Chapter 42: Lily’s “Freeze”

My name is Bia. Having just barely graduated from the honorable Aureitas Magecraft Academy, I was invited by Audrey and am somehow making by as an adventurer.

We’ve currently accepted a certain request and have arrived at the highway going to the Empire. However, we may perhaps be looking at a miracle.

「Arisa, are you sure this is really “Freeze”?」 「The spell’s chant was definitely an arrangement of “Freeze.” But the amount of MP used and the MP control was insane.」 「I see, you noticed that, huh. Grim, what about you?」 「Don’t ask me about Magecraft stuff, I don’t know anything about that. Still, all I know is that it is definitely abnormal.」

Audrey listens to the members of “Grim” not with her usual lax tone, but with sharp, inquisitive words.

It’ll be troublesome if the two from “Little” see us in this situation, but seeing that they both went in their tent right after dinner, it looks like we were right to tire them out with the combat training this morning.

「Bia, what are your thoughts on this?」 「It’s in a state of apparent death. You really can’t see it as a Goblin left frozen for ten days.」 「Emily?」 「I agree. This state is probably the spell’s side effect as well.」

Right in front of us is a Goblin’s corpse. No, since it’s still just in a state of apparent death, it may be a bit too early to call it a corpse. Earlier, we pretended to dispose all of them and kept one body hidden.

Despite it being frozen for ten days, the body itself had no signs of damage. If we just leave it be for a whole day, this Goblin will probably wake up as if nothing happened.

「In the end, what does this mean?」 「Well, there’s only one thing that can achieve this. Time Magic.」 「「Wha-!?」」 「Just as I thought, huh……」

To Grimhart’s question, Audrey brings in one possibility. Everyone from “Grim” was shocked, but only the Mage Arisa seems to agree on it.

Time Magic, it’s literally a Magic that controls time and is considered the limit that water attribute can reach. Just as how water flows from up to down, time also flows from the past to the future. This means if one can master the control of water, the control of flow itself, they can also stop or reverse the flow of time.

However, even in the long history of our Kingdom of Aureitas, there were only just three people that had Time Magic and only living user of Time Magic now is one of the Twelve Sages: the Sage of Cancer.

And because there is a possibility of that having been used here, it’s understandable for Grim’s members to be surprised. In all honesty, even I can’t believe what’s happening before me.

「So it means that the Guild Master’s judgment was right, huh?」 「Yeah. At the very least, it’s certain that Lily’s a Magic User.」

Magecraft is an imitation of Magic, something crafted to be used by everyone. It’s something the researchers of the past brought forth after investigating how the phenomena caused Magic to occur.

Even our current researchers are desperately in the midst of bringing forth new spells but naturally, there still are tons of Magics that haven’t been recreated via Magecraft.

Among them is Time Magic. It doesn’t help that the Magic itself is complicated, but the fact that the phenomenon of controlling time is difficult for people other than the user to perceive is the main reason for the research’s stagnancy.

If she can really use it, then this naturally means that Lily is a Magic User. The phenomenon she caused itself seems to be Frost Magic, but both Frost Magic and Time Magic are just applications of the water attribute.

In this request, there’s something that “Little” doesn’t know. There’s a Hidden Request only given for “Grim” and “Fyne”. The investigation of whether Lily is a Magic User or not and the confirmation of her strength.

That’s because Lily seems to have been showing signs of trying to hide the fact that she can use Magic. However, the fact that she herself is quite ignorant of common sense seems to be true; on top of doing everything flashily, she has caused so much trouble that would make you want to ask her if she really does feel like hiding it at all.

Thanks to the public recognizing the existence of Magic Users as things of myths and fairy tales, even after all the mischief she caused, the others never thought of her Spells as Magic.

However, people like us who have gone to the Academy and people like the Guild Master who knows the existence of Magic Users can easily figure that out. Arisa seems to have noticed that too, but she may have had some sort of encounter with a Magic User.

「So, what should we do?」 「For the meantime, in tomorrow’s investigation, let’s act not just by party but in separate groups. Bia, can I ask you to handle it?」 「Yes, of course. It’s enough if I just record it down with my Record Magecraft, right?」 「Yeah, I’m counting on you.」

The Spells I’m good at are Probe and Record. Since the academy heavily emphasizes strength, I was treated as a failure but ever since I left the Academy, Audrey made me realize that there are very few Spells as useful to an adventurer as these. Record Magecraft has a need to be constantly activated, but that’s the same with Probe Magecraft so there’ll probably be no issue if I just gloss it over.

「What should tell them for splitting into groups?」 「Right, how about we say it’s because of the number of people? With Bia from our party and one person from yours, we can make just exactly three four-man groups.」 「If that’s the case, Jarvis… would cause issues. Gray, can I trust you on this?」 「The fact that I’ll be deceiving the person who saved us makes me feel complicated. Understood, if it’s what our leader decides on then I’ll follow.」 「Then I’ll be troubling you.」 「Huh, why not me!?」 「If you’re gone, where the hell are we going to get another Mage!?」 「Boo~… It would’ve been great if only Lysha learned Magecraft.」 「Please don’t ask too much from me.」

Thank god, if by any chance I got into the same group with the silent Jarvis, it would have ended up being painfully quiet. Just as I already have this distasteful job of lying and monitoring the ones we should protect, I can’t take any more than that.

Tomorrow, I must confirm her true strength. And depending on that…… I really wish that a child like her wouldn’t have to go to that Academy filled with those self-centered ????????????????????????????????. While earnestly thinking so, I could only gaze at the tent she should have been sleeping at.