Chapter 60
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 60
Chapter Title: Guidance (3)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Oz showing up out of the blue? Well, she often dropped by here to hang out anyway. She was a fellow 6th Circle practitioner, after all.
The problem was that I was currently with a Transcendent.
I left Merin behind in the training hall—she looked lost in thought for the moment—and headed up the stairs to the surface.
When I opened the door, there stood Oz, looking exactly as she had on the screen.
Her usually impassive face, which always carried a hint of chill, softened as her lips curved into a natural smile.
"Training going well?"
"So-so? How about you?"
"I got that help from you back then."
She grinned brightly, but soon seemed embarrassed by her own smile, her voice dropping a notch.
"Honestly, the method you told me about was something I never would have thought of. It helped a ton, so I wanted to express my gratitude..."
She began pulling various items from her personal sub-space artifact.
Up close, they were all 7th Circle spellbooks focused on ice-element magic.
...These must have been incredibly hard to acquire. Especially for her wind-element family.
I asked in surprise.
"Did you get these yourself?"
"No, we had them. We exchange with other families too."
I carefully took the books she handed over.
"Just giving them to me?"
"I'm lending them for now... but you can keep them until you reach 7th Circle and master them all."
So, lending them in name only.
At this point, inviting her inside would feel like the natural flow, but I hesitated for a moment.
Is it okay to bring her in? To have her face a Transcendent?
Of course, she wouldn't harm Oz on sight.
Come to think of it, wasn't Oz the one whose talent matched what Merin had described? I worried this might drag her into something unnecessarily.
That concern flashed through my mind briefly, but just then, footsteps approached from behind—making my hesitation seem pointless.
It was Merin, coming out herself.
"Ah, I remember. I remember now."
She muttered it so casually.
Oz's eyes went wide—she clearly hadn't expected anyone else to emerge from behind me. Her already large, clear eyes made the change even more striking.
"...Who?"
Just watching Oz glance back and forth between Merin and me, unable to settle her gaze, showed how flustered she was.
Honestly, I hadn't expected her to be this thrown off either.
Shouldn't I be the one panicking, knowing Merin was a Transcendent?
How do I even introduce Merin?
A Transcendent? But then how do I explain why a Transcendent is here?
And Merin, who had approached muttering about remembering something, said nothing more.
She just wore a faint smile.
Say something, at least.
"Should I... go?"
Unable to bear the silence, Oz looked at me and asked. But it wasn't really asking if she should leave. If I said yes, her eyes seemed sharp enough to draw blood.
Only then did Merin finally speak up.
"So you two know each other."
"...Who are you?"
Oz eyed Merin warily.
"I'm this one's master."
"???"
The one sporting question marks was me.
What master?
If anything, up until now, I'd been the one acting as master. Not that I could say it out loud.
"M-Mas... ter?"
Oz mumbled it in bewilderment, then tilted her head, sensing something off. Her expression screamed that it didn't quite add up.
It was understandable. The title "Transcendent" implied immense age, but Merin's face made her look ageless.
Still, a little more thought would reveal it.
A young-looking figure boldly claiming to be a 6th Circle mage's master.
"Are you a Transcendent?"
Oz's tone grew far more polite.
Merin smiled, looking pleased at the reaction.
Then she turned to me with a smug grin.
"See? This is the normal response. Don't you think you're the weird one now?"
......From my perspective, you and Joart are the weird ones.
"Acting like you've dealt with a bunch of Transcendents. Weren't you just saying you've only chatted a few times with that idiot Joart?"
In reality, as she said, I'd dealt with more than a few.
The ones in the group chat were all extraordinary beings. I'd even crossed paths by chance with the Transcendents from the Moonshadow, the north's evil faction.
Yeah, those experiences had made me not view Transcendents as all that special.
"Ah, so that's why Ivan's circle progression was so fast..."
Oz murmured, piecing together the puzzles that had baffled her.
I glanced sideways at Merin. She wouldn't shamelessly claim credit for that too, would she?
"That's not because of me."
Apparently not shameless enough for that.
...Wait, no—if not, then she really thinks she's my master.
"But a Transcendent mage teaching Ivan... Are you Merin?"
"You remember."
"..."
Merin beamed benevolently, while Oz's face darkened.
......What's this? Do they know each other?
