Chapter 95

I opened up my alchemy book and moved my quill with my opposite hand to take notes .

Lending the book is highly restrictive and requires a special application, but with the exception of a few books, there are no particular restrictions on transcribing .

I was spelling out the parts I was curious about and what came to mind in key places .

The majority of magic books are written in a special character called the array character, and this book was the same .

Just because there were parts that were different from the array characters I knew, it was a little hard to read through .

The array characters often vary slightly depending on the region and the age of the people and their habits .

In addition, usually, the better sorcerers tend to write whatever they want, so the more helpful they seem to be, the harder it is to get through .

What is this thing youre looking up?

Mea calls out to me .

Mea rests her chin on the desk, squinting at the book Im reading .

Im concentrating now, so later

I start to say something and swallow the words .

Come to think of it, the last time my juniors left angrily in my past life was when I was reading an alchemy magic book while ignoring them talking to me for a long time .

I wont make the same mistake .

It was Mea who carried the book for me in the first place .

You know, the fragments from the ruins of Zeshum . I was wondering if you could use them for something .

I had also extensively researched ores that had similar properties to the ores used in those ruins .

As expected of an elven technology, I couldnt find an ore with exactly the same properties or a method for making it, but Im beginning to think of various uses for it .

I was wondering if it was possible to make an Ortem by grinding the stone .

The only problem was the processing technology .

The Marrens are skilled at handling wood, but when it comes to stone, its not so easy .

Id like to hand a bunch of blueprints to someone whos experienced with them and leave it to them .

Ahhh, you took that one . What can you make with it?

It seems to be good at sending magic farther, so maybe a wand or a magic cannon

I, I see . It sounds kind of authentic

However, Im not interested in weapons, though . Id like to make a flying Ortem or a floating chair or something .

The rest of the time, it could be a magical wave tower for the Magi-phone magic cell phone .

I can see a way to make this one practical .

Its a bit difficult for the fund, though .

Floating Chair

Sounds easy, right? Id like to be able to travel long distances and eventually add a ma.s.sage function .

It looks like Ebelheid is going to come out as a monster

Hes not dead yet .

Id like to go visit him sooner or later .

But uh It sounds like its going to be very difficult .

Im reading a book written by a famous alchemist named Altamir who died eighty years ago . I cant help but notice that his array characters are quirky and difficult to read .

What he wrote was informative, but I think she was trying to fool the reader into thinking, How about this, can you understand this one? .

She must have been an old woman with a very bad character .

No, I understand that you have to write it this way to convey the nuance of the content . I understand, but I cant imagine that she was thinking about having people read it after all .

It seems to me that his pupil may have just transcribed his notes at random .

By the way, the old woman in Altamir caused a crazy incident at the end of the story, and the king, who was afraid of her, set fifty sorcerers against her and sealed her in the tower .

She was probably a bad type of genius .

This book also contains some outrageous things, but is it okay to be so lax in storing it?

If I were a librarian, I would either burn it or designate it as a forbidden book .

You can even think that because no one could read it, they put it in a prominent place as a foil for the church .

Since Mea is also here, why dont you to find a book thats interesting to you . Its a specialized book for sorcerers, so you wouldnt know anything about it from the side .

Ehhhh Its fun for Mea to just kind of look at it like this next to Abel, you know?

I cant decipher the code if youre talking to me too much from the side .

But that doesnt mean I want to chase her away .

Look, maybe they have some archery instruction manuals .

Im-, Im gonna go look for it .

Mea got up from her seat and walked over to where the bookshelves were lined up .

was that method of excuse a bit mean spirited?

N, no, it could be taken as if Im treating her like shes in the way if I dont proceed with the deciphering, so its definitely better than that, right?

As I was reading for a while, I heard footsteps walking toward me .

Is it Mea?

It could have been someone simply trying to use this desk .

The footsteps stopped behind me, and I was sure it was Mea .

Did you find something interest . .

