I finished reading it completely,
the grimoire crumbled into dust, as if its role was done.
But I had no time to care.
I was too focused on the magic.
'It's different from what I expected.'
I'd thought learning magic would involve a lot.
All those cultural works I'd enjoyed on Earth.
Magic there was depicted as drawing complex magic circles or mastering incomprehensible theories.
But magic here wasn't like that.
'Just will it to happen.'
In simple terms, magic was a power.
I want to use magic.
It activated the moment I thought that.
Just like now.
A sensation like energy draining from my body.
Right after that faint emptiness, my right hand grew damp.
Not sweat, but water.
The result of the Moisture spell.
A technique needing no cause, existing only as effect.
That was the true nature of magic.
'Amazing.'
My heart raced, my face flushed.
A natural reaction.
Since coming to this world, this was the first time I'd felt such excitement.
'I want to learn more magic!'
My thirst for knowledge exploded.
I dumped all the prepared firewood into the bonfire, then dug up the buried Old Tree Grimoire.
"Kyahaha! Yes! Burn brighter!"
Leaving behind the roaring bonfire growing larger and the Little Flame Grimoire's gleeful laughter,
I opened the Old Tree Grimoire.
Its tightly shut cover opened smoothly, and the pages began turning on their own.
I went through the same process as with the Dewdrop Grimoire.
The magic contained within, and its details, imprinted directly into my mind.
Digori observed the entire process silently.
In truth, he couldn't do anything else.
Unbelievable things were happening.
'What in the world...'
From obtaining a grimoire to learning his first spell,
it had taken Digori over two years.
And that was incredibly fast.
Those without luck never learned what magic their grimoire held before dying.
Learning magic was that arduous.
Yet...
The obvious common sense was breaking right here, right now.