Chapter 15: Four Elements

「There's a concept called attributes.」

I opened with that as I sketched on the slate with a slate pencil for the first time in a while.
Writing on the surface of the huge slate we’d brought to the back of the classroom with soft white soapstone felt almost the same as chalk on a blackboard. You could wipe it clean with a damp cloth, but we’d hardly used it in this special class—hands-on work sticks better with these students.

But this, at least, had to start with learning it in their heads.

「The idea is that everything in this world is made from combinations of a few attributes. Among them, the four basic ones are called the Four Elements: fire, earth, water, and wind.」

As I explained while sketching a blazing flame, hard stone, dripping water, and leaves scattering on the wind, the students’ faces filled with question marks, just as expected.

「Living things are the easiest to picture. Blood—that is, water—flows through the body; we breathe in and out the wind; the flesh will one day return to earth; and a fire of life burns in the chest. If any one is missing, the creature dies.」
「Are you saying our bodies are made of earth?」

At times like this, the first to raise a question is Sig.

「Only in the broad sense that they belong to earth—they aren’t literally soil. Just like blood isn’t pure water.」
「I learned that from Nina-sama before—the three states of matter, yes?」

Violet was the first to make that connection. As expected of an elf who accumulates wisdom—her memory is excellent. She not only remembers well; she retrieves what she knows with remarkable speed.

「The three… what were they again?」

Even though she should have taken the same class, Rin tilted her head. Judging from their expressions, Sig and Yuuki didn’t really remember either.

「Solids are things you can see that have shape, like stone or earth. Liquids you can see but have no fixed shape, like water. Gases you can’t see and have no shape, like air.」
「Oh, that’s easy to get!」
「So that’s what it meant…」
「I seeee.」

At Luka’s careful explanation, Rin, Sig, and Yuuki all let out impressed voices. Luka is very good at taking things in and then explaining them in her own words. Nina’s version was probably much harder to grasp.

「Right. Solid, liquid, gas. Those correspond directly to earth, water, and wind. And fire is energy—the very power that warms things or sets them in motion. Everything in this world contains these four within it.」
「Even water?」

I caught my breath at Rin’s offhand question. Her thinking is never bound by fixed ideas—wonderfully free. That’s why she so often strikes at the essence.

「Don’t be dumb. Water’s water, so of course it’s just water.」
「Actually, not quite.」

And Sig is the opposite—he has a perfectly ordinary, sensible way of looking at things. That too is a rare asset. Unexpectedly, those two might make a good pair.

「If you heat water, a liquid, it becomes gaseous steam; cool it and it becomes solid ice. In other words, water already contains the qualities of earth and wind. Add fire to water and it becomes wind; take it away and it becomes earth. And if you can take fire away, that means there was fire in the water to begin with.」
「Oh, I get it. This “fire” and “water” aren’t literal flames or liquid—they’re more like colors, right?」

Yuuki clapped her hands.

「Colors?」
「Yeah. Fire‑color is the color of fire, but it isn’t fire itself, right?」
「…I kind of get it, and kind of don’t.」

I tilted my head along with Sig. Yuuki’s sensibilities are unique too. Still, she’s incredibly good at seizing the knack of things. In her own way, she must have understood.

「So… what about the colors?」

The ongoing explanation must have been boring him. Sig asked, a little irritated.

「Right. If everything in the world is made from combinations of attributes, then magic should be as well—don’t you think?」
Ah.

Realization must have struck her. Violet let out a sound and looked around at her classmates.

「Right. The truth is, I chose you with attributes in mind—to some extent, at least.」

Elves, who live in the forest and are closely tied to earth.
Lycos Centaurs, who live on the grasslands and follow the scent of the wind.
Mermaids, who dwell in the sea and live together with water.
Lizardmen, who live by volcanoes and are intimate with fire.

I had long felt that the Four Elements were deeply involved in magical aptitude—just as I, a fire dragon, can’t use cold magic at all. Until Rin gave me the idea the other day, though, it had only been a vague notion.

「Today I want to measure your affinity for the Four Elements.」


* * *


「We’re ready, Sensei.」
「Good. Thanks—big help, Amata.」

I offered a word of thanks to Amata as he bent at the waist with impeccable manners.
The boy who once looked so much like Yuuki—cute enough to be taken for a girl—had grown straight and strong, the opposite of his not‑so‑tall little sister, and transformed into a sharp‑featured young man. With thick, sturdy arms he easily shouldered a wooden pillar several times his size and set it down in the middle of the schoolyard.

「But what are we using all this for?」

What I’d had him prepare were a few small buckets, a balance scale, and a fist‑sized stone. Amata is extremely handy, especially with wood—he puts things together with real skill. Ever since I asked him to make Rin’s wheelchair, it hasn’t broken once.

