Chapter 1

Chapter 1

There is a saying.

「Curiosity killed the cat.」

It is a proverb meaning that excessive curiosity can invite a terrible disaster.

The saying can be applied to countless situations, but it is especially fitting when referring to an undergraduate who, for no good reason, has taken an interest in graduate school.

“......Professor, you said, ‘A formula is a design for manifesting a concept, and the world is the manifestation of concepts according to the designs of formulas.’ And you also said that a mage is ‘one who manipulates formulas.’”

“Yes. Being able to understand and manipulate every formula in the world has long been the dream of mages. Thus, how many formulas a mage can manipulate determines their level.”

“Then could a mage who understands every formula also create a new formula?”

“It would be possible. Yet not a single mage has ever reached such a realm.”

“Why not?”

“Because understanding and manipulating every formula that exists in the world is itself a task that requires tremendous talent and effort. Reaching that realm alone is already something only a tiny handful of mages can accomplish. Moreover, creating a new formula means discovering a new concept that has never existed before and creating a design to manifest it. Making that new design function properly without colliding with existing designs is something even that tiny handful of mages might barely manage once in a lifetime, if at all. In truth, it is close to impossible. The world is composed of countless designs beyond reckoning. So countless that predicting where or how a collision might occur is impossible.”

“Then...... if one arbitrarily modified an existing design so that no collision occurred, could they not create a new formula easily?”

“There have been mages in the past who attempted such a thing. Yet they all had no choice but to give up partway through. To modify a design, one must delete or alter an already existing concept and tamper with the connection between the concept and its form. In other words, it is an act of changing the order of the world however one pleases. If that happens, the world will fall into chaos, and in the end, the great disaster known as the collapse of the world will occur. It is the same as society falling into chaos and becoming impossible to maintain, until it finally breaks apart, if laws were to keep changing this way and that.”

“But even if such danger exists, that does not mean a formula that modifies existing designs will never come into being. After all, the fact that there were people who attempted it in the past means the concept of a ‘formula that arbitrarily changes existing designs’ does exist.”

“Of course, that may be so. Yet even if such a formula were born, I wonder whether anyone would truly try to use a ‘formula that causes the world to collapse.’ To manipulate a formula powerful enough to modify other formulas, one would have to be a mage who had reached a certain realm. Surely a mage of that caliber could not possibly be unaware of what the collapse of the world means, could they? No matter how selfish someone may be, one is bound to hesitate before using a formula that would endanger even one’s own safety.”

“That is not something we can know. A madman who thinks it does not matter even if the world ends and they die too, or some outside being with no connection to this world, could use the formula without caring whether the world collapses or not.”

“A being from another world...... Do you think such a thing exists?”

“At least as a concept, would it not exist? Even if it does not exist in reality right now, we can debate the possibility of its existence like this.”

“Then one could say it is not entirely impossible that it may someday take form and exist.”

“Yes. That is why I think research into a formula that can counteract such a formula is necessary, starting now. What do you think, Professor?”

“A formula that counteracts a formula that modifies designs....... An interesting idea. Certainly, there have been people who researched formulas that modify designs, but there has been no one who researched a formula to counteract them. For a mere undergraduate to take interest in something not even the most eminent archmages have undertaken...... Student, what is your name?”

“My name is Reu Rel, sir.......”

There was a strange light in my master’s eyes as he said that.

Anyone who had been put through the wringer under the professor for any length of time would have fled far, far away the moment they noticed that look of interest in my master’s eyes. No, perhaps they would never have done anything worthy of receiving such a look in the first place.

But at the time, I was a lonely, tormented, miserable twelve-year-old child who knew nothing of how the world worked.

I was simply happy to receive the attention of my master, the Tower Master of the Tristein Magic Tower, which had reigned since ancient times as the ‘holy land of mages,’ as well as a specially appointed professor at the Royal Academy. I was only swelling with the hope that I might receive great teachings from my master in the future.

