Chapter 4 | The Assassin Studies Magic
Over the years, I came to realize that my mother was an unusual person in a number of ways.
Despite her status, she loved to cook. She preferred typical home cooking to the fancy foods more commonly associated with high society. Luxurious things like jewelry and dresses didn’t seem to catch her interest very much, as she possessed few of either. Often, she would try her best to avoid the many invitations she received for tea gatherings, parties, and other such social assemblies. To top it all off, she spent her free time sewing.
“I think these clothes would look great on you, Lugh,” my mother said.
“… Ha-ha, they’re definitely cute, but they look like girls’ clothing, and they’ll be difficult to move around in,” I responded. The outfit was rather frilly and had an excess of decoration. I had no interest in dressing like a girl. Still, I didn’t want to upset her, so I tried letting her down as gently as possible.
“What? Lugh, you really don’t want to wear this?” my mother asked.
“Well…sorry.”
“I worked so hard on this for you, though… It would be such a waste if you didn’t wear it. Please try it on!” Putting her hands together in a begging motion, my mother bowed her head.
“They look like something a girl would wear, though.” It seemed my point hadn’t gone through the first time, so with this rebuttal I tried to be more direct.
“But I really think they’d look great on you!”
“Mother, you’re not even denying that they look like girls’ clothes…”
“If you wear them, I’ll make your favorite roast duck for dinner tonight.”
Growing up in the Tuatha Dé household, I’d been raised with love, and I’d come to understand what it meant to love others. For that, I was very grateful, and it’s why I tried my best to be a good son for my parents.
Even so, some things were just too much.
Unfortunately, my mother was looking at me as if she was about to cry, and I caved. “Fine, I’ll wear it. But you’d better make the roast duck like you promised.”
“Of course! I’m going to call a painter while you’re changing. The image of you in this adorable outfit needs to be captured for posterity!”
“… Now, that I won’t agree to. My new mentor is arriving today. I can’t make them wait.”
“Oh, you’re right. How disappointing…”
I’d been eagerly looking forward to the arrival of my magic instructor all day. Originally, my impatience had been because I just wanted to learn magic, but now I suddenly found myself with an even more pressing reason for hoping they’d arrive soon. No sooner had my mother started using me as her personal dress-up doll than my teacher arrived. I was saved.
“Are you satisfied yet, Mother? I need to change back to go greet my mentor,” I said.
“What are you talking about? Just keep on what you’re wearing now. I made that outfit for this very occasion, after all,” she replied.
After I gave her a look of shock, Mother suddenly moved back and held the clothes I’d previously been wearing tight to her chest to keep me from retrieving them.
In my mind, I knew she was teasing me. There was no way my mother wasn’t enjoying this rare chance to see me so flustered.
At the call of a servant, I made my way to the reception room, where I was greeted by a girl and her attendant. The girl was wearing a robe that could not have been more fitting for a practitioner of magic. As she removed her hood, silver hair tumbled down to rest at her shoulders.
I’d never seen anyone other than myself or Mother with silver hair before. This girl was exceptionally beautiful.
Her age, however, was somewhat concerning. She looked to be only around ten years old, but I knew better than to judge based on physical maturity. One look at myself was all I needed to know that making snap decisions based on how young one looked was unwise.
I could tell right away that the strength of the mana surrounding her greatly surpassed Father’s.
Just the fact that this girl was a mage had to mean she was either a noble or a knight. Given her high mana capacity, it was more likely that she was descended from a lineage of the former.
A mage was a person who possessed mana. Parents who didn’t possess mana themselves rarely give birth to children who did, and as one might’ve expected, parents with strong mana often sired children with strong mana as well.
The country my family lived in had traditionally placed great value on people who possessed mana. Thus, it was unsurprising that a high-ranking noble family likely also bore children with greater mana.
That’s exactly the reason why it fell to a noble family like House Tuatha Dé to become a clan of assassins. Only a noble was capable of killing one of their own.
My father entered the room and invited the girl to sit on the sofa before seating himself. I followed their example and sat down as well.
A servant brought us all herbal tea.
“I’m sorry for making you travel all the way here. You must have a busy schedule,” my father apologized.
“No need to worry about that. The Viekone family owes much to House Tuatha Dé, in spite of your thievery,” the girl replied.
“Ha-ha, calling me a thief is a bit harsh, no?” my father asked.
The girl seemed to be referring to something I was unaware of.
Whatever it was likely referred to my family’s secret trade. Yet the number of people who knew about our status as assassins was very limited. Furthermore, there shouldn’t have been any nobles in the Alvanian Kingdom with the name Viekone.
