I'm a Noble on the Brink of Ruin, So I Might as Well Try Mastering Magic: Volume 4 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: 200

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

After overcoming their first war, Liam’s reputation as Monster King spreads far and wide across the land, even sparking the interest of the grand and influential organization known as the church. The esteemed archbishop’s spontaneous visit and a problematic prince’s delegation bring a new set of problems, but not even politics and diplomacy can divert Liam’s attention from his passionate pursuit of magic. The surrounding human nations can only watch in bewilderment as Liam charges straight through the murky trenches of nation-building with the help of his loyal subjects, his trusty dragon partner, and of course, his bottomless creativity for magic and spells. From producing specialty goods to shaping terrain to even manipulating time—there’s never a dull moment when Liam’s still hungry for 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 4

Network

Afterword

Color Illustrations

About J-Novel Club

Copyright

Landmarks

Table of Contents

.129

“Hmmm... This is...” Inside the Infracore room, I furrowed my brows as I stared at the message—or rather, the “book”—Reina sent me while she was on patrol. It was a drawing of a very grand and saintly looking procession. “Do you know these people, Lardon?”

“I am not omniscient. How could I know humans of the present when I have been sealed all this while?”

“Right...” I chuckled at my own idiocy. Lardon might know a lot about the world, but she obviously wouldn’t know people she’d never had anything to do with. “Guess I’ll try my luck with Scarlet, then,” I said with a nod. At times like these when I wanted an immediate response, it was best to use Telephone instead of the Net.

“You called, Master?”

“I’m at the Infracore right now. Can you come here?”

“Right away,” she replied, and not even three minutes later... “I apologize for making you wait.”

“That was quick!”

“But of course. You summoned me, Master,” Scarlet said with a straight face.

“Okay... Um, take a look at this.” I showed her Reina’s message I got through the Net.

“This is...a drawing? It looks far too realistic, though...”

“It’s through Eagle Eye, a new spell I added to the Net. It copies the scene you see with your eyes onto one of these books.”

“Copies the scene...?” Scarlet parroted, stunned. Maybe such a magic was new to her. “Goodness... I have never heard of such a thing.”

“Has this kind of magic never been made before?”

“Not as far as I am aware, no.”

“I see. Anyway, I call this a photograph—a drawing made with light.”

“Aha. Brilliant as always, Master.”

“More importantly, do you know these people?”

“Hmmm...” Scarlet took a closer look at the photograph and gasped. When she lifted her gaze to meet mine, her expression was stiff. “This person...is Archbishop Kardinal.”

“Archbishop? The one in the middle?” The photograph Reina had taken depicted a group of people approaching our border, all dressed like clergymen. The elderly man in the middle—the one Scarlet called Archbishop Kardinal—had a particularly striking presence. “What kind of person is he?”

“He is the second most prominent figure in the church and the highest rank the public can actually meet.”

“Whoa! What a big shot!” I could hardly believe what I was seeing. Why would such a prominent figure come here...?

Just then, someone contacted me through Telephone. “Master, can you hear me? This is Reina.”

“I hear you. What’s up?”

“I am currently at the border. The person in the photograph is officially seeking an audience with you.”

“Officially?”

“Yes.” I could imagine her nodding on the other end.

I thought about it for a moment. “Well, we can’t ignore an official request. Escort them to the reception hall.”

“Understood,” Reina replied and disconnected.

Archbishop Kardinal... He was undoubtedly the most influential figure to have visited our city thus far. I clenched my fists, the nerves instantly washing over me.

I welcomed Archbishop Kardinal in the reception hall’s parlor room. A pair of elven maids primly opened the double doors into it, allowing the archbishop and his entourage in. At the head of the group was the dignified elderly man I saw in the photograph, Archbishop Kardinal. Behind him were ten men, ranging from young to middle-aged, in priest robes.

“It is an honor to meet you. I am Olde Kardinal.”

“Oh, um... I’m Liam Hamilton. Please, come in.”

“Thank you kindly.” Kardinal gave a slight bow. Not too pompous nor too humble, he exuded a gentle air of dignity around him, which he upheld even as he approached the couch in the parlor room. His entourage followed silently—but for one, that is.

The middle-aged priest who stayed behind leveled me a sharp glare. “Liam Hamilton,” he spat. “Are you not being rude?”

