Chapter 2 — The Scarred Fool

Part 5 — Lightning Slasher

Roughly three years before the start of the Domino-Arcana War...

After the battle between Sansui Shirokuro and the Knight Commander, an arena near the royal palace was chosen for the skirmish between Sansui and the Royal Guard. The arena, the occasional site of martial demonstrations, was open only to those closely connected to the heads of the Four Great Houses. Paulette Caputo, as a daughter of the current head of House Caputo, was among the spectators.

“How, I wonder, does he remain so quiet?”

Despite the regret she felt over the situation, she couldn’t help her curiosity when she noticed his lack of resignation or fear. The King had deployed the Sword and Shield Companies of the Royal Guard as though to say he cared neither about shame nor reputation. Sansui himself appeared only mildly troubled, even as he became the target of their collective rage. She was captivated by his calm.

“Do not hold back. Win,” the lord emeritus of House Sepaeda ordered with a force scarcely fitting for one going into quiet retirement.

“Show them the martial authority of House Sepaeda as it moves forward with myself at its head.”

The new lord of House Sepaeda showed no sign of holding back against the Royal Family, either.

“Go and win, Sansui,” Douve, Sansui’s direct employer, said while smirking.

“As you wish.”

He still appeared troubled, but he nonetheless followed his orders. Facing the collected ranks of the Royal Guard, he drew his wooden sword and showed no fear.

“Sword Company, forward!”

“Shield Company, brace!”

A number of knights leapt forward, propelled by wind and fire. The remaining knights fell into formation with swords and spears, as though prepared to face an army. They prepared attack spells against a young man armed only with a wooden sword. In the face of such naked hostility, the young man made no effort to put up a false front, and simply moved into a middle stance, wooden sword in hand.

“““Red Carpet!”””

The spectator’s seats were well protected, but even so, Paulette was overwhelmed by the sight before her.

Set alight by spells from multiple knights, the ground burned with an intensity that seemed to embody the rage of the Royal Guard. The flames were intense enough that everyone in the arena thought they would consume Sansui, who was dressed only in cloth and wearing woven sandals. However, there was no sign of him burning or suffering...

Everyone in the arena, spectators and Royal Guard alike, had lost sight of Sansui.

“He’s vanished...”

“Stay alert!”

“He’s likely not a mystic!”

“Means he won’t be hiding in the flames!”

“He’s either above the ground or under it.”

“He defeated the Commander. Don’t underestimate him!”

Each person swung their heads from side to side in an effort to find where he had gone in the burning arena.

Paulette had found him. The young man was floating with one foot on the pauldron of a raging Royal Guard.

Feather Step. This technique reduced weight and allowed its user a form of movement akin to floating. That meant he could stand in the blindspots of fully-armored knights, as they were wearing helmets that narrowed their lines of sight.

Once positioned there, he unflinchingly landed a Ki-Imbued slash down on the knight’s head. Before that knight had fallen to the ground, Sansui had already moved on, hopping from shoulder to shoulder and landing blows on each of their heads.

“A-Above!”

“He’s using us as stepping stones!”

“A cheap trick!”

Above their heads rather than in the sky... The quietness of Sansui’s Immortal Arts, with Flash Step and Feather Step combined, allowed him to move without his opponents ever noticing. He made no noise with each movement, thus going entirely unheard and unfelt when stepping on a shoulder or head. It gave him an absolute advantage against a group of fully armored combatants.

“Hit us if you must, just hit him!”

“Yes! We’re armored, he’s not!”

The knights on the ground started yelling encouragement to the knights hovering above. They were the swords and shields of the Royal Family. They feared neither injury nor their companions’ attacks.

But before the knights in the air could get off their spells, Sansui vanished again. The knights above, having lost their target, canceled their attacks. There was no way they could attack their allies if the enemy wasn’t even there. As a knight in mid-air looked for the enemy, Sansui’s palm blocked off the limited view they had of the battlefield.

Ki Wave: an attack that either shook up a living creature internally, or simply blasted them away. The blow concussed the knight, who lost their sense of direction and nearly lost consciousness in the process. They barely managed to retain their senses and slowly lowered their altitude.

The result of a fall wearing full armor was easy to understand. The knight did not mind dying; it was the damage to the comrades below that they wanted to avoid. As they somehow managed a soft landing, they watched as their other companions began falling around them.

“Amazing...”

Paulette couldn’t understand what was happening. However, she fully understood his intention as the knights began wafting down to the ground outside the battle arena. ‘Use the least possible amount of force necessary to defeat my opponents, in order to minimize harm to them.’ After she witnessed him charging into the ranks of the Royal Guard, taking them down with a single blow before moving on, that was the only conclusion she could draw.

“That’s enough!”

The new lord of House Sepaeda put a stop to the fight. Most of the Royal Guard had already been knocked out or rendered unable to fight. In exchange, there was not so much as a burn mark on Sansui. All present realized that there was no point in continuing the fight. Even the Royal Family and the Royal Guard understood that truth.

“Aye!”

“Well done, Sansui. There is no further point to continuing. Is that not correct, Your Majesty?”

“...Yes, that is correct.”

Sansui responded immediately to the order to halt and appeared before his masters. It was a completely controlled strength. Despite battling a band of knights driven by bloodlust, he had subdued them with the minimum amount of force. Paulette was enthralled by his gentle way of battle, despite it being far from soul-stirring.

As though to lend support to her growing admiration, none of the Royal Guards, from the Knight Commander on down, had died. Indeed, none of them were even permanently injured. Yet, it appeared that not everyone approved of that style of fighting. A lightly equipped young man had torn through their shields and broke their swords. All that they had put their faith in had been overwhelmed and defeated in an afternoon. There was no way for the Royal Family to witness this and think well of him.

There was no reason for House Sepaeda to fear him, but equally true was that there was no reason for the other Four Great Houses not to fear House Sepaeda. The only thing that could be said of the display was that all of them, the Royal Family and the Great Houses, realized that there were individuals against whom no amount of quantity could possibly stand up to their quality.

Part 6 — Flood Damage

“I see...a swordsman able to overwhelm the Royal Guard.”

“I understand if it’s hard to believe. I didn’t expect anyone to believe me.”

“Not at all, milady. His Lordship mentioned it to me; perhaps more relevantly, the Knight Commander of the Royal Guard has resigned. I have no reason to doubt your words, milady.”

Returning to the Caputo lands, Paulette excitedly describes her feelings to the marshal of the paladins. A young man who can overpower the entire Royal Guard... Still, Paulette’s explanation makes the story easier to swallow.

“And I can understand how it’s possible. A wielder of a quiet Rare Art like the one you described is no doubt capable of such a feat.”

“Really?”

“While I believe it would still be difficult...based on his performance, no doubt his Rare Art is well matched against knights who wield magic.”

Magic armor is relatively light and tough. However, it still hampers movement and, more importantly, restricts peripheral vision. It’s not simply about one’s own equipment. Equipment worn by their comrades would also hamper visibility.

“The sounds of magic, the noise of knights moving in armor, the din of shouted orders. In situations such as those, it would be extremely difficult to track a swordsman capable of moving soundlessly and hopping from shoulder to shoulder. It would be like fighting a dragonfly.”

There is, of course, a large gap between what’s possible and what’s easy. To execute such tactics against a hundred well-trained knights, all burning with anger and wielding swords capable of inflicting lethal wounds with a glancing blow, as well as magical fire that can catch and spread, is not a simple matter. It requires an immense amount of skill. The boy might not be as young as he appears. The marshal, a man of the same generation as the Knight Commander, had his suspicions in that direction.

“Still, the more I hear, the more impressive this escort sounds.”

“Yes! And he’s so strong, but he didn’t hurt anyone!”

“Hahah...indeed?”

“I’m sorry. I’m not trying to criticize what you do...”

“No, no. Your view is correct.”

House Caputo is the only house among the Four Great Houses and Royal Family that carries a lineage of Rare Art use. Along with the cadet branches, they have numerous skilled mystics, while those seeking training in the Mystic Arts coalesced around them from both inside and outside the kingdom. Paulette was proud of that fact. She felt that she and her line, with their healing Arts, were true nobles, worthy of admiration. Yet, at the same time, she has mixed feelings about the existence of the paladins that protected them.

“The Mystic Arts are techniques for healing and for protection. However, like magic, depending on how it is used, it can be a tool of war. The spilling of blood for peacekeeping and defense is hardly rare.”

“I can’t bring myself to like that...”

“Hah! That is how it should be. There is not much future in a House Caputo whose main branch derives enjoyment from conflict.”

It wasn’t that paladins were driven by bloodlust, of course, but it was also true that they were still a presence that conflicted with her beliefs.

“Society can’t function on ideals alone, but a world without ideals is a sad one. At the very least, I’m not the sort of man to stop considering these questions,” the elderly knight, approaching retirement, gently explains to the girl.

“Every sword needs a scabbard. No doubt you were drawn to him because he has a scabbard of his own.”

“Scabbard...but he used a wooden sword...”

“Even a wooden sword is enough to kill. Those with power often want to display it. They have the bad habit of looking for opportunities to display that power. Men like that are the most likely to make unfixable mistakes. But the man you describe controls himself and aims to be a loyal blade for his master. He tries to contain matters to the bare minimum necessary to carry out his orders and he stops the moment he is commanded to. No doubt you saw that part of him.”

A sword should only be used when necessary. It’s only another element of risk at any other time.

“A scabbard...”

“A power that can’t be controlled is far too dangerous. Understanding the amount of power one wields and to use only the necessary power at the necessary time... That’s what is important.”

As the conversation winds through at House Caputo, several young paladins approach the marshal.

“We come bearing news! There was a flood in a nearby village, with all of the buildings washed away.”

““Pardon?”” the two ask in puzzlement.

There are no large rivers nearby, nor have there been any recent reports of large rainstorms. Fire or storm damage would have made sense, but a village washed away by a flood? That wasn’t possible.

Arriving at the village in question, it really has been flooded. More accurately, the area around the village is covered in a massive amount of mud, as well as debris from washed-out buildings, that could only have been caused by a flood. It’s impossible to know where the roads used to be.

“Fortunately, it appears that there were no deaths. However, many were injured...and the damage to their homes is catastrophic.”

“My heart aches for these poor people.”

“Still, this makes no sense. How did it flood?”

There had been nothing unusual on the journey here, and as a result it looked as though a storm had come down solely upon this village. A flood without any warning was even less plausible than smoke without a fire.

“Determining the cause is important, but the injured are the priority.”

Mystic healing is nearly universal in scope and capacity. While it couldn’t restore lost body parts, it could deal with things like fatigue from exposure. As a member of the main branch of House Caputo, Paulette fully intends to wield her healing art.

“The injured are over here.”

“Thank you...oh?”

Paulette Caputo notices him. Among the injured laid out on a cloth spread over the sodden ground was a young man with black hair. He appears to be from the same people as the Young Master, and her eyes stop to linger on his foreign features.

Still, treating the injured and discovering the cause take precedence. She begins treating the injured, checking the state of the unconscious people and working with the paladins to treat them. As the process continues, they’re able to ask a witness what transpired: the elderly man who serves as the village mayor.

“Oh, Lady Paulette...thank you for coming to our village.”

“Not at all. This is our purpose, after all. Could you tell me what happened...?”

“Yes, well...I do not know if you will believe me, milady, but...”

The mayor points to the unconscious black-haired man.

“I do not remember it clearly, but it appears he is the cause.”

“Huh?”

“It may sound like a dream, but...well, he appeared suddenly in the village and it seemed he was rather confused... He began rambling about candles and fans, going on and on without making much sense. He didn’t seem to be a bad sort, however, so I took him to my house.”

He then points to the location where his house must have once stood. A mud pit is all that remains.

“He’s a rather cheerful and energetic man, so I was quite entertained...and when he asked if I could use magic, I decided to demonstrate.”

With that the elderly mayor creates a small flame on his fingertip. It was a simple spell that even the children of the village could use.

“He was extremely excited to see that... And he happily declared that he’d try it himself.”

“Well, the use of magic is normal enough. It’s simple enough to teach a dedicated learner.”

If you randomly gathered 1,000 people, 990 of them would be able to use magic. And of the remaining ten, maybe one could use the Mystic Arts. There is a great difference in rarity between magic and the Mystic Arts. The marshal nodded at those words. The problem was that the connection between the current situation and that story remained still unclear.

“Which is why I taught him...the spell I just demonstrated...”

“Aaaaack!”

“At which point a pillar of flame, like a mage’s attack spell, erupted from his fingertip...”

“Water! Waaateerrrrrrr!!”

“Evidently, he was hoping to erase it, because the fire went out and an enormous amount of water began flowing from his fingertip...and I can’t remember anything past that.”

Paulette and the marshal take another look around their surroundings. The muddy ground had suddenly dried up. That proved the water wasn’t ordinary water, but magically created water. That, in turn, meant that a simple spell had caused a disaster, purely through volume of water and water pressure.

“...What do you think this means?”

“I do not know...however, if he is the cause, perhaps we should take him back to the estate?”

