Wakamo – Chapter 1

Hi Everyone RTD presents a new series, TL by carter ED by yours truly hopefully you enjoy this new series we’ve picked up.
CluelessTimmy

Chapter 1: I Can’t Find a White Magic Job

We regret to inform you that your results on the Royal White Magic Society’s exam were not satisfactory. We wish you luck in your future endeavours.

 “Another rejection letter…!”

I hung my head in front of the dorm’s mailbox.

This is the 34th rejection… no — this is 35th isn’t it. I lost count after somewhere around the 30th one.

Until about the third one I had the strength to not let their judgement get to my head, but somewhere along the way, I broke.

Am I such a worthless man that not even one out of 30 companies would say I was good enough…?

Full of despair, I overheard several people talking about their new life starting next year on my way to the magic school’s dorm cafeteria.

“Where are you going to be working at?”

“A mid-sized white magic studio, in a town over from the capital”

“Sweet — anyways I’m a magic school teacher for kids. I don’t feel teaching is for me so I’m a bit nervous.”

“Nice — you’re going to be teaching girls up to around age 14 I take it. You might just fall in a forbidden love with one of the students.”

“What the hell are you saying! I would prefer to keep my job!”

“By the way, did you know Chris in the other class was accepted as an officer in the magic corps?”

“Chris huh… well, that’s a secure job~”

God damn it, why isn’t blowing up normies in the curriculum…

If I knew that kind of magic, I’d blow them up right now…

“Here you go — don’t make such a long face Franz, please eat and cheer up a bit!”

Soup, a piece of bread as big as my head, and a large salad were placed in front of me.

She’s Riza-chan, the lady in charge of making food for the dorm.

Whether or not somebody is 20 yet is the deciding factor on if you should use “-chan”. Essentially, we call her “-chan”, even though she’s older than us. It’s just what everyone has decided to call her.

//TN: I don’t like using Japanese honorifics in English text, but it wouldn’t work otherwise >_>

It’s the middle of mealtime, so her long hair is completely wrapped up inside a hairnet, but she still looks great.

Contrary to her cute appearance, she always makes the most oversized food for her dorm students, that’s her defining characteristic.

“After all, I failed again… I still haven’t gotten a job yet, It’s probably just me…”

“Yeah, you’re the only one in this dorm that doesn’t have a job yet Franz.”

“You didn’t have to follow up with that…”

Well, it might not be entirely true to say everything’s okay, but whether or not I understand that is a different matter…

“Whatever… you’re looking at this too closely… In any case, your magical technique doesn’t really matter all that much, it’s all decided by the interview…”

I studied at the International Royal Institute for the Magical Arts, from the ages 15 to 18, we spend four years developing our skills. We study the basics of magic here with professional magicians, in order to get a job in magic-related fields.

Of course, the best of the best students get provided all kinds of research and assistant professorship positions, but that’s not really here nor there seeing that they don’t even makeup 10% of the students here. And if they really were that good, they should’ve gone to the best school in the capital instead of this place.

So here I am, continuing to fail miserably at finding a job.

By the way, it’s currently August.

Because I will graduate next month, I’ll have to leave the dorm too.

Since there’s a lot of different end dates for schools in September, there’s a bit of leeway to stay here for the rest of the month after graduation.

 “How about taking a gap year and trying again as a new grad next year?”

//TN: For full time salary jobs, Japanese companies generally only hire new grads and at only one specific time of year. If you fail to get a job during that time, you must wait until the next year to try again.

“Riza, I’ve also thought about that. But by the time I thought of it, I had used up all the credits I can take before graduating… I never really had to retake anything…”

“I see, so you’re the type of person who does really well in school, but for the life of yourself you can’t find a job.”

“And you’re the type of person to kick a man when he’s down and really rub salt in the wounds…”

Though, she’s right for the most part, I really can’t argue with that.

“Hmm… I have an idea, just a possibility, you should try and enter the black magic industry.”

My face twisted into a grimace.

“Eh… I really don’t want to do black magic at this time… Disgusting, Dirty, and Dangerous, the three D’s of the black magic industry… It’s much safer to do white magic…”

A total of seven colours of magic exist in this world.

White, black, red, blue, green, and yellow.

To be pedantic, magic exists as a smooth continuum through the whole rainbow of colours, but the in-between colours are not counted.

However, although it looks like there’s a lot of variations, predominantly only white magic is used. Like red magic can only really be used for attacks, and no one outside of elves uses green magic. Purple magic messes with people’s spirits but is just way too hard to use. The rest are the same sort of deal.

So, when you work in the magic business, it’s almost all white magic.

On the other hand, although black magic also exists, it can’t help but be stained by images of sacrifice, shortening of lifespans, and just utter filth.

A long time ago, there was a decent number of magicians who practised black magic but because of its illogical practices, new practitioners have decreased to the point where the field is nigh on extinct.

“It was written just yesterday in one of the capital’s newspapers that there’s a serious gulf between young people and black magic. No one really wants to expose themselves to that kind of harm. It’s literally the black business world, even those who aren’t young still hate it. There’s a limited supply of magicians, and white magic is the safe choice, so of course, they’re all going to do that.”

//TN: Businesses with corrupt / sweatshop like practices are referred to as “Black” companies in Japan, and it’s used a lot as an adjective to say things are sweatshop like

“Black magic’s reputation is bad, I know this. But that sort of stuff is probably really rare. Just try a job out, if it turns out your job consists of something like nightly goat blood sacrifices, it’s fine to quit.”

“But if I quit right away, it’ll follow me for the rest of my career…”

“But at this rate, when you graduate in a month, won’t you just become unemployed”

Unemployed, that word rings a little too hard.

“I get it… I’ll try getting a job in the black magic industry… Just…”

There are a couple more hurdles.

“Even at the career fairs, there really isn’t any black magic companies there, so I really don’t know where to look for openings…”

Only big companies can hold big career meetings. So, I really don’t remember seeing any postings for meetings at black companies on the school’s career services bulletin board. Perhaps there was some posted around that I don’t know about because I didn’t notice it.

“Ah, if that’s the case, I know a woman who works in the black magic industry. She’s a regular at the cafe I always go to. Let’s go there and talk with her!”

“There’s a person like that? You really get around Riza…”

“This is the royal capital. People work with black magic, so they exist.”

At any rate, if you don’t meet her there, it still doesn’t change the fact that you don’t have a job. Let’s give it a shot.

“Then, will you make me an appointment?”

And like that, I went off to talk with the person who works in the black magic industry.