CH 18

I’d sent Allison off with cheers, but I still felt stuck with different things. The first of these was magic. I still can’t fire flying slashes. In the first place, I don’t know how to give impetus to the mana.

My guild requests were in a similar sorry state. I’d raised my rank recently and could go on better requests with Allison, but without her, I don’t have the lightning attribute. Even with the water attribute I can only make water balls, which are of little use. She hasn’t been gone long, and I’m already missing her1.

All other parties only wanted me as a luggage carrier, and I didn’t foresee any good prospects in such invitations. Besides, it’s not like they needed my help in particular. It was clear to me that they were just making designs for obtaining my magic bag.

Around that time, Manuela returned to town, and we met up in the same conference room at the guild. “Hmm? Where’s winter?”, I asked immediately after entering the room. I’d been really looking forward to seeing him again.

“Winter is with his mother. They are going around to several places to greet friends and relatives.”, informed Manuela. That’s pretty similar to what aristocrats do. “He was really eager to meet you again you know?”, she said. “Well of course he was, I’m his parent after all.”, I boasted. “Yes, so am I.”, she said nodding sagely.

“So, are you here to give me something?”, I asked. She’d said that she would give my additional reward on another day, I wondered if today was that day. “Yes, that’s right.”, she confirmed. Manuela then proceeded to trace a circle in the air, and put her hand into the dark opening she’d created. “Where…. Ah! There it is.” She drew her hand out of the circle, and it was holding a single book titled ‘Basic Magic 5th edition.’

I frowned and drew out a similar book from my magic bag. “I already have one.”, I said showing it to her. “Ah, that one is very old. Its methods are considered brutish nowadays.”, she replied. Yeah. It starts with ‘Let’s try mixing two attributes’ after all. “This one is the latest edition. It has proper supplementary explanations and actually teaches the basics. Elves’ magic skills have been declining year by year you see. Probably because we are over-reliant on magic tools.”

I opened the contents page to check, and it began with ‘Let’s try sensing the flow of our mana’. This! This is it. Oh, how I wish I’d had this from the beginning. “Next is this.”, said Manuela as she took out a cloth bag. Inside it were metallic rings of various sizes. The ring sizes varied steadily until they were the size of finger rings. In addition, there was also a single thin rod.

“What are these?”, I asked curiously. “They are tools for magic training. They are all made out of Animium, and their use is detailed in that book.” I put both of them away in my magic bag. “That should be everything I guess.”, said Manuela. I felt a bit glum hearing that.

“Well, including the previous time, I’ve given enough to repay you. The only thing left would be information, I suppose.”, she added. “Information?”, I asked taken aback. Manuela nodded. “You’re pretty unique for a human right? You can use magic thanks to the Animium inside your body. So I thought if you deepened your understanding about Animium, your magical abilities might also transform. For example, you might be able to use other attributes.”

“Is that really possible!?”, I asked incredulously. “I don’t know! All I’m saying is that, you might be able to discover something new.”, she said trying to manage my expectations. She then took out a sealed letter and passed it to me. The seal had an impression that I hadn’t seen before. It was impressed with something that looked like letters to me. “Go to Alcorada and give this letter to a woman named Vinette Badel. She’s an authority on Animium.”

“Alcorada. That place has an Animium mine right?”, I asked. “That’s right. Normally humans tend to stay away from it, but that doesn’t matter to you right?”, confirmed Manuela. I nodded in reply. In Alcorada, a significant amount of Animium is mixed in the air too, if a human inhales too much of it, they won’t be able to contract with a Servant. That’s why most people tend to stay away from that place. But like Manuela said, that doesn’t matter to me.

Should I try going there? It’ll take time for Allison to return, it’s not like I have to stay put here during that time. Besides, until recently I’d been bedridden and could only read about the wide world. After coming to Entour, I met Allison and saw different places and things. I want to see more. I want to see the ocean, the desert and the floating island. Thus, I decided to go on a journey which was never an option to me before.

Turned out Manuela came here only to give me these things. Soon after, she bid farewell and left the town. I’m sure we would meet again one day.

Thinking that there was no time like the present, I bought a map to get an idea of the distance to Alcorada. Problem was, a dangerous forest from which monsters might appear was near the route. What to do? Should I hire some adventurers? Thinking that, I looked for the nearest town…. Voldory. That was the place where my ex-fiancée Rosa’s family ruled as feudal lords. She’ll probably marry someone else I guess. I didn’t know if she believed that I was dead though. Nevertheless, I’ve been disinherited, our social positions are like heaven and earth now. I felt that it would be for the best if I didn’t meet her. I’m just a memory to her now.

I decided not to go through Voldory, but cut through the forest instead on my own. But I need to practice my magic for that. Right now I can fight close range with my body strengthening, but that won’t be enough2. To deal with the monsters in the forest and get through it alive, I’ll need some way to attack from a longer range. Come to think of it, I might be able to brute-force it by wearing my Aura, but no, this is a good opportunity. Let’s remove that block, and leave after I’ve learnt how to fire magic.

T/N Notes: