A few months after discovering my attribute was 'colourless':
Other than perhaps being overly-doted on, there haven't been any major problems.
After being read many more books covering a variety of topics, I am finally able to understand the writing and am capable of reading myself.
If I were to meet any other 1 year old who could read then I couldn't help but be creeped-out and suspicious of their circumstances, so I'll keep this skill a secret for now.*
It seemed books were indeed an expensive privilege in this world; Erina-san showed great pride in every book she owned despite some being worn and tattered.
As expected this world closely resembles my world's middle ages, but with magic.
It is a severe world, with a variety of different races like Noeru competing to survive, there was strong discrimination between nobles and commoners, and there was a chance of being insta-killed from running into one of the demon-race. *
That was how cheap a life was here; it was survival of the fittest.
Using the knowledge from the previous world, I'll develop my understanding of magic, forge a strong body, and live on in this new world with all my might.*
I'm not so optimistic as to expect a 3rd chance.*
But… I'd already failed at the first hurdle; magic.
[Elementary magic textbook]
The magic book detailed the method for determining one's attribute, as well as the meaning of the colours.
Red: [Fire]
Blue: [Water]
Green: [Wind]
Yellow: [Soil]
And my 'colourless' …. [None].
Yep. I had no attribute.
Unfortunately this didn't mean that I could use all of them freely; instead it meant that I suffered the steep non-attribute penalty in all of them.
"Seriously…?"
I muttered reflexively.
The book I hold now is "Albert's adventure log".
The author travelled all over the world and wrote about the strange customs of other lands, or mysterious phenomena he encountered.
Basically it was an autobiography, but has many interesting things written in it, like; a volcano-like mountain which erupts with water every year, a special trait of the cat tribe, a strange custom of the silver-wolf tribe. Things which were impossible in my previous world were written about frequently, and while many of the stories were interesting and some were even humorous, in emergency situations the writing became very serious; it gave off the impression that the author did not try to warp the truth and detailed things as he saw them – this made me approach the book as a worthwhile study about the world rather than a fiction for entertainment.*
Then, right there it was written -- about the 'colourless' attribute.
It was a short section, not even exceeding a page. This was what was written;
'I've been wandering for several years now and feel that I've spent every day meaningfully.
I've met many different humans, and various races, and the importance of magic in their everyday lives is apparent.
However, my greatest dissatisfaction is discrimination. It's present everywhere; between races, nobles and commoners… Seeing the disparity in their living standards makes me very sad.
And, in certain town, I encountered yet another form of discrimination; someone with a magic attribute I'd never seen before.
He possessed no attribute at all, and thus possessed no aptitude in magic. To be born with no magic talent… a truly horrible fate.
If that wasn't bad enough, the town's people all discriminated against the man and labelled him as 'incompetent'.
'Incompetent'
Speaking with the villagers I discovered that this discrimination exists anywhere. It's said that those with no attributes are hated by the spirits.
But for the spirits to decide such an unfair thing before birth…It's not something I can't comprehend.'
Albert gives off a really manly feeling huh... no, that's not the issue here! The problem is people's attitude to these 'incompetent' people; in other words, to those with the 'colourless' attribute – like me.
Because of it my interaction with the world will be more difficult. This is the true reason behind Erina-san and the other's sympathetic reactions.
The strong light emitted from the magic-tester means that I'll probably have a much higher mana-capacity than most people.
But, since I have no attribute, I'll never be able to surpass elementary magic no matter how much I train.
At least it seems that with my high mana-capacity I'll be able to use magic-tools for longer than most people…
To be given a handicap like this right after birth… damn it!
….well, I guess it's alright.
After-all, my original world didn't have magic.
Seriously…It's not like I can't use it at all, and I have 60 years of skills and experiences in areas other than magic - I've got no right to complain.
In fact isn't being known as incompetent an advantage? I can exploit their underestimating me and defeat them while they're off-guard!
No matter what form of enemy, if I stab 'em in their weak-spot while their guard is down, they'll die!
But still…this old-man wants to use magic!
It was* written in the elementary magic textbook, but there also exists magic with no attribute.
It seems that there are chants for no-attribute magic too; problem is that since so few people with no attribute, not much is known.
There is one, though; [Light]
Going off the name, you'd imagine it to be a magic which creates light. It's listed under introduction magic so I should be able to use it.
However, only the keyword is written; they haven't included a detailed chant.
Then it should be fine as long as what I chant is related to that keyword? If so then even I should be able to do it!
