Still disoriented by the unforeseen crisis, I returned my gaze to the front cover of the book, noticing that the golden embroidery (which I thought was purely decorative) actually traced out a sentence. Radiantly brilliantly, it read A Collection of Useful Everyday Spells.
This… “This is just Japanese!”
It really truly was. There was even a mix of hiragana and kanji woven into the cover. To find it in this world was totally unexpected.
Could it be?
To confirm my suspicions, I opened the front cover and discovered I could now read the previously unintelligible contents. Naturally, the book was written in Japanese. Even the contents itself was as I suspected, going by the title. Seeing this, I was as shocked as the first time I attempted to read it.
Regarding the contents of the book, it was awful. If I were to make a basic summary, it would be something like ‘hello’, ‘thank you’, ‘goodbye’, ‘let’s meet again’, ‘there was a snowy country on the other side of the tunnel’, ‘the great I, am a cat’1, ‘bodhisattva’, ‘Mr. Careless’… The unusual and meaningless phrases were endless.
When and where would someone ever say ‘the great I, am a cat’? Well, in this case, since copyright no longer applies, would there be any issues anyway? It doesn’t even exist in this world… I continued turning the pages amazed until, suddenly, one sentence stole my attention.
‘O light, banish the darkness with your radiance.’
At last, an incantation-like phrase appeared. Seeing as it was about to become dark, it was an appropriate time to test it.
“O light, banish the darkness with your radiance.”
The instant I finished chanting, a shining yellow ball about the size of my palm manifested before my eyes. The sphere of light glowed gently, lighting up the previously dim room.
“No way…just now, was that, magic?”
I sat frozen, gaping at the sphere of light.
Coming to, I immediately turned my attention back to the now clearly illuminated page and began to rapidly spot many other phrases that seemed like incantations.
‘Within darkness, conceal the light.’
‘O sweet spring breeze, warm us with your fragrance.’2
‘Drive away the dampness, the abominable clamminess.’3
‘Purify the air, cleanse it of its filth.’
They were both overly dramatic and tortuous tongue-twisters. Nevertheless, they were the kind of thing that you would use as incantations; I could probably invoke a spell by chanting them. I decided try one out.
“Within darkness, conceal the light.”
I pointed at the shining sphere of light as I chanted and the second I finished, it abruptly vanished.
“O light, banish the darkness with your radiance.”
The sphere of light manifested once more.
“Within darkness, conceal the light.”
The sphere of light vanished.
After that, I experimented with the rest of the incantations, most of them displaying some magical effect. A few of the incantations didn’t do anything, but that could be because some unknown requirements weren’t met. In any case, I once again sat dazed, slowly realising I was grasping magic way too quickly.
Magic, in this world, was surprisingly easy.
Is it okay for a fantasy world to be like this?
1 A book by Natsume Sōseki
2 …wat?
3 …again…wat?