Editor 56
by CristaeField Trip (4)
“…It’s alcohol. A concentration of over 40% is enough.”
Cleio, who had been half-lying in his chair, suddenly lifted his head.
“If you transmit aether while in contact with that catalyst, you can inscribe the formula onto Tiphlam. It suppresses the tendency to revert to its original form.”
‘My god! So that’s what it was?’
It was such a common catalyst that no one must have thought of it. Or maybe the author just made it up while drinking spirits.
In fiction, as long as there’s internal consistency, anything goes. No matter how absurd the element, as long as it serves its role!
“So!?”
“I found the catalyst to use when inscribing the formula, but I couldn’t complete the formula to stabilize the activation. After Robert was arrested, my academy dorm burned down and all my research materials were lost. After going through all that, I lost the will to continue the research.”
‘With assassinations, imprisonment, suicides, and all that chaos, and even acting as the branch chief, it’s no wonder he gave up on research…’
What on earth did Melchior do!
Cleio let out a deep, deep sigh, regretful over the loss of a next-generation talent.
“Haaa….”
“To be honest, I’m not even sure if that problem can be solved by scientific methods alone.”
Cleio buried his head in his hands.
‘Well. Whether it’s the world over there or the world here, I don’t know a thing about science.’
Noticing that Cleio wouldn’t understand what he was about to say, Fran chose his words carefully. His tone softened a little.
“…You’re a wizard, so it’s better to explain in terms of magic formulas. You need to create a single magic formula that combines [Enhance][Bind][Persist][Conduct][Repeat]. If you can combine those five magic formula functions into an engraving, the aether activation state will become permanent.”
“But Fran, humans can’t create new magic formulas.”
In this world’s setting, magic formulas are gifts left to humans by the goddess’s daughters.
Thus, no human has ever succeeded in creating a new magic formula.
It was getting more and more overwhelming.
“So, I once dreamed of writing an equation inspired by magic formulas. But now, I find no joy in scholarship. No matter what I look at, I only see the faces of the dead on the blank page.”
Fran muttered in a voice nearly hoarse from talking all night.
The boy’s expression was endlessly bitter.
“Fran, thank you for telling me something so difficult.”
“Even if I don’t say it, Melchior will find out everything anyway.”
“You won’t know that until it happens. If there’s ever anything you need help with, tell me. I’ll do what I can. Don’t bear it all alone.”
“How long could that resolve last….”
Fran, sinking into his chair, fell asleep as if his consciousness had been cut off.
Cleio took off the boy’s glasses and covered him with a blanket.
He’d gotten the information, but it was a somewhat bitter dawn.
The winter palace annex was empty.
Fran reported in sick and returned to the capital.
He must have had various things to take care of, but the biggest reason was probably not wanting to run into Melchior.
The rest of the students left for the hunting grounds. Lippi and Leticia, of course, were the most excited and led the way.
Cleio feigned illness. Because of his history, everyone believed him easily.
Once all presence in the dormitory disappeared, Cleio got out of bed.
He rummaged through his things and took out a flask packed full of whiskey.
‘I knew this would be necessary, but I didn’t think it would be this useful.’
And the most important material for the experiment was a palm-sized piece of Tiphlam.
There was no way to get it without being noticed, so he asked Arthur for help.
‘That guy is a master at sneaking over walls without a trace.’
Arthur, without even asking why, stole a large chunk and brought it to him.
There was quite a distance between the winter palace and the mine, yet Cleio had no idea how Arthur moved so fast.
He felt a little guilty, but
‘Anyway, the mine belongs to the royal family, the research is run by the mining bureau, and Arthur will end up owning it all, so what’s wrong with taking a piece in advance?’
he rationalized.
Then he opened the flask and took a swig himself. It was too much of a waste to pour it all onto the Tiphlam.
The peaty scent cleared his nose and his mind.
‘I feel like this is going to work!’
He poured the liquor into a teacup and dipped a pen nib into it. Gripping the pen soaked in alcohol instead of ink, he transmitted aether.
He didn’t open a circle.
‘This should work even for aether sensitives who can’t open a circle.’
