[366] Special Training (1)
Shirone was registered as an official probationary student and began staying at the Association. Gangnan figured it was safest to make the announcement before any strange rumors could spread.
The first thing he did was write a letter to send home. Gangnan reviewed it and gave his permission.
When he went into town to send a telegram and returned, Plu was waiting on the third floor.
"Did you send the letter?"
"Yes. They said it should take about five days. But were you waiting for me?"
"Yeah. The Chief Secretary asked me to."
Shirone still felt the aftershock from his interview with Gaold. Hearing that Gangnan had asked for something naturally put him on edge.
"From today on, I'll be helping with your training."
He'd expected Gaold to provide some help while he stayed here, but he hadn't imagined a professional mage would be involved at all—let alone that Plu would be the one assigned.
"Why do you look like that? Are you sick?"
"No, I'm fine. It's just so sudden."
"What's sudden? The special training, or me?"
"Well…both."
Plu snickered with obvious delight.
"Lucky you. But don't be too tense. I'm not going to be teaching you personally."
"What do you mean by that?"
Plu rummaged in her inner pocket. She stuck out her tongue and rolled her eyes as if whatever she'd been hiding was buried deep.
"Tada! The Chief Secretary gave this to me. Do you know what this is?"
She held a large, gilded key in her hand.
"I guess…probably a key."
"This is the Magic Association's Arcane Library key! No one can enter that area without the Association Head's approval!"
Shirone paused to process it. Even if she said that, he had to know what the Arcane Library actually was before he could be excited or upset.
"What are you waiting for? Let's go."
It was Gaold's courtesy for Shirone, but the one who practically bounced with excitement was Plu.
She led him to the Association's sixteenth floor.
When the elevator doors opened, a solid iron door blocked the way.
Out of habit Shirone kept walking and nearly ran headfirst into it.
Plu, as if expecting that, smiled and turned the key.
The door opened automatically, and a spectacle unfolded.
The entire sixteenth floor was a repository. The stacks stretched out in neat rows like reflections between two mirrors.
"Welcome. You must be the probationary student."
A composed woman in her mid-thirties stepped forward from beyond the iron door.
She wore a professional black suit and had her black hair neatly swept up. Her makeup was light, her lips a soft pink, her brows delicately shaped, and her deep, double-lidded eyes were large and clear.
"Hello, Izabel."
Plu bowed deeply and gestured Shirone forward.
"Say hello. She's Izabel, a Certified Rank-3 mage and the head of the Arcane Library."
Shirone started and bowed. The official rank and her youthful face created a cognitive dissonance.
"Hello. I'm Arian Shirone."
"I know. The Association Head told me about you. You're a talent the Association's watching, so do your best. Come in—I'll show you around the library."
Izabel turned and the two of them followed her.
"This floor stores spell tomes. There are roughly twenty-eight thousand volumes. You can say it holds most of the codified magic registered in the kingdom."
"Twenty-eight thousand?"
Shirone couldn't hide his astonishment and looked around.
Every book here was a magic someone had developed. He trembled with excitement.
Plu, unsurprised, raised a finger.
"Told you. Getting in here is a huge privilege."
Plu's words hardly registered with Shirone.
Some tomes were thin—ten pages or so—while others ran to a thousand pages. Covers and designs varied by attribute and school, and their heights differed as well.
It looked like a gallery representing the countless magics of the world.
'Ah, so that's why a Grand Mage has to manage it.'
The spell tomes contained the full theory and practical instructions for specific magics.
If you could enter the Spirit Zone and had an exceptional mind, the information here could be detailed enough to teach you a new spell on your own.
High-grade tomes would be priceless, and a collection of twenty-eight thousand volumes represented a value beyond imagination.
"Sorry. At first I couldn't believe it. Izabel looked too young to be a Grand Mage."
Izabel covered her mouth with her fist and chuckled. Most mages were proud, but she seemed pleased to be told she looked young.
"I get that. But being a Grand Mage doesn't mean you're necessarily powerful or destructive. I'm more administrative. Red Line ranks are determined by fame and achievement points. When I first arrived at the archives I was only Certified Rank 7. Over ten years I organized fifteen hundred tomes, and when my mentor retired I was Rank 3. My achievement score shot up abnormally. My fame, though, is almost nonexistent."
Achievement and fame varied widely by profession, so two mages of the same rank could be very different—one a frontline combatant, another specialized in research or administration.
If she'd worked in the Association archives for ten years, Izabel's field combat experience would be minimal.
But Shirone admired her in a different way.
"Fifteen hundred…"
The process of registering codified magic involved interviews or letters from the developer.
When a submission arrived—laid out like a thesis with full theory and operational procedure—Izabel would review, condense, and bind it into a tome.
It required exceptional understanding and vast knowledge—work impossible for the unqualified.
'Of course—organize fifteen hundred tomes in ten years and anyone would be a Grand Mage.'
