Chapter 111: Being Upfront about the Lazy Feeling
At the ship’s stern. Aleutia, Ilya, and I gracefully spend our tea time sitting on a wooden chair placed at the stern.
As we drink from our teacup, the sea breeze strokes our hair and cheeks.
It was a bit stronger than the wind back at Koryatt village’s plains, but the irregularity of the wind is fascinating.
The constant and resounding sound of waves, the sounds of seabirds. The sea also has different natural goodness from land.
The distant horizon is so beautiful, it’s as if the sky mingled with the sea.
In the sky far above the sea, clouds of varying sizes and shapes float in the sky, as if enjoying their freedom.
No, the one who floats are us, huh? We’re currently riding a ship as it sails.
When you sail on such a vast sea like this, it even makes you have the illusion like ‘there might be no other people in this world other than us’. The sea is that vast, it’s moving.
「The sea is so beautiful」
When I was admiring the sea, Aleutia - who was sitting in front of me - opened her eyes wide as she sipped her tea.
「……this is delicious. It feels like this is the most delicious tea I have ever had.」
It was not a remark out of concern because I’m her client or a noble, it was a surprised tone that came from the bottom of her heart.
「If I’m not mistaken, this is Royal Feed’s tea leaves, right?」
Ilya surprisingly said that in the same manner.
Ilya is an Earl’s daughter. She had probably liked the tea, didn't she? Exactly guessing the tea.
If it were Irvine or Roomba, then they would have had a triumphant look on their face as they said a different name with certainty.
「That’s right. It’s Royal Feed.」
Of course, there are various types of tea in this world, but I like Royal Feed the most even among all of those because it’s fragrant and has a delicate and mild flavor.
You can enjoy it with a little sugar, or you can enjoy it without sugar, and just enjoy its aroma and taste as is.
Or rather, Elna-kaasan really likes Royal Feed back at home, so this is the tea that I taste before anything else.
And in the end, perhaps it’s because Elna-kaasan’s blood flowed inside our - siblings - body, everyone took a liking to Royal Feed and kept drinking it.
Even Eleonora-neesan who had no interest in tea before said she doesn’t want anything other than Royal Feed.
「It tastes better than the tea that I drank back at the mansion.」
「Alfried-sama, you like tea that much you can brew it yourself?」
「We, well yeah」
That’s because there are a lot of people at home who get angry if I didn’t brew the tea properly. Because of that, I acquired such a servant skill.
But well, the strict lesson from the tea-brewing has its worth since I’m Teleporting myself with Space magic and drinking tea outside. Thanks to that, I can drink delicious tea anytime.
Tilt the cup and hold the tea inside my mouth.
And then, along with the warmth of the tea, the delicate taste and mellow fragrant unique to Royal Feed slowly spread.
Then drink it after tasting it thoroughly with my tongue, and sighed.
It’s the usual taste that gives me peace of mind. It fell short of what Elna-kaasan and Sara made but I think it’s on a level where it should be able to receive a passing mark.
When I drink the tea while thinking of such things, I see the waves burst from my peripheral vision.
Surprised at the sudden loud noise, I looked toward the source of the sound and there was a glimpse of the long body of something that looked like a snake. Its long body was inside the sea and couldn't be seen.
「……what is that?」
「It’s probably a sea serpent. It’s a big snake monster that lives in the sea.」
Aleutia calmly answered my unconscious question.
No no no, I’ve seen a big snake-like moray eel in my previous life, I know about them, alright?
But, the shadow that I saw just now is many times larger than a person, you know?
It can swallow something like a person whole.
When she saw my frightened face, Ilya said 「It’s alright」 as if to comfort me.
「It's okay. Sea serpents are not that difficult of a monster to deal with.」
Tha, that’s right, isn’t it? I mean, Roomba and the Silver Wind members are here for that, aren’t they?
Besides, when push comes to shove, I can escape to the sky and I also have Teleport so it’s alright.
I said that to myself, drinking my tea trying to calm myself.
And I can somehow distract myself from that by having a chat with the two of them, but then Aleutia abruptly said.
「Alfried-sama’s magic is kinda strange don’t you think?」
「By strange, what you mean by that?」
「You can use magic and even the chanting, you can do it chantless, aren’t you? Are you really a kid?」
If you also consider my previous life’s age then I would be thirty-four years old but, it’s been only seven years since I was born in this world, you know.
「You can use Ice magic and leave out the chanting if you do your best, right?」
When I tilted my head and somehow answered her question, Aleutia slammed the table *bam*.
「That’s not possible!」
「I understand how you feel but, calm down Aleutia!」
Ilya warned Aleutia who leaned her body forward.
Somehow, I can feel as if Ilya is also criticizing me.
There might be the matter of magic aptitude for Ice magic, as for chanting I feel that it’s kinda easy to leave them out.
Just when I thought about that, Aleutia - who has settled down - asked me.
「How can I use Ice magic? 」
If I were to say sense, aptitude, or talent, Aleutia’s heart would just break into pieces.
As for me, Kami-sama bestowed me with the aptitude for all attributes of magic, whether it can be conveyed until one can use the magic even after explaining the process is…
I had a hard time increasing and controlling my magic power, while my power of imagination was mainly developed from my previous life.