Was Oz really the "once-in-a-century genius" Merin mentioned last time?
"I heard you don't take disciples..."
"That was the plan. But this time, I was asked."
There seemed to be some history between them I didn't know.
"You were asked, yeah. Why deny it?"
"Hush now. Don't interrupt your master while she's speaking."
This is insane.
Oz pouted at the exchange and said,
"You two... seem like you've known each other forever. Looks cozy."
Merin responded with a pitying smile.
"Don't be sad. Humans with short lifespans, unlike long-lived races, must seize the right moments more than anything."
"No, that's not what I meant... It's just the first time I've seen a woman close to Ivan."
"..."
Merin's smile froze in place.
Her seemingly profound words felt even more pathetic now that they'd been refuted. ......Probably my bias.
"...It's a good time."
Feeling it wasn't enough to let it slide, she grumbled on discontentedly.
"But getting distracted like that—when will you accomplish anything? Aren't you both promising talents in the Empire?"
Her face didn't betray her age, but her way of speaking sure did...
Worried Merin might take a dislike to Oz, I cut in.
"Don't believe everything people say... I'll explain in detail later."
She nodded as if she understood. With a Transcendent present, she got why I couldn't speak freely.
"You should head back for today."
I could send her off like this because the Eldis estate wasn't far.
"Thanks for the spellbooks, really."
"Yeah. I had more I wanted to say, but oh well... Still, I had a realization too."
"What?"
"Something like that."
Oz backed away without answering, then politely bowed to Merin as well.
Merin accepted it coolly, and as Oz turned to leave, she said,
"You've ruined my mood."
Looking back, her face was full of sulkiness.
"So, are you heading back now?"
"No."
Right now, I was forging Merin's mana right in front of her.
I hadn't planned to go this far, but our conversation had deepened unexpectedly, leading to this demonstration.
I floated a tiny mana particle above my palm.
Merin had condensed a bit more mana into a small water droplet hovering over hers.
I extended my mana to touch her droplet.
Merin's eyebrows twitched faintly—an expression of fleeting displeasure.
My mana was promptly repelled. Even if she hadn't done that, I couldn't have manipulated her mana anyway.
Transcendent mana, after all.
But...
"A senior could do it, right?"
"Raising control over traits like this... Something ancient mages might have researched."
"You said it requires powerful control over each individual mana particle."
She had already explained why 7th Circle magic felt fundamentally different from lower tiers.
That's why I was showing her that I could forge it like this.
The point where expansion of quantity gives way to unification of quality.
The moment powerful control over each mana particle becomes possible, making it seem like a single will.
That level of precision.
Of course, it only looks like will—it's not my pure original intent. Just exquisitely controlled to appear that way.
Most mages believe reaching 7th Circle manifests their true will. And if they can control with that precision, the difference is hard to sense...
But I knew there was a vast gap in reality.
Because I knew true primordial mana that manifested pure will directly.
"That's what's fascinating. It's similar yet different from our training methods. The issue is it's not strongly tied to circles."
By my estimate, it was related to circles—just at a much higher intersection point that most wouldn't reach.
Exactly where that point was... that's what I was verifying through Merin.
"Keep at it, and you'll see what you couldn't before."
"So you can really mimic any mana?"
"Do you know what my trait is?"
"Trait conversion."
Figures she'd know that too. She'd probably investigated me thoroughly by now.
"I can do the classifications I've defined. But I can only mimic the mana form, not convert it to actual spells."
I could. Recently, witnessing primordial mana had given me the insight.
But I couldn't reveal everything.
Even admitting I could forge... If this were any other Empire mage, I never would have said it, no matter what.
Only possible because she was an uninvolved Transcendent.
"What do you mean, can't convert to spells?"
"..."
"It means you can't even manage that basic level of control yet."
Meaning she still had a long way to go.
Despite saying that, she fell silent. Had she not understood?
"What's wrong?"
"No, just... old memories surfaced. From my Academy days."
"Why bring that up now?"
"Because I was teaching you until just now... and suddenly the roles reversed."
"Wasn't this a two-way exchange?"
"True, but..."
Frustrated, she furrowed her brow deeply.
"You're reacting so casually—makes me feel like I'm the weird one. Have you ever lectured before?"
"Nope. Dropped out of grad school."
"Exactly! That's what's weird!"