CH ss - 4

[Noelia : The Melancholy of the Count’s Daughter Mage]

※Noelia’s POV

We arrived at the campsite where Florinaーa great mage and my mother who died before I could see her faceーspent her last night.

A wide trench with a depth that needs three adults to finally climb over and impressive walls made of stone that was hard to imagine that they were made in a hurry.

I heard from Meiss who was participating in the breacher unit that it was my mother who created the deep and wide trench and the walls made of stone in front of my eyes with magic.

It was understandable that this is said to be the legacy of the great mage Florina.

The “Great Invasion” has completely destroyed the magic culture that mages had preserved through oral tradition and observation within the framework of the master-apprentice system.

This master-apprentice system was designed by the Kingdom to restrict mages so they won’t misuse their magic.

The teacher teaches their own magic to those who they took as disciples, but along with that, they takes full responsibility for what the disciples did.

If a disciple causes a scandal with magic, the teacher will be held responsible, and vice versa.

The magic of this country has been passed down in such an environment this whole time.

Some of the mages whose research was approved by the Kingdom could write a book called Magic Guidebook, but the other mages had no other choice but to impart it to their disciples.

Despite that, the master-apprentice system worked and preserved the magic culture, but the mages who were able to fight in the “Great Invasion” were mobilized, and many were unable to return, like my mother.

Because of this, most of the magic that have been researched but haven’t been able to be preserved in detail lose those who can use them, and the magic that we, who were called the “After Great Invasion Generation” able to handle, are only such basic magic that were left behind in the Guidebook by the Kingdom

I, who was raised listening to the greatness of my mother’s magic, has my interest in magic swelled when I learned that I had a large amount of magic power, and entered the apprenticeship of a veteran mage who had survived the “Great Invasion”, and collected magic that have become obsolete.

Then, I conveyed the results to a researcher of the Kingdom in a written report along with live demonstration.

Thanks to that achievement, I was able to obtain permission from the Kingdom to be recognized as a “Kingdom’s Magic Researcher” in the spring of last year and leave behind a Guidebook.

The magic culture of the Kingdom is in a critical situation even after 20 years has passed.

Even after losing a large amount of capable people who can use magic, the kingdom did not revise the master-apprentice system, but only spread the Guidebook and dispatch mentors to each city while maintaining that framework.

I have also learned magic with Linus-samaーwho was nicknamed Sage of Wisdomーas my teacher, who has been dispatched from the Royal Capital to Youg Hannotes.

The thing that Frick-sama discovered before may have also been generally used by the mages of the past, and the adventurers who were working with them may have also known it.

However, the magic of weight saving is almost obsolete, and only a handful of mages can use it.

Hence, until now, there are many magic with unknown use like before that have been buried until today without being passed down to the later generations.

“Noelia, you’ll stumble if you absentminded y’know.”

As I was walking while thinking about the future of magic culture, Frick-sama called me.

It seems that I have walked up to the edge of the trench without realizing it.

“I’m sorry, I was thinking.”

I remembered that after gathering the materials and placing the Dragon Newts we brought for dinner in the camp, the two of us watched the surroundings until the camp was ready.

When I said that Frick-sama and I would be on the lookout, my father was making some noise but I sealed his mouth with Silence.

Even when I entered apprenticeship of a mage to learn magic, he often made orders when the other party is a man, so I naturally tended to silence him like that.

Even I actually don’t want to use magic to seal his mouth, but Father is the one who said “You can do anything you want” to me, who told him that I wanted to master magic just like mother, so I wanted him to take responsibility properly.

Even though I’m just thinking of doing my duty to revive the dying magic culture of the Kingdom.

Father may just pretended to understand and free meーwho lost my mother shortly after being bornーas an atonement.

Certainly, while studying and collecting magic, I often thought how good it would be if my mother Florina was there.

The veteran mages who I became an apprentice of, said that my mother was a heaven-sent child of magic with respect and affection, and they also told me many of her great achievements.

Thanks to that, the mother has became a great mage in my mind.

There’s a feeling that couldn’t forgive my father who let such a mother died in the “Great Invasion” somewhere inside me, but there is always a genuine feelings for him as well.

“Ahー, I don’t think this is something that I, who is a stranger and don’t have a parent, should say…but, I think it’s better if you listen to what your father says.”

“Frick-sama is so kind, right… However, it’s fine, because it’s been like that until now.”

“Really?”

“Yes, we father and daughter have such relationship, so you don’t need to worry.”

