Swamp Girl! Chapter 30

“…–!”

We were just about to get to the heart of the matter when that man’s appearance interrupted. Anger boiling inside me, I shot him a venomous look.
What little remained of my reason just barely managed to suppress my desire to lay into him.

Guildmaster.
That was what the man called himself.
Slowly lifting his head from a respectful bow, his gaze pierced through me. Middle-aged, in his forties. But with that height, that build, and above all, those eyes, he gave off a strong feeling of vigor.

He wasn’t doing a thing, but under his pressure, I grit my teeth and intensified my glare. Looking down at me with that bold smile, he was clearly trying to force me into submission.
The closer the hostility I detected from him came, the more it set me on edge.

“…Master.”

In the middle of this powder keg, the clerk’s voice echoed, disproportionately icy.

“I believe I said it before, but please refrain from [testing] the clients.”

At the sound of her voice, the man’s pressure suddenly eased up. As if some blockage had disappeared, the strength I’d built up flowed out of me. And yet, while I kept a wary eye on the man, the change in mood threw me off a bit.
The man removed the hood hanging low over his eyes, the hard expression underneath softening into a broad grin.

“My bad, Miss Patsy, my bad. It was an accident, okay?”

…Where did it go, that menacing att.i.tude from just now? His tone doing a complete one-eighty, the man lowered his head to the clerk like he felt embarra.s.sed and remorseful.

What the h.e.l.l is with this guy?
His incomprehensible behavior only deepened my confusion.
Palmira, her guard up and her hand on the sword by her side, also seemed to be exhausted. She removed her hand. Aira, her expression confused, was still helplessly collapsed on the floor.

“Might I ask that you put an end to your irresponsible antics? Any more than this, our clientele will dwindle, and I will be out of a job.”

“Uh, I’m sorry, I really am. I’ll do a proper welcome next.”

“I would rather that you did nothing at all. It is an incessant annoyance.”

The big man bowed and sc.r.a.ped as he apologized to the clerk coolly reprimanding him. Not a hint of that earlier atmosphere remained; the scene only made me feel even more drained.
What the h.e.l.l is going on here?

“Oh yeah, I apologize to you guys too. Ah, uhm, ahem. Welcome! Welcome to the Brellwandy Adventurers’ Guild! I am — ”

“…Guildmaster Arcteur Vanburke, right?”

Maybe because of the clerk’s scolding, Arcteur started a do-over of his self-introduction — this time, for some reason, with exaggerated enthusiasm. I cut him off in a completely frigid voice.

“…If possible, call me Arc.”

The man, bent at the waist, pulled his hood back up. Then, his face completely transformed by a bashful, charming smile, he shamelessly dropped that line.
Even if he was suddenly all friendly, I was worried about responding. There was that huge gap between his first appearance and now, for one. And precisely because I knew of his position as Guildmaster, I couldn’t help but sweat over how I should reply.

“My sincere apologies. As you can see, few people come to this guild. Due to the overabundance of free time on his hands, the master pulls strange pranks like this.”

Bowing her head to us, the clerk, Miss Patsy, offered an especially blunt explanation to clear up our bewilderment.
Judging from her slightly tired expression, she was used to it.

“It’s impolite to call it a prank, Miss Patsy. When I see such promising adventurers, I simply want to tri… I mean, cheer them on.”

Letting slip his true intentions the moment he changed to a formal tone — why, I don’t know — the furrows in Miss Patsy’s brow, and ours, deepened. She put her hand against her forehead and let out a magnificent sigh.
I can honestly say that this Guildmaster is a real pain in the a.s.s.
Maybe it was irresponsible of me to say, since it wasn’t my job to deal with him, but I wished Miss Patsy the best.

“For goodness’ sake. It isn’t as though the guild has the funds to support such frivolous use of the invocation stones.”

Disgruntled, Miss Patsy said something I couldn’t just overlook.

“…Invocation stones?”

Her attention caught by the words, just like me, Palmira tilted her head.

