Year 7448, Month 5, Day 1
“… Is that so, still, I’m sorry .. “
I kept on apologizing from the bottom of my heart.
“No matter how many times I say it, it’s not something I can change … I’m sorry …“
I felt sorry, while answering to Mila, as she hovered in front of me.
“No, no need to apologize. It’s alright if that’s what you all decided on. I’m just grateful that you’d still come and talk to me.“
I smiled feebly.
“It makes me feel better, especially as I’m the one who declined your offer first … Well now, won’t Al still come here at least once or twice before that?“
“That’s right. I believe I may be able to come at least a couple more times, before that.“
I predicted that there shouldn’t be any issues in coming again this fall and the day after the new year, while I replied.
In any case, it wasn’t hard to imagine, that by this time next year, we will probably be on our way down south, or be quite busy with other matters at the least.
“… Two more times. Then for this time, it’s this spell … It’s going to be difficult, so I don’t think either of you will be lucky enough to learn it today.“
Feeling a bit anxious, Miduchi and I watched Mila as she began to concentrate. However, we still couldn’t understand what kind of effect the magic was supposed to have, even when she used it right in front of us.
We kept our eyes peeled at Mila, since she announced that the magic will be difficult to learn, but we both ended up showing a confused expressions on our faces.
“Aah, this spell! This one is quite difficult! There are only a few others beside Mila that can use it in this village!“
Karl happily flew around my head for some strange reason. I fixed my gaze at Mila, as she dismisses Karl’s antics and continued to concentrate with all her might, without feeling disturbed. We couldn’t miss the moment when the spell was activated and the effect was revealed.
Miduchi and I continued to observe so intensely that we nearly forgot to breathe.
… A few minutes later.
Neither Miduchi nor I could fully understand the spell that Mila had just showed us.
“It seems that you still didn’t get it.“
Mila said while looking a bit worn out.
“Master, what is the name of this spell …? Light … It seems that there was something like that …? “
“That … what kind of magic is it …?“
I felt apologetic while asking her my question.
“It doesn’t matter if it’s Al or Miduchi, try to touch me … Remain calm.“
Mila smirked like a naughty little girl as she replied. Miduchi and I looked at each other, but I reached out and touched Mila’s legs gently. Mila and Karl belonged to the fairy-kin tribe with small figures, so I didn’t want to unintentionally hurt them with too much force.
“Ooh !?“
A black sphere spread around the area of my breastplate, and I screamed in surprise as that area suddenly disappeared from my vision.
It was the magic of darkness.
“Eh? Is this darkness magic? “
Miduchi, who managed to escape out of the spell’s effective area, let out a surprised voice.
“That part is the exact same darkness magic, that I’ve shown you before. But the spell I’ve used right before that, is the new part. It’s called {Trigger}[1].“
According to Mila’s explanation, the {Trigger} spell was used to delay the activation of the magic spell cast immediately after. To activate the delayed spell, certain conditions had to be met, but there weren’t that many to choose from overall.
One of the possible trigger conditions was when an abnormality was detected in the field of view. This “abnormality” could be “an appearance of an enemy monster” or “a place that you are familiar with, but have discovered distinctive differences in some part”. It could also be more general, like “I saw a specific person” or “I found a bird”. A popular setting for this spell, was “the appearance of monsters and creatures that could cause harm to the caster”. However, if a caster wanted to activate a spell that targeted a specific entity, it had to be within the effective range of the delayed spell.
Another trigger condition was when one had discovered something wrong with one’s body. The “abnormality” in this case could be when one was “being touched by something” like in my case with Mila, and of course “being attacked” or “getting intentionally hit with something”. There were also more specific trigger conditions the caster could set, based on the applied conditions like “hungry”, “blind”, and “fainted”. However, it wasn’t possible to set a trigger using conditions that could occur in normal life and weren’t considered as abnormal, such as “I felt hungry” or “I’ve become sleepy”.
