Volume 1: 06 - Virtuous Old Man, Practice Using the Philosopher's Stone

「What is the Philosopher’s Stone? 」

Angie tilts her head and asks.

「Well, it’s hard to explain, but in a basic way of putting it…… It’s every magician’s dream 」

「A dream? 」

「Yeah, it’s possible to magically alter the state of matter and remake it into something else, and that makes people think they can make something of value out of something which does not 」

「Etto….. 」

Angie tilts her head even more, as she didn’t understand, and makes a troubled face at me.

「Oh that’s right. You love sweets, right Angie? 」

「Yes 」

「Here you go 」

I took a pebble and magically turned it into a candy ball.

It is much easier to turn a pebble into a candy ball than it is to turn it into gold.

「You can eat it 」

Kokukoku.

Angie’s eyes sparkled and she shook her head over and over again with the candy in her mouth.

The daughter of the quasi-baron and the fiancée of the Duke’s eldest son.

Angie is indeed blissful, but doesn’t talk with the sugary substance still in her mouth, displaying her good upbringing in a casual manner.

I continued to explain.

「You’d be happy if you could make candy out of pebbles. The Philosopher’s Stone is similarly something that all magicians would be happy about. But it is difficult to make, and no one has ever succeeded in creating it before 」

「—Gulp. And you made it, Alec-sama? 」

Angie, astounded, swallowed her candy ball with a gulp and asked.

「It looks like it…. And it seems to be real 」

「Alec-sama, that’s amazing…. But Alec-sama 」

「Yes 」

「What exactly…. Can the Philosopher’s Stone do? 」

「Well… For example 」

I mentally probed the Philosopher’s Stone.

No words came back, but I felt something like a will.

In accordance with its will, I used the Philosopher’s Stone.

I took a piece of paper and a pen that was in the room and drew a「diagram」that came to my mind.

On this branch-like diagram, there are names of people.

Silently watching me work, Angie is surprised to see her name written as well at the end.

「Alec-sama, what’s this? 」

「This is your family tree, Angie」

「A family tree? Oh, I see my mother and father’s names above mine 」

「Yes. It goes back five generations 」

「Could those above my father’s name be my grandfather and grandmother’s names? But my father was born an orphan and didn’t know his parents, and that’s been a mystery to him since…… 」

「Yeah, he’s an incredible person who used being an orphan as a springboard to become a quasi-baron in one generation. This is the power of the Philosopher’s Stone – it can answer all the “knowledge” that exists in this world if I ask it 」

「So, so amazing! That’s really amazing! 」

「Yeah, it’s great. But it’s also challenging 」

「Challenging? 」

I nodded.

While I was explaining to Angie, I had asked the Philosopher’s Stone a question in my mind – I mean, I tried to use it, but it turned out to be a surprisingly jerky horse.

「It’s like the Philosopher’s Stone has all kinds of knowledge, but you have to find it yourself. Do you know about the Royal Library, Angie? 」

「Yes! It’s a library built by the previous Emperor that contains every book from all around the world 」

「That one. Whenever the Empire produces a『book 』, at least one copy must be delivered to the Royal Library 」

I suddenly remember six years ago at the time of my rebirth.

I remember the moment the previous Emperor, got judged by the angels to have 「reached the end of the line in infidelity」and determined to be reborn as a D-rank commoner.

The Emperor was the common type of tyrant, the kind of emperor whose 90% of his life could be labelled as「heinous infidelity」.

The Emperor is the only one credited with founding the Royal Library.

Minus all his other deeds, his work in preserving the world’s knowledge, makes him a commoner with a D rank. If it wasn’t for that, he’d probably be born a daphnia or something.

Regardless, I continue to explain to Angie,

「Drawing knowledge from the Philosopher’s Stone is like searching the Royal Library for the one specific book 」

「That’s hard to do! Even the library at the mansion is a challenge 」

Angie is a studious and thoughtful girl.

She frequents the library, so she seems to understand my metaphor right away.

Yes, it’s that difficult to use the Philosopher’s Stone.

