"Regressing humanity?"
"Maybe 'regressing' is too strong a word."
"What do you mean? I think support magic draws out abilities beyond a person's normal limits."
Luna responded with the common-sense view held by most people in response to my outlandish statement.
Of course she would. Until very recently, I had thought the same thing.
"Yeah. It's certainly convenient, and if used as a temporary measure or bridge, I don't think there's any problem."
"I'm sorry... I don't really understand what you're saying, Orun-san..."
"Think about it this way. When a support magic buff suddenly boosts physical abilities dramatically, why can everyone adapt to it instantly...?"
To make it easy to understand with numbers: suppose someone's base strength is 10. A support spell suddenly boosts it to 20 or 30.
Normally, a person would be overwhelmed by that sudden surge of power.
Yet in reality, that never happens. Without exception, everyone adapts to the buff immediately.
That seems clearly unnatural to me.
If that's the case, it makes more sense to think that the human body's tolerance limit is already 100 from the start—so whether it's 20 or 30, they can handle it without issue.
"...Now that you mention it, that's true. We've taken it so much for granted that 'buffs raise physical abilities' is normal... I never even considered it. But how does that lead to regression?"
"My hypothesis is this. —Using numbers again for clarity: originally, humans had the means to raise their base strength of 10 all the way up to 100. But at some point, that method was lost or forgotten, and people could only manifest their original 10. After a long time passed, a way was rediscovered to raise that 10 to 20 or 30, and it spread widely."
"And that method of raising it is the six basic support spells?"
"Yeah. Among magic types, the basic six are relatively new. —They could originally draw out up to 100, but now it's down to 20 or 30. In that sense, you could say humanity has regressed... Right? It's a pretty far-fetched idea. I know the hypothesis has a lot of holes—like why it was lost in the first place."
"It's definitely a huge leap. But you must have some basis for thinking this way, right, Orun-san?"
"Basis might be too strong a word."
What led me to this idea was learning about *ki*.
On the day I spoke with the memory-lost Marquis Fourgas, I asked Hart-san to teach me about ki.
He agreed, and until the day I left Tsutorail, he found time to teach me whenever possible.
Ki is the energy present within the body.
By intentionally controlling and activating it, one can enhance physical abilities.
Hart-san kept some things back, but from what he explained, I believe ki can be used for more than just boosting physical performance.
The way he destroyed his opponent's weapon during the martial arts tournament was probably an application of ki.
Now that I understand ki better, I can tell just how high-level that technique was.
Even I can't project ki outside my body yet—not even by luck.
After learning about ki in detail, I was shocked.
The six basic support spells and ki share the same goal: enhancing physical abilities.
At first, I thought they were completely separate things.
I even believed combining support magic with ki would allow even greater enhancement.
But in reality, they are the same in essence... just approached differently.
The six basic support spells work externally: through spell formulas and mana, they forcibly stimulate the target's ki, artificially activating it to raise physical abilities.
Even though forcing activation via magic has no harmful effects on the body, it's naturally inefficient.
Activating ki intentionally on your own yields far better results.
Even someone like Selma-san, who gets exceptionally strong buffs, probably only reaches about 50 out of a possible 100.
"What exactly is the basis for that?"
Luna asked.
Of course she'd be curious after hearing something like this.
"Sorry. I feel bad bringing it up and then saying this, but I can't talk about it."
As I said that to Luna, I recalled my exchange with Hart-san.
◇ ◇ ◇
"Orun, since it's you asking, I'll teach you about ki. But promise me one thing. If you can't keep it, I won't teach you."
Hart-san spoke to me with a serious expression.
"...As long as it's not something unreasonable, I'll keep it. So what is the promise?"
I replied, but Hart-san stayed silent for a while, staring intently at my face.
After a moment, he finally nodded once, as if convinced.
"The condition is simple—even a kid could do it. —Never speak of ki to anyone else. If I find out you did, I won't just kill you. I'll kill everyone who heard it too."
Hart-san directed a gaze laced with killing intent at me.
He was dead serious.
If I broke the promise, he would genuinely try to kill me.
"If that's the condition, I'll accept it. But why? I don't know much about ki yet, but I think it's extremely useful. Wouldn't it be better to spread the knowledge actively?"
"It's not that simple. Just promise me. Swear you won't tell anyone about ki."
"...Understood. I promise not to speak of ki to anyone."
"Good. —Ahh, that was tiring. I hate serious atmospheres; they make it hard to breathe. You can relax now too, Orun."
Once Hart-san nodded in satisfaction, the killing intent vanished, and the usual carefree Hart-san was back.
"Uh..."
