WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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◈ The Magic-Eating Wizard ◈
Chapter 4: An Introduction to Magic
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His oldest memory was a children’s care room inside a courthouse on twenty-first-century Earth.
Was he three? Or four?
His parents stood on either side of him, shouting at each other with furious expressions.
“I told you I didn’t want to give birth! You take responsibility!”
“You used to brag about how you went through all that pain to have him! Can’t your mother raise him or something?”
He had been too young to understand those words, yet he instinctively understood.
They wanted to separate, and neither wanted to take responsibility for a burden like him.
“My dad is actually a billionaire!”
“Then my dad is the President of the United States!”
“Idiot, the President of the United States is American!”
“I could be American!”
After eventually being abandoned at an orphanage, he sometimes envied children who did not even know who their parents were.
At least they could indulge in empty fantasies. Perhaps their parents had only lost them by mistake and were still searching somewhere, or perhaps they had circumstances that made raising a child impossible.
When he grew older and left the orphanage, his future had seemed bleak. Fortunately, he managed to build some kind of foundation for survival.
By chance, he took a bit part in a film and caught the director’s eye.
“Good! That’s the emotion I wanted! This kid has the voice and the face for it. He was born to be an actor!”
It was the first time anyone had praised him for something other than doing well in school.
Sneaking into theaters in disguise and watching countless people laugh and cry at his acting was quite rewarding.
Yet even after becoming a nationally beloved actor and gaining more wealth and fame than he could ever need, the emptiness inside him remained unfilled.
The despair that came from believing he was someone nobody needed, not even his own parents...
Expensive liquor, sports cars, wild parties in penthouses, none of it could fill that hole.
So when he received a second life, he cried as others cared for him.
They were not tears born of a newborn’s animal instinct, but hot tears carrying more than thirty years of life.
The familial love he felt for the first time was endlessly sweet.
Lying in a warm, cozy cradle with his belly full of milk, listening to lullabies, he thought that even heaven could not be happier than this.
The language at his ears was unfamiliar, but it did not matter.
It did not matter what country they came from or what kind of people they were. Even if they were criminals or murderous maniacs, it would have been fine.
The fact that they considered him their child and loved him was enough for him to give everything in return.
Unfortunately, before his eyesight had even properly developed, he was abandoned on a beach near Moria amid what sounded like an argument. He never even saw their faces.
Being abandoned twice did not hurt him all that deeply.
Perhaps the despair he had felt when he was abandoned the first time had been too overwhelming.
Or perhaps he was simply grateful enough to be alive again.
Still, there was one thing he wanted to know.
Had he been abandoned again, or had he only lost his parents amid the chaos of the Great War?
And if they had abandoned him, why?
Any clues had been gone for a long time, leaving him no way to find the answer. Yet that lingering attachment remained deep in his heart.
* * *
After spending a long time sharing stories of their pasts, Haren formed a fairly good bond with Rim.
The timid boy seemed to have longed for someone he could speak with comfortably like this.
Ruska, arrogant and violent, and Nasrel, cold and indifferent to everything, were clearly not good conversation partners.
Once the mood had warmed somewhat, Haren brought up what he had been wondering about all along.
“Could you tell me a little about magic? Master said I should learn the basics from you all.”
“Huh? Ah... Well, it’s not difficult. I’ve only been learning for a few months myself, so I don’t know that much. What are you curious about?”
“The truth is, I don’t even know what I don’t know about magic. If possible, I’d like you to start with the most fundamental things.”
At Haren’s request, Rim wore an expression as though he had fallen into thought.
Weren’t such fundamental subjects often more profound and difficult when examined deeply?
After gathering his thoughts for a moment, the boy began to speak.
“So... In the beginning, there were creatures born with magical power. Dragons and giants, flying horses, stormbirds, turtles that ate rocks, things like that. Back then, humans were just walking monkeys incapable of wielding magic.”
Perhaps theoretical explanations suited him. Rim’s voice was slightly more excited than before.
His stutter lessened and his voice grew louder, making him easier to understand.
“But one day, the first wizard captured a Fire Lizard alive and ate it, gaining magical power. Everyone who had tried something like that before had died, but for some reason, perhaps through luck, that person became the first to survive.”
“A Fire Lizard...”
The creature currently assimilated into Haren’s inner world was also a Fire Lizard.
Hearing about the failed attempts reminded him of Kishasha, who had died horribly twisted, brain matter spilling from his ears.
“After the first wizard appeared, humanity learned it could gain magical power by eating magical creatures. At first, people simply ate them whole, but later they learned it was better to eat only certain parts that contained power. Then they found ways to process those parts and reduce the risk... That was the origin of magic and alchemy.”
Haren traced letters onto the tabletop with a finger, committing Rim’s words to memory.
For someone who had never even attended a proper school, every piece of such basic knowledge was precious.
“By consuming potions and imprinting an essence, wizards can gain some of the abilities that creature possessed. Physical abilities and resistances, even magic itself. This is called Imprint Magic.”
“So I awakened through the Fire Lizard Potion and gained the ability to breathe fire because of that?”
Strictly speaking, Kishasha had drunk the potion. But since he and Haren had been bound by a magical curse at the time, they must have shared its effects.
