Published: August 25, 2025
Today, two chapters posted at once.
This is the second chapter.
After lunch
After having a proper lunch again today, it was time for a brief tea break.
I took this opportunity to ask Lord Rosenberg, who had been occupied with separate tasks in the morning, for his impressions after reading the documents on the lost magic.
“I believe I’ve mostly understood the content of the documents. Naturally, it’s quite different from modern magic.”
“Right… The logic seemed relatively simple.”
“Is it difficult magic?”
When Lord Rosenberg and I agreed on the content, Ms. Eleonora asked. Others also seemed interested, so I decided to explain since they might help with this later.
“It’s not so much difficult as it is a use of mana unlike anything we’ve experienced before. Modern common magic uses the mana within one’s own body, but ancient magic seems to draw from the mana naturally present outside the body… It’s somewhat similar to the way alchemy combines ingredients for potions, if that helps.
For example, an instant healing potion combines medicinal components from herbs with mana to produce an effect impossible with normal medicine — healing wounds in an instant. I think it’s close to that… What do you think?”
“From the document, it seems to use cursed arts that act on space, so the spell and the space serve as tools for the ‘alchemy,’ right?”
By the way, the ‘materials’ are ‘light.’ Natural light is brought into a prepared ritual site and cursed arts are applied, using the light-elemental mana in nature to perform countercurse. This is the gist of the lost countercurse magic found among the inheritance.
“Hearing it like that makes it sound surprisingly simple.”
“Apart from the fact that it uses ‘natural mana,’ it doesn’t seem particularly complicated. The explanations aren’t difficult, and there’s little that’s hard to visualize.
Also, there were copies of paintings depicting past rituals in the documents. The rituals were often performed casually on full moon nights during social gatherings like tea parties or festivals. It was apparently part of everyday life, similar to occasionally going to church to pray.”
“Oh, so there was no need to pay a lot of money?”
“Nobles paid a certain sum to the practitioners as gratitude, but for common citizens, it was either free or just a nominal amount.”
“Is there a particular reason for the rituals happening on full moon nights? The sun provides light during the day, doesn’t it?”
“The rituals can be done with sunlight, but if the light is too strong, there is a risk of harming people or objects involved in the ritual. Minor sunburns are okay but excessive exposure can cause pain or illness.
Moonlight, on the other hand, softens the light by using dark-elemental mana from the night’s darkness, making the ritual safer, according to the documents.”
Not only Miseria-san and Syria-san but everyone else seemed interested, so I answered their questions one by one. Explaining was good for my own review, and since I’ll likely ask for help during future experiments, having them clarify doubts now is really helpful.
By the way, when contracting the adventurer team for this job, they signed a confidentiality agreement. Personally, I trust them regardless, but since I am acting as an engineer of the duke's household, it’s better to be cautious.
“Lord Rosenberg, when and how shall we conduct the experiment?”
“The documents say a clear, cloudless full moon night is preferable to maximize the effect by capturing more moonlight… For just producing the effect, as long as the moon is out and we can capture the light, we could start tonight.
As for the location, an open outdoor place with plenty of light. The Western Miasma Zone comes to mind, but since there’s still miasma underground there, it might affect the results. It’s not suitable as an experiment site.”
“…In that case, how about the lumber storage area the goblins are developing?”