The Pagemasters Vol. 1 Chapter 6
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Author: Literataku
Chapter 6:
I Managed To Grasp
I lost all concept of time in that place, the light spell I had first cast was still going strong without the need for renewal. There were no real signs of any passage of time outside of my need to sleep and eat. The next several ‘days’ consisted of me waking, eating, and practicing magic until I was exhausted and then sleeping until I woke again. Most of the time I simply fell asleep as soon as I stopped moving. Other times Master talked with me about various ways to clean up my mana usage, giving pointers an how to be more efficient.
It was about the eleventh ‘day’ that I was able to nearly drain my entire mana pool without feeling like I was going to collapse from exhaustion. Master was quite happy with my rapid development.
“Good good. Now we can start focusing on the really important matters.”
I sat down in the chair, I wasn’t breathing hard but I certainly felt like I had been running a marathon through the whole Kyoto prefecture. I released my staff, letting it fade away and summoned a glass, using my power to fill it with water and drinking deeply as I listened.
“The Fourth Magic that a Pagemaster must know is Story Magic. This is the magic that brings the stories to life. Unfortunately, there is little we can do to affect it. It is fickle and yet unmovable. It cannot be changed, though it can be diverted or even subverted with the right situation. It is a contradiction and yet it isn’t.
The power of Story Magic is that it seeks out things and people that have certain situations happen that allows for events to unfold a certain way, and then it begins to pressure such things to begin the stories it knows to happen. Particularly when those stories feature characters whose names are mere nicknames instead of real ones.”
“So like Prince Charming, and Sleeping Beauty, or the Old Witch in the castle?”
“Exactly! They are not actual names but generalizations that the Story Magic can then apply to anyone who fits the description and circumstances. In good news, this means that as long as one knows how to find the story one can be prepared to seal it away.
But in bad news, it means that the story must progress to a certain point so that the story Magic is fully invested in these actors of its tale that it cannot pull away and find a different set of similar circumstances to start over with telling the story.”
“Can’t we just seal away everything at once?”
Master shook his head. “It’s impossible. Each story must be sealed separately, and there is a chance that people in this world are also from the real one as well. Ye overwrote the real world with this one, it doesn’t mean that all the people from our world were erased. That and it doesn’t help that some stories are based on real-life people. We can’t seal them away just because there are stories of them involved with magic.”
I sighed and leaned my head back. “This feels really complicated.”
“Well, it wouldn’t have been this bad if ye hadn’t picked the largest genre in creation. Couldn’t have chosen medieval or harem fantasy or some subgenre… Had to pick them all.”
I lowered my head again in apology, I suppose I really should have thought a little more about that when I had started this huge mess. But it was too late to think about could’ve and should’ve.
“So how do we start with all of this then, Master?”
“We’ll start with easy ones. Grimm and Aesop have fairly simple tales to work with and should be easy to gather them up quickly.”
I made a slight face. Western Fairy tales were not my forte by any means. Most of them I only recall watching D**ney films when I was little and even then I didn’t pay attention. “Couldn’t we start with Japanese legends?”
“And how many Legends and Tales in Japanese folklore don’t involve spirits or gods? Ye don’t have the strength or ability to go facing down beings that can wipe the floor with ye without even batting an eye.”
I could name a couple that might be simple, but his point was made and I had to acquiesce to it, albeit grudgingly. There were too many that dealt with beings of high power or spirits that might be too hard to seal on the first try. Though there was something we first needed to do.
“So Master… How do we get out of here?”
“That’s the easy part.|{SYSTEM OVERRIDE}| |{RELEASE EXIT}|”
I stood there dumbfounded as an opening suddenly appeared, looking between master and the open gateway, doing a double take and then a triple. “I thought you couldn’t use magic?”
“It’s not really magic. It’s the power of The Word, and I didn’t say I couldn’t I just can’t interfere with yer story. We can freely travel between time and locations to a small extent to ensure we can be where we need to be. But once we are in a timeline we can’t cross back over a timeframe we’re already in.”
“So no being in two places at the same time.”
“Exactly.”
Well, I guess it would be too much of a cheat if that was possible. It might have been useful, but on the other hand probably way too confusing to use and remember being in too many places at once. I was kind of getting a headache thinking about it so I quickly stopped.
“Master, what is going to be our first stop?”
“I can feel the Story Magic starting to move out there, Phintibluis Kingdom. The Gingerbread Man is getting ready to come to life here. It’s an easy story to seal and give ye some advanced powers to help make things go easier. We can also work on teaching ye how to sense and get a feel for the power of Story Magic.”
I nodded looking out at the across the fantasy landscape before my eyes, trees, and hill spanning across the horizon. Though we were surrounded by trees we managed to be settled on top of a fairly large hill that you could make out some of the surroundings near us. Master seemed to know his directions pretty well.
