In the broadest sense, science was the process of seeking patterns, summarizing patterns, and applying patterns.
If Mystery truly existed in reality, then from science's perspective, Mystery would also be part of science and technology.
And if you looked closely, you would find that what magi did wasn't all that different from what researchers who explored the world did.
Observe. Understand. Make contact. Exploit.
Everyone repeated the same kind of process.
So what, exactly, was the difference between magecraft and scientific technology?
It couldn't just be "a difference in vibes," could it?
That question had stayed in Sora Aratō's mind ever since he began learning about the hidden world from Touko Aozaki.
When he studied, he had asked her that kind of question too.
And the answer he received was—
You'll understand immediately once you use magecraft yourself.
At first, Sora thought she was dodging the question.
But when he truly used magecraft… it hit him like enlightenment.
Mystery was power that belonged exclusively to an individual.
Differences in magical circuits, differences in a person's mental state—
even differences in the caster's mood on the day of casting—could all change the final result.
If he had to summarize it with a simple word:
"Idealism."
Magecraft was, to a certain extent, an idealistic power.
You could treat a magus's "foundation"—the base they used to perform magecraft—like a book, a film, an event, even an era: a slice of time.
Different people reading the same book would understand it differently.
Different people would form completely different interpretations of the same event, the same era.
And because of that, the same magecraft, cast by different people, could produce dramatically different effects.
The more complex the magical construction, the stronger the personal imprint became.
Once you stepped into the world of Mystery and studied for long enough, the magecraft you wielded would become something difficult to teach to anyone else.
That, too, was why the world of magi placed so much emphasis on bloodline inheritance.
Individuals of the same bloodline, raised in similar ways, would find it easier to use the magecraft passed down from the previous generation.
In the world of magecraft, the "genetics and inheritance" of the tech side had found an even more extraordinary proof.
It was, honestly, a little theatrical.
And so, the basic magecraft of the Coal Witch—taught to Sora by Touko—naturally manifested in Sora's hands as something entirely different.
…
High atop the mountain, deep within dense forest.
Inside the beehive, Sora dismantled a few unimportant sections, turning them into materials to construct his magical working.
Using the Coal Witch's magecraft, he "read" the history of the Industrial Revolution embedded within that spell, and poured his own mind, thoughts, and will into what he was casting.
Tempting honey replaced mercury.
Perforated beeswax replaced gemstones.
And in the center, the corpse of a dead giant bee was laid out.
Fujino sat off to the side, watching silently, careful not to interrupt.
For a brief span of time, dense blue patterns spread across Sora's arms—
his magic circuits were running at full power for the first time.
Rumble… rumble-rumble…
A roar seemed to rise from within the ritual.
The thunder of steam locomotives.
The grinding of factory assembly lines.
To the Coal Witch, the industrial age was the process of nature's resources being seized by humanity—squeezed and compressed into fuel for human advancement.
But Sora's understanding—
was exactly like the relationship between worker bees and their hive.
That distant industrial age had not only crushed the natural world into power for progress.
Human beings themselves had moved from countryside to city, from fields to factories, where they too were squeezed, burned, and used with ruthless, limitless cruelty—
to drive civilization forward.
From the objective standpoint of history, you could mourn their sacrifice, and still understand it was unavoidable.
The rise of anything great inevitably came with sacrifice.
A necessary sacrifice.
A cruel sacrifice.
Illusory flames surged up amid the surrounding mana's radiance.
The massive giant bee corpses were ignited, crackling as they burned.
They were being offered.
Their bodies shrank—again and again and again.
Even before it was finished, Sora already understood, to some extent, what the final product would be.
Time flowed. The flames slowly died away.
When everything was over, Sora walked to where the corpses had been.
There, all that remained were pale yellow gemstones.
They weren't the clear, transparent kind formed by nature.
They were more like amber—a state that encased life.
Sora bent down and picked one up.
Holding it close, he could clearly see a miniature giant bee sealed inside.
He remembered Touko saying that when the Coal Witch burned things down, the end product was coal.
This was obviously nothing like that.
"My version…" Sora murmured, "is more accurately called 'biological refinement.'"
["Mastery: Coal Magecraft" → "Mastery: Biological Refinement" has been updated.]
"…Fine," he commented dryly. "If nothing else, the Dream Game System is fast about adapting."
He manipulated the panel in front of him and checked the gemstone's info.
Just as it had instantly analyzed and extracted the magecraft he knew and displayed it on his status panel—
even though he hadn't used the gemstone yet, the system had already analyzed and revealed its functions and effects.
—
[Name: Worker-Bee Amber (name can be changed)]
[Type: Item]
[Description: A gemstone formed by refining the power and concept of a giant worker bee.]
[Effect 1: After equipping the gemstone, the wearer can receive simple information and commands from a designated queen bee.]
[Effect 2: When acting in accordance with the queen's commands, stamina and mental strength are enhanced.]
[Effect 3: Under the queen's command, the wearer can enter a "burning" state. By permanently damaging the amber, the user's physical qualities are further increased.]
[Note: Exact effects may vary in practice. Because bee-related concepts have been extracted, use will influence the wearer to some degree.]
—
"So basically," Fujino said after hearing Sora's explanation, summarizing calmly, "you become the queen bee… and I become your worker bee?"
As she spoke, her eyes seemed to brighten—just a little.
The way she looked at Sora grew vivid, alive.
"The system says it might be inaccurate," she continued. "So… should we run an experiment first?"
She spoke with complete seriousness, staring at the Worker-Bee Amber in Sora's hand.
Fujino didn't understand magecraft.
But looking at that gemstone, she felt—strangely—that it suited her.
She knew she couldn't become a woman with strong opinions and irresistible charm.
Because she wasn't someone who could make decisions.
Just like in reality: even though she lived within a great family, she never received the treatment a proper young lady should have had. She was trapped in an endlessly troublesome situation.
If Sora hadn't asked anything of her, Fujino would never have made any choices at all.
She would have simply kept living as she always had.
The girl without pain couldn't feel the outside world's malice—
and she would not act in response to malice.
But Mr. Aratō was someone who could worry over the pain she couldn't even perceive.
If she followed his commands, then surely she could avoid the suffering she couldn't sense.
If she followed his commands, then her value would finally become visible.
Fujino wanted to become that sort of tool.
And so—
"Could you give me an order?"
Her long purple hair swayed behind her. Her hollow eyes held a spark they had never shown before.
Her red gaze fixed on Sora Aratō as she asked:
"Mr. Aratō."
....
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