Chapter 246
Chapter 246
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 246
Chapter Title: What It Means to Handle Stars (1)
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The Seer, and the Guide.
These were the new titles bestowed upon Lania van Trias. With her now holding two, House Trias possessed a total of four such honors.
The Seer, Rosel van Trias.
The Sage, Raniel van Trias.
The Seer and Guide, Lania van Trias.
...To receive a name from the Elder Dragon Mage was an honor no mage could ever trade away. Even one family member bearing such a title elevated the house's prestige by leaps and bounds.
And they held four.
House Trias, already exalted for producing a Sage, shone even brighter once more. No other mage family, whose trade was the arcane arts, dared challenge their glory.
"What in the world is a 'Guide'?"
"Lania van Trias."
"What on earth has that girl accomplished?"
Naturally, all eyes turned to Lania at the center of the rumors. She was a girl who already possessed every element to draw attention.
Striking beauty and bottomless knowledge of magecraft.
Of course, since she had no public activities beyond her teaching duties at Aphria, interest in her had waned...
"The magitech she unveiled at the Magecraft Conference."
"Not just magecraft knowledge—she has talent in magitech too. A girl without flaw."
"She's no mere professor."
But from the Magecraft Conference onward, the embers reignited into full flame. Letters poured into House Trias by the dozens, offers flooded toward her.
Aide to the Mage Tower Lord.
High-ranking position in a colored Mage Tower.
Chief researcher at the royal magecraft institute.
Such proposals chained one after another, yet Lania brushed them off indifferently. She simply remained at Aphria.
"What is she even doing at Aphria?"
It was only natural to wonder.
"What did she see?"
Still, only rumors swirled.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ 2.
An empty lecture hall at Aphria.
"Don't sit in the back—up front. Chloe, you too, hurry. Front row. Yes, there."
The two girls, half-forced into this special lecture, hesitated before taking their seats. The first thing that caught their eyes was the circuit etched on the blackboard.
'It's a mess.'
Even a quick glance made their eyes ache. Not even the highest-tier spells drew such bizarre, complex patterns.
"...Professor Lania, what is that?"
Aila asked.
Lania smiled faintly as she replied.
"A circuit Your Highness needs to memorize by the end of your first year."
"...Pardon?"
"Of course, the same goes for you, Chloe."
Memorize that?
Aila blinked, while Chloe swallowed dryly without thinking. They had no idea where to even start.
Chloe tilted her head.
"We... have to memorize that?"
"Yes."
"What does it do?"
"It's a circuit for handling concepts."
Lania stepped down from the podium.
She undid the top two or three buttons of her shirt. Then, slipping a finger into the loosened collar, she pulled the fabric forward.
"See?"
While Aila and Chloe panicked briefly, they stole glances at Lania's exposed collarbone. Running down from it was a groove etched with a circuit.
A circuit like a tattoo.
The writhing pattern crawling over her skin like an earthworm... was astonishingly similar to the one on the blackboard.
"What I engraved is for 'stability.' In other words, for control."
Lania buttoned her collar back up as she continued.
"What you two need to learn is similar. Not that you have to memorize it blindly... Think of it as an example to aid understanding."
She returned to the podium.
"Do you have any guess why I called you both together, Your Highness?"
"...Something to do with the stars?"
"Correct. You've both been blessed by the stars, and it seems you've recently crossed the threshold."
Lania smiled at Aila.
"Last time Aphria was plunged into darkness, Your Highness chose to advance rather than cower. Not just to be protected by the stars, but to forge a path forward."
Her gaze shifted to Chloe.
"Same for you, Chloe. You saw Resti wielding the stars... and through interacting with her, you've gotten a feel for them. You've also built a solid foundation in magecraft over the past two months."
Clap. Lania clapped her hands.
"Your foundations are set, and you can see the direction ahead. Right now, just past the threshold, is the perfect time."
The perfect time for what?
"Growth."
The moment to move forward.
"Don't you feel the need to understand what you possess?"
They both had a duty to do so.
Lania didn't elaborate on that duty. She had no intention of burdening them with it.
"Chloe, as a Hero candidate, I figure you already know without me spelling it out..."
"I have a duty. I understand."
Before Lania could finish, Aila spoke up. She continued in a calm voice.
"I have talent and blessings, so the duties that come with them are mine. If I can wield that talent better, I'm all for it."
Aila had matured through the recent incident.
She understood her duty and had begun to feel, just recently, the need to comprehend her given talents more deeply.
"Sister Luell never pushed me or said much, but I know. That my talent is needed for 'something.'"
