Magic Training
“Huh? Vio, I thought you were taking today off?”
“Yeah! Vio, can you do magic with us today?”
When the bell marking the end of class rang, I thanked the Vice-Guildmaster for the souvenir and headed down to the basement.
Dad is also the wood-magic instructor for magic training, after all.
As soon as I entered the training grounds, Ren and Hachi came running up to me, having noticed that I hadn’t been there during first period.
“Glasses? Huh? Vio, you look kinda different.”
“Mmm, yeah, you do. Something’s different.”
The two of them circled around me, going around and around trying to figure out what was different. This is dangerously cute.
“Oh my, Vio, you’re attending magic training today? Ah, hello, Mr. Alke.
Glasses are rare. Ah, so you prepared those. Your eye color matches Alke’s now too, how cute, they really suit you.”
Kathe, praising me so casually like that is so cool! Thank you!
“Ah! You’re right, her eye color’s different!”
“Ohhh, I see. Huh? What color were Vio’s eyes again?”
The two of them seemed satisfied with Kathe’s explanation, though also a bit frustrated they hadn’t noticed it themselves first.
Well, if there’s no reason, you don’t really pay attention to other people’s eye colors, right?
After that, some of the older students who came in also commented on my glasses, but they apparently remembered the reason from last time about my hair color, “It’s a rare color, so I might get kidnapped” , so no one pressed me about the color itself.
They’re all kids under ten, you know? Aren’t they way too sharp?
“At all times, adventurers face not only the danger of monsters, but other dangers as well.”
That’s one of the teachings at the academy, and beastkin children in particular are raised being taught that lesson thoroughly.
From my perspective, having memories of living in a safe country like Japan, it feels pretty harsh, but this is a world where even traveling from one village to another comes with danger.
It’s just that the country where elementary school kids could ride trains alone with their backpacks was unbelievably amazing.
The bell rang again, and the teacher entered.
“Okaaay, everyone, attention! This time, when the Guildmasters went to the guild conference, they explained karuta and the children’s medicinal herb gathering. Thanks to that, karuta has gained even more attention!”
At Ariana’s prompting, the students responded with applause, murmuring “Oooh” and clapping along.
“We’ve already received regular purchase requests from Meritent, and the workshops they commissioned are probably already starting production too. But this time, guilds across the entire Lizmoni Kingdom have learned about it, so we’re also getting orders via parcel delivery. Because of that, we’ll be taking a break from practicing attack and defense magic for a while!”
““Ehhhhh~””
A few shocked voices rose up at the teacher’s announcement.
Well, up until now, we’d been alternating practice, after all.
“Making karuta boards is fine practice for wind magic and wood magic control, you know? It’s far better training than repeatedly shooting at targets.
Ren and Hachi can already use Wind Cutter without chanting.”
““What?!””
“Huh? Me?”
“Mm? Without chantiiing?”
This time, the reaction wasn’t shock so much as pure surprise. But since both Ren and Hachi seemed to have done it unconsciously, they didn’t really get it themselves.
“Oh, you’ve got that magic that turns wood into square timber, right? Go on, show it to them.”
Instructor Muscle-Squirrel prepared a branch in front of the two of them. They don’t make big mistakes anymore, so even something thin is fine.
“Huh? Just the usual one? Umm… it’s this line, right? Wind Cutter.”
Ren looked at the line drawn on the branch and fired his magic right at it.
No charge-up, no thrusting his hand forward, no long chant, just the muttered trigger, and the branch was cut cleanly straight through.
Hachi did the same, finishing his chant with only the trigger.
“Wait—what? When did the little kids get this good?”
“My little brother surpassed me…”
Tony’s eyes were wide in shock, while Run looked devastated.
Those two hadn’t rotated to other sections, they’d just kept working on producing square timber this whole time.
They’d set a goal of cutting efficiently from thick logs down to thin branches without waste, so they’d been working incredibly hard.
“Practicing polishing is also mana control training, and by doing this, you should be getting better at using other magic as well.
You all use earth magic during martial training too, don’t you? Hasn’t it gotten easier to use?”
“Oh my, now that you mention it, I can make several raised mounds at once.”
“Well, that’s true. It used to take more time to make them, but now we can do it much faster.”
“Oh my, you’re right. Making taller earth walls doesn’t feel nearly as tiring anymore.”
At the triplets’ words, everyone else also seemed to realize, “Come to think of it…”
“I thought mana control was boring and uncool…”
Well, that’s probably exactly why the practice order had been the way it was until now.
If they’d reached bronze rank without ever getting to mana control, they might’ve stayed bad at magic forever.
In that case, maybe they’d go the route of sharpening sword skills on the front line instead?
I’m small, so I want to be able to use magic properly, but I also want to be able to use weapons.
All there is to do is train.
Convinced by the teacher’s words, the students split into their groups and worked hard on making karuta again today.
You could say the adults talked us into it pretty skillfully, but since it really is training, I think that’s just fine.
What do you think about this chapter?
