“Commander Indolark, you must have memorized it, too, yes? See, look, if you put this part with this part and this part, it’s exactly the same as the top-right bit in the middle of that magic circle. Right?”
“He’s not going to know the whole composition just from one look…” Sigma tried to stop Ist, since Seiichirou was a bit slow to react.
Only for Aresh to give a matter-of-fact nod. “It does look similar, yes.”
Oh, right. This man was a genius.
“Is it normal for people in Romany to accurately recall a magic circle they’ve only seen once?” Lufina asked shakily, to which Sigma frantically shook his head.
Seiichirou elaborated, “Of course not. Those two are special cases. I only have a memory for numbers.”
He can memorize numbers at a glance… The boy and girl felt terribly humbled by the existence of yet another outlier, but the girl was still a sorcery prodigy who would one day become the pride of her nation, and the boy was a rising star technician whose talents had earned him state sponsorship despite his humble birth.
Having finally regained his wits, Seiichirou asked the young prodigies, “Have you been with Ist this whole time?”
“Oh no, we haven’t.”
Apparently, Ist had initially behaved himself when he visited Egorova’s Sorcery Department, but he got so engrossed in the documents he was allowed to read that he stopped responding to the Egorovan researchers. He muttered and occasionally made strange noises to himself as he sat in the lab for the entire night. As a princess, Lufina had to make an appearance at the dinner party, so she asked Donato and Georgi from the diplomatic delegation to keep an eye on Ist. This also allowed Sigma to focus entirely surveilling Ist in case he acted out of line.
When Lufina returned to the lab in the morning, Ist shouted, “I did it!” and ran off in search of Seiichirou. Lufina chased after him, bringing the story back to the present.
“I see…,” said Seiichirou. “I’m terribly sorry about all the trouble. I must offer you a formal apology later.”
“Oh no, our sorcerers were honored to get a close-up view of Ist at work. So, um…is the movement spell complete, then?” Lufina asked.
“In theory, yes,” a voice that did not belong to Ist answered. It was Aresh.
“What do you mean?”
“Originally, we could only use the spell to transport inanimate objects. The spell has a different formula depending on the starting point and the destination. The problem was that the target’s physical makeup would change because of the coordinates and the influence of the magic.”
A living creature needed three layers of protection to preserve their body, soul, and mind, but this would make the corresponding magic circle so dense that it was impossible to render visually.
“But I think we can make it work by combining Egorova’s formulas with ours!” Ist chimed in. “We can!”
“The fastest way of doing it was to reverse-engineer the ancient magic circle.” Aresh had apparently been convinced that the movement spell would work if they worked backward from the original spell’s construction.
“That’s the route I wanted to take as well, but I had to rule it out. If there’s anything even slightly off about your understanding, you could end up turning a body to mush or destroying someone’s soul. But I was able to grasp the picture from the Egorovan circles, so hurrah!”
Seiichirou was deeply relieved to see that Ist was no mad scientist with zero regard for sacrifices. Perhaps he got that from Zoltan. Seiichirou made a mental note to thank the director when he got back to Romany.
“But a movement spell and a returning spell are different, aren’t they?” Lufina asked.
Ist had said “Send you back to your original world.” Ordinary movement did not account for interdimensional travel.
“Yes, but the fundamentals are the same. With the ancient magic, we used the previous Holy Maiden’s blood and a purifying magic stone to pinpoint the coordinates. We have a general understanding of the formula for crossing dimensions, so as long as we get the movement spell to work, it wouldn’t take too much extra legwork in my opinion,” Ist said.
“Hang on,” said Aresh. “The magic stone you used as a medium back then crumbled into dust.”
This reminded Seiichirou that the two of them had been present at the scene of the Holy Maiden’s summoning. Judging by what Aresh was saying, they’d safeguarded the previous Holy Maiden’s blood and purifying magic and used them as mediums to summon the current Holy Maiden, but the magic stone had apparently shattered to pieces after the ceremony.
The prevailing theory was that they could open a path to Yua’s original world by drawing on her blood and purifying power, but the magic stone was a problem. Given the unique qualities of the Holy Maiden’s purification, no ordinary magic stone could contain it. The previous stone was said to be a gift from the gods, and no one knew exactly where it came from.
“That’s why I was telling you about the thing I bought as a replacement,” Ist said to Seiichirou.
“Oh, right.”
“I saw this useful-looking magic tool in town, so I bought it.”
“So, yeah, you use the tool as a substitute for the medium in dimension-crossing magic. I figure it could send you back to your original world.”
He’d said that. He’d most definitely said that.
Seiichirou had forgotten all about it in the ensuing chaos, but back when the Egorovans were visiting, Ist had ignored them in favor of hounding Seiichirou for money.
“What kind of magic tool was it?”
“It’s a communication device, but it’s made out of a strange ore. I doubt the makers had it in mind, but it occurred to me that its power can extend across dimensions if combined with the magic formula I came up with and the Holy Maiden’s magic.”
According to Ist, the town he visited had a unique culture, and the ore was difficult to find in other lands.
“Which town did you go to, again?” Seiichirou asked.
“Agiral, I think it was called.”
“What?!” A voice suddenly rang out from a different direction.
One of the doors flung open to reveal Norbert standing there with his mouth agape. Orjef was visible behind him.
“Do you know the place, Norbert?” Seiichirou asked.
“Well, yeah. It’s the place my father went to inspect.”
Now that he mentioned it, Seiichirou recalled that Norbert’s foster father, Count Blanc, had been away until very recently to inspect and engage talks in a land where the royal family’s influence was weak. This was one of the reasons Norbert had attended the Egorova welcoming party.
“House Blanc ended up assuming control of the Agiral region, if I recall?”
“Less ‘control’ and more like ‘a system of mutual cooperation.’ Agiral’s not planning on opposing the kingdom, so they kind of just got along. We promised to help them out if they’re ever in trouble.”
Leave it to Count Blanc, a man willing to raise the king’s son as his own, to make a good impression on people. He seemed to be particularly good at forging diplomatic relations.
“So can I use the ore and magic tool? Can I? Can I?” asked Ist.
“Let’s draw up an official contract for their purchase. I don’t expect they’ll hold it against the royal family if we can work out a regular system for procuring their local goods.”
In the best-case scenario, the kingdom would have a steady supply of research materials and a deepening friendship with Agiral.
“You’ll use anything and everything, won’t you?” Orjef said exasperatedly.
To this, Seiichirou smirked as if Orjef had said the obvious.
“I am a greedy man, you know.”