(A/N: What you're about to read is a theory I came up with, since there's no clear description of the First Magic. If anything here is inaccurate, please forgive me.)
"Are you sure this small wooden box actually contains an artifact? No matter how I look at it… it just seems like an ordinary wooden box?"
"Don't open that box so carelessly. I placed a protective spell on it."
Inside a fairly spacious and neatly arranged living room, two people—Charl and Manaka—stood facing each other in the center of the room. Manaka was holding a small wooden box in her hands.
At first, she intended to open the lid without much thought, but the moment her fingers touched the surface—
Zap.
Manaka jerked backward. The magical protection on the box activated, rebounding straight into her hand.
"Ouch… that still hurts…" she muttered, shaking her hand.
"Don't exaggerate. Hand me the box."
Reluctantly, Manaka passed the box to Charl. He placed it on his palm and lightly touched the top with his fingertip. A small blue magic circle appeared for a brief moment—pulsing softly—before shattering like thin glass.
"There. Try it now," Charl said as he handed the box back.
"Alright…" Manaka carefully opened the lid.
Inside the box were four rings, neatly arranged and faintly reflecting light. Manaka picked one up. Its design was simple—a plain silver ring, no different from an ordinary engagement ring.
"So… this is one of Solomon's rings that was said to be given by God?" she asked while examining it.
"Why are there only four? Where are the other six?"
"…Even just four of them are already extremely rare," Charl replied with a sigh.
"As for the rest… my father is the one who keeps them."
Manaka returned the ring to the box and closed it again. Then she looked at Charl, curiosity clear on her face.
"So your father gave these rings to you?"
"Yes. Why?"
"It's nothing," Manaka shook her head slightly.
"I was just wondering what your relationship with him is really like."
"It's… complicated," Charl sighed again.
"If I tried to explain it, it'd take a while."
Charl closed one eye and gave Manaka a gentle smile.
"With this, the problem of not having an artifact that can be used as a holy relic to summon a Servant is solved."
"I suppose so… but I still have a few questions."
"Go ahead. I'll answ—"
Riiing.
Their conversation was cut off by the ringing of an old landline phone echoing through the room. Charl walked over to a small table near the wall and picked up the receiver.
Meanwhile, Manaka sat down on the sofa and began to idly turn the wooden box over in her hands.
"Trisha? What is it? …I see."
Charl's tone became slightly more serious.
"So that's how it is… Don't worry. I know someone who can look into it. Go straight to the legal department and tell them Charl sent you."
He paused for a moment.
"And also, find that person. Their name? Oh right… their name is—"
"If you meet them, give them my regards."
Click.
A few seconds later, Charl placed the receiver back and walked over to the sofa. As soon as he sat down, Manaka looked at him with clear curiosity.
"What happened? It sounded serious."
"Oh, that?" Charl replied casually. "It's about one of my family branches. Apparently, the head of that family died in a rather… unnatural way."
"One of your family branches?" Manaka rubbed her chin.
"Then... this is about the Fargo family? Wait—why is this happening now? Shouldn't that have happened when Waver was already becoming Lord El-Melloi II?"
"I can only assume it's a butterfly effect," Charl said calmly.
"With the world already this chaotic, changes like that aren't surprising."
He even took a sip of coffee mid-conversation, looking completely unconcerned.
"You don't look worried at all…" Manaka narrowed her eyes.
"Wait—since when did you brew coffee?!"
"Oh, this?" Charl placed the cup on the table and closed his eyes briefly, as if concentrating.
A few seconds later—pop.
Snacks appeared on the table. Not just one, but many, covering the entire surface.
"…I see," Manaka said flatly.
"You're abusing the First Magic, aren't you? Well… not really my problem."
She grabbed a piece of cake and immediately took a bite.
"Ack!" Manaka stuck out her tongue.
"It tastes like grass—no, worse than that!"
"…That's normal," Charl replied without any guilt. "I create the shape, but I don't replicate the taste."
With a single wave of his hand, the snacks vanished.
Manaka stared at him.
"…You tricked me."
"Ahaha… oh well. You believed it so easily."
Manaka crossed her arms.
"You're the worst."
"Awawa~ Is our Manaka sulking?" Charl chuckled.
"Relax, relax… I'm not that cruel."
He snapped his fingers.
Clang.
Various snacks fell onto the table one by one until it was full again.
"Try these. This time, I'm serious."
"You'd better be… If this is another trick—"
Manaka picked up a pudding on a small plate and glanced at Charl without saying anything. Charl understood and snapped his fingers once more. A spoon landed neatly in front of her.
She quickly grabbed it and scooped up the pudding.
"Mmm~ delicious."
