Food is translating. I asked him and he told me that if I want I can repost updates for everyone who doesn't follow Kitchen Space. Enjoy.
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The Clock Tower of 2015
Although it was something that happened often, a magus was found dead this winter.
He was the director of a small research building, and his corpse was found in the Director's Room of that exact building. The cause of death was said to be hypovolemic shock secondary to dismemberment.
Even though the crime scene suggested murder, no one visited the site since the week prior. His death was thus deemed suicide, because there was no suspect.
The incident was incomprehensible, but as a magus, meeting such an end was not surprising.
Murder that looked like suicide, or suicide that looked like murder; such was the norm in the world of magi.
The mourners had no questions regarding the death, but everyone was puzzled when the deceased was buried.
On the tombstone prepared by the deceased before his death, there were three names.
01 Summer | Suburb of London | Clock Tower Eleventh District
Under the blazing afternoon sun, I squinted my eyes as I walked these old streets.
The English climate was drier than that of Japan. Since the humidity was low, one did not get sweaty or uncomfortable despite the sunshine.
I took off my coat and headed to my destination with a map in hand.
The street was made of bricks and stone.
The buildings from the 12th Century were well-preserved, creating a juxtaposition of the Medieval and the modern.
The town consisted of over 40 student dormitories (called Colleges), over a hundred research buildings, as well as the business districts that supplied the residents.
This was the birthplace of the Magic Association; the centre of the modern world of magecraft; the Mecca of mages.
It had been a few years, I again walked into the city that inspired fear and awe --- "The Clock Tower".
"From here it's Rocks Road... The Eleventh Department really earned their name as the weakness, there's nothing on the streets. It certainly fits the impoverished lifestyle of the archaeologists."
The Clock Tower divided the city based on faculty and department. The architecture varied depending on the district.
The Magic Association divided mysticism into 12 domains. In other words, this city reflected the specialties of each faculty.
The Twelve Faculties were ruled by the Twelve Lords.
The twelve domains of mysticism included the critical General Fundamentals (encompassing basic knowledge, leyline studies, and mana studies), which was designated as I, as well as Individual Fundamentals (II), Necromancy (III), Geology (IV), Zoology (V), Anthropology (VI), Botany (VII), Astronomy (VIII), Creation (IX), Curse (X), Archaeology (XI), and Modern Magecraft Theories (XII). These were the directions which dictated the ways of the magi.
Although Policies was the 13th item and was open to those who wish to pursue politics, it was a social science rather than a discipline in the pursue to mysticism. As a result, it was not included in the Twelve Faculties.
The majority of the magi studied General Fundamentals for about 5 years (which included common magical knowledge, sympathetic magecraft, contagious magecraft, leyline studies, and mana studies), and then enter the Faculty that was associated with the lineage. Magi might also enroll in other Faculties as associates to help further his studies in his own Faculty.
My Faculty was Astronomy.
Although the Faculty was generalized as Astronomy, it included divisions such as Astrology, Planetology, and Divinity. It was rare to run into other magi who studied the same courses as myself.
Also, there was great unity within each dormitory (College). If an outsider stepped into the college, it was not uncommon for interpersonal conflicts to evolve into inter-college wars.
However, I never resided within the Clock Tower, so I was not territorial. Right now, I was just walking around the Rocks Road College.
If this was the college of a major Faculty (that of the Barthomeloi associates), then I would already be surrounded by private police. Rocks Road was an area distant from the power struggles of the Association, so such danger did not exist.
The people here were a group of pure academics who studied archaeology and nothing else. They were not the kind to arrest me and cause quarrel.
"Oh, here we are. Sir Flauros' research building.
Ooo, it was bigger than expected. He must have found a powerful backer."
After arriving at my destination, I began to survey the building standing in the garden on the other side of the fence.
I expected a small house, but here was a mansion larger than 200-tsubo. To a Japanese such as me, it looked like a small castle.
"He probably had co-researchers. If he had a workshop of such magnitude, he must be quite successful. Why would something like this happ ----"
I swallowed back the inauspiciousness I was about to utter.
