Mage? Magic Engineer!-Chapter 71 - 68: Phantoms of Two Sides

During his recuperation, Rorschach received a great deal of mail—"reader mail" in response to his published paper.

Kano had temporarily handed the Magic History class over to Pascal. After waking up in his dorm, Rorschach picked up a letter and opened it:

"Mage Rorschach, in my view, your experiment and conclusions still have flaws and seem arbitrary. My colleagues and our Dwarf acquaintances still adhere to the caloric theory...

But your approach of designing a series of experiments, collecting data, and attempting to explain it all with mathematical logic is inspiring. I would like to discuss with you the design of verification experiments for the following hypotheses, as well as methods for statistical characterization..."

He gave it a quick scan before opening another letter:

"Esteemed Mage Rorschach:

I simply couldn’t agree more with your conclusions! I was deeply inspired when I saw your attempt to extend the principle of equivalent exchange to energy!

...but allow me to point out that attempting to use general logic to generalize wondrous Magic is ill-advised! Describing it with mathematical tools, in particular, is very dangerous. The abstraction process will distort our intuitive perception of the Ether and cause your spiritual acuity to become rigid. Please, trust your keen intuition..."

’What the heck? Aren’t the opinions in these two letters the exact opposite?’ He suddenly wanted to give each of them the other’s return address to facilitate a friendly, offline exchange.

Rorschach opened a few more letters, writing brief replies to some of the critiques. As for the more aggressively worded ones, he simply dealt with them using his [Decomposition Skill].

In the Tower of Stars, besides the reinforced Alchemy Classroom, there were also practice rooms specially for Mages and Apprentices, which were enchanted with Protection and regularly maintained by Middle Tier Mages.

The demand for practice rooms in the tower was considerable. New apprentices could only apply under a teacher’s supervision, while apprentices from the third year onward were allowed to apply in groups of three. With his privileges, Rorschach could book five hours every ten days. He had given his time for the first ten-day period to his temporary assistant, Apprentice Pascal, as a reward.

"Mr. Rorschach, your reserved practice room will be available in half an hour," the Tower Spirit’s voice announced. Rorschach instinctively replied, "Thanks." The Tower Spirit was surprisingly courteous. "You’re welcome, Mage Rorschach."

’This Tower Spirit is actually pretty great. It’d be nice if my status panel had a voice assistant,’ Rorschach thought as he gathered his letters of reply. He had noticed the last time he picked up a package that the mailroom didn’t just receive materials purchased from the Guild; it could also send letters out for you.

After mailing his letters, Rorschach headed out to Stella Garden, where he found Gaisde Yazi, with its distinctive plumage, in the artificial lake. From his Storage Ring, he took out some small fish and a grain mash he had saved from the cafeteria.

"Gaisde, Gaisde?" Rorschach called out twice. ’If he ignores me, I’ll just grab him,’ he schemed.

"QUACK! QUACK!" Gaisde swam over quickly, waggling its tail feathers. And then...

From the reeds by the shore emerged two more white ducks, even cuter than Gaisde. They called softly to Gaisde, while cautiously observing Rorschach and keeping their distance as they paddled around.

Rorschach was about to say, ’Yazi, you haven’t lost any weight—in fact, you’ve gotten fatter!’ when he noticed its two pretty little followers.

’They can’t all be hens, can they?’

"QUACK!" Gaisde came ashore and tried to bite Rorschach’s cuff again.

Rorschach was exasperated. He placated the creature with the fish and grain mash. "You little devil! To think I was worried you’d lost weight, and here you are building a harem?"

"QUACK! QUACK!" Gaisde herded one of the ducks ashore and pushed it in front of Rorschach. Only then did Rorschach realize the duck’s wing was injured. There was a faint redness, and it appeared to be broken. Such injuries were sometimes seen in birds that flew often, but for a duck in an artificial lake to be hurt like this, it was most likely the result of a fight.

Rorschach could have tried using the [Resuscitation Skill], but as it happened, he had an experiment to run. Conjuring a gust of air to dry the water from its feathers, Rorschach scooped it up.

