Chapter 18: The Truth Behind Garfield's Magic

  “Well, what is it that you want to know?” Garfield asked Kay, the Court Mage.

  “Okay okay, first of all, you summoned a wyvern in the courtyard and rode it to Foamy Port, right? How did you do it?”

  “I think you’ll be disappointed by my answer. I chanted the spell and the wyvern appeared. In fact, the wyvern appeared fully-trained and capable of providing a ride to the summoner.”

  “Huh? Of course, chanting the spell is important. But, it’s not enough to simply chant the name, otherwise anyone could do it. Every user of magic understands that you need to learn to draw on the mana in your body and mold it into a usable form before the spell can take effect. Describe to me the process of drawing and molding the mana when casting that particular spell. That’s what I’m asking.”

  “I don’t draw or mold mana.”

  “…What? WHAT!?” Kay was shocked. “All magic users draw or mold mana. UNLESS! Unless you are using a magic item to cast a spell. It’s rare, but items can be used by non-mages to cast spells. Is that somehow what you are doing?”

  “No.”

  After a brief pause in the conversation, Kay spoke again.

  “Okay. I’m going to take a step back. Breathe in. Breathe out. Now. Why don’t you need to draw or mold mana to cast magic, even though everybody else in this world learned magic by drawing and molding mana?”

  Garfield leaned back in his chair. “I can provide a satisfying answer to that question.”

  “Then!?”

  “Are you sure you want me to answer it?”

  “What?”

  “Once I answer that question, there is no going back. Do you understand the gravity of the situation you are in right now?”

  Sweat beaded on the Court Mage’s forehead. As the determination returned to her face, she spoke.

  “Yes. This is what I live for. If I am not willing to chase down the mysteries of the world, then I no longer have a reason to live. I have no choice but to ask you to proceed.”

  Garfield nodded and then turned to Hannah who was sitting next to him. “Do you—“

  “It doesn’t matter,” Hannah interrupted. “I will listen to whatever you have to say.”

  “Oh, uh, okay.” Garfield took a deep breath. “You absolutely must keep this secret… even from the King.”

  “I will,” Kay promised. “My ultimate responsibility is not to the crown, it is to the pursuit of magical knowledge.”

  “I’m not sure if the King would agree, but that works for me. The reason why I do not draw or mold magic in casting spells is because I did not learn how to use magic in this world.”

  “…Did you learn it in a different world?”

  “In a manner of speaking. You can think of me as hero summoned here from another world.”

  Kay’s expression was unreadable.

  “When I arrived in this world, I already had the ability to cast the magic you’ve heard about me using.”

  “…Did you learn that magic in your previous world?”

  “No.”

  “Then where!? Did you learn it as part of the process of transferring from your prior world to this one?”

  “Pretty much.”

  “How did that work!?” Kay shouted.

  “In my previous world, there was no magic. Magic was spoken of in stories, but it was not actually possible to cast a spell.”

  “How… awful…”

  “I wasn’t too happy there, to be honest. For a while, I was fairly successful in my pursuits, but I was growing pretty bored and depressed, even before my work situation fell apart. While I was agonizing over what I should do, or if I should even do anything, I died.”

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  Kay closed her eyes and continued listening.

  “Apparently, I was struck by a meteor. It seems I’m the first person in my world ever to get killed by getting struck by a meteor. Seems unlikely, right?”

  Kay did not respond.

  “While in some non-corporeal form, I had a chat with an entity that could best be described as a god. He repeatedly denied he was a god, but He displayed powers beyond anything I thought possible in my life up until that point. He even pointed out that the meteor which perfectly struck the bed I was sleeping in was his doing.”

  Garfield looked at Hannah, but he couldn’t make out her expression behind the mask.

  “He told me he intended to send me to another world… something He did from time to time. He described it as a method to accelerate ‘cross-pollination’ and to prevent worlds from stagnating too much. I queried Him about the how and why of His plan, and quickly discovered a bunch of holes in it. That was when I realized He wasn’t omniscient, and probably wasn’t truly a god. I actually had to start explaining some mathematical concepts to him, including the Braess Paradox.”

  “…Braess Paradox?” Kay asked.

  “As one mathematician in my world observed, the improvement of a malfunctioning network can sometimes be accomplished by removing certain parts of it and, in contrast, adding network connections can actually reduce the overall efficiency.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “The simplest analogy is actually how the paradox was discovered. Adding one or more roads to a road network can actually slow down overall traffic through it, as counterintuitive as it sounds.”

  Kay had a look of realization on her face as she came to understand the implications of Garfield’s explanation. This topic was a bit outside her area of specialization, but it wasn’t that far off from the study of magic, and she was a bright woman.

