Chapter 23
This world had the same eighty-eight constellations as Earth.
Marshall had found that surprising at first, but after remembering that he had somehow been reincarnated into another world, he decided there was no point questioning every coincidence.
The eighty-eight constellations corresponded to eighty-eight kinds of Celestial Spirits.
The twelve signs of the zodiac each had a single unique golden key, while the remaining seventy-six constellations had silver keys with multiple copies in circulation.
Each key formed a connection to a spirit living in the Celestial Spirit World, and together, they made up the entire system of Celestial Spirit Magic.
Because the twelve Zodiac Keys were unique, they were exceptionally rare.
The other seventy-six types varied wildly in power and usefulness, so most silver keys were not particularly expensive.
Some could even be found in ordinary magic shops.
Marshall planned to visit the stores around town and see what he could find, which gave him an excuse to accompany Cana on a long-overdue shopping trip.
Magnolia was fairly well known throughout the Kingdom of Fiore, mostly because it was home to Fairy Tail.
Unfortunately, Fairy Tail was both the reason the town flourished and the reason it never grew too large.
Most of the people willing to settle here permanently were those with nerves strong enough to tolerate the guild’s constant destruction and general insanity.
Anyone who could not handle it usually moved away sooner or later.
Despite Magnolia’s long history, its permanent population had only reached a little over sixty thousand.
To Marshall, that felt pitifully small.
He had considered finding a way to help the town develop.
A more prosperous Magnolia would naturally benefit Fairy Tail as well, but he currently lacked both the influence and a workable plan.
There was no need to rush since he had plenty of time to think about it.
"Marshall, why don’t I buy you some new clothes?" Cana asked. "You’ve grown quite a bit this year."
"Huh? Sure, I guess. I don’t really care what I wear."
"Hehe. Then I’ll choose everything for you~ Leave it all to your big sister!"
"Okay. Thanks, Cana."
Marshall had never cared much about material possessions.
He valued experiences and peace of mind far more, and he tended to be extremely lazy whenever something did not interest him.
Food only needed to be edible, and clothes only needed to fit.
He knew he could learn Cooking as a skill, but he could not be bothered preparing his own meals.
Most of his clothes were still the same ones he had bought shortly after arriving in Magnolia, endlessly rotated whenever they were washed.
The one thing he was demanding about was his home.
Good sleep directly affected his mood, so his bedroom had to be comfortable.
Still, the new clothes Cana bought him made him happy—not because he cared about the clothes themselves, but because someone had wanted to buy them for him.
The thought mattered more than the gift.
At least, that was how Marshall saw it.
They wandered through the shopping district for several hours and ended up buying far more than either of them could carry.
Fortunately, Marshall’s Level Two Spatial Magic allowed him to maintain a small storage space, or they would have been buried beneath all the bags.
Their final stop was Magnolia’s largest magic-item shop.
Cana leaned over the counter.
"Excuse me! Do you have any Celestial Spirit Keys for sale?"
"Oh, Cana." The shopkeeper recognized her immediately. "Are you planning to switch over to Celestial Spirit Magic?"
"No, no. My little brother is the one buying them." Cana proudly pulled Marshall forward. "Look! This is Marshall. Isn’t he adorable?"
Cana knew the owner well.
Because Card Magic was a type of Holder Magic, magical cards were also a specialized form of magical craftsmanship.
They occupied roughly the same place in the market as enchanted scrolls and were commonly bought and sold among Mages.
In practical terms, Cana was not merely a Card Mage. She was also capable of producing magical tools for sale.
That was one of the main reasons she had chosen Card Magic in the first place.
Someone too stubborn to trouble even her own biological father was hardly going to accept endless support from the church without feeling guilty.
Cana had been six years old when she joined Fairy Tail, the same age Marshall had been.
She was too young to take proper jobs at the time, so when choosing what kind of magic to learn, her first concern had been finding a way to support herself as quickly as possible.
She had done remarkably well over the years.
