Wizards of the Otherworldly Court - Multi-World Multi-Protag Isekai Stories

It's another day in the Otherworldly Court, the fire chamber was empty save for Alicia (plus Voice) and Aqua. Jill was in Irongrad doing her business related to this particular day of the week. Rose had other business with James.

"Right," Aqua said. "I have called Rin, we will begin when she gets here."

"Why do you want Rin here?" Alicia asked.

"Oh, that is because what I am teaching you is not something I would trust Pierre with to Rin," the Fire Guardian replied bluntly.

"I see..." Alicia smiled wryly.

CREAK

"You called me, Master Aqua?" Rin asked, closing the door behind her.

"Just call me Aqua. Anyway, sit down here." Aqua beckoned her to the couch. "Cookies?"

"Thank you!" Rin sat down beside Alicia and took a piece of cookie from a plate in which a red pixie sat on it, munching the contents of the plate.

"Alright." Aqua laid out a tablet on the low table. Alicia and Rin hovered over it closely. "This is the subject for today."

The tablet showed the words 'Scientific and Fantasy Law by Amelia Rickens'.

"Scientific and Fantasy Law," Rin uttered out. "By Amelia Rickens. Oh? Maestro Pierre's little sister made this?"

"Yes," Aqua nodded. "Also, no need to call him maestro."

"And call Evil Mad Scientist Lady bi-"

Before Voice could finish, Alicia forced a cookie on her mouth.

"Uhn?" Rin tilted her head, confused with what just happened.

"By Scientific Law, you mean like gravity, Hooke's law, and such?" Alicia asked, unperturbed with what she did. "And Fantasy Law refers to the same thing, but for supernatural elements like magic and fantasy creatures?"

"Precisely," Aqua nodded. "Each world is governed by these two Laws. They dictate the rules of how a phenomenon works in a world."

"Uhn?" Rin raised her eyebrow. "Why is that fantasy?" True, things out of the imagination and are impossible to exist are what's known as fantasy but Rin was from Rakarok-Earth World Merge, a fantasy world, so stuff like that would be ordinary to her.

"Hmm..." Aqua mulled on Rin's question, she too had similar inquiries when she was recruited as the Fire Guardian. "Ah, I know."

TAP TAP FLICK TAP

Aqua then fiddled the machine to show a picture of a cow, except it had a hard-stone-like plating over some parts of its body. "Let us take Beohar for example. This is a farm cow from Beohar. As you can see, it had natural stone scales and they are bigger too unlike Earth cows. By the way, they have been under pastures for centuries so tell me, do cows that live in farms protected from harm need this?"

"...No," Rin replied.

"Is there a reason not to have it?"

"Uhn... it's heavy for them to have around?"

Aqua chuckled. "Close enough. It is as you say, things that are wholely unneeded and yet were not weeded out would make it fantasy. It is because of the influence of the Fantasy Law that it exists when it could not have. The ability to use magic or skills under Fantasy Law is also the same case."

"Uhn...?" However, Rin was still confused.

"Hmm... How about this." Aqua then changed the picture on the screen with a SWIPE to that of the planet Earth. "This is Earth Base. When the First Guardians were trying to figure out a standard for classifying worlds, they decided to use this world as a standard. This world is considered a scientific world in which would be compared to every other world, determining whether they would be a world of science or fantasy."

"What makes a world scientific or fantasy then?" Rin asked.

"I believe it has something to do with which Law is more dominant on the world," Alicia answered. "Right Aqua?"

"Yes. And to answer that, let us continue to where we left off." Aqua closed the image and went back to where they were. "Now, Scientific Laws should be straightforward, so there is no need for me to explain such. Fantasy Law is a more important topic. Fantasy Law is the collection of rules of magic systems, fantastical traits of living beings, and any events that Scientific Law does not have."

SWIPE

Aqua swiped the tablet, the slide shifted to the next. It showed a rough drawing of two large circles with smaller circles inside them and labels.

"That's an ugly drawing!"

"Voice, that was rude," Alicia chastised her pixie.

"Now." Aqua ignored the conjecture and went on to explain, "in every world, they have the exact same Scientific Laws." Aqua pointed out the label 'Same Scientific Law,' which stretched out to every smaller circle, representing worlds. "Even the most seemingly absurd world heeds to the same Law. Fantasy Law, however, is a different story."

