Chapter 4

My mother was busy taking care of my younger sister, Lina—who was four years my junior—so I made sure to work my hardest helping in the fields to fill the gap.

On that day, I managed to finish my quota for the day before sunset and was resting my body under the shade of a tree while reading my favorite book.

My favorite happened to be an adventure novel. It was a story about a dragon and a swordsman locked in a death match.

One thing that perplexed me when I started reading books here—novels in particular—was that everything was a fantasy novel. But come to think of it, that was only natural; in this place, the world itself was a fantasy.

In my original world, just because novels were set in a society modeled after reality, no one would complain, “Isn’t this just another reality novel?”

It was simply that because the setting was a fantasy to me, everything looked like a fantasy novel.

Setting the backdrop aside, the genres of novels in this world weren’t all that different from my previous world.

Adventure novels, romance novels, literary works—most of them existed.

However, there was nothing equivalent to what my old world called sci-fi. And most importantly…

I was depressed to find there were absolutely no mystery or detective novels of any kind, the genres I loved most. Since being reincarnated into this world, this might have been the biggest shock of all.

As for why sci-fi and mystery were completely non-existent, I felt like I vaguely understood the reason. I just wasn’t able to put it into words quite yet.

Anyway, I was resting my body while reading my book.

The story of my magic training began there.

“Van.”

My father, who had been chatting with other villagers, came back with a beaming smile.

“Ah, Father.”

I closed my book and looked up.

“A bookworm as always, I see.”

Father gave a wry, exasperated smile before continuing.

“I really appreciate how much you’ve been helping out with the farm work lately. It’s a huge help.”

He spoke with such sudden, heartfelt sincerity that it caught me off guard.

“W-what’s this all of a sudden?”

“Well, I figured that if you learn it, the farm work will get easier, and your body seems to have filled out enough. I think it’s about time.”

Father chuckled mischievously, as if he were plotting a prank.

“Huh?”

Not yet understanding his meaning, I just stared at him with a blank expression.

“Magic. I’m going to teach it to you.”

Seeing Father break into a wide grin, the meaning finally clicked for me.

Yes!

I did it!

“Oh? Van, were you really that happy about it?”

I hadn’t said it out loud, but my expression must have shifted visibly.

Still smiling, Father ruffled my hair.

“Yeah!”

Without even thinking about maintaining a child-like tone, my voice naturally became childish out of sheer joy.

“Good, good. Well then, it’s dangerous, so shall we head over to that open plaza?”

I let Father lead me to a meadow where few people came.

Finally, I was going to learn magic.

I couldn’t suppress my excitement.

“How much do you know about magic? You’ve been reading books, right?”

Father asked gently, smiling wryly at my over-eagerness.

“Magic… um, I read that ‘magic’ is the collective term for concentrating the magical power flowing through one’s body to influence something.”

I recalled the descriptions of magic from the books I’d read so far.

“Haha, that’s some complicated phrasing. But you’ve got it right.”

“But, Father. To begin with, I don’t really understand what ‘magical power’ actually is.”

When I hit him with my long-standing question, he replied:

“Yeah, I thought so. Van, the truth is, even important people like Court Mages don’t really understand what magical power is.”

“What?”

Court Mages were the top magic users in the country—the professionals.

Even those people didn’t know what it was?

“In short, the most important thing is to believe that magical power is flowing through your body. If you want to produce fire, you just have to use that power and imagine the fire coming out.”

“Imagine?”

So, all I had to do was visualize?

“That’s right, visualization. How strongly and concretely can you imagine it? That’s what determines whether the magic succeeds or fails.”

That was unexpected.

In other words, “magical power” was just a hypothetical force created because imagining it flowing through the body made it easier to visualize the magic itself.

No wonder none of the books had any detailed explanations.

“If you can imagine the process of how that power creates fire concretely and with a sense of reality, you can produce fire. However, I can’t really give you advice on how to visualize it. What works best depends on the individual’s own intuition.”

“Ah, I see.”

I muttered softly.

Suddenly, it dawned on me why genres like sci-fi and mystery didn’t exist in this world.

Magic was the fundamental technology that composed this world. If that magic was a technique that relied on something extremely personal and subjective…

I see. It was only natural that “science” would be slow to develop. And genres like sci-fi or mystery—which were predicated on a “commonly held system of technical knowledge”—had no reason to exist.

