They hadn’t needed to say all that because I’d already made up my mind. I couldn’t stand the thought of being tied to the guild forever. I still wanted to travel.
I began to examine the device in my hands, hoping there might be another way. And surprisingly, I discovered there might be a simpler solution than I’d first thought. The device was activated with Time magic, but the magic construction formula that converted the Cube’s attribute from Void to Time didn’t actually care about the element of the magic being supplied.
I inspected the Cube itself as well, just to be sure. When mana flowed into it from the device, the Cube triggered the conversion mechanism and started storing Time mana.
I wondered why the spell had been designed that way, so I searched my memories. It turned out that at first, the plan had been for any sorcerer to be able to perform the conversion, and the device had originally been made to activate for any attribute.
Later, someone realized that if a Cube malfunctioned, they’d need a Time sorcerer on hand to fix it, so the magic construction formula had been revised to work only with Time magic.
They must’ve never imagined there would be so few Time sorcerers left…
I wondered whether a Void sorcerer was needed as well, but it seemed like it was fine because of the Cubes’ protection spell.
Since the Cubes were so small, only one of their two attributes could be targeted by a protection spell. Void magic had been prioritized, meaning there was a possibility that the Time components would fail.
Once I finished examining the Cube, I looked up at the three other people in the room.
“All that matters is that the Cubes end up being filled with Time magic, right?”
“That’s right.”
“Could I have a drop of your blood? I want to analyze your mana and modify the tube so you can operate it yourself.”
I pricked Halman’s finger with a knife and let a drop of his blood fall onto the cylindrical device. Then, I manifested the device’s magic construction formula and rewrote it, changing it to activate when it came into contact with Halman’s mana rather than Time magic.
“There. Now you can activate this device.”
“You realize how outrageous this is, right?” Halman said, stunned. “No one has ever been able to display, let alone modify, the spell formula in this device.”
“That’s just because the formula wouldn’t appear without Time magic. Anyway, go ahead and try it now.”
Halman followed the same procedure I had, activating the device and making a second Cube glow. I also checked to make sure it no longer responded to my Time magic.
“I think that solves the problem,” I said. “But if the Cubes or this device ever break, please come and see me again.”
Halman stared at me, his eyes glimmering with a complicated mixture of emotions.
“…The Time sorcerer who passed away couldn’t ever get the formula to appear. He struggled with it terribly. There were even days he drowned himself in alcohol, and he died without ever succeeding.”
I knew what he was trying to say, but I kept silent and waited for him to finish.
“But you did it in a matter of minutes. He couldn’t do it in his lifetime, but you had no trouble whatsoever…” He averted his gaze then murmured, “Your power and talent frighten me a little.”
I knew what he meant. It was only natural for people to be afraid when they encountered someone with power they couldn’t even comprehend, or someone who could do something no one else could. The mere existence of someone beyond their own understanding was unsettling.
In that moment, it felt like the world was telling me I didn’t belong here. I’d honestly expected Halman to react like that, but I’d shown him what I could do regardless, because I couldn’t abandon my journey or Hanai’s legacy.
Still, it felt like my heart had cracked actually hearing those words from his lips.
I averted my gaze and pretended I hadn’t heard him. “Is there anything else?”
“Well, since you’re asking, there is one thing I’d like to ask you about the Cubes, but also for my own knowledge. The previous Time sorcerer never told me anything about Time magic.”
“What is it?”
“I always wondered when I saw the Cube’s attribute change, why the Time sorcerer never just rewound the Cube itself. If you turned back time to when it was fully charged, it should be ready to use again straight away, right? You put the wall back to how it was before; couldn’t you do the same sort of thing?” Halman looked at the pair of Cubes, which were still glowing softly.
“You can stop or speed up time for items that contain mana, but not reverse it,” I explained. “Restoring its mana by putting it back to how it was, as you just said, is not permitted by the laws of nature.”
“So you can’t turn back time for things that have mana in them? Right, if you could, you could make old people young again, and no one would ever die from wounds or sickness. You could even bring the dead back to life by granting them mana. I guess it’s something the gods refuse to allow. That makes sense. Thank you.”
“That’s probably why, yes. We can’t turn back time for someone who’s grown old. We can’t bring back the dead. Some things simply aren’t within our power to change…”
It didn’t seem like they had any more questions, so I was finally free to leave. Yet an indescribable fatigue clung to me as I walked back to Ragi’s house, where he and Alto were waiting. I couldn’t bring myself to look for any new quests that day.