I realized that I have been inconsistent with how I called Earl/Count. In chapter 21 I used ‘Earl’ but in chapter 56 and so on I used ‘Count’. I have decided that I will use ‘Earl’ from now on. I have changed all the ‘Count’ into ‘Earl’. Enjoy the chapter!
TL: clover
ED: clover, xtostos, eristol
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Tirnanog and I went under the sign of the tower and crescent moon and entered the Turm Wand Store.
As usual this store seems to only have few customers.
Let alone customers, I can’t even find the clerk.
『We have come to pick up the wands.』
When Tirnanog called out, Harold emerged from the back of the store.
Apparently, Harold is the only clerk.
“Welcome! Wait a minute, I will call Master!”
“Thank you, Harold.”
Harold just got a little look and went to the back in no time.
We waited for them and sat on a chaise longue.
After a while, the shop owner was brought by Harold and appeared at the storefront.
“Well, I apologize, but can you give me an hour more?”
The shop owner showed an apologetic expression.
When I heard the detailed explanation, he said that it took some time to charge the wands.
It seems that the wands created by brother were obfuscated and difficult to analyze.
Everything included the unexpected mechanisms that couldn’t be found at the estimation stage.
『Oh, there is no problem. I believe in your skills.』
“I appreciate it.”
Tirnanog nodded magnanimously and sat down on the sofa.
The shop owner ordered Harold to prepare the tea set just like yesterday and went to the storefront to lower the ‘not open for business’ sign.
Harold who came back to put the tea set on the table, whispered into my ear the moment the shop owner left.
“Do you want to go to Aniki’s place today? We can listen to his lectures, or do some more trial shoots.”
“To be honest, that’s what I intended to do.”
“Haha, say that quicker! That’s great!”
The shop owner came back when we tried to go to the back of the store.
He saw Tirnanog drinking tea by himself and looked around with a surprised appearance.
“Hey, Harry!”
“Master~! I’m going to talk about making golems with this lady, so we’re going to the back!”
“Wait a moment. Why are you suddenly talking about golems?”
“No, it’s just that this lady knows about golems in detail.”
As expected, Harold got caught by the shop owner who chased him.
Harold told such a lie while making eye contact with me.
I nodded my head in a hurry.
The shop owner seemed to have remembered something and stared at me and Tirnanog alternately.
“Haha, certainly……but, I hope he doesn’t annoy you, Ojou-san.”
“No, it’s a lot of fun.”
The shop owner released his hand from Harold reluctantly.
He went back to his workshop, after saying ‘Don’t trouble her too much’ to Harold.
“Well then, Tir. Please pick me up at the Wunderkammer after you finish receiving the wands.”
『Umu. You got it.』
When I waved my hand, Tirnanog raised his cup in reply.
As Harold pulled my hand, I headed to the door leading to the Wunderkammer.
☆
“Oya, so you have come to visit today as well, Ojou-san.”
When we opened the door of the Wunderkammer, Gilbert was there preparing something.
Canceling the compound he was working on, he hurriedly put his tools away.
Was he working?
“Did we get in the way?”
“No, no need to worry because I was just killing time.”
Harold put a circular package on the desk that Gilbert had cleaned up.
It was collected earlier by Harold when we were passing through the backyard.
From the package there was a delicious smell permeating.
“Oh? What’s this? It has a nice smell.”
“Hehehe, Aniki, have you had your meal?
Tada~! Gizella-obasan gave me this candy onion tart!
Don’t hesitate to eat it, go on, eat!”
When he opened the package, a big brown tart appeared.
It didn’t seem like a snack, it seemed to be more of a side dish tart.
Looking at it, Gilbert looked up to the Heavens exaggeratedly.
“Ku~h! Seriously, tell me quicker in the morning!
I have eaten properly at my older brother’s store!”
“Eh~ is that so? Then you don’t need this?”
“I do! When I start to feel hungry, please warm it up again.
Please just leave it be for now, Botchan.”
“Alright.”
I sat on a vacant chair and watched over their exchange.
The room is cluttered as usual, so it seems that something might break if I move around carelessly.
“So, what’s your business here? Do you want to see my cool face that much?”
“A-ni-ki?”
“Hey, hey, I’m just kidding. Is it the continuation of the lecture about wands? I got it ready.”
“Alright!”
“Please take care of me.”
Gilbert put the bag, which was placed in the corner of the room, on the desk after the tart package was removed.
He looked like he was having fun as he spread the contents of the bag.
Gilbert’s second wand course was starting.
“First of all, from the part that became ambiguous yesterday.