Just who is this girl? I wondered.
“So is this kid my new apprentice? I was told he was a boy,” the girl inquired.
“… I am a boy,” I stated.
I knew this would happen. I resolved to speak with my mother about this later.
“These clothes were made by my wife. Sewing is a hobby of hers,” my father explained.
“Oh, really? Now that you mention it, she… Ahem. Anyway… Isn’t he a little young to be learning magic?”
“Lugh is a special case. You may not believe me, but at seven years old, he’s already more capable than most of my subordinates—on both sides of the Tuatha Dé coin, so to speak. He’s a genius of your level, Dia.”
“If this wasn’t Cian Tuatha Dé speaking, I would’ve dismissed this simply as a parent being overly fond of their child. All right, I’ll teach him the basics in the two weeks I’ve been allotted. However, if I judge him to be unworthy of my training, I’ll declare this a waste of time and discontinue my instruction.”
Finding the deal agreeable, my father nodded. If I was judged unworthy, I’d lose the mentor I’d waited so long for… I needed to give this my all.
Instead of the indoor training room, my teacher and I ended up using the courtyard for magic practice.
“Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Dia Viekone. I’m ten years old, but it would be unwise to underestimate me. I’m far more proficient with magic than any adult,” stated the mage with considerable confidence.
“I’m Lugh Tuatha Dé. I’m seven years old. I look forward to your guidance,” I answered in kind.
“Nice to meet you. First, I need to measure the strength of your mana. This training will be pointless if your mana is below average,” Dia said, and she prepared a transparent marble.
“Lugh, you know how to manipulate mana, right?”
“Yes, ma’am. I learned from my father.”
“You don’t need to be so polite. I don’t want this to feel so stiff.”
“But you’re my mentor.”
“That’s true, but…be more relaxed. Magic is tiring enough, so it would be foolish to waste energy on your speech.”
Something about Dia’s attitude felt curiously familiar.
Her silver hair, her facial features, and, above all, her personality reminded me of my mother.
“All right. I’ll be less formal. So what am I supposed to do with this ball?” I dropped formality and started to speak in the natural voice I usually kept hidden from my parents.
It felt far better to talk that way, and Dia gave a satisfied smile.
“Hold it and fill it with mana. Continue until your mana is fully depleted. That way we’ll be able to measure your mana capacity.”
I directed my mana into the ball and was surprised to discover the marble really did have the ability to store it all.
Single-mindedly, I focused on transferring my mana into the marble. At first, Dia was nodding as if impressed, but after a minute passed, her expression shifted to disbelief. She even began to sweat.
“Releasing that much mana for over a minute is not normal!” she exclaimed.
“I still have plenty to spare.” It wasn’t a lie. I’d had yet to use even 20 percent of my mana. The fact that my mana was still vigorously flowing into the marble was proof of that.
“I-is that so? Then continue,” Dia instructed.
“Understood,” I replied.
By the time I passed the three-minute mark, Dia’s face had totally stiffened.
My mana capacity was close to a thousand times higher than the average person’s because of the amount of training I’d done. It was thanks to the information about this world from the goddess that I’d known how best to increase my capacity, and I’d worked hard to make good use of that insight.
The more you use mana, the more your maximum amount of mana will increase. This is a very slow process, however. Your maximum increases by a factor of only 0.01 percent each time you fully exhaust your mana. Complicating things further was that it took the average person around three days to fully recover their mana after exhausting it.
Even if you spent a year repeating this process fully as often as you could, it would take a year to grow your mana capacity by a single percent. Following that ratio, it would take ten years to increase it by 10 percent. Maintaining a steady release of mana in this manner until you run out was also extremely tiring, so there weren’t many people who were capable of the discipline required to stick with that sort of rigorous exercise.
In my case, Rapid Recovery allowed me to recover my mana at one hundred times the normal rate, which increased a hundredfold the efficiency with which I could train my mana. My stamina also returned to me at a similar rate, so releasing mana didn’t tire me out at all.
With that in mind, I reasoned that I could increase my mana capacity by 330 percent every year. On top of that, my recovery rate from Rapid Recovery also increased as I trained, compounding the process and making it even more efficient.
Thanks to my making sure I constantly discharged mana, my capacity had already swelled to a thousand times higher than what it was at birth. If I hadn’t chosen the Limitless Growth skill, I surely would’ve hit my natural maximum a long time ago. That was precisely the reason I chose both Rapid Recovery and Limitless Growth.
“No matter how you look at it, this amount of mana is not normal!!!”
“I have what I have. There’s nothing abnormal about taking this long to release a large mana capacity.”
