Magic

One morning, Roko was called to the headmaster's office. When he arrived, Zadkiel was standing there, looking out a window before she turned to look at him with a smile on her face.

"Ah, Roko. Come, have a seat." Zadkiel gestured to the chair in front of her desk, "We have something important to discuss."

"Are you finally going to tell me the real nature of these gods and grimoires?" Roko said as he sat down.

"Not today." Zadkiel giggled as she sat down behind her desk, "But that day may be soon."

"That's what you always say." Roko sighed, "Well, what is it then?"

"Have you considered what the topic for your dissertation will be?"

…

"I have to write a dissertation?" Roko blinked.

"All students have to write a dissertation."

"..."

"Well? Any ideas in mind?"

"...Well I joined this school to try and learn magic."

"And have you?"

"Well I have scan and the other spell." Roko sighed, "But aside from that, no. I haven't been able to learn any traditional spells. Not even the easy ones."

"Well, we're all good at different things."

"Well, I'm not much good at anything else." Roko growled, "Unless I'm allowed to write a dissertation on those monsters."

"I'll ask that you don't."

"Then I've got nothing." Roko sighed, "I'm not from this world, I don't know what I could really write about."

"I don't see why you couldn't continue your magic thesis."

"I can't cast any spells normal people can. I guess I can write about scan and the other one but as far as I know, I'm the only one who can use these spells so I'm not sure how useful a dissertation on them would be. I'm not even sure I know more about any magic than the average person. I keep finding out new things around healing magic."

"Well, maybe you could do some more in-depth studies." Zadkiel suggested, "Perhaps abroad?"

"Abroad?" Roko frowned, "You want me to go somewhere?"

"Perhaps." Zadkiel smiled, "Have you heard of elves?"

"I'm familiar with the concept but I haven't heard anything about this world's elves." Roko replied, "Nor have I seen one now that I think about it."

"Elves are pretty reclusive in this world." Zadkiel explained, "They all live deeper into the continent, in woods abound with magical power. Elves are inherently magical people, much more so than humans. It might do you some good to study there for a year or so."

"You want me to study there for a year?"

"I have been in discussions with the elves' elders to prepare some accommodations for you. The final decision lies with you of course. Who knows, you may learn a new spell yet."

"...Why not?" Roko shrugged, "I'm sure this should be a unique and interesting experience regardless of whenever or not I pick up a new spell."

"Good!" Zadkiel clapped, "I'll send word that you'll be coming and you can set off in a few days! I recommend you pack more extensively, it will take you several days to reach their capital."

"Several days?" Roko said, "You're not going to just warp me there?"

"Oh goodness no, I don't have permission to set up a direct warp between here and their city. Like I said, they're pretty reclusive and secretive. This really is a big opportunity for you."

"Well, I...will try to behave myself."

"You're normally a pretty amicable person so I don't think I'll have to worry." Zadkiel chuckled, "So long as the elves don't provoke your anger. Then I wouldn't be surprised to hear their entire home burned down."

"I wouldn't do that." Roko frowned, "What kind of person do you think I am?"

"I've seen your handiwork."

"I've never burned anything down. Not that I recall anyway." He muttered.

"Well, try not to burn any bridges while you're out there hm? Relations between humans and elves are friendly but if the elves decide to hide themselves again, we would have trouble finding another one for a good long while."

"I'll do a bit of research then, I guess."

"Elves?" Edea smirked as she ate her spaghetti, "I've never met one myself but they have a bit of an ego from what I heard."

"Haven't seen one either." Lavinia added as she sipped her milkshake, "But they're said to be really pretty too. Even the guys are more pretty than handsome."

"So yeah, if you get in a fight, expect more fireballs than swords." Edea said, "Can't really tell you much else. If you find out anything interesting about them, do tell me. I'm mildly curious."

"I doubt you'll find anything about the gods there…" Lavinia shrugged, "But if you do, do tell me about it."

"Do the elves not have gods?" Roko asked.

"Oh no, gods are strictly a human thing." Edea smirked, "Did I not teach you? Humans cast magic using the authority of gods. Elves, like most of the creatures inland, are inherently magical, meaning they can cast magic without the need for gods."

