Angelica’s Manablade
After breakfast, I started heading from my room to the knights’ training grounds, where I would work on my stamina as part of my daily routine. Since moving here, I had been opting to walk instead of riding Lessy, but this meant Wilfried was blasting ahead and leaving me behind.
Damuel was the only one accompanying me there today, since the schedule was such that my other guard knights—that is, Brigitte and Cornelius—were to arrive ahead of me to begin their own training.
“I truly do envy your mana capacity...” Damuel murmured as we trod along slowly.
I looked up at him, wondering whether this was his lovesickness seeping through. “I think it largely comes down to training. Ferdinand told me that I have this much mana because I compressed it a ridiculous amount, desperate to survive by any means necessary.”
At that, I cautiously scanned our surroundings to make sure nobody else was nearby. When I had confirmed that we were alone, I gestured for Damuel to crouch down, lowering my voice and continuing once we were at eye level with each other.
“Before entering the temple, I survived without the magic tools given to noble children. I was constantly on the verge of death due to the mana overflowing from my body.”
“Ah...”
“And so, I repeatedly compressed my mana out of pure instinct to survive, not even realizing what I was doing. That is why my mana capacity became so great,” I said, deciding to say no more on that particular subject and resume walking.
Damuel stood up and followed.
“I believe your mana capacity is still growing—am I right?” I asked. “If you are jealous of mine, Damuel, then I suggest you remove all of your magic tools and instead compress your mana while skirting death.”
“...I apologize for speaking so thoughtlessly,” Damuel conceded. He must have remembered that he knew me from my commoner days, and that, unlike normal noble kids, I obviously wouldn’t have grown up with magic tools available at all times; his expression weakened, and he apologized with his brow furrowed miserably.
“Guh...” I wheezed. “Finally here.”
“Shall we go to the break room?”
Walking from my room to the grounds was already plenty of exercise for me, so I gave myself some time to rest. Once I had collected my breath, I would do a few stretches, and that would be the end of my training for the day.
...If only.
As much as I wanted that to be true, the harsh reality was that I would be training until it was time to return to my room. I thought I would at least call Eckhart over so I could start my stretches, but when I asked a knight to fetch him for me, his expression clouded over.
“Eckhart is presently away on other business. My sincerest apologies, but may I ask you to wait until he returns?”
“Certainly. I thank you ever so much for informing me.”
I couldn’t train without Eckhart there to watch over me, which in turn meant that Damuel had to continue guarding me rather than moving on to training himself.
“Without Eckhart, I suppose I won’t even be allowed to walk around the grounds,” I mused aloud.
“Correct.”
All sorts of projectiles were launched into the air when the knights trained with magic, and there was no guarantee that Damuel would be able to block them all. For that reason, it was much too dangerous for me to wander about during Eckhart’s absence.
Noticing that Damuel was still uncomfortable from our conversation before, I started to ponder. He was a laynoble, and I knew that he was torn up over his lack of mana. I was also aware that his small mana capacity was the reason that Brigitte refused to even consider being with him. But I had already given him a blessing; there was nothing else I could do. His only way forward was to work hard on his own.
“So, Damuel—I heard that kids are taught to control their mana upon entering the Royal Academy, including through mana compression. But my methods may differ from noble ones, in the same way that I learned the names of the gods differently from everyone else.”
When it came to controlling mana, the most important thing was having a clear mental image to focus on. By teaching Damuel what I had pictured myself, perhaps I could help him out a little.
I looked around the break room, spotting some leather bags and a wooden box.
“Damuel, would you mind opening that box and stuffing your cape into it?”
“Er... Okay?”
Confused, Damuel removed his cape, balled it up, and went about packing it into the box. His stuffing attempt was poor, with some material still visibly sticking out.
“Consider the box to be your body and the cape your mana. At the moment, your mana is entirely uncompressed. What would you do if you wanted to compress it and thus increase the amount of space inside of you?”
Damuel silently folded his cape and placed it back in the box; there was now a bit more space than there had been when it was messily balled up.
“Good. When picturing mana compression, imagine repeatedly folding capes to increase how many you can fit inside the body. Does that make sense?”
“Yes. I never considered it visually like this, but the analogy is very easy to understand.”
“Well, it might please you to know that I took inspiration from your own teaching methods, where you used gewinnen pieces to demonstrate tactics.”
Damuel clapped his hands together in realization. One’s mental image was crucial when it came to controlling mana, so I had concluded that giving a visual demonstration would be easier to understand than explaining verbally.
