A few days later Melissa came over.

“Carlo-sama, it’s regarding the distantly related magician we talked about the other day.”

“Yeah, how was it?”

“Carlo-sama should contact her to inform her about the date you are able to take lessons. Even today would be possible if it is convenient for you.”

“Unfortunately, I am busy today so I cannot act as a guide for you.”

“It’s fine, I am no child after all.”

I’m able to go learn magic alone this way.

Because if Pikaru finds out about this he’ll start to nag again so I’ll do it secretly.

It seems like Melissa’s magician relative lives in a windmill out-of-town.

I saw the windmill after I rode White King for a while.

After I tied White King to the stake in front of the windmill I knocked on the door of the hut.

As soon as the door opened a child came from the inside.

The girl looks like she is 14 or 15 years old.

She wore a grey robe with a hood attached.

“I’m called Carlo. I’m here to visit the magician Knopf.”

“Please enter”

I entered the windmill under the guidance of the girl.

Inside were a lot of wooden gears turning with a gakkon gakkon sound.

Heh, so it looked like this inside of a windmill, huh?

“Please, have a seat”

I sat down on the sofa the girl prompted me to sit on.

Test tubes and beakers were scattered throughout the hut and it had a laboratory atmosphere to it.

However, there is no sign of another person being inside this hut.

“Is Knopf away? Then I shall come another time.”

“I’m Knopf. I heard everything from Aunt Melissa.”

I was seriously surprised by that girl’s words.

Melissa said she is young, but no matter how I look at her this is too young.

Is it possible to change your appearance with magic?

“Are you surprised by my young appearance? Even with me being like that I believe I’m older than you.”

This self-proclaimed Knopf brought some food while saying that.

Then I saw those fluffy cat ears.

“I’m half human, half cat person. I’ll be 30 this year. Because the average life expectancy of the cat people is approximately 150 years it seems like I am able to look this young for my age.” (TN: The author used katakana to write cat person so not my crappy naming sense)

A mix of cat humans, the “Cat People”, and humans, did I write about such characters?

The Cat People I wrote had a more cat-like face and grew whiskers.

In that respect, Knopf, being a half, has the face of a human and cat ears.

……I can’t help but be interested whether she has a tail, too.

Speaking of which, Melissa, you should have told me!

Even before telling me that she’s young or an oddball.

Is this not as important here? Is it different?

“I see, I was disrespectful. Then again I’m Carlo. Please take care of me.”

“I’m surprised that Carlo-san doesn’t dislike me for being a sub-human.”

I see, in this world there are a lot of tribes of different races the cat humans included, those races are called sub-humans.

Even if the person is half human they seem to be put in the category of sub-humans as well.

Those sub-humans are discriminated against by humans all the time.

That is the setting I made.

“I don’t particularly care. Is that why you live in this windmill out-of-town?”

“There is that, but it’s also convenient for executing experiments as well. Ah, I shouldn’t speak this way.” (TN: She spoke in an informal way)

“I don’t mind. I’ll tell you now, you don’t have to use formal speech with me.”

“I’m saved. It’s hard for me to keep being formal.”

Knopf showed a relieved expression and laughed.

Her cat ears twitch when she laughed and made me want to touch them.

“What kind of magic do you want to learn?”

“What kind of magic can Knopf use?”

“Hmm, let’s see……”

After Knopf thought for a while she began to talk.

“Do you already know that magic is divided into six basic systems? Fire, water, wind, earth, light and darkness.”

Yeah, I know this already, because I set it up like this.

This is just the standard for fantasy, right?

Well, I can’t say that so I nodded.

“Of these Light and Darkness are a little different, but the other four kinds, Fire, Water, Wind and Earth are of the same system.”

Yeah, those four kinds are called spirit magic and can be used by borrowing the power of spirits.

Light and Darkness use a different kind of power other than God, Demons, and Spirits.

This is also according to my setting.

“To activate magic of these four systems one has to borrow the power of spirits. For example, using the same Fire magic system to use the elementary spell light ball “Light” and the flame ball “Fireball” it’s fine to borrow the power of low-grade spirits in the vicinity. However, to use more powerful magic like fire tornado, fire storm or explosive flare, one as to form a contract with a higher ranked spirit before being able to use them.”

That’s correct as well.

Therefore in order to use higher ranked magic, it is necessary to find a stronger spirit and form a contract with it.

“But I’m doing research on how to increase the strength of lower grade magic. Those can be explosive, too.”

What did you say?

Did I describe a method like that in my novel?

“Do you know what is needed to set a fire? Fuel, heat, and oxygen. If those three things are in one place I can ignite a fire without having to use fire to make it burn.”

Hey hey, that’s rather chemical.

Do they study such things here in this Fantasy world?

“For example to use the fire magic “Fireball” you create heat and fuel with the spirit’s power. Using one’s mental strength moves the ball towards one’s opponent.”

There’s such a mechanism, huh? I want to study it.

“What do you think will happen if I create pure oxygen using wind magic and add it to the fireball?”

Hey, hey, that’ll be dangerous.

I heard it will explode and even metal like iron would burn with such a high concentration of oxygen.

“It’ll explode. By the way, even things that normally don’t burn will burn if the oxygen enriched fire is used.”

Like I thought.

“I sprinkled fine metal dust created with earth magic all over a room and when I threw a fireball in there it surprisingly caused a chain of explosions.”

That’s a dust explosion. (TN: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust_explosion)

“It’ll even cause an explosion if you treat a rock made with earth magic with a high-temperature flame and then hit it with water magic.”

What you are describing is a phreatic explosion and that’s also very dangerous. (TN: That’s what happens when a volcano erupts https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phreatic_eruption)

“With that in mind, I’m researching whether one can achieve the same effect as a more advanced spirit magic with the combination of various kinds of lower grade elementary magic.”

Ehm, this Knopf-chan seems more like a mad scientist rather than a slightly odd person.

“Therefore I can’t use highly advanced spirit magic but if it’s lower ranked spirit magic I can use all four systems. Though I’m slightly weak with water.”

As I thought because you’re a Cat-girl you’re weak against water, huh?

“That’ll be enough. I want you to teach me the usage of fire, wind and earth magic.”

“That’s fine, then with what do you want to start?”

1. N/a