Chapter 33. Meeting the Guild Master. Lots of books

I left the manor with Gilbert.

Eventually, I reached the Magicians' Guild again.

Just like it was each time I came there, the place was mostly deserted.

While noting this inwardly, I made my way to the second floor.

At the clerk's desk, Camille could be seen yawning.

"Hello, Camille."

"Oh, Seraph-kun." Camille smiled the moment she noticed me. "You're here again. How can I help you?

"I'm here to pass a recommendation letter from my master."

"A recommendation letter?"

"Yes, I'm actually an Advanced rank Water magician," I said as if it was only natural while handing her the letter.

Camille raised her eyebrows and received my letter.

Reading it, she commented, "So Roxy Migurdia is your master… So you're the disciple she mentioned…"

I was silent, allowing Camille to read the letter in full.

Once finished, she gave me a deep look, then said, "Your master visited us not long ago and told us that you might visit us in the future. She also mentioned your name and said that you're young. However, it's still very shocking that you're an Advanced rank magician at your age. It isn't a joke, is it?"

"No. I'm really an Advanced rank magician. Do I need to prove it?"

Camille wryly smiled and said, "Normally it wouldn't be necessary. There is no problem with the recommendation letter. However, the only person who can grant D-rank membership in our guild is our guild master. Before I tell him about you, it's better that as a receptionist I could somehow confirm that it isn't a joke."

I could see that she was worried.

To not put her in a difficult position, I guess I should show off my skill a little.

"Okay." I raised my hand, then slowly said, "Blizzard Storm."

Seven blobs of water formed above my head, then froze and transformed into rough conal-shaped icicles.

Camille's eyes shot wide open in shock and she jumped.

At the side, a bodyguard pulled out his sword and rushed out immediately, just to stop after a few steps.

Gilbert also grabbed his sword and stepped out to shield me in turn, blocking the other swordsman.

Camille slightly gulped as she looked at the icicles floating above me.

I dispelled my spell. "Is that enough?"

Camille stared at me in a daze.

I asked again, "Is that enough? I use shortened incantations."

"...Ah, yes! It is enough…"

Camille then told the bodyguard to sheathe his sword, grasped the letter in her hand and excitedly jogged off to somewhere to meet the 'Guild Master'.

Her butt really looked quite nice when her butt cheeks were jumping up and down as she jogged with small steps in a hurry; not too big, not too small, just right.

"You really are a Greyrat, aren't you?"

"Ah?" I looked up at Gilbert who suddenly spoke up.

Gilbert slightly smirked and commented, "Being interested in girls' butts at your age is a very Greyrat thing to do."

"Is that so…"

I looked away in shame. So he noticed the direction I was looking at.

Although he said that it's normal for Greyrats, I don't think 5 year olds being interested in butts is normal by any means!

Of course, I was not really a kid. But I couldn't say that.

Gilbert continued, "Normally butts are a thing of the Zephyrus family though. They like big butts."

"…Aha."

So the Boreas like beast girls, the Notos like big boobs and the Zephyrus like big butts.

Then what about the Euros family, the last among the Greyrat family branches?

Although I was very curious, I didn't ask. Our conversation between a 5 year old and a 55 year old was already awkward enough.

As the old man looked amused from teasing me, I left him and approached the mission board again.

I browsed through the requests one by one.

Some of them were new, some of them were old.

In the end, there weren't any missions that promised quick and easy money.

As I kept reading through the requests for the second time, Camille eventually returned.

"Seraph-kun! The Guild Master wants to see you!"

…

The Roa branch's Magicians' Guild's Guild Master was a man around 50 years old, with long slicked-back graying dark brown hair and a sharp-contoured face.

Wearing a robe and a stern somewhat arrogant expression, he looked what you'd expect from a desk-bound high rank magician.

With his sharp eyes, he looked at me judgmentally the moment I entered the meeting room.

His first expression when he saw me seemed to be that of curiosity, but condescending arrogance and doubt was the primary emotion visible on his face.

