In Another World with JUST MONIKA 54 This is Fine. I am Fine with This.

"Oh!" Linze gasped, and slapped her fist down into her waiting palm. "That would actually explain everything!"

"What? Linze, no!" I screamed out desperately.

Monika just floated there, palming her face. /"Why would you even think that?"/ she asked Charlotte. /"Shouldn't there be [Null] abilities that deal with translation?"/

"Words alone don't give understanding. There are, but there are two forms of the Ancient Language. One can be translated with [Translation], and another script that can't. It is Protected somehow.

"We found [Cure Heal] in among ancient scrolls of the first type. And we knew that it was actually a translation of a previous work, and that it was an attempt to duplicate two separate [Null] abilities into one usable spell."

I blinked. "Holy shite, really?"

Charlotte beamed. She really relished how much we were also genuinely interested in these things. Not like Linze or most other users who simply wanted to know the spells and how to improve their ability to cast spells. She was a researcher and archeologist, we were engineers.

/"… but how does that even imply that we're sleepers from this ancient civilization of yours?"/

"But why nooottt?!" Charlotte whined. "It would make things so much easier if the reason you could invent spells is that you learned the ancient language as a first language! The things you know are all the things we lost! I even only know that there are over a hundred material elements from the old writings that we could translate."

/"These aren't things that require magic to find out, you know?"/

"And that begs the question, then how do you do that? You both have indefinitely deep magic reserves, ability to cast all spells, a spirit that can cast any personal magic. But more than that, you have strange magic tools that no one has seen before!"

Charlotte pointed down at the projector cube then the headset I was always going on about how it allowed me to see despite having my eyes covered. "For example, are you in that box, Lady Monika?"

/"Um. No? Of course not?"/

"Obviously not. She's right here." I pointed to my cheekbones, implying that she was sealed into my eyes. Like Rezo the Red Priest and Shabranigdo. It was much safer if everyone believed that Monika was not something that could be stolen. And it neatly explained why my eyes could not be cured by any simple [Heal] spell.

"See? Remote visual communication! Who has that? That is far too convenient a coincidence. I don't believe that all!"

Monika winced. /"If I didn't know any better that would actually be quite convincing, Player."/

"But we are still not five-thousand-year old people popsicles, sorry."

Charlotte sagged, her long green hair draping onto my chest. "I was hoping for that… but that would have been too much. It would be much too convenient."

/"Why do you want to know so much about the Ancients anyway?"/

"It was the Ancients that Formalized Magic! They were the first to use magic stones, the first to study spells, the first to enchant spells onto objects, they made great works even now impossible to duplicate and spread out all over the world! And then suddenly, their entire civilization just collapsed and all knowledge about them vanished from the world.

"Honestly, I do not actually think that you are Ancients… that was just the best possible thing. But if you could create new spells as much as you wanted, that's because you are able to Formalize magic using the same method the Ancients did. When you understand [Spell Names], you understand how to finalize the form."

"Excuse me. Wait. Are you telling me that when we've been saying these [Spell Names], we haven't been actually speaking in [freaking English]?!"

/"Well of course not, Player. Why would YOU even think that?"/

"… because I've been doing that. And I'm kinda dumb, apparently." I frowned. "So there IS actually something wrong with calling it the [Blood Maker]."

"No, no there isn't," Charlotte answered. "The spell succeeded."

"But then why did it…? Ah."

Because when I was saying [Blood Maker], it was in English and everyone else was just hearing it as something else. And Linze said [Blood Maker] in her native language.

Casting my own personal spell didn't just mean casting the admittedly simple effect I was asking, it also had to cast my emulator. Monika and I were x64 processors in a world optimized to run ARM apps.

Linze knocked herself out because casting the spell instantly drained all her magic power from actually visualizing what happens behind spells instead of just willing things to happen. My spells were so horribly optimized, they should barely even run except that I had literally obscene levels of magic power to throw at the problem. The benefit to me was that it scaled up much much greater than regular spells. Other people had to stack spells to get greater intensity, I could ramp it up as high or as low as I wanted because I was using magic itself to block magic.

All this time I visualized The World as a separate entity, the thing that enables magic. I wanted as little to do with the world and automatic magic as much as possible. It wasn't about denying the impossible, but I wanted freedom to do as I wanted instead of having to search for prebuilt spells in order to do anything. And so the world obliged, because dammit this magic system of theirs was so nice like that.

