Published at 4th of April 2020 07:09:47 PM
Chapter 14
Enrolling in Classes
Lyn and Theo went to the welfare division of the Wizard Association branch in Allfrid, in order to fill out the necessary paperwork for their scholarships .
The staff member that assisted them was an older man who had bulky build and squinty eyes . He seemed to be overly diligent in his work, or some might even say excessively fussy .
“Mhm . This is all the necessary documents I’ll need from you” .
He made a minute adjustment to his glasses as he cautiously cast his eyes over the papers once more .
“Individuals who pass the Academy entrance exam have the start date of their loan repayment postponed by 6 years” .
So, six years from now we’ll have to start our repayments .
Theo thought carefully as he listened to the man explain the scholarship to the young boys .
It’d be tough making repayments while living on our current wages from the factory . If possible we should graduate within six years and get better jobs .
“Because both of you have passed the exam, you’re entitled to use not just the Understudy Wizard lending scheme, but also the Academy Wizard Apprentice scheme . So this covers your tuition fees, textbooks, other things such as tools and so on . So long as an expense is classed as necessary for your studies, your scholarship can cover it . However…”
Letting his words trail off, he took a careful moment to glare down at the two boys .
“The Association always collects what it is owed, no matter who borrowed or what the funds were used for . We always collect! You would do well to remember this simple fact” .
On their way home to the city of Renryll, Lynn and Theo looked over the papers they were given that listed all the different classes, and talked to each other about which they might take .
“There’s so many” .
At a glance, there were simply too many classes listed to make any quick decisions . There were a wide variety of subjects that were obviously magical in nature, such as ‘Incantation Class’ and ‘Practical Light Magic’, to subjects that were more general such as ‘Study of Logic’, ‘International Affairs’, and ‘The History of the Tower’ . There were even such peculiar subjects as ‘Ecology of the Euprymna’ and ‘The Kingdom of Yushitania’s Enigmatic Inscriptions’, which catered for very specific interests .
The subjects were listed one after the other, with the content of the course to one side . However Lynn struggled to tell apart the classes which were free from the ones that required an extra fee to enroll . Courses with an extra fee cost anywhere from 1000 Legika to as much as one million Legika .
“Just what are these prices based on to begin with?” asked Theo rhetorically as he looked over the list .
“What’s this? There’s a few classes that you can also earn money from” .
Lynn had noticed, amongst the classes chat charged extra fees, a class that claimed one could generate an income from .
Theo looked doubtful . “A class with pay? What, just by attending you can earn money? What’s that all about” .
Lynn scanned over the explanatory note of one such class, which was called ‘Basics of Contrivance Magic[1]’ . It read as follows .
‘This aim of this course is the acquisition of essential knowledge that is required by anyone with their sights set on becoming a Contrivance Wizard of the upper stratum of the Tower . Up until now, it was thought by most that so long as one had magic at their disposal, machines were of no important use . However in the last few years, it has become widely accepted that machines can complete some work far more efficiently than any fairy or spirit magic . In the near future it is likely that demand for Wizards trained in Contrivance will soar . Get ahead of the curve now with our beginner course . We frequently accept work that is commissioned to us from the Wizard Association, so there are plenty of opportunities to earn some money, proportionate to the amount of work you put in’ .
The course summary ended there . Just below it was a seemingly endless list of phrases promoting the class, though they struck the two boys as rather crass .
‘Fully comprehensive, this course takes you from the very basics through to practical techniques’ .
‘No experience? Not to worry! The lecturer teaches using simple but actual practical work, taking you through every step patiently’ .
‘Reduce you tuition fees as you study . Kill two birds with one stone!’ .
‘The amount you can earn is limited only by how much effort you put in, thanks to a commision system . With the right attitude you could earn as much as one million Legika a year!’ .
‘Harmonious study and work place’ .
‘The only class that allows students to experience Contrivance Magic from their first year!’ .
Reading all this, Lynn thought the endorsements read more like advertising for a product or service rather than for an educational course .
This looks way too suspicious .
“Hey Theo . I gave this the benefit of the doubt at first, but this is too much . ‘Even without experience’, ‘commission’, ‘harmonious environment’… No matter how you look at it, these aren’t the kind of words or phrases you’d expect to see for an educational course” .
“Hmm . Well it looks like we can enroll for free though… If we could really earn a million Legika we wouldn’t have to worry about repaying our scholarships anymore . For now how about we try enrolling and going to the first class . If it doesn’t seem like we could actually earn any money, we can always just quit” .
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Lynn, looking dubious, tentatively agreed . “Ok” .
WIs this really wise?
He felt that something wasn’t quite above board, and that it might be a kind of trap . He couldn’t shake this feeling of uncertainty .
“What else should we take…There’s so many options, where to begin…” .
“For now, how about we take as many foundational magic courses as we can fit in our schedule, and go from there?”
Theo agreed with this approach . “Ok . I don’t think we’ll be able to take some classes, just because they fall in the same time slot as others” .
Comparing each other’s forms and timetables, Lynn and Theo began to fill in their forms with the foundation classes . They realized that most of these classes had no extra fees . Lynn was relieved . In order to graduate they had to have at least 20 credits from the foundation classes, and it looked like there were enough of them to graduate paying only the yearly tuition fee . Regardless of their entitlement to unlimited funding as apprentices of the academy, he didn’t want to take on unnecessary debt .