The plaque on the gate said "No Visitors Before the End of the Month".
The mansion was surrounded by a tall fence.
I cleared my throat, adjusted my glass, and pressed the door bell with lady-like elegance.
02 The Record of Leiv Uvall
------The purpose of a magus' life was to serve the past.
It was afternoon in the laboratory.
Buried in a mountain of measuring apparatus and recording paper, Leiv Uvall was still perusing records of the past.
Leiv's job in this residence was a researcher.
He was a German male of Aryan descent. He hunched his long torso like a cat and paced back and forth in the cluttered room.
Although he was mocked as "research fanatic" or "the indoor chairman", he was in fact a prodigy who drew attention by attaining the Fourth Rank (read as: Fes) at the young age of 20.
In the subsequent 20 years, Leiv hid himself in the Eleventh Faculty (Rocks Road) and quietly performed his duties.
"Director, you've been invited by the Head of the Division this morning. It seems like he has important matters to discuss and requests your attendance. What do you think sir?"
The sound from the speaker in the laboratory was that of a nubile woman.
It was the voice of Leiv's secretary and caretaker. Leiv nervously scratched his head, and spoke seriously to the speaker:
"I don't have time for that, Ms. Norwich! Cancel all my external affairs. Such leisure activities are not something I can afford. All matters pertaining to myself will only be addressed on the last day of each month, and only during the four hours between evening and bed time. How many times do I need to repeat this!?"
"But, but this time it is the Dean himself. It is such a great honour --"
"I don't care. Why don't you chase him away by feeding him those awful pies of yours! Furthermore, isn't the Dean a creature of urban legend who doesn't even show up for school entrance ceremony? I stayed at the Clock Tower because of the promised unbridled freedom, yet these meaningless social occasions are growing more numerous year after year. This was contrary to what was advertised!"
"I agree completely, but you got to realize that such is life."
"Maybe for the normal men! For a social exile such as I, there's nothing to discuss with the rest of the world! Anyways, cancel it for me, and try your best not to bother me. At least for today, or the next 10 hours, just stop bothering me!"
"Yes sir. I will tell that to the Head of the District."
The speaker went silent.
Leiv sighed as he read the records in the grimoire. The disturbing part was, during the previous conversation, his eyes never stopped scanning the tome.
"Ahhh, the life of a magus is so brief. It would have been great if I were born with just the brain and nothing else."
Like what you just saw, Leiv was a pure academic magus.
All his efforts were poured solely into his theory and magecraft.
He cared naught of any other responsibilities, the application of his magecraft, his lineage, or building his faction.
From Leiv's perspective, those magi were the same as the plebians that were "normal people".
If one were to decipher the mystical, then he must sacrifice his humanity.
A magus was a creature with nothing but magecraft on his mind. There was no room for burdens such as "life".
To a magus, deciphering a grimoire was not just a matter of comprehension. It was for recreating a Mystery from eras past, and then redefining its meaning in the current era.
It was like translating Shakespeare into modern English.
If deciphering a page of the grimoire took an hour, then a five-hundred-page tome would take 20 some days. In the research building, there were 500 grimoire awaiting to be read. On average Leiv could read about 12 per year. It would take 4 to 5 years to finish reading all the tomes.
No, if that were the case, it would be a simple matter. Reading grimoire one by one was even easier.
However, Leiv Uvall's duty was not "deciphering a certain grimoire", but "deciphering a System". He must digest all concepts and comprehend all the interrelated phenomena.
If grimoire A and grimoire B had conflicting views on a certain item, then the content of A must be reviewed.
The more grimoire he read, the more time he needed to redefine concepts. The number was astronomical.
Of course, the cause of Leiv's grief was not "exhaustion from reading for so long".
Rather, he was disgusted by the briefness of his life, which fell short of the time required to comprehensively analyze all the tomes.
"Short. O so short. My one life time will not suffice!"
Originally Posted by asterism42
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