Chapter 340: Learning about how big the fish that was let go actually was

Finally there will be a big move towards the independence of Tsige.

I was thinking about wrapping up the problematic matters that were left in the Academy first.

After a talk with Shiki, we have once again decided the direction of the cla.s.ses, and the new students have a sense of unity if we leave out their family circ.u.mstances.

The only one who I can match their name with their face is Yunker-kun as of now.

I can just remember them as I go.

What’s left is my promise with Seiren-san, and the matter with Shima-san, but I will go with Seiren-san first.

I will be troubling Izumo for a while more, but we a.s.sisted him quite a bit on his wedding business, so I want him to endure for a bit.

Cause you know, he is really full of energy in a different sense from Daena.

He pa.s.ses his school days as if saying he is enjoying life.

He is completely absorbed in magic construction as if it is the most natural thing, and he is now reading through a whole ton of books in the library about magic and architecture as of late.

If Seiren-san’s specialty was related to architecture magic, I could have asked him for help without worrying as much.

“Today will be my last day…I will be leaving the rest to you, Izumo. I am sorry, but please cooperate with her research for a bit.” (Makoto)

“Okay. You are unexpectedly weak at requests given to you upfront, Sensei.”

“But I still refused her this time around. There’s no way I would be able to come help out in the research constantly.” (Makoto)

“…But I was honestly surprised too. To think that you were so versed in aria language and magic power modification.” (Izumo)

“About that…to tell you the truth, it is simply a difference in my stance in the arias.” (Makoto)

“Difference in stance?” (Izumo)

“Yeah. I think you have somewhat noticed it when you created your motion aria. Arias aren’t something you memorize, but something that you understand their meaning and compose. It is that kind of way of thinking.” (Makoto)

“…”

“Even without understanding the meaning, as long as you put magic power in it, you can activate magic with your aria. However, with that, you would need perfect memorization of all the activations for the spells.” (Makoto)

“That’s common knowledge.” (Izumo)

“It seems so. But arias obviously have meaning. This is something I learned about in detail at the Academy regarding aria language, but there’s something called chants and there’s a variety of them. ‘Something something’ chant, and ‘something something’ chant.” (Makoto)

“Common, graph, n.o.ble, weird, and forka. You are lying, right, Sensei? You actually know that, right?” (Izumo)

…Of course, I knew.

I read the theses at the library when I learned Magic Armor… I normally left the choosing to Eva-san though.

But the one I am normally using is not any of those, and there wasn’t much point in me remembering them…probably.

Don’t look at me with a face that says ‘you don’t even know the basics of the basics?’.

“Well, I do know their existence. They are just terms I don’t use often, so I pushed them under the rug. Well, about that ‘chant’ thing, it isn’t that different from the language we normally use.” (Makoto)

“…No, it is completely different. It is true that I am ‘understanding the meaning’ a little bit lately through instinct though.” (Izumo)

“That, Izumo-kun. For example; the common language greetings, demi-humans have their own different ways of greeting depending on their mother tongue, right?” (Makoto)

“Well, yeah.” (Izumo)

“Even elves, dwarfs, the Blue Lizard-kuns, that orc, and even Kuro and Hatsuharu that beat you up the other day have their own greetings. In other words, the aria language is similar to that. Depending on what kind of magic power the individual possesses, the aria that matches them changes. The reason why it is different from common language is simply related to the magic power of the user.” (Makoto)

“…With that logic, the common chant would be the best one. I am kinda not convinced…” (Izumo)

The one most used in Rotsgard is the common chant.

There’s only a few select exemplar students who would touch upon the graph and n.o.ble chants.

Well, Izumo is one of those exemplar students.

That’s just how much students try to tiptoe their way out from the common chant.

Most of them would get weaker instead and return to common.

“In the cases of aria language, it would depend on who is using it. For people who have low affinity to magic power, and people who have low magic power, forming your spells with common chant would be best. Even graph and n.o.ble, you would need to have understanding in common chant or you wouldn’t be able to…oops, any further and it would turn into a topic that enters the research area of Seiren. I should stop.” (Makoto)

“It was on the verge of turning into a really interesting talk!”

Ooh.

Even though we are still at a pretty good distance from her laboratory, for some reason, Seiren is already here with us, moreover, at our backs.

“I heard that you are a person that rarely eats outside… That’s surprising.” (Makoto)

“I thought it would be nice to go to the cafeteria to eat every now and then. On my way back, I saw you two.” (Seiren)

“I see.” (Makoto)

Researchers can also use the Academy facilities.

d.a.m.n it, so our research talk is gonna begin from here on, huh.

“…”

“What is it? Is there a point that bothered you in our talk?” (Makoto)

There must be, right?