“Huh?”

“We, and even His Eminence the Archbishop, have come here in full dress, while you greet us in such lacking attire. Is this not disrespectful to you?”

“What?” R-Really? I looked down at my clothes—the same type of formal attire I’d been wearing since becoming a young nobleman. My wardrobe was filled with several sets of similar clothing. If you asked me, they were all perfectly good formal wear, but...

“I suppose we mustn’t expect much from a king of monsters.”

“He’s still just a kid after all.”

Following the first snide remark, one criticism after another began pouring from the clergymen’s mouths. The sudden verbal onslaught left me baffled.

“I see priests have not changed. Still as rotten as ever.” Lardon chuckled in my mind, but her voice had a cold and scornful undertone to it.

Her reaction only further reinforced to me that, to the clergymen, I wasn’t very well-dressed. Lardon said they hadn’t changed—that must mean this was a tradition of theirs, and I knew that such traditions (whatever they were) were important when meeting an archbishop. Wh-What do I do?

“How rude.”

Just as panic began brewing within me, the archbishop’s quiet voice cut sharply through the air, suppressing the clergymen’s boisterous complaints. After sweeping his gaze over his now silent subordinates, Kardinal bowed to me. “We have done nothing but commit transgressions from the start. I apologize.”

“From the start...?”

“First, we come here without prior notice, and now here are my subordinates being rude. I sincerely apologize for this discourtesy.”

“Your Eminence—” The middle-aged priest who’d started the wave of criticisms tried to protest, yet he faltered under Kardinal’s glare... No, actually, all Kardinal did was look at the man, and he snapped his mouth shut and gulped.

Kardinal returned his gaze to me. “I ask for your forgiveness.”

“Oh, no... I’m sorry too. Should I change?”

“Fret not. Clothes are mere tools for asserting authority; such pretenses are unneeded between us today.”

“Oh?” Lardon sounded the slightest bit impressed.

I urged Kardinal to take a seat once more, and this time, all his priests gathered behind him, if dejectedly. We started over when I was settled in again.

“Once again,” the archbishop began, “it is an honor to be in your presence, Your Majesty King Liam.”

“Oh. Um, same here?”

“Upon the request of Jamille Kingdom, the church has been tasked with serving as witness for the establishment of your treaty of friendship. I have come here today to personally speak with you on this matter.”

“Ah, I see...” So that’s what this sudden visit’s all about. “What’s there to talk about?”

“Frankly, not much anymore, as opposed to my initial plans,” Kardinal said softly. When I gave him a curious look, he explained, “You see, my rude subordinates here are mostly military men.”

I trailed my gaze over his entourage. “Military...”

“Indeed, hence their rough demeanor. I brought them along, for I’d been told this country was populated by monsters. I was expecting it to be a much drearier place.”

“Ah...” I chuckled dryly. Yeah, I can’t blame you there. Like Kardinal, I would’ve prepared for the worst and taken my most capable escorts with me if I was told to go to a “nation of monsters.” I wholly understood his cautiousness.

“However, all my concerns pertaining to this ‘nation of monsters’ are now inapplicable.” Kardinal looked out the window. “This city, this country... Its citizens are full of life and joy, living no less vibrantly than those in the kingdom’s capital. They do not seem to be monsters at all.”

“Everyone’s just enjoying themselves.”

“The sight of them has erased my doubts. As such, we will gladly serve as witness to your treaty.”

“Thank you very much. I suppose everyone can finally take a good rest now that the war’s over.” I laid my hands on my knees and deeply bowed, breathing a furtive sigh of relief. When I raised my face, Kardinal was giving me a rather conflicted expression. “What’s the matter?”

“Regardless of how you appear,” he mumbled, “you are certainly a king.”

I frowned slightly. What’s he saying?

“Look behind him,” Lardon said.

Behind him? The priests? I turned my gaze and found the men with stiff expressions and flushed faces.

“The archbishop was scolding his subordinates for their lack of insight and for looking only at the surface.”

I see...

“He is quite the human to be able to see through your true worth.” Lardon huffed, complimenting another human for once.

.130

Come evening, Kardinal and his entourage stepped out of the reception hall. I was escorting them to the lodging we provided important visitors, up until their steps halted right as we stepped out of the gate.

“What’s the matter?” I asked curiously, tilting my head.

