Endless Memoir - Seraph Wedd (read a book .TXT) 📗

is used to call upon a small amount of water. It is effective against fire.”

As she explained, she picked up a paper with the water magic circle. After applying mana, water started to drip from the paper.

The drops of water reached the flame from the other magic circle and it got extinguished.

“Following that is the earth magic circle. It is used to call upon the power of the earth. It is effective against water element.”

When she picked up an earth magic circle and activated it, the paper suddenly turned into sand and fell on top of the water, sipping it dry.

“Last is the wind magic circle. It calls upon a light breeze. It is useful against earth element as it cannot be restrained.”

When she activated the wind magic circle, a gust of wind came and wiped the table clean from the sand.

“Conversely, wind element works to strengthen fire element so you need to be careful.”

She warned us too about the compatible elements.

“What will happen if I write two elements in a single circle?”

I asked. Mary nodded and quickly gave an answer.

“In case of two elements being inscribed, the elements will be reacting with each other. For example, if fire is mixed with wind, when the circle is activated, it will produce a hot breeze of air.”

So there was really that function. This is getting more interesting.

“Can the user stop the magic once it’s started?”

Nina asked innocently while raising her right hand.

“Unfortunately, no. Once the circle is activated, until either the surrounding mana or the supplied mana is used up, it wouldn’t stop.”

There’s even a drawback to using it. The more I hear, the more I want to study it.

“There’s also a method of adding some protection for the user but that is an advanced skill. A newbie like me can only dream of learning it.”

She added with a wry smile.

“Then, let’s get to the next level. This time, it will be emission of elements.”

After saying that, she picked up the ruler beside her and drew lines on top of the elements’ square to the top of the circle and from the bottom of the square to the bottom of the circle.

On the top side of the square, she drew a small circle.

The finalized drawing looked similar to the «Luminescence» magic circle with the only difference being the written core element.

Then, holding the paper with the drawing of the four elements, she applied mana to it.

Immediately after, 4 spheres of different colors were floating around her. One red, one white, one blue and one brown.

“With just a little modification, you can make an element to appear in a condensed form like this.”

After 3 seconds of the end of her words, the spheres vanished as if it was an illusion.

“… However, the mana consumption is a level higher than the basic elements. You should take note of this.”

Assuming that Mary used the same amount of mana on both cases, the provided mana could make a normal elementary scroll last for a minute while it could only last less than 10 seconds if emitted. The efficiency was definitely lower.

The lessons proceeded smoothly until the time for dinner came.

I felt respect for Mary’s skills for the first time. It seems that drawing the Magic Circles weren’t that easy. When I tried, I only made one success over all my dozens of tries.

I felt depressed due to that fact.

After we ate dinner, I continued practicing. I couldn’t accept that I have more failures than successes. I will continue practicing until I can make it a 100% success rate!

Mary even lent me her book of spells. She briefed me with each sections and types of magic and then left me alone.

I got immersed in practicing and reading. The large bundle of papers disappeared like smoke.

Though, I have the habit of losing track of time when focusing on something.

And as expected, when I noticed, the sun was already peeking through the window. I even lost count of the number of «Luminescence» Scrolls that I have used as lighting and as experiment materials.

Still, my efforts didn’t go in vain.

By now, I could draw elementary fire, water and wind magic circles perfectly. Earth magic circles still had about 5% failure rate but I almost got it.

About the event when I almost ended up burning the table, I kept quiet. There were things better left unknown in this world.

“You must be tired from staying up all night. Here’s a glass of hot milk. I’m sorry as the meal will be prepared an hour later.”

Mary came to my side carrying a steaming hot milk.

“Thank you.”

I replied with a short smile. Looks like I was more fatigued than I thought.

I received the hot milk and carefully took a sip.

The sweetness spreading on my mouth and the heat filling my stomach blew away my sleepiness. I heaved a sigh of relief.

“… How is it going? Have you made some progress?”

Mary quickly inquired. She must be curious of how I fared after pulling an all-nighter. Other than the half-burnt table incident, I have no problem in telling her everything though.

“Let’s see… I basically mastered all elementary elements. I also found some patterns and proved some of my theories. All in all, it looks like I did quite well for one night.”

“Wow. So you mastered elements… Which element?”

“Hmm? I mastered all of it.”

“Please stop joking. Learning a single element is the most one can do in one night. Even my master, who is considered a genius, mastered her first element in half a day.”

“No. I’m not lying. See?”

“…”

When I showed her the pile of papers that I had made, she turned quiet. Then, one by one, she checked each circle if they were functioning properly.

It took her over 10 minutes to finish even when using both hands to check. Right after, she limply sat down on the chair as if a puppet that had its strings cut.

