“Th-That’s not... I mean... If you’re okay with me...”
“Thanks a lot. You’d really be helping me out.”
Alright. So I’d be able to work toward my goal of being able to read and write. I just had to face my studies seriously. I was glad I’d found such a kind teacher. Speaking of which...
“Oh yeah, Linze. While we’re at it, do think you could teach me some magic? I’d like to be able to cast spells and stuff as well.
“Whaat?!” Darned twins were even speaking in unison... What? Was what I said really that weird?
◇ ◇ ◇
“Teach you some magic...? Well... Touya, what’s your aptitude?”
“Aptitude?”
“Magic is highly influenced by the... aptitude that you’re born with! People without the gift for it... won’t be able to use magic at all...”
Hmm... So, magic wasn’t something that just anybody could use. Well, that made sense. After all, if everyone could use magic, then civilization would have been far more based around it.
“The gift for it, huh... You know, I think I’ll be fine on that front. Someone, uh, guaranteed that I’d be able to use magic if I wanted to.”
“Who told you that?”
“Oh uh... just a very, very important person.” It was God, as a matter of fact.
Hah. Yeah right. They’ll think I’m insane if I tell them that. I figured it’d be best to keep that part to myself.
“I mean, is there any way to test whether someone has any aptitude for magic?”
At my question, Linze pulled out some translucent stones from the pouch around her waist. Red, blue, yellow, and perfectly clear; they shone almost like they were made of glass. Each one was about one centimeter around. Looking at them, I remembered that there was a similar one on Linze’s silver wand. The one on her wand was bigger than the pebbles she placed before me, though.
“Okay, so what are these?” I asked, clearly confused by her actions.
“They’re, uhm, spellstones. They can be used to amplify, store, and release magical energy. We can use these to test whether or not you have aptitude for magic. But it can only provide a rough estimate, either way...” Linze whispered something like “I wonder if water would be the easiest to demonstrate...” before picking up the blue stone. She held it over the cup that she’d finished drinking her tea out of.
“Come forth, Water!”
At Linze’s command, a small amount of water flowed from the spellstone and into the teacup.
“Whoa.”
“This is how you cast a spell. Just now, the spellstone responded to my magical energy and created water.”
“By the way...” Elze cut in, then took the spellstone from her sister. After that, she tried to cast the same spell.
“Come forth, Water!”
The spellstone refused to activate. Not even a droplet of water poured out.
“This is what happens when you have no aptitude for an element. See, this means I can’t use Water magic.”
“You can’t use it even though your twin sister can?”
“Man, you really don’t think before you speak, huh? I mean, no offense taken, but still...”
Whoops. That was a pretty poor slip of the tongue. It didn’t seem like she was seriously angry at me, though, more like sulking a little. I was just glad my thoughtless comment hadn’t hurt her.
“In exchange for not being able to use Water magic, Sis can use Fortification magic... I can’t use that type, personally... You need the proper aptitude to use Fortification magic, too.”
Things suddenly made a lot more sense. I had been wondering where she was packing all that punch in that slender frame of hers, but the mystery had been solved.
“Everyone has some magical energy inside them, but unless they have the aptitude to use it, they won’t be able to channel it into any spells.” Seemed like everything hinged on whether or not you had the gift for it. Those without talent were just out of luck. It seemed that this world was just as unfair as the last.
“So, we’ll be able to test my aptitude if I do the same?”
“Yes. Just take the stone in your hand and focus on it, then chant Come forth, Water! Then, if you have the aptitude... water should come out.” Elze handed me the blue spellstone as she said that. I put a plate down under my hand to keep the table from getting wet, then held the stone above it and began to concentrate. I cast the spell I had just been taught.
“Come forth, Water!”
Before I could even blink, the spellstone started gushing out water like a broken faucet.
“Uh-oh-huh-wha-?!”
I dropped the spellstone hurriedly, and the waterfall immediately ceased. Sadly, though, it was too late. The table looked like it had just been soaked down with a hose, and the tablecloth was drenched.
“...What the heck does this mean?” I looked at the two sisters sitting in front of me, seeking some kind of explanation for the bizarre scene. Neither one answered me, though. They just sat there, looking on in amazement at the spectacle before them. It honestly looked like the expressions on their faces had been copied and pasted. In fact, it was all so silly that I almost found myself laughing.
“...Touya, you have so much magical energy that it’s almost overflowing... I think. To cause such a strong reaction with such a tiny stone and only the fragment of a spell... and on your first attempt, too... It’s just... your magical energy seems to be obscenely potent... I can’t believe my own eyes, even though I just saw it.”
“...You’re really much more suited to being a mage, I think. Seriously, I’ve never seen anything like this in my life.”
Seemed I had the potential after all, just like God told me I would. My sheer talent in the field was surely the work of God, too. It had to be. I mean, I wasn’t about to complain about it, I was just glad to know that I really could use magic.
Apologizing for soaking the table, we rushed straight out of the cafe. The sun had already set by the time we got back to the inn, so my magic lessons were to be left for the next day and onward.