After all, Haren had nearly died from the potion’s backlash.
“Right. That’s Flame Breath Magic. I drank a potion made from a Scythe Weasel, so I can use Wind Blade Magic. Like this...”
Rim reached a hand toward the window, and with a sharp hiss, one side of the curtain was sliced apart as though cut by an invisible blade.
“That’s amazing!”
Even grazing someone’s carotid artery with that attack could cause fatal damage.
It was not flashy, but its killing power seemed far greater than Haren’s Flame Breath Magic.
At Haren’s sincere admiration, Rim smiled shyly.
“It’s nothing special. It’s one of the most basic kinds of magic. Anyway, newly awakened beginner wizards like us are called first-rank wizards. And there are nine ranks in total.”
“Ah, I’ve seen that in the newspaper.”
There had been stories of genius wizards reaching the fifth rank at a young age, or discussions of how a nation’s power differed according to its number of seventh-rank wizards.
“Do you know what rank Master is? I saw him deflect bullets with his bare body.”
“I don’t know either. But isn’t he at least fourth-rank? They say most independent wizards unaffiliated with a nation are third-rank or below, so even that would be incredible.”
“I see.”
There was not the slightest sign in Rim’s expression or manner of speaking that he was hiding something or evading the question.
“And the reason he deflected bullets was probably because of a mana field.”
“A mana field?”
“Yeah. Every wizard can use mana to control an invisible force that ordinary people cannot see. Like this.”
When Rim raised one hand, something like translucent vapor or heat haze wrapped around it.
“Its basic use is like a barrier around your skin, but with skill, you can use it in more ways. You can expand its range to protect the clothes you’re wearing, strengthen the force of your blows, or reshape it to stab or cut.”
“Can you make a mana field invisible even to another wizard?”
“Master’s mana field is. I don’t know how he does it, though. I guess we’ll learn later.”
Haren remembered Cardin subduing both him and Kishasha without moving a finger.
The mana field must have been what let him take fire and lightning against his body without concern.
“Can I use a mana field too?”
“It shouldn’t be too hard. Imagine mana flowing through your veins and out of your body.”
He had felt that sensation with terrifying clarity only hours earlier, so reproducing it was not difficult.
It did not work at first, but after a few attempts, he was able to cover his body in a mana field just as Rim had.
“You did it!”
“So this is what it feels like...”
Deploying a mana field felt like wrapping his body in lukewarm water.
He still lacked the skill for the applications Rim had described, but shifting the protected area or widening and narrowing its range was not difficult.
It was fun, as though he had gained a new muscle that had never existed before.
While he eagerly played with his newly acquired power, Nasrel, seated beside him, spoke.
“Dinner.”
“Huh?”
“If we wait any longer, we won’t be able to eat.”
She pointed outside, where it had already grown pitch-black.
It had been near sunset when they left Elmin Street with Cardin, so it was quite late even for dinner.
“Ah, you’re right... It seems too late to go out to eat. Haren, are you hungry?”
“A little.”
“Then let’s ask the staff for food. This place prepares meals separately for guests.”
A short while later, Haren ate dinner brought by the inn staff while talking with Rim and Nasrel.
It was a sort of room service that they paid for afterward.
The meal was a Moria specialty, bread piled high with pickled salmon roe. Haren was familiar with it, having received leftovers a few times while helping at a tavern.
When he bit into it, the savory bread and the salty richness of the salmon roe filled his mouth.
“Not enough. Bring more.”
He also learned that Nasrel had an enormous appetite.
While Haren and Rim ate two each, she ate six and still wanted more. She even devoured the two left for Ruska.
In the end, Rim had to go down to the first floor and get more bread.
“That’s unbelievable. Where does it all go?”
“She’s always eaten that much.”
At Haren’s baffled murmur, Rim answered with a giggle.
After finishing the meal, Haren had intended to hear more of Rim’s lecture on magic.
But the fatigue he had postponed came crashing down, and his eyes kept closing.
Seeing this, Rim suggested that they continue tomorrow and that Haren should sleep for the day.
“Sorry. You went through all that trouble explaining things.”
“It’s fine. I had fun too. I’ll tell you more tomorrow!”
While the two exchanged farewells, Nasrel had already gone into her room without saying a word.
The bathroom had proper plumbing, so Haren was able to wash with warm water.
After changing into pajamas and lying down on the soft bed stuffed full of duck feathers, he felt as though his body were melting.
* * *
“Ugh...”
The next morning, Haren awoke groaning from a headache caused by lack of sleep.
Despite being physically comfortable, he had slept poorly because the pain he felt while gaining magical power kept returning in nightmares.
It must have been such a horrible experience that it had imprinted itself deeply in his mind.
He had barely managed to sit up in his dazed state when someone knocked. Haren staggered to his feet and opened the door.
The moment he saw Cardin’s smiling face, all sleepiness vanished.
Cardin had not returned before Haren went to bed last night, so he seemed to have come back at dawn or in the morning.
“Hello, Master.”
“Good morning, young Haren. You look pale. Couldn’t sleep well?”
“Yes, a little...”
