TL/ED – Miso
Fortunately, there was a large map around the city square.
According to the bird’s-eye view, the city was circular in shape and divided into four districts.
The place I was in now was… District 4. It was the area where the Knight Cadets trained.
No wonder the people around me had such ridiculous builds. My vision was that of a child, so I could not be certain, but even conservatively, most of them looked over 190 cm tall.
“I got matched with an ogre for next week’s public sparring. I’m dead.”
“Unlucky bastard…”
It was the first time I had ever seen knights, but even just by their stride, I could tell they were different.
Their steps were unnervingly uniform. Their hands stayed near their waists, and even while chatting with acquaintances, their eyes never stopped scanning their surroundings.
The place was ridiculously wide. No joke, it was practically a small city in itself.
Luckily, District 3, where the wizards lived, was right next door.
“Huh.”
The moment District 3 came into view, I saw them, spire towers.
In other words, Magic Towers. But strangely, there was one on practically every block, like neighborhood tailor shops.
Normally, there was just one per city, wasn’t there?
Unbelievable. So this was the Academy…
By now, I even started to feel awe as I stepped into a building that looked like some kind of school.
Pretending to wipe down the surroundings with a rag, I walked up to the bulletin board in the hall and read it.
[Advanced Path of Magic Lecture 5-1 Auditorium 3:00 PM]
It seemed I had found the right place.
But advanced Path of Magic? Even if I eavesdropped, I probably would not understand a thing.
Was there no elementary Path of Magic? Actually, was learning Path of Magic even the same as learning magic.
“Excuse me.”
“~~~~~~~!!!”
I jumped.
My heart almost fell out. When I turned around, a cadet with round glasses tilted his head at me.
Which meant, he was a noble. I immediately bowed at a perfect 90 degrees.
“Hello. Is there something you need? I am sorry. I will never come again.”
“N-no, wait. You’re a janitor, right? I was just going to ask you to throw away this cup…”
“Yes, sir.”
I instantly grabbed the empty cup and stuffed it into my back pocket.
Fortunately, the cadet did not seem angry that I had been looking at the bulletin board.
Well, of course.
What crime was it to read a bulletin board?
Even as a janitor, it wasn’t like I had rubbed my rag all over the cadets’ faces.
The cadet studied my face curiously.
“Really? Janitors are so young these days.”
“I’m on a field trip.”
“F-field trip? A field trip as a janitor?”
“Yes. It’s a tradition at our orphanage.”
“Oh… I see.”
The cadet looked bewildered. For a ten-year-old wearing clothes twice his size, claiming to be a janitor, he just accepted it with, “Oh, janitors are young these days.”
Sensing this might work, I pressed further.
“This is my first time at the Academy, so could you tell me where they hold the beginner magic classes?”
“Beginner magic? What kind of magic?”
Magic is magic, what else.
“I heard there’s a really basic class.”
“Ah, you mean the children’s class?”
“Yes!!!”
So there was one. Overjoyed, I shouted before I could stop myself, and the cadet tilted his head while explaining the location.
“It’s close from here. Just keep going straight, then turn once you see a hill.”
“Oh, I see. Thank you very much.”
Finally, I had found it.
I bowed politely, then ran in the direction he had given me.
The children’s class building was not small at all.
Rather than just being large, it was painted in warm colors with soft curves, giving off an unmistakably child-friendly atmosphere, like a place made for kids to play.
It seemed a class was in session, since I could hear something being taught inside.
“Hmm, hmm…”
Holding a broom, I pretended to sweep while humming casually as I approached the door.
…Not peeking, but eavesdropping.
Well, as an orphan, if I wanted to learn at the Academy, this much humiliation was something I simply had to endure.
I strained my ears.
“Now, what did I say were the three elements of a wizard?”
“Me!”
…The scene was exactly the same as at the orphanage.
The children were still brimming with energy and did not seem to be paying much attention to the class.
But the teacher of the children’s class did not falter and kept earnestly teaching them.
“Mana, humans, and… will! Right?”
“In a local sense, that’s correct, but to be precise it’s world, subject, and will.”
“Eh? Where’s mana then?”
“Where do we get mana from? We get it from this world.”
“Even so, do we really have to say world instead of mana?”
“If our Ria were to become the greatest wizard someday, she would be able to create a world of her own, not this real world we live in, and obtain mana from it. So it’s more correct to say world than mana.”
“Create a world…?”
“You don’t need to understand it now. Just remember it.”
“Okaay…”
It was clearly basic-level content. I listened closely.
“And the last one, will… Even in academia, opinions are divided about this, because the will of a wizard is, how should I put it, too sticky a concept to be called simply will.”
“What does sticky mean?”
“T-that is… Outstanding wizards have such a strong will that the word will itself has become a bit distorted, I suppose~”
“Eh… so what do they call it?”
“Two hundred and ten years ago, Corpenius used the words madness or frenzy, and these days it’s softened a bit to the word dogma.”
“Those are all bad things though.”
“Are wizards bad people…?”
“N-no no no!! Not bad things, but, um… The wizards of the heavens are that kind of group. Only someone who seriously believes in an overwhelming conviction that the world is wrong and they are right can become the master of a new world. Because in that world, that’s the truth.”
