Chapter 8 (1/2)

s.h.i.+nde Hajimaru: Chapter 8

Spell battle

“...I'm glad I used soundproof barrier just in case... or else we would be kneeing down apologize our neighborhood...”

“I'm sorry!”

I blown up the garden at 7 in the morning, now it's already 12 a.m.

It took about 5 hours using earth arts to restore the ground. Oh, and in these time, I became able to control my magic power output to some extend.

How hot was that, I wonder... Here and there I could see some soil melted, to cool them down water arts was also used...

So, after all, thanks to this incident, I became able to use 4 elementary attribute arts, excluding light and darkness. It's supposed to be a happy achievement...

“I'm not angry anymore. Thinking about the result, you learned strangely fast. You seems to be able to control magic power already. Unlike Enchant where you keep magic power within your body, manipulating magic power outside the body is supposed to be a hard task...”

“As expected from onee-chan! You have apt.i.tude for magic like that of a monster!”

“Monster... In that way, do you not have strength of a monster?... How come you are fine with running straight from 4 to 9 a.m.?”

“I stopped to drink some water though?”

“That's not it! That's not! I meant your physical strength!”

(You are only 4 years old know, understand?)

(There is no need to use telepathy... And by the way, us being waked up at 4 a.m. to train is not normal at all for 4 years old, you see?)

(...That's right..)

Even though my body without Enchant would not be able to stand? Just raising up my body is enough to make me out of breath... What's up with this training?!

“Yeah yeah, time to stop your union and let's have lunch.”

““Ye~s””

Certainly, we don't have time to waste, I have to master over 100 elementary attribute arts within 4 months anyway.

“Ah, mother... does the fire attribute spell earlier have a name?”

“It's called <bomb>, a basic fire attribute spell.”

“By the way, what it the lowest magic power consumption of that spell?”

“About 10, same as Status. Well, lowest consumption level is only used to conceal yourself.”

I see... Let's confirm that. <status: ability=”” (status)=””>. Of course I'm able to use Status without chanting now, you know?

○Ability (Status)

MP：161400/210000

If I'm not wrong, my MP was 163400 before training started. The total consumption for Status, Earth art and Water art was 1000, so, <bomb> used 1000... that is 100 times more than the lowest level.

“How was it? How many was used?”

“After subtracting the amount I used for water and earth arts later... about 10 times...”

“Lies.”

“You are lying.”

Looks at their certainty...

Am I that easy to read? This is making me ashamed.

“....ugh...”

“Did you say something? I couldn't hear you.”

“100 times! It was my bad!”

““....””

“....uuu... That wasn't intended... And didn't you also do it while demonstrating to me?...”

“...”

“.... *stares*”

“Uh... even Elise... Alice, I was wrong for pressing you. So cheer up, please?”

“... Breakfast, kupi donburi...”

“Yes yes, got that.”

Kupi donburi is an dish made from meat of animal similar to pigs, making unfathomable weird sound 'Kupiiiiiiiiioi~'. It's like a beef version of pork donburi. But, this dish is more delicious than the beef donburi I ate back in Earth!

… I'm not telling you this to hide my embarra.s.sment, you know?

Absolutely not!

“Hmm, it's alright then.”

“Since we still have kupi meat left, there is no need to go out to buy. Continue your training in the afternoon. I won't step back on this, prepare yourself.”

“...U...understood...”

“Elise, build up your strength.”

“Running again? Even while running is fun...

Well, it's fine, I guess. Is this time combining Enchant and Wind art enough?”

“That's good. But I don't know much about martial art, so think about applying to martial art by yourself.”

“Ye~s. Since I'm finished eating, I will start running after resting a little bit.”

“Hmm, I'm finished, too.

...Let's begin training now.”

“What's with your sudden motivation?... Kupi donburi?...”

Kupi donburi is justice.

Mother and I go to garden again. Since I was able to use fire, water, wind, earth attributes, only light and darkness left to complete 6 basic attributes.

This training is for my own sake anyway, let me do my best!

At me renewing my spirit, mother smiles silently, then she parts her lips.