Actually, as a daughter of the Frontier Count house, I must do various unnecessary things such as etiquette and court rites.

However, he is always noisy when it comes to things that related to opposite sex, but he doesn’t meddle with anything else.

Therefore, although there is something I think about my mother’s case, I’m grateful to my father.

“Is that so…I’m sorry that I said something unnecessary. Please forget what I’ve said.”

“No, I am thankful for your advice. Because there are also people of our house who are also worried about our relationship…”

There was no one in the house who offers their honest opinion about my response that has been continuing for many years to my father who always being noisy when it comes to anything related to the opposite sex.

That response has been taken for granted at our house.

The knight captain Meiss and my father’s vassals were in a situation where they could not talk about our family circumstances.

“Ah, Meiss-san and the escort knights also didn’t seem to mind it. I was a little worried, so I said it, but if there is no problem, then please ignore it.”

I think that the reason why my father’s scoldings increased recently is because I started to act together with Frick-sama.

Certainly, because of magic practices and lectures, the time we spend together became a lot.

I admit that Frick-sama is an attractive man, but I can’t forget that my behavior when we first met was the worst.

Therefore, the possibility of the thing that father was worried about to happen is…maybe, zero.

“Thank you for worrying about me.”

“No, I’m also sorry for speaking about your family circumstances. Alright, there is no sign of the enemy. Once we set up Sanctuary over the whole campsite, we would be able to prevent surprise attack, right?”

While I was thinking absentmindedly, he had finished the reconnaissance of the surroundings.

He asked if Sanctuary, which is a wide-area protective wall magic, should be set up over the entire fairly large campsite to protect it from surprise attack of monsters.

“It’s too broad and the magic power consumption is…”

Basically, the Sanctuary, which consumes a lot of magic power, will exhaust an average mage just by setting it up around a tent.

Even I feel that my magic power will be exhausted if I use it within range suggested by Frick-sama.

However, I feel that if it’s Frick-sama, his magic power won’t be exhausted even with that broadness.

“But I feel that Frick-sama can do it. Moreover, we’ll have more time to intercept them if they break through the wider one. And you’ll be able to recover your magic power as you’re not investigating anymore today. It’s worth a try.”

“I understand. Because it’s a magic that I only used once when I was taught by Noelia, I wanted to try to use it so as not to forget it.”

When Frick-sama managed to adjust the power of attack magic himself, he learned magic with an astonishing speed.

In approximately half a month, I finished teaching most of the attack magic taught by the veteran mages, and I am now teaching him support magic.

His comprehension of magic effects is amazing.

If I show and explain it once, he will immediately be able to activate it.

Such a thing is impossible for mages who received guidance normally.

“Why does that happen”, because such questions arises, so it’s often impossible to imagine the correct effect and establish the form of the image.

However, he imagined the effect and establish it’s form as explained.

Because he learned it too quickly, I asked him why he could establish the form so quickly, then he gave me an honest answer, “After all, that should be the effect right”

It seems like, heーwho is ignorant about magicーnever had a doubt like “Why?” in his mind about the magic effects.

Because he thinks that magic is like that, he can imagine the effect and establish the form that as I taught him, and activate it.

If it’s only about how he could definitely activates magic, I couldn’t recognize him as a genius.

I said that magic is power of imagination, but he could realize the effect of the image himself, so I think what makes him a genius is his power of imagination.

“Build a tranquil resting space at this place. Sanctuary.”

When he activated the magic, the whole camp was wrapped in a thin film.

This way, even if the monsters make a surprise attack, we will be able to gain some time until break through.

“How about your magic power?”

“Aah, I still don’t feel any discomfort, and I still have surplus, but…”

As expected, his magic power was so large that I couldn’t even hold a candle to him.

While his sword skill was even recognized by father, his speed of learning magic is at genius level, furthermore, he possessed an enormous amount of magic power.

As expected, he is amazing…

Together with him…I could parted ways with my own stupidity.

The more I respected him, the more I seemed to be able to overwhelm my stupid acts.

“Noelia, what happened? It’s about time to get back to tent y’know. Are you feeling sick?”

Again, Frick-sama called out to me who was absentminded.

“I’m sorry, I was absentminded.”

“Are you nervous because it’s your first time visiting your mother’s grave?”

Frick-sama looked at me with a worried look.

“No, it’s not like that. Come now, let’s go back to the tent.”

I tightened my expression so that he couldn’t realize my anxiety, and decided to return to the tent with him.