Maidens of Cygnus - Volume 5 - Chapter 5.1

Chapter 5 – Final Day of Training Camp

August 20th, Thursday. Today, the Magic Arts Club’s training camp comes to an end (the training camp for the Mountaineering Club will continue).

The planned departure time from the training institute is at 2pm. The time until lunch was free for everyone to practice as they wish.

It was a hastily arranged training camp from the start. Nothing but a rough schedule had been put together. So because of a request from some club members who came forward about wanting to review what impromptu coach Erika taught them yesterday so they wouldn’t forget, today’s plans were quickly rewritten.

With Alisa lending her assistance, Marika was practicing the technique for moving at high speeds without moving her feet, ‘Glide’.

She went and returned in a straight line near the gymnasium. She had been repeating this since after 8am.

The movement magic without moving her feet has the advantage that her opponent cannot read her movements. She can also expect the advantage of the opponent not being able to control the distance.

As for disadvantages, if she tries to stop in mid-air or change directions, she will waste a lot of magical resources, and there is a danger that the magic will be deciphered and her movement predicted.

“I wonder if it’s something like this?”

“Yeah, wasn’t that good just now?”

It was three hours since she started practicing. Marika’s ‘Glide’ has taken shape to some extent. It is not at a level that can be called ‘I can handle it’ yet. It is far away from Erika’s level. But it is already a secret weapon that will become an effective tool to use as one-time only surprise attack in a bout.

“Thank you, Asha. I’m done now.”

“There’s still about one hour until lunch, are you going to practice something else?”

About two thirds of the club members participating in the training camp are currently doing practice spars at this gymnasium. Judging from appearances, the opponents are mostly fixed, but they she should be able to switch in if she asks. It may be good to give the technique she practiced since early in the morning a try against someone in a practice spar.

“No, I’m going to visit Erika-san.”

Marika’s answer was something Alisa wasn’t expecting.

“The time being what it is, Chiba-senpai might not be at her lodge, right?”

Erika is renting a nearby lodge and holding a training camp with four of her disciples. Alisa heard that yesterday from none other than Marika.

“Yeah, I know. But it’s fine even if I end up going for nothing.”

She said that, but it seems that there is something Marika wanted to talk about with Erika.

Alisa somehow understood that.

“I’ll go with you.”

Also ‘somehow’, Alisa thought it would be best if she went with her.

◇ ◇ ◇

The lodge Erika is renting was around ten minutes away on foot.

“This is it, right?”

“Yeah, it is.”

Alisa nodded after reading the sign put up at the lodge.

Right after Marika pressed the button of the intercom, in place of a response, the door opened.

“Tookami, and you’re Juumonji-senpai’s younger sister, aren’t you?”

For some reason, the one coming out was Leo.

With suspicious tones, Marika and Alisa collectively exclaimed “Saijou-senpai!?”.

The surprise was so great that the next phrase, ‘Why are you here?’, didn’t come out of either of their mouths.

“Are you here for Erika? If so, come inside.”

Saying that, Leo moved his body while holding the door in place with his leg.

A pose that told them to come in.

“...Sorry for the intrusion.” “...Excuse me.”

With an attitude more befitting of the expression ‘cautiously’ than ‘reservedly’, the two bowed while passing in front of Leo.

“Uh? What’s up, you two?”

Erika was standing at the kitchen, which is also a dining room. Maybe she was preparing lunch? In that case, they may be bothering them.

“Ah, don’t worry. I was just about to make some tea.”

She must have sensed the feelings of guilt crossing Alisa’s mind. Erika, after saying that, as if to prove her own words, picked up two small places from the kitchen counter and took them to the dining table.

On the small plates were yokan[8] to snack on.

“Umm, I’ll help you.”

“Thank you, but please, just sit down.”

Erika smiled, her tone cheerful. But her thoughts, ‘no need to worry’, were clear.

Alisa and Marika looked at each other and then sat down as she said.

Leo, who returned from the entrance, with no restraint or hesitation, sat down opposite of Marika —the seat where the yokan were.

Erika brought tea on a tray. There were four teacups.

She distributed the teacups placed on top of saucers. She also placed additional yokan in front of Marika and Alisa.

Grateful, they both bowed and said “Thank you very much”, and Leo simply slightly raised one hand and said “Yeah”.

“Well, go on, dig in.”

Leo said and then took a yokan without hesitating, which Alisa and Marika couldn’t do. As they thought, Erika and Leo have an unusual relationship, right—?

While thinking such things, both Marika and Alisa were just staring at the teacups in front of them.

“Don’t be shy, go on.”