He scraped it right across the Tiphlam piece.
Without even a screeching sound, the alcohol-soaked pen carved Tiphlam smoothly.
‘It works!’
He tried it several more times for good measure.
Each scrape left a clear line on the piece. It felt as soft as slicing through soap.
The scraped area hardened again as the aether and alcohol evaporated.
‘Normally, even scraping Tiphlam with an ordinary pen wouldn’t leave a mark, and any scratch would disappear quickly, but this one stays.’
Fran really was a genius.
If only those burned materials could be handed to the mining bureau….
‘Okay, the catalyst is solved. Now the formula is the problem.’
Magical science played a very important role in the latter half of the previous manuscript.
‘Once Tiphlam processing becomes possible, the science people will handle things like building anti-air networks and adding guidance systems to shells and firearms….’
The problem was that Cleio didn’t have the brains to create such formulas.
‘I’m clueless about science beyond general studies! And now I’m doing magical science in another world!’
If so, maybe the answer lay on the other side.
As Fran explained, what if he just used a completely new magic formula?
Cleio resolutely stroked the “Promise” ring on his left hand.
‘They say humans can’t create new magic formulas with their knowledge, but a bound item is something the god of this world gave me. Maybe it’ll work?’
The second-stage function of Promise, “Understanding.”
The function that lets you deeply “understand” the elements of narrative also revealed the level of aether others used and their unique skills.
‘Then, if I use the correct magic formula to channel aether, I should be able to judge with “Understanding” whether it’s working or not, right?’
Cleio drew the [Enhance][Bind][Persist][Conduct][Repeat] magic formulas on paper with his fountain pen.
He wondered if he could just stack the five magic formulas together, like when casting magic, but that was a big mistake.
“Understanding” only judged up to four stacked magic formulas as “magic,” and did not consider five stacked formulas as “magic” since it exceeded Cleio’s magic formula slot number.
‘My magic formula slots are four since I’m level 4, so I can’t even try manifesting five magic formulas at once. All I can do is turn on “Understanding” and try different lines, checking one by one….’
It was daunting.
It felt like brute-forcing a math problem meant to be solved by formula, one by one.
It reminded him of the sad memories of nearly becoming a math dropout.
He skipped lunch and focused, but of course, things didn’t go smoothly.
It was a problem called a major conundrum. If it could be solved easily, the geniuses of this country wouldn’t be racking their brains.
‘I think I’ve thrown out 300 sheets of paper. Haaa….’
Still, his efforts weren’t entirely fruitless.
‘There was a school of thought that argued magic formulas are a kind of script we just can’t read, so I must be on the right track.’
Six line segments in a circle.
It was only that much, but unlike other lines, when he injected aether and used “Understanding,” they continued to glow gold.
He hoped that, if he kept at it, he’d succeed one day.
‘It feels like doing a 50,000-piece jigsaw puzzle… ahhh.’
Cleio put down his pen and went outside to clear his head.
The sun was setting, and the wind was chilly.
Just then, a familiar voice was heard from the palace courtyard.
“Aha ha! I won today! Sixteen!”
It was Lippi, dashing across the winter palace courtyard.
Spotting Cleio, Lippi ran straight over.
“Ah! Ray, you’re up? Are you okay?”
“I’m feeling better now….”
“Then come here. Watch what I caught!”
Lippi, grabbing Cleio’s arm as she dashed up, dragged him off with terrifying strength.
‘Ah, please, not that….’
Dragged helplessly in front of the returning gamekeepers, Cleio saw a cart loaded with piles of wild animals.
The birds were strung by the neck in a row. There were rabbits and deer too. The smell of blood and animal musk mingled in the air.
The beaters and gamekeepers looked as excited as Lippi.
“The little lady is amazing! Incredible!”
“Perfect aim every time!”
“Miss, you’ve been here before, right? You’re much better than before!”
“A-ha-ha-ha, thank you! Ray, look, all the rabbits are mine!”
Jumping up on the cart, Lippi grabbed the two biggest, whitest rabbits from the top.