Mother seems about to give an explanation about light and darkness arts.

“Light and darkness attribute arts are basic for interference. Light can deceive eyes, darkness can hide and interrupt.

Offensive spells also exists, but they are mostly belong to intermediate level. But since you can just stick with <material guard=””> included in light arts, and <mind guard=””>, for every magician who have apt.i.tude for light and darkness attribute, it can be said that these spells have highest priority in their training.

Every life is valuable, especially in a small country where war happen a lot...”

Somehow, I can feel the sadness in mother's expression.

It is regrettable that the me now can't do anything for her. I'm without knowledge, neither is strength. I can't even encourage mother, let alone protecting her.

I feel... frustrated...

In order to not have this frustration in the future... for now, I have to listen to her explanation carefully.

“What's else... eh... A lot of light spells are effective against Undead, darkness can create protection against mind effects.

Well, <mind guard=””> is unnecessary for you, Alice, let's exclude that from your training.

Since I don't have apt.i.tude for light attribute, I won't be able to teach you... But I'm a specialist among specialists in darkness arts, as you can guess from my eyes color. That's why I will teach you, listen to your heart content! Let's begin!”

“Yes!”

That was how, I started my 4 months of training magic everyday, until the following year.

Of course, <spirit magic:=”” mind=”” resistant=””>, nchant: endurance=””> and <high speed=”” magic=”” power=”” recovery=””> was forcefully utilized to maximum.

-----I never expected, mother has such a plan for me in the last day.

December 31st, that day was Oomisoka on Earth. It was 12:00 noon.

Mother took me to a compet.i.tion in town.

Yes, a compet.i.tion. For the reason, I couldn't think of any. At bewildered me, mother said:

“Wait here.”

And left me behind. I had an extremely unpleasant premonition.

After about 30 minutes of waiting, a staff member from of compet.i.tion organizer came to me.

“Alice-sama, please follow me.”

So he said. I still didn't know anything. Still, I went after him in confusion.

I walked through a dark corridor with shady atmosphere.

And then, ahead of me was...

“Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for coming to our store today.

...Well, there are only Serena-sama and Alice-sama though...”

A woman in beautiful clothes appeared and bowed to us respectfully.

Hah...? Store? Isn't this a compet.i.tion...

My head stopped working for a moment. Of course, I still had an odd feeling.

As I stopped thinking, the conservation continued somehow.

“Hah... Why am I doing....”

“Are you saying something?”

“No, absolutely not. Our match today is between the strongest explo..”

“I will kill you, you know?”

“... My impoliteness. Serena-sama and Alice-sama. It's a showdown between mother and daughter. Against a little 4 years old girl a training, what a de...”

“I, by my command”

“Aaaaaa~~ My apologize! Please stop that! If Serena-sama use that, the barrier protecting our compet.i.tion will be blown up!”

I did not follow too well since my thought stopped, but... What is this, a comedy?

All right, since we had not done this for a while, let's organizing our established facts.

1. As mother asked, I was took to a compet.i.tion.

2. This seems to be a dome, mother is facing at me from about 30 metres away.

3. On our arms, there is a bracelet with 3 spheres of light.

Conclusion: Mother and I will be fighting, it seems.

“The rules are: who takes 3 hits first lose. The bracelets on arm of each partic.i.p.ant function as a special field, while it can transform magic power, but it is designed to active only when a spell is almost touching you, so please be careful.

The numbers of flas.h.i.+ng light spheres is the remaining number that it can active. The partic.i.p.ant who has all spheres dimmed is defeated. Shots within 10 seconds is counted as one. For the fairness of the match between Serena-sama and Alice-sama, only Elementary level spells are allowed. Alice-sama's Spirit magic and Enchant are allowed, but using addition magic power to raise efficiency is forbidden.”

Even with the rules explained, it wasn't like I could take them in... I barely recognized the situation just now...

Well, leaving aside this someone explaining things...

Let's ask mother.

“...Mother, what is this?”

“Keep silent and listen, you will understand.”

Mother didn't feel like answering at all.