After Erika sit down and urged them, Marika first and then Alisa picked up their teacups.

The green tea was neither too strong nor too weak, its flavor was just right.

Perhaps she intentionally made it lukewarm? The midsummer sun is shining outside today as well.

“So?”

In response to Erika’s question, Marika bowed and said “Thank you for yesterday”.

“I was somewhat able to perform the ‘Glide’ you taught me.”

“So you’ve already done it. Can I see?”

“Yes, please do.”

“Ah, you can show me after you finish the yokan.”

Marika, who was halfway through the process of standing up, sat back down, looking a little embarrassed.

The front of the lodge had been smoothened. From the color of the soil on the surface, it was leveled quite recently. Perhaps Erika or her disciples used magic to make a spot where it’s easy to train.

Erika, Alisa, and, for some reason, even Leo were watching over Marika as she performed ‘Glide’. Erika gave her a passing mark right away.

“Marika, I probably don’t need to tell you, but keep practicing until you’ve fully mastered it.”

“Yes, I’ll do my best!”

“Nice, a good, straight-forward answer. I’d like my disciples to respond like that.”

Erika, in a good mood, smiled.

That smile must have encouraged her.

“Umm, Erika-san.”

Marika shyly began talking.

“Would you teach me that technique?”

“That technique, you mean ‘Shadow Slash’?”

“Yes. As I thought, you can’t?”

Erika didn’t hesitate to answer.

“I don’t think ‘Shadow Techniques’ suit you, Marika.”

Erika’s answer was a ‘No’.

“Is that so...”

Marika couldn’t hide her disappointment.

“Don’t get me wrong. I meant that it wouldn’t suit your fighting style.”

But with those words, the atmosphere around Marika changed from disappointment to expectation.

“I think your strength lies in a proactive offensive that makes full use of your tough defense. So I’m thinking it would be better if you learn two or three methods of defense that can support you even if the shield is broken through.”

“However, Chiba-senpai, if she deploys different shield magics are the same time, there is a risk that the magic force fields will interfere and weaken each other. In the worst case, the shields can even fail to deploy... No, that may actually be the most usual case.”

Marika nodded without thinking to deeply, and Alisa interjected with her own question.

This is the first hurdle when learning ‘Phalanx’. Alisa had also found it difficult.

But Erika also understood this.

“Quite the typical thing to point out for someone from the Juumonji Family. But that’s why you combine it with something that isn’t shield magic.”

“You mean fortification magic?” “Fortification magic, right!?”

Alisa looked at Erika, looking for an answer, while Marika enthusiastically looked at Leo.

“Marika. I’ll tell you something good.”

Marika, keeping the enthusiasm in her eyes, returned her gaze to Erika.

“Unfortunately, fortification magic won’t protect against ‘Shadow Techniques’ like ‘Shadow Slash’. But if it’s magic that directly interferes with your body, you can suppress it with magic that fortifies the body itself.”

“That’s...”

“I heard this from Chika, but you had a bitter experience with the Ichijou Family’s fluid interference magic, didn’t you? It is the correct decision for you to attempt to learn fortification magic, Marika.”

“Please wait a second. Fortifying your own body, is that even possible?”

Next to Marika, whose look was like a horse with a carrot hanging in front of its eyes, Alisa interjected, sounding anxious. The greater the expectations get, the greater the disappointment will be once it becomes clear the joy is merely fleeting. She was worried about that.

The fortification magic the Mountaineering Club used at this training camp and that Leo taught Marika was to harden clothes.

The fortification magic that is popular in modern times is for strengthening protection and swords.

She had heard about the existence of techniques in ancient magic that strengthened the body through ‘qi’ and ‘divine protection’ and ‘divine possession’, but the fortification magic’s ‘strengthening’ probably comes from magic founded on different principles than those.

After all, the human body has flexibility, so it can move freely. And if the body is hardened you will not be able to move. Alisa was harboring doubts like that.

“Thinking it can’t be done is common sense.”

“In other words, common sense is incorrect?”

“No, common sense isn’t wrong. There are just some exceptions that go counter to common sense. Isn’t that right, Leo?”

“I figured that’s where this conversation was going...”

Erika mentioned Leo, who frowned like he had been forced to eat an exceptionally bitter melon.

“It’s similar to my BS magic, it’s not something just about anyone can use.”

BS magic, also known as innate, unique magic ability, is personal magic. It’s not that it’s entirely impossible to reproduce unless it’s the person themselves, but it is called ‘innate’ and ‘unique’ because they can’t be easily learned or imitated.