House Caputo might be a lineage principally comprised of mystics, but as one of the Four Great Houses, it did have mages in its service. They bring the man in question, still unconscious, into the manor for House Caputo’s resident mage to examine. That didn’t mean the mage could conduct a medical examination, but he did listen to an explanation while the man himself lay sleeping.

“So when he used a small spell to create fire it, instead, created a pillar of flame. Then, when trying to put out said fire, he sunk...no, swept away the village, with a flood?”

The explanation was scarcely believable.

“Yes. Although no doubt it is hard to believe.”

“That’s ridiculous...”

The reaction is understandable even after seeing the result, but it was the only explanation that fit the facts. Even a sudden storm wouldn’t have caused that sort of damage.

“Destroying a village with water magic... It wouldn’t be impossible if there were a substantial number of powerful water mages, but to do it alone...”

To simply destroy a village, it’d be easier to use fire magic. In fact, no magic would be necessary; just setting fire to the village with a torch would be enough. What would even be the point of destroying a modest village? It’s a complete misuse of resources.

“I can’t think of any mage who would go to that trouble.”

“Lady Paulette and I are amateurs regarding magic. Could you explain why you consider it ridiculous?”

“Hrm, well, alright...”

At the request of the two mystics, the resident mage begins to explain, emitting a small flame from a fingertip. The flame itself is clearly larger than the one the mayor created earlier.

“As you can see, I’ve created fire...Assuming that he used the same spell, there is a difference based upon raw talent. Children who grow up to be great mages may sometimes create excessively large flames...and then, in a mild panic, create water to put it out.”

“...That matches the current situation.”

While there are four elements in magic, it’s inefficient and difficult to learn multiple elements, but it’s not impossible. The most basic spells, such as producing small flames, a little water, or a weak breeze, are possible for most mages, regardless of their chosen element.

“However... This time, it set a house on fire, then drowned a village in water.”

“Yes. The scale is far too great. It may go without saying, but even wooden houses are never completely dried out, so while their timbers might char, it’s difficult to actually set them on fire. It’s different if you intend to set it on fire, but... Also, to destroy an entire village, that requires creating an enormous amount of water...”

“Based on your explanation, this is a talent far beyond a great mage. Why are you so upset?”

As the marshal points this out, the resident mage pales, as though hoping their hypothesis is wrong. It’s definitely a reaction caused by fear.

“You seem to be operating under a misunderstanding... Please, think it through. Assuming this young man was using a minor light spell...and it was large enough to set fire to a house...”

“Yes? What’s the conclusion?”

“That is his limit.”

“...Limit? So he can’t use spells greater than that?”

“No. He can’t use spells smaller than that.”

As the two mystics fall silent in shock, the mage continues to explain.

“Understand that the fire I produced is the smallest amount of magic I can wield. Now, there are a number of fools who will put up a front and try to produce a larger flame, but the amount of fire produced by that spell is generally the minimum, and is thus the foundation of controlling magic.”

To put it simply, the smaller the flame produced from the fingertip, the more precise the control. However, since magic is generally used for attack spells, that level of fine control is usually unnecessary. A larger flame means the person contains more mana, making it an overall advantage.

But there is a limit.

“Whether fire or water, that’s his floor. Meaning, in effect, he has no control over his magic.”

“...Is it possible to confirm this?”

“Yes. If he’s trying to make himself look impressive and creating an unusually large flame, then make him sustain it for some time. If he has an enormous amount of mana, then he won’t tire, even after an extended period of time.”

Those who have tens, even hundreds of times more mana than the average individual, create effects tens and hundreds of times more powerful, even when using basic spells. And since that person is only using a basic spell, it should require no effort. If it’s mere vain posturing, they will quickly be exhausted.

“He should wake soon, so let us try explaining the situation to him.”

“Very well.”

If the situation is as it seems...whether with malice or by accident, he did, in fact, destroy an entire village. While there was nearly no human cost, the physical damage was enormous. Even if House Caputo were to shoulder the entire expense of rebuilding, he would have to take some sort of punishment.

“Mm...”

The sleeping man wakes, glances around his surroundings, and immediately asks the obvious question.

“...Um, where am I?”

From his point of view, he’s been brought to some place he doesn’t recognize, and he’s surrounded by people he doesn’t know. His confusion is natural. However, the color begins to drain from his face. He’s slowly remembering what he’s done.

“Um...could it be that I caused a bit of a mess?”

After listening to a description of the damage, he cradles his head.

“Not only did I set fire to the mayor’s house, but I sank the entire village?!”

“No, to be precise, you didn’t sink the village so much as wash it away.”

The water may have washed things away, but it was hardly water under the bridge. Evidently suffering from guilt, the man seems in quite a panic. He doesn’t appear to be a bad man, at least.

“You have my sincere apologies! Are the villagers alright?”

“Yes. No one was killed. However, a good number were injured.”

“I-I see...I need to go and apologize, then...not that an apology will make a difference.”

As he scrunches his shoulders up in guilt, Paulette decides to treat him kindly, even though he must be a little older than her. There’s so much they need to confirm about him.

“Why don’t we step outside a moment?”

Because they might end up using large scale magic, Paulette suggests they go outside. The four of them are currently inside the manor, but thinking about it, they’ve brought a dangerous object onto the estate.

“Yes...I’m sorry.”

The party exits the House Caputo manor, and, for the moment, chooses to go out into the garden. Fortunately, there’s nothing around that would be an issue if set on fire. After securing the surrounding area, they begin explaining the situation.

“Please listen carefully. We will have you do the same thing you did at the mayor’s house. We wish to see if your destruction of the village was intentional or accidental.”

“Sure. I mean, I understand!”

“Do understand that your magic is very dangerous, so please listen to our directions...”

“Alright, I’ll do it better than earlier! Fire, come forth!”

“W-Wait, listen to what I’m...”

“Gyaaaaaaaah!”

The mayor’s story is thus completely reenacted. That is, in spite of putting little effort into his spell, a pillar of flame, one that even a powerful attack spell couldn’t produce, erupts from his fingertip. Then, despite not needing to reenact the next part, in a panic, he begins shaking his finger, as if to try to put out the fire. As such, instead of letting the flames leap harmlessly into the air, he begins swinging it all around him.

“Lady Paulette, behind me, please! Pride Wall!”

No matter how powerful the pillar of flame, it wasn’t enough to break a mystical wall. The marshal’s wall is enough to protect the resident mage and Paulette from the fire magic. As there was nothing else to burn, the fire only ends up scorching the dirt.

However...

“W-W-W-W-Wat-Wat-Water!”

After swinging the pillar of flame around, a few embers had landed on his body, lightly scorching him in the process. Panic deepening, he stops the fire magic and starts up with water magic. As such...

“Gaaaaaah!”

From the palm of his hand gushes forth an amount of water that dwarfs the pillar of flame. It is, in fact, enough water to wash away not just a single home, but an entire village. An impossible amount of water. And, in the blink of an eye, he’s swallowed by his own magic...

He lies unconscious on the muddy, waterlogged ground.

“...There’s no malice to him. If anything, he might be a bit...dim.”

Thanks to the wall, the three are unharmed. However, they stare in exasperation at the incredibly stupid sight before them. It’s as if a monkey, spooked by fireworks it set off itself, went into a panic and dove headfirst into a shallow pond. At the resident mage’s calm evaluation, the two mystics had no other response but silence.

No, rather Paulette, despite her exasperation, still manages to speak.

“Marshal...uncontrollable power is indeed frightening...”

“Lady Paulette, this was worse than I could have imagined.”

The man possessed such excessive mana that it could easily destroy him, and he combined it with a personality that embodied both lack of foresight and extreme carelessness.

The ‘Scarred Fool,’ Shouzo Kyoube, a man who continually behaves without thinking, despite possessing magic that would completely destroy him if used carelessly...

This was the moment that the extremely difficult to control ace of House Caputo came under Paulette’s protection.

Part 7 — Quarantine

A black-haired man, who had demonstrated how and why the village was destroyed by reenacting parts that he hadn’t needed to reenact... Having been knocked out a second time, he’s been treated and left alone.

“He’s extremely dangerous,” the resident mage said with a look of exhaustion.

“Yes, we’ve realized that.”

“As a specialist, we need you to work on solutions.”

A picture is worth a thousand words. Having witnessed both his magic and his carelessness, the three are acutely aware of the danger he represents. None of them doubt that the man hardly has a malicious bone in his body. But that doesn’t guarantee he’s harmless. In fact, it makes the situation worse.

“Very well...let us assume he has one hundred...no, seeing the reality, one hundred times is too low. Even at the lowest possible end, he has over one thousand times the mana of any extant mage. A man like that is no longer an individual soldier or mage, but a strategic weapon. Indeed, he may be on the scale of the Eight Sacred Treasures.”

There are no possible solutions to that. No one’s ever imagined or considered how to handle a man with a thousand times the mana of even the greatest mages. Unfortunately, reality doesn’t care about what’s been imagined or considered. To attempt an analysis, the resident mage begins to explain.

“First, the primary advantage and danger of having a thousandfold mana capacity is in effective range and duration. He can single-handedly cast attack spells that are equal or greater than those cast by over a thousand skilled mages. But he also has one thousand times the effective range, something that over a thousand mages couldn’t possibly match. If he casts a fireball spell that ordinarily reaches one hundred meters away, he can instead launch it over one hundred kilometers away.”

“...One hundred kilometers?”

“He could very well reach a city in the neighboring kingdom...”

It’s a distance that an individual...no, even a kingdom...couldn’t produce, regardless of their efforts. It’s simply impossible under the laws of magic.

“The threat comes from the fact that his accuracy isn’t necessarily one thousand times greater. It’s not possible to see one hundred kilometers away. Even a slight change in angle could throw the aim dozens of kilometers off. To put it another way...if he misses, a spell with the power of one thousand mages would fly one hundred kilometers in a random direction.”

That was a terrifying thought. If he accidentally flung a spell at the capital, it could very well end up engulfed in a sea of flames. It’s impossible to grasp the number of people that would kill.

“Meaning that he’s an ace that, when we use him, we can’t miss, or else.”

“No, I mean that he’s an ace that’s completely unusable. As I mentioned earlier, the lower end of the estimate is one thousand times. It could very well be ten thousand times. Magic with that much range could very well set fire to a completely unrelated kingdom. Which means it can only be used from high in the sky or at a particularly steep angle.”

“I understand what you mean by range. Now, about duration?”

The resident mage, as if in response to the marshal’s question, produces a small clump of dirt on their palm. It’s the creation of dirt, using earth magic.

“Like the fingertip lamp, this is a very basic earth element spell. Watch. You can see it disappearing, yes?”

With fire or wind magic, because fire and wind disperse naturally, it’s hard to grasp their disappearance. However, it’s different for earth and water magic. It’s easy to visually understand that something is happening.

“Magically created water can’t quench thirst, because it disappears in an instant. Magically created soil and water are both temporary. Depending on the amount of mana, they will disappear in time, or if the caster moves too far away from them. However, things created with his spells will last over one thousand times as long. For example, if he were to intentionally, rather than accidentally, create an enormous amount of water...”

“That water can flow into a completely unrelated lowland and cause flooding...”

A mage that’s not too weak to use; rather, he’s too strong. He represents an enormous problem, causing the three present to furrow their brows in thought.

“If there is one thing to note, it’s that he shouldn’t be brought inside a house or a city. Frankly, he should be quarantined.”

“But that’s...”

“If he were to use magic in a city, the tragedy of the village will simply repeat itself.”

The scale of the destruction would be immense. In the worst case, countless people would die.

“You mean... We must detain him?”

“He’s a criminal, one who destroyed an entire village. There’s no reason not to detain him. Still, if we try to detain him in the wrong fashion, he might try to break free with magic. So, to prevent that, we must quarantine him. Send him to live in a place with no other people around, and make certain he does not approach any population centers.”

This isn’t a solution Paulette is happy with, but she herself had seen his carelessness. To expect him not to act foolishly is itself too optimistic, and a form of arrogance.

“Very well. Marshal, please prepare a hut for him to live in.”

“Understood.”

“Master Mage, please prepare a list of potential situations.”

“Yes, milady.”

Frankly, the best solution might very well be to kill him while he was unconscious. However, the man with one thousand times the mana of an ordinary mage had a certain ‘magic’ of his own. That is, if they could somehow control him, he would become an absolute power that could defeat anything thrown at them.

Just as House Sepaeda had acquired the greatest swordsman, House Caputo could acquire the greatest mage.

“To force him to live so far away from civilization, all alone...”

House Caputo’s territory is substantial, and the Arcana Kingdom’s population density isn’t particularly high. As such, there are plenty of open grasslands that have no particular value and aren’t near any trade routes. In one such grassland, the man’s hut goes up in a hurry. It’s almost a form of exile. They’re currently keeping a man, whose only sin is possessing too much mana, in exile.

Paulette finds herself caught up in self-loathing, gazing out at the landscape as the carriage heading toward Shouzo’s home moves further and further away from civilization.

“Not to worry, Lady Paulette. We have stocked the cabin with essentials. He is a man old enough to be living on his own. We have explained the situation to him. I doubt there is an issue.”

