Chapter 2
Chapter 2
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 2
Chapter Title: Lumi
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The vague training of creating an image of my inner world didn't end until that evening. Once Raymond decided it was enough, he finally began explaining mana.
"Mana is the fundamental force that makes up this world. It's embedded in everything around us..."
"Aren't you going to check my inner world image?"
"Didn't you make one?"
"I did."
"Then you're good."
'What...?'
I tilted my head at Raymond's response. He'd made it sound so important, so I'd expected him to verify the homework he'd given me in some rigorous or special way.
Like using mental magic to peer into my mind, for instance.
'Is this really it...?'
No real confirmation at all?
Raymond didn't seem to care about my growing doubts and continued his explanation.
"The most important basic training is getting familiar with mana and improving your control over it. To manifest a mage's mysteries more abundantly and more powerfully, what you ultimately need is the total amount of mana you can wield."
He was explaining it in a complicated, twisted way, but simply put, mana was like clay. And a mage was an artist shaping that clay into something.
"How do you improve control?"
"By steadily, continuously sensing mana."
"That's it?"
"That's it."
"..."
Maybe my expectations were too high. Magic didn't seem all that difficult from this. But what could I do? This was how magic worked, so I had no choice but to follow along for now.
Sensing mana wasn't that hard. Not after I'd awakened to its presence alone at dawn, bathed in moonlight. Focusing my mind, I soon clearly detected the presence of mana flowing around me.
"Looks like you've sensed the mana. How much can you handle?"
"Well..."
"Doesn't have to be precise. Just tell me how it feels. That's enough."
Sensing mana and moving it were two different things. As I grimaced without answering, Raymond nodded as if he understood.
"Few can move mana on their first day. It's different from unconsciously drawing it in. Of course, someone like me could handle a fair amount from the start."
"Oh..."
The moment Raymond finished speaking, a faint ripple settled onto my palm like a gentle sway. It was hazy but unmistakable—mana.
As a fellow mage, Raymond must have noticed it instantly. I snapped my eyes open and looked up at him, but all I got was a question about why.
"Not enough food? Tell me if you need more."
'...Does he not notice unless I say something? Or is he just oblivious?'
"To join our Golden Wind School, you need to master the basics of magic. If you can't handle the fundamentals I taught you, you won't learn proper spells. But don't worry—you've got decent aptitude, so you'll pick it up quickly."
Time flew by. After tossing me one assignment, Raymond went back to his own studies as if that was that.
I couldn't read yet, so I had no idea what his book was about. I could only cautiously guess it was something magic-related.
'Actually, this works out.'
How much mana did I need to control to use magic? Rather than disappoint my teacher by revealing I could barely move a tiny amount right now, I wanted to surprise him once I perfected it.
"I'll step out for some air."
"Don't go far."
After saying goodbye to Raymond, I stepped outside and sat on the stump of a nearby tree. It was late evening in the deep forest, quite dark, but the moonlight filtering down let me make out my surroundings well enough.
The mana I could control was minuscule. This way, that way—as I wished it softly in my mind, the mana followed, shifting bit by bit. I realized something naturally.
Putting nature's mana under my control meant borrowing it temporarily.
'This is fun...'
To me, magic was like salt that made this boring, joyless world special. It felt just like getting that toy I'd always wanted as a kid.
'Maybe I can make a little breeze...'
Raymond had said manifesting magic depended on how vivid the mage's image was. All I wanted was a faint breeze. It didn't need to be strong.
Wind is invisible. It only hints at its presence through other phenomena. But I had plenty of images for wind. Someone from a highly advanced modern society had accumulated them from media over a lifetime.
'Wind...'
It started as a soft zephyr.
The breeze I summoned at my fingertips swirled gently around my body before fading.
'Ah...!'
A deep regret followed. If I could handle more mana, I could've summoned a stronger wind.
As regret hit, a natural question arose.
Was there no other way? If there was a limit to how much mana I could move at once, it'd be great to have some kind of container to store it in.
How mages used magic was, simply put, like using both hands.
First, use your left hand to borrow mana from nature. Then shape the borrowed mana into what you want with your right hand. You couldn't skip either. Magic required both hands fully.
But what if...
What if I could store it inside my body? Make the borrowed mana truly mine, to use whenever and however much I wanted.
Put everything into one hand, basically. Wouldn't that let me handle more mana?
I summoned mana that obeyed my will again and guided it. The formless power moving in the air flowed naturally into my body but scattered without settling.
Wrong approach?
'Again...'
I kept moving tiny amounts of mana. It flowed in through my arms and legs, circulated inside for a while, then dispersed. Repeat.
I tried directing it to my heart, head, even the dantian—but nothing special happened. The mana wouldn't stay put and just kept scattering.
How many failures was that? I'd lost count, so absorbed in the act, when suddenly an idea struck.
Mana had a nature of endless movement. But what if I shaped it into a form that didn't move? Store it that way, then draw it out when I wanted.
First, I needed something to hold natural mana.
A circle for the structure. It didn't need to be sturdy. Mana wasn't a force that exerted physical power by its mere existence.
Was it my image of a mage? A circular mana pathway formed around my heart, like drawing a round circle.
'This mana pathway can't disappear. To prevent that, I need to steadily supply it with new mana... What about an image of it rotating and coiling?'
As if it had fulfilled its role, the fading mana pathway—I carefully attached natural mana to it.
That moment. Something completed in my heart. The magic-made mana pathway didn't vanish. It rotated slowly, continuously, coiling natural mana around my body.
'Oh...'
But that was it. The mana coiling there was all used to maintain the pathway, leaving none for anything else. And it wasn't disappearing.
'...?'
The night deepened.
The next morning, I used magic in front of Raymond as he prepared breakfast. As the soft breeze ruffled his gray hair, he nodded and spoke.
"Basics are done."
'Not even surprised...'
I'd thought I had talent, but apparently not in Raymond's eyes.
As we ate, Raymond set down his utensils, went to the bookshelf by the bed, and pulled out a thick tome.
"This is the Golden Wind School's spellbook you need to learn from now on."
I didn't reach for it. I just blinked and stared at the thick book he held out.
"Why not take it?"
"Um, I can't read."
"What, what?"
Was that such a shocking thing? I was Lumi from some nameless mountain village. Literacy was rare in a place with no learning opportunities.
"But weren't you reading a book at dawn?"
"Ah... that. I was just looking at the pictures..."
"Oh no...!"
Raymond pressed his forehead at my answer. He let out a rare deep sigh and thumped the book onto the table.
"Guess we start with literacy..."
"Ah, Teacher. About that thing I made..."
"I sense mana in your body. Trying to store it inside? Pointless. It'll vanish soon anyway—no need to fret. Don't waste effort on that; focus on learning letters."
"Ah, okay..."
As expected of a mage—he'd sensed the mana movement. I felt disappointment and relief in his words. Apparently, other mages had thought of this before.
'But this isn't disappearing...'
"You'll need writing tools. Here—chalk and slate."
And so, full-on literacy lessons began that day. From teaching, I realized Raymond had no talent for it.
"That's read as A-re-ru-ra. Copy it while practicing the pronunciation."
"Are-ru-ra~"
"Good... Finish that by the time I get back."
Like before, he tossed me homework and left, saying he had business outside and would return in the evening.
Alone in the forest treehouse, I set down my chalk.
Was it too hard? I just couldn't focus on uninteresting things.
Literacy was boring.
I headed straight outside and raised both hands high. Feeling the forest breeze wash over me, I sensed mana flow through my whole body.
All the while, the mana pathway in my heart kept rotating, slowly drawing in surrounding mana.