Magic Letters

The explanation of the circumstances from America cleared up some mysteries, but it also deepened others.

The Eyeball Witch was wondering what to ask about first. She chuckled at Professor Ohinata, whose stern, serious expression could not hide her excited tail, and decided to start with the magic letters.

'I hear America has discovered magic letters. What are they? And how did you discover them?'

'They're the same as Japan's. We didn't use any special method.'

'There seems to be some misunderstanding. Japan has not discovered magic letters.'

'What? No, that can't be. The person who manufactured Harity was a Japanese wandmaker, wasn't he? Wasn't it originally meant for magic letters...?'

A mouse tugged on Conrad's sleeve and whispered something in his ear.

But Conrad shook his head.

'No need for games. Let's trust them. Glen, give her your sunglasses.'

'If you say so... Here, take these sunglasses. They have light-blocking lenses.'

The Eyeball Witch accepted the sunglasses without understanding why, but they did not fit her single eye.

An awkward silence fell between the Eyeball Witch and Glen, so the Blue Witch reached over, inspected the sunglasses, and put them on instead. They had a powerful light-blocking effect, making her vision considerably darker.

The Blue Witch nodded and took off the sunglasses.

'To find magic letters, you need a light-blocking plate and one other thing. Do you have a Möbius-loop Gremlin right now?'

'Y-yes, I believe so. Anzai-san, could you fetch one of the ritual implements?'

In response to the Eyeball Witch's words, one of the honor guards saluted and left the room at a brisk but silent, properly courteous pace.

While the honor guard went to fetch the necessary tool, Conrad patted Glen on the shoulder. Glen had put on a sour expression, as though he had been keeping this secret, but Conrad explained everything smoothly.

'When you cast a spell using a Gremlin shaped like a Möbius loop, the inside of the loop glows gold, right? If you block the light with a light-blocking plate, you can see the written spell characters displayed inside the loop. They appear one character at a time, changing in accordance with the pronunciation of the spell.'

The Eyeball Witch and the Blue Witch were impressed. "So that's how it's done." Professor Ohinata, however, clutched her head and bowed in despair. Her ears flattened, and her tail drooped.

"Oh no. Something that simple... I should have figured it out... Why did no one... This is Columbus's egg..."

Professor Ohinata fell into self-loathing over having overlooked magic letters that had been right under her nose for nearly three years.

It was something that rarely happened in human history. Simple, obvious inventions could take hundreds of years to emerge. Things that seemed easy to discover sometimes remained undiscovered for a surprisingly long time.

For example, the stirrup, said to have dramatically improved riding ability and even changed the course of human history, was simple and extraordinarily useful. Yet it was unknown in every region with a riding culture until it was invented and spread in China.

Missing an idea—a hole in one's thinking, as it were—could happen anywhere and in any age.

The honor guard soon returned with the ritual implement: a Gremlin shaped like a Möbius loop.

Professor Ohinata pulled herself together, put on the light-blocking sunglasses, and chanted the bypass incantation for Harvest Magic.

The inside of the Möbius loop began glowing gold.

Professor Ohinata saw it.

She saw the magic letters displayed inside the loop, which the glow had previously concealed.

Once Professor Ohinata realized that the characters changed one after another in correspondence with the pronunciation, she wanted to lock herself in her laboratory and study them in detail immediately. But circumstances were what they were. She could not simply abandon her work as interpreter.

Reluctantly, she removed the sunglasses and placed the Möbius-loop Gremlin on the table.

"I have confirmed the magic letters. There is no mistake."

'Now that you have confirmed them, inscribe the magic letters using a special metal alloy and chant the same spell as the one you wrote. That will allow you to control the magic. It is close to a simulated reproduction of the mana control used by mutants—witches and wizards.'

Conrad explained that magic letters had an abundant variety of rhetorical marks.

Rhetorical marks could add meaning to a sentence or limit its meaning.

For example, suppose there were a spell called "Cut with a sword." It would summon a sword and use magic to cut an opponent.

Using rhetorical marks to modify it could turn it into "Cut with a greatsword," "Cut with a shortsword," "Cut shallowly with a sword," or "Cut deeply with a sword." The intent of the sentence would change, allowing the magic to be customized accordingly.

However, modification through rhetorical marks was still only modification. You could not make a change that completely altered the original meaning, such as changing "Cut with a sword" into "Smash apart with an axe." Changes were only possible within the limits of the original meaning.

In America, they used these magic letters to increase a spell's power by consuming additional mana, extend its duration, limit its area of effect, designate targets, and more.

Witches and wizards could do the same thing through mana control, though each had their own strengths and weaknesses. But if magic letters were available, even ordinary people could perform a simulated form of mana control—literally.

Even witches and wizards could use magic letters to control whatever portions of a spell they could, then focus their mana control on the portions that the letters could not handle. The benefits of magic letters were immense.

