Chapter 13: Innovation

「In other words… if the beings we’ve been calling spirits—things like Undine, Jack Frost, and Salamander—and the things we thought were mere natural phenomena—like lumps of fire or water—are essentially the same, then those natural‑phenomenon‑like beings… let’s call them lesser spirits for convenience. Lesser spirits should also be able to learn Orders.」

Even if they can’t, it’s fine. Summoning a spirit is cutting a natural phenomenon out into the shape you imagine.

So we only need to cut out a lesser spirit as something that can learn Orders.

「If we can make it learn a complex action as a single Order, we won’t need long spoken spells anymore. We could handle it the same way as enchantment.」

I realized I’d been rattling on in excitement and came back to myself to find a row of faces all wearing question marks.

「Wouldn’t it be faster to just try it? Mel, make a fire and aim it at that thing.」

Inis twisted both hands and, from inside her sofa, a pair of gauntlets—Invisible Butler—slipped out and took to the air.

「And don’t put the fire out even if it hits.」
「Okay, I’ll try. Flame‑san, Flame‑san, fly through the sky and crash into Inis‑chan’s Invisible Butler‑san!」

When Mel chanted, the flame floating over her palm shot straight toward Invisible Butler. But just before it hit, Inis flicked Invisible Butler aside and it slipped past.

「Hit it!」

At Mel’s added instruction, the flame changed course midair and slammed straight into Invisible Butler.

「Mm, not bad. Then, make that movement something that fire remembers. The Order will be…」
「How about “Hit”?」

I answered as Inis glanced my way.

「All right, let’s go with that.」
「Okay, got it. Um, Flame‑san…」

Mel toddled up to the flames wrapping Invisible Butler and started talking to them. Watching her chat up blazing, flying gauntlets was pretty surreal.

「I think it’ll be fine!」
「Okay, put the fire out and come back here.」

Mel waved bye‑bye at the flames, and they vanished without a sound.

「Call up the fire and try issuing the Order “Hit.”」
「Okay! Flame‑san, come out.」

Mel raised a flame over her palm…

「Hit!」

The instant she gave the Order, it flipped direction midair and charged straight at Rin, who was standing right beside Mel.

「Uwah!」

I reflexively grabbed Rin and shielded her. The mass of flame struck my back, and I grunted at the impact. I’m a fire dragon at my core, so no matter how hot it gets I won’t suffer burns—but despite fire having no business with “weight,” it hurt like getting hit by an iron ball.

「S‑Sensei, are you okay!?」
「Mm. I’m fine—I’m a fire dragon, remember? More importantly, Rin, you aren’t hurt, are you?」

I smiled at the pale Rin. This will probably leave at least a bruise. Nina’s going to scold me again…

「Uh‑huh…」
「Good.」

I patted my chest in relief at Rin’s nod. If she’s unharmed, nothing could be better.

「…Hey, Sensei.」

Rin fixed me with a strangely serious look and called my name.

「I feel like… before, something just like this…」
「Senseeeeei! I’m so soooorryyyyy!」

A huge, fluffy, puffy mass slammed into me from the side, and I groaned again.

「Mel— Mel is…!」
「All right, all right, calm down. That was just an accident. It’s fine—mishaps come with magic experiments.」

She clung to me tight, those soft sensations pressing and mashing into me; I tried to peel Mel off while soothing her, but she just kept sobbing and hiccupping.

「Don’t cryyy.」

Then Chryse tugged at Mel’s clothes, stretching her small body up as far as she could.

「Chryse‑chan…?」
「Sit—」

Obeying Chryse, Mel sat down on the spot, then—following more gestures—bowed her head. Chryse clumsily rubbed that head around in a petting motion.

「Chryse‑chaaaan! Uuu, thank you for comforting meee…」

Mel hugged Chryse in a burst of emotion.

「She’s getting buried, getting buried.」

Inis casually rescued Chryse, who was vanishing into that ample twin‑peaks.

「…My guess is the instruction was at fault.」

Watching that exchange out of the corner of my eye, I thought through what had gone wrong. We’d reproduced the part where the flame flew, so the lesser spirit had probably accepted the Order itself.

But it hadn’t understood the “Hit Invisible Butler” part. Naming an object and saying “hit it” isn’t very adaptable to begin with. A more intuitive, simpler command would be better.

「Like, “Hit whatever I point at,” maybe?」
「Hmm…」

Rin’s proposal gave me pause. After all, you’ve got several fingers. Normally it would follow the extended index finger, but spirits are pretty mischievous; if it took the bent finger’s direction instead, you’d be the one suffering for it.