As he said this, he turned around and saw an old man in monastic clothes .

His back was not bent and he was squat for his age .

No, whos that?

Oh hi, um what can I do for you?

Ho-ho, no, I think youre so young but very studious, you know . Hows the research going?

Wa, huh

What is this old man?

Is he just wandering around the church library looking for someone to talk to?

Im trying to concentrate on something right now, though .

H, hey, isnt that Sage Roudio-sama?

I didnt know hes coming to this library .

He has quite a promising future for him to catch Master Roudio-samas eye, that little boy .

The surroundings begin to be noisy .

Is this person really that amazing?

A Sage is an honorific term for someone who can form their own magic circle .

Dont do it . Im only a monk!

Huffing and puffing, the old man named Roudio turns his palms to the people behind him .

Im not sure if your words were a bit sarcastic, right? I think its okay since the people thats been said doesnt seem to be angry, though .

Ohhh, thats nostalgic . When I was young, I used to pile up books at random, too . I thought that reading many would make me smarter .

Is, Is that so

But in the end, thats not very efficient . Especially when you are young, you should carefully read the book you have chosen to read to get the basics . As I said before, you wont be able to get into your head if you read a book so quickly .

No, Ive been working on it for a while

Gentlemen, listen to what your predecessors have to say . You young people dont listen to your predecessors .

You just naturally put it on my words, you old man .

You should learn to listen to people .

You cant keep falling down in a hurry . Well, thats also life . Id be lying if I said I didnt have those days . But I was such a small boy at the time .

Roudio quickly holds his hands on the ground and looks at me with a scowl on his face .

What is this guy?

What really is he? What is he doing here?

What are you looking for? Ill give you some advice . Show me .

Oh, youre giving me advice .

Thats nice of you . Sorry for wondering what this guy is or something like that .

I was just reading it, skipping over a word I couldnt decipher .

I was having trouble understanding what he meant, despite the fact that he kept appearing over and over again, and he was dragging me down .

Then Im sorry, Sage Roudio-sama

Ho-ho . Hey, just Roudio is okay . Im just Roudio . Im just an old man whos only been old and has been in contact with magic for a little longer than most people . Here, ask this old man anything you want to know . Anything .

I wonder . This kind of implied arrogance .

Is it because of the way he says it? Is it because of the expression?

Roudio-san . Its this word here but Im not really sure what it means .

Mmm . Which one? Hmm?

Roudio arches his back and sticks his head out, bringing him closer to the book .

Hmm, hmm hmm?

Roudios expression froze as if he was frozen .

Here . . see, in this sentence, youre using it to calculate the amount of magic power per unit of time consumed by the magic circle, right? So I thought it was some proprietary coefficient that Altamir had come up with, but its on this page and also on this page . Its a completely different usage . I thought there might be a fundamental misunderstanding, but this one and this one use different terminology, so its probably correct . But look, the magic circle in this one is used to increase the efficiency of magic

Roudios complexion was deteriorating rapidly .

Roudio-san?

Oh? Oh? Ohhh, oh, ohhh

Roudio repeated the short words in his mouth, sweat slos.h.i.+ng down his face .

Hey, um, are you okay? You should drink some water

Hm? Wha-, What are you talking about again?

What? No, thats why this part of the

Ah! really, Its this late now already!

Roudios eyes widened and he cried out, smas.h.i.+ng the desk with a vigor that didnt seem like his old body .

The book on the desk bounced lightly . A man who was reading at the same desk threw the book and stood up to see what was going on .

This person must be stronger than me .

Im, Im sorry, young sorcerer! Im a very busy man . Im really sorry!

When he said that, he ran away with a panicking .

He almost fell down trying to avoid b.u.mping into someone on the way, but quickly regained his position and resumed running .

The library fell silent .

The silence remained for a while . But as soon as someone began to speak, everyone began to speak within the bounds of good manners .

I was stuck for a while, but then I saw the man who had stood up earlier sit back down and picked up a brush pen .