CH 4

Three days have passed since Christoph decided he would become my tutor. According to the contact, it will properly start from today. It seems that he took time to arrange teaching materials and a lesson plan, and did not intend to play around in the slightest. Anyway, my competence seems to be enough to finally be able to study magic.

“First of all, let’s begin with magical power manipulation,” Christoph said. “Try it.”

“…………”

And with the first words from Christoph’s mouth, after he visited me in my house, I went stiff…

mmm. Please hold up a moment. I don’t know how to manipulate magical power, so I should have been tutored about that. Even so, there is no way I could do it if I was suddenly told to manipulate magic without any explanation.

“What’s wrong? Hurry up,” Christoph said.

“Mist’r Christoph… that th’ng is… I don’ know how to do tha’, so c’n you teach me?” I said.

At that, Christoph put a hand on his chin and stared at me. Those eyes aren’t just looking at me but at something… I can’t put it into words, but it’s something else. In short, I can only tell you he’s watching carefully but there’s so much more to it than that.

……Maybe that “thing” is the capability to use magic or the ability to see the magical power inside me?

“It doesn’t matter if you don’t understand. First, do what you think will work,” Christoph said.

“…… Okay,” I said.

If he says so, I have no choice but to try. I try to practice what was written in the foundations of the magic book that I read in the study. Then, on a whim, I try to imagine what Christoph was focusing on just now. I couldn’t cast magic just by reading about it. There’s a saying that theories are best when tested.

Like this… that power gradually circulates like blood in my body and gathers in my hand… the flow does not stop and continues to surge and build up in the palm of my right hand. It feels like things are getting bigger…

“This can’t be happening, can it?” Christoph asked.

“…… Huh?”

When I opened my eyes, I lost focus, and when I looked at my palm, I felt something vague there. I can’t see anything with my eyes. It just feels like there’s something soft and warm on my palm. Of course, it’s faint and I can’t sense anything on my skin nor feel any weight to it, but it certainly has a presence that makes you think there is certainly something there, different from before.

“Why did you lie and say that you couldn’t do it?” Christoph asked.

Is he suddenly treating me like I lied…? Since I did it immediately after I said I could not, I suppose I couldn’t avoid this.

“I wasn’ lying,” I said. “I really couldn’ do it earl’er. I felt some kin’ of mysterious pow’r in my chest and in you, Mr. Christoph, so I tried to imitat’t.”

“So you saw through the spell I used earlier, examined it, imitated it, and succeeded on your first try?” Christoph asked.

If you say it like that, it sounds like a lie. But it can’t be helped because that’s just the truth.

“Tha’s right,” I said.

“I see,” Christoph said. “Then, next…”

He seemed to let it go with no particular concern. I have no idea if he interpreted what I said as a lie or if he believed me. However, he didn’t intend to say anything more about it, and I was given one task after another.

It’s funny though… if I’m not mistaken, I don’t know the technical terms and magical theory, so that’s why I asked to have a private tutor to teach me, didn’t I?

Nevertheless, what Christoph taught me today was all about the practical manipulation of magical power and trying to cast spells. He didn’t give me any lectures or teach any theories. It’s like being told to improve your muscle memory.

……Perhaps he judged I wasn’t that smart in that aptitude test before. There were quite a few blanks with no answers. There were some problems that I thought I might be wrong about it from my vague recollection. For the aptitude test of that second set of questions, it would be on the ideal end if I got a score of 80 or so, in my rough self-grading.

Christoph seems to be a fairly famous magician because Father brought him here. I don’t know the details, but I’ve heard rumors from the maids and butlers about things to keep in mind when entertaining him.

From Christoph’s point of view, I guess he really doesn’t want to be a tutor for a three-year-old child. I think that’s what he said on the first day. There is no doubt in my mind that he had publicly declared to Father that he would not take me as a student if he deemed me not worthy of teaching.

For the time being, he might have decided to become my tutor because I got a decent score on the aptitude test, but it’s highly likely that he wanted me to learn with my body because I’m not that smart.

Assuming all that’s true, it’s fair it took him three days to get his lesson plan and teaching materials ready. I guess he thought I couldn’t understand what his original plan and references were, so he had to create a new set in a hurry.

“Well then, this is the last for today. Try to imitate me… Fire, show yourself.”

