[V6C11] Choral Magic
Translated by Jodas 6: Secrets of the Wedge TowerFollowing their month of preparation and their magic battle with the Extermination Office, what awaited Tia and the others were days of studying, studying, and more studying.
In their morning group lessons, they studied to improve their fundamental academic knowledge as usual, while in the afternoons, Hütter drilled them in preparation for their upcoming written exam.
“Alri~ght, Tia. What’s ‘Ice’?”
Singled out by Hütter, Tia started to sing a song containing the words that represented each element.
“Pirororo… Foi, Wel, Vela, Gwio… ‘Tzai’!”
“Correct! Then how about ‘Become as a sword’?”
“Mel-mel… Mel… ‘Scharg, melze’!”
Tia energetically replied, to which Hütter nodded along contentedly.
“As I thought, you’re much better at remembering things if you can hear them, huh? But make sure not to accidentally start talking during the test!”
“Piyopp! Ookaay!”
As she replied, Tia put her pen to work writing the incantation formula on the page.
Tia still wasn’t used to using her fingers yet, so compared to Wren or Sevil, she was considerably slower to write things down. Therefore, she decided to write down her answers as practice, even when the question was one she could answer verbally.
Even as Wren and Sevil focused on their own assignments, they complimented her, saying “Good job!” and “Excellent.”
She huffed in delight after hearing that. Soon after, Hütter assumed a thinking posture as he spoke up.
“I know you guys worked hard to find magecraft that fits you well, and you got a chance to put them to use in yesterday’s magic battle, but…”
Hütter sat up straight, prompting the three of them to stop whatever they were doing.
First, Hütter looked towards Sevil and Wren.
“Sevil, you have your magic sword, and Wren, you have your inscription magic. I’m sure if you kept at those, you could get some real use of of them. That said, Tia.”
“Piyo? Yes!”
“The Magical Flying Device requires both your physical fitness as the user as well as the talents of the artisan who made it, right?”
Tia straightened her posture and nodded vigorously.
Hütter slowly exhaled, his face tensing slightly.
“And I heard from Director Kappel that your physical fitness is already plenty outstanding. That means it’s all down to improving the device’s capabilities now… In that case, there isn’t really much more for you to do.”
Obviously, there was nothing wrong with doing more practice to improve with the Magical Flying Device.
However, the fact was that Tia could do nothing to improve the Magical Flying Device itself.
“With that in mind, do you have any interest in trying out choral magic?”
Tia wasn’t the only one whose eyes widened at Hütter’s suggestion. Both Wren and Sevil had faces that begged to know what he was talking about.
“Mr. Hütter, what’s choral magic?”
“It’s a form of Classical Magecraft that uses singing in place of incantations. It sounds like it uses a different method of mana emission than Modern Magecraft does. I’ve heard it’s better suited for folks who can let out lots of mana all at once rather than a little trickle at a time. If you’re interested, I’ll try to get some materials for you next time. How about it?”
The reason Tia had come to the Wedge Tower was to learn a way of flying.
Now that she’d already found the path provided to her by the Magical Flying Device, there was no need for her to learn any other magic.
And yet, Tia’s response was immediate.
“I’ll do it! I wanna try it!”
Following the end of their afternoon individual lessons, Tia, Wren, and Sevil walked together towards the gardens.
They planned to exchange information in that same gazebo where they’d talked the day before.
As they walked, Wren spoke.
“Honestly, I’m surprised.”
“Piyo? By what?”
“The choral magic. You know it’s not really a good type of magic for flying, right?”
Indeed, just as Wren said, while choral magic had the potential to work on her surroundings, and it didn’t seem impossible to use it to control some wind and make her body float, it would not allow her to fly around freely like flight magic would.
Sevil also questioned Tia with a curious expression.
“Is it because it involves singing?”
“Piroro… That’s part of it, but not really… How do I say it…?”
She hadn’t come to the Wedge Tower wanting to become a mage.
Therefore, so long as she could find a way to fly, that was enough for her.
At least, that was how she had thought when she first came here, but after their magic battle yesterday, something changed inside Tia.
It was a change that Tia herself couldn’t explain very well.
“At the magic battle yesterday, I thought… it would be nice if I knew how to do more things.”
Facing the rampaging ‘Eurydice, the Cackling Foam,’ Tia had definitely been able to emit mana in her signing voice while still in human form.
If she learned choral magic, then, she might just be able to emit mana properly.
(Once I learn how to do more things… Once I do… What then…?)
Unable to think of a way to continue her sentence, she went back to chirping ‘piro-piro.’ Sevil rested a hand on her shoulder.
“I like how you think. I’ll give you my compliments.”
“Hooray!”
Every time Sevil, Wren, or Hütter complimented her, it made her feel really happy.
For now, that was reason enough.
After all, you only realize why something was important to you after the fact.
Eventually, when the gazebo came into view, Sevil glanced over at the other two.
Someone they recognized was wandering around. It was a brown-haired middle-aged man with a pallid face looking like he was on the brink of death — Armster, one of the Guidance Office’s mages.
“Mr. Armster? What is he doing here?”
