Ch.45Dreisen (3)

Alexander’s house was filthy.

Whether it became this way because there was no woman to take care of the house, or whether women had fled because of the mess, I couldn’t say. But staying in such a place would surely cut my lifespan in half in no time.

“Well, sorry about the mess. Living alone tends to lead to this.”

“…I can understand.”

“Thanks for saying that. Have a seat. Read this letter.”

I sat down on a chair in the “space” that seemed to function as bedroom, workshop, and kitchen all at once, while Alexander, belly protruding, began reading Professor Felice’s letter.

His face looked quite serious as he read the letter, so I quietly observed him.

After a while, having finished reading to the end, Alexander folded the letter and put it in a drawer.

“I see. I understand the situation now. You want to visit all the famous places across the 13 continents?”

“Yes.”

“Then you’ve come to the right place. There’s probably no one in this city who’s better at sigil magic than me.”

“…I’d like to believe that.”

I said this while looking around.

Bottles of medicine and various ingredients were chaotically arranged everywhere.

From a hygienic perspective, this place should be shut down immediately, but since Professor Felice had referred me here, I had no choice but to accept it silently.

“So, you mentioned inscribing sigil magic on me. What kind of magic will you inscribe?”

“I’ll inscribe a total of 12 sigils on you. That’s pretty much everything I can do.”

“12 sigils…”

He handed me a yellowed piece of paper, and I began reading it, trying to hold it by the parts that were least discolored.

‘Tuta’ – Telekinesis to pull or push objects

‘Ignatus’ – Shoots flames

‘Crewors’ – Creates water

‘Behde’ – Creates tentacles from the ground to bind enemies

‘Pentin’ – Alleviates pain

‘Aksen’ – Accelerates the body

‘Navis’ – Reveals things hidden by magic

‘Seika’ – Creates a spiritual space to attack spiritual entities

‘Lumines’ – Creates a sphere of light to illuminate surroundings

‘Blak’ – Generates smoke to blind enemies

‘Charsak’ – Grants adhesion to hands and feet, allowing wall climbing

‘Barkal’ – Creates invisible platforms under feet, enabling double and triple jumps

Each one was practical and useful without exception.

“But how does sigil magic function? It doesn’t require incantations or mana consumption.”

“Your life force.”

“Ah.”

“Be careful not to overuse it, or you could actually die.”

He said this as he went outside to prepare the materials.

Life force, huh…

Whether it’s mana or life force, both eventually replenish.

Of course, life force naturally decreases with age, but I’m still young—not even old enough to be called young—so it shouldn’t be much of an issue.

With that thought, I followed Alexander to what I “presumed” was a storage room, only to discover that it too was filthy.

*

Scritch, scritch.

I never imagined I would hear sounds like coal being shoveled inside a room.

For someone like me who values cleanliness, this was truly a sight difficult to behold.

Alexander was… literally “creating” space.

And I discovered that the mountain of clothes in the center of the room was actually an operating table.

What the…

“Well… it’s a bit dirty, so just a moment…”

He said this while fetching a piece of cloth from somewhere, dampening it with water, and beginning to sloppily wipe down the operating table.

Seriously, even unlicensed quack doctors wouldn’t neglect hygiene to this extent. How on earth did Felice become friends with someone like this?

As I was thinking this, Alexander called me.

“Take off your armor and sit here. I need to work on your hands and feet, so remove your shoes and gloves too.”

Following his instructions, I changed into plain clothes and reluctantly lay down on the operating table. Alexander then thoroughly washed his hands, put on gloves with needles attached, and unbuttoned my shirt.

“The sigils will be inscribed on your heart, palms, and soles. The heart symbolizes life force, so it serves as the power source, while hands and feet become the output devices.”

“I see.”

“I should warn you, it’s going to hurt quite a bit. I need to inscribe the sigils deep into your skin.”

“Don’t worry. I’m strong against pain.”

“Heh. That’s a manly spirit. I like it.”

He strapped a solution infused with magical power to his forearm and connected the tube to his needle gloves.

Click, click.

From what I know, sigil magic was developed by a high-ranking knight from the Relief Knight Order.