"See? I never lie to you."
Manaka finished the pudding at once and began grabbing other snacks without hesitation.
"Take it easy… the food isn't going to suddenly disappear," Charl said with a chuckle as he watched her eat.
"Mmh!" Manaka nodded while continuing to eat.
It took only fifteen minutes for Manaka to completely finish everything on the table. Charl watched in awe. With a snap of his fingers, a napkin appeared on the table.
Manaka took it, wiped her mouth, then licked her lips in satisfaction.
After that, she looked at Charl again—this time with a serious, curious expression.
"Hey… there's something I'm curious about."
"Go ahead," Charl said, nodding.
Manaka tapped her chin with a finger.
"It's about the First Magic. I know it's a magic that creates something and denies nothingness… but what exactly is it? What's its true meaning?"
"Hm…" Charl smiled faintly.
"This is going to be a long conversation. Are you sure?"
Manaka nodded firmly.
Seeing that, Charl snapped his fingers once more.
In an instant, the living room vanished—as if swallowed by emptiness.
Charl stood upright, one hand placed over his chest.
"Welcome to the domain, The place where everything was created."
He gazed out at the endless expanse before them.
"Since its previous owner never gave it a name… I'll call it—"
"The Origin Sea."
Charl let his hand fall from his chest as the endless expanse before them slowly stabilized.
There was no sky, no ground—yet both somehow existed. A vast, colorless sea of matter stretched in every direction, calm and still, like the world had paused at the very first moment of its birth. Light and shadow had no clear boundary here; everything simply was.
Manaka swallowed.
"…This place feels strange," she said quietly.
"It's empty, but not empty at the same time."
Charl nodded, unsurprised.
"That's a good way to put it."
He took a few steps forward, his footsteps causing faint ripples to spread across the unseen surface beneath them.
"This is the First Magic," he said calmly.
"More accurately, this is the domain born from it."
Manaka looked at him.
"The First Magic… is supposed to be 'Denial of Nothingness,' right?"
"Yeah… it's something similar. So you're not wrong."
Charl gestured toward the endless expanse surrounding them.
"In this world, nothing is a concept that exists everywhere. Something cannot come from nothing—that principle governs magecraft, science, and even ordinary common sense."
He paused, then smiled faintly.
"The First Magic rejects that law entirely."
Manaka's eyes widened, just slightly.
Charl tapped his chin, as though sorting his thoughts.
"Hm… where to begin…? Ah. This should do."
He spoke slowly, as if reciting an old truth rather than explaining it.
"…At the beginning, the First changed all.
…Next, the Second recognized many.
…In answer, the Third showed the future.
…Tethered, the Fourth concealed itself.
And the final Fifth had long since lost its significance. Someone once said—'Had it only ended at the Third…'"
Charl raised his hand. There was no elaborate chant, no ceremony.
"Red element. Combustion."
His Magic Circuits snapped open.
"Ignite."
A burst of flame bloomed in midair—brief, vivid, and utterly mundane. It flickered once… then vanished.
Charl hummed softly before continuing, his voice calm.
"What you just witnessed is ordinary magecraft. The utilization of an already-existing phenomenon—what we call Mystery. That is the foundation of all magecraft."
He glanced at Manaka.
"But Magic?"
His gaze sharpened.
"Magic is the highest class of Mystery. It surpasses all magecraft and all science of its era. It represents the realization of events that are fundamentally impossible to reproduce—by humanity, by the Planet, or by any system—even if given infinite time and infinite resources."
"The ability to perform True Magic is the ultimate attainment of a magus. And it can only be acquired by those who have reached the Swirl of the Root."
Manaka frowned slightly.
"I know all that. I'm asking about the First."
Charl chuckled.
"Oh? Then let's start there."
Charl withdrew his hand from the air and cleared his throat, as if preparing for a lecture.
"Do you know, that the name 'First' in First Magic isn't because it was the first Magic to established?"
Manaka blinked.
"It isn't?"
"No," Charl replied calmly.
"Chronologically speaking, the First Magic was established after the Third Magic, back when remnants of the Age of Gods still lingered."
He raised a finger slightly.
"The reason it's called the First has nothing to do with the time it's was established. It's named that way because of its special nature."
Charl opened his palm.
Within an instant, a small point of light appeared above his hand. It wasn't summoned, nor constructed—it simply existed, faint and quiet, like a thought given form.
A subtle smile appeared on Charl's face as he closed his hand, then extended it toward Manaka.
When he opened his palm again, the light had changed.
It had crystallized—no longer a vague glow, but a clearly defined shape, refracting softly like a shard of frozen starlight.
"This, is the First Magic." Charl said.