I was so dumb. Arrogant and dumb. I groaned and explained as such.

Imagine Harry Potter magic and its faux Latin used for casting. (Wingardium Leviosa), etc.

But I was hearing and saying it as [Highwing Raiser] while everyone else was hearing it in their Faux Latin. Or [Summon] for (Accio), or [Banish Weapon] for (Expelliarmus). Everything sounds much chuunier as heck if you're using the root words.

No one would expect [Highwing Banisher] (Wingardium ExpelliarDus) to work at all instead of the general blasting curse (Confringo). I was going around being all MAXIMUM CHUUNI not knowing shit about anything. If I could video myself I'd probably cringe at the delusional boy.

/"That little change makes all the difference?"/ Monika mused. /"Arbitrary magic surely is arbitrary. Because you had constrained magic to what you believed was possible, it meant your spells became their own self-contained rulesets. That's a unique form of self-sabotage, at least."/

Monika shrugged, /"I'm much the same way, player. I could deal with the idea that magic was basically just imposing my will on the universe. But we can't deal with the idea that there can't be any limits to it. It is just too unfair. Why should we be rewarded like this after everything we had done?"/

"I object on the grounds that you can't cheese as effectively if you don't know the rules you can abuse. If there aren't any rules then you can't cheese at all! And that's just unsatisfying."

/"Hahaha. Of course you would."/

With chakra, or with MP, or even with any goddamn MMORPG level-based magic, at least it would be understandable. It makes sense that not everyone can be a scientist or an athlete or an artist. But I had no idea why anyone in this world would ever just let the chance to wrap reality to their whims pass them by just from sheer lack of motivation to exert themselves!

"But there ARE rules to magic," Charlotte demurred. "From what I understand of what you just said, it is not so much you can break them, or that you have no limits, but you create even stricter limits on yourself. There really are many rules to magic… but these are rules other people have laid down and you don't have to follow them.

"This has immense implications for uncovering how spells were originally created, how the Ancients were able to enchant objects with what should be unique personal Null abilities, and for finding the limit of current spells."

"I suppose we could help with that. If we have the time. We're still adventurers first and foremost."

/"I want in return a Teleportation Spell or seeing a Teleport ability in action,"/ Monika put in suddenly. /"Since apparently teleportation has little do with elemental spells, just watching Player does nothing for me."/

"But then when I say (Come forth, Water, [SEA WATER]…!) it's violating the whole premise if it's just spontaneously generated salt water instead of coming from an ocean somewhere," I whined.

Charlotte giggled. "I'd be very grateful for any assistance you would care to provide."

After some time, Linze said "Um… if that's done, could you please get off him now?"

Charlotte and I looked towards her, then back at each other. We were sitting basically crotch to crotch.

"I am fine with this," I had to admit.

/"Player!"/ Monika shouted, pointing reproachfully at me.

Ahahaha…

/"Player, may I speak with you in private, please?"/ Monika asked after we had disentangled ourselves.

"Ah. Okay. Excuse us please," I told the others.

I went to a corner of the room, carrying the projector. Technically there was no need for that, but it gave everyone else the illusion of privacy.

/"Player, you are being disgustingly obvious. Think about how you look to others."/

"I'm sorry. Monika, I still love you best, but… I have to confess, she just pushes ALL my buttons."

/"Yes, I accept that. She is a super hot super nerd. I perfectly understand why. In fact, I'm not even angry about it. You'd think I'd feel even the slightest bit of jealousy, but… I really don't. It's so inevitable it doesn't even register. Does she even realize how seductive she's acting?"/

"I… don't think so? I have a feeling she just has a poor idea of personal space. Ugh." I squatted as I faced the corner of the wall, and held Monika's tiny holographic figure to my chest. "This is kinda hard for me to deal with. I thought I couldn't get silly crushes anymore…"

/"I object to that, because I don't think Linze's crush is silly. Also, phrasing."/

"Monika, you're being quite obvious about shipping me with Linze too. I mean, I like her, but… I feel like I'd be taking advantage of her, you know? I'm not sure if we should really be rushing into anything." I paused and added "Also, literally. I'm going to need your help with this later too."

/"Playerrr…"/

Chapter end

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