Chapter 16

“Teleportation Magic Circle?”

That sentence jogged my memory to the time when we took a break after our sparring to fix my bad habits by the riverside where we always did our spar.

‘Listen, kid. Even among Classic Magic, there are several spells that are forbidden to use. The cause can be because casting it is dangerous for the mages, because the power is too strong and can cause widespread damage to the surroundings, or even just because it’s strategically forbidden by the consensus of the countries.’

‘Strategically forbidden?’

‘Yeah. For example, Teleportation Magic. More specifically, Teleportation Magic Circle has been banned from being used by anyone.’

‘Why?’

‘Just imagine that you’re a King and an enemy army suddenly appears in the middle of your country’s capital and starts invading so suddenly that you have no time to react.’

‘Teleporting an army is possible?’

‘Depending on the size of the army, the magic circle and mana needed will be exponentially bigger, but it is possible. But in the first place, just a small Teleportation Magic Circle is enough of a threat. An assassin can use it to infiltrate your castle, kill you, and escape easily with Teleportation Magic Circle.’

…Was what she said, and here she is using that forbidden magic.

“Master… Isn’t Teleportation Magic Circle a forbidden magic?”

“Yeah.”

“Then why are you using it?”

“As I said, it’s to cut our travel time. I don’t want to spend more time than necessary on the road. Even as we’re talking right now, more and more work piles up on my desk, after all.”

I’m still looking at her, my expression clearly showing that I’m not convinced with her reasoning.

“It will be fine, kid. The magic itself was just forbidden on the surface. In reality, Teleportation Magic Circle can be used with proper authorization, and I do have the authorization to use it.”

“Is it because you’re chasing that Edmund guy?”

“Yeah. Once I was ordered to give chase to Edmund, I also received authorization to use several forbidden magics. One of them is Teleportation Magic Circle.”

Now that she made it clear that there would be no problem with using this magic, I nodded my head in understanding.

“Now that it’s clear, let’s go. Step on the magic circle.”

Following her command, I stepped on the glowing magic circle together with Master Elara. Once both of us were on top of it, the magic circle glowed brighter until my vision was covered in a blinding white light.

A few moments passed, the bright light settled down, and I opened my eyes. The sight before me changed from a damp and cold cave room to a well-lit room with a lot of fancy decorations. I turned my sight to my feet and saw that both of us were standing on top of a raised platform. Drawn on said platform was the same magic circle as the one drawn on the cave floor.

The sound of hurried footsteps could be heard from behind the door in front of us, and the door was opened very roughly with a ‘Bang!’ and a man with fair skin, short golden hair, and blue eyes walked in. The man looked like he was well into his forties, and his face was adorned with a majestic golden beard and mustache.

He started saying something to Master Elara and bowed to her before he shifted his gaze towards me while saying something.

Man, stop looking at me. I don’t even understand what you said.

Looking at me being confused, Master Elara put her hand on top of my head and ruffled my hair while looking straight into my eyes.

“Follow me.”

After she said that, she led the way, walking in front with me, while the man who entered the room followed behind her.

We climbed a lot of staircases, and when we finally reached the top floor, Master Elara opened the door and walked through it.

We walked through the door, and I was welcomed with a sight I’d never seen before.

I looked over the town below me, with all the buildings having a completely different shape from what I’m used to seeing. I could see people walking around the roads between the buildings, wearing completely different clothes from what I’m used to seeing, and no one there looked like me. I could faintly hear the buzzing from the town and see a wall on the edge of the town.

My heart was pounding with excitement. Everything is different here from back home. I tried to breathe in as much air as I could, and even the smell was different.

Suddenly, Master Elara ruffled my hair again and, with a bright smile I’d never seen before on her face, she said this,

“Welcome to Britain, kid.”

…

Two months has passed since I arrived in Britain, and currently, I’m being taught this country’s language by the same man who entered the room where Master Elara and I teleported to.

“Do you understand?”

“Eeehh… Yeah?”

“Then why do you keep messing up the tenses!?”

“That’s what I should ask. Why is there a need to change the verb depending on the time it happened? What’s with the ‘eat,’ ‘ate,’ and ‘eaten’? Why can’t ‘eat’ just be used no matter the context of time, and we just add the time when it happened, like ‘I already eat this morning’ It’s confusing!”

“That’s just how English works! Just accept it!”

I keep bickering with Mr. Godwin, so the language studies are progressing a little slowly.

“Haaah… Let’s try this again.”

Mr. Godwin took off the ring, and I took off my ring too. The words I heard coming out of his mouth turned back into gibberish that I didn’t understand.

