CHAPTER 3 A Genius’s Aesthetic and the Value of a One-of-a-Kind Talent Dead leaves crunched under Monica’s feet as she made her way through Kelielinden Forest. The weather today was comparatively nice, and it was warm in the sunlight. But a cold wind blew through the trees. Monica shivered. She was wearing her own robe, rather than her uniform as a Sage. Beneath her veil, she sneezed. “Achoo…! Ugh, it’s so cold…” It worried her every time she felt the chill slip through her robe. She worried about Cyril and Glenn, who’d been kidnapped, freezing in the cold. Protecting them wasn’t her job. Still, she wished she could see them, safe and sound, even if it was just a glimpse. Cold? Barely. Yeah, I’m totally fine! She could imagine Cyril folding his arms and sniffing arrogantly while Glenn opened his mouth wide and laughed. The thought helped her shake off her unease. They’ll be okay. The other Sages are helping out… I’m sure they’ll rescue them, she told herself. She looked up at the sky. As Monica walked along, she kept checking the position of the sun and the length of the shadows to help her keep her bearings. When clouds moved in, she couldn’t use this method, so she had to stay diligent and keep her eye on the sky while the sun was still out. Monica’s good memory and spatial awareness prevented her from getting lost most of the time. She’d never been in Kelielinden Forest before, but she was certain that if someone told her to stop where she was and return to the entrance, she could get there without too much trouble. When seen from above, the forest resembled a trapezoid with a longer bottom edge. The woods were surrounded by flat land, but the closer to the center you got, the more precipitous the slope of the land, and there were several areas with steep cliffs. Monica had entered this trapezoidal forest near the middle of the west side. Then she’d moved around the center to the north since the other Sages would be heading in from the north and northeast. First, I need to find one of the others… I have to tell them about the technology using spirits to power magical items… Without Bartholomeus, she wouldn’t have been sure of how the items worked. Chances were high that the other Sages would take some time to figure it out, too. Normally, only so much mana could be imbued into a magical item. One of the most lethal modern magical items was Spiralflame, but that could only be used once and only at close range. Huberd Dee, Monica’s upperclassman, had created magical items able to fire in rapid succession, but only by reducing their power. If spirits can be used to power magic items, it could lead to the creation of dangerous weapons currently outside the reach of modern technology… The magical armored soldiers from earlier had used their freely extendable arms as weapons, but Monica was sure they were capable of more. If it were me, I’d wonder if I could give them additional functions… I might install elemental magecraft, defensive barriers, or maybe… Monica stopped and checked her bearings again. She considered using a detection spell, but the forest was full of spirits. She’d never find two humans among them. There was nobody in view, but she could hear a faint, hard sound, like metal against metal, drifting to her on the wind. Monica scampered in that direction. She hadn’t realized it before, but she’d been going up a hill. The ground gave way to a cliff in front of her, and there, about fifteen feet below, she saw a group of people. The first one to catch her eye was a magical armored soldier. A moment later, an ax took off its head, sending it flying. “……” Magical armored soldier remains littered the ground beneath the cliff. Ten of them, from what Monica could see. All of them were dismantled, their limbs and heads cut off, like some gruesome murder scene. A man continued to swing the ax amid the remains with great energy. He wore his long, chestnut-colored hair in a braid. It was her colleague, Louis Miller. Behind him, Bradford Firestone yawned and stretched. When he did, he looked up and spotted Monica on the cliff, then casually waved to her. “Oh, hey, it’s Silent. Thought we were all doin’ our own thing!” “Oh, um, well…” Just then, one of the soldiers attacking Louis held its palm out toward the mage and fired a bolt of lightning. As she’d thought, these weapons could do more than simply extend their arms. But before Monica could put up a defensive barrier, Louis nimbly jumped to the side and dodged the bolt. “You’ll need to add a tracking effect if you want to shoot me down.” Louis leaped out of the way of a second attack, spinning on his right foot as he landed. He used the momentum to make a full swing of his ax, decapitating the soldier next to him. Chanting at the same time, he shoved his free hand inside the beheaded suit of armor. With all his strength, he ripped out the magical item’s gem core and applied a sealing barrier to it. “…These things are easy pickings.” A wicked smile rose to his lips as he