“You’re — a, a magic-user…?”

I goggled at the person before me in disbelief.

Sure, those hooded robes could belong to a textbook magus. I think Irene wore something similar.
But with his superior build, his image was nowhere near that of a magus. Despite his concealing long robe, his heavily muscled physique was obvious.
If one word could describe the air around him, it would be ‘commanding’.
To be blunt, it seemed like he’d be far more at home swinging an axe around topless.

“The master may look like this, but he is one of the leading magi in the empire.”

I could read the disappointment in Miss Patsy’s barely audible words of praise.

“A magus, huh.”

“Surprising, isn’t it?”

I looked at the proud Guildmaster with an indescribable expression.
I couldn’t say how, but the man reached the position of Guildmaster, and yet he also had a history of long military service. Primarily in melee combat.
I felt like all my vague suppositions had been betrayed.
Irene, sure; Guildmaster, great; but this kind of headcase, a magus?

“About the frivolous use of invocation stones — do you mean that was magic, just now?”

Aira said something unexpectedly sharp. When you put it that way, it sure looked like it.

“Yeah, that was [Coercion].”

“[Coercion]?”

“The first of the attunements, light, and the sixth, darkness. It’s a magic that combines the two.”

I almost missed the information the Guildmaster so readily revealed, but couldn’t this be a relatively fundamental principle of magic?
What’s more, the [attunements]. That’s right, the [Six Attunements].
The two words that, in that dream, were a mystery to [me].

“…Guildmaster, can I ask you for a — a lesson on — magic?”

I asked hesitantly.
Magic, the mysterious power. A large part of me wondered if I could even get him to teach me.
But even so, I wanted to know about magic. ‘Attunements’, the keyword the Guildmaster let slip without batting an eye. And then, magic.
If I could understand them just a little more, I might solve the mystery of this body.
Plus, Irene wasn’t around. This was a chance to understand the system of magic; I didn’t want to just let it slip through my fingers.

“Mm, ahhh, okay. I want you to call me Arc from here on.”

And whaddaya know, as though what people call him was vastly more important than magic, Guildmaster Arc agreed with disappointing ease.

–

–

“Okay, how about we start with the Six Attunements? Know them?”

“Uh, I don’t.”

I honestly shook my head.
Thankfully we weren’t going to start with ‘What is magic?’ It seemed like [Amazing power] would end the lesson right then and there.

“Okay, the Six Attunements are the six categories of magical power, corresponding respectively to light, fire, wind, water, earth, and darkness. These are connected to the composition of the matter in this world, representing the [attuned power] that we also call the ‘source’. Um, hmm. It’ll take a long time to go into detail, so let’s just say that, generally speaking, it’s the [power of existence].”

Arc was probably explaining things in an insanely simplified way, but even at this level, it already took everything I had to keep up.
Ummm, in summary… There are six forces in this world. And magic is based on those six forces… I think.

“This power is everywhere. For example, when you breathe out, there’s wind. It’s kinda like that. Why was there wind? Because you breathed out. This is a tremendous oversimplification, but when you follow such an ordinary phenomenon into its logical conclusion, that’s magic.”1

Beside me, I could hear Palmira blowing out a small breath.
When I turned my eyes to her unconsciously, she looked away in a huff. She had an interest in magic? So cute.

“But you must be able to understand the [power of existence]. This is where things suddenly get difficult. Ordinarily, we can’t grasp the mechanism of this [power]. If you ask why, all I can say is that the human mind just isn’t wired that way. But on rare occasions, there will be people gifted with an [intuitive understanding]. Those are the magi. They have the ‘apt.i.tude’ people often speak of.”

For magic, apt.i.tude was necessary.
That I already knew. It was common knowledge — almost every adventurer knew about it.

I didn’t get what it meant to have an [intuitive understanding]. As Arc said, it couldn’t be fully explained.

“Then, what are the Six Attunements?”