"Gilbert, you are here as well," the wizard's expression somewhat changed and he looked with surprise at the person beside me.

"Yes. I'm assigned to protect Young Master Seraphim during his outing. It's good to see you in good health, Pascal."

It seemed like the two men knew each other.

"Mm. That's actually what I wanted to say," The man called Pascal looked at Gilbert, then turned to me. "You are the 5 year old Advanced rank water magician? The student of Roxy Migurdia?"

"Yes. My name is Seraphim Greyrat. It's nice to meet you." I did a polite nobles' greeting, regardless of the circumstances.

"Hm. My name is Pascal Greencrow," the man said, placing down a letter on the desk with a thud; supposedly, Roxy's recommendation letter. "When I was young, I was also called a genius. I later realized that there are people in this world who are more outstanding and talented than I am. However, isn't your supposed ability way too preposterous even for a genius?"

"Not a single word of my master's letter is an exaggeration," I slowly replied. 

"Is that the case? Camille here says that you're an Advanced rank Water magician. If I asked, you could prove it to me, right?"

"Not a problem. I can prove it right now." I raised my hand, then slowly articulated: "...Blizzard Storm."

A similar reaction to before took place.

Guild Master Pascal jumped up from his seat and extended his hand toward me as if in defense, but then hesitated with what to do next. He stared at me with an expression of shock and disbelief.

I dispelled my spell, making the icicles turn back into mana and disperse into the air.

"What skill… What did you just do?" Pascal muttered in disbelief, still standing up.

"I can shorten my Incantations."

"Shorten your Incantations?! Don't joke with me! You cut it down all the way to the spell's name!"

"Unfortunately that's my limit." I forced a faint smile.

It's good to keep some of my cards hidden, and this seemed to be a good way to make people let down their guard. I feel that I already appeared talented enough to warrant attention.

Pascal stared at me for a while. He then turned to Camille.

I could see Camille grinning.

Pascal said, "Camille, you didn't tell me of this."

Camille chuckled. "I thought I wanted to surprise you a little, uncle."

Uncle?

So Camille and the guild master are related?

As I was thinking that, Pascal cast his gaze on me again, but this time with more curiosity than arrogance. "Hm. Can you repeat what you did earlier?"

I slowly raised my hand. "Blizzard Storm."

The seven icicles formed in the air once again. Seven was the original number of projectiles for a textbook-version chanted Blizzard Storm, so I went with that.

I asked, "Should I release it as well?"

Pascal smiled wryly and shook his head with an ugly expression.

I smiled a little and canceled my spell.

Pascal let out a long sigh and commented, "You can freely disperse your magic as well. Magnificent! There don't seem to be any Magic Circles here, nor a Magic Tool, you really just cast it yourself!"

Among the people present, Camille was grinning and beaming with pride, Gilbert was slightly smirking, both looking proud as if what I did was their own achievement.

Pascal looked around at the gathered crowd, then settled his eyes on me, and asked, "To reach such mastery over your magic power at such a young age..."

I stayed silent.

Pascal smiled, then motioned to a sofa in front of his desk. "Please, sit down, young man. Even though my pride was hurt, I must acknowledge talent when I see one."

"Thank you."

I stepped forward and sat down on the sofa.

Gilbert didn't come in closer and instead remained standing at the door.

Meanwhile Camille, after sending me a teasing smile, left the room, probably having to return to her desk.

"Are you from Roa?" Pascal asked, his eyes aimed right at mine.

"I'm from a village not far from Roa."

"From a village? How unexpected. To be so talented and well-educated when you were born in a village is very unexpected."

"My parents are rather well off. They have cared for my education since a young age."

"Is that the case? That's good. Early education is very important, for certain. Talent does not differentiate between nobility or not. I wish the buffoons in the capital could realize this... Nonetheless, as long as you're a magician from Roa's surroundings, that's good."

Why exactly? Did he expect something from me?

Pascal continued, "If you don't mind me asking, how are you able to shorten your Incantations so much?"