“There’s no need for her to fully master it, right? She only needs it at the moment she’s hit with magic that interferes with the body. If I remember right, didn’t Tatsuya-kun make an exclusive Activation Sequence for you, saying it was for improving resource consumption?”

“It’s true that Tatsuya assembled the Activation Sequence, but...”

As she heard the two graduates argue back and forth, Alisa thought ‘there it is again...’.

‘Shiba Tatsuya’, once again. It isn’t only this time, every time the topic of advanced magic is brought up, there is a high likelihood of that name showing up.

It’s not like she’s oblivious to Shiba Tatsuya’s accomplishments. Her friend Mei also admires him, and she has studied everything that is generally known in magician society.

Using the name ‘Taurus Silver’, he tremendously improved many magic system software, such as the loop cast system.

Also as Taurus Silver, he was the first to implement flying magic in the world.

He also settled another one of the ‘Three Great Puzzles of Weight Systematic Magic’ along flying magic, the realization of a technique for implementing a gravity control-type thermonuclear fusion reactor.

Though he has become widely known to people who aren’t magicians as ‘a demon who has surpassed the military of a great nation with his own power’, Alisa believes his achievements as a Magic Artificer are comparable to his military and political prestige.

But even so, she hears that name too often in her personal territory. She almost felt, even hallucinated, that her own life is being pulled toward the flow of the great destiny of the name ‘Shiba Tatsuya’.

This hallucination lurked in a corner of her consciousness like an ominous premonition.

Marika received the Action Sequence for ‘fortification magic that acts upon one’s own body’ from Leo once she returned to the lodge.

“Umm, this was made by Shiba-senpai, is it okay for me to use this without his permission?”

There is no system for collecting patent royalties for magic. As the Activation Sequences used in CADs are electronic programs, it wouldn’t be strange for published ones to be subject to copyright, but, regarding this matter, there is an international agreement in effect with the conclusion that ‘Activation Sequences are logic and not works of authorship’.

Clauses that prohibit reverse engineering are typical in the private sector, but it can be said that it’s rare for exchanges among friends to have legally valid prohibition clauses.

However, legal rights and personal relationships of mutual trust are different things. Marika was worried about Leo’s relationship with his friend deteriorating. — Also, since Tatsuya is a stranger as far as Marika is concerned, she wasn’t at all worried about his thoughts on the matter.

“Aah, it’s fine. Tatsuya gave me the go ahead to do whatever I want with it.”

“...Is that so?”

‘How generous’, Marika felt.

Listening at Marika’s side, Alisa thought ‘Feels like there’s a catch here’.

“Rather, he told me to share it if I ever found someone who looked like they could use it.”

“...And there are no conditions?”

Alisa asked, thinking it was getting increasingly fishy.

“He told me to inform him afterwards about the people I give it to. But that’s normal, right?”

“Yeah, that’s right...”

Like Leo said, when passing a copy of a program you were privately given to a third party, it is good manners to at least get approval after the fact. This is not especially limited to programs. The product of someone else’s efforts should be given respect — this is consensus in modern society.

But at the same time, private information about her cherished best friend will be given to a suspicious man. Said man seems to be deeply in love with his beautiful fiancée, so maybe she doesn’t need to worry about him bringing harm with stalker-like activities. But, from the various anecdotes she’s heard until now, Alisa couldn’t shake away the fear that he would have a mad scientist kind of interest in Marika.

“Saijou-senpai, are you still close with Shiba-senpai?”

Leo went on to Rescue University, which has weak relations with magicians, and is distant from magic. The other party, Tatsuya, both as a magician and a Magic Artificer, is completely immersed in the world of magic. Perhaps they do not have many interactions.

That was Alisa’s wishful thinking, but she wasn’t off the mark.

“We’ve both been busy. These days we only occasionally talk over the phone.”

If that’s the case, nothing other than a superficial profile should be reported. Alisa, at least for now, was relieved.

“By the way, why do you think Leo-senpai was in Erika-san’s lodge?”

Marika asked about that on the way to the training institute they’re using for the training camp.

Alisa didn’t think that question was ‘sudden’. In fact, she had been thinking about the same thing for a while.

“Why indeed. They certainly look close, but they didn’t look like they’re lovers...”

“But it felt like they completely understood each other. ‘A man and woman with no reservations around each other’? That kind of feeling.”

“Hmm, but, that mood, you know? Rather than lovers, best friends? Something like that?”

“Best friends that are closer than lovers?”

“Ah, it was that kind of impression.”

Alisa clapped and nodded to what Marika said.

At this time, both of them had sparkling eyes.