If one wanted to trigger a spell to afflict the target with an applied condition with it, the target had to be within the effective range of the delayed magic. In Mila’s example, the trigger conditions were set to the “when something touches, the magic of darkness is activated on their chest.”
It was similar to the cantrip magic or reservations which use no magic power, but it was a highly boasted spell with a wide range of trigger conditions other that just time.
(ED Reminded: {minor magic: cantrip} was a skill that allowed the user to directly use magic to create physical stimuli, light or sound only perceivable by the user {e.g. scratch your back with a kind of a phantom 3rd hand}. One of the more popular applications were reservations, where one would set an effect to occur at a given time, to act as a reminder or a wakeup call {e.g. make a loud noise to wake me up in 5 hours}.)
“Well, convenience is convenient [2]. You can’t change the trigger conditions after setting it up, and if you set some strange ones and the duration of the spell expires without activating, the magical power you used will be completely wasted, so be careful there.“
Mila provided the vital facts to remember and went over the critical points to note for as we were impressed by her explanation.
“How long can the effect of this {Trigger} last?“
Mila replied to Miduchi’s question.
“I don’t really know it that well. It was said that it depends on the level of an individual’s magical skill, but it is normally believed that it’s dependent on one’s proficiency in using it, as well as the difficulty of the spell it’s used with. An attack spell can be paired with it, but the spell’s duration tends to be much shorter than normal, and the more powerful the attack spell is, the shorter its duration seems to be, once it’s triggered.“
“I understand after hearing this, and I’ll take it into consideration a little more seriously next time …“
During this day, Mila used {Trigger} a total of three times, but both of us failed to grasp it.
I was quite confident in my magic learning abilities in general, especially the comprehension of spells (well, at least the spells I’ve learned until now), but my confidence waned with this {Trigger} spell. With this one, I might not have any other choice, but to take it slow and steady until I can fully understand it.
“Al. Miduchi. Both of you shouldn’t feel discouraged. The {Trigger} spell is quite difficult to use and even I have a hard time with it. Aren’t there still two more chances? You can still do your best during those remaining times.“
Karl comforted the two of us while we were immersed in our gloomy atmosphere, but Mila warned him, “If you’re going to play around, why don’t you train with me instead?” On the contrary, Karl felt tired just thinking about it and flew off.
“No, even with master’s explanation, I still can’t grasp this spell, even if I observe it using {Detect Magic} …“
“That’s right. I’ve heard that the reservation within the integration of invocation of magic is different from the evocation … however it’s better not to fixate on just those.“
Both of us were now showing even more confusion on our faces.
“Fu~nn. Al, even though you have a lot of magical power, it’s nearly impossible to learn this spell in a day. It’s important to keep practicing on your own for a while.“
Mila recalled that it had also taken her many years to master this spell, and provided us words of comforts.
“… The next time we come, we’ll show you how much we have mastered our {Trigger} attempts …“
Hearing Al’s declaration, Mila laughed happily and replied, “I’m looking forward to that day.“
Miduchi and I returned to town from Fairy’s village at dawn the next day, and as usual stayed in a different inn than our regular Boyle Inn.
Miduchi removed her armor and fell onto the bed in the room, then immediately fell asleep. Feeling a little envious of her, I shook off my sleepiness and took a shower, then went back out and straddled my favorite horse Uranus.
We must have arrived at the royal castle around nine o’clock. I have been ignoring the meetings with the royal court officials for the past few days, saying it’s because my family was coming to Baldukk, but the officials have urgently reported that “His Majesty should have completed the whole transferring process by the autumn investiture event”. Apparently he didn’t even take a single day off.
・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・
Year 7448, Month 5, Day 6
I returned to Baldukk from the royal castle in the evening, left my horse in the inn’s stable and headed to Murowa. Today was the last day of the golden week, so the whole group would be gathering there, giving me a good chance to talk to everyone.
When I arrived at the restaurant, about half of the members had already gathered. They were enjoying themselves, talking about the things they did during the holidays.