They were all speechless and agape. Kardinal was no exception, but he recovered quicker than his fellows. “King Liam... What are those lights...?”

I followed his gaze. “Oh, those?”

As night fell, magical lights were sprouting one after the other from every nook and cranny of the city. For the residents, it was a familiar sight, and it was all thanks to our magic infrastructure.

“It’s magic,” I answered.

“Magic...?”

“Well, it’s through something like a grimoire that’s connected to all the houses. Here, everyone can freely use light and water magic for their daily lives.”

Kardinal stared at me blankly. “It’s...connected to the houses?”

“Let me show you. Gnome,” I chanted while crouching down. Kardinal and his entourage gasped at the sight of the earth spirit. “Peel off part of this road.” The earth spirit easily did as ordered, revealing a small portion of the high mithril silver buried underneath.

“Th-That’s...!”

“Right. It’s high mithril silver. Using this, I made Ancient Memoria—it’s something like a grimoire—and had it run under everyone’s houses.”

“E-Every house...?” Kardinal grew more stunned by the second, his eyes shakily sweeping over the city as the murmuring of the priests behind him grew increasingly frantic.

“High mithril silver...? Isn’t that a really rare magical material?”

“But he laid it out all over the city?”

“No way... There’s just no way.”

Their disbelief was evident, but the high mithril silver and the intensifying glow of the city that pushed back against the darkness of night—all of it was right there for them to see. They couldn’t believe it, but they had to, and their contorted faces proved what a struggle it was. Hmmm... Maybe I shouldn’t have told them.

“Indeed, you shouldn’t have. I ought to have cautioned you beforehand.”

Huh? What do you mean?

“You mentioned everything without much thought—that is, with little more than the intention of showing off the magic that you invented, correct?” Lardon chuckled.

Urgh... You, er, might be right... She hit me where it hurt. As someone who loved magic more than anything, I couldn’t deny how much I wanted to show off this whole system I put in place for the city. Having Lardon point that out to me so accurately was just embarrassing.

“But it need not be. You are fine as you are.”

Huh? What do you mean...?

“Leave the cunning to others. That is all I mean.”

I cocked my head. What cunning? What’s she saying now? I’d been having a hard time following her thought process for a while now. I wish she just explained things clearly, like when she pointed out how I was showing off. I’d pick up on it easily if it was about magic...

“Pardon me. I lost my composure.” Kardinal cleared his throat. He was the first to regain his wits, and the priests behind him soon followed suit and smoothed their expressions. “Simply astounding, King Liam. Truly befitting a city of monsters... Ah, I mean no ill by this.”

“Huh? What—”

“Just nod here.”

“Um... Right. Exactly.” Again, Lardon had lost me, but I swallowed my words and heeded her advice. Experience had built up my trust in her; nothing could go wrong if I just followed her when it came to anything outside of magic.

“Is there anything else?” Kardinal asked.

“Um...”

“You may tell him about Telephone.”

“Yes. We also have this spell...” As instructed, I demonstrated Telephone for him by calling one of my familiars. I decided Reina was the safest choice.

“You called, Master?”

The priests broke into another round of murmurs when they heard Reina’s voice. Incidentally, I modified this spell not long ago. Based on experience, I realized there might be times when the voices should be heard by even those who weren’t my contracted familiars, so I revised it to allow the caller to simply will the voices audible to others.

“Reina, are our guests’ rooms ready?”

“Yes. The elven maids are all awaiting their arrival.”

“They’ll be there soon. Tell them to stand by.”

“Understood.”

I ended the not-so-necessary call and turned to Kardinal. “This spell is called Telephone. It lets us communicate from a distance.”

“I-I’m afraid I’ve never heard of such a spell before...”

“I made it.”

“Wh-What?!” Kardinal’s eyes grew wide, while the priests paled and turned stiff as a board.

No, hang on... They’re afraid? But why?

“You made it?” Kardinal asked. “Do you mean you invented this spell?”

“Tell him how many spells you’ve created,” Lardon instructed.

Why...? I wondered but followed anyway. “I did. Um... I’ve made around ten so far.”

“T-Ten?!”

“That many? Impossible!”

“E-Even a legendary mage could never...”

“He must be bluffing!”

“But I’ve certainly never seen such a spell before...”

Their stunned murmurs grew in volume. For reasons I couldn’t comprehend, they were all looking at me in fear.

