Voice Magic #3
Voice Magic #3
Moments later, Grace's Voice Magic lesson began.
"So you've chosen Water Magic, correct? Please show me the hand seals for the Water Magic you use, slowly. Converting the medium from hand seals to voice requires a bit of preparation."
"Understood."
I had no idea what kind of preparation she meant, but I figured following instructions was the right call. If I started nitpicking every detail, we'd never make any progress. I silently formed the Water Magic hand seals in front of the counter.
I demonstrated the sequence of eight hand gestures slowly to Grace.
"Good. Keep repeating at that speed, please."
Since I wasn't imbuing any magic power into the gestures, no water droplets were flying around. Grace pulled out a blank sheet of paper and a fountain pen. Watching my hand seals, she began sketching something on the paper.
'Is she drawing my hand seals?'
The question flashed through my mind, but what Grace was drawing wasn't hand shapes. What appeared on the paper was a large, winding geometric figure. I couldn't even begin to guess what it was.
After I'd repeated the hand seal sequence about twenty times...
At last, Grace signaled for me to stop.
The figure she'd been drawing on the paper looked complete.
"What exactly have you been drawing?"
"A Rune Letter! You could say it's the very origin of all magic on the Midgard Continent. Hand seals, in the end, are nothing more than crudely tracing a Rune Letter with your fingers. What your hand seals were ultimately forming is this Rune Letter right here."
My hand seals were forming a Rune Letter? Grace's words sparked my curiosity, and I peered intently at the figure on the paper. Once I heard the explanation, it actually clicked. The shapes that had been drawn as fragments in the form of hand seals—they were now harmonized, coalesced into a single, intricate figure.
"So this is a Rune Letter? And what exactly am I supposed to do with it?"
"You need to memorize it, Luke. You must commit it to memory in its perfect, undistorted form. Then, even without forming hand seals, the magic will automatically be cast. All you need to do is visualize the Rune Letter in your mind."
She said all I had to do was visualize the letter to cast a spell!
Hearing that, I couldn't help but get excited. Compared to forming hand seals, this was truly a free ride to casting magic. Maybe I could even pull it off right here on the spot? After all, the paper with the Rune Letter drawn on it was right in front of me. If I stared at it and chanted the incantation...
"Water!"
"Water, Water, Water, Water, Water."
"Water!!"
I tried calling out "Water" with a beat, like a rapper. I shouted "Water" with my whole soul, like a contestant on Show Me the Money. But no matter how much I yelled until my throat went hoarse, no water droplet appeared.
Finally, the necklace of failure was placed around my neck.
"You're spraying spit, so please stop, Luke."
"Kay."
Grace dabbed her cheek with a handkerchief as she spoke.
I hung my head, dejected.
I'd chanted the incantation while staring right at the Rune Letter drawn on the paper, but it just wouldn't work.
"I understand the desire to use magic right away. But the concept of 'memorizing' a Rune Letter in your head is actually quite complex. You have to remember not just the completed letter, but the entire process of how it's formed. That means you need to be able to replay the sequence of strokes combining into the Rune Letter in your mind."
"Then what do we do? Are you going to show me how to write the Rune Letter again?"
"There's a much better method. We draw the Rune Letter directly onto your body, Luke. You'll experience the process of its strokes being broken down and etched onto you firsthand through touch. Feeling it is far more reliable than seeing it, after all. So then..."
A smile played on Grace's lips as she rummaged around under the counter.
Before I knew it, a brush and paints were in her hands.
"...would you mind taking off your clothes, Luke?"
"Why all of a sudden?"
"To draw the Rune Letter on your body. I can't exactly draw it properly if you're wearing clothes, right? Take everything off except your underwear. Right now, please."
She meant I had to show her my naked body?
I couldn't help but recoil at Grace's outlandish demand.
Could she be some kind of voyeuristic witch using lessons as an excuse to steal glances at naked men?
But Grace's eyes were dead serious.
