Preparation

After a little over two months of observation, Lorenzo finally completed all his calculations for Ophiuchus.

"So, you can start the treatment now?"

The next morning, Lorenzo shared the news with Heiter and Frieren at the breakfast table, and Frieren asked him that question.

"I still need a few days to prepare the connection ritual. Once it succeeds, I can begin."

Heiter, on the other hand, seemed in no hurry.

"I've already waited over two months. A few more days won't make much difference."

"What about the effects?"

Frieren asked.

"They're just as I predicted before. It can't make him younger, nor can it truly extend his life. At most, it can relieve the pain caused by his illness and repair some of the damage his body has already suffered."

"Oh, so it can't make me a few decades younger? I thought I might be able to experience life as a young man again after the treatment."

Heiter seemed a little disappointed.

"Why would you have such unrealistic expectations?"

Frieren glanced at Heiter as she spoke.

"At my age, one can't help dreaming a little."

Heiter smiled and took a sip of tea, though both Lorenzo and Frieren could tell he hadn't truly expected it.

He was only joking. He knew better than anyone that he had reached the end of his life. Being free of pain, able to walk and eat normally, and able to talk with the people who mattered to him in his final days would be enough.

After breakfast, Lorenzo set about preparing for the ritual. Because of this, Frieren finally stopped asking him to spend his days studying True Magic alongside Fern, letting him focus on his preparations.

The first problem was finding a location. To establish a connection between himself and Ophiuchus, he needed to draw directly on the power of the stars. If he performed the ritual indoors, the walls and roof would block some of the starlight.

In the end, Lorenzo chose a clearing behind the house.

The ground there was level, and none of the surrounding trees were particularly tall. Once night fell, all he had to do was look up to see the entire starry sky.

For the next few days, he spent nearly all his time there, writing and drawing on the ground. To an observer, he looked very much like some suspicious character leaving incomprehensible graffiti in a forest clearing.

"The patterns on the ground look different from the ones I saw when I first met you."

One night, Frieren brought Fern, who had just finished eating, to the clearing. She seemed to have said she wanted to watch him prepare for the ritual.

"Of course they do. That time, I was establishing a connection with the moon. This time, the target is completely different."

Lorenzo was crouching on the ground. He answered her without looking up.

Drawing on the power of a single celestial body was entirely different in difficulty from Magecraft that connected him to a constellation. The preparatory ritual for the moon alone had taken him a month, and when he eventually tried to establish connections with other planets, the amount of data he would have to process would only grow larger.

Those planets had their own orbital cycles and mystical symbolism. Some celestial bodies even had to be observed at particular times of year before he could obtain sufficiently complete results.

At this rate, establishing even the most basic connections might take years.

And if he ran into special celestial phenomena that appeared only once every few decades or even centuries...

Was he supposed to sit in one place and wait for decades? He needed to find a way to shorten the process or improve his efficiency.

"Can I learn this kind of True Magic too?"

Fern, who was standing nearby, suddenly asked.

"No."

Frieren answered for Lorenzo.

"There's hope."

Lorenzo, however, gave a completely different answer.

Hearing that, Frieren's eyes widened, and she looked very surprised.

"Didn't you tell me before that I couldn't use your True Magic because I didn't have those 'Magic Circuits'?"

What's that supposed to mean? When I asked if I could learn Celestial True Magic, you said no, but when Fern asked, you said there was hope straight away.

That's discrimination!

Frieren's gaze grew increasingly unfriendly.

"Because I recently came up with a method for building a 'converter' inside the body that can turn ordinary Mana into Mana suitable for Celestial True Magic."

In fact, the idea had gradually taken shape as he studied the local theories of True Magic. In his original world, mages had to rely on Magic Circuits to transform the Mana emitted by Mana into Mana they could use for Magecraft.

But the mages of this world were different.

They could directly sense and control the Mana within their bodies without Magic Circuits. What was missing between the two was a medium that could convert local Mana into a form Magecraft could accept.

If he could create such a medium, then in theory, he could give the mages of this world access to Magecraft.

But it sounded extremely difficult. After all, it essentially meant adding a Mana organ to a person's body.

"Will this new idea of yours work, then?"

"It should, but don't expect it to happen anytime soon. Something like this will take a few years."

"Only a few years."

Frieren was unconcerned. Long-lived races really were remarkable. An elf's sense of time always seemed especially absurd at moments like these.

"What about me, Lord Lorenzo? Is there anything I can do to help?"

Fern asked from the side.

"For now, you should just focus on learning the basic True Magic Frieren teaches you. If you haven't even mastered sensing and controlling Mana, you won't be able to use the converter properly, even if I do manage to make it."

The internal converter was not a convenient device that would let someone master Celestial Magecraft as soon as it was installed.

It would only convert Mana into a form suited to Magecraft and help the user perform the calculations for the spell. The mage would still be responsible for controlling the Mana and maintaining the spell.

If the user's control over Mana wasn't precise enough, the converted Mana would run out of control inside the body. The slightest mistake could damage the new converter along with the original Mana pathways.

"I understand."

Fern nodded earnestly.

"All right, we won't disturb you any longer. Fern still has an evening lesson."

After watching Lorenzo write and draw on the ground for a little longer, Frieren finally looked away and spoke.

"Go on, then. Evening study is an indispensable part of a student's education."

"Evening study?"

Fern stopped and looked at him in confusion.

"What's that?"

"It's when you continue reading, reviewing, and doing homework at night after finishing your daytime lessons."

Lorenzo explained:

"It helps reinforce what you learned that day. It's a time-honored and effective way to study."

At least, that was what teachers usually said. After all, there was no harm in spending a little more time studying.