Side Story: Leon's Competence (Marcel's Perspective)

"Marcel! Are you there!"

Someone's pounding hard on my front door... Who could it be...? Making such a racket!

I left my half-eaten dinner where it was, went to the entrance, and opened the door. As expected, the person standing there was...

"Buera, is that you? It's already nighttime, so stop making such a racket!"

"Marcel, I met Leon!"

"You did...? How did it go?"

I followed Buera into the workshop as he strode in like he owned the place.

"Is he really a commoner? His inventiveness is astonishing, but normally, ideas like that only occur to someone with a firm grasp of the field."

"I told you so, didn't I?"

"Yes. And Leon's going to join my research club. We've already arranged to register it on the next Recovery Day."

"Register it!?"

Leon has only been enrolled for a few days, and he's already invented something worth registering?

I thought he'd been told not to register any new magic tools... Has that restriction been lifted?

No, when he came to greet me upon enrolling, he said he couldn't reveal that he had every affinity and that hiding it was difficult. If that's the case, then the restrictions probably haven't all been lifted. Perhaps only his healing affinity has been cleared.

Even so, from the moment I first met him, he was a strange boy with no common sense who kept doing one history-making thing after another. It seemed that hadn't changed at the Royal Academy either.

I was truly surprised when I first met him. His clothes and appearance made him look like an ordinary commoner, like any of the many around here, yet his speech and mannerisms were strangely aristocratic for a child.

If he had met some unscrupulous noble instead of me, they would have whisked him away as soon as they noticed how unusual he was.

He continued to astonish me after that. He kept creating one new magic tool after another. Astonishment didn't even begin to describe it.

When he first created the ice maker, I was thrilled, despite my age, at the thought that history was about to change. But by the time he made those fire-magic tools afterward, my capacity for surprise had gone numb; I was more exasperated than astonished.

Leon kept saying he didn't want to put his family or his own position in danger, yet he did things that would make people from all sorts of places target him if they found out. He gave me quite a few scares. He was dangerously reckless.

He seems to be safe now that he's being protected by the ducal family. Still, I've decided that if anything happens, I'll go help him no matter what.

I don't even know why I've taken Leon's side so strongly... I have no family and am estranged from my own, so perhaps I think of him as a grandson who suddenly appeared in my life.

At first I thought he was a strange child, then an interesting one, and now I think of him as my own grandson... You never know what life has in store. Living a long life has its rewards.

"Are you listening?"

"Oh, what is it?"

"I'm talking about registering Leon's invention!"

"Oh, right. What did he invent?"

If he couldn't reveal every affinity, was it a magic tool that used his healing affinity?

"Here it is."

"What is this...? Is it a magic tool?"

A strangely shaped box... I suppose? It was a tiny box that fit in my palm, but the top was oddly shaped. The left side was recessed, while the right side was raised. What was this?

"Try pressing the raised side."

"You mean I press it down?"

"That's right."

I cautiously pressed the raised part. It yielded with less force than I'd expected, and the metal plate slid to the right and stopped.

Nothing happened... What was this supposed to do?

"Look up."

There was only the ceiling above me... Or so I thought. When I looked up, I saw two orbs of light.

"W-what is going on?"

"Press the right side of the box, and the light turns on. Press the left side, and it goes out."

"R-really!?"

I hurriedly pressed the left side, and one of the light orbs disappeared. This... could this be a revolution? How much more convenient would this make daily life?

What kind of principle makes this work? Why did light orbs appear and disappear just by moving the iron plate in this box?

"What principle is this!? Did Leon think of it!?"

"Yes. That boy Leon came up with it in a single day. There's a magic stone attached to the back of the iron plate on the right, and the bottom of the box is made of magic iron. So, when you press the right side and bring the magic stone into contact with the magic iron, the magic activates."

"Then it would only make the inside of the box light up! Why is a light orb appearing near the ceiling?"

"It's the same principle as the fire-magic tools."

Fire-magic tools... I see! So light orbs can be manifested away from magic stones too!

Why hadn't I realized that...? I had assumed the magic stone itself was what glowed.

"I'm shocked I never thought of it..."

"It's all right. I'm still shocked myself..."

As expected, Leon really was incredible... A true genius!

That's my grandson (more or less)!!

Even so, this was truly amazing. The light orbs would surely catch on quickly. And although my surprise at the light orb had made me overlook it earlier, this box's function was quite ingenious too.

"The light orb was so astonishing that it distracted me, but this box's mechanism is quite ingenious too."

"Exactly. And this can be applied to other magic tools as well. Don't you think it would be incredibly convenient to add this function to water taps and flush toilets?"

It really would be incredibly convenient. I wouldn't have to worry about a magic stone slipping from my hand and nearly giving me a heart attack, and the risk of losing one would be much lower. Most importantly, being able to turn it on with a mere press was convenient!

This function seemed simple once I saw it, so why had no one thought of it before...? Leon was truly amazing to possess the imagination to come up with it.

"A revolution is about to take place in magic tools..."

"That's right! So on the next Recovery Day, I'm going to register the improved light-orb magic tool and the switch-function technology."

"Switch function?"

"Yes, that's what this box's function is called."

That word sounded strangely familiar... Come to think of it, I think Leon had mentioned it before. He once said it would be nice to have a function that let us turn light orbs on and off from a distance.

He had called it a switch then, too. So he had actually made it a reality...

"What does 'switch' mean?"

"I don't know... Leon called it that, so I suppose that's what we'll name it."

So I still didn't know what the word meant. Leon occasionally used words I'd never heard before. Well, I suppose that's what being a genius is like.

"Make sure you register it properly."

"I know. Now then, I have one more thing to discuss today."

"What is it?"

"Would you come by the research club sometime?"

"Me, at the research club? Why? If Buera is there, you don't need me."

"It has to be you. You have the healing affinity, don't you? The club seems to be researching a Purification magic tool right now, but they don't seem to be making any progress. Maybe adding another perspective would help?"

A Purification magic tool... What a difficult thing to attempt. It uses too much magic power to be practical. For some reason, even turning it into a magic tool doesn't improve its magic efficiency.

"That's true, but I've been researching it for years and have half given up. Is that all right?"

"Yes, just come by once. Besides, I think they'd be happy if the man who developed the new magic tools everyone's been talking about came."

It might do me good to hear some younger perspectives... And I wanted to see Leon too, so I decided to go.

"Then I'll come by sometime."

"Thanks. May I set the date?"

"Yes, that's fine."

"Then I'll set a date later and send you a letter."

It would be my first visit to the Royal Academy in a long time... I was looking forward to it a little.

"All right... Then I'll be heading home soon. I have to get up early tomorrow."

"Yeah, see you."

Buera said that and left at once. When it came to magic tools, he was always a force of nature.

Ever since I met Leon, I've found myself getting drawn into all sorts of things more and more often. Even at my age, it was exciting.