It was a usual meal.
Yerina had her 100% vegetarian elf diet, while Luke ate canned tuna as an additional side dish to the salad he shared with Yerina.
“Sigh…”
However, Luke felt that Yerina’s mood was different today.
Sure enough, Yerina, who had silently finished all the food in front of her, spoke up.
“Luke, I have something to say.”
Luke, as if already expecting it, delicately laid down her fork without making a sound and replied, looking at Yerina.
“What is it?”
“What did you do while I was alone for the past few weeks?”
“Well… it was the usual. Studying about class magic, and once the study progressed a bit, I read books to grasp the overall zeitgeist. Sometimes Lua comes home, we chat, play games under the name of training, and I help out with chores like laundry and dishes for you, things I can do.”
“Oh, really? Didn’t do anything special?”
Yerina heaved a big sigh with an expression that said ‘I see.’
Luke felt concerned seeing Yerina like that and asked, “Is something wrong?”
“Th-the mana bill for this month…”
Yerina, touching her forehead, replied with a sob.
“It came out to 3 million! Hiiing… What should we do…”
“…3 million?”
Three million coins.
Luke immediately started calculating the amount in terms he could relate to.
Her bus fare was 500 coins, so he could ride the bus 6000 times.
A can of tuna she often eats costs around 1600 coins, so she could buy about 1900 of them.
The clothes she was wearing were priced between 10,000 to 30,000 coins each, so she could buy around 300 to 100 sets.
Finishing the calculations in an instant, Luke shook her head, pondering, “That’s quite a lot of money.”
Fortunately, Luke was one of the few wizards with a somewhat normal sense of money among wizards.
Thanks to her economic sense cultivated while serving as a headmaster and as a grand wizard, she understood financial concepts.
Most wizards didn’t even keep books.
But there was something Luke couldn’t understand.
“But what exactly is a mana bill? Are they putting a value on mana itself?”
“Well, of course. Where in the world can you get something for free?”
“…?”
Mana is abundant in this world.
Putting a price on something as ubiquitous as air seemed absurd. Luke couldn’t fathom the workings of this world.
“Isn’t mana everywhere? Why put a value on it?”
“Ah, Luke doesn’t understand because she’s still young.”
Yerina groaned as if troubled, wondering how to explain the concept of ‘putting a value on mana’ to a child.
Mana.
Mana is a resource inherently found everywhere.
However, its density varied, and with the increasing population density of humans, mana consumption reached unprecedented levels.
In Luke’s era, magic was such a rare concept that it was difficult to witness unless you were a chosen class. Therefore, the distribution of mana wasn’t considered a significant concept.
However, after the emergence of class magic, magic became widely available to everyone, making the circulation of mana incredibly important.
There were many attempts thereafter.
From making mana potions to feeding them to wizards, transferring mana, to buying and selling mana with rechargeable mana stones, and even building cities in mana-rich forests.
Eventually, humanity settled on a method where they built cities encircling forests where world trees were cultivated, constructing facilities to ‘produce’ mana at their centers.
The mana produced was then refined and distributed to each household.
Thus, with so many people enjoying magic, yet mana never running out, wasn’t it natural to put a value on the ‘service’ and ‘technology’ making all this possible?
“….”
However, no matter how verbose the explanation, it was too much for a child to grasp.
Therefore, Yerina avoided eye contact and gave a simple answer.
“I’ll explain later.”
“…….”
Luke looked at Yerina with a dissatisfied expression.
She couldn’t even satisfy her curiosity with her childish treatment.
However, Luke thought that Yerina wasn’t intentionally teasing Luke, so she ran her forehead to smooth out her furrowed eyebrows and replied.
“Well, alright. Then I’ll listen later. But why is it priced at 3 million guilders? Is mana that expensive?”
The concept of valuing pure mana rather than potions or magic stones was hard to grasp.
And to think it amounted to a staggering 3 million guilders.
Wasn’t that an outrageous exploitation?
“No, originally it didn’t even reach 30,000 guilders per month…….”
Yerina sighed deeply and touched her forehead again.
“Just in case, I asked Gerald, and he said to suspect mana leakage in such cases. So, I called a repairman.”
“Is that so.”
“So, Luke. We might have to leave our house empty for a few days.”
***
Because they had to leave the house empty, Luke ended up staying at Yerina’s workplace, the women’s dormitory in the Lukewood.
“You understand, Luke. The forest is dangerous, so never come out recklessly, alright? Monsters might appear.”
“I understand.”
As Luke nodded her head, Yerina patted her head once and went out on patrol.
“Hmm, monsters.”
In a mana-rich forest, monsters always lurked.
With this much mana, the appearing monsters might not be simple small species.
Sometimes even large species might appear.
“To be a ‘Forest Guardian’ in such a forest, Yerina seems to be quite a strong one.”
