A Starless Night - Part Two

There was a certain smokey taste and texture to the fish, a sweet but also slightly charred zest that Arabelle’s conjured salt couldn’t quite mask.

Hmm—I wonder why.

Sitting across from him, Arabelle was clearly digging in. She had already downed her third—what he assumed was—salmon, while Cobalt had barely gotten through half of his first. The most obvious and glaring reason for this was the residual mana from the explosive magic she used to hunt these poor creatures to extinction. The next was that these things weren't fileted—he was eating this straight from the bones.

But what really held him back was the fact that, for whatever reason, Cobalt didn’t have an appetite at all.

He had heard stories before about people who were starved for days or even weeks then finally got food in front of them. They ate so fast that their stomachs literally burst. Apparently, your brain doesn’t fully process when your stomach shrinks that quickly, and so you don’t even realize what’s happened until you’re dead. That was a situation Cobalt was irrationally afraid of.

And sure, he wasn’t exactly emaciated like that Wendigo, but even so, he hadn’t at all anticipated the opposite would happen.
Something just felt empty—other than his stomach, that is.

He just sat, picking at the bones with his fingers.

Maybe he should just keep his head occupied on something else, so he could just absent-mindedly snack on it?

“Hey Cobalt.”

And just when he had that thought—

“How much do you know about stars?”

Stars…?

The two of them had been sitting in silence for a while, but strangely enough what broke it was that question in particular. She wore a kind of a serious expression, something noticeably different than his disinterested, almost hollow gaze. After everything that happened, what was with that question out of the blue?

In the “Space Elevator”, Cobalt had seen the stars quite often. Maybe once a month.

But in this world, things were different. The night sky, the Milky Way, the stars, and constellations. None of it was consistent.

He didn’t exactly know how that particular thought made him feel, but if he were to answer her question in relation to this world…

“I know about the Prince of Primara. A… ‘Friend’, I guess, told me a while back.”

She leaned back in her chair with a smug grin. “Everyone knows that one, dummy.”

Then wiping a fish chunk from her cheek, she leaned forwards again, a certain spark shooting across her eyes.

“I mean all the other ones. Every constellation has a really cool story behind it, liiiike… There’s the Satyr, for starters. It’s the main constellation next month that symbolizes rebirth—oh!—wait, I think that one started today actually. So then next month there’s the Black Turtle, a huge one that represents winter and famine.”

She started going off talking about a lot all at once—a pretty stark contrast to the silence the two of them were sitting in just a moment ago. Her serious expression also disappeared pretty quickly as she got lost in what she was talking about.

He didn’t exactly get it, but he went along.

“Straight from rebirth to famine, huh? The stars sound cruel.”

He remembered the old saying, “Fate’s written in the stars”. As much as he hated Fate though, he could only hope a stupid belief like that wasn’t actually true.

“The month after that there’s the Reindeer, which represents like a long journey? And then the Eagle—”

“I… Don’t know any of those,” he inadvertently cut her off.

It’s cool that she’s passionate about something other than a cave, but really—after all that’s happened, why is her mind on stars right now?

Sure, he was being rather cruel in his mind, but he was just never into anything like that before. It could be difficult getting into your friends’ hobbies after all.

No—this was something Arabelle clearly had a lot of interest in. He couldn't write off his apathy like that, could he?

And there’s that empty feeling again.

“I was actually pretty bummed when I brought you out of the Tomb and saw it was raining… When the weather clears up, I’ll start teaching you about the stars, okay?”

So she really had brought me out of there by herself…

She had gone through all that trouble on her own after all, and didn’t even expect gratitude for it… On second thought, Cobalt was being more than rude by dismissing her interests.

He brought a half-assed smile across his lips while setting the fish down.

“I don’t mind that, but… Isn’t it a little cold this time of year to be out too late?”

“Huh…? Not really, I can just cast spells on us beforehand so we don’t lose any body heat.”

“…You can do that?”

“‘Can I do that?’—Of course I can. It’s only an Alpha Tier spell. Do you really underestimate me that much?”

