Around that time, Rudeus's days followed a fairly regular routine.
In the mornings, he studied swordsmanship, and in the afternoons, he practiced magic. Whenever he had time to spare, he went beneath the large tree on the hill to see Sylphiette.
Rudeus still called her Sylph.
At first, I thought it was a nickname. But Sylphiette never corrected him. Whenever Rudeus called her "Sylph," she immediately looked up.
Apparently, having someone call for her mattered more than the fact that they had gotten her name wrong.
Rudeus taught Sylphiette magic and letters. From how to read books to the sensation of moving mana, he explained everything he could remember learning from Roxy Migurdia.
He was not especially good at explaining it.
"You gather mana here, then... how should I put it? You push it outward from inside?"
With all the hand motions included, he resembled Father when he taught swordsmanship.
Rudeus seemed to think of Father as someone who relied solely on instinct, but he himself was not much different when it came to magic. When he tried to put into words something he could do naturally, he kept leaving out important parts.
Even so, Sylphiette learned quickly.
She was particularly skilled with water- and wind-element magic. In contrast, whenever she tried to use fire-element magic, she faltered from the very step of gathering mana.
There were burn scars on the back of her hand.
Rudeus said that past experiences seemed to affect magic as well. Seeing how Sylphiette recoiled whenever she imagined flames, it was not an unreasonable guess.
Her wounds had already healed.
Her body, however, seemed not to have forgotten.
Before long, Sylphiette succeeded at chantless magic for the first time.
A small mass of water floated above her palm. Its form was unstable, and it could not be maintained for long, but there had been no incantation.
Sylphiette stared at her raised hand with a stunned expression.
Rudeus was happier than he had been when he first succeeded himself.
The two of them laughed beneath the tree for quite some time.
What Roxy Migurdia had taught Rudeus was now being passed on to Sylphiette through him.
It rained that day.
There had only been scattered clouds in the morning, but by afternoon, the wind had changed. Ordinarily, Rudeus would have noticed the rain clouds first. Perhaps he had been too absorbed in Sylphiette's chantless magic, because the two of them did not run back to the village until the rain was already falling hard.
Lilia handed them towels at the entrance.
Rudeus took Sylphiette upstairs, saying she might catch a cold. Drying their wet clothes would have been fine.
The trouble began after that.
He could not distinguish teasing from curiosity, and by the time he realized she did not like it, it was already too late.
Sylphiette cried.
Hearing her, Father came upstairs. In the past, he might have struck first before checking what had happened, but this time, he listened to both of them first.
Rudeus did not make excuses.
It was then that he learned for the first time that Sylphiette was a girl.
After that day, Rudeus called her Sylphy rather than Sylph.
Sylphiette herself had not changed. She had the same face as the day before, spoke in the same voice, and continued practicing the same magic.
The one who had changed was Rudeus.
He began to see Sylphy as a girl, and decided that if he wanted things to remain as they had been, he needed to pretend nothing was different.
I was not sure whether knowingly pretending not to know could be called being insensitive.
At the very least, it seemed to be something Rudeus needed to do.
That night, I left the house.
Mother believed I was asleep, and Father was downstairs drinking. I heard Lilia extinguish the last candle in the corridor.
Rudeus needed to deal with Rudeus's problem himself.
I had something to confirm as well.
I walked until the lights of the village were hidden behind the trees.
Once I confirmed that there were no traces of people nearby, I increased my speed. I wrapped mana around my feet to channel the force with which I kicked off the ground, then layered a thin coating of battle aura over it.
I had observed the flow of mana that enveloped Father's body every time he swung his sword. I could not use it as naturally as a local swordsman, but I could at least reproduce its outer form.
Battle aura differed from YGGDRASIL's enhancement magic.
It had no fixed tiers or durations, nor were its effects divided into numerical values. Swordsmen handled by instinct the force created when the body and mana pushed against one another.
That did not mean it lacked a system.
It simply was not expressed in a way I was accustomed to.
I kicked off the ground.
With a single leap, I crossed several dozen meters. The gaps between trees rapidly closed, then streamed past behind me. When I accelerated further, the wind striking my face sharpened.
The forest ended in less than a few minutes.
Beyond the mountain range, there was nothing but rock and dry earth. It was a wilderness not properly recorded even on maps. A few small monsters moved through the shadows of the night, but they were not enough to interfere with the experiment.
First, I confirmed my concealment.
"[Perfect Unknowable]."
Once the spell was complete, my appearance, footsteps, and presence vanished from my surroundings.