Not only had she paid off everything she owed, but she regularly donated money to the church and bought food for the children at its orphanage.
Now she even had enough left over to buy Marshall new clothes.
Marshall had pieced together these little secrets from things Cana occasionally let slip during casual conversation.
She herself did not seem to think there had been anything unusual about the choice she made back then, but Marshall could not help feeling sorry for her.
Card Magic simply did not deserve someone with her talent.
It was all that damn Gildarts’s fault.
"We do have Celestial Spirit Keys," the shopkeeper said. "Three kinds, actually: Canis Minor, Lepus, and Pegasus.
Canis Minor and Lepus are both very popular companion spirits, while Pegasus is a flying mount. These keys tend to sell quickly."
"How much are they?" Marshall asked.
"Twenty thousand Jewels for Canis Minor, fifty thousand for Lepus, and two hundred thousand for Pegasus. Since you’re with Cana, I can give you a ten-percent discount."
Marshall had expected them to be much more expensive.
"I’ll take all three."
"Thank you for your business~"
...
On the way back to the guild, Marshall walked beside Cana while reading the complimentary Guide to Celestial Spirit Contracts the shopkeeper had given him.
Within Magnolia, he could reach almost anywhere with a single thought, and his Teleportation Magic could bring another person along with him.
But he was not going to use magic merely to save a few minutes while taking a pleasant walk with a girl.
"Celestial Spirit Magic is much more interesting than I expected," he murmured as he turned another page. "It combines several different branches of magic. There’s far more to it than simply summoning something."
"Hehe. You really do love learning new kinds of magic." Cana smiled down at him. "You already act like a little magic researcher. I’m sure you’ll become an incredible Mage someday."
"Don’t you think studying magic is fun too?"
"Hmm... Magic is fun, but learning it is difficult. Most people already struggle to master one kind of magic.
"And honestly, most Mages only care whether they can use a spell. Very few people investigate every detail the way you do."
’Well, that’s because I have a system.’
Whenever Marshall read or researched magic, he gained experience.
No matter how difficult a spell was, once he accumulated even a tiny amount of progress, he could use Inspiration to instantly learn the rest.
He had never experienced the frustration of spending months studying a spell and still failing to cast it.
Even better, after he learned a spell, returning to its underlying theory always created the illusion that the principles had been simple all along.
As a result, learning so many kinds of magic had given Marshall an enormous foundation in magical theory.
That accumulated knowledge then allowed him to understand new spells even faster.
It was a perfect cycle.
Every new spell made the next one easier to learn, causing his knowledge to snowball faster and faster.
That constant sense of progress was exactly why Marshall found studying magic so enjoyable.
"Huh?" Marshall looked up from his book. "I always assumed most people only learned one or two kinds of magic because they didn’t have enough time. Is learning magic really that difficult?"
A vein visibly throbbed on Cana’s forehead.
"...Even you should prepare to get punched after saying something that cruel!"
"Sorry. That was my fault." Marshall gave the matter some thought. "In that case, I’ll create a form of Summoning Magic that even you can learn easily."
Cana stopped walking.
Then she grabbed him by both shoulders, her eyes wide.
"Wait. Are you saying you’re studying Celestial Spirit Magic because you want to create a new kind of Summoning Magic for me?"
Marshall nodded.
"That’s the plan. I don’t know whether it’ll work yet, but a lot of magic in this world isn’t actually that complicated once you understand how it functions. Creating a new spell shouldn’t be too difficult—"
Cana’s eyes were already sparkling.
She seemed focused on a completely different part of his answer.
"You’re creating an entirely new kind of magic... just for me?"
"Uh... yes?"
"Ahhh! Mwah!"
Cana scooped him into her arms and kissed his cheek.
"I love you so much, Marshall! I must be the luckiest big sister in the entire world!"
"..."
Held against her like an oversized doll, Marshall smiled helplessly.
He still did not understand how a girl’s mind worked.
Oh well.
As long as Cana was happy!