Ultra-short Incantation

Twilight Manor, central courtyard.

In the narrow courtyard that formed a ring around the Central Tower, Riezel emerged from the manor with his slender sword, his main weapon, and stepped inside.

Several towers stood side by side around it, making the courtyard seem poorly lit. Though the carefully tended flowers and plants flourished all around, much of the central courtyard remained in shadow.

As a result, despite the day having already broken, the light here was still dim enough to make one wonder whether it was night.

Fortunately, the courtyard had a small fountain and Magic Stone Lamp posts, their lights glowing brightly enough that it was not too inconvenient.

Riezel walked through the courtyard until he reached what was essentially a corner.

Then, the sound of wind being torn apart suddenly rang out.

It was the sound of a blade Cutting Through the Air.

Riezel stopped and looked toward the source.

The next second, he saw the girl he had arranged to meet here.

The blonde Doll Girl held a gleaming Silver Sabre as she trained.

Her placid expression had turned cold and sharp, and her translucent eyes had become exceedingly keen. Every swing of her sabre sliced fiercely through the air, sending streaks of silver light flashing as fast as lightning.

Vertical cuts, horizontal slashes, diagonal chops, thrusts, savage strikes. The girl, beautiful as an Elf and mysterious as a goddess, stood in one corner of the lush green lawn and continuously swung her beloved sword. As though an enemy stood before her, and as though she feared stopping herself from moving forward, she danced a fierce Sword Dance alone.

Watching this scene, Riezel did not make a sound to interrupt her, nor did he do anything unnecessary. He simply stood where he was and watched with bright, focused eyes.

He was learning.

Learning Ais's swordsmanship, trying to see through the trajectories of her blade.

Unfortunately, Ais's sword was simply too fast. It was so fast that Riezel could not keep up with her movements at all. He could only see silver trails dancing wildly through the air, and nothing else.

Even so, Riezel did not grow bored. He kept his eyes open and watched intently, continuing until sunlight descended from above and illuminated the entire courtyard.

"----"

Ais finally stopped.

She flicked her sword upward with a sharp whoosh, then sheathed it.

Only after finishing her training did Ais turn around to face Riezel.

"Sorry." Ais lowered her eyes slightly and said apologetically, "I kept you waiting."

"No." Riezel shook his head and replied calmly, "I should be thanking Miss Ais for letting me watch your training."

"Is that so?" Ais tilted her head, seemingly unable to understand. After hesitating, she asked, "Did it help you?"

"Of course." Riezel was briefly taken aback, then nodded. "After all, as you can see, I use a sword too."

Riezel raised the weapon in his hand, bringing it into Ais's view.

"A sword?" Ais seemed a little surprised. "So you really aren't a Mage?"

"At least, I'm not the sort of pure rear-guard Mage who only fights from the back." Riezel thought for a moment before saying, "Rather than staying behind and using magic, I prefer charging into the middle of the enemy group and fighting."

After all, that was definitely more exciting.

Riezel silently muttered those words to himself.

Ais, meanwhile, recalled Loki's words from yesterday.

"This kid's probably the same type as Ais-tan. They're both troublesome children who won't settle down unless they charge into a horde of monsters and slaughter them."

Remembering that, Ais could not help but feel a little closer to Riezel.

She felt that this newcomer, so highly praised by Loki, really resembled her in every way.

And now, he even wanted to learn her magic.

Thinking of that, a trace of complicated emotion inevitably arose within Ais.

"...Can I ask you a question?"

Driven by those complicated feelings, Ais asked Riezel a question.

"Please."

It was as though Riezel had already guessed what Ais was about to ask. His expression did not change in the slightest.

"Why me?" Ais considered her wording, but in the end, she still asked somewhat awkwardly, "Riveria is willing to teach you too."

What she meant was, with Orario's Strongest Mage willing to teach him personally, why had Riezel not chosen her and instead chosen Ais, saying that he wanted to learn her magic?

"My magic isn't like Riveria's or Lefiya's. It doesn't have such powerful effects or range."

That was what Ais thought.

Riezel also knew that if someone wanted to use magic with tremendous power, magic that generally matched people's idea of what "magic" should be, then learning from Riveria was the best choice.

That woman's magic was famous for its firepower. Once successfully cast, it could burn even enemies of a higher level to ashes on the spot, and even incinerate a vast area around them.

