Chapter 46. Seraph of Buena

When Sylphy left to attend her lessons under her tutor, I went to check up on my two other students.

These students were the dwarf slaves that were captured and sold on the Slave Market, and which Philip helped me to buy.

One of them was already with me for close to a year, and the other was here only for around two months.

The first one was sold off when she was 6 years old, so she's now 7. Her name is Ali.

The new girl is 5 and is called Bri.

The dwarves have a culture of not giving children a name until they're 7, so I'm the one who gave them names, which they quite liked to receive. At first these were meant to be Alice and Bridget, but they both preferred a shorter name that's easier to pronounce, so in practice they're Ali and Bri.

I came to the servants' quarters and after knocking, went into their shared room.

[Master.] Ali stood up and bowed when I came in.

[M-master.] Bri followed, imitating Ali.

Among the two girls, Ali was clearly older and far taller. She had dark-blonde hair the color of straw, and was the better looking-one among the two.

Meanwhile Bri had ginger-red hair you might expect from a dwarf.

I don't know what the girls went through after being captured by the slave traders, but ever since I took them in, they were grateful and treated me well; it seemed they had a hard time.

It seemed that while Ali was meant to be sold, to put it bluntly, as a sex slave for a perverted nobleman, Bri was more like a worker dwarf and was more malnourished when I met her.

Either way, both proved to have decent talent at Earth Magic and managed to pick up Silent Spellcasting with time.

The only problem is that they can't speak the Human language, so teaching them the first Incantation was a huge challenge. Luckily, they were talented at Magic, so after managing to repeat the Incantation they more or less triggered the spell and we worked from there.

It took them more or less a month to manage Silent Casting. More in the case of Bri, perhaps because she was younger and had difficulty remembering the words.

I smiled to make them feel more at ease and asked both, [Mm. How is your Earth magic?]

[Em, Master, I made this!] Bri called out in an excited tone as if to show off; she had only managed Earth magic recently.

I watched her run to the side, pick up something from a shelf and showed it to me. That something was a roughly-shaped straight stick or a thick chopstick that looked as if it was made from hardened clay.

It wasn't much, but the base of the Earth Magic that they practice is the Earth Bullet spell, so even just making a stick out of it is already a kind of accomplishment.

I received the stick and pretended to appraise it with a serious expression. Then I patted Bri's mop of hair with a small smile. [Very nice. It's straighter than before. Now keep working and try to make a spatula and a spoon!]

[Yes!]

I nodded. After that I'll make her create a fork, then a cup and other things from the kitchen, which is what I did with Ali.

I added, [Just don't make trouble for the workers in the manor. Be a good girl like Ali.]

[Yes…]

[When you become tired you can come back and draw in your room.]

[Yep!!!]

I slightly chuckled when I saw this cheerfully reaction.

The two dwarf girls view making things out of Earth Magic as playing. I tried to make them see it as such.

Apart from this, I also bought them all kinds of drawing tools, so they can further practice their artistic skills in their rooms in their free time and when they're out of mana. Perhaps because I didn't supervise or force them to draw, they seemed to especially like drawing.

Apart from that, both of them can only speak the Beast God Language and we're currently communicating in that language; this was also the reason why I started off with learning the Beast God Language under Ghislaine.

The Beast Tribe, the Elves, the Dwarves and the Halflings of the Milis continent all use the Beast God language.

However, most of the servants in the Boreas manor are the beastkin and many of them can also speak the Beast God Language, so the two girls are not lonely and the maids seemed to have taken them in well.

After checking up on Bri, I turned to Ali with a small smile. [Ali, how is your Earth Magic?]

[Mm, I'm trying to copy the 'goblet'. But I ran out of paint…] Ali took out a wine glass shaped clay cup and gave it to me.

I quickly looked over the decorated clay goblet, which was a copy of a silver golbet that she was trying to copy for a while now. It was naturally a far more complicated item to make than a clay stick. Even so, I could still see all kinds of small inconsistencies in the goblet's shape; it wasn't symmetrical and still required some work.

I looked at Ali. [Good job. Try to make it more even and try to copy the shape more perfectly. Also remember to make it as hard as you can, but first is the shape.]

Ali slowly nodded.

I smiled and added, [Later I'll buy you more colorful paint and you can paint it how you like it, no need to copy how it looks.]

[Really? Yey!]

[Haha.] I chuckled and soon left the two dwarf girls.

…

I then returned to my study room.

Later I would practice some Water God techniques with Gilbert, but at this time I had some personal time.

Inspired by the girls, I used it to practice my Earth Magic as well, so I'm not behind the two.

Except that rather than making decorated cups or figurines, I focused on creating weapons.

The first one was a kind of cone-shaped bullet that I tried to have as sharp a tip as possible; naturally making it extremely dense was also a given.

Another one was a stone knife with a blade as thin as I could make it.

What came to my mind in this case are obsidian blades that I saw online to be called the sharpest blades. It is said that at the thinnest part, an obsidian blade can get as thin as a single atom and could even cut molecules apart.

