Let’s talk about magic. It’s come up a few times already, but there’s this power called magic in this world.
It’s not like it’s available to everyone, you need both aptitude and ability. Unfortunately, while I do have the aptitude, I lack the very important ability.
In this case, ability refers to the fundamental power needed to use magic, magic energy. It’s like MP in a video game.
I once asked Mirabel about how magic energy is stored, but it was too technical for me to understand.
Basically, humans in this world have an extra organ that’s like a heart, and it pumps magic energy through our bodies like blood.
Everyone has magic energy in this world, but not all have enough to use it to fight or do research. That’s down to ability.
I have more magic energy than most, but not enough for me to be able to actually use magic, so I gave up on it.
As for aptitude, magic is divided into categories. Aptitude dictates what magic of what attribute people can use. For example, someone may use the Fire Ball magic of the fire attribute and nothing else.
There are seven attributes, fire, water, wind, lightning, earth, holy, and dark.
Aptitude dictates what magic people use, and since that’s decided at birth, no amount of effort will change it.
The one exception here is the holy attribute. People affiliated with the church can learn holy magic.
Although since Mirabel is a goddess, I don’t think it’s actually gods who grant them those powers.
The only way to know about aptitude of this kind of magic is to ask priests and nuns, so I assume they’re meddling somehow.
Getting back on track, that’s what you need to use magic, aptitude and ability (magic energy).
With aptitude but no magic energy, you can’t use magic. And a lot of people with magic energy can’t use magic because they have no aptitude.
I can technically use the fire magic Meteo, but I don’t have the magic energy needed.
I thought it was awesome when a priest told me about it, and was sad when I realized I can’t use it.
Aptitude typically means being able to use one spell of an attribute. Some people can use two fire spells, but it’s generally just one.
It’s very rare, but some can use multiple spells of multiple attributes.
We call people with multiple aptitudes and the magic energy to use them mages. And Sasha is one such mage.
◇ ◇ ◇
After saying goodbye to Eclair, I start hearing a ruckus that gets louder the more I walk. When I see it’s coming from the tavern where I’m going, I get a bad feeling as I go in.
“Ueeei! I won!”
“…”
The first thing I see is a woman with brown hair declaring her victory while raising a wooden mug I’m sure has alcohol. And a burly man with his face on the table.
That’s one of my companions, the mage Sasha.
This ruckus is coming from someone who is small even for a woman, and who seems to have just won a drinking contest against this burly man.
“If you think ya can beat me, step right up!”
“I’ll do it!”
And she’s still going. Drinking in the morning doesn’t feel right to me, but I guess it’s proof of how peaceful this town is.
If nothing else, Sasha has the appearance of a cute girl, so I see men around her with slovenly expressions. The thought of her passing out drunk crosses my mind, but with her tolerance for alcohol and power as a mage combined, she’ll be fine.
I need to talk to her, but this may take a while.
Since I have the time, maybe I’ll talk about her. But first, let’s talk about magic energy.
In this world, it regenerates naturally. There are no items to restore it like in video games.
That organ that’s like a heart is always working, so if you don’t use magic, magic energy regenerates automatically.
The amount varies from person to person, but even if you run out, you should have it all back if you sleep for a night.
Generally speaking, people recover magic energy proportionally with the max amount they have. The more you have, the more you recover.
Mages have to always keep their magic energy in mind as they fight.
Using strong magic will consume more of it, and it goes without saying that the more they fight, the more they use.
This sounds bad, but mages are generally useless without magic energy. Just like how people need to train their bodies to use swords, they need knowledge to use magic. And so, almost no mages switch to using swords once they run out of magic energy.
What about training so they can do both? That would lead to a jack of all trades, master of none situation. The time they would spend physically training could be better spent deepening their understanding of magic.
And that’s why people say a mage’s greatest foe is the management of magic energy.
Getting back to Sasha. She drinks a lot. She’s what people in my old world would call an alcoholic.
Her master told me how she got to be this way. It relates to the magic energy recovery I was talking about.
Before Sasha was an alcoholic, she was a fervent magic researcher. The times she used magic until she ran out could not be counted with the fingers on both her hands.
Needless to say, without magic energy, one can’t use magic. There’s no choice but to wait until it recovers. She was always annoyed that she couldn’t do research in the meantime, so naturally, she looked into other ways to recover it.
Some of you may have caught on to the fact that this woman turns alcohol into magic energy.
At first I asked myself if it really had to be alcohol, but according to Mirabel, only that organ can create magic energy. And it just so happens that said organ reacts the most to alcohol.
For better or worse, she’s a genius who picked the most optimal option.
With this newfound method of recovery, she started researching even harder. She’d drink once she ran out of magic energy, and dived right back into research.
She kept going like this, ignoring her master’s attempts to stop her, and that created the alcoholic we see here today.
She’s still doing her research, but at this point, I’m pretty sure she just drinks because she likes it.
The cart is fully before the horses.
“Hnnu! I won! Hihihi!”
She says with a smile as she drives the empty mug against the table.
Also, she’s another demon king suspect.
As I see her eyeing another challenger, I look back into her misdeeds.
Most of them involve alcohol. Unlike Eclair, it happened more than once or twice too.
According to her, the biggest damage she caused was due to the combination of drunkenness and magic.
“When I drink, I’m full of magic energy. And when someone wouldn’t leave me alone, I got pissed off.”
As a result, she blew open a tavern. It was a miracle that no one died, but a lot were injured, so the big ruckus that followed naturally led to her being arrested.
Due to the consideration of our king and the looming threat of the demon king being known to other countries, it’s known that we are the hero’s party, that is traveling to save the world.
But on the dirtier side of things, after telling the guard that arrested her that she’s from the hero’s party, healing the people who were hurt, and paying a big sum in reparations, she was released. And we made her pay her bail.
I will never forget the guard’s face when he realized we were the hero’s party.
Well then, let’s go and talk to Sasha.
“Bring it on! Who’s next!?”
I sigh, as it seems she’s not done yet.