“The Six Attunements, as I said before, are the composite forces that give form to this world. Apt.i.tude usually skews toward one of these six. Just because one is a magus, it doesn’t mean that they have a grasp on all of them. Most are suitable for about two. Three or four would be quite amazing.”

“You have — ?”

“Three.”

While he was saying how awesome it was, Arc readily revealed he had three. 2
But the way he was speaking just now, what about all six?

“Is it possible to have all six?”

“…Hmmm… I’ve only heard about that in rumors, but there was a story like that going around a few years back. However, since it’s a truly amazing occurrence, the fact that I don’t hear anything about it now suggests that it might have been misinformation. In the first place, not a soul had ever heard of having all six until then. Even the legendary magus Tetra had five.”

Endowed with all Six Attunements.
The dream [me] said that.
Then, what happened to her after that?

“The legendary magus.”

Suddenly, Palmira spoke up.
Linking her hands together with a slight excitement, her eyes seemed to brighten.
To be honest, with my mind on other things, I’d completely missed the last part. But Palmira hadn’t — if anything, it was the other way around.
From her unusual interest, maybe she had an unexpected fondness for heroic legends.

“You want to know?”

Smiling, Arc egged on interest.
In response, Palmira looked at me as if to ask what to do. Helpless under her gaze, I gave Arc a small nod.

“The short version,”

said Palmira, perhaps out of consideration for me.

“Hm, Tetra is the person considered to be the creator of magic. At least two thousand years ago, before the advent of magic, it seems the world was full of monsters, and mankind led a dreadfully frail existence. In a sense, that period marked the beginning of human history.”

The subject of his story was grander in scale than I thought.
Now that was a hero. I ‘ooh’ed in genuine admiration.

“Then, what kind of power did Tetra have?”

Drawn in, Palmira encouraged him to continue.
She was surprisingly engaged. It was really unexpected.
Appearances aside, she seemed to have pretty odd taste, considering that inside she was a twenty-year-old woman. In fact, Aira simply looked as stunned as me.
Well, it was Palmira, so what was a little quirkiness after all this time?

“That’s right. Because even five is beyond the realm of imagination, it’s become no more than hearsay. But this was two thousand years ago. I wonder if all that remains is the impression of tearing open the heavens and shattering the earth.”

Tearing open the heavens, shattering the earth.
Suddenly, I looked at my own two hands.
If that dream was true, then this [Chris] I was possessing was the master of not five, but six Attunements. In that case, was it possible that if I wanted, I could do the same?
I couldn’t imagine something that unrealistic at all. And I didn’t particularly want to, either.

A power so absurdly strong —

“Do you want that kind of power?”

Taken aback by those words, I raised my face. My eyes met Arc’s as he looked down at me.
Do I want power?
While I struggled to get my head around it, his gaze turned to Palmira.

“I do. Maybe.”

Palmira only thought for a little bit before she opened her mouth. She added an unconvincing ‘maybe’ to the end.

“I don’t think I do. It’s frightening.”

Aira seemed unenthusiastic about the idea.

That’s right, it is frightening.
That’s what it means to have power beyond reason. That’s all it means.
If I did have it, just what exactly would be the right thing to do?

“I… don’t want something like that.”

After Palmira and Aira responded, for some reason, I opened my mouth too.
I glanced over at Arc, and our eyes met again. His seemed to be observing me, or possibly checking for something within me.
At the very least, they weren’t smiling.
Suddenly, I felt like his gaze was piercing straight through me. It set my nerves on edge.
My mystery-riddled self. Like he could see right through it —

Snap

“–!”

There was a popping sound from the back of my neck.

“? Big Sister, is something wrong?”

“N–No…”

Touching my hand to the nape of my neck, I dodged Aira’s question for some reason.
What is this?
I’m pretty sure that something like this has happened before.
Twisting my neck, I looked over at Arc. Our eyes met for a moment. I immediately broke eye contact.
For that moment, Arc’s expression was extremely complex.
What the h.e.l.l is that?

“Now then, setting that aside — that’s the general idea, I guess? Anything else you want to ask?”

