———
It was the next day, and Erina-san had safely made a full recovery.
Just to be on the safe side, I’m making Erina-san rest for today, and Noel and Dee are busy with the housework so there’s nobody around. What I was about to do is a bit unconventional, so it’s just the right time for it.
I realized it the other day, but the fact is that I should’ve questioned the common knowledge of the world. Before I knew it, there I was, thinking about the common knowledge of my previous life and of this world together.
The world where science had advanced and magic does not exist.
The world where chemistry had not developed and magic existed.
It is natural for a disparity to arise. It takes me three years to realise something so obvious. In high spirits from being able to use magic, it seems that before I realized it, I was washed away by this world’s common knowledge. For me to have been affected in such a way, how careless of me.
In this world, there are three kinds of methods for lighting a fire.
First, using fire-attribute magic.
Third, using a fire stone.
There is an exception: using a demon that emits fire, however the standard methods are the three mentioned above; they’re the mainstream and are common knowledge. Still unable to comprehend making live coals with frictional heat, it appears that even the adventurer Dee saw it for the first time.
In other words, it hasn’t permeated society. Even though you can make something like frictional heat anywhere if you rub your hands; it’s in spite of that. It’s probably because of the common knowledge that has strongly taken root in this world: ‘it’s likely that other than those mentioned, there are no other ways to light fires’. I think it’s preciselybecause I know of the modern-day science of my previous existence that I have this point of view, but what caught my attention was something not related to fire.
There’s a magic that I wasn’t able to see due to the entrenched common knowledge……is what it boils down to.
I open the [Intermediate Level Magic Guidebook] that I had left beside me.
I’ll try to experiment with them one-by-one.
First, the aria.
There’s the [Impact] which I used yesterday on the goblins, but I got irritated at the aria, stopped in the middle of it and fired the spell.
The keyword of the aria for [Impact] is: make the maryoku within you activate, condense it, and let it fly……that’s what it’s in terms of.
If it was to follow what was written in the elementary level book, then it shouldn’t activate, but it activated. It seems like it could be settled with the discussion on aria shortening, but it activated even though I had omitted the essential part of the aria at that time: ‘to fly’.
At that time, other than ‘throwing the ball of maryoku’, I had mixed in the image of ‘putting a high-explosive projectile into a grenade launcher and launching it’. Even though it’s called ‘magic’, the weapons that I had become accustomed to in my previous existence had unconsciously interfered.
The result: it gave off an impact that was far stronger than usual and neutralised the goblin. Even though the [Impact] that I had been using up until that point was—at best—at the level of shaking a target, it had made the goblin’s body float in the air for a second: that force is strange.
What’s crucial is not the aria……but the mental image?
The first time I used [Light], the photosphere moved at my visualisation.
I started using it after I got Noel to show me an example, so isn’t that etched into my brain? I was thinking ‘what if I used it without seeing the example’…but at any rate, let’s try it out and see what happens.
It is an experiment, so it’ll be without an aria.
I close my eyes and concentrate; I gather the flowing maryoku in my body and make it into a sphere shape and standby. I point my hand in the direction of the target, and visualise the maryoku sphere enveloped by the bore. And then I pulled the trigger that came to mind.
The spell can be altered by the mental image.
Moreover, I didn’t call out the spell name, let alone the aria, and there’s also not much difference in the maryoku consumption. Truly revolutionary. However there are still many more things that I want to do.
The next thing to visualise is an automatic style pistol: a handgun.
My favourite was the Magnum, but after taking into consideration its strength, this time I visualise the common handgun. The important points are: to make the bullet tapered in order for it to fly straight, and the grooves of the barrel that cause the bullet to rotate: the rifling. This time I focus on the tree target without closing my eyes, and in preparation, I erect my thumb and index finger on my hand in the shape of a handgun.
Gather maryoku, bullet production, loading, rifling is okay, trigger!
With a *pshew*, a thick sound reverberated, the tree that I aimed at shook a little, and a thumb-sized hole had been opened in the tree. I continued by gradually increasing the distance of the targets that I aim at, and I confirmed that there’s not that much of a difference with both the firing range and power when compared to the real thing. In addition, there’s no discharge sound and there’s barely any recoil. The ballistic trajectory is even more stable than that of the real thing, and the maryoku consumption is also low. It’s utility was so good that it would make one suspect: ‘isn’t there a catch to this?’.
I continue to shoot while forming an hypothesis; I ran out of maryoku at around the time I exceeded twenty shots, so I stopped.
The next experiment—while the lethargy is assaulting my body—is meditation. This isn’t magic but it’s one of the actions through which maryoku can be quickly recovered.
