And so, two years passed since I’d awoken in the future thanks to my reincarnation magecraft. During that time, I’d observed all kinds of magecraft. That being said, I’d yet to see anything truly impressive in this region. The level of magecraft here had become very subpar since my time.
At first, I’d believed that to be a result of the prominence of Regalias, but the issue seemed more complex than that. It was abnormal for mages to have become this weak. I could have asked Lilith to tell me more and draw conclusions from the information she provided, but I figured it’d be better to see and experience things for myself as much as possible. Recently, trying to determine the cause of this decline in magecraft had become my main interest.
“Master Abel, I’ve made tea.”
“Oh. Thanks.”
I was sad about the decline in magecraft, but on the other hand, certain revolutionary items had spread across the world. One of these was the heating kettle that Lilith used. In general, magecraft was designed to be proficient at generating instantaneous bursts of power, but not great at maintaining that sort of energy over long periods of time.
“What do you think of my homemade herb tea?”
“Hm. Not bad. The taste is nice.”
It was possible that all the more talented mages were working on developing Regalias. In peaceful times like these, what people needed wasn’t rigorous training, but convenient, easy-to-use tools. As someone who’d lived through a time of war, I had mixed feelings about this.
“Master! I did it! I finally learned the spell!”
The door slammed open and in came Ted—a boy who was a little shorter than me with dirty-blond hair. He’d been calling me “Master” these past few years while begging me to instruct him in magecraft. He’d certainly come a long way from the days when he’d been rough with his words towards me.
“Okay. Show me.”
“Here? But...”
“You think I can’t stop an attack from someone of your level? Just do it.”
I planned to use negation magecraft, which would analyze the opponent’s spell and completely nullify it. The only problem was that you had to be considerably stronger than your opponent, otherwise it wouldn’t work. But this was Ted we were talking about, so it’d be fine.
“Okay, here I go!” Ted closed his eyes and began composing the magecraft in his mind. “Burning Bullet!”
The air shook as a fireball, approximately ten centimeters in diameter, came out of Ted’s hand. I calmly evaluated his magecraft while drinking the tea that Lilith had prepared for me. I see. Not bad. It was completely lacking any of the fundamentals and still very low-level in terms of power, but it was very much up to the standards of the modern mage. Plus, I was very happy he wasn’t relying on Regalias, which were essentially toys to me. Wielding them made the user stop thinking about the magecraft being used, which was not good considering how important it was to completely understand it.
“Huh? Huh?! Master, why is my magecraft disappearing?!” Ted screamed with confusion as I negated his spell.
Good grief. Did mages of this era not know what negation magecraft was? The magecraft was limiting because there needed to be a sizable gap between you and your opponent, but it was pretty useful depending on how you used it. It analyzed the composition of a magecraft and then created the opposite composition. You had up until your opponent fired off their spell to negate it. Honestly speaking, it was not very practical. It was extremely effective against imbecilic mages like Ted, but against actually powerful opponents, it wouldn’t be too much help.
“You’ve gotten better, Ted.”
From my perspective, there was little hope with regards to Ted’s talent. He wasn’t very bright either, so I had a tough time teaching him.
“Really?! Yay!”
You’re really that happy to be complimented by me? He began bouncing around the room like an elated puppy.
“Your words honor me, Master! Now I should be ready for tomorrow’s magecraft academy entrance exam!”
“Oh, I didn’t know that you had something so important around the corner. You got this.”
School, huh? I guess Ted is of that age. Kids really did grow up fast. And he’d very much matured from the spoiled rich brat I’d first met.
“Hm? What do you mean? Ms. Lilith told me that you’re coming with me.”
“Huh?” I reflexively tilted my head.
Me? I’m going to take a magecraft academy’s entrance exam? Back in my day, I was called the Peerless Prodigy. Why would someone who was unparalleled in magecraft ability need to go to school? Good grief. This is a horrible joke.
“Lilith, what’s this about me taking the entrance exam for a magecraft academy?” It was possible that she’d done all this on her own, without even asking me.
Lilith’s expression turned cold as she answered my question while continuing to wash the dishes. “Allow me to ask you instead what your plans are for the future, if you do not intend to attend school?”
“Isn’t that obvious? I’m gonna travel the world with other adventurers, just like I did in the past.”
“I regret to inform you, but as of ten years ago, there is no longer any such job as an ‘adventurer.’”
“Wha—” The truth hit me like a rock.
Oh, I see. None of the books in the library were recent, so they didn’t contain any modern information. Okay. That makes sense. In my time, being an adventurer was a job where you took down monsters and sold the materials obtained from them to the guild. But the amount of monsters in the modern world had dwindled quite a bit, likely making the adventurer job superfluous.
“You’d like to work in a job that uses magecraft in the future, right? If so, then you must first graduate from school. Please remember, this is a time of peace. Do you understand?”
I did, but that didn’t mean I accepted it. How sad was it that I had to go to school after all these years? I doubted there was a professor alive who could teach me anything. This was rough.
“Or perhaps you intend to live your life utterly and entirely dependent on me? I wouldn’t mind, personally, but...”
“Fine. I’ll do it. I’ll take the test. You happy now?”
I had no choice. It was true that I’d been living off of Lilith this entire time without providing anything in return. I wasn’t too interested in becoming a guy who lived by leeching off a woman. No, I had to think positively. This could be a good opportunity to broaden my knowledge about the world.