[V15C20] Stupid Extra-Large Deluxe

Back when Raul started learning barrier magic, he asked Louis for tips.

Louis held the title of ‘Barrier Mage’, making him the foremost caster of barrier magic among the Seven Sages. Raul figured he could give some good advice.

And so, Raul approached Louis in the Jade Chamber and asked the simple question of, “Any tips for barrier magic?”

For some reason, Louis twisted his face in displeasure and let out a long sigh.

“You think that higher mana capacity means you can make stronger barriers, don’t you?”

“Doesn’t it?”

“My stupid disciple once asked me the exact thing. Well, he gave up pretty quickly once he found out that the magical formulas for barriers aren’t the same as the other schools of magic.”

As Louis pointed out, barriers used different magical formulas from conventional spells.

There were some similarities, of course, and studying elemental magic does make it easier to understand barriers.

However, only a fraction of mages were actually able to master both elemental magic and barriers. In fact, some even gave up on elemental magic to specialize in barriers entirely.

But that’s a different topic. Returning to the relationship between mana capacity and barriers…

“Can’t you make a sturdier and bigger barrier with more mana?” Raul asked.

“Yes, you can. However…”

Louis explained while waving his fingers above his shoulder. This was a gesture he performed when pushing his long braids back, but it seemed meaningless with his short hair. Perhaps it was a habit he had yet to correct.

“Barrier magic is like building a wall of bricks. Think of the bricks as mana. Someone with a lot of mana can prepare a massive pile of bricks.”

“So having a lot of mana is an advantage, right?”

“Yes, but you still need to place them correctly. No matter how many bricks you have, stacking them haphazardly only results in a fragile wall… In fact, throwing in additional bricks is just a waste of time and effort if your foundation is poor.”

Raul imagined himself in front of a mountain of bricks.

His imaginary self had no clue where to start stacking, so he built a random pile that quickly toppled over. After several attempts of that, he eventually tripped over the scattered bricks and slammed his face into the ground.

Since his recent attempts at barrier magic had gone terribly, it was all too easy to picture himself failing.

“And let’s not forget,” Louis continued. “The quality of the bricks matters as well. Bricks made by skilled craftsmen are obviously better than clumps of dirt shaped by amateurs.”

In other words, Raul used bricks made out of haphazardly packed dirt, while Louis used durable bricks crafted by the finest artisans. Perhaps that’s why Louis could swing his barriers as a blunt weapon without breaking them.

“Mages with a lot of mana tend to dump an excessive amount into their barriers. And all they get for their trouble is an stupid extra-large deluxe. Such bloated barriers are usually unstable. They won’t last long.”

That made sense. Raul noticed that his barrier often collapsed after he poured a lot of mana into it.

Ultimately, it was true that more mana allowed you to create larger and stronger barriers, but only if you possessed the skill for it.

“Start by stacking small bricks one at a time. Once you can make something better than a child’s block tower, then try increasing the number of bricks.”

“I see…”

“By the way,” Louis said, pushing up his monocle with a smirk. “My daughter can make a tower of twelve blocks.”

He suddenly started bragging about his daughter.

＊　＊　＊

Back in the present, Raul watched as Monica and Cyril worked together to restore ‘The Botanical Specimen Garden’.

Cyril was verifying the mana of each page, and Monica was searching for deviations in the magical formulas. However, Monica was also casting spells to keep the plants at bay. She wouldn’t be able to concentrate like this.

(In that case, making a stronger barrier will let Monica ignore the plants.)

Raul followed Louis’s advice and slowly improved his skill at barrier magic, but it was still too hard to get right.

Manipulating roses was as simple as pouring in a bunch of mana.

On the other hand, barriers were a lot more complicated. He needed to use the proper amount of mana, then mold it into the correct shape and mana density.

Raul understood that mastering barrier magic would take a long time. But after his repeated failures, he did learn one thing.

(For barriers… the foundation is critical.)

The first half of the incantation was for laying the barrier’s foundation. And a screw up in the foundation would cause it to be crushed under his immense mana later on.

Thus, Raul focused hard on building the foundation, even if it meant pausing the incantation a few times.

The resulting barrier looked like a structure formed by planting trees in close proximity, then wrapping them with vines to seal any gaps.

Since Raul’s specialty was plant manipulation, he found it easier to imagine a wall of plants rather than a wall of bricks.

A typical mage’s defensive barrier was thinner than a glass pane, because this was the most efficient shape. As long as the mana density was high enough, even a thin barrier could withstand most spells.

On the other hand, Raul’s barrier was as thick as a tree trunk. If Louis had been here, he would’ve complained about such a blatant waste of mana.

“My barrier turned into a stupid extra-large deluxe again…” Raul muttered.

Though he was still busy with the restoration process, Cyril could not help but ask, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Oh, I was just thinking about how Louis-san would call it that…”

“Y-Yeah, he might say that…”

After glancing at the barrier, Monica murmured in agreement. Sure enough, even she considered his barrier to be stupidly inefficient.

Raul’s oversized barrier certainly consumed more mana than a standard barrier, but he was confident in its durability. This was the best he could manage right now.

Meanwhile, the yellow roses began slithering around the barrier looking for a way in.

(Ah, crap…)

The barrier Raul cast was supposed to be hemispherical, protecting them under a transparent dome… but some areas were terribly misshapen.

In particular, the top of the barrier lacked much support. This weakness stemmed from Raul’s lack of skill. Louis and Monica would never make that mistake.

And worse yet, the yellow roses seemed to have noticed the thin spot. The branches of the nearby trees joined the roses in poking at the top of the barrier.

Sweat formed on Raul’s cheeks as he desperately adjusted the flow of mana. He poured more mana into the top to reinforce the weakspot… but that threw off the balance of the entire barrier, causing it to bend.