“This is what I meant by ‘cunning.’ A most rudimentary way to gain the advantage.”

I see... Well, not really, but it seemed Lardon got what she wanted.

“With this, you have simply gotten what you deserve.”

I cocked my head again. Yep. I still don’t get what she’s talking about. Oh well.

.131

After bringing Kardinal and his entourage to their lodging and instructing the elven maids to serve them well, I returned to my house in Another World. I made sure to open up the door to it right beside the VIP lodging so I’d be nearby in case anything happened.

I entered the small living room, sank into a seat, and let out a big sigh. “With this, we no longer need to worry about getting tangled up with Jamille.”

Now that I thought about it, ever since Scarlet asked me to make a country in this promised land, we’d found ourselves pitted against our three neighboring nations nonstop. At long last, it seemed like things were finally calming down. I didn’t know about the rest of the church, but at least Kardinal looked sincere about mediating for us.

I sank deeper into my seat, relieved. There was nothing left to do. Although, if this was before I became Liam, this would be the part where I send a small token of appreciation to my new business partner—except the partner was the archbishop of the church, whose organization even kings bowed their heads to. No ordinary token could possibly do the trick.

“Hm? Do humans like receiving such tokens?”

“Oh, Lardon.”

A familiar young girl appeared before me, clad in the dignity of an elder. She’d been materializing more frequently of late, in places like this where others couldn’t enter.

“I am not very familiar with human etiquette. Are such gifts so effective?”

“Well, it’s definitely better than nothing,” I said, recalling my past. Even a simple box of fruits could make a significant impact. Often, it spelled the difference between being turned down at the door or being welcomed in to at least hold a discussion.

“Is that so?”

“You don’t know?”

“No.” Lardon sneered. “The only humans I have ever found around me were the brutal kind.”

“Brutal...?”

“It was a time of war and chaos.”

“Ah... The Tri-Draconic War, right? Were humans involved in that?”

“Do you plan to send a gift?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah.” She just blatantly changed the topic... There wasn’t a single change in Lardon’s expression or tone, but there was no way I’d miss that. This might have been the first time she had ever dropped a topic so abruptly. How curious...

“It might be a little different from what you have in mind, but I do have a suggestion.”

“What is it?”

Lardon smirked like a mischievous child. “Make a spell.”

“A spell?”

“Indeed. A new spell. Then, place it into a grimoire and send it to Jamille as a gift for your newly established relations.”

“A grimoire, huh...? That’d definitely be a top-tier gift.”

“And make sure the monsters here cannot use that grimoire, and tell them as such too.”

“Huh? Why?”

“To boost its rarity.”

“Ah, I see.” Naturally, they wouldn’t be very happy with just another everyday magic from our country. A unique grimoire that cannot be used by anyone besides the creator was definitely worth more. “Guess I’ll get to it, then. I wonder what kind of spell would be good...”

“Would weather magic not suffice?” Lardon suggested.

“Weather magic, hm...”

“Still, it would be pointless if nobody could use it. Let’s see... How about a small-scale spell that can make it rain within a radius of a hundred meters?”

I stroked my chin and mulled it over. “I see... That sounds doable.”

Thanks to Lardon wording it so clearly, I could visualize the spell really well. I further enhanced that image by thinking about the “showers” that were exclusive to noble mansions—they were a really convenient bathroom device that could drizzle warm water from overhead. Next, I amplified it, visualizing rain pouring from a shower head high up in the sky at a hundred-meter radius. I had my fair share of experience making salt water and fresh water before, so it was easy for me to grasp the sensation of producing water.

I nodded. “Good.”

I stepped out of my house and into the open space. With my mana’s growth, Another World had expanded to just about the right size for this new spell, so I gave it a try here. Instantly, a downpour blanketed this space.

I rushed back into the house and asked, “Will this do?”

“Yes. Now, you simply need to compile it into a grimoire and hand it over to Jamille.”

“Okay.” I immediately went to it. After installing a huge network of Ancient Memoria all over the city, making a single grimoire with this new weather magic was a walk in the park.

I had been so focused on my work that I never noticed the mischievous smile stretching over Lardon’s face.

Once I completed the grimoire as per Lardon’s advice, I sent it to Jamille as a token of our newly established relations. However, this simple gesture birthed unexpected effects: the Duchy of Parta and Quistador Kingdom secretly probing the possibility of forging an alliance with our country.

