Chapter 8: Talent

「We call the force that presses things downward gravity.」
「Gravity.」

While repeating my words, Ai keeps writing.
Under the blue sky, just beyond the forest, we set up a tree stump as a makeshift desk, and she writes on a board split as flat as we could, using a twig charred into charcoal.
Primitive as it was, there was still the shape of a school there.

Ai, for her part, seems to have largely mastered writing—though only in hiragana.

Teach writing, or research magic? After weighing which to prioritize, I decided to do both at once. I figured the concept of writing was necessary for her to retain what she learned.

However, it also had an effect in an unexpected direction.

「All right, then try canceling that gravity. If you do, you should be able to float like me.」
「Yes!」

Answering with vigor, Ai fixes her gaze on the wooden board she just wrote on.

「Cancel gravity. Cancel gravity. Cancel... gravity...!」

As she murmurs it under her breath a few times, her body suddenly floated up, softly.

「I managed to float!」

It was only a little, but her body had indeed slipped the yoke of gravity and was hovering. I let out a relieved breath and refolded the wings I’d spread.

「Why did you spread your wings?」
「Just in case.」

I’d feared that if she completely erased gravity, she might just fly off into the sky at this planet’s orbital velocity. Naturally, that didn’t happen.

I already know this world, like Earth, is a planet orbiting in space: the horizon seen from the sky is round, and the tracks of the stars, moon, and sun trace circles. That said, it’s hard to imagine Earth exists somewhere in this universe. Changing stars won’t change the laws of physics.

Incidentally, when I casually told Nina the world was round, she accepted it surprisingly easily.
As for how people on the underside don’t fall off a sphere, her take was, “Doesn’t matter what direction you sprout in—if your roots are attached, that’s how it is.”
I can’t say whether that’s because her comprehension is high, or because she lacks the preconceptions that come with too much prior knowledge.

「Good, good. We’re making steady progress.」

Ai slowly climbed higher until she was level with my face, then canceled the magic and dropped lightly to the ground.

「It’s thanks to the writing you taught me, sensei!」

Beaming with pure delight, Ai hugged the wooden board tight.

Names, it seems, are indeed vitally important to magic. No matter how hard you try, you can’t move or create something by magic if you haven’t named it. With each name, the world grows wider and what you can do increases. And writing appears to reinforce that.

I don’t know whether writing itself holds power, or if it simply makes it easier mentally, but once a concept is recognized in writing, Ai’s magic succeeds far more often.
At first there were spells that didn’t show much effect even after teaching her the names, but since she learned to write it’s almost never the case that nothing happens at all.

「You two, dinner’s ready!」

As Ai and I were celebrating her success, Nina’s voice rained down from the sky.
I looked up to see her small figure wheeling overhead and waving; Ai’s smile clouded over in an instant.
Just when she’d finally managed the slightest float, Nina was already past levitation and freely commanding true flight. It was only natural.

It seems magic, too, has something like talent—individual differences.
Given the three of us were born and raised in completely different ways, it’s hard to compare directly, but among us Nina handled magic the best.

Call it uncanny intuition or grasping ten from hearing one—give her the slightest point of entry and her magic would improve by leaps and bounds. She even outstrips me, despite my knowledge of Japanese, so it can’t be explained simply by her already knowing many concepts in Elvish.

「Nina‑san is really good at magic...」
「Ah, truly.」

I nodded deeply and said it from the bottom of my heart.

「I’m glad you became my student, Ai.」
「Eh?」

Seeing her look up at me in surprise, I gave her a smile.

「Nina leaps ahead too fast. On top of that, she’s terribly bad at explaining how she does what she does, so she’s no use at all for research. I’m truly glad you’re here, Ai.」

It was often like that in my old world too: geniuses can’t understand the feelings of those who can’t. Nina is an excellent partner, but she’s absolutely unsuited to play the role of student.

In that respect, Ai is an ideal student.
Earnest, hardworking, patient, and serious.
Step by steady step, she moves forward as if testing each foothold—qualities I find rarer, and more precious, than Nina’s talent.

「I may be a rather unreliable teacher, but I’ll be counting on you from here on too, Ai.」
「Yes!」

Ai nodded with a smile that seemed to shine.

「Ah—that didn’t mean you’re unreliable, sensei...!」
「I know, I know. It’s all right.」

It did take a bit of effort to calm her down from her flustered attempts to explain afterward, though.



「I think it’s about time.」

At my opening remark over the meal, Ai and Nina tilted their heads in puzzlement.

「I’m thinking we should go back to the village Ai was from, once more.」

The instant I said that, the wooden spoon in Ai’s hand clattered to the floor.

「No!」
「Huh?」

At Ai’s ferocious leap to her feet and protest, I blinked in bewilderment.

「You don’t want to—why?」
「I don’t want to leave this place.」

She clung tightly to my arm.

「Even so...」
「You said you’d be counting on me!」

Cutting across my words, Ai shouted.
It was the first time the usually quiet girl had raised her voice so much, and I found myself cowed by someone barely half my size.

「You said you’d be counting on me from now on! You said so!」

Hm?

「I want to stay with sensei forever—...」
「Hold on a second. Aren’t you misunderstanding something?」

I pressed on Ai’s shoulders and peered into her face.

「I’ve no intention of leaving you.」
「Huh?」

Tears spilled down as Ai blinked her eyes rapidly.

「Magic research isn’t something the three of us can do alone, and our aim is to enrich people’s lives in the first place. We need to share the results and pass them on to the next generation.」
「Generation...?」

Ah, I hadn’t taught her that word yet.

「It means we have to pass it on to our children, and their children after them.」

When I said that, Ai’s face finally flushed bright red as she realized her mistake.

「So for that, we first need to make contact with your family and the villagers.」
「R‑Right!」

Apparently convinced, Ai nodded firmly, and I let out a breath of relief.

「Nina, you’re fine with that too—what’s wrong?」

When I looked beside me, Nina was, for some reason, staring up at the heavens with a hand pressed to her forehead.