Chapter 6 - Magic Scrolls
The next day.
I decided to go to Marcelo's Magic Tool Shop with Beatrix.
It was to see firsthand what scroll-making was like.
Since it was before opening, we entered the workshop through the back door and found a woman cleaning with a broom in hand. She was a lovely woman wearing a blue robe, with wavy black-purple hair hanging down to her waist.
"Good morning, Angelica-san!"
Beatrix greeted her with a wave of her right hand.
"Good morning, Beatrix. Good to see you today too."
Not just her face, but her voice was lovely as well.
"Oh? And who might this be?"
"Let me introduce her. This is Jeanne. The stray priest I mentioned."
"Don't call me a stray. Ah, no, nice to meet you, my name is Jeanne."
"Nice to meet you, I am Marcelo's wife, Angelica. I've heard about you from my husband. I hear you'll be helping with the scroll-making. I look forward to working with you."
Angelica-san went out of her way to lean the broom against the wall and bowed her head with her hands together in greeting.
Even her gestures were cute.
On the ring finger of her right hand, she wore a ring with a black stone.
Not just the wedding ring, but even the ring on the right hand is a matching set; Marcelo-san is quite the smooth operator, isn't he?
"But, well. For a friend of Beatrix's, she's quite polite."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
Beatrix snapped back at Angelica-san, who was smiling mischievously.
The two of them chattering away were just like sisters with an age gap.
Perhaps having heard our voices, the sliding door in the back rattled open and Marcelo-san poked his head out.
"Ah, good morning, Jeanne. You came quickly."
"Ah, yes. Good morning. I thought I'd get used to it early. I look forward to working with you."
An unaffiliated priest has more than enough time.
Marcelo-san nodded and opened the sliding door leading to the shop wide, giving me a tour of the store.
In the shop, which wasn't very large, there were four display cases about the size of a four-person bench with glass lids. In each case, various items were placed rather haphazardly, as if packed in.
According to Marcelo-san's explanation, the shelves were divided into: recovery-type potion bottles and other magic tools; scrolls and other magic tools; ornaments like necklaces and rings and other magic tools; and the last shelf for magic tools that didn't fit in the other three, like stones I didn't quite understand even after the explanation, mummified animal hands, dolls, and leather bags.
In the four corners of the room, there were wooden boxes where several large rolls of paper—whether they were maps or something else—were tossed in.
By the right wall was a coat rack with robes and hats. On the left wall, magical equipment like staves, swords, and bows were casually hung from nails driven into the wall with string.
Disorder is the keyword for mages.
Take robes, for example.
The reason mages prefer robes isn't clear. According to Beatrix, they just somehow feel right. She also said the 'frumpy' feeling is good.
Apparently, many mages feel uncomfortable if things are too tidy.
The fact that Beatrix's room was covered in small items was also, according to her, a mage's etiquette.
The reason the teachers, who were strict about organization, didn't say anything was probably because they went easy on her for being a mage. Looking at this shop, I thought so.
"There's something I want to show you."
Saying so, he picked up a large roll of paper and spread it out.
When I looked to see what it was, it was a large drawing of a rat that looked like it was about to pounce on me at any moment.
Involuntarily, I recoiled with a 'ugh.'
"Sorry, sorry. My mistake."
Marcelo-san said, picking up another roll of paper.
This person definitely did that on purpose! Besides, where did you even get something like that!
"It was this one," he said, and as I fearfully peeked at the spread-out paper, it was a floor plan of the underground sewers.
"I found it last night. I'll lend it to Beatrix for a while, so you can use it as a reference for future rat exterminations."
Marcelo-san was smiling mischievously.
"Th-thank you very much."
Seriously, where did he get such a thing?
Swapping places with Beatrix, who came to the counter to mind the shop, we returned to the workshop and, together with Angelica-san, immediately set to work on making scrolls. Beatrix, who was overjoyed to see the sewer map, immediately spread it out on the counter and was gazing at it.
Marcelo-san brought a wooden box about the size of an armful from the workshop shelf, placed it on the workbench, and removed the cloth covering it.
The box contained many scrolls.
Marcelo-san casually took one out, untied the leather cord, and proceeded to spread it out. It was a brand-new one with nothing written on it. A thin wooden rod was attached to the inside of the scroll, and the parchment was wound around that rod. When you hold the outside where the leather cord is attached, the weight of the rod causes the scroll to unfurl.
The outside was likely waterproofed, using glossy black leather as a base, with several small rivets driven into one edge to fix it to the wooden rod. On the inside, a slightly smaller piece of parchment, also glossy, was attached and bordered with a black leather strip so it wouldn't peel off.
"This is the base for a magic scroll. You write a magic circle here to seal the magic inside."
After Marcelo-san fluttered both sides of the scroll to show me, he spread it on the workbench and explained. According to the explanation, the outside of the scroll and the leather border use durable leather from a cow's rump. They buy the leather from a leatherworker and do all the processing for scroll-making in Marcelo-san's workshop.
"Well then, shall we begin? Angelica, I'm counting on you."
"Okaaay."
Angelica-san brought an inkpot and a quill pen from a drawer by the wall.
I thought there was already an inkpot on the workbench, but Marcelo-san explained.
The ink for writing magic circles is apparently special. Because it's mixed with powder from magic crystal stones... commonly known as magic stones, which store mana, those who can see can tell that the written characters themselves carry a slight amount of mana.
Come to think of it, there were several inkpots on the shop's display shelves too.
"Now, I shall begin."
On the scroll, which was held down with weights so it wouldn't move, Angelica-san began writing a magic circle with the quill pen.
I involuntarily caught my breath.
Without using a ruler or anything, she casually drew two concentric circles and simply divided the inner circle with a cross. However, they were such magnificent circles and straight lines that it was hard to believe they were drawn by a human hand.
This must be what they call craftsmanship.
Angelica-san began writing characters between the circles. They were likely ancient characters; I couldn't read them. She finished writing characters of the same size all the way around, ending exactly one character's space before the first character. Finally, she added a period.
Next, she smoothly wrote rows of characters in the four sections divided by the magnificent straight lines.
The length of the words must have been different, as the size of the characters in each section varied, but she filled each section perfectly as if measured, and the magic circle was complete.
"It's done. Watch closely. The magic circle is going to activate."
As I stared at the magic circle, a faint mist of light began to drift over its surface, disappearing after a few minutes.
With a serious expression, Angelica-san held her left hand over the magic circle and chanted the spell.
Chantless. The mark of a first-class mage.
I involuntarily gulped.
It was a spell I had never heard before.
We are currently in a state of war, so to speak. I heard that many scroll orders are for combat use. Since Angelica-san is apparently good at status-change magic, was it perhaps a spell that could be used in combat, like growing wings to fly in the sky?
Just as I thought a blue-purple mist welled up from her palm, it was absorbed by the magic circle.
Amazing. Truly amazing. I began to tremble with emotion.
Angelica-san took the quill and wrote words below the magic circle. It must be the keyword to release the magic. By spreading the scroll and chanting the keyword, anyone can cast the spell.
"It's finished. After Marcelo does the surface processing so the ink doesn't smudge, it'll be complete."
As Angelica-san smiled at me, I looked at her with eyes full of respect and asked about the content of the magic.
"It's a spell to dye hair blue-purple."
Huh? My mind went blank.
I mean, it certainly was amazing, and I admit her skill is great, but...
The two of them were smiling mischievously, saying the keyword was "to dye it a beautiful blue-purple."
I want my emotion back... maybe.