The label for Fantasy Law read, 'Different Fantasy Law for each Circle of Sister Worlds' and it stretched out to the two larger circles, representing the Circle of Sister Worlds.

Aqua continued, "Each world has its own unique Fantasy Law. But, there is always a group of worlds that shares the same Fantasy Law, this is what makes them sister worlds. So we group them together into what is called a 'Circle of Sister Worlds,' though we shortened it to 'Circle of Worlds' or just 'Circle."

"So then a spell in Kaomagi would work in my world, Kaomagi Earth, as it is in the same Circle, correct?" Alicia asked.

"Correct, and because each Circle of Worlds has different Fantasy Laws, any ability or trait that falls under the Fantasy Law of one Circle will work differently in another." Aqua swiped the screen.

FLICK

Changing the slide yet again. It showed these sentences from top to bottom:

A Fantasy Trait/Ability in a Different Circle will be integrated into the new Fantasy Law.

If the new Fantasy Law has a rule similar to the trait/ability, it will be slightly less effective.

If the new Fantasy Law only has a distant rule the trait/ability fits into, it will be partially weakened.

If the new Fantasy Law has little to not rule the trait/ability to fall into, it will barely work or is disabled completely.

"As you can see here," Aqua said. "These are the effects if you try to cast a spell in a different Circle with a different Fantasy Law."

Alicia scrutinized the slide. From what it implied, that meant personal magic of Court Wizards like Darc was more powerful than it seemed. She shuddered what it would look like if the Dark Guardian were to go all out in his world, Rakarok-Earth World Merge.

"This goes for physical traits that fall under the Fantasy Law," Aqua continued. "For example, this world, Manegia, vampires never existed here and so, Fantasy Laws related to it did not exist either."

"Oh?" Alicia raised her eyebrow, remembering that Rose's vampire race. "Then what would happen Rose?" she asked worriedly.

"Do not worry," Aqua assured the red-haired girl. "It is just most of her mystical traits as a vampire is gone. Traits like her weaknesses as a vampire; burning under sunlight, being damaged when exposed to the cross or touching running water, all of them are gone."

"I see."

"But, that also makes most of her vampire powers useless, though she mastered few of them, to begin with, so it was not a loss. Also, she can see her own reflection on the mirror now that rule was not a thing in Manegia."

"That is... quite fortunate for her," Alicia muttered.

"Indeed," Aqua agreed. "Incidentally, there are some aspects of her that will not be eliminated even when she moved here. Her fangs and albinism for one are under the Scientific Law, so it still exists in any world. Also, garlic is just a common allergy among vampires in her world, Arknoir, and not a mystical weakness, so it is a Scientific Law and is still carried over here."

"Why is that?" Alicia asked. "Are they not there as a result of Rose being born as a vampire as it exists as a Fantasy Law in Arknoir?"

"That is because there are some elements under Scientific Law that can only be implemented through Fantasy Law," Aqua explained. "There has always been a Scientific Law where vampires have sharp fangs, you could consider it as an adaptation being creatures who drink blood. But you can say that it requires a 'key' known as the Fantasy Law of vampires for that Scientific Law to appear.

"The same goes for that cow in Beohar. If you take it to another world, those stone plating would not disappear. It is a Scientific Law but it could only appear by the will of the Fantasy Law. So unlike what you think, Scientific and Fantasy Law are not completely like water and oil, while sometimes they do, they can also go hand in hand. This is also beneficial for us non-human Court Wizards as most of our traits are still intact."

""I see/ Ooh..."" Alicia and Rin mumbled.

"But, the presence of these Laws is a different story," Aqua said, catching the girls' attention.

FLICK

She swiped the tablet again, switching to the next slide. It was similar to the previous, only this time it was just a single large circle with two smaller circles. "Alicia, while your world has the same Fantasy Law as Kaomagi, you do not see any Vengefuls there or magic in that regard, correct?"

"Yes." Alicia nodded. "So is that why my world is considered scientific as there is not any fantasy element present?"

"Correct," Aqua nodded. "While the magic system of Kaomagi exists in Kaomagi Earth, it is another thing for its practitioners to be present in Kaomagi Earth. Just as the Law for the mystical workings of the Vengefuls is present in Kaomagi Earth, the Lord of Vengeance is not in your world so there would not be any Vengefuls running around."

"Uhn? What are Vengeful?" Rin asked. "And the Lord of Vengeance?"

