The Anomaly Came Without Warning
Change came without any warning whatsoever.
Early that morning, Arina's eyes snapped open in a drowsy haze, only for her pupils to suddenly widen in shock. "Uncle!" She bolted out of bed, flung open her door, and dashed into the living room. Her usual calm demeanor was nowhere to be seen—this was pure panic. The sudden commotion woke Kain, who had fallen asleep after tapping away at his smartphone late into the night. He frowned and cracked his eyes open just a sliver.
"...What's going on?"
Did a cockroach crawl out in the bathroom? Or maybe a bee got into the house? It couldn't be a hallucination from sleep. If something truly serious had happened, he would have noticed no matter how deeply he was sleeping. That was why Kain racked his brain for some trivial reason that might have startled her like this.
"There's something wrong with my body!"
"......"
At her words, Kain rubbed his sleepy eyes and gave Arina a thorough once-over as she approached. Body temperature normal, blood pressure normal, no jaundice or anything strange in her eyes. Her heartbeat's a bit fast, but that's just a temporary reaction from excitement. Nothing out of the ordinary? Maybe he was still half-asleep and seeing things wrong. He checked several times, but Arina's condition was perfectly normal, exactly as it always was.
Did she have a nightmare?
If there was nothing physically wrong, then the issue had to be mental. Kain yawned, reached out, and gave her head a couple of annoyed taps before flopping back onto the sofa.
"I told you to get up for a second!"
"What kind of dream did you have to make you act like this?"
"It wasn't a dream! There's really something weird with my body!"
She was being incredibly persistent this early in the morning. In the end, Kain couldn't withstand her pleading and sat up again. Thanks to her, I'm wide awake now. Just what was making her do this? It was the first time Arina had ever bothered him like this, so now he was genuinely curious.
He adjusted the glasses that had slipped down his nose even in his sleep and stared at her, waiting for an answer.
"The number of stars inside my body has increased!"
Under Kain's gaze, Arina reported the anomaly that had appeared in her body.
"Oh, is that so."
His expression turned indifferent again at the reply. Of course it was nothing major. Kain had already noticed signs of her stars increasing yesterday on the magic train back to the capital. He propped his chin on his hand and shot her a grumpy look full of complaint, as if to say, You woke me up for this?
"Why did they suddenly increase? Could I have accidentally touched something like a Mana Up app without realizing it?"
Completely oblivious to his annoyed stare, Arina just fidgeted anxiously, her face full of worry and concern over the strange phenomenon happening to her body.
"It's not that."
If he left her in this state, she'd probably make a fuss all day. He understood why she felt uneasy, but from Kain's perspective, it was completely unnecessary worry.
"It's just natural growth, that's all."
Kain let out a deep sigh and rose from the sofa. There was no fixed reason for a talent's stars to grow. Some achieved growth through life-or-death battles. Others gained enlightenment from books. There were those who crossed into a new realm from a single word spoken by a passing child, and others who secluded themselves for days on end, racking their brains to break through. And then there were cases like Kain himself, who reached this level by doing absolutely nothing but consistently practicing breathing exercises.
Arina was the same.
"The trigger was probably some special experience."
She might not match him, but Arina was a child born with talent worthy of being called a genius by the world. And the reason geniuses were called geniuses was because they could easily overcome walls that stopped everyone else. The only thing Arina had been lacking to reach 3-star was a variety of experiences to broaden her horizons. This trip had filled in those missing experiences, and without her even realizing it, her perspective had expanded. It was only natural that her world had risen to a higher dimension.
"Just accept it. There's nothing wrong with it."
Kain walked past her toward the kitchen, pulled a bottle of cold water from the fridge, and drank it down. After finishing, he crumpled the empty plastic bottle and casually tossed it into the recycling bin.
"Yes..."
Even after hearing all of Kain's explanation, Arina's expression remained slightly complicated. According to him, it was clearly a good thing, but it had happened so suddenly that she didn't even have time to feel happy about it. Compared to the 1-star and 2-star she had worked so hard to build up gradually, this suddenly appearing 3-star star felt a bit hollow in terms of accomplishment.
"No matter what field of study, the fundamental reason for learning it is to understand the world and mana."
Martial arts that challenged worldly phenomena with the human body, magic and spirit arts that directly researched those phenomena, dark magic that defied them, and even Ebon that let phenomena reside directly in the body. The fundamental goal of all studies was to understand the world. Others didn't know it yet, but the moment one understood the world completely, the path to becoming a god would open.
"Effort increases the probability of receiving a reward, but it doesn't guarantee one."
In one sense the world was fair, but in another it was brutally biased and cruel. Sometimes people gained benefits without any effort at all, and right now Arina was one of those cases. People usually described such situations as "She got lucky."