Of course, a heavier top will put more strain on the middle portions, which Raul had paid less attention to.

“Ugh, t-then I’ll channel some mana there too…”

Next, Raul noticed the plants attacking from behind. That was the side closest to Monica and Cyril, so he needed to protect them.

In a panic, he quickly reinforced the back, which once again threw the balance off.

“Waaaah…! Right! Left! Upper left! Uhh, next is… uhh…”

Now that he was actually deploying a large barrier with a lot of mana, Raul understood Louis’s advice. More mana did not always make for a stronger barrier.

The portions with excessive mana were bending apart, affecting the structure as a whole. His barrier was quickly approaching the breaking point, about to collapse any second now.

“Upper right! Above! Behind…! Ugh, hang in there, my stupid extra-large deluxe!”

“…Again, what is that supposed to mean?” Cyril murmured.

A moment later, Monica opened her mouth.

“Analysis complete.”

Her round, expressionless eyes had scanned all of the floating pages.

She pointed a small finger at one of them.

“The last anomaly was on Page 203. I will now assist Raul-sama.”

“I’m counting on you.”

“Right!”

Monica responded to Cyril with a firm nod, then moved next to Raul.

“Raul-sama, I was able to finish thanks to the time you bought us…”

Monica stared straight at the clumsy barrier and the yellow roses trying to break through.

“Now, it’s my turn.”

Raul had assumed that Monica would cast a new barrier, but she did not.

Instead, she stepped forward and placed her palm on Raul’s almost collapsed barrier.

(Spell interference!?)

It was possible to interfere with the spells of other mages, but only with an enormous amount of mana, or an exceptional understanding of magical formulas.

Raul could do the former, and Monica could do the latter.

Without any incantation, Monica applied a series of modifications to Raul’s barrier. The shaky foundation suddenly became firm.

“Sections 1 through 7 corrected. Proceeding.”

She was showing Raul the proper way to construct a barrier.

One by one, she modified the barrier to correct each flaw and bend.

Monica had the skill to do everything in an instant, but she took her time to let Raul see.

“Section 8 and onward will be the upper framework. I’ll adjust the misaligned coordinates. Be careful with the angles. A mistake there will leave a hole at the top.”

The barrier was still formed from Raul’s mana. Monica had simply refined it, compressing his excessive mana into the correct shape and shaving off the rest.

Raul concentrated on burning this sensation into his memory.

(My friend is… amazing…)

Monica looked up at the barrier with a trance-like smile.

“There. It’s perfect.”

The barrier had been rebuilt into an impenetrable fortress. The plants could not leave so much as a scratch, and maintaining it was way easier than before.

Raul still fumbled over the mana manipulation a few times, but each time, Monica immediately stepped in to support him.

“Monica, thanks for the backup!” He said, glancing over at Monica.

“Likewise, thank you for buying us time!”

The exchange of smiles filled Raul’s heart with joy.

＊　＊　＊

While Monica and Raul maintained the barrier, Cyril began the final phase of restoration.

“All instances of tampering identified. Initiating severing and sealing sequence.”

Cyril concentrated mana into his fingertips and traced the edge of a tampered page.

The page glowed white before being absorbed into the ring on the middle finger of his right hand.

He was tearing out the tampered pages and sealing them within Sophocles.

(This is just like cutting cloth.)

Once you cut into a piece of cloth, there’s no way to undo it. Similarly, it was not possible to undo a torn page.

With each page he removed, Cyril also sliced through his own hesitation.

Then, after sealing the final page, it was time to rebind the book.

Cyril materialized a silver needle in his hands, connected to a white thread of mana.

With deep respect for the maker of this book, Cyril began stitching the book together, one thread at a time. Thanks to the support of Sophocles, his hands moved with surprising ease.

Ancient artifacts could guide the wielder’s body, allowing even an amateur to perform skilled labor. This was the intended use of their body possession power.

(I wonder how many books Sophocles has restored. Thousands?)

Cyril could never have accomplished this alone.

Without the support of Monica, Raul, and Sophocles, restoring a forbidden tome was far beyond his station.

Holding his gratitude for Sophocles and his friends in his heart, Cyril made the final stitch.

“Restoration complete!”

Similar to how he pulled the book from the ground earlier, Cyril inserted the restored book into the ground.

A white light spread from that point, enveloping everything in ‘The Botanical Specimen Garden’.

“Monica, Raul! We’re leaving!”

＊　＊　＊

“Great Witch… Great Witch…”

Raul saw something in the glowing white light.

The shadow that had been chasing them now had a face. He turned into a black-haired boy in ethnic clothing.

His eyes were still closed, but he reached a small arm toward Raul, before lowering it again.

“Oh, I see… the Great Witch has yet to return…”

Apparently, sealing away the tampered pages had returned the gravekeeper to normal.

His intense obsession with the “Great Witch” was gone, replaced with a childlike simplicity and a sense of loneliness.

“Raul, let’s go.”

“Raul-sama.”

Cyril and Monica called out to him. The tunnel of trees was faintly visible through the white light.

That was the exit. They could leave now.

But just before entering the tunnel, Raul paused and looked back at the shadow.

(Daphne odora, gardenia, and… I only got a glimpse of the autumn one, but it was an orange flower I didn’t even recognize…)

Flowers for depicting spring, summer, and autumn.

Raul understood the intention behind them. He was the only man alive who possibly could.

“If I ever come here again…”

Just before entering the tunnel, Raul waved his hand to the shadow.

“I’ll make sure to bring you a flower of winter with an awesome aroma!”

The boy flinched ever so slightly in surprise, then shyly returned the wave.

Raul flashed a wide grin, showing his white teeth, then stepped into the tunnel where his friends were waiting.

View the latest chapters at seeker142.github.io