“Ah, then, tell us what invocation stones are.”

Without even the time to wonder just what that was all about, Arc’s words effectively ended the conversation, so I hastily pressed him on a different topic.

“Ahh, that, now, is the final key to magic.”

“Final — key?”

Arc produced the red stone from his breast pocket and showed it to us.
I retreated a little out of reflex. Though I had voluntarily done it myself once, the feeling of the stone burying itself in my body was immensely unpleasant, after all.

“Mm, the truth is, even though magi understand the mechanism of the [power of existence], that alone isn’t enough to use magic. Understanding, and then materializing. The latter is done through the invocation stone. In simple terms, let’s say you want to grab something. If you only think about it in your head, that isn’t enough. In the real world, the stone is the hand doing the actual grabbing, based on the head’s instructions.”

‘Something like that, I guess,’ Arc finished.

That last bit was a bit easier to understand.
In other words, perhaps because I was able to understand that jam-packed rundown on magic, I felt rather dubious. 3

When I casually turned to look, Aira had the face of someone who’d just heard a load of incomprehensible jargon, and Palmira was also deep in thought, brow furrowed.
Thanks to the unpleasant look in her eyes, her expression looked murderous.

But I felt that Arc’s version was much better organized than Irene’s.
Honestly, there were plenty of other things I was curious about, but at this point, I was struggling just to keep my head above water, so it might be better to call it a day here.
I’d have to go back over this later and review what I’d learned.

“Ah, by the way, why won’t you tell us? …That is, the name of the person who returned from the labyrinth.”

I’d completely forgotten because of the lecture on magic, but Aira, suddenly remembering, asked Arc about it.
To be honest, that was the real issue at hand, but I gave up on the investigation when Arc stopped me.
It was like getting doused with cold water, but the guild wouldn’t really give out that kind of information in the first place.
Even so, Aira and Palmira didn’t know that, and I didn’t stop them from asking him straight-out.

“Ahh, hmm. The truth is, it’s a matter of regulations. Divulging the ident.i.ty of a source of profitable information is taboo. Especially if they returned with treasure.”

‘You get it, right?’ Arc looked at me as he closed with that last bit.

Yeah, I do. That’s why I gave up.
It was practically one of the most fundamental rules of the guild. One that almost every partic.i.p.ating adventurer knew.
If I had to say why, it was because the rule existed to protect guild members.

“For example, Aira, let’s say you had a hundred gold coins on you. Would you want other people to know that?”

Aira didn’t seem like she can understand it, so what else could I do but turn to her and clarify?

“Eh–… That’s… Ummm.”

“What about you, Palmira?”

“I’d hide it.”

Leaving Aira to wrestle with her thoughts, I turned to Palmira, who immediately and definitively replied.
I could say that it was just as you’d expect from Palmira, but this was pretty much a no-brainer.
Though I didn’t have much choice but to explain it to Aira, who was still struggling.

“Picking up where we left off, let’s say you walked around showing off your hundred gold. What do you think would happen?”

“…I’d be attacked, wouldn’t I. I see…”

It looked like even Aira had realized it. Her face sank, her posture asking ‘Why didn’t I see that?’
Keeping such information confidential was the most basic safeguard in place to protect the guild members.
To say nothing of the fact for the guild, releasing their sources’ ident.i.ties — especially those who reported exclusively to them — would be like killing their golden goose.

That was why the guild would not, under any circ.u.mstances share that information.
I got that, so I could understand why they couldn’t afford to do so.
It was because of that understanding that I had no choice but to give up. In other words, I wouldn’t be getting any more information out of the guild. I let out a heavy sigh.

“In that case, we should go check the labyrinth,”

proposed Palmira, her eyes completely serious.
Sure, it’s an attractive proposition, but while the labyrinth may have been cleaned out, going with the three of us wasn’t just crazy, it was downright suicidal. Palmira aside, Aira and I didn’t have anything that could even be called a weapon. Not to mention that even if we did, we were so weak that it would be pointless.
…That was a bit depressing.