"To be fair, the gods have since left us and we can still cast most magics so maybe we don't need a god after all." Lavinia added, "The reason why is still in heated debate but this must be pretty normal for the elves. Certainly gave the elves a good reason to be all smug about their magic."

"Then again, they never were able to cast healing magic. Though neither can we now that the god of healing is gone. Elves can't help us there,"

"Well my magic is pretty unique so I don't know if they'd be able to help me." Roko sighed, "That said, I did find a new way to use my spells,"

"Oh really?" Edea raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, I sort of combined Scan with the other spell which allows me to sort of build a map of my current location. I didn't know you could combine spells like that."

Edea and Lavina just stared at him blankly before Edea spoke up, "Roko, you can't combine spells."

"I can't?" Roko frowned, "What do you mean?"

"Spells were usually cast by authority." Lavinia explained, "Mixing spells together means mixing the authority and power of one god with another. And gods usually aren't really up for that."

"What's more, it's usually not needed." Edea added.

"What do you mean?"

"Think of it this way. You can cast a fire spell and an ice spell together to create water but it doesn't make a water spell. The water spell exists and is more useful than just throwing two unrelated spells together. If you need some variation on your spell, the spell itself should have the tools to help adjust the output and attributes to the base spell. If you need a fire spell that doesn't burn anything, you can adjust a regular fire spell. If you need it to only burn a specific thing, you can do that too. If you-"

"Want to turn your fire gold colored?"

"Um...yeah, you can do that too." Edea blinked, "I don't know why you'd want to do that but you can. Point is, spell adjustment, archeomancy, is the basics of magic and all you really need to cast spells. You can even shortcut a specific variation of a spell with a new castphrase. Mixing spells is unheard of."

"Really?"

"Yes! Look, imagine if a spell is like a square, right? And you wanted a rectangle. You can just elongate the square instead of creating a whole new shape. Hell, you could turn the square into any quadrilateral you want. There's no point in combing a square with a triangle. Once you start wanting to make esoteric spells, you're in the space of rituals more than spells."

"Then...what did I do then?" Roko asked.

Edea and Lavinia looked at each other, both equally puzzled by Roko's story. They thought about it for a few moments before Edea turned back to Roko, "My best guess is that scan and analyze are both aspects of a larger, more powerful spell."

"A more powerful spell?"

"Or they're both using the same authority from one god." Lavinia added.

"What god could he possibly be invoking?" Edea frowned.

"I don't know, maybe it's a new god."

"What new god?! We barely have people worshiping the old gods much less coming up with new ones!"

"You never know! It could be a really obscure god! Or maybe this god existed before we ever started casting magic using authority!"

"Not all magic are god based, the gods aren't even around anymore!" Edea argued.

"You cannot deny that even if it's not how it works now, it was how magic once worked." Lavinia insisted, "And if magic is completely independent from gods, how do you explain healing magic, huh?"

"And here I thought you two were getting along." Roko said as he sipped his tea, "Still haven't gotten used to rooming with each other yet?"

"We set up some rules." Edea growled, "She'll stop bugging me about magic stuff and I'll stop messing with her books and stuff."

"Imagine asking the magic teacher about magic." Lavinia rolled her eyes.

"I told you, I never believed in gods, I was casting magic without their authority since I was born! I don't know anything about gods!"

"How could you know magic but not anything about gods?!"

"I study magic, I do not practice it!"

"You really expect anybody to believe that?! Roko, you don't believe this do you?!"

"No, I can confirm she genuinely doesn't know any spells." Roko said as he sipped his tea again, "Despite having a very powerful intelligence score."

"Wait, are you serious?!"

"Ahem." Edea coughed, "Roko, perhaps you should take this time to say goodbye to your friends."

"Goodbye?"

"Your friends won't be coming with you, right? You should say goodbye before you go."

"...Right." Roko stood up and left the cafeteria while Lavinia began to heated discussion with Edea who tried to shrug her off.

"You're going on a trip?" Kaguya blinked.

"Without any of us?!" Helena cried, "That's not fair!"

"It's an academic trip, not a vacation." Roko sighed, "There's no point in you coming along."