"Shiriusu-sama, your Onee-chan is here~ It's Noeru!~ what do you think, feel like calling me Onee-chan. It sounds good right?"*
Just as I'm about to give it a try, Noeru appears, spouting some foolish nonsense. This girl seems to want me to call her as my sister no matter what, but just to be clear- I definitely won't call her such.
If she's here, fine-- let's have Noeru show us this [Light] spell.
"Noeruu~ Magic~"
"eh? Ah… no- …fine. You want me to do this one?"
Since we found out my attribute, Noeru has avoided using magic in front of me.
I guess it's her showing consideration to me since I was deemed as 'incompetent', but honestly I don't mind at all.
I point at the page with the [Light] magic written on it and try to make my request known.
"Is it alright….? Hmm… but this is no-attribute magic so… yea. Ok, got it!"
"Ooh~!"
Quick to make a decision; as expected of Noeru!
"But I'm not very familiar with no-attribute magic ya know."
Ah. Certainly, she seemed to have the [Fire] attribute.
Perhaps trying to remember the chant for [Light] magic, Noeru closed her eyes and put her index finger to her forehead to think.
"Umm~ ….for this type of magic…to 'drive away darkness' is about right. Well then, let's do it!"
As Noeru inhaled deeply, the atmosphere around her completely changed.
"Beings of darkness, great warrior of light, lend me your powers; shine brilliantly and sweep away the night!" **
The chant is so long…!
Is this really introduction magic?
Ahh, it must be because there aren't any researchers working on shortening no-attribute magic.
[Light!]
A light appeared from the tip of Noeru's finger.
It's dim, and already sputtering out, but it's a beautiful sight.
I touch the light; it doesn't give off any heat, but I certainly feel my hand touch something hard to describe – could it be mana?
She only used the magic for a few seconds, Noeru's forhead is already covered in sweat and she looks exhausted.
"Phewww~.. as expected I can't maintain no-attribute magic for very long. Fire is the only attribute that's not true for, though… "
She says it's because it's not fire magic, but I wonder if it could be that no-attribute has especially high magic consumption.
When I touched the light it felt like Noeru's magic was flooding into it like an open tap.
It's only my own theory at this point, but I'm starting to think that the difficulties in using magic outside of one's own attribute may be because one needs to first convert their mana to the attribute they want to cast, which is very inefficient. For example, if a [Water] attribute person wanted to cast a [Fire] attribute magic, they would first need to convert their [Water] attribute mana into [Fire] attribute mana, and a lot of magic power would be lost due to the inefficiency, resulting in higher mana consumption for a lesser result. Importantly, this could mean that rather than [No attribute] magicians being unable to use magic, it's more likely that the type of magic which they are able to use simply hasn't been discovered yet due to a lack of [no-attribute] magicians. In that case, there could be many other attributes other than the 4 elements which are simply undiscovered.
It may be.
My only basis is from observing Noeru. I want to investigate further and confirm.
"Amazing~!"
"eh? .. y-yeah! It's amazing right!? It's fine to complement me more ya know~. 'cus I'm the best!"
She seems quite pleased from my applause and praise. 'In ecstasy' might be more accurate.
After that, Noeru left the room to do other work.
Now that I'm alone, let's give this magic a go!
After seeing a practical example, all that's left to do is do it myself!
"Beings of darkness, great warrior of light, lend me your powers; shine brilliantly and sweep away the night!" *
I spoke without any special theatrics, and my voice sounded childish, but I diligently recited the chant.
Imagining the light which Noeru showed me, my whole body began to warm up; not a feverish heat—closer to the relaxed, warm feeling after doing light exercise.*
I imagined this feeling moving towards my hand, and said the activation word:
[Light]
A pale sphere of light appeared in the palm of my hand.
It's about the same size as the one Noeru made; nothing special, but still- Finally, my first magic!
As always, the principle behind it escapes me, however I'm very happy to have reached this first milestone. *
Whoops. Frolicking around in celebration after only this much is unbecoming of a man! (/unmanly)
Let's calm down and continue experimenting.
First of all, whether or not this light can be moved around. I close my eyes and imagine the light moving forward-- good, just as I'd imagined, the light drifted forward a few steps.
From here, I continued the experiment by making the sphere move further forward, suddenly, the light disappeared.
"Huh? The surroundings ar-"
The surroundings started moving by themselves, slowly slanting to one side— no, I was collapsing.
Before I could understand it I was already lying on the floor. An extreme tiredness enveloped me. Could this be— …?
"Aah, this is magic exhaustion huh...…." (/fatigue)