Oh crap… Did I accidentally offend her?

Waving his hands slowly in front of him, he could feel a bead of sweat running down his face. “Ahhh—I probably should have confessed this earlier, but I hardly know anything about magic. I was actually kind of hoping that since you’re so good at it—”

“The best at it.”

“—The best at it.”

Wait, what did she just make me say…?

“That you could, you know, maybe teach me some? I don’t know if that’s asking too much, but, you know, well…”

He was just tripping over himself now.

“Well, what do you know?”

She didn’t just dismiss me? That’s a start.

“I was born in a town pretty isolated, and we never really had any Mages that came by. I’ve seen some spells that were casted before though, where the veins in their arms lit up pure white, but that’s all the experience I’ve had with it.”

That was technically only half-true, but it was a lie that he’d been thinking about for a while now. He wanted to settle on something pretty vague, but convincing. Most importantly though, he made sure to slide in that last bit about the “circuit board” veins. Obviously that meant something, right? It had too.

“Your veins only do that when you’re casting Divine Magic, though… Why would an isolated village like that be learning it…?

Divine Magic?! That sounds so cool!!

And just like that, Cobalt snagged up some more exposition. He was one step closer to understanding the intricacies of this new world—albeit a small step.

“Oh—You probably don’t know what Divine Magic is, do you? All magic is supposed to alter the world around you by using Mana as a conduit. But Divine Magic just takes the middleman and goes to town with it, using pure, extremely costly Mana to cast spells. I think it’s most useful by someone who doesn’t have to worry about their Essence, like Delta Tier, though obviously I wouldn’t really know what that’s like.”

Mana… Conduit… Essence… Delta Tier…

“…It just sounds like I’m speaking gibberish, doesn’t it?”

“Will you be upset if I say yes?”

She brought her fingers to the bridge of her nose as she let out a sigh. It must be hard dealing with someone as useless as Cobalt.

After letting all the air out of her lungs in frustration, she took in a deep breath and opened her eyes again, this time with a little more confidence to deal with Cobalt’s ineptitude.

“It’s getting late, so I’m just gonna give you a quick rundown. Sooo, so just chomp on your fish and try to be the best listener you can, okay?”

He stared down at the semi-charred victim.

Then bringing it to his lips, he tore the orange meat off the bone as he nodded, forcing the strange-tasting fish down his throat.

—And thus began Cobalt’s entry to the strange world of Crestia’s magic: a vast, mysterious, and yet seemingly concrete system of various different schools and classes that seemed to distort the very rules of physics in Cobalt’s old world, all of which using mana as a conduit for such incredibly impressive feats.

…But Arabelle ended up rambling way more than she should have, stuttering, and talking about a lot of those concepts with a mouth full of fish.

So instead of having to endure that, here’s basically a synopsis of what he remembers.

The first five schools of magic, oversimplified, are essentially your offensive spells, although what Arabelle called them were the “Main Five”: Terra, Aqua, Air, Heat, and Force Magic. Pretty typical, by Cobalt’s standards. Terra controlled any manipulation of solids, whereas Aqua was able to manipulate liquids. The two essentially came hand in hand, however, and some debate strongly against calling them two separate schools, instead calling them both Physical Magic. But Arabelle despised semantics, so she didn’t spend too long on that discussion.

Next was Air which, you guessed it, manipulated the air. She also made sure to note this was by far the easiest school of magic for beginners to learn. And although the spells at beginner level are all fairly practical, most people will branch off into another class before too long because, in her own words, “Unless you can make tornados, you can’t do anything against my explosion magic—Air Mages are a joke”. Harsh.

Wait, didn’t she say that she didn’t look down on other branches of magic?

Well, anyway—

Arabelle’s eyes lit up, quite adorably, when she started talking about Heat Magic. Conjuring fire, changing the flow of heat, combusting the air in huge explosions, and sending missiles down from the heavens. Between all the spells Arabelle had memorized from this school, she had nothing but good things to say about it. Cobalt had no idea how long it took her to learn all of this, but he could only guess most of her young life.