However.

I took another piece of paper.

I wrote down on the paper further information that I could draw from the Philosopher’s Stone.

「What is this, Alec-sama? 」

「It’s all the names of the healing spells that have ever existed throughout history and how the work 」

「Healing magic! 」

Angie’s eyes sparkled. She’d been interested in it ever since she’d found out that she is good at healing magic from her magic assessment.

She is staring at the paper I gave her as if it is her first picture book.

「…. Alec-sama 」

「What is it? 」

「Isn’t there magic that can bring back people back to life? There is a lot of magic written here some of which no one can use anymore, but there is no magic to bring people back to life 」

「This means that resurrection magic never existed 」

「I see 」

Satisfied, Angie stares at the note I gave her again.

This is also a sneaky part about the Philosopher’s Stone.

Resurrection magic is as much a magician’s – or a human’s – dream as the Philosopher’s Stone.

It’s as much part of the human dream as it is immortality.

From the information provided by the Philosopher’s Stone, the resurrection magic is found to be non-existent from the list of「every healing magic that has ever existed in history 」.

I now know how to use the Philosopher’s Stone and what its capabilities are.

If I use the right keywords in my questioning, I can use it well, and draw up all the information in the world, anytime, and anywhere.

That’s the way it seems to work.

*

The next day I went into town with Angie.

As usual, we went around town and bought some clothes that would look good on Angie, and gave out signed parchments for our purchases.

「Are you okay, Angie? Would you like me to carry it if it’s heavy? 」

「I’m fine! It’s not heavy! I’d want to carry Alec-sama’s gift to me myself! 」

「Okay 」

We could have had it delivered to the mansion, but after she tried it on at the store, Angie ecstatically held on to it in her arms and wouldn’t let it go, so we had to carry it home ourselves.

So, where to next –

Bang!

I bumped into someone with my shoulder and stumbled a bit.

「Oops, sorry about that 」

It is a boy of about 15 or 16 years old who has bumped into me.

He apologized to me and then just walked away.

「Are you all right, Alec-sama? 」

「I’m fine Angie. ….Huh 」

「What happened? Did you hurt yourself somewhere after all? 」

「No, it’s nothing like that…. 」

I looked for the boy as he walked away.

I caught sight of him disappearing around a corner.

「Let’s go, Angie 」

「Eh? Ah, yes! 」

I followed the boy along with a confused Angie, who was obviously wondering what was going.

Around a few corners, in an alleyway that slightly dimly lit, even in the daytime, we found the boy there.

「All I need is this….. 」

「You can’t use it 」

「! 」

The boy is startled and turned to us

「Oh, that’s Alec-sama’s testimony 」

Angie is surprised.

Yes, the boy has a piece of parchment that I provide as a testimonial in my shopping.

He took it when he bumped into me earlier, I mean, he pickpocketed it.

「Hey, I don’t know what you’re talking about! 」

「You might have seen me shopping with it, but if I don’t give it you and don’t sign it, it’d just a piece of worthless paper 」

「W— 」

The boy exclaimed.

「I don’t have time for this shit! 」

「So give it back 」

「Hm! I don’t need this garbage! 」

The boy slams the parchment to the ground.

「You don’t know what you’re doing, you little shit! 」

He spits those words out at me, and turns to try to walk away

「Wait. You don’t belong in this town, do you? 」

「How do you know, Alec-sama!? 」

「Yes, it’s from his accent. You’re from the south aren’t you? 」

This is something I brought with me from a previous life too.

If you’ve lived long enough, it’s easy to see that each region had its own accent even if they speak the same language.

That’s just a given.

「Alec-sama, that’s amazing….. 」

Angie is impressed by this.

「Don’t know! 」

「You’re one of the people who fled over from there. That’s fine, but you shouldn’t be picking pockets. Bad deeds will come back to you, and if you do that, you’ll have a hard life in the next life too 」

「—Damn it! You’re a kid, you don’t know shit! 」

The boy turned the tables, clenched his fists and threw a punch to my face.