“Now, in a similar fashion, try folding your mana and compressing it inside of yourself.”
“Understood.”
With that, Damuel shut his eyes, drawing his brows together in concentration as he started moving his mana. I waited silently for a moment when an inspired look washed over his face and his eyes opened again, brimming with fascination.
“I did it, Lady Rozemyne. I was able to compress my mana far more than I ever have before.”
“I see. Excellent. I do not know how long it will take for your mana to grow, but I imagine there are few opportunities for you to use it while guarding me in the temple. I suggest allowing it to build up and compressing it as much as you can, which should ultimately improve your capacity,” I suggested.
Ferdinand had told me that getting used to containing a large quantity of mana would improve how much a particular vessel could accommodate.
“Now then, Damuel—would you fetch me one of those leather bags? And lend me your cape.”
“Hrm? Very well.”
“I also wish to demonstrate the method I personally use to compress my mana, which goes something like this,” I said, taking both items from him. I folded the cape and placed it inside the bag in a similar fashion to what I had already shown him, then sat on the bag to force out the air, completely flattening it. The result was the cape taking up even less space than it had while just folded.
Upon seeing this, Damuel’s jaw dropped.
“You are also welcome to use that as inspiration, if you wish,” I said, taking out the compressed cape that was now covered in deep creases.
As Damuel cradled his head, desperately trying to smooth out the wrinkles, a small bell rang from behind the door.
“You may enter.”
In came Angelica, her light-blue hair swaying behind her head in a securely contained ponytail. “I am back, Lady Rozemyne. Starting today, I will resume service as your guard knight. Thank you for all your help.”
“Welcome home, Angelica. You’ve finished all your lessons, I’ve heard. Your hard work has been rewarded.”
Angelica had needed to give greetings and deliver reports all over the place before finally being able to come to the training grounds. Brigitte and Cornelius had come as well, intending to switch with her and Damuel to give them a chance to train.
“As I am unable to leave this room until Eckhart comes for me, Angelica, I was thinking that I could use this opportunity to pour my mana into your manablade. Or would you rather we begin another time?”
“Let’s do it now, please,” Angelica responded at once.
Everyone else agreed that they wanted to see how the manablade would change when my mana was poured into it. They were particularly curious, since it was apparently rare for someone to actually give their mana to another’s manablade.
“I admittedly know nothing about manablades, so would you be so kind as to teach me?” I asked. “I also wish to see what your manablade looks like.”
“Here it is,” Angelica said, drawing the sword from her hip. The sheath it had been stored in was of a similar size to that of a dagger, but the manablade when pulled out ended up being about fifty centimeters in length.
“That’s certainly longer than I expected,” I said, blinking in surprise.
Angelica nodded happily. “The blade grows based on how much mana you put into it. It started off even shorter than a knife,” she said, going on to explain that it had gotten this big over several years of gradual effort. “Longer blades are better for fighting feybeasts, so I want it to grow as fast as possible. I also want it to get aptitudes that I don’t have.”
“What are aptitudes?” I asked, tilting my head in confusion at the new term. Brigitte was the one to answer, since she knew that having Angelica try would take twice as long.
“She is referring to mana aptitudes, which are elemental affinities that you are born with. It is easier to get divine protection from the primary gods depending on which ones you have.”
“Can you not receive their divine protection without them?”
“You can, but it is difficult to catch the attention of the gods and earn their divine protection without having something to aid the process,” Brigitte continued. It turned out that, while having the right aptitudes made it easier to get divine protection, it was also possible to receive it without them. Angelica wanted to get the mana of others so that her manablade would obtain their aptitudes, and thus secure her the divine protection of various gods.
“What are your aptitudes, Angelica?” I asked.
“I have aptitudes for Fire and Wind. Though in the end, I couldn’t get Schutzaria’s divine protection.”
“Hm? It’s possible to not receive a god’s divine protection despite having the aptitude for them?”
Brigitte frowned uncomfortably. “That could possibly happen in... rare instances, perhaps,” she said. I could guess from her tone that having the right aptitude normally guaranteed divine protection.
I asked everyone else what their aptitudes were, thereby learning that Brigitte had aptitudes for Fire and Earth, while Damuel had an aptitude for Wind. Cornelius said that he had aptitudes for Light, Water, Fire, and Wind, which took me by surprise at first, but he promptly explained that this was normal for an archnoble close to the archducal family; archnobles always had more plentiful mana and a broader range of aptitudes.