We’re going to explore the Alteration of spells a bit more.”
It seems that we won’t use a blackboard for today’s lecture.
Gilbert referred to the wands arranged on the desk.
“There are certain standardized things in the spells that can be charged into a wand.
When constructing a normal spell, it is the norm to combine the least burdensome and most convenient particle size.
Well, as long as you think about the size and power.
This also determines the creation time and the complexity of the spell-building.”
Arranged on the desk, there were three Magic Missile wands.
Even though they were the same kind of wand, each wand had a different design.
“The most basic way of making this wand is this.”
He pointed to the wand with the most familiar specification among the three.
It looked like it was made of very common materials and was in accordance with the commonly known recipe.
“Now then, there are two ways of doing Alteration to the magic of a wand.”
Gilbert advanced the lecture while looking at me and Harold alternately.
When he does that, Gilbert seems sincere.
I think that people are missing out because of his tendency to act insolently around people he isn’t close with.
“The first way. Alter its construction during the creation time and charge it. This one is easy to understand.
It’s a heavy burden at the time of creation, but it’s a way to make the wand easier to use.
The more spells that make up the high-order magic, the harder it is to break up the established composition.
That is why it costs time and material.
This technique is the specialty of the Duke of Aurelia, the head of the Visitor’s Clan.”
Gilbert pointed towards the wand with elaborate design.
It was a special wand made of materials that seemed to be much more expensive than the first one.
As I have been told, many of father’s wands are specially made.
Harold watched the luxurious wand with shining eyes.
“Making something like this, it seems very fun~~!”
“Haha, the reason why you can enjoy the burden of creating extended wands is because Botchan is special.
The remodeling of the magical structure is generally difficult and painful.”
“Heeh, no way~!”
Ever since he was told that he was special, Harold seems to have become even more involved in making wands.
It certainly would make me happy if I am told that I am suitable for doing what I like to do.
“Then the second way. In this case, it can only be performed by performers of a certain disposition, but the creator will have it easy.
Generally speaking, you just need to stuff in large quantities of magic with standardized particle size into a wand.
This is the way to use the method you were using yesterday.
Along with the command execution of the wand, the performer places a load on the magical structure, breaks and distorts the spell, then reconstructs and activates the desired result.
It is necessary for the performer to have a strong enough inhibition to endure the burden on the magical structure and the knowledge to reconstruct as they desire.”
“……And my disposition is suitable for this?”
“That’s correct, Ojou-san. By the way, here is the wand sample.”
Gilbert handed the third wand to me.
H-huh? It is heavy?
The size and the materials seemed to be the same as the standard wand, but it was somewhat strange and heavy.
And the build was considerably thoughtful.
There was a fine design applied on the whole wand that won’t be seen if you don’t look closely.
“Using this method, you will need many times as much charging as usual.
Efficiency gets considerably worse because the spell is broken and distorted, and it deviates from the optimum particle size.
Even though you can put 200 or 300 charges, you can at most activate the wand two or three times.
Therefore, it is suggested to prepare a dedicated wand for that purpose.”
I stared at the wand in my hand.
In short, it is a wand which was charged many times as much as a normal wand.
“Because this is a borrowed wand, I cannot let you use it……
Here, this is the wand you used yesterday.
It should be able to have 100 charges stuffed into it, but right now the amount of charge is zero.”
“Eh……”
It is surprising that it would be empty.
I thought that 70 charges would remain since I used 30 for yesterday’s simultaneous shooting.
“Both methods will have a recoiling reaction, that is, the magical power that flows back to the user at the time of execution is huge.
However, there is a stronger recoil when heavy wands like this are used, so there is a further burden on users.”
“Ha~ ……if it is someone with a constitution like me, they absolutely shouldn’t use it……”
Harold said while rubbing his right arm.
It was the part which was wounded by the reaction of the wand when he was young.
“But, if we’re only talking about creating wands, both methods will be easy for someone with zero inhibition value.
No matter if it is a glasswork-like wand stuffed with troublesome spell construction, or if it is a strong and heavy wand that can withstand mass charges.”
“Both methods seem interesting, but I still prefer the one where I have to set my hands on it during creation.”
I noticed that Gilbert had a slightly surprised look.
He cleared his throat and kept talking.
“Incidentally, it was the Nibelheim family of alchemists in the northwestern area who developed heavy wands with a large amount of spells.
Our Turm family helped out with the mass-production.
The main users of this relatively low-cost wands are the lower level soldiers who cannot arrange for expensive wands.”
“H-heeh, the Nibelheim family, huh……this is my first time hearing that.”
