NOVEL NEXT Chapter 64: Challenged to a Duel
「Monitoring, eh?」 「You don’t look too surprised.」 「Ho, ho, ho. It happens quite often after all.」
The reason for this is because the Sage of Leo and the Iglesio household has maintained a neutral position on the world of politics for generations now. While they swear their allegiance to the founder king who defeated the Demon Lord and the direct descendants, the royal family; the household is wholly committed to the duty that the founder king appointed to them.
This duty is the monitoring of magic power waves and the stability of the Iglesio territory. In regards to the latter, instead of the sage, the Iglesio household bears the responsibility for that matter and the devised orphan countermeasures were a part of this as well.
In regards to the magic power wave monitoring, it’s something that only the Sage of Leo can do. The Sage of Leo, also called the sage of all creation as well as the sage of the sun, commands magic that can manipulate every natural phenomenon.
It seems like they can use magics such as the “Corona Burn” which summons the flames of the sun, ”Tornado” which naturally induces a tornado1, “Blizzard” which calls forth a snowstorm2, and “Shooting Star” which invokes a small scale meteorite.
And among these natural phenomena exist one that’s unique to this world, the one called magic power waves, MP waves for short. This phenomenon occurs every time magecraft or magic is cast, and just as when one throws a stone in a lake, it causes magic power to spread out like a wave. This in itself doesn’t cause harm and excluding people that are highly sensitive to magic power and mana, it’s pretty hard to even feel.3
However, like how throwing a bigger rock would cause a bigger ripple, the powerful magic or magecraft requires more magic power to cast, resulting in a greater and more extensive wave.
Although something as small as a ripple shouldn’t be an issue, a big magic power wave can cause mental instability and have effects on monsters, magic beasts, and dungeons. In worst cases, the appearance of physical damages has been observed in the past as well.
Fortunately, when MP waves of that scale happen, smaller ripples occur prior, so if it’s stopped beforehand, big waves can be prevented. For generations, the job of the Sage of Leo is to constantly monitor the MP waves within the kingdom and counteract it if it looks like troubles are about to occur.
And since the Sage of Leo has always maintained a neutral position, if large scale magecraft is illegally used within the country, it will definitely be found out. Particularly, ritual magecraft performed by dozens of people and the like causes a continuous ripple of small scale MP waves during the preparatory stages, so it’ll absolutely be found out.
In other words, for people that aren’t content with the kingdom’s governing, as well as those that just want to use magic as they please, the Sage of Leo is an eyesore.
While there are many that want to get rid of the Sage of Leo, on the other hand, since they can do what they want without the royals noticing as long as they can take control of the sage, there are also a lot aiming for some gentle persuasion.
「Well, it is true that we took a distance from the world of politics due to just how many these lot are.」
Saying so, old man Kent laughs. I’m not sure if it’s really okay for him to tell these things to a commoner like me, so I asked him and it seems like people in this country related to the academy and sorcerers to some extent know all of these.
At the same time, if Ada succeeds as the Sage of Leo as she is now, there’s no telling what will happen if some organization wins her over.
In the meantime, it seems like we can ignore the ones outside. After all, the Sage of Leo is absent right now and at worst, old man Kent and grandma Fiona can protect themselves. The old man requested me to focus on just protecting their problem child Ada, to the point that he bowed his head. In regards to that, even without him needing to ask us, since it’s also a part of the request, we already planned on protecting her with everything we have.
◆◇◆◇◆
「Have a duel with me!!」
On the morning of the third day, after finishing her oddly quiet breakfast and her citrusy desert, Ada suddenly stood up, pointed at me, and declared so.
「Hm? Yeah, sure. Wouldn’t it be bad to do it inside the mansion? Is there a place in the courtyard we can just wreak havoc at?」 「Hoho, instead of the courtyard, the underground training area would be a better place. There’s a room where my son and I use for practice. That room has been fitted with a barrier that can withstand a “Corona Burn” or two.4」
Hearing him say in such a casual tone, I just went speechless for a moment. Among all combat magic, “Corona Burn” boasts of having the highest offensive capabilities. And not only did the old man say that it can block it, he even said “a Corona Burn or two” so lightly. Is old man Kent really someone that failed to become the Sage of Leo?5
「Wh-what are you acting all calm for! I-If I use my full strength, you’ll be nothing but cinders!」 「Hm? Ahh, I’ll say this before we duel. I’m going to win without getting hit by even a single magic of yours, Ada.」
Seemingly displeased with how calm I was with accepting the duel, Ada lunged at me as I smiled peacefully and taunted her again and again.
These past two days was a contest of stamina. I’m not so weak to lose against an eight year old, so it was an easy win. However, magic has nothing to do with age. After all, this is a world where pure talent and effort speak for everything.
Still, I have absolutely no doubts on winning. It’s not because I’m making light of her since she’s just a child or anything. From her life essence, the magic power I feel from Ada is overwhelmingly greater than that of Urania and it’s already more than compared to old man Kent sitting next to her. Just from this, I can vividly sense that she has talent. I’m also aware that she drowns herself in spellbooks after waking up from her afternoon nap. Based on what I heard from a maid, she’s not doing this to use it against me, she has been doing this on her own even before we came here.
She may just be a cheeky girl towards old man Kent and other people, but it seems like she has genuine respect for her father, the Sage of Leo, and she probably felt some disillusionment from knowing that old man Kent failed to become a sage due to that same respect.
A part of it might be also because her father couldn’t be with her too much since he has a lot to do and needs to travel all around the kingdom.
At the same time, being a sorcerer, Ada doesn’t have friends of the same age. Part of it is due to her status as a white peer, but who knows what will happen if a sorcerer gets even a bit peeved? That’s what others might have in their minds and I guess Ada is aware of that herself, seeing how she never plays outside.
As she is now, it’s just all too sad. Maybe her being so cheeky and chasing out her tutors is just to hide her sadness, something she does so that she wouldn’t see people getting hurt by her magic…
…Which is just my imagination and all, but I’m sure she’s having some similar misguided thoughts like that.6 I’ll have to teach Ada that no matter how hard she hits me, I’m going to be fine, no problem at all. Though, getting hit with a “Corona Burn” might definitely hurt a bit.7
- Lyly: You don’t say Fire: Can’t make it any more obvious
- Fire: Basically a blizzard…
- Lyly: Oh, unique natural disasters due to the nature of the world. Neat
- Lyly: Or two?
- Lyly: Mysterious old men, they never get old
- Lyly: Truly a mangaka, you know how to make drama, lol
- Lyly: Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh… Silva: Just “a bit”? Fire: Just a small bite