The method is just to relax, seize the maryoku with your whole body, and take it in. Becoming able to seize maryoku seems to be an obstacle of the elementary level, and because of that, it’s mentioned in the intermediate level book. I think of zazen when I hear of ‘meditation’, but it seems like it’s all right as long as I can relax, so I lay down in the shape of the 大 kanji.
I close my eyes and seize the maryoku……seize……how do I do that?
Seizing a substance that doesn’t exist in my previous life? Therefore, there’s no choice but to lay my hands on it by groping around. In the first place, maryoku is not visible to the eye; although it’s certainly possible to feel a mysterious energy at the time of magic activation. In other words, it’ll be fine if I can feel a sensation similar to this energy from the air? I direct my senses towards the outside and try searching for maryoku.
……maryoku.
………maryoku.
…………maryoku.
……………maryoku.
………………….
……………………!
“!?”
I unintentionally jumped up.
I’m going to do it once more before I forget it; I close my eyes again, but this time I was mysteriously able to sense it with ease. It was like a switch being flipped; I felt an exhilarating sensation: as if my own seal was undone and I had gotten free.
Is this what they call ‘seizing the maryoku’? As there’s also nobody to tell me if I’m right, let’s go to the next thing.
Uumu, ‘taking it in’……is there a sensory organ that the people of this world have for that? If there is, then I also should have one……but take in the maryoku and convert the overflowing maryoku to one’s own colour……convert?
I became able to sense it and I realized it: doesn’t this maryoku throughout the air resemble the maryoku that I personally let out? It’s a feeling like: ‘the red within the colour red, the tree within the forest’. And now, the current me is exhausted of maryoku and in a state close to a vacuum. It’s not ‘taking it in’, but how about attuning my maryoku to my surroundings?
I lie down once again, and I take things as they are, thinking of nothing: towards a clear and serene mind.
“Sirius-sama!? What’s the matter?!”
As I was about to reach that stage, I was shouted at by Noel. Well, one would be surprised if someone were to drop to the ground right in the centre of the yard. To indicate I was okay, I waved my hand to Noel, who was rushing over here, but without stopping her momentum, she came over and looked into my face.
“Are you alright?! As I thought, there were some after-effects from yesterday’s incident?!”
“Calm down. I was only meditating, look, here.”
To Noel—who is immoderate if left alone—I slapped my hand onto the page where ‘meditation’ was written. Noel started to read the page with a wondering look on her face, but she was smiling awkwardly after she had finished reading.
“Ano~ Sirius-sama? This is the intermediate level isn’t it? Are you able to……do this?”
“Not at all! Even that is enough to be too amazing! Because it’s something that originally takes several years of learning from a teacher before one can finally do that. Being able to do this much by self-studying that…”
“Not at all! Someone like me is at the novice level of the elementary level. I only showed you magic; by no means can say that I taught you.”
“There was a person who originally was a magic teacher that came to my hometown; I was taught by that person. You might not be able to tell, but it seems like I had the best aptitude within the village, and I was even encouraged to attend school.”
“There are. However, a large amount of money is required for the matriculation. My village was poor, and so was my family, so I had to give up the idea of going to school. Therefore I only studied the basics, and I left my hometown in order to work away from home.”
I think she’s yearning for her hometown; Noel narrows her eyes and looked into the distance.
“Sorry. That was a bit insensitive of me.”
“I had just become a little nostalgic, so please don’t worry about it. Besides, I am happy right now. Aria-sama, Erina-san, Dee-san, and Sirius-sama. I am so glad that I was able to meet you all.”
I feel a little bit fulfilled at the sincere smile of a young lady of marriageable age.
All in all, I’m indebted to this child, and I sincerely want her to be happy.
“However, you are a hundred years too early for such things like onee-chan’s worries. No matter how much you say that it is because you understand various things; it isbecause you are still a child that I say that.”
That’s certainly true, but even if you—who usually has their clumsiness at full throttle—say that, there’s no persuasive power in it. In my opinion, she’s something like a little sister who needs looking after; as thanks for that smile, I’ll let you accompany me in my experiment.
“I’ll keep that in mind. By the way, I wonder if Noel is free right now?”
“Well then, it also acts as an experiment, but I’ll show you something interesting. Once my maryoku has recover……ed?”
In order to try out the next idea, I was thinking of the amount of maryoku required and then I noticed it.
It’s only been about several minutes since I had exhausted my maryoku, and even the meditation I did just now was, in the end, the same as if not doing it all. Usually it recovers after several hours, but I thought that I had only dozed off for a moment…had I actually fallen asleep for quite a while?
“Is something wrong?”
“Ha~ Your recovery is really quick…. It’s also quick for me, even though it takes me half a day.”
Let’s put that aside for now; being able to make my maryoku dry up and trying it again is a good thing.
