Maydare Volume 1 Chapter 6 - The Spirit Summoning Ceremony (Part 3)

Kuuderes ftw

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The cluster of ateliers at the end of the island was commonly known as the “glass bottle ateliers.”

That was because that cluster of ateliers were facilities that resembled empty glass bottles that were scattered here and there, set into the shelf-like cliffs. They were very interesting to look at because of their diverse shapes and colors.

This place could be used freely by students, but it seemed that a more convenient atelier cluster was constructed on the island center recently, so the old ateliers around here weren’t popular. 

However, I heard there were many upperclassmen in those central ateliers, so I came here to make the cage.

“It’s a bit inconvenient, but it’s just like a magician’s atelier.”

It was true that it wasn’t very popular, but there was a male student at a work table quietly doing something in the light-blue glass bottle atelier I entered.

What should I do, should I go to another atelier…?

“Um…”

When I called out to him anyways, the boy noticed me and raised his work glasses or goggles to his forehead. It properly tucked in his thin platinum blond bangs. 

“Ah.”

One of his eyes was a vivid magenta color——

That was when I finally realized who this boy was. It was the head of our year, Nero Pachelbel.

He even skipped the spirit summoning ceremony, but he was actually here.

“I’m Makia O’Drielle. You’re Nero Pachelbel, right?”

“...Yeah.”

A reply without a hint of friendliness. He had already put on his goggles and was looking down.

“I want to use this place. Is that okay with you?”

“I don’t care...do what you want. It’s a shared space.”

“Thank you.”

He was a slender, well-featured boy, but he was a lot more aloof than I expected.

I placed the wood and glass sheets I had bought on top of a large table and searched for the necessary tools.

Even so, this was a strange atelier. I couldn’t see the inside very well from the outside, but I could see the outside from the inside perfectly fine. It was spacious, and you could see the sea from here, which made me wonder why such a nice atelier wasn’t popular.

When I checked the second floor, I saw that it was a storage room, complete with tools. I could look down on the first floor from here.

The arched ceiling had a milky-white coating that didn’t become transparent until halfway up, which seemed to be a mechanism for blocking heat and light. To keep the room cool and comfortable during the day, the magic coating on the ceiling also had an air conditioning function.

If you needed an enclosed, dark place, you could use the basement. This light blue glass bottle atelier seemed to be enough to work as a magician.

I quickly tied my hair up, took off my robe, and started work. I wondered if he was bothered that I started clanking, thumping, and clanging right in front of him. Nero Pachelbel would look up from time to time and watch what I was doing.

I was also interested in his work. What exactly was he doing?

It seemed that he was applying details on something small with a thin rod while it sprinkled light around. After I reached a stopping place in my own work, I sneakily went behind him and saw that he was writing a magic formula on a seemingly thin and round glass-like thing…

“Wow, you’re really good at such dexterous work.”

“!?”

I was watching him work from behind him unnoticed, so Nero Pachelbel was a little surprised and turned around with a somewhat unamused look on his face. But I didn’t mind.

“Is this a contact lens? Is the reason your eye’s a different color because you’re wearing this lens?”

“...”

“At the entrance ceremony, I was wondering why both your eyes were brown. Because when I saw you before, both your eyes were a pretty magenta color. Magenta is the true color of your eyes, right?”

Nero Pachelbel was silent for a while, and then took off his goggles.

“The color of my eyes are too flashy, and it’s considered forbidden in this country. I attract attention whether I like it or not, so I wear lenses in a bland and subdued color. They’re handy magical tools.”

“Magical tools…?”

“They’re the product of leading edge magic with magical circuitry. Although I doubt it has taken root in Ruschia yet. ...In the first place, you figured out these were lenses worn on the eyes pretty quickly.”

”Ah…”

Now that he said it, this might be the first time I came across contact lenses in this world. Although in the world of my past life, everyone used them as a matter of course.

“What can you do with them when you wear them on your eyes?”

I asked him curiously. He told me about it as dispassionately as ever, but also thoroughly and politely.

“...They can visually capture the flow of magic power. This makes it easier to find traces of magic and curses, and to undo them. This can replace rings and wands, and even the chanting of incantations can be omitted to some extent. They’re magical tools that can speed up your magic.”

