Chapter 19
DUSK BEGAN TO FALL, and the sky burned red. Elio and the friend’s search had been in vain, as Mira was now above the clouds and could see a city with nine towers before her.
The Linked Silver Towers, the foremost magical research institution on the continent, towered high in the center of Silverhorn. Having returned to the Tower of Evocation, Mira went to her quarters and saw a smile burst across the face of the girl there.
“Welcome home, Miss Mira.”
“Hrmm, glad to be back.”
Hearing Mariana welcome her, Mira finally felt that she was home. Filled with contentment, Mira caught Luna, who’d jumped up toward her and said, “Have you been a good girl?” before nuzzling her cheeks against the rabbit’s.
She spent some time unwinding on the sofa in the living room with Luna still in her arms. After tending to Mira for a bit, Mariana made her way to the kitchen. Watching her as she went, Mira noticed a whole bunch of ingredients.
Solomon must’ve let her know that she’d be returning, as it seemed that Mariana was getting ready to make dinner. And from the ingredients she saw, she was quite confident that the dinner would be a feast.
“I must say, I’m pretty excited for this!” As Mira began to fill with anticipation for dinner, Luna squeaked happily as well.
Loads of fresh, high-quality vegetables sat among the other ingredients. Aside from the ones for cooking, there were also some that would end up being food for Luna. The rabbit seemed to be in even higher spirits than usual.
With dinner preparations almost complete, the feast was just about ready.
As she might’ve expected of Mariana, the incredible meal was chock-full of Mira’s favorite foods and vegetables, even the ones in short supply.
Mira thoroughly enjoyed her fill of her favorite food while Mariana quietly stole glances at her. Meanwhile, Luna sat beside them and ate her special salad as Mira continued giving her affection.
The spirited dinner with friends the night before had been a lot of fun. And yet, the dinner with just the two girls and a rabbit felt like a family dinner and was no less special. While it may have looked completely different, beneath the surface, it was the same. And so, the three of them enjoyed a peaceful family dinner with each other.
After dinner, it was time for a bath. Naturally, Mariana would be joining…
“…That’s what I said. But that wasn’t exactly the whole truth.” As Mira relaxed in the warm bathtub, she talked animatedly about everything that’d happened in Haxthausen.
She talked about her success in reviving interest in evocation, the chief detective and Fuzzy Dice, the heated battle at the Mages’ Guild, and the events in the underground waterway. And finally, she talked about how Fuzzy Dice was none other than Lastrada.
Mariana sat on the other side and occasionally smiled while cheerfully tending to Mira. Spending time in such a way was what made her truly happy, and the smile on her face was one of true tranquility.
Luna seemed to be quite happy about getting to spend time with Mira as well. She showed off one of her tricks by leaping from her dedicated bathtub, which had been set up in one corner of the main tub, before swimming all the way across the bath until she was right beneath Mira.
“Oh ho, you’re quite the little swimmer!”
Unlike how nimble and agile she was on land, the way in which Luna clumsily struggled to swim was too cute to handle. Mira couldn’t help but pick her up. Then Mariana mentioned how it was the first time she’d ever seen Luna swim.
She had leaped into the bathtub because she wanted to be next to Mira. Feeling even more touched after hearing this, Mira showered Luna with a heftier dose of affection.
While she played with Luna in the tub, Mira recounted everything that’d happened up until that day. Lost in her story, Mira never even noticed as Mariana crossed over to her side of the tub to be beside her, much like Luna had done.
Getting out of the tub, Mariana assisted Mira by helping her change into a sleeping robe. She also took all the clothes that Mira needed washed. Deep down, Mira felt as if they really were a married couple, and yet, the exchange was closer to one of a mother and her child…with Mariana being the mother.
After this, they went straight to the living room and enjoyed a friendly chat over a few drinks. Once she began to feel sufficiently sleepy, Mira made her way toward the bedroom with Luna and Mariana in tow.
“Well, I’m ready to call it a night. But I plan on staying here all day tomorrow.”
“Then you’ll be having lunch with us as well. Is there anything you’d like to eat?”
“Kyeee!”
“Sure, Luna. That’ll be a peach apple for you then?”
“Wow, you two can already understand each other…?”
The two girls and their furry friend got into bed, talking about their plans for tomorrow until they slowly drifted off to sleep. Upon hearing Mira and Luna peacefully breathing, Mariana smiled softly and sweetly before closing her eyes as well.
The next day, Mira had nothing on her schedule. So she relaxed, spending the morning taking it easy.
