Study Magic in My Free Time - Chapter 3: A Glimpse of Talent

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Author: Miki Nazuna

Translator: Mr. Steak

Proofreader: Yuranon

“How did you learn it in such a short time!?”
“What do you mean, how…?”

I was taken aback by Bruno’s angry glare.
I felt like maybe I’d done something wrong, so I tried thinking back on what I’d done.

“I was just doing what the grimoire said every day, like normal though.”
“Which means… That grimoire must be amazing, yeah? Or, wait, why am I surprised? Since we’re the ‘Oldest Nobles’, it’s not weird at all for there to be an incredible book like that in the archive.”

Bruno put his hand to his chin and mumbled to himself.
Interrupting would be awkward, so I just sort of watched him.

“Hey Liam, gimme that.”
“Oh, okay. Here.”

While being glared at again, I handed over “Elementary Flame Magic”.

Bruno opened it, stared at the page I’d been looking at all month, and started doing the same stuff I’d been doing.

If he was starting to practice magic, I figured I’d get in the way, but just as I started to leave…

“Hey, Liam.”
“Hm?”

Bruno called out to my back.

I turned around, surprised.
When I did, Bruno was still staring at the book, with an extremely annoyed expression on his face.

He spoke while maintaining that face.

“You’ve been working really hard at this… Is it because you want to become the next head?”
“The next head? Why are you asking me that?”
“Because you’re the same as Dad right now.”
“……?”

The same? As Charles? As Father?
How were we the same?

“You really don’t know? The reason why Dad’s been so frantic lately?”
“There’s…… a reason?”
“Come on, it’s just common sense that a noble’s gonna turn over his reign when he reaches a certain age.”
“Yeah, I know.”

I actually didn’t know.
Bruno completely saw through what I was thinking.

“So you didn’t know, after all. Man, ignorance is bliss, huh. Passing on the title after you die would cause a lot of confusion. On the other hand, if you pass it on while you’re still alive and have political influence, you can keep the chaos to a minimum.”
“Oh, interesting.”

I’d never thought of it that way.
So even nobles have it hard sometimes.

“That way we can all exist without fighting. Well, even so, we’ll still get to live however we want.”
“I see.”
“Except, there’s a problem with that. The instant our dad passes on his inheritance, we’ll become the fourth generation, give up our nobility and fall to commoner status.”
“……Ah.”
“Passing on the headship and letting someone else make all the decisions, all the while you’re sitting pretty with all your political influence…… It’s obvious you’d want that. So since that’s not an option for Dad right now, that would explain why he’s so desperate.”

I see……
It’s true, come to think of it…… Even though the next generation will be the fourth and become commoners, it’d still be weird to be this frantic about it.
Our father was diving full-speed into his work, just like I was doing.

I see, so he had that kind of reason for it after all……

“Aah geez, this is so annoying!”
“Huh?”

Bruno suddenly threw a fit.
Just when I was thinking that something had happened, he threw the grimoire at me.

“How can you do this annoying crap!? I’m leaving!”

With that, he swaggered off.

“……”

I smiled sympathetically.
Not even ten minutes had passed since I’d started today’s training.
Brushing my worries aside, I picked up the grimoire again.

Then, I began my training once more.

☆

Several days later, I was heading toward the archive.
I’d learned all the magic from “Elementary Flame Magic”, so this time I was going to borrow “Elementary Ice Magic”.

I took the book, and without even waiting until I got to the woods, I started practicing immediately.

Flame magic could be mastered by one in a hundred people, but since lowering temperatures was harder than raising them, ice magic could only be mastered by one in a thousand.

That was my basic understanding of the matter.

After all, it was fairly simple to make a fire even without magic, but making ice is impossible.
Besides just waiting for the seasons to change, there’d be no way to do it.

That’s why it was harder, which would explain why fewer people could use this type of magic.

For that reason, I was super excited.
My long-awaited magic, and not only that, but really difficult ice magic.
If I could even do that, I couldn’t even imagine how much fun that would be.
While walking down the hallway, I practiced ice magic with the grimoire.

As was the case for the flame magic, you could perform various spells directly from the grimoire.

Using the grimoire as an aid, as long as you’re directly touching it, it’ll support your magic, apparently.

It appeared the grimoire’s “material coding” was for that purpose as well.

So I suppose I’ll just try this one spell——

“Uwah!”

I didn’t do it perfectly, and the grimoire burst into flames.
Even though I’d been trying to perform ice magic, I’d accidentally hit the grimoire with a fireball.

I was surprised by the burning grimoire and dropped it.

Then I quickly picked it up again and put out the fire.

“Who is using fire in a place like this? —— Liam?”
“Father!”

I became even more panicked.
I turned to face the voice.
My father was saying something to his butler while heading my way.

He was probably on his way somewhere.
The reason I thought that was that, just like always, my father’s eyes were not looking at me.

“Don’t use fire in the hallways…… Is that a grimoire?”
“Yes.”
“Elementary Ice Magic…… Hm? Was that not fire just now?”
“Yes, I’m sorry. Ice magic is too hard, so I accidentally did a fire spell instead.”
“I see…… Wait, what?”

As he was just about to walk past, Father stopped and turned to face me.

It was the first time…… that our eyes had met.

“Have you…… been studying magic?”
“……Yes.”

I wasn’t sure how I should respond, but I started by agreeing.
Even though he was the one who’d given me permission to use the grimoires…… maybe he’d forgotten?
Father stared at me for a short time.

“Performing a spell without the grimoire…… Does that mean you’ve mastered flame magic? How long have you been studying?”
“One month.”
“One month!?”

Father was aghast.

“You were able to learn that magic in one month?”

“Yes.”
“Could this be…… innate talent?”

Father stared at me.
Those eyes were like when I’d first woken up in Liam’s body. At that banquet.

His eyes from just after his daughter had been born…… These were almost identical.

Translator and Editor Notes:

I don’t have a whole lot to say about this chapter. Things are continuing to look up for our plucky “young” protagonist.

(Sorry for the delay releasing this chapter though.)

~Steak

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