Then finally, Force Magic. Not much was known about this school, and it was actually pretty weak by comparison. In theory, it should be able to alter gravity, conjure lightning bolts, and some other undefined feats, but it was typically hit-or-miss. When it worked, it was surprisingly remarkably powerful—but even someone who has specialized in this school their whole life typically doesn’t understand how the magic actually works. Cobalt wondered if that was because they didn’t have a good understanding of physics.

Trying to be cool, most mages will try to specialize in one or more of these five classes, and completely disregard anything and everything else. It was a pretty common cause of death actually—You can’t exactly conjure a fireball to stop you from dying of thirst, or heal yourself with a bolt of lightning. That’s why Arabelle recommended being “well-rounded” like her.

—Well, she said she was “well-rounded”, but it seemed like almost all of her spells just had to do with explosions…

Anyway, she emphasized that the next five schools were quite versatile: Healing, Flora, Barrier, Sensory, and Divine Magic.

Healing was straightforward, though it wasn’t exactly limited to just typical healing. Arabelle didn’t have fast-acting healing spells, so after Cobalt went unconscious, she used a spell to stop the hemorrhaging, a spell to numb everything that was hurt, and then a spell to seal the wounds. His ribs were still broken, albeit slowly healing. What a terrifying thought.

Flora is actually really similar to healing, in that it can do for plants what Healing can do for humans or animals. She mentioned there was a knight in Sila who specialized in Flora Magic. Oh! That was the name of the town from earlier!

Barrier Magic could be used to protect yourself against certain forms of Magic, the Elements, or even physical attacks. Some worked on command, some worked unconsciously, and, according to Arabelle, were extremely versatile and worth the investment. Apparently she used it when she went dynamite fishing—her hair got a little damp, but everything else was completely dry.

And finally, Sensory Magic. She already explained Divine Magic, so there wasn’t much else to say about it. Anyway, Sensory Magic seemed almost supernatural, like ESP. Telepathy and Clairvoyance—stuff like that.

His first instinct was the word cringe. Sadly, there were people in his own world who used concepts like “Mind’s Eye” as buzz words to scam people. He was hoping this wasn’t the same as that. His second instinct immediately went to Naomi, which could be a piece to that puzzle.

But tossing those ideas out of his mind, he instead had another passing thought about the limitations of Sensory Magic… It essentially involved the Mind, right? Sixth Sense, Third Eye, all those weirdly trendy topics. If it could do things like that, then would it be possible to alter someone’s mind? Their thoughts, their memories, even possibly mental conditions…

“That would be more Mind Manipulation than anything else. The internal Essence of a person always protects them against direct attacks like that. Anything that alters a human’s physical appearance or free will is a no-go. The closest thing to it would be a Dark Art or Lost Magic. Those tend to bypass that Law, but… I shouldn’t need to tell you not to look into it… That’s the worst of the worst.”

“Of course.”

His idea was quickly shot out of the water. Anything that would associate him with someone that tramples over free will… No, nothing at all is worth that. His mind immediately went to Irvelle, which made him sick to his stomach.

But whiplashed out of that putrid thought, he was almost startled by Arabelle’s sudden inquiry.

“So, where would you like to start?”

“Start—?!”

That came out of the blue. Was she really going to teach him magic just like that?

“Well, I mean, when we get there. It’s a bit too late to start teaching you everything tonight, but I can cast Aestimatione on you for now if you want.”

Ai-sti-may-shi-oh-nay…?

What the hell kind of language was that?

“—An estimation?”

“Close, it’s an Alpha Tier Sensory spell that means ‘Appraisal’.”

“Appraisal?! So you can see what level all my stats are?!”

“…Stats…? You mean like a spreadsheet?”

“Ignore the language barrier—I’ll be quiet.”

She made a face, but ultimately seemed to decide against indulging in his strange antics. She wasn’t accustomed to half the language Cobalt used, yet was seemingly oblivious to the fact that he was from another world. He had a few close calls just by talking like he normally would, but she evidently didn’t mind it that much.

