59 – Episode 59
# 59
Ian watched as the fairies performed their magic.
Their plan was simple and clear: to extract a certain amount of magical power from the magic sword.
While the power of the magic sword would weaken, it was attractive in that the fairies could lend the magical power that they so desired without actually handing over the sword.
Ian nodded without much hesitation.
After all, it was impossible to fully draw out 100% of the power of the magic sword at the moment. Even if it could only be used as a medieval-style fire stick, it was not a big loss if its power weakened slightly.
In exchange, he could obtain valuable fairy silk, making it a clear profitable deal.
However, the problem was that Ian himself did not think it was much of a profit.
Let’s say the fairies gave Ian fairy silk.
But what would Ian do with it?
Make clothes? Sell it to the nobles?
That was the job of merchants, not a wizard.
Ian was not a lower-class citizen desperate for money and power. He was a wizard who sought to explore the mysteries.
While he could travel and do business on the side, Ian had not yet made plans to go that far.
“We are considering transferring the magic contained in the magic sword to the runestone in our village.”
The fairy queen said, asking Ian to lend her his magic sword.
“Then I’ll come along too.”
“… Even if you come, there will be nothing for you to do.”
“Don’t you think it’s right for me to follow with my sword?”
Ian’s persuasion convinced the Fairy Queen.
“If that’s the reason.”
Ian was accompanying the Fairy Queen, but no one else.
The fairies lived a life of minimizing contact with the outside world for their survival. Occasionally, mischievous fairies had contact with humans, but that was always an exception.
Humans other than Ian were struck dumb.
Not a single human had any complaints about that decision.
“Go and come back, Ian!”
“I’ll bring it.”
In fact, humans were also afraid of fairies.
Fairies were famous sorcerers. For medieval people who feared magic, encountering fairies was painful.
“Ian. Before entering the village, please make a vow.”
“A vow?”
“Yes. Swear that you will not harm our fairies, risking all the mysteries you explore, Ian.”
“…”
As the Fairy Queen spoke, the surrounding mysteries, big and small, seemed to take an interest.
Fairies were a race born with magic. In Dungeons & Dragons terms, they were a charismatic race that wielded magic.
Unlike Ian, who was an INT wizard, fairies could cast magic without studying arcane arts. It was because they were inherently inclined to contact and interact with mysteries.
As the Fairy Queen mentioned mysteries, Ian couldn’t help but feel tense.
It goes without saying, Shinbi dislikes people who lie.
Where in the world can you find someone who lies to their friend? If such a person exists, they are no longer a friend.
If Ian made a vow to Shinbi, he had no choice but to keep it.
“I vow.”
“Are you serious?”
“However, this applies only when I am treated as a guest.”
“May it be so.”
The fairies had witnessed Ian communicating with nature several times and were cautious of his abilities.
Just by seeing him tame a dreadful creature like a barn owl, they could tell how dangerous Ian was.
“This is the fairies’ village.”
Ian murmured in awe as he looked at the fairy village guided by the queen.
[Achievement unlocked!]
[You have witnessed a new mystery!]
[Bonus skill points: +50]
[Skill: Dimensional Magic (10/100) – In Progress]
“Dimensional Magic?”
Ian raised his head in surprise as the status window appeared before him.
Along with witnessing a new mystery, the progress of the mystery of Dimensional Magic had increased.
That means…
“Has the mystery of Dimensional Magic been applied here?”
When Ian asked, the Fairy Queen’s expression was one of surprise.
“How did you know?”
“Just. Intuition?”
“Your intuition is quite sharp.”
The Fairy Queen’s praise was a compliment, but not really. She was wary of Ian’s abilities.
Ian was right. The fairy village was imbued with the mysteries of spatial magic.
It was a kind of parallel world that could only be entered with the permission of the twisted space, not by ordinary steps.
‘Spatial magic…’
Spatial magic was incredibly useful for Ian.
Just by the fact that teleportation magic belonged to spatial magic, one could tell.
If he could twist space, Ian could roughly imitate what a mage class does in a JRPG game.
Summoning stone sculptures from thin air, summoning monsters, and other such things.
However, Ian remembered Eredis’s warning.
“Try your hand at introductory spatial magic, and if you don’t think it’s for you, give it up right away.”