“These ones have really soft fur. The color is similar too. I’ll give them to you, Ray! You get cold! Make a rabbit-fur muffler!”
“Th-thanks….”
Lippi’s eyes sparkled.
She looked like a little cat bringing in a dead mouse or bug and hoping for praise.
With trembling eyes, Cleio reluctantly reached out his hand.
The gamekeepers rescued him.
“Ha ha! Miss, this weak young master was shocked by the blood.”
“Give them here. We’ll clean them up and bring them to you.”
Other students were returning to the palace, chatting as they came.
Chel, carrying a rifle slung stylishly over her shoulder, led Isiel and Leticia. Her sports tweed jacket and long boots looked great together.
Arthur, still in casual clothes with leaves in his hair as if he’d napped somewhere instead of hunting, was there too.
“Lippi, Leticia, you two are better at driving game than the beaters, aren’t you? How do you always know each other’s positions so well?”
“Oh, Arthur, this is your first time seeing it, right? That’s because….”
Cutting Chel off, Leticia shrugged.
“I can sense where Lippi is.”
“I know exactly where Leticia is too. Even really far away!”
“Twin telepathy, huh.”
“So Ray, did you get your present from Lippi? Where’s the rabbit, the rabbit.”
“She said she’s giving it to you as thanks for playing with magic before.”
“Wow, paying you for playtime, huh.”
Arthur and Chel, bantering, stood on either side of Cleio.
“If I got paid twice, I’d die of surprise… The gamekeeper took it to skin.”
“Don’t tell me you were shocked by the rabbit carcass?”
“I definitely learned hunting isn’t my thing.”
“With how delicate you are, can you even do your mandatory service?”
Chel teased and joked, but Cleio let it go in one ear and out the other. Seeing a corpse yesterday was more than enough.
“I’m not doing mandatory service. I’m definitely graduating in the top three.”
“Wahaha, good luck with that. Is there anything you can’t do, Sir Cleio?”
“Stop calling me that, Chel!”
“Oh, acting all sensitive, how can I not use your title?”
.
.
.
There was some bickering, but the rabbits and pigeons the twins caught were definitely delicious.
They weren’t as tender as livestock, but with good seasoning and cooking, the flavor and texture were outstanding.
Of course, they paired perfectly with Dazos wine.
Cleio felt embarrassed at his inability to lie when it came to taste.
The next day.
After a good meal and sleep, he kept up the excuse of being sick.
The kids assumed he just didn’t want to hunt and covered for him.
Meanwhile, Leticia was burning with rivalry toward her sister.
‘Okay, Ray, rest well. I’ll catch a fox for you today! Fox fur is even better than rabbit!’
It was obvious it wasn’t for Cleio, but just because she didn’t want to lose to Lippi.
After everyone left for the hunting grounds, the annex was quiet again.
With a fresh mind, he took out new paper.
He felt good, maybe because he’d rested well.
Cleio activated both “Understanding” and “Perception” at once.
He hoped to read something from the aether flow on the paper.
Focusing both abilities to their maximum, his head spun, and he suddenly felt like his body was floating.
For a moment, the flow of time tangled.
In reality, it must have been just half a day.
The time that passed felt like an instant, or like a hundred nights.
During that long period, Cleio couldn’t remember how he moved his hands.
Maybe, it was the author’s will to set right the course of a world Fran had abandoned from exploration.
As if taking dictation from an oracle, he frantically layered, rewrote, and revised the magic formula.
At last, with a terrible headache, he felt a sharp heat stabbing his left hand.
“Promise” was burning as if it would melt, shining.
Tududuk―
Black blood dripped, staining his collar and the paper.
“Promise” spewed out letters as if running wild.
[? User’s narrative intervention is increasing.
?Calculating cumulative ratio of narrative intervention (□□%)]
[? Due to increase in user’s narrative intervention, “Promise”’s additional function “Appropriateness Judgment” is now unlocked.
?You can judge the truth or falsehood of an issue, and the appropriateness of an element.
*Note: Using this function temporarily consumes 95% of the aether in your body.]
[―Would you like to use “Appropriateness Judgment”?]