“Yo, Al. It looks like this place got a bit lively.“
Rokko called out to me while holding his mug in one hand. His other hand was holding a skewered Baldoggie.
“Well now. It looks like you’re full of spirit as usual.“
He’s been increasing the amount of extra weights during his running every morning recently. Even though it was a holiday, I requested Miduchi to lead the battle slaves and enter the labyrinth. It appears he’d followed her as well. I was wondering what kind of speed Miduchi had been going at, so I asked him why he joined her, but he just made a confused look and said “I wanted to make some pocket money.“
I’m glad he was motivated, but it was slightly late for that. It’s great to train one’s body, but in Rokko’s case, I think it would be better for him to learn to read and write before that. I wasn’t even certain we would be physically adventuring next year.
I sat down next to Rokko, ordered for the same beer he was having and waited for the rest to come. Once everyone had gathered and had their meal in front of them, I began to explain about the people I’ll be taking with me, to act as my retainers and the like.
The members were gathered into groups of three and five, drinking alcohol, and eating rice. Since they would be diving into the labyrinth again starting from tomorrow, more than half of them would not be able to eat such a decent meal for a while. Since Giberuti will be accompanying the Saviors, the other members will have to make do with less sophisticated dishes prepared by Rubi and Jesu.
We will have a separate discussion about team division after tomorrow, so we moved straight into today’s main topic. We usually reserved the whole place on the nights when all the members of the Slaughterers gathered, thinking other guests might feel uncomfortable with all of us around, plus it was easier for me to pay for the whole thing this way. I was sure the clerk and the owner of Murowa could be trusted, as they knew what would happen if they happened to leak sensitive information. Still, we wouldn’t talk about personnel information at this restaurant.
Even if there was a leak, it wasn’t really a problem as it would serve as a lesson for the future “aristocrats” and “subordinates” under me. I wouldn’t want them to talk about sensitive information in the open in the future.
(END OF PART 1. PART 2 TO COME.)
Year 7448, Month 5, Day 1
“… Is that so, still, I’m sorry .. “
I kept on apologizing from the bottom of my heart.
“No matter how many times I say it, it’s not something I can change … I’m sorry …“
I felt sorry, while answering to Mila, as she hovered in front of me.
“No, no need to apologize. It’s alright if that’s what you all decided on. I’m just grateful that you’d still come and talk to me.“
I smiled feebly.
“It makes me feel better, especially as I’m the one who declined your offer first … Well now, won’t Al still come here at least once or twice before that?“
“That’s right. I believe I may be able to come at least a couple more times, before that.“
I predicted that there shouldn’t be any issues in coming again this fall and the day after the new year, while I replied.
In any case, it wasn’t hard to imagine, that by this time next year, we will probably be on our way down south, or be quite busy with other matters at the least.
“… Two more times. Then for this time, it’s this spell … It’s going to be difficult, so I don’t think either of you will be lucky enough to learn it today.“
Feeling a bit anxious, Miduchi and I watched Mila as she began to concentrate. However, we still couldn’t understand what kind of effect the magic was supposed to have, even when she used it right in front of us.
We kept our eyes peeled at Mila, since she announced that the magic will be difficult to learn, but we both ended up showing a confused expressions on our faces.
“Aah, this spell! This one is quite difficult! There are only a few others beside Mila that can use it in this village!“
Karl happily flew around my head for some strange reason. I fixed my gaze at Mila, as she dismisses Karl’s antics and continued to concentrate with all her might, without feeling disturbed. We couldn’t miss the moment when the spell was activated and the effect was revealed.
Miduchi and I continued to observe so intensely that we nearly forgot to breathe.
… A few minutes later.
Neither Miduchi nor I could fully understand the spell that Mila had just showed us.
“It seems that you still didn’t get it.“
Mila said while looking a bit worn out.
“Master, what is the name of this spell …? Light … It seems that there was something like that …? “
“That … what kind of magic is it …?“
I felt apologetic while asking her my question.