“The soldiers use this wand to bash their enemies while burning their own arms due to the recoil.”
Due to the disquieting information of his parents’ home, Harold seemed somewhat nervous.
So Nibelheim’s industry is not only producing silverware, but also producing wands as weapons during the war, huh.
“So, Botchan’s ancestor profited off the war by producing thousands to ten thousands of these wands.”
Shock appeared on Harold’s face.
Gilbert grinned devilishly.
“W-why do you know that I am someone from Nibelheim family, Aniki?
Moreover, you were speaking like my family is the bad guy.”
“It’s fine, isn’t it? Since I’m also someone from Turm family, we are comrades, you know?
Regarding my knowledge of Botchan’s parents’ home, well, if there is something like this—”
Gilbert took out a notebook from his bag.
The name ‘Harold Nibelheim’ was written on the notebook.
“Aniki, is that my……?”
“Eehh!? Are you the son of Earl Nibelheim?”
I decided to be surprised exaggeratedly.
I also noticed Harold’s last name, but this ‘surprise’ is deliberate.
I am hiding my identity as a duke’s daughter right now, and this should be the natural reaction.
“Wait! Erica! Y-y-you don’t have to worry about it—”
“No way……why is the son of a noble household in a place like this.
I, I have been very rude……”
“No, no, no, you don’t need to worry. Please stop the honorific, I beg you.”
Harold became flustered.
Gilbert was grinning without looking sorry.
I also felt like laughing but endured it.
“Well, my father also had a rank.
Although it is only a Viscount below the Earl and he has handed it over to my eldest brother.”
“Aaah~~~ stop with the revelation~~~”
“Eh……then, he was the Elder Turm!?”
“Yeah, well. Since I’m the thirteenth child, I’m just an ordinary man who is not concerned with such things like the family inheritance or concession, you know?”
This was unexpected.
No way, that shop owner was the rumored wealthy merchant who bought the noble peerage, that Elder Turm!?
I thought that he was not an ordinary person, but I didn’t think that he was the former head.
“Good grief, it’s not unreasonable that customers rarely come here.
The head of the Turm family is the shopkeeper and the son of Earl Nibelheim is the clerk.
Unless you aren’t affected by scary things, or very particular about wands, right?”
“So that’s why there aren’t that many customers.”
By the way, the one who recommended the Turm Wand Store to me was the daughter of Rails family who have a personal view about wands.
I wonder if this was some kind of surprise.
If possible, I wanted more detailed information to prepare myself, Tricia-san.
“No, this store is popular among neighboring aristocrats……although only one person will come every two days.”
I guess this store is not popular, is it?
I thought so, but I decided to keep my silence for now.
“It’s surprising that Ojou-san will care about it.
Oops, we got derailed.
Since you now have a deeper understanding of the wands, do you want to trial shoot again?”
Gilbert had a somewhat evil expression while still smiling gently, as he urged us to the testing field.
Starry Night Translation 
Hahaha, Erica’s acting is living upto her “A beautiful noble lady with a cold thin smile who looks like someone who only knows how to criticize people” status alright. Despite her internal clumsiness and rather reckless personality she can be very smart when the situation calls for it yup.
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By the way, I noticed an inconsistency while re-reading this novel. In the chapter Megalithic Alter part 2, Tir said Erica looked like the girl he grew up with but in the chapter promised land, he said she looked like that guy.
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Oh maybe I misread the kanji for child as the kanji for girl. Thank you very much!
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Thanks for the new chapter!
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Thanks for the update…
Erica’s acting hahaha
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There’s no need for acting at this point as I’m pretty sure Gilbert has already figured out her identity – especially since her father has come up quite often during the lectures… and Harold would probably feel closer to her as a fellow noble in disguise 😅 thanks for the update!
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To summarize: There are three types of wands. Regular ones, the Aurelia type, the Nibelheim type.
With Aurelia type the wand maker first alters the wand composition itself and then presses each spell charge into that wand, i.e. the alteration and resistance-play (that occurs in regular wands both during charging the wand and using the wand) is shifted mostly towards the charging stage.
This requires the wand maker to be extremely good, and for spells that depend on higher-tier magic, very expensive materials on top of it as regular recipes can’t be used. That’s why the Aurelia wands are so friggin expensive – benefit it that there’s drastically less burden on the user of the wand when compared to regular wands (might be why Erica had never noticed all this info before, she’s literally surrounded by the wands that are best at preventing her from noticing all this).
