Surprise Encounter and Learning about Magic

Just like that, another month had passed.
The deployment discussed at the last war council was expected to take around a month. But then for three weeks both forces would retire from the frontline.
They would use this time to record their losses, rally, and plan their next move.

Or at least that was the case for Ispron. Glursem on the other hand would have another major issue to deal with. The handling of their crops. 
Since Glursem is only a fiefdom and it doesn't have much in terms of population, especially compared to Ispron; their manpower, quite literally, is lacking. Especially in times of war. 
So to be able to send men to work the fields at least three times a year, Glursem had done all they could to negotiate these three weeks of intermission.

Naturally Ispron had been opposed to the enactment of this demand. But their opposition didn't last for long.
Following the failure of their attempt at peacefully talking this out, Glursem had landed an all-out attack on the southern border of Ispron.
They captured Fort Vinki and killed a full squadron of the joined forces under first prince Tokesa and third commander Avery. Effectively forcing Ispron to sit back at the negotiation table.

So at the time I am writing this, they are exactly one week away from the three weeks break of the middle of the year. And what is important about this benchmark is that depending on who is injured and for how long, I should be able to begin my training in swordplay in short order.

I can only hope she won't end up like mr.Prakia..

Speaking of the man, I recently heard word of his discharge. And considering I intended to basically beseech him to teach me magic, I let the person in charge of the healing ward a note asking him to indicate to mr.Prakia that I would be waiting for him and that he could find me anytime during the day at the castle library.


"Being as dilligent as always I see, aspiring hero."

"Oh Shimka-" Wait no, who ?

"Hehe not quite." The woman giggled softly with a hand over her mouth and her eyes closed, before performing an elegant curtsy. "Pleased to make your acquaintance sir Hero, Hyouma-sama. My name is Nika Ispron, second princess of Ispron and head treasurer of the kingdom."

The woman who introduced herself as the second princess did not seem to wear any garment or accessory to support her claim, which was quite perplexing to me.

She had long dark-crimson hair tied in two loose braids that fell almost to her chest –which was on the modest side by the way– a black ribbon-tie dress with a 3/4 sleeve jacket the color of her hair, black lace arm sleeves, black nail polish and knee-high brown leather boots.

And with her round glasses on top, she looked more the part of the treasurer or secretary she said was her occupation, rather than that of a princess. From my imagination at least.

"O-oh, I'm Taitaku Hyoum-AH ouch! S-sorry.." In a fluster, I hurriedly tried to get up from my chair to give her a proper greeting, but ended up knocking down a book from the pile I made next to my diary, the former falling on my hand which I was using to help myself up from the carrel desk.

Argh so lame !

"S-sorry about that, so my name is Taitaku Hyouma, no title actually. For now." I added in a near-whisper. To which she only giggled in that same manner that already began to feel like her trademark.

"So the rumors were true I see."

Rumors?

"Well, I must admit, it might have been a little problematic if our actual Hero was found jumping from his seat in the face of an unexpected guest."

She is not wrong and it hurts.

Her words might have sounded rude, especially considering who she was adressing, but between the joyful smile she displayed and her sarcastic tone, I immediately understood that she was simply teasing me. So naturally, I took no offense. 

That being said, her whole attitude still felt a bit too informal for supposedly a first encounter. And I had to ask.

"So..erm, have we met somewhere before ?"

Please don't look at me like I'm using some weirdo's pickup line.. you know that's not what I meant.

As I gave her a scowl in response to her acting suspicious, she finally paused her teasing and put on a more serious expression.

"Maybe ?"

Or so I was led to believe. So I looked at her with exasperation and made to sit back on my chair indicating I was done humoring her and that I meant to get back to what I was doing.

Well it's not like I have any obligation to go along with her shenanigans since I am not a hero anyway. Much less a denizen of this world for that matter.

Go find someone else to be your toy if you have that much free time on your hands.

However, far from looking offended, she seemed to visibly enjoy my reaction.

What's her deal, seriously ?

"Please forgive me if I am speaking out of turn, but I can't help but wonder if it is okay for someone of your status to spend so much of your precious time entertaining guests."

Don't you have better to do ?  I wanted to ask crudely. Now that the surprise had sunk in and my mind was back on track, I felt less awkward and more downright irritated. As petty as it sounds.

I have a lot on my plate right now, between that Richard menace, my conflicted feelings towards that hero gig and more importantly that vow I made on the spur of the moment. I could use some alone time.

Ironically as long as I felt like I wanted some kind of partner to converse and teach me about this world, there was no one available. But the moment I was done gathering most of the information I sought, pop! somebody just appeared out of nowhere, and ready to chit-chat.

"You are right. Only, you are not just any guest, so I simply had  to introduce myself eventually."

Yeah right, which is why it took you two whole months to do that.

"Well, I am quite busy you see."

So she reads my thoughts now..

"..."

"Sorry, I promise I am done with the teasing this time. So may I ask what brings you to the library so often ?"

Since it was only the two of us in the library at that time, she brought a nearby chair and placed it about a meter and a half away from me, facing my direction, and sat down.

