Page 1:Kazuto (thought): My magecraft begins whenever I descend these stairs.
Father: You’re late. // Then let’s begin, // Kazuto.
Kazuto: …Yes, father.
Kazuto (thought): I am a magus.
Text: The tale of a certain family’s daily life—
Page 2:
Kazuto (thought): Magi are those who continue researching across generations in pursuit of the “Swirl of the Root”. // This path towards the truth passed down by each generation is both a source of pride and a set of shackles.
Chapter 51: Sakagami Kazuto*
(TL Note: The kanji for Kazuhito’s name is the same, but in this flashback, the name’s pronunciation is Kazuto instead of Kazuhito, for reasons yet to be explained.)
Page 3:
Kazuto (thought): The year 1970. A pole shift occurred. // This was both the end and start of everything. // With the pole shift as the start of misfortune, the Earth’s resources ran dry and grew insufficient, and many countries collapsed. // Natural disasters and biohazards sprung up in great frequency, // and by the year 2000, the Earth’s human population dwindled to two thirds of its former size. // In this situation, the Western European Conglomerate, which ruled the North Arctic region where a new energy resource could be mined, came to have 30% of the world under its control. // The changes didn’t stop there. // The “mana” within the world began to dry up.
Page 4:
Kazuto (thought): In the end, the “magi” who practiced magecraft dwindled away. // And their blood infiltrated the digital sea // and was inherited by a brand-new generation of “wizards”. // —In other words, // my family // was left behind by the times.
Page 5:
Kazuto (thought): My father was a romanticist.
Father: All right. // Light the candle.
Kazuto: Haa… // Haa // This is impossible for me…
Page 6:
Father: Kazuto. // Why do you close off your own possibilities by saying it’s impossible or futile? // Even with a imperfect spell using only the small inner source “Od”, you can do this much. // Witchcraft is originally a means to make nature obey you in order to bestow good fortune and drive away disasters.
Page 7:
Father: Using a bronze bell as a charm, // you call down the gods and nurture them within in order to purify yourself.
Kazuto: In our case, we resonate our Od within the bell to utilize spells… // right?
Father: Correct. // By piling up training using Od, you’ll be prepared for when the great outer source “Mana” comes back.
Kazuto (thought): Magecraft // is a mystery accomplished using magical energy as its source. // Magical energy not only includes Od which is formed within the body using a Magic Crest, // but also Mana, the energy created by nature that filled the air in the past. // Or so I’ve been told.
Page 8:
Kazuto (thought): Now that Mana has dried up, the magi of old have become unable to use large-scale magecraft // and most have switched over to being wizards. // Spiritron Hackers that use their Magic Circuits, which serve as imaginary nerves, // to turn their souls into spiritrons and dive into the cyber-world. // That is the new form of magic practitioners… Wizards. // But, // my father was obsessed with being a “magus”. // He didn’t give up on it. // …There was something he told me just once before.
Father: In the past, // I saw the magecraft my father used several times.
Page 9:
Father: Large-scale magecraft using Mana… // It was truly the radiance of this planet. // I hope I can show it to you too someday…
Kazuto (thought): The light of magecraft born from Mana was still burned into my father’s eyes. // That’s why he longed for the revival of Mana.
Page 10:
Kazuto (thought): My magecraft still has a long way to go, // but if it makes my father happy, studying magecraft isn’t so bad.
Father (flashback): Witchcraft is originally a means to make nature obey you in order to bestow good fortune and drive away disasters.
Kazuto (thought): Magecraft is surely // a guide to making everyone happy.
Father: You are // the proud son of a magus.
Page 11:
Kazuto (thought): My mother was a realist.
Mother: I support your father’s ideals. // But there’s no future for magi. // You have have to live in the present and face the future. // In order to aid you as part of my duty as a parent, I’ve prepared the path of Spiritron Hacker for you as well.
Kazuto: But Father always says…
Mother: Your father was born with talent as a magus, // but his compatibility with the cyber-world is extremely bad, rendering him unable to dive into it. // …That’s why your father dislikes wizards.
Page 12:
Mother: This room is where your father once tried to become a wizard. // Perhaps because of that, // he doesn’t come near this room anymore. // So we’ll keep the research and training we do here hidden from your father. // It will be our little secret, between just the two of us.
Kazuto (thought): Doing as I was told, // I started secretly learning this “new form of magic” in parallel with my magecraft studies. // Fortunately, I was able to dive into the cyber-world.
Page 13:
Kazuto (thought): My talent as a wizard was merely average, // but I still enjoyed being able to get proper results from training. // I was happy that I was able to put to use the fruits of the studies I did with my father, which I could never display well with magecraft.
Mother: Don’t forget // that you also have a future as a wizard open to you.
Tamamo? (thought): …I see. // A father who clings to the past // and a mother who seeks the future. // He’s pinned between these two opposites.
Page 14:
Kazuto (thought): My little sister didn’t know anything.
Fumika: You seem to be enjoying yourself lately, // big brother.
Kazuto (thought): Only one child can receive the Magic Crest passed down through a magus family.
Kazuto: That so?
Kazuto (thought): With her weak body, Fumika was rarely able to leave her room, so she wasn’t chosen as the successor. // She lived her days without knowing about magecraft nor being bound by it. // She always recounted the contents of the book she read each day. // I liked this time I spent with her.
Page 15:
Kazuto (thought): —Though I felt bad about not being able to say anything about the books I read. // I can’t do the things Dad does. // I sulked when it came to magecraft, since I never managed to show any results from it. // Seeing me like this, father said the following in a somewhat irritated tone.
Father: Research, // practice // and training. // The process of these three steps is obviously for the sake of obtaining results, // but it’s only natural that the process be difficult. // …We have to overcome that.
Kazuto (thought): I could tell that father had swallowed his true thoughts at that moment. // —Didn’t he really want to say this?
Page 16:
Kazuto (thought): “If you wish to truly become happy, then bring forth results.”
Kazuto: …But—
Father: …Do you still… // think it’s impossible and futile, // Kazuto?
Kazuto: !
Father: Let’s stop here for today.
Tamamo? (thought): …How long can people // keep working hard with no sign of results or returns for their efforts?
Page 17:
Tamamo? (thought): —If that magus were all alone, // he might be able to blindly keep working, but… // That man has noticed an offshoot of himself that he can view objectively, in the form of his son. // It’s only natural then that he notices how he himself is averting his eyes from the future. // …In the first place, he already feels responsibility for not being able to bring forth results in his son—
Fumika: You seem troubled lately, // big brother.
Kazuto: Eh?
Fumika: You’ve always been the type to try too hard. // I think it’s okay if you relax a little // and enjoy yourself more.
Page 18:
Kazuto: What about you, then?
Fumika: Well, I have my books.
Father: —Do you think that everything I’ve done is pointless…?
Mother: Dear…
Father: …Even so…
Tamamo? (thought): Unable to inherit and pass on the history built up by generations of magi by becoming a wizard. // What shall this man who has been left behind by the times do—?
Text: A person and their family stands at a crossroads—
Originally Posted by Iceblade44
but only there the rest of the time she is see able. Hopefully someone will post the chapter on imgur.com I feel it give better resolution and the current pics make me have to refresh the page a few time before the picture can be shown.
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