  “I helped this entity realize that the connections between worlds He was artificially adding in his “cross-pollination” scheme were, in some cases, hindering reaching his overall goals, counterintuitively.”

  Kay closed her eyes again, presumably to concentrate.

  “He thanked me for opening His eyes and agreed to study the issue before plucking any more people from their worlds. However, He couldn’t undo the fact that He removed me from my world so He offered to proceed with inserting me into the new world, as planned. I wasn’t super interested but I figured it was better than just spending eternity floating in a non-physical form with that guy.”

  Garfield took a breath. He didn’t usually speak for so long.

  “He told me that, contrary to common stories in fiction, He didn’t normally grant transplants special powers as that would typically run counter to his goals. However, He wanted to reward me for all the help I provided to his efforts so He offered to grant me whatever I wanted before placing me into the new world.”

  Now, Kay’s eyes were wide open.

  “Since I had been pretty bored up until that point, I figured I may as well ask for something that would make life interesting. As a consumer of fiction myself, I had already given the idea some thought in the past. I decided to ask Him for the ability to cast any spell I had ever witnessed in fiction before, or any that I could conceive of provided I understood the mechanism it operated on at a fundamental level.”

  “What?”

  “The entity told me He could grant me what I want, but He needed to place a slight restriction on it. I’m not sure why, but He said I would need to chant a specific and unambiguous phrase for any spell I cast unless I had witnessed it before in fiction and I fully understood the mechanism it operated on.”

  “Wait…”

  “To be honest, I haven’t experimented with silently casting magic yet. I’m worried that I might be setting myself up for accidentally casting spells without meaning to in the future. Fortunately, the drawbacks of actually stating the spell haven’t caused me too many problems yet.”

  “Sir Garfield…”

  “I’ve avoided using any spells that mess too much with my mind or my humanity. I don’t actually intend to live as some existence greater than humanity… I just have a very large spell book and can generally avoid using mana.”

  “Oh, is that all?” Kay said, feigning calm.

  “Also, I think another one of those near-god-like entities is on to me and might interfere in the future.”

  “This…is…freaking…AMAZING! Are you telling the truth? Demonstrate one of your spells for me! Hurry!”

  “Your mind is remarkably resilient. Fine. ?Summon Angelic Creature of Legend, The Archangel of Justice, Lord Raguel?.”

  “Hello again,” Garfield greeted the angel he last saw while intimidating that Boss guy a few days ago.

  The archangel bowed towards Garfield and then stood at attention. Kay stared at the archangel wide-eyed. She likely wasn’t familiar with the lore surrounding the angel Raguel, but she could certainly recognize a divine being when she saw one.

  “S-S-Should I be bowing right now!?”

  “No, that would be weird,” said Garfield.

  Hannah, who had been quiet all this time, jumped up and ran behind Garfield. The archangel was just that impressive.

  “She’s a bit intimidating, I guess. May I dismiss her now?

  “Uh, yes!”

  Garfield dismissed Raguel into a puff of holy light. “Are you able to keep what I told you a secret?”

  “Yes! I will take your secret to my death! I will stay up every night thinking about what you have told me!”

  “That… doesn’t make me happy…” Garfield observed.

  “Are you able to teach your magic to others? Could you pass it on to your children?” Kay asked.

  Garfield froze. He always knew it was highly unlikely he could teach his magic to others, but he hadn’t considered if his abilities were hereditary. He decided now was not the time to address this issue.

  “Let’s end the conversation there.”

  “Yes…”

  Garfield stood up and took Hannah’s hand. “Would you escort me out of the palace?”

  Kay made to stand up, but her legs suddenly couldn’t support her weight. “J…Just a minute… my body isn’t… cooperating.”

  After a few moments, the Court Mage tried to stand again, and still failed.

  Garfield sighed. “Do you want me to carry you?”

  “No. I mean yes, but no.”

  These revelations really had taken their toll on Kay, more so than Hannah. After another minute, Kay regained the ability to walk. As they were about to leave the area reinforced for private conversations…

  “Oh, this is still a secret too, but Hannah here is a vampire.”

  “What!?”

  “If I return for another visit, could you teach me everything that is known about vampires in this world?”

  “Of course!” Kay agreed. “I’ll get started on putting that together right away!”

  “Also, I’m asking a lot of you to keep all this secret. If there’s something you need in the future that my summoning magic could be of use for, please let me know. Basically, just assume I can summon anything I can conceive of.”

  The Court Mage’s legs gave out again and she collapsed on the spot.