This incident was just a little happening she could brush off by saying she got lucky, like anyone else. That she had luckily learned more about the world.
"If you understand, go back to sleep. You looked pretty tired yesterday."
With those words, Kain shuffled off somewhere with heavy steps. From the direction, it looked like he was heading to the study. Maybe he planned to read a book now that he was awake.
"...Well, if Uncle says it's not a bad thing, then it's not."
She hadn't fully accepted everything he'd said, but she understood that this event wasn't something wrong. Still, Arina clenched her small fists tightly in the middle of the now-empty living room, thinking that she'd have to work even harder on her spell formula studies, which were already barely keeping up with the pace.
"Anyway, that's what happened this morning."
That afternoon. At a café near home, Arina met up with Marily for the first time in a while and told her about the morning's events.
"That's both ridiculous and enviable at the same time."
Marily, who had been sipping her lemonade, shook her head in disbelief as she replied. Of course, she knew. Arina was simply sharing her panicked feelings from that morning with complete sincerity. But depending on who was listening, it could sound like bragging about getting more stars without doing anything.
If the others had heard, they probably would've felt pretty jealous.
From what she'd heard, Jeon Raydel had also reached 3-star after getting caught up in the terror incident in Vivaldi Territory and nearly dying.
Is this what they call the difference in talent?
One side went through a life-threatening crisis. The other just played around and ate comfortably. They were both 3-star mages, but their paths to growth were complete opposites.
Well, whatever.
It wasn't like she didn't already know how enormous Arina's talent was. Marily was too mature to feel jealousy or inferiority toward Arina at this point.
"Anyway, I'm glad you don't look seriously hurt anywhere."
Naturally shifting away from that topic, Marily looked Arina up and down as she spoke. This was actually the main reason she had called Arina out.
"You have no idea how worried I was."
Marily had known that Arina went to Vivaldi Territory during the break. And that wasn't all. Arina had sent her photos every day via text and they had chatted late into the night about everything that happened. That's why she was even more shocked. That such a horrific thing had occurred in Ariaadna Square.
"I kept trying to contact you, wondering if you'd gotten caught up in it, but you didn't answer at all."
There had been unavoidable circumstances for that. At the time, Arina had set her smartphone to silent mode while watching the Leni Orchestra performance. She only checked Marily's texts and calls right after the concert ended. It was also thanks to the texts Marily sent that Arina learned about the breaking news of what happened in Ariaadna Square after the performance.
"I'm sorry."
Even though there were circumstances, Arina offered an apology with an awkward smile and no excuses. No matter what the reason, it was true that she had made Marily worry.
From what she'd heard, Marily had been so frantic from not getting any calls that she was about to come here immediately, only to be stopped by His Majesty the King. Because of that fight with the King, she had apparently declared a half-day runaway.
While activating the ultimate spell "I hate Dad!" reserved exclusively for daughters.
But isn't a half-day runaway just... going out?
The demonstration was rather underwhelming compared to the grand declaration. Arina was momentarily taken aback when she heard it from Marily, but apparently the other side didn't see it that way. Even at this very moment, mages from the Royal Magic Division were pacing back and forth outside the café, anxiously wondering how they could cheer up the princess.
"Um, maybe you should forgive those people now..."
"No. I'm not going home for at least another two hours."
"......"
Well, it wasn't like she was refusing to go home forever, so it probably didn't matter much? All Arina could do was hope that this family quarrel would end peacefully as soon as possible.
"More importantly, tell me more about your trip."
"Wasn't everything in the texts I sent you?"
"Still, hearing it in person has a different flavor. Did you go to that ice cream shop I recommended? Their mint chocolate is really delicious."
"Yeah, but I thought regular chocolate tasted better."
"It must have been a bit too early for your palate."
Too early? It felt more like it just didn't suit her at all. And not just that—the pineapple pizza place Marily had recommended, too. Every restaurant Marily suggested had completely clashed with Arina's taste. She'd vaguely noticed it back during the spicy tteokbokki, but this trip had made her completely certain. Their food preferences were total opposites.
"Do you have any more photos besides the ones you sent me?"
"I do have more, but... these are more personal than tourist spots..."
Arina cautiously handed over her smartphone. She scrolled through the gallery one by one, explaining each photo.
"There are an awful lot of pictures of your uncle."
Most of the photos she had taken featured Kain's face. Side profiles, back views, or front-facing shots. The common point was that this "uncle" person never once looked toward the camera, no matter what.
"Yeah, it just kind of happened."
But even so, it must have been good. As Arina looked at the photos of Kain, an indelible smile bloomed brightly across her face.
I'm glad she had fun.
The trip Arina had looked forward to for so long seemed to have been a satisfying one for her. Watching Arina flip through the gallery photos on her own now and continue explaining without needing any prompting, Marily smiled warmly.