This time it’s [String] enhancement. It seems extremely helpful as a rope, but its practical usability is too low in its present state. If I bundle them together, then that itself appears to be useable, but I might as well try and complete it by making it into something strong and secure.
It didn’t particularly have to be rope—chains or wires would’ve been fine—but maryoku has a ‘soft’ image to it, so I decided to make it rope.
“I’m going to use [String] a little, so could you pull on that for me?”
“It’ll be fine. It’s a somewhat of a unique one, so it won’t easily snap.”
I leave Noel—who currently has a half-convinced face—as is, and activate [String]. It’s invisible but when I tried to detect it, maryoku in the shape of a thick rope grew from the palm of my hand.
“Okay, here.”
“Haa……are? …the feeling that there wasn’t an aria just now…?”
I didn’t say the spell name, let alone an aria. I ignored Noel, who appears to be puzzled, and I let her take hold of the tip of that which is extending from the palm of my hand.
“Don’t worry, don’t worry; rather than that, hurry and pull. I don’t mind even if you pull with all your might.”
“Like I said, it’ll snap……there’s something different. Well then, here I go!”
Perhaps having realized something at the sensation of the rope that she felt in her hand, her face had taken a complete change: with a serious face, she had started to pull the rope. I also put my strength into it and pull, but the maryoku rope did not move at all.
Umu, it’s a success. Perhaps it’s because of the maryoku, it’s a strange rope that doesn’t creak or bend, but it’s strength is nearly perfect. However, I made just one blunder.
“Uoo!”
“Woah! Sirius-sama!”
Overmatched in strength, I was completely dragged around by Noel.
Well, I have been training, but I’m still three years old, so it can’t be helped.
After that, I hang it on a tree and climb up it; as a result of having used it as a substitute for the chains of a swing, I concluded that it’s sufficiently able to be fit for practical use. If I vary its thickness, it’s serviceable for various practical uses; it’s not an all-purpose tool, but an all-purpose magic.
Perhaps as a result of bundling multiple layers of maryoku threads together, I get the feeling that the maryoku consumption is a bit high. Nevertheless, as it wasn’t to the degree of exhausting my maryoku, let’s stop at around this point for now and head back.
“It’s about time for lunch isn’t it?”
“Yes, it is. I have become hungry.”
My hand was grasped by Noel and we return to the house.
En route, I was asked this question while we were chatting:
“What does Sirius-sama want to do in the future?”
“I can be proud of the Sirius-sama who is able to produce such amazing magic. I’ve become curious as to what that Sirius-sama wants to do when he grows up.”
“Ahaha, I am being way too hasty aren’t I? Please forget about it.”
It’s been three years since I received this new life; several times has the thought of ‘what exactly do I want to do?’ came to me.
The me of my previous existence had a bloody life, but I think I passed away satisfied because it was an end where I had accomplished my mission. That’s why I also barely had any regrets, but there’s something that I recalled after hearing the talk about school from Noel.
I had five apprentices.
I can’t recall their names, but there were five of them: girls and boys that I myself gathered and educated with my own hands. For me—who had neither parents nor a wife—they were, in a way, something like a family. It’s possibly my sole regret: that I wasn’t able to watch over all of their futures, as their shishou, and in place of their parents. It’s not just to become strong, this time I want to properly watch over them.
Un, I saw the future that I’m aiming for.
After lunch, I began to talk to everyone gathered in the living room.
“I’m thinking of trying to go to school.”
At my one utterance, three people were exchanging glances while at a loss.
It was particularly bad for Noel, who had a pale face saying ‘I’ve gone and done it.’
“Is it perhaps because of what I said? With my words, Sirius-sama’s future……”
“Calm down Noel. So, why does Sirius-sama want to go to school?”
“It’s not like I’ve already settled on it, but I want to become an educator.”
In this world, death is taken lightly.
However, those things is nothing more than information that I discovered in books.
For that reason, I want to travel the world, see and feel various things in reality, and teach my existing techniques to others as an educator.
Broadly itemizing it:
Attend school and learn about the society, take a trip to get acquainted with the world, be an educator……that kind of flow.
“The person I saw in my dreams taught various things to children. Although he experienced hardship, he felt that it was immensely worthwhile, and it became something that I also want to do. In order to do that, I should first go to school for the sake of broadening my knowledge…”
“Sure enough, if that’s the case, then going to school is necessary. However Sirius-sama’s attribute is……”
I guess the point is that I don’t have an attribute, and that’s a problem.
I could easily imagine being called an ‘incompetent’ and looked upon with eyes of contempt if it were to be discovered. The attendants were frowning, but only Noel nodded with a serious face.
“……I think it’ll be okay.”
“What has come over you Noel? Even though you’re the one who understands the suffering of being isolated…”
Isolation……discrimination due to differences in race? She’s cheerfully smiling now, but I wonder if she had a hard time in the past.
