New chapter of World Teacher is out! (1/1 chapter)

 

 

A One-Year-Old Old Man Who Wants To Use Magic

(Thank you for reading at bayabuscotranslation.com)

Several months had passed since it was discovered that my attribute was “colorless”. Aside from the excessive skinship and affection, no major problems had occurred. Since then, I had various books read to me and came to understand the characters, and I was now able to read books by myself. If a baby who could read books appeared in reality in just over a year, it would be nothing but creepy.

Books in this world seemed to be valuable after all. Although some were tattered secondhand books, Elina-san eagerly prepared one book after another. At this point, I figured I didn’t have to care about these people’s looks anymore. Their parent-like affection solved everything.

With a sense of resignation, I continued reading and came to understand various things. As I expected, the scientific level of the world was like the medieval era in my previous life, with magic inserted into it. Therefore, there was no word for “science”, and instead, alchemy was mainstream. It was exactly the classic world of swords and magic.

Depending on the continent, there seemed to be four seasons, and one year was fixed at 360 days, which was slightly different from my previous world. There were nobles, commoners, diverse races like Noel, and some magic beasts scattered about. It was quite a harsh world. In other words, life was light here. Using knowledge from my previous life, I would train my stamina and magic and live my life thoroughly.

But… I will stumble with magic.

 

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Beginner magic art textbook

The magic art textbook described the overview of the attribute judgment tool and clearly explained the meanings of the colors. Red was fire. Blue was water. Green was wind. Yellow was earth. And my colorless was… none.

Yes, I had no aptitude for any attribute. It was not something good like being able to use all attributes universally. It was a defect, with a negative modifier applied to all four attributes. Since magical tools did not require attributes to activate, there was no problem just living.

“Seriously…?” (Sirius)

A voice slipped out involuntarily. The book in my hands was Albert’s Travelogue. The author was a traveler who had wandered around the world, and this book recorded the customs of lands and the mysterious phenomena he encountered.

In other words, it was an autobiography, but it was interesting because it contained a wide variety of things. Places where tornadoes did not stop for a year, strange habits of the cat tribe, special ceremonies of the silver wolf tribe. Events that had been impossible in my previous life were written here, and while they were amusingly described, the merciless reality was not hidden, making it educational as well.

And within that merciless reality, “colorless” was listed.

Below was an excerpt from the book.

 

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I have been wandering for several years. I have met various humans and races, and the ways of using magic art are diverse. I have been spending truly meaningful days. However, every time I catch a glimpse of discrimination between races and the wealth gap caused by aristocracy, I feel sad.

In a certain town, I met someone who was born without an attribute. Since he excelled at nothing, that person was despised as incompetent and treated terribly.

“Incompetent person”.

Although there are fewer such people than those favored by spirits, why is there discrimination?

I do not understand. Everyone is just one person in the world, and from the perspective of the world’s vastness, that is a trivial matter.

 

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He has manliness, Albert… no, the problem is that people without attributes are called “incompetent”. I am treated as incompetent in society. This is the true reason Erina-san and the others pitied me.

The crystal’s glow was strong, so my mana amount is probably above average. However, being colorless means even if I try hard, I can only use beginner-level attribute magic, at best being able to handle magical tools for a longer time. I was born with a handicap from the moment of birth.

 

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…Well, whatever. I am originally an old man from a world without magic. It is not that I cannot use it at all, and I have knowledge and experience beyond magic art. Rather, knowing that I am incompetent will make the enemy careless, right? No matter the creature, if you exploit carelessness and weaknesses, most things can be dealt with a single knife. More importantly, I want to try using magic no matter what.

The beginner textbook said there is also magic without attributes. It seems to be called attributeless magic, but except for some, hardly anyone uses it. One of those is “Light”. As the name suggests, it is a magic that produces light and is used as an introductory magic for beginners. Maybe because of that, only the necessary keyword for activation is written, and the chant is not detailed.

If I just put in the keyword and chant it like it, maybe I can do it too.

“Noel-sama, it is your older sister Noel. How are you feeling? Don’t you want to say ‘older sister’?” (Noel)

Just when I was about to try, Noel appeared with a stupid remark.

This girl really wants to be called sister, but I will never say that.

Since she came, this is a good chance. I will have Noel demonstrate “Light”.

“No-e-, ma-gi-c.” (Sirius)
“Huh? Ah, uh… yes. Do you want me to use this?” (Noel)

Since then, she had not used magic in front of me. It was obvious she was being considerate of me, the incompetent one, but I did not care at all. I pointed to the page where “Light” was written and boldly attacked with the ignorance of a baby.

