Chapter 22

Since there was still time before they could return to the dungeon, John continued training his magic with Isak.

“Can I use a wand?” John asked. Unfortunately, Isak crossed his hands.

“No! Absolutely no assists on your first attempt!”

Normally, people start learning something with assistance. Start learning to drive with an automatic, or start learning to draw using reference images, but when it came to magic, Isak insisted that he used nothing.

“You must be able to do magic without assists first.”

“But that’s difficult.”

“And that’s you doubting yourself. You doubt you can do this without any assists, and that will only hinder you in the long run.”

He had a point. If John started with the belief that he could only use magic with a magic wand, then he would go forward thinking that he could only do magic with a wand. He needed to experience the sensation of using magic without a wand first, so he understood that he could. That was an important understanding that anyone who wanted to use magic must have.

“Sorry, John, but there’s no quick way to learn magic. Even children went through this process…” Isak trailed off, seemingly realizing something. John broke into a cold sweat, mentally preparing himself for the question that was about to come.

“... Have you never been taught magic as a child?”

So far, John hadn’t built a deep enough relationship with someone for his backstory to be relevant. Whenever someone asked him about himself, he would answer something along the lines of a ‘passing merchant’ or an ‘adventurer traveling the world’.

The people he spoke to hadn’t questioned it. They weren’t close enough with him to know. Even if they asked, he could just reply with privacy or personal matters. That would stop them from prying.

But Isak didn’t seem like those other people. There was something in him, like a sleeping tiger that had awoken. At first, Isak saw them as two curious individuals; one had an extremely powerful magic arsenal underneath her belt. But now, it had just dawned upon him that the other had zero magic. No ability at all.

John saw the people on the streets. Everyone could use magic. Those who couldn’t were a rarity. That probably made Isak think that John was among the few who didn’t understand magic. The problem with that backstory was the fact that he didn’t try to learn it until now, despite traveling with an extremely powerful magic user.

If he tried learning before, he should know that taking a shortcut by using magic wands was considered taboo, yet he acted as if he had never heard the rule.

It must be one of those things that were ingrained so deeply in everyone’s thoughts that they didn’t think about it, like how on Earth the sun rose from the east. Nobody questioned it. Nobody talked about it. It was a simple fact. Someone who came from a world where the sun rose from the west would surely be confused.

John remembered the conversation with Leyla yesterday. He was a special case. He wasn’t supposed to be in this world with his old memories. If Isak caught up to this, that would risk Leyla’s identity as well. He wasn’t close enough to trust him to keep a secret, and who knows what would happen if the fact got revealed.

Is there still a way to save myself?

John looked for believable excuses. Isak wasn’t letting go, though.

“Was magic not common in your region? Did you sleep when your parents tried teaching you magic?”

He asked some insensitive questions, not something someone would ask out of curiosity. It only made John even more suspicious of Isak’s true identity. Isak didn’t let go, though. His sudden barrage of questions continued. It was quite uncharacteristic of him. He used to be so calm and collected, but now, it felt like he was desperate for answers.

Ah!

In his panic, John sensed something. It was as if the tip of his finger touched a raindrop.

I’ll use this!

He concentrated, gathering all the elemental magic he could around him, ignoring their individual elements, then sending them straight at Isak. A mix of dirt, water, and rock spewed out of John’s hand, heading straight for his head. Isak’s eyes widened, and he dodged the attack just in time.

“Ah, sorry!” John shouted. He didn’t intend to send the attack straight at his face. He wanted to send it to the ground to put some distance between them.

“... No, sorry, I got a bit carried away.” Isak scratched the back of his head. It seemed like he had calmed down. “I get too excited sometimes.”

“Ye- Yeah…”

He sounded sincere when he apologized, but John couldn’t trust him. He just couldn’t.

“Still… that’s impressive. Three elements at once?”

“... Is it rare?”

Isak shook his head, giving him slight disappointment. “Wielding three elements at once is common, but you using it when you just started using magic is still impressive.”

“Really?”

“It took me a week before I could use three elements, and it’s weaker compared to yours.”

Was his stats buffed when he came here? That may be the case. When he thought about it, it shouldn’t be possible for the him of Earth to survive in such an environment.

“But you can wield the sword,” John said, trying to steer the direction away from himself. He may have brought Isak back to his senses, but who knew just how serious he was. Maybe he really did try squeezing information from him, and now he switched tactics, trying to get it from him in a softer, less obvious way.

“Wielding a sword is easy. You just go swing swing, then swoosh swoosh.” Isak mimicked the movements of swinging a sword, along with the accompanying sound effects. It made John chuckle. He wasn’t expecting him to joke like that.

“So, does that mean I’m allowed to use a wand?”

To his disappointment, Isak shook his head. “Not yet. While you got over the first hurdle, you still need to learn control over your magic. Trust me, once you have control, using magic would be easy. You’ll be able to do wonderful things with magic with a wand by then.”

“... So no wands?”

“No.”

John could only nod in response.

•••

A distance away, Leyla hid behind some trees, observing the two men. She let out a breath of relief when John managed to evade Isak’s question. The existence of other worlds wasn’t something humans should know about. Such were the rules when the worlds were created, and unless something bad happened, those rules didn’t need to change.

She was relieved that she didn’t need to erase his memories tonight. Doing so would only make her search for the chairs even more difficult. She decided to continue watching until they returned to town, just in case John messed up.