“What are your aptitudes, Lady Rozemyne?” Brigitte asked in return. All I could do was shake my head, though. It seemed like she expected me to know, but I certainly didn’t.
“I haven’t a clue. Where might I find out?”
“Did Lord Ferdinand not tell you when your mana was registered for your baptism?” Cornelius asked.
“The registration medal should have changed to the divine colors of the gods you have aptitudes for,” Damuel added. “What colors did you see?”
Their barrage of questions left me faltering as I tried to remember. I seemed to recall it turning seven different colors, at which point Ferdinand said, “As expected.” But he hadn’t bothered explaining mana aptitudes or anything like that.
And then, the realization hit me.
Would it really be okay for me, the daughter of a third wife, to say that my medal was seven colors when my older brother Cornelius’s only had four? I wasn’t sure whether that was something I should publicize; perhaps Ferdinand had intentionally refrained from explaining what it meant to help ensure it was kept a secret.
“Um... I do remember there being several different colors, but as I didn’t understand their significance at the time, I can’t recall exactly which ones I saw. Ferdinand put the medal straight into the box, so...”
Damuel raised a thoughtful eyebrow. “Given that you can grant blessings from Angriff with ease, you surely have an aptitude for Fire.”
“And you can use Schutzaria’s shield, so you must have an aptitude for Wind as well,” Brigitte added.
What other spells had I used in front of other people? I searched my memory.
“...I performed a restoration of the earth after the trombe ceremony, if that means anything.”
“You used Flutrane’s staff from the temple for that, and the divine instruments themselves have their own elemental infusions with no relation to the aptitudes of their users. If one needed particular aptitudes to use them, would the priests and shrine maidens not struggle to perform divine rituals?”
“You have a point.”
It would cause a lot of problems if the temple wasn’t able to perform Spring Prayer or heal trombe-damaged earth due to lacking a priest with an aptitude for Water. The fact that you could infuse elements into the magic tools themselves surprised me, and as I was nodding to myself, Brigitte cocked her head to one side in thought.
“The spring’s mana reacted so well to your song on the Night of Flutrane, Lady Rozemyne, that I was certain you had an aptitude for Water as well.”
“Water, Fire, and Wind, huh? She sure shares a lot with Cornelius,” Angelica observed, at which point Damuel nodded with a smile.
“No doubt due to them being siblings; one’s aptitudes are always heavily influenced by their parents.”
“Oh, interesting... So, what impact does mana aptitude have on manablades?” I asked.
Angelica answered this question, gently stroking the hilt of her sword all the while. “Feybeasts have aptitudes as well, and it can be easier or harder to beat them depending on what elements your manablade has. That’s why I want to get as many elements for it as I can.”
Since she herself only possessed two aptitudes, she was increasing her manablade’s Earth infusion by feeding it feystones from defeated feybeasts. But this process was extremely slow going.
As I nodded again, processing all the information I had just been fed, my guard knights started discussing how my mana should be used to grow the manablade. As one might expect given their profession, this was a subject they were all very interested in.
“Shouldn’t we focus on padding out the elements that Angelica doesn’t have, since that’s what she wants?” Brigitte asked.
“I think we should instead use the mana to extend the blade, as this has the greatest impact on the amount of damage done,” Damuel proposed in response. “She can worry about elements once the manablade is at a proper length. Isn’t it most important to reach a state where it’s effective in battle?”
“You would be right if this were anyone else’s manablade, Damuel, but Angelica shows no motivation to fix her own weak points. We must use this opportunity to do that for her,” Brigitte interjected.
“This is like her grades all over again—she needs the assistance of others to cover for her flaws, rather than bolster her strengths,” Cornelius agreed.
I looked at the sword while listening to their conversation. “What do you want to do, Angelica?”
“Brigitte’s right—I’m not good at compensating for my weak points, so I want them fixed up.”
“So I should think about strengthening those weaknesses while I pour my mana into the blade?”
“Uh huh!”
As everyone advised me to fill the manablade with the elements Angelica lacked, I touched the feystone embedded in its hilt. My guard knights stressed how crucial it was that I did not exceed the total amount of mana Angelica had added herself, so I started by pouring in small amounts.