Tia mumbled, to which Wren shrugged his shoulders.
“Who knows? But that guy’s always on edge for some reason, you know? … Seeing him in a garden like this, it almost makes me wonder if he’s trying to hide a body or something?”
Sevil folded her arms and nodded to Wren’s casual comment.
“Certainly, that man is the fidgety sort. It doesn’t appear as though he’s been subjected to rough treatment by the Guidance Office, though.”
There were four Instructors under Director Hegelich who were responsible for the Apprentice Mages.
Hütter, Röhm, Sombart, then of course, Armster.
All Tia knew about him was that he was a Modern mage who specialized in imbuement magic.
Eventually, once they’d confirmed that Armster had left the scene, the three of them moved to the gazebo.
Tia confirmed that no one else was around, then Wren opened his mouth.
“I did a little bit of digging into Headmaster Möbius and Assistant Headmaster Miriam. I asked someone from the Finance Office what I had to do to attract Headmaster Möbius’ attention and he told me a lot of things.”
It seemed like a man named Kaufmann from the Finance Office had taken an interest in Wren.
Playing the part of a youngster with great ambitions, Wren went to him seeking advice on how to draw Möbius’ attention, scoring him some valuable intelligence.
“First, both the Headmaster and Assistant Headmaster are usually in an office on the top floor of the First Spire; White Smoke. Plus, there’s a bedroom attached to that office, so they usually just sleep there.”
Tia and the other Apprentice Mages were members of the First Spire: White Smoke, and they usually took their lessons on the first floor.
However, they’ve never seen Möbius or Miriam walking around the White Smoke’s halls.
Wren offered a simple solution to that problem.
“Headmaster Möbius apparently goes out on Monster exterminations all the time. On the other hand, Assistant Headmaster Miriam typically holds down the fort, so she usually just stays in the office.”
“I see, even though I have my disagreements with the highest authority of the Tower putting himself on the front lines… It appears that Assistant Headmaster Miriam has been handling the Tower’s internal matters reasonably competently.”
Wren nodded lightly to Sevil’s murmuring, then continued his report.
“Next, there’s Spiremaster Abel. She’s that nice-looking lady who’s Spiremaster of the First Spire. Apparently she’s basically Assistant Headmaster Miriam’s own assistant. On top of that, the General Affairs Office Director and the Finance Office Director are basically Spiremaster Abel’s lapdogs.”
Tia let out a “Piro…?”
Tia only the faintest idea of the Wedge Tower’s organizational chart, but even she knew that she belonged to the First Spire: White Smoke.
Inside the First Spire, there were the General Affairs Office, the Finance Office, and the Guidance Office.
“Hey, Wren. What about Director Hegelich? He’s Director of the Guidance Office, so isn’t he Spiremaster Abel’s guy too?”
“Apparently there’s some factional conflicts going on… Spiremaster Abel, the General Affairs Office Director, and the Finance Office Director are all part of the Classical School, but Director Hegelich is a Modern School mage.”
So it was kinda like how Julius was the Modern School and Roswitha was the Classical School, then.
Between the Apprentice Mages, nothing really became of the factional conflict, but it seemed that the higher up you went, the more remarkable it became.
“Piroro… So, since Director Hegelich is part of the Modern School, they don’t like him that much?”
“Pretty much, yeah. I’m actually a little relieved. I don’t think Director Hegelich has anything to do with the Tower’s secrets.”
Certainly, Tia would have been pretty saddened to hear Hegelich had been in cahoots with Möbius and the others.
“On top of that, I’ve got some good news. I heard that Headmaster Möbius is going to be out of town again, starting today. If we’re going to go searching around the Wedge Tower, I think now’s our best chance.”
“Then I’ve got something to report too!”
Tia leaned over on the bench, towards Wren and Sevil.
“I tried really hard and I remembered something about back when I was trapped…”
The spotless white room.
Thinking back on it, there was something off about it.
“That room had no windows. Also, the hallway I ran through when I escaped had no wind, it was cold, and a little sticky…”
“Then it was underground.”
Tia nodded furiously at Sevil’s suggestion.
“Yes, that! I didn’t think humans could build big rooms by digging into the ground like that! But, when I asked Sevil, she said they could!”
This was something she confirmed by talking to Sevil in their dorm room last night.
The existence of ‘basements’ had been a blind spot in Tia’s spotty knowledge of human dwellings.
Could the Witch’s house have had one as well? She didn’t walk around that house a whole lot, so it never even occurred to her.
“I think I was trapped underground!”
Tia spoke with confidence, and Sevil nodded once.
“The Wedge Tower is an old structure. If you dig through its history, it’s said it was once a prison for holding dangerous criminals. In that case, it wouldn’t be strange for it to have one or two underground chambers.”
That hated person who kept Tia under lock and key. To think they could have been under her feet this whole time. It gave her a strange feeling.
Tia finally had an idea where it was she was held captive.
Even better, Headmaster Möbius would be out of the Wedge Tower this very night.
Sevil looked Tia and Wren in the eyes, then declared:
“Tonight, we search. We will find the entrance that leads underground.”