A small flame lit up on Christoph’s fingertips. It’s a tiny fire like a pocket lighter. I think the chants in that book I read were longer, but Christoph is able to start a fire with that tiny chant. If I’m told to imitate him, I’ve got no choice but to obey.

“Fiyah… ah…”

As soon as I said “Fire,” my fingertips lit up. I think I’ve mostly gotten used to circulating and gathering the necessary amounts of magical power for today’s training. All that’s left is to learn the chant for Fire Magic and pour in the necessary amount of power to activate it, like fuel. However, it seems that the spell activates in the middle of the chant.

However, my premature-chant fire is a fleeting little thing that you cloud blow on to put out. I’m pretty tired because I’ve been manipulating magic power all day today. I think this tiredness is not only physical fatigue but also a state of magical depletion due to using it. From what I’ve researched, it all sounds very similar to my current symptoms.

“That’s all for today. I’ll lend you this book. Prepare for tomorrow,” Christoph said.

“Huh…?” I asked.

As I stood there lighting a magic lamp, BANG! On the other side of the desk was a book thick like an encyclopedia. No, no! Finish this by tomorrow? Seriously? When I was in college, trying to do reports at the last minute, even their materials were less than this. Even then, it was barely possible to finish it in a few days, but you asked me to use this to prep for tomorrow?

Christoph was about to go home while I was stunned by the thick book. This person really goes his own way regardless of his surroundings.

“Ah… t’ank you bery much, Mr. Christop’,” I said.

And with that hurried goodbye, Christoph glances back at me and then leaves without another word. Did I not learn how to give my greetings and goodbyes properly?

Well, this is not time to ponder about that. I was given a homework assignment involving reading this thick, encyclopedia-like book by tomorrow. I tried to do my best to dedicate all my free time to it, but in the end, when I had barely read half of it, my drowsiness won over and I fell asleep before I knew it.

Christoph said he’ll be back tomorrow. Yesterday, the first day of my tutoring, he told me to keep my schedule free till next month, so I probably won’t have a day off until next month, at the least. While I did say I wanted to study magic, isn’t this too difficult? I’m only supposed to be three years old, but…

“Have you done your homework?” Christoph asked.

And here it comes, that question… of course, I haven’t finished it. My brain can’t read and understand all of this book’s contents in one night. I will answer honestly.

“Um… I only ma’e it to the mi’dle,” I said.

“How far, exactly?”

“Here,” I said.

He was asking for specifics, so I opened to the part and pointed at the passage I’d been reading last night. If I just read the letters, it would have gone faster. However, if I wanted to try to understand and memorize what else is written here, it’ll take some time. To begin with, this book’s contents are more difficult than the foundations of magic.

I had a hard time understanding even the basics of magic, so even though I wanted to learn from a tutor, it would be unreasonable to be told to read a more difficult book and understand it in isolation.

“I see,” Christoph said.

Without getting particularly upset, Christoph sat down and took out a piece of paper. I tried to do the same but he got angry at me.

“You don’t have to sit down. Repeat the same magic manipulation exercise as yesterday.”

“Okay…”

I can’t say for sure if he’s angry, but I’ll go with angry, so I obediently followed. As I did yesterday, I instantly gathered magical power. Think I think of a magical spell, like a formula. I transfer that magical power into the spell. I manipulate my magical power and cast spells over and over until I’m exhausted. It seems that you could lose consciousness when your magic power is depleted.

It’s only my second day of manipulating magic, so I’ve never gone that far, but today I feel like I’m able to manipulate magic and activate magic more smoothly than yesterday. Besides, it doesn’t look like my magical power is depleted and I’ll faint. I’ve done it so many times that I would have been exhausted yesterday, but I’m still okay.

“Enough. Next, take a seat and solve this problem,” Christoph said.

As he wrote something on a piece of paper, he gathered the same amount of magical power as yesterday and looked at me with that magical sensing spell, but he asked me to sit down halfway through the exercise. It seems he had prepared questions while I was doing them. They seem to be based on the encyclopedia-like book I read yesterday.

In other words, it’s a quiz to check whether I did do my homework and whether I understand and remember the contents. Maybe it’s because my brain is young, but I remembered what I learned yesterday quite well. With this, the quiz should have a reasonably good score.

