The magic language reacted with the æther in the air, unleashing the power hidden within its words. Immediately, a burning red flame manifested before my eyes. It kept burning, but it used up its energy and disappeared before long.
This was but one of the spells written in the grimoire – flame.
The word, flame, from the magic language held the meaning of fire. It was a spell that, upon chanting it, allowed the caster to freely set something ablaze. In order to harness this spell, it was essential to learn the magic language; to understand the precise meaning of its words.
The magic language reacts with the æther in the air, unleashing the phenomenon hidden in its words and manifesting it in reality. For that reason, as a magician, it is vital to be able to sense the æther permeating the air. Although it differs from person to person, it is said that most humans have the basic ability to sense æther.
In the first place, it isn’t rare to see humans benefiting from æther in everyday life. Fertile soil, clean deep rivers, and even the food they eat everyday all contain æther. In that sense, it is possible to say that all humans born in this world have the potential to use magic.
Nevertheless, magicians in the Kingdom of Halcanea, the country I reincarnated in, are few and far between.
The reason being that learning the magic language is an extremely difficult endeavour. As obvious as it may seem, the pronunciation of the common tongue is completely different to the magic language.
The magic language, unlike the common tongue, only has five vowels. However, the basic sounds number over 50, and each one must be pronounced correctly in order to invoke any spells. Also, some of these sounds are never used in ordinary everyday words.
In addition, there are numerous words that have completely different meanings, yet have exactly the same pronunciation or intonation1. According to the context and phrasing, there are even subtle alterations that can alter their meaning, resulting in even a single sentence having infinite variations.
This is why there are so few magicians. With a lack of general education, it’s virtually impossible to find magicians from the commoner population.
Even among nobles, only those with a gift in the magic language and attended a magic academy have a decent handle on magic.
On top of that, the graduation rate of magic academies is merely 5%. In other words, even if 100 people enrol in an academy, only 5 of them can be expected to graduate successfully. In reality, it’s rare to have more than 100 people enrol a year so the number of graduates is even less.
Throughout the entire Kingdom of Halcanea, less than 50 people have been recognised as magicians by the royal family. Since there are so few magicians, just being one brings enormous wealth, glory and prestige.
To garner such a reaction, becoming a magician is, as expected, a long and arduous road.
…although, none of that applies to me.
My name is Gerald and in the near future, I will become the Royal Archmage of the Kingdom of Helcanea.
I also had another name from a previous life, Okata Kazuhiko. I was born and raised in a country called Japan on the planet Earth. I was a young man at tender age of 19 when I passed away…
1 Technically,「発生」means “utterance” but that sounds strange in this context (or any non-linguistic context that I can think of).
The magic language reacted with the æther in the air, unleashing the power hidden within its words. Immediately, a burning red flame manifested before my eyes. It kept burning, but it used up its energy and disappeared before long.
This was but one of the spells written in the grimoire – flame.
The word, flame, from the magic language held the meaning of fire. It was a spell that, upon chanting it, allowed the caster to freely set something ablaze. In order to harness this spell, it was essential to learn the magic language; to understand the precise meaning of its words.
The magic language reacts with the æther in the air, unleashing the phenomenon hidden in its words and manifesting it in reality. For that reason, as a magician, it is vital to be able to sense the æther permeating the air. Although it differs from person to person, it is said that most humans have the basic ability to sense æther.
In the first place, it isn’t rare to see humans benefiting from æther in everyday life. Fertile soil, clean deep rivers, and even the food they eat everyday all contain æther. In that sense, it is possible to say that all humans born in this world have the potential to use magic.
Nevertheless, magicians in the Kingdom of Halcanea, the country I reincarnated in, are few and far between.
The reason being that learning the magic language is an extremely difficult endeavour. As obvious as it may seem, the pronunciation of the common tongue is completely different to the magic language.
The magic language, unlike the common tongue, only has five vowels. However, the basic sounds number over 50, and each one must be pronounced correctly in order to invoke any spells. Also, some of these sounds are never used in ordinary everyday words.
In addition, there are numerous words that have completely different meanings, yet have exactly the same pronunciation or intonation1. According to the context and phrasing, there are even subtle alterations that can alter their meaning, resulting in even a single sentence having infinite variations.
This is why there are so few magicians. With a lack of general education, it’s virtually impossible to find magicians from the commoner population.
Even among nobles, only those with a gift in the magic language and attended a magic academy have a decent handle on magic.
On top of that, the graduation rate of magic academies is merely 5%. In other words, even if 100 people enrol in an academy, only 5 of them can be expected to graduate successfully. In reality, it’s rare to have more than 100 people enrol a year so the number of graduates is even less.
Throughout the entire Kingdom of Halcanea, less than 50 people have been recognised as magicians by the royal family. Since there are so few magicians, just being one brings enormous wealth, glory and prestige.
To garner such a reaction, becoming a magician is, as expected, a long and arduous road.
…although, none of that applies to me.
My name is Gerald and in the near future, I will become the Royal Archmage of the Kingdom of Helcanea.
I also had another name from a previous life, Okata Kazuhiko. I was born and raised in a country called Japan on the planet Earth. I was a young man at tender age of 19 when I passed away…
1 Technically,「発生」means “utterance” but that sounds strange in this context (or any non-linguistic context that I can think of).
