Prologue: Lucy’s Magic Training
My head hurts... I drank too much last night.
There’d been a lot of parties since we’d come to Great Keith. Maybe hotter climates spurred people on like that.
Last night, Kawakita had asked Fujiyan about his wives and demanded to meet them at some point. I had a lot of fun watching him get overwhelmed. Though I’d barely spoken to Kawakita in our old world, things were different now. It was actually surprisingly easy to hold a conversation with her, which made me wonder how our other classmates were getting on.
It’s been a while since I’ve seen Sakurai. Maybe I should drop in on Highland at some point, I mused while looking out of the window.
Raindrops were currently pounding against the glass. Rain was rare in Great Keith, but my elemental magic had put a slight skew on the weather patterns, so it had been pretty common lately. And, thanks to the stormy weather, there were a lot more water elementals around.
Suddenly, I spotted a red-clothed mage outside. I climbed out of the window to investigate.
“Lucy, what’re you doing out here?” I asked. She was soaked through, staff in hand.
“Practicing magic,” she replied. “Mama said I had to do it every day.”
“It’s raining though. Can’t you do it inside?”
“If I screw up, I’ll blast the place away.”
“R-Right...” Yeah, that wouldn’t be good. We were staying in lodgings that catered to the royal family of Roses. I couldn’t even imagine how much the repair bill would be.
“You could practice when it’s finished raining, right?” I asked. “If you want, I can stop it for you.”
She looked at me doubtfully as I lifted my right hand to the sky. “Isn’t the Grandsage about the only person who can change the weather?”
“Maybe. I feel like I could do it, though.” Noah had shown me how before, and with the mana from Right Hand of the Elemental, it definitely felt possible.
“Ugh...” Lucy groaned. “It’s scary how likely that seems... Aya’s a hero now too. I’m being left behind...” She slumped, twisting her foot on the floor.
“Lucy? You seem kinda down.”
“Am I actually useful?” she asked, sending a nervous glance my way.
Don’t be an idiot... I couldn’t help but think.
“If you weren’t here, then I wouldn’t be either.”
“D-Do you really think so?”
Things had gone well in Springrogue only because Lucy had been there. Thanks to her, we’d managed to make inroads with the Crimson Witch and Freya’s hero, Maximilian.
Lucy was the great-granddaughter of one of the legendary heroes who’d fought with Abel the Savior, and the daughter of a current hero, Rosalie. She’d been schoolmates with Maximilian and was the Priestess of Wood’s sister-in-law. She’d even become the Grandsage’s apprentice in Highland.
Putting it all together like that, she’s part of a really elite family.
Honestly, Lucy probably shouldn’t have had any trouble finding comrades in Macallan. Her self-deprecation and unwillingness to use family connections were probably why, though. She was such an awkward one sometimes...
Well, one of my friends is down, so it’s my job to cheer her up.
“I’m sure you’ll be just as good of a mage as Rosalie. What are you practicing right now?”
“Teleportation. But I just can’t get it to work right...”
Whoa! Teleport! I seem to remember Lucy mentioning something about that...
“You said you’re currently successful around ten percent of the time, yeah?” I asked.
“Yup...” she replied, hunching over farther. “Though, I won’t be able to actually use it in a fight unless I get better.”
Teleport was a really difficult spell, so it was hardly a surprise that she couldn’t cast it right away. Maybe it’d be best to get her mind off it somehow.
“Let’s try together then. I want to see your Teleport.” I grabbed hold of her hand.
“Both of us? But I can’t even get it right when it’s just me.”
Still, she gripped my hand back.
“A change of pace is just the thing you need when you’re getting stuck,” I told her.
“Hmmm, maybe... Okay then.” She didn’t seem wholly convinced but was at least ready to give it a try. “Then...here I go.”
Her right hand held her staff, and her left hand squeezed my own. She began to chant the Fate Magic incantation.
At the same time, she gathered an absolutely massive amount of mana. Teleport was a famous spell, and lots of mages tried to learn it. Despite that, there weren’t many people who could actually cast it. One reason for this was the inefficiency—the spell used up stupidly huge amounts of mana. However, that made it perfect for races like the elves, who were naturally gifted with large mana reserves.
Lucy finished up the chant, and several magic circles floated around us.
She’s got just as much mana as ever... In all our time adventuring, I’d never seen her run out.
“Here goes!”
“It’ll work, I know it.”
“Teleport!”
Immediately, we were enveloped in light, and a moment later, the scene in front of us changed completely. We were now being buffeted by the wind.
“See! It worked!” I exclaimed. “Uh...Lucy?”