"What if I want to see some elves too, huh?!"

"That's not the point of the trip."

"Still, the experience must be amazing." Momo chuckled, "I admit, I'm a little jealous."

"Man, the school's going to be so much more boring without you around." Helena moaned.

"Don't you all have dissertations to write too?" Roko frowned.

"Oh yes. I'm doing Economics and Civics Renewal." Kaguya nodded, "Specifically the value of a Greenhouse System for Agricultural Development and Cultural Reform."

"I was going to do a study on the Blending of Martial and Mystics in Combat." Momo chuckled, "But now I think I might do an in depth exploration of am-of my new spell. With your permission of course."

"Do whatever you want." Roko rolled his eyes.

"I..." Helena looked away innocently, "I totally have a topic...that I want to write about...like...uh..."

"Don't strain yourself." Roko said.

"Grrr...well maybe I want to write about elves!"

"Do you?"

"Not really but I wanna go anyway!"

"You're a princess, you can't just decide to go on a random trip."

"Not without going through the proper paperwork anyway." Kaguya added, "Shouldn't be that hard actually. Just a touch tedious."

"Look, it's not like I don't want you guys with me." Roko sighed, "But this is my research that I have to do. I'm going to be living in a foreign town. You have no reason to uproot your lives to live in a completely unfamiliar town."

"You're not wrong but you're not right either." Kaguya smiled.

"Might I remind you that you have knights you have to attend to, just as much as they attend to you?"

"What, are you worried we can't afford it?" Helena smirked, "Have you forgotten who we are?"

"Yeah well maybe they don't want to go."

"Actually, female elves are pretty hot." Roland shrugged, "I'm down."

"I go wherever Lady Kaguya goes." Mikado bowed.

"I don't remember asking." Roko snapped.

"Okay, let's ask Corissa." Helena smirked, "Rissy, what do you think?"

"I- wait, 'Rissy'?" Corissa blinked, "I don't think it's wise to interrupt Roko's trip."

"Seriously?" Helena scratched her head, "I was sure you'd be all for spending more time with Roko."

"I-I don't know why you'd think that." Corissa said sternly, turning her face slightly away as she lightly blushed, "Roko's right, we can't just uproot everything to go on a journey to another land. We're princesses. We represent our countries. We can't just drop our studies and follow someone to another land. That's what Roko's been trying to say."

"Speaking for Roko now are we?" Helena teased.

"Regardless!" Corissa coughed, "We should respect Roko's wishes and stay here in the school. We still have studies to do."

Everyone stood there silently for a good moment after Corissa's declaration. There was an awkwardness but not of emotional distress but rather contemplation of their next move. Not because they were reconsidering tagging along but because they already knew what they were going to do.

"Well, I've got some paperwork to do." Kaguya announced, "I'll catch up with you all later."

"Same, I've been thinking of getting some practical on field data for my thesis." Momo giggled.

"Yeah, I've got stuff to pack." Helena nodded.

And with that, the three princesses went off in their own directions, their knights following them silently. Corissa and Roko was left there in the courtyard, their words having fallen on deaf ears.

"Well, you tried." Roko sighed.

Roko was set to leave in about three days but with him hurriedly pushing through his trip preparations, Roko was done in only one. The morning of the second day, Roko was standing at the edge of Galia, large backpack filled with camping supplies. The trip was estimated to take around two weeks of travel on foot and the amount of towns Roko could rest and resupply at would be dwindling the further along he went. None of the princesses seemed to have managed to finish preparing to leave with him so Roko was leaving alone. And the sooner Roko set off, the less time they would have to catch up with him. Roko began to take his first steps out of Galia until someone from the side shouted out to him,

"Ahoy there!" A random merchant grinned as he walked up to Roko, "Are you going on a trip? It's a dangerous world out there. How about hiring one of our mercenaries to protect you?!"

"No thanks." Roko replied.

"You sure?" The merchant insisted, "Talk in the town is that there are a lot of bandits between here and the next town. You could hire one of our mercenaries to protect you at least that far."

"No thanks. I can take care of myself." Roko repeated.

"Alright." the merchant shrugged, "Suit yourself."