Once I finished my dinner, Linze began to teach me how to read and write. I got Micah’s permission to use the dining room for the lesson. To start off with, I had Linze write out a simple sentence for me. Next to that, I wrote the same thing in Japanese.
“...I’ve never seen writing like this before. Where did you learn it?”
“Hm... It’s a written language native to my hometown and the area around it. I’m probably the only one around these parts who can read it.” Never mind these parts, I was probably the only person in the world who could understand this writing. It was almost like a secret code language for my eyes only.
Linze looked a bit bemused, but it seemed like she believed my story for the moment. Moving on, she taught me some more very simple phrases, which I steadily paired with their Japanese counterparts. Linze must’ve been a talented teacher, because the words just clicked into place in my brain.
Wait, has my memory always been this good? Is this another act of God...? If it really is thanks to God, then it would’ve been way better if he just let me know the language right off the bat. Such thoughts did cross my mind, but I was sure God had his reasons. I wasn’t really in a position to be asking for more than I’d already gotten from him, anyway.
We cut off at a good stopping point, then Linze and I returned to our respective rooms for the night.
I whipped out my smartphone and noted down the day’s events in my makeshift diary. I then decided to take a peek at what was going on in the other world. Oh, that person won a People’s Honor Award. Ah, I wanted to see that movie...
Eventually, I suddenly snapped to my senses and remembered to open up my map and check for Eashen. I found out that it was an island country far to the east of here on the map, just off the edge of the continent. I never thought it would resemble Japan all the way down to those points, but it was almost identical. I’d decided I’d like to go there if I ever got the
chance.
Between hunting those monsters and all that walking, I was beat. I soon felt drowsiness take its grip, so I crawled into bed and let the sandman do his job. Goodnight.
“Zzz...”
◇ ◇ ◇
“Uhm... well then, let’s begin.” Linze seemed a bit nervous, almost straining herself to announce the beginning of our lessons. She struck me as more than just shy, almost docile even. Maybe she could’ve learned from her sister... within reason, anyway. She’d opened up a bit as we’d gotten to know each other, but I couldn’t help but feel she was still a fair bit distant.
Today we were taking a break from guild quests to give me a crash course in magic training instead. We sat at a worn-out little table around the back of the inn, since it seemed like it wasn’t in use by customers anymore. Oh, and since Elze had nothing to do, she went to the guild and picked up a simple plant harvesting job that she could manage on her own.
“Well then, Ms. Silhoueska, I’ll be in your care today.”
“M-Ms. Silhoueska is a bit much... A-Ah...!” My adorable teacher drooped her head and blushed a full red through to her ears. Damn, she’s cute.
“Alright, what’s up first?”
“Oh, right. Well, we should start from the basics, so... You know that there are different elements of magic, right?”
“Elements?” I questioned, not fully aware of the distinctions.
“You know, like fire and water. Well, uhm... the seven basic elements are Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, Light, Dark, and Null. We already know that you’re proficient in Water magic, as we learned yesterday.” She was clearly referring to the little spellstone incident the day before. Since I was able to bring out that much water, I was obviously proficient in Water magic.
“We learned right away that you can use Water magic, which is good. If you couldn’t use Water magic, the plan was to test you using the spellstone for a different element.”
“So even if someone can use magic, they’re limited to certain elements...?”
“That’s right. By the way, the elements I’m proficient in are Fire, Water, and Light. As for the other four, I can’t even cast the most basic spells. Even among the three I can use, I’m good with Fire spells, but Light magic is a bit difficult.”
So even in this world, there were the haves and the have nots. You couldn’t choose talents for yourself. God must have decided those things instead. I felt sorry for poor old God.
“Right, so I get stuff like Fire or Water, but what about Light, Dark, or Null? What do those elements do?”
“Light is also known as Holy magic, which uses light as a medium. Healing magic falls under this category. Dark is primarily Summoning magic... You can use it to form contracts with magic beasts or monsters and have them fight for you. As for Null... that one’s a bit different from the other elements. It’s mainly composed of spells unique to the caster. Sis can use Fortification magic, which is a good example.”
Made sense to me. Something like that seemed pretty useful overall.
“Apart from Null, each element is dependent on your magical energy plus your aptitude with it, and will only come forth once the proper spell is cast. You can’t do anything if you don’t know which elements you’re compatible with, so we’ll test for that first.” As she spoke, Linze took the spellstones out from her pouch and lined them up on the table. Seven in total, colored red, blue, brown, green, yellow, purple, and clear.
“The elements of these spellstones are, in order: Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, Light, Dark, and Null. We’ll test them all in that order.”
First off was the red spellstone. I grasped it in my hand and concentrated, reciting the spell that Linze had taught me.
“Come forth, Fire!”
The stone burst forth flames like an oven at my words. I panicked and dropped the stone, which made the fire disappear in an instant. That was dangerous!
“It’s okay, magical fire won’t hurt the one casting it. Well, not unless your clothes catch fire, of course. Just make sure that doesn’t happen...”
“Huh, is that so?” I took the spellstone in hand and cast the spell once more.
