I'm a Noble on the Brink of Ruin, So I Might as Well Try Mastering Magic: Volume 2 E-Book

Nazuna Miki

• Herausgeber: J-Novel Club
• Kategorie: Fantasy und Science-Fiction
• Serie: I'm a Noble on the Brink of Ruin, So I Might as Well Try Mastering Magic
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 243

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

Liam knew he needed to leave the nest if he wanted to avoid sinking with the rest of his ruin-bound family, but he never thought all his humble efforts would lead to...founding his own country at the behest of the first princess?! Befuddling as this all is, with a plethora of unique monster races and ever-reliable familiars by his side, Liam awkwardly, but earnestly, carves his path to becoming the king of the promised land. And although their peaceful little country-building endeavor might run into some unforeseen obstacles, Liam’s passion for magic never betrays him—because while the challenges he’s facing grow in scale, so does his skill and expertise in anything and everything magic!

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Cover

Character Profiles

I’m a Noble on the Brink of Ruin, So I Might as Well Try Mastering Magic: Volume 3

The Young Head and His Old Butler

Afterword

Color Illustrations

About J-Novel Club

Copyright

Landmarks

Table of Contents

.47

“Magic Missile, seventeen rounds!”

From my extended fist, seventeen magic missiles shot out and drew arcs in the air as they flew toward the giant monster before me. With a crocodile’s head and a turtle’s body, the crocoturtle loomed over the plains on all four of its legs.

The magic missiles landed one after the other, but they were repelled by either the ridiculously sturdy shell on its back or the tough skin over its body. Thanks to the sheer number of missiles, however, the crocoturtle’s body was lifted off the ground, giving me just enough room to see its stomach past its front legs.

“Amelia Emilia Claudia... Pierce through, Holy Lance!”

I unleashed an aria-charged intermediate divine magic, manifesting a spear of light in my right hand. Seizing the opportunity, I threw it at the crocoturtle with all my might. It soared straight, pierced into its stomach, then exploded inside, scattering the giant crocodile-faced turtle into bits. Only its shell was left in the grisly aftermath.

“Phew...” I wiped the sweat off my brow with the back of my hand.

Glad that went well. I nonchalantly spun around, only to be met with Princess Scarlet’s beautiful face going slack and mouth falling agape in shock.

“Your Highness?”

She blinked for a moment before gasping. “P-Pardon me, Master. I was captivated at the sight of your extraordinary mana.”

“Were you now?” I was wondering what had her jaw dropping like that.

“If I am not mistaken, you seem to have gotten far stronger than before...”

“Well, I’ve started to grasp how to ‘use’ magic now.”

By that, I was talking about using it much more effectively and efficiently. Every time I learned new magic and practiced new spells, I also found more ways to combine them to produce different outcomes. I just found it all unbearably fun. It was so, so enjoyable to be able to find more ways to put magic to use.

“As expected of you, Master. At this rate, the cleanup of the promised land ought to end in no time at all.”

“You’re right, Your Highness. After that, you can—”

“Master.” Scarlet leveled a very sharp look at me.

I flinched. “Wh-What?”

“Please call me by my name. As one who serves you, I cannot bear to make you address me so respectfully.”

“O-Oh. I guess so.”

Still, I wasn’t so sure about that. Normally, a first princess like Scarlet would be as far above me as the clouds in the sky. Whether as the fifth son of a noble family or the commoner that I actually was on the inside, I couldn’t quite get used to treating her as a subordinate rather than a royal.

“M-More importantly...” I said, deciding to change the topic. “Are you sure you’re okay with this? You know, following me and building a country here and all that.”

“Of course,” she answered simply.

“But why? You’re already way up there as the first princess of an entire kingdom.”

“My maternal family is said to have inherited the blood of a dragon.”

“Really?!” I wasn’t expecting that.

“We are often referred to as dragonbloods. It is for this reason that we’ve always been valued as a precious lineage in the kingdom and have been wed to the king over the years.”

“Oh, wow. And that’s how you could keep being nobles?”

Scarlet quietly nodded.

That’s what father was trying to do. So there was a proper precedent for it.