"It's just my natural talent."

"Natural talent? That's also what the sources in the royal academy say about silent casting… However, I always had a feeling that it might be a lie."

I forced a small smile.

I have no idea why he had this suspicion, but just look at this smile. I'm definitely not lying.

Pascal ignored me, looked to the side at one of the shelfs and said, "Our first family head was a genius and by the end of his life he managed to shorten some of his Incantations by half. I, on the other hand, had no talent in it and gave up long ago. Yet here you are, at 5 years old being more skilled at it than I could have ever dreamed of. It is really quite frustrating if it's just about talent."

I looked at the shelf as well. I think he was looking at one of the diplomas that were there or a crest of his family, I'm not sure.

The guild master looked at me again. "No, it is liberating, actually. If in the end it all comes down to talent, then I cannot blame myself for the lack of effort, can't I?"

"I think so."

Pascal faintly nodded.

As the middle-aged magician seemed to be lost in thought for a while, the conversation eventually resumed.

Pascaled touched his chest, slightly bowed his head and said, "Let me introduce myself again. I'm Pascal Greencrow, of the Greencrow family, a family of mages. I'm a Saint ranked Wind magician."

A Saint ranked Wind magician?!

Him? Here in Roa?

I couldn't help but voice my surprise, "You're Saint rank?"

"Correct." Pascal nodded. "Although my talent is lacking, I'm a Saint ranked Wind magician. Your last master was also Saint ranked, wasn't she?"

"It's rare to hear you being so humble, Pascal," Gilbert butted in from beside the door.

Pascal faintly looked at him. "Gilbert, your lack of manners remains unchanged, I can see."

"Although I'm a noble, for nearly half my life I was an adventurer, I can't help it." Gilbert shrugged nonchalantly.

I listened in on the conversation.

Although it was a little interesting to hear about their backgrounds, these people that surrounded me were not professional at all, interrupting and getting on tandents.

However, maybe it was just because I was a 5 year old kid, so I didn't inspire much respect as a 'young master'.

Regardless, there was a Saint ranked Wind magician in Roa…

It was surprising. Maybe?

Or maybe not.

Roa was one of the largest cities of the Asura Kingdom in the end, an ancient city.

Looking at me, Pascal said, "Seraphim Greyrat, was it? You wanted to register as a D-ranked magician in the guild, correct? I confirmed your ability, so there's no problem."

"Thank you."

He waved his hand. "No need to thank me. Your ability at your age is more than enough to warrant you a D-rank in the guild. No, I will raise it to C-rank! You can consider it as a favor toward a fellow magician from Roa."

"Thank you!"

"You're welcome. Your talent might be worthy of more than that, but granting C-rank is the limit of my ability," Pascal said. "You can give me your guild card."

"Yes."

I pulled out my Magicians' Guild card from my chest pocket, stood up and placed it on the guild master's desk.

Pascal received it. He read the back and looked at me, "Before that, I'd only ask you to show me some more of your truncated casting, if you will. It's to satisfy my curiosity."

Did he doubt me a little after seeing an empty sheet on my card?

Or he had second thoughts.

Either way, it would be good to ease his doubts.

"Okay." I raised my hand.

What spell to cast?

"No, wait!!! Not here!" Pascal shouted. "As a matter of safety, shouldn't we step out?"

"It's fine, I can control my magic... Explosion."

As I said those words, a roundish fireball formed in my hand and Pascal slightly jumped.

However, he calmed down after he saw that everything was under my control.

The building did not explode.

I then dispelled Explosion, and casted Stone Bullet, then Sonic Boom - all Intermediate rank spell examples from their respective schools.

Pascal looked impressed; it seems my little performance had eased all of its doubts. 

"Remarkable! With just the spell's name, a perfect Intermediate rank spell is invoked. It's so quick, it's almost as if there is no chant at all! If you kept training, one day you might reach the level of true silent spell casting!"

I remained silent. Yes, perhaps I might reach the level of silent spell casting one day.