“Ah, Miss Mira. I found several notes inside of your pockets while doing the laundry yesterday. I put them on the table, so please take a look.”
“Hrmm, sure thing.”
After eating the breakfast that Mariana had prepared for her, Mira played with Luna while chatting back and forth with Mariana as she did chores. At the moment, she had no leads on the whereabouts of the remaining Nine Wise Men, so there was nothing she could do even if she wanted to. She’d managed to gather the minimum number of Wise Men, and so her mission was no longer quite as urgent. To make up for how busy she’d been thus far, Mira allowed herself to completely decompress.
After doing this for a few hours, and then having lunch, a thought popped into Mira’s head as she watched Mariana. The fairy was busy taking care of Mira but had not forgotten to clean the house.
With her mission no longer quite as urgent, shouldn’t Mira be even more busy? She had evocation research and Synchronized Senses training to do. She needed to find new ways of improving the current state of evocation and ways of monetizing it. She had new skills to learn and ascendent-level evocations to attain…
There was a veritable mountain of things that she’d been wanting to do. But she was so ensconced in peaceful, domestic life that she’d allowed herself to completely slack off.
Realizing this, Mira leaped to her feet and said to Mariana, “I’ll be in my laboratory for a bit.”
“Understood. Please let me know if you need anything.”
The words in my laboratory were enough to communicate everything she wanted to say. Gently picking up Luna, Mariana watched as Mira walked off toward her lab.
Just like the rest of the Nine Wise Men, when it came to studying spells and training, Mira’s focus was in a league of its own. Knowing this, Mariana made no attempt to intrude.
Upon entering her laboratory, Mira’s very first order of business was to compile all the evocation notes she’d taken on her travels. There were some on partial evocations, arms evocations, new techniques she’d learned, and so on. She’d taken the notes here and there on the fly and now had to sit down and properly record them.
Time flew by. By the time the sun had set, she’d finished beautifully rewriting all her research notes. Being full of information and new evocation techniques, it wasn’t an understatement to say that her research notebook was truly on the cutting edge of evocation.
Having sorted out all of her own thoughts while compiling the jumbled-up notes, an invigorated look floated over Mira’s face.
Then Mariana’s voice rang out from the other side of the door. Dinner was ready.
Mariana had given her space, so as to not disturb her research, but this was different. She had no intention whatsoever of allowing Mira to burn herself out. She understood that taking a breather was yet another important element of study.
“Hrmm, coming,” Mira said, standing up. She then took a big stretch, grabbed her notebook, and left the room.
Returning to the living room, she found none other than Cleos. Having heard that Mira had returned, he’d hurried over. “Miss Mira, I’m a day late in saying it, but welcome back!”
There were some things he wanted to discuss in regards to the academy, and so he’d been waiting for her to emerge. And he wasn’t the only one who wanted to talk about the academy, either.
After they greeted each other, Mira quickly began chatting with Cleos. Their discussion of the academy lasted from before dinner until after. They chatted happily and yet seriously, as the purpose of their discussion was to help the students. Aside from the course outline, they also thoroughly discussed what the curriculum would consist of.
And while they were discussing this, Cleos brought up something that’d been troubling him. “Recently, we’ve gotten quite a few troublesome inquiries…”
“Inquiries? About what?”
Cleos began to explain the situation in detail. They ended up all being things that Mira was already aware of.
The inquiries directed to the School of Evocation were about such things as the shortest amount of time necessary to forge a contract with a water spirit, how long it would take to summon a mansion, and so on. They came mostly from apprentice-level summoners. Given how they were about water spirits and mansion spirits, the inquiries were likely a result of Mira’s campaign to promote evocation. People had only seen how easy it was for Mira to do such things, not knowing it wasn’t possible for apprentice-level summoners to pick up such skills.
If they were lucky, they might be able to forge a contract with a water spirit. But unless they developed their skills as mages, they would be unable to use or maintain such evocations.
Having told the students as much, more than half left in disappointment. However, there had also been quite a few motivated individuals who’d either enrolled or had bought introductory books on evocation that’d been published by the Linked Silver Towers.
“It would seem that word has recently spread among adventurers of the utility of evocation. And while I’m very thankful for that, they think it’s easier than it really is,” Cleos muttered, sounding troubled.
“Is that so…?” Mira whispered, looking away from him. She realized that, moving forward, she ought to make that part a bit clearer.
“On that note, I was thinking about using evocation via the use of Endogenous Sense the other day. What are your thoughts on that?” Mira asked, bringing up a thought that’d recently occurred to her to quickly change the subject.