"...It is a thing in Alicia's Circle of Worlds," Aqua explained to the black-haired girl, not wanting to stray off from the subject at hand. "I will tell you about it later. Now, when I explained how Circles of Worlds have different Fantasy Law, that does not mean that they can have their Fantasy Law mingle with the other." Aqua put her hand on her chest. "An example is myself."

Alicia and Rin both blinked. "What do you mean?" Alicia asked.

"I am the first greater water spirit of Spiri Raia and Spiri Raia was created by the greater spirits."

"Eh~!" Rin exclaimed. Alicia widened her eyes. Having already been astonished before by the fact that Aqua was a water spirit despite being the Fire Guardian, apparently, she was also involved with her world's birth.

"As such," Aqua continued regardless. "I made the Spiri Raian Fantasy Law's water spirit art system. So naturally, I have a copy of that Law as I was its origin."

"Incredible..." Alicia gasped in awe.

"Miss greater water spirit, did you just wanna brag!?"

"""...""" And they all stared at Voice, still nibbling a cookie as she nonchalantly ruined the moment.

"Ahem," Aqua coughed. "Moving on, as I 'carry' the Fantasy Law of Spiri Raian water spirit arts, I can utilize my arts without restriction in any world."

"I see," Alicia said. "That is certainly convenient."

"True. Also, do note that when we say Personal Skill, it always refers to techniques under Fantasy Laws like my spirit arts or any magical spells that are not of maneg." Aqua continued, "and speaking of maneg, what I said before is also the case for us Court Wizards."

""Oh/Uhn?""

SWIPE

Aqua then swiped the tablet once again to show the next slide.

"So, what were you taught when maneg encounters a new world?" Aqua asked.

"Well, it gets filled with maneg?" Alicia answered.

"That is inaccurate, that is an initial answer when you get recruited so you would not be overwhelmed." Aqua then directed the center of attention to the presentation. "After all, maneg in a world is always constant, so how does Manegia get to pour its maneg into another world?"

It showed a text saying 'Maneg System inserts itself into Fantasy Law' with an arrow directing it to a Circle of Worlds.

"The most probable theory is that when maneg visits a new world, either by a Maneg Soul searching for a vessel or a Court Wizard visiting for the first time, it taps into the world, or perhaps the entire Circle's Fantasy Law and inserts its Fantasy Law, which we call it the 'Maneg System,' into it." Aqua took a sip from her tea before continuing, "and with the presence of the Maneg System, maneg will just 'appear' in that world, allowing us to traverse into it and use Orders."

"Ah, so that is how it is..." Alicia muttered. It would make sense if the initial explanation was given first. Otherwise, Owen would've had to give her a much longer and complicated answer from the get-go.

"And this is what makes the Maneg System unique than the others. Additionally," Aqua added. "The Maneg System also stabilizes the flow of time of that world to match Manegia's, so we would not have to deal with a world going ten years faster than us. Though that does not stop other complications with time..." she mumbled the last sentence.

True, considering the Otherworldly Court had to observe many worlds, it would have made anyone's head explode if they also have different pacings of time.

"But, that is not all. Now, the Maneg System is the one doing all the leg work for its insertion, now would it not make it so that it is superior?" Aqua asked.

"...Ah," Alicia clicked. "That means...!"

"Yes," the Fire Guardian nodded. "And one of these advantages is our immunity against indirect magic and anything similar to it by the sacrifice of disloyal maneg."

Which Alicia needed a Catalyst to do so.

"It was already a part of the Maneg System, however, but we still call it as that because we believe it still needed to analyze the other world's magic system first. However, indirect attacks seemed to be all that the Maneg System could achieve. Furthermore, it can only prevent it from striking you, once it has been applied, maneg cannot undo it."

"I see..."

"Anyway, do you all understand so far?" Aqua asked. "Any questions?"

"If a Circle has three worlds, two fantasy worlds, and one Earth, what do you name the Earth world?" Alicia asked.

"Oh, the Earth is named after the first fantasy world discovered in the Circle," Aqua explained.

Rin raised her hand. "How was the Maneg System able to travel worlds in the first place?" It was an innocent question.

However, Aqua does not address as such, and Rin could sense it and she did not like it. "Well now," Aqua said, it was of a graver tone. "That is another can of worms to open. A can of worms called the 'Eleven-Century War'."