“It doesn’t matter if it’s Al or Miduchi, try to touch me … Remain calm.“
Mila smirked like a naughty little girl as she replied. Miduchi and I looked at each other, but I reached out and touched Mila’s legs gently. Mila and Karl belonged to the fairy-kin tribe with small figures, so I didn’t want to unintentionally hurt them with too much force.
“Ooh !?“
A black sphere spread around the area of my breastplate, and I screamed in surprise as that area suddenly disappeared from my vision.
It was the magic of darkness.
“Eh? Is this darkness magic? “
Miduchi, who managed to escape out of the spell’s effective area, let out a surprised voice.
“That part is the exact same darkness magic, that I’ve shown you before. But the spell I’ve used right before that, is the new part. It’s called {Trigger}[1].“
According to Mila’s explanation, the {Trigger} spell was used to delay the activation of the magic spell cast immediately after. To activate the delayed spell, certain conditions had to be met, but there weren’t that many to choose from overall.
One of the possible trigger conditions was when an abnormality was detected in the field of view. This “abnormality” could be “an appearance of an enemy monster” or “a place that you are familiar with, but have discovered distinctive differences in some part”. It could also be more general, like “I saw a specific person” or “I found a bird”. A popular setting for this spell, was “the appearance of monsters and creatures that could cause harm to the caster”. However, if a caster wanted to activate a spell that targeted a specific entity, it had to be within the effective range of the delayed spell.
Another trigger condition was when one had discovered something wrong with one’s body. The “abnormality” in this case could be when one was “being touched by something” like in my case with Mila, and of course “being attacked” or “getting intentionally hit with something”. There were also more specific trigger conditions the caster could set, based on the applied conditions like “hungry”, “blind”, and “fainted”. However, it wasn’t possible to set a trigger using conditions that could occur in normal life and weren’t considered as abnormal, such as “I felt hungry” or “I’ve become sleepy”.
If one wanted to trigger a spell to afflict the target with an applied condition with it, the target had to be within the effective range of the delayed magic. In Mila’s example, the trigger conditions were set to the “when something touches, the magic of darkness is activated on their chest.”
It was similar to the cantrip magic or reservations which use no magic power, but it was a highly boasted spell with a wide range of trigger conditions other that just time.
(ED Reminded: {minor magic: cantrip} was a skill that allowed the user to directly use magic to create physical stimuli, light or sound only perceivable by the user {e.g. scratch your back with a kind of a phantom 3rd hand}. One of the more popular applications were reservations, where one would set an effect to occur at a given time, to act as a reminder or a wakeup call {e.g. make a loud noise to wake me up in 5 hours}.)
“Well, convenience is convenient [2]. You can’t change the trigger conditions after setting it up, and if you set some strange ones and the duration of the spell expires without activating, the magical power you used will be completely wasted, so be careful there.“
Mila provided the vital facts to remember and went over the critical points to note for as we were impressed by her explanation.
“How long can the effect of this {Trigger} last?“
Mila replied to Miduchi’s question.
“I don’t really know it that well. It was said that it depends on the level of an individual’s magical skill, but it is normally believed that it’s dependent on one’s proficiency in using it, as well as the difficulty of the spell it’s used with. An attack spell can be paired with it, but the spell’s duration tends to be much shorter than normal, and the more powerful the attack spell is, the shorter its duration seems to be, once it’s triggered.“
“I understand after hearing this, and I’ll take it into consideration a little more seriously next time …“
During this day, Mila used {Trigger} a total of three times, but both of us failed to grasp it.
I was quite confident in my magic learning abilities in general, especially the comprehension of spells (well, at least the spells I’ve learned until now), but my confidence waned with this {Trigger} spell. With this one, I might not have any other choice, but to take it slow and steady until I can fully understand it.
