My Name Is Kanta
The moment the ogre's face creased into a scowl, Chris's heart lurched. The brute was ugly enough already. Add a frown, and he was downright terrifying.
"You still don't understand, do you?"
"No. How many years have passed since the Opening of Heaven?"
"If by the Opening of Heaven you mean the day a dragon tore the sky open, then something like ten thousand and eighty or ninety years."
"Hm. That'll do."
"What'll do?"
"Nothing you need to know."
Which, of course, only made him more curious.
"Someone as powerful as you — why hide in a place this remote?"
"Because this place is shit. Absolute shit."
"The ruins are shit, I'll grant you that."
"I'm not talking about the ruins. I mean your entire world."
And what's wrong with our world?
Chris pursed his lips.
The ogre abruptly changed the subject.
"You got mana stones?"
Chris played dumb.
"No?"
"Search you and find any, and you take one hit for each."
Chris rolled his eyes toward those enormous hands. One blow from them wouldn't stop at breaking bone. It would powder it.
"Surely a being stronger than a Grandmaster, one who's reached the realm of Ring Binding, wouldn't stoop to shaking people down like some back-alley thug?"
The ogre looked interested.
"You've got a Grandmaster's body? A Body Mage, then."
"Yes. It just... sort of happened."
"What did you train?"
"I cultivated Iron Body."
The ogre's pupils went round. For the first time since they'd met, Chris saw him look surprised.
Is learning Iron Body really that shocking?
He couldn't see why.
"Iron Body is what brainless brutes like trolls train. Why would a human learn it?"
The ogre shook his head.
"You a pervert?"
Chris was startled, first, that trolls actually existed, and second, that Iron Body was a troll training method.
"Humans aren't allowed to learn it?"
"Humans don't regenerate like trolls. And unlike those dull-nerved lumps, human nerves are sensitive. I hear anyone who trains Iron Body hurts so bad they go mad."
The ogre released Chris's neck and went on.
"So you're either insane, or a human with extraordinary patience. Failing that, a mutant born unable to feel pain. You don't have a sense of pain, do you?"
"I do."
Chris rubbed the handprint on his neck.
"Why did you suddenly let go?"
"Respect. For your patience."
"Is that so?"
"Patience like that deserves respect, species aside."
"While you're respecting me, would you answer a question?"
"Fine. Ask."
"I want out of these ruins. Do you know how to get a key?"
"I know a place where keys turn up often."
Chris clenched a fist, excitement getting the better of him.
"Where?"
"Before that, I'd like a few mana stones."
The ogre was far stronger than he was. If the brute decided to take them, there would be no keeping them, and Chris had already hit the ceiling of his realm, so absorbing mana stones did him no good anyway. He drew one from his spatial pouch and held it out.
"Here."
"Thanks."
The ogre absorbed the stone.
"Ah. That's good. Give me another."
"The answer...?"
"As for where it is... hard to explain in words. You have a map?"
"I don't."
"You came in without a map?"
"I didn't come because I wanted to. I was dragged in."
"Then naming the region won't help you. And I can't very well guide you myself... How many mana stones do you have?"
Chris clamped his mouth shut and glared. The ogre blinked.
"Why are you looking at me like that?"
"Because it looks like you're going to pocket the stones and give me nothing."
"Give me more, and I'll send you there."
"Send me?"
"There's a teleportation circle."
Chris decided to risk being cheated. He emptied every mana stone onto the floor, and the ogre brightened.
"I'll use half myself and spend the other half sending you."
Half the stones rose into the air and drifted toward him.
"You said only trolls train Iron Body, right?"
The ogre answered while absorbing them one by one.
"Right. A method peculiar to trolls."
"Is Seed Cultivation the end of what Iron Body can reach?"
"No. If Seed Cultivation were the end, trolls wouldn't bother. They aren't exactly clever, but that doesn't mean they're stupid."
"I've trained up through Seed Cultivation. Do you know how to reach Ring Binding through Iron Body?"
"Looks like you only learned the front half."
Chris clenched his fist.
So there was a back half after all.
"Yes. What I was taught ended there. Do you know the rest?"
"I'm an ogre."
"And?"
"Why would I know a troll's training method?"
Chris's shoulders slumped. Seeing him deflate, the ogre grinned.
"Even if I did, I've got no reason to teach it to you."
"Even after I woke you, answered your questions honestly, and gave you mana stones?"
"Hm. Fair point."
The ogre thought for a moment, then shook his head.
"Even so, a Ring Binding method is out. That's too much."
"Then I'll make you an offer you can't refuse."
Chris drew his hidden trump from the spatial pouch. The ogre looked at the Motaro in his hand, and at the smug look on his face, and blinked twice.
"Motaro."
The reaction disappointed him. He had expected delight at the sight of it; instead the ogre was lukewarm. He made the offer anyway.
"Teach me the Ring Binding method, and the Motaro is yours."
"Hmm."
"Does Motaro not work on ogres?"
"It works on ogres too."
"Then why..."
Chris broke off, eyes going wide.
"Are you... an Ultimate Mage?"
"......"
"You've woven all nine rings, so you don't need Motaro."
"Who knows."
The ogre neither confirmed it nor denied it.
Is he an Ultimate Mage, or isn't he?
Chris couldn't tell.
"Is there some side effect of Motaro I don't know about?"
"There is."
"What is it?"
"You don't know much about Ring Binding."
"I studied by eavesdropping, without a master's help, so there's a great deal I don't know."
"Iron Body isn't something you learn without a master."
"I was used."