「Bind 」

I use a spell to restrain the boy’s movements.

A magic that I am using was one of my regular in my previous life. But it has better effect now.

Each of the boy’s hands and feet are covered with a ring of light, and he is unable to move from it.

「What the hell are you doing? 」

「If you punch me in the face, it’d be a crime 」

「I know! When I do it to a rich bastard like you, it makes the crime even worse than it normally would, right? 」

It doesn’t matter, as the son of the Duke and as a baron myself, I can forgive his words, he would not even be guilty of assault.

But this kind of law applies only here in the human world.

For every bad deed committed in life, there is a jury waiting on the other side after death.

And there’s nothing we can do about that.

「What’s with the pity in your eyes?! You don’t know what I’ve been through! A mollycoddle like you! Because of where I come from, I can’t do anything or get a job here, I am sick of it! 」

「Can’t do anything?」

I thought about it for a bit and made some sort of a gut plan.

「Let’s go Angie 」

「Yes, Alec-sama—he is following you, is that alright? 」

「I ain’t following you! Where the hell are you taking me!? 」

With bind, I can control the rings of restraining magic.

I moved the boy’s limbs along, and forced him to follow me.

I walked out onto the front of the street and went into a nearby restaurant that I’d been to a few times.

「Welcome—Oh! Alec-sama and Angie-sama 」

「Is there a seat? 」

「Of course! Would you like to sit by the view? 」

「It’s okay, just sit in the back will do 」

「All right. Follow me please 」

We followed the waiter who had become familiar to me.

This is a tea shop, a place where a proper cup of tea can be brewed from tea leaves right before your eyes.

I followed the waiter into the private room in the back.

Angie and the boy entered into the room with me.

We sat down in the chairs and the boy remained standing.

「Have you decided on the order? 」

「Black tea and one set of tea cups. And a lot of hot water 」

「Understood 」

The waiter bowed and left the room.

A few minutes later, tea leaves, a set of tea utensils, and a kettle of boiling water were brought in.

「I’ve never seen some of the utensils here 」

「Are you going to use this, Alec-sama? 」

「Yeah 」

I nodded and questioned the Philosopher’s Stone that I made sure to hide on myself.

I simulated the procedure in my mind all over and turned to the boy.

「Try making a cup of tea 」

「Huh? What are you talking about—also, don’t just control people’s bodies! 」

The boy rambles, but choose to I ignore him and manipulate his body.

「First fill the pot with hot water to warm it up, leave it as it is, and then pour in the leaves 」

I manipulated his body to brew a cup of tea while explaining to the boy the information I had drawn from the Philosopher’s Stone.

「Are you trying to humiliate me by doing this? 」

The boy rambled, but ignored it too.

After the first part of the process was completed, I asked the boy.

「Remember? 」

「Wa? 」

「This is the manner of making tea in which only those who serve the upper class know about 」

「Hmm? 」

「It’s not easy to get a lesson if you don’t have a handler, and if you do this right, you should be able to get a job in a rich mansion somewhere 」

「……」

The boy is clearly stunned.

「You couldn’t remember it all? Let’s go again 」

「Wait a minute. I don’t understand why you’re doing this 」

「Yes, add hot water, heat it up, but that’s not a rule of thumb, and it’s up to the drinker’s taste, so you’ll learn as you work 」

I ignore him and teach him how to make more tea.

The boy is puzzled but he eventually relaxed more and concentrated on learning how to make a proper tea.

At the end, I took the bindings off and let him do it himself.

He seems to have a very good memory and was able to do it just like I taught him.

If he really couldn’t remember, I could hire him at the mansion, but I didn’t think it would benefit him to be raised to that level.

That’s why I am a little relieved to see he has a good memory.

「Oh, thank you…… 」

The initial pouting attitude is lessened, and the boy, understanding my intentions, is blunt and thanks me even as he averted his gaze.

Hopefully this will help him get his life on track.

[TL Note: “Kokukoku” sound effect for someone shaking or nodding their head]