“Did you know that there are mysterious forces in this world beyond what the eye can see?”
“Mysterious forces?”
“Hmm, I suppose you don't know.”
The carriage had been making its way up the mountain road, cutting through the wind, when a small clearing appeared beside the road, just as the coachman had said. He slowed the carriage, pulled into the clearing, and stopped for a rest.
While the coachman remained near the carriage to tend to the two horses that had been pulling it, we climbed down and walked to the far end of the clearing, well beyond his earshot.
Bell Daisy had led me there with the implication that what she was about to discuss was not something outsiders should overhear.
I could understand her caution. Unlike in my previous life, this was an age when every piece of information held considerable value.
For instance, House Frah's knightly training methods were practically secret techniques, passed down exclusively among members of the family for generations.
“Hmm… Let's start from the beginning. Ahem! Have you ever heard of the three fundamental components that make up this world?”
“No, I haven't.”
“Well, I suppose knowledge of such mystical subjects is something you would only encounter as part of a general education in the Imperial Capital. It must be difficult for people outside the capital to come across such knowledge, isn't it?”
She nodded at my answer, then stood at the edge of the clearing and pointed toward the forest.
“What do you think that forest over there is made of?”
“…The forest?”
“Yes. Just tell me what you think. There's no need to worry about getting it wrong.”
“Hmm. I've never really thought about it before.”
What is a forest made of?
If I considered it using the limited scientific knowledge from my previous life, wasn't a forest ultimately nothing more than a collection of atoms?
Or, from a philosophical perspective, the very concept of a forest was something humans had invented. One could even argue that a forest was merely an abstract construct and had never truly existed in the first place.
However, I had been reborn into a fantasy world where people could effortlessly beat enormous bears to death with their bare hands and where mages actually existed.
If I tried to show off my knowledge from my previous life by offering an answer like that, there was a good chance it wouldn't hold true in this fantasy world.
So, even if it was a little abstract, I decided to use terms anyone could understand.
“A forest is a collection of trees. People call it a forest because that's what they've agreed to call it.”
“Hmm. Then are trees the only things in a forest?”
“No. There would also be streams and animals living in the forest.”
“Hmm, you're not stupid after all, are you? That means I won't have to exhaust myself explaining everything the long way around.”
Apparently pleased with my answer, she gave me a satisfied smile and nodded.
“Now, let's think about this. If that forest represented the world, what would be the most abundant thing in it? Trees, right? Trees can be seen and touched, so they belong to the first component of the world: Matter.”
“Matter.”
“That's right. You, me, and most things in this world are made of Matter. We're nothing more than insignificant little creatures subject to the passage of time.”
“I see.”
Nod.
I nodded to show that I understood her explanation.
She studied my face for a moment before moving straight on to the next part.
“But surely there aren't only trees in a forest, are there? There are animals, little streams, and even groundwater hidden beneath the earth where our eyes can't see it. If you walk through a forest, small animals might suddenly dart out in front of you. But unless you possess specialized skills, like a hunter, they'll be too quick for you to touch through ordinary means. Hmm, perhaps I'm stretching the analogy a little, but in other words, they represent something that can be seen but not touched: the Soul.”
“The Soul.”
“Exactly. Now, shall we use the stream as an example? A tree can never grow entirely on its own. Without water, it would wither and die, wouldn't it? Matter is the same. Without the flowing waters of the Soul, Matter can never grow. In other words, the Soul, the second component of the world, is what allows a material world that might otherwise remain completely stagnant to experience birth, growth, aging, and eventually death. It appears to be the component that weaves together the cycle of existence… Hmm, was that too difficult to understand?”
If I were to summarize her explanation, wasn't she essentially saying that the Soul breathed life into a world composed of Matter?
Unlike in my previous life, where the existence of souls had never been proven, souls apparently existed as a definite component of this fantasy world into which I had been reborn.
After all, if someone who introduced herself as a mage could explain their existence with such confidence, it seemed that the existence of souls was already an established fact in this world.
“Hmm, so you're saying that without the Soul, a tree—or rather, Matter—would never change and would simply remain in a stationary state?”
“Exactly! Without the intervention of the Soul, Matter can neither disappear nor increase. Even if a tree rots and becomes soil, the Matter that composed the tree merely changes into another form. The total amount of Matter doesn't change, does it? Are you sure this is your first time hearing about any of this? If it is, you're smarter than my juniors!”
“…Then what's the third and final component? I have a feeling it's related to mages.”
I waved my hand a couple of times with an embarrassed expression at her praise before asking about the subject that interested me most.
Matter and the Soul.
