Growth Crest

Since Alice had woken up, there was no need to send her back to the bedroom. The two returned to the living room, planning to sit on the sofa and chat