And so I had no choice but to fall for my master’s following temptation.

“Reu Rel, would you by any chance be interested in doing research under me?”

***

 

Now, more than nine hundred years later.

One day, after roughly ninety days of working through the night because I was absorbed in an experiment that made it impossible to even nod off for a moment, let alone snatch a nap, for all twenty-four hours of each day. I was writing an experiment log with hollow eyes, as usual.

“......Thus, I derived a result on the 35,435,421st experiment, and based on this, what can be applied is...... Huaaam...... Ugh, I'm so tired I could die.......”

If I collapse like this, I'll be sound asleep before my head even hits the floor. Thinking that to myself with my mind foggy, I brought my mouth to the straw bobbing near my lips as I always did and sucked hard. Slurp. The pitch-black coffee that came up through the straw filled my mouth with stimulation and slid down my throat, and I felt as if a little of my mind had returned.

“Hmm, I'm unusually tired today. Is it because I couldn't sleep for about 3,000 days during the last experiment after all.......?”

Maybe once I finished this experiment, it would be best to rest properly for a while. Yes, after all the time I had not slept a wink, this time, I really should sleep deeply for days on end.

......Swallowing that wishful thinking inwardly, I took out ‘Master's Notebook,’ which I had hung at the back of my waist, and opened it. The pages of that grimoire, named , were being updated in real time with the status of the research assignments my master had handed down.

***

[Research Assignment] No. 703083-452

＃001. Noxpedica Manifestation Experiment

→ Complete (Experiment 35,435,421 / Experiment log completed)

＃002. Enhancement Design Concept for Manifested Attribute Absorption Ability

→ Complete (Experiment 154,403 / Awaiting experiment log)☆★ Write it promptly!!★☆

＃003. Confirmation of Normal Design Operation and Prototype Production

→ In Progress (Currently 4 hours 39 minutes 38 seconds elapsed / Time remaining: 1 hour 20 minutes 22 seconds)

☆★Warning★☆ Take care not to expose it to a light source during prototype production.

***

......Oops, that was still left. I should probably finish that before sleeping, shouldn't I? If I fell asleep now, I definitely wouldn’t wake up until tomorrow, and if the prototype production failed in the meantime, all my suffering so far would be for nothing.

“Ugh...... I'm dying.......”

When I had first followed my master into the Magic Tower, I had never imagined that I would end up living so close to a wreck. Much less that I would continue this madness for more than nine hundred years.

Of course, I did like being able to spend more than nine hundred years focused only on research. I had always been the sort of born mage who overflowed with interest in magic research, and when I set aside every worldly matter and focused only on research, I could completely forget painful memories and the like.

That was true, but...... no matter how much one loved something, if one had to suffer through it for hundreds of years without sleeping or eating, wouldn't anyone go mad hundreds of times over?

Master, if you were going to tempt an innocent undergraduate, you should at least have notified me in advance that this wreck-like lifestyle was waiting for me.......

No, did my master perhaps think it was so obvious that there was no need to go out of the way to notify me?

“Ugh....... Should I at least air the place out to wake myself up a little.......?”

Maybe some clear air would wake my foggy mind a little. Clinging to that threadlike hope, I staggered up the spiral staircase installed along the wall of the Magic Tower to the top floor. The only window in this Magic Tower, built in a closed-off form to minimize the external leakage of mana lines generated during experiments, was there. (For reference, there was no separate entrance, so one could only enter and exit by using spatial movement magic or going through this window.)

Even that was only large enough for my shabby body to barely pass through...... Still, once fresh air was supplied to my lungs, it did make me feel as if I might live.

“Good grief, I have no energy.......”

It wasn’t exactly a substitute for sleep, but should I at least try draping myself there for a bit? As if hanging out laundry, I listlessly slung my body, sagging weakly, over the window frame any which way. As the blood inside my body was drawn by gravity and rushed to my head, I felt as if I woke up a little more.