“As one who has inherited the blood of a dragon, I cannot possibly defy the... No.” She closed her eyes and shook her head, as if purging a thought from her mind, then looked straight at me, or rather, at Lardon. “I myself wish to serve the divine dragon.”

“I see... Lardon, was that story true?”

“It was but a passing whim of mine. As always, humans enjoy deifying the smallest matters.”

When I passed that message on to Scarlet, her face instantly brightened like a vibrant flower in full bloom. That story served as a foundation her life was built on, so even this oblique affirmation seemed to have made her incredibly happy.

“Head one kilometer north.”

“North? What for?”

“There lies something that should make that lass even happier.”

I passed those words on to Scarlet as well. “What do you think?”

“Let us go!” she responded in a flash, looking terribly eager. “The divine dragon’s will must be done.”

I was also pretty curious about what could possibly make her even happier than she already was, so I took her along and trekked northward just as Lardon said.

“These stairs... They lead underground?”

“They appear to be ruins of some sort.”

“Do we go in?”

“Of course.” Yet again, Scarlet nodded without an ounce of hesitation.

Weathered and dotted with moss and signs of damage, the stone stairs told a tale of age. After we descended around three flights of steps, we arrived at a wide space brightly lit by a single glowing wall, unlike Another World, where the lighting had no determinable source.

In the very center of that space was a dragon.

“Is that...Lardon?”

“The divine dragon?” Scarlet blinked in shock, as she had never seen Lardon in person.

“No, it’s made of iron,” I observed. “Just what...”

“That is a guardian designed after me. Try defeating it first,” Lardon urged just as the iron dragon began to get up.

“How?”

“On its head is my name written in the ancient script. Erasing one character will change it into a word that means ‘submission.’”

“The third character!” Scarlet exclaimed right after I relayed those instructions to her. “Please erase the third character!”

Despite not saying anything else, I could sense that Lardon was satisfied by her response.

“The third one, huh? Got it.”

I took a step forward the same time the iron Guardian Lardon rose to its full height. It roared upward, sending tremors throughout this underground space, before lowering its eyes into a glare.

As I looked closely, there were characters carved onto its forehead—none of which I could read, of course, but I could at least tell the characters themselves apart.

It lunged at us with its jaws wide open, so I pulled Scarlet close and jumped to the side. Just as her surprised yelp reached my ears, I immediately set her down and teleported away, right on time for the iron dragon to snap its jaws over the spot we were just at. I quickly reappeared above it with Teleport again and firmly grabbed onto its head.

“Holy Lance!”

Forgoing the aria, I cast the spell with my hand directly atop the third character on its forehead, sending the spear of light soundlessly piercing through.

The enraged Guardian Lardon came to a halt. Then, its body started to glow. I jumped down from its head and watched as it seemingly trembled in pain for a while, and eventually, it settled down. Its eyes roved around the area, until it caught sight of Scarlet.

The iron dragon shifted its position so that it was facing her—and it knelt.

“Wh-What?!”

“Oh, it must’ve submitted to the blood flowing within you,” I said. Scarlet blinked in confusion, so I clarified, “The dragon’s blood, I mean.”

After staring blankly for a moment longer, she gasped.

This guardian that took after Lardon’s appearance had submitted to her, in a way acknowledging the dragon’s blood she so treasured. That afternoon, yet another bright smile blossomed on her face.

.48

“I’ll head back to the elves first, then.”

“Understood.” Scarlet stood next to Guardian Lardon with a somber look. “I shall follow immediately once the repairs are complete.”

“No rush. Your control over it won’t be fully established until the character self-repairs, after all.”

“Is that what the divine dragon said?”

I nodded. Guardian Lardon began listening to Scarlet’s orders after we partially erased the ancient script for “Lardon” on its forehead and changed it to “submission,” but it apparently wouldn’t stabilize until the character self-repaired and returned to “Lardon” once more. That should progress without a hitch as long as it stayed still, so it would be best for it to remain here in the meantime.

“There’s no need to force anything. Just be patient and wait by its side.”

“I understand. Thank you very much.”

“See ya.”

I parted ways with Scarlet, left the underground cave, and returned to the surface through the stairs. The sun was going to set soon, so I decided to end my “cleanup” here and teleported back to the elves.