And when the quiz is over, I’m forced to manipulate magic again. In the meantime, Christoph was checking my answer sheet. He’s probably formulating the next question while doing the exercise. And when my mana gets low, he gives me a break with a quiz and reviews the questions I got wrong.

In this manner, I learned Christoph’s style of manipulating magic, activating spells, and reviewing books.

Half a year has passed since I started learning magic from my tutor, Christoph. Apparently, Mother has been informed that I was learning magic, so she thought that I should learn things other than magic, hence my number of tutors has increased.

At first, one tutor was supposed to teach me everything except magic, but that tutor quickly stopped. It seems their reason was that there was nothing to teach me.

For example, elementary school students learn almost all major subjects from one teacher. That’s because if it’s a lesson plan for elementary school students to learn, it can be taught by a single adult.

As students progress through middle school and high school, the content becomes more difficult and specialized, so one teacher cannot cover all subjects, so there are specialized teachers for each subject.

In my case as well, the first tutor seems to have come here with the intention of teaching a child’s broad and shallow education, but since they had nothing to teach me, they quit the job and left.

After that, I had four tutors: Christoph for magic, Sigmund for national history and domestic affairs, Leon for military strategy and tactics, and Olivia for etiquette and manners.

As for those other three, Sigmund is an old man. Leon was relatively younger, not yet middle-aged but neither young man. Olivia was a woman but a very strict old woman, and it seems my dream of having “hee-hee, ha-ha” good times with a young female tutor is unlikely to ever come.

Anyway, I’ll introduce each of them specifically some other time, what I’d like to focus on is today’s tutor, Christoph’s magic class.

Ever since I learned magic, I’ve been feeling strangely uncomfortable these days. First of all, it’s said that the talent of a magician is innate, and the amount of total magical power is also determined after birth. But even if I use too much magic power, it will recover eventually.

Do you think that’s normal? It’s normal, isn’t it? If it’s true that ‘the total amount of mana you are born with is fixed’ from start, isn’t it over when you use it all up? How can you recover it? And if you can recover, can’t you increase it as well?

What is magic, why is it in the body, why can spells be used, and how is it recovered? If you know that, can’t you artificially increase your magical power?

If it is used up and does not recover, then I can understand that the amount of magical power I had was fixed. At the very least, if I could understand how magic power is recovered, I think it would be possible to interpret the phenomenon completely differently from now.

In addition, when it comes to activating magic, there is a big difference between the foundations of magic and how to cast normal magic. The foundations of magic and the books that Christoph made me read are scientific and logical, including mathematical formulas, physics, and chemistry, something you could call “magical theory.”

However, when it comes to teaching spells, usually you’d only be given abstract and imaginary things, such as offering prayers to gods, or offering magical power to the spirit of fire and requesting their aid.

Of course, Christoph didn’t teach me spells like that, but I found out because I had seen something like that in the texts he didn’t show me. Christoph knows that there are such educational methods in the world, but he educates me in a different way. I don’t know if it’s good or bad, but it’s thanks to this that I noticed something was wrong with the knowledge.

Spells are activated by pouring magical power into a logically constructed formula, the technique is similar to the writing, compilation, and execution of a computer program. Even so, it doesn’t matter if it’s a long chant or something to do with fire spirits. I admit that the chanting seems to have helped develop the magical formula. In other words, someone who doesn’t completely remember the exact spell formula will recall it with a long chant, attempting to reconstruct it and pseudo-cast the spell.

Chants, the efficiency of magic formulas, the belief that magic power doesn’t increase, if you were taught that those from birth and raised new generations yourself, you would believe it. People who have believed in the Ptolemaic Theory 1 since their birth did not understand it, even though the planets are the one rotating around stars, they say that the stars are the ones moving around the planets. One should not be surprised.

But I am different. I have knowledge of Earth in my previous life. That’s why I thought it was funny. The thing is… if all this research goes well, it could lead to a paradigm-shifting discovery, right?

That’s what I thought then.

But maybe Christoph didn’t tell me about that on purpose? Is he waiting for me to find out for myself? Or did he dare to mislead and miseducate me?

In any case, it would be better not to say unnecessary things recklessly as long as I don’t understand Christoph’s gut feelings. I will investigate and study this idea on my own and acquire that knowledge. Christoph’s class is helping me, but the magic theory I’m learning is unnatural.

Anyway, I decided to research magic alone without being able to consult anyone.