“As a measure to keep him from committing any further crimes, I believe this is the right choice.”

The marshal and the resident mage riding in the carriage with Paulette try to calm her. They need to be careful in how they handle him. To avoid the worst case, where they might need to kill him, they need to teach him restraint. That he can’t control his magic is unavoidable, but he needs to learn to control himself as a person.

“...Errm. Do you hear an odd noise?”

Rattling inside the carriage, Paulette thinks she can hear the sound of fragile things breaking underfoot. The other two hear the noise as well.

“Yes...it’s a noise we sometimes hear when marching in winter...like we’re stepping on frosted-over land.”

“...Isn’t it a bit cold?”

The three of them couldn’t avoid a sense of foreboding.

“Driver! Hurry!”

“Yes, sir!”

The marshal commands his subordinate, who’s driving the carriage, to pick up the pace. They should be getting close enough to see his cabin...which means they’re within the effective distance of a spell he may have accidentally triggered.

“C-Cold...”

“Lady Paulette, your jacket.”

“Ridiculous... Ice magic is an advanced school...to cast that in such a wide radius?”

It’s possible the entire surrounding area had been frozen at some point. Frost that smells of ice magic is thickly distributed along the ground and the air itself.

Eventually... The carriage reaches the cabin at the center of the cold. Seconds might be valuable. The three hurriedly step onto the frozen ground, charging into the cabin.

“Graah!”

The marshal breaks through the door that’s been frozen shut, charging inside. There, in the middle of the room, a figure sat unmoving, as though frozen to its very core, finger still outstretched as it sat.

It’s so cool to be able to live in a cabin like this~!

Thanks for building this especially for me~!

I like this sort of rustic life~!

I’m in another world~!

I’m able to use powerful magic, right~~!

Okay! Since the three from yesterday are about to come visit, I’ll practice my magic for a bit!

“Remarkable, to use a spell that even I, a resident mage of a noble house, find difficult!”

“Ahh. For such a talent to appear in front of me...”

“Wonderful! Come serve my house!”

That would be awesome if that happened~~~!

Alright, since it’s a little hot, let’s try a spell to make things cooler.

Since they mentioned you can cast ice spells once you master water, a little practice should do it!

“Br-Brrrr...”

“You froze this entire area with that poorly reasoned idea...”

Fortunately, having succeeded in reviving him, the three could only muster troubled laughter. It was fortunate that the advanced form of water magic was ice magic. No doubt, had he tried to raise the temperature, he would have reduced this entire area, himself included, to ash.

“One thousand times really does seem too conservative...”

Boiling water with fire magic leaves behind hot water, even after the duration of the fire spell ends. Meaning, when blanketing an area with ice, the low temperature lingers even after the ice disappears.

“We were able to heal you to some extent with the Mystic Arts, but...”

“Thank you sooo much...”

“Why did you do something so reckless...?”

“Well uh...I thought, maybe...you’d think better of me...”

Evidently, he felt he had done nothing but stack up failures, one on top of the other. As such, the only solution he saw was to secretly train so he wouldn’t fail again. With his positive, tenacious attitude, the man continued piling up even more failures. Sadly, he lacked any ability to learn from his mistakes.

“Well, I mean... Seems I’m really bad at controlling magic, so I thought it’d be a problem if I didn’t practice...”

“It’s not something you can fix with practice! I told you not to use magic without our permission!”

As a mystic, magic is outside of Paulette’s expertise. However, a specialist said it’s impossible, which means that he nearly killed himself trying something that’s impossible by the ordinary rules of magic. What an absolutely ridiculous situation.

“I see. It seems you didn’t understand the fine details.”

The resident mage once again realizes he’s dealing with a complete beginner.

“You, what’s your name?”

“Kyoube Shouzo.”

“Kyoubeshouzo, I see.”

He decides to explain anew for Shouzo as he sits there shivering in a wool blanket, feet warming in a foot bath.

“Listen closely. Your mana is far greater than is ordinarily possible. Which means you’re incapable of fine control.”

“Doesn’t that mean I’m bad at control...?”

“You’re not bad at it. It’s simply impossible. You’re not capable of creating magic effects smaller than the pillar of fire you created yesterday. It matters not whether it’s fire, water, wind, or earth.”

“Huh?! Does that mean...”

‘Gya-Gyaaaah!’

‘W-What’s with this man? He just blew away my most powerful fire spell with a fire spell of his own!’

‘I’ve never seen magic that powerful. How does the spell even work?!’

‘All I did was light a small flame with my fingertip. Get it? It means your attack spells are inferior to my lamp spell.’

“...Right?”

“Well, I suppose that’s mostly accurate...”

How does he interpret everything so positively? The three can’t understand his mindset. Did drowning and freezing himself with his own magic make him stupider? They don’t want to believe that this is what he’s always been like.

“At any rate, you’re unable to cast spells weaker than that.”

“So, I can use attack spells that are stronger than that?!”

“Do you intend to turn this country to ash?”

“Huh?”

It’s useless. He’s not getting it. There appears to be no doubt in his mind that his spells don’t impact the world around him.

“You seem to be operating under a misunderstanding... If, heaven forbid, you were to cast a destructive spell with a large area of effect, you and half of this kingdom would go up in flames.”

“This kingdom’s that small?”

“No! The effect area and duration of your magic are just that broken! Who, indeed, do you even plan to fight?! You don’t need that much firepower to kill people. Whether fortresses or great cities, your power could obliterate them with ease.”

“...There’s nothing like monsters or demons?”

“At the very least, I’ve never seen them.”

Magic is generally designed according to military needs. As such, fire magic need only be hot enough to kill human beings, after which the emphasis is on area of effect. Mages only use advanced heat magic when facing mystical defenses, but that’s still only magic intended to kill a single target. That means that using magic at one thousand times the ordinary power is beyond even war.

“Oh no...”

“Anyway, you must not learn attack spells, at this particular moment. Understood?”

“Yes...”

He looks deflated, but it’s questionable as to whether it’s actually gotten through to him.

“...Regardless, I’m glad to see you’re alright.”

Paulette reaffirms her belief that the man before her isn’t evil. He’s just an average man with average dreams of heroism. She finds herself wanting to find some way to allow him to live in human society. Without any doubt to that hope, she takes his shaking hand.

“I brought you stew and bread. For today, once you’ve eaten that, perhaps you could lay down and rest. I’m afraid I don’t have much time, and cannot stay for long...”

“Sniff...thank you...”

Because of the effort required to revive him, it’s almost time for her to leave. While they have yet to accomplish anything, the three present don’t have much time to spare.

“We will come see you again. Please rest quietly.”

“Okay...”

The day visit ends with reviving and feeding him. Rattling about in the carriage ride home, the three discuss how to proceed.

“We should place guards to protect and watch him. For his sake, as well.”

“Yes. Leaving him alone there was a mistake.”

The marshal’s view is unassailable. Paulette agrees wholeheartedly. Protecting him is a dangerous assignment, but leaving him there is simply a recipe for disaster. Unfortunately, the rebuilding efforts with the village are taking up vital resources, but people need to be assigned once that’s settled.

“However, without a certain level of skill in the Mystic Arts, they will simply fall victim to his spells.”

“I leave the selection to you.”

“We should place a hex artist with them,” the resident mage puts in, adding an inhumane suggestion to the marshal’s proposal.

It means treating Shouzo as an exceedingly dangerous criminal.

“You plan to curse him and restrict his actions with that curse?”

“That is my proposal. I had underestimated him.”

The resident mage continues to feel nothing but exasperation at an opponent who is so far out of the ordinary that it’s impossible to muster anything approaching envy. The resident mage himself is here due to a certain amount of talent and effort.

In spite of this, the newly arrived Shouzo possesses power vastly superior to the mage. So far superior that there’s no possibility of keeping up. Which means that, while he’s not entirely devoid of negative motivations, he also genuinely feels that it’s a necessary measure.

“Lady Paulette, Shouzo not only has an enormous amount of mana, but he’s extremely good at manipulating it. It’s ordinarily impossible for someone to want to lower the temperature and use that motivation to come up with ice magic on their own. If he only had an average mage’s mana, he’d have been treated as a genius-level mage.”

People can’t simply act as they think. While there is the issue of not being able to properly conceive of the necessary movements, it’s common for bodies not to react properly to the commands given.

Magic is the same way. Ordinarily, it takes tremendous effort to manipulate mana exactly as desired.

“But his power and effect area aren’t normal. Because he’s so easily capable of executing spells, he’s more likely to simply destroy both himself and those around him. He has no need to practice. He is already the ultimate mage, and this is his limit. He has no room to grow.”

It’s unfortunate for a man so forward-looking, but there’s no ‘forward’ or ‘up’ or ‘further’ for him to go. He’s already complete. An ‘ultimate’ too perfect to fix.

“That is...tragic.”

Paladins who have to use their healing abilities to fight...even more tragic is the man with power who can’t even fight, only destroy. And a power that can’t create anything worthwhile for the future? He himself is currently still optimistic, but how will he react when faced with that reality?

“Which is why we need to restrain him with hex magic. It will hold him back psychologically, and it also serves as a solution of last resort. What do you think will happen if he tries to fly using wind or fire magic?”

Flying with magic is very difficult, requiring fine control and coming with a substantial amount of risk. There’s only a handful of people with that amount of skill. Frankly, even being able to do so is a mark of a first-class mage.

“First, all the surrounding buildings will be blasted away by the air pressure.”

An ordinary mage must put a substantial amount of effort into generating enough airflow to produce lift. However, Shouzo doesn’t have that limitation. He creates far too much wind to lift a single person. Instead, the excessive magical force, even with the weakest spell, would not only lift him, but blow away the buildings around him.

“Further, it’s possible he would lose consciousness from the rapid acceleration or rapid braking that occasionally happens with fire magic.”

Enormous speed and the burden it places on the body... His body couldn’t stand the burden his magic would impose. He may be able to increase his endurance if he trained his body, but even then there’s a limit.

“He’ll get launched into the air unconscious, then be carried away by the air currents and crash. He would land somewhere far away from the location he tried to set off from. In which case... Unless a large tree breaks his fall, or he lands in a particularly deep lake from not too high an altitude, he’ll die.”

“So we need a hex artist for him to avoid that fate...”

Unlike weapons, it is truly impossible to throttle magical power. It’s possible to improve output with things like magic staves, but magic is still essentially the wielder’s own power. To restrain a powerful mage, it requires preventing them from casting spells at all. Which is why, in such a situation, the power of a hex artist is called for.

“Yes. If things continue the way they are, he will simply use magic again and destroy himself.”

The two could not deny the resident mage’s words. There’s nothing to back up any counterargument. However, in the end, it turned out that his words were prophetic.

“Heard someone fell out of the sky.”

“Did a wind mage screw up?”

“Evidently he hit some tree branches, and then landed in a lake below.”

“Because there was a big splash, they found him and were able to treat him. So he’s still alive somehow. Still unconscious, though.”

The three returned to the city, where that particular incident was already the subject of discussion.

“Please secure a hex artist. As quickly as possible.”

Part 8 — Foolishly Naïve

“Which means, Shouzo, that you can’t cast what you call ‘healing magic.’”

“I see!”

Why am I doing this? the House Caputo resident mage thinks to himself as he teaches the grown man — realistically, the adolescent — in front of him the basic tenets of magic. Shouzo can’t read, but they’re still able to communicate, and while he has terrible manners, he’s not so clueless as not to know about tableware or outhouses. It seems he’s not that seriously ignorant.

At the same time, he’s hopelessly careless and hopelessly unthinking.

“Oh, I see~~ Well that’s too bad... Think I remember hearing old games used to be like that, though.”

“Meaning you can only use absurdly-scaled attack magic. Understand that first and foremost.”

In truth, the content of the lessons and the pupil’s lack of self-awareness aren’t particularly out of the ordinary. The resident mage, who is not only skilled with magic but also has some pretensions toward being an intellectual, is familiar with dim-witted men like the man before him.

Paulette Caputo, on the other hand, is likely unfamiliar with just how dim those people can be. However, in society at large, these sorts of fools tend to be more common than not. In that sense, Shouzo is, perhaps, not as bad as most.

At the very least, Shouzo is aware that he’s not very bright. There are plenty of people in the world who steadfastly refuse to admit when they’re wrong and, when faced with correction, become stubborn and combative.

“I see~~.”

After being treated with the Mystic Arts, he was left with scars all over his body. His injuries were at such a level where he could very well have died or suffered permanent disabilities. However, since he suffered the injuries in Caputo lands, which boast the greatest concentration of healing skill in the kingdom, the scars are the worst he’ll have to deal with.

“Whoa, these are some sick scars!”

There are multiple scars from where the branches had pierced his skin, including on his face, but that was still Shouzo’s first reaction to seeing the result. Paulette, who had just finished treating his wounds, suddenly found all the tension draining from her at the remark.

“So, when should I actually use my magic?”

“...A war, probably. But there aren’t any plans for one.”

Currently, the neighboring country is in the midst of a civil war, and there’s no guarantee it won’t spread here.

However, probably best not to tell him that, the mage thinks, drawing his own conclusion as to the likely result.