What an amazing item. Translation Ring, was it?

The Translation Ring is a magic item that, as its name suggests, can automatically translate any language the user speaks into a language that the other person who also uses the ring understands. It works by turning the meaning of the user’s words into a form called ‘meaning’ and directly transferring it into the brain of the other person who wears the matching ring. So rather than translating word for word, it transfers the meaning.

The language lessons pretty much consisted of both of us putting on the rings, with Mr. Godwin explaining things first and then telling me to use certain words and verbs in a sentence. Then, we would both take off the Translation Rings so that he could hear the words coming out of my mouth directly rather than through the ring’s translation feature.

“I… ate… Master Elara yesterday?”

“I ate WITH Master Elara yesterday!”

Mr. Godwin put on his ring again in frustration, and I followed suit.

“What you said made it seem like you ate the Tower Master!”

“Well, gee. I’m sorry. Don’t keep being angry, Mr. Godwin. A good teacher is one who can make even a donkey dance, don’t you agree?”

“I’m starting to think it would be much better to teach a donkey.”

Knock Knock

The door opened and Master Elara walked in while carrying a bag of street foods.

“How is his English study going?”

“Tower Master! The brat keeps talking back every time I corrected his mistakes! Say something to him!”

Hearing Mr. Godwin complain, Master Elara turned to me and signalling me to take off the ring.

“Here, eat some skewers I bought. It’s good.”

“Thank you, Master Elara. The skewers smells so good. Where did you buy it?”

“It’s from an inn I frequent. I’ll take you there sometimes.”

“Sounds good.”

While both of us just pick up a skewer and began eating, Mr. Godwin just looked at us with his mouth opened then he started trembling and asked us.

“W-How… You can speak English?”

“Yeah?”

Master Elara just giggled and looked at Mr. Godwin.

“The brat is messing with you, Godwin. He can already speak English conversationally for a while now.”

“Well, there’s still a lot of words I didn’t know though but yeah I can understand most of what you said.”

Hearing what we said, Mr. Godwin just stood there, trembling and screamed.

“AAAAAAHHHH!!!! FUUUUUUUUUUCCCCKKKK!!!”

At the time, Mr. Godwin’s screams could be heard throughout the Veynes Magic Tower. The frustrated shouts of the Tower’s Vice Master after getting pranked by both the Tower Master and her disciple, whom she had picked up in a faraway country and who also happened to act very similarly to her, resounded throughout the Tower and became a legend for years to come.

…

Leaving the frustrated Mr. Godwin to calm himself down after the prank, I followed Master Elara to the library. Everyone kept bowing to us, well, more like to her, every time we walked past someone. According to her, most mages here are apprentices, and they’re studying under various Advanced Rank Mages who act as their mentors. These are mages who can use Tier 5 magic. Mr. Godwin, as the Tower’s Vice Master, mainly works by helping Master Elara and covering for her whenever she’s not available since he’s a Master Class mage.

Now that I remembered just how important of a person Mr. Godwin is, I kinda feel bad pranking him like that. I better buy some liquor later for him.

How can I buy liquor for him, you ask? Well, as the direct disciple of the Tower Master, I got access to a lot of funds too. Calling it funds sounds so fancy, but basically, it’s pocket money Master Elara gives me. But calling it pocket money doesn’t feel right either because the amount is just too much. Well, I can buy Mr. Godwin’s favorite liquor thanks to it, so it’s a good thing.

After we entered the library, Master Elara asked the librarian to pick up some books and bring them to us. It took a while for the librarian to return with the books Master requested because there were a lot of them, but everything was here, piled up on top of the table.

That’s a ton of books.

“Now that you can somewhat understand English and can somewhat read, start reading these books.”

“All of this?”

“All of it.”

I just stared at the mountain of books in front of me, my head already starting to hurt.

“This will take a long time, though?”

“That’s fine. You can learn the magic theory while also practicing reading. Two birds with one stone. If you have something to ask, like a word or sentence you don’t understand, just ask Ms. Agnes, the librarian.”

“You’re not going to teach me yourself, Master?”

“I wanted to, but because I’ve been away chasing that Edmund fucker for a long time, my work has piled up. I need to finish all of my work first before I can return to teaching you myself. Well, I should have finished my work by the time you finish understanding all of the stuff in those books.”

With that, Master Elara stood up and walked away.

“See you later, kid. Study hard.”

“Where are you going, Master?”

“To the palace.”

She turned to me and said,

“I need to report to the King.”