We began our construction work right outside the city. With the craftsmen Bruno brought in the lead, the giants were tasked with manual labor, the noble vampires were assigned the more dexterous work, and the other races were also given jobs that made the best use of their strengths. All together, we worked to make the best venue for Amelia’s performance.
My current task was to observe the stage from various angles to spot and eliminate any potential problems beforehand. I moved around the venue and racked my brain while listening to Lardon’s input.
“There will be over ten thousand monsters on the day of, yes?”
“That’s right. I want everyone to be here.”
“What of your national defense?”
“Leave that to me. I’ll summon myself to stay near the border.”
“Ah, your clone?”
“Yep. We might run into something unexpected here too, after all.”
Lardon simply chuckled in response. However, after being around her for so long, I was starting to learn how to differentiate her laughs—and this was how she laughed when she was actually laughing at something else.
“What is it?” I asked her.
“That spell is well-made, but your clone is not as strong as you,” she pointed out.
“Oh, yeah. Maintaining the clone is also an issue. Taking that into consideration, I’d say the clone only has around sixty percent of the caster’s overall strength...” I trailed off and fell into thought.
Lardon chuckled. “Getting the itch to improve it now?”
“Yeah. I have a few ideas in mind, but they’re all gonna take some time...” I sighed. “Well, that’s usually the case when improving preexisting spells.” It might even be faster to just start from scratch.
“This reminds me of something a human artist once said.”
“Hmm?” I raised a brow; Lardon sounded serious all of a sudden. Why’s she talking about an artist?
“If a seventy-point work of art takes one unit of effort to make, then to raise it to an eighty-point work would require an additional ten units of effort. However, to elevate it to a ninety-point work would call for a hundred more units of effort,” she explained. “To reach ninety-five points, one would have to pour in a thousand units of effort, and even then it may never be enough. Most could never reach ninety-nine points even if they were to exert ten thousand units of effort.”
“Ohh...” Somehow, I could actually relate to that. “It sounds like reaching a hundred points is entirely up to luck...”
Lardon chuckled. “You say the same thing as the artist. Indeed, there are things in this world that can be accomplished with one unit of effort, while there are also things that can only be done after dedicating one’s life to exerting hundreds of thousands more units of effort.”
“I feel like I understand.”
“It seems you can relate to the maestros, then.”
“Maestros?” So she was talking about maestros? “Wait, actually—this isn’t even what we were talking about.”
“Indeed. It seems we’ve digressed quite a bit. For national defense and against humans, sixty percent of your strength should suffice. More than that, I simply found it amusing that you wanted your full power for the concert.”
“Naturally. It’s Amelia’s concert,” I pointed out.
Lardon chuckled. “Indeed it is.”
What’s so funny about that? I wondered, though it was probably pointless to ask since I wouldn’t understand. I decided to forget this matter entirely and brought my attention back to the venue.
A thought came to me, dragging my gaze upward. Although still no more than a skeletal frame, the ceiling was gradually taking form. Light slipped between the beams, making the venue look like an open-air stage. In my mind, I formed an image—a simulation—of the performance day itself, and came to a sudden realization.
I made a beeline for the stage at the very center of the venue, where Amelia would be surrounded on all sides by the audience. This stage was the first to be constructed, so despite its elaborate design, it was ninety percent complete.
I climbed onto the stage, summoned my item box, and stuck my hand inside. “I guess this’ll do,” I muttered as I took out several wooden poles. I set them up in front of me, then cast Light to manifest an orb of light before me. It illuminated my face—but it also cast a shadow over my body through the poles.
“This isn’t good...” I grumbled. “Amelia’s zither will cast a shadow over her. I almost missed this.”
“Hmm... It certainly doesn’t make for a very appealing presentation.”
“I need to do something about this.”
“Why not shine a light from all directions? That should get rid of the shadows.”
I decided to give it a try. “Light, elevenfold!” I illuminated the stage with multicasting and successfully eliminated the shadows, but... “This is too bright. What if it causes problems for Amelia?”
“Then what else do you suggest?”
“Hmm... Amelia Emilia Claudia.”
“Oh? Are you going to add more lights?”
Instead of answering Lardon’s question, I went ahead and cast the spell: “Light, a hundred and onefold!” Although I summoned tens more lights—hence the aria—each one’s intensity was diminished to a hundredth of the original. Still, the sheer quantity was still enough to light up the entire stage and get rid of any shadows.
“Oh? Impressive,” Lardon remarked.
“Hmm... I think I’ll compile this into a single spell.” As it was now, I needed to chant an aria to cast Light 101 times, but I should be able to use it without one if I could just make it function as one stand-alone spell.
The image of over a hundred—no, countless faint lights began to take form in my mind as a new spell.