“......”

He looks disappointed, but at least he’s not so thoughtless as to be disappointed that there won’t be a war for him to fight. Unfortunately, he still appears to be searching for something that he can do.

“So, what sort of books influenced you?”

“Huh?”

Shouzo directs an honestly surprised look to the mage. He appears perplexed that the mage knew exactly what he was thinking.

“Hardly surprising. There are an absurd number of books where authors who know nothing about magic write entertainingly about magical feats. A good number of people seek to learn magic because of those books. In that sense, there’s nothing wrong with those books.”

Childhood dreams are nothing to scoff at. It’s not rare for even the most distinguished researchers to have started on their path after reading a particularly entertaining children’s story.

“So, what sort of books influenced you?”

“Well... Ones where the hero is awesome!”

While he hesitates briefly, as though in embarrassment, evidently a part of him also wants to talk about it, and he continues.

“The hero, who had been just your average Joe, is taken to a new world and learns to use magic. The magic they can use casually is actually really powerful, and everyone praises them for it. Over and over!”

One saving grace, both for House Caputo and Shouzo himself, was that the heroes Shouzo admires are actually just average, ordinary heroes. Were he instead drawn to antiheroes with chips on their shoulders and resentment directed toward the world, no doubt he wouldn’t have survived very long.

“The hero saves someone who happens to be a really important person, and that person starts really valuing the hero! The hero gets a new house and he starts keeping a bunch of cute girls there!”

It’s a hero story that’s common even in this world. No doubt it’s not a specific work, but a set of tropes that’s found in multiple works.

“As the hero enjoys his new life, lots of people come to the hero for help. They all say that they need the hero’s power, so please help them! So they set off on adventures, where the hero meets new people, acquires new powers, and becomes even more powerful. More people come to him for help and he gets more and more important.”

Not that his taste is immune from criticism. There probably isn’t any specific knowledge about magic in his homeland. There’d be no way he wouldn’t have already known about his enormous mana, nor would they have let him leave his home country.

“Which is why I want to learn how to do a lot of things!”

He’s excited and full of hopes. He’s likely putting himself in the hero’s place.

“Considering that you were helped by a potential heir to one of the Four Great Houses, Lady Paulette, given a place to live and, most importantly, had your accidental but complete destruction of a village taken care of for you, I doubt you’ll be able to do that for a while.”

“W-Well... That’s why...I want to learn various new magics and...”

“No need. You’re this world’s most powerful mage. Even if one appeared with the Eight Sacred Treasures, they still wouldn’t come close to you.”

“That’s it! If I had one of those Scared Treasures, I bet I’d...you know...”

“You don’t need an amplifier. You need restraints. There’s nothing like that among the Sacred Treasures.”

The Sacred Sword Eckesachs can amplify the wielder’s magic. However, if Shouzo were to acquire that, the result would be calamitous. Given that there’s no way to make good use of him now, what would the point be of making him more powerful?

“Aww, darn~~”

“New powers, hm...? No doubt that, in the stories, new powers are desirable. And in a sense, that’s about acquiring things that are missing for that individual. But...you don’t need new power. In fact, such an event would just be a complete waste.”

The only thing that’s kept him from being permanently injured is how quickly the Mystic Arts can heal injuries. It’s possible that he simply doesn’t grasp the scale of the various disasters he’s caused. But that’s not simply just limited to him. Can anyone truly comprehend just what he represents?

“If there’s something lacking in you, that’s forethought and self-reflection... You need to first understand just what you’re capable of doing right now.”

“Right...now?”

“Yes. You talk about helping people in trouble so casually, but do you actually have a grasp of what you’re capable of doing?”

“But, you know, I’m not allowed to practice, right?”

“If you do exactly as I say, we can change that. Lady Paulette’s given me authority over the use of your magic.”

At the moment, only Shouzo and the resident mage are in the cabin. Yet, standing guard outside the cabin are four extremely serious paladins who have made their peace with death. Without exaggeration, they were now guarding the Arcana Kingdom from the world’s most powerful mage. If bandits attacked the cabin and forced Shouzo to use his attack magic, Shouzo and the bandits wouldn’t be close to the only victims of what resulted.

Having accepted this confidential mission in the name of protecting the kingdom, the paladins recommit to their mission after witnessing him practice.

“Fortunately, it appears he’s been behaving himself since the last incident.”

“Yes, quite a relief.”

Shouzo, who is so lacking in inherent learning ability that he seems to have exchanged all of it for his magical talents, has been well-behaved since his unceremonious flight accident. Well-behaved in this case means that he’s restricted his magic use to the practice methods directed by the resident mage.

“We’re fortunate that he’s so naïve...”

“Yes. His personality is his saving grace...”

For example, if he fully understood his magic and what he was truly capable of, he could use that to negotiate with them. If he learned of his abilities, and if he had the intelligence to make use of them, he could become a powerful trump card indeed. After understanding his character...kill him if he’s truly dangerous; if he’s lustful, then provide him with women; if he’s vain, then provide him with glory.

However, he’s not yet at that stage. He’s very much a child who has just learned to use magic.

“And, given how foolish he is, he is not in any place to be manipulated... It provides an opportunity to reflect on my own weakness.”

“Indeed... This is perhaps an odd way to put it, but he is not, at least, an evil man.”

The thing that keeps Shouzo alive, despite the fact that he destroyed a village and is capable of threatening the kingdom itself, is the simple fact that it would be easy to kill him whenever needed. It would be extremely simple: let him use his magic and destroy himself, then leave him. He’s likely to simply perish from self-inflicted wounds.

Currently he’s controllable, and not only is he easy to kill, but by simply leaving him alone, he’s likely to just end up dead. That means that it’s fine to simply leave him for now and help him learn. There’s no harm in waiting to make a decision.

“It certainly puts Master Sansui’s own remarkable abilities into perspective. He is very much the opposite of Shouzo... In fact, I doubt they should be compared at all, but Master Sansui really is an impressive guardian.”

“Indeed. A guardian that House Sepaeda can use without hesitation.”

A guardian that can be trusted to watch over a younger sister... Shouzo is as far from that as can be imagined. In his case, it’s necessary to put a guardian on him to protect from his magic.

“To think there is such an enormous difference between the most powerful swordsman and the most powerful mage...it’s not something to be proud of, but there are times that I envy House Sepaeda.”

“So long as it doesn’t extend to outright covetousness, there’s nothing wrong with it. It comes from a place of respect and admiration, after all. No doubt it simply puts his most desirable qualities into perspective.”

‘The most powerful’ means just that: the one with the greatest amount of power. However, there is simply too much of a difference between the most powerful swordsman, Sansui, and the most powerful mage, Shouzo. Frankly, an idiot who has no concept of the enormous power at his disposal is worse than an evil madman.

“However, no doubt that this is a test that God has provided House Caputo. For better or worse, the reason he survives is because he is in House Caputo’s territory...”

“Indeed...”

“House Sepaeda trusts the world’s most powerful swordsman. In that case, we must raise the world’s most powerful mage.”

House Sepaeda’s ace is already complete, a perfect sword. That’s to be envied. Envied in the extreme. In fact, it’d be nice to be able to exchange cards. However, there is no reason to dismiss the meeting with Shouzo. Moreover, that would be simple sloth. The only people in this kingdom who could raise him properly and make good use of him are the leaders of House Caputo. That is the message from God, and it’s the only way to deal with the situation.

“Lady Paulette, you have a guest.”

At the maid’s words, Paulette and the marshal break into smiles. There is only one guest they’ve invited to this estate.

“The Saive hex artist has arrived, then?”

“No, Lady Paulette. It is your betrothed, Lord Canvus.”

The two slump their shoulders in disappointment.

Canvus Caputo.

He is a distant relative of Paulette, and as such is a mystic himself and her betrothed. Handsome, capable both in study and battle, austere and serious. He is a man who appears perfect at a glance. Now, whether or not he’s completely lacking in fault is another question entirely.

“It’s been a while, Paulette. And Sir Marshal, it is good to see you doing so well.”

“It has been a long time, Canvus. I’m happy to see that you’re well.”

“Lord Canvus, words of your deeds have come to us, too.”

The two can’t quite hide their disappointment, mainly because they were waiting for the hex artist that can restrain Shouzo. It’s not that they think lightly of Canvus, but Shouzo’s matter is a question of national security.

“A while... Yes, it’s been a while since we’ve last met, Paulette.”

Having no methods of instant communication, and living in the vast Caputo territories, the two don’t have much opportunity to meet. This is hardly a matter limited to this particular pair, but how the couples deal with the situation is up to the individuals involved.

Paulette isn’t bothered by the separation. Living at House Caputo’s main estate, she frequently hears what her betrothed is doing, and she has faith that he is living a life worthy of a future son-in-law of the main branch of House Caputo. By way of contrast, Canvus finds the separation unbearable. The reality that he can’t often see the face of the woman he will marry eats at him.

“Why didn’t you come to my party the other evening? I was looking forward to seeing you!”

“I’m afraid I had an important issue to tend to.”

“That’s what I was told. We’re both in positions of responsibility, and I’m not keen on mixing up my priorities, either. But why do I hear nothing about the supposed important issue? I did notice the destruction at the village, and I understand that rebuilding it is important, but that’s not something that you need to direct yourself. At most, it should have been a matter of you issuing the orders, then confirming they were being followed.”

Canvus’s frustration is perfectly understandable. It’s true that they are both in positions of responsibility, so making certain to prioritize the right issues was indeed important. However, he hadn’t heard a word about this important incident, or about the incident in question being resolved. It’s understandable if this were a situation involving another of the Great Houses, or even the Royal Family, where there’s some distance between them and House Caputo, but to keep such an incident secret from a cadet branch of the family? That’s too much.

“I’m sure there are things you can’t write about. That’s why I came to see you.”

“I...I see...”

There’s nothing for her to feel guilty about, and she’s not saying anything particularly out of the ordinary. Still, Paulette could only look contrite and glance away from him. The reality is so ridiculous that she doesn’t think he’d believe it.

“Haha! The joys of youth. But not to worry; the cadet branches will be informed of the matter by House Caputo soon enough.”

The wisdom of age... The marshal has decided to make the issue somewhat larger than it currently is. Once there’s enough space to explain the situation, he plans to tell most of the important figures in House Caputo’s orbit about Shouzo, or maybe even have him conduct a demonstration. For better or for worse he’s extremely flashy. If he shows his strength as a mage with the power of one thousand mages, it’ll be impossible to miss his absurdity. That should at least be easier to explain than the Young Master was for House Sepaeda.

“So, the information is being concealed? That the information is so confidential that you can’t tell even me?”

“That’s right, Canvus. With a bit more time, though, I think we’ll be able to tell not just you, but the rest of House Caputo as well.”

An individual mage with one thousand times the mana of the average mage isn’t something that’s believable when simply described in the abstract. Even if they explain to Canvus that they’ve secured an incredibly powerful mage, it would absolutely be insufficient as an explanation.

“But believe me, we’re not doing anything that will be a problem for House Caputo or the Arcana Kingdom.”

“...Is it so important that you can’t just tell me right now?”

“Yes... I simply can’t.”

If they told him the truth, he’d demand confirmation, which would then become a matter of life and death. Not just his life, but on a scale that could threaten the kingdom itself. If he ordered Shouzo to use attack magic, and if Shouzo were to do as he asked, it might kill countless people in the process.

The real problem, of course, is that Shouzo wouldn’t hesitate to demonstrate his magic. At the very least, they want to wait until they can hire a hex artist and put some restrictions on Shouzo’s actions, before ultimately revealing him to other people.

“I promise it’s something you’ll understand when you see it. Please just wait a little longer.”

“...Fine. If you insist, I’ll let it go. But please understand that I’m simply worried about you.”

It seems that the marshal, whom he admires, is involved, so it can’t be a matter that’s too big of an issue. With that understanding, Canvus decides to back down.

“Yes... Thank you, Canvus.”

Paulette relaxes. At the very least, the man in front of her seems to understand. Keeping Shouzo around is enough of a risk with no guarantee of safety as it is. She’d prefer to avoid any additional complications. Watching Canvus depart, the pair relax.

The truth is, they’ve done nothing to be ashamed of. It’s just a small matter that has a substantial element of danger, because it’s still much too early to judge whether to keep or discard Shouzo.

“Lord Canvus, I have my report.”

“And?”

“We’re told that, in fact, Lady Paulette and her immediate retainers have been acting oddly of late.”

However, there’s one critical misunderstanding at play. That is to say, they’ve fundamentally misunderstood Canvus Caputo’s thought process. From Paulette’s point of view, Canvus is the man she will eventually marry. She admires him and has no particular complaints about him.

However, Canvus has a different perception of Paulette. To him, Paulette is the ideal woman, perfect in looks, personality, and demeanor. He is completely smitten with her. As such, it’s perfectly natural for him to feel insecure and dig around when the woman he’s in love with is hiding something from him.

“Specifically?”

“It seems not only did she treat a mage that failed an attempt at flight magic, but she then moved him to a different location so that he could rest.”

