Published: August 25, 2025
“The attribute will be examined using this magic tool.”
The high priest brought over an object resembling a round tray. At its center was a mysterious metal plate about five centimeters in diameter, shining with seven colors, divided radially into seven sections. Lines were drawn about three centimeters apart from the edge of the plate, making it look somewhat like a dartboard.
“Place the material here.”
When told to try, I broke off a small piece from the end of a dried, shriveled tree root and placed it on the metal plate of the magic tool.
“Whoa!?”
The moment I put the root fragment onto the center plate, a yellow light began to stretch out long in the yellow section, while a short blue light also lit up simultaneously.
“So, this means it has a strong wind attribute and a little bit of fire attribute?”
“That’s right. And you can measure the quality by how far the light stretches.”
If the light stops within the smallest circle, the quality is poor; the farther it extends, the better the quality. The light from this tree root stretched almost to the outer circle, indicating quite good quality.
“How interesting. Then, this…”
Just as I reached out to check the attributes of the powder next, the high priest grabbed my hand to stop me.
“Wait, Rosemine. You must cleanse the plate first, or the measurement won’t be accurate. You tend to be careless; be more careful.”
“Yes.”
Yureve quickly cleansed the plate with a stave and placed the clean plate back in the center.
“High priest, I want to learn that cleansing magic too. It seems very useful.”
“You should have an attendant do it. You act too much on your own. Don’t take away work from those around you.”
“…Yet, when you’re locked away in the workshop doing experiments, don’t you cleanse it yourself?”
I protested, puffing out my cheeks, but the high priest waved his hand with evident annoyance.
“The knights know it, so learn it from Darmel later. We don’t have time now.”
“Um, Lord Ferdinand. Am I the one teaching?”
The high priest nodded matter-of-factly to the puzzled Darmel.
“Considering only two guard knights are present, it’s obvious who’s better at teaching others.”
“Darmel is amazing. He taught me book learning,” Angelica said, blushing slightly as she praised him. Her expression was like a maiden who had accidentally developed feelings from being tutored, but I mustn’t be fooled. Angelica was just desperately avoiding work she found unsuitable.
Having taught Angelica, Darmel no longer fooled by her expression, sighed lightly and muttered, “Don’t worry, I won’t leave it to Angelica.”
“Lord Ferdinand, what is this liquid? Is it oil?”
I shook the bottle; the liquid was viscous, so I asked out of curiosity. If it was good quality oil, maybe I could share the info with the Ink Workshop.
“Ah, it’s oil taken from the demon tree called Kuruize.”
“…Kuruize—is that a superior species of Aize?”
“Yes, but do you know it?”
One of the oils used in making colored inks was Aize. If Kuruize was a higher species, even if the quality was poor, it should have similar properties.
“Aize has a strong wind attribute, right?”
“…That’s right.”
“Then, linseed oil has a fire attribute, Mish has a water attribute, and Paed has a strong earth attribute?”
“I don’t understand what you’re saying. If you have questions, explain them so we can understand.”
The high priest glared at me, so I explained about the colored inks made at the Gutenberg Ink Workshop, how it was tough to get the right color, and how I had grasped some tendencies.
“That undoubtedly depends on attributes. Creatures called monsters are those from which you can extract mana stones because of their high mana, but living beings on mana-filled lands have mana to varying degrees. Even commoners are no exception. That’s why contract magic can be used by using blood with the highest mana content.”
“I see.”
So, if such a magic tool to examine attributes were available at the Ink Workshop, ink research could progress faster.