The white duck was very fluffy. The oil it secreted prevented the cold lake water from completely soaking its feathers. Whether from fear or pain, the duck in Rorschach’s arms didn’t make a sound, but just trembled uncontrollably.

The youth returned to the Tower of Stars and entered the reserved room. Its ceiling was clearly much higher than a normal floor’s, and all four walls had glowing circuits on them. In a corner were piled broken and brand-new straw dummies.

He activated [Deryats Forest]. Similar to its effect in the Sub-plane, Rorschach summoned a Dense Forest shimmering with blue fireflies inside the practice room.

However, unlike the ritual that consumed Blood or the summoning during the final battle with the Divine Corpse, the trees here were formed directly from blue fluorescence; no real trees broke through the earth. It was just as the panel’s note said: Merely a phantom of the God of the Forest’s homeland.

Rorschach placed his hand on a tree trunk, feeling its rough texture.

’No real trees, but they’re corporeal. The drain on my Magic Power is huge...’ Rorschach noted his observations after the Casting.

The duck waddled into the forest. Specks of fluorescence separated from the treetops and settled on the duck’s wing. Rorschach picked it up and saw its wound had already healed, just as he had guessed.

He tried using [Magic Power Drive] to absorb ambient Magic Power. Rorschach discovered that with [Deryats Forest] active, the process was different from just directly siphoning mana from his surroundings. Experience told him that directly absorbing Ether from the environment would put him in a manic state, even pushing him to the brink of losing control. Now, however, as he absorbed the Magic Power, the specks of light were also drawn into his body, as naturally and easily as breathing.

Meanwhile, the forest’s fluorescence slowly began to fade, growing fainter and thinner.

Rorschach cast the spell again, and the small patch of forest inside the room brightened once more. However, the drain on him as the Caster prompted him to lean against a tree and sit, slowly reabsorbing the blue fluorescence.

From his Storage Ring, he took out a larger notebook and a charcoal pencil and began to sketch the forest before him. After finishing a rough drawing, he willed a leaf to fall into his palm and proceeded to draw its shape.

After doing all this, he completely absorbed all the fireflies of the entire forest, then stood in the same spot and cast [Deryats Forest] again.

’Exactly the same.’ Rorschach compared his drawing to the re-summoned forest and saw no changes. ’It seems this scene is fixed.’ With that confirmed, Rorschach remembered his agreement with the Deer-headed God and took the beetle encased in amber from his pocket.

The amber dissipated, and the beetle quietly flapped its wings, circling through the forest.

’Fulfilling a promise and searching for the ruins of a Divine Spirit’s former home are both pretty interesting prospects,’ he thought. ’But the Black Forest is huge. It’ll be hard to pinpoint the location with just this...’ Rorschach drew a few more leaves from different types of trees.

"Go on, go find that rascal Yazi." Rorschach returned to the artificial lake and released the white duck. The two ducks swam a circle around each other, waggling their tails. "QUACK! QUACK!" Yazi called out to Rorschach again.

"I’ll just take that as a ’thank you.’" With that, Rorschach turned and left. He was headed to the Library to look up books on natural history and identify the specific species of the leaves he had drawn.

...

At the Valuva Stock Exchange, the sign was hung in the spacious hall. The traders were like soldiers before a battle. Everyone on the floor stared silently at Nekker in the center as Valon adjusted his bow tie.

Although Valon was now the esteemed general manager of the Shaleanna Mining Company, he was always completely respectful towards his benefactor.

"All set?"

"Perfect, sir."

"Good. Open the doors!" The great doors swung open, and a shouting crowd of well-informed merchant house managers and representatives of the Nobility swarmed in. They carried Paper Currency, Gold Coins, and even checks and government bonds.

The hall was a crush of bodies, a cacophony of voices.

The tolling of the exchange bell drowned out every other sound. Nekker surveyed the scene, his chest puffing out involuntarily like a crowing rooster. He cackled inwardly. ’The Holy Kingdom’s biggest casino is finally open for business!’