Mages failing and crashing in attempted flights weren’t particularly rare. In fact, most mages were likely to crash several times in the course of their careers when flying. They might crash by accelerating too much and being unable to stop in time, or by using too much mana while in the air, or even by going too far up and suffering from oxygen deprivation. It’s a dangerous world, accessible only to a chosen few.

“Hrm...”

Canvus isn’t a mage who conducts flight training, but rather a mystic who treats mages who crash during flight. Still, his understanding is that a mage conducting flight training is a particularly promising individual. The question is, why did they have to move the mage to a different location?

“...Perhaps he’s afflicted with a particularly virulent disease?”

“So far as we can tell, there were no special steps taken regarding the linens and cloth used for treatment...”

The most probable explanation was an illness. A particularly virulent illness like a plague. Her response would make sense, to some extent, in that case. Still, whether or not that’ll be advantageous to House Caputo is another matter, and it doesn’t make sense that she’d hide it, not simply from the common people, but from him as well. The fact that she’s so skilled and intelligent, combined with the established trust between them, makes her actions so hard to accept.

“However, that mage is evidently a young adult male...”

“...I see.”

He feels a brief flash of shame at the thoroughly implausible possibility that flashes through his head. At the very least, she herself couldn’t do it alone, and there’s no way the marshal of the paladins would cooperate with such a thing.

Even if Paulette were to get carried away out of love, he’d have to put a stop to it, as such a situation would not be to the benefit of House Caputo. And that would mean he suspects her, and that he doubts her sincerity. But Canvus himself finds his thoughts getting lost in a maze of his own making.

“Then all there is to do is see for myself.”

He can’t shake the feeling of unease and wants to be rid of it. Despite promising that he’d trust her and wait, the young Canvus couldn’t resist. As a result, he winds up taking his horse to the single most dangerous place in the kingdom.

“Master! What should I practice first?!”

“We’ll start you off with some ice. But only in the place I specify, understood?”

Shouzo is itching to try using magic. Not only that, but trying to prevent him from using it entirely is much more likely to make him run away or start practicing without permission than actually keep anything from happening. To keep those nightmare scenarios from coming to pass, the House Mage has decided to let him do a little spellcasting.

Of course, simply leaving it entirely up to Shouzo’s discretion is just courting disaster, so he has very carefully instructed him on the use of that magic. Fortunately, Shouzo’s magic is extremely stable. While the power, scale, and range of the spells often don’t line up with his intentions, the direction and properties of the spell are exactly what he imagines. At a minimum, his spells don’t fly east when he aims to the west, nor does he produce water when he’s aiming for fire.

“I planted flags outside; do you see them?”

“Yessir! I see four of them!”

“Fill the area between them with ice.”

Filling a hundred meter square with ice... Ordinarily that would be a request so demanding that it could only happen with thousands — even tens of thousands — of mages. Which also means that it’s the perfect way to measure Shouzo’s power and, most importantly, there isn’t any risk of injury to anyone, even in the event of ‘success.’

“A’right... Freeze!”

The Mage shakes his head at Shouzo’s extremely haphazard way of casting, but then sucks in a breath at the display that has unfolded before him. A block of ice appears in the blink of an eye, entirely filling the space.

“Whoa, awesome... But lemme see, is it actually between the flags?”

The paladins watching from behind stare in shock. The sight before them isn’t one that seems within the realm of human ability. A hundred square meters of land is instantly filled with a block of ice about two meters in height. Had there been any people inside, they would have been flash-frozen, even with mystical defenses. Indeed, Shouzo has done that to himself in the past.

“Woo! It’s actually inside the flags!”

Having gone to check the results of his magic, Shouzo innocently celebrates that he’s managed to use his magic ‘successfully’ for the first time.

Successful use of magic... Well, Shouzo did create a block of ice ‘inside the four flags’ without getting caught up in the spell and hurting himself. The block of ice itself is a sculpted piece of ‘cut’ ice, with dimensions so uniform that it is, quite literally, a block.

“That’s awesome! I’m awesome!”

As Shouzo celebrates, the House Mage, empathizing with him for the first time, just numbly takes in the sheer precision of the spell. This is more than enough to prove the effectiveness of Shouzo’s magic. So long as the specified area is large enough and the element is one of the higher elements, it’s perfectly capable of being used in battle. Moreover, Shouzo himself shows no sign of fatigue. The spell was only a ‘light’ application of his abilities, and he’s more than capable of repeating it.

“Mm, yes... But...”

“Oh, I have an idea, Master! I could create lots of ice from my fingertips! Then I can pass the chunks of ice out on a hot day! By the time the ice melts, it’ll vanish, leaving no mess! That’s pretty cool, right?!”

“...Give it a try.”

Trying ice magic at the lowest possible size... Even if he fails, all that’ll happen is that he freezes himself, so the Mage assents surprisingly quickly. Soon after, Shouzo produces a relatively large block of ice from his fingertip, which tumbles down onto the ground. It’s a little small to be called a pillar of ice, exactly, but it’s certainly large enough to help cool down a room.

“Hmm, I suppose you could pass those out at a park in the summer.”

“Woo! Oh, another idea! How about I create hot water with my magic, too, and make a hot spring...”

“Take time and think. You were able to keep the scale small and under control because that was ice magic. If you tried to do that with water, you’d end up flooding the entire area and creating a brand-new lake. Besides...”

The ‘smaller’ ice block on the ground slowly vanishes, fading away as the spell’s duration elapses. However, the giant block of ice is still there.

“Sure, your spells have a very long duration. But they still don’t last long unless they’re relatively large-scale spells. If you plan to fill a bath you’d have to make it last for several hours. And...wait a moment.”

Higher elements have a small effective area, which is why Shouzo had been able to limit the ice spell to ‘just’ this size. If the current spell had been a water spell, then it would have summoned a giant pillar of water that could have very well reached the heavens and created a massive amount of damage ‘downstream.’

After thinking those implications through, the Mage recalls an old concept: experiments involving fusion magic, also known as blended magic.

“Try this. Produce dirt from your right index finger and water from your left index finger. It only needs to exist for a moment.”

“Okay, sure.”

Thinking back on it, notwithstanding the desire to faithfully recreate the original events, they probably shouldn’t have made Shouzo produce fire from his hand in the first place. A person reacts completely differently to creating fire from their finger as opposed to water. Since the only result of messing up with water magic is potentially drowning, they should have started him out with either earth or water magic instead of fire.

“...Huh?”

The results were as expected. Copious amounts of dirt flowed out of his right index finger, while a flood of water streamed out of his left. The amount, however, was substantially smaller than when he cast a water spell by itself.

“...I see. As expected. No matter how extraordinary your mana, you’re still bound by the same laws of magic as the rest of us.”

An idea common to magic users was that a single individual should only focus on a single type of magic. Magic, as a general rule, is made up entirely of ‘attack spells,’ and the targeted person dies whether you chop them up with air blades or burn them with fireballs. Learning multiple schools of magic is thus considered extremely inefficient. The amount of effort required to learn multiple schools vastly exceeds the potential returns. Past practitioners had already confirmed this to be the case.

“What’s happening here, exactly?”

“If you’ll stop, I’ll explain it to you.”

Water and dirt pool around their feet. Expression puzzled as the two elements mix into a pool of mud, Shouzo obeys the House Mage’s instructions.

“As an example, there are spells that produce multiple fireballs.”

“Really?”

“Don’t even think about it! Don’t ever try it! Do you understand me?!”

“You don’t need to yell...”

“Think about your past actions before you say that...anyway, there are spells that produce multiple fireballs. But there aren’t spells that simultaneously create both a fireball and a ball of water. The reason for that is because, when a single individual uses multiple elements at once, the spell is weakened to the point of being useless.”

As a demonstration, the House Mage attempts to produce water and dirt from his fingertips. But he only manages a small mist of water and a small dusting of dirt. Even accounting for the bare minimum of mana being used, it’s still much too weak. Difficult to consider that outcome anything close to a success.

“When a single mage uses two elements, the effect of the spell isn’t halved, but falls to less than a quarter produced when using a single element. For three, it’s less than an eighth, and for four, it’s less than one-sixteenth.”

The history books record that one mage made it their life’s work to prove this effect.

“So, if I were to use all four elements at once, maybe I could...”

“Yes, it would depend on how you did it, of course, but...”

“Could I fly?”

“No. Give up on that.”

It’s not something that any magic user would attempt under normal circumstances, but in Shouzo’s case there’s a very pressing need to waste all of his excess mana in order to create spells with limited power or area of effect. This might be the easiest way to get ‘usable spells’ out of him.

“Besides, in the end, even blended spells are mostly attack spells. Still, try not to use them at all. If you absolutely must use magic, then cast spells that produce water or dirt in front of the knights. Don’t ever use anything related to fire or wind.”

“Okay!” Shouzo chirps in reply, smiling happily.

“...Why can’t I trust that answer?”

Yet for some reason, the paladins guarding him and the House Mage teaching him aren’t reassured by the sound of his voice.

“Thank you. I’m so glad you were here.”

Just how many people in the world ever hear those words? Or for that matter, just how healthy is it to hear those words more than once?

For example, a world-class doctor working himself to the point of collapsing and, as a result, receiving the gratitude of his patients...would he himself, and those around him, regard him as happy and fulfilled? No one could say for certain. However, what is certain is that he would suffer from pressure and time constraints that no ordinary person could understand.

But, putting aside such ‘rare’ examples, perhaps it’s natural for people to want to hear other people tell them that something ‘couldn’t be done without you’ or that they’re ‘glad you’re here.’

The desire for appreciation, acceptance, and reputation... To want to live a life that’s widely admired as special, and thus contribute meaningfully to society... Those wants are, in some sense, a sign of a healthy state of mind.

“Welp, I’m sure making progress!”

Perhaps the most critical reason that Shouzo hasn’t been disposed of yet is that he’s pretty much a normal person. It’s clear that he’s still immature and lacking in self-awareness, but he’s also honest to a fault, without any hidden motives, and thus easy to understand. At least, that’s how House Caputo regards him.

If, instead, he had some recognition of the sheer power at his disposal, was able to fully make use of it, and started making demands of House Caputo, then voices within the house would have recommended attacking him in his sleep and disposing of him. The fact that he’s completely incompetent is why they don’t regard him as enough of a threat to kill. His moral values are easy enough to understand, and don’t require any clear correction. While there are limits, of course, a certain lack of competence can be a decent way to navigate life.

“I’m sure looking forward to tomorrow!”

At the very least, a man who says ‘I left the countryside to try to make something of myself’ is a lot more realistic and relatable than a man who says ‘I spent five hundred years practicing sword swings in the mountains.’

He tries to listen to instructions, so it’s still much too early to kill him. However, the paladins who have seen Shouzo’s magic are well aware of the weight of their responsibility. That is, they’re aware that they’re responsible for managing a weapon of mass destruction, the likes of which are heretofore unseen in this world. While he’s currently crammed inside a roughly constructed cabin, he remains an extremely dangerous individual who could destroy anything he put his mind to. Hence, their need to protect him from everyone and everything. They’re strongly convinced of the importance of that task.

“...Huh?”

However, the paladins guarding Shouzo are completely surprised to see Canvus approaching with his small retinue of knights. Up until this moment, Shouzo’s existence has been kept secret from everyone but a handful of people, meaning that Canvus shouldn’t know of Shouzo’s existence at all.

“Hm. Paladins?”

“Y-Yes. We’ve been tasked to protect this cabin.”

Those with mana can recognize others who possess mana, and as a result, can also recognize those who lack it. Similarly, those with the Holy Power required by the Mystic Arts can recognize others with that same power. Moreover, the distinct equipment carried by House Caputo’s paladins helps identify the warriors around the cabin.

“...The mage Paulette healed is inside this cabin, yes?”

“I-Indeed, milord.”

“However, we are only to allow those who Lady Paulette has specified beyond this door.”

The paladins are well acquainted with Canvus. Indeed, the retainers around Canvus himself are paladins, as well, which means they can’t just brush him off or even contemplate using force. At the same time, they’re not confident that they can properly convey just how much of a danger the man in the cabin represents. Sadly for them, the cabin itself is not remotely soundproof.

“Huh, a guest?”

Not particularly surprised by the visitors, Shouzo opens the door and sticks his head out.

Caught off guard at the sheer normalcy of the action, the guards offer nothing in response.

“You’re the mage...?”

He’s certainly covered in scars. While prompt and correct healing has avoided leaving Shouzo with any permanent disabilities, the scars remain as constant reminders of the injuries he’d sustained, especially on his face. These particular injuries are rather common among mages who fall from a high altitude; at least, those mages fortunate enough to land on something like a building and somehow avoid death in the process.

“Huh? No, no, I’m still just an apprentice,” Shouzo responds with an unguarded laugh, evidently unable to recognize the hostility behind Canvus’s remarks. He doesn’t seem even a little tense.

This response draws the ire of Canvus’s retinue. He certainly looks the part of a yokel, but even factoring in that ignorance, it doesn’t excuse the disrespect.

“You, how dare you speak to Lord Canvus in such a tone!”

“You have no grounds to complain if you’re struck down for your disrespect!”