“M-Makoto! We’re falling!”
We’d reappeared...in midair. Really high up as well. We were (probably) about a kilometer off the ground, well above the clouds. The land below was getting closer and closer. It was like we were skydiving.
“Ahhhh! Makoto!” screamed Lucy, her voice blending with the rushing wind. “What do we doooo?!”
“You can use flying magic, right?” It was a popular mid rank spell. Comparatively, anyone could use it...anyone who wasn’t a mage apprentice like me.
“I-I’m practicing it, but I can’t really fly!”
“Aaah, right.” It probably would have been a good idea to learn that first, Lucy.
By this point, her yells were sounding teary. “M-Makoto! We’re gonna fall!”
Damn, my skill is making me too calm.
“×××××××××× (Hey, elementals,)” I called out. Lifting my right hand out in front of us, I cast—
“Water Magic: Water Phoenix.”
In the blink of an eye, a massive bird of water appeared before us. I tugged on Lucy’s hand and dove onto its back. Hopefully, the water magic would disperse the shock of the fall.
“Wha—? Whaaat?!”
“Sorry, Lucy. I should have done that to start with.”
“That was king rank magic! How can you do that so easily?!”
“Because of this,” I explained, showing my Right Hand of the Elemental. Using it, I could quickly draw elemental mana through my right arm.
Now safely aboard the water phoenix, the two of us drifted through the sky over Gamelan. I was looking for our hotel from above, when suddenly, the phoenix lost its balance.
“Whoa!”
“Ah!”
The angle suddenly steepened—it felt like we were about to fall again.
“S-Stop that!” I shouted. I focused my power and managed to stabilize us so that we could avoid dropping. That was close... Guess I can’t properly command it yet. “Sorry, Lucy. You good?”
“I-I’m fine. It’s not like you to lose control of water magic like that.”
“It’s harder to use this hand than I thought,” I replied, showing her my glowing blue arm. She frowned at it.
“It doesn’t hurt, does it?”
“Nope. Hell, I can’t feel anything at all.”
“Well... That’s pretty worrying on its own.”
“It’s definitely taken a toll on my fine motor skills... But at least I can do this.”
I peered up. The sky above us was covered in gray clouds pattering rain, and I lifted my hand once more.
“××××××××××××××××× (Elementals, scatter the clouds,)” I said.
They instantly swirled and broke apart in a whirlpool-like movement above us, revealing the sun.
“Y-You did...that?” Lucy sputtered.
“Handy, right? I can only do it when it’s raining though—there need to be plenty of water elementals.”
She was silent.
“Lucy?”
Nothing.
When we got back to the inn, I suggested that she give Teleport another go...but she declined. Apparently, a passenger’s mana had an effect on the destination. Thanks to my arm, we were more likely to get swept away and end up in the clouds.
It was certainly a tricky spell. Lucy was working hard at her practice and I didn’t want to get in the way, so I headed off somewhere else.
“I’ll catch up to you soon!” she said desperately as I left.
“Don’t push yourself too hard,” I replied.
“What, like you do? All the time?!”
Did I? In the end, I wasn’t even sure if I’d managed to cheer her up.
I woke up early the next morning, so I decided to do some training before breakfast. When I uncovered my arm, I stared down at the glowing blue.
It hadn’t gone back to normal since I’d turned it into an elemental.
Though it was my arm, I couldn’t move it properly... It felt like I was connected to my own limb from far away, and mana pulsed through it like blood. Just above the elbow, there was a faint red mark. It flashed like a low-battery light, probably because Noah was sealed in the Seafloor Temple.
According to Eir, this was anima. I still couldn’t properly make use of my arm or that anima, but...
Have I gotten stronger recently? Yesterday...I controlled the weather. I felt my lips form a grin.
Just as I was deciding what to do today, there was a call at the door, and someone stepped inside.
“Hero Makoto! Are you up?!”
Only one person would address me as “hero” in a relatively casual tone.
“S-Sophia? Morning,” I said, frantically schooling my expression.
“Oh, you were training.” She smiled. Then, her face turned serious once more.
What happened?
“The day when we will launch the Northern Front Plan has been decided,” she informed me.
The Northern Front Plan—our strategy for invading the northern continent and attacking the demon lord. This was something we’d discussed several times.
“When will it be?” I asked.
“A month from now... We do not have much time.”
Whoa... I’d thought it would be at least three months away. This timeline felt too sudden for a large-scale military expedition. Sophia seemed to catch on to what I was thinking, and she nodded in response.
“I feel the same way. Perhaps something has changed... As of now, all heroes and priestesses have been given word to gather in Highland.”
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