The next moment, my eyes popped.

The village was under attack. The place I’d left earlier in the day looked very much like a proper village construction site with a general framework in place. Now, some of it was destroyed, with a few places even up in flames.

“AAAH!!!”

Before I could think any further, I made a mad dash toward the direction of the scream and found an elf being attacked by a monster, a bipedal wolf known as a werewolf, that was holding the elf up by her petite arm.

“Let her go!” I bellowed, firing off a magic missile.

“Wha—” It landed a clean hit on the werewolf’s face just as he was turning around, knocking a grunt out of him and sending him flying.

The elf was thrown forward, but I caught her in my arms just before she hit the ground. “Are you okay?”

“Lord Liam!” She wrapped her arms around my neck.

The soft touch and pleasant scent made my heart skip a beat. “Wh-What’s going on here?”

“Oh, right! Those guys, the werewolves—they just suddenly attacked us.”

“Why?”

“I’m afraid I don’t know.”

I sighed. “Okay. I’ll save everyone. You hide in here,” I instructed, summoning Another World.

Having already entered it once before, the elf didn’t hesitate to step right in. Once I released the spell, her safety was essentially secured.

I continued running around the village-to-be, looking for the other elves like a restless gale in search of prey. I’d fire magic missiles at the defenseless werewolves before they noticed me and knock them unconscious before they could even retaliate. Then, I’d evacuate the elves into Another World. I managed to keep this up until I’d defeated around ten of the werewolves.

That streak was interrupted when a black shadow fell over my body.

“Ugh!”

I immediately crossed my arms in defense. A huge impact and a burning sensation assaulted my arms as my body was flung backward, but I managed to adjust my position in midair with a half flip and landed safely on the ground. Looking down, I could see blood gushing from some sharp clawlike wounds on my arms.

“Heal.” I cast beginner healing magic on myself before gazing at the one who had attacked me. He was a werewolf just like the rest, yet the aura around him made him stand out very clearly. I didn’t know if we could hold a conversation, but I gave it a try for now. “Are you the leader?”

“Filthy outlanders. Leave this holy land at once.”

“Holy land?”

“If you refuse...”

With nothing but a whizzing sound as warning, the bare-bones house beside the werewolf got sliced up and collapsed into a pile of rubble. He held his claws out, brandishing the very cause of that destruction.

“...then I will tear you to shreds.”

“Wait, just hear us out!”

That guy called this place the holy land. In other words, there was an exceedingly high chance that he was related to Lardon, or at least something along those lines. It meant that we could talk things out—

“So you refuse! Then I will force you out!”

—until the werewolf kicked off the ground and came charging at me.

I fired seventeen magic missiles all at once, but the werewolf parried them all, causing loud explosions in the air. Then, with a spirited war cry, he leaped toward me with his claws outstretched—only to swipe at thin air.

He froze momentarily. “What?!”

To dodge, I teleported away to safety, leaving the werewolf stunned at my sudden disappearance. Using that opening, I teleported one more time and reappeared right behind him.

“Lightning!”

At close proximity, I cast a beginner electric magic spell and sent the current running through the werewolf’s body. He stiffened up with a violent jolt before defenselessly collapsing onto his knees and convulsing over the ground.

“Ugh... I-I would never yield to you outlanders...over something like this...!”

“I’m telling you to listen... Fine, how about this?” I summoned a Lardon Junior, a dog-sized dragon child that looked nearly identical to Lardon.

The werewolf opened his eyes wide in shock. “Th-That’s...”

“So you really are related to Lardon.”

I gathered everyone to the center of the village, the elves led by Reina on one side and several dozen werewolf invaders on the other. They were quite the big pack. I cast healing magic on all the wounded—yes, including the werewolves—and made sure everyone was fit as a fiddle.

As I’d suspected, the werewolf I defeated last seemed to be their leader. He stepped forward as their representative and asked, “Is the divine dragon really inside you?”

“You need more proof? Just let me know. I can ask Lardon for something.”

He trailed his thoughtful gaze over the Lardon Junior I’d summoned and shook his head. “No, this is enough.”