“It’s not just fire. For example, with healing magic, you imagine the magical power mending the wound or restoring stamina. The process must be concrete, but more than anything, it’s vital that you believe it yourself.”

“Huh. Then, what about those words you say when you use magic, Father?”

“Oh, those are incantations, but the specific words differ from person to person. Essentially, people just say them out loud to make it easier to visualize.”

“I see.”

So it was a way of convincing oneself.

“By the way, Father, how exactly do you visualize producing fire?”

“Eh, me?”

Father grimaced, looking a bit embarrassed.

“Let’s see… for my image, I imagine giving magical power to the ‘seeds of fire’ that exist in the air to make them burst into flame. That’s why my incantation is…”

Stopping there, Father reached his hand out into the empty air.

“Gather, seeds of fire. Cluster together and blaze up.”

Whether those were his actual incantations or not, he said them while glaring at the space beyond his outstretched hand.

With a crackle, sparks flew, and then a flame appeared in Father’s palm.

“Whoa!”

I let out a cry of admiration.

“Well, it’s something like this,” Father said bashfully as he extinguished the flame.

“Wow… then, um, if you can visualize it well enough, can you do anything with magic?”

“No way,” Father laughed.

“That’s impossible. No matter how much you visualize, there are naturally things you just can’t do. Conversely, there are types of magic that are easy to perform even if they’re hard to visualize. There’s even magic you can’t use without following specific procedures. You’ll have to study all that.”

I see. Another mystery solved.

That explained why the books on magic focused on what could be done rather than the methodology itself.

That part was actually what was important for magic.

“Well, for now, producing a flame is the absolute basic of basics. Give it a try,” Father encouraged me.

“Eh? R-right now?”

“Don’t worry. Even if you fail, I’ll be here to back you up. Just visualize the process of magical power creating fire in your own way, and believe in it.”

“O-okay.”

Though nervous, I held out my hand just as Father had done and glared at the space before me. I concentrated so hard that everything else fell out of focus.

“Now, don’t be so tense. You don’t have to succeed on your first try. Even for the most basic flame, it usually takes about half a year to manage.”

I heard Father’s voice in the distance.

Now, how should I visualize this?

Wait. Hold on. When it comes to visualization, don’t I actually have a massive advantage?

The thought flashed through my mind.

Take magical power, for instance.

What if I imagine it flowing through me along with my blood? I can visualize that perfectly. After all, I have general knowledge of human anatomy from my previous world. Blood vessels, internal organs, bones, the structure of the brain… I can imagine exactly how the power is circulating in a very concrete way.

Whether the anatomy of this world is truly identical to my previous one shouldn’t matter. What’s important is how detailed and concrete the process is—enough for me to believe in it myself.

The same goes for fire.

What is fire? I have that knowledge. Simply put, it’s the combustion of gas.

If there’s oxygen, a flammable gas, and the temperature rises, combustion occurs.

How does the temperature rise?

Right, I believe molecular motion was involved. Basically, if the molecules vibrate violently, the temperature goes up.

So, first, I visualize gathering magical power in my extended hand.

Passing through blood vessels, moving past bone and organ, the power pools in my hand.

Next, I visualize releasing that power and gathering oxygen and combustible gases in my palm. I don’t know if such things actually exist here. But I can imagine them. My magical power collects the particles drifting in the air.

And then, I pour my power into that concentrated mass.

The magical power makes the molecules move violently. Faster, faster, faster.

Until they burst into flame.

“No way…”

I heard Father’s stunned voice and felt heat in my palm.

A flame existed in the center of my hand.

I felt like my palm might get burned, but it was just a slight sensation of heat; there was no pain.

A flame the size of a baseball continued to flicker and burn steadily on my palm.

“On your first try… and chantless, too.”

When I looked over, Father’s eyes were wide with shock.

Crap, did I overdo it?

Ignoring my sudden worry, Father’s face transformed.

“H-he’s a genius… Haha! O-our son is a genius! Glory to Saint Fata!”

Suddenly erupting in joy, Father broke into a sprint.

“Hey! Vitna! Vitna, come look! Vitna!”

Shouting Mother’s name, Father ran toward the house.

He left me standing there.

“Hey now… well, whatever.”

Extinguishing the flame for now, I decided to follow after him.

After returning home, I was made to show off my magic in front of Mother and Lina.