A flame popped out again, but she was right. It wasn’t hot to the touch. So, if a magic flame spread to something else, then even the caster would get hurt, huh? Maybe that meant that when something caught fire due to magic, it didn’t count as magical flames anymore... Still, wasn’t the flame a bit too big?
“It seems like you’ve just got way too much magical energy... I’m sure you’ll be able to control it better with practice, but for now, it might be safer to not concentrate too much and instead let your mind wander a bit...”
So basically, if I went at it a bit more relaxed, the effect of the magic would be much less extreme? Her advice sounded odd, but it was worth a shot. Anyway, next up was the blue stone, but we’d already confirmed that one, so we moved onto the brown one. This time I took the stone in hand without really concentrating on it, and cast the spell in a more bland, uninspired fashion.
“Come forth, Earth.”
Sand started spilling out of the spellstone. Well, that got sand all over the table. I knew we had to clean all that up later...
Next up was the green spellstone.
“Come forth, Wind.”
A small squall burst out and blew all the sand off the tabletop as soon as I spoke. Nice that I wouldn’t have to clean up anymore, but it also knocked the spellstones all over the place. Damn it.
“Come forth, Light.”
The spellstone turned into a strobe light. Ugh, my eyes!
“Come forth, Dark.”
Now, I totally didn’t understand that one. Some kind of black mist poured out of the spellstone and clung to its surroundings. It was super creepy.
Having gone through six elements, I finally noticed a small change in Linze’s expression. She’d been celebrating with me after each element for a while, but had gradually begun to speak less and less, and there was currently a grave expression on her face.
“...What’s up?” I asked, worry evident in my voice.
“Eh? No, it’s nothing. I’ve just never met anyone who’s proficient with as many as six elements... I mean, I can use three, and even that’s considered rare... But you... You’re something else entirely.”
So, that was it. Hrmm... I mean, this was a gift from God and all, but it still felt like I was cheating a little. There were probably people who couldn’t use magic even though they really wanted to, so it felt like I was trampling all over their feelings.
Still, worrying like that wouldn’t change anything. Moving on to the final test, I grabbed the clear spellstone.
“...Huh? Hold on, how do I use this one?” I’d just been chanting “Come forth, something!” up to that point, but would that really make sense? Wasn’t “Come forth, Null!” a contradiction? Sure sounded awkward at least.
“The Null element is a bit special. It doesn’t have any particular incantation. Instead, it activates based on your magical energy and spell name alone.” Hm... so that was how it worked. Sounded mighty convenient, this blank element...
“For example, the Fortifying magic that Sis uses is activated by yelling [Boost] and that’s it. There are others such as [Power Rise] that increase raw muscle strength, and rarer spells like [Gate] that allow one to move great distances, but Sis can’t use those.”
So, basically, all the handy little miscellaneous spells that didn’t fit under any element were listed under the Null element.
“...Well, how do I figure out which Null-type spells I can cast, then?”
“According to Sis, she just somehow knows the spell name for some reason. Null-type magic is also referred to as personalized magic, so very few people are ever able to use the exact same spells as each other. There are people with multiple Null-type spells out there, but these people are exceedingly rare.”
Sounded mighty inconvenient, this blank element...
“So, there’s no quick way
to learn which Null-type spells I’ll be able to cast, then...?”
“No, we should still be able to test that. If you grip the spellstone and try to cast any kind of Null-type spell, then even if it fails, the stone should shine slightly or wobble a bit. There should at least be some kind of small change.”
“And if nothing happens?”
“...Then I’m afraid you’d have no aptitude for that element.” Well, nothing to do but give it a go, I supposed. A spell that let you cross great distances sounded pretty handy. If I had that, we wouldn’t have to walk all the way to that forest like we did the day before.
All right. I took the clear spellstone in hand, then exclaimed the spell’s name.
“[Gate]!”
Suddenly, the spellstone shone brightly and formed a translucent wall of light next to me. The wall was roughly the size of a door. Or well, I thought it was a wall at first, but upon closer inspection, I noticed it wasn’t even one centimeter thick. It was more like a sheet, to be honest.
“...It worked.”
“...So it did,” Linze replied, utterly dumbfounded.
I timidly touched the surface of the sheet of light. Ripples flowed out from the area my fingertips brushed against. It was almost like a thin membrane of water. I stuck my arm through the membrane and pulled it back out. Having confirmed that it was safe, the next thing I did was stick my head through it. As I did, my vision was filled by an expansive forest, and Elze sitting on her backside, her eyes wide with shock.
“...‘Sup Elze.”
“Wha-Wha-What the... Touya?! What the heck’s going on?!” I pulled my head back for a moment, took Linze by the hand, and we walked into the forest together.
“Linze, you too?! Eh? Eeehh?! What’s going on, where’d you pop out from?!”
Linze calmly explained the situation to the panicking Elze. It seemed that we were at the same eastern forest we’d gone to the day before. Apparently Elze had traveled to the area to pick some medicinal herbs for her guild quest, but a wall of light suddenly appeared. After that, an arm came flying out of it, then flew back in, and the sheer sight of it made her fall flat on her backside. Honestly, I’d probably have reacted the same way.
In Another World With My Smartphone: Volume 1 Page 4