Chapter 60: City of Canals (part seven)

Finally we get the explanation about how the magic in this world works, and other things! I hope it’s understandable!

TL: clover

ED: clover, eristol

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“Well, you don’t know about internal magical power yet.

Then we must start from the very beginning.”

 

When Gilbert breathed on the blackboard that he took out from the back of the shelf, dust whirled up.

He had a small coughing fit because of that.

The teacher had a comical behavior, but we tried to listen seriously.

Harold even had a chalk and a small blackboard in his hands.

 

“Unusual power, supernatural power, supernatural ability……do you know this?

They are all blood-dependent power.”

“Is it like the telepathic power of Ignitia?”

“Oh, you’re well-informed, Ojou-san. That’s right, it’s like the power of Ignitia.”

 

Gilbert drew illustrations of human-like figures on the blackboard using chalk.

They seemed like a knight in armor and a deformed fur-wearing warrior.

Perhaps because he was a craftsman, he could draw a good picture casually.

 

“One of the famous supernatural abilities on this continent, as Ojou-san said, the telepathic power of the country of dragon knights.

The other one is the country of healers and swordsmen, and the bio-enhancement accompanying them.

It will be rare for you to meet the abilities of other continents, so for the time being, these are the two you will often see.”

 

After Gilbert erased the illustrations of the knight and the warrior, he drew a simpler human figure.

The round feeling was similar to the ginger cookies I ate earlier.

 

“The unusual powers that can be used by ethnic groups and individuals are diverse.

The scholars who tried to systematize them have thrown the towel.

What realizes these mysterious abilities is the magical power inside living beings and the biological circuit we were born with.”

 

Gilbert drew a spiral pattern like a whirlpool inside the human figure and a lightning bolt mark on the outside.

He added notes that the whirlpool pattern was the biological circuit and the lightning bolt mark was the unusual power.

 

“The unusual power that human beings can perform usually manifests by using the internal magical power.

To determine its degree of strength, we have to look at the amount of internal magical power and the quality of the biological circuit.

This is greatly affected by the bloodline.”

 

A line like a staircase was drawn at the foot of the human figure.

He added an unlabeled human figure who was hanging his head dejectedly below the staircase which had the human figure with the whirlpool mark attached.

 

“Therefore, humans who are inferior in the amount of internal magical power generation and quality of biological circuit absolutely can’t win against superior people.

It’s absolutely frustrating.

Efforts, wisdom and ingenuity are in vain in the face of people who are naturally blessed.”

 

Next to the human figure with the whirlpool inside, Gilbert added two new human figures.

 

“There are two ways to eliminate this inequality. Hafan’s magic and Aurelia’s alchemy.”

 

Gilbert had one of the new human figures hold a staff.

It was the same mage-style as the one Klaus and Actorius-sensei had.

 

“Hafan’s people were originally inferior in internal magical power generation and biological circuit’s quality.

However, to make up for their weakness, these guys are excellent in creative power.

Instead of touching the finite internal magical power inside their body, they turned their sight towards the infinite force drifting in the physical world—the external magical power.”

 

Saying so, Gilbert drew an arrow from above the head of the mage over to his abdomen.

Furthermore, he drew a whirlpool around the tip of the arrow.

 

“Hafan’s mages first capture external magical power and convert it into easy-to-process internal magical power.

But this alone is merely taking infinite magical power into poor biological circuits.

Which is why the mages made a small twist.

This is just a sample that mimics it, but have you seen it?”

 

Gilbert spread vellum papers with complex figures and characters on the table.

Ah, I have seen this.

Klaus was holding lots of it.

 

“Spellcards, huh.”

“That’s right, they are spellcards. Spellcards, chants, or both are used as components and a magic circle is built to make their magical power perform unusual power outside their body.

Hafan’s mages can combine a number of components to freely generate the desired dynamics.”

“So the magic circle is equivalent to the biological circuit mentioned in the capabilities of other ethnicity.”

“Yeah, you understand the gist of it with no problem. Such excellent pupils, teacher is happy.”

 

Gilbert drew a few small squares around the staff on the illustration and put a big lightning bolt mark on it.

 

“With the development of magic, people are not affected by their birthplace, and they can use unusual power as long as they make efforts for it.

However, this external magical power is a tricky thing, unless it is converted into internal magical power, it cannot be used in biological circuits.

Moreover, the magical power conversion ability that human beings inherently have is insignificant.”

 

Gilbert poked around the mage figure’s stomach with the tip of the chalk.

 

“Mages train their conversion ability over time to close the gap.

There is no curtain of talent here. It’s a world of pure effort and guts.