And even before that, we’d snuck out of the garrison.
Common sense dictated that we make various preparations before setting out on any future adventures.
However, taking the risks into account, I still found Palmira’s suggestion appealing.
To see it, to verify it with my own two eyes. I want to do that if I can.
I want to know. And here’s a way to find out.
Though I knew just how difficult that would be, I was torn between safety and a desire that was difficult to resist.

“Well, there’s no use in that now.”

In the midst of that maddening indecision, the words Arc spoke with shocking ease put an end to my internal conflict.
Of course, I looked at him in surprise.

“…Why’s that?”

I glared at him without bothering to hide my foul mood.

“Well, the military’s been squatting in the ruins since yesterday, and they aren’t letting anyone in.”

“…The military?”

“Guess we can kiss work goodbye again,” sighed Arc.4

Military. The army.

If they didn’t have a d.a.m.n good reason, the military wouldn’t be acting like this in the first place.
In other words, there was some objective that was extremely important to the army, and possibly to the nation.
What could be the reason?

The ruins cl.u.s.ter that should’ve been picked clean. The labyrinth that should’ve been empty.

If those two facts were true, then no matter how I looked at it, they wouldn’t lead to an army occupation. Why? Because there’d be nothing of value there.
In that case, let’s consider the opposite scenario: if the army really was there right now, then —

— there was still something in the ruins.

It wasn’t a leap to think so. There was something in there that merited a military quarantine.
What was it?
No, that wasn’t the question here.
What was more important was whether it had anything to do with me.
That was the key point here, but I honestly couldn’t predict which it’d be.

For a moment, I turned to Arc, but I changed my mind and looked away. Even if I asked him the reason, he’d definitely claim not to know.
He might have a hunch, but for some strange reason — for some really strange reason, I couldn’t bring myself to trust the man.

Suddenly I looked at Arc.
And at the same time, Arc turned to me. His face was smiling, but it didn’t reach his eyes.

— ‘For some strange reason’? No, to h.e.l.l with that.
This guy knew something. That was my conclusion.
But I had no idea what his goal is.

He was one fishy b.a.s.t.a.r.d, but all I could do right now was keep my mouth shut.
Besides, it wasn’t like he’d done anything. For now.
Looking only at the results, we asked to teach us, and he kindly did. That was all.

That’s right —
— He was just being kind.

That conclusion disturbed me intensely.
Why? Because right now, he was certainly doing the same.
And I wasn’t talking about Arc.

He’s hiding something. He’s hiding something. He’s —
Arc’s smile is replaced with Leon’s.
My chest seemed to tighten up at the sight.

— Definitely.
Leon was hiding something too, definitely.
But that didn’t mean that he was deceiving us, did it?

All of a sudden, I wanted to see him.
Though it was too late to be remembering this, we’d slipped out of the compound without saying a word to him.

Let’s go back quickly.
We should go back quickly.

Suspicion seethed inside me.
Turning my head, I started on the way back, as if fleeing from the thought.

Footnotes
1. Arc’s explanation of magic threw me for a loop the first time through, so I thought I might add my own understanding here in case it helps.
In the breathing example, you can break it down into two basic parts: your interaction with the world, and its result. Anyone can create wind by breathing out, but a magus can use a different kind of interaction to achieve the same effect. We know how exhalation applies a physical force to stir the air, while magi know how to manipulate the fundamental forces of the world to do it. The extra set of interactions they understand how to do would fall under “magic”. ↵
2. Skipped: こいつも大概だ ↵
3. Not sure: つまり俺は、一気に詰め込まれた魔法に関する一連の情報を、全部上手く理解出来たか、かなり怪しい ↵
4. My reading (“[…] ignoring Arc, who increased her sighs […]”) didn’t make sense. If Patsy was the one speaking (also, her name isn’t mentioned), why would Chris ignore Arc? 彼女のため息を増やすアルクを無視して ↵