This, Kunon thought, is exactly why magic is so interesting.
“…Her body…?” His hand was still inside the shadow. He couldn’t feel anything, but if this was a woman’s body… “Please excuse my rudeness.”
His hand hadn’t brushed against anything. Nevertheless, apparently Kunon had just impolitely groped a woman’s body, so he stepped back and apologized.
“This is my first time meeting a woman who feels like nothing more than air… Is shadow person an accurate term?”
“Sure, that’s fine.”
Apparently, it was fine.
Kunon was just as clueless as before, but at least knowing that he didn’t know was a small step forward. Probably.
“Let’s get back on topic. Clavis.”
“Yes.”
Prompted by the shadow woman, Clavis once again took out the Spell Vault that Kunon had developed with his team.
“Kunon, I called you here to ask you about this magic tool. What we say here is confidential. You have my word that your hard work will not be stolen or replicated. So please tell us about this in detail.”
“As expected…”
It’s all coming together, Clavis thought.
When they heard about the box—the one designed to store and transport magic, and known as the Spell Vault—from Kunon, the final piece of the puzzle fell into place. The cause and flow of events that had led to the recent forestation phenomenon were plain to see.
“What do we do?” said Clavis, turning to the shadow at his side. “Is it okay to explain it to him?”
The shadow responded, “I don’t see why not.”
There were two primary factors contributing to the matter at hand: the Saint’s Kira Vera and Kunon’s Spell Vault.
An explanation could be given without bringing in anyone else’s work, and it was probably fine to mention the Sacred Tree here. The Holy Kingdom would likely get back to them within the next few days. If permission to give a public statement was granted, then it was no problem, and if by some chance permission wasn’t granted, it wouldn’t matter.
That tree was going to remain at the school for decades or even centuries to be studied. It would be impossible to keep it hidden from the students, so Gray Rouva had already decided to make a public statement. When that would happen was not yet determined, but they intended to do it sooner rather than later.
Kunon and the Saint were on good terms, and he was aware of Reyes’s abilities to some extent. They would probably be able to explain things to him without saying too much. And they had things to discuss with him once he was aware of the situation.
“Kunon. We’re going to tell you the specifics of this incident.”
“What? Me?”
Earlier in front of the forest, Clavis had said he wasn’t able to discuss any details, because it would mean disclosing students’ research results.
“Oh.”
Kunon understood at last: The students whose research would be compromised were mainly those on his own research team. It was fine to talk to Kunon about it, because he already knew the information to be disclosed.
“You said you were the leader of the Spell Vault’s development team, right? There are a few things I need to caution you about, so this explanation is necessary.”
With that preface, Clavis began to discuss the matter.
“That’s what it was…?” Kunon was surprised. “So spirits really do exist?”
“They do. If you want to explore all magic has to offer, you’re bound to encounter such beings someday. Please look forward to it.”
That certainly was an exciting prospect. But at the moment, there was more to talk about.
Clavis had just told Kunon the particulars of the forestation incident. But quite frankly, Kunon’s comprehension had yet to catch up.
“May I ask questions about what you just told me?”
He wanted to make sure he fully understood the chain of events.
Clavis responded, “Of course,” and Kunon decided to proceed without hesitation.
“Would it be correct to say this began with the arrival of the dark spirits…?”
“Sure. Well, you could also say it started with the light spirits around Saint Reyes.”
Spirits had been practically under Kunon’s nose without his realizing it. The topic was endlessly fascinating, but he left it there for the time being.
“Do the dark spirits possibly have anything to do with Lulomet from the Rationality Faction?”
“Ah, so you knew about that. That speeds things up a bit. We’re talking about something that happened several months ago, mind you. We believe the dark spirits involved in this incident were the ones Lulomet and his team summoned in their ritual. At the time, the ritual was completed and wrapped up successfully—or so it appeared.”
“In reality, things weren’t so neat and tidy,” Kunon concluded.
When the ritual was over, the dark spirits had vanished. Everyone was under the impression that they had returned to wherever they came from. The spirits, however, had actually lingered in the area.
Why they stayed wasn’t clear. But for some unknown reason, the dark spirits had remained on school grounds. And apparently, they had been hiding inside an early Spell Vault prototype created by Kunon and his team.
“There are so many aspects I don’t understand, but…why the Spell Vault…?”
“Because it’s a comfortable place for them to live.” That answer came from the shadow woman. “Dark, quiet, extremely confined, and filled with pleasant supernatural components. That’s the ideal habitat for dark spirits.”
Kunon was reeling.
“That box allowed them to stay on the surface and still avoid the light. The spirits probably snuck inside intending to take a nap.”