Compared to that, although Ais's magic was somewhat special, it lacked that sort of decisive power and firepower.

Therefore, under normal circumstances, most people would rather learn Riveria's magic.

But Ais, who thought that way, did not know that Riezel had his own calculations.

"Just as I said yesterday, I personally believe that Miss Ais's magic is what suits me best at this stage."

Riezel looked Ais directly in the eye and explained.

"As everyone knows, every magic spell in the world has one condition in common: you must speak a fixed spell, which is known as an incantation."

Ais nodded in agreement.

Incantations were the necessary path to using magic.

They were the trigger for magic, the switch that activated the supernatural. They stabilized the user's mind and allowed magic power to transform more smoothly into fuel, then into magic that could be released.

That was the same whether in his original world or this one.

Therefore, generally speaking, the longer a spell's incantation was, the more time it required to chant, and the more astonishing its power and effects would be.

However, that did not mean magic with excessively long incantations was a good thing.

"Magic with long incantations is certainly extremely powerful, but correspondingly, it takes a long time to activate. That creates many problems."

That was how Riezel saw it.

"Setting aside interruptions and accidents during casting, possessing magic with overly long incantations is not a good thing for the growth of one's Ability Value either."

Magic that took time to activate was bound to have many limitations in use, leaving few opportunities to cast it.

And if opportunities and frequency of using magic were low, then the growth of one's Ability Value would not be very promising.

One had to know that whether it was "Magic," or other basic abilities such as "Strength," "Endurance," "Dexterity," and "Agility," the way to make them grow was through frequent use.

If one had no opportunities to use it normally, then the basic ability "Magic," which was tied to a spell's power and effects, would be difficult to improve.

Because of this, many Mages went to great lengths to find opportunities to cast magic. But magic was already extraordinary, a supernatural power. Any casual attack could cause immense destruction, so there were basically few chances to use it within the city.

Even after entering the Dungeon, when casting magic against attacking monsters, whether Mages could steady their minds and emotions long enough to successfully chant their spells was another unknown.

Thus, among those in the field, it was widely acknowledged that the basic ability "Magic" was much harder to improve than the others—far harder.

Yet likewise, once this ability improved, the direct result was an extremely obvious increase in the power and effects of one's magic.

The reason Riezel had chosen Ais's magic was that, in his view, among the entire Loki Familia, only Ais's magic was the easiest to use.

"If I'm not mistaken, Miss Ais's magic should be the Ultra-short incantation type, right?"

Riezel's question earned an affirmative motion from Ais.

Basically, magic was divided into Ultra-short incantations, Short incantations, Long incantations, and Ultra-long incantations.

The longer the incantation, the stronger the magic's power, but its casting time and convenience would decline accordingly.

Conversely, the shorter the incantation, the weaker the magic's power, but it would have the convenience of being cast quickly.

In that case---

"Magic with Ultra-short incantations is the easiest magic to use."

Riezel revealed his purpose.

"I want to learn magic that's easy to use, magic I can use frequently, so I can train my 'Magic' up." Riezel smiled calmly. "And once my 'Magic' has improved, the scale and effectiveness of my spells will rise as well. When I learn other magic in the future, their power and effects won't be limited by having low 'Magic.' Instead, because I've trained my 'Magic' up, they'll be able to display even greater power and effects."

Therefore, Riezel had decided long ago that his first spell absolutely had to be one with an Ultra-short incantation.

Only by obtaining magic with an Ultra-short incantation first could the growth potential of his magical abilities in the future be guaranteed.

Of course, that would inevitably create a problem.

That was, the magic Riezel learned would certainly not have particularly great power or effects.

But before the magic of the Female Swordsman standing before him, that problem did not exist.

Because Ais's only magic, though classified as an Ultra-short incantation, was actually an unconventional type.

Its effect was not merely weak. On the contrary, it was widely acknowledged to be strong.

How strong was it?

Strong enough that although Ais was only Lv.5, with important figures at Lv.6 and Lv.7 above her, she could still stand out and become the strongest Female Swordsman in everyone's eyes.

Therefore---

"Could you please use your magic?"

Riezel made his request.

After remaining silent for a while, Ais responded.

"Awaken (Tempest)."

The wind began to rise.

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