Maydare Volume 3 Chapter 4 - Everyday Magic Tool Contest (Part 2)

 So there's a new campaign in Japan where you buy one of the author's works at a bookstore and get a short story booklet...I'm not too panicked about it since it will probably be included in one of the volumes eventually. But man I hate when authors include bonus stories in volumes and you have to buy multiple copies to get all of them. You're lucky if they ever decide to compile them in a volume, otherwise tough luck

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“Hmm-hmm. We’re gonna win.”

In our glass bottle atelier, Frey laced his fingers behind his head as he rocked the chair he was sitting in, his calm and smug attitude on full display. 

“In our team, we have Nero, who’s super strong in that kind of thing, and Miss Lapis, who can do alchemy. We can’t lose now, can we?”

“...”

Well, when put that way, it sounded too blunt.

I didn’t want to agree with Frey, who was acting too comfortable with other people’s power.

“I don’t think we can win the contest by incorporating advanced magic technology meaninglessly.”

However, the genius Nero had a different view and looked at us with cold eyes.

Lapis, an alchemist, also said,

“Um, pardon me. Actually, I am not good at creating anything except for weapons. If it is a weapon, I can make it well to some extent.”

She lightly raised her hand and apologetically said something troubling.

Well, that’s to be expected. As before, if we didn’t cooperate with each other and come up with some good ideas, this assignment would be meaningless.

The outline of the Everyday Magic Tool Contest was as followed. 

• The tool should be related to food, clothing, or shelter.

• The tool should be something that can be used by non-magicians in their everyday life.

• The size must be small enough to be carried by non-magicians.

• You will provide a trial period for Miladriede’s non-magicians, and their opinions will be reflected in the contest. The results of the contest will be announced at the closing ceremony.

That was all.

At any rate, the emphasis seemed to be on making convenient magic tools that will be useful in the lives of “non-magicians.”

“Is there any kind of material or tool restrictions?”

Lapis’ question was simple.

We read the printout outlining the assignment once more, carefully.

“The way all our assignments have been so far, as long as we stick to what’s written in the outline, we have freedom for anything else,” Nero said.

“So basically, we can use anything?”

“Probably. As long as we can get our hands on it.”

Frey, who had been acting too comfortable until now, leaned forward indignantly.

“Haaa!? Wouldn’t the teams with rich people have an advantage then?”

“Wait…aren’t you a prince, Frey?”

I’ve always thought that Frey had little self-awareness of being a prince. That was probably because he hadn’t exercised his privileges as a prince to any great extent.

“I don’t think it’s a given that the rich would have an advantage. The Lune Ruschia professors wouldn’t appreciate that kind of thing. The one in charge of this assignment is Headmaster Pan, after all.”

I found Nero’s words strangely compelling.

Headmaster Pan would have no desire to give high marks to a magic tool that only had technological skills and financial resources poured into it. A magic tool with a shining idea, even if it was crude, was more likely to get the nod.

Also, we wanted to pay attention to the point that only non-magicians would be using the tool.

It had to be easy to use and useful for ordinary people who couldn’t use magic.

Since the citizens of Miladriede would be evaluating the assignment, so the attitude of taking their needs into account and incorporating them into the assignment would probably be discerned. This was an assignment that would test our powers of observation and sense.

“This might be a surprisingly difficult task. I think it’s more about the idea and process than the final magic tool. We’re still first-years, and naturally we wouldn’t have a lot of expertise in making magic tools.”

As he said that, Nero seemed somewhat cheerful.

No, his expression and tone were as indifferent as usual, but he seemed excited for some reason.

“There must be a lot of ideas we can find in everyday life and around town. Fortunately, this is a long-term assignment. I want each of you to come up with a plan by next week. At the very least, I want to narrow down the theme to either food, clothing, or shelter.”

“Okay.”

I, the team leader, raised my hand like a kid and followed Nero’s instructions.

Usually, I was the one who took charge domineeringly and Nero was the one who obediently supported me, but for this one time, I’ll have Nero lead while I support him. Let’s do that.

Well, I better come up with a good idea to support him properly.

After school that day.

In the old chapel on the school island, I was sitting in the zazen position* in my Magical Athletics tracksuit, and Bishop Eska was dressed in his bishop’s uniform as usual.

(TN: Zazen is a meditation position where you're basically sitting cross-legged.)

“Ho. Everyday Magic Tool Contest, huh?”

Next to me, Bishop Eska was reacting to the final team assignment unveiled today. I couldn’t tell if he was interested or disinterested.

“Yes. But a magic tool assignment doesn’t seem very Lune Ruschia-like…anyways, why are you making me sit zazen and float a lemon? Does zazen even exist in Vabelism in the first place?”

“Stop chattering! Focus your magic on the lemon.”

“Wait, did we have a normal conversation until just now?”

Bishop Eska had me do all kinds of training here every day, but today it was neither muscle training nor a lecture on how to handle firearms, but rather a mysterious exercise where I sat zazen on the floor and continuously levitate lemons he had found around the place above my eye level.

I used to be at levitation magic, but Thor was good at it, so I practiced hard to catch up with him. Now I think I’m one of the best in my grade.

Well, I still wasn’t as good at it as Thor, who could use it as easily as breathing.

“Do you know why people are now starting to attach so much importance to magic tools?”

While telling me not to chatter, Bishop Eska began talking idly.

I no longer pointed it out since it happened all the time.

