Chapter 17

Sorcery is a conversation with the world.

Quilbion watched the talisman fall and disappear, thinking to himself.

Should I shout at it?

Or should I whisper?

He grasped another talisman. Now, if he concentrated for about 10 seconds, blue light would flash from it.

Al Terua had said that blue light was ‘lightning.’

A power with no immediate use.

What he needed right now was wind that could send the talisman flying.

After throwing a few more talismans, he turned around. He buried his eyes in the book spread open on the desk.

Sitpin Yellow Form’s sorcery.

Just as Al Terua had said, it recorded all kinds of basic arts.

Sorcery for massaging shoulders, sorcery for raising a teacup’s temperature, sorcery for adding luster to flower petals, sorcery for hanging pictures in midair, and so on.

Among them, the ‘art for raising wind’ was written in chapter 3 of the introductory section.

A form with the left fist pressed against the chest and the right index finger extended forward.

It was the hand seal needed for the sorcery.

Quilbion assumed the hand seal and tried moving his nark over and over.

Something seemed to stir and move inside his body, but it didn’t feel like anything was being released cleanly.

The results weren’t satisfying either.

The talisman did fly, but it would fall after about 5 meters.

Crumpling the talisman and throwing it by hand would make it go farther.

What was the problem?

Having to handle invisible power.

The situation felt so hopeless that all he could do was let out hollow laughs.

After spacing out for about a minute, he picked up the talisman again.

There was no time to feel discouraged. A whole day had already passed. If he couldn’t show results by tomorrow, he’d have to give up sorcery as promised.

Give up.

Quilbion despised that word terribly. Competition meant victory. He’d never even considered things like defeat or setbacks.

More than anything, if he lost this bet, he’d only be able to watch over Twella. Helplessly.

The very thought made him shudder.

It absolutely couldn’t happen.

Al Terua had prophesied failure while bringing up that bizarre word ‘fate,’ but would it really be like that?

Everything predetermined.

It was far too strange a thing to say.

He would succeed spectacularly and tell Al Terua there was no such thing as fate.

“Just a little more!”

Quilbion poured out encouragement toward the talisman flying in a straight line.

The talisman that had advanced 5 meters lost power once again and fell.

It was 150 meters to the building on the opposite side.

A daunting distance.

Even if he obtained powerful wind, there was still one more problem remaining.

The task Al Terua had given was to hit the tile with the talisman. It wasn’t simply about sending it flying—he had to set an accurate target and send it there.

Quilbion was staring at the target tile when he squinted slightly.

The Sun was passing over the dormitory building. Light scattered from its massive body, making the surroundings even brighter.

If only I could use power like that goblin…

Al Terua had said it. That his nark was endlessly weak.

Since the nark that could be called basic stamina was insufficient, the talisman couldn’t exceed 5 meters before falling.

He’d said increasing nark in a short period was difficult. Unless one had talent like Twella.

He shouldn’t fixate on what couldn’t be done—he had to find methods among what he could do now.

Making blue lightning.

Sending the talisman flying slightly.

And a few miscellaneous arts he’d been able to learn surprisingly easily.

Quilbion twisted his fingers into a hand seal and let nark flow into the talisman.

The nark that trickled out resonated with the talisman and induced a phenomenon.

Thump, thump, thump.

It vibrated.

When he placed it against his shoulder, it felt refreshing.

Mm, it was useless sorcery. Even when he released it from his hand, the talisman kept thumping for a while.

Thump, thump, thump.

The talisman bounced slightly as it moved across the floor. Quilbion stared at it blankly.

A crude method came to mind.

Would it work?

Before asking himself, he moved first.

The talismans Al Terua had given him in abundance.

These were the key.

He grasped the talisman that would be first and moved his nark. Though he couldn’t feel it, mana was probably moving along with it.

He kept pouring in nark.

Then.

Snap—with a sharp sound, the talisman tore. He could see the nark scattering too.

He immediately checked the clock.

17 minutes.

This must be the limit the talisman could endure, right?

He continued the experiment with a second talisman. He transferred nark to the precarious edge and released his hand.

Thump, thump, thump.

The talisman imbued with sorcery vibrated.

Quilbion tried placing another talisman on top of the bouncing one.

The talisman immediately bounced away.

He tried placing several more.

The directions they bounced were random.

He prepared a third talisman.

He tried using the art from chapter 1 of Sitpin Yellow Form’s introductory section—the art for hanging pictures in midair.

“Hm?”

He formed the hand seal and guided the nark, but the moment he released the talisman, it fluttered and fell to the floor.

Why?

After pondering, he picked up a pencil. He drew a spoon in the corner of the talisman. It was his first time drawing one, so it was a mess, but it was a picture nonetheless.

He activated the sorcery again.

When he released his fingers, the talisman hung in midair.

A curious thing. Once he’d drawn a picture on it, the talisman was recognized as a ‘picture’ and the sorcery activated.

Who was the subject doing the recognizing?

Quilbion stared at the talisman while thinking.

This is a picture, this is a picture.

The talisman fell limply.

He felt somehow frightened. For no reason, he raised his head and looked around.

“Is someone watching?”

It was an absurd world. It wouldn’t be strange if the master of sorcery was watching.

Of course, there was no answer.

He’d find out later when he asked Al Terua.

He drew a picture in the corner of the talisman. After drawing spoons repeatedly, a fairly presentable spoon shape emerged.

What remained was applying the two sorceries.