Nibelheim wands work the opposite way – they shift most all of the alteration and resistance-play burden on the user of the wand, while making it way easier to produce these wands. Benefit is that, like Erica, even less godly-dense people can freely form and change up the activated magic how they want, e.g. by throwing the power of several charges at once. The price is the ultimate recoil, however, as visible by the soldiers that had their own arms burned when using these mass produceable, cheap wands.
It’s also the kind of wand most suited to Erica since she can literally draw out all the power without repercussions at once. Like dropping a thousand regular charges combined in one ultimate attack – would probably kill regular people from recoil alone.
“The first way. Construct it into an extended state during the creation time and charge it.[…]”
–> You put extended several times in these sentences, maybe it would be better to make clear that ‘Alteration’ in the previous sentence is the very same term as ‘extended’ in the raw. Makes it a bit less confusing I think.
Even though you can put 200 or 300 charges, the magic that you can perform will only two or three times.
–> Even if you put 200 or 300 charges into one of these, you could at most activate the wand two or three times.
I think it’s important to get the difference to the other wand alteration – in this method each of the 2/3 activations will be seriously powerful (maybe 10x/20x as regular), but each activation wastes 100 or so charges. Not all 100 charges go into the effect of the activation, most of it simply puts heavy strain on the user (except you’re Erica in which case go drop those stars girl).
“The soldiers use this wand to bash their enemies while burning their arms.”
–> “The soldiers used these wands/this wand to bash their enemies at the cost of burning their own arms.”
Just to clarify that the burned arms are actually the bad recoil of using the wands, it is not the enemies’ arms that get burned.
“So, Botchan’s ancestor gained hundreds and thousands of money from war.”
–> “So, Botchan’s ancestors profited off the wars by producing thousands to ten thousands of these (wands).”
“It’s fine, isn’t it. Since I’m also someone from Turm family, why are you a bad guy?
–> “It’s fine, isn’t it. Since I’m also someone from Turm family, we are bad guy comrades, remember/you know?.
Since Turm coorperated in the manufacturing of the dangerous wands.
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Thank you very, very much!!
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Although I want to say that I think in Aurelia family, the one that use the first type of alteration is only Ernst. Because it was mentioned that his wands are longer than the usual wands. This is because his wands are altered using the first method. I think there’s less burden on the users because they only need to use the wand, while in the second method, the users need to imagine the the desired effect while using the wand. Conversely, the first method placed burden on the creator because the process to altered the wands to make the desired effect is more difficult, while in the second method they only need to create basic wands although charged with many times more spells than usual.
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Oh, possible. Though given that we know Ernst likely has high resistance and is using extremely long range magic (even beyond the horizon) I’m curious how he would, say, adjust for wind/precise distance and curvature and everything with the first method wands. Seems like it would be easier with the second type. But I guess there’s still alot we don’t know about the theory behind spells here.
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Hmm from what Gilbert said before, it seems that Ernst used the curvature of the stars to calculate how far his opponents were in naval battle. I don’t know how is that possible. But welll….
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Forgot:
“Both methods seem interesting, either way I’d better be able to live up to the expectations.”
–> “Both methods seem interesting, but I still prefer the one where I have to set my hands on it during creation.”
I think Harold is saying he likes the Nibelheim method less than the other two, since with regular and Aurelia he, as the wand creator, has more chance to actually do stuff since more skill is required on his part.
Gilbert looks weird (I think) because Harold’s family came up with the Nibelheim way in the first place.
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Thank you! Very helpful! I will fix them right now~
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These wand lectures are super useful! You have translated them super gracefully!
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I like that they use alternative pathways to achieve the same results more or less with varying levels of power, effect, and efficiency, in other stories you might see the MC creating a new form of magic or use of magic never thought of before, and I’m like why is that? why didn’t they see that potential? it kind of irks me that authors would write that way…
I really want to know the history of the people in this world, its so very compelling there are gaps in knowledge that we as readers don’t know, and we aren’t sure if it will be clarified later on or not.
Questions I have…
1. Origins lore… what is the history of those redheaded natives… did they learn alchemy from the Aurelias, or did they independently have their own form of alchemy.
2. Why were they so accepting of the Visitor clan, there had to be some kind of beneficial interaction between the 2, humans can get pretty territorial and not want to share, or be the one to get ousted/killed off/assimilated by the invaders.
I want to know…
They have different methods of wand creation that implies they are free to develop new tech, so there isn’t a rigid system in place where you can only do it one way, or that says this way is best… this is really interesting, because its basically a weapon of war… surely there would be restrictions on this kind of thing? if there isn’t then they really must have a good relationship with each other and have zero conflicts… really amazing!
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