Chapter 14: Sorcery

Dragon Era 921
「Flame Spear!」

With a short spell, flame burst from the girl’s palm.
The loosed flame formed a spear and drove into the log’s trunk. Its sharp tip burrowed deep, and heat rippled out from the shaft like waves, racing outward in an instant.

「Frozen Wind!」

Then a wind mixed with snow blew, and the fire vanished in a blink. The breath‑freezing blizzard whitened the log in an instant.

「Falling Rock!」

And a rain of boulders smashed the scorched, frozen log to pieces.

「Mm. Well done.」

Pleased with the result, I clap my hands.

「Ehehe. Thank you, Daddy!」

The girl—Chryse—twirled around and smiled bashfully.

She looks about seven in human terms now. Her fluffy short hair and long, slender limbs are gradually taking on a girlish cast. The horns on her brow have grown quite a bit too—unmistakably horns now.
Her growth is still erratic—she’ll suddenly get bigger—but since her actual age is about sixteen, on average she’s developing much more slowly than a human.

「So she’s finally caught up with you. Getting passed is only a matter of time, isn’t it?」

As always, Inis lounged on her flying sofa, grinning.

Speaking of growth rates, Inis is the bigger mystery than Chryse.
She’s a pure human, nearly thirty by age, yet her appearance is unchanged—more childlike than merely young. Short and baby‑faced, she could pass for her teens easily.
When I asked, she said the secret to staying young is lazing around and not moving much…

「Gh… I can’t deny it.」

Ara’s tone mixed frustration with happiness.

「Inis‑chan’s losing too, so it’s fiiine—」
「I‑I’m fine. Enchantment’s more my specialty.」

But even Inis’s face tightened at Mel’s guileless comment.

Summoning lesser spirits with Orders embedded in them.
It was a groundbreaking invention that overturned the history of magic.

Not only could it be activated with a single word and without a spell.

Its greatest feature was—

「Mel‑san, could you enshrine the next one too?」

—that you can hand what you created over to someone else.
A way of using magic completely different from the past—where you taught the method and had others reproduce it.

To distinguish it from existing usage, I decided to call this sorcery.

「Suuure. Then next—let’s try Ice Spear—」

Pestered by Chryse, Mel drew a magic circle on the floor with chalk and held her hand over it.

「Ice Spear‑chan, come on out—」

When she spoke the name, a lesser spirit in the form of an ice spear appeared within the circle. Ordinarily it would be fired the instant it manifested and freeze its target, but this one hovered in place, stable in midair. Spirits summoned inside a magic circle would not leave the circle—or more precisely, it seemed they could not.

To hand a spirit you’ve made to someone else, they need to see it. Passing along spirits given throwing‑type Orders had been tricky, but once we hit on calling them within a circle like this, we could share sorcery safely and easily.

「O Ice Spear, in the name of Chryse I entreat you. By our names—yours and mine—lend me that power.」

When Chryse intoned in a ceremonious voice, the ice spear shone brilliantly and vanished.

「…Did the contract go through?」
「Try it and see.」

I set up a log as a target and prompted Chryse, who was peering doubtfully at her palm.

「Okay! …Ice Spear!」

Facing the log, Chryse raised her palm and spoke the name loud and clear. But no ice spear shot forth.

「Mmm, looks like Ice Spear‑san is still a no‑go…」
「You got Frozen Wind working and could use it right away. Ice Spear will be the same.」
「Your ‘soon’ is a little long, Daddy. It’s not soon at all.」

When I tried to comfort the downcast Chryse, she puckered her lips in a pout.

Beyond being transferable, sorcery has several useful traits.
A spirit given Orders and a name produces the same effect no matter who calls it.
Amazingly, even when I use it, Flame Spear works exactly the same as when Chryse or Ara use it.

Another trait: it’s clear‑cut whether you can or can’t use it.
As with Chryse failing to call Ice Spear just now, if your capability isn’t enough you can’t summon it. Whether you can is determined by the size and attribute of the circle used to create that sorcery.

Frozen Wind and Ice Spear are both classified as water‑attribute spirits, but the circle for Ice Spear is a size larger. That’s because to form a spear shape and give it weight and strength requires a certain spirit size.

And if you can use Ice Spear, you can definitely use Frozen Wind. We’ve tested this with many students; I’m confident it’s correct.

In other words, it also lets us measure aptitude and ability accurately.

I once had students use magic under the name of ‘body measurements’ and tried to gauge their ability by size of output. But magic’s results change easily with condition and state of mind. In contrast, once sorcery fires successfully, it doesn’t fail.

Chryse can’t use Ice Spear, but she can use Flame Spear. That means she’s better with fire than with ice. Both Ice Spear and Flame Spear are made with circles one and a half meters in diameter. We mark circle sizes in 50‑centimeter steps and, for convenience, call these Third Tier sorceries.

Ara’s sour ‘she’s caught up to me’ comes from his current limit: the Third Tier is as far as he can go.

The one doing the needling, Inis, caps out at the Second Tier, but in exchange she’s deft with enchantment (I decided to call it that to match spirit sorcery). We’ve also begun to see that those good at enchantment are often poor at spirit sorcery.

That in turn means we’ve started to see what counts as spirit magic and what does not. For example, I used to think making a stone heavier was earth‑spirit magic. But even if you chant it without carving letters, that falls within the scope of enchantment.

Looking back, the lizardman boy Sig who once studied under me must have had high aptitude for enchantment. He could reshape even flame into a sword, but in return he could barely produce flame on his own.

A truth four centuries in the making. I did Sig a disservice.

「All right. Mel, enshrine one for me too.」
「Okaaay. Ara‑kun, what would you like? I’ve added quite a few Fourth Tier sorceries I think you can use—」

Hugging the stack of papers listing the sorcery catalog, Mel sidled right up against Ara. It was a heartwarming sight, somehow.

「Huh? Daddy—」

As I watched with a warm smile, Chryse suddenly tugged my hand.

「Where’s Inis‑san going?」

Following Chryse’s gaze, I saw the flying sofa just slipping out through the window.

「So, planning to ditch again, are we?」

Inis is a very capable student, but that truancy habit hasn’t changed. She’s good at slipping away, and with the sofa gliding through the air without a sound, we’d often realize she was gone only after the fact. Well, she delivers results, so it’s hard to call it a problem.

「Let’s go after her!」
「Ah—wait, Chryse—」

Before I could stop her, Chryse threw herself out the window.

「Flight!」

Her small body was wrapped in unseen lesser wind spirits and floated into the air. It was the Third Tier wind‑spirit sorcery, the spell of flight.

「Chryse, wait a second.」

I chanted flight as well and gave chase. For some reason, I had a bad feeling.

「Inis‑saaan, no slacking off—!」

The sofa skimmed along the outer wall of the school building and slipped in through an upstairs window; Chryse dove in after it without a second thought.

My shout didn’t reach her in time, so I had no choice but to follow and peer inside through the window.

「Huh—」

What I saw there was—

A simple, undecorated room—very Inis.
Chryse, eyes wide and frozen in shock.

And Inis, her cheeks wet with overflowing tears.