Chapter 42 – Magic training

“I’ll teach you magic.”

“R-really?”

I scratch my head while I accept it, and El’s face shines.

(Well… She’s just going to keep training by herself anyway.)

If she’s going to train, she should do it the safe way, using magic theory from the future.

And so…

“Here we go.”

“Fyah!?”

I pick El up and put her on my lap.

“Nya… Nyhat!?”

“Well, it’s easier to support your magic energy control like this.”

“R-really…?”

It’s more efficient if an expert assists and corrects her magic energy control first.

Having that said, even in the future, there weren’t that many mages that could assist someone in controlling their magic energy.

“H-hum… I’m not too heavy, am I…?”

“It’s fine. You’re actually too light.”

“G-good…”

“All right. First, you need to remember the correct way to make magic energy flow.”

“Y-yesh.”

I reach over from behind and put my hand on her midsection.

I make the magic energy inside her body circulate for a while and get a good grasp on the shape of her magic circuits. Now I’ll have her feel the most adequate way for magic energy to flow through her magic circuits.

“…!? I-it prickles.”

“Yes, that’s because I’m interfering with the flow of your magic energy.”

“T-that’s possible…?”

“It is, but I doubt anyone else can do it…”

This is the external magic energy control I came up with in my previous life.

It’s a high caliber technique, where I create something like a difference of atmospheric pressure with magic energy, and control the flow of magic energy in the air and different things. I can also use this to control the flow of magic energy in other people.

Of course, I have to be very delicate and precise when I use this on a person, unless I’m trying to destroy their magic circuits.

“W-what… It feels different…”

“Yes, start by remembering this feeling on your body.”

“Y-yes…”

El looks restless for some reason.

Her body is completely stiff and tense too.

“Are you all right? Does it hurt?”

“Hyah!? D-don’t whisper in my ear all of a sudden!”

“S-sorry. Did it tickle…?”

At least there doesn’t seem to be anything wrong.

“Well then, relax a bit more so I can stabilize the flow of magic energy.”

“I-I can’t…”

“…I sense the smell of a romantic comedy coming from back there nyanne.”

I keep circulating El’s magic energy around her body for a while longer.

“Next, formulating techniques.”

I say, and several magic circuits are formulated through El’s hand.

“Fueh!? Something came out of my hand!?”

“Yes, I formulated magic circles through your hand.”

“Y-you can do that!? And there are so many…”

“You can easily do this too if you train a little.”

“C-can I…?”

I pull back the magic circles that appeared, and formulate them again.

“When you formulate a magic circle, you faintly draw the groundwork like this and then supply magic energy to it. It’s like how when you draw, you start with a rough sketch, and don’t start coloring right from the start. If you start by laying the groundwork, making magic energy flow on top of it should be easy.”

“Is it really all right to not use a lot of magic energy…? When I think of mages, I picture them going bwoosh and releasing a ton of magic energy.”

“That’s just wasting magic energy…”

People in this era still think that the amount of magic energy released equals power. The mages I fought a week ago also released magic energy from their bodies like they were showing off…

From the point of view of someone from the future, it’s like they were trying to show how bad they were at controlling magic energy.

I was taken aback at first.

“People in this era… No, everyone uses too much magic energy. You need to be delicate with magic.

The magic energy control of this era’s mages is way too rough.

It’s like they want to draw a complete magic circle right from the start with one huge stroke of the brush.

“But there you go, that’s basically how to control magic energy. Now you try it on your own.”

“Yes…”

El nods, looking a little unsure, and starts controlling her magic energy.

“Hum, first the groundwork, then supply magic energy…”

El is trying to copy what I did but can’t seem to do it.

A soft streak of light appears, but disperses very quickly.

“Auu… I can’t do it…”

“It’s fine if you can’t do it right away. You’re too used to using an invocation item to control magic energy.”

“But it’s impossible to use magic without an invocation item…”

“Forget about that strange general knowledge. You should be able to do it without an invocation item soon.”

“Eh?”

“In fact…”

I look at the feathers of light floating around El.

When people release magic energy, it takes different forms depending on the person. Labrys for example releases cherry blossom-colored petals, and El feathers of light…

“Giving your magic energy shape like that is like a kind of magic used without an invocation item.”

“R-really!?”

Giving shape to one’s magic energy is a type of primitive magic that uses the magic circuits themselves as a formula.

In many cases, magic energy having a specific shape is a sign of talent.

Unlike me, who just discharges magic energy like it’s electricity, El and Labrys are talented even when I look at them through the lenses of the standards of the future.

And the proof of that is…

“First the groundwork, then supply magic energy… Ah, I think I did it!”

A magic circle has already appeared above her hand.

“Your way of doing it is great, Chrom!”

“A-ah… You already did it?”

El is the one who’s great, not me. It took me years to get to this stage…

That’s probably just down to how untalented I am.

(…She really is a hero’s vessel.)

Hero Elluna Moonhart.

The girl who was destined since birth to take down the demon king.

She died all too quickly the first time around, but she should be immensely more talented than someone like me.

How strong will she become if I keep teaching her?

It’s honestly… A bit scary.

“A-am I going to use level six magic someday…?”

“No, I’d say you’ll be able to use level nine magic pretty soon.”

“Nine!? That’d make me one of the best in the whole world…”

“But what’s important isn’t levels, it’s how you use magic.”

People in this era think that the higher the level of the spells they use, the stronger they are.

That’s probably why all the mages I fought a week ago ran up to me and used the highest level spells they could…

“The whole idea of magic levels was created so people could adjust the power and speed of their spells depending on the situation. You can’t just use high level spells, you have to start by mastering the lower level spells.”

My ‘Haste’ is divided into levels too, but that’s also to adjust the acceleration based on the situation and time. I can’t just accelerate to the highest speed and be done with it.

“By the way, how high can you go, Chrom?”

“I guess twelve.”

“…Eh?”

It’s not like I can’t go higher than that, but it’s not practical.

The human body has a limit to how much you can push it with spells that strengthen the body like ‘Haste’.

“…Auu…”

El’s eyes are looking kind of distant before I know it.

“What’s wrong?”

“I just feel like this is all so different from what I’ve been learning… It makes me wonder why I’ve even been trying all this time.”

“I-it’s not like it was all for nothing.”

Her effort has kind of been a detriment… But I don’t think I can say that.

“Anyway, let’s try to master controlling magic energy first.”

“Yes.”

El fires herself up again and lightly clenches her fists.

We keep training for a while, until…

“Nyanne…?”

The wagon goes over the small hill, and the driver’s, Nekoko’s, ears twitch.

Cat Sith’s senses are sharp.

“…!”

I notice it soon after, and lean over to the driver’s seat.

“Nekoko, brake!”

“I know nyanne!”

Nekoko pulls the reins and suddenly brakes.

“W-wawah!? W-wha…!? What happened!?”

Asks El while shrieking. She’s the only one who still doesn’t know what’s going on.

Nekoko answers with urgency.

“M-monsters nyanne!”