Manaka stared, breath held.
"The First Magic is the authority to reproduce what is impossible," he continued.
"Or more precisely—"
His voice lowered slightly.
"It is the power to create something from nothing."
Manaka clenched her hands unconsciously.
"In this world, 'nothingness' is treated as an absolute," Charl explained.
"Even magecraft, no matter how advanced, must obey the rule that something cannot come from nothing. Energy, matter, concepts—everything requires a source."
He closed his palm again, and the crystal vanished without a trace.
"The First Magic rejects that rule entirely," he said.
"It denies the existence of 'nothing.'"
Manaka swallowed.
"So it doesn't convert… or imitate… or borrow?"
"Exactly," Charl nodded.
"It doesn't draw from the Root. It doesn't use equivalent exchange. It doesn't even cheat causality."
He met her gaze.
"It simply declares that 'nothingness is false.' And because reality cannot refute that declaration… it complies."
The Origin Sea responded faintly, ripples spreading endlessly.
"That is why it's called the First," Charl went on.
"Because it overturns the most fundamental assumption of existence itself. Before laws. Before systems. Before meaning."
Manaka exhaled slowly.
"…That's insane."
"It is," Charl agreed.
"Which is why the world doesn't allow it to be used freely anymore."
He turned away slightly.
"When the world matured and its laws stabilized, the First Magic became incompatible with reality. It didn't disappear—but the conditions required to wield it vanished."
He glanced back at her.
"That's why it's called 'lost.'"
Manaka hesitated for a moment before finally speaking.
"Then… why were you able to achieve it?" she asked quietly.
"And not just that—why can you still use it?"
Charl fell silent.
For the first time since the conversation began, the easy calm he always carried wavered.
"That's…" he said slowly.
"…complicated. And confusing."
Manaka noticed it immediately—the faint tension in his shoulders, the way his gaze drifted aside instead of meeting hers.
"Confusing?" she echoed.
"Yeah," Charl replied after a brief pause.
He let out a small breath and cleared his throat, forcibly pulling himself back together.
"Ahem. Anyway—just like I said before."
He turned around, eyes half-lidded, as if staring into a memory far older than the place around them.
"Magic is attained by reaching the Swirl of the Root," he began.
"But not by touching it."
Manaka frowned slightly.
"Not touching it?"
"Those who directly touch the Root are erased from the World," Charl explained calmly.
"They disappear completely—body, soul, existence. What remains is knowledge, not a person."
He raised a finger, emphasizing the point.
"To acquire Magic, a magus must approach the Root, observe it, and then return."
Manaka listened without interrupting.
"More importantly," Charl continued.
"the magus must be the very first to reach the Root through a specific path. That path can be a theory, a ritual, a concept—sometimes even a contradiction."
He glanced at her.
"Once that path has been taken, it is closed forever. Even if someone later uses the exact same method, they will never acquire Magic from it."
"…So only the first one matters," Manaka murmured.
"Exactly," Charl nodded.
"Magic isn't something you inherit. It isn't something you learn."
He paused.
"It's something you claim."
Silence settled over the space.
"So," Charl continued more softly.
"you could say I was… fortunate."
Manaka studied him.
"Just fortunate?"
Charl let out a dry chuckle.
"Fortunate enough to reach the Root without being erased," he said.
"Fortunate enough to walk a path no one else had ever walked."
His fingers tightened slightly.
"And unfortunate enough that the path I opened was… incompatible with the modern world."
Manaka's eyes widened.
"The First Magic," she whispered.
"Yes," Charl replied.
He closed his eyes briefly.
"And here's where it becomes truly confusing," he continued.
"The first magician—Yumina—was recorded as having vanished without a trace, despite being supposedly at a state of unkillable."
He opened his eyes again.
"But the truth is, she still exists. Because the First Magic denies nothingness itself."
Manaka held her breath.
"That means the path to the First Magic should already have been taken," Charl said quietly.
"And as I explained earlier, no one can acquire a Magic by walking the same path twice."
He tapped the side of his head once.
"So then… why did I acquire the First Magic?"
The question lingered in the air, unanswered.
Charl looked at Manaka again, his expression softening, the weight of the topic finally easing from his voice.
"Well," he said lightly.
"I think that's enough for today. Let's head back to the living room."
He snapped his fingers.
In an instant, the domain dissolved, and the familiar living room returned as if nothing had ever happened.
Charl sat down on the couch and lifted a cup of coffee, acting as though the heavy conversation had never taken place.
"Oh—and one more thing," he added casually, taking a sip.
"Keep what I told you a secret, okay?"
He glanced sideways at her.
"Unless you want to deal with a Sealing Designation."