However, the ones who’ll suffer the most in that particular scenario are those paladins presently serving as Shouzo’s guards. They’d prefer to avoid any unnecessary escalation, as they have no idea what might happen as a result.

“P-Please, we beg for your mercy! This man has no social graces or common sense! He’s ignorant and unthinking!”

“He’s in no shape to receive civilized company! Please, come back at another time!”

Frankly, it’s Canvus who’s decided to ignore common sense here. The very act of going to see someone Paulette has taken the effort to quarantine is absurd on its face. Even if he’s frustrated by the welcome he receives, he’s the one who came uninvited, so it’s his own fault. While Canvus’s retinue are themselves offended out of their loyalty to their master, Canvus himself seems aware of the wrongness of the situation and, dismounting, turns to face Shouzo.

“I say this, knowing I may open myself to ridicule, but I am Paulette’s betrothed.”

“...Huh? Wait, are you maybe misinterpreting the fact that Lady Paulette comes here pretty regularly as something else entirely?” Shouzo says half jokingly, punctuating his remark with a chuckle.

Those around the two no longer have any way of stopping the confrontation.

“That’s right. Bluntly, I’m envious of you. So much so that I suspect you and Paulette have a relationship of a nature that you cannot mention.”

Ordinarily it would be unthinkable for a fairly competent individual to receive this much special treatment. No matter how talented a mage he might be, spiriting away a man with no common sense or shame, as well as evidently little in the way of brains, and putting a permanent guard on him seems...excessive. It’s certainly not something that a member of House Caputo’s main branch would ever do under normal circumstances. If anything, it’s asking too much not to suspect that there’s a different motive behind Shouzo’s treatment.

“Y-You have the wrong idea! This man is, well...”

“Yes, he’s extremely dangerous!”

Even stating the bald truth is difficult to do when it’s so difficult to make it sound believable. For Shouzo’s guards, the inevitable outcome if things continue on this course is painfully obvious. The only question is which of them will end up dead.

“Even so, I understand my suspicions are base and uncouth. It isn’t impossible that you’re simply an ignorant rube, placed here until you learn the ways of the world. Moreover, the Paulette I know would never do anything untoward.”

Canvus is far from acting rationally, at this point. His mind understands just how problematic his actions are, and that his suspicions themselves are an insult to Paulette. Yet, even then, he can’t manage to contain his anger. The object of his total devotion is taking time away from him to carefully nurse this man back to health.

“Which is why I simply cannot leave. Now that I have seen your face, I have to go as far as this can go.”

“Huh?”

“I challenge you to a duel!”

“What the hell is this guy saying?!”

The guards around him couldn’t help but nod in complete agreement with Shouzo’s honest opinion. How did it come to this?

Part 9 — Certain Victory

“Canvus is truly making his way to Shouzo’s cabin?”

“Yes, milady. It appears we missed each other on the road there.”

Paulette, the Marshal, and the House Mage have hurriedly piled into the carriage and are on their way to the cabin. The situation demands a quick response, as a single second’s delay could result in calamity.

“Why did this happen...?”

“If I had to name a cause, it would definitely be youth...”

Canvus must have understood the situation on a rational level. Even if Paulette herself had lost herself entirely to youthful love, there would be no way the Marshal would have helped her cover it up, which means there must be some important reason behind the situation. However, people lose any semblance of rationality when it comes to matters of the heart. At the very least, Canvus is that type of man.

“It may have developed into a duel by now.”

“Whyever for?!”

“That is how some men are. Because they love someone...they will inevitably cause problems, regardless of their beloved’s intentions.”

“That’s just idiotic!”

Yes, but that’s what some men are like. They confuse a bit of kindness for romantic interest in them. They get irritated when the woman they’re in love with has a friendly chat with another man. Such thoughts are, in one sense, very primitive. The path walked by these men is, in a very real sense, the path of the idiot, and idiots by their very nature always cause problems.

“But I was only acting out of concern for Shouzo...”

“Even that leads to suspicion... Setting that aside, as an amateur, there was something I couldn’t quite accept.”

The Marshal, seeking any reassuring topic he can find on this stressful journey, turns to the House Mage.

“If producing a flame from the fingertip is the minimum effort possible, magically speaking, are you certain there’s no way to adjust the output from there?”

“It’s impossible. It would go against the laws of magic.”

With that, the House Mage scrunches his face into a bitter mien and begins to explain.

“Mana levels are essentially ink and pen tips.”

“What does that mean?”

“Having a high mana level means one has a lot of ink and a wide pen tip. Casting spells is then equivalent to drawing pictures and writing letters.”

“So, with a wide pen tip, you can’t draw small details or tiny letters.”

It’s an abstract example, and the Marshal struggles to grasp it. Of course, grasping it doesn’t result in any reassurance on his end.

“Let us say that you write down ‘ball of fire’ on a piece of paper. If the tip of your pen is unusually wide, say the width of a paintbrush, you would need a large piece of paper to be able to fit ‘ball of fire’ at all.”

“And the size of that sheet of paper represents the scale of the spell?”

“Yes. And in his case, his pen tip isn’t the size of a paintbrush, but more like a brush bigger than he is. Meaning that, for him to produce flame from the tip of his finger, is roughly equivalent to him using that ludicrously huge brush tip to write on a regular piece of paper. If he wants to cast any sort of actual spell — that is, draw anything with detail or write anything legible... He’d have to find a sheet of paper bigger than he is, at least the size of a building, to use as his canvas.”

Which means that, if he wants to use any sort of ‘actual spell,’ the scale of the destruction ends up being equally massive as a result.

“As he said one time, if he fights a mage, all he has to do is emit flame from his fingertip to wipe out his opponent’s spell. But when fighting a mystic like Lord Canvus, well, a mystic has some ability to hold that magic back.”

Indeed, when he produced flames the other day during practice, the Marshal used his Mystic Arts to block the flames with a wall of light. That is, so long as he limited himself to just producing flames from his fingertips, it was possible to block those with mysticism. But, because his flame had been blocked by the mystic barrier, Shouzo would, in turn, try to break that barrier. He would use stronger and stronger magic in an attempt to get through it.

“If he used heat or lightning magic... The spell would go straight through everything in its path. We’re not likely to escape unscathed, even at the distance we’re at out here.”

Ordinarily, the effective area of higher elemental spells is limited. Even with a substantial range, the effective area is restricted to a single point. However, like with the example of the pen, in Shouzo’s case, the ‘point’ is well over a thousand times the size of most ‘points.’ It would depend on the direction and angle, but if he were to try that...anything would be possible.

“If he feels the need to break through a mystical wall, then it’s likely to result in the worst possible outcome.”

Of course, none of the three in the carriage nor the driver think that Canvus has any chance of winning. That’s because the Mystic Arts specialize in healing and defense. Putting it simply, the only method of attack Canvus would have in a duel would be to approach and slash with his sword. Even if he were to approach, he’d have to do so after readying his equipment for the encounter. Which means that, unless the encounter began within the arc of a sword, in which case it would be completely tilted in Canvus’s favor, Shouzo would have at least two or three opportunities to use magic.

A man who could destroy an entire kingdom with a single spell would get to fire off two or three...

“Marshal, let us heal the horses as they run, that way...”

“I have already issued those instructions. We must stop them before the duel begins...”

Before they could do anything, they needed to get there. But once there, how would they stop it?

The old warrior was struggling to come to a conclusive answer. A mystic couldn’t possibly defeat Shouzo. Even if he explained that reality, he wasn’t certain that Canvus, driven to his actions by masculine pride, would back down.

“Um... Mister Guards, was what I just did really that stupid?”

“No, it’s not that bad...”

“In this case, I believe it’s Lord Canvus who’s out of control.”

Shouzo couldn’t shake the feeling that maybe he’d done something wrong again, but he was still unable to fully grasp the situation. For example, if he had gotten extremely sick and had Paulette look after him, alone, all night, he would be able to understand the suspicion. But since she had always been accompanied by the Marshal and the House Mage, so no matter his own intentions, there was never an opening to do anything untoward. Yet, he still found himself in this situation...

“Allll-righty. I was worried I did something again.”

“Uhm, which is why I was wondering... Do you plan to accept his challenge?”

“We’d prefer if you wouldn’t...”

“I won’t start a fight, but I’ll finish it!”

The guards begin seriously considering whether they should just kill the idiot in front of them. They do, in fact, have permission to do so, should the worst-case scenario arise. There isn’t any question in their minds when weighing the safety of the realm and the kingdom itself against the life of a single foreign man.

“I’ve always loved these kinds of scenarios! It’s exciting!”

It’s hard to tell what sort of stories he enjoys reading, but surely they’re not remotely the same as the current situation. A story with this sort of scenario couldn’t possibly be any fun to read.

“I salute you for your courage! Even if the cause of this duel is pathetic and immature, poorly thought-out and foolish, the duel itself will be a holy contest, worthy of honor!”

Canvus himself recognizes that his cause is pathetic, immature, short-tempered, and idiotic, but yet he’s already pledged his faith to this duel. As a religious man, there was no way left to call off the duel.

“We will be surrounded by walls of light! In addition, flying out of the range of the opponent’s blade is forbidden! No one will enter or leave this area until the issue is settled!”

“Alllll-right!”

Ordinarily, this was to prevent interference from outside, or to prevent one of the combatants electing to flee.

At the very least, once closed in by thick walls of light, even a heat or lightning mage couldn’t easily run away. Canvus’s retainers surround an area ten meters square with walls of light. Being in the middle of an open plain, there’s no room for foul play.

“I’ll say this ahead of time, but the men responsible for the wall are elites who report directly to me. No matter how skilled in magic you may be, breaking their walls will be no easy feat.”

“Oh, gotcha...”

He’s not bright, but he’s extremely honest and unquestioning. That trait is clearly working out in the worst possible way, this time. The entire time, Shouzo’s guardians wanted to yell out loudly that Canvus was absolutely, unquestionably wrong. There’s no way that a single wall of light created by a single mystic could possibly stand up to this man.

“So it’s okay if I use whatever magic I want in here!”

“Exactly!”

No, that’s wrong. It’s not okay at all. You can’t believe what he’s telling you. It’s not that he’s wrong, exactly, it’s just that the ordinary rules don’t apply to you, Shouzo.

“Hold! Hold a moment!”

As the guardians watch anxiously, a group of potential saviors arrive. For better or for worse, and perhaps too late to be of use, Paulette’s party arrives just as the pair are enclosed by the walls of light.

“Canvus, just what in heaven’s name are you doing?” Paulette yells out at Canvus, her voice bordering on a scream.

Frankly, he doesn’t appear to realize that he’s one wrong move away from turning the kingdom into a burning cinder. If it came to that, not only would everyone present die, but the damage would extend far beyond their own lives.

“Forgive me... In the end I couldn’t believe in you.”

“The fault lies with me. If I wanted you to believe me, I should have told you the entire truth! Even if I didn’t expect you to believe me! So, please, stop this duel at once!”

Or at least, even in the case of a duel, if it was simply a hand-to-hand brawl, that would be fine. The issue is letting Shouzo use magic.

“I will state this without holding anything back: he is a mage far beyond the realm of the ordinary! He is the ultimate mage, one who can break through you and your retainers’ mystic walls like they’re paper!”

“Heh, thanks for the compliment.”

“...I cannot afford to back down after your statement. ...Forgive me.”

There is a major gap in understanding at work here. ‘Far beyond the realm of the ordinary’ is accurate, to be sure but there’s an enormous gap between Canvus’s mental image of an extraordinary mage and the reality of Shouzo’s power. A gap large enough, in this case, to destroy an entire kingdom.

“Forgive me for wanting to fight and prove your words wrong!”

“Well, I don’t really get it, but okay!”

“Shouzo, please stop this! Surely you understand that your magic is...”

“Not to worry! I’ll defeat your betrothed without hurting him!” Shouzo offers a confident grin from his scarred face and a thumbs up.

Seeing him smile reassuringly, as if to say there’s nothing to worry about...those who truly understand his absurdity and lack of forethought only feel an absolute sense of dread.

“Leave it to me! I’ve got a plan that’s certain of victory!”

“There’s nothing reassuring about that!”

“It’ll be fine! Just leave it to me!”

“What are we supposed to leave to you?!”

Despite talking through the wall of light, an even thicker wall exists between their understandings of the situation, and that wall also exists between Paulette’s group and Canvus’s group.

“Lady Paulette, I apologize, but this duel is already in the hands of the Lord.”

“Indeed! We have no intention of allowing this wall to fail, even should the ground split open!”

“However great the mage, we will keep him contained!”

“Lord Marshal, even at your direct order, we will not open these walls!”

Paulette’s truth had also hurt their pride. They had put their entire effort into reinforcing their walls in an attempt to prove that they were able to deal with any mage, no matter how powerful. Of course, all that effort is completely meaningless.

“As I keep trying to explain, that’s not the question!”

“Lord Canvus, it is unacceptable to use God’s name to settle a personal grievance!”

“Hey, Shouzo! Just stop! Don’t you dare do anything!”

Paulette, the Lord Marshal, and the House Mage all let out cries of despair at the situation. But, unfortunately, those voices only make the situation worse.