The reason Eredis warned him was precisely because of the second attribute of spatial magic. The power to manipulate time.
Spatial mages can foresee the future.
And they do it just like eating a meal.
They casually predict the future and try to change it to their liking. These ominous mages are none other than spatial mages.
If Ian were to embark on the study of spatial magic, the spatial mages would naturally become aware of that fact.
If the spatial mages desired Ian to become a spatial mage in the future, Ian would become one.
But if not…
Chronomancers would do whatever it takes to prevent Ian from learning chronomancy.
To the point of taking his life.
This is why most wizards, including Eredis, despise chronomancers.
They act as if they were gods, trying to control the world.
Eredis’s warning meant that if the chronomancers interfere with Ian’s desire to learn chronomancy, he should give it up immediately.
Not only is it ominous, but also because those who already know what will happen in the future will intentionally cause trouble, Ian’s life will become very exhausting.
In other words, it means not to mess with the chronomancers.
“…”
Ian briefly considered investing his accumulated skill points to raise his chronomancy level.
No matter what anyone says, chronomancy is a convenient magic.
But when he thought about how the chronomancers might make a fuss about him learning chronomancy… he concluded that there was no urgent need to learn it.
Eredis had already told Ian, “Don’t worry about the chronomancers.”
They’re not worth it.
She said that they’re the ones who will move before Ian does, so he can just wait calmly.
“I have a suggestion… I hope you won’t reveal the location of our village.”
The Fairy Queen looked at Ian with sharp eyes.
She never expected Ian to see through the mysteries of the chronomancy applied to the village.
If Ian harbored any wrong intentions, it would be troublesome for her.
But Ian had no intention of provoking the fairies.
“I swear on the mystery that I will not disclose any information.”
“Thank you.”
Only then did the Fairy Queen smile softly.
From Noble mtl dot com
Unlike other humans, the wizard Ian was not greedy and knew how to respect the fairies.
He was different from other humans who sought expensive fairy silk and destroyed fairy villages.
Anyway, they were now bound by a contractual relationship.
“Ian. The sword.”
The fairies were busy setting up runestones in the central square of the village.
It was to transfer the magical power of the magic sword into the runestone…
“How and what do you do? What is the principle?”
Ian asked a very wizard-like question. It was natural for a wizard to be curious about magic.
As if the Fairy Queen had expected it, she called a technician.
“I am in charge of the construction of the runestones.”
The technician looked at Ian with strange eyes.
Without needing to say it, it was an obvious look of ‘distrust’.
“I will explain… but I’m not sure if you will understand even if I say it.”
“…”
Ian was bewildered.
How on earth did they use such a mysterious technology?
The fairy technician, who understood Ian’s gaze, seemed to have expected it and snorted.
“If you pass the basic test, I will explain it to you. It’s really the most basic of the basics, so if you don’t understand this, you won’t understand anything I explain.”
“The introduction is unnecessarily long. Can’t you just get to the point quickly?”
Because he was afraid that someone might not consider him a technician, he bragged about what he knew.
But the fairy technician still ignored Ian.
Of course, because he’s… a human!
In the technician’s mind, a lowly human like him couldn’t possibly understand the great fairy technology.
And that disdain was justified.
“I’ll give you a test. Alright, human magician. You know how to count, right?”
“…Yes.”
“Give me one number that is smaller than 2.”
What is this?
By this point, Ian was not so much annoyed as curious about what nonsense this technician was going to say.
A number smaller than 2, of course…
“It’s 1.”
Before Ian could finish speaking, the technician let out an evil smile and shouted.
“Then what about a number smaller than 1?”
“…?”
Ian sincerely couldn’t understand what the technician was expecting. It was a perplexing case where he couldn’t grasp the other person’s intention.
And the technician…
Understood that Ian’s confusion stemmed from ignorance…!
“Stupid humans, I tell you!”
The fairies despised the level of human knowledge, as unlike humans, fairies excelled in mathematics.
If you find fairies who are skilled in math unfamiliar, let’s replace them with dwarves.
Yes.
It feels like disregarding the mathematics of humans who are skilled in math and replaced by dwarf-like humans!
In this medieval fantasy, fairies were a skilled artisan race.
