I’ve mostly understood.
Magic is fundamentally a technique for combat.
There are ranks in magic, and those defined as “beginner” or “lower” are even written about in introductory books on magic.
When it comes to “intermediate” magic, it’s categorized for mages, not just magicians, and to learn intermediate magic, one must read special books from the country’s academies, noble families, or the military, or be taught by an excellent private tutor.
With “advanced” magic, being able to use even one spell qualifies one to join the ranks of the upper-class mages. The techniques called “secret arts” are mostly under the control of the state or are the hereditary skills of the upper echelons of magicians and nobles.
“Special-grade” magic possesses particularly wonderful power even among the secret arts. It seems to be a classification that exists so that people can boast, “Our secret art is a special-grade magic!”
And then, above that, there’s what’s called “forbidden magic.”
“Forbidden magic” refers to spells that, regardless of whether they can be used, cause tremendous damage when used. Up to “special-grade,” at most, they can destroy a castle, but “forbidden magic” seems to bring about large-scale destruction like wiping out an entire town.
As the name suggests, it’s prohibited, and the techniques are sealed within the core of the state.
Moreover, the number of forbidden spells a nation possesses acts as a deterrent between states, so it seems that strong nations typically have forbidden magic.
For example, the forbidden magic that our country, the Viltoria Kingdom, possesses is said to be “Meteor Swarm,” which drops a giant meteorite and blows away a town.
There are apparently several others, but this one is the most famous as a showpiece.
Hearing that…
“…Seriously? That’s it?”
I couldn’t help but interject.
I mean, if you handle this highly versatile system of magic properly, you could destroy the world in no time.
And they call it “forbidden magic!!!” just for blowing up a town…
If that’s the case, I could split this planet… or even a continent right now, and then destroy the world.
And when I said that…
“You’re joking, right?”
The teacher turned pale.
“No, I’m serious. Simply put, just pull magma from the mantle while shifting the plates.”
“And what would happen then?”
“Well, have you ever seen a volcanic eruption?”
“I haven’t, but I understand what you mean…”
“Imagine that happening across the continent, and magma… uh, flames like mud? Burning everything around, the sea boiling, and then a world where it just rains forever.”
“Please, spare me…”
But what can be done can be done, right?
“Well, it might be easier to just create and spread a plague with magic. Or else cause nuclear decay, distort gravity, scatter antimatter…”
“Please, spare meeeee!!!”
Well, even if you say that…
But still, there’s always useful knowledge to be had.
Urban prices, noble relationships, trends in art…
There’s always something to learn.
Moreover, this teacher, while not saying she’ll give me valuable books, has said she’ll order and lend them to me.
That’s very helpful.
So, until I turned ten, I listened to her stories carefully.
And I took care of meals and baths.
After all, I couldn’t bear to feed her just black bread and bean soup from home, you know?
Well, three meals a day and baths are part of the tutor’s fee…
Apparently, my father summoned the tutor with some vague plan like, “If you’re in trouble, your foster parent will take care of it,” without preparing any reward.
Well, officially, it’s the foster parent’s duty to send a tutor to the home of a talented child. It’s about forming connections, right?
But in reality, it’s polite to prepare at least a tip for the tutor.
Hmm…
More than I thought, my father is useless.
When the bandit commotion happened, he was the first to arm himself and rush out early in the morning, giving orders to his subordinates. His martial skills are certainly above average for a country knight.
But the rest is terrible.
If it were disastrously terrible, he would lose his position for that reason, but it’s not that bad.
Actually, the evening meal on the day the teacher first came to our house included roasted rabbit meat, so it’s not like there was no consideration at all. It must have been intended as hospitality.
But the essential consideration is completely lacking.
Hmm…
I’ve been thinking about my father.
With his level of incompetence, if he made one wrong move, it would be over.
If it ended, it would be troublesome, but let’s set that aside.
From now on, when I turn twelve, I plan to make a name for myself as a mage at the academy, earn money somehow, create a faction, and form something like a mercenary or tech group of mages.
Having lived in this world, my impression is, “Violence! Violence solves everything!”
So, I’ll create the world’s most powerful organization with violence and technology, and live unbound by anyone.
But… if my father makes some fatal mistake?
Then he’ll definitely rely on me.
By then, my name will be known throughout the country. I plan to make big moves.
When that happens, someone might use my name without my knowledge.
Thinking about the trouble that could cause… damn, I’m getting chills!
So…
“As a precaution, I’ve decided to train you both rigorously.”
“Yes, sir!”
My brother, Sirius, eight years old.
My sister, Cecily, seven years old.
I’ll train these two thoroughly.
At their age, they’ve already been drilled in elementary school-level math and grammar, and I’ve crammed in craftsmanship and natural science as well.
Next, I’ll find out from the teacher about industries that don’t exist in this world or are underdeveloped, and make various improvements.
Recently, I’ve created a simulator based on past climates, and even without testing in the real world, I can predict to some extent what will happen, so I’ll make various industrial products based on those results.
And I’ll travel the world with magic, gathering various plants and livestock.
Oh, by the way, when I went to a small island in the north, I was attacked by something like a wyvern, so I fought back and defeated it.
When I dissected it, I laughed when a large crimson stone came out of its heart.
It’s beautiful, so it must be valuable, and when I gave it to the teacher as a thank you for the tutoring, she was so shocked she collapsed.
It seems to be a “magic stone” that is only found inside strong monsters.
The one I got from the wyvern was about the size of an adult man’s clenched fist, but it seems to be worth about 500 gold coins.
One gold coin is probably about 120,000 yen in Japanese currency.
A silver coin is 10,000 yen.
A copper coin is 2,500 yen.
A bronze coin is 500 yen.
With small change, the value tends to drop, and it’s common for it to go down by about 20% from these values.
But still, the wyvern’s magic stone is worth 500 new gold coins.
That’s 60 million yen.
The teacher, who received quite a large amount as a tip, thanked me with the best smile she’s had since she came here.
It’s good to be honest.
Eh? The fight with the wyvern?
That was just one shot with “Delete Magic.”
It was shot down by inertia when its head suddenly disappeared during flight.
I pulled the magic stone out of that flattened corpse.
Since it’s worth it, I’ve hunted a few wyverns and stocked up on several magic stones.
Ah, besides being a gemstone, magic stones are used as materials for magical tools, wands for magicians, and catalysts for large-scale magic.