Pascal then took out some tools and began tempering with my guild card.

I soon received my card back and took a look at it.

The back side read:

Name: Seraphim Greyrat

Magician's Rank: Advanced rank

Fire Magic: Intermediate rank

Water Magic: Advanced rank

Earth Magic: Intermediate rank

Wind Magic: Intermediate rank

Healing Magic: Intermediate rank

Detoxification Magic: Elementary rank

At the front there was also my rank in the guild.

Guild Rank: C

It wasn't a reflection of my true ability, but for a 5 year old, I felt the guild card looked quite nice.

"With this card you'll have a 20% discount on all purchases in the Magicians' Guild. If there's something else that you need, you can visit me directly or ask Camille."

"Thank you."

"Yes, you're welcome."

"Pascal-san, there's something I would like to ask you."

"Hm, yes?"

"I'm beginning to research Summoning magic and Magic Circles. Are there any magic books that the guild has on Summoning magic?"

Camille already told me that the guild doesn't sell those, but since the guild master himself offered his help, it's better to ask him.

Actually, at the room's window still there sat a fairly large black-gray feathered crow that attracted my attention from the start.

Was that actually Pascal's familiar? Otherwise it would be strange to have such a strange crow around.

"Summoning magic? Do you mean Enchantment magic?" Pascal asked.

"No. Magic Beast or Spirit Summoning magic."

Pascal looked at me for a moment, then recommended that I read Sigu's Summoning.

When I told him that I already read it, he told me more:

"If you read it, then you should already be aware of the dangers of Summoning magic. Putting that aside, I do have books on Summoning magic, but they're no good for anything apart from summoning barely useful familiars. The state of Summoning magic is as such in this day and age. You will hardly find any learning material above the Elementary rank. You should probably put it aside for now and attempt to polish your truncated casting."

I ignored the noise. What did I just hear? He had books on summoning familiars?!

I said, "I'm still interested in learning Summoning magic. I want to study all types of magic."

Pascal looked at me with the look of an experienced adult looking at an inexperienced youngster.

However, after a while his expression changed and he looked as if he had suddenly understood something. He nodded. "I see, so you're at this age. You probably just want a pet, don't you? I was also like that as a kid. Children in my family are the same."

Me: "..."

Let's just go with this.

"If you still want to learn Summoning magic, then I can lend you my book," Pascal said.

After a moment of shock, I immediately expressed my gratitude: "Thank you!"

"Yes, you're welcome. It's a book that doesn't belong to the guild, but to my family. But mind it that what you'll summon will depend on your luck."

Gilbert spoke up, "Summoning magic? Isn't it dangerous?"

Pascal shook his head. "With this boy's mana reserves, there's hardly a chance that a low grade Magic Beast he summons would dare to attack him. He's at least at the level of an Advanced rank magician, after all. Well, there is still a chance if he's unlucky and a strange Magic Beast responds to the call, so you should probably stay guard when he's doing the summoning."

Pascal seemed to have assumed that Gilbert was my all-time bodyguard, but neither me nor Gilbert felt like correcting him.

"Thank you, Pascal-san," I thanked the guild master, and bowed my hand to fully express my attitude.

"Mhm. My recommendation is that you try to summon a bird, just like my own familiar." Pascal pointed toward the partially open window where the crow was. "If you choose a bird and train it to deliver messages, it can be useful for communication."

"I see, thank you."

Indeed. That made sense.

If the summoned familiar is meant to be low-ranked anyway, it would be weak and useless in combat, so the most useful would probably be something that can either send messages via flight or scout for enemies.

Following that I asked Pascal about a book to get me started on Magic Circles study.

Once I mentioned the art of drawing Magic Circles, the Guild Master seemed very enthusiastic and excited.

He immediately brought me to the library.

The moment Pascal and I entered the library, the librarian stood up and bowed in respect. The other people present also got up and paid their respects.

Pascal instructed the librarian to give me preferential treatment and access to something called 'the first restricted section'.