“A young man shouldn’t be so lacking in energy! When I was your age, I could stay awake for three days and nights without a problem.”
After delivering that old man’s lecture, Cardin tilted his head toward the hallway.
“Wash up and come out quickly. I intend to go out for morning training.”
“Morning training?”
“Now that you have become a wizard, shouldn’t you hone your abilities? This inn is hardly the proper place for it.”
It was exactly what he had wanted, so Haren hurried to the bathroom and washed his face with cold water.
His rusted mind began to turn again.
I should get a haircut soon...
He had smoothed it down with hair oil yesterday, but without making himself presentable, it looked far too long and messy.
If he got the chance, perhaps he should find a nearby barber.
When he changed clothes and came out, Ruska, Rim, and Nasrel were also waiting in clothes suitable for moving around.
Ruska was still glaring at Cardin as though he wanted to kill him, but he did nothing else.
“Let’s go.”
The five left Targa Inn under the send-off of a lobby employee and hailed an empty carriage passing by.
They rode to the edge of the city, where the paved road ended, then walked for another twenty minutes before reaching their destination.
They arrived at a nearby stretch of coast, far from the resort area frequented by travelers and sparsely populated.
It was an ideal place for a dark wizard and his disciples to secretly grow stronger.
“This should do for today. The weather is excellent as well.”
After looking around, Cardin nodded with a satisfied expression.
“First, young Ruska, Miss Nasrel, and young Rim will take turns sparring freely. I will watch you shortly. Haren, you will have a private lesson with me first.”
“Tch.”
“Okay.”
“Yes, Master!”
After separating the three disciples, each of whom responded differently, Cardin found two large rocks and sat facing Haren.
“Did you learn anything yesterday?”
“Yes. I heard a little about the origins of magic and mana fields.”
After Haren summarized what he had learned from Rim the day before, Cardin smiled.
“I was right to leave it to them. We can consider the troublesome basic education finished. Then today’s lesson should cover how to deal with contamination.”
“Contamination?”
“It is a phenomenon that naturally occurs when the essence of a magical creature mixes with a human soul. You experienced it yesterday as well, did you not?”
Not just yesterday. He had suffered nightmares repeatedly until just before waking that morning, so there was no way he could forget.
As he recalled it, Cardin pulled a glass bottle filled with pale blue liquid from his robes and ordered him,
“Drink.”
“This is...”
Remembering how he had nearly died when Kishasha drank that potion, cold sweat streamed down Haren’s back.
At his reaction, Cardin grinned and shook his head.
“Do not worry. That potion was made with the aim of killing the sacrifice from the beginning. This one is much milder by comparison. You should be able to digest it without much problem.”
He did not know whether that was true, but he understood well enough that refusing was not an option.
He closed his eyes and swallowed it all at once. It tasted slightly salty, then sour.
“Ugh...”
Unlike when he drank the Fire Lizard Potion, what rose from his stomach this time was a freezing chill.
Still, as Cardin had said, it was not as painful as before.
It merely made his entire body tremble as though he had fallen into ice water.
The moment he focused his consciousness on his inner world, he felt a blue spider encroaching upon his soul.
Just as he was about to deal with it, Cardin spoke from outside.
“From now on, listen only to my words. First, imagine that there is no light of any kind in your inner world...”
The old man’s voice seeped into Haren’s mind in a calm tone, like that of a hypnotist.
What he asked was simple.
Like meditation taught in Buddhism or yoga, Haren had to empty every thought and slowly sink the remnants of the magical creature clinging to his soul into the darkness filling his inner world.
The explanation was so detailed and careful that merely following it allowed Haren to imagine the blue spider’s essence sinking and tangling in the darkness.
What he imagined in his inner world soon became reality. Unlike before, he had not shifted the contamination away using the soul inside his soul, yet he felt the side effects lessen.
A little later, Haren opened his eyes with a sigh. Cardin, seated across from him, asked,
“Finished?”
“Yes.”
“Hmm. Not as fast as I expected. Still, your resistance to contamination is certainly strong... Was it merely luck after all? Or an unknown constitution?”
Hearing the mutter, Haren realized that Cardin had made him drink and digest another potion to uncover his secret.
If he had digested it using the second soul within him, Kadin might have discovered it.
Cardin tilted his head, then explained with a slightly disappointed expression.
“This is a meditation method. It is how wizards accept the essences of magical creatures. What you have just learned is the meditation method of our school. It is a secret art, so do not carelessly reveal it elsewhere. It could become dangerous.”
“Of course, Master. I won’t tell anyone. Not even if my parents came back from the dead.”
Haren declared that he would never leak it anywhere, pretending to be the world’s most loyal disciple.
Perhaps amused by his playful exaggeration, Cardin laughed heartily and patted Haren’s shoulder.
“Then let us test your newly acquired magic.”
“Yes.”
Just as when he absorbed the Fire Lizard before, Haren instinctively knew the effect of the potion he had just drunk.
He took off his shoes and socks, then walked toward the shore, where gentle waves rolled in.
One step. Two steps.
Soon, even after he had gone far enough that the water should have risen well above his ankles, his feet remained dry.
Haren was walking on water.
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