“All right. So, your race follows Lardon, you’ve always been living here, and you drive out any invaders from outside. Did I get everything right?”

“You did.”

“So you’re just like these girls. They’re under Lardon’s protection too.”

“Were they now...” The werewolf faced the elves and lowered his head. “It seems we’ve committed some horrible acts in our ignorance.”

“Not at all. I understand where you were coming from,” Reina said. Perhaps finding some sort of kinship as fellow races related to Lardon, she and the other elves didn’t seem to mind at all. “More importantly, how would you all like to form contracts with Lord Liam as well?”

“Contracts?”

“We’ve formed contracts and sworn our allegiance to Lord Liam and Lord Lardon. Would it not be fine if you all did the same?”

“I see.” The werewolf nodded, and this time, they all faced me. “Could we ask this of you?”

“Sure.”

I had no reason to refuse, especially if these fellows had sworn loyalty to Lardon. I cast Familia on all the werewolves one by one, forming contracts with each individual. Just as the elves did, the werewolves, too, evolved. From bipedal wolves, they turned into wolfmen that had a more humanlike appearance.

One, however, stood out.

“Then you’ll be...Chris.”

I named the werewolf while casting Familia as I did any other. Chris’s appearance began to change before my eyes into one so closely human, even among the other wolfmen, save for the wolf ears and tail. There was also a more glaring issue.

“Huh? You were a girl?”

“Yeah?”

The beautiful wolf-eared girl gave me a weird look, as if I was supposed to have known that all along.

.49

With the addition of Chris and the other evolved wolfmen, the village construction quickly sped up. Dexterous as they were, the elves were still a weak race by nature; even with the help of Gorak’s clone I’d called through contract summoning, efficiency inevitably dropped whenever some brawn was needed in the equation. On the other hand, the wolfmen were truly strong and far more nimble than the elves. They easily filled in the gaps the elves had left in this project, leading to some very smooth progress.

With no real need to help, I wandered the village, supervising only in name, when I ran into Chris.

“Oh, Master!”

Even among the wolfmen, she had evolved into an especially humanlike form. The beautiful wolf-eared girl tossed her work aside, dashed over, and quite literally pounced on me.

“Masteeer,” she crooned, hugging me tightly and nuzzling her cheek against mine. Far from coming off as obscene, it just seemed to me as if her animalistic instincts took over when expressing affection. It felt like being pounced on by a large yet playful dog, actually.

“Were you working properly?”

“Yep! I was fixing that.”

“That? Oh, the house you broke.”

Chris was pointing at the foundation of one of the houses that they had broken in their attack. The building’s wooden frame was irreparably snapped apart, and some parts were charred completely black. Buildings like this needed to be demolished entirely first before any rebuilding could be done.

As I nodded, Chris pulled away from me and visibly wilted. Both her wolf ears and her tail glumly drooped down. “I’m sorry... I’ll do my best to fix it, so please forgive me.”

“It’s fine. No use crying over spilled milk. It’s all good as long as you give your all to help fix the place up and build some new houses.”

“Yeah! I’ll give it my very best!” Chris crowed, immediately cheering up.

She was honestly reflecting on her mistakes and never lost her spirit. She really is a good and sincere girl, I thought as my eyes shifted toward the pile of rubble.

“What is it, Master?”

“Hm? Oh, well... I was just thinking that it’d be nice if I could repair that with magic too.”

“Repair it?”

“Like healing magic.”

Honestly, it all felt like such a waste. What they were demolishing right now were the houses that the weak elves had worked so hard to build. It gave these awkward structures some intangible, unplaceable value that I felt reluctant to just disregard.

Well, I haven’t learned any magic of the sort. Not much I can do about that.

“Then you simply have to make it.”

My eyebrows shot up. “Make it? What do you mean, Lardon?”

Chris’s eyes sparkled and her tail stood ramrod straight when she realized that I was speaking with the dragon housed inside my body.

“Precisely that. If you haven’t learned any such magic, then you simply have to make it.”

“Magic can be created?”

“How do you suppose the existing magic came to be?” Lardon shot back, the slightest bit of exasperation leaking through.

I hummed in understanding. The magic we knew of today had to have been created by someone too. But even if that were the case... “Can I make magic?”

