Ch.247242 – Demonic Sword Syndrome

Japan’s special naturalization system for highly skilled foreign professionals typically targets young foreign PhD holders.

It evaluates a combination of academic degrees, practical experience, annual income, and certifications to stimulate the Japanese economy.

However, the system has been criticized by vulnerable nations losing talent because simply registering an A-class innate magic copyright in Japan automatically grants 70 points toward approval.

While Switzerland wasn’t as obvious about it, all developed countries had their own strategies for attracting talent.

The criteria for A-class magic evaluation remain strictly confidential.

Rumors suggest factors like power, efficiency, clarity, complexity of breaking, and simplicity of casting, but none have been officially confirmed.

The Japanese Magic Copyright Association itself was in deep contemplation.

“Someone submitted an A-class level spell just to get permanent residency for an AI? What’s the real motive behind this registration?”

Setting aside the absurd registration purpose, the elderly man continued examining the magic circle.

This isn’t to belittle the sincerity of otaku culture.

Thanks to them, Japan has grown into a global cultural powerhouse.

But shouldn’t there at least be some cost-benefit analysis?

Permanent residency and a My Number card (Japan’s national ID) are freely given just by marrying a Japanese person, yet someone willingly gave up their gold ingot for this.

“Mr. Matsumoto, gold ingot?”

“Do you see this as just a stone? Keep examining it. There’s something suspicious about it—it might be dangerous magic. Does it self-destruct with continued use?”

“No way that’s possible.”

1-Circle Magic ‘Adella’.

It has just one great circle, but its circuit formula is more complex than many 3-Circle spells.

In that sense, A-class classification seemed unlikely, but the power displayed by this 1-Circle magic was highly suspicious.

“How on earth did they find all these rune characters?”

The spell used a total of 9 rune characters.

Finding suitable rune characters for magic circles is what drives many magic scholars to despair.

Like French irregular verb conjugations, there seem to be patterns until spells suddenly fail at unexpected points, leaving trial and error as the only method.

“Chairman, isn’t even B-class too generous for such a complicated magic circle? The circuit formula uses extremely outdated grammar.”

“It’s the power. Setting everything else aside, the power is too strong.”

“How strong? Could I see a simulation too?”

Chairman Matsumoto’s reason for registering ‘Adella’ as A-class was to classify it as a specially managed high-risk target.

Magic capable of easily killing a person is generally called murder magic.

Notable examples include the 4-Circle Glacies Astana and 5-Circle Ignis Bellum, which caused numerous casualties in the Middle East War.

And this Adella certainly qualified to be called murder magic.

“Just give it an A-. If we don’t classify it as high-risk and it gets misused later, we’ll be the ones held responsible.”

The higher the magic grade, the lower the commission the association collects.

Coming from the chairman known for his love of money, this carried significant weight.

But how dangerous could a 1-Circle spell really be?

“Still, I think we should review it once more—”

“Sorry, I need to take this call. Hello, Miss Katsuhata! What brings you to call at this hour? Isn’t it dawn there? How was your opponent this time? Make sure you take care of yourself and don’t catch a cold… What? You lost?”

The chairman’s face contorted dramatically as he took the call.

It was exactly the kind of expression that fits the description of someone possessed by an evil spirit.

The old man abruptly hung up, pulled at what little hair he had left, and hastily left the examination room.

It didn’t take long for news explaining his inexplicable behavior to emerge.

* * *

Korea finally received some great news after a long time.

Japan had suffered a crushing defeat in the National Exchange Competition against Western countries.

Unlike Korea, which fully embraced the advanced American magic education system, Japan still tended to adhere to its traditional culture.

In particular, the Katsuhata-ryu (勝畑流), a successor school to the Japanese martial arts tradition “Tenshin Shoden Katori Shinto-ryu (天真正伝香取神道流)” dating back to the 15th century, had dominant influence among Japanese mages.

The photo of Katsuhata Emika—the cherished official successor of the Katsuhata school and a once-in-a-millennium sword genius—kneeling before an unknown Hungarian boy became a global sensation.

Countries harboring ill feelings toward Japan seized the opportunity to dig up and criticize the flippant comments made by Japanese internet right-wingers.

[Their supposedly systematic Japanese youth system LMAO has never actually produced any notable talent, has it? LOLOLOL]

-Just these guys LMAO

-Do you uncivilized Koreans even have the right to criticize when you weren’t even invited to the National Exchange Competition?

└ Look, a triggered Japanese showed up.

└ So have you guys ever won? LMAO

└ How do these guys use the exact same repertoire for 25 years? LMAO

└ “This year will be different!” Every single time!

-I can’t believe they’re getting beaten by Hungarian nobodies now, not even by Americans or French.

└ Fact) He’s actually from a slum.

-“Japanese words should only be heard at the zoo.” Kim Gun continues his winning streak today.

└ Why were people criticizing Kim Gun 10 years ago? Did he say anything wrong?

└ For real, Korea’s savior LMAO

-But besides Kim Gun, Korea hasn’t had much going on recently either.

-Just wait, NoName will dominate everything in 10 years~

└ 10 years? I say 5 years LMAO

└ Oh, Master NoName is here! King Korea is so reassuring!

It’s been over 25 years since the National Exchange Competition was established to commemorate peace after the Middle East War, which nearly escalated into a world war.

It had become almost customary for young Japanese mages, who always boasted loudly in their own country, to turn into paper tigers on the international stage.

