———
Several months after it was confirmed that my attribute was [Colourless].
With the exception of an excess amount of skinship and affection, time passed by without any major problems.
Since then, I was read various books and can now understand the writing, so I can now read books by myself.
I suppose that if there was a baby who could read books after one year and a bit, it’d be nothing short of eerie.
It appears that the books of this world are valuable after all, and there also are several worn-out second-hand books; still, Erina-san happily provisions the books for me one after another.
Is it already like that? Where I don’t have to worry about being seen by these people? The doting parents within them will resolve everything.
Changing my attitude to a more serious one, I continued to read the book and various facts came to light.
As I expected, this world’s level of science is like that of my previous life’s medieval period. There was the notion that magic occupied this world, so the word ‘science’ didn’t exist, but instead ‘alchemy’ became the mainstream. It truly is a standard of tales: a world of swords and magic.
It also depends on the continent, but there are four seasons and one year has a fixed 360 days; it’s subtly different from my previous life.
It’s a rather spartan world with: nobles and commoners; like Noel, a great variety of races; and demons here and there.
In other words, it turns out that life is nothing but cheap. I will capitalise on my knowledge from my previous life, train my physical strength and magic, and shall live through this life to the fullest.
However……it has been decided that I will experience setbacks with my magic.
Elementary Magic Guidebook.
Within the guidebook there’s an outline of the attribute judgement tool, and the meanings of the colours are also properly written down.
Red is [Fire].
Blue is [Water].
Green is [Wind].
Yellow is [Earth].
And my colour, colourless…is [None]
That’s right, the attribute of my aptitude is nothing.
It’s not something positive like being able to use all attributes freely, but rather, it means that I have an aberration that causes a downward adjustment for all four attributes. Although, the activation of magic tools has no connection with attributes, so there wouldn’t be any issues in one’s day-to-day life.
“Are you serious?……”
I unintentionally let out my voice.
The book that I’m holding in my hand is [Albert’s Book of Travels].
This author was a traveller that had wandered around the world, and the book is a collection of the chronicled regional customs, mysterious phenomena encountered, etc.
It’s basically an autobiography, but it is interesting as there are also various other things written in it. For example: a region with a waterspout that didn’t stop after a whole year, the strange traits of the cat tribe, and the unique rituals of the silver wolf tribe.
Within that unusual reality, [Colourless] is mentioned.
I excerpt the following from a portion of the book:
I continue wandering and several years have passed.
I’m spending my time encountering various people, various races and also a great variety of ways to use magic; every day has truly been meaningful.
However, every time I catch a glimpse of the discrimination within races or the wealth disparity due to aristocratism, I become saddened.
In a certain town, I came across a person who had no attribute from the time he was born.
There was not one thing in which they excelled in; for that alone, that person was scorned as an ‘incompetent’ and subjected to cruel treatment.
[Incompetents].
Even though such people are fewer than those who are liked by the spirits, I wonder why they discriminate against them?
It’s something that I don’t understand.
And yet, if everyone looked at the breadth of the world, without spending their lives as if they were the only ones in the world, such a thing could be said to be insignificant in comparison.
You have a manly spirit, don’t you, Albert……err not that, the problem is the point that those who don’t possess an attribute are called [Incompetent].
In this society I’ll be treated as an incompetent. So this is the truth behind why Erina-san and the others are commiserating.
The radiance of the crystal was strong, so I’m sure that at least my maryouku volume is above average.
However, for the Colourless, it seems that even if you tried your best, you wouldn’t be able to use anything but elementary level attribute magic; at best, you could reach the point of being able to use magic tools for a long time.
From the moment I was born, I was burdened with a handicap.
……well, whatever.
I’m originally an ossan that came from a world without magic anyway.
It doesn’t mean that I can’t use magic at all, and I have knowledge and experience of things other than magic. Rather, wouldn’t an enemy let his guard down when he finds out that I’m an ‘incompetent’? No matter what kind of animate being it is, as long as I use their negligence and weaknesses, I can handle most things with just one knife. Leaving that aside, I don’t care what it is, this ossan wants to try and use magic.
It was written in the Elementary Guidebook, but magic without an attribute also exists.
It appears that it’s also called ‘no-attribute magic’, but apparently it’s a branch of magic where, other than a few spells, there are practically no humans who use it.
One of those spells is [Light].
It’s just as one would imagine from its name alone: a magic that produces light; it’s apparently employed as an introductory magic for beginners. Perhaps that’s why only the necessary keywords for invocation are written down and the aria isn’t written down in detail. So it’s okay if I just put in the keywords and chant something aria-esque? If that’s the case, then maybe even I can do it.
“Sirius-sama, it’s your onee-chan, Noel here. How might you be feeling right now? Do you feel like saying ‘onee-chan’?”
Just as I’m about to try chanting, Noel appeared together with her foolish utterance. Although it seems that this young girl cravingly wants to be referred to as an older sister, I definitely won’t do it.
Since she’s already here, that works too; let’s have Noel demonstrate [Light] for me.
“Noel—, magick—”
“Eh? Ah, no—……okay. Do you want me to use this?”
Ever since that, she doesn’t use magic in front of me.
Although it’s obvious that she’s being considerate towards me, the incompetent, I’m not at all bothered by it. I point at the page with [Light] written on it, and resolutely attack with the innocence only afforded to a baby.