Luke began to think highly of Yerina anew.
Sitting on the bed that seemed to be used when Yerina was on duty, reading a book she handed Luke called ‘The Distribution and Evolution of Mana’, Luke started to feel a bit wary of the footsteps outside the door.
“Yerina, hey. Are you inside?”
The voice belonged to a man.
Is he Yerina’s fellow forest guardian?
Luke perked up her ears, focusing on him.
Rotating the circle engraved in her heart quietly, which was a shield prepared for any potential situation, Luke heard the man’s voice again after a while.
“Hmm, she wouldn’t have left the fire on and gone somewhere.”
It was unnecessary to say it out loud.
So, it seemed like he was talking as if he wanted someone inside to hear.
Perhaps it was a threat or a question.
In simpler terms,
‘Hey, whoever’s inside, answer.’
Luke prepared the highest level of shield she could muster throughout her body, although she was only at Circle 1, the amount of mana forming it was ten times that of an average person’s.
Thinking that most physical forces wouldn’t affect her body, Luke approached the door and opened her mouth.
“I am Luke Irushi, residing in the same house as Yerina. But who are you speaking of?”
“……Living together with Yerina.”
Her voice chilled.
Luke immediately sensed ‘something’ from there.
Bang!
The latch was destroyed, and the door shattered into pieces.
As Luke infused mana into the shield she had precast, she adjusted her posture, and the shattered pieces of the door couldn’t cause any harm to her.
Luke immediately broke the door and scanned the man who appeared using his magical sense.
“Oh, hmm, it’s similar to the ‘Strength Enhancement Auxiliary Magic’ that Gerald used before, but it seems to have been further improved in output. There’s also a subtle difference in the mana consumption, but mainly, is that staff teaching that level?”
A sturdy man with red hair.
He assumes a combat stance with extreme tension.
“This level of magic… Is it really from a monster?”
“Of course, didn’t they say I was staying at Yerina’s house?”
“As far as I know, Yerina is single. There shouldn’t be someone like you around.”
He extends the hand holding a wand made of iron, resembling a gauntlet, and shouts.
“Ahart, rain!”
In an instant, Luke confirms the formation of magic, realizing it immediately.
“Something launching in a straight line. This is a formation I’ve never seen before.”
Luke chuckles, understanding his firing mechanism.
Whether magic or swordsmanship, the most crucial aspect of a confrontation is avoiding getting hit.
Therefore, in understanding magic, it’s essential to grasp the direction of casting and the nature of the projectile. Luke suppresses the urge to examine it more closely.
If it’s a linear firing mechanism, the response is simple.
“Mana Bolt.”
With a light gesture, Luke’s will and mana, emanating from the circle in her chest, manifest into the basic 1st-circle magic, Mana Bolt.
It forms a wispy creation aimed at the man’s magic path, dissipating the magic at her fingertips.
Got it!
“What?”
A blue orb appears, intercepting the man’s magic before vanishing.
In that fleeting moment, Luke interprets the phenomenon occurring with Mana Bolt once again.
“Hmm, a mix of lightning, mana sustenance, and rigidity maintenance. If it hits, it will stiffen muscles with slight current and rigidity maintenance. Some kind of restraining magic?”
The man with red hair, whose own spell was nullified by Luke’s 1st-circle Mana Bolt, exclaims with disbelief.
“Unbelievable, without even an incantation?”
Heightening his guard, he readies himself once more, leaping towards Luke.
“Looks can be deceiving; you’re quite a dangerous monster after all!”
Luke reluctantly concludes she must subdue him.
“Yerina’s comrade, it seems, but I must apologize.”
“Light.”
With a snap of her fingers, an overwhelming amount of light bursts forth before him.
“Agh!”
His eyes are overwhelmed by an unbearable level of brightness, causing sharp pain and stealing his vision.
“Grease.”
Almost simultaneously, another 1st-circle spell, Grease, changes the friction coefficient of the soles of his shoes to almost zero.
Slippery!
In his position, the ground suddenly becomes an ice rink.
Maintaining his stance to charge, he slides uncontrollably, unable to regain balance.
“Ugh!”
Thud!
Sliding all the way to the wall, his legs hit a table, smashing it spectacularly as he topples over.
“Crash!”
“Oof!”
Luke winces at the noise created by his body.
It seems he fell quite painfully at first glance.
Well, if you can’t see and suddenly the ground becomes slippery, that’s bound to happen.
“Ugh…”
As he tries to get up, Luke approaches and places her hand on his forehead.
Feeling the touch, he widens his barely visible eyes.
“Darn it, I’ve been defeated so easily…!”
“I’m truly sorry for this. Let your head cool off for a moment.”
“Spark.”
Crack!
He trembles from the faint current coursing through his mind and faints.