Before I could even be shocked, he simply turned his gaze to the side and an empty bottle by the window shattered. He used that kind of magic.

“It’s like that. Because, in the future, there’s going to be a lot of emphasis on speed in magic.”

I was open-mouthed, staring at the broken bottle.

I was sure he broke it just now, but it was restored to its original state before I knew it. So fast…

“W-wait a minute, this is incredible. It can cover most of a magician’s weaknesses. Who exactly are you?”

Unlike me, who only studied for exams, he was considerably ahead of the curve as a magician.

It seemed natural that Nero Pachelbel was the head of our year, but where in the world did he get that skill? 

Nero Pachelbel and I stared at each other for a while, probing each other.

On the surface of the lens that covered one of his eyes, there was a steady stream of fine magical formulas. 

“It’s not a big deal...I’ve been in another country for a long time, and I’ve just had a lot of opportunities to come in contact with cutting-edge magic. My magic power isn’t actually all that high, and I’m not that talented. Compared to someone like you who comes from a noble family.”

“No! This is a great weapon that we don’t have in the Ruschia-style’s old fashioned and antiquated magic! I mean, it’s way beyond the scope of a student.”

“I thought that this was a field that the classic magicians of Ruschia hated.”

“Not at all! I’m very interested.”

“...”

Nero Pachelbel still had a strange look on his face.

He might be put off by me acting too excited.

”Ahem. By the way, it seems that you didn’t show up to the spirit summoning ceremony. What’s wrong? Did you have a stomach ache or something?”

At any rate, I tried changing the subject.

“...Why do you care about that?”

”I'm curious. Do you not want to use spirits?”

“Not really. I just didn’t want to go since I’m already using a spirit.”

“Huh, where is it!?”

To think that he already had a spirit, just like Lapis. Should I say, “as expected of the head of the class?”

As I looked all around, Nero Pachelbel languidly walked over to the window and pointed through the wide glass pane to the sky.

”Ah…”

A handsome hawk was flying circles in the sky. I see, so his familiar was a hawk.

“It’s so cool. We have a crow in my family. Bird spirits watch over their masters in the sky, and they’re so carefree and wonderful.”

“...Well. I’m a little jealous of their freedom to go anywhere they want.”

For this once, Nero Pachelbel had a gentle expression on his face.

He was about to return to his work table, but I grabbed his shoulder and told him I wasn’t letting him go.

“Hey! Have you already been scouted by a team? I’m currently recruiting team members.”

Nero Pachelbel suddenly looked nervous and averted his gaze to the side as he said, “You’re talking about that? ...Beatrice Asta invited me.”

“Did you accept!?”

It was certainly strange that Beatrice, who was looking for the best people, didn’t invite him first of all.

“No...She condescendingly told me, ‘You’re a commoner, but I’ll make you a member of my team. Be thankful and accept it,’ so I rejected her. I hate arrogant magicians like that.”

“Ah…”

I could vividly imagine the scene. Even though Nero Pachelbel, the head of our class, was in a position to choose his own team members.

“I understand how you feel. My ancestor was quite a wicked person, so people would say all sorts of things about us. In the first place, it doesn’t matter to magicians if you’re a noble, a commoner, or even a slave. It should all be based on merit.”

I’ve heard that there were magicians who value bloodline above everything else, but if you asked me, that was ridiculous. 

There were geniuses who came from slavery, like Thor, and I was always shown how incredible they were, and I constantly got taken down a peg. Pedigree was meaningless in front of a genius like that.

The same goes for Nero Pachelbel. There was no doubt he was a different kind of genius than Thor.

“So why don’t you team up with me? No...that’s not it.”

I immediately changed that invitation and held out my hand. 

“First, why don’t we become friends, Nero Pachelbel?”

“...”

Through the open skylight, the salty sea breeze and the scent of lemons drifted in on the wind. 

There was a moment of refreshing silence. He stared at my held out hand with a surprisingly listless look on his face.

But he didn’t shake it readily.

The emptiness of my hand that I held out to him...While making rock and paper* with my hand, trying to gloss things over,

(TN: The Japanese term here is グーパー, which is a combination of "rock" or guu and "paper" or paa. So basically she's clenching and unclenching her hand.)

