18. On a rainy day

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――It’s raining today.

“Raain, raaain”

While humming with a speaking style fit for a 7 months old (with the appearance of a 3-year-old) like I just remembered to, I turn the pages of a book in the Study.

“Mou, it’s terrible, the laundry won’t dry this way.”

Grumbled Steph, sitting on the chair with me on her knees
….Steph, since you are my exclusive maid you don’t even do laundry.

“At any rate, Young Master Ed is amazing~. Me, if I even just look at a book my head starts to hurt.”

Saying that, Steph takes a peek at the book near my hands.
Steph’s plentifully developed those are touching the back of my head.
It’s really a size that’s unlikely to belong to 16 years old. Outrageous!

Spread out on top of the desk are the book『Abaddon Magic Compilation』, a dictionary, and a notebook for taking notes.
A notebook is apparently more expensive than in the previous world, but Julia-kaasan said I can use it as much as I want.

The 『Abaddon Magic Compilation』’s shortcoming is that it’s lengthy and dull, but it’s really educational.
It’s been with me ever since my consciousness returned after reincarnating.
On the topic of language, it has everything about how to write and read the letters, how to spell words and even pronunciation.
About magic, it has how one can even identify the type of magic from the flow of invocation.
Furthermore, about the creation of this world, the races living within it, the cultures and customs of the era Abaddon lived in, I could learn about even those, even if just bits and pieces.
But then, according to [Appraise], Abaddon was a scholar of magic in the 10th century, so now in the 13th century, there are many things that don’t apply the same way.

Among the descriptions that are in 『Abaddon Magic Compilation』 there is one that grabbed my attention.

It’s about incantations.

First, I recall the incantation for mom’s 《Fire Storm》.
『――卜・∨・∨・卜・卜・λ・λ(Flame! Become a whirlwind that burns away everything!)――《Fire Storm》!』

Mom combined 7 magic letters there and chanted the incantation.
According to 『Abaddon Magic Compilation』 this method of combination is called the Direct Connection Method.

By the way, according to 『Abaddon Magic Compilation』 there is another method of chanting called the Concatenation Method.

What I want you to remember is that the magic alphabet in this world is also used as a common alphabet.

For example,

・π(Aqua)= a

・Ω(Gaia)= o

・λ(Wind)= u

・卜(Flame)= i(e)(i that is close to e)

The magic letters for the Four Basic Elements correspond to the 4 vowels of this world.

I’m sorry that this explanation is all over the place, but in this world called Marquekt there exists an official language called 「Marquekt  Common Language」.

According to Abaddon’s theory, the fact that magic alphabet=common alphabet is the reason why a common language could come into existence in Marquekt.
Where magic is used, almost inevitably the same common alphabet is also used and therefore hardly any regional differences could develop, at least in the case of the written word.

Putting that aside, the magic alphabet in this world is also used to form common sentences.

The more intuitive people perhaps already realized.

In short, the chants that are using the Concatenation Method are created by regarding the magic letters as a sentence, and using that as a chant for spell invocation.

Let’s take a concrete example.
The magic letters used in mom’s 《Fire Storm》are,

卜・∨・∨・卜・卜・λ・λ

The effects of those are, Flame, Spread, Spread, Flame, Flame, Wind, Wind.

Here, the 卜(Flame) letters are 「i(e)」, λ(Wind) letters are 「u」, but the ∨(Spread) represents the consonant 「s」.
So mom’s spell can be read as,

i(e)、s、s、i(e)、i(e)、u、u

Saying it simply, it’s something like issiiuu.

Furthermore, the ordering of magic letters has some leeway, so they can be reordered like an anagram.
An example for this would be,

i, siu, siu

in which order saying isiusiu would be roughly equivalent to performing the chant of

『Flame! Become a whirlwind that burns away everything!』

There are 2 advantages to doing it this way.
By reconstructing the sentences used in the chant, the chant can be shortened.
Also, by using a 「sentence」 that isn’t used in ordinary conversations, the contents of the chant can be made indiscernible to enemies.