It was a usual meal.
Yerina had her 100% vegetarian elf diet, while Luke ate canned tuna as an additional side dish to the salad he shared with Yerina.
“Sigh…”
However, Luke felt that Yerina’s mood was different today.
Sure enough, Yerina, who had silently finished all the food in front of her, spoke up.
“Luke, I have something to say.”
Luke, as if already expecting it, delicately laid down her fork without making a sound and replied, looking at Yerina.
“What is it?”
“What did you do while I was alone for the past few weeks?”
“Well… it was the usual. Studying about class magic, and once the study progressed a bit, I read books to grasp the overall zeitgeist. Sometimes Lua comes home, we chat, play games under the name of training, and I help out with chores like laundry and dishes for you, things I can do.”
“Oh, really? Didn’t do anything special?”
Yerina heaved a big sigh with an expression that said ‘I see.’
Luke felt concerned seeing Yerina like that and asked, “Is something wrong?”
“Th-the mana bill for this month…”
Yerina, touching her forehead, replied with a sob.
“It came out to 3 million! Hiiing… What should we do…”
“…3 million?”
Three million coins.
Luke immediately started calculating the amount in terms he could relate to.
Her bus fare was 500 coins, so he could ride the bus 6000 times.
A can of tuna she often eats costs around 1600 coins, so she could buy about 1900 of them.
The clothes she was wearing were priced between 10,000 to 30,000 coins each, so she could buy around 300 to 100 sets.
Finishing the calculations in an instant, Luke shook her head, pondering, “That’s quite a lot of money.”
Fortunately, Luke was one of the few wizards with a somewhat normal sense of money among wizards.
Thanks to her economic sense cultivated while serving as a headmaster and as a grand wizard, she understood financial concepts.
Most wizards didn’t even keep books.
But there was something Luke couldn’t understand.
“But what exactly is a mana bill? Are they putting a value on mana itself?”
“Well, of course. Where in the world can you get something for free?”
“…?”
Mana is abundant in this world.
Putting a price on something as ubiquitous as air seemed absurd. Luke couldn’t fathom the workings of this world.
“Isn’t mana everywhere? Why put a value on it?”
“Ah, Luke doesn’t understand because she’s still young.”
Yerina groaned as if troubled, wondering how to explain the concept of ‘putting a value on mana’ to a child.
Mana.
Mana is a resource inherently found everywhere.
However, its density varied, and with the increasing population density of humans, mana consumption reached unprecedented levels.
In Luke’s era, magic was such a rare concept that it was difficult to witness unless you were a chosen class. Therefore, the distribution of mana wasn’t considered a significant concept.
However, after the emergence of class magic, magic became widely available to everyone, making the circulation of mana incredibly important.
There were many attempts thereafter.
From making mana potions to feeding them to wizards, transferring mana, to buying and selling mana with rechargeable mana stones, and even building cities in mana-rich forests.
Eventually, humanity settled on a method where they built cities encircling forests where world trees were cultivated, constructing facilities to ‘produce’ mana at their centers.
The mana produced was then refined and distributed to each household.
Thus, with so many people enjoying magic, yet mana never running out, wasn’t it natural to put a value on the ‘service’ and ‘technology’ making all this possible?
“….”
However, no matter how verbose the explanation, it was too much for a child to grasp.
Therefore, Yerina avoided eye contact and gave a simple answer.
“I’ll explain later.”
“…….”
Luke looked at Yerina with a dissatisfied expression.
She couldn’t even satisfy her curiosity with her childish treatment.
However, Luke thought that Yerina wasn’t intentionally teasing Luke, so she ran her forehead to smooth out her furrowed eyebrows and replied.
“Well, alright. Then I’ll listen later. But why is it priced at 3 million guilders? Is mana that expensive?”
The concept of valuing pure mana rather than potions or magic stones was hard to grasp.
And to think it amounted to a staggering 3 million guilders.
Wasn’t that an outrageous exploitation?
“No, originally it didn’t even reach 30,000 guilders per month…….”
Yerina sighed deeply and touched her forehead again.
“Just in case, I asked Gerald, and he said to suspect mana leakage in such cases. So, I called a repairman.”
“Is that so.”
“So, Luke. We might have to leave our house empty for a few days.”
***
Because they had to leave the house empty, Luke ended up staying at Yerina’s workplace, the women’s dormitory in the Lukewood.
“You understand, Luke. The forest is dangerous, so never come out recklessly, alright? Monsters might appear.”
“I understand.”
As Luke nodded her head, Yerina patted her head once and went out on patrol.
“Hmm, monsters.”
In a mana-rich forest, monsters always lurked.
With this much mana, the appearing monsters might not be simple small species.
Sometimes even large species might appear.
“To be a ‘Forest Guardian’ in such a forest, Yerina seems to be quite a strong one.”