The fact that souls existed in this world was certainly fascinating. However, even if souls truly existed, humans would never be able to beat bears the size of houses to death with their bare hands without some other factor at work.
There had to be some extraordinary force, something like the mana commonly found in fantasy worlds.
A third component that allowed humans to transcend the limitations of Matter and become the superhuman beings of fantasy.
“Heh, having such an enthusiastic student really makes teaching worthwhile! I think I'm starting to understand why professors favor their more passionate students!”
She smiled at me as she spoke, then raised her hand and pointed toward the sky.
“Of course, water is absolutely essential for a forest to grow, but water alone isn't enough. There's still one crucial component missing, isn't there? What do you think it is?”
I understood the answer the moment she pointed toward the sky.
Of course, plants also needed things like oxygen to grow, but I doubted that the chemical knowledge of this world was particularly advanced.
They probably lumped oxygen, nitrogen, and everything else together under the general terms of air or wind.
That left only one possible answer.
“The sun.”
“That's right! More precisely, sunlight.”
As if on cue, the sun, which had been hidden behind the clouds, emerged and bestowed its blessing upon the tip of her finger.
Her slender finger, brightly illuminated by the sunlight, traced a path through the air as she slowly lowered her hand.
“For a forest to sustain itself, there must be trees representing Matter and flowing water representing the Soul, which allows those trees to multiply. But if the world truly consisted of only those two components, then forests identical to those on the surface should also exist in the underground world, where the sun never shines. Yet they don't, do they? That's why the people of ancient times began to wonder. Ah, perhaps there's another component to this world besides Matter and the Soul? Something whose influence is so immense, like the sun hanging in the sky, that we scarcely even recognize its presence.”
Her descending finger finally came to a stop, pointing toward a particular spot.
There, at the base of a tree, was a transparent mushroom that caught the sunlight and scattered it like a prism, making its presence known through its dazzling brilliance.
It was a rare mushroom commonly known as a Jewel Mushroom, one of the more expensive delicacies.
“As you travel through the world, you'll often encounter beings that seem to possess qualities entirely foreign to the world around them. Fairies are one example, as are the enormous monsters living in the sea and Automatons that move endlessly as their gears turn. They're composed of Matter, and they possess Souls, but there's something that distinguishes them from ordinary beings of this world. Something we call 'Extraordinariness.'”
“Extraordinariness.”
“That's right. Take this mushroom, for example. Ordinary mushrooms don't have the ability to scatter light the way this one does. They're all mushrooms, so why does this particular one display such an extraordinary ability? It's because this mushroom is capable of responding to sunlight.”
She bent down and plucked the Jewel Mushroom, which had been scattering rainbow-colored light.
SNAP.
The light reflected by the mushroom immediately shattered and disappeared, leaving behind a damp, grayish-white mushroom no different from the ordinary ones scattered around it.
No, that was what it had looked like all along. Its ability to reflect light had merely made it appear like a jewel.
“We mages call the third component, which breathes the radiance of 'Extraordinariness' into a world composed of Matter and the Soul, 'Aether.'”
“Aether.”
“Yes. Aether can neither be seen nor grasped with the hands, but it undoubtedly exists. Extraordinary beings can respond to Aether and manifest special abilities, just as this mushroom responds to sunlight and produces its radiance.”
“So that's what mages do.”
“Exactly.”
She held the already lifeless mushroom between her fingers.
And then—
FLASH!
Despite no longer being alive or exposed to sunlight, the mushroom's cap began to shine like a jewel, just as it had moments earlier.
It was as though her fingers themselves were the sunlight.
“Mages are people who resonate with Aether and wield 'Mysteries'—in other words, magic—that neither Matter nor the Soul can accomplish on their own. Academia was established to gather individuals who show signs of such potential, train them to defend the Empire against mysterious beings that threaten it, and ultimately expand the Empire's dominion into unknown territories permeated by Mysteries.”
“...”
“Of course, not every budding talent actually blossoms. Only a tiny minority truly bloom and acquire magic. The rest end up as half-baked failures who never manage to obtain magical powers.”
With those words, she tightened her grip on the mushroom in her hand.
CRACK!
A sound that should never have come from a mushroom rang out, like glass shattering into countless pieces.
The Jewel Mushroom broke apart into transparent fragments, which scattered through the air before dissolving into nothingness.
Having absorbed the Aether contained within the Jewel Mushroom, she turned toward me with a satisfied smile.
“Hmm, as expected. Since we're so close to the Great Forest of the Fairies, even a single mushroom like this contains such high-quality Aether!”
The sight of the Jewel Mushroom being absorbed through her hand and shattering into countless fragments was truly magical.