I wonder is there any advice that I can give her, words that were only said by God to me back then? But I don’t know if there will be any result in each person later.
「……I guess you can do it if you study magic control in-depth?」
「「Magic control?」」
Those two’s voices overlapped with what I came up with.
I made a water ball using water magic as if to show them how to do it.
「……you can do it smoothly without the chant, right」
Bulging veins appeared on Aleutia’s forehead, but I don’t care about her right now. It’s troublesome to chant every time you want to use magic, isn’t it?
After that, I changed the shape of the water ball floating in front of me into something like an iron ball, a dragon, divided it into more than twenty parts, and moved them around.
Thinking back, I think I became able to use Ice magic after being able to do this kind of trick.
Seeing the shape of the water ball changing in succession and moving around freely, Aleutia and Ilya’s eyes were wide open.
「That’s an amazing control. Five of them are the limit for me.」
「There is one water ball, two, three…ten, eleven. Hey, don’t move them! I’m counting right now!」
「Aleutia, you left out your honorifics.」
I accidentally moved the water balls cause it’s kinda amusing seeing Aleutia frantically counting them.
She’ll get angry if I moved the water ball so openly like that and interrupted her, so I stopped them from moving and split the water balls.
「……twenty!?」
「Eeh? No matter how you look at it, they’re more than twenty, right?」
「Eh!? It’s increasing!?」
Aleutia finally finished counting, but then Ilya pointed out and shouted hysterically.
It’s interesting seeing Aleutia who is always calm to be flustered like that.
Well, if it’s only a simple movement then I can split them into around sixty water balls and move them around.
Just like when I used Physic magic in the snowball fight back then.
Sometimes I think I’m not that good at controlling them because I can’t crush Eleonora-neesan even when I prepare such numbers. I understand quite well that she is a monster, but I’m still somewhat depressed by that. Since then, I began to put even more effort into manipulating magic and training my magic power control.
「…………thirty. In other words, you will not be able to use Ice magic if you can’t control your magic power and manipulate your magic like this, huh……」
Aleutia muttered while having a distant look on her face.
I was just trying to give them advice but, it feels like I broke her heart as a result.
Well, to acquire this kind of control in magic, I think you should spend your daily life thinking of nothing but magic throughout the day, when you eat, and even when you sleep.
Then in order to easily increase the amount of your magic power, you have to desperately exhaust your magic power. If you have more magic power, then you will be able to train for much longer. But when your body feels lethargic, it’s going to be difficult to continue using your magic power.
「The method I said before is not absolute, alright? 」
「No, the Third Princess Layla-sama is famous for being able to use Ice magic and excel at magic control, I’m sure that’s the necessary condition.」
「Is that so?」
That Third Princess-something doesn’t appear at the party, so I have never seen her before. I only heard from small Loli……I mean Viscount Yurina and the others about her that she's a Princess who can use Ice magic and got a disabled leg.
Ilya started talking when she saw that I had a wondering look.
「When there is an event at the royal capital, Layla-sama creates a large ice sculpture to entertain the citizens of the royal capital, you know. And even the ice sculpture at that time was shaped in such a way that it makes people doubt whether it’s really made with magic. It is famous as one of the things the people who live in the royal capital look forward to.」
Heeー, if the ice sculpture is that beautiful then I would like to see it too.
I think I can create them by myself if I did it, but the one I created by myself and the one created by others would give a different impression, right? I’m also curious about the product imagined and created by the people of this world.
I can Teleport to the royal capital anytime, so let’s drop by at the royal capital next time there is an event.
When I was thinking about such things, Ilya nervously asked.
「Alfried-sama, is there a trick to drop the chanting?」
I think this is the only answer for that.
「Thinking that chanting is troublesome.」
「Yes?」
「……………」
Ilya blinked her round eyes, while Aleutia fell silent.
「I mean, once you become used to chanting you will think that it’s unnecessary just like reading a textbook, right? So rather than desperately trying to remember the chant, it’s much better to use the time to focus on how to control your magic power and imagination, you see.」
When Elna-kaasan also asked me to explain it to her before I also answered like that.
And then, Elna-kaasan also said「Indeed, it’s certainly troublesome, isn’t it? So that’s exactly how Al thought about it, huh」while nodding, and after a few months she can use several magic without chanting, I showed her how to use magic while discarding the chant after all.
So I’m certain that's how it is.
If you want to do something like dropping the chant and cast the magic efficiently, or cast magic swiftly, then I think you won’t be able to do it if you only think about superficial things.
Just that, I personally feel that I just want to keep being idle, thinking to get rid of them since it’s troublesome.
That’s right, just like how Elna-kaasan and I did it.
When they heard that kind of explanation from me, Ilya opened her eyes wide while Aleutia’s shoulders were shaking.
「Don’t joke around――――――!」
Aleutia’s scream resounded through the vast sea and the sky.
Author note:
‘It’s troublesome to draw water. It’s troublesome to light a fire. That’s why, I want to be able to get water more easily. I want to easily light a fire.’ Magicians originally tend to find things to be troublesome, I think.
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