There is 1 demerit.
The chant becomes short, but it also becomes removed from the natural language, so the necessary image for the invocation of the spell becomes harder to form.

The merits are big and the demerit is basically insignificant for me who has [No Fatigue].

Furthermore, this is not written in the 『Abaddon Magic Compilation』, but perhaps one could further reconfigure that compressed chant and prepare a sentence that has some relevance to the image.
For example, in the case of 《Fire Storm》, perhaps there is a possibility of finding a word that is related to fire by reordering those i×4、s×2、u×2 letters, and by using that word as a part of the chant, it would strengthen the image.

Or possibly, utilizing the shortness of the chant one could construct a Super Multiple Concatenated Spell, that has not just 7, but 10, 20, 30 or even more letters.

Or yet another possibility.
By combining the above-mentioned 2 methods, one could perhaps compile a phrase that although sounds like a natural phrase, but it’s in fact a chant at the same time―― a 「Magic Phrase」 if you will.

For example, imagine having the phrase 「Good day.」 be a 「Magic Phrase 」that serves as the chant for a protection magic.
If the other party takes a friendly approach then you can discard the chant, but if the other party exhibits hostile behavior, then all you have to do is speak the keyword and activate the spell to protect yourself.

Only, the combination of magic letters apparently follows a highly complicated ruleset, so you can’t know for sure if the combination in question is functioning properly until you’ve conducted an experiment with it.
But for me who has [No Fatigue], I can repeatedly do the increasingly dull process of performing the experiment and verifying the results, in a short time.

Well, with my current skill level that finally just allowed me to stabilize 《Flame Lance》 with its 2 letter invocation, this is only a dream within a dream for now.

Then, knocking could be heard from the other side of the study’s door.
From the other side of the door the voice of the maid that was currently serving as a waitress could be heard.
“Young Master Ed. Lunch has been served.”

“Aiー”

I replied, then had Steph lower me from her lap.

I get easily pre-occupied by magic and skills, but I must also learn to use this 3 year old body of mine.
Steph always wants to carry me, but I make it a point to always walk with my own feet.

But, because my head was full of thoughts related to 「Magic Phrases 」I apparently neglected to watch my footing that day.

“Fugyaa-!?”

I tripped near the staircase and with a weird yelp I tumbled all the way down the staircase.
Finally, I also magnificently hit my head in the pillar of the first floor.
“Ouchー!”

“Kyaa, Young Master Ed!”

I thought it was with a momentum that wouldn’t end just by me saying ‘ouch’.
Steph started hurriedly running down the stairs, but for some reason her legs got tangled in nothing and she also started falling just like me.
I quickly used [Physical Magic] and caught Steph.

“Thank you very much…. Are you alright!?”

Steph is worried, but…. hm, it doesn’t hurt as much as I would’ve thought…..?

If anything, my biggest injury is the grazing of skin on my knee.

“――Edgar-kun!? What happened!?”

Julia-kaasan rushed out of the dining room.

“I-, I’m terribly sorry! Young Master Ed slipped and fell down the stairs!”

Steph bowed so deep, that her head almost reached the floor even while standing.

Steph is my personal maid, so her job is to watch over me so this kind of injury doesn’t happen.

Even though I fell down on my own accord, since I’m still a 7 months old child, the responsibility lies with one that watches over me.

“Because I, rushed.”

I tried persuading mom by saying that.

“….well, if Edgar-kun says so. But please be careful in the future?”

“Yes….. I’m terribly sorry…..”

Steph became disheartened.

“Edgar-kun, are you hurt?”

“Looks like…..not”

While l looked at my body confused,

“Aah, because Edgar-kun’s level went up in the fortress. We don’t know without checking, but your HP should probably be quite high.”

If the HP is high the injuries get lighter?

[Appraise] just the HP.

《Edgar Chrebl. HP:59/63》

My HP went down!?