The sudden shift left me dumbfounded.
"Hm? Why the stupid face?"
"No, it's only natural! The contrast is way too extreme!"
"Hahaha! That's a nostalgic reaction! Kati and Huey made the same face when we first met! Get used to it. I'm just a laid-back guy like this."
Hart-san laughed heartily.
I was exhausted and we hadn't even started the lesson yet...
◇
A few days after Hart-san began teaching me about ki, I finally managed to activate it and circulate it throughout my body.
That said, I still had to devote most of my concentration to it. Moving freely in this state was still difficult.
To move around freely while maintaining it, I needed much more training.
"Whoa... Reaching this level in just a few days. Impressive."
Hart-san let out an admiring voice when he saw my progress.
"...No, I'm still far from good enough. I need to at least reach a level where I can use it in actual combat."
As I responded to Hart-san's voice, I felt my ki dissipate inside me.
If it breaks just from a short conversation, it's useless.
"No, that's plenty. Normally it takes months to learn this. As expected of the—... of Tsutorail's strongest explorer."
"Does being Tsutorail's strongest have anything to do with it?"
"Nah, who knows."
As casual as ever...
"...I've always been like this. I pick things up quickly—or rather, I can master most skills to a bare-minimum usable level right away. Because of that, my party members used to call me a jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none."
"Jack-of-all-trades, huh... Wait, that's basically bragging!"
"Ah, you caught me?"
For some reason, talking with Hart-san felt different from anyone else I'd met.
And yet it was easy.
Probably because of his personality—or rather, even though he seems laid-back, he's skilled at keeping just the right distance. He never pries into parts of me I don't want touched.
Since I never feel drained talking to him, I end up bantering lightly too.
"Man, I wanna brag like that too!"
"By the way, there's something I've been wondering about."
"Hm? What?"
"You're reluctant to spread knowledge about ki, right? So why decide to teach me? Not that I'm not grateful."
"...Mood."
After a brief pause, Hart-san gave his usual half-hearted answer.
From that reaction, there was a reason, but he couldn't say it.
As expected, Hart-san had his own criteria for who was allowed to learn about ki and who wasn't.
I didn't know what those criteria were, but luckily I fell into the "allowed" category, so he taught me.
"Hart-san, you're surprisingly secretive, aren't you?"
"Heh, you know, Orun? Guys who keep a little mystery are more popular with the ladies."
"That probably depends on the person."
"Details, details."
And so, bantering back and forth, I continued learning about ki from Hart-san for the few days until I left Tsutorail.
◇ ◇ ◇
...Somehow I ended up remembering more than I needed to.
Anyway, I learned the details about ki not long ago.
Since then, I've kept training.
Lately, even while riding in the carriage, I've been maintaining activation during conversations or reading, so I'm gradually getting better at keeping it active while doing other things.
"Sorry, really. I made you listen to something weird. Just forget it—it's only my wild speculation."
I apologized to Luna for unloading my bizarre theory on her.
Since I can't talk about ki anyway, maybe I shouldn't have said anything at all.
"If someone told you the world has changed so much since the past that you now hate it, would you believe them?"
"...Huh?"
Luna's unexpected reply made me let out a dumb sound.
Whether I'd hate it or not aside, the world has certainly changed dramatically from the past to now.
Technological advancements like magical tools, changes in lifestyle enabled by them, and many other things.
But that wasn't what Luna meant.
"Ah, sorry, that was weird of me to say. I was just so surprised by the amazing thing you were thinking about that it slipped out. What am I getting influenced by? Embarrassing... Please forget what I just said. It didn't mean anything deep."
Luna hurriedly rambled, asking me to forget it.
It was dark so I couldn't see clearly, but her face was probably bright red.
Still, why did Luna suddenly say something like that?
She wouldn't make a statement like that for no reason.
I wanted to know why, but pressing her would be difficult.
Just earlier, I had spoken vaguely about ki myself.
It wouldn't be fair to demand she explain when I couldn't explain my own part.
"Haha! Influenced by my crazy speculation?"
I replied lightly, implying I wasn't bothered.
"Even if it was speculation, it was shocking, you know!"
She picked up on my intent and played along with the teasing.
After exchanging a few more light words, the awkward atmosphere from earlier completely dissipated.
"—Well, tomorrow's going to be early too, so let's sleep."
"Yeah."
The conversation reached a natural stopping point, so I got down from the rock and we returned to the tent together.
We went to sleep.
According to the schedule, we should arrive at our destination in about another week.
Before then, I needed to give Sophie and the others a detailed explanation of labyrinth investigations so we could start moving immediately upon arrival.