Considering the possibility of monsters that could sense scent, heat, or the flow of mana, I added a detection-blocking effect as well.
There were no humans within the radius.
There was one large creature to the northeast, and an underground water vein ran beneath the ground. Other than that, there was nothing of concern.
I raised a hand.
"[Twin Magic: Fire Ball]."
Two fireballs appeared side by side.
It was a familiar sight in YGGDRASIL. The same spell was cast twice at once, then exploded upon reaching its target.
The mana consumption was greater than when using it only once. It was not exactly double.
The fireballs exploded amid the rocks.
With a thunderous blast, hot air surged toward me. Even after the flames disappeared, the rocks remained heated, and several clumps of dry grass caught fire.
In the game, nothing remained once an effect ended.
Here, it was different.
I raised earth with earth-element magic and covered the burning grass.
Next was the change in power.
"[Maximize Magic: Lightning]."
Lightning tore through the wilderness and struck the ground.
The rock it hit split down the middle. The scent of burning lingered in the air, and black cracks spread along the path the current had taken.
The effects left by attack magic did not vanish along with the visual effects.
I used several more low-tier spells. I altered their power and range, mixed in the local water- and earth-element magic, and checked how the surrounding environment affected the results.
Lastly, I tested Meteor Fall.
"[Delay Magic: Meteor Fall]."
The spell was complete, but it did not activate immediately.
A red point appeared in the night sky above me.
It had not fallen yet. The spell waiting to activate remained suspended in the air, gradually pushing away the surrounding mana.
Whenever the temperature and humidity changed, the surface of its mana trembled slightly. The side brushed by the wind distorted for a moment before returning to its original shape.
In the game, a delayed spell existed only as something waiting for its activation time.
Here, it was not completely separated from the atmosphere.
After observing it for a while, I released the delay.
The red point grew larger.
A burning mass of rock emerged beneath the clouds. It was roughly fifty meters in diameter. It was slower than an actual celestial body falling from space, but if it struck the ground as it was, it was large enough to alter the terrain across this entire area.
As the meteor approached, the wind was pressed downward.
Dust gathered on the ground scattered outward, and the monsters hidden in the wilderness began fleeing all at once.
I used [Fly] and rose into the air.
As the burning rock drew close, I could see lava flowing over its surface and the cracks splitting it apart. The heat distorted the air.
Just before contact, I dispelled the flight magic.
What I intended to confirm this time was not the supporting force of flight magic.
I extended both hands.
The meteor bore down upon my palms.
My arms sank, and my shoulders were forced back. The air behind me burst, launching my body downward.
My skin and clothes were undamaged. My fire resistance was functioning normally.
Even so, I could feel the heat and pressure.
The air I inhaled was hot and dry. Vibrations beginning in my palms traveled through my arm bones, spreading to my shoulders and back.
Falling alongside the meteor, I changed the direction of force.
Rather than trying to push it away head-on, I lifted one side as if rotating it. As the mass of rock tilted, its trajectory gradually shifted.
I concentrated battle aura in my arms and shoulders.
Its speed decreased.
I had not brought it completely to a stop. I, too, had been forced down nearly several hundred meters, and the meteor's course had deviated greatly from its original target.
After checking the remaining distance to the ground, I used flight magic again.
My body stopped in midair.
I pushed the meteor to the side.
The burning rock flew at a shallow angle and crashed into a rocky mountain at the edge of the wilderness.
First, light spread outward.
A moment later, a tremendous roar and shockwave rolled over me. The upper part of the rocky mountain collapsed, and stone and earth poured down like rain. The ground at the impact site was gouged deeply, while the dry grass around it burned away in the heat.
I looked down at my hands.
There were no burns or fractures. My fingers moved normally as well. Only a faint remnant of the earlier pressure remained in my palms.
It would be difficult to say I had tested pure physical strength alone.
Meteor Fall was slower than an actual celestial body, and I had diverted its trajectory sideways rather than confronting it head-on. In the end, I had also used flight magic.
Even so, I had sufficiently confirmed the range of loads my current body and battle aura could endure.
A meteor roughly fifty meters in diameter.
Contact possible while falling.
Trajectory alteration possible through battle aura.
Fire resistance functioning normally.
Weight and impact perceived through the senses.
Collateral damage excessively high.
The next test would need to be conducted farther away.
I moved deeper into the wilderness.
With the mountain struck by the meteor at my back, I chose a flat stretch of land. The groundwater was deep, and there was almost no vegetation.