“W-well...It’s true that I’m a leftover who nobody wants as a team member because I summoned two dwarf hamsters at the spirit summoning ceremony, but… Oh! But hamsters are cute!”

“...Hamsters?”

He turned his gaze towards the space I had been working at earlier.

There was a rectangular box made of lumber and glass panes, which I had just finished making.

“Is that the hamster cage you were making?”

”Yes. I want to make a big one and make them comfortable. I also want a hamster wheel, but I don’t really know how to make one. Maybe I should make a hole in a wash basin and try installing it.”

“...”

The two ham-chans in my robe pocket rustled out, jumped onto the desk in front of them, and started sumo wrestling each other. 

They were springy and rolling around and so cute that I dashed out to get the sunflower seeds I just bought and made a wrestling ring around them. 

Nero Pachelbel stared at our actions intently…

“...I’ll help you out.”

“Huh? For what?”

“I’ll make the hamster wheel.”

”What!? It’s, it’s okay. You have your own work to do, didn’t you? I'd be grateful even if you just joined my team.”

”When did you decide I’ll be a part of your team…? Well, I guess it’s fine. I was thinking I had to join one soon anyways.”

“Yes!”

I pumped my fist. Nero Pachelbel, on the other hand, let out a small sigh, stopped his work, and went to look at the cage I was partway building.

“Huh, you built this cage pretty well.”

“I may not look like it, but I’m good at making things. I live in the middle of nowhere, so I had to go and get materials and make everything myself.”

It was mostly with things from the Salt Forest.

Although, since I never had the opportunity to make a hamster wheel, it was a struggle.

Nero Pachelbel seemed to be good at that sort of thing, making full use of his tools and magic, and created a beautiful hamster wheel that looked like an item for sale. 

“Thank you, Nero Pachelbel! Ah...hey, it’s a bother to call you by your full name, so can I just call you Nero?”

He was silent for a few seconds, and then answered shortly, “I don’t mind.”

“It’s a good name. It sounds like an evil emperor. Or like you’d have Patrache* with you.”

(TN: Patrache is the dog in the popular story A Dog of Flanders. His owner's name is Nello.)

“What?”

“Nothing, just talking to myself.”

“...What about you.”

“Huh?”

“What should I call you?”

Nero turned towards me again and asked matter-of-factly while staring at me with his eyes where one was magenta-colored.

Despite his cool tone, the color was so passionate, and I felt some sort of premonition, but,

“..., call me Makia!”

I answered as though bouncing back in reaction and held out my hand again.

I was a little happy that he intended to call me by my name.’

This time, Nero properly shook my hand.

“Lapis, listen to this! The head of our class in our team...oh, she’s not here.”

I returned to the girls’ dorm with the cage I had just built and wanted to tell my roommate Lapis about my day, but she still hadn’t returned to our room yet.

Only her familiar, the black cat Noah, came to my feet while meowing.

“These are your new roommate hams. Don’t eat them, okay?”

When I showed the two to Noah, he sniffed them and licked them.

The ham-chans didn’t seem scared, and in fact they climbed onto Noah and began to play, using his smooth furry back as a slide. How bold…

I immediately laid down shredded paper as flooring in the glass cage, and then put in the bed, food dish, sandbox, and hamster wheel. When I put the playing ham-chans in, the two looked all around first, and then started rolling around in the sandbox and spinning on the hamster wheel. 

Looking at them like this, they really only looked like ordinary hamsters.

“Mmm, Popoloactus and Dontanates are too long to say and not cute at all. I think Popotarou and Donsuke will do. Yep, that’s cute.”

I had taken the names given to them by my ancestor the ‘Scarlet Witch,’ and turned into very crude nicknames.

The white one was Popotarou. His attribute was【Water】, and he was round and fat.

The yellow one was Donsuke. His attribute was【Fire】, and he was small and nimble.

I had no idea how they would help me as spirits, but I was quite grateful for the fact that they had two attributes:【Water】, my weakness, and【Fire】, my strength. 

Ah, I guess they were tired.

They flattened as though they had melted, and fell asleep on top of each other on the hamster wheel.

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