The Magus of Genesis Volume 2 Chapter 17

Winds of Change 変化の兆し

Every living creature in this world,
regardless of their desire to do so, will never stop changing.
Mortals, those with long lives, and even those immortals share this fate.

“Chaaaaa—!”

Two small figures dashed across the ground together with a high-spirited cheer. They were s.h.i.+g and Yuuki. Their back-to-back attacks had such little timing between them that it made it difficult to tell who was doing the attacking and who wasn’t at any given point.

“So by s.h.i.+fting the scale’s pole from the center, I’ve improved it so that we can measure weight without having to constantly adjust the weight on the other side with water.”

“That’s amazing, I hadn’t thought of that.”

Amata spoke to me, not taking his eyes off of what he was doing. He swept Yuuki’s legs out from under her while simultaneously managing to grab onto s.h.i.+g’s arm and fling him. The two were both knocked flat on the ground.

“… You really are amazing.”

“Thank you, you’re too kind.”

Amata bowed respectfully. s.h.i.+g saw him bow and thought it’d be a good chance to land a hit in from behind, but Amata knocked his fist away with his hand and flung him away with the parry.

No matter how much I see it, it’s like he has eyes on the back of his head. It’s just another kind of magic, though.

Since then—since I promised to definitely make s.h.i.+g strong, the pitiful, weak me has been relying on Amata. I’m still exploring ways for s.h.i.+g to succeed as a Magus, of course, but even though I’m teaching still him magic, I knew that this was the quickest and most reliable way.

Amata agreed to help, leading to them practicing like this. To put it another way, he’s this world’s first physical education teacher. I’d only intended to have him teach people interested in hand to hand combat techniques, but after Yuuki and s.h.i.+g started, Violet wanted to learn as well. Seeing her start it, Rin thought it looked interesting, so then Luka followed along after everyone and eventually we just wound up with everyone joining in.

At this point, the other three are all lying down on the ground, or perhaps I should say they’re sitting down taking a rest? The only ones still up and going are s.h.i.+g and Yuuki, but they’ll probably be hitting their limits here soon. Their movements were already started to slow down. Meanwhile, Amata wasn’t even winded.

“Mentooor, how about thiiis!?”

As I was watching their battle continue on despite not really being able to follow it, I heard my name from a far distance away.

“Wait up, I’ll be right there! … Alright, go easy on them, Amata.”

“Yeah. I will do my best to meet your expectations of me, Mentor.”

Amata nodded, his face masculine. Halfheartedly considering that I may have done something a bit bad to s.h.i.+g and Yuuki, I headed to the back of the school building. What was there were the faces of the villagers, all of which were covered in dirt. As well as a field prepared and corded off with rope.

“Yeah, good job! Thank you everyone, this will be perfect!”

I thanked my students for their work on the soil. I didn’t know if the soil itself was of a good quality, but removing the weeds and rocks should be enough.

Doing that through magic was unexpectedly difficult. Aside from just digging up the ground, doing delicate work like deweeding and removing stones was by far faster when done by hand.

It wasn’t an amount of work that could be completed by just a few people, so I decided to borrow the villagers’ labor for it. Now that we’d decided on a system of weights and measures, they were even able to do it exactly how I wanted.

“I guess we’ll be planting scarlet wheat here.”

The village’s main crops were wheat and potatoes. They look like and taste very similar to actual wheat and potatoes respectively, but we decided to at least temporarily call them scarlet wheat and scarlet potatoes. I can’t tell the difference between different types of wheat too well anyway, so I wasn’t confident enough to call them the same thing.

“Earth, bless these seeds. Let them rest through the winter. Let them rest well and grow big.”

We sowed the seeds while reciting that incantation. It started as something Rin said, but I can’t say if there’s any meaning for us to or not though. It’s like a just in case thing at this point.”

“Let them rest through the winter. Let them rest well and grow big.”

That said, it’s true that working at something with everyone chanting the same thing makes it go by faster than doing it in silence.

Even in my previous life’s world where we had mostly mechanized agriculture, the things that had to be done were more or less been the same since before the modern calendar became a thing.

It was an extremely straightforward, demanding task that was no different in this world of magic.

“Alright, that’s enough for today everyone. Good work!”

Finished with sowing the seeds we’d prepared, I showed my appreciation to my students. I felt a little guilty at making them do farm work for cla.s.s, but they didn’t seem to mind much. Rather, it seemed like there were a lot of children interested in planting and growing plants with their own hands.

I’ve also been teaching how to measure lengths and weights in general studies recently. As well as how to find amounts from weight. I’m also teaching about the transitions from one season to the next as well as how to read a calendar and the like. The list of things I have to teach has been growing bigger and bigger.

“Good job today.”

“Good job.”

Just as I was stretching out my stiff waist, Nina came over. Despite having just finished working in the field, her clothes didn’t have even a single speck of dust on them. I’d expect nothing left this child of the forest.

Though if everyone could use magic like her, we wouldn’t have to struggle like this.

I’m not sure if it was because I was thinking about her, but Nina just knocked me in the gut like it was the right thing to do. It didn’t hurt since she didn’t put any strength into it, but did I do something to make her angry?

Though just as I was wondering that, a smile cropped up on her face.

“Ehh, what?”

“Nooothing.”

Looking like she wanted to say something contrary to what she actually said, she leaned back against me. I don’t really get it, but I guess she’s happy? If so, everything’s fine.

“Haah, so tired~”

Yuuki popped up and clung to me from behind, nearly hanging from me. It turned into me having Nina in front of me and Yuuki behind me.”

“Good job, Yuuki.”

“Yep! But really, that Amata, he reeeeeeally doesn’t hold back!”

Yuuki was complaining, but she barely had any scratches that could be considered scratches. Despite rolling around on the ground so forcibly like that. Amata’s extreme competence at teaching is so good that it’s long since pa.s.sed the level of me admiring him, I’m flat out amazed at this point.

“But our ancestor was stronger, right?”

“Hmmm, I wonder?”

In terms of techniques, they’re definitely more refined nowadays. Enough that Yuuki’s skill would win out. However, imagining them actually fighting together, I can’t picture Darg losing at all.

“Hey, can I hear a story about back then?”

“Yeah, of course—”

I started to say that I didn’t mind when I suddenly realized something off. Something was different from usual.

“You’ve been acting weird.”

Nina spoke up and I finally realized what it was.

“… You noticed? Guess it’s weird for me…”

“It’s not weird!”

Feeling Yuuki freeze up, I shook my head and denied it. Yuuki has been growing her hair out recently and it wasn’t just her appearance that’s changed, either. Her personality was becoming more feminine, too. Like how she asked for a story instead of demanding it. At the very least, no one would mistake her for a boy like they might have when she was younger.

It’s not like I think that women have to act a certain way to be feminine or anything, I just mean that she’s definitely changed. In a world in an era like this, I’d say it’s something to be happy about.

“… Well, whatever. Alright.”

Even so, Nina’s voice lost the cheerfulness it had a moment ago. It was back to her usual indifference. But this was something that only I could tell, this was the voice she use when she was secretly angry.

Eh, why am I the only one that would know?

Because I’ve known her for a really long time. I know how to deal and interact with her. Like how I shouldn’t approach Nina when she’s angry like this. She won’t tell me why no matter how I ask and just asking makes her mood get worse.

“That’s great! It’s a date, big brother!”

Sandwiched between the happily smiling Yuuki and Nina, who was leaning on me in a bad mood, I was confused.