WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 640: Black Magic, White Magic, and Gray Magic - 4

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Back when magic had only just begun to emerge, when the word mage had not even made it into the dictionary.

Those who wielded nature's mysteries inspired both respect and fear.

They were wise and wealthy, eccentric but useful. Their mysterious arts were a ray of hope blooming in this harsh, frigid land. The domains they created by twisting the laws of nature protected people from the unforgiving environment.

In the open plains of the continent's north, they became the center of humanity.

But there was such a thing as inferiority. Humans could harbor feelings close to hatred simply because someone else was doing well.

Mages were usually intellectuals, and having devoted much of their time to study, they were unskilled in martial arts. Those consumed by inferiority could attack mages to their heart's content without fearing retaliation.

If your toes froze and had to be amputated, it was the ice witch's curse.

If a fire spreading from the campfire burned down your house, it was the flame witch's arson.

If the boat you had left on the river drifted away in the wind, it was the wind witch's prank.

If my private, shameful secret spread through the entire village, it was the sound witch's doing.

Every misfortune was blamed on magic and used as grounds to hunt mages. Trials were held one after another in villages, and witches were dragged into the square to suffer every kind of torment. Witch hunters roamed from city to city, continuing their hunts.

Until Saint Rene stitched the lands together and drew a map.

"The term 'foolish citizens' means a multitude of stupid people. You call them ignorant simply because they don't know magic, but from my perspective, you're no different from them. Even if bees buzz about how different they are from ants, they're both insects, aren't they?"

Witch hunts were atrocities committed by the ignorant, atrocities that must never happen again. That was why mages settled their "duels" by comparing knowledge, and why no one could be convicted unless the existence of magic was proven.

'White magic with black magical energy? He didn't even use gems as a medium, nor did he use alchemical coins. Where did he draw that magical energy from? How did he weave it without me seeing?'

Temperus struggled to interpret my magic. It was a futile attempt, but as an enforcer of the Celsius family, they could not admit defeat.

How could someone more foolish dare judge someone superior?

'He definitely drew magic circles into those cards! But the problem is the magical energy! The reason he could convert that black magical energy into white magical energy is...!'

"An innate arcane! You drew magical energy out through your innate arcane! You're an arcane adept!"

"Is that what you think? Hmm. It's a convenient guess when you don't know the answer."

It was reasonable, too. In a sense, it really was innate arcane.

"I don't know why you awakened an innate arcane only to dabble in black magic, but don't make the mistake of thinking you're the only one with innate arcane! The Celsius family has a long history and four arcane adepts trained even in the family's secret magic combat arts! Don't think you're the only special one!"

"Oh. That's exactly what I wanted to say."

They had summed it up so neatly. They had saved me the trouble of saying it myself.

"I find that act of yours, bragging and pretending to be special after feeding on scraps of magic, truly unpleasant to watch. Mages are everywhere, and you're not particularly special even among them. You only climbed a tower built by others."

"You...!"

"Being part of an order doesn't make you the order itself. You all have far too many delusions, you know? Then again, humans are human because they're stupid and foolish."

I sighed and shuffled my cards in front of them.

"What are you doing?! Seize him now! You may kill him!"

The bodyguards, finally coming to their senses, tried to move. Hilde was one step faster. Before they could even adjust their grips on their spears, Hilde had already stepped inside their guard.

"Haaah. As expected, I'm the one who has it hardest~."

Thud, thud, thud, thud.

Hilde's footprint sank into one guard's chest. As the guard's body folded in, Hilde stepped on them and sprang up, crashing into another guard. In the blink of an eye, four bodyguards collapsed.

The Arcane Federation was a country where magic itself was power. There was no power to hand out to martial artists foolish enough to train their bodies. Naturally, both the number and quality of martial artists were lower than in other nations.

Even so, Hilde's skill in taking down four of them in a single breath was exceptional.

Temperus stared in shock.

"A mere housekeeper defeated my bodyguards?"

Hilde pulled off the hood wrapped around her head.

"A professional housekeeper is supposed to have the fighting power of four warriors~. That's common sense, isn't it?"

"What kind of common sense is that?! You were a bodyguard disguised as a housekeeper. Tch, useless fools! This is why the ignorant who use their bodies are..."

The fallen bodyguards were only the vanguard. They had been hired to buy time for Temperus to cast magic. During that time, Temperus finished the incantation and drew a magic circle from the gem at the tip of their staff.

