Ch.64Spoils of War (2)

After hearing from Gretel, who had come to my office, that she had completed the magical tool made from the basilisk I had entrusted to her.

Naturally, since there was nothing urgent at the moment, I wanted to visit her workshop to personally inspect the magical tool.

“Gretel, aren’t you hot?”

“I-I’m fine…! Thank you for your concern….”

In this sweltering weather, Gretel’s appearance—wrapped in a robe with her hood pulled up—would normally be considered quite eccentric, but the situation is somewhat different given that Gretel is an intermediate-level magic user.

‘Mystery,’ which serves as a kind of central concept when using magic, is the source of all supernatural phenomena composed of the incomprehensible.

And those magic users commonly called ‘wizards’ undergo spiritual exploration to interpret such mysteries and cast spells.

Naturally, this process of spiritual exploration is essentially no different from torturing one’s soul, and through repeating this terrible torture-like process, their minds and souls come to possess something beyond the normal range.

Additionally, one cannot deny the influence of their contact with mystery during the process of casting spells.

Since the realm of magic ultimately symbolizes how deeply and closely one has approached mystery, naturally, as magical skill increases, contact with mystery becomes more frequent and intense.

Therefore, it is nearly impossible for wizards—whose body, mind, and soul have all been altered by contact with mystery—to maintain normal thought patterns or concepts.

Those who handle fire magic easily become hot-tempered and aggressive, while users of ice magic experience reduced emotional changes and greatly lose their ability to empathize.

In short, even if someone is wearing a thick fur robe in the middle of summer, if that person is a wizard, it’s somewhat understandable and—

“…Ah.”

And as I was mindlessly following my train of thought, I belatedly realized I had been distracted and cut off my contemplation.

I’m not sure if cutting off my thoughts like this was due to intuition, but according to my memory, Gretel’s temporary workshop should be somewhere around here.

“Was it this way?”

“Y-yes…. It’s that building over there.”

So when I asked Gretel, she hesitated briefly with what seemed to be embarrassment before opening her mouth to tell me the location of her temporary workshop.

‘…Ah, it was there?’

That is, the building that used to be a brewery—one that had been built with great enthusiasm under the pretext of supplying alcohol to residents, but whose operation plans ultimately disappeared because food became scarce thanks to that damned Ingnel something-or-other destroying the farmland.

“…You said you’d be using that as is for the time being, right?”

“Yes. It’s in better condition than I expected…. I think it will work just fine….”

Though it’s called a temporary workshop, from the perspective of someone without the resources to build a separate building, it’s a structure well-suited to serve as a witch’s workshop, with large furnaces and various brewing equipment conveniently remaining intact.

Anyway, having arrived at the witch’s workshop, we soon opened the door to the workshop, which didn’t look much different from the outside, but the interior was… to put it simply, it was an appearance that made it immediately clear why the term “witch’s workshop” was used.

Should I say it evokes an atmosphere reminiscent of a fairy tale or a G*bli film, thanks to the wallpaper (finishing material) and interior that gives off a strong overall feeling of warm colors?

In the center of the workshop, a large cauldron is placed where a distillery furnace should have been, and the specially procured still has somehow been modified for another purpose, boiling some incomprehensible liquid and emitting an odor.

In addition, there are drawers and cabinets containing various magical materials obtained from somewhere, arranged in a cute manner, or simple reagent apparatus placed somewhere.

“W-wait here…. I’ll just bring something quickly….”

“Alright, Miss Gretel. I’ll wait.”

As I was admiring the charming scenery with its fairy tale-like pastel colors, looking around in wonder, Gretel, who had briefly moved to the living space at the back? of the workshop, soon approached me with a plate of some food in her hand and said:

“P-please… have some of this….”

“Thank you, Miss Gretel.”

On the tray were what appeared to be milk from some animal and about a dozen or so cookies that looked soft and plain… presumably butter cookies.

‘Hmm, delicious. How long has it been since I’ve had butter cookies?’

So without much thought, I put one in my mouth and was admiring the deep, nostalgic taste of butter cookies spreading in my mouth, while inwardly smiling pleasantly at the sweet taste of sugar gently caressing my tongue, when….

“Hmm? Miss Gretel, what’s in these cookies… is it sugar by any chance?”

Shortly after I brought up the question that suddenly occurred to me, her response far exceeded my imagination.

Because….

“Um…. A-actually, I don’t really know…. I m-made them with my magic….”

“Huh? Is that possible with magic?”

“It… seems to be?”

Creating food using magic. Anyone with common knowledge about magic in this world would immediately recognize how extraordinary this is.

Magic is certainly the embodiment of mystery with possibilities infinitely close to limitless, a kind of reality manipulation that manipulates the world, but that doesn’t mean magic is omnipotent.

In particular, there is one concept that governs magic, and by extension, mystery itself—none other than the ‘law of equivalent exchange.’

Because magic based on such mystery must also adhere to the law of equivalent exchange, magic can only be an ability with an extremely simple structure where results occur in proportion to the cost invested.

And from this principle, creating food out of thin air, rather than recreating existing ingredients… in terms of cost, the efficiency would never be worth it.

Unless it’s an exception like the magic of ‘druids’ specialized in fields such as food production, one would end up using enough magical power to reduce thousands of troops to ashes just to make a few cookies.

In short, as I was chewing on these snacks in this bizarrely unusual situation according to my common sense, I eventually noticed that these snacks were somehow different from ordinary food.

That is to say, they were food, but their substance was slightly blurry… in other words, a kind of fake food.

“Ah, sorry, Miss Gretel. For a moment I thought these were real.”

“Hehe…. Is that so?”

“Yes. That’s why I was surprised. I thought this was real food….”

Therefore, after noticing this fact, I was able to shake off this inexplicable question relatively easily, and soon I was chatting casually with Gretel while munching on cookies.

“Ah. Come to think of it…. I-I’ll bring it right away!”

But eventually, even Gretel remembered the reason she had brought me to this workshop, and so she suddenly interrupted our conversation and moved to one side of the workshop to bring something.

“Is this… it?”

“…Yes. I used the brain, cardiac vessels, and heart as materials.”

The unique aura and magical power emanating from this pendant, which outwardly appeared to be just a moderately sized pendant, was clearly a reproduction of some power created through the basilisk.

In short, the identity of this pendant was undoubtedly the magical tool that Gretel had promised to make using basilisk materials.

The basic framework of the pendant seems to be a heart that has been compressed using some magical means and then solidified into crystal, and its contents give the impression of being liquefied brain… or something presumed to be brain.

Additionally, while the cord of this pendant might appear to be made of ordinary fiber, it is actually cardiac vessels (blood vessels) hardened like metal, and the magical power, mystery… even the aura emanating from it all tell me the same thing.

“The goal is to recreate… the basilisk?”

“…!! Yes, that’s right…! That’s the purpose!”

Perhaps she was quite pleased that I had recognized the purpose for which this pendant was made. As she opened her mouth, smiling happily in her own way, I was about to move to test it, but….

“U-um… let’s go out to the yard to test it….”

“Alright, Miss Gretel. Well then, let’s go outside now.”

Having heard her earnest request, I went out to the yard as Gretel wished and activated the pendant’s magic.

And….

-Grrrrrr….

“…This is unexpected.”

Seeing the black form that appeared as a result of activating the pendant’s power—something like a hazy shadow—I expressed pure admiration for its appearance, which I hadn’t predicted at all.

Namely, as I gazed at the form of the basilisk, the owner of the material.