“I wonder if it’s alright… But, this is a no-attribute spell……yep. Okay!”
“O—!”
Quick decisions are a Noel-ism.
“But I haven’t really used that much no-attribute magic before, alright? As I end up using fire magic if I need lighting.”
Ah—, no doubt if you were of the fire-attribute, then that’d be the case.
Perhaps trying to recall the aria, she closes her eyes, places a finger on her brow and groaned.
“Uu~m……’wipe away the darkness’……wasn’t it? Well, here goes.”
Noel takes a deep breath and her atmosphere completely changed.
“The source of evil influence, the power to cause tremors; that which possesses both powers, and emits the radiance of gusts of wind that illuminates a dark night; brush away my darkness.”
The aria is long!
This is the introductory magic?
Ahh, there isn’t any research on shortening the aria being done because there’s not that many people who use it?
“[Light]!”
At the tip of Noel’s finger a light is lit.
It seemed faint and ephemeral, shining as if something was pouring out; a beautiful ball of light. I try to touch it with my hand, but it doesn’t feel hot.
Nevertheless, it’s hard to verbalise the sensation that I definitely felt from my hand, I wonder if this ‘something’ is what magic is?
It hadn’t even been one minute, but Noel extinguished the magic, and a few drops of sweat had surfaced on her forehead.
“Fuu, as I thought, maintaining no-attribute magic is tiring. Although if it was fire-attribute magic, it wouldn’t tire me out to this extent.”
Regarding her ‘it’s more tiring than using fire-attribute magic’ impression, is the amount of consumption of maryoku higher for no-attribute magic perhaps?
When I touched it, what I experienced was a feeling that maryouku was leaking out, similar to turning a tap and letting water continue to flow out. It’s my personal opinion, but depending on the aptitude, isn’t there something or another that acts as an aid for the other attributes?
Even if I try to verify it, only Noel would know, and I want to eventually do a full-blown investigation into it anyway.
“Amazing—”
“Ye, yeah! It’s amazing right? Feel free to praise me more. As I am the best!”
She was extremely happy when I clapped my hands. She had even become beside herself with joy. After that, with other duties to complete, Noel left the room.
Once I was alone, I decide that I would also try doing some magic.
I had seen an example of it. All that remains is to put what I saw into practice.
“The source of evil influence, the power to cause tremors; that which possesses both powers, and emits the radiance of gusts of wind that illuminates a dark night; brush away my darkness.”
As part of my acting, my tone of voice is usually childish, but all the same, I ought to chant the aria diligently.
When I visualize the light that Noel had shown me, my whole body started to become feverish. It wasn’t the kind of heat you’d get with a fever from catching a cold, but the feeling of your whole body activating: like when you do light warm up exercises. When I sense that feeling beginning to gather from my whole body towards my fingertips, I speak out the words of invocation.
“[Light]!”
In my hand, a sphere emitting a faint light is produced.
It’s almost the same as the one produced by Noel, but this is the first time I used magic. As usual, the principles are unknown, but actually trying it to use it like this is very moving.
Whoops, I had become excited to the extent of it being unbecoming of my age. How about I calm down and commence the experiments? First is, whether this light can be moved or not. Visualize, a small amount forward……ok. The light flies forward in the same way that I visualised it.
From there I further wanted to make it move up and down but just when I was about to try, the light vanished.
“Are? I don’t recall making it disapp—……”
The view before my very eyes slowly become slanted. Nope, I’m collapsing.
Even though I knew that, my body wouldn’t listen to me, and I collapsed onto the bed. And what came thereafter was an intense fatigue. Might this be…
“Ahh……so this is maryoku exhaustion?……”
It’s exactly like the example written in the book. Although I knew of it, this is fairly intense.
I could probably have forcibly moved myself if it was the previous me, but it’s an impossible task with the body of a baby who hasn’t matured.
But I think I could produce the light for approximately ten seconds? What’s more, I also moved that light, so the degree of maryoku consumption was probably altered. As it is, it really wouldn’t be fit for practical use. I wonder how many times I should experience this fatigue…
It’s seems like there’s a long way to go, let’s sleep.
The next day, I did my usual muscle training.
After a day had passed, the tired feeling had disappeared completely, if anything, my condition feels better than before. At any rate, since it seems that my maryoku is satisfactorily recovered, I’ll try and get some practice.
Yesterday I collapsed without getting much testing done, so today I think I’ll try and investigate what my own limits are.
Because I was in an excited state at that time, until my maryoku had become empty, I didn’t notice. How much maryoku consumption is required for it to be arduous on my body, and also, am I able to turn the magic off?
Let’s begin with first being acquainted with a feeling of how much maryoku I have within myself, and the danger line: if I use more than this, then I’ll faint.
Chanting, I produce the light and standby. When I concentrate without doing anything else, I caught the feeling of maryoku escaping from my body. I have a feeling that it’s similar to a bleeding sensation.
Fatigue gradually descended upon me, so in my mind, I commanded the [Light] to disappear. The light properly disappeared, so while I let out breaths of relief, I confirm my physical condition.
Yep, there’s a sluggish feeling but it’s not a problem.
The duration is thirty seconds, this is the limit for now huh? It could be within range of measurement error, but I have a feeling that I’ve lengthened it compared to last time.
I continued to train my maryoku in this manner…
While under an unexpected misunderstanding.
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