2. Magic.
Learning the magic of this other world was no easy task.
To think I can’t even use basic magic.
I opened and closed the hand wrapped in my gauntlet.
The power flowing through my bones clearly felt as though it should let me wield transcendent magic with ease, and yet I couldn’t properly control it....
I clutched my head and lamented the fact.
To be honest, I had always been confident in my memory.
Back in Yggdrasil, I had memorized roughly eight hundred spells, and the guild members had marveled, asking if I had really learned them all by heart.
Though the knowledge I had learned was shallow, I had thought I at least had a head for study. Was that just arrogance?
I poured mana into the grimoire resting on the desk.
I formed the image meant to float in the air.
Even after completing that much, nothing came forth.
"Another failure."
Even after hearing everything from theory to the smallest tricks from Serie, the results still refused to come, as if caught in my throat.
If magic was a key and the body a lock, then the shapes simply did not match. That was one way to put it.
If I could learn the magic of this world, my options in battle would expand greatly.
What was the problem?
I thought and thought, and my reasoning became so lopsided that it arrived at only one conclusion.
Could it be that I have no talent for magic?
The question was tossed out carelessly. The skeleton beneath the mask gaped in shock.
My unease accelerated like a bowling ball that had been rolling down the lane only to drop into the gutter.
Come to think of it, in Yggdrasil, magic and skills were things you could learn with a simple click.
I had gained so many spells thanks to the system’s blessing, but aside from that, I had never obtained anything through my own power.
Even what I called effort had ultimately just been an extension of the game.
This is bad. I can’t stagnate like this.
If I grew arrogant over innate talent and neglected effort, I might end up like a rabbit outrun by a turtle.
To avoid that, I could not stop growing.
Had I not experienced the results of human progress to the point of disgust even before becoming a skeleton?
I had all the time in the world, but if I could not even sprout a bud, it would all be for nothing.
Still, what about Serie?
While I was lost in thought, I looked over at Serie, who was seated on a chair and absorbed in a book.
The book in her hands was one of Yggdrasil’s books that had been stored in my subspace, not something from this place.
Since we were only cooperating, there was no one-sided giving. If I only took, then she would be no different from a disciple.
Aside from teaching Flamme, Serie spent all day here researching magic.
Yggdrasil magic is used instinctively, so I don’t know the exact theory. I did give her the books, but... could Serie use Yggdrasil magic?
This was almost like an experiment.
Unlike me, who could not use the magic of this other world, there was a possibility that she might learn Yggdrasil magic.
"Hmm…."
Serie held a monocle in her hand and examined the book closely.
"I see."
Flip. A page turned.
By default, Yggdrasil books were not written in this other world’s language, so they could not usually be read.
The reason she could read it was the effect of the monocle in her hand.
To put it plainly, it was a translator.
The text reflected in the lens of that monocle was converted into the language of its owner.
Since the monocle was a precious item and there was only one, I had learned magic through speech, while Serie had spent the time deciphering the structure by reading the books.
"At last, I understand."
She snapped the book shut.
Hearing that, it felt as though my ears had perked up. I was still going in circles here, but had she gained something just by reading the book?
I was impressed. So this was what it meant to be an elf? It might have been a prejudice that undead were evil, but elves usually had the image of being intellectual and clever.
I asked her right away.
"Well? Do you think you can use magic?"
"No."
When I asked whether she had learned Yggdrasil magic, Serie’s answer was negative.
"If you had learned my magic from the beginning, maybe. But those who have learned ordinary magic won’t be able to use it."
She rose from her slouched seat, stepped down from the chair, and handed the monocle back to me.
"An empty vessel may be easy to fill, but once it’s already full, adding more is difficult."
"So you mean capacity is the issue?"
I took Serie’s words to mean some kind of level limit.
There were only so many spells one could learn, and since my skill slots were already full, this world’s magic could not squeeze in.
That was a thought colored by a gamer’s mindset.
So that means the two kinds of magic can’t be linked. So even system rules can’t be escaped, huh?
As I despaired, she tapped my shoulder with the book in her hand and said,
"That is not what I mean."
Serie denied Ainz’s hypothesis.
"If capacity were the issue, my head should have exploded by now. I’ve learned most of the magic used in daily life, not just in battle."
So it was not a lack of resources, but some other reason entirely.
"Even a full vessel can still have water poured into it. It’s just that the efficiency is terrible."
If you poured water slowly enough, letting it cling to the rim like surface tension, it could hold its shape without overflowing. That was what she meant.
"But if we call ourselves vessels, wouldn’t we eventually fail to hold it all and burst?"
