Villainess and the Stalker - Chapter 21 - Sorcery's Talent

Chapter 21 : Sorcery’s Talent

Even though he said those words almost without hesitation, his condition was in fact, an extremely rare case.

If one was to look for a reason, scholars would answer that Element Materialization was a spell to bring forth most basic elements. Though it was a rare occurrence that someone could materialize all elements, usually, someone could only materialize the elements they had the greatest affinity with.

Hence, as one becomes proficient with 2nd tier elemental spell, one could advance to the 2rd tier.

Most sorcerers might or might not reach the 4th tier sorcery in their life. They had to decide whether they wanted to step further into the realm of sorcery or stop. In general, they would reach that level.

And yet….

Conrad confessed the truth about his condition with a bitter look on his face.

「My house is quite prosperous. Our house has a viscount pedigree, thus the progeny has a high probability to awaken as sorcerers. Naturally, it doesn’t guarantee that your child will absolutely awaken as a sorcerer. Even if there are marriages between noble houses, or they take in a famous sorcerer as in-law but…. My father is a noble and my mother is a court sorcerer. Thus, they expected me to have aptitude as a sorcerer when I took the aptitude test at ten years old. But…」

The words that followed were as I predicted after hearing about his situation.

Thus, I said,

「You didn’t have a general aptitude, did you?」

「Yes. Normally, a person is blessed with one attribute or two but I had none. Though my mana capacity is above average, my aptitude is… Let’s say that it’s almost impossible for me to use sorcery. It’s as if I haven’t inherited my parents’ traits at all. Though my mother is a sorcerer, she isn’t a noble. She had some expectations when she married my father. Unfortunately, the one who was born was someone like me. They said the field was barren* and will be ostracised…」

「When did you do the test?」

「During my childhood… I remember doing the test a few times. There was still some hope for me but…. I’ve no idea what to do now. It’s troubling… Even though I know that I have to become a famous sorcerer for them to approve of me, I’m lacking the talent to become one to begin with. What should I do…」

Being able to use attributes in sorcery was the most fundamental talent as a sorcerer.

That was the foundation of all sorcery, powerful sorcerers usually mastered several attributes.

However, when it comes to an attributeless person…

Now I understood why his family and this kingdom didn’t hold him in high regard.

Still…

The treatment for someone like Conrad was a little different in my homeland.

Giving importance to one’s aptitude in sorcery wasn’t wrong.

However, a new groundbreaking fact was discovered and established a few years ago; attributes weren’t everything in sorcery.

Though it wasn’t widespread, most bureaucrats and military personnel were aware of that breakthrough.

That breakthrough allowed us to find and confirm some important talents in my homeland who had nothing to do with sorcery’s attribute.

The very example of that was the physical reinforcement spell.

Why physical reinforcement you may ask? That spell barely showed its effect compared to regular attribute spells.

Nevertheless, due to negligence, reinforcement spell’s theories showed almost no evolution compared to attribute spells.

However, the sorcerers who recognized this problem worked and put together a new theory on the subject. Their research resulted in a breakthrough.

Their research told us that though it wasn’t applicable to every sorcery division, there was enough potential outside of attribute spells.

That’s why the attribute spells absolutism slowly but surely became an obsolete belief.

Hence, after hearing Conrad’s story, I knew that attribute sorcery absolutism was still going strong in the Kingdom of Helios.

Thus, the me who was thinking about correcting this kind of wrong elitism told Conrad.

「… Conrad.」

「What’s the matter?」

「Attribute sorcery absolutism is already obsolete, you know.」

「……EH？」

「It’s true that we can’t ignore the importance of attributes in sorcery. It’s also true that attribute sorcery is the only one that allows us to materialize various natural phenomenons.. But… It doesn’t make its user the most important or the best. At the very least, my homeland has verified this fact.」

「What… Do you mean?」

「For example… There’s simple physical reinforcement, right?」

「Yes.」

「Attribute sorcery has that too. Such as fire spirit reinforcement or water spirit reinforcement.」

Either one of them was a sorcery that raised one’s elemental resistance and physical abilities.

One’s defense was also increased along with power.

But then….

「And what’s about that?」

Conrad asked while tilting his head in confusion.

「With that being said, reinforcement sorcery has… Quite significant meaning but, in reality, it became useless with only a bit of mana.」

「….. EH?」

「Let’s take fire spirit reinforcement for example. It strengthens your strength and defense, it also raises your fire resistance at the same time. Don’t you think it’s a waste of mana for a fire user to strengthen their fire resistance? The same things happen with water spirit reinforcement… It strengthens your water resistance… Why waste their mana to increase their resistance against their own element? That’s unnecessary, at least, when it comes to a duel on flat ground. After all, the need is only to strengthen attack and defense.」

「Yeah, you got a point but…」

「The thing that can achieve that result is none other than attributeless sorcery. And yet, the number of attributeless people are far too few… As for this type of sorcery, it can’t be used by attributes users」

In fact, it was more accurate to say that attribute users became unable to use this particular type of spells after their perception became distorted by using attributes sorcery for too long.

Honestly speaking, attributeless sorcery could, in fact, be used by anyone, not just exclusive to an attributeless person.

Furthermore, according to the data recorded by my house, back in my homeland, the number of the people who held attributes sorcery absolutism – unfortunately, together with their aptitude to awakened as sorcerer – were about three times as many as the one who could learn attributeless sorcery.

From then on, I could say with confidence that Conrad, who was awakened as a sorcerer, would have no trouble learning attributeless sorcery.

「In short… Are you trying to say that since I can’t use attribute sorcery, I have the opportunity… to use powerful attributeless sorcery?」

「Exactly. It’s my homeland’s policy for someone to train in both attributes sorcery and attributeless sorceries. Conrad, I can teach you these attributeless sorceries if you want to learn it … In my opinion, I’m pretty sure you’ll become an extremely powerful attributeless sorcery user. So, do you want to learn it?」

Conrad nodded when I asked him the question.

「As long as there are possibilities, I’m more than willing to learn that sorcery… But, are you sure that you can teach me about those state secrets?」

That’s why he was worried.

I appreciated his worries but, there was really nothing to worry about.

I answered him with a nod.

「No problem. Well then, I’ll teach you the core of attributeless sorcery. Oh, and best regards.」

「I should be the one to say it… Ryuu. Best regard!」