Luke began to think highly of Yerina anew.
Sitting on the bed that seemed to be used when Yerina was on duty, reading a book she handed Luke called ‘The Distribution and Evolution of Mana’, Luke started to feel a bit wary of the footsteps outside the door.
“Yerina, hey. Are you inside?”
The voice belonged to a man.
Is he Yerina’s fellow forest guardian?
Luke perked up her ears, focusing on him.
Rotating the circle engraved in her heart quietly, which was a shield prepared for any potential situation, Luke heard the man’s voice again after a while.
“Hmm, she wouldn’t have left the fire on and gone somewhere.”
It was unnecessary to say it out loud.
So, it seemed like he was talking as if he wanted someone inside to hear.
Perhaps it was a threat or a question.
In simpler terms,
‘Hey, whoever’s inside, answer.’
Luke prepared the highest level of shield she could muster throughout her body, although she was only at Circle 1, the amount of mana forming it was ten times that of an average person’s.
Thinking that most physical forces wouldn’t affect her body, Luke approached the door and opened her mouth.
“I am Luke Irushi, residing in the same house as Yerina. But who are you speaking of?”
“……Living together with Yerina.”
Her voice chilled.
Luke immediately sensed ‘something’ from there.
Bang!
The latch was destroyed, and the door shattered into pieces.
As Luke infused mana into the shield she had precast, she adjusted her posture, and the shattered pieces of the door couldn’t cause any harm to her.
Luke immediately broke the door and scanned the man who appeared using his magical sense.
“Oh, hmm, it’s similar to the ‘Strength Enhancement Auxiliary Magic’ that Gerald used before, but it seems to have been further improved in output. There’s also a subtle difference in the mana consumption, but mainly, is that staff teaching that level?”
A sturdy man with red hair.
He assumes a combat stance with extreme tension.
“This level of magic… Is it really from a monster?”
“Of course, didn’t they say I was staying at Yerina’s house?”
“As far as I know, Yerina is single. There shouldn’t be someone like you around.”
He extends the hand holding a wand made of iron, resembling a gauntlet, and shouts.
“Ahart, rain!”
In an instant, Luke confirms the formation of magic, realizing it immediately.
“Something launching in a straight line. This is a formation I’ve never seen before.”
Luke chuckles, understanding his firing mechanism.
Whether magic or swordsmanship, the most crucial aspect of a confrontation is avoiding getting hit.
Therefore, in understanding magic, it’s essential to grasp the direction of casting and the nature of the projectile. Luke suppresses the urge to examine it more closely.
If it’s a linear firing mechanism, the response is simple.
“Mana Bolt.”
With a light gesture, Luke’s will and mana, emanating from the circle in her chest, manifest into the basic 1st-circle magic, Mana Bolt.
It forms a wispy creation aimed at the man’s magic path, dissipating the magic at her fingertips.
Got it!
“What?”
A blue orb appears, intercepting the man’s magic before vanishing.
In that fleeting moment, Luke interprets the phenomenon occurring with Mana Bolt once again.
“Hmm, a mix of lightning, mana sustenance, and rigidity maintenance. If it hits, it will stiffen muscles with slight current and rigidity maintenance. Some kind of restraining magic?”
The man with red hair, whose own spell was nullified by Luke’s 1st-circle Mana Bolt, exclaims with disbelief.
“Unbelievable, without even an incantation?”
Heightening his guard, he readies himself once more, leaping towards Luke.
“Looks can be deceiving; you’re quite a dangerous monster after all!”
Luke reluctantly concludes she must subdue him.
“Yerina’s comrade, it seems, but I must apologize.”
“Light.”
With a snap of her fingers, an overwhelming amount of light bursts forth before him.
“Agh!”
His eyes are overwhelmed by an unbearable level of brightness, causing sharp pain and stealing his vision.
“Grease.”
Almost simultaneously, another 1st-circle spell, Grease, changes the friction coefficient of the soles of his shoes to almost zero.
Slippery!
In his position, the ground suddenly becomes an ice rink.
Maintaining his stance to charge, he slides uncontrollably, unable to regain balance.
“Ugh!”
Thud!
Sliding all the way to the wall, his legs hit a table, smashing it spectacularly as he topples over.
“Crash!”
“Oof!”
Luke winces at the noise created by his body.
It seems he fell quite painfully at first glance.
Well, if you can’t see and suddenly the ground becomes slippery, that’s bound to happen.
“Ugh…”
As he tries to get up, Luke approaches and places her hand on his forehead.
Feeling the touch, he widens his barely visible eyes.
“Darn it, I’ve been defeated so easily…!”
“I’m truly sorry for this. Let your head cool off for a moment.”
“Spark.”
Crack!
He trembles from the faint current coursing through his mind and faints.
