Talent

Practice is the best of all instructors.

—Publilius Syrus

 

​"We call the force that pulls things down towards the ground gravity."

​"Gravity…"

​Repeating what I said, Ai wrote it down.

​It's still extremely primitive, but what we're doing right now is having a class.

​Although Ai has already mastered the alphabet, she's still working on her digraphs.

​As a result of thinking about whether I should teach her how to write or whether I should research magic, I decided to do both together. I believe that writing is important for her to remember things that I teach her, after all.

​Still though, it went in an unexpected direction.

​"Alright, now go ahead and try turn gravity off. If you do, you should be able to float in the air like me."

​"Okay!"

​Ai gazed at the wooden board she'd written on a moment ago in earnest.

​"Gravity, off. Gravity, off. Gravity… off…!"

​After chanting to herself a few times, her body suddenly began to float.

​It wasn't by much, but her body had definitely unshackled itself from gravity's chains.

​I folded my outstretched wings back and sighed in relief.

​"Why were your wings spread out?"

​"Just in case."

​I was afraid that she might've suddenly shot into the sky at orbital speeds after completely turning gravity off. That obviously doesn't appear to be the case, though.

​I already know that this world is the same as the Earth in that it is a planet spinning through space. By looking towards the horizon when I am flying in the sky, I can see that the world is round as well as see that there is a moon rotating around this planet, which is itself rotating around the sun.

​By the way, Nina accepted that as fact unexpectedly easily when I told her about it.

​I'm not sure if it's because her comprehension is great or if it's because she doesn't have much in the way of prior knowledge prejudicing her from new ideas, though.

​"Good, you did well."

​"Yeah! Thanks to the words, Mentor taught!"

​Ai smiled in delight, hugging the wooden board tightly.

​It appears that names are extremely important in magic. No matter how hard someone tries, it is impossible to use magic to move something that they haven't named. The world expands through the amount of names you know, allowing you to do more things. Also, it seems that there is a force within the word that strengthens the action.

​I'm not actually sure if there is a force in the words used or if it's because it makes it easier to picture mentally, but the success rate of Ai's magic had definitely improved after she understood the concept through writing.

​Although there was some magic that wouldn't show much of an effect even when I taught her initially taught her the names, there hadn't been a single one that hadn't at least shown some result after she learned how to write them.

​"Dinner's done, you two~"

​When Ai and I were happy about her magic succeeding, Nina's voice came down from the sky.

​Seeing the girl waving her hand with her small body soaring through the sky, Ai's smile quickly clouded over.

​Thinking about it, she'd just barely gotten to the point she could float and Nina's already flying about freely, not just floating.

​It appears that even magic is something that relies on talent—or is at least something with individual variation.

​It's not as though we could make a simply comparison between the three of us since we weren't born or raised the same at all, but Nina is definitely the best among us when it comes to manipulating magic.

​Either due to some abnormally good intuition or being exceptionally perceptive, Nina's been able to improve her magic noticeably quickly just by being given clues to start with. She's even better than me, someone with knowledge of Japanese, so I don't think it can be explained as simply as it being because she knows Elvish.

​"Nina, is good, magic…"

​"Yeah, she really is."

​I nodded, then spoke from the bottom of my heart.

​"I'm glad that you became my pupil, Ai."

​"Eh—"

​Seeing Ai's astonishment as she looked up at me, I smiled towards her.

​"Nina advances too quickly. Furthermore, as she herself isn't able to explain how she does it, it wouldn't make for good research at all. So really, Ai, I'm happy that you're here."

​It was the same kind of thing in my former world, but geniuses can't understand the feelings of those who can't do things. Although Nina is an excellent partner, she isn't suitable as a pupil in the least.

​In that respect, I can say that Ai is the best at being a pupil.

​She's earnest, hard working, patient, and diligent.

​Personally, I believe that her disposition of advancing step-by-step, properly understanding things as she goes, is much harder to come across than even Nina's talent.

​"I'm unreliable as a mentor, but I hope that we can continue as we always have, Ai."

​"Yeah!"

​A smile lighting up her face, Ai nodded.

​"Ah, just now, I didn't mean, Mentor is unreliable…!"

​"I know, I know. It's alright."

​It took a bit of work, but I later managed to pacify her from continuing to take back what she said in a panic.

 

＊　＊　＊

 

​"I think it's about time."

​Hearing me say something with us all sitting around the dining table, Ai and Nina tilted their heads to the side.

​"I think that I'll give going to the village Ai lived in another try."

​With a clanking sound, the wooden spoon Ai had been holding fell to the ground.

​"No!"

​"Eh—?"

​"Why don't you want me to?"

​"I, don't want leave, here!"

​She clung to my leg tightly.

​"Even if you say that, I—"

​"As always! You said…!"

​Ai shouted, cutting me off.

​This was the first time she's ever raised her voice, so I wound up being overawed by a tiny girl not even half my size.

​"Continue, as always! Even though, you said!"

​Hmm?

​"I stay with Mentor, forever—"

​"Please, wait a moment. Aren't you misunderstanding me?"

​I touched Ai's shoulder and looked into her eyes.

​"I will not leave you."

​"Eh?"

​Her eyes dripping tears, Ai blinked.

​"Magic research isn't something we can do with us three alone, and my goal has always been to enrich people's lives with it. For that, we need to share the results we've found so that the next generation can inherit them."

​"Generation…?"

​Oh, is that another word I haven't taught her yet?

​"I'm saying that it has to be taught to children, as well as those children's children and so on."

​Finally realizing her misunderstanding when I said that, Ai blushed in embarrassment.

​"So for that, I have to get in contact with Ai's family and the other villagers."

​"Y-… yeah!"

​Seeing Ai understand and nod her head, I felt relieved.

​"Nina, you'll also… is something wrong?"

​When I looked next to me, Nina was holding her hand against her forehead and gazing up at the sky.