“With magic tools, any non-magician can use magic with the same intensity. Nowadays, the performance of magic tools was so advanced that anyone with a magic tool can manifest magical effects without having to go to magic school for training. Well, what can be done with a single magic tool is limited, though.”

“Does that mean magicians will no longer be needed?” 

“Nope. They want to increase the number of people who are equivalent to magicians. This applies everywhere.”

Everywhere. I guess that meant the Hermedes Heavenly Empire in the north and the Frezier Empire in the west.

And the Kingdom of Ruschia as well.”

“In the first place, the reason the Heavenly Empire is putting so much effort into developing magic tools…especially magic weapons, is precisely because they want more soldiers who can do magic attacks. It’s much more efficient to increase the number of non-magicians who can use magic tools than to train a large number of magicians. They’re ready to use up those soldiers and throw them away anyways.”

“...That’s awful.”

But it was the truth. When war broke out, numerous soldiers would go to the battlefield and die.

There was a limit to training magicians, but non-magicians who were given magic tools could be numerous as long as those tools could be mass-produced.

“However, magic is a terrifying thing, and in the end, one magician with incredible skills can overturn everything. Doesn’t matter how many people you got.”

“Are you referring to the great magicians…?”

They were the ones who had carved their names into the history of Maydare.

“That’s right. A single great magician can change the course of a war. Therefore, no matter how much progress is made in the development of magic tools, the need for magicians will never disappear. After all, magicians are the ones who make the magic tools. Basically, balance is important, and it’s preferable that the training of magicians and the development of contemporary magic and magic tools are carried out at the same time. The Kingdom of Ruschia was good at the former, but a bit behind in the latter. You guys trusted in old-fashioned spirit magic too much.”

Bishop Eska snorted and got up from his zazen position.

He quickly snatched a lemon that was floating in front of me and began munching on it whole with the skin still on it. There weren’t many people who bit into lemons without peeling them.

“Look, you should stop sitting in zazen and eat your own lemon.”

“Huh?”

“...Tch. Can’t be helped.”

Bishop Eska clicked his tongue as he took out a knife from his pocket and cut a lemon.

“Here. You can just suck on the juices. Just try it.”

The lemon looked sour at a glance. Just looking at it made me salivate, but I braced myself to take a bite and bit into the flesh.

“Huh? There’s no taste.”

To my surprise, the lemon didn’t even taste sour. It was flavorless and odorless.

“Oh, so in your case, it’s ‘nothing’?”

Bishop Eska said while his gaze drifted diagonally upward.

“The matter that you keep floating with your magic undergoes some kind of change due to your magic power. It seems that in your case, the lemon’s flavor disappears, but in my case, it becomes sweet like it’s candied lemon. I can even eat the peel.”

“O-Oh, really?”

So that’s why he was eating the whole thing.

This was the first time I heard about the taste of food being changed by the levitation magic that keeps it afloat. Interesting.

“By the way, what exactly is this training for?”

“You’re training to learn the more fundamental aspects of magic… Let’s look at the mural in this chapel.”

Bishop Eska sat down with a thump on the altar and pointed at an old mural painted a little higher up in the chapel.

Faded, cracked, and damaged in places, the mural depicted the ten gods involved in the creation myth of Maydare.

——Maydare’s creation myth.

In the distant past, there was nothing in this world but the World Tree Vabliophos, but then the 〈Ten Primordial Magicians〉descended and formed the〈World of Salvation, Maydare〉. 

The God of Creation - Para Acromeia

The God of Space-Time - Para Chrondor

The Goddess of War - Para Magiriva

The Goddess of Harvest - Para Demetris

The God of Spirits - Para Yutis

The Goddess of Fate - Para Pusima

The God of Law and Order - Para Tritania

The God of Victory - Para Grandia

The God of Calamity - Para Eris

The God of Death and Memory - Para Hadefis

“In the Maydare creation myth, there is an anecdote called ‘Egg Pusima.’* It’s a crazy game in which the gods keep an egg floating in the air and continuously supply it with magic power to see who can hatch theirs the fastest.”

(TN: Kanji reads "Eggs of Fate.")

Bishop Eska smiled sarcastically as he stared at the mural.

“However, while some of them hatched chicks from their eggs, some of them just changed the taste of the eggs, and some of them turned out to be empty. Worst of all, the contents of some of the eggs turned into monsters.”

“...Monsters?”

I suddenly recalled the stuffed demon I saw the other day.

An ugly, horrifying figure that didn’t look like something of this world.

“In short, what I’m trying to say is that magic power varies from person to person. You need to be aware of the nature of your magic power. From this event, the gods learned the characteristics of their own magic powers and created the world according to their own specialties.”

Yes. The Primordial Magicians master their respective magic and gave rise to all things in this world.

Hence, they became the gods of this world.

However in the end, they each started fighting with each other, and destroyed the world they had created.

This final war was commonly referred to as the〈Giganto Magiriva〉. 

I looked up at the mural depicting the ten gods again.

“Huh…? All the gods in the mural are facing sideways, but only one is facing forward. Why is that?”

“Ah…”

Bishop Eska’s eyes narrowed, and he spoke detachedly in a somewhat low voice.

“That’s Para Hadefis, the god of death and memory. Unlike the other gods who rule over the earth, that god manages the land of the dead, which lies beneath the ground. Therefore, he sees things in a different direction from everyone else.”

Hmm. So basically, he was left out of the group.

Only one person was looking in a different place. It was a little bit of a sad story.

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