Chapter 16: A New Page, A New Chapter, A Special Cookie

Jyn stayed with Kalender at the magic practice field. She was waiting until just before the end of office hours to visit Page.

There were a bunch of other mages using the field. Kalender was watching them all use different spells. There were the usual bullet and ball spells, but he noticed two different types of explosion chants: {Explode that} and {Shoot a ball of enflamed air}.

They were both pretty loud.

The first one just made the target explode, no questions asked—the amount of MP dictated the scale of the explosion, according to the book he was reading right now via Access Collection. It needed 10 MP minimum to work, though. He didn’t need a spell that instantly made him depressed.

The second one fired off what looked like a really angry fireball, exploding on impact.

Compared to the normal fireball, which had neither force nor mass behind it, the exploding fireball one was pretty much an air ball, which provided the force and bang, stacked on top of a fireball. The MP cost was more than additive at 10 MP—5 MP for the fireball, 2 MP for the air, and 3 MP for whatever made explosions explosive. Probably.

Kalender was kinda sad about the MP cost. The exploding bullet one was about 0.5 MP. He wasn’t really sure whether two flame bullets was better than one exploding bullet. It was probably a situational choice sort of thing.

“I’ll go to Page now,” Jyn said.

“Sure. I’ll just wait for you here.”

She headed straight for the Knight HQ. The door guards didn’t even bother checking her and let her through immediately. She asked the receptionist for Page, but instead of being made to wait at the counter, Jyn was told to go upstairs, straight to Page’s office. She knocked on the door.

“Please, come in.”

It was a quiet reply. Jyn opened the door and saw Page behind a cleared desk, as if it had never been used. There wasn’t even a speck of dust in the corners of the room.

Jyn closed the door behind her. “How do you feel?”

“So-so,” Page replied. “I don’t know if it’s the charm effects, but I don’t feel as nervous as I thought I would be.”

“Don’t worry about the charm effects. They will be dispelled soon.”

Page cocked an eyebrow. “Can you actually do that? Isn’t that … impossible?”

“It’s not straightforward, and it is particular to Kalender.”

Page played with her fingers, itching to ask something.

“Out with it,” Jyn said.

“Kalender, how—how is he?”

“Overwhelmingly affable and a living unicorn among men.”

“Seriously?”

“Truly.”

More evidence in favor of Kalender, but Page’s feelings wouldn’t change so fast. Was Jyn just … drumming up his reputation for his benefit? What if—

“Since you will be traveling with us, I will tell you all about our origins.” Jyn paused. “Some of our origins.”

She told her the story, starting from when Jyn tried to arrest this random reincarnator who’d tripped the Royal Detector’s nationwide detection network. Her squad had happened to be in the area, and as one frequently tapped by the Inquisition to arrest Cursed Ones, they obliged to investigate.

It was her recounting of the Carmine Test that gripped Page.

“I had already given up, and resolved to soil my chastity just to see him put to death, and myself given mercy. I did not want to live mourning for a man whom I never truly loved, nor even knew.”

It all seemed so distant to the woman herself, however. She told Page about the Stand as Equals Companion Skill, acquiring it as an option as a consequence of the peculiar way Kalender treated her.

“… And now?”

“It feels like I have to hold his hand, else he would get lost like a child.”

Huh? “… Is that a man?”

“It’s only his boyish nature. His passions in life manifest occasionally, and you would be reminded that he is one. I believe I haven’t even scratched the surface of who he is, but as I’ve come to believe, knowing more about someone does not mean establishing more trust in them within one’s heart.”

Her words are too deep and her face is too at ease for this to be a scam, Page thought, I don’t know until I see it myself… I’ll know the truth soon enough.

Also, she could get to say that she was involved with the Inquisition. That was the most important point.

“That said, I will be training you tomorrow. At that time, where can I find you?” Jyn asked.

“Ah, we can meet by the storage shed of the training field. I’m friends with the quartermaster there.”