「Maybe it’d be clearer to use something like this.」

I took a pointer out of my pocket. I hadn’t used it much lately, but I used to use it to indicate items on the blackboard during lessons.

「Mel, this time try it using this, would you?」

I said as I passed the pointer to Mel.

「And if possible, let’s use something less dangerous than fire this time.」


* * *


「Light Ball.」

A softly glowing sphere floated out and headed toward Yuuka at about the speed you’d throw a stone.

「Wah. What’s this?」

Yuuka slipped out of its path, but the Light Ball ignored her gaze and stance and kept flying as if pulled by a magnet.

And the very next instant the Light Ball split neatly in two and melted away, and a stone sword was in Yuuka’s hand. I hadn’t even seen when she drew it.

「That scared me—what was that? There wasn’t a spell, right?」

For my part, the shock was that she dodged a homing ball of light and then cut it down.

「Was that… Mel who did it?」

Ara appeared with Yuuka, eyes wide, staring at Mel holding the pointer.

「Yup—」
「Amazing! To make Yuuka‑sensei draw her sword with a single move!」

Ara grabbed Mel’s hand in excitement as she puffed her chest out proudly.

「You know, Sensei said this might be something Ara‑kun could use too.」
「Really!?」

Then he immediately closed the distance on me. Too close.

「Probably. It should be easier than summoning a spirit…」

Compared to calling a spirit with an animal shape—a greater spirit—calling a lesser spirit is far easier; anyone can do it. It didn’t seem to make much difference even if we added an Order.

「Mel, one more time—call a Light Ball. Yuuka, keep dodging for a bit.」
「Okaaay. Light Ball.」
「Eh, wait a sec—」

Mel pointed the tip of the pointer at Yuuka and spoke the short name of the lesser spirit of light. At first we’d been calling the light lesser spirit out and then giving it an Order, but it was Inis who realized it’s simpler to weave the Order into the very name you call it with.

「Ara. Call this spirit using exactly the name Mel just used.」
「Here you go, Ara‑kun. Point at Yuuka‑sensei with this and call it.」
「Understood, I’ll try.」

Taking the pointer from Mel, Ara pointed at Yuuka, who was deftly continuing to evade the Light Ball.

「Light Ball!」

From the tip of the pointer, a second Light Ball indistinguishable from Mel’s appeared and went after Yuuka.

「Excellent—success!」

I widened my eyes and clenched a fist.

Back when Mel called out Nuckelavee, she did so again while the one I had summoned was still present. It made my head ache with sheer nonsensicalness, but thinking it through, I did know that concept.

Dividing a spirit.

In Shinto, a kami can be divided infinitely; even when its power is portioned out, the original kami does not diminish, and the divided kami is said to possess the same power. That divided kami is called a bunrei, or a wake‑mitama—literally, a divided spirit.

Spirits in this world likely have the same, or a similar, property. As a test, I asked Mel, and she could call as many Nuckelavee as she wanted.

But handling greater spirits is hard. Spirits are capricious and possess power far beyond humans. Unless you’re someone beloved by spirits like Mel, calling and employing a greater spirit always carries the possibility of unforeseen accidents—doubly so when you try to handle a spirit someone else brought forth.

Lesser spirits don’t pose that worry. They do have will, but they don’t have emotions. It takes talent—like Mel’s—to make them learn Orders, but…

Once a spirit has already learned an Order, simply calling and using it doesn’t require much talent at all.

「Hey, Onii‑chan, how long do I have to keep dodging these?」

Even as she continued to evade the Light Balls tracing different trajectories, Yuuka spoke up. Her voice finally snapped me back to myself.

Those balls of light have no physical destructive power at all. They’re just bright. So once they hit you, that’s the end of it…

「Hey, let’s see how many you can keep dodging!」

Before I could say, “Okay, stop,” Rin said that.
Then she borrowed the pointer from Ara and fired a Light Ball. Inis took it and sent one flying, Chryse even launched one, and when the pointer was handed to me I reluctantly loosed another—six Light Balls came at Yuuka from every direction, and still she kept dodging.

「I can handle three or four more easy.」

She even had the nerve to say that.

「…Unbelievable.」

Inis muttered in a hard tone.

「Riiight— that’s Yuuka‑sensei for you.」

But that probably wasn’t what Inis meant.

「Hey, Sensei.」

Her sofa floated up beside me, and Inis spoke, her expression stiff.

「This is, how should I put it… we’re witnessing something incredible here, aren’t we?」
「…Yeah. I think so.」

Only Inis and I understood that the era of magic as we’d known it was coming to an end.