[V4C10] A Shaman’s Circumstances
Translated by Jodas 4: Flying Through the SkySophie moped after being scolded by Director Linke, so Wren nervously tried to say something to cheer her up.
“Um… So you Shamans can control the Abyss? The same Abyss where Monsters come from? That’s awesome!”
“Ehe, ehehe… I guess?”
Sophie’s face heated up and practically melted. Easy.
Wren tried to sort out what Sophie had taught him in his head.
“So, um… The Abyss is like a swamp made of negative emotions and mana all mixed together. It’s from that Abyss where Monsters are born. Then, a curse is when a part of that Abyss leaks out… and Sophie can control that. Do I have that right?” “Yeah, that’s it. Shamans carry a part of that goopy swamp in our bodies, and pull out only as much as they need to cast our curses, or something like that?”
At that point, Sophie suddenly gasped.
Then she nervously ran her hands through her distinctive black-and-purple hair, making a mess of it, and rattled on breathlessly.
“So don’t you dare say that a Monster might come out of the Abyss inside me, okay! It’s not like that at all!”
“O- Okay…”
Sophie’s expression was desperate. Well, he understood where she was coming from.
Purely based on what he’d heard, it sounded like Shamans operate using the same power that births Monsters. A lot of people had long-standing prejudices about that.
And to be honest, even after that explanation just now, Wren himself was thinking That power could be some serious bad news.
The only reasons he could sit still without feeling terrified of her was because this was the Wedge Tower, where all sorts of magic was gathered, and because Director Linke was here with them.
Director Linke knew all of the circumstances surrounding Sophie, and with full knowledge of how she used her power, allowed her to be here and entrusted her with this job. — Wren got the sense she trusted Sophie.
Sophie rested her elbows on the table, buried her cheeks in her hands, and sighed.
“My whole family’s in a hard spot right now, too. Like, everyone thinks of Shamans as scary guys, right? We’re targets of persecution, right?”
“Yeah, I suppose.”
“That’s why, long ago, we went begging to the Emperor for his protection! We converted our religion to the Ras Belsch Orthodoxy…… We went out of our way to make our family name sound more like the name of the country… We did everything we could to show how we were pledging our loyalty to the Empire, you know?”
The Schwarzenberg Family of the Schwargald Empire — That made sense; they did sound similar.
He’d thought it must have been a hassle for her to have such a long surname, but it appeared there was a reason for that.
……But Wren noticed something about what she said.
“Are you saying it’s not like that anymore?”
If the Schwarzenberg Family still had the protection of the Emperor, then Sophie should be working at the Palace now, not out here in the Wedge Tower, right?
In the neighboring Kingdom of Ridill, there’s a position of power known as the Seven Sages, who stand as the pinnacle of that country’s mages. They’re advisors to the King, and are afforded a special title of nobility for their efforts. He’d heard that there was a Shaman among those Seven Sages.
And on top of then, when the head of that family changed, the new family head would also be appointed as one of the Seven Sages — Meaning that a family of Shamans always monopolized one of the seats among the Seven Sages.
That family of Shamans had created a place for themselves as one of the Seven Sages, and successfully secured their survival. The exact opposite of what had happened to Sophie’s family.
Sophie stuck out her lower lip and spoke with an expression brimming with uncertainty and displeasure.
“About a hundred years ago, we had a new Emperor who was super devoted to his faith, you know~?”
“Hm? Isn’t that a good thing?”
“That Emperor said something like ‘I want to be better friends with the Church, so I don’t want to be so close with the spooky Shamans anymore~’ and threw my family away like trash…”
“Oh geez…”
Since the Empire was historically made of a collection of many smaller countries, there was not one unified religion throughout the Empire.
Officially, the state religion was the Ras Belsch Orthodoxy, but in the West there was the Spirit God Faith, in the South there was Idaism, and there were pockets in the North that followed the Dragon Faith. By the way, Wren belonged to the Ras Belsch Orthodoxy.
Even though Sophie’s family converted to the Ras Belsch Orthodoxy in order to earn the Emperor’s protection, the Church in question said ‘Shamans are bad omens,’ and the Emperor treated them with disdain. What a pity.
“Then, with nowhere to go, the Schwarzenberg Family ended up asking for protection from the Wedge Tower. Since the Wedge Tower wanted Shamans who could control the power of the Abyss anyways, it was a win-win deal.”
As she spoke, Sophie ran her finger across the page of the book laid open in front of her.
As her finger moved, the letters began to let off a purple glow.
If she was pouring mana into a magical formula, Is that inscription magic? He thought, but the words he saw were clearly different from what he was used to.