swung his ax again. When Monica fought the soldiers earlier, she’d lured them into extending their arms, then launched attack spells into the gaps. Louis, on the other hand, was chopping them into pieces with his ax, then reaching inside with his arm and dragging out the cables before applying a seal to the gemstone. She could see he was trying to keep mana consumption to an absolute minimum—but it was savage. No other mage would fight like that. With a crick-crack and a shhh-rrrip, another soldier’s head went flying. Monica squatted where she stood, trembling, and averted her eyes from the awful spectacle below the cliff. Once the sounds of destruction ceased, Bradford called up to her. “Heeey, Silent! He’s all done. Come on down.” “Y-y-yeph phir…” Monica shut her eyes tightly and jumped off the cliff, using wind magecraft to cushion her landing. She sank into the cushion, then bounced off and landed on the ground on her rear end. As she did, she accidentally put her left hand on the ground and moaned in pain. “Owieee…” The aftereffects of the curse from winter break were fading, but the affected area still stung a little, and it hurt quite a lot whenever it was squeezed. I guess I shouldn’t use my left hand just yet… Clutching her aching hand, Monica looked around. The remains of magical armored soldiers littered the ground. Louis walked over to her, shouldering his ax and kicking debris out of the way as he went. “Ah. Greetings, my fellow Sage.” With his free hand, Louis pushed up his monocle. The gesture made him look intelligent and classy, but the ax on his shoulder destroyed the image. “I thought we asked you to provide a diversion at the west edge of the forest…so what are you doing here?” “Oh, um, I… Well, there was something I needed to tell you about…” She decided it would be best to keep Bartholomeus a secret, at least as much as she could. She chose her words carefully as she pointed to the wreckage. “These suits of armor—they use spirits as their power source. The Lord Gem Mage is using the spirits he controls with Galanis to feed his magical items!” “Oh? Is that so?” Louis’s gaze sharpened. He lifted just the gem portion out of one of the ruined soldiers near his feet. Bradford walked up and cast a particularly precise detection spell. While he was most famous for his high-powered attack spells, he was also quite skilled at magecraft that demanded a high degree of accuracy. “Ah, yeah. I see it… That’s very similar to a spirit’s mana. But it’s incredibly weak.” “These magic suits of armor consume a spirit’s life force at an incredible rate… Mister Louis, I’m so glad you sealed them. They won’t be consumed while they’re sealed, so…” Louis put one finger on his chin and thought for a moment. “How did you come to realize this, my fellow Sage?” “Oh, um, well…,” she stammered. “They happened to attack me, and I dismantled one, and…then I realized what was going on.” He fixed her with a stare, as if trying to read her mind. Trying to hide how much this upset her, Monica kept talking. “Oh, and, um, I fought against Miss Ryn… She’s sealed on the west side of the forest right now.” “Well, well… It seems my idiot maid has caused you some trouble,” Louis casually said. Bradford folded his arms and scowled. “Gotta say, things are gettin’ real complicated out here. If he can make magical items that use spirits as a power source, then…” “Indeed. He can devise all sorts of terrible creations, the capabilities of which we can’t even imagine.” The man who had just destroyed a bunch of those terrible creations with an ax jabbed the blade of his weapon into the ground and grasped the handle like a cane. “Let’s share what information we have.” Seeing Monica straighten up, Louis continued. “First, the Abyss Shaman sent a familiar to us with a message. He and the Witch of Thorns have secured the two students taken from Serendia Academy.” Oh! Lord Cyril and Glenn are safe! Monica nearly cried out in joy but stopped herself. Bradford didn’t know about Monica’s undercover mission. If she made too big a deal out of the boys’ rescue, he might suspect something. She had to satisfy herself with a quiet sigh of relief from behind her veil. “That’s…good. I’m glad.” “Second, about the suits of armor I wrecked…” Louis kicked one of the pieces with his boot. The soldiers were all the same size, but some of the pieces were decorated with paint. Monica didn’t remember seeing that earlier. Louis glanced at Bradford. The Artillery Mage nodded slightly, then picked up where Louis had left off. “The painted ones seem to be imbued with special effects. I observed them while Barrier fought. The red one used attack magic, and the blue one used a defensive barrier.” Monica thought this over. Bradford was right—one of the soldiers had fired an attack spell at Louis. That must have been the red one. But Monica hadn’t noticed any barriers. Then something dawned on her, and she nervously looked up at Louis. “Um, Mister Louis… About that…barrier…” “I never said