Even though they were noble children, they weren’t much different from the children at the orphanage.
If anything, they felt even more spoiled. Maybe because the teacher couldn’t hit them.
“Still, I don’t like it…”
“S-shall we learn how to gather mana with the teacher? This one’s fun.”
“Yes!”
The teacher of the children’s class switched from theory to practice to lift the children’s drooping mood.
This was it. I focused even more.
“Mana is contained in everything in the world. So, even breathing and eating meals can replenish your mana.”
“Then we don’t have to gather mana on purpose. We can just eat to gather it.”
“Magic consumes a lot of mana. Just eating and breathing is nowhere near enough. Even the most basic magic, ignition, takes three months of eating and sleeping to build up enough mana to use.”
And then I heard the sound of the children gasping in amazement, as if the teacher had demonstrated some magic.
“So the first wizards studied ways to make eating, sleeping, and breathing dozens of times more efficient, compressed, and accelerated. Of those, breathing is what we do the longest, right? Naturally, that category of breathing techniques evolved.”
“Aha…”
“Now, try following me. Think of it as inhaling something other than air. Focus on something around us other than air, and imagine drawing it in, slowly…”
Something other than air.
I tried it once.
“…It’s not working.”
Well, what else is there other than air?
This is a scam, isn’t it? I frowned, but from inside, I began to hear the children succeeding one by one.
“Oh, wow! It really feels like something is building up in my chest!”
“Right?”
“I did it too!”
Almost all of the children had succeeded by now, and I still could not even understand what they were talking about.
Honestly, it was kind of infuriating.
No matter if it’s knowledge from another world, I couldn’t beat even one kid?
Other than air, what was there… seawater maybe.
Should I try inhaling that at least?
“…Hurk, kehuk, hurk!”
I really should not have done that.
The moment I tried breathing while imagining seawater, it truly felt as if my lungs were filled with water.
I could not even breathe. I collapsed forward, retching several times. Nothing came out, just dry heaving.
“Cough, cough… Ah, I really feel like I’m going to die…”
Only after I barely managed to calm down did I stagger and hide behind the building.
Soon the class would end and the children would come out, and in my current state they would immediately notice something was wrong.
I wiped the drool at the corner of my mouth and shivered. I had never drowned before, but if drowning were real, it would definitely feel like this.
Grumbling, I wondered if this had actually worked somehow, and tried using Illumination.
Then.
A light far brighter than anything I had seen in the library filled the back of the building.
“…?”
I stared blankly at the glowing sphere floating above my hand.
Strangely, I did not feel the crushing sensation in my chest that I had felt the first time I used magic.
I did feel something leaving me, but if I had to compare, it was like plucking a single strand of hair from my full head of hair.
Which meant…
“…Should I just die quietly.”
…Apparently, I could not gather mana without experiencing drowning.
It was not without its advantages.
The seawater sloshing inside my body did not diminish easily, no matter how much magic I used.
Of course, the only magic I could use was Illumination, but compared to last time, when the light barely lasted a few seconds before all my strength drained away, this was a huge difference.
Would it not work if I drank it instead?
I tried not inhaling but swallowing seawater as if I were drinking it. More precisely, I pictured it in my mind.
…Nothing happened.
I tried several other methods, but in the end, all I gained was the realization of some hopeless truths that were no help at all.
1. I had to fill my lungs with seawater to convert it into mana.
2. That felt very similar to drowning.
3. But it stored a truly massive amount. Enough to sustain Illumination for at least three days straight, and still have some left over.
I erased these notes scratched into the sandy ground with my foot and sighed.
“…Why does it have to be the lungs.”
It would have been so much easier if it were the stomach.
Even without knowing much about magic, I could tell this was not a normal method.
It was probably because I was born from the Inner World. Maybe if I eventually grew used to the feeling of water filling my lungs, it would not be so bad…
‘How could anyone ever get used to this…’
It was just a loss.
Still, for now, since my mana was replenished, I would not have to worry until it ran out.
I pushed the problem to the future and picked up the broom again. Soon, my sunbae would probably finish cleaning.
“What, what the hell? Where were you? I’ve been looking all over for you!”
Even though I hurried back quite a bit, I found my sunbae still searching for me.
I blinked and put on a timid expression.
“I couldn’t find the bathroom, so I had to go really far.”
“Of course it’s inside the building…!”
My sunbae let out a sigh, half relief and half anger, then glanced around with a puzzled look.
“…But what’s this? You already finished cleaning? How’d you do it?? It should have taken at least two hours.”
“I’m good at cleaning.”
“Really?…No, wait. That doesn’t make sense. Even I take two hours, so how-”
Since my sunbae was starting to suspect something, I immediately put on a dark expression and used my ultimate move.
“T-the truth is…”
“Hm?”
“I’m used to this kind of thing… The Director, if I don’t clean a playground wider than this in 30 minutes every day, beats me until my buttocks burst…”
At my quivering voice, my sunbae’s expression turned indescribable, then he let out a deep sigh.
“…R-right. I shouldn’t have asked. Anyway, good work…”
It always works well.