At the beginning, one will only be able to convert truly insignificant amount of external power over hours of training, but over the years and decades it would be possible to convert a lot of magical power.

Therefore, there is a possibility that everyone can use magic, but not just everyone can use it. You need a strong belief.”

 

Finishing his words, Gilbert made a wand in the hand of the fourth human figure.

Finally, it was the appearance of an alchemist.

 

“The last one who appeared was the Visitor’s Clan who came from the other side of the sea.

They took a totally different approach to the external magical power.

……Or more precisely, in the first place, only the circumstances of alchemy were different in the history.”

 

Gilbert drew a picture like a big pot next to the alchemist figure.

 

“Aniki. Is that the alchemy furnace, athanor¹?”

“Athanor, huh……I haven’t seen the real thing.”

“Well, if you go to some school you may touch something similar in the classroom.

After that, if you are on a battleship campaign like a scholarship teacher, dealing with the athanor will be your main task.

In recent years, it seems like that.

However, it seems that the place where the first alchemical miracle happened was in this athanor.”

 

Gilbert added speech balloons next to the picture of the athanor.

Inside them were the characters for ingot and gold.

 

“As you know, the ultimate goal of alchemists is to produce gold, the ideal metal.

Well, as you know the result, producing gold hadn’t been successful at that moment.

Still, alchemists continued the trial and error to make various substances in preparation to produce gold.

But at this time, an unexpected thing happened.”

 

Gilbert drew several circles above the alchemy furnace and extended the arrow from there to the center of the furnace.

Then he drew a long arrow extending downward from the furnace to the lightning bolt mark.

He added ‘material’ inside the upper circles and ‘magic’ in the lightning bolt mark.

 

“When external magical power intervened in some combinations of several materials, magic was born as an accidental product.

Alchemists continued to study the miracle that happened in the furnace, leading to one big turning point.

The developed alchemy made it possible to produce the same miracle even outside the furnace.

Rather, although it may not be known as a smaller furnace……”

 

Gilbert connected the picture of the alchemy furnace and the wand of the alchemist’s figure with an arrow.

 

“Aah! The wand, it was originally an athanor!”

“That’s right. The appearance, the scale and how it works are very different, but the basis is the same.”

“In other words, because it was the external magical power that caused the miracle inside the alchemy furnace, perhaps it was charged into the wand?”

“Correct. It is not the internal magical power that is charged into the wands, but the external magical power.

And this external magical power has a big problem.……Phew~ finally we got to the main topic.”

 

Gilbert put the chalk down and wiped his hands with a wet handkerchief.

He rubbed the area between his eyebrows with his clean finger and relaxed it and sighed like an old man.

 

“What do you mean, Aniki?”

“Botchan, I would like to ask you something. Do you think that you need things like alchemists’ gloves when you use a wand?”

“That is a matter of course.

Without gloves, the recoil of the wand………ah!”

 

Harold stared at the illustrations on the blackboard intently.

I see. Somehow I understand.

 

“The identity of the reaction is the external magical power, isn’t it?”

“Great answer. When using a wand, there are several gaps between the person and the wand.

At that time, the external magical power contained in the wand flows into the human body.

Although it can be dismissed if it’s just external magical power, it will have a harmful effect if it’s built as a spell.”

 

Gilbert flipped the blackboard and drew a picture of a wand and a hand on the opposite side where nothing was written yet.

And then, he drew a line along the shape of the hand.

 

“With the exception of Botchan, normal human beings are born with power to hinder external magical power.

It is the inhibition value measured by Rainbow Strap a while ago.

Inhibition values have ratings from 1 to 6, and the more rainbows there are, the more difficult it is for the person to get the recoil.

Alchemists’ gloves artificially reproduce the inhibitory effect of the human body.

With this, even humans with low inhibition values can use wands relatively safely.”

“Then, I’m……”

“I don’t know if there are gloves that correspond to people with inhibition value of zero.

Because Botchan is a really rare case, it’s uncertain whether there is even a scholar who is researching about that.”

 

Hearing Gilbert’s words, Harold dropped his shoulders dejectedly.

It has to be pretty painful.

Since he loves to work with wands, it must feel like a death sentence that he can’t use wands in his lifetime.

 

“Don’t be discouraged, Botchan.

Didn’t I say it? You have a miraculous constitution.

There are some areas where the lower the inhibition value is, the more advantageous it will be.”

“W-what do you mean, Aniki?”

 

Gilbert drew several arrows from the hand to the wand and drew a few more arrows bouncing off the line representing the inhibition value.

 

“When constructing a spell with external magical power or charging a wand with magic, the existence of the inhibitory value is rather an enemy.