'Magic letters have no effect if you merely write them down. You need an alloy mixed in exact proportions. Specifically, silver 61%, platinum 23%, gold 10%, iron 2.6%, copper 1.4%, titanium 1.1%, and Gremlin 0.9%. The letters must be inscribed using this alloy.'

'W-wait. I'm writing down the ingredients. Could you repeat that...?'

'Silver 61%, platinum 23%, gold 10%, iron 2.6%, copper 1.4%, titanium 1.1%, and Gremlin 0.9%. Remember how the Shantak meteor shower rained magic stones down, and those stones had a mixture of rock and metal stuck to them? It has the same composition as that metal.'

"..."

Professor Ohinata, who had been taking notes, wilted again.

This time, even the Eyeball Witch and the Blue Witch looked up at the heavens.

Why hadn't anyone thought to look at that?

Every magic stone was a meteorite that had fallen to Earth in the Shantak meteor shower.

Many magic stones were covered in a mixture of rock and metal.

But everyone had focused on the magic stones themselves and never imagined that the inconvenient material stuck to them might have some meaning as well.

The Magic University had the mixture of rock and metal that had been attached to the magic stones in storage.

However, until now, it had only been investigated from an astronomical perspective.

Even witches and wizards had regarded it as nothing more than dirt clinging to magic stone ore, without any meaning or effect.

Even Tokyo's legendary wandmaker had paid no attention to the material clinging to the magic stones and simply thrown it away.

Conrad gently comforted the Japanese representatives, who were depressed by their oversight.

'Technology exchange is one of the purposes of this visit to Japan. We still have more technology to offer. But Japan possesses some truly remarkable technology as well. I hope we can learn from each other.'

'We know that magic letters exist. But do those special effects really manifest when you use the alloy you just described?'

The Blue Witch viewed Conrad's friendly words with suspicion.

She still could not rule out the possibility that they were trying to lure them into a trap with a friendly exterior and tempting bait.

The Blue Witch was not good at diplomatic maneuvering. Among the American delegation, Glen's whiskers twitched and he frowned in displeasure when he sensed her distrust, but Conrad answered amiably.

'Would you like me to demonstrate right here? As it happens, I'm wearing a bracer engraved with magic letters.'

'Is it a spell that can be used indoors? What kind of magic is it?'

'Enhancement magic. It envelops the user in an aura, so it's easy to see. Normally, it can target only one person, but magic letters let you expand the number of targets.'

'I understand. Please show us. But don't cast it on us. Could you cast it only on those other two?'

The Blue Witch urged the Eyeball Witch and Professor Ohinata to leave their seats, then backed them toward the wall, putting distance between them and the two American envoys.

Glen's tail shot straight up in anger at their blatant distrust and wariness.

'Isn't that taking things a little too far? Have we committed even one discourtesy? Why are you so defensive? You make it look as though you think we're about to attack you.'

'Y-yes, I'm sorry. But we... We truly don't mean to offend you.'

The Eyeball Witch stammered out an apology, but Glen remained displeased.

Conrad soothed the unconvinced mouse.

'Glen, calm down. They have their own culture and circumstances. We only know about Japan through the oral accounts of the Hell Witch, don't we?'

'You're too soft, Conrad! Even if they have their reasons, what sort of attitude is that in a diplomatic setting? We're giving them supplies and technology free of charge. Isn't it only proper to at least maintain a friendly appearance?'

The Eyeball Witch's heart ached as she listened to Professor Ohinata's simultaneous interpretation.

That was exactly right.

They were trying to become friends wholeheartedly, giving gifts and treating them kindly. It was painful to be met with baseless suspicion and wariness. Anyone would lose the desire to be friends under those circumstances.

The Eyeball Witch apologized and tried to return to her seat, but the Blue Witch glared at her, tugged on her clothes, and pulled her back toward the wall.

Conrad somehow managed to persuade Glen, and the two of them moved to the wall on the opposite side from the Japanese delegation.

Then he rolled up his sleeve and held out the bracer fastened around his arm, displaying the silver magic letters engraved upon it.

Professor Ohinata immediately recognized that the characters bore a shirorekha.

Shirorekha was a feature of Devanagari, the script used in India. Every character in a sentence was connected by a single horizontal line.

The resemblance was limited to the shirorekha. The characters themselves looked nothing like Devanagari. At most, they resembled cuneiform, but not a single one was the same as a cuneiform character. They were entirely different from the languages of Earth.

'These are magic letters. I will now cast a spell with the same wording as this text. The characters will light up in correspondence with the pronunciation. Now, shall I? Here I go.

Together, let us stand against it. Until our lives run out――――'

The moment that unpronounceable, thunderlike sound came from Conrad's mouth, events began unfolding at dizzying speed.

First, the Eyeball Witch and the Blue Witch changed expression and drew their wands at the same time.

Driven by fear and hatred respectively, the Eyeball Witch and the Blue Witch both tried to cast an attack spell at Conrad.

The Eyeball Witch acted on reflex, but then realized what she was doing, lowered the tip of her wand, and stopped chanting. The Blue Witch did not stop.

She began chanting with murderous intent.

"You, to the glacier――――"

The Blue Witch activated Kyanos's magic compression and sent mana surging through her. Professor Ohinata hurriedly leaped onto her from behind and clamped a hand over her mouth. The chant was interrupted.

'You not granted an audience!'

Seeing something was wrong, Glen quickly stepped in front of Conrad and chanted a spell. Nothing visibly changed, but Glen kicked Conrad backward with his hind legs, then spread both arms and stood guard, shielding him from behind.

Professor Ohinata, clinging to the Blue Witch from behind, could not bring herself to throw her off roughly. She struggled and shouted, openly enraged.

"Don't stop me, that's Iruma's puppet magic! It's the same spell! You―――― Mmmph... Eye, do it! Quickly! Quickly!! Don't let him finish chanting!!!"

"Wait, Ao-san, please wait! Only the core word is the same! Calm down!"

"Kei-chan, get away! Back! Hurry! You―――― Mmmph... Kei-chan, your hand's in the way! What are you doing, Eye!? Do you want to be controlled!?"

"No, I'm sure it'll be all right. I trust my vision of the future."

"I know the incantation for puppet magic too. That's a different spell! It's all right, so calm down!"

The Eyeball Witch joined Professor Ohinata in restraining the Blue Witch, but it took several minutes for the Blue Witch's murderous intent to subside.

One honor guard was caught between the Blue Witch's order—"Attack!"—and Professor Ohinata and the Eyeball Witch's—"Don't attack!"—and had no idea what to do, but eventually the confusion subsided.

The Blue Witch was still agitated, but she took her seat while Professor Ohinata calmed her down.

"He's a user of the same type of magic, isn't he? We can't trust him. At the very least, we should have them appoint a different envoy."

"It's all right. Let's trust the future-seeing wizard. And if anything happens, Ao-san will save us, right? Ao-san can't be controlled, after all."

"I don't want to see Kei-chan controlled. Or Eye."

The Eyeball Witch was a little moved that she, too, was included among the Blue Witch's protectees.

That Blue Witch, who had been fixated solely on Ome City since the Iruma Coup, had changed. She was returning to the cheerful person she had been in the past.

During the previous Iruma Coup, Iruma's puppet magic had run rampant.

However, puppet magic did not work on someone in cardiac arrest. Normally, cardiac arrest meant death.

But the Blue Witch had no heart, so she fulfilled the condition of cardiac arrest, rendering her immune to puppet magic. At the last moment, it became clear that she was Iruma's natural enemy, and she defeated the most fearsome wizard in a one-on-one battle.

Conrad quietly watched the Japanese side's display of madness with both hands raised in a hold-up gesture.

He soothed Glen, who repeatedly said things like 'Impossible,' 'The negotiations are over,' and 'Let's go home,' then sat down himself.

Glen also reluctantly took his seat, shaking his head as though he had a headache.

Conrad spoke with a pleasant expression that showed no sign of having nearly been killed moments earlier, even taking the opportunity to show concern.

'I don't know what you were discussing, but I heard the word Iruma. The Hell Witch told me about the wizard of Iruma. I presume she also told you that I am the same species as the wizard of Iruma. I hear he was an evil wizard. I apologize for my kin's discourtesy.'

'Hey...!'

Conrad bowed his head, and Glen hurriedly lifted it back up.

America had nothing to apologize for.

If anything, Japan was the side that should have apologized.

America had been unfailingly polite and courteous.

Even after nearly being killed in a diplomatic setting where violence should have been unthinkable, they did not abandon their courteous manner—one that could almost be mistaken for weakness.

Seeing Conrad remain calm and courteous, accept the blame, and put the negotiations at a disadvantage, the Blue Witch finally came to her senses.

If she had been about to be killed by a victim of the Arataki Group simply because she belonged to the same species as its leader, she would have been furious at the injustice.

But Conrad had endured exactly that and remained calm. Rather than use Japan's disgrace as a bargaining chip, he had even apologized. Such a thing would have been impossible if he were an evil man merely putting on a good-person act, as Iruma had.

She felt so mortified that she wanted to crawl into a hole.

It would surely have been better if she had not been present for the negotiations. All she had done was disrupt the proceedings and ruin the atmosphere; she had served no purpose as a guard.

The Blue Witch apologized in a voice so faint it seemed to fade away.

'I am terribly sorry...'

'No. We should apologize for failing to show enough consideration.'

'I won't do anything else. I swear. I won't even speak. I'll remain silent.'

'Please, don't worry about it. You are a wonderfully swift and decisive woman. This time, things certainly did not go well, but I have no doubt that your nature will make you a tremendous asset on the battlefield. It makes me feel safer.'

'Yes. I'm honored...'

'It's all right. I don't mind. Please relax.'

Conrad gave her a cheerful wink.

Somehow, it reminded her of the Vampire Wizard, and the tension drained away.

A rift had formed, but the worst future seen by the future-seeing wizard had been avoided.

At last, open and honest diplomacy between Japan and America began.