“There is nothing left to say... Let us settle this before we’re interrupted!”

“Alright! Let’s go!”

The participants, having no recognition of the potential consequences of their actions, begin a battle that could very well decide the fate of the kingdom.

“All-righty, here we go!”

“I’ll let you make the first move!”

“Don’t let him go fiiiirst!”

“Don’t let that man use magic!”

“In fact, just go ahead and kill him!”

If the Mystic Arts are the art of defense, then magic is the art of attack. Typically, when the two arts clash, the mystic has the advantage. That is because the only effective methods of breaking through mystical defenses are with heat or lightning magic. To put it a different way, those two types of magic are only useful when used against ‘combat focused’ mystics, a small group even among the already small population of mystics at large.

Further, heat and lightning have extremely small effective areas, meaning they need to be aimed carefully if they’re to hit, unlike fire or wind magic. As in the case of the recently retired Thunder Knight, that a mage can use lightning or heat magic as their primary means of attack is a sign that they’re an elite first-class mage.

By contrast, rare among the already uncommon mystics are the combat-focused mystics. Few in number, with a little training they’re able to easily fight toe-to-toe with a mage. This is because they can create mystic walls, walls that can easily block magical wind or magical flames. Aside from rare exceptions like Sansui, combat is generally about exchanging damage with your opponent. If you don’t take any damage yourself, you’ll usually win, even with the use of relatively simple attacks.

However, this is limited to fighting opponents who fall within the limits of common sense. Shouzo is an opponent to whom common sense doesn’t apply in any meaningful way. He’s a man who wields magic that can destroy entire kingdoms without so much as a thought for the consequences.

“Here I go!”

Obviously, Canvus is not so dishonorable as to fight an opponent who can’t fight back. Had Shouzo possessed any lingering disabilities from his previous injuries, he might well have unclenched his fist and backed down. However, he believes that Shouzo is at least a mage skilled enough in fire or wind magic to practice flight spells. He did consider the possibility that Shouzo might be able to use heat or lightning magic, and it was under those assumptions that he challenged Shouzo to a duel. Which is why he was oddly deflated, indeed dumbstruck, by his opponent’s first spell.

“Water, come forth!”

An enormous amount of water floods from Shouzo’s outstretched palm. The sheer volume is surprising, but more surprising is the unexpected use of water magic in the first place. There aren’t many water-focused mages out there. It’s not that they don’t exist, exactly, but few use it for military purposes. Part of it comes from the lack of lethality manifest in water when compared to fire, but the primary reason is that water magic is primarily reactive. It’s mostly used to create walls of water to defend against fire magic when there aren’t any mystics available.

Of course, defending against fire magic can be done by using a fire or wind spell or similar strength, so while water magic can be useful when protecting a castle wall, it’s not a common sight. And from a common-sense standpoint, it’s never going to be enough to break through a mystic’s defensive wall.

“I didn’t expect this amount of water... But, to think that he’s a water mage...”

The sheer volume of water and the water pressure involved are, in fact, impressive. And it’s certainly impressive that he can continue to flood the area with water instead of having it vanish after a short time. But that’s all it is. Water magic, and even its more advanced ice variant, just can’t breach mystic walls.

“But a duel is a duel. I can’t afford to lose.”

Canvus is fundamentally a serious man. It doesn’t appear that the man in front of him is going easy on him, nor is he attempting to run away in a panic, so he has no intention of holding back, either.

Shouzo is continuing with his flood of water, but that won’t last for long. While the water pressure keeps him from moving forward or releasing his wall of light, Canvus doesn’t see any particular problem with his current situation. All he has to do is wait. That’s what he thought, anyway, until he felt the chill of water around his ankles while clad in light, but still metal, armor.

“...What the?!”

It was impossible. Water magic and earth magic produced spells that simply hit the opponent and vanish, rather than flood or bury an entire area. As for what’s happening, while it’s true that the walls of light are creating a kind of seal, the ground underneath is still ordinary earth. It’s not desert sand, so it would absorb a normal amount of water. This is why he was left dumbstruck at the water pooling up within the walled space.

“Good! Just as expected!”

Creating a pillar of flame when he expected a lighter flame, and creating a flood of water large enough to inundate a village when he meant to create a bucketful of water... The times Shouzo’s magic had failed, it was because he had been surprised at the outcome. Put another way, the spells themselves worked fine, and the rest was a matter of familiarity. Once he was used to the spells, he wasn’t going to panic, which means that all he needs to do is use the spell he originally used to wash away the entire village in a slow, controlled manner.

“What are you planning?!”

“As you can see, I’m dressed in normal clothes, while you’ve got a sword and armor. As the water level rises, it’s pretty clear who’s gonna drown first, isn’t it?”

The water level continues to rise inside the space sealed in by walls of light. It sloshes upward, going from their knees up to their waists.

Of course, the wall created by Canvus is still there, but it’s only deployed to block a single direction, not in all four directions to prevent the water from flowing in. Canvus can certainly swim for a bit in armor, if he must. However, he won’t be able to float easily like his opponent, and he’d have no choice but to concede defeat under those circumstances. He can’t very well take off his armor, either. Taking off his armor in front of the enemy is as good as surrendering.

“That it would be this extreme...”

“There! Giving up yet? If you’ll admit defeat, I can stop this spell!”

Shouzo has put some thought into his spell. It’s not like he wants to kill the opponent in front of him, after all; if anything he’d like to avoid that, if at all possible. In that sense, he’s made the appropriate choice. He’s well aware from experience that water magic isn’t particularly lethal; that is, it’s psychologically easy to use. He can back his opponent into a corner without hurting them badly. At worst, they’ll have a little trouble breathing. In that case, it won’t require magic to save them, as even normal life-saving measures should be enough.

Unlike someone who shall remain nameless, he’s not going to attack his opponent with a flame-wreathed magically enhanced legendary sword without meaning to kill his opponent. His objective is to win rather than kill. In that sense, the lethality of his spells is more a hindrance than an asset.

“My Master said it was important to consider what I could do with my current abilities.”

The water level rises from waist to shoulder height. Canvus is a few inches taller, meaning that Shouzo will be engulfed by the water first, but that just means he needs to float a little. The duel was as good as won. However...there was a vital piece of information missing from his assumptions.

“T-This is nothing...”

“Release it already! Any more water and you’ll still cause a disaster!”

It should go without saying, but the Mystic Arts are still an art wielded by people. Those people, in turn, are supporting the weight of an enormous volume of water. As Canvus is inside the walls, he only needs to deal with being submerged, but the paladins maintaining the walls have to hold up that entire weight, a weight that is increasing by the second.

Shouzo’s assumption was that, due to the conditions of the duel, he didn’t need to worry about the weight of the water, but there was, in fact, a limit to their capabilities. Had the paladins recognized the danger and released the water quickly, it would have simply been a rapid flood of water around their ankles. But, by this point, there’s already an enormous amount of water inside the space...that is, an amount of water sufficient to wash away an entire village.

“B-But...the duel is still...Lord Canvus hasn’t conceded defeat...”

“Pride is not enough reason for a paladin to give up their life! Can you state with certainty that dying here will be for the good of House Caputo and the Arcana Kingdom?”

The two inside will be fine, of course. Even if the walls do collapse, they’ll just get carried along in the flood. But the paladin on the collapsing end won’t be so lucky. They’ll take the entire weight of the water at point blank range. The pressure might differ based on the exact weight of the water, but regardless, it’s more than enough to kill them.

“I have already sent Lady Paulette to safety in the cabin. And this wall is away from the cabin!”

“Which means I need to be the one to release it?!”

“Yes. If the other side collapses, it’ll harm Lady Paulette!”

A paladin struggles to maintain the wall, sweating heavily as he does so. With no small amount of persuasion from his superior, he’s about to interrupt the duel.

“I will create a wall to protect us in front of you! You may get wet, but you can avoid getting hit directly!”

“...Please forgive me, Lord Canvus!”

The four paladins are already at their limit. The burden has continued to grow, and it doesn’t look like it’s going down any time soon. It was a futile effort on their part. There was no possible way that a mere four mystics could hold in the magic of a thousand ordinary casters. It was then that the water, which had risen to Canvus’s neck, shot out as a burst from the removed wall.

“I’d forgotten that I’m not a good swimmer.”

“How foolish... Still, I can’t blame you for your actions, this time.”

In the end, the duel ended with the pair being washed ‘downstream.’ At the very least, Shouzo’s plan hadn’t been that problematic, given the circumstances, so no one was going to lecture him too harshly.

“Canvus.”

“Yes, I know, Paulette.”

“...I know you may not believe me, but Shouzo is a person with enormous amounts of mana. Bluntly, he may well have the mana of over a thousand normal people.”

After being recovered, the pair were treated quickly, and are now receiving a lecture from Paulette inside the cabin. Obviously, none of them have any real injuries worth talking about. Shouzo and Canvus both successfully emerged without drowning, having only been washed away by the torrent of water. If there were any real victims in this situation, they’d have to be Canvus’s retainers, who were now all suffering from extreme fatigue.

“I don’t know how powerful you expected him to be, but the reality is certainly far beyond your expectations. I understand it’s difficult to recognize without witnessing it in person...”

“Yes, you’re right. In the end, I clung to my standards, instead of believing you.”

Canvus had neglected Paulette out of his love for her. Even after believing her innocence, believing in the guarantees of the Lord Marshal, and then learning why she had kept him hidden, he still let his own wounded feelings determine his actions.

“When you arrived right before the duel, it just made me more determined to fight him. I was fixated on defeating him in front of you, even knowing that you’re not the sort of woman to be impressed by that.”

Fighting is a brutal occupation and necessary. At times, it even needs to take priority over prayers to God. Indeed, prayers to God may not even have any real meaning. Yet he had fallen in love with her precisely because she maintained her ideals in spite of the brutal violence of reality.

“I’m sorry. Not only did I doubt you, but in the process, I put the entire kingdom at risk.”

“Yes, indeed. Putting aside your offenses against me, you should think carefully about how you endangered the realm.”

At the very least, he should have trusted the words of the Marshal. Even if he had his doubts, he should have simply returned to his lands. If there had been no forthcoming information even then, he could have asked for an explanation.

“Of course, even if you thought he was a skilled mage, at most you would have considered him about the strength of ten ordinary mages...”

The kingdom and its surrounding cultures had an advanced knowledge of magic, which meant that its lower and upper limits were well understood. That was what prevented Canvus from acknowledging the risk of a mage with over a thousand times the mana of an ordinary mage.

“So, I’m a prodigy of unimaginable power, huh?”

“...There’s nothing I can deny about that statement,” the House Mage admits, even as he feels a bit of exasperation.

He’s certainly a prodigy. Or, more accurately, a walking disaster. Individuals who can blow away a small kingdom by themselves just shouldn’t exist.

“The most important fact of the matter is that you were right, and I was wrong.”

“Yes, but the reality was simply too unusual. Even if you couldn’t have ever believed me, I should have given you a better explanation.”

The problem was that Shouzo was simply too much of an idiot. No one thought to cover for her doing something suspicious like hiding a man away in a remote cabin and attending to him frequently. To put it in Earth terms, they treated Shouzo like a small child who also happened to have a weapon of mass destruction’s launch button and couldn’t resist pushing it. Everyone thought he was simply too stupid, and thus didn’t consider him a man in any meaningful sense. Otherwise, they were too close to Paulette, and felt there was no way she would be suspected of infidelity.

No, Canvus himself didn’t doubt her faithfulness. It was simply that his own ugly failings couldn’t accept another man getting close to her.

“I have no right to stand by your side.”

“...You need not feel that much guilt. I am at fault for thinking you would not believe me.”

“No, the reality is that I didn’t believe you. Even seeing how seriously you were trying to convince me, and then seeing it for my own eyes, I still couldn’t trust you. You were right. You were right to hide him, his personality included. I’m...worthless.”

He put the kingdom at risk for the sake of his own jealousy. That alone would be an unforgivable sin. Of course, it might be argued that Shouzo, as the threat itself, shouldn’t be allowed to live, either.

“I have no right to stand by your side.”

“That’s not true...”

“I leave the rest to you, Shouzo.”

“Huh?”

Canvus Caputo, looking as though he was leaving behind a part of his youth, turned and left the cabin with his retinue in tow.

“Just what the heck is that dude on about? He doesn’t seem to like listening, does he? I mean, Lady Paulette told him not to worry.”

“I’ve got nothing to say, except that you’re right...”

The Mage could only nod in agreement at the blunt honesty behind Shouzo’s observation. Canvus certainly was a man who didn’t bother checking his surroundings before charging in.

“Ahm... Could it be that he just called off our betrothal?”

“Lady Paulette... That is, given his personality, no doubt he will provide an official notification to that effect soon...”

“But there’s no reason to!”

“Once the truth of Shouzo is revealed, there may be...”

Paulette had never had a problem with Canvus, but he had lathered himself up into a frenzy, judged himself unworthy as a result, and decided to abandon the engagement, all without Paulette’s involvement. Paulette had no idea what to call the oddly empty feeling she now had in her chest.

Part 10 — Divine Punishment

The eastern edge of the Arcana Kingdom, House Caputo’s territory:

Final preparations against the approaching invasion are underway at the fortress city that serves as the cornerstone to the kingdom’s defense. The combatants, all aware that the day of battle they had long dreaded has come to pass, stand atop the fortress walls with tense expressions. Courageous knights are arrayed in formation, as the city’s noncombatants hole up in their homes.

As the city’s defenders and its residents undergo the obvious and necessary preparations for war, House Caputo’s ace stands waiting for his orders.

“So it’s finally come... The day I use my magic.”

Dressed in thick robes that clearly mark him as a mage, the man stands gazing up at the sky, not so much steeling himself for battle, but rather deeply moved by the event.

“...Sir Shouzo, preparations are complete.”

Behind him wait four young women, all wind mages of some skill.

“Our sentries have reported the enemy army approaching from over the horizon.”

In addition, a paladin, shorn of her armor and helm, stands waiting nearby.

“Okay, understood.”

He feels the hexes restraining him release their hold. There is now nothing to stop Shouzo from unleashing his magic.

“Alright, let’s go.”

The Scarred Fool indicates to his escorts that he’s done with thinking. In response, the four wind mages cast their spells. The wind envelops all six of the individuals present, lifting them high into the air above the fortress city. The city, filled with the people they’re tasked with defending, grows smaller as the enemy they’re tasked with destroying comes into view below.

Maintaining an altitude where an individual person doesn’t even appear as a point on the ground, the six move close enough to the army that the countless points gather into a recognizable mass.

“Such numbers...”

One of the wind mages is overwhelmed by the sight below. The strength of an entire country’s army is invading with an objective no different than an average bandit gang. If the entire force manages to attack the fortress city, it’s easy enough to imagine the outcome. Even if they had been an ordinary army, the fortress city was still likely to suffer immensely.

“...They are beyond our help.”

The paladin could not help but pity the group below. They aren’t fundamentally evil people, just driven by the need to make certain their families survive the winter. A need that can only be fulfilled by pillaging their neighbor.

“...Let’s do it.”

Shouzo had already thought the scenario through in his head multiple times. Why was he going to use magic against the group below? Are there any other options? Yet, simultaneously, he’s trying to put all that thinking aside.

“I’m Shouzo Kyoube, House Caputo’s ace...”

Shouzo is well aware that the people of Caputo have treated him well. That House Caputo, Paulette and beyond, are good, merciful people. Those people have ordered him to destroy the enemy. There’s no room for hesitation on his part, given their own moral struggles.

“The world’s greatest mage...!”

The paladin creates a shimmering wall of light in front of them. It’s not there to defend them from the army below. No, the wall is there to defend the group from the effects of Shouzo’s magic.

Noting the wall’s existence, Shouzo holds his hands out before him. The spell forms, not inside the wall of light, but far beyond it. With over a thousand times the mana of an ordinary mage, it’s possible to create a spell far from his hands.

“Create water and earth, then heat it with fire and contain it with wind...”

He combines all four elements simultaneously. Water and earth, on the scale of a large building, appear in the air, and with the help of burning flame and the containing wind, mix to become extremely high temperature mud.

“Look at the size of that thing...”

“So this is the Scarred Fool’s full-power attack spell!”

“Amazing doesn’t begin to describe it...”

“This isn’t a spell, this is a force of nature...”

Mages capable of flight must have both plentiful mana and precise control. Even if they are working as a group of four, the four mages, capable of flying while carrying two passengers, are clearly extraordinarily talented and well trained wind mages.

Those four are overwhelmed by the sheer heat that radiates from the spell, even through the wall of light. Compared to using a single element, a four-element fusion spell reduces the effectiveness of the magic to about one-sixteenth the scale. But when wielded by a mage with over ten thousand times the mana of the average mage, it’s still a sufficiently powerful attack spell to swallow an entire army.

“...Rain down.”

Shouzo, understanding the consequences of his actions, lets the enormous spell in front of him go.

“Hey, it’s supposed to come into view soon.”

“So, we finally get to fight!”

“Yep. Gotta grab a bunch of souvenirs.”

Humans are social animals. So long as their group can justify it, ordinary people can go from being individual peaceful civilians to forming a marauding, genocidal army, just to use an extreme example. All because their enemies are from a different country. Because they’re the enemy. Because they’re a different ethnicity. So long as they have one or two appropriately convincing reasons, ordinary people are easily capable of genocide.

“Ah, so we’ll finally be able to have an easy life.”

“Things were pretty bad until now.”

“Cheers for the new leader!”

And they have a dream: to gain renown in this war and be rewarded for it. They could very well become nobles, and thus set their families up for a long time to come. They may have been hurriedly trained, but that training is sufficient. There’s no possibility that they’d mistakenly hit their own allies with attack magic or accidentally heal their enemies. With such high-quality equipment, they’re well prepared for battle.

Of course, good equipment doesn’t automatically mean victory. The rebels originally had inferior equipment to the ancien regime’s army and won, after all. However, it’s ultimately true that equipment can provide an enormous advantage. If all of the soldiers in the army are equipped with weapons far superior to the enemy country’s elite units, that provides more than enough advantage to offset any lack of experience.

Further, the defenders in the fortress city aren’t all from elite units, or even fully trained. Overall, the Domino Empire’s soldiers actually have an advantage in quality. In a sense, that’s to be expected. The reason the Empire has gambled on an invasion is because they have a decent chance of winning. The Emperor has made clear that their invasion is just.

According to him, the Arcana Kingdom is prospering using the wealth plundered from Domino by the emigres of the ancien regime. And, in spite of his efforts to reclaim that wealth diplomatically, the Arcana Kingdom has refused all of his entreaties. That is why they must demonstrate the new Domino Empire’s power.

“We’re almost there!”

“Yep, let’s do this!”

“Today we start a new chapter!”

Obviously, not all of them believe the Emperor’s words. But the new leader has, indeed, given them new power. They no longer have to toil in the fields to grow wheat that they won’t get to eat themselves. From here on, they’ll be the victors, the ones doing the pillaging.

It was an objective truth that they are the world’s greatest infantry. However, in the end they’re still only the world’s greatest infantry.

They’re marching along the plains to their intended feeding grounds, the fortress city, when one of them gazes up and catches a glimpse of something in the sky.

“The hell is that?”

Those are the last words he ever utters.

The world’s greatest mage conducts this world’s first ‘carpet bombing’ upon the Domino Empire’s army, unleashing magic from an altitude of several thousand feet, an altitude so high that regular people can scarcely breathe normally.

An enormous flood of mud, created with earth and water magic, compressed with wind magic to raise the boiling point, and heated well over a hundred degrees Celsius with fire magic, all combined with the kinetic energy acquired from being dropped from a high altitude, hits the army directly below.

There’s no chance for any of them to survive. The area is flooded with high temperature steam and mud. Even if they avoid a direct hit, the heat alone is enough to boil the fully equipped soldiers alive.

“Ahhhhhhhh!”

No one had been looking at the sky. They had all been fixated on the sight in front of them, which is why they hadn’t considered that there might be an enemy waiting above them. As such, most of the soldiers were convinced they’d been attacked from the flank.

This was because those directly underneath the flood had been buried under the fusillade of boiling mud and were crushed by it, thus being killed instantly, and those who survived the initial attack were being hit by the splatter. Even without that reality, that they had been suddenly engulfed by a mountain of boiling mud was hardly a situation that was easy for them to grasp.

With no knowledge of airplanes and bombers, it didn’t ever occur to them that they might be attacked with magic from above. Further, they didn’t have the mental bandwidth to consider the possibility. The armor they’re wearing is of the highest quality, after all.

However, that equipment is designed with combat in mind, and is not protective attire specially created to protect from a massive flood of boiling water. It doesn’t take a level of heat sufficient to melt steel in order to kill a human being. Indeed, regular boiling water is more than plenty. Suffering severe burns across most of one’s skin is more than enough to be lethal.

“D-Dammit... What’s going on?! Where’s the enemy?!”

In the end, the Domino Army is really just a mob. It’s certainly capable of fighting when it has the advantage, but once panic takes hold, it falls apart quickly. Morale is high, but discipline is low, and the individuals making up the army aren’t used to thinking as a unit. Further, they’re in Arcana as invaders. They’re here to win, they’re here to pillage. Were this a defensive war, where they were defending their families, the panic wouldn’t immediately lead to outright flight.

“What the hell is going on...?”

“Dammit, dammit, dammit!”

They can’t even grasp where the enemy might be. If they knew where the enemy was, they could have directed their hatred at them. However, there’s no way to hate something you can’t see or hear.

None of the platoon commanders, company commanders, or even the army’s high command have any idea of what’s going on. An enormous wall of mud has suddenly appeared in the middle of the army along with a lake of boiling water. There was no way that any of them could come up with the correct response.

“Stay calm! This is clearly an enemy attack!”

“First, calm the horses, then reorganize the formation!”

“It won’t end here! There’s another attack coming!”

Still, they struggle to restore order to the ranks, and then they attempt to prepare for the next attack. They know they’re under attack, so they have to deal with that. They’re here to invade another country, so a counterattack was expected. The commanders attempt to hold the army together under that logic...but even that ends in failure.

Eyeing the army from above, Shouzo prepares another major spell. This time it’s an advanced water element spell: ice magic. Ordinarily, this spell fills an area with countless small pieces of ice and lowers the surrounding temperature. However, he’s casting that spell with ten thousand times the mana it was designed for.

In effect, it creates an incredible number of absolutely enormous blocks of ice, and then drops them.

Giant chunks of hail rain down on the ground, which is still hot from the boiling mud. Ordinarily, this might be a particularly freak weather phenomenon, but this hailstorm falls from a cloudless sky. Each of the hailstones is large enough to kill someone below, making it obvious that it’s another attack. There’s clearly an enemy overhead.

“Are wind mages using ice magic scrolls?!”

Someone comes close to reality.

What might be a saving grace on the invading army’s part is that the chunks of ice are really just giant bludgeons. They certainly do a lot of damage, but not so much that their magical armor and helmets, all of incredible quality, couldn’t stand up to the blunt force. Unfortunately, the armor doesn’t absorb enough of the impact to make it painless.

“Gaaaaah!”

“It hurts! IT HURTS!”

“We’re going to die! We’re all gonna die!”

Hailstones about half the size of a human head are coming down like rain. Even if they were sheltering in a fortress, the ice was still likely to punch through the roof and hit the people within. This hailstorm is happening not in a forest or in a city, but upon an open plain. The storm continues dropping ice at a nasty, but not lethal, pace. Reeling underneath it, they were no longer an army, but merely victims of a natural disaster.

There are some who try to protect from the hail by using their magic shields as shelter, but that’s hardly enough to stop the onslaught. Under the unceasing shower of ice, those holding the shields have to stay up not for a short moment, but for a sustained period. Even if the shields hold up, the people holding them do not.

Even if each of the individual soldiers was as powerful as an accomplished mage, they had no means of responding, so long as the enemy above them hovered beyond the range of their spells. And even if there were any mages capable of flight, it wouldn’t have been possible to avoid the constant salvos of hail and make it into the air. As such, their situation is not a matter of bad luck or misfortune. There are no probabilities involved in the outcome. By appearing on this battlefield opposite this enemy, they were guaranteed to die.

The war was lost the moment House Caputo perfected the use of Shouzo Kyoube, the greatest mage in the world. The equipment of the soldiers, the quality of the commanders, the tactics of the generals, and even luck...none of those things matter at all. Yes, this was all ordained. There is no infantry capable of defeating a high-altitude bomber.

It was all meaningless. Completely meaningless. They were all going to die. They became a faceless mob, a field of grass that existed simply to be scythed down. All of those present on this battlefield were going to die to the last soldier, with nothing left to identify them as individuals, or even when or how they died. There was no way to identify those things, nor any reason to do so.

All that Shouzo is there to do is to attack the area ‘around’ the enemy with enough force to inundate them in a way that leaves no survivors and no remains, as though he were ‘plowing’ the area. House Caputo’s ace has made into reality the ideal dreamed of by generations of mages in this world, all of whom died in their efforts to create it.

“What in the heavens is that...?”

The House Caputo forces, arrayed in the fortress city with the expectation of fighting a defensive battle, stand staring in shock at the bombing happening far in the distance. Floods of mud and blocks of ice rain from the heavens, destroying the land itself and the enemy army along with it.

“Just what is that...?”

The only thing that comes to mind is God punishing the people below. That they’re witnessing God meting out ‘divine punishment.’

“...It’s now heat — no, there’s also lightning...”

Each blow has the power of an advanced elemental spell wielded by a great mage. Heat and lightning magic produce powerful spells with a small effective area that are usually difficult to see from afar. But because these spells have been fired in overwhelming numbers over a long period of time, they’re clearly visible from a vast distance away.

Thousands of flashes of light scorch and tear apart the land. The magic demolishes the terrain, leaving no survivors or even remains. This enormous wave of destruction swallows everything in its way.

“Oh my...”

No words come to mind, even those of prayer. All of those witnessing the magic could only stare in shocked awe at the sight unfolding before them.