“Oh, Lens? This’ll be convenient, then.”

“You know her?”

“Kalender and I have been training for some days. We got to know Lens after I appropriated the instructors’ area and Kalender fixed the magic practice field’s barrier.”

Page’s eyes went wide. “It was him?!” She was going to be in the presence of a skilled mage! “The story’s been going around that someone fixed the barrier with a tiny dot!”

So Kalender is already acquiring a reputation… “Keep it secret, would you?”

“Of course!” She was privy to a secret and it was amazing.

***

The next morning, Jyn found Lens and Page chatting by the storage shack.

“Are you ready?” Jyn asked. She looked Page up and down. She was wearing a tunic and trousers like Lens, but unlike Lens’s slack attitude, she still had the poise of a Librarian.

“I don’t know, but I don’t care!” Page pumped her fist in the air.

Jyn smiled. Page’s mood seemed improved from the other day. “Glad to know. Let’s go.”

As they walked, Jyn told her about the small expedition to the temple row outside of town. There were only another three days before the Priestess’s reinforcements arrived, though, so Page consented to being left behind.

“Where’s … Kalender, by the way?” Page asked.

“He’s in the magic field with his new toy.” Jyn shook her head. “I came back here yesterday after meeting with you, and I found him testing a magic weapon he calls an ‘airgun,’ but it was no more than a pipe and it didn’t even have a magic circle on it.”

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“That’s—not a magic weapon, then? It’s just a weapon?”

They had stopped in the instructors’ area when they heard a loud pop.

“There it is, again. I think it’s even louder today,” Jyn remarked.

Pop. “What is that?” Page asked. Pop.

“He directs an air bullet through the tube, where a clay bullet is loaded. Apparently, the air accelerates through the tube, forcing the bullet out with a loud pop, as you can hear—” Pop. “—It has as much force as an earth bullet, but with lesser MP consumption since the only magic involved is an air bullet.”

“Why would he be concerned with lesser MP consumption?” Isn’t he a great mage?

“Hm? Ah. You see, he is still Level 1.”

“Huh?!”

Jyn ignored her surprise. “His talent is ridiculous, which means our foremost concern, battle-wise, is you.”

“T-true, I’m just a Librarian…”

“Now, pick up that quarterstaff. Lens claims that the training dummy here is indestructible, so don’t hold back.”

For Page’s first weapon, Jyn decided to train her on the quarterstaff. It was a versatile weapon that performed extremely well against unarmored opponents, or even decently in defending against armored opponents.

It was easy to procure, and most towns’ guards didn’t bat an eye for someone carrying a staff. As an added bonus, it would give Page decent practice in handling weapons in general; depending on how one held it, the weapon’s inertia could be manipulated to be between one’s hands, or far away from them. By getting a tactile feel of how to work with inertia, this opened up future options if Page wanted to diversify towards swords and proper polearms.

There were even some sophisticated treatises about the use of quarterstaves. For now, however, Jyn taught her to jab and whack, familiarizing her with how her muscles felt and responded when she did so.

After just 30 minutes, Page was left with arms as strong as wet noodles. She felt tired in a way that couldn’t be compared to exhaustion from running and such. Even her brain felt like it had been doing something the whole time, even though she didn’t realize it.

Jyn figured it was okay to stop here. There were other things to be concerned about. “By the way, what’s your max MP?” she asked. “It’s—ahh—12,” Page replied.

Level 6 with 12 MP. Decent. As a general rule of thumb, as one leveled up, their max MP was equal to their MP at Level 1, times their current level. Therefore, with a quick division, Page gained +2 MP per level up. Compared to an ordinary person who is born with 0.1 MP, Page was exceedingly rare.

Well, Jyn was rarer. She was born with 5 MP. At Level 11, she had 52 MP—nobody really knew why the MP raise per level was inconsistent, but the math worked out well enough that one could guess within 2 Levels of the actual.

