The night after we had gone to the ink—or rather, sumi ink—workshop, we participated in a debriefing, just as we had after we went to the talisman shop.
What kind of debriefing? One to discuss whether the mysterious letter sender had made any moves, of course. Same as always.
Unfortunately, they hadn’t done anything we could see, as we had hoped they would. We had gone out in hopes of breaking the deadlock, but alas, we were back to square one.
The only thing that had changed was, yet again, the people monitoring us.
Why hadn’t they made a move yet? Was it because the sender was actually among one of the people stationed to watch us? Had they not done anything because they still lacked critical information? So basically, it wasn’t yet the time for them to make their move?
The questions kept piling up, and we had no way to get answers. The borders were still closed too, and we had no further information about the letter.
And now that Yuri, who was the one who had proposed our outing in the first place, had his new toys—the ingredients for sumi ink—he had once more sequestered himself in his room, and no one had seen him since.
Which meant that I was also stuck in my room all day, as I had no good excuse to leave the manor.
After I’d spent several days plowing through books, Yuri summoned me. He needed my help for something. But what could he possibly need me for?
Zara was just as puzzled as I was as she accompanied me to the room Yuri called us to.
The first thing I noticed upon entering was the large number of packages—wooden crates and the like, filled with books, bundles of papers, and other such things.
Of particular note were the things spread over the big table in the center of the room. The right half of the table was covered in small vials of colorful powders, bottles filled with liquids, resin that had been soaked in water, a pitcher, and pots of various size.
What’s with the box next to the pots? It’s on a stand like you’d use for kettles and so forth… Is it supposed to be something like a cooking stove?
Everything else looked exactly like the things we had seen at the ink workshop.
“I’m sorry to summon you here,” Yuri said as I was still taking in the sight of the chaos on the table.
“That’s all right. I was just reading books anyway.” As I set my sights on Yuri, he greeted me with a dazzling smile.
He looked far healthier than he had after he finally emerged from his room the last time he’d holed up. Of particular note was the absence of dark circles. He seemed a bit worn out, but no shadows marred his beautiful face.
“You said that you needed my help with something? What can I do for you today?”
“I would like you to be my assistant in an experiment.”
“What are you up to?”
“I was thinking of making talismans.”
Talisman making, huh? I didn’t mind helping out, but I wasn’t sure what I could actually do. When I asked, Yuri said that he might need a large quantity of ink, so he wanted me to help him make it. On his end, he really wanted to be able to focus on the actual talisman part.
On hearing this, my gaze returned to the table. These were all the ingredients that went into making sumi ink. Having heard the explanation at the workshop, I was sure that he understood the difference between sumi ink and regular ink. So why had he kept referring to it as just “ink”? He wasn’t confused, right?
“You want me to make ink? Not sumi ink?”
“That’s right. Ink, please.”
When I pressed him to explain himself, he revealed the fruits of his research over the past few days: While the most important part of the sumi ink-making process was enchanting the lump while you kneaded it, the most important ingredient was the powdered minerals. The magic power infused into the minerals paired with the designs drawn on the talismans, and together they could invoke the same effects as enchanted catalysts. The resin was only for gluing the minerals to the paper.
With all that in mind, Yuri hypothesized that the sumi ink didn’t need to start as a solid. In all likelihood, Zaidera dried and solidified it because that made it easier to store. In turn, they had to add water and grind the block on an inkstone.
So, the question: Was the solidification a necessary step of the process? Or could one use this substance right away? Yuri had tested his hypothesis by making liquid sumi ink. The result: He had skipped that step and nevertheless successfully created a talisman.
“So that’s why you were referring to it as just ink.”
“Exactly. Because what we’re making will be a liquid.”
Yuri had learned that the solid version was called sumi ink and the liquid version was just ink. We’d had a different word for this kind of ink back in the world I came from, but I figured that didn’t really matter and simply nodded along.
With that, he began teaching me how to make the ink. He had already settled on a process during his experiments.
I channeled my magic into the mixture of powdered minerals and melted resin—that was my sole job. It was incredibly simple to make, but there was a problem. It was hard to prepare in advance, which was why Yuri hadn’t already made enormous quantities of the stuff. That was also why he’d called me up.
“Are you ready to begin? Start with these.”
Off I went—I started making the ink. Yuri selected a number of small bottles, which contained powdered materials of the sort you used for enchanting with support-type magic.
Just like with catalysts, the kind of ink a person could make depended on the types of magic they could call upon. As I was relegated to Holy Magic, the only type of ink I could make was the kind used in talismans with support effects.
As Yuri explained, he poured a tiny bit of the powdered minerals into a small dish and spooned liquid out of another bottle. It seemed the liquid was a substance that melted resin; the resin needed to be prepared first because it didn’t melt right away. Yuri told me that if it looked like I was running out, he had solidified resin as well, so I could melt more if I needed to.
Then I had to use my fingers to knead the ingredients together. I was supposed to channel my magic into the substance at this step, but it was tricky. To make this ink, I had to feed it purely Holy Magic or it would be inert.
Moreover, as I kneaded and channeled magic into the substance, I didn’t get the familiar sensation that it was finished—unlike how I did when enchanting.
“Hm?”
“Is something the matter?”
“It feels like I’m not getting a response. Am I doing it right?”
“Theoretically, but you’re not channeling Holy Magic.”
I was channeling just as I usually did when I made potions, but I hadn’t realized that wasn’t Holy Magic. Yuri explained that I had to specifically concentrate on the elemental part or it would be a dud, and that it was basically the same as regular enchanting.
Be that as it may, I hadn’t actually ever concentrated on any kind of magic when I did enchantments. Perhaps I had just done it naturally because what I was usually doing was imagining the glow of the catalyst. Regardless, this was the first I’d heard that the magic I channeled into making potions was supposed to be different from what I used for enchanting.
As there was no response, we had to reason that I had failed to do it correctly, so we disposed of the ingredients I had just used so I could try again from the beginning. This time, I focused on channeling Holy Magic in hopes that it would work. When I did, I felt a faint warmth in my fingertips, though it lasted for only a brief second.
“Did it work this time?” I asked as I removed my fingertips to inspect the dish.
“Appraise.” Yuri checked the results of the spell. “Yes, it did.”
Meaning I had successfully made the ink.
“Do you think you’ll be able to continue making a bit more for me?”
“Yup, you can leave it to me.”
Yuri deposited the finished ink on the opposite side of the table. That side was covered in things like books, as well as the papers and brushes for making talismans.
Yuri plopped into a chair and opened another book. Meanwhile, I set to making more ink.