CH 5.42

The Blacksmith, the Magician, and Winged Bird*

Translated by Mlzkzr

Edited by Mlzkzr

(TN: The kanji used in the title can also mean happily married couple)

Odine, the country of magic, well, the name of the city is also Odine, but this is a city for magic created by the nations of the small nations.

It is a bit of an old story, but before the cities of this region became independent and formed a group of city-states, there existed a great power in this region called the Azuedda Empire.

Then, like most of the great powers, the Azuedda Empire also seems to have had a number of institutions dedicated to the study of magic, in short, magic academies.

Before the fall of the Azuedda Empire, however, authoritarianism was rampant in those magic academies, and the institute’s function as a place of learning and research became inadequate.

The Azuedda empire itself was on the verge of collapse, and a school of magic where authoritarianism was rampant could not possibly be healthy in such an environment.

Therefore, one after another, the cities became independent, the Azuedda Empire collapsed, and after the group of small states was established, the existing Academy of Magic was dismantled.

And when the new city of magic, Odine, was built, it was said that looking back on the failures of the Academy of Magic in the past, it was decided that Odine should be a city of magic and should be made a wide-open place.

So while Odine was a city and country built and maintained with funds from the nations of the group of small states, it was also relatively tolerant and open to people from other regions.

In other areas, citizenship is required, and on top of that, there are many magic academies that require high taxes, or you have to be a noble or similar status to attend.

However, even in Odine, which is considered an open magic city, not everyone can learn magic.

That’s because, in the first place, it is said that in order to use magic, one must have enough magic power to meet the conditions of use and the talent to interfere with the magic power inside the body.

If the test shows that a student lacks such magic power and talent, even if they’re in Odine, they won’t be able to learn magic.

So the next day after arriving in Odine and spending a relaxing night at the inn, I went to the town hall to take an aptitude test for magic power.

Taking the magic aptitude test and feeling it’s like a real fantasy makes my heart beat faster.

But if I was told that I don’t have the aptitude for this, what would I do then?

I had never expected such a thing at all before, and now I’m starting to get worried.

To tell the truth, I don’t have much knowledge about magic in this world.

You may be thinking, “I came all the way to this faraway place to study magic, what am I talking about now?”, but 90% of my reason for coming here is simply admiration.

According to what I have heard, magic is a technique that uses the energy called magic power in a person’s body and a technique called a formula to give it directionality and produce the phenomena they desired.

Although the explanation is not very clear, the person who told me this story probably told it to me as he had heard it from someone else.

In case you are wondering, there are four kinds of arts that can exert this kind of supernatural power, or magic in terms of knowledge of my previous life, as far as I know.

The first is the technique of borrowing the power of spirits, Spirit Arts.

The second is the miracle that is caused by mental strength and strong faith developed through rigorous training, the things called Divine Arts and Law Arts.

The third is magic which uses a technique called a formula to inscribe in one’s own body’s magic power.

The fourth is not of inside the body, but of outside the body; it’s Senjutsu*, a magic that causes phenomena by interfering with the magic power found in nature. (TN: If you watch Naruto, then you’ll know. It’s the power that can be gotten in nature)

Well, I’ll avoid explaining each of these techniques because it would be too tedious right now, but magic is probably the only thing that can be clearly called a technique among these four.

The spirit arts, after all, are just asking the spirits to do something, and the Divine Arts and Law Arts, as far as I was shown by Martena, a female priestess of my acquaintance, were probably some kind of supernatural ability

As for the last one, I can’t say anything about Senjutsu, other than the fact that there are a very small number of users of it at the farthest east, and I only know it by its name.

When I told the town hall the purpose of my visit, a middle-aged man, who must have been a veteran staff member, was extremely surprised.

In any case, since he started working at the town hall, and…… perhaps even since the city of Odine was built, I guess this was the first time he witnessed an elf coming to take a magic aptitude test.

In the first place, it’s rare for elves to visit this Odine itself.

I was a bit curious, so I asked him for more details, and he told me that dwarves have come for aptitude tests for magic three times since this male staff started working there, and more than ten times since the construction of Odine, according to the records.

In the field of magic, there are tools called magic tools, which are inscribed with a formula and into which magic power is channeled in order to cause a phenomenon.

It is said that the dwarves tried to learn magic in order to adapt such techniques to the weapons and armors they make.

Unfortunately, there are only two dwarves who have ever had an aptitude for magic, one left the town decades ago, and the other several years ago and is no longer in Odine.

Also, the magic tools themselves are a skill that is not considered very important among magicians.

In order to use the magic tool, magic power must flow into the tool inscribed with the formula, which means that the magic power necessary to activate the magic and the talent to interfere with it, in short, the aptitude for magic, are required.

Therefore, magic tools cannot be handled by ordinary people and are therefore not distributed.

That said, many magicians believe that it is quicker to perform magic by themselves rather than engraving the formula on a tool.

……It was truly, truly a sad story.

Just listening to what he just said, I can’t bear to make a magic sword anymore.

As we talked about this, I followed the instructions of the male staff member, and in my left and right hands, a metal I didn’t know, yes, it was a metal that I, as a blacksmith, didn’t know! ……I brought the tips of the two sticks together.

Then, with a snap, a spark was produced at the tip of the stick.

And when the male staff member saw this, he nodded in satisfaction.

Apparently, now we know my aptitude for magic.

I was told that this metal rod is something that pulls the holder’s magic power, and that the sparks now were caused by my magic power.

A person who does not have the talent to interfere with the magic in their body is a person who has a hard-type magic power in their body, and this metal rod cannot pull the magic out of someone like that.

And even if it could pull out their magic power, if the amount is small, it would not spark as it does now.

Furthermore, it is said that the size of the sparks and the distance between the sticks when they disperse can determine the ease of movement and amount of a person’s magic power.

In other words, yes, I had an unquestionable aptitude for magic.

Yay

No.

To be honest, I’m really, really happy.

I was so happy that I couldn’t help but shake the hand of the male staff member.

I would very much like to have this metal rod for future study.

I tried to negotiate with the male employee to see if I could buy it, but he looked very troubled, so I gave up after about five minutes of persistence.

No, it really bothers me tremendously, but, well, if I did study magic here in Odine, I will probably see this metal rod again somewhere.

Finally, the male official also states.

“The power of magic right now is no match for the power displayed by spirits. Therefore, for you who can borrow the power of the spirit to learn magic…… I think jealousy and resentment will follow. But Odine is a city for those who study magic. If you have any problems, please feel free to contact us. I welcome you, Acer-san.”

……and so.

That’s how my life began in Odine, the land of magic, where I aspired to become a magician.