18: Walk 1

Starting the next day, Kuuga brought a book to the office and decided to hold a study session with Lewis on the low table in front of the sofa.

Although Lewis wasn’t as knowledgeable as a proper teacher, he had no problem teaching the common knowledge of this country and the world.

The people who visited the office show uniform surprise when they saw Kuuga like that. It seemed like various speculations flew around in the castle because no one could understand their behavior.

Kuuga was mainly thought about this country, Ragra, the lives of its people, the damage of demon beasts, magic, and the battles that were about to start in neighboring countries.

It was magic that Kuuga was particularly interested in. With a follow-the-crowd mentality, it’s fascinating to see magic.

Gadillas taught him vaguely before, but Lewis taught many things in detail.

Magic didn’t come from magical power because, strictly speaking, it’s called spirit magic. It used magical power as payment to make a temporary contract with the spirits and borrow their power.

Blood was needed as a medium to pass the magical power to the spirits, and the formation seemed to be the contract.

Also, not all humans have magical power. Only some have magical power. Furthermore, it’s limited to men. However, men seemed to have the most chances of having magic power.

Gadillas used magic tools that day, but the people here usually didn’t use magic tools at home because not everyone could use it. In the first place, it’s costly.

Furthermore, miniaturization of magic tools required very expensive ores. Therefore, few people could purchase more expensive magic tools, and having one magic tool, at most two, that were small enough to be carried on their person was enough to be called a magician.

Famous magicians have nicknames based on their favorite magic, but it’s more related to what magic tool they have rather than what they’re good at.

One of the books explained that magicians used to have a thick book in one hand and the other hand on the ground. It’s hard to remember different formations for different purposes, so it seemed like magicians have books that summarized the formations they often used.

Magic was convenient, but it had its various troubles. It would be easy if people could use it just by casting a spell.

In that way, Kuuga learned little by little, and if he wanted to ask something, he spent a lot of time making questions, then asked Lewis to answer.

What Kuuga actually wanted to hear the most was why the people here didn’t have a good impression on Gadillas, but he couldn’t do that in front of Gadillas.

Kuuga was wondering if someone would accidentally say it, but because everyone knew, there’s an implicit rule not to say it. It’s also common sense not to say it in front of the person himself.

Speaking of which, at the time of the ritual, it seemed like someone said, “the bloodline of that commoner woman…!” Was it because of the low status of his mother?

Thinking back, too many people looked at Gadillas with such eyes. Was that so important here? Or was it something else?

Besides, the person himself was reluctant to actively explain the circumstances to Kuuga. There was a technique to combine the letters and convey his meaning, but it still took time, and long sentences were complicated, so he couldn’t describe it in detail.

Kuuga was afraid that halfway through, he would hurt Gadillas, so he decided to find a way to convey his will more appropriately.

Under such circumstances, Kuuga and Lewis decided to study about 2~3 hours a day, then decided to take a walk outside.

For the time being, Kuuga wanted the people here to get used to him.

“Kuuga-sama, let’s go to the courtyard today.”

While taking a walk around the castle, Lewis talking to Kuuga seemed a little excessive, but they intended to show Kuuga’s reaction to the people in the castle.

The courtyard was much larger than Kuuga thought, and it was very well maintained.

When he went out to the courtyard, he saw a floating island (medium-sized) just above. Further north was the largest floating island that Kuuga had seen.

According to that book, only the Divine Beast could see it. Because of that, Kuuga wondered if human eyes couldn’t reflect the floating islands where God lived.

“Kuuga-sama, what’s wrong?”

[Hey, can you see that?]

When Kuuga pointed to the sky with his nose and asked, Lewis, followed his line of sight and looked up at the sky. Lewis then tilted his head in confusion.

“It’s good weather?”

Not quite. Maybe the people here really couldn’t see it? But he could see it so clearly.

While Kuuga thought which words could convey his meaning, he suddenly realized something unnatural.

[...come to think of it, the island had no shadow...]

Since such a big thing was floating in the sky, Kuuga tilted his head, thinking that the ground under the island should be dim. Was it at such a height that the shadows wouldn’t reach because of the distance? But did it have that effect?

What if those islands were designed to not block the sun’s rays? What if it’s really invisible to the human eye?

[Is that really, where God… lives?]

Hmm, while Kuuga was thinking, Lewis gently tapped his back because he felt that Kuuga was just resting.

“Kuuga-sama, the Lulun flowers are now in full bloom. From here, it looks like a yellow carpet.”

[Eh? …ahh, so this harsh scent was from that flower?]

After being cut off from his thoughts by Lewis’ urging, Kuuga decided to think later and went to the flowerbed in the center of the courtyard. He thought it was beautiful that the yellow flowers called Lulun spread all over, but the smell was so strong that his nose kept twitching.

While thinking about such a thing, the moment when Kuuga approached the flowerbed with Lewis, the Lulun flowers suddenly started dancing.

[!?]

Kuuga suddenly stepped back at such a strange scene. When he looked at Lewis for an explanation of what just happened, he was looking at the flowerbed as if looking at something weird.

To be honest, it felt terrible to see a lot of dancing flowers. What’s up with this flower?

“…this flower grows from taking in magical power in the air. When it senses magical power, it will move to capture more of it, but… this is the first time I’ve seen all the flowers move together.”

[…i-is that so?]

It seemed like it wasn’t weird for it to move. What surprised Lewis was that it was moving too much.

Lewis’ gaze quickly moved from the flowerbed to Kuuga.

“…Kuuga-sama, isn’t it draining your magical powers?”

[Eh.]

Even if he said that. “It’s necessary to learn how to control magical power,” Lewis said, realizing what Kuuga’s predicament.

Kuuga read it in a book, so he knew that Divine Beasts have magical powers but he was not aware of it and could only vaguely think about the topic.

“There are also teas that use this flower. Do you want to drink it?”

[Drink tea? Me?]

When Kuuga was a human, he used to like black tea, but it’d be uncomfortable to enjoy tea with a dog-like body right now.

Lewis also smiled wryly when he realized that Kuuga had a complicated face imagining drinking in a teacup while sticking out his tongue. Lewis seemed to have guessed what Kuuga was thinking about.