The decrease is by 4――that was my maximum HP when I was at Level 1.

In other words――if my level didn’t go up, I would’ve died?

While hiding my internal turmoil,

“I see~. I’m hungry~”

I tried dodging the issue by saying that, then I had Julia-kaasan bring me to the dining room.

In truth, it wouldn’t be strange even if Steph got fired.

I could’ve walked, but Julia-kaasan wanted to take me since it was just after an accident.
I got carried to the dining room while I wiggled my legs.

But HP, huh.

A while ago, when I [Appraised] Julia-kaasan, I was surprised by how high her HP was.
That time Julia-kaasan’s HP was 79. That is in fact nearly 8 times the value of an adult Level 1 male.
I’ve found the possibility unbelievable that mom wouldn’t die even if stabbed by a slasher.

After that, when I was fighting at the Ranzrak Fortress against Goleth, who was the leader of the <Black Wolf Fang> and also an apostle of the Evil God Monguenues.
His HP was whittled down by the stones thrown by [Physical Magic], but there were no clear injuries on him.
At that time, I thought it was because of Goleth’s skill, [Toughness], but it may have been because of his HP value that has been inflated by the Evil God’s Add.

According to the Goddess’s explanation, HP is made up of a power――she called it Gift, that is granted by god in times of Level Up, that is combined with the person’s own physical strength during Growth Sleep.

Then, this kind of thing may be possible.

――If the maximum HP goes up, even when suffering the same damage the injuries get lighter.

To be exact, if the damage is comparatively smaller than the maximum HP, then the injury becomes lighter by the same proportion.

I was just silently thinking about HP while eating, so Julia-kaasan was looking very bored.

I was a bit disheartened as I returned to the study, where I resumed reading while listening to the sound of rain.

Let’s make sure I have a fun chat with mom at dinner.

The talks with Julia-kaasan are enjoyable for me too, so no problem.

I was thinking that, but――

“――Edgar-kun! A carrier pigeon has arrived from Al-kun!”

Throwing open the study’s door with a ‘bam’, Julia-kaasan rushed in with a letter in one hand and a full-faced smile.

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21 thoughts on “18. On a rainy day”

  1. That falling down the stairs only showed up in my head as comical so I totally forgot you could die from that *teehee*
    Thanks for the chapter! 🙂

  2. I read the magic part twice trying to figure out what kind of system the author was crafting. Still don’t quite get it 100%. Awell
    Thanks for the chapter!

    1. Imagination is the backbone of the magic system, but it’s paired with symbols that invoke magic which also happen to be the backbone of the world’s language at the same time. The symbols act as the activator while the imagination acts as the aim, and thus the world’s magic is formed.

      This chapter mentions multiple activation methods of varying uses. Full chants act as a way to give time to create a strong and complete mental image while concatenated spells shorten the chants to the absolute minimum to save casting time, as well as allowing more simultaneous casts.

      The concatenated spells can also act as a multi-cast as long as all the symbols are present, so as an example he could be imagining a specific set of spells while having a chant that sounds like it’s only for casting one, and ambush by actually firing a massive barrage instead, as well as allowing you to create spells requiring far more symbols. There’s also the mentioned possibility of using them to hide spells within common phrases if you feel unsafe in a situation to avoid alerting your adversary of your wariness.

      There’s also the option of actually drawing the symbols mentally while simultaneously imagining the effects of the spell, but that is probably the most difficult and simple option available.

  3. —We are now entering FTL…

    You should remame the group to hyperspeed translations…
    Thanks! Quadruple release was awesome! (It was quadruple in my time zone)

  4. Ed-kun dont make mommy sad or meatbun will take your dinner away from you!
    Thank you for the chapter 🙂

  5. Thank u always for ur great work…
    ^^…

    Baby that didn’t die even fall down in from the top of the stair in tumbling mode till the bottom of the stair plus hit the pillar in the head…
    XD…

    If that happen in real world the family will crying river in the place…
    XD…

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