“I do not seek weapons from a barbershop.”

That was a terribly roundabout way to put it, but basically, that was a yes. “What should I do?”

“Imagine,” Lardon answered simply. “Imagine far more strongly than when you cast magic. What do you want to do? How do you wish to do it? From the process to the end result, imagine it all strongly, fiercely, vividly, in your mind.”

Lardon was being uncharacteristically elaborate with the explanation, which prompted me to take it to heart. So I did. I chewed on it, turned the words over and over in my mind, working toward a deeper understanding.

Imagine it.

What do I want to do? How do I want to do it?

From the process to the end result, imagine it all vividly in my mind.

I mustered my mana. Following the blueprint I’d conjured up, I molded it into my desired shape as if it were clay.

Then, all of a sudden, things just seemed to fall into place.

I immediately put my newfound understanding to the test, seventeenfold. I even unsummoned Gorak’s clone in order to pour all my mana and concentration into testing this original spell of mine.

I was met with failure after failure. I couldn’t quite do it the way I’d imagined, and time passed with only my mana whittling away. Despite it all, I persevered. I tried seventeen times and failed seventeen times. After making minute adjustments on my mental image and the shape and flow of my mana, I tried again for seventeen more.

I ceaselessly repeated my efforts in a cycle of consuming mana and recovering using lekukro crystals, until finally, my persistence bore fruit. Some words appeared in my head.

“Shape Memory.”

I was certain that this was it. The magic activated, its light enveloping the rubble, then seeping right into it.

“Master? Were you able to create magic?” Chris asked, her excitement palpable.

I nodded. “Yeah. Try snapping one of those pillars.”

“Okay!” With a small huff, Chris trotted over to the rubble and easily snapped a thick pillar in two. But then, the broken pillar began to glow and before our eyes reverted back into its original shape. “Wh-What is this?!”

“Shape Memory,” I answered. “It’s a spell that can record the shape of a nonliving thing at the time it was cast. If it ever changes shape, this spell will revert it back to its original recorded form.”

Chris breathed out in awe. “You made it just now, Master?”

“Right.”

“You’re amazing! My master’s the best!” Chris, glowing with excitement, clung to me once again and even began licking my face.

Meanwhile, I could hear Lardon chuckling in amusement. “I didn’t quite expect you to craft it within a day. An interesting human as ever.”

.50

The space surrounding my house in Another World had expanded quite a bit since the time I first had the house constructed. Now, I stood within that space while looking at the salt water I’d taken out of my item box.

Having formulated a new spell called Shape Memory, I immediately came up with a new goal related to a certain obstacle I’d encountered right after I began learning and applying magic: extracting fresh water from salt water. Back then, I’d originally planned to have an Undine split them, but the low-rank spirit was incapable of it since both were identified as products of nature.

In the end, I’d succeeded in extracting the fresh water in a more roundabout way using Gnomes and a few other things, but thinking back on it now, that process was way too complex for my liking. I wanted a much simpler method, something closer to the one-step process I’d been expecting from the Undine in the beginning—which brought me to the idea of making yet another original spell just like Shape Memory.

I faced the salt water and imagined it splitting into its components as I gathered my mana and crafted the spell. However, my face twisted into a scowl as I heard the airy sound of something dissipating with a puff.

I failed. In fact, I felt like I was nowhere near succeeding. Reading the flow of mana, I could tell that the salt water I’d poured into a bucket from my item box remained completely unchanged. Back when I made Shape Memory, I could clearly envision it succeeding and even allocated seventeen of my nineteen spell slots for it. But now, I could see no such vision.

“What could be the problem...? Is it just impossible? No, that can’t be it,” I wondered aloud.

This, too, was something I knew from my experience with Shape Memory: the possibilities were endless with magic. Of course, calling it “endless” was certainly a bit of a stretch, but magic should at least be capable of splitting salt water into fresh water and salt. Thus, the problem here must lie in my method alone.

Attempting to figure out just what about my method was wrong, I let my thoughts wander back to my experience with Shape Memory. What I saw, what I did, and what I imagined as I made it—I recalled it all in minute detail.

“That is not enough,” Lardon said out of nowhere.