“Actually, Sirius-sama showed me his magic earlier. It was just one, but the skill was one that someone like me couldn’t hold a candle to. Besides, there’s also other spells in addition to that, right?”
Given that the assertive Noel asked that in my direction, I nodded for the time being. If I repeated the experiment, then it would appear as if I’m able to do it as many times as I wanted; but the gun spells would likely make them afraid, so I keep silent.
“He also already comprehends half of the intermediate level magic, and to be honest, I can’t imagine just how much he will have matured after five more years. It seems like if someone was to pick a fight with him, he would turn the tables on them.”
That’s right. If I get attacked, then I’ll attack them back.
“I’ve said it many times, but I believe that Sirius-sama will undoubtedly make a name for himself in the future. That’s why I also want to do what I am able to do for him.”
“Yeah! Let’s do our best!”
“Me, too.”
I certainly feel bad for the three of them who have roused themselves to action for my sake. But…well, I’ll presume upon these people’s benevolence for now.
I had intended to lightly say things like ‘educator’ and all, but it’s a bit embarrassing being so stupendously praised. But I will grow up so that I’m able to live up to those expectations.
“Thank you everyone. But there are five years, so let’s not overdo it.”
“Selling will be me.”
“I will check up on the school-related things in advance. It would be a waste for Sirius-sama’s talents to end here!”
Is what a wildly enthusiastic Noel said, but she looked lonely for an instant and I heard her murmur: ‘although I had completely given up on it’. Oh, I see…perhaps Noel’s enthusiasm is from having overlapped her past self with me. Not being able to attend school herself was probably a regret of hers.
“It looks like it will get busy from now on. Before that, Dee, give that to Sirius-sama.”
“Understood.”
Dee went and left the living room, returned after a short time, and that hand of his was grasping a sword. He handed me that sword, and because he was—with his eyes—calling for me to extract the sword, I pulled out the blade.
“This is?”
“A sword that I procured around the time when I was an adventurer. If it’s with this, then even against goblin opponents it won’t break, so please accept it.”
A sparse pattern is set into the 50 centimeter length of the blade, and it has a rustic handle; it’s a short sword with not one ornament on it. It’s a bit big for me—as a three-year-old child—to use, but I was pleased with its exterior that stressed utility.
However, this sword’s blade isn’t iron. It’s strong and solid but comparatively light. Swords are outside my area of expertise, but this isn’t something that is sold everywhere.
“It’s a weapon that somehow seems awfully good, but is it alright for me to accept it?”
“Not a problem. Because I am no longer an adventurer, and it’s short for me, so this sword is one that I was keeping as a spare. I found that sword in the depths of a certain ruin, but it was too light to use it as a sword, so I took charge of it without being given a second glance by anyone. There was an occasion when I showed it to a weapons shop, but the qualities of its materials was unknown. I kept it as an omamori, but if it’s for the current Sirius-sama, I think it’s a weapon that’s just right.”
Oo, it’s the first time Dee has been this talkative.
I’m not quite familiar with the sword, but it’s not like it’s cursed, so I’ll gratefully accept it.
“Please take this. It is a belt to hang your sword on.”
“You look cool, Sirius-sama. With this, you are a splendid adventurer.”
Dee is pleased with my expression of gratitude: the shape of his mouth slightly breaks into a smile. The adjustments to the size of the belt is also completed… if I equip this, then an adventurer is what I look lik—……there’s no way that I do! It’s impossible for a three-year old.
“Sirius-sama, you now possess a weapon, but please, never do anything unreasonable.”
“I want you to avoid fighting as much as you can, but you do need the experience. However, next time, I ask that you please bring Dee with you without fail.”
She is probably racked with worry, but Erina-san is holding that back and encouraging me. I think she really is a person of character. Wanting me to bring Dee with me, it’s the least I could do for her isn’t it?
Things like goblins would only take a moment if I used gun spells, but to defeat them directly, I want to regain the abilities of my previous life. I’m not inclined to repeat such a disgraceful fight: being showered with blood back-splatter with reckless abandon and only being able to defeat two at the same time.
Using magic is fine. But I won’t mature by being dependant on magic, in particular my gun spells: they’re too powerful. If I really wanted to, then I think that sniping from a very long distance away would be feasible, but as a risk factor, there’s also the possibility of me becoming pursued if it’s discovered. Other than the times when it’s necessary, let’s go with hiding it as much as possible.
I’ll usually have to make do with other magic and taijutsu.
This is how I was surrounded by understanding people, and the need to restrain my growth disappeared.
I also acquired the unknown power called ‘magic’, and looked forward to just how high I could go.
Well then, from now on it’s real training.