"If water is magic, then what is the vessel? There are many philosophical answers, but I call it lifespan."
Then she smiled.
"That does not apply to us."
Serie called us malformed vessels that would not overflow even if filled.
"I’m glad you’re not an idiot."
*
Several years passed after that, during which I learned magic.
To an immortal, it was a short span of time, but to a human, it was a long stretch of days.
"Still researching magic today?"
Flamme, now beginning to show the traces of adulthood, opened the stone chamber and approached.
Disordered grimoires and formulas filling sheets of parchment.
Among them, the first person Flamme saw was Ainz, who was reading a book.
"How is it? Any progress learning magic?"
"I’ve made some progress."
"Really? That’s exciting. I’d love to see it for myself, but where is your teacher...?"
While looking at Ainz, Flamme turned her head to find Serie, and then she saw something shocking.
She covered her mouth and looked back and forth between Ainz and the cause.
"By progress, you mean..."
Boing boing.
"...the rabbit ears on your teacher’s head?"
Boing boing.
"Don’t say it like that. She’s surprisingly sensitive about it."
She held the book upright to hide her face, but the long rabbit ears sticking out were already in a panic, as if they had been caught, before ducking beneath the book.
Flamme asked in an admiring voice,
"What kind of magic did you use?"
"It’s a first-tier spell called Rabbit Ear. It mainly enhances hearing."
Even while talking, Flamme’s eyes never left Serie.
The rabbit ears she had not fully hidden peeked out and eavesdropped on their conversation.
"There are also other kinds, like ears for the feet or a tail."
"I see."
Ainz’s words were no longer reaching her. All of Flamme’s senses were fixed solely on her teacher, Serie.
She had been bewitched by those mischievous rabbit ears moving this way and that. Her eyes softened at her teacher’s cute expression, and the corners of her mouth lifted as if hooked by a fishing line.
"Hmm, teacher?"
"What is it, Flamme?"
Though her tone was emotionless, the rabbit ears exposed atop her head twitched, curled, and fidgeted in every possible way, expressing her feelings with no small amount of embarrassment.
"Ehehe."
As Flamme crept closer and lowered the book, Serie greeted her with a ridiculous little expression.
"Pfft! Teacher, I feel like I haven’t seen that face in ages."
"What are you saying to your teacher? Hey, don’t touch my ears. They’re sensitive. Stop it, stop it...."
The rabbit ears on her head twitched.
Watching the two of them bicker, I could feel the passage of time in a very direct way.
She’s grown a lot.
Recently, Flamme had entered her growth period and grown to nearly Serie’s height. From a distance, they looked almost like sisters.
Moreover, her mana proficiency had increased.
After finishing her studies and leaving home, her growth has started to shoot up.
I had not made no progress either. The reason I could now glean information just by looking at Flamme was because learning magic had sharpened my eye enough to perceive mana.
Still, it’s not enough.
Even though I had trained my eye to identify and observe mana with my bare eyes, without Yggdrasil’s magic corrections, it was only at the level that any ordinary mage in this world could manage.
What’s more, Serie had succeeded in manifesting Yggdrasil magic, even if only at a low tier, while I still could not use even the basic magic of this other world.
I’ll have to think long-term.
A gamer would always take the route where experience, however small, still increased the numbers.
Since she had succeeded, I needed to produce results worthy of it as well.
Flamme, who had turned back to Serie after seeing me focus on the book again, whispered,
"You have a spell that can grant spells to others, don’t you? Have you told Ainz about it?"
Even though her voice was small, the hearing enhanced by the rabbit ears caught every word.
Piaberia allowed one to turn learned magic into the form of a grimoire, grant it to another, and have that person acquire the spell by reading it.
If I gave that to him, he could obtain magic easily.
"I asked indirectly."
"And?"
"I’m putting it on hold. That one still doesn’t like magic."
Desired magic, or beloved magic. To obtain something, one needed desire.
Giving magic to someone without ambition would make it impossible for them to use it properly.
Ainz lacked human desire.
"But he hasn’t given up on learning magic. Someday, the day will come when he likes it."
There was a trace of affection in Serie’s gaze as she looked at Ainz.
"Teacher, you’ve changed a little."
"Have I? It may be that I, too, am changing, even if only a little time has passed."
"Nature changes because of the passage of time, but the fastest changes are still the ones humans make themselves."
Elves notice things late.
Because their sense of time differs from that of humans, living as they do for nearly eternity, they often realize only after it is already too late.
Still, there would be no regrets.
The other side was also an undying being.
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