Chapter 124: Yajima
Archive was a newly invented and truly magical spell, using a principle that had only recently emerged: the digitization of information via magic power. Using this principle, information could be compressed, making it much more convenient and faster to both store and transmit.
Noah was involuntarily engrossed in this new knowledge. By the time he looked up, it was already evening, and Hibiki, who had been sitting next to him, had already left. Noah hurried to eat, spent the night in the guest room at the Council, and then returned to the same room the next day to continue studying.
By the time he had memorized and fully understood everything, it was already the afternoon. He had even forgotten to eat lunch.
He returned all the materials to the staff, then walked over to Hibiki, who was still reading. He tapped him on the shoulder and gestured to the door. Hibiki packed up his things and followed Noah out into the corridor.
"Hello, I'm Noah from Fairy Tail."
"Hello, I'm Hibiki from Blue Pegasus. The Master mentioned you to me before. Is there something you need?" Hibiki asked, confused.
"I just wanted to ask if you've finished learning Archive," Noah said sincerely. "I've just learned it, and if there's anything you don't understand, you can ask me."
"Wh-what? You've already learned it?" Hibiki was completely shocked. He himself had been studying it for months and still hadn't mastered it. Noah had only arrived yesterday, right? Including today, that wasn't even two full days, and he had already learned it?
"That's right. This is Archive, isn't it?"
Noah held up his hands, and a floating keyboard made of light appeared beneath them. A corresponding light-screen appeared in front of him.
"I haven't uploaded any data yet, so the database is empty, but the magic itself can be cast just fine. I just can't look up any data."
Noah gave a brief demonstration of the magic's use and then began to upload data, while Hibiki watched, dumbfounded. Having studied it for so long, Hibiki knew at a glance that this was indeed the Archive magic he was learning. But what he couldn't comprehend was how Noah had learned it so quickly. It hadn't even been two days. Although his Master had told him that Noah was an incredibly powerful wizard, this was too much. Even though this magic involved a new and difficult magical principle, when he thought about how long he had been studying it versus how long Noah had, Hibiki felt as if his brain had suffered a massive blow. On top of that, his Master had mentioned that Noah was the same age as him. Hibiki suddenly felt that his future was bleak.
Seeing that he hadn't responded in a long time, Noah waved a hand in front of his face. "Hello? Earth to Hibiki!"
"Ah! What is it?" Hibiki snapped out of his daze and looked at Noah.
Noah rolled his eyes. "I was asking you how your study of Archive is going."
"I... I think I've almost learned it, but there are still some parts I don't understand."
Noah looked around the corridor, then retracted his own Archive. "This isn't a good place to talk. Go pack your things, and we can go back to the guest room and discuss it."
Hibiki nodded, went back inside to return his materials, and then he and Noah went to eat dinner first before returning to the room to discuss Archive. After sleeping on it, they met again to continue their discussion. After less than a day, Hibiki had finally mastered the magic as well.
During the process, Hibiki had witnessed Noah's vast and broad knowledge and was filled with admiration. He had never imagined that someone his own age could possess such a wealth of information—information that wasn't from Archive, but that he just knew. That was what was truly shocking. It meant that Noah's own reading volume must be immense. No wonder his Master had praised him so highly and had even specially applied for him to study Archive. With this magic, Noah was like a tiger with wings, able to make even better use of the massive amount of knowledge in his brain.
Seeing that Hibiki had also learned it, Noah and he went to input all of the Council's publicly available data into their Archives. The other data that required special applications and approval couldn't be accessed so quickly. Aside from inputting data, Noah had also wanted to learn some other magic at the Council that he didn't know, but he found out that this also required various applications and approvals, and the time involved would definitely not be short. He had only been able to learn Archive so quickly thanks to Master Bob.
Hibiki had previously applied for access to some other materials, and his approval had just come through, so he and Noah parted ways.
After some thought, Noah realized that he had come all the way to the Council and hadn't yet visited a certain person—a senior from Fairy Tail.
He went to the vicinity of the Council members' offices and was stopped by a staff member.
"Excuse me, who are you looking for?"
"I'd like to see Councilor Yajima. Please just tell him that Noah from Fairy Tail is here to see him."
"Please wait a moment. I'll go and announce you."
The staff member hurried in and came back out very quickly. "Councilor Yajima is waiting for you inside. Please follow me."
Noah followed him to a room. "Councilor Yajima is inside. Please go in."
Noah nodded to him and pushed the door open. Sure enough, he saw Yajima inside. He had already gotten up from his chair and was in the middle of the room. Yajima was a short old man with thick eyebrows. He wore a brown long-sleeved shirt with black vertical stripes, a black hat with three points, and black pants. Noah hurried forward, and the staff member closed the door behind him.
"Grandpa Yajima, long time no see! How has your health been?"
Yajima replied with a face full of smiles. "Quite good. Thanks to the medicinal wine you brought me, my health is in good shape, much better than before."
"That's good. When the new batch of wine is ready in a little while, I'll send some over to you."
"Good, good, good. I'll be waiting for it. By the way, you don't normally come to the Council. What brings you here this time?"
"It's thanks to Master Bob of Blue Pegasus. I came here to study the magic, Archive."
"Archive, is it? That magic is indeed very suitable for you. Bob gave you some good advice. Did you learn it?"
"I did. It took two days. I spent the rest of the time inputting the Council's public data."
"You still learn magic as fast as ever. Makarov really brought back a good kid. So, is there anything I can help you with?"
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