The second part of this story is probably only hypothetical and seems exaggerated, but what remained true is that I hoped to practice Magic control at the molecular level exactly by trying to make such a sharp stone blade.

I felt it was a rather good way to practice magical precision without wasting time on all kinds of fluff that came when creating figurines. Or rather, it was just my preference; I wasn't a fan of making dolls and more so enjoyed drawing.

In general, to raise my combat strength to the maximum, my main focus these years was naturally practicing Magic. Magic was always my strength from a young age.

As my 'Explosion' spell stepped deep into the blue-violet stage, and the strength and coldness of my 'Frost Nova' combination spell I learned from Roxy intensified to the point I can freeze a tree's core solid, I believe I am now unofficially an Emperor-ranked magician! I didn't have a chance to test myself, but I think at least that much should be a given.

Outwardly, however, I was only Saint-ranked. The only difference was that compared to before I was now Saint-ranked in Water Magic and also Wind Magic.

One of those days Pascal taught me two Saint-rank Wind Spells that he knew - 'Tornado' and 'Violent Storm', thus I'm now officially unofficially (since only a few people know) a Saint-ranked Wind magician!

For other magical progress I made, I learned all the Intermediate rank and Advanced-ranked Detoxification spells that were available in the Magicians' Guild, making me an extremely skilled Advanced rank healer.

Apart from that, there is a hard limit to how much effective Magic training I can do in a day, so I had a lot of time for other things.

Practicing any spell repeatedly again and again seems to have a slow and compounding effect on making me better at it, but nothing helps as much as my mana pool simply growing over time. At this time the usual practice was giving me very slow and marginal improvements that I couldn't even notice.

With a lot of free time, I practiced my swordsmanship, Magic Circles and other non-combat subjects.

I was still slightly too small for horse-riding, but I once went out on a trip with Sauros over the Fitoa region and learned the basics of how to ride a horse.

Under Philip and Alphonse, I learned the basics of the Asuran nobility's etiquette, the basics of history and politics.

Through Philip, I also hired a tutor and learned to speak the Fighting God Language.

As for mastering the Demon God language, I delayed it for later when I hopefully received a message from Roxy, since there are no reference books or tutors that I could rely on for smooth progress.

The Human Language, the Beast God Language, the Fighting God Language and the Demon God language were the most used main languages of this world and the most practical to learn.

There was also the Sea God language that the secluded races of the sea use, the Sky God Language that the Heaven race from the tiny Heaven Continent are said to use, and the extinct Dragon God language.

For those unpopular languages, the learning materials were even more scarce than for the Demon God Language while finding tutors in Roa was impossible. I delayed the thought of learning those for the future.

During this time I also delayed any money-making schemes to avoid drawing unneeded attention.

When I eventually run out of gold, I decided to simply rely on Philip. I'm sure he'd be happy to help, while to me it is a very minor matter; in the future, even a few hundred gold should be nothing to me.

At this time, after practicing creating atom-shaped stone blades for a good while, I switched to Magic Circle study.

I learned that when it comes to Magic Circles, there isn't much actual 'studying' to be made. After learning various standard Magic Circles and basic lines and symbols, I have already reached an Intermediate level at Magic Circles under Pascal.

Improving my skill at creating Magic Circles and Magic Tools was now about accumulating experience.

Creating Magic Circles is like programming computer programs and applications. Using basic commands, a Magician has to create a complex structure to achieve a certain goal.

By creating different simple commands, solving all kinds of problems and comprehending their solutions, a Magician would accumulate experience, in turn making him better at Magic Circles. Learning all kinds of simple Magic Circles that already exist to invoke known spells is also very helpful, and makes a Magician better at solving similar or related problems.

In large part, after learning how to copy the existing Magic Circles, excelling in the craft relies heavily on talent, or rather on intelligence, imaginative thinking and good reasoning.

As such, I could see that Pascal was knowledgeable on Magic Circles, but he lacked the talent to take a step beyond the Intermediate level.

At this time, I had to rely on myself. I studied the remaining Magic Circles from a textbook while experimenting with modifying them.

'It's also necessary to be good at drawing to create any kind of Magic Circle, but fortunately I have practiced drawing since I was young…'

That day, I later did my daily strength training, Water God style practice with Gilbert and dual-wielding North God Style practice with Bladez, who was late once again, while doing all kinds of self-training on the side.

…

At one point, three continuous months passed since I came to Roa and it was time for me and Sylphy to visit our families back in the village and stay there for a month.

After bidding farewell to Eris and Ghislaine, and after leaving some homework for the dwarf girls, the two of us boarded the carriage and began our return trip with Gilbert at the reins.

While traveling, I began to do some miscellaneous Magic practice with Earth Magic like usual while Sylphy used her Disturb Magic and attempted to disturb me.

I feel that after this one to two years of practice, Sylphy could probably completely shut down your average skilled Adventurer Magician and make them impotent as a spell caster.

But without surprise, I could also completely brush off Sylphy's attempts at disturbing me.