So serious that I was the one who felt embarrassed for having lewd thoughts.
"You're an incubus and you're shy about undressing?"
"Of course I'm shy!"
"How fascinating. Still, this is the fastest way to memorize a Rune Letter. Feeling it on your body once is faster than watching it being drawn a hundred times. It's even a method officially documented in the Magic Tower's textbooks."
"S-So they use this method at the Magic Tower too?"
A truly wild fantasy flashed through my mind in that instant.
An image of a professor lewdly teasing naked female students with a paintbrush. Could there really be that kind of hentai vibe hidden within the Magic Tower?
"Of course not. At the Magic Tower, they have advanced equipment that can imprint Rune Letters. Drawing it on the body with a brush is a sort of makeshift technique. This is simply the best method available at my shop."
"Calling it a 'makeshift technique' sounds a bit shady..."
Her words reeked of something suspicious.
Still, it wasn't like she was taking a scalpel to my body. It was just tracing some letters on me with a brush. There was no risk of injury, so it seemed like it would be okay to give it a try.
"Alright. I do want to learn magic as quickly as possible, after all. Should I undress right here?"
"There's a room in the back of the shop. I'll guide you there."
Grace rose from the counter and led me to the shop's back room. It was a storeroom filled with all sorts of magical items. Grace spread a wide mat on the storeroom floor and spoke.
"Sit down on the mat with your bottom planted. With your clothes off, of course. Once you're ready, I'll begin the Rune Letter guidance technique right away. The procedure takes roughly an hour."
"An entire hour? I think I'd go crazy from the tickling brush."
"You don't need to worry about that. The brush is enchanted with anti-tickle magic."
There seemed to be no reason to hesitate any longer.
I took off my shirt and pants, sat down on the mat in my underwear. Grace, watching me from behind, spoke with an admiring expression.
"Goodness. Your body is remarkably firm."
"......Yeah."
"And your package is quite impressive, too. I can tell just from what's showing on the outside."
Why was this lewd-looking witch suddenly giving her personal commentary?
Was her real intention all along to ogle me, not to perform the technique?
Just as I was about to say something, Grace picked up the brush with uncanny timing. She began stroking my body with the brush, which had been dipped in faintly colored paint.
"Ugh."
It seemed true that the brush was enchanted, as my body didn't feel ticklish.
However, every time the brush moved, the cold sensation sent a tingle through me.
Grace was clinging extremely close to me as she made the brush strokes.
Her cascading jet-black hair tickled me, and her warm breath brushed against my face.
The brush strokes themselves were no problem at all.
The problem was that the person wielding the brush was a witch with a voluptuous, alluring appearance. Every time Grace's soft flesh touched my body, I felt like I was going to go crazy from being turned on.
I'd even suspected she was trying to seduce me.
But judging by the serious look in her eyes, it was definitely not seduction. Grace was concentrating every fiber of her being solely on the brushwork.
So much so that she didn't even notice my eyes roaming over her body.
"......"
A robe with a deeply plunging neckline.
The moment Grace tilted her head down, the robe slipped, revealing the stark white valley of her breasts in all its naked glory.
I subtly lifted my head and adjusted my viewing angle, and her swaying, enormous tits came into full view.
She was wearing a loose breast wrap, so even the cloth covering her chest was slipping down.
If I just tilted my head up a bit more, I might even see those lewd little nubs perched at the tips of her breasts.
Gulp!
I swallowed hard and tilted my head up further.
I straightened my spine, rigid as if my neck bones would snap, and with an all-out effort, the thing I'd been longing for finally came into view.
Swaying, massive tits.
Dark areolae spreading like flower petals over her jugs.
And rising upon them, the sultry, mature nipples of an older woman—.
'I've done it! I've succeeded!'
But my peek was only for the briefest of moments.
I had no choice but to squeeze my eyes shut as a pain pierced straight through my head.
Was some kind of magical phenomenon occurring inside me?
Suddenly, every movement of the brush caused a throbbing pain that made it impossible to keep my wits about me.