Luell still wanted to protect her, but Aila was no child. She had some inkling of her role.
"It's related to my brother's disappearance, isn't it, Professor Lania?"
"...Did Princess Luell tell you?"
"Not outright. But I can guess from the context."
Aila smiled wryly.
"...It's not something a person would do."
She had seen the horrors unfolding in the royal family.
No sane human could commit such acts. It had to be 'something' wearing human skin. Aila had sensed it amid the trails of blood.
"Stopping that somehow must be my role."
It was her own intuition, not the stars'.
"I suddenly thought there was a reason the blessings continue in the royal line."
Lania fell silent for a moment at her answer.
"...You have sharp instincts."
Still as sharp as ever.
Her keen senses made Lania wary.
'Well, whatever.'
Her motivation was a good thing.
"Whew."
Lania exhaled briefly and rolled up her sleeves. Preparing this lesson had made her deeply consider what she could teach.
She could explain mana operation.
How to draw circuits, spellcasting tips, how to refine them... She was confident no one could explain better.
'Body techniques, combat tricks—they're all within my wheelhouse.'
She hadn't been the model student of her class for nothing.
In the realm of magecraft and spell-based combat, there was almost nothing Lania didn't know. She had the knowledge and experience to back it up.
'But stars are different.'
Anything star-related was uncharted territory.
No one truly understood the stars.
Even those with talent rarely grasped their own fully.
'Even Kyle was like that.'
The Kyle in Lania's memory hadn't fully understood his talent either. He relied on instinct to wield the stars... and that alone made him the greatest Hero.
But Kyle had failed.
Without understanding, he couldn't wield them at the critical moment—and without that, he crumbled. So Lania pursued a different path.
'Understanding.'
Realization.
'And application.'
Making it their own to wield.
The basics of magecraft.
Not relying solely on sensory intuition, but systematizing, concretizing, defining it.
The first step toward that was this circuit.
Lania silently glanced at the circuit on the blackboard. Traveling the ancient city of Arcadia, she had come to understand shadow.
'Shadow is essentially the same as stars.'
Therefore.
'Means to handle shadow can ultimately lead to handling stars.'
Lania didn't carry a star within her.
Unblessed by them, she didn't precisely grasp how star blessings circulated through the flesh.
But she knew the opposite.
How shadow gnawed, destroyed, corrupted the body—she knew because she'd experienced it firsthand. She couldn't not know.
'The circuit to block it.'
Engraved in her own heart.
How she had 'controlled' the shadow when she engraved it. How she had fashioned mana to devour the shadow... Recalling that, Lania spoke.
"First."
She smiled.
"Let's start with the mindset of grabbing the stars and beating them into submission."
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ 3.
Chloe couldn't control her mana.
Because she couldn't control it, even basic spells required immense effort from her.
Mana infused with stars was different at its core.
Starlight was wild and free, refusing control, slipping through fingers like water whenever she tried to grasp it. There was no way Chloe could cast spells like that.
'Spells are a high-level computational process...'
Drawing circuits as offerings to the stars. Filling them precisely with the mana the stars demand. The more accurate and smooth the process, the higher the spell's quality.
Chloe could draw circuits.
But she couldn't fill them with mana.
"So, we're working on control."
Chloe looked up.
"Chloe, you still can't cast spells, right?"
"...Yes."
"Since the stars won't be tamed, you're just hurling raw mana lumps. Sure, that's powerful in its own way, but..."
Lania smiled.
"Once you properly infuse the stars, it'll be incomparable. You'll know once you try—how ridiculous it is."
She drew a single line in front of Chloe.
The foundational stroke of all circuits.
"First lesson: Channel mana into this without it wavering. And then..."
Lania turned her head.
Her gaze fell on Aila.
In Aila's hand was a conductor's baton made of starlight. Chloe had seen it before.
'The one she used in that darkness.'
The baton that conducted the stars.
It had shown her own mana the path to flow. Aila nodded at Chloe.
"I'll help."
Gulp.
Chloe swallowed hard.
She closed her eyes and focused on the mana pooled in her heart. The churning starlight began to leak out. Watching, Lania said,
"Start with the single stroke."
And crucially,
"Complete that circuit."
Making the blackboard circuit her own.
By engraving spells to control star-related concepts into her flesh... she could handle starlight like 'ordinary mana.'
"That's the goal of this class."
That was Lania's aim.
"So..."
Chloe asked.
"Once I make that mine, once I can perfectly wield the stars... what happens?"
"What happens?"
Lania answered.
"You gain a weapon stronger than anything else."
She added,
"A weapon that can reach even calamities."