...If you ask me, all this element business is pretty secondary—what Angelica really lacks is brainpower. Her mind is pretty much already built for high-speed battles, so if we want to address her weak points, our best option would be to give the sword intelligence. And you know what? This is a fantasy world overflowing with unbelievable things, so surely that’s possible. Let’s just operate under the assumption that it is.
Okay... Let’s make it intelligent enough that it can listen to and remember what people say, bark out corrections whenever Angelica messes up, and give her advice since she’s lacking in knowledge. Wait... That wouldn’t even be a sword! It’d be another Ferdinand!
“What are you all doing crowded up over there?”
“Gyaaah?! Eckhart?!” I cried, literally jumping in place as my thoughts were suddenly interrupted. “Well, uh... Angelica brought her manablade for me to pour mana into, so—”
“Absolutely not,” Eckhart shot back, shutting me down mid-sentence. “Growing a manablade is no simple matter. Give it mana only when Ferdinand is here and observing the process.”
I glanced at the sword, having already poured mana into it.
Oh no. There’s no future where I don’t get yelled at now.
“Eckhart, dear brother, this is rather difficult for me to say, but... I have already given it my mana.”
He flinched, then instantly sprang into action, whipping out his schtappe in one hand and a yellow feystone in the other, striking the latter while shouting “Ordonnanz!” When the ivory bird appeared, he faced it and clearly spoke Ferdinand’s name, reporting that I had poured my mana into someone else’s manablade before swiping his schtappe through the air to send the ordonnanz flying off. Unease built up inside of me as I watched it zoom away in a straight line.
“Is it really that bad, Eckhart?”
“The quality and quantity of your mana is on an entirely different level from that of a mednoble. It is impossible to say how the manablade might evolve.”
“Wha?!” Angelica cried, anxiously reaching to grab her sword.
“Don’t touch it, Angelica!” Eckhart shouted with a sharp glare, causing her to gasp, retract her hand, and then clench it against her chest. “We must keep our distance until Lord Ferdinand arrives to investigate.”
The ordonnanz returned in the blink of an eye, then promptly delivered Ferdinand’s response: a brisk, “I will be there,” in a palpably angry voice. There was no avoiding the fact that, wherever he was right now, he was absolutely ticked off.
He’s going to lecture me so hard. I’m genuinely terrified.
Eckhart sighed, the tension draining from his expression a little now that he knew Ferdinand was on the way. He then immediately glared at Cornelius. “Why did you not stop this?”
“I learned in the Royal Academy that mana exchanges are okay so long as both parties involved agree with it, so I assumed that, as long as Rozemyne was happy to participate, there wouldn’t be an issue,” Cornelius explained. The other guard knights nodded in turn; they all shared the same perspective on the matter, so nobody had even considered trying to stop us.
But Eckhart shook his head. “Remember that Rozemyne has yet to enter the Royal Academy—in other words, she knows nothing of mana. She may be used to the process of pouring mana due to her involvement in rituals, but she has no grasp on the techniques necessary to control the quantity being moved, nor does she know how to select a particular element of mana to use.”
“...Ah.”
“Under normal circumstances, children do not use mana prior to entering the Royal Academy, aside from during greetings. Rozemyne has performed rituals in the temple and blessed the Knight’s Order, so it is easy to forget this, but she has not been formally educated on these matters and thus has no understanding of mana control. You must not think of her as a student.”
As all of my guard knights faltered, looking around with dazed expressions as though they had indeed forgotten that I wasn’t a learned student of the Royal Academy, Ferdinand flew in on his highbeast. He landed on the training grounds before jumping down from his highbeast and turning it back into a feystone. His gaze then fixed on us, and he immediately began striding this way. Given that he had come to the castle in his priest robes, he must have been pretty peeved.
“Rozemyne, I believe I instructed you to do nothing reckless. Am I mistaken?”
“I-I’m sorry!”
“First, show me the manablade in question.”
At that, Ferdinand picked up Angelica’s sword and gave it a firm look over, pouring in a little bit of mana himself to determine what influence my own was having on it.
“It seems nothing has happened yet,” he concluded. “It becomes more difficult for one to control their manablade when it contains too much mana from another person, and you have an absurd capacity for mana to begin with, Rozemyne. It would be unthinkable for you to have the precise control necessary for an operation such as this. What would you have done if ownership was transferred from Angelica to you?”
“U-Um... In that case, I... I’d just tell the manablade to obey Angelica! It’d listen to me, since I’d be its master, right?”