The merchant walked away, looking for another customer to offer his services to. With that man out of the way, Roko stepped through the gate and began his journey proper.

Back in Roko's original world he never had much of a reason to go on a trip like this. He didn't have a car or a license to go anywhere big nor did he ever felt inclined to do anything other that stay in his room, doing data analysis. He's gone on a lot of adventures now, the closest thing he's done similar to this would be the snowy journey to Shizuka Castle. The conditions of this trip is not as arduous but it is also vastly longer. Roko had prepared to his best of his ability and he had a bit of gold leftover from his "scholarship" along with what he had collected from previous ventures. With quite a bit of gold to his name and a backpack full of supplies, Roko was prime target for bandits, especially since he was alone. And sure enough, not an hour into his journey, a pair of unimpressive looking bandits appeared from the roadside forest, knives in their hands and a mocking sneer on their face.

"Look at who we have here, bro!" One of them cackled, "A traveler fresh from the big town, all alone without a clue in the world!"

"Hey there buddy, we're the road inspectors." the other bandit said, "We're going to have you stop here while we check the goods."

"Road seems fine." Roko replied.

"What?" The two bandits faces became confused.

"You said you were road inspectors? So you inspect the road. And the road seems fine."

"I...no we...we're inspectors that work on the roadside."

"Well, you're in the middle of the road now so I suggest you get back to your posts."

"Wha-we're here to rob you ya dumb idiot!"

"I don't think your manager is going to appreciate that. You might lose your job."

"My job is to rob ya!"

"I thought it was to stare at the road."

"That's it, I'm going to kill you!" The bandit cried as he charged at Roko.

One Minute Later...

Roko dusted off his hands as the bandits laid defeated on the ground in front of him.

"Well, that was easy." Roko noted, "Didn't even need to use scan. Guess I'm better at combat than I thought. Not sure how I feel about that."

The bandits moaned painfully.

"Getting a good look at the road?" Roko called, "I've got to say, your dedication to inspecting that road is impressive. Well, you guys seem like you're busy doing your job so I'll just leave you be."

And with that, Roko left the two bandits in the middle of the road.

30 Minutes Later…

Roko encountered a larger group of bandits. There was about five of them and they all seemed displeased as they glared at him. Roko sighed as he approached them,

"Afternoon boys!" He called, "Does the road work ahead of you guys?"

"I hear you took out Jimmy and Johnny." One of the nastier looking bandits scowled.

"Couldn't tell you who those people were but I found some very polite road inspectors a kilometer or two back. You all fellow road inspectors? How many people does it take to stare at a road?"

"You've got one chance. Drop your stuff or we'll drop you into an early grave."

"Is the grave going to be in the middle of the road? Are you even allowed to dig into the road? I thought you were just supposed to inspect it."

"Screw you! You're going to regret the day you decided to mock the Badguy Bandits!" their leader yelled as he charged at Roko with his gang.

Five Minutes Later…

Roko sighed as all the bandits laid defeated on the ground.

"You guys need a better name." He said as he continued on his way.

20 Minutes Later…

The bandits from earlier appeared in the middle of the road again. Still looking a bit beaten up but this time they had one big buff looking guy sneering at him.

"That's him boss!" One of the first bandits Roko had encounter, either Jimmy or Johnny, cried out as he pointed at Roko, "That's the guy who beat us up!"

"Yeah boss!" The bandit leader from the previous encounter who evidently wasn't the leader, shouted angrily, "He looks like a wimp but he's real tough!"

"Looks like you gave my boys a bit of trouble didn't you?" The bandit leader sneered as he looked condescendingly at Roko.

Roko sighed, "Are you the road inspector manager? I've been running across your employees all afternoon and I have to say, they've been doing a great job. They were so dedicated to their work that they were all lying face down close to the ground to stare at the road. Really dedicated to every detail, they are. I have no idea why you need that many people to stare at some dirt but I'm sure you have good reasons."

"You're speaking some weird nonsense like all the boys said. Well, whatever. I'm here to take everything from ya. Your goods, your gold and your life. Be glad. Your life will be ended by me, The Seoul Badguy!"

"..." Roko let out a long sigh, "I can't take this world seriously sometimes..."