Chapter . 92
I copied the characters into the air in golden light, mimicking their shapes.
"Look closely. It's hard to trace, but—"
"What are you drawing?"
It was true. As I had done for Goldmund, writing characters in the air with light was an easy task, yet not a single one was written. No, they disappeared as soon as they were written. The moment I connected one stroke to the next, the form crumbled.
"Wait a moment."
This time, I tried to memorize the shapes and explain them verbally. But it was the same. Anyone would remember the general shape of a masterpiece painting even if they couldn't copy it perfectly, but I couldn't remember the shapes of much simpler characters.
"No, obviously I can't read them, but why can't you see them?"
"Surely, is this also visible only to adult dragons?"
"That might be the case."
"Then why are they visible to your eyes?"
"Because humans won't be able to read them anyway?"
"What is this! Studying should start from a young age; to think there are books one can read only when grown up—how can anyone learn anything like that!"
Michelon got angry. I was disheartened too. Just in case, I turned the cover and checked inside, but it was the same.
Looking around the bookshelves likely filled with stories from ancient times when dragons lived, I felt incredibly frustrated. It must be full of stories now lost—magic of the time, dragons and mages, ancient history, religion, and so on—yet I couldn't read them!
"Don't bite your fist and cry, Leontes."
"It's better than punching the wall."
"Rather do that. I'm already angry enough; don't you start crying too."
"How can you not cry? I'm so upset for you!"
"Ah, shut up!"
After bickering, we lay down on the open book, dejected. Using the giant parchment page as a blanket.
"When you become an adult—"
"I know! I know!"
"Yeah, you just have to wait a few years!"
"Forget the books! We found gold, so that's enough! Before coming of age, we'll spend the gold freely, but books are meant to be read only after coming of age. Sounds like a good life? Just my style."
Just this once, even I, whose tastes were different, didn't refute him.
We tried to muster up energy to continue exploring, but honestly, we were exhausted and tired. I barely held on because Michelon nagged me to drink a magic potion.
"Let's go back."
"You said it's been so long since a dragon came here. And we're leaving already?"
"I'm hungry. You shouldn't skip meals either if you don't want to faint again."
Certainly, quite some time had passed. Those worrying about us were one thing, but rumors that the Prince had disappeared must not spread.
We absolutely must not give our enemies the impression that we discovered something on Mount Petrafis, in other words, that there is something on that mountain.
"Let's do this before we go."
I started manifesting magic right in the center. If I used wind and fire fusion magic like when I engraved Tess on my hand, I could instantly draw a magic circle that would take several mages days to draw.
"Are you okay given you're exhausted?"
"Here, I'm using your mana anyway, so it's fine."
If I draw a teleportation magic circle, it will be easier when we come back.
"The magic circle stops drawing halfway? No, it gets erased as it's drawn."
Michelon said in surprise. I was flustered too.
"Is it a teleportation prevention device? Even the Imperial Palace blocks teleportation magic with four mage towers and allows it only in designated places. But here, is it blocked entirely without such devices? Did dragons always fly to move around here then?"
"You, looking around and asking all sorts of things like that, it's like you're talking to a ghost in the air. I'm already annoyed that teleportation isn't working, so stop having your eyes sparkle alone. I said I'm hungry. If it doesn't work, let's try later and just go for now."
"Still, it's a bit regrettable, so let's test just once with blood like the Throne Magic Circle. I think it needs to be your blood."
"That's a relief. Rather than you slitting your wrist while smiling again."
Michelon bluffed again but held out his wrist. I tried drawing a magic circle with his blood, but it disappeared as well. Although it seemed to last a bit longer than before.
"They probably didn't use teleportation magic here. Since humans couldn't come at all anyway. Dragons could just fly."
"Then what are all those books? Did dragons carry books on their backs to move them?"
"Well, they might have shrunk them and tucked them behind their ears, or, well, they managed somehow—no, why are you prying again?"
"I mean, this is a space of magic, and traces of interaction between mages and dragons are clear. Even those books—right, those books!"
I ran towards the books like a madman.
I closed the open book with magic and took out other books with magic too.
"What are you doing?"
"Look closely. That dragon pattern. It's drawn on every cover."
"So what? They probably stamped it to mark it as a dragon's collection."
"Doesn't it look very familiar?"
"Of course it does! Since it's the shape of our mark!"
"That mark, and the brand of the original contract too, are based on this dragon pattern. The crest dragons originally used."
"Dragons don't use crests like humans. It's closer to a symbol. Convenient and—"
"That's it, Michelon. You can't use magic yet. But if you invoke the dragon's crest, no, symbol with dragon's mana here, it works. The dragon's coffin appeared. You solved the code."
"I didn't do it thinking of that."
"Since you are a dragon, this space might have reacted to you. It might have identified our mark. The important thing is, this is a truly awesome system! A teleportation magic circle is actually a spell compressing countless command words about movement. But dragons, unlike humans, shortened those many command words into symbols. So that one only needs to input a single symbol without a long spell! Easily and quickly!"