“Is it okay? But this is attributeless… yeah. Understood!” (Noel)

“Oh!” (Sirius)

Decisiveness was characteristic of Noel.

“But I have hardly ever used non-attribute magic. When it comes to light, I usually use fire.” (Noel)

Ah, indeed, that would naturally happen with the fire attribute.

She closed her eyes, placed a finger on her forehead, and groaned as if trying to recall the incantation.

“Hmm… It was ‘Dispel the darkness…’ wasn’t it? Well then, I shall begin.” (Noel)

When Noel took a deep breath, the atmosphere changed.

“O magic, which is the origin, pulsating power, bearing two forces, emit a ray of brilliance that illuminates the dark night, dispel my darkness.” (Noel)

The incantation is long! Is this truly an introductory spell? Ah, since few people use this, no research has been done to shorten it.

“‘Light!’” (Noel)

A light appeared at Noel’s fingertip. A faint and ephemeral orb of light shining as if overflowing with something; it looked beautiful. I touched it, but felt no heat. However, there was definitely something hard to describe emanating from my hand.

Could this be mana?

Though less than a minute had passed, a little sweat appeared on Noel’s forehead after she extinguished the magic.

“Phew, maintaining non-attribute magic is tiring, after all. Fire doesn’t tire me out this much.” (Noel)

She said it was more tiring than fire.

Does non-attribute magic consume more mana?

What I felt when touching it was mana leaking, like water flowing continuously from a faucet. This is just my opinion, but maybe other attributes have some form of assistance depending on aptitude. I want to investigate properly someday, although for now, Noel is the only one I know who can do this.

“Wonderful!” (Sirius)

“Eh, yes! Isn’t it wonderful! You may praise me more, you know. I am the best, after all!” (Noel)

When I applauded, she was quite pleased, even getting a bit conceited. Afterwards, Noel left the room to attend to other duties.

Now that I am alone, I shall attempt magic myself. I have seen the example. Now all that remains is to perform it.

“O magic, which is the origin, pulsating power, bearing two forces, emit a ray of brilliance that illuminates the dark night, dispel my darkness.” (Sirius)

Normally my tone is childish as an act, but for the incantation, I must recite it seriously.

As I pictured the light Noel showed me, my whole body began to warm. It was not the heat of a fever from a cold, but rather the feeling of light exercise activating my entire body. I felt the heat gathering from my entire body toward my hands, and I uttered the activation words.

“‘Light!’” (Sirius)

A faintly glowing sphere appeared in my hand. It was almost the same as the one Noel created, but this was the first time I had used magic. Though the principle remains unknown, actually using it was moving.

Oh, I got excited like a child. I must compose myself and begin experiments calmly. First, I shall see if I can move this light. Imagine, one step forward… good. The light flew forward as imagined.

When I tried to move it further up and down, the light vanished.

“Huh? I don’t remember extinguishing it–…” (Sirius)

The scenery before me slowly tilted diagonally. No, I was falling down. Though I knew it, my body would not obey, and I collapsed onto the bed. Then, an intense fatigue came upon me.

Could this be–…

“Ah… this is mana exhaustion…” (Sirius)

It was exactly as described in the book. Though I knew this, it was still tough. In my previous life, I might have forced myself to move, but as an immature baby body, that was impossible.

Good thing I was on the bed. If I sleep like this, the discomfort will likely disappear. However, the light lasted about ten seconds. Since I moved it as well, the level of exhaustion might have varied. This is utterly impractical. How many times must I endure this fatigue? The road ahead is long. I shall sleep.

The next day, I performed my usual muscle training. After one day, the fatigue was completely gone. I even felt better than before. My mana seemed fully recovered. I decided to practice more.

Since yesterday I could not test much and collapsed, today I would examine my limits. Back then, I was so excited I did not notice until my mana was depleted. I wanted to find out how much consumption causes the body to suffer and the magic to cut off. First, I should know the dangerous threshold beyond which I collapse.

I cast the incantation and created the light, then waited. While concentrating without action, I felt mana draining from my body. It felt similar to blood draining. Fatigue gradually surged, so I willed the light to vanish. It disappeared properly, and I exhaled in relief while checking my condition.

Yes, I feel sluggish, but it is no problem. The connection time was 13 seconds. This is probably my current limit. It may be within margin of error, but it feels longer than last time.

At this pace, I continued to train my mana. While harboring a tremendous misunderstanding.

 

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