Chapter 214: The Princess’s Advice

“Forbidden tomes?”

Shien was completely dumbfounded by that unexpected explanation.

“… Given your reaction, it seems like you really didn’t know.”

Lucy was rather stunned by that, and she sighed right after before explaining.

“Basically, any magic that could have clear criminal uses are forbidden to use or learn.”

“For example, something like a spell that opens locks. Or take magic that can see through things. Those kind of magic will generally be forbidden to use or learn by all countries in order to avoid them being used for crimes.”

“And compared to those kinds of magic, spacial magic is even more tightly controlled.”

“As for the reason, I believe you can think of that, right?”

Lucy’s words made Shien think of Leisha.

“That’s right.” Lucy immediately nodded like she anticipated that Shien would think of a certain person, “Spacial magic is very convenient. Scarily so in fact.”

“Stuff like instantaneous movement type spacial magic are one thing, but someone skilled at spacial magic like that person could easily set up a barrier somewhere to do whatever.”

“Plus, on the battlefield, spacial magic is also extremely powerful.”

“It can completely twist space around, trapping the enemy army into a spacial labyrinth and disrupting their formations.”

“It could alter the landscape, allowing unparalleled control over the battlefield.”

“Be it for infiltration or combat, spacial magic can do it all. It’s one of the most versatile magic types there is.”

“Therefore, every single nation has set restrictions to forbid the free trade of books on spacial magic. Only the royal mages authorized by the nation are allowed access to them. If any normal person were to somehow gain it by accident, then the moment it’s discovered, they will immediately be summoned by the royalty, where they may even be half forced into becoming a royal mage. After all, it’s just far too easy for a spacial mage to do all kinds of things, which has great impact on the rulers and their territories.”

After hearing that, Shien couldn’t help to also remember the words that Vivian and company said back when they saw the Flowersong Mansion.

Back then, they said that whenever a mage capable of using spacial magic appears, they’ll immediately be treated like a royal guest, be invited to the palace, and be made into royal mages. That even the gods will pay special attention to spacial mages. That there are far less spacial mages among the mortal races than there are among the demons. That even when looking through all of history, you still might not be able to find more than 10 users of space magic.

So that’s the reason for it. It’s not just because space magic is an unbelievably difficult and rare type of magic, but also because all nations keep a tight control over it huh?

“Why is this one type of magic no good when all those other types of magic are all allowed?”

Shien didn’t really get it.

If you’re talking magic that can be used for crimes, then pretty much all magic counts, right?

It’s because they can all be used to hurt others. High class magic could even cause mass destruction.

“That’s why high class magic will generally never appear on the open market, leaving mid class magic as the strongest around you know.” Lucy so explained, “Plus, humanity still needs to deal with demonic beasts and even fight demons, so there’s no way that they can completely forbid the learning of magic.”

In other words, the relatively simpler combat magic are still allowed to circulate.

Compared to those more dangerous magic, although it’s not to the point where it’s bad just learning it, it’s at least to the point where the nation won’t allow it to be publicly circulated, making it so that there are no ways to learn it via the open market.

That’s why Lamdrion’s adventurers guild’s library only had books on elemental magic, and only beginner class magic at that.

Thus, it’s absolutely impossible to learn the rarer and high class magic without some kind of connection.

“Besides that, mental type magic are also forbidden you know?”

Lucy added a reminder.

“In the past, there was a city where all the citizens where secretly controlled by a mage skilled in mental magic, which then tried to rebel against the country. Thus, all magic that can hypnotize or brainwash others without a trace are also forbidden. It’s even more forbidden than spacial magic. Those also don’t exist here.”

Besides those, it seems like there aren’t and holy or recovery type magic here either.

That’s because holy and recovery type magic were all created by the gods, so only the temple have books on those kinds of magic.

For spacial or mental type magic, then despite being forbidden, the Kingdom will still have collected books on them. They are just sealed away in the deep forbidden book vault, that’s all. However, holy and recovery type magic are different. They don’t even exist in the forbidden books vault. The only way to get them it through the temple, and only those recognized by the temple may learn them.

Having learned all that, Shien was a bit disappointing.

“And here I thought I could find every kind of magic that there is here, but this is the reality huh?”

Shien had a hard time hiding his disappointment.

“What are you so disappointed about?” Lucy grimaced, “Although there aren’t books on stuff like spacial or mental magic, there are still plenty of rare magic here. Why not just learn one of those?”

Lucy pulled in a pile of books as she spoke. Everything there were indeed very rare magic types.

The gravity magic that Leisha used, for example, was among them.

“Although there are lots of magic books here, and there are a lot of rare types among them, I do have to caution you against trying to be too greedy.”

Lucy so warned.

“Generally speaking, a mage could at most focus on two types of magic. That’s the limit.”

“Take fire magic for example. Adding up all the beginner, mid, and high class spells, there are a total of 3372 spells all together. Of them, 1988 are beginner class, 1124 are mid class, and 270 are high class. The incantation for all of them could fill up several dozen books.”

“And even if you have high levels in the [Chanting] skill, stuff like increasing your chanting speed or committing parts of the incantation are still dependent on you first having memorized the incantation.”

“If you don’t know the incantation, then even if your [Chanting] skill is at max level, you still won’t be able to cast while completely omitting the incantation.”

Lucy so stated to the speechless Shien.

“Your magic power rivals my own, so I don’t actually object to you learning magic.”

“But people have limited amount of focus, so I hope that you’ll properly consider what kind of magic you want to learn.”

“It’s best to learn some rare but also versatile kind of magic.”

“Those should suit you well.”

With those final words, Lucy left.

Leaving just Shien, who was left staring at the unending horde of books while speechless.