Vol 7. Chapter 64: The Magical Path from Zero

Hearing that, Rosvisser’s eyes lit up. She quickly asked,

“What is it?”

“Sound.”

“Sound...”

The sharp light in Rosvisser’s eyes shifted into a trace of doubt.

“Can sound even be used as an attack? And how would she do that?”

Leon spread his hands.

“Before you actually learned elemental magic, did you think the fire used for cooking could be turned into a fire tornado or all sorts of strange attack forms? And here’s an even more direct example—primeval magic. Before you learned Soul Severance, I’m sure you didn’t think there could be magic that deals damage based on the other person’s emotional state, right?”

The examples Leon gave were easy enough to grasp, and Rosvisser understood immediately.

The queen nodded, thoughtful.

“If the attack is carried out through ‘sound,’ then it’s not hard to understand how it could ‘damage the wall behind the target’ or ‘shatter a stone into powder.’”

With her two hundred years of experience as a mage, a small hint from Leon was enough for Rosvisser to piece together the strange phenomena from before.

She continued:

“Sound makes the target vibrate, and that vibration triggers a much more destructive force, which is why the wall behind the target ended up more damaged than the target itself.

And resonance within sound, when applied to a hard material like stone, causes vibrations at a specific frequency—this resonance breaks the stone down from within until it crumbles completely into powder.

The so-called ‘sound’ isn’t just the physical concept of ‘sound waves,’ meaning the waves produced by the vibration of an object. It’s like thunder magic in elemental magic—on a stormy day, lightning strikes and splits an old tree...

Can you call that thunder magic? Of course not. That’s just a natural phenomenon. Real thunder magic is when you channel your mana outward, imbue it with elemental change, give it a unique form and method of attack, and then make it into thunder.

In simple terms, whether it’s thunder magic, fire magic, or some other elemental magic, the important part isn’t the ‘element’ at the front—it’s the ‘magic’ at the end.”

So the ‘sound’ Leon and Rosvisser had just been talking about wasn’t the everyday concept of sound.

More accurately, the proper term would be:

infusing one’s magical attack with the property of ‘sound.’

“That’s what I think too,” Leon said. “The damage Muse caused twice before can be explained perfectly like this. Which means...”

“Now that we have a hypothesis, we can... test it.”

...

If it was an attack created through the property of ‘sound,’ then Leon could test it in reverse.

The next morning, Leon brought Muse to the training field in the backyard, and even had the servants bring the gold-red gauntlet Rebecca had given her.

Leon didn’t hide anything. He crouched down in front of Muse, resting his hands on her shoulders, and said patiently:

“Muse, Dad figured out your magic attribute yesterday.”

Hearing that, Muse—who had been troubled for months over having no attribute—lit up inside.

“Really, Daddy?”

Leon smiled and nodded. “Of course it’s true. You do have a magic attribute—it’s just not one of the five basic elements. Your Grandma Hera was the one who reminded me...”

Leon repeated what Hera had said, along with the reasoning he and Rosvisser had pieced together. The little girl was still too young to fully understand, but Hera’s words made her realize one thing: she did have an attribute, and it was strong and special.

“Today, I brought you here to completely verify your attribute. Work with me, okay?”

Muse nodded hard. “Mm, okay! What do I need to do, Daddy?”

Leon took out a specially-made steel plate and set it on the ground. It was about five centimeters thick and looked very tough. Plates like this were stored in the training field’s warehouse—left over from when Noa practiced Thousand-Fold Tempering.

“Oh~ I’ve seen this kind of plate before. Big Sis can pierce through several of them in a row!” Muse said.

“Mm. So, do you want to try?”

Muse blinked, scratching her head in confusion. “I... I can do that too?”

“You’ve got to try. Here—use the gold-red gauntlet Aunt Rebecca gave you.”

Muse took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Once she was ready, she nodded.

“Okay!”

Leon stepped aside, and Muse took a few steps back to put some distance between herself and the plate. She gathered her mana, and a transparent wave of magical energy immediately wrapped around the gauntlet.

Aiming carefully, she pressed the golden thread under the gauntlet. A mana needle shot out, striking the steel plate dead center.

A clear sound rang out, but the plate didn’t budge, and the mark the mana needle left was very shallow.

Muse’s little face drooped instantly. She bit her lip, standing there awkward and dejected.

“It’s fine, Muse—try it this way.”

In the midst of her disappointment, Muse heard her father’s voice. Looking up, she saw he had placed another identical steel plate about half a meter behind the first one.

“Daddy, what’s this for?”

“Just attack the first one like normal, Muse.”

“Oh... okay.”

Though she didn’t understand, Muse followed instructions. She aimed again and fired a mana needle—it hit just as before.

Once again, the first plate was nearly untouched.

But just as Muse started doubting herself again, she heard a second metallic clang.

Looking over, she saw the plate half a meter behind had split apart. A very clear web of cracks spread outward from the center, and in the next moment, the plate shattered into several pieces and fell to the ground.

Muse gasped. “Wha... what just happened?”

Leon walked over, patted her head, and smiled.

“You did that, Muse.”

“Me...? How? I couldn’t even pierce the first plate, so how could I smash the one behind it?”

“That’s the special nature of your element—it can bypass obstacles in front and strike the real target directly, shattering it to dust.”

Leon’s voice was low and even.

“But even with the gauntlet’s boost, it seems you can’t control this power very well yet. An attack that can pulverize something behind a shield shouldn’t just crack the plate into pieces—it should annihilate it completely.”

“Of course, being able to do this much already exceeds my expectations,” he thought to himself.

Never mind her age—this brand-new power was completely unresearched. Muse really was starting from zero.

Right now she could only manage the simplest form of attack—using vibration to bypass or break down a target—but any elemental magic took years to reach full potential. After all, thunder magic started out as little more than tossing a few bolts of lightning from your hand—looked like fireworks °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° from far away. Who would’ve thought it could be developed into a vessel capable of holding divine power?

So Leon wasn’t in a hurry. Just confirming her element was enough for now.

“Come on, Muse, try again.”

As before, he set two steel plates half a meter apart. But this time, he used water magic to fill the air gap between them.

“Okay!”

Muse aimed and fired the mana needle.

The first plate made a thump, and immediately afterward, the cube of water splashed violently. In the next instant, the second plate fell to the ground. It had taken some damage, but far less than before.

“The vibration was weakened by the water flow, so the damage to the plate was much lower... just as I expected.”

That was enough to confirm it: “It’s ‘sound.’”

The father was relieved and quietly proud.

“From the start, you’ve shown a rare talent and love for music, and now your awakened ability is connected to ‘sound’ as well.”

Months after the question had first arisen, Leon finally smiled, satisfied at having solved his daughter’s elemental mystery.

“Well, in any case—on this new path, keep working hard, Muse.”