The first?

Did that mean that there was a 'second restricted section' as well?

Either way, the so-called first restricted section was a room behind one of the doors inside the library that contained, no surprise, even more books.

Instructing the librarian, Pascal together with the librarian begane to take out different books from the main room and also the restricted section.

Meanwhile I thought about Pascal Greencrow, the Saint-ranked Wind magician from Roa.

Saint rank magicians were rare. I'm not sure how rare exactly, but 'rare'.

How come one was here in Roa?

I remember that last year there was a severe drought and our village's fields only got through it without damage to the crops thanks to Roxy.

That drought should have also spread to most of the Fitoa region.

In truth, a Saint ranked Water magician is not what is needed to handle a drought.

Instead of causing a Saint-ranked storm that would only destroy the crops, what's needed is causing a gentle rain to fall in various places. So what was needed was an Advance rank Water magician with a copious amount of mana or several Advanced rank magicians.

At the time of a drought Roa should have employed the help of magicians as well.

But for other weather cataclysms that might threaten the crops, the most effective magic at changing the weather is Wind magic.

Roxy had taught me this.

In particular, the Saint-ranked spell Tornado seems to have this effect, being a spell that can be used to dispel natural violent storms or blizzards.

That's probably why a Saint ranked Wind magician had found his way to Roa and lives here, a land filled with abundant fields of wheat, flowers and herbs.

Or rather, it's probably the other way around. The Greencrow family probably specialized in Wind and secondarily Water magic because they lived here.

After piling up a tall stack of books on one of the tables, Pascal said, "These are some of the basics on Magic Circles! Read them all! As someone who is talented in truncated casting, you might find the subject boring. However, for everyone else a Magic Circle allows for casting magic instantly without an Incantation. Although the mana consumption is increased because Scrolls and Magic Tools cannot be used together with a staff, they're still marvels of magic! During combat, the most important thing is to launch your magic quickly!"

"You might even ask, why do people even use Incantations to cast magic in combat in the first place? They're long and cumbersome, require a lot of focus and a single spelling mistake can result in failure. However, as long as a Magic Circle is drawn correctly, it will work every single time and can be reused repeatedly. Isn't this incredible?"

Pascal looked very enthusiastic and highly spirited as he talked about Magic Circles.

It was quite a transformation compared to the moment he first met me and simply looked at me with doubt.

"Yes, quite," I replied half-heartedly.

If a Magic Circle scroll could be reused repeatedly and by using it the spell can be cast instantly without an incantation just like he said, then it really was a marvel of magic.

However, then why isn't everyone using scrolls?

I immediately felt that there should be some drawbacks to it. Otherwise things would be too good to be true.

Apart from that, I also had my silent casting, so Magic Circles were not an absolute necessity for me in combat, further lowering my hype here in contrast to the guild master's.

Pascal patted my shoulder and said, "Study well. You can start with the textbook for beginners and supplement them with the other materials."

"Yes."

I was grateful. I truly was.

But the stack of books I received was quite staggering to take in at once. I didn't expect it.

It seems that a lot of studying will await me in the near future!

Apart from that, I also received a legitimate book on Elementary ranked Magic Beast Summoning.

Seeming quite stern and arrogant at first, the Guild Master was very helpful.

Naturally, anyone would want to get into the good books of a magic prodigy and a potential future god of magic like me.

After thanking the Guild Master once again, I came down to the second floor; Gilbert carried my backpack full of books on Magic Circles and Summoning magic for me.

I then finally bought the book on Advanced Healing and Detoxification magic that I wanted so much.

With a 20% discount, it cost me 8 gold coins.

In the end, that day I was lent a book on Elementary ranked beast Summoning magic, purchased a book on Advanced Healing and Advanced Detoxification magic, and borrowed a bunch of books to study the art of Magic Circles.

It was an eventful day.

Revealing some of my talents proved to be worth it.

At one point in the future I'll have to try making Pascal teach me real Saint-rank Wind magic!