Standing up from the table, Arabelle walked around to the other side, dodging the occasional hole in the ceiling where the rain incessantly “pitter-pattered” onto the wood floor. She must have spent ages rearranging the table to make sure it wasn’t in the splash zone.

Meanwhile Cobalt stood up as well—maybe a little too fast—and quickly realized he was accidentally towering over the poor girl…

He had never particularly described himself as a tall person in any way, but standing right next to Arabelle like this really put into perspective the height difference between them. He had to look down probably 30 centimeters or so just to meet her eyes. Should he crouch? He could only imagine how uncomfortable it must be being that short…

Placing her hand on his chest though, her face reddened a bit—likely embarrassed at the obvious height difference—before she shook her tomato-face away. Quickly, the atmosphere around them changed its white-balance to a remarkable blue hue, something that almost seemed to glow from his very chest. But sensing something awry, Arabelle simply furrowed her brows, raising one in a sort of twitch as she continued her investigation.

“That’s—No, something’s seriously wrong.”

“Is everything okay, Arabelle…?”

“No, it’s… Your Essence—It’s like totally messed up.”

Shit! His Essence? What did that mean?! His Mana?!

Racking his brain for things he thought were associated with that word, he came up empty-handed. Where was the first time he had heard that word after coming to this world?

And at thought, he suddenly had the overwhelming urge to throw up.

It was brought up a lot, but the very first time he heard it…

“The way that his Essence.”

“Reacts to the sense of pain.”

“The way his Essence reacts.”

“The Essence.”

“It is residing in his white blood cells.”

“His Essence is taking shape.”

“In the white blood cells.”

No, wait… Hold on… That couldn’t mean—

“Look past his eyes. I assure you, you will feel it as well. He is certainly not normal. You may torture him as you please.”

No—Slow down—

His brain was completely overwhelmed.

He hadn’t noticed he had taken a step back, nearly slipping as the thoughts whirled past his mind.

I thought that sounded important at the time, but—

Irvelle’s horrifying grin. The monotone of the cultists. All of it revolved around him. Why? Why did he go through such lengths just to salvage Cobalt…?

He cut that man’s hand off the bone without even moving…

He went through all the trouble to bring him there.

And immediately after seeing me…

They understood why Cobalt was so important.

But they’re all gone, right? I… I have Arabelle now.

He told himself that, but…

Between the fluttering of the capes, the hand flying through the air…

The cultist flinging up like a kite… The terrifying voices.

The emerald green eyes… The ones Irvelle himself said were just like Cobalt’s.

It wouldn’t go away. Why wouldn’t it go away…?!

“Cobalt?”

The knife tracing his skin. The soulless looks in their eyes as they snapped like twigs. They evaporated almost like clouds of smoke when Arabelle hit them.

His breaths were getting heavy.

His heartbeat was getting faster.

He tried to swallow all of those thoughts down, but he couldn’t.

Disorientingly, incessantly. Word after word, he couldn’t let them go.

If Cobalt was captured because there was something special or wrong with his Essence, then couldn’t it happen again?

It could. If everyone could sense this, if he had some kind of disorder…

What did they want him for? Why did Irvelle want them to torture him?

Everything felt heavy.

“Hey, hey Cobalt what’s wrong?”

He winced. He just couldn’t get the thought of that man out of his head.

His white suit, white hair. Green tie, green eyes. Everything about him seemed so supernatural, so otherworldly.

『Just… How many other victims did he claim…?』

He hadn’t even had the thought before.

No, no no…

“Cobalt, you’re shaking. Did something go wrong with the spell? Please, talk to me.”

“Ahaha, no, I’m—I’m fine…”

The words just flew out of him. It didn’t even feel like it was him that was talking.

Five months ago, he felt this pain before.

Has it seriously been that long…?

He hadn’t broken until now.

But now that his thoughts had finally settled down, it just finally hit him.

Like a dam that busted from ignored cracks.

There was too much he didn’t know. He came so far, but… None of it felt satisfying. It didn’t feel like he earned this.

Or maybe he had, but what he got in the end just wasn’t worth it.