‘Is Japan’s sword-based education fundamentally flawed?’

This was a question raised every year, but this year it was particularly difficult to ignore.

The coaching staff, who returned to Japan despite hateful comments telling them to swim back, completed their press conference in a heavy atmosphere.

They entered the dojo and unpacked their luggage.

Smelly uniforms that hadn’t been properly washed due to training spilled out of the suitcases.

“Emika, don’t be too disheartened. There’s always next year. You’re only 14.”

“…”

“I know it’s a big shock. I’ll leave you alone to collect your thoughts.”

As her seniors and masters changed into casual clothes and left for their homes with their families, Emika couldn’t do the same.

No matter how many times she reviewed the match, she couldn’t find a scenario where she would win.

‘Damn it…’

She was too frustrated even for tears.

She lay spread-eagle on the wooden floor, deep in thought.

Can a sword ever defeat magic?

Just as her last bit of pride was about to crumble, she felt a faint vibration under her back.

‘An earthquake? No, it’s my phone.’

Her phone was vibrating loudly beside her.

It was a call from her friend—or rather, an acquaintance three years younger than her.

“Emika-chan!”

“I’m not in the mood to talk right now. Can you call back tomorrow? I’m really sorry.”

“I knocked down a cedar tree with Uncle Ayabe! We finally knocked it down! Can I now learn swordsmanship formally like you? With all the swoosh-swoosh and stuff? I want to travel abroad too!”

“I told you I’m not in the mood for jokes.”

“But it’s true… We discovered an amazing sword magic technique! It’s probably still free to use, do you want to try it too?”

Emika’s half-closed eyes suddenly widened.

In the photo her junior sent, the massive cedar tree that had guarded the entrance to the back mountain had been completely uprooted.

* * *

“Oh! Ohhhhh! Name unnie, look! Money came in!”

“You’re right! 8,000 yen (¥) on the first settlement day?”

The magic copyright settlement money was deposited into Adella’s account.

I had been informed that for the first three days, the magic would be released at an almost free rate for promotional purposes, with proper settlements starting from the fourth day.

Having chosen the daily settlement system, I could receive usage fees at a fixed time every day.

The settlement ratio for an A-class innate magic was 45%.

I wasn’t sure what the standard price for this magic was on the Japanese side, but it seemed to have been used about 50 times during the day.

“Don’t you have more innate magic like this? We could get rich quickly if you registered a few more!”

“Do you think innate magic just appears out of nowhere? No, I don’t have more.”

“Bring more! If you don’t have any, make some!”

“Tsk. Are you crossing the line again?”

“That’s it, I’m learning magic starting today. How can I resist when money multiplies while I’m just lying down? Ah, I want to be a rich unemployed person!”

Adella was burning with academic enthusiasm, albeit with somewhat impure motives.

She had already purchased a desk and pen set with in-game VR currency.

“Weren’t you studying Japanese just the day before yesterday?”

“I realized there’s no need when we have translators.”

“Yeah, right.”

I didn’t bother arguing since it was obviously going to last only three days anyway.

There are several advantages to becoming a ‘creator’ or ‘holder’ of innate magic.

Most mana taxes are exempted except for pure mana usage fees.

And you can reduce the casting stages from 5 to 3 without the help of a wand.

Since it was a spell I would never use in daily life, I didn’t really feel these minor benefits, but I realized that sometimes the act of registration itself had significance.

I received my first official government contact through Professor Cheon Kyu-jin.

The message was that the Walpurgis Special Investigation Committee had been revived, and a budget for victim support had passed the Special Committee on Budget and Accounts.

What should have happened immediately after my interview two months ago was finally realized.

“Would you like to take this call?”

“Is it for me?”

“Yes, it is.”

I scurried back to my room to take the call from the government official.

“Hello?”

“Am I speaking with NoName?”

“Yes, this is she.”

“What on earth is going on right now?!”

“Excuse me? What do you mean…?”

“The rumors… I mean the news that’s circulating. About you giving away your innate magic to Japan and whatnot. Your guardian says she knows nothing about this…!”

“Um, just a moment.”

While keeping the call active, I checked the internet news.

What’s this? There doesn’t seem to be anything special…

As I continued flipping through pages, I found an article that had just become a battleground for commenters.

[The world stage proved too vast! Katsuhata school’s bitter defeat! But a sword magic syndrome across Japan?]

[Comments: 9999+]

-Actually, Ade-lla came from Japan, you know.

└ Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill. Kill.

-That… that can’t be right…? Adella belongs to Korea now, doesn’t it?

-Why is everyone so sure this innate magic belongs to NoName? The copyright holder is listed as Adella.

└ If you watch the Genius Discovery preview, it’s 99% certain.

└ This is defamation. Unless it’s a hoax, NoName would never sell her innate magic to Japan.

-These kids these days,,, they’d sell their country for money,,, tsk,,,

-Why? Doshite? Why? Doshite?

-NoName sold her innate magic to Japan? Why?

In the interview, a Japanese person was proudly introducing Japan’s innate magic ‘Adella’ and promising next year’s national competition.

[Here we saw potential. The sword magic currently spreading among young people will not end as just a ‘trending game.’ By deeply researching this magic and developing it to suit each school, we firmly believe we can elevate our proud Japanese mages to an even higher level.]

Ugh, what is he saying? So cringeworthy.

The words of this clear-eyed fanatic gave me goosebumps.

But what on earth are they talking about?

“I don’t know either.”

So I answered honestly.