“A nap…”
The magic tool Kunon and his seniors had worked themselves to the bone over had become a spot to catch a few z’s? That was… Well, he supposed it was fine. He had some thoughts about it, but he let them go.
“By the way, they’re still there.”
“They are?! Right now?!”
Apparently, the Spell Vault that Clavis was holding had dark spirits inside it at that very moment.
“They must really like it as a home, considering they’ve yet to leave even with people around like this.”
Kunon wasn’t sure whether he was supposed to be flattered by that or not. Either way, it was a result he hadn’t foreseen in the least.
“And…the mythology?” he asked.
“Light and dark coming together resulted in the genesis of everything. That’s the principle behind the Creation—everybody knows it.”
“That happened?”
“The Saint’s light spirits and the summoned dark spirits—two groups of entities that would normally never come into contact with each other did just that, triggering Creation on an extremely small scale.”
“…And that…happened?”
“I understand it’s difficult to believe, but that explanation makes the most sense. A miniature Creation took place. Wind spirits spread the word, and the local earth spirits gave their blessing. Fire cradled it all in its warmth, and water helped everything grow. That forest is the outcome.”
“And the genesis served as the growth agent for the Kira Vera?”
“A tree that takes more than a century to mature grew that much overnight. Don’t you think that’s the simplest explanation?”
This did strike Kunon as pretty convincing…
“Creation and the Sacred Tree of myth…”
The story still seemed rather fanciful to him. It was as though he’d suddenly found himself in the middle of a fairy tale. Despite being assured it was all true, he simply couldn’t shake the doubt in his head.
“That’s because you still have a long way to go,” the shadow woman said, as if she could plainly see all Kunon’s inner misgivings. “As a sorcerer, you’ve not yet crossed paths with anything mysterious. You haven’t even come close. The magic world has mythology in spades, you just haven’t noticed it yet. Sure, it’s not all true. A lot of it is nonsense. But there’s truth there, too—you’ve done business using the sacred herb shi-shilla, but you still cling to these foolish preconceptions. That, too, is a product of legend, you know.”
“Huh?”
“What we call sacred lands and consecrated grounds are, to begin with—”
“Gray.” Clavis cut across the shadow woman’s words. “You’re saying too much. Sorcerers have to make it to the entrance on their own merits. Don’t start playing the mother hen.”
“Hmph. Impertinent little boy.”
That time, it wasn’t Kunon she was referring to.
“I am really, really interested in what you were just talking about,” he said.
“Well, this brat says I have to stop. If you want someone to blame, look at him.”
“I blame you, Professor Clavis.”
“Ha-ha. Teachers who are strict are better for their students in the long run.”
“They’re very unpopular, though.”
“Ah-ha-ha. I don’t like the sound of that.”
Unperturbed, Clavis laughed cheerfully.
“I’d like to return to the previous topic, if I may?”
Their conversation had gotten a bit sidetracked, but at the moment, Kunon was still verifying the sequence of events.
“So the forest appeared on the same day as the light and dark creation event, correct?”
“Correct. Miraculously, it would seem that was the day after you and your group completed the Spell Vault.”
“I was horrified when I found out. It would have been awful if we had been caught in the middle of it. But…”
Overnight stays in the lab had been common while the Spell Vault was under development. The rest of the team spent many a night in Building 11, though Kunon had a curfew to abide by. Still, he’d stayed with them in spirit.
Even Elia, who had joined the team partway through the project to help with miscellaneous tasks, had struggled to manage the team’s schedule. She said it had been particularly impossible to make them go home, and she’d ultimately had to give up.
The day the Spell Vault was completed, they all went home, so none of them were caught up in the forestation incident.
When the forest appeared, the school building was completely destroyed. Kunon was sure that if any of them had been inside when it happened, the consequences would have been dire. The thought of what could have been—but wasn’t—made him shudder with fear and sigh with relief. However…
“It wasn’t just a matter of lucky timing, was it? It happened because the school building was empty, right?”
“That’s right. No one was around, so the dark spirits came out of their hiding place.”
Everyone on Kunon’s team went home the day they finished the Spell Vault. But there were probably other students staying in Building 11 that night. Consequently, the forestation phenomenon didn’t occur until the following night, on the day the team unveiled their prototypes to Elia.
If Clavis and the shadow woman had come to that conclusion, Kunon figured they’d also gathered evidence to back it up.
“And that’s how the dark and light spirits happened upon each other. It’s possible they met before, but… Well, it appears both parties had more than their fair share of merrymaking that night. The Creation happened at the end of all that.”
Spirits. Merrymaking. Creation.
It seemed the situation was still largely beyond Kunon’s comprehension.
“Now, as for what we need to tell you.”