It’s an obstructive ability that is supposed to protect the user’s hands, but it interferes with the creator.

The feeling when charging a wand with a spell is different for each individual, so it’s difficult to put into few words, but it seems that phenomena such as ‘the convergence of the magical power was disturbed’ or ‘the form of the spell was distorted’ will happen.”

“Then, in the case of me who has zero inhibition value……?”

 

Gilbert grinned as he looked at Harold.

 

“On the contrary, no matter how difficult it is, you should be able to construct and charge as you like.

If it’s done by Botchan’s hands, external magical power will be packed in a wand while being static and stable like a windless lake surface.”

“Such power, in my hands……?”

“It’s a rare talent that is only seen once in a hundreds of years.

Any complicated and esoteric magic can be built easily.

Magic that an ordinary alchemist takes more than an hour to build will only take you the time it takes to think.

In other words, you have miraculous hands.”

 

Well, it depends on Botchan’s efforts, Gilbert added to conclude his explanation.

For a while, Harold was staring at Gilbert with a blank face.

Suddenly turning over to me, he gazed at his hands.

 

“Even if I’m told that it’s a miracle, it still hasn’t kicked in.

But……but, somehow I feel very happy right now.”

 

Harold said while staring at his hands.

Somehow, it seems that his dark green eyes are becoming teary.

 

“Yeah. I don’t have to use a wand. Maybe it’s fine like this.

Surely, it’s my destiny to live as a wandmaker.”

 

Harold expressed his determination while holding his palm over his head.

That is good. Harold will surely recover.

On the contrary, he is livelier than before the lecture started.

Gilbert shrugged his shoulders and spoke to me in a loud voice.

 

“Haha, he won’t be discouraged, that guy.”

“Being positive is a good thing.”

“You have waited for a long time, do you want to try the Rainbow Strap too, Ojou-san?”

“Yes, that’s right. Can you lend me?”

 

Gilbert offered me the Rainbow Strap.

I took off my gloves and received the Rainbow Strap.

 

“Um, was it something like this?”

 

Come to think of it, I have a constitution that I can’t make a wand, I wonder what kind of reaction will happen in this case.

I put a lot of effort into the hand that was holding the Rainbow Strap.

At that moment, colors overflowed from the crystal.

 

(Eehh!? W-what is this?)

 

It was an eruption of rainbow-colored light.

A flash of light that couldn’t be expressed was emitted by the Rainbow Strap, and I closed my eyes reflexively.

 

“Oi, oi, are you serious?”

“Uwah……what is this……”

 

I heard the murmurs of the two people.

After a while, I felt the light settle behind my eyelids and I opened my eyes nervously.

 

Rainbows like wide ribbons surrounded me, centering on the shining crystal.

One, two, three……I counted as many as seven.

Seven?

Just now, he said that there are only up to six.

 

While looking at the rainbow confusedly, the seven rainbow ribbons suddenly started moving.

Those seven rainbows stood upright and pointed upwards.

The light around the tip of the star crystal strengthened even further, and the internal starsteel also began to shine like gold.

There was a feeling as if someone in the sky gripped the ribbon-like rainbows and was pulling them.

 

I felt goose bumps appearing all over my body.

Beautiful, but somewhat horrifying.

 

I let go the Rainbow Strap in my hand unintentionally.

At that moment, the seven rainbows disappeared and the light residing in the Rainbow Strap also became smaller little by little.

At this time, I noticed that my heart was beating fast.

 

“That surprised me……”

“W-what was that just now? What does it mean, Aniki?”

“Wait, wait, I’m confused too. Give me some time to settle down.

Really, what’s with today. To think there are two singularities at once……”

 

Gilbert gulped down the cider as he muttered.

I asked while looking at the Rainbow Strap which was rolling on the floor and Gilbert alternately.

 

“U-um, I wonder if I should also call you Gilbert-aniki—”

“Gofuhh!? No, no, Ojou-san, you don’t have to call me that!

As long as I know about it, I will teach you what I know, because I will have an uneasy conscience if I make you call me that.”

 

Then, with a light break in between, Gilbert’s additional lecture began.

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¹ Athanor is a furnace used to provide a uniform and constant heat for alchemical digestion. (source)

So, basically:

Hafan: external magical power –> converted into internal –> add chant and/or spellcards –> magic circle –> magic (unusual power)

Aurelia: combinations of materials –> made into wands –> charged with external magical power –> magic circle –> magic (unusual power)

Edit 21/12/18: the amazing Nira from discord chat made this fanwork for Gilbert’s lecture!

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