After strengthening my concealment once more, I prepared a super-tier spell.
"[The Creation]."
A massive magic circle spread beneath my feet.
As the casting continued, the sounds around me grew distant. Mana seeped below the ground, reading the structure of the soil and rock.
In YGGDRASIL, [The Creation] was a super-tier spell that changed the environment of a field.
One selected from among predetermined effects such as a frozen wasteland, a volcanic region, a desert, or a forest. It was powerful, but it was not free-form magic.
This time, no options appeared.
Instead, I felt that I could directly determine the height of the ground, the density of the stone, the thickness of the walls, and the direction of the doors. The slope of waterways, the placement of rooms, and the width of staircases were the same.
The scope was too broad to simply call it a field alteration.
At least when it came to terrain and structures, I could shape things far more freely than in the game.
I considered what to make.
The first thing that came to mind was Buena Village.
I remembered the locations of the houses and fields. I could likely reproduce the livestock pens, the well, and the paths people traveled.
But I did not want to make it.
In Buena's mornings, one could hear Lilia carrying firewood, while Mother scolded Father for waking late. Those things had nothing to do with the arrangement of buildings.
Instead, I chose the structure I remembered most precisely.
YGGDRASIL's guild base.
The throne room where I had sat for the last time while waiting for the service to end, and the corridors leading to it.
Once I decided on the form, the earth began to move.
The wilderness soil sank, and black stone rose from the ground. After the foundation was laid, broad corridors and ramparts formed. Towers rose, and closed gates and a plaza appeared.
It was not an exact copy of the base from the game.
In reality, pillars were needed to support the ceiling, drains were needed to carry away standing water, and enclosed spaces needed passages for air to circulate.
It seemed the parts absent from my memory had been filled in according to the laws of this world.
There were more pillars than in the game, and the drains were deeper. Rooms that had not connected to the outside had acquired ventilation shafts.
The building stood properly.
The central hall resembled the throne room. The black walls, high ceiling, and even the throne at the far end were not greatly different from my memories.
But the throne had no function at all.
No guild menu appeared, nor did ownership of the treasury or alarms warning of intruders.
It was merely a chair carved from black stone.
I walked along the corridors.
The bedrooms contained beds and wardrobes. There were no signs that anyone had used them. Not a single garment hung inside, and the bedcovers were unwrinkled.
The dining hall was larger.
A long table and chairs had been neatly arranged, along with plates and goblets.
I sat down.
My footsteps struck the high ceiling and echoed back. Since there was little fabric or furniture, even the slightest movement reverberated far too loudly.
There were dishes, but no smell of food.
There was a dining table, but no sound of spoons striking plates.
I sat there for some time before rising.
There were no flaws in the structure I inspected from outside. Both the ramparts and the interior spaces were stable, and if necessary, I could add defensive magic.
The super-tier spell had succeeded.
A building resembling the guild base I remembered had been completed as well.
There was nothing more to confirm.
When I returned home, the sun had not yet risen.
A faint light remained in one of the Greyrat family's windows.
When I opened the door, Lilia spotted me from the end of the corridor.
"You have returned, Master Eugene."
"Yes."
Lilia approached and inspected my clothes.
"You smell of smoke."
"I was testing magic."
She did not ask any further questions.
Instead, she held out a wet towel.
"You should clean yourself before Zenith wakes up."
I wiped my hands and face with the towel.
These were the hands that had supported a meteor moments earlier, but the damp cloth did not tear.
The breakfast table was no different from usual.
Father yawned, only for Mother to smack him on the back. Lilia wiped up spilled water as she set down the plates, and Rudeus stared at his soup with dark circles beneath his eyes.
It seemed he had lost sleep over what happened with Sylphy.
Father pointed his spoon at Rudeus's bowl.
"You apologized, so now don't be so hesitant around her. If you keep acting awkward, you'll only make her more uncomfortable too."
"Should I really be taking advice about girls from you, Father?"
"What's wrong with that?"
"That doesn't seem like something you should say in front of Mother."
Smiling, Mother pinched Father's side.
Father swallowed his scream, and Rudeus finally laughed. Then he swallowed his soup wrong and began coughing.
Lilia handed him a glass of water.
I took a spoonful of soup as well.
It had its usual flavor: potatoes, meat, and mildly scented herbs.
The castle I had made that night also possessed a much longer dining table. Plates and goblets had been placed across it without omission.
But there had been no sound there.
Father began grumbling again that there was too little meat in his bowl.
This time, Mother struck the back of his hand with her spoon.
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