it was a good barrier. It was quite simple, and the thing couldn’t use them in succession.” “…Y-you…used your ax, then?” “Smashed right through it, yes.” The magical armored soldiers were extremely complex in their construction. Imbuing them with attack magecraft or defensive barriers must have been very difficult. Monica wondered how the Gem Mage would react if he learned they’d been destroyed with an ax. Bradford picked up one of the pieces at his feet. “And it looked like the gold one could absorb mana. Attack spells got sucked right into it.” “That’s, well… That’s incredible, but…” Monica looked at Louis. Louis nodded and smiled. “If magecraft is ineffective, one only needs to attack physically.” The sum of the vaunted Gem Mage’s wisdom and technology had lost to an ax and some elbow grease. How brutal. Right then, they heard the grinding of metal scraping against metal from beyond the trees. Several figures appeared from the forest’s center. Monica saw them right away thanks to her good eyesight. Four magical armored soldiers. One is unmarked, and the other three are colored—one red, one blue, one gold. And behind them… Behind them, she saw a man with black hair and dark skin. He appeared to be in his mid-twenties and wore an old-fashioned cloak and sandals—probably a spirit under Galanis’s control. Bradford shaded his eyes with his hand, then grinned. “Hey, Barrier? Let’s stop sneaking around. Our opponent clearly knows where we are.” “Perhaps you’re right. We’ve rescued the civilians, and I’ve restored a bit of mana myself… I believe it’s time for us to go on the offensive.” Bradford and Louis were the best combat mages in the Seven Sages, and they were both fully prepared for battle. Bradford held up four fingers. “Four layers.” Louis gave a toothy, belligerent grin and hefted his ax. “Then I’ll buy time for your chant… Back me up, my fellow Sage.” “Y-yes, sir!” squealed Monica. Just as she nodded, Bradford began his incantation, and Louis tapped his toes against the earth. Their group didn’t discuss the details. Bradford had said four layers, and Louis was conserving mana. Monica knew exactly what to do. Mister Louis won’t want to use flight magecraft since it would consume too much mana. The Artillery Mage’s chant will take time…which means what I need to do is… She felt a faint vibration from the ground under her feet. The enemy was about to attack. Without chanting, Monica put up a defensive barrier at the group’s feet. Beyond it, the ground rippled. Several sharp boulders shot up from below—like swords of rock sprouting from the earth. That must be the spirit’s power…! The high spirit—an earth spirit, evidently—flicked his hand, this time causing stones to rain down onto the group. Monica erected a barrier above them, too, blocking the attack. He was proving a troublesome opponent, with his multipronged assault from above and below. If you used flight magecraft to escape the ground-based attack, the stony deluge would knock you out of the air. Monica kept them safe with her two barriers. Louis was more skilled with such things than she was, but he hadn’t said anything about handling their defense. He wants to conserve mana and stall for time, she thought. “Lift the barrier above us as far as you can, my fellow Sage.” He was asking her to raise it, not increase its power. Realizing what he was after, Monica adjusted the position of her barrier, expanding the safe zone between earth and sky. Louis quick-chanted a spell, then jumped onto one of the protruding crags. Using it as a foothold, he created a barrier, long and thin like a belt, that stretched straight toward the enemy at a position just a little above Bradford’s head. And Louis ran right along it. Louis’s barrier protected him from the ground while Monica’s kept falling stones from striking his head. Most importantly, this would let Louis close in on the enemy without requiring as much mana as flight magecraft. Once he was near the earth spirit and the suits of armor, Louis jumped off his belt-shaped barrier and used his ax to chop off one of the soldiers’ heads. He then flung his foot out behind him, kicking another one. Then, using the recoil from that strike, he swung his ax at the earth spirit’s neck. Louis’s charge had bought Bradford time to chant while keeping their enemies grouped together. And once the Artillery Mage was done, he produced a gigantic fireball before his outstretched palm. It was large enough for two adults to put their arms around and resembled Glenn’s favored fire magecraft, only with a lot more mana packed into it. Bradford’s specialty was raising a spell’s power using multilayered strengthening formulae, and for this one, he’d used four layers. The flames comprising the fireball were closer to white than red. Its glow lit up the mage’s face, illuminating his amused expression. “I’m ready, Silent.” “…Understood.” Bradford launched his spell. The overwhelming firepower of his magecraft had earned it a nickname: the