Magic Scavenger Part 1 Chapter 6

 Chapter 6: At Least She Watched Over Him Until It Was Done

That night, careful not to wake the other battlefield-scavenger kids sharing his room, Kanata slipped quietly out and made his way around to the back of the inn.

The backyard was strung with the mercenary company's laundry and bedsheets, thick enough that it was hard to see what was going on back there from outside. It was even harder at night.

Incidentally, the laundry was done by Kanata, the punishment he'd taken on in Roa's place.

"「Select」."

Now that he was out in the backyard, Kanata spoke the same words he'd chanted a few days ago, the ones that came right in his mind for the spell that burned his sleeping bag.

Sure enough, the same spell that had burned his sleeping bag rose appeared in his mind again.

If he chanted it, he'd probably be able to cast the spell again, just like he had a few days ago.

...But that wasn't what he was after tonight.

"Why didn't I realize it before...!"

Seeing the spell's name surface in his mind again made it real that what happened a few days ago hadn't been a dream after all and Kanata couldn't help but smile.

At the same time, the feeling from that moment came rushing back to him.

"I already know *the answer*, don't I...!"

What Griare had taught him was an extremely common training method for sensing mana.

It was far from inefficient. Picturing blood, which flowed through the body the same way mana did, made perfect logical sense as a mental image.

Normally, that was how someone would first get a grip on the sensation of mana itself, then master reinforcing their body with it, and only then move on to learning actual spells, step by step. But Kanata was different.

Kanata had gone and used actual magic before he ever got a sense for mana, before he'd ever reinforced his body with it, before any of that.

It was a way of learning that sent efficiency and common sense flying clean out the window.

If you wanted to put a name to it, it was the kind of contradiction you'd get from a marathon where the finish line is the starting line.

Being something different put it outside the usual question of talent, whether he had it or lacked it. But if that was how things stood, it was still a method for him.

"Honestly, I've got no clue what this spell even means, but... if I'm in a state where I can actually cast it then that's gotta mean I've got mana for sure, right?!"

Magic ran on mana. Which meant casting a spell necessarily meant using mana too.

Normally, the goal was to learn to handle mana first and cast a spell as the result. Kanata was doing it backward, trying to sense mana starting from a state where he could already cast a spell he'd suddenly gained out of nowhere.

"...!"

The spell's name, still floating in his mind, stoked his curiosity.

The sheer sense of power that came with magic suddenly sprouting inside someone who'd had nothing before.

Kanata pressed his lips shut and held out against the temptation to change himself in one giant leap without understanding any of it.

He pushed down the small spark of curiosity he'd always gotten from the Rubbish and chose the basics instead.

...And eventually, a reward came for having held out.

Kanata could feel it clearly now, something welling up from deep in his chest.

"This is... mana...! Ha, this feels so weird!"

It had appeared out of nowhere, a ticklish feeling squirming through his body,and he laughed as he said exactly what he thought.

But he didn't push it away.

Kanata clenched his fist tight, determined not to let the feeling of mana he'd finally gotten slip away.

Neither the chill of the night wind nor the sound of the laundry fluttering reached Kanata's ears right now.

He kept his focus turned inward, unwilling to let go until he was completely certain that whatever was swirling inside him really was mana.

"...! Hah...! Ahh...! Gwuh!"

He'd apparently been holding his breath without realizing it and Kanata, dizzy from the sudden lack of air, sank down right where he stood and sat on the ground.

His whole body was slick with sweat despite the cool night air and the moment he sucked in a deep breath, the spell's name faded out of his mind too.

But as if refusing to let go of just this one thing, his fist stayed clenched tight.

"Not letting this go...!"

What remained in his body was the unmistakable, lingering feel of mana.

He couldn't control it freely yet but Kanata now knew for certain that he had mana inside him.

There was no way for him to tell if it was a lot or a little but there was no mistaking that it was progress all the same.

The hint of an answer he'd stumbled into thanks to Uval... sensing mana by working backward from magic, the answer itself, wasn't exactly the conventional way to do it, but this would probably end up being Kanata's foundation.

"Yes!"

Kanata pumped his fist, satisfaction washing over him at having been right.

But that joy lasted only a moment. Mixed in among the hanging laundry, he caught a flash of orange hair swaying at the edge of his vision.

"........."

"Ah! G-Griare... Vice-Captain...!"

Kanata himself, completely absorbed in sensing mana, hadn't noticed at all. But at some point, Griare had appeared, leaning back against the inn's wall, watching him with a dead serious expression.

The moment he finally noticed her, Griare flashed a smile that was anything but gentle.

On reflex, Kanata shot to his feet and snapped his back ramrod straight.

"Heh. Working hard, are we, Kanata?"

"Y-yes, ma'am..."

With that, Griare closed the distance in silence, and the pressure coming off her was tremendous.

Kanata braced for a scolding and stood up straight, and Griare grabbed his ear and yanked it hard.

"I felt mana coming from the backyard and wondered what on earth was going on, and it turns out it's you...!"

"Ow-ow-ow-ow!"

"We ship out the day after tomorrow, so why in the world would you go and do something that could turn into a real problem?!"

"Sorry, sorry! Once the idea hit me I couldn't just sit around and do nothing about it...!"

In the first place, the whole reason Griare had coached him was to stop exactly this kind of trouble, another accidental magic discharge burning something else down.

So even if trying to sense mana starting from a stage before he'd even cast a spell struck Kanata as a clever idea, from Griare's perspective it had the whole thing backward. It amounted to little more than a baseless experiment.

"Your magic is a complete unknown. If the laundry here had caught fire, who was going to explain that? How?!"

"I'm thowwy..."

"Honestly..."

"Ow!"

After the ear, it was his cheek next, stretched to its absolute limit.

His pinched cheek had gone a little red, but not enough to leave a real mark.

It felt exactly like the kind of scolding a mother gives her child, and though he'd never admit it out loud, Kanata was a little glad for it.

"There are people who can sense mana, myself included. What happens if word of this reaches Uval through someone else? Do you want to be thrown out?"

"S-sorry..."

"Honestly... if anyone brings up tonight, I'll back you up and say I was the one out practicing mana manipulation. Be grateful."

"Vice-Captain Griare...!"

Kanata felt a small swell of gratitude toward Griare, exasperated as she clearly was, for backing up his story anyway.

The pain from his ear and cheek felt like it had all but flown away.

"Get back to your room, now. As punishment, you're skipping breakfast tomorrow."

"Eh?"

"No breakfast!"

"Y-yes! Of course, ma'am!"

Kanata hurried back toward his room, trying not to provoke any more shouting out of Griare.

Just because Griare was covering for him didn't mean she wasn't genuinely angry.

Maybe to keep their stories straight, Griare didn't follow him and stayed behind in the backyard.

"Working backward from magic to mana, huh... kids really do have that kind of imagination or whatever you want to call it..."

Given her position and the circumstances, she couldn't say it to his face but privately, Griare admired the method Kanata had landed on.

Working backward from the answer to the process was arguably more rational than groping around at random. Even if it was a completely backward order to learn mana and magic.

"Maybe he surprisingly has good instincts... or am I wrong...?"

Unable to feel fully confident in her own read on it, Griare tilted her head.

After all, she'd never once seen anyone handle magic before anything else the way Kanata just had. Even Griare herself couldn't say for certain what to make of it.