The magic circle glowed in the air. Hilde moved to attack before Temperus could complete the spell, but stopped when she saw how calm I was.

"Master of Permafrost. Arbiter of phases. Celsius Archive, set! Abbreviate the magic circle, omit the incantation. Mana control backup!"

In that brief moment, Temperus completed the magic circle.

The rule of Celsius territory. With its support, Temperus omitted part of the incantation and simplified the magic circle. The circle's condensation-conversion stage was omitted, and all the magical energy that would have been used on it was converted into power.

Having filled the magic circle with magical energy in that short time, Temperus brought down their staff as they chanted.

"Freeze. Al Asus!"

It was an all-directional freezing spell. The air extending from the staff froze white, and a fierce cold rushed at me. I curled up against it.

Frost formed over my skin. My shoes were already covered in ice, leaving me unable to move. It felt as if my body had become a single icicle.

"This is Celsius magic!"

Temperus did not care that their own bodyguards were caught in the attack. Hilde avoided the spell by using two guards as shields, but I took it head-on. When I glanced down, jagged ice was growing behind my body.

Still, I could speak.

"Celsius magic looks like cold magic, but it actually controls phase transitions between solids and liquids. Crystals may look cold, but they are surprisingly unrelated to cold. Its essence is storing and releasing heat and magical energy through forced phase transitions. It looks like you're freezing, but it doesn't do much harm to the body."

"Enough showing off! That ice is a solid magical-energy crystal. You won't be able to move even a fingertip now! If you try to break it by force, that power will tear your body to shreds!"

Would it really? I shrugged.

"You should think a little harder. I understood your magic. Did you really think I wouldn't prepare any countermeasures?"

Crack, crack.

Broken ice fell away. My body was still covered in ice, but I walked forward as though nothing was wrong.

Temperus gaped as I approached with ice hanging from my body.

"...What? How are you moving?"

"That's for you to figure out. How do you think I did it?"

"W-what innate arcane is that?! You didn't even use any other magic...!"

"What? You didn't even see what I did? Hah. I expected more from a mage who walks around with their head held so high..."

Temperus stumbled backward. The ice they had made had certainly struck me, and I had frozen exactly as expected.

Yet contrary to their calculations, I could still move.

"Don't know? I can take that as a declaration of defeat, right? I'm not a particularly patient person, so I can't wait long."

"Ggh, gghhh! Not yet, not yet...!"

'What magic should I use? Crystallization won't work. Then a crystal explosion? No, he has already figured out crystal magic! Should I use a different branch? But without the backup, it won't work against an arcane adept...!'

"Too late."

They had thought for too long. It could not be helped, considering a mage's thoughts were their strength.

I walked over and reached for Temperus's staff. Startled, Temperus hurriedly used magic. A trail of ice formed behind their heels, and wind pushed their body backward. It was an escape spell that any mage weak in close combat would keep prepared.

Just before the spell finished, though, Temperus caught on something and fell over disgracefully. A card had been planted beneath their foot.

"Gasp, gasp! When did you...!"

"Knowledge isn't that important. This world is full of things you don't know anyway. You're acting all high and mighty too, but you don't know any real truth, do you?"

Temperus knew nothing. What magic I had used, how I had walked with ice clinging to me, or when that card had appeared.

Why they had become an enforcer, why they were treated so well, or why they had to deal with black magic.

Of course they did not.

I had deceived them where they could not see.

"Mages of the Arcane Federation are not simply a group of people in power. If power were that precious to them, they would hide and monopolize it instead of sharing opportunities even with the ignorant in frontier school districts. Then is their goal to spread magic far and wide and enlighten everyone? Well, if that were the case, there would be no reason to cast aside the unranked and frontier school districts so harshly, would there?"

"Ghk...!"

"Black magic isn't good magic, but it doesn't warrant such a hysterical rejection on that basis alone. Mages don't even believe in religion or like the Sanctum. Yet they share the same view when it comes to black magic, even though they once suffered persecution through those old witch hunts."

"What are you trying to say...?!"

I grabbed Temperus's throat with my hand still thickly coated in ice. I did not even apply any force, but the ice strangled their neck and made them choke.

"It means that you're also nothing more than an ignorant fool who follows orders like a scarecrow."

The sense of defeat from failing to understand magic, the pressure of my existence, and primal fear.

It was too much for a fragile mage to endure. Unable to bear it, Temperus soon rolled their eyes back and fainted.

Footnotes:

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