I had managed to multiply my mana capacity by one thousand, but that affects only the amount of mana I can store. The amount of mana you can release at once, known as instantaneous mana discharge, increases at a much slower rate through training than capacity. Instantaneous mana discharge takes longer to increase the higher your mana capacity is, so right now it takes me five times longer than the average person. That’s why I’m so interested in this marble.
If I filled several of these marbles with a vast quantity of mana and built up a collection of them, I could use them in times of need to instantly release a much higher amount of mana than my instantaneous mana discharge was capable of.
As if it had heard my thoughts, the marble suddenly made a high-pitched noise and began to crack. Dia’s face went pale, then quickly turned dark red.
“Throw it! Now! Throw it up as high as you can!!!” she cried.
I shifted my mana toward upping my physical strength and threw the marble into the air, as instructed.
I may only have the body of a seven-year-old, but thanks to the combination of my special Tuatha Dé training and Rapid Recovery, my physical strength had increased significantly, and I could use my abnormally high mana to increase my strength even more.
I threw the marble so high it disappeared into the sky. Seconds later, it erupted in a massive blue explosion.
Evidently, it was a good thing I’d thrown it with all my strength. If that explosion had happened anywhere near the ground, it would have wiped out the estate and everyone on it. Unfortunately, it’d still been strong enough to send a blast of wind back down, one strong enough to shake the mansion and shatter its windows.
Not a moment later, Mother and Father rushed outside to find out what had happened.
“Ms. Dia, what was that just now?” asked Father.
“I’m so sorry! I was trying to measure Lugh’s mana, and…,” Dia began.
“So you’re telling me Lugh did this?” Father gave the young instructor a piercing look.
“A-ah, no, not really. I-it was my fault!”
“That’s not what I’m asking. Is Lugh the one who caused that explosion?”
“W-well, yes. But it wasn’t his fault—it was mine, so if you’re angry, you should be angry with me!”
Despite her usual mature demeanor, Dia looked like any other child her age as she stood quaking, her eyes closed. Perhaps she thought my father was going to hit her.
That was not what happened, however, because Father was clearly not angry over this.
“That’s incredible!!! Esri, did you hear that?!” he asked excitedly.
“Yes, as expected of our boy genius! To think he’s already capable of such powerful magic!”
“Yes, but it isn’t really suited for assassination,” my father said. “No matter how you look at it, this is magic more suited for war. Ms. Dia, please teach him magic that will assist him as an assassin next.”
“U-understood. Wait, huh?! Are you not mad?”
“Of course not! I couldn’t have imagined a more splendid first show of magic from Lugh. Choosing you was the right decision, Ms. Dia.”
Both grinning like the proud parents they were, Mother and Father returned to the mansion.
“Uh, sorry about that. They always get like that when it comes to me,” I admitted.
“They’re…quite something, aren’t they?” Dia said, choosing her words carefully.
“By the way, Dia. Sorry to change the subject, but could you tell me where I can obtain more of those little balls? They seem very useful. I’d like a lot of them, if possible,” I asked.
“These are prized goods from my domain. We’re not allowed to give them to outsiders,” the young mage replied.
I clicked my tongue in disappointment.
“What was that for?!” Dia snapped.
“Oh, I was just thinking that those balls would be really useful if I obtained a large quantity of them. They would make for amazing weapons.”
To prepare as many methods for killing the hero as I could, I’d been looking into options outside of magic or training. I’d even gone so far as to consider developing firearms.
Obtaining the necessary gunpowder for that proved to be difficult, however. Making gunpowder was easy enough, but making high-quality explosives more suited for firearms was too challenging.
That’s what made this marble so incredible. With that kind of explosive power, I could create weapons that rivaled the strength of a tank cannon…no, even better, the cannon of a battleship.
“… This may be my parents’ influence speaking, but as I said, I really can’t give you one. Ahem. Anyway, your mana capacity turned out to be immeasurable, but it’s enough just knowing that you’ll have plenty of mana to deal with any situation. I’m curious; how much mana do you think you have left?” Dia asked.
“Hmm, I’d say about two-thirds,” I answered.
“I’m so jealous… But mana capacity does not make a great mage alone! Let’s move on.”
“Hey, Dia?”
“What is it?”
“Are you sure you can’t give me any of those marbles?”
“How many times do I have to say it? No!”
That was disappointing. At least I knew that I would be able to find some if I traveled to Dia’s homeland. I resolved to make sure I got my hands on some, if at all possible. Being able to make weapons that could discharge a huge amount of mana all at once would be a huge boon toward killing the hero.
There would be time for that later, however. With the preparation complete, it was time for me to learn how to use magic.
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