"Sounds like a complicated story."
"Yes."
The ogre closed his eyes and thought for a while.
"Is this fate as well..."
When he showed signs of giving in, Chris bowed his head.
"I'm someone who even learned a troll's Iron Body. I can learn an ogre's method just as well."
"I have no intention of teaching an ogre's secret art to a human."
He reached into his belt and drew out a black crystal.
"The Acrian Magic Book."
Chris set the Motaro on the floor and received the crystal in both hands.
"This isn't a magic book. It's a black crystal."
"When magic was first recorded, it was made in the form of books. So no matter the medium, custom still calls it a magic book."
Chris asked carefully.
"May I look at it now?"
"Do as you like."
He pressed the black crystal to his forehead and connected to it the way he connected to the mask. Against a black field, a book took shape.
So it really is shaped like a book.
Then the ogre spoke.
"You're doing something dangerous."
The first time Chris had connected to the mask, he couldn't hear what was happening around him. More precisely, he heard it, but his mind was so wholly seized by the mask that none of it registered. Later, after meeting the evil spirit Tenbo, he had learned how to stay aware of his surroundings while linked to the mask. Thanks to that, he could hear the ogre even now.
He pulled the crystal from his forehead.
"What do you mean?"
"Link your mind straight into a black crystal, and you can come to harm."
"Harm?"
"What if the crystal is contaminated? What if a curse is coiled inside it?"
Chris eyed the black crystal with a sour look.
"Is this thing cursed?"
"No. It's a normal object."
"Then it doesn't matter."
"You think of me as a monster, don't you?"
"Not a lot. A little."
"And you open your mind at once to something a monster handed you?"
"From talking to you, you don't seem like a bad monster."
"And if your judgment is wrong?"
Chris scratched his forehead, looking troubled.
"Are there many people who pull tricks like that with black crystals?"
"Not many. But get caught once, and the damage is enormous."
"Then what should I do?"
"This wasn't part of the plan, but..."
He clicked his tongue, then taught him anyway: split off a portion of the mind, shape it into something like a reservoir, and connect to the black crystal through that. If the crystal was tainted by something unclean, discard the reservoir at once. The core of the mind would remain safe.
Chris tilted his head.
"How do you split a mind in two?"
This time it was the ogre who tilted his.
"You heard me while immersed in the black crystal. Why do you think you can't divide your mind?"
"Oh!"
Chris's eyebrows shot up.
"That was dividing the mind?"
From Tenbo he had learned to watch the world outside and cast magic while connected to the mask. Thinking about it now, that too had been a division of the mind.
The ogre answered.
"The fundamentals of Split Mind."
Chris closed his eyes and went down into himself. What he had learned from the evil spirit Tenbo and what he had just learned from the ogre swirled together and mixed, and then they split — a portion of the mind, peeling away.
He tried to shape that portion into a reservoir. It was his first attempt, and it went poorly. The piece that had broken off was too small. He revised the plan and scaled it down to a pond. Still too much. It wouldn't even make a puddle, and in the end it settled as a water bucket.
He drew a deep breath and pressed the black crystal to his forehead. From the bucket, a thread of mind stretched out like a tentacle and connected.
When the magic book surfaced, he began turning the pages. The contents passed from the tentacle into the bucket, and from the bucket into the core of his mind. He skimmed it once through, but it was too profound to grasp. That, oddly, pleased him. It had the feel of magic meant for climbing higher.
He cut the connection and took the crystal from his forehead.
"Thank you."
He offered the thanks with full courtesy, but the ogre's face was sour, and Chris found that strange.
"What's wrong?"
"I taught you too much."
The ogre seemed to regret it. The more he did, the greater Chris's delight. He clutched the black crystal to his chest.
So the Acrian Magic Book really is something extraordinary.
His heart fluttered.
"It really is an incredible magic book."
"Not to me."
"Pardon?"
"A human magic book has no value to an ogre."
"Then why were you carrying it?"
"I happened to obtain it, and kept it for reference. That's all."
"Then why do you regret giving it away?"
"What I regret isn't the Acrian Magic Book. It's the fundamentals of Split Mind..."
The ogre stopped himself. Chris could infer the rest. Follow the flow of the conversation, and anyone who wasn't a fool would catch it.
Is dividing the mind really that important?
Judging by the ogre's reaction, it was. Chris carved the fundamentals of Split Mind deeper into his heart. He didn't regret the Motaro he was paying for it, not one bit.
He put the black crystal into his spatial pouch. In that instant the Motaro on the floor rose and slipped into the pouch as well.
Chris hadn't done it. The ogre had given the Motaro back.
"The Motaro is yours."
"I don't need it."
"You said Motaro has side effects. Are you wary of them?"
"It doesn't suit me. Or you."
"You might be incompatible because you're an ogre. Why wouldn't it suit me?"
"Because you're going to train the Acrian Magic Book."
Chris startled.
"If I train the Acrian arts, I shouldn't use Motaro?"
"If you're desperate, you can. Better not to, if you can help it."
"Why?"
"The magic you're training now and the Acrian arts are different lineages."
"How, specifically?"
The ogre waved a hand, as if the question bored him.
"I've already overpaid for those mana stones. No more questions."
Chris's body was shoved toward the wall. Light spilled from the stone, and a complex pattern drew itself across it. The lower portion opened like a drawer, and the remaining mana stones slid inside. The wall shut. Light swallowed him.
Before he was taken, he shouted.
"What's your name?"
"Kanta. My name is Kanta."
The moment the words ended, Chris vanished.