“There aren’t any foundation classes on Wednesday . I guess we could look for something that has a fee” .
“Practical Light Magic and Spirit Magic are on Wednesday” .
“Oh, let’s see… You can’t take Practical Light Magic unless you’ve finished Ring Magic first . For Spirit Magic you need to have completed Ring Magic and Fairy Magic . What is this? You can’t take anything in your first year!” . Theo looked frustrated .
“It looks like we can take Material Generation Magic though” .
Theo looked irritated at just the sound of her name . “Oh, that’s the class Yuven’s taking” .
Lynn read the class description out loud .
“‘This is a class that teaches Material Generation, a magic that allows one to create matter from nothing . Application of this type of magic has, conventionally, been quite difficult . Furthermore, dimension magic and mass magic is often easily replaced by the invention of the elevator, and so material generation magic has long been largely overlooked . However, 10 years ago, Sediac, a wizard lecturer of floor 300, discovered an effective application for this magic- since then material generation has been in the limelight . Within this popular field which has been enjoying rapid growth and development over the last 10 years, is hidden an abundance of potential for practical application when used to compliment other types of magic . It is often said that those who harbour great ambitions for reaching the upper stratum of the Tower can think of this field as a mast-’” .
Lynn didn’t understand most of what was written, but he was fascinated by the idea of making something from nothing .
“Ah, but this is an elective class, there’s an extra fee to take it . It says it costs one hundred thousand Legika” .
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It was equivalent to 2 months of Lynn’s wages .
“Well, we do have apprentice scholarships, it’s not like we can’t take it… I wonder what it’s like” .
Despite his usual easy confidence, Theo too fell into a thoughtful silence . Like the girl called Yuven had said, it looked like progressing through this academy was going to be a lot harder than what they had faced up until this point .
Lynn didn’t know what to do .
Elios had told them both to be wary of elective classes that charged fees . On the other hand, what Yuven had said to Theo still remained in Lynn’s mind- ‘For a commoner like yourself, without even a normal master to guide you, can you really get much further?’ .
Just what was she talking about when she said that? He felt that perhaps he would find out, or at least gain access to some valuable piece of knowledge, if he were to take the same class as her .
On the one hand, Elios’s advice was to stay away from elective classes . On the other, Yuven- guided by a proper master- seemed comfortable taking at least one elective . Just which philosophy should he listen to? Which would give him an advantage over his peers?
He knew that listening to Elios was the safer bet . However he wanted to try taking the same class as Yuven .
Lynn looked over to Theo . Walking while looking at his form, he had one hand to his mouth, and looked deep in thought . It seemed that he too was interested in this class .
What’s he thinking .
As Lynn deliberated further, unable to decide, Theo suddenly made a decision . He now gripped a Material Generation Magic Class card in his hand[2] .
“Theo?” .
“You were thinking of doing the same thing, weren’t you? I can see it on your face” .
Theo next recited the incantation to awake the fairy in his enrollment form .
“You can’t rely on everything Elios says . He doesn’t understand as much as he thinks he does . Anyhow, let’s take the initiative” .
The fairy that Theo awake now set about carving writing into his form .
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“We’ll see Elios and the others afterwards, right? You should hurry up and decide too, before they butt in and tell you what to do” .
“I guess you’re right” .
Lynn too took the Material Generation Magic card in his hand and recited an incantation . The card erupted in blue flames, though there was no heat . From his hand it drifted over to his submission form, and as it melted into the form, it engraved the necessary information .
Lynn’s timetable, now established, was as follows .
Monday: Ring Magic
Tuesday: Mass Magic
Wednesday: Material Generation Magic
Thursday: Metallurgy Magic
Friday: Fairy Magic, Basics of Contrivance Magic
Now that his form was complete, Lynn was finally set about awakening the fairy within his form .
“Fairy that dwells within . Take this timetable and deliver it to a bookshelf in the wizard association” .
The form became a bright blue flame, and flew off into the air, on a course to the Allfrid branch of the wizard’s association .
Next time… Chapter 15, ‘Academy Life’ .
TRANSLATION NOTES
[1] The term ‘Contrivance Magic’ is one I had difficulty translating . The original Japanese is ‘機巧魔導’, which can be split into two parts, ‘contrivance’ and ‘magic’ . However I could have easily substituted ‘trick’, or ‘cleverness’ for the first part, and ‘sorcery’ or ‘black magic’ for the second; aside from the problem of appropriating the best approximation in wording, I’d like to point out the fact that I could have translated part of this term as ‘black magic’ . I think it says a lot about the kind of magic practising society this is, that an area of study that makes use of machines (likely alongside conventional magic) would have an aura of taboo about it (at least up until relatively recently) .
[2] I apologise if the last scene where Lynn and Theo fill out their application forms is slightly confusing . I found the original Japanese a little bit unclear, in terms of how they were preparing their forms to be submitted, but I’ll explain here how I interpreted it . They each recite not one, but multiple incantations in this whole process, although as a reader you are explicitly only shown the incantation to burn a kind of course card (material generation) into the relevant part of the form, and the incantation to rouse a fair which then writes the appropriate address on the form, and delivers it to the association in Allfrid . Presumably, Lynn and Theo would have recited incantations for each class of their timetable while they walked home together .