And then, we will be talking about something that will make us advance at a snail’s pace and go nowhere…

“Yeah, a mountain of things! But…go ahead, please think of me as air and continue talking about what you were talking about.” (Seiren)

“Eh?” (Izumo)

That was Izumo.

I felt the same way.

When she is interested in something, she would question it at that place and at that time. Questions that would ignore the flow of the conversation, that would then be followed by another question in the middle of it. That’s how this person works.

She has no ill intent. It is just that she just can’t leave be the things that are bothering her mind -for good or for bad.

“Even though you are here now?” (Makoto)

“Yes! Go ahead!” (Seiren)

Don’t give me that ‘yes, go ahead’.

She is really hard to deal with!

But we can’t just stop here.

It can’t be helped, so while we head to the laboratory, I try to remember what we were talking about.

“Aah…about the common chant, right?” (Makoto)

“Yeah. That depending on the user, the common is the most optimal language. In terms of feeling, I can understand. With graph and n.o.ble, the balance of the power and magic power use worsens, and there’s times when you could end up not being able to master it.” (Izumo)

“The feeling of it is important too. I personally think the aria language you choose should be a point that should be given more attention. Leaving n.o.ble aside, I think that graph and common should be used in conjunction more often to find a variety of points of compromise.” (Makoto)

You could say common is hiragana and graph is kanji.

I would say that’s about right if I were to compare it to the j.a.panese language.

As a person who can understand most of everything if I listen to it and hear it as static if there’s any inconsistencies, it makes me feel a bit embarra.s.sed to lecture the people who are seriously researching about it.

But they request for my input fervently, so I at least answer what’s asked.

This is the result of that.

I don’t know what was the right choice.

“In between common and graph, huh. Is that necessary?” (Izumo)

“If everyone were as exemplar as you, Izumo, they wouldn’t need to, but it is not like everyone’s a genius or can form arias by feeling alone. There needs to be a point of view from the practical and the research side. Normally, it is because of heavy research supporting it that the repertoire of spells that can be made practical increases.” (Makoto)

“…Is that the point of view of a mage?” (Izumo)

“No, the point of view of a merchant. A person that connects several ideas and inspirations into demand; it is when these two exist that new products are created. Research and marketing may look close yet far, far yet unexpectedly close.” (Makoto)

“Sensei is a mage, merchant, and teacher after all. Of course your thoughts would be novel.” (Izumo)

“By the way, returning to the topic at hand, when the Blue Lizard-kuns get serious on their arias, it turns into weird chants.” (Makoto)

“?! Seriously?!” (Izumo)

“Seriously.” (Makoto)

While we were having that talk, we arrived at the laboratory.

Seiren-san really didn’t say a single word on the way, and it felt really creepy.

◇◇◆◆◇◇◆◆◇◇◆◆◇◇◆◆

Izumo Osakabe was lying on the sofa completely exhausted.

The laboratory isn’t of such good quality, so quite the hard uncomfortable sofa was supporting his body.

There’s stars shining in the sky.

…Since a long while ago.

“Then, here! Language understanding! From what I heard there, Raidou-sensei can understand the meaning of the aria language when he forms it, right?! Is that possible?! With the feeling as if he is translating the complicated aria languages like graph, n.o.ble, and weird into common language! The p.r.o.nunciation and rhyme are completely different! No wonder it turns into a language that the receiver can’t understand!” (Seiren)

“…I think he can do it. In the first place, Sensei uses magic with a monster language like the lost chant, and he mostly goes chantless.” (Izumo)

“?! A new aria language?!” (Seiren)

“?! s.h.i.t, I did it again…!” (Izumo)

“Aah, what a relief. I am glad I endured so hard in asking questions in the middle of it and concentrated on writing it down. Raidou-sensei was only coming for today, but there were a mountain of things I wanted to ask him. And so, I asked myself what I should do. Then, I thought I should just have Sensei talk as much as he wants and question Osakabe-kun later! That was a revolutionizing idea. I should have thought of that sooner…!” (Seiren)

Seiren seemed like she was praising herself, but she was just worrying and worrying about it, and as a result, one of the few friends of hers that invited her to lunch and proposed that idea.

Each and every time she spoke with Raidou, she felt like the knowledge of Raidou regarding arias was somewhat crooked, or more like it pierced through all understanding. When Seiren noticed this, she would barrage him with questions every time, and suffered in regret afterwards that the questions and discussion of the important topics about the research itself didn’t advance at all.

For her, both were important. So important that she couldn’t neglect either.

In the last meeting that finally came, she put her all in just listening as advised, and would flail her legs around or spin her seat desperately pushing down her desires and concentrated fully on writing it down.