Come to think of it, the ground really is far away. If I fall all the way down like this, I'll definitely die on the spot, won't I? The Magic Tower is about 1,000 meters high. Maybe I'd die of a heart attack before I even hit the ground.

As I idly thought about death all by myself like that, I blankly shifted my gaze and scanned the surrounding scenery stretching all the way to the horizon. As always, the sight of deep mountains layered upon deep mountains stretched on without end.

And at one corner of the edge of that silent landscape, some pillar of fire was soaring high into the sky.

“H-Huh......? What's that?”

At this late hour, it looked like someone had cast fire magic. Did something happen? Judging by how the firelight did more than brighten the surrounding sky and made even this area bright, it seemed to be quite large-scale magic.

While thinking that far, I suddenly recalled the final item among the research assignments written in ‘Master's Notebook’ and froze in shock.

***

☆★Warning★☆ Take care not to expose it to a light source during prototype production.

***

Where had I placed the prototype while producing it again......?

I clearly remembered hanging it outside because it even had to avoid the light from the lamps inside the Magic Tower.......

“Aaaaaaagh, no!”

With an urgent scream, I hurriedly unfolded a gliding formula and leaped from the window. The split atmosphere generated deflection against the formula spread out in the shape of an airfoil, lightly sending my body flying toward the targeted point.

I hurried so much that I practically flew...... but unfortunately, the prototype was already in a state beyond anything I could salvage. To the point that, if my master had seen this situation, my master would surely have said this and then some.

-Oh dear, what a shame. Yet there is no need to be discouraged. If you failed, you merely need to start over from the beginning, do you not? You, of all people.

***

＃003. Confirmation of Normal Design Operation and Prototype Production

→ Failed!! Restart from raw material production (Time required for raw material production: approximately 90 days)

***

“W-What the...... Uh, ahaha...... haha, ha.......”

It was so absurd that all I could do was laugh. How could this be? I never imagined that my plan to rest properly for a while once this one was over would burst into bubbles and vanish like this. How could this happen?

“I seriously want to cry.......”

Or rather, I was already sniffling and crying.

I had never imagined I would fail to complete the assignment in this way. No, who the hell casts that kind of magic in the middle of the night—right now, the time was 3:13:56 a.m.—? Thanks to that, it was as if a nose had been dropped into rice that was already cooked. This was genuinely depressing. I wished someone would at least comfort me. Master, could you not comfort your disciple a little?

Of course...... I should not expect anything like comfort from my master. Because if it were my master, instead of consoling me, my master would say this.

-Are you done crying? Then go do what needs to be done. It is not as if the research is over just because you lost a single experiment material, is it?

“.......”

Yes....... You are absolutely right, Master. Of course, of course.......

Feeling as if my tears had somehow gone right back in, I rubbed away the moisture left around my eyes and staggered to my feet. Since I had finished crying, it was time to do what needed to be done.

“That aside...... what in the world was that pillar of fire earlier?”

There was no room to doubt that it was the result of someone casting fire magic. There was no way something like that would occur naturally in the first place. Besides, my eyes had clearly read the presence of a formula.

What I found strange was that the presence of that formula was somehow odd. How should I put it? It seemed as if the manifested pillar of fire had deviated from the form the original formula must have intended.

Why in the world had it manifested in such a state? Was there a problem with the condition of the mage who cast the formula? Or perhaps there was an error in the formula itself. If not that, then.......

“Huh?! W-Wait!”

What had I just done? My mind snapped awake, and I hurriedly took ‘Master's Notebook’ from the back of my waist and scanned the research assignment list. Fortunately, I couldn’t find anything like a newly added research assignment on any page.

Whew, thank goodness. I nearly had a new research assignment added because of useless curiosity.

Over the years, whenever I showed interest in something, no matter how trivial or miscellaneous it was, my master would hand down piles of research assignments, saying, ‘If you are curious, investigate and research it yourself.’ Thanks to that, I had had to spend my days clinging to the completion of research assignments without even a moment to catch my breath.

