Chapter 9
Tutorial: The Great Bath (Part 1)
The maid, Shia Yun, who is bathing with me, explains the spellcraft that keeps the huge bath filled with hot water.
My confusion over my first-ever mixed bath is barely outweighed by my curiosity about this world’s magic.
Shia Yun looks a little sad — maybe she’s thinking about Princess Leafa, who still lies unconscious for reasons unknown.
But her calm and articulate way of speaking shows clearly that she’s intelligent and capable.
“There are five main kinds of spellcraft in this kingdom,”
she began.
“First, Purification, which banishes evil and wards off calamity.
Second, Divination, which receives prophecies or guidance from the ancestral spirits.
Third, Flame, which produces fire or heat.
Fourth, Healing, which cures diseases.
And fifth, Detection, which discovers things like water veins, ore veins, or lost items.
A spellcaster channels these powers through the ancestral spirits to manifest them.
However, each spellcaster has their own strengths and weaknesses.
In Princess Leafa’s case, she mainly uses Purification and Divination.
Still, she can generate heat with the Flame spell, and that very power is what keeps this bathwater warm.”
“Wow… Even though she’s asleep, the water’s still being heated by her magic?”
“No,”
Shia Yun replied.
“A spellcaster can carve charm scrolls, inscribing them with magical symbols and words of power.
These allow them to send their magic to distant places and activate spells remotely.
The water here is heated by one of Princess Leafa’s engraved charms.”
“I see. Then, where does the bathwater come from?”
“A great underground water vein runs beneath this castle of Jiwo.
The water is drawn up from a well connected to it.
Incidentally, that water vein was discovered almost three hundred years ago through a Detection spell.”
Even though I keep firing off questions, Shia Yun doesn’t seem annoyed at all.
We’ve definitely gone off-topic — and sharing a bath makes this a weird situation — but fine.
Let’s just call this my ‘Otherworld Tutorial’.
“By the way,” I asked, “doesn’t the Flame spell work against those beast-monsters?”
“Um…”
For the first time, Shia Yun faltered. She thought for a moment, then continued as if realizing something.
“There are only fifty-eight spellcasters in the entire kingdom — they’re extremely rare.
Princess Leafa is the only one in this castle, and that’s only because she happened to be staying here by chance.
Normally, spellcasters are never stationed in border fortresses.
Those who specialize in Flame spells can manifest an offensive spell called a fireball, but unfortunately, none reside in this castle.”
I see. She’d been unsure how to explain because the number of spellcasters wasn’t something I’d known.
Still, the fact that no one here can use magic right now is a depressing bit of news.
“What about the summoning spell that brought me here?” I asked next.
“The summoning of a Marebito — a visitor from another world — originates from the primitive form of spellcraft called ‘Fushuku’, or spirit invocation.
It is said to be a spell that any spellcaster can theoretically perform.”
“Huh…”
“However,” she went on,
“it requires offering one’s life in exchange.
And if the ancestral spirit invoked does not recognize that the kingdom is truly in mortal danger, the summoning fails to manifest — the caster dies for nothing.
So it is rarely ever attempted.”
So that’s it… That blue-haired Princess Leafa risked her life using such a deadly spell to summon me.
She didn’t do it for herself — she did it to protect the people of this castle.
No wonder Shia Yun admires her so much.
I’ve asked most of what I wanted to know, but there’s still one question that matters most.
And so, I asked Shia Yun the thing I most wanted to know—