And so, after Raidou left…

The dam in her heart that was overflowing to the brim broke down grandly, and Izumo who was right below that d.a.m.n was being rained down by questions. He was currently cornered to the point that his spirit has died.

If Raidou were to see this state of things, he would have compared this to an otaku that just watched attentively to the last episode of an anime, and then, after it finished, they wouldn’t be able to restraint themselves anymore and their social media would explode right in the middle of the night.

The tragic part of this is that the water isn’t flowing into the sea of the internet, but suffocating Izumo alone.

There’s most likely no one who would blame him for cursing once or twice here.

(At this rate, it will just gradually worsen. No matter what I say, it will bring me back to the starting point. And she doesn’t care about the time at all. These kinds of people don’t have a notion of night and day. The only thing they have is punctuations between their subjects and research. It is unbelievable, but this talk was the result of deviating from my explanation about motion aria. It may have been a request from my esteemed teacher, but I have been thrown into an outrageous h.e.l.l!) (Izumo)

At this rate, who knows how many times he would have to tag along with this researcher?

Izumo was rotting away.

“T-Then then! About the summoning of the monsters that apparently can use weird chant, could it be that Raidou-sensei uses that lost chant to…” (Seiren)

“Wait! Let’s return to the topic. In the first place, I am here because I was asked by Sensei to help you out in your research. My job is to explain to you about the general idea of motion aria, right?” (Izumo)

“…Well, yeah…” (Seiren)

Seiren clearly had her enthusiasm deflated and seemed like she didn’t find it amusing.

But Izumo wasn’t going to bend here.

He didn’t want to do an all-nighter for something as pointless as this.

Forming a structure for his own fighting style, a.n.a.lyzing the video of the magic constructions; he also has a lot of things he wants to do.

“Then, let’s advance that first.” (Izumo)

“No, motion aria is a technique to reuse the word used after the aria finished. To understand that, I need to understand the way of thinking you have when choosing which parts of the aria you use and how much understanding you have of that aria’s meaning.” (Seiren)

“Y-Yeah…” (Izumo)

“In other words, there’s the need to understand the thoughts of Raidou-sensei who was the influence for everything and led you to the idea of that technique.” (Seiren)

“Why did it reach that conclusion? You are twisting it too much!” (Izumo)

“It makes sense!! If Sensei is not going to come anymore, I have no choice but to get it out from you!” (Seiren)

“No! Don’t take out your anger on me! In the first place, you are the one who rejected that very same Raidou-sensei! If you had accepted, you could have asked him about arias in meals, dates, at the bed, anytime you wanted as much as you wanted, right?! I don’t wanna be the middleman here after you were the one who messed up, you know?!” (Izumo)

“…”

“Haaah…haaaah…” (Izumo)

“…I already know that!! It can’t be helped. I didn’t know he was such a superhyuman like that! In the first place, I heard, you know?! I heard that you guys also looked down on the lectures of Raidou-sensei quite a lot at first!” (Seiren)

“That has nothing to do with this! In the first place, a researcher that doesn’t know about lost chants wouldn’t be able to even reach the tips of Sensei’s toes even if she were to shut herself in for the rest of her life! He is seriously in a different place of existence at this point!” (Izumo)

“Something like that, I already knew the moment he first came here and said ‘Imni is the word to make fire, right? Then, for Seiren-san, it would be better to use Ignore’! The efficiency and power took a drastic jump, but I don’t understand the logic of that change!!” (Seiren)

Seiren is relatively docile when in front of Raidou, but she is the complete opposite in front of Izumo.

There’s times when her words turn violent.

“Huh?! It is because with Imnu you would have just wasted your magic power pointlessly, right? When you change it to Ignore you…probably…can feel that you can get even more fire! Don’t know the logic though!” (Izumo)

“It is that! That! I still don’t get this ‘feeling’ yet! I will change the topic of research! Tell me in more detail about what you felt from Raidou-sensei!” (Seiren)

Seiren was completely ready to write everything down.

Izumo stands up reflexively.

“As if! As I said, if only you had gone out with—” (Izumo)

“Don’t say it!! Don’t say that anymore!!” (Seiren)

Seiren also stands up and cuts the words of Izumo with all her strength.

The fact that she let go of such a big fish.

Seiren would drown in alcohol at the bar, Rabidoll, she frequents, and the master there would tilt his head at the unexpected development.

The relationship between these two -no, these four, was far longer than what Raidou thought at first, and it would unexpectedly continue to go on.

Numerous achievements and discoveries will be born from this and bring forth great profits for Lorel, but…the present Izumo was still treating it as if it is none of his business.

For now, a distasteful rumor about Izumo having already put his hands on a mature woman even though he is already married had been born anew. And so, the suffering Seiren had to face from her relationship with Raidou lessened.