Angelica’s face lit up. “You’re so smart, Lady Rozemyne! That way, even I could use a strong manablade.”
“You’re all fools!” Ferdinand exclaimed, clearly exasperated. He set the manablade back down onto the table, then began lecturing not just Angelica and me, but all the guard knights present.
The lecture went on for so long that I thought Ferdinand might run out of air—he talked about manablades, the meaning of putting your mana into feystones and magic tools so that only you could use them, the benefits of doing so, the flaws of doing so, and indeed everything one needed to know about two people exchanging mana.
“Rozemyne, do you now understand the dangers of what you attempted to do?”
“Yes.”
“And you, Angelica?”
“I certainly do, I think.”
Hold on, I recognize that look! All we grizzled veterans of the Raise Angelica’s Grades Squadron knew from experience that the face she was currently making was a surefire sign that she didn’t actually understand at all.
Ferdinand seemed to pick up on this as well. His eyebrow twitched, but when he unleashed his fury...
“Fool! Why were you not listening?!”
...a second voice cried out in unison—one that also sounded exactly like him.
“What...?”
Even Ferdinand was taken aback, and that was when Angelica’s manablade began to lecture her in that same, eerily familiar voice. “You do not understand at all, my master.”
Though, to be more precise, the voice was emanating from the feystone on the manablade’s hilt.
Ferdinand grimaced, looking down at the feystone in disgust, then turned his gaze to me. “Rozemyne, why would you ever...?”
“This is a false charge! I would never do something like this!”
“Ah, I see. Forgive me. A manablade lecturing its master was so bizarre that the only conclusion I could draw was that you were involved,” Ferdinand replied, rubbing his temples as the manablade gleamed in the light.
“And you are correct,” the manablade responded. “I was born from the mana and wishes of Lady Rozemyne, the master of my master.”
“Bwuh?!”
All eyes fell on me. I stared at the feystone, blinking rapidly, at which point it continued talking in Ferdinand’s voice.
“You wished for a sword with intelligence—one that listens to and remembers what people say, barks out corrections when its master does something incorrectly, and gives her advice since she’s lacking in knowledge. And you made this wish while clearly picturing Lord Ferdinand.”
“Now that you mention it... I did. While I was pouring my mana into the blade, I concluded that knowledge was what Angelica lacked the most, so, uh... I mean, I never thought this would happen,” I explained, desperately trying to plead my case.
Ferdinand glared at me. “I knew you were responsible. What was that about a false charge?”
“Lady Rozemyne’s wishes were not the only cause of my existence, however—it was also due to your mana coursing through me, Lord Ferdinand,” the manablade declared. It had apparently adopted Ferdinand’s voice and personality upon receiving his mana, meaning he was at least partly responsible for the creation of this artificial sword intelligence.
“See! You were the one who pushed it over the edge, Ferdinand!”
“That is clearly not my fault. You are the one to blame for this.”
“Ngh...”
It was true that I had thought about giving the sword intelligence, and I had poured mana into the blade without really considering the consequences. In the end, I had to take responsibility for my actions.
“I’m sorry, Angelica. I never considered that your weapon might evolve in such a negative way... If you don’t want to be lectured by this grumpy sword, I will take full responsibility and accept it as my own burden to bear.”
“It is quite the opposite, Lady Rozemyne—there is no better sword for me than one that will remember things on my behalf and tell me all sorts of useful information. I will treasure this manablade for the rest of my life. I was really happy when it called me its master,” she replied, picking up the manablade from the table and stroking its feystone.
“Indeed. I will compensate for the knowledge my master lacks.”
“In that case, I’ll leave all the thinking to you,” Angelica said happily. It seemed that they were already on good terms, but in a way, that was honestly kind of terrifying.
“...Angelica, are you sure about this? I am stricken with the feeling that this sword might never shut up,” I said. With a Ferdinand only capable of speaking at my side all day and every day, I couldn’t imagine ever being able to relax.
“Oh, is that so?” Ferdinand asked in a dark voice.
Eep. I sense that I’ve made a mistake of some kind.
Ferdinand pinched my cheek between his thumb and forefinger and started pulling it, looking down at Angelica all the while. “If you are content with that manablade, you may continue to use it. However, I hereby forbid Rozemyne from pouring in any more mana; I would not like for it to evolve in any other strange ways.”
Everyone there agreed with big nods—that is, everyone except for Angelica, who instead hung her head in disappointment.
No Comments Yet
Post a new comment
Register or Login