“Al. Miduchi. Both of you shouldn’t feel discouraged. The {Trigger} spell is quite difficult to use and even I have a hard time with it. Aren’t there still two more chances? You can still do your best during those remaining times.“
Karl comforted the two of us while we were immersed in our gloomy atmosphere, but Mila warned him, “If you’re going to play around, why don’t you train with me instead?” On the contrary, Karl felt tired just thinking about it and flew off.
“No, even with master’s explanation, I still can’t grasp this spell, even if I observe it using {Detect Magic} …“
“That’s right. I’ve heard that the reservation within the integration of invocation of magic is different from the evocation … however it’s better not to fixate on just those.“
Both of us were now showing even more confusion on our faces.
“Fu~nn. Al, even though you have a lot of magical power, it’s nearly impossible to learn this spell in a day. It’s important to keep practicing on your own for a while.“
Mila recalled that it had also taken her many years to master this spell, and provided us words of comforts.
“… The next time we come, we’ll show you how much we have mastered our {Trigger} attempts …“
Hearing Al’s declaration, Mila laughed happily and replied, “I’m looking forward to that day.“
Miduchi and I returned to town from Fairy’s village at dawn the next day, and as usual stayed in a different inn than our regular Boyle Inn.
Miduchi removed her armor and fell onto the bed in the room, then immediately fell asleep. Feeling a little envious of her, I shook off my sleepiness and took a shower, then went back out and straddled my favorite horse Uranus.
We must have arrived at the royal castle around nine o’clock. I have been ignoring the meetings with the royal court officials for the past few days, saying it’s because my family was coming to Baldukk, but the officials have urgently reported that “His Majesty should have completed the whole transferring process by the autumn investiture event”. Apparently he didn’t even take a single day off.
・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・
Year 7448, Month 5, Day 6
I returned to Baldukk from the royal castle in the evening, left my horse in the inn’s stable and headed to Murowa. Today was the last day of the golden week, so the whole group would be gathering there, giving me a good chance to talk to everyone.
When I arrived at the restaurant, about half of the members had already gathered. They were enjoying themselves, talking about the things they did during the holidays.
“Yo, Al. It looks like this place got a bit lively.“
Rokko called out to me while holding his mug in one hand. His other hand was holding a skewered Baldoggie.
“Well now. It looks like you’re full of spirit as usual.“
He’s been increasing the amount of extra weights during his running every morning recently. Even though it was a holiday, I requested Miduchi to lead the battle slaves and enter the labyrinth. It appears he’d followed her as well. I was wondering what kind of speed Miduchi had been going at, so I asked him why he joined her, but he just made a confused look and said “I wanted to make some pocket money.“
I’m glad he was motivated, but it was slightly late for that. It’s great to train one’s body, but in Rokko’s case, I think it would be better for him to learn to read and write before that. I wasn’t even certain we would be physically adventuring next year.
I sat down next to Rokko, ordered for the same beer he was having and waited for the rest to come. Once everyone had gathered and had their meal in front of them, I began to explain about the people I’ll be taking with me, to act as my retainers and the like.
The members were gathered into groups of three and five, drinking alcohol, and eating rice. Since they would be diving into the labyrinth again starting from tomorrow, more than half of them would not be able to eat such a decent meal for a while. Since Giberuti will be accompanying the Saviors, the other members will have to make do with less sophisticated dishes prepared by Rubi and Jesu.
We will have a separate discussion about team division after tomorrow, so we moved straight into today’s main topic. We usually reserved the whole place on the nights when all the members of the Slaughterers gathered, thinking other guests might feel uncomfortable with all of us around, plus it was easier for me to pay for the whole thing this way. I was sure the clerk and the owner of Murowa could be trusted, as they knew what would happen if they happened to leak sensitive information. Still, we wouldn’t talk about personnel information at this restaurant.
Even if there was a leak, it wasn’t really a problem as it would serve as a lesson for the future “aristocrats” and “subordinates” under me. I wouldn’t want them to talk about sensitive information in the open in the future.
(END OF PART 1. PART 2 TO COME.)
