Bonus Chapter 1: The Sorcerer’s New Favorites
Bonus Chapter 1: The Sorcerer’s New Favorites
“MORNING already…?”
Liddeus blinked his eyes at the sunlight filtering in through the window. He had just pulled an all-nighter at the Bureau of Magic as he worked tirelessly on the formulation of a new type of spell.
It had been two days since he last got a good night’s sleep.
“Or was it actually three days…?” he murmured to himself as he was suddenly overcome with drowsiness.
It seemed that once he’d managed to complete the new spell type of his imagining, he completely lost control of his ability to concentrate. His sleep-deprived head was spinning. Liddeus collapsed onto the desk in front of him.
“Kweep!”
The Cuddle Bird wasted no time in closing the distance between them, and its light blue feathers gently enveloped Liddeus’s body. Seeing that Liddeus refused to sit up, the Cuddle Bird slumped his weight onto him.
“Kweepy kweepy…”
“Fine, then,” he seemed to grumble.
The Cuddle Bird’s body shook. In one quick motion, the bird swooped Liddeus up onto his back and began to walk him toward the man’s bed.
I appreciate it…
The Cuddle Birds were an integral part in the life of someone like Liddeus, who was so obsessed with magic. The light blue Cuddle Bird always looked after Liddeus as if the human were his own baby chick.
“You really need a Cuddle Bird to take care of you? That’s quite sad, isn’t it?”
Many people made fun of him like that, but Liddeus never paid them any attention. Everything unrelated to magic was meaningless to him.
Those people can say whatever they want. I don’t care what others think of me…
But then, the image of a girl appeared in his mind.
Queen Laetitia…
Strangely, his heartbeat began to speed up.
Liddeus had never once encountered a sorcerer with as much magical energy as Laetitia. That was probably why her image had been burned into his mind so deeply.
Everything she said was so different.
His conversations with Laetitia were stimulating on an intellectual level. Her theories of magic, from the queen’s own lips, and her views on sorcery were all fairly standard for someone from Elltoria. However, on occasion, the things she spoke of were completely foreign to Liddeus. She presented all sorts of new ideas, like “energy conservation” and “overloaded circuits,” that, when expanded upon at Liddeus’ request, proved to be logically sound.
I hardly ever meet people who can keep up with my conversations.
Liddeus was perfectly aware that he was a strange man. Most people he interacted with kept phony smiles on their faces as they avoided any real conversation with him whatsoever. Rarely did he ever meet someone who spoke with him in earnest like Laetitia.
Even when Liddeus fell under suspicion in the kidnapping case, Laetitia kept a calm head as she ascertained the situation, which eventually led to her resolving the entire incident. Thanks to her quick thinking on the day of the fire, the bureau building itself and all the Cuddle Birds avoided an awful fate. As a lover of magic and a recipient of kindness from the Cuddle Birds, Liddeus felt that he owed Laetitia a great debt.
…I want to meet Her Majesty again…
That was the thought that filled the dazed mind of Liddeus as he rode on the back of his Cuddle Bird.
◇ ◇ ◇
LIDDEUS flung himself into the bed of his unoccupied napping room and fell straight to sleep. When he next awoke, he realized he must have been passed out for an entire day.
“…Hmm?”
As he began to stir, a blanket slipped from his body and fell. His vision was being blocked by the black bangs that hung past his eyes.
“Did you put this blanket on me…?”
“Peepa peep!”
The Cuddle Bird at his side chirped at him.
It was almost time for the bird’s morning feeding, so he’d shown up to get his fill of Liddeus’s magical energy. Liddeus fed the light blue Cuddle Bird breakfast, just as requested, and then it came time for the bureau’s morning assembly.
Liddeus listened expressionlessly to the relay of information coming from Director Bodorey. However…
“I want to make that delivery for Her Majesty.”
The other sorcerers in the room began to stir when they heard Liddeus volunteer himself. Liddeus, the man whose head was filled with only magic, and who rarely ever left the bureau, had just made the most unusual of requests.
◇ ◇ ◇
“GOOD day, Liddeus. Welcome to my villa.”
Laetitia appeared at the front entrance to greet him.
But Liddeus fell silent.
“Is something the matter?”
“No, it’s nothing. Don’t mind me.”
He averted his gaze as he waved off his behavior. For some reason, as soon as he laid eyes on Laetitia, his heart began to race.
“I’m here to deliver magic stones for Director Bodorey.”
“Thank you for bringing them. Please allow me to check them over.” Laetitia peered into the bag that Lucian had brought for her. “Three water stones and one earth stone… Yes, this is everything.”
“What are you planning to use them for?” Curious, Liddeus couldn’t help but ask a question when it came to the topic of magic.
“They’ll serve as power sources for the crest I received your help with recently.”
“That ‘refrigerator’ thing?”
“Yes, that’s the one. It’s incredibly convenient.” Laetitia smiled as she spoke. “Thanks to the spell type you engraved for me, cold air fills the box and keeps the inside at a constant temperature. It’s been getting warmer outside lately, so it’s an incredibly valuable tool for keeping perishable foods.”