“You really did… To think that you could make over 400 magic circles in one night…”

She muttered in a low voice.

“There are circles that looks different though. Still, they seem to work just fine. What are those?”

“Experiments. They are circles that are the byproduct of me proving some theories.”

“Amazing… This may be what master means with ‘working one step ahead’…”

I kind of get what she means. But to me, instead of one step ahead, I felt like working while being three steps behind.

Still, now that she upheld her end of the bargain, it’s now my turn.

“Then this afternoon, our lesson on reading ancient letters will start.”

After my declaration, Mary’s eyes turned wide with surprise. Then, with a really bright smile, she answered.

“Yes!”

I smiled after seeing her innocent reaction.

I felt like I wouldn’t get a wink of sleep for quite a while more.

Chapter 6: Merchant

A week passed and I slowly got used to living here in Mujyara.

Lessons on Magic by Mary and on Ancient Letters (a.k.a. cursive English) by me was the daily routine. Nina would sometimes join but most of the time, she’s out of the house doing other things.

During my lessons, I was once again surprised at how easily Mary learned how to read and write Ancient Letters. She must be smarter than what she claimed. Although she always acted humble and compared herself to her master.

It didn’t even take 4 days for her to memorize the whole 26 cursive lowercase alphabets. I disregarded the uppercase as it wasn’t used on any magic circles but I believe that she could easily master those too.

During breaks, we mostly talk about random things. As I was being treated as someone who lost his memories, they were being considerate and didn’t ask much questions.

During one of our conversations, a certain topic came.

“The merchant is coming?”

While I was reading with a cup of milk, Mary told me.

“Yes. The merchant from the capital comes once every 10 days. And today is the day he will arrive on our village. He’ll arrive around noon I suppose?”

“Hnnnn… What sort of wares is he selling?”

“There’s a lot of variety. From metal tools to porcelain goods. From cheap leather goods up to expensive silk clothes. From simple jewelry up to expensive accessories. It’s better for you to see for yourself.”

Rather than a lone merchant, it feels more like a caravan. All those goods couldn’t possibly be carried by a lone merchant’s carriage.

“Oh! So that’s why everyone seems busy since yesterday.” I mused.

“Fufu. As expected from you. Everyone in the village is preparing their products that is to be sold and the ones to be offered as taxes to the king. As an apprentice, I’ve yet to be included as a working adult so I’m still exempted from taxes.”

“Are taxes collected every time the merchant comes?”

“Unnn. It is collected about twice a year. One is in the middle of spring and one in the middle of fall.”

She shook her head in denial. It seems that taxes are a bit lax. I don’t know about other kingdoms though.

“How about Nina?”

“She’s still underage so she’s exempted.”

“I see… Can I visit the merchant later too?”

“Of course. That’s why I told you about it in the first place.”

I’ve been freeloading on Mary’s and Nina’s home for a week now. I should repay them somehow later.

“… However… I don’t have money…”

When I first came here, I thought that the concept of money didn’t exist yet. However, it seems that I was mistaken. Trading was only done within the range of villagers while they use money when trading with the merchants.

Money was represented in four basic denominations. Stones, copper, silver and gold. The most basic unit was stones, which was basically made of crude iron turned into square coins.

There were variations to sizes and colors too, marking the change in value. The one with the largest value was the white gold.

In conversion: 1 White Gold > 10 Large Gold > 100 Gold > 1,000 Large Silver > 10,000 Silver > 100,000 Large Copper > 1,000,000 Copper > 10,000,000 Stones.

The coins that was most in circulation were silvers, coppers and stones. That was because 2 large coppers were more than enough to last a day’s worth of expenses.

Gold coins mostly circulate around the capital and among the nobles. It wasn’t forbidden for commoners to have gold coins, but it was extremely rare.

I didn’t have plans on leaving the village yet but I am still in need of money. That was because the quantity of the stack of papers were slowly decreasing.

If a piece of paper costs 2 stones, then I basically spent over 3 silvers worth of it. That amount is enough to feed me for a month. I felt really bad when Nina explained the concept of money to me.

A little later, I heard the faint sound similar to a church bell.

“What’s that?”

“You mean that sound? It’s the merchant.”

Mary nonchalantly answered while she practice writing. I was puzzled a little.

“The merchant? What’s that bell sound for then?”

“It has various purposes. One is to call the attention of people. Another is to drive away small animals off the road. And lastly is to prevent them from getting attacked.”

How crafty. That’s like hitting 4-5 birds with one stone.

“To think even bandits exists…”

Well, logically thinking, completely governing such a large piece of land was impossible. Having one or two groups of bandits