"...Really?"
"When you touched the dragon's coffin or bookshelves and this and that, did you chant a spell knowing what would come out? You just unknowingly infused mana in the form of symbols dormant in your consciousness, and that became the key to unlock the lock."
"Awesome theory. So what do you want to do?"
"Without that symbol, we can't use magic properly here. We have to draw a magic circle utilizing that symbol."
"I got it, so let's go home and eat first."
"Can you swallow food when this difficult problem, whether it will be solved or not, still remains?"
"Yeah, I eat well, and sleep well at night too. You eat and sleep too, then come back."
"Just once, please let me try just once! Just to see if my theory is correct!"
"If it's not correct, it looks like you'll keep trying until it is?"
"Still, if I can't try even once, I'll get indigestion even while eating."
"I'll tell Yolande exactly what you said; then she'll treat you like Nanette!"
We had a bit of an argument, but we decided to try just once.
"Do it quickly. If you slip up even a little, there won't be a second time. We're leaving immediately."
While the dragon barked, I focused and manifested the mark.
It was the same drawing Michelon's mana through the mark, but instead of condensing that power into a specific magic, I just manifested it. Light flowed out from the mark in a circle and spread in all directions. Like the light pattern of the Throne Magic Circle.
"You do it too."
"I only focused mana! I'm not sending birds flying into an empty plain like you are now."
"Do the same. I'll guide you."
Michelon's mark was a passage sending his mana to my mark, but this time it was the opposite. As the magic I sent reached his mark and guided how to manifest the mana, the same light pattern soon arose. From then on, it poured out at an incredibly fast speed.
"Wow, what a spectacle!"
"We're going to be buried!"
Our light patterns spread out endlessly like a flock of birds. Michelon's mana was immense even by human standards, but here it was virtually infinite.
Filling this vast space and soaring up, scattering like sunlight sparkling on fish scales on every golden wall, floor, and ceiling... finally, the light patterns flowed like a stream beneath our feet, deepened like a well, then like a lake—
"Leontes! You're zoning out again!"
"Absolutely not. I was just waiting for this very moment."
"Do it right now!"
I was disappointed that Michelon didn't believe me, but I proceeded calmly one by one.
"Ah, what the heck! Why is the wind suddenly blowing? This feels completely different from teleporting? You said you're doing teleportation magic. Are you tricking me right now?"
"No. Teleportation magic is based on spatial magic, and space cannot avoid the four elements. Stirring up the air filling this space to create wind—"
"Why is water rising now! It's a rainstorm!"
"After invoking one of the four elements, linking fusion magic to invoke another. Especially in this space full of ancient mana, that fusion explodes and—"
"You should do only one experiment, you crazy bastard! How many magics did you put in after saying you'd do only one? You tricked me! Ack, why is fire burning! My new cloak almost burned!"
"No. To imprint my magic on the dragon's space, I must first seize control of this space. Inserting my formula into the formula operated by this symbol, creating a new formula after blending—"
"Then you should have said beforehand that it was such a long experiment! What's the use of explaining at length now! You should have said that 'one time' was actually a bundle of ten; you tricked me! What's with the dust storm! It's sticky! My new shoes are getting dirty!"
There were inconveniences for Michelon being in human form. Getting caught in rainstorms, flames, dirt—it is hard for a human body. Though not as much as when I first manifested a circle.
"It's almost done, almost done. Just endure a little longer."
"You said that earlier too!"
"No, I never said—"
"Stop saying no!"
I hadn't said it earlier and it was indeed the first time saying it, so I felt unjustly accused but held it in and explained.
"Since I've fused all elemental magics, now I just have to maximize the circle manifestation."
"What else are you trying to do here?"
"This is the last step."
"You just said that too!"
"Really, no—"
"Last or whatever, stop the experiment right now! Otherwise, I'll beat your escort knight half to death in a spar! I'll make him fall into self-loathing, thinking someone like him is too weak to serve the Prince, and give up his knighthood to go back to his hometown!"
...Michelon was a good kid like Nanette, no, the next kindest after Nanette. He was just saying things he didn't mean because he was having a hard time.
But really, truly, this was the last time. The four elements were forming a circle in perfect fusion, rotating around us. In doing so, they changed into the dragon's symbol, and the moment they changed, I engraved the movement, destination, and arrival point, all of it as symbols.
So that whenever we wish, we can easily reach here, and easily leave from here to other places—perhaps even drawing in the harmony of time alongside space—
"Crazy bastard is destroying my whole house! Pulling out all the pillars, the house is collapsing completely!"
"Absolutely not, only powerful spatial teleportation magic is occurring; this space will never collapse!"
"If it's not my house, are you destroying me!"
Michelon shouted so loud my ears went numb and my eyes closed on their own.
But even as my consciousness faded, conversely, I could feel another circle opening its eyes within me. A circle shining like the eye of a diamond.......
The fifth. I closed my eyes happily.
***
Slap, slap!
A sound I've heard a lot somewhere.
"Wake up, wake up!"