Black Iron's Glory

The carriage continued along the hilly path.

Within it, Claude looked at Maria, who was seated in front of him, and felt his head hurt a little. “Madam, is this really appropriate? Given your status, my father should be the one making the visit. Someone of your status shouldn’t have to come to our humble abode…”

Maria giggled and replied, “It’s fine. I don’t care about small details like these. Also, I have something I want to discuss with your father about, such as… hiring you to guard my wood.”

After the three wild boars were brought down the slope with much difficulty, Claude realized that the Sioris and the coachman, Wien, didn’t know what to do with the boar that was given to them. Wien would faint at the sight of blood and couldn’t do the harvesting. Siori himself on the other hand was partially disabled; his right hand only had three fingers remaining and he couldn’t grasp a butcher’s knife properly. It was said that he had incurred that injury when he participated in a war when he was young.

The only other two candidates were Siori’s wife, Lancy, and Rodan. Based on the looks they gave Claude and Maria, it was obvious that they didn’t know what to do with the boar.

Claude had to deal with it in the end. He had Rodan give the coachman and the Sioris something to do so that they wouldn’t just stand around and watch. Claude used Magus’s Hands and Fine Control and spent only half an hour to open the two boars up, remove their organs and sort out the useful and useless parts.

Maria watched with her brows raised high from the side. She didn’t mind the smell of blood in the slightest. When Claude was done and wanted to borrow a carriage from her to transport the 300-catty boar home, he found that she had entered the carriage and wanted to send Claude back herself while paying a visit to the chief secretary of Whitestag, Morssen.

That was the reason he was having a headache.

“Madam, do you really want to hire me as the guard of your wood?” asked Claude.

“Of course. Why would I lie about it? Just look at the Sioris. They’re already so old and the man is a half cripple. I worry that the group of boars will come to mess my farm up again. If I hire you, I won’t have to worry about that. Also, you can live in the wood and I’ll even give you the key to my lab. You can there as long as you please that way.”

Claude smiled bitterly and said, “Madam, let me remind you that I will graduate from middle school in another two and a half months. Do you think it’s really the best time to hire me now?”

“Well, since we’re already so familiar with each other, I won’t keep this from you. I need your help with something and you only have to take a week off from school. Perhaps it might not even need that long.”

“What do you need me to do, Madam?”

“I mentioned that I would be here for another ten days before returning to the royal capital, right?” Actually, I want to use that time to cut open the niros crocodile specimen and use the skin membrane to make rune parchment to bring back with me to the royal capital. If I bring the specimen back there with me, I might not be able to keep it in my possession. With your help, perhaps I can use the skin of the crocodile to make a magic tome so that will last much longer.”

Hearing Maria say that piqued Claude’s interest. “Madam, can you tell me what magic tomes are for? Is it merely to record what is written within for a long period of time?”

Claude thought that the magic tome she referred to was no different from the two of Landes’s diaries and his notebook that could last through the ages and look as good as new even with the passing of six centuries.

He didn’t expect to hear her stifle her laugh, and failing to do so, bursting into a fit of laughter. “Sorry, Claude, I forgot that you were a rookie in magic and don’t have any common sense in the field. Actually, there are many types of magic tomes and the one you mentioned uses the lowest grade rune paper to make. Those have no use apart from being able to last a very long time.

“Magic tomes made from niros crocodile skin are considered higher grade. They’re used to inscribe magical formations into. Oh, Claude, have you heard about the unitization of mana theory? It tries to spit mana in the hexagram into discrete units and measure the amount of units consumed by different spells.”

I think I’ve seen it in Landes’s diary before. Claude nodded. He recalled that Landes used an example when he was writing about engraving the seven basic spells. If the hexagram contained a hundred units of mana, then the master spell engraved in the central hexagon would cost one to three units per use, while the six slave basic spells in the triangles would cost three to five mana units.

Even though spells not engraved within the hexagram could be cast, engraving the runic spell formation in the air and releasing it would consume around ten to twenty mana units. Compared to spells engraved within the hexagram, the time it would consume to cast them would be long and the consumption of mana was huge. That was why any magus would pick the spells that were most suitable for them every time before they advanced to the next level.

Seeing Claude’s nod, Maria continued, “Magi can’t only use their seven basic spells; they must use others from time to time as well. However, the limit of mana greatly restricts the number of times they can be used. So, more than two thousand years ago, the magi invented magic scrolls. They were parchment on which runic spell formations could be inscribed. To cast those spells, one only had to infuse the scroll with mana. That would save half the amount of mana required compared to engraving the formation in mid air.

“However, the scrolls also came with a drawback. The spells inscribed on them couldn’t be used too many times. The parchment used to make the scrolls wouldn’t be able to sustain having mana course through it so many times and would spoil easily. Later magi would go on and build upon the scroll technique and gather them into tomes. The cover of the tomes would be inscribed with a recovery spell formation that would restore the wear on the magic parchment within caused by spell use to its former condition.