Greatcannon. “Kaboooom!” Right as he released the fireball, Monica dispelled both her barriers and put up new ones—one to protect Louis and another to protect their surroundings. The fireball blazed, scattering brief flashes of light and tearing through space with a roar that shook the air. Bradford’s attack magecraft was powerful enough to punch a hole in the body of a dragon. Whenever he used it, it was necessary to protect any nearby allies from the blast. Normally, that was Louis’s job, but now that he was trying to conserve mana, the duty had fallen to Monica. And yet…my wide-area barrier didn’t hold up… They couldn’t let the forest be destroyed, so she’d constructed a defensive barrier to keep the surrounding area safe. Unfortunately, every single tree at the point of impact had been blown out of the ground. Bradford’s “cannonball” had overpowered her barrier. That said, without it, a lot more than a few trees would have been destroyed. “Um, Mister Louis…are you okay?” she asked, paling. “Of course he is. See?” Bradford jerked his chin. Beyond the dirt and dust, Louis knelt, his ax in the ground. He was unwounded, as far as Monica could tell. The barrier around him had been much more confined, and it seemed she’d managed to make it tough enough. Monica breathed a sigh of relief and dispelled the barrier protecting Louis. Remnants of magical armored soldiers lay scattered about him. Nearby, the humanoid earth spirit lay on the ground, too, now missing the right half of his body. He would never shed blood, but the sight of light particles pouring out of his wounds made Monica’s chest constrict. She placed a sealing barrier on the spirit—the same as she’d done for Ryn. While it robbed the spirit of his freedom, it would also limit how much mana he lost. The wound should have been fatal, but with the help of the seal, she could keep him from dissipating for now. Once they destroyed Galanis and set the spirit free, he could rest in a mana-dense area and recover. Because of how much the battle had weakened him, the earth spirit was easier to seal than Ryn. Once Monica was finished, she pulled the gems out of the soldiers’ remains and sealed them, too. Meanwhile, Louis scowled and covered his ears. Apparently, the explosion had hit them hard. “Ridiculous power, as always,” he said. “I was actually holding back quite a bit,” Bradford replied. “I left the armor, albeit in pieces, and I didn’t totally annihilate the earth spirit.” In other words, if he’d wanted to, the Artillery Mage could have completely obliterated both the magical armored soldiers and the earth spirit. He glanced over at Monica. “I’m sure even Silent can manage four layers of strengthening anyway. Right?” Monica wasn’t sure how to respond. She’d learned how to use multilayered strengthening magecraft and could even do it without chanting. But it cost a vast amount of mana and demanded extremely fine control. “Oh, um… I could if I tried, yes… But with four layers, I would need a support formula for the compression…and I’d need to use segmentation.” Generally, a mage could only maintain two spells at once. Bradford only had to use one for his four-layered strengthening spell, but Monica would need both to complete the formula. The second spell would help her make up for the hefty amount of mana needed during compression, and her lack of skill at the process. Mages frequently split the formula for a single spell into parts, but Monica didn’t like it—it felt wasteful. “And if I had to segment the formula… Well, it wouldn’t be beautiful.” “Oh. Uh. That right?” Bradford’s eyes widened at this uncharacteristically stubborn declaration from Monica. Curling her tiny hands into fists, she continued quickly. “It’s much, much more beautiful to have everything in a single formula, like how you do it. If I segmented it and inserted a support formula, it would add extra baggage, which might affect the spell’s power and precision… And, more importantly, the formula would become an ugly patchwork, and that’s, um, not beautiful at all! That’s why I don’t like to use it.” Louis narrowed his eyes, appalled at her insistence. “Who cares? If you can use it, why not do so? You don’t even have to chant. Formula segmentation would barely cost you any time at all.” His point was reasonable. Even so, Monica frowned behind her veil and shook her head like an obstinate child. “…I don’t want to. A magecraft formula like that… It wouldn’t be…perfect.” Above all, she’d never be able to draw the same amount of power from the spell as Bradford could. Her formula would be a wasteful patchwork, and it wouldn’t even be as strong. If that was the alternative, then Monica would prefer to use the minimum amount of power to fire a precision strike at her enemy’s weak spot. Louis shot her a fed-up expression, but Bradford seemed to understand where she was coming from. He folded his arms and nodded to himself, reflecting. “Yeah, I get why that would bother you. I mean, it’s always my policy to clinch the battle