Volume 1: Enrollment at Magias Academy of Magical Arts
Chapter 11: You Need to Sleep at Least Six Hours, Okay?
The incident with Mercedes still weighed on me the following day.
I didn’t regret refusing her.
But couldn’t I have turned her down more gracefully?
Such pointless thoughts kept passing through my mind.
I couldn’t produce good work while forging in this condition, so I came to the training ground to test the completed magic swords instead.
I felt that moving my body might reset my mood.
I’d prepared thirteen magic swords.
Every one had been completed since I enrolled.
Using Magias targets whose hardness could be adjusted, I measured their power and precision.
A sword that detonated.
A sword that paralyzed.
A sword wreathed in lightning.
A sword that accelerated.
A sword that floated.
I tested the feel of each one.
It was fortunate that I’d postponed these trial cuts.
When my mind was clouded, swinging a sword was easier than forging one.
“Why do you forge magic swords?”
Mercedes’s words echoed through my head.
In other words: what did I hope to accomplish by forging them only for myself?
As matters stood, a certain problem meant I had no intention of allowing anyone else to use my swords.
A craftsman who made nothing but personal weapons was, ordinarily, distorted.
But I had a reason I couldn’t forge for others.
Some eccentric craftsmen created magical catalysts only for themselves because they feared leaking their techniques.
I’d planned to blend in among them.
There were ways to prove research results without relying on another person.
During his final years, Grandpa had also grown exhausted with forging magic swords for others.
That gave me no reason to search for a solution to the problem.
“Not every magic sword can be entrusted to another person.
“Forging them yourself and using them yourself is about right.”
At some point, I’d accepted Grandpa’s words as common sense.
Even so, I continued forging.
Then—
“…!”
As I struck the target with a blunted sword, the weapon suddenly vanished from my dominant hand.
My angle had been poor, and the rebound had torn it from my grip.
The magic sword slid slowly across the training ground’s paving stones and stopped near the edge with a clatter.
…What an idiot.
If it had struck someone, this would’ve become a serious incident.
Mercedes’s words had affected me far more deeply than I realized.
My concentration was in ruins.
I should stop for today.
Before I could step forward to retrieve the sword, someone’s shadow moved.
The figure slowly picked it up.
A girl with a short, pale-blond bob.
At that point, I recognized Filiestra.
Of all people, she’d seen me lose control like that…
“Sorry. Were you hurt?”
“No. I’m fine.”
Filiestra slowly shook her head and smiled.
She didn’t actively interfere in other people’s affairs, but when necessary, she approached them gently.
That was my impression of her as a student.
“Training today?”
“Yes. I came to test my magic swords.”
“Magic swords…? Did you make all of those, Walker? That’s… remarkable.”
Filiestra looked toward the many swords I’d brought from my research room.
Forging a single magic sword took nearly a month.
Even if they were all prototypes, this pace was clearly abnormal.
“Walker, are you sleeping properly?”
“Yes.”
“Really? You need to sleep at least six hours a day, okay?”
Filiestra gently admonished me and held out my magic sword.
She’d even wiped the dirt from the blade with a handkerchief.
“Thank—”
I noticed the blade trembling on Filiestra’s palm, and my thoughts stopped.
“…? What is it?”
Filiestra tilted her head, but I couldn’t move even the tip of a finger.
This behavior—
the magic sword was responding to someone other than me.
Why?
This had never happened before.
“Filiestra, could you swing it for me?”
“What?”
“Please try using the magic sword.”
Carried away by urgency, I gripped her slender shoulders.
Filiestra nodded in confusion.
“Uh, yes. I don’t understand, but all right.”
I guided her to a training target and had her swing lightly.
Her swordsmanship was more graceful than I expected, but what followed shocked me far more.
“What?”
A wave of fire followed Filiestra’s horizontal slash.
The target swallowed by the flames instantly turned black, then disintegrated from the edge as though torn into dust.
There was no mistake.
The magic sword had accepted her.
A wielder other than me.
“Are your magic swords always this powerful, Walker? I don’t know much about them, but isn’t this better than the work of a major forge…?”
As Filiestra stared in amazement, excitement and confusion threw my mind into chaos.
“This is remarkable, Walker. You really do deserve to be the faculty representative. Now I understand why Amae praised—”
“They don’t work.”
“What?”
“My magic swords don’t work for anyone except me.”
“Is that so? But I just—”
“They shouldn’t work.”
I repeated the words like a mutter addressed to no one.
Filiestra watched my sudden change with concern.
◇
Only the person who forged them could use them.
That was the fatal defect in my magic swords.
When another person equipped one, almost none of its functions activated.
During his final years, Grandpa had seemed sick of forging for others, so he hadn’t investigated the problem very deeply.
Eventually, magic swords became things I created only for my own consumption.
Then my conversation with Mercedes began changing my mind—just as Filiestra successfully used one.
What was normal for an ordinary craftsman was a major event to me.
I immediately begged Filiestra to visit my research room and hear me out.
“I see. So that happened with Miss Meltzeria.”
The incident with Mercedes.
The problem affecting my magic swords.
Once I’d explained everything, Filiestra finally nodded in understanding.
“So your magic swords work only for you and me?”
“That seems to be the case.”
“Then, um, how did you pass the Specialized Magic Examination?”
“To be precise, it isn’t that no one else can use them at all. Depending on the sword, another person can draw out ten or twenty percent of its performance.”
“And you still passed the practical? That’s incredible…”
This had been my greatest concern, which was why I couldn’t relax until the examination ended.
The sword I submitted combined every technique I possessed and cost an absurd amount.
The examiner couldn’t have known, but I’d poured every resource into making it usable by someone else.
As a result, its durability was poor and it deteriorated quickly.
Honestly, I considered it a failure.
It wasn’t suitable for real combat.
Passing the test anyway was probably thanks to Grandpa’s education.
“I think I understand the situation. What do you want to do now?”
“I’d like you to help with my research.
“If I discover why you can use my magic swords, I may be able to let many more people use them.”
That path might eventually give me the option of forging a sword for Mercedes.
By then, she might no longer need one from me.
But if I kept avoiding this problem, I could never call myself a true magic-sword smith.
“Yes. I’ll help.”
“Of course, I’ll compensate you properly—wait, you will?”
“You always help us as the representative, and I’m interested from a medical perspective. Yes, I’ll help.”
“But accepting your time for free…”
Taking an Emperor Faculty student’s time was no small matter.
After all, she was also a researcher.
“Then will you help with my research whenever you’re free?
“My current project involves so many calculations that it’s difficult.
“Your classroom grades are apparently excellent.”
“Understood. Ask me for anything you need.”
“Then it’s a promise.”
After my exchange with Mercedes, her kindness honestly touched me.
I would need to return something worthy of the effort she gave me.
“Then let me forge a sword specifically for you immediately.
“We’ll begin our analysis from there.”
“All right. If you start now, when will we run the experiment?”
“Tomorrow.”
“What?”
“Tomorrow.”
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