「These are for measuring. Nina, please.」
「Mm.」

I signaled Nina, shifted back into dragon form, and took up the bramble vine Violet had prepared.

「Fire.」

The instant Nina murmured, flames rose from her palm and towered up like a pillar.

「Let’s see… about here. Yuuki, grip it at Nina’s hand level.」
「Okay.」

Without using my wings, I floated by magic and raised the bramble vine up to about the tip of Nina’s flame, then had Yuuki take the length. After that I landed; by counting the thorns we could tell how long the flame was.

「Yep—call it five hundred sixty centimeters.」
「Nina‑sensei… fire… five hundred sixty…」

Luka noted it down on a wooden board with an ink brush.

「Next, water.」

I set a wooden bucket at Nina’s feet and stood by.

「Water.」

At once, water gushed from her palm.

「Whoa there…」

I caught it with the bucket so it wouldn’t spill.

「Mm… about eight hundred… twenty, let’s say.」

Each bucket was made ten centimeters on a side. In other words, full was a thousand cubic centimeters. Every centimeter of depth was a hundred; anything less we eyeballed.

「Water… eight hundred twenty…」
「Then next is wind.」

I set a single leaf in my palm and held it out before Nina.

「Wind.」

Wind blasted from her fingertips and sent the leaf flying.

「Call it exactly one thousand six hundred.」

All that remained was to measure how far from her feet the leaf had flown. The hard part was not losing sight of it.

「Last is this.」

It turned out a balance scale was surprisingly simple to make. Hang the beam from a central post, then suspend the basket pans and tweak it until they balance. Put the stone on one pan and an empty bucket on the other, and it’s done.

I’d agonized quite a bit over how to measure earth. Only elves have ever shown feats like sprouting plants from nothing, like Nina and Violet. And producing soil itself seemed impossible. It’s odd that we can readily create water, fire, and wind, but not earth—but if it can’t be done, it can’t be helped.

「Stone.」

That was when it hit me: weight.
Gravity is the power of the earth. A spell that increases weight should fall under earth’s purview.
The moment Nina chanted a single verse of a spell, the balance tilted sharply.
I poured water into the bucket on the other side until it balanced.

「Call it about four hundred.」

Since the empty bucket and the stone balanced to start with, the added water equaled the amount the stone’s weight had increased. A liter of water is almost a kilogram, so the water volume gives you the weight.

「Huh? Does that mean Nina onee-chan’s worst is earth?」

Yuuki raised her voice as she looked at the numbers Luka had written down.

「No—the differences between attributes don’t mean much. I tried to make them come out roughly similar, but a bigger number doesn’t mean you’re better at it.」

It’s like comparing grip strength to long jump distance.
What this shows is only each student’s strengths and weaknesses relative to the others.

「All right, go in whatever order you like. I’ll handle fire; Nina will do water and wind; Amata will do earth. And keep the incantation to a single verse like Nina just did.」

Ideally, using magic without an incantation would show their true baseline better, but some students can’t trigger magic at all that way. So we set the rule to one verse.

「Me first—fire!」

The first to step up to me was Rin.

「Fire!」

With a whoomp, flame shot up from the palm she thrust high. Compared to Nina’s it was downright cute, but…

「Ninety… no, call it a hundred.」

Even so, a flame nearly a meter long stretched from her hand. I knew she could use fire magic, but not to this extent. Since she lives in the water I’d assumed mermaids were bad with flame, but that’s a pretty good showing.

「Please take care of me.」

Next came Luka, looking a little tense.

「Fire…!」

A small flame leapt from her cupped palms. It was about fifty centimeters long, but unlike Rin’s wildly flickering flame, it was stable and thus easy to measure.

「Then, here I go… Fire.」

Third was Violet. A flame about thirty centimeters long jetted from her straight‑pointed index finger. Even among elves, there’s quite a gap from Nina. Whether that’s individual difference or practice time, I couldn’t say.

Or rather—how is Rin, who’s so closely tied to water, in first place so far?

「Onii-chan, measure me, measure me!」

While I was mulling it over, Yuuki hopped up and leapt at me, clinging on. Because she does things like this, I still can’t shake the feeling she’s a little kid. Well, in fact, she’s quite short.

「Fire!」

Flame burst from Yuuki’s palm with fierce force, like a jet. Despite the intensity, the blaze was steady. It seems that even with the exact same incantation, there are individual differences—not just in length, but in the fire’s shape and force.
When I measured it, the length was ninety centimeters. It fell just short of Rin’s.

「So I lost to Rin, huh!」

Pushing past the foot‑stomping Yuuki, the last to step up was Sig. With an unusually serious look, he held out his palm.

「…Fire.」

Sig lives by volcanoes, is at home with fire, and practices every morning. I expected a truly large flame.

But—

Contrary to my expectations, what appeared was only a tiny flame at his fingertip—small, so very small.