第１１９８堀：魔術学府のレポート (Part2)
Narjia and Taizo are less focused on the study of magic itself, and more on the development of tools and the like. As for Zargis, while he can use magic, his specialty lies in biology and related fields. Well, those three are conducting research into magical power at Yuki’s request, but even so, magic itself isn’t their primary focus.
Come to think of it, Agil is also a bit of a mystery in that regard.
"I’m more of a specialist in magic swords and holy swords, you see. Though lately, with Comet around, I’ve been leaning more toward the magical side of things. Perhaps they value my perspective as a former general of Enaria, too."
I see. It’s true that while Agil’s focus is on tool development, she does use magic herself, and her perspective as a former general might be useful for assessing the utility of magic.
"Before I became an adventurer, I studied in the Kingdom of Magic. I suppose they value that background."
What a surprising fact about Curse, who is so famous as an adventurer. I had heard he was the heir to a local lord, but I never imagined he’d studied in the Kingdom of Magic. It makes sense now, though; I had always wondered why he was so versatile, even teaching subjects including magic at the Weed school.
"The support of our Zulable Empire is already decided. However, I am participating as a representative of the 'supporting nation' to ensure that no interference from other countries causes the project to falter. Well, since we are practically family, Yuki-sama has given me his permission."
Let’s see, Shou is the Grand Imperial Consort of the Zulable Great Empire, and he should be busy with all sorts of duties. I’ve heard he has considerable skill in magic, so in that sense, perhaps it isn't out of place? Well, if Yuki has given his permission, then it shouldn't be a problem.
"With this, we have gathered everyone from across the continents who has a strong opinion on magic, including Kagura-dono and her companions. Ah, they have already looked over the report written by Kagura-dono and the others."
" " "Eh?" " "
Gah, they’ve already seen the report before we could revise it? I don’t know if that’s a bad thing or not—after all, we just wrote down what we were thinking—but I’m worried about whether it was actually useful.
"Ahaha, no need to be that worried. It’s packed with the opinions of mages from the New Continent, and it’s quite easy to understand."
"Indeed. It might be a painful topic for Principal Popuri, but the If Continent is suffering from a severe depletion of magical power, making it difficult for magic to manifest. Consequently, the population capable of using magic here is overwhelmingly small, and magic itself is difficult to employ. However, Kagura-dono and her companions have summarized in their report that this is precisely where the opportunity lies, and we agree."
"Yes, exactly. We are aware that magical consumption is high on the If Continent, but I think it’s a brilliant perspective to take that disadvantage and use it to search for techniques and methods to cast magic without consuming vast amounts of power."
Phew. I was worried they might tear our report to shreds, but it seems that wasn't the case.
"That’s the direction we need to head, isn't it? Based on Yuki-dono’s opinion, the Academy has already begun requiring students to learn magic for daily use. Over on this continent, there’s this idea that 'a mage is only a mage if they can use attack magic.'"
"That’s the crux of it, isn't it? As a general, I have a unit of mages under my command, but that was the standard for recruitment. But that implies you can’t become a mage unless you have a significant amount of magical power, so we really need to improve the fundamental approach."
"Yes. The defining characteristic of the If Continent is the depletion of magical power. If we can find a way to train magic effectively even in such an environment, it would be immensely beneficial to every continent. Also, it might be difficult to conduct this research outside of the Magic Academy. What do you think, Kagura-sama?"
"Um, we certainly had that direction in mind. But while writing this report, I thought... what about you, Mikos?"
"Yeah. There’s definitely room to consider it from that perspective, but before we compile our report again, shouldn't we look back at what the 'Academy has been doing' in the first place?"
"Yes. We haven't seen many 'specialized mages' like Wazfi or Nilua around here. Perhaps the potential lies in the fact that because magic couldn't be used easily, they branched out into other directions."
"I see. I can certainly understand that. Even for us magic sword users, our uniqueness lies in the ability to use both magic and magic swords."
"Then, how about we gather information again with that direction in mind?"
"That sounds good. It seems like we might make some new discoveries."
With that, the exchange of opinions regarding our report continued late into the night, and we decided to proceed with further investigations. Is this a good thing? Before we can even get to the magical power survey, we have to do the work of gathering support for the Academy’s survival.
It’s tough when everyone has so much work to do. I suppose ten tasks at once is the limit for a snowman. Oh, I mean for normal work. Asking me to "write six more novels" is impossible.