Steel, Explosives, and Spellcasters

Winters replied meticulously, "No, I am not certain that the person was a court mage."

"Then let me rephrase that." Colonel Magr touched his nose, "Did you kill a chanting spellcaster who was a suspected magic user?"

"No, the person was killed by Hurd shaman Hestas, the other soldiers present, and myself," Winters replied without wanting to overstate his role. He knew that if it hadn't been for Hestas interrupting the enemy in time, he would have been dead.

"Let me ask it another way." Colonel Magr said somewhat displeased after failing to get a conclusive answer, "How did that suspected magic user die?"

With no way to avoid it, Winters answered upright, "I pierced his head with an Arrow Flying Spell."

Colonel Magr snorted coldly and stopped asking questions. He leaned back into his chair, resting against the backrest.

"Lieutenant Montaigne, are you aware that we've fought the Sovereignty War for over a decade without being able to kill or capture any court mages?" Another attendee, Colonel Blythes, could not help himself and offered a reminder.

"I am aware," Winters answered tersely.

"But you killed one?" asked Colonel Blythes.

"I cannot be certain that person was a court mage."

"Were there other witnesses present?"
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"Warrant Officer Bard was fighting alongside me at the time."

"Warrant Officer Bard... Warrant Officer? Is he of the same batch as you?"

"Yes."

"Then you must be very close, right?"

"Yes." Winters's tone remained unchanged, but a spark of irritation was ignited within.

Colonel Blythes wanted to press on with his questioning, but before Antonio could speak, Layton, unable to restrain his temper, slammed the table and cursed loudly, "You're soldiers, speak directly! Cut the ambiguous crap! Why are you bullying a kid? Jealous of someone's achievements? Is this what you were called here to discuss? [a string of expletives]."

With each sentence, Layton added expletives, spittle flying from one side of the table to the other. The rest of the room fell silent, with only Layton's angry curses echoing through the treasury.

Colonel Blythes was showered in vitriol, swallowing back the questions he had for Winters. Colonel Magr jolted up as if jabbed by a nail, his body springing up from the backrest. The other officers all shuddered under the barrage of insults.

All the spellcaster officers sat straight and disciplined, just like new cadets at the military academy, which Winters found immensely satisfying. However, he dared not show any expression on his face and, like the other officers, observed decorum seated in solemn silence.

After a long outburst, Layton leaned, hands on knees, his chest heaving with heavy breaths. After all, at over forty years old not repeating himself or pausing to breathe while ranting was indeed a strenuous activity.

Antonio knocked on the table and said indifferently, "Warrant Officer Bard has confirmed Lieutenant Montaigne's account. I trust their testimonies. However, we still lack direct evidence, so Major General Layton and I have decided that this battle will not be recorded as killing a court mage. Lieutenant Montaigne, do you have any objections?"

"No!" Winters answered urgently, as it was exactly what he wanted.

"But Major General Layton and I didn't call you all here to discuss the accreditation of Lieutenant Montaigne's battle achievement," Antonio changed the subject, "Last night's break of the artillery position confirmed a concern I have long held."

He softly uttered a statement that startled everyone, "The Tanilians still have a second magic user... perhaps even a third or fourth."

...

...

"Why didn't I hear any sound from the artillery position a few dozen meters away, where all the personnel fought bravely and died?"

Ever since waking from his coma, Winters had been thinking about this question but couldn't come up with a solution.

When he got the confession of a captive, he suddenly had a bold idea: If magic can amplify sound, could magic make sound disappear?

All spells in the Alliance spellcaster system are based on the principle of "energy input," such as speeding up, igniting, or amplifying sound.

But Winters, who had been exposed to Antoine-Laurent's revolutionary theory, had gone beyond the understanding of regular spellcasters. Antoine-Laurent's new theory stated: The essence of magic is to change the state of material energy.

If inputting energy is changing the energy state... what about drawing out energy?

Isn't drawing out energy also changing the energy state?

If energy could be extracted, then in theory, magic would be able to create an effect of "silencing."

Given that the essence of sound is vibration, flattening the vibrations in the air would sever the transmission of sound.

This is why the prisoners claimed they "couldn't hear other people's voices but could hear their own, although it sounded a bit strange." That's because, aside from air conduction, people also hear themselves speak through bone conduction.

Winters had not yet realized that he had opened a new door, he was simply curious, "If Vibration-type Spells can be reversed, what about Fire-type Spells? If the direction of a Fire-type Spell is reversed, then... isn't that the Ice Spell that the Alliance hadn't yet managed to achieve?"

With that thought, he couldn't help but start to try actively. However, after a long struggle, Winters experienced what Axel felt for the first time.

What is color to someone who is born blind?

What is the fourth dimension to someone living in a three-dimensional space?

How can a spellcaster who has never used an "Ice Spell" find the feeling to use one?

Because the essence of using magic is the feeling.

The first thing a novice spellcaster must do is to find the feeling of using magic, then become proficient through repeated use, becoming able to easily find that feeling.

Winters realized he had no idea what it should feel like to use an "Ice Spell," nor how to enter such a state, as if he had to walk a path without any "road."

After staring for ten minutes, he still couldn't turn a drop of water into solid ice.

"This way definitely won't work... I need to start from the easiest place..." Wiping the sweat from his forehead, Winters thought.

But he had more important things to do now; he didn't have time to ponder how to "reverse a spell."

He had to inform Antonio that there might still be another spellcaster in Tachi, or even more than one.

That evening, Antonio and Layton gathered all the trustworthy senior officers and seasoned spellcasters inside the legion for a secret meeting.

...

...

"Any evidence that there are other mages in the city?" Colonel Field, who had been silent, finally asked.

Colonel Field and Major Moritz were currently inside the legion's treasury.

There weren't many spellcasters in the Saint Marco Legion anyway, so Layton simply called them all. Layton's reasoning was, "Field is a bit of a smartass, but he's a good soldier, trustworthy... And bring his little sidekick along."

Was there evidence of other mages' existence?

The evidence had always been in front of everyone; it was just that no one had thought in that direction at the time.

The huge wave that swept back from the dock towards the Venetians on the day the Da Weineta Legion attacked Red Sulfur Harbor was the best evidence.

That wave, several meters high, capsized all of Vineta's small boats, even a large sailboat that was turning capsized directly.

What kind of wave hits from the shore towards the ocean? It certainly wasn't a naturally-formed tide.

Only magic could explain the inexplicable.

So, if the essence of sound is a vibration, is the essence of a wave also a form of vibration? If you tap on the side of a water glass, doesn't the water inside form tiny ripples?

Perhaps with another term, a wave; is it a type of fluctuation?

If a wave is a type of fluctuation, it can be amplified through magic.

"That's too... too absurd." Field's face turned red, and he even forgot he was speaking to a general: "Do you know how tremendous the magical power needs to be to stir up a wave that can overturn warships?! Not to mention me, search all the Republics and you won't find such a powerful spellcaster! The power of magic has limits! Because spellcasters have limits! No mage can match the might of nature! What can't be done, can't be done! What you're saying is absurd!"

"Field!" Layton picked up a cup and smashed it onto Field's body: "You unfilial wretch! How dare you!"

Antonio, however, was not angry, he calmly countered, "Then what do you think... How powerful a spellcaster would be needed to make a few hundred square meters of artillery emplacement produce no sound at all?