“…Good, it’s working as planned. I want to keep hearing about how it continues to function in the future.”
The sight of Laetitia’s happy face was too dazzling, and Liddeus had to squint at her. He was used to hearing pleased reactions to the crests he made, but when it came from Laetitia, it was much more encouraging.
“I’d be happy to do that. As payment for the magic stones, here are Tweety’s feathers for you to take back.”
“Right. Is there anything else you want me to take to the bureau?”
“Not at the moment… But since you came all this way in the heat, would you like to rest here for a while and have a snack?”
Laetitia glanced over Liddeus from head to toe. The black cloak of the Bureau of Magic uniform was most certainly a burden during these hot summer days.
“I know a treat I can make quickly that also serves as a bit of magic practice.”
“Making a treat for magic practice? What is it? Show me!”
Liddeus was like a new man—suddenly filled with curiosity and vigor.
◇ ◇ ◇
LIDDEUS waited for her in the parlor until Laetitia returned after a bit of time had passed.
Lucian stood at her back, carrying a lump of ice on a serving tray.
“We’re going to use spells to shave this ice apart.”
With that, she began to chant her spell—none other than a fifth-level wind spell. An invisible blade of wind was conjured, which was strong enough to send Liddeus’s cape fluttering in the breeze.
“Wow…!”
The lump of ice shattered into small pieces in the blink of an eye. It appeared to have been split apart entirely by Laetitia’s wind blade.
“Such impressive spell control, both fast and flawlessly executed!”
In his excitement, Liddeus took in the remains of the ice lump. The shavings were incredibly fine and uniform in consistency. It was a display of perfect spell precision.
“Hehe! Thank you, Liddeus. It looks like it shaved down nicely, so I’m sure it will have a pleasant texture when eaten as well.”
Laetitia scooped up the remains of the ice with a spoon and heaped them onto her plate. Once she’d constructed a small mountain of ice, she neatly placed cherries and blueberries around the base.
“All that’s left is to pour syrup over the top. I have lemon, blueberry, and honey syrups, so please choose whichever flavor you like.”
“I’ll take lemon.”
Laetitia poured the lemon-yellow syrup over the ice.
“Please, eat up. This treat is called shaved ice, and it cools the body down from the inside.”
“All right, I’ll dig in, then.”
He scooped up a bite with the spoon he was given. The shavings of ice barely added any weight at all. Each tiny fragment glinted in the light like newly fallen snow, and they began to dissolve the moment Liddeus brought the spoon into his mouth, which was suddenly filled with the chill of the ice and the flavor of lemon.
“Intriguing… I’ve never had anything made from a spell quite like this, so this texture is new to me.”
It wasn’t like eating a chunk of ice or sherbet—instead, it was a soft, fleeting sensation on the tongue. Even Liddeus, who always had a small appetite, felt like he could keep going back for more.
“Ah, wait just a moment. If you eat it too fast—”
“…!”
Liddeus squeezed his eyes shut and clutched at his head. Dull pain shot through him, like the inside of his skull was being pounded with a hammer.
“Eating ice too quickly can cause a headache.”
“…I didn’t know that.”
Liddeus smiled slightly as he looked down at the shaved ice.
How enjoyable.
It was a brand-new experience and a brand-new sensation for him. This was one of the reasons Liddeus loved magic: it was a physical way to bring about unknown phenomena with his own two hands. Laetitia appeared quite capable of producing such unknown phenomena for Liddeus to observe.
“Why are you smiling all of a sudden, Liddeus?”
“…I think it’s great.”
Both the shaved ice, born from a spell, and Laetitia herself. They were sources of great interest to the fascinated Liddeus.
“You really enjoyed the shaved ice, huh?”
“Yes, I did. I’m going straight back to the bureau to write up a special spell so that I can make it myself.”
“A special spell? Couldn’t you apply an existing one to achieve the same result?”
“A great amount of precision is needed to get the ice so finely shaved. I’m an expert in spell control, but I’m no match for Your Majesty at all. Rather than spending day and night fine-tuning my spell precision to create a uniform consistency to the ice, it’ll probably be faster to create a new spell altogether.”
“…It’s hard to imagine that creating a new one is a fast process at all…”
Though her smile was a strained one, Laetitia looked at Liddeus with respect in her eyes. For some strange reason, Liddeus felt a ticklish sensation in his chest, one that confused him and he couldn’t help wondering about.
“For you, Liddeus, I bet that process really is the quicker one. I could picture you using a crest and magic stone to create an entire shaved ice machine.”
“A shaved ice machine? Is that a real device?”
“It is. Unfortunately, it hasn’t been physically brought to life, but if you created a fixed blade that was capable of scraping the ice at a uniform consistency, then anyone would be able to make shaved ice with ease.”
“A fixed blade… Measures would have to be put in place to prevent it from slipping, but if I used the right spell, it probably would hold, and that means…”
Liddeus was already muttering his frenzied plans for the device to himself.
Some time later…
After a process of trial and error, this world saw the arrival of a shaved ice machine that was powered by magic stones.