“Magic tomes were better than scrolls in that they didn’t contain just one spell. Each tome could contain 24 pages of rune parchment and 24 spells could be inscribed within. A magus would be able to pick from an assortment of spells with a tome in hand.

“Tomes allowed one to quickly pick a spell of choice instead of having to sort through numerous scrolls messily, which can be a time-wasting and chaotic affair. Their recovery formations also extend the lifespan of the parchment within and decrease the mana consumed. It’s killing two birds with one stone.

“So, a proper magus would at least have a magic tome or two to store spells that might be needed. After magic scrolls were replaced by tomes, magi developed another use for them. They were considered one-use consumables instead. Current magic scrolls have mana sealed in them after the spell formation is inscribed. Tearing the scroll open would release the spell and non-magi can also use them as well.”

Maria knew that magic knowledge was something Claude lacked badly, so she explained everything in great detail. “During the later stage of the dark ages, in other words, the fall of the magical civilization, supply of magical resources dwindled greatly and few magi from that time could afford to carry their own magic tomes. The parchment used to make tomes came mostly from magic beast skins, and magic beasts were mostly extinct on Freia around that time.

“Do you know why I rushed over when I heard that somebody hunted a niros crocodile?”

Claude shook his head and played along.

“The reason for that is so far, the skin membrane of niros crocodiles is one of the three types of wild beast skin that can be used to make magic parchment. The other two are skin of the red-eyed violent apes of the western highlands of the continent and the bloodback gray wolf in the southern part of the continent, otherwise known as alpes magic wolves in some novels.

“Naturally, books made from niros crocodile skin membrane can only be used to inscribed level zero and one spells. It won’t be able to sustain the flow of mana like the earliest of magic scrolls if a higher level spell formation was inscribed on it. The whole tome would only end up damaged as result.

“That was the reason why magi didn’t consider niros crocodiles as important a few centuries ago. However, to registered magi like us, one niros crocodile specimen is reason enough to tear each other’s skin apart for. After all, we only get to learn trashy and harmless low-level spells. Fortunately, I was the one who got the news first and rushed over. Otherwise, if the Special Bureau finds out about it in two to three months, there won’t be any left for me…

“So, now you understand why I need you to stay here for another ten plus days, right?” Maria said as she gave Claude a close look, “I am going to remove the skin membrane of the niros crocodile at the wood to be made into rune parchment before returning to the royal capital. That way, nobody will be able to take it from me. If they want it, they’ll have to trade me something for it.

“When you were harvesting the two boars just now, it occurred to me that I wouldn’t have to waste energy to remove the skin membrane from the specimen if you help out. You can use Magus’s Hands to do that easily and I can make a few magic tomes with the parchment that I get. I have more than enough materials for that in the wood after all…”

Claude finally understood why she set her sights on him. Forcing a smile, he said, “Madam, I can just give you the two spells, Fine Control and Magus’s Hands. That way, you can also easily turn the specimen into magic tomes.”

Maria refused immediately. “That’ll only waste my mana. You have those two spells as basic spells and don’t need much mana to use them. As for me, I don’t have any tome to contain the spells and I’ll use lots of mana each time I use them, so I probably won’t be able to cast more than a few times in a day. That’s why I think you’re the best fit for the task.”

Gah, she’s relying on me now…

“Claude, I’m not just bossing around. Think about it, you’ll also benefit from doing this,” said Maria seriously.

What kind of benefit? Claude gave her a puzzled look.

Maria smiled again, as if she liked to see Claude’s naive expression. “Think about it. If you help me out, wouldn’t you learn how to turn niros crocodile skin membrane into rune pacrhment? I believe you don’t know how to do that, right?”

I do, thought Claude. Landes detailed the whole process in his diary. Back then, Landes only used the parchment for his diaries and notebook instead of making them into low-level tomes like Maria intended to. Claude already had the theory and was lacking only practice.

However, he still nodded silently.

“Also, I will use the rune parchment I get to make some scrolls and tomes. You’re free to learn from me as I do so and ask any questions you have. I’ll answer every one of them.” Maria offered another tantalizing condition.

“Really?” Claude was moved. That was something Landes’s diary didn’t contain. If Maria taught him how to make tomes, he would be able to capture niros crocodiles from the swamp himself and remove their skin membrane to make his own in the future.

“Also, if everything goes well, I’ll give you one tome as payment,” Maria tempted again, “The only condition I have is for you to move into the wood and do what I tell you.

“I heard Rodan tell me about how you were taken to be a thief when you climbed onto the roof of your house. I bet you were training in meditation back then, right? If you live in my wood, you wouldn’t have to worry about others discovering your secret.

“I’ll be going back to the royal capital in ten more days, and I can leave the wood in your care. The excuse we will tell your father is that you’ll be hired as a guard for the farm. You’ll be allowed to continue reading there and read my collection of books and even use my lab.”

Claude was finally convinced. “Alright, Madam. So long as you can convince my father, I’ll listen to whatever you say.”

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