“Huh? What’s not enough?”

“Everything follows the law of causality.”

“Causality...” My voice trailed off as I waited for the rest, but Lardon refrained from offering more, leaving me hanging and blinking like an idiot. “Huh? Is that all?”

Even to this, the dragon refused to respond, showing absolutely zero intention of speaking any further. Okay, so that was all. Lardon would never speak nonsense, especially not in this situation. Of course, not saying enough or speaking in a roundabout manner was just par for the course, so I needed to decipher that earlier statement myself.

Everything follows the law of causality, I recited in my mind. The law of causality... Cause and effect... The broken house and the newly built one...

That instant, I felt like a bolt of lightning struck me from the heavens. An idea flashed through my mind.

“Celsius!”

As I kept practicing with multicasting as I always did, I had eventually mastered the summoning spell for Celsius, a mid-rank spirit.

“You called, Master?”

“Can you split the salt water in that bucket into fresh water and salt?”

“Of course.” The Celsius swiftly nodded and raised her hand toward the bucket. In no time at all, fresh water began rising from within.

If I were to think in terms of causality, the cause would be the materials, and the effect would be the finished product. I watched the process of salt water splitting into fresh water with my own eyes. With this, I now had my very own mental image, just as I did back when I’d created Shape Memory with the broken and fixed houses both in my sight.

The Celsius watched with a curious gaze as I poured out more salt water from my item box, but the explanation could wait for later. I went on to imagine the salt water splitting into fresh water and salt. This time, I could envision it succeeding, so I used all my remaining spell slots on crafting the spell and poured a huge amount of mana into the process, until finally...

“Distillery!”

Grayish salt emerged from this new batch of salt water. I scooped up some of the remaining water and gave it a lick—it was completely flavorless. It’s fresh water!

“Master... Could it be? Have you done the same as I?”

“Yeah. Thanks to you, I was able to form an image and craft the spell.”

“You even made it yourself?! A-Amazing...”

The Celsius was utterly stunned, while Lardon was chuckling in what seemed to be a mix of approval and amusement. “You learn quick. Truly an interesting human.”

Whether it was learning magic or inventing a spell, being able to recreate it was important. Now that I’d crafted a spell a second time, I had a clearer image I could use for future reference.

.51

“Power Missile!”

Seventeen bullets of pure mana shot out from my right fist, quickly spreading out before homing in on the pure white wall. Another World wasn’t shaken, but it was easy to see how strong the impact was.

“It’s about twice as strong as Magic Missile. Good.” I nodded in satisfaction as I observed my third original spell.

Following the law of causality once more, I had summoned an Undine and a Celsius at the same time and placed the two spirits of different ranks beside one another for comparison. With that reference, I made a new-and-improved version of a spell I’d been using quite a lot recently, Magic Missile. This new version was practically the same as its predecessor save for its improved firepower, which was how I was able to invent it so smoothly with a low and mid-rank spirit serving as models. Moving forward, I’d probably start using this instead of Magic Missile.

An amused chuckle echoed in my mind. “That adaptability of yours is always fun to watch.”

“Sounds like someone’s having fun.”

“You would do well to keep those efforts up.”

“That’s the plan.”

“If so, you must learn more about the world. Start with establishing this country. Whether you want to or not, you will undoubtedly learn more in the process.”

As Lardon advised, that was likely the best way to accumulate experience. I had no doubt about that. However, I had something else on my mind as well. “That’s nice and all, but there’s another thing.”

“Is there now?”

I nodded with certainty. In the process of crafting magic, I had honed my imagination and racked my brain quite a bit. By the end of it all, my mind had landed on a certain conclusion. It was a coincidental breakthrough of sorts, but from the moment my thoughts fell into place, I only grew more and more certain that I was right.

“To start with, what in the world did the first inventor of magic do?” I heard Lardon draw in a sharp breath, but I pushed on. “If they essentially created something out of nothing, then it should theoretically be possible to create magic from nothing.”

Putting it into words only solidified my conviction even further. I shouldn’t be mistaken. Even without a precedent or a causal relationship to serve as reference, it should be possible to make magic from scratch.

“Ha...ha ha...ha ha ha!”