That night, after building two lodgings—one for men and one for women—and eating dinner together, we called it a night so we could get some rest. It was still too early to sleep, so I stepped out to feel the night air, only to find Eleonora. She stood a few steps away from the lodging’s entrance, clutching a stack of papers in her arms. Judging by the smattering of footprints on the ground, she’d been pacing out here for a while.
“Master Takebayashi. I documented today’s activities, and I was hoping you could approve them when you have the time. Only, I’ve been hesitating to enter the men’s housing,” she said.
“I hadn’t thought of ways to contact each other once we’re in our separate lodgings. We’ll fix that tomorrow.” I took the papers and flipped through them under the light of the magical item set up by the entrance. The strangely voluminous stack took me by surprise. “On top of a log of today’s work, you made a chart of the measurements and observations we’d made on the cursed land, a report to the duke of our findings, and notes on Lord Rosenberg’s teachings and vocabulary... You put all of this together in the little time you had?! I knew you were an excellent secretary, but this goes above and beyond. After helping us measure cursed energy, at that...”
“Although the documents were made after dinner, I had organized most of the information during the day’s work. There was plenty of time while we walked from one area to the next, and those notes are practically a transcript of what Lord Rosenberg said. It’s not as impressive as all that,” Eleonora said.
Still, she hadn’t had time on her own until after dinner, which was little more than two hours ago. To write all this up—all by hand, naturally—in such a short time... Sure, there was some downtime while we trekked the mountains today, but Eleonora was also recording my findings the whole time, and we had to clear steep hills and cliffs—sometimes with ropes. I was thankful she took the initiative to write up things like a vocabulary list from Rosenberg’s lesson, but I was starting to be worried that she was overworking herself.
“Did I overstep my role?” she asked.
“No! Nothing like that. I was just amazed by your efficiency. The notes and vocabulary are a great help too. They will make it easier for me to review.”
“Thank you. I imagine it may prove superfluous to you, but I do have experience studying magic myself through the academy, and hoped to help in what little way I can,” Eleonora said.
“Superfluous?” I certainly didn’t think so, but Eleonora seemed to genuinely believe it.
“I have been told of your unique upbringing in the Sea of Trees. Yet I believe you already have a vast pool of knowledge that is the basis of acquiring magic, for two reasons. For one, the duke has told me how you independently read tomes from the Magic Guild.”
That was true. I’d requested them through the Jamils, and I had been reading up on them when I had the time. That didn’t seem enough of a reason to conclude that I wouldn’t need any help learning spells, though. “By tomes, you mean any volume related to magic. Some of them are research findings and theses, but most of them are textbooks on magic, aren’t they?”
“That is correct. Did you not find them rather difficult to comprehend?” Eleonora asked.
“They are difficult to get through sometimes, with all the metaphors and figurative language.” The first example that came to mind was from a tome on the basics of Water magic. An entire page had been dedicated to a poem that could be boiled down to “water trickles down from high to low.” I’d been impressed by how much fluff they managed to work into that page.
“That complexity is by design,” Eleonora said.
“It’s on purpose?”
“Yes. Tomes officially recognized and sold by the Magic Guild are written in a manner that requires an instructor to decode them. The Magic Guild opens its gates to the public now, but it was, at its inception, merely a group of spellcasters—of which there were so few at the time—attempting to protect themselves from prosecution and abuse by those in power who sought to control magic for their own good. That’s why the Magic Guild still glorifies concealing secrets of their craft. Higher-ups of the guild, in particular, hate to see magic explored outside of their control,” Eleonora explained.
“Ah. That’s why they make their tomes so confusing that an instructor is needed just to understand how to read them. That seems like a lot of work for nothing to gain, though,” I said.
“I was once a member of the Magic Guild myself, but I never saw much of a point to it, partially because I had access to the academy’s library already. It is an ancient organization that changes far slower than the times. Still, it has come a long way considering that magic was once reserved for nobles and their servants—that people were once executed for sharing knowledge of magic. Considering such a history, being able to understand tomes without an instructor indicates that you already have the knowledge contained in the tomes, or enough knowledge related to their topic. The tome you’ve written for the magical firefighters is a show of your depth of knowledge.”
“Yes, I did hand out materials outlining a fire-extinguishing spell I concocted in case of fires in the city at the end of last year... Wait a minute. Based on what you told me about the Magic Guild—”
“If you had published it through the Magic Guild they most likely would have stopped it during their inspection, but your distribution wasn’t illegal. It wasn’t like you sold it to the public. If it had been problematic in any way, the duke would have warned you about it long ago,” Eleonora said. And I hadn’t heard a peep about those documents. I’d almost forgotten about it until now. Luckily, it seemed like I had nothing to worry about. “What I mean to say is that having ample knowledge on the subject makes it easier to conjure and solidify the mental image required for spellcasting. Even when knowledge on the exact subject is lacking, knowledge of similar or related effects can aid in casting those spells. Another requirement of spellcasting is magical energy control. From what I saw today, yours is impeccable, which is the second reason I believe you already possess the necessary skills for casting spells. Knowledge and magical energy control are the two pillars of magic, and why you are so adept at it.” It was a little embarrassing, but Eleonora’s explanation was purely logical, and if I was being honest, accurate.
“When you put it that way... Surviving the Sea of Trees was grueling, but I was extremely gifted in circumstances when it came to education. I was also gifted with a large store of magical energy that I’ve practiced my control with through both business and hobby. More recently, I’ve been training using my slimes’ vision.”
“Your slimes’ vision?”