"Nnngghhh."
"If the pain gets too bad, please tell me. It's because a Rune Letter is being infused into your mind right now, Luke."
Grace's words were true. It was unbelievable, but a winding geometric figure was being traced inside my mind at this very moment. It wasn't something I was summoning up at will; it had started appearing automatically. The figure, growing more and more intricately tangled as strokes were continuously added, was gradually transforming into the exact same shape as the Rune Letter I'd seen on the paper.
'The nips! The nips are vanishing from my mind!'
But despite the fact that the technique was working properly, I despaired.
Because the lewd, mature-woman nipples I'd just seen were being swept away from my mind's eye.
It was exactly like when the next video forcefully auto-plays on YouTube!
The porn was being pushed aside and an educational video was playing in its place!
"Hrrrgh. Is it okay if I... cry a little?"
"What's wrong, Luke? Are you in too much pain?"
"Hic. No. Please continue."
By the time the procedure ended, a Rune Letter was clearly etched into my mind. Even the process of tracing the letter was replayed automatically.
'Fuck, that witch's tits turn me on so much.'
Of course, the arousing image of the witch's nipples had also resurfaced in my head.
Honestly, that was the most satisfying part.
"How do you feel? The Rune Letter is engraved in your mind, right?"
"Yes."
"Now, when you visualize the Rune Letter, mana will begin to flow through your body. If you can guide that mana in the correct direction, that means you've succeeded in casting the magic. It will take some time, so please practice slowly."
"Will it take long?"
"At the very fastest, about five days. Since you're learning Voice Magic for the first time. You're welcome to practice inside this shop. Until business hours are over, of course."
The time needed to succeed in Voice Magic for the first time: five days.
Just as she said, it was impossible to summon a water droplet with my voice immediately after the procedure finished. But when I visualized the Rune Letter in my head, a definite reaction occurred inside my body.
"Water."
Even without forming any hand seals, mana began to stir. The more vividly I visualized the Rune Letter, the faster the mana flowed. If I could just correctly manage the direction it flowed, it truly felt like casting magic would be possible.
"Is it okay if I come back tomorrow as well?"
"Of course. I'll be manning the shop for the next few days."
When business hours were over, I paid the lesson fee of 1 Silver and stepped outside the shop.
For the next four days, I was completely absorbed in trying to cast Water Magic vocally. I holed up in my room like a shut-in, doing nothing but eating and focusing solely on casting magic. The only break time I had was the occasional chit-chat when Rebecca came by to visit.
It was the fourth day since I'd started my Voice Magic training.
Late at night, I was lying in bed. I stared up at the ceiling and continued to hone Water Magic until I fell asleep.
This was possible because I could train it just by lying still and concentrating.
"Water."
With the Rune Letter vividly conjured in my mind, I drew up mana from all over my body. I directed the mana stored in my abdomen toward the correct path. As I was repeating it, at a certain moment—.
"......!"
A droplet of water materialized above my head!
It was definitely not a dream.
A round, transparent water droplet floated weightlessly in the air. I had no memory of moving my fingers.
I was so startled by the sudden appearance of the water droplet that I lost my concentration.
Splat—!
The falling droplet smashed directly onto my face. Lying in bed, the cold sensation sent my mind reeling. Water rushed into my eyes and up my nose, and for a moment, I couldn't breathe.
"Kack! Hack!"
I tumbled off the bed and collapsed on the floor, gasping for breath. But what filled my head in that moment was a surge of intense excitement. My previously chilled head quickly heated up with fervor.
"Water."
Because even when I tried calling it again, a water droplet popped into existence before my eyes in exactly the same way. In that moment, I had grasped the trick to Voice Magic. I had mastered the method of casting magic just by moving my tongue.
The birth of a voice-activated water purifier—!
I resolved to go find Grace the moment I opened my eyes tomorrow.
Before the promotion match began, I wanted to learn more about Voice Magic from her.