While human artisans were ignorant of mathematics, these fairies were a race that could combine technology and mathematics, leading the forefront of technology.
The intellectual level of humans known by fairies was just about this.
Humans… don’t know what a number smaller than 1 is…
And that was a fact.
Medieval people did not know what a number smaller than 1 was.
Huh? Isn’t 1 the smallest number?
That’s true. When the range is natural numbers, that’s correct.
Unlike stupid humans, fairies knew the existence of ‘0’.
A number smaller than 1… is none other than 0.
Even the ancient golden empire that achieved a brilliant civilization did not know the existence of 0, as they did not think that ‘nothingness’ could become a number.
How can nothingness be a number!
With the mathematical level of the empire in that shape, the people of the current medieval era, which is a post-apocalyptic era, did not know about 0.
They were like magicians, placing a wooden stick in front of them, one 1, two 1s… that’s what the medieval people were doing.
The magician in this medieval fantasy… is not a science major, but a liberal arts major.
You can tell just by how smoothly they recite similar-looking Chinese characters and speak in Maronius language.
So, of course, the fairy technician thought Ian wouldn’t pass the test!
That’s why the fairy was taken aback when Ian suddenly asked an unexpected question.
“So, you’re asking me to say a number less than 1?”
“A natural… what?”
“A countable number. If it’s below a natural number, it’s obviously 0. Or, well, are you talking about negative numbers? What is it?”
“???”
The fairy was bewildered when Ian started spouting alien words all of a sudden.
Negative numbers? Is it an abbreviation for promiscuous numbers?
The fairy tried to translate Ian’s Imperial language into Fairy language, but no matter how much they thought, they couldn’t find an answer.
After a moment, it was the fairy who asked the question instead.
“Um… so, um. Sorry, but what are negative numbers?”
“It’s minus. Like -1.”
“…What?”
Minus? What the hell is that, you idiot?
The fairy technician couldn’t possibly understand the concept that Ian casually spat out.
As the clueless Ian picked up a stick and swiftly drew a graph on the ground.
“Nothingness is 0, right? Negative numbers are smaller than that.”
“No, that’s utter nonsense… How can there be something smaller than nothingness?”
“Miss, do you happen to know about equations?”
Not even a middle school math teacher.
Ian began an impromptu math lecture, writing symbols on the graph.
“So, the concept of negative numbers is fundamentally non-existent in the physical world…”
“Are you saying that it’s a symbol that only exists in equations?!”
“Yes. It’s a concept that applies to binomials. So, if you move the left side of the equation to the right side, you consider it a binomial…”
As Ian quickly wrote and erased equations, the fairy technician’s eyes popped out in astonishment.
Ian’s understanding of math was so shocking.
While the fairy’s math had advanced significantly compared to humans, it had yet to transcend physical space.
But suddenly, Ian presented the concept of “a number smaller than nothing,” a concept that even elementary school students would find absurd, and the fairy’s brain shut down.
“Crackle… Negative numbers are a state that doesn’t exist even more than something that doesn’t exist!”
“What’s that? What on earth?”
On the other hand, Ian, who used to think about math and pursuing a career in it, felt a sense of joy from this rare opportunity to engage with math.
Even though it was only math at the level of a first-year middle school student.
“No… How is this possible?”
The technician, who was in a panicked state like a mortal witnessing cosmic horror, reluctantly accepted it.
“Is the conversation over?”
The queen, who originally had no interest in math, had no idea what the technician and Ian were talking about.
“Oh. Yes. Roughly.”
“Well then, let’s go set up the runestone.”
Sure. This is the main point.
As Ian and the Queen approached the runestone, a technician rushed over and shouted.
“M-Mage!”
“Yes?”
“Wouldn’t you like to personally calculate the equation of the runestone?”
Oh, Ian was intrigued.
It might be fun to play with numbers for a change.
Ian played with the mathematical problem of the fairy technicians and the equation of the runestone.
Some fairies were fascinated and amazed by the intricate calculations of modern mathematics unfolding at Ian’s fingertips.
Apart from such cute and trivial admirations, the fairies succeeded in separating exactly 33.333…% of the magic power from the magic sword.
“Thank you for your cooperation.”
“Not at all.”