Her reasoning was that when it came to revitalizing the art of evocation, rather than advocating its use as one’s main job, there might be potential in advocating its use in a support role.
“Endogenous Sense, huh…? I see… It’s not only about increasing the overall number of summoners. So if we can make the benefits of using evocation via Endogenous Sense clear, then we’d be able to attract other mages who’re currently active…”
Cleos continued that, most importantly, they needed to dispel the negative image of summoners that’d built up over the years. Then, whether they were using Endogenous Sense or not, evocation would begin playing a more active role. The more it did, the more people’s perception of it would likely improve. Looking at how things stood, a slightly different approach like the one Mira had suggested was quite interesting.
Mira showed him her research notebook with all her recently composed notes. She’d written about partial evocations, the Synchronized Senses technique, and various techniques that could be used with low-level evocations.
“These are…! Wow, you even wrote about this…!”
The notes had been written by one of the Nine Wise Men and the leading authority on the art of evocation. After looking at them for but a moment, Cleos couldn’t tear his eyes away. The knowledge that’d been compiled in the notebook advanced the state of the art and reached a level he still had yet to master.
Toward the beginning of the notebook, Mira had written primarily about summoning methods that depended solely on mastery of technique. These methods were ones anyone could use so long as they knew the technique, even if the only thing they could summon was a dark knight. They were also techniques one could fully employ even if they were only using summoning via Endogenous Sense. With those, there was potential to further popularize summoning.
“These are incredible… If other mages can just learn these, then summoning will likely be in the spotlight like never before.”
It would be extremely difficult. And yet, the amount of unrealized potential out there was also immeasurable. Or so Cleos said, shuddering with excitement.
“Right? Don’t you think so?!”
To ensure the future of summoning remained bright, they’d propagate those techniques. Having resolved to do so, Mira looked at Cleos.
“When can you get started?”
Currently, Cleos was both the head of the School of Evocation and a teacher at the academy. Therefore, in order to propagate these new techniques, he would need to learn them. Smiling, Mira offered to start by teaching him about partial summons. Predicting that he was going to have to undergo some hellish special training, the smile died on Cleos’s face.
His session with Mira lasted late into the night.
Ever since he heard Mira mention partial summoning, Cleos had tirelessly practiced doing it. He’d managed to get down some of the basics. But he wasn’t doing something quite right, and so he couldn’t get the evocation to appear.
But under Mira’s direct instruction, all of his hard work came together as Mira readily identified what it was that he was doing wrong.
“I…I did it! Did you see?!”
The holy knight’s shield that Cleos summoned finally caught and absorbed the full-strength attack that’d been leveled at him by Mira’s dark knight.
The partially summoned shield was just as durable as it would be on a holy knight that’d been properly summoned. There was no disputing that he’d been successful.
“Hrmm, I certainly did. Well done. You pass.”
Cleos’s partial evocation had been shattered and sliced in half countless times. And yet, after tweaking his technique countless times under Mira’s guidance, he finally managed to pull it off.
Hearing Mira announce that he’d passed, Cleos was as happy as a child on Christmas morning. What’s more, he kept asking to try again and was able to fully block the dark knight’s blows each and every time. He seemed to have really gotten a good feel for it.
Mira was pleased to see Cleos’s growth. And now…she wanted to see him grow even more.
“Moving forward, why don’t you try and partial summon a dark knight.”
Cleos readily answered back, “Sure thing!”
He must’ve been quite pleased with his success, as he had an air of invincibility about him which seemed to say that he thought he could take on anything.
…But that aura transformed into one of complete helplessness just a few minutes later. This was because it was vastly more difficult to partially summon a dark knight than it was to do so with a holy knight.
For holy knights, all you had to do was bring forth their shield. For dark knights, there were two movements involved: swinging their swords up and bringing them down. And this all happened within a split second.
“I feel like I’ll never get it…”
Having used up most of his mana during the intensive training, Cleos hung his head as if utterly broken. It must’ve really been difficult, as his expression had done a full one-eighty. He now wore a look of complete despair.
“Hrmm… It seems like you’re just about at your limit.”
Mira noted that he’d been overconfident after summoning the holy knight. She let him know that he ought to get some rest after he objected and said that he could keep going. Pushing oneself too hard wasn’t good.
Nodding in agreement with what Mira had said, Cleos meekly went back to his room. Before leaving, he told Mira that he’d be looking forward to tomorrow’s training.
After Cleos’s intensive training, Mira enjoyed a nice relaxing soak.
And just like that, her busy yet relaxing day came to an end.
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