Still, Page could definitely operate as a skirmishing mage. Although she wasn’t as absurd as Kalender, and neither did she hold as much potential, anyone who could fire off a small volley of bullets all on their own was still useful in battle.

Despite her own assessment, Jyn withheld deciding on Page’s battle role. Nobody has ever heard of a Librarian going into battle before, but it didn’t mean that there was no way they couldn’t. She recalled Page’s Collection Transmission skill, likening it to some types of Commander-specific information dissemination skills.

There was no way she’d remake Page into a Commander, though. The girl herself just wasn’t up to that task.

“Come on. Since you apparently have so much magic, let’s go meet Kalender.”

Page was nervous. She thought it irrational, herself—at least after hearing Jyn’s stories—that she’d still be afraid of an apparent pony unicorn. Still, she’d never even had a casual conversation with the guy.

They arrived at the magic practice field, noting a small crowd around Kalender. They were just four mages, but attention was attention, and Jyn guessed what it was about.

One mage, an adventurer in a plain shirt, was making exaggerated hand movements. “So, you wrap the clay bullet in a thin rag, stuff it in this tube, and then—plug your finger into the tube, and shoot an air bullet into it?”

“Uh-huh.” Kalender nodded.

“How deceptively simple…” “True, we get the same power with less MP consumption, and only with the added use of a tube.” “I can see why it would be difficult to sell this. It’s just a tube, after all.”

Jyn walked up to Kalender’s side. She was relieved that he could interact normally with others, but she would rather see Page trained sooner. “Say goodbye to your acquaintances for now. You have a trainee.”

“Huh? Me? Training her?” Kalender asked.

“I will continue training her, but she has too much MP not to make use of it as a mage.”

Kalender and Page made eye contact. They awkwardly smiled and waved.

“Well,” Jyn continued, “it all comes down to just teaching her the bullet spells. If you have some new invention, you could teach her to operate that as well.”

Kalender bid goodbye to the other mages, who had, one after the other, left the field to go buy their own tubes. Though not the most revolutionary thing to happen, it was the beginning of airgunnery in this world.

“H-hi,” Kalender greeted Page again. His Interpersonal Bubble skill showed him that Page was quite withdrawn and was not allowing anyone but Jyn to come within 3 meters of her. Hey, girl, 3 meters is pretty far for speaking distance.

“Why are you so awkward…” Page replied.

“I-I dunno. I just want you to be comfortable, really.”

Page shook her head. “Thank you for the concern, but—this is also my decision.”

“I see.” Kalender smiled. “Then, let’s make it a blast!”

His smile blew away her anxiety. It wasn’t just his teeth, but also the eyes—his whole face lit up for a moment. She began to better suspect what it was that made Jyn so comfortable with him.

Or it could’ve just been the charm effects messing with her head.

[+1 Affection]

Kalender grumbled something. Jyn chuckled, fully knowing what it was that made him grumble. “Don’t worry about it,” she said, patting him on the shoulder.

“Are you okay?” Page asked.

“A-ah. It’s no big deal. I’ll tell you about it sometime, though.” He turned around. “Anyway! Magic! Repeat after me!”

He raised his finger gun forward. “{Shoot a bullet of flame}!”

After the flame pellet zipped downrange, Page copied him and raised a finger gun as well. It was her proper first time trying to shoot off any type of attack magic. She’d hung around here back then, sure, but she’d just watched the mages practice.

She’d heard the flame bullet chant so many times already. She was confident in her pronunciation for such a basic spell.

“{Shoot a flaming cookie}!”

Kalender was bewildered, while Jyn simply noted Page’s off-intonation—followed by her own bewilderment when a cookie flew out of Page’s chest pocket, got lit on fire, and shot out downrange.

She collapsed on all fours, tears in her eyes and hitting the ground with her noodly-weak arms with all the force of a cat’s pat. “I was saving thaaat!”