"~Hoooo! Hoooo!"

While we practiced, I suddenly heard a strange panicked hooting sound of my owl outside the carriage.

"What's wrong? Emi?" Frowning, I stretched out and opened the window.

After the window of the carriage opened, my white owl, which had slightly grown by now, flew in, landed on my knees and began to hoot. "~Hoooo! Hooo! Hooo!"

My frown deepened. We didn't speak the same language, but I could instantly tell that something was wrong.

This wasn't the first time I saw it. For Emi to react so violently, it could only mean that she was trying to warn me about something. 

"What's wrong, Seraph?" Sylphy asked worriedly as if noticing my unrest.

I glanced at her, then ignored the question and silently looked outside the window, trying to learn something by listening in.

Unfortunately, I couldn't hear anything.

After a few seconds, I got up and knocked on the wall connected to the driver's seat.

A while later, a small window at the front opened and a part of Gilbert's face became visible.

Through the loud noise of the hoses and the carriage, I leaned in closer and told him, "Gilbert! Slow down! And watch out for what we talked about before!"

"Young master… Understood."

After passing my message, I looked at Sylphy seriously. "Sylphy, there might be a fight. Take out your Stone Cannon Wand."

"Se-Seraph? Why a fight?..." Sylphy was startled and confused.

"Just do it!" After telling her this firmly, I reached out underneath the seats and pulled out my two babies.

These two were both double-barrel magical wands with a shape similar to a shotgun.

I am Seraphim of Buena, and I have two guns. One is a silver gun for slaying monsters, the other is an obsidian one for killing humans.

Not quite.

These Magical Tools were both carved out of wood, but it's true that they were optimized for different purposes.

One of those was designed to shoot out two stone bullets simultaneously like a double-barrel shotgun, making it practically impossible for a Water God Style user to deflect. The other shot out a rain of bullets one after another, providing a more continuous fire.

At this time, I picked up the shot-gun style wand.

While I felt that the potential of my Gravity Magic would eventually surpass my other Spells, [Stone Cannon] included, a gun-wand was still my most practical and easiest weapon to use.

While holding my shotgun in my hands, I kept my attention on our surroundings while the carriage continued.

Looking out, I thought, 'It's unlikely that there were monsters in the forest so close to the city that would make Emi panic like this. That's why the chance that we're being tailed is at least 75%.'

As for who could tail us, my suspicions immediately landed on Philemon or Darius.

Ever since I began making more public appearances in the city, I always kept in mind the possibility of an attack from either Philemon or Hitogami. That's why I told Paul to keep his advancement a secret.

Right now, unless I was wrong and it was only something random that startled Emi, which I believe is unlikely, there are now two things that could happen. Either there is an ambush prepared for us up-ahead or our family would later get attacked at night.

'If I was a bad guy, what would I do?...'

If it was me planning the assassination, to start I would probably attack the carriage with a sudden long range magical bombardment while the people inside are unaware of anything.

No, I would do that without a doubt! Especially when targeting a squishy mage prodigy, I'd certainly do that!

While keeping this in mind, I pulled Sylphy to my seat and then pulled her closer into my arms, shielding her.

"Se-Seraph?" Sylphy was surprised.

"Just stay close," I told her and then silently formed a Magical Shield around us.

"Y-yes."

As Sylphy suddenly melted into my arms, I began to reinforce the Magic Shield. My Barrier Magic was only at the Elementary rank, but with enough time I could make it able to resist an Advanced Rank spell or perhaps even stronger if I made it thick enough.

After making the Magic Shield decently strong, I then used Telekinesis as a second layer of protection inside the barrier to deflect any shrapnell and physical damage.

Dual casting and maintaining those two spells in a tight space, it was not easy.

While I was focused on that, I felt Sylphy cuddling me with a happy embarrassed smile, clearly taking advantage of the situation.

"Ha…" I smiled. I certainly didn't dislike it and didn't dislike affectionate girls…

Pushing that thought aside, I forced myself to focus on maintaining my magical spells and on our surroundings.

If it ended up being wasted effort, I might just drain myself of mana and tire myself out.

And so I thought, it would be better if we were attacked sooner instead of later…

Boom!

Suddenly, a huge bright fiery explosion blew up the side of the carriage, blinding me.

"Aaah!" As I reflexively closed my eyes, I could feel my Magical Shield suffering damage. At the same time, in a brief moment, my Telekinesis Shield also received a heavy hit.

Following that, the carriage seemed to have flipped to the side and we were both sent tumbling together as I squeezed Sylphy in my arms.

And that's when I both felt glad for my preparation and also hated the fact that I was so often right.

***

***

***

(AN: I might not update in a while. My creativity and time were taken by a Tower of God story I was absorbed into writing in recent days. Unlike the other fanfics I dropped, the Mushoku story is not one where I got stuck. I simply don't feel inspired to write it at this moment as I'm busy with something else. Once I become tired with the Tower of God story, I'd pick this one up more seriously. I'd rather not give dates.)