.132

While in Another World, I received messages from Gai and Chris through the Liamnet. Inside their books were photographs of letters delivered by envoys from Parta and Quistador, sent to me ahead of the actual letters. I stared at them, bewildered; both were implicitly sounding out the possibility of an alliance. “But why so suddenly...?”

Lardon chuckled. “Those humans moved faster than expected.”

“Lardon! Do you know what this is all about?”

“Yes. It is the effect of your gift.”

“My gift? But I haven’t sent anything to them...” I scratched my head. I sifted through my memories in case I’d just forgotten but came up short. I really hadn’t sent anything to Parta or Quistador.

“You sent one to Jamille, did you not?”

“Yeah.”

“That is the one I refer to.”

“Huuuh?” I tilted my head left and right, only more confused than before. Why would sending a gift to Jamille affect Parta and Quistador?

“Not just anyone can use weather magic, much less make it.”

“Is that so...?” I hummed as I mulled over her words.

She might be right. At the very least, weather magic was on the harder side of spells. If I were to rank the different kinds of magic on a scale of one to ten, then weather magic would be second or third from the top.

“I have a question for you,” said Lardon, “one you may answer based on your intuition. What proportion of the population do you think would have the aptitude for weather magic?”

“Well...” I pondered for a moment. In the very beginning, Bruno had told me that one in a hundred people could use flame magic, while one in a thousand could use frost. From there, a spell that could fit into second or third place and summon rain within a radius of a hundred meters would be... “Around...one in a million?”

Lardon nodded. “Indeed. I agree.”

I sighed in relief. As confident as I’d become with magic, Lardon’s approval still felt good to receive. No matter how clueless I might be with anything else, it gave me a measure of joy to know I at least had my magic going for me.

“Jamille must be quite pleased to have received such a rare and valuable grimoire. I wouldn’t know, but magic that can make rain must be rather useful for droughts, no?”

“Aha!” I snapped my fingers. “Yeah, you’re probably right.” Even I could understand that.

Droughts happened every few years—Scarlet’s territory of Izie suffered from one just a while back, in fact—causing crop failures, water shortages, and casualties in droves. Humans wouldn’t die even without food for a week, but the same couldn’t be said for water—and droughts took both away. Moreover, lack of water could lead to sanitary problems and spread all sorts of diseases.

The trickiest part of it all was that transporting water cost tens of times more than transporting other goods. It was so bad that it was much easier to just evacuate the citizens to another land.

Now, say a spell that could make rain came into the picture. It’d cost mana, but now they just had to head to the land suffering from drought and summon the rain right there, saving countless lives. If I were Jamille, I’d be terribly grateful and start looking for a suitable talent to learn the spell, and perhaps even elevate them to nobility. That was just how vital water was to humans and why rain was called a blessing of nature.

“Huh?” I suddenly realized—no, remembered something. What Lardon just said was absolutely, undoubtedly, and irrefutably correct. But it was also... “We’re...talking about Jamille, right?”

“Indeed.”

“So what does that have to do with the other two countries?”

“Try placing yourself in Parta’s and Quistador’s shoes.”

“Ummm...” Place myself in their shoes...?

“Jamille was given such a valuable grimoire simply for forging good relations—just what more could they gain down the line? Parta and Quistador would think this way.”

“Oh... Right.” I thought back to one of my own experiences. “Gifts are just common courtesy, so you’d usually think of preparing one not just once but whenever you visit someone.”

“Hence their panic. Should they antagonize you, Jamille will be monopolizing the benefits thereafter.”

“Ohhh... I get it now.” After all this explaining, I was finally starting to get the picture. Honestly, I’d probably be racking my brain over this for ages had she not laid it all out for me. “Wow. Things fell together really neatly, huh? Should I do something while we have this chance?”

Lardon stared at me blankly, mouth agape.

“Huh? Why’re you looking at me like that?”

“Have you not realized yet?”

“Realized what?”

“Why did you send a grimoire as a gift?”

“Well, because you...told me to...?” Wait... That’s right. This whole thing—making a grimoire as a gift and even the magic it should have—all of it had come straight from Lardon to begin with. I narrowed my eyes at her. “So... You knew things would turn out this way?”