He used the picture sorcery on the thumping talisman in succession.

Paaaah!

With a feeling of something bursting out, the talisman swelled up then shriveled.

It wasn’t the result he’d hoped for.

Quilbion frowned at the talisman. The two sorceries had to manifest simultaneously for there to be any possibility of success.

What was the obstacle?

When stuck, tearing apart the problem was the best approach. He flipped through the Sitpin Yellow Form’s sorcery booklet.

“Should I change the hand seal?”

Each time the motion changed, the form of nark exiting his body seemed to change too.

What if the two forces were conflicting and self-destructing?

Quilbion recalled Al Terua’s hand seal. He’d used various sorceries just by snapping his fingers.

The simpler, the better.

Quilbion flicked his thumb while observing how the nark reacted.

Even when he moved it repeatedly with intent, there was no reaction.

Then.

He tried moving his fingers sequentially. He changed the height of both hands and the front-to-back spacing too.

“This is it.”

He folded the joints of his middle, ring, and pinky fingers against his palm and extended his thumb and index finger straight.

It was an arbitrary hand seal form, but the ‘art for massaging shoulders’ activated.

Quilbion observed meticulously how the nark moved.

The cold energy that started below his right chest circled around his torso once, passed the back of his neck, then rapidly descended his arm and was released through his fingertips.

“Whew.”

His head felt slightly dizzy.

The slightly diminished nark quickly refilled after a few breaths.

He mulled over the nark’s internal movement path and used the second sorcery.

The same!

Though he’d used different sorceries, the nark used the same pathway.

A talisman containing two sorceries.

Quilbion gently placed the bouncing talisman in midair.

Thump, thump, thump!

The talisman vibrated with a steady rhythm in midair.

Now it was time to adjust the direction.

He lined up the talismans while imbuing intent as written in the book.

Talismans arranged in a line in midair with 30cm spacing.

Quilbion stood with his back to the door, then threw a new talisman toward the talismans arranged in a row.

The lightly flying talisman bounced with a thunk on top of the first talisman and moved to the second.

The talisman that traveled across six talismans soon escaped outside through the window.

“…It worked.”

The water skipping he’d done countless times at the stream.

Should this be called talisman skipping?

Quilbion created new talismans, then checked the time.

A talisman he’d crammed with nark for 15 minutes thumped for 30 minutes.

The sorcery’s effectiveness lasted longer than expected.

Quilbion immediately prepared talismans and put them into action.

*

He’d dealt with goblins face-to-face for several hours doing work.

He’d evaluated two students who would be transferred to the ‘special class,’ and sent one of them up to the special class.

A child whose nark raged fiercely.

Material that would make those Pioneer bastards very happy.

After finishing the selection, he’d brought in three students designated as failures.

Those three had their nark stolen by goblins. Normally the goblins would consume the students’ bodies too, but the goblin in charge said he was fasting and burned the corpses.

The corpses burned in the cafeteria became white smoke and scattered into the atmosphere.

As Al Terua finished his work, he thought briefly.

Haven’t I worn down too much?

Poor kids were dying, yet he felt no emotion.

No, he seemed sad, but…

It was hard to understand.

Was I always this kind of person?

When I was outside, I think I was kind.

Outside.

The hometown that made him homesick every time he thought of it.

The village where the rich scent of honey drifted through the fresh smell of grass. It was a humble neighborhood where tedious daily life repeated, but he hadn’t disliked that.

And also…

“What was it?”

Al Terua stopped walking.

He’d tried to recall something, but the thought wouldn’t come.

No, what had he been trying to recall in the first place?

Just as he was agonizing, a bell sound reached him.

It must be because his head was foggy from fatigue.

Considering what he’d experienced these past few days, his mind going on strike was understandable.

Now wasn’t the time for outside—he had to focus on Twella.

He would use that child loved by fate as his center and escape from this place.

Before he knew it, he’d walked quickly and arrived in front of his room.

He opened the door.

He could see Quilbion sleeping curled up. He moved his gaze to the desk.

The sorcery book he’d given him was spread open.

He approached and closed the sorcery book.

“Minor details can deviate. Or maybe they changed through effort.”

Seeing him asleep from exhaustion, it seemed he hadn’t succeeded.

There was no problem if Twella’s prophecy had missed the mark.

It was a trivial matter.

Only the predetermined major events would occur in sequence—these sorts of trivial daily matters could change any amount.

After bringing a blanket to cover him, he looked outside the window. The Sun was curling its body.

Night would arrive soon.

Fatigue came washing over him. Even in a place without climate changes, sleeping outdoors exhausted the body.

It was when he was pushing books aside with his foot to make space.

“…The talismans.”

The talismans made for practice weren’t visible. He’d made about 350, so where had they all gone?

When he looked around, he saw talismans stacked under the desk. Twenty at most?

Had he used up all the talismans just from struggling stubbornly?

Quilbion, covered with the blanket, squirmed. He slowly opened his eyes and grinned.

“You’re back?”

“You look tired, so sleep more.”

“Yes, I was planning to. But before that.”

Quilbion stood up holding a talisman.

“What are you trying to do?”

“The assignment. I finished it, so I need to be checked.”

“What?”

Quilbion formed a unique hand seal.

It was a form that didn’t exist in the Sitpin Yellow Form sorcery book.

“At first when I did it, I imbued the sorcery separately on each one, but now I can do it all at once.”

The moment he said that, the nark that had sprouted inside Quilbion moved.