Whatever it was, he didn’t know.

He couldn’t know. He couldn’t think.

“Liar.”

“—Huh?”

A hand reached out and grabbed him by his shoulder. Only then did he realize how selfish he was being.

The last time, he felt this pain all alone.

It had built up and built up while the only person he wished could comfort him just walked away.

He couldn’t undo that experience. He couldn’t erase the thoughts, and he couldn’t make his nerves forget the shaking. That terrifying anticipation of feeling like there’s nothing left, not even your senses—he couldn’t undo any of it.

But maybe… just maybe…

『This could be different.』

Cobalt could have been complacent with just a hand on his shoulder, maybe even his whole life. He didn’t need any more than that. He didn’t expect anything greater.

But pulling him in, two small arms wrapped around him as a warm, slightly damp head was pressed into his chest.

“Wh—What…?”

“I get it now.”

His thoughts all blew away like a strong wind. Flying away behind him, his senses came back. The drops of rain, its strange natural smell, Arabelle’s warmth.

His thoughts drained out until nothing was left. No doubts, no certainties. No nothing. Just that moment.

The only thing that remained unchanged was his racing heartbeat.

“I didn’t ask before how those Cataclyst guys captured you, did I? I kind of just downplayed it, and joked about it.”

What…? No, Arabelle—That’s not fair to say!

“I know you didn’t think much of it either, but… It’s kind of weighing on you now, isn’t it?”

Her voice was usually shrill and attention-stealing, but right now, it was none of those things. It was calm, low… Even empathetic. He felt like he didn’t deserve to see this side of her. All Cobalt was being is weak. He just couldn’t let go of something that shouldn’t matter. It was pathetic if anything… Right?

“How did you know…?”

Arabelle let go of him, and took a step back. Cobalt’s face probably looked a lot more calm now, after all.

“I tried for a little longer to look at your Essence, but I was right… It’s limitless.”

“Limitless…?!”

“Well, that is to say that even at Gamma Tier, I can’t see the end of it. You didn’t know that, did you?”

“That’s… Total news to me.”

Wait—Was this a good thing, or a bad thing…?!

Cobalt didn’t know whether to be excited or not. But feeling almost hollow after dodging his catharsis, he more so just didn’t know if he could be.

“I assumed as much… Your Essence controls how much Mana and Ki you can use for different things. Uhh, think of it like looking up at a really tall tree. Most people have small saplings but for whatever reason, I just can’t look up high enough to see the extent of yours.”

She seriously sounded like a teacher right now.

But Cobalt’s head was still spinning—He needed to sit down.

Taking a seat, he asked: “That’s a good thing… Right?”

“Remarkably so. It means you can store at least ten times as much Essence as me without feeling heavy or weighed down. It also means you need a lot more to regulate bodily functions. But that shouldn’t ever be a problem for you.”

“That… Seems too good to be true, though.”

“That’s because it is…” was her immediate response.

“While you may have countless more Essence than a normal person, your ability to use it is absolutely zero… Basically, you don’t have any affinities, nor any significant experience.”

“So… I was just a sitting duck to them…”

“That’s what I was thinking… I wanted to at least tell you that since, well… That must have been really hard to go through…”

He tried laughing it off, but it was a gesture that did nothing but make the sides of his throat hurt.

“It really shouldn’t hurt like that… I just need to let it go.”

“And eventually you will. But until you can, don’t ever put yourself down for feeling sad about it. If it was that easy to get over trauma, the world wouldn’t be so damn miserable.”

He paused on those words.

Thinking it over, it honestly put into perspective just how out of touch Cobalt’s been on his own issues. He either forced it down and faked a smile or fully embellished his own misery by fixating on it to the point of tears. Either way, his own instinctive reactions to the pain just made him hate himself even more. It wasn’t healthy.

But the idea of not putting yourself down for your own thoughts, or how you go about handling difficult situations on your own… It was something he never gave much thought before. It actually made a lot of sense that he shouldn’t hate himself for something he doesn’t have much control over. It would be like hating yourself because you caught feelings for someone. How much say do you actually have over that, really?

But more importantly…

How much pain did Arabelle have to go through to realize that lesson?

“That was… really, really wise, Arabelle.”

A grin overcame her serious demeanor.

“I know what I’m talking about from time to time.”

No kidding.

“But hey, on the plus side… You don’t have much holding you back in the Magic department. You’re pretty gifted, actually! One-in-a-million!”

Arabelle was being extremely kind to him, all things considered. But given their dynamic, something was off…

Suddenly Cobalt was overcome with cruel words he just couldn’t keep on his tongue.

“Arabelle, how much is a million?”

A grin snuck itself onto his face.

“Uhhh—A—A lot.”

Her voice fluttered as she shyly looked in the other direction.

She said she never went to magic school… It’s like she has a grade-school education—how adorable.

How old was she anyway? 13? 14?

“Poooiiint is, I’m sure with just a decade or so of learning magic with me, you might even be as strong as I am now!”

Wh—

Cobalt’s brain went black like an unplugged TV.

That was a joke right?

…A decade?

It suddenly felt like all of his hopes and ambitions got shot out of him by an arrow.

A deadly arrow, piercing right through his heart.

“Ten years?!?! You know a decade’s ten years right?!?!”

“H—Huh…? Of course I do…!”

“How could it possibly take that long?! Did you start learning out of the womb?! I don’t understand—I’d be like two to three times your age before I’m even at your level?!”

“What—?!?! Two to three times?! How old do you think I am, Cobalt?!?!”

What was with that reaction…? Twenty nine divided by thirteen is around 2.3. That’s between 2 and 3, isn’t it?

She wanted him to guess her age, so maybe…

“Well we sort of bond in a little-sister-who-makes-the-rules and big-brother-who-follows-her-anyway sorta way.”

—Yeah, no way he could reply with that. It was definitely true, but didn’t really paint her in the best of light.

“You’ve got a ton of those magic grimoires, and the way you fling that tattered cape around, makes me feel like you’re definitely still in your Chuunibyou³ stage...”

—To be fair, even if she understood what he was referencing by some slim chance, he couldn’t think of a single person that wouldn’t sock him in the mouth for calling them a chuunibyou. Even Cobalt shudders at the thought of himself five years ago.

So at a loss for an explanation, he just had to put all his cards out on the table. Looks, height, personality. All of it was there.

“Fourteen.”

Was his final answer.

“Four—?”

It caught in her throat.

“Fourteen…?”

Sensing something was wrong, Cobalt gulped.

Did he guess too low…?

But amidst the fear and anticipation…

“A—…?” was all she could muster.

Silence once again fell onto the room. A short-lived silence that was quickly overtaken by the heavy breaths of a very angry not-14-year-old-girl looking down on him with merciless eyes.

“A—Arabelle we can talk abou—”

“FOOUURTEEEEEEENNN?!?!?!”

His ears may as well have bursted at the seams.

“A—Are you joking?! No, you absolutely completely TOTALLY must be joking!!!”

Cobalt felt pressed back into his chair. So far back that he felt on the verge of falling over backwards.

“I’m twenty, Cobalt!!! Twenty-and-a-damn-half!!!”

“Wh… What…?”

Beads of sweat ran off his face.

No—That couldn’t be…!

After all, Cobalt—

Falling off his seat, he bolted into a rushed stand as his chair flew over backwards. Sprawled across the wood floor, the screech followed by slam permeated his eardrums, still barely recovering from her scream. Meanwhile, unforgiving water dripped rhythmically onto his hair from above.

—Cobalt was only nineteen and a half…!

“Th—Ththththththat means…!”

Cobalt gulped…

“THAT MEANS THIS LOLI IS SOMEHOW OLDER THAN ME?!?!?!?!?!”

“WHAT THE HELL IS THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN?!?!”

* * * * * * * *

³Chuunibyou: translated to Middle School Syndrome, describes the embarrassing behavior of 13 to 14 year olds that everyone tries to forget, and no one likes to talk about.