“In order to seal away Monsters, you need the power to control the darkness of the Abyss, you know.”
“The details are secret, okay?” Sophie said as she closed the book.
That meant part of the reason why she often came to the Library Office like this was to ensure her skills at controlling the abyss didn’t fade away.
“Then, does that mean you can access the Second and Third Libraries, Sophie?”
“Yeah, I can. But don’t say it out loud, okay?”
Apprentices ordinarily weren’t allowed to access the Second and Third Libraries.
While one of them could receive special permission to enter those rooms if they became the Apprentices’ representative, it turned out that Sophie had nothing to gain from that.
“That’s why I don’t want to be representative at all. I want the desserts, though. I really want the desserts, though~~~~…… Do you want to be representative, Wren?”
“The desserts are appealing, but I don’t think I stand a chance against those three…”
Those three — Sevil, Julius, and Roswitha.
Sophie nodded along with satisfaction.
“I know, right~! Everyone else is so awesome~!”
“No,”
Wren sucked in his lips and looked intently at Sophie.
“You’re awesome yourself, Sophie! Even though you’re younger than me, you’ve been able to do all this work for your family and everything!”
Sophie was a person who held her mission close to her heart when she knocked on the gates of the Wedge Tower.
More than anything, the Wedge Tower needed her.
And while he was ashamed to admit it, he felt jealous of her.
“Ehe, ehehehe… Well said! I didn’t think you had it in you.”
With a big smile on her face, Sophie patted Wren on the back.
After his conversation with Sophie in the Library Office, Director Linke taught him the most basic fundamentals of inscription magic and lended him a few books filled with magical formulas.
Inscription magic was a form of magecraft that could be activated by writing it down on a piece of paper. However, the spell wouldn’t activate unless you wrote it correctly. That necessitated intensive practice.
Now that he’d borrowed books on the fundamentals, the next things he needed were paper and ink. Inscription magic required specialized paper and ink to work.
He was told it would be best to ask the Management Office, which was responsible for the organization and creation of magical devices, for them. Thus, Wren, with the books he borrowed against his chest, made his way towards the Management Office.
(If I get to the point where I can activate magic, there’s a lot of ideas I’d like to try out… Well, that’s all moot if I can’t get anything to activate in the first place.)
One of the biggest challenges of inscription magic was the inability to write something and save it for later. Once he wrote a formula down, he had to activate it immediately.
However, there seemed to be individual variation in the length of that ‘immediately.’
If he could even buy as little as thirty seconds, it would open up a whole host of possibilities, he thought.
(Also, there had to be some allowance for modifications… like folding the paper, cutting it, or pasting it on something.)
Thinking of the potential for modifications, he started to get a little excited.
Walking with a light heard and floaty steps, Wren suddenly noticed a boy standing in front of the door to the Management Office.
A black-haired boy with long bangs — Gerald.
Right, he did mention that he often helped out at the Management Office.
“Hey, Gerald! Aren’t you going to head inside?” Wren called out to him, but Gerald’s mouth twisted in dismay.
“…No, Rukiye is working inside, so…”
Rukiye had the attitude of an artisan and belonged to Armster’s class, the same class as Gerald.
Since they were in the same class and all, he shouldn’t have any reason to hold back around her, so what was he waiting for?
All of a sudden, it clicked in Wren’s mind.
“Wait, do you have a hard time talking to Rukiye?”
Wren found it hard to talk to her as well.
Rukiye always gave off the attitude of ‘Don’t talk to me unless you absolutely have to.’ It wasn’t that she was shy, more that she just found dealing with other people to be bothersome. In short, she was the opposite kind of person as Wren.
In the classroom, he’d basically never seen Rukiye chatting with anyone. The most he’d seen was when she’d ask the studious Ella about the content of their last lecture.
“……”
Gerald fell silent. Wren took his silence as a ‘yes.’
If he didn’t have a hard time talking to Rukiye, he probably would have denied it immediately.
“I…”
Gerald started speaking, but then closed his mouth.
He couldn’t deny what Wren had said, but it wasn’t quite that he disliked her, but something else… Wren could sense that Gerald felt conflicted.
Gerald clasped the collar of his own shirt and mumbled his answer.
“I ran to the Wedge Tower because I didn’t want to fight any more… So seeing someone like Rukiye who came to the Wedge Tower with a firm conviction like that makes me feel horribly guilty.”
Gerald spoke with such a painful and sincere voice that it was impossible to respond with a casual statement of sympathy like ‘I get that feeling!’