He was a knight with a sorceress sister, and influenced by her, he researched ways for knights to use magic. The fruit of his efforts was sigil magic.

Since magical power weakens the body, knights who receive aura to strengthen their bodies cannot cast spells…

But what if you create magic that neither requires accepting magical power nor casting spells?

…That was the concept behind sigil magic.

Because of this, mages have different perceptions of sigil magic.

Some mages actively use sigil magic, claiming that knights brought revolution to the magical world, while others have fits and cough blood at the mere mention of sigils, screaming, “HOW CAN IT BE MAGIC WITHOUT USING MAGICAL POWER OR SPELLS?!”

In fact, in rural villages, there have been cases of people using sigil magic to commit fraud by pretending to be mages, so the traditionalists can’t be completely dismissed.

I mean, if fire and water come out of your palms, what else would you call it but magic?

Except for knowledgeable individuals like myself, it would be impossible for rural villagers to distinguish between sigil magic and proper “spells.”

Pssh! Pssh!

As I was thinking this, a stinging pain began to pierce deep inside me.

It hurt, but it was still 100 times less painful than being kicked by a horse’s hoof, so I maintained a relaxed expression as if I were getting a massage.

“You handle pain well. I guess you weren’t lying?”

“I told you.”

“Children like you are usually weak to pain.”

That was true.

Children are weaker than adults, and adults are stronger than children.

Of course, there are individual differences, but when an adult kicks another adult, a fight breaks out; when an adult kicks a child, the child dies.

Even I wasn’t particularly tall compared to others my age, so if I fought a swordsman with the same skill level, it might be even at first, but as the fight dragged on, I would gradually be cornered due to my lack of weight class and stamina.

Although I was strong enough to cut a person in half, ultimately, they could just block or dodge my attacks.

In a novice’s battle, strength might be everything, but in intermediate to advanced combat where accumulated experience and techniques can be comprehensively utilized, strength only needed to meet a basic threshold.

Of course, that “basic” threshold was quite high to begin with.

Sizzle… sizzle…

“Is it normal for your body to make these sounds?”

“It’s fine.”

“But there’s smoke and even flashes of light.”

“I won’t die.”

“Hmm.”

If he says I won’t die, there’s nothing more I can say.

It feels less like getting a tattoo and more like being welded while still alive.

“Now that the heart is done, hold up your hands with the backs facing up.”

“Like this?”

“A little more stretched out… that’s it.”

As pain came to the backs of my hands, I suppressed the instinct to curl my fingers with my desire for strength.

For someone like me, small in stature compared to other opponents, sigil magic that could compensate for the difference in weight class was essential.

Although commonly known as knights’ magic, ironically, knights rarely used sigil magic.

The reason was simple: sigil magic was expensive, and unlike spells, it couldn’t be used flexibly. Beyond the ability to “use magic,” it couldn’t overcome genuine spell casters.

However, it could provide opportunities to surprise spell casters and gain advantageous situations.

I was originally a swordsman, and I didn’t need power that could subdue enemies without wielding a sword.

Soon the procedure on the backs of my hands was complete, and then pain and smoke began to rise from the soles of my feet.

“Hmm…”

Looking at the backs of my hands, twelve different characters formed a circular formation, as if an entire magic circle had been cut out and pasted there.

These twelve characters must represent the twelve sigils, and when I use a sigil, the light will fade until I can use it again.

Although I had never used sigil magic myself, I had seen others use it.

“There, all done. Now stay still for a while.”

“How long?”

“About an hour?”

“Hmm.”

I lay motionless for an hour, and then the time passed.

After putting on my clothes again, donning my armor, and strapping on my sword, I began to feel the foreign sensation of the magic circles inscribed on my body.

The backs of my hands felt fine, but the soles of my feet were hard to get used to.

“Triple jump, he said…”

Believing his words, I made one big jump, then pushed off once with my left foot and once with my right, successfully completing a triple jump.

“Oh.”

And then I plummeted back to the ground from three times the height, deciding that I should only use this for climbing.

Damn, that really hurts…