with a huge explosion, you know? It’s important to be particular like that.” “…Geniuses are all so vexing. Why is that?” murmured Louis. The Barrier Mage had used one of his barriers as a bridge to run across the battlefield before laying his enemies low with an ax. This seemed much more practical to him. Louis gazed at the two eccentrics, then sighed and shrugged. In his little house by the spring, the Gem Mage sat in his work chair and synthesized the paints he needed to create his magical armored soldiers. Normally, he’d have his apprentices or other hired craftsmen mix the paint for him. But when he was anxious, he felt the intense need to do it himself. The wind spirit Rynzbelfeid, the fire spirit Relva, the earth spirit Vestion—all three of the high spirits I captured are now free of Galanis’s control. That meant they’d either dissipated or been sealed. Either way, he’d lost the three most powerful pieces on his side of the board. He’d received a report that a massive rose garden had appeared in the forest, and elsewhere, trees had been blown away by multilayered strengthening magecraft. This was likely the work of the Witch of Thorns and the Artillery Mage, respectively. One-of-a-kind, overwhelming power… The Seven Sages were the greatest mages in the kingdom, and each possessed superior talents. Mary Harvey, the Starseer Witch, was the foremost prophet in the land, able to predict the kingdom’s future. Bradford Firestone, the Artillery Mage, could use six-layered strengthening magecraft, the strongest in Ridill’s history. Ray Albright, the Abyss Shaman, was a descendant of the only family in Ridill to use cursecraft and the only person in the world who kept over two hundred curses on his own body. Raul Roseburg, the Witch of Thorns, was blessed with both talent and the greatest mana capacity in the kingdom. What’s more, he could use the Man-eating Rose Fortress, a type of grand magecraft that had been lost with the passing of the first Witch of Thorns. Monica Everett, the Silent Witch and the youngest Sage ever appointed, was a girl genius and the only person in the world who could use unchanted magecraft. Each of them was irreplaceable and possessed a one-of-a-kind talent. Emanuel Darwin, the Gem Mage, was incredibly skilled at making magical items. But at the same time, he was replaceable—and he knew that. He’d only joined the Seven Sages thanks to Duke Clockford’s backing. Carla Maxwell, the Starspear Witch, had left the Sages when someone close to her fell from grace, making room for the Gem Mage. But she, too, had been praised as a great genius—a one-of-a-kind talent. And so, when Emanuel was appointed to the Sages in her place, some said he wasn’t worthy of the honor. Frankly, he agreed with them. He hadn’t been appointed because he possessed some unique and valuable talent. He was skilled, certainly, but the main reason for his success was his connection to an influential nobleman. But the same is true of the Barrier Mage… That man was skilled at barrier techniques, but many others specialized in the same field. And he might have killed a lot of dragons single-handedly, but his record was still second to that of Graham Sanders, the Thunderclap Mage. Louis Miller, the Barrier Mage, had nothing that was one of a kind. He’d become a Sage through his connection with First Prince Lionel. Emanuel was sure of it. The two of them had been friends during their school days at Minerva’s. Emanuel had always loathed Louis for their similarities, and he hated himself for it. But from now on, such petty trifles would no longer torment him. Because Emanuel Darwin, the Gem Mage, had found his own “one-of-a-kind” trait. “The spirits under our control stir, my master. Three Sages approach…” The silver flute hanging around his neck whispered to him. Galanis, the Flute of the False King, was an ancient magical item—and it had given Emanuel something all his own. “What do they look like?” he asked. “According to the spirit, there is a tall man with a beard, one with a long braid, and a small child.” The Artillery Mage, the Barrier Mage, and the Silent Witch. Among the current Sages, those three were the best suited to combat. If he could disable them, there would be nothing left for him to fear. I know the duke is considering installing a leader among the Seven Sages and that he’s trying to use that position to win over the Silent Witch. All despite my long years of service to him! The duke wanted her for the position because of her one-of-a-kind talent: her unchanted magecraft. Because he thought the Gem Mage was replaceable. So I’ll prove myself… I’ll prove that I, too, have something one of a kind. Emanuel’s fingers stroked his necklace and the shining crimson gem embedded in it. He now had something all his own. Something that could outclass the Silent Witch’s unchanted magecraft and the Artillery Mage’s multilayered strengthening spells. Something that would surely shatter even the Barrier Mage’s pride.
Chapter 157
22 min read