He also understood how hard those ten years must have been.
In that sense, Izabel fully deserved the title of Certified Rank-3 Grand Mage.
"Anyway, think of me as an easygoing older sister. To be honest, the title Grand Mage is a bit of a burden for me, too."
To Shirone, who had only met fearsome, extraordinary Grand Mages so far, Izabel felt refreshingly ordinary.
Thanks to that, he could explore the Arcane Library more comfortably.
The tomes were broadly sorted by school and then subdivided chronologically.
There were ancient works and magics that set current trends.
When he saw a copy on photonic magic, a thrill ran through him.
After showing them around, Izabel told them to look freely and returned to her desk.
Her hands were on the desk as she inspected papers, and a pen nearby moved as if by itself.
Shirone had worked at Ozent's Grand Library before, so he could imagine how Izabel's speed and efficiency must have been honed over ten years.
'At that level of skill, fifteen hundred tomes in ten years isn't impossible.'
Plu tapped Shirone on the back.
"Hey, why the long face? Izabel's married, by the way. Is that your type?"
Shirone straightened and waved his hand.
"Absolutely not."
Whether he meant it or not, Plu hugged herself and trembled with glee.
"The Chief Secretary said you can look at whatever you want. First, let's pick the magic you'll practice."
Take whatever you want. Shirone guessed Gaold's intention: besides training, he wanted Shirone to study various magics for clues about how to create a spell capable of destroying heaven.
Even so—giving him free run of the Arcane Library? Gaold's promise of full support didn't seem like an empty claim.
Plu wasn't stupid. She probably suspected Shirone's special training was linked to Gaold's project, but she hadn't shown anything when they entered the Association Head's office, just as she'd promised.
'Maybe she actually enjoys this…'
They went to the section for Shirone's specialty, the photonic school.
Plu scanned the shelves and offered advice.
"Don't learn overly simple magics. They're inefficient. For example, why learn something like 'Make a ping-pong ball out of photons and have fun!' That's for performance mages."
Plu handed Shirone the three-page booklet she'd mentioned. It described a game using mirrors to bounce flares—fun for the whole family and apparently great for dieting.
"Very old magics are the same. They're outdated, so countermeasures are well-studied. And you don't have time to master extremely difficult magics. Those take at least half a year, and you have to go back to school."
"Ah, that makes sense."
Her remark hit a point he hadn't considered, and he snapped to attention.
Along with efficiency, training time had to be factored in. Finding magics he could master while at the Association was crucial.
"Of course the choice is yours. Preference factors into the full mastery of a spell. But here's a guideline. First, pick magics that cover your weaknesses. Second, pick magics that synergize with what you already use. Third, balance quality and quantity. That should do it."
So Shirone began coming to the Arcane Library every day, riffling through the tomes.
The sooner he chose a book, the more time he'd have to practice, but since this was a rare opportunity he wanted to choose carefully.
'There's so much. Even if I only look at the photonic school, it'll take years.'
There were trivial little magics that made him snort, ingenious ones he hadn't expected, and some with such brutal difficulty he wondered if they were even possible.
It was a wonderland. He felt as giddy as a child in a candy shop.
'No—stay composed. If I run out of time and can't learn anything, how upset will I be?'
Once he adapted to the library's classification, Shirone focused on tomes that fit the guidelines.
Then he noticed a striking title in the section for magics developed ten years ago.
Advanced Teleportation Technique: Santan Movement
"Hmm, teleportation."
It was a magic he considered a strength, so it caught his interest. The fact the book wasn't very thick also helped him decide.
The clean white cover marked it as a photonic school tome, and beneath the title was the developer's name: Kindra Buki.
"Kindra Buki. Never heard of them."
He didn't know the face, but he felt respect for the developer.
Registering a self-developed magic as kingdom codified magic is left to the mage's judgment until they die.
There must be countless unregistered magics, so a mage who willingly revealed the core of their magic for the sake of juniors earned Shirone's goodwill.
Without people like that, there would have been nothing to learn at the Magic Academy.
"All right, I'll read it carefully."
Shirone opened the book reverently and read for about ten minutes.
"Oh…so that's how it is."
It was a very clever magic.
'This will definitely work. It'll be effective in combat.'
Santan Movement was a spell that, the instant the teleportation was cast, scattered a photonic output in all directions.
To those on the receiving end, it created the illusion that the mage had spread out everywhere at once.
'I see—so it's a passive effect that transitions into an active one. Since the passive effect persists, it can manifest simultaneously with the active spell.'
From the middle of the book onward, the full theory and operational details of that mechanism were laid out.
As Shirone read on, chin in hand, a brilliant idea suddenly popped into his head.
'What if I combine this with the God Particle?'
In other words, instead of just scattering photonic output, he'd fire photon cannons in all directions while teleporting.
If Buki had designed Santan Movement as a diversion tactic, Shirone could evolve it into a mobility technique with real offensive power.