“Teach you magic… Touya, do you have an aptitude?”
“Aptitude?”
“Magic is heavily dependent on innate aptitude… someone with no aptitude can’t use magic, no matter what.”
I see. So not a universal ability. Well, makes sense — if everyone could, the world would be more magic-developed.
“Aptitude, huh. Yeah — I think I’m fine. Someone reliable assured me I’d be able to.”
“Who?”
“Uh — a, very important someone.”
A god, actually. If I said that out loud my sanity would be called into question. Keep it down.
“Is there a way to check whether someone has aptitude?”
Linze pulled several translucent stones out of her pouch in response. Red, blue, yellow, clear — glass-like. About a centimeter each. Similar stones, larger ones, were mounted on her silver wand.
“What are those?”
”…These are magic stones, sir. They amplify, store, and release magical power. We can roughly test aptitude using these.”
Water might be the clearest one, she murmured, picking up a translucent blue stone. She held it over the empty teacup.
“Water, come.”
A small stream of water trickled from the stone into the cup.
“Whoa.”
”…That’s a successful magic activation. The stone responded to my magic and generated water.”
“For comparison—”
Elze took the stone from her sister and chanted.
“Water, come.”
The stone gave no response. Not a single drop.
“That’s what no water aptitude looks like. So I can’t use water magic.”
“Even though you’re twins.”
“Don’t blurt out what I’m sensitive about… Whatever, fine.”
Oops. Foot in mouth. But Elze didn’t look genuinely angry — just slightly sulky — so I relaxed a little.
“Nee-chan can’t use water magic, but she can use body-strengthening magic. The opposite for me — I can’t do body-strengthening. Body-strengthening requires its own aptitude.”
Ah. So that’s where her absurd punching power came from. She looked too thin to hit like that, and now I knew why.
“Everyone has magical power, but without aptitude you can’t activate the technique.”
So it was all aptitude. No talent for it, no chance for it. The world wasn’t fair.
“So if I try this, I can find out if I have aptitude.”
“Yes. Hold the stone, focus on it, and chant Water, come. If you have aptitude, water will manifest.”
I took the blue stone from Elze. To avoid wetting the table when it activated, I held my hand above an empty plate.
I focused on the stone and chanted.
“Water, come.”
The next instant the stone gushed water like a broken faucet.
“Wha—!?”
Startled, I let go of the stone. The water stopped immediately. But the table was soaked. The tablecloth was a disaster.
”…What just happened?”
I asked the twins for an explanation. They both stared, mouths slightly open. Their expressions were so identical I almost laughed.
”…Touya-san’s magical power is enormously greater than mine, I think… that small a stone with just a fragment of a spell, on your first try — and the quality of your magic is unbelievably pure. I’ve never seen anything like this…”
”…You’re better cut out as a mage. Absolutely. I’ve never seen anything like this.”
So I did have aptitude. Well — god-grade endorsement, of course. The huge magic pool was probably also god-effect. More is better than less, anyway. Point being: I could use magic.
We apologized for the drenched table and beat a quick retreat from the café.
By the time we got back to the inn, it was evening, so the actual magic lesson was punted to the next day.
After dinner I had Linze tutor me in reading and writing in the dining room (Mika had cleared us to use it).
Linze wrote simple words and I jotted the Japanese meanings next to them.
”…That’s a script I’ve never seen before. Where is it from?”
“Mm — a script used only in a limited region of my hometown. Nobody around here would use it, probably.”
Or anywhere else in this world. It was basically a private cipher.
Linze looked puzzled but accepted it.
We worked through more vocabulary; I cross-translated each into Japanese. Linze’s teaching was good — words landed fast. Hm? Has my memory always been this sharp? Probably also a god-effect.
Then it would’ve been nice if he’d just thrown reading-and-writing in the starter package, I thought — but gods have their own constraints. Don’t be greedy.
We wrapped at a clean stopping point. I went back to my room.
I jotted today’s events into the phone and pulled up old-world info. Huh, this guy got the People’s Honor Award. Aw, I wanted to see that movie.
Oh, right — Eashen. I pinged the map. Way out east, past the continental edge, an island country. Of course it’s similar to Japan. I want to visit someday.
Tired from a day of monster hunting, sleep hit fast. No need to resist. Into the bed. Goodnight. Zzz.