Upon seeing it, Mother jumped for joy and hugged Father. Lina just stood there blankly. Well, that was to be expected.

Over dinner, I asked why they were so happy. Father, smiling more than usual, explained it to me while enjoying a satisfied drink of ale.

“Listen, Van. If you want to become a person of standing in this country, you have to enter a place called the Military Academy.”

“Yeah.”

I’d had a vague idea about that.

No matter how high-ranking a noble you might be, you couldn’t hold a post in this country, Shark, without graduating from that all-boarding, ultra-elite Military Academy. Although, if you were a noble with enough money, graduating didn’t seem to be all that difficult.

It was a famous story that ninety percent of the students were nobility, and the remaining ten percent were children of wealthy merchants who were in the nobles’ good graces. Ultimately, it was a school of connections and money.

“But entering the Academy requires money or connections—or both. It’s usually something that has nothing to do with commoners like us.”

However, Father added, his face already flushing red from the alcohol.

“The entrance exam is free to take. Of course, even if a normal kid passes, it’s usually pointless because they can’t pay the tuition. But if you get top marks on that exam, you become a scholarship student, and the entrance and tuition fees are waived. By the way, the entrance exam is primarily a test to see your aptitude for magic.”

Hmm. Thinking of it that way, magic in this world might have a meaning beyond just being a technique.

“Wait, then… does that mean I might be able to become one of those scholarship students?”

When I asked half-doubtingly, Father replied:

“Of course! You succeeded at magic chantless on your first try. If you practice properly until you can take the exam at twelve, you’ll definitely be a scholarship student. Actually, you might even pass as a scholarship student if you took it right now.”

I brushed off Father’s final remark as drunken nonsense.

“Mother, really? Do you think I can become a scholarship student?”

Since I couldn’t quite trust Father, I turned to my level-headed mother.

“Yes. With Van’s ability, I believe you can.”

“But I thought there was only one scholarship student per grade at the Academy?”

“That’s right. But you can do it, Van.”

Mother spoke with conviction as she set the table.

“But, um…”

Then, I voiced the hesitation I’d been feeling from the start.

“To begin with, do you and Father even want me to go to the Military Academy?”

When I asked that, Father and Mother exchanged a blank look.

“Well, of course we do! If you graduate from the Academy, you can get a great job, you know?” Father said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

“But I was planning on taking over for you, Father.”

I had finally just gotten used to helping out.

“Van, you love books, don’t you?” Mother asked softly.

“W-well, yeah.”

“You’re a clever child—far beyond your years. That’s why, even though we knew the Military Academy was out of reach, your father and I were planning to find a way to send you to a vocational school in the capital when you turned twelve. You’d be able to read all the books you want. And even if you do become a farmer, it’ll be easier if you have knowledge and important acquaintances.”

Even vocational schools cost money, even if not as much as the Academy. And we weren’t a wealthy family.

Realizing that Father and Mother had been discussing this behind my back, I spoke up.

“W-why… why didn’t you tell me any of this?” I grumbled.

“Because if you knew, you’d probably have held back and turned us down out of consideration,” Father said, smiling at me alongside Mother, looking pleasantly buzzed.

“So, we were going to keep it a secret until the very last minute. You clearly want to study more, yet you’re the type of kid who won’t even ask us to buy a new book.”

“Ugh… mm.”

I fell silent.

I didn’t know what to say.

I only knew that I was moved because the corners of my eyes were starting to feel hot.

“Does your tummy hurt?”

Lina, who had been quiet until then, looked at me with a worried face.

“N-no, I’m okay… But Mother, Father. If I go to school, what about the fields?”

“By the time you’re twelve, I’ll be back to working the fields full-time. Right, Lina? You’ll be a big girl by then, won’t you?”

“Yeah! Lina is a big girl now!”

Mother and Lina both beamed at me.

“Well, you’ll be helping with the fields for a while yet. You can study magic, too. I’ll teach you what I can, and I’ll even head into town to buy you some good books. I used to be a merchant, after all. Book money is a pittance compared to tuition.”

Father swayed slightly, the alcohol finally catching up to him.

As I looked at my family, I realized something.

It seemed that I had been blessed with an incredibly fortunate reincarnation.

It wasn’t about memories of a past life or anything like that; I was lucky just to have this family.

If there is a God, I have to thank them for letting me be reborn to these parents.

To God, and to the Saint.