There had been a few times when I truly thought I was going to die of overwork like this....... Curiosity almost did not merely kill the cat; it almost committed mass slaughter.

“Master, I saw nothing. You did not see anything either, did you? I am sure you did not. It must be that way. Because I am not curious about anything, and I have no interest either. Truly.”

Thus, there is absolutely no need to add a new research assignment...... Understood.......?

Muttering to myself in something close to self-hypnosis, I gathered up what had once been the prototype and returned to the Magic Tower.

And just as I crossed the window and stepped indoors, a half-unconscious thought brushed through my mind.

No, but how in the world had the design of that pillar of fire been made for it to manifest that way? Was there some defect in the design? Maybe something had interfered with the manifestation process.......

“Gah, no! Stop! Don't think!”

Am I trying to call disaster down on myself?!

It seemed this was because I had spent more than nine hundred years straight clinging to research assignments. This must be why people say habits are frightening.

“......Should I just sleep instead?”

Now that I said it, it seemed like a decent idea. I was so tired from being awake all this time that I was on the verge of dying, so it was time to sleep. And once I fell asleep, the thoughts that kept trying to sink into obsession would stop, if only temporarily.

If I slept deeply and woke up, things from just now would be forgotten beyond the far side of my unconscious, wouldn't they?

Thus, for the first time in a truly long while, I was able to enjoy a sweet sleep. The honeyed rest was truly quite sweet.

Was it because I had sunk so deeply into that sweetness?

Unfortunately, I had overlooked two things.

One was that, despite having been worked so hard for more than nine hundred years, my curiosity as a scholar was still vigorous.

And the other was that the human brain has a habit of striving to find answers once questions arise.

What that meant was that I had the following dreadful dream.

‘Ah! I understand, Master! The reason that pillar of fire manifested in such a strange form is because the person who designed the formula and the person who cast it were separate people. That is why it manifested at a level far lower than the original formula, making it look so off.’

‘An interesting opinion. Yet the magic a mage casts usually has the designer and caster be one and the same, does it not? Then why were the designer and caster separate? Moreover, for those two to be separate, a design related to that would have been necessary...... Do you have any guess as to what it might be?’

‘Well...... in truth, one thing does come to mind. There is a formula I designed in the past.’

‘So there is a possibility that the pillar of fire was cast with a formula you designed.’

‘That could be true, but...... it might not be. Because that formula should not manifest like that. But it also feels like it might be right...... Hmm, I cannot tell just from seeing it from far away.’

‘I see. Then how about going to the site and finding the answer? You yourself, that is.’

***

[Research Assignment] No. 703083-453 ☆★Newly Added★☆

＃001. Field Investigation of the Location Where the Pillar of Fire Manifested

→ Investigate thoroughly so that no point of curiosity remains!!

＃002. Identification and Analysis of All Formulas Involved in the Pillar of Fire Manifestation

→ Check the design state and presence or absence of defects in the formulas without omission,

and if there are defects, seek correction measures as well!!

***

“Gah, nooooooo!”

I had tried so hard to keep research assignments from being added, so why had this happened.......?

On top of that, field investigation. Field investigation!

“No, does field investigation even make sense at my seniority.......?”

Was that not the sort of menial work done by the youngest disciples who had just entered? It was absolutely not the kind of thing I, who had lived as my master’s disciple for over nine hundred years, should be doing.

However...... I had to do it. Because, now as in the past, I was the only disciple under my master. In other words, I was both my master’s first disciple and youngest disciple.

As the first disciple, I did not have to do things like field investigation, but as the youngest disciple, I did have to do them.......

“What kind of mess is this, when I couldn't even rest properly....... Am I a disciple or a slave.......?”

The answer was a slave called a disciple.

.......

One day, I really am going to quit this damned Magic Tower.......