"Initially since I had yet to be assigned a personal maid, that is to say someone I could talk to without worrying about their schedule too much, I came looking for basic information about this world. Then once I was done learning what I considered the most crucial knowledge for my daily life here, I started browsing history books, magic-related encyclopedias and so on."

"That is quite the thirst for knowledge you have. And I also find quite remarkable the way you fixed your order of priority so fast and seemingly so efficiently. I doubt a lot of people would have been able to keep as a cool a head as you did and to focus only on survival and adaptation."

It's the games I played that taught me to make sure to always keep calm and focus on seeking the most important knowledge and bits of information when in a strange or an altogether new situation. But it would be a pain to explain.

"Well, while I grew up to be loved by my parents, they were often absent. So I had to learn about a lot of stuff through trial and error, all on my own. So I think that as a result I have developed a good sense for establishing an order of priority for any given situation."

Granted, I would never have anticipated a summoning to another world, so it was far from easy to keep it together for the past two months. Even now, if I stop reading these books or put away my diary for a minute, I'm confident I'll start worrying about a lot of stuff.

"This explains most of it, but I wonder if that is all there is to it ?"

"What do you mean ?"

"I cannot say for certain but, judging by the confidence you exuded the day you first wore your new attire, I would say you must also feel at least a tinge of excitement at dealing with the unknown, in your mind. Which would also explain how you took an interest in our history and magic later on."

...So she saw my poor attempt at acting the part of a hero.

"I guess you are right, I have always been a heavy reader and the curious kind for as long as I can remember. Rather than seeking entertainment, I would rather learn about the new, or the unknown, as you put it. And I cannot say I am shy about experimenting, so that certainly helps."


As I opened myself to her more and more, riding on the warm feeling of being able to have a proper and relaxed conversation with someone after what felt like forever, she ultimately had to excuse herself and returned to her duties.


After a while, it was a tall and tired-looking Elf who came to greet me. It was mr.Prakia.

Noticing his evident state of exhaustion, I elected that it would be wiser and more respectful to refrain from asking him about magic right now, so I simply congratulated him on his discharge and told him I would come see him again in a few days.

                                                                    _______________

In the end, five days had passed before I went to his office to ask for his tutelage.

Following that we spent the entire day, from six in the morning to midnight, talking about magic. And here is what I gathered:

-Magic can only manifest from mana manipulation/usage.
-There are six elements: fire/water/earth/wind/light/dark, with each having its own sub-attribute, which I refused to learn about for the time being since I wanted to experiment as soon as I could.
-There are five ways to use magic. With magic circles, chants, arts, spells, and through a contract with a spirit.

-Magic circles:
Written, painted or manifested; they are usually used for repeated usage. To work as cooking plate equivalents for example.
So their forms and sizes vary depending on the usage. And to activate them, a keyword alone is required. So people without mana can activate them. However that means that the creator of an appliance, the likes of those cooking plates for instance, has already poured a set quantity of mana into the small circles upon its creation. Said amount determining roughly how many uses the appliances will last.

-Chants:
Either in the ancient elven language, or in any given tongue, they require the user to recite a whole verse indicating the source as well as the effect of the power sought plus the phenomenon's name which is the key required for the effect to take a form.
They are usually used for healing or large scale rituals.

-Arts:
They represent the act of manipulating raw mana inside of one's body, regulating its flow, and managing its direction at will in order to strengthen the body. 
Its uses go from making one able to split a rock in two with one's bare hands, to allow one to regulate one's body temperature and help one survive harsh climates.
It is the most difficult usage of magic to learn. And it requires a more than average mana storage capacity. I.e, a bigger mana pouch.

-Spells:
The most simplistic mean to use magic. It only requires one to picture the effect they aim to produce, to allocate the amount of mana they need to match the scale they are looking for, and to give a name to the phenomenon.
However it is also the one method most likely to fail. Since sometimes the image in one's mind doesn't align with the mana they are able to provide. For example, if one wanted to create enough water to fill an entire well, they would need a significant amount of mana and a high affinity with the water element. So if they tried to cast their spell, let's call it "Waterfall", without as much mana as needed, they would find themselves with either nothing manifesting at all, or a pitiful spray of water leaking from their hand.
On the contrary, basically anyone with a mana pouch can at least manifest enough water to fill a cup; or enough fire to light a bonfire.

-Contract with a spirit: Requirement: being an elf or a beastfolk.
Spirits are higher entities, in the sense that they are immortal (not unkillable) and made entirely of mana.
To form a contract with one, it is required to either gain its approval via the fulfillment of one of their demands or request. Or to perform a ritual involving a magic circle and one or many chants and to summon/call forth one such spirit from this or another world.
As for its usage, considering the chances of encountering one in the wild and being able to complete one of its requests, it is widely accepted as the stuff of legends.
And while the rituals are more realistic to prepare, they require so much people, preparation, and mana, that the last attempt that was recorded for one, date back to twelve hundred years ago.


Mr. Prakia intended to then proceed to listing the different classes for each of the five ways to use magic, but I begged him to stop there. I already had a lot to take in and most importantly, I was adament about my sleep schedule.

Especially since two days later I would finally be able to begin learning the way of the sword under Master Xenia.