To the north was a long flowing river that divided the kingdom in half stretching out even beyond the kingdoms that bordered either side of this one.,To the south lay the deep forests home of the ancient battlegrounds of Demons and werewolves. east was more forests and the tips of a castle that was likely the capital of this region. And right behind us and further west lay the village and the Dragon Mountains even further beyond that. Far enough away that you could barely make out the peaks of the highest mountains of the range.
“I don’t think we’re in Kyoto anymore…” I mutter to myself quietly stepping through the gateway and into the open land before us.
The portal closed as soon as Master landed on my shoulder revealing a small village behind us, fortunately, the time of day seemed to be right in the middle of lunchtime. “First thing we need to do is use the spell of rewrite.”
I nodded holding out my hand as I had been taught, instead of grasping for my staff or other items I had crafted for use I gripped into the sheen of reality itself. I wondered why this spell was listed as an ability for me, maybe it was just to be a reminder or some special scripting
“|{Riraito shite}|” There was a freeze around us for a brief moment. Bending reality around myself and Master so that we would be considered normal within this part of the world. The villagers would consider me as a traveling magician with his familiar. Vague memories of seeing us before and knowing we were not hostiles to them. This spell wasn’t completely infallible according to Master but it was good enough as long as people didn’t start to scrutinize why or how they know us too closely.
A useful safeguard and one that seemed could be cast as many times even if the cover was blown to become someone else. Though there were a few exceptions to this rule, I’ve been warned. “The main characters of the story will recognize you if you aren’t careful enough. Especially ones that have true names. Trying to use Rewrite near any of them after you are exposed will only cause more trouble.”
I guess another good point about this kind of magic was that I could also blend in more because even if I was a stranger I was also very clearly a foreigner, walking into the village I could see that everyone else was quite plainly European. I was worried for a moment but I could understand everyone fairly well, to my surprise.
“It’s the power of The Word. To understand all languages and written words. Especially when you realize how varied each language can be, it just makes it easier for our job to understand.” I could certainly get behind. Never having to worry about my broken English ever again? Yes, please! Even for a cheat, I will gladly accept this kind of power. Now if only I could just go back to high school and ace that exam…
“Guten tag, Herr Blue. So nice to see you again.” A rather busty woman called to me as I walked past her garden. She was tall, maybe sixteen years old. But she is full of curves for days.Was Europe always this big on having such endowed women? Her hair was soft and curled, even though I didn’t recall much in the way of cleanliness in medieval history. I guess this was probably from a poor authorial study, or fantasy magic keeping people clean and healthy…
I half understood she was speaking in German, I guess it made sense if this was Grimm fairy tales we were hunting. It took me a moment longer, staring at her to realize she wasn’t calling someone else.
“Errmm Guten tag, Fraulein. You caught me in deep thought just there.”
Wow, I even manage to use correct phrases and greetings too?
“Oh, My apologies, what was Herr Blue thinking of?” She smiled at me and shifted herself a little. Certainly giving me a show for my eyes as her body jiggled in the right places. This is so much better than anime… Just what kind of Fairy tale fantasy world did I step into? And do I have to stop it? I am not ashamed to admit I was getting a bit too distracted by her.
A sharp pain cracked the side of my head reflexively making me duck in pain. “We have a job to do first, Herr Blue…” Master growled into my ear. I guess playing My familiar he couldn’t be too abusive, but he has a good point.
Right. Work first, play later. But just let me look a little more… Smack. Ow!… Alright, alright….
“Perhaps we can talk about such thoughts I’ve been having later tonight?” I asked her, trying to put a block between my head and Master’s beak. He nipped my hand, insistently while I tried to ignore him just a moment longer.
She giggled slightly and bent down to pull out a weed, though the motions of her hand and body were certainly suggesting something else entirely. “Don’t make me wait for too long, Herr Blue.”
I’m very very grateful for my wizard robes in this very moment. Trying to not walk away to awkward as I made a promise to do my best to be back later.
“Was that real?” I asked myself quietly.
“Yes and No… It seems this land might be connected to a few … ehem, other tales. Apparently, one of them involves the feminine gender being quite forward. You didn’t rewrite yourself as the Main Character did you?”
I shook my head, trying to not keep glancing back behind me. “No, I did as you said, I just made myself known as a good wizard who travels around the kingdom. I didn’t add anything else. Really..”
“No perverted thoughts or being overly heroic?”
“Of course not. At least not consciously… I’m pretty sure I didn’t let anything that perverted come out.”
“The other option is that the Hero in this tale she belongs looks Japanese.”
Thinking on several stories I know this wouldn’t be that far fetched a scenario, big breasted girl falling over a hero she just met. And I’m also not ashamed to admit that I wouldn’t be upset about taking advantage of such things. Though I’m half curious if such a thing would be NTR if I stole her away from the real hero.
“Enough about this for now. This way, I can sense the Magic starting to gather up. We could be too late if we dawdle too much longer. Mush!”
“Yes, Master,” I responded asking one last glance behind me before setting off into a jog into the forest. Starting to realize that the animals and plants were being rather harmonious, a little too much like music to be real. Damn you, fantasy!
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