New chapter of Control Engineer is out! (1/1 chapter)

First Magic

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Alright. Even if SimuConnect runs, I understand that magic will not activate in the current situation. I can simulate without worry.

But how exactly are SysLab and SimuConnect running? According to Reo’s memory, they should run on something called a computer, but there is no such thing here. It feels like it is running inside my head, but it doesn’t feel like my own ability.

Thin client system? Ah, the concept of a servant called a server working remotely and showing me the results has flowed in. I see, then the burden isn’t on me. It seems like a good method.

“SysLer (AI), are you operating on a thin client system?” (Leon)

“I’m sorry. I do not have information about systems lower than SysLab, which is my mission.” (SysLer)

As expected, impossible. In this situation, thinking about it more is futile.

Alright, I’ll call it the brain-internal system. No point worrying about the background. Probably, since Reo demanded it at that time, the gods are telling me to use this. Using it is important. I decided to think that way.

Looking back later, at this time, I, Leon, might have been partly taken over by Toudou Reo. But I did not feel that at all. His knowledge came to me at once as if rising from the bottom of the water, but there was no notable abnormality.

I can say that with certainty. I clearly remember myself, and conversely, his personal memories are vague. I cannot recall his way of thinking much. Only a strong desire to control something remains. Moreover, if knowledge changes, judgments might change even in the same situation. But thinking about that is for later.

At this time, my mind was full of this mysterious system.

I looked at the Stetra (State Transition Diagram) window. Four rounded state boxes were lined up horizontally, connected mutually by arrows. They were labeled Stop, Start, Activate, and Use. In other words, when using magic, there were four states.

The event arrow from Stop to Start was labeled “complete transcription”. I did not know what it transcribed to, but probably when the activation symbol was imagined, it went into the Start state. A State Transition Diagram was a diagram describing how boxes show states, and arrows between boxes showed events triggering state changes (transitions), progressing step by step.

In Stetra, you can create diagrams and emulate transitions. Currently, the Stop state is blue, showing it is stopped. When a trigger event occurs, it will briefly color, and the Start state will turn blue.

Anyway. The event from Start to Activate is “magic realm intensity lower limit exceeded.” If that happens, the activation crest appears. The reverse event is “magic realm intensity lower limit breached”.

Hmm. From Activate to Use is “magic realm intensity threshold exceeded”. There is no reverse arrow, but there is an event that jumps from Use back to Stop, “magic energy supply stop”.

To summarize, from the initial Stop state, imagining the activation symbol and raising magic realm intensity allows magic to be used.

I mostly understood the flow. I shrank the Stetra window and moved it to the edge, so it remained visible. Next, I looked closely at SimuConnect.

There were mainly three boxes. There was a scope for switch state display, but visually it was a very simple model. I couldn’t imagine magic activating with just this. There had to be a lower-level model. The leftmost box in the diagram was a human model. When my gaze followed it as if led, I clicked it, and the box depressed. I thought so.

The display switched. That box itself was a single model, a collection of lower (sub) models. It looked simple because it was abstracted, but actually, it went deep inside. Functionally, it should have been a physical human model. In the upper left, a humanoid figure was plainly displayed. It was somewhat abstracted. The head, torso, and limbs were color-coded, so there should have been further lower layers.

I wanted to see deeper, but while reluctantly pulling back, I returned to the upper layer. The impulse to just try running it was strong. I reviewed the whole. The middle box was the magic emulator. The right box should have been a custom indicator. There was an open box with a scale on the left side… a tank, probably. It showed the accumulated amount of generated water.

This type of example (tutorial) model typically ran first and then activated by a trigger switch. But in this model, there was no need to worry about which switch. There was only one. With that in mind, I clicked the green rightward arrow execution button.

Oh, the human model’s state changed during communication.

Then, the magic emulator changed to Start, and the scope’s magic realm intensity graph rose. However, there is no change in the magic amount or flow rate graphs.

By the way, there is a horizontal red dashed line on the magic realm intensity graph, but what is this?

The magic realm intensity graph continued rising, gradually slowing down, as it approached the red dashed line. The scope’s horizontal axis represented time, though it seemed to be displaying at about one-tenth real speed.

It took a while, but eventually, the magic realm intensity graph crossed the dashed threshold. At that moment, the state of the magic model switched to Activate. The magic amount graph began to dip slightly, while the flow rate graph started to climb.

That red dashed line appeared to mark the minimum required makai (magic realm) strength. In other words, makai strength was the key physical quantity tied directly to magic activation. Conversely, the “magic amount” behaved like the charge of a battery, providing the energy needed to generate and maintain makai strength. That correlation made intuitive sense.

As this process unfolded, water flowed into the tank display, and the level steadily rose—showing the accumulated volume increasing in real time.

Hmm. From the experience of using it, each box’s subsystem might be deep, but the overall structure is simple, like something near the beginning of the example collection in Stetra. What’s surprising is that magic is described by a mathematical system. And the incomprehensible activation symbol somehow converts into the SysLab SimuConnect, which I can understand, and that gives me a strange fear.

 

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The next day.

I woke up comfortably and apologized to Kaa-sama and my brothers. Conan-niisan was glad and said, “Good, I’m glad”.

The teacher wasn’t coming that day, so I had free time. The brothers were helping at the trading company, so they weren’t free. I said I had recovered and left the trading hall as usual.

Since I was still treated like a child, I wasn’t allowed to leave the mansion grounds alone. An adult escort was required. The maid in charge, Ursula, came along. I waved to the guards and passed through the gate. The town of Emilia was safe. People were carefree.

Ursula looked about thirty. After I told her my destination, she followed silently.

After about ten minutes of walking, the town of Emilia ended. The stone-built cityscape gave way to rural scenery. I turned east on the highway and went down a weeded side path. A wooden fence came into view.

“Then, Leon-sama, I will wait here.” (Ursula)

“Yeah. I’ll come back if I get hungry.” (Leon)

She only accompanied me this far. After bowing, she entered the tenant farmer Rieve-san’s house. I passed through the gate in the fence next to that house and started climbing the hill. The air was cooler than in town.

Why doesn’t Ursula come beyond that point? That’s because from the fence I just passed to here, and even beyond the ridge that can be seen hazily, it’s all land belonging to the trading company (our family). People unrelated to the trading company do not enter.

Anyway, that path soon had some side roads leading to villas and ranches. It was a place I often went. But instead of taking the roads leading to facilities, I branched off onto what felt more like animal trails.

Weaving through the forest, then rounding a slope along a ravine, I came out to a somewhat open land. It was surrounded by trees, with no people around. The branches rustled in the wind, making it very calming.

This was the place where my brothers and I used to play. Until about two years ago, the three of us often came here. But recently, as the brothers grew up, only I came. They told me not to go further up because it was dangerous, but here was fine. There was a hideout my brothers made. Of course, calling it a house was a stretch, as it was just a shack made of nearby branches and scrap wood for pillars, walls, and roof.

I climbed inside and took a breath. I drank water from the bottle I brought and steeled myself to actually activate the magic I came here for.

“Sysler! Activate Possessor Subset!” (Leon)

“Possessor Subset activated. Tokens remaining: 27,344.” (Sysler)

Still, it seems I can use a lot. Alright, here I go!

I clicked the execute button…

Oh. It came out! It worked.

From beyond my outstretched right hand, water flowed out.

Amazing. Magic is amazing.

A volume of water flowing as strongly as from a faucet above a trough where horses drink in the town square.

I put my left hand in front of my right hand. It was cold. I cupped my palm to gather water and brought it in front of my face. It was clear. There was no smell. I cautiously stuck out my tongue and touched it.

No taste. Good!

Resolving myself, I took a sip.

Yeah. Tasteless and odorless. Not bad.

The flow was like several bottles already, and my feet started getting wet. I closed my eyes and switched the magic off. It stopped. The splashing sound on the ground disappeared.

“I did it! I can use magic!” (Leon)

Echoes returned, “I did it! I can use magic!”.

A little embarrassing. The document said using Possessor takes over your body, but I didn’t feel any such thing or discomfort. Not bad.

Now, what about my right hand… huh? It’s not wet. Come to think of it, my right hand didn’t feel water or coldness like my left hand did.

Then, where was the water coming from?

One more time. Ah…

Bending my right elbow, I saw that water flowed not from my palm but from a space slightly apart. I hadn’t noticed because I was only watching the water before. Looking carefully at the place where the water was springing up, I saw a faint pattern.

So, this is the activation symbol. The plane shaped by the pattern is the boundary, and water gushes out from there. Unlike the geometric pattern of the startup symbol, this pattern is organic. It looks like entwined vines.

Wow. Amazing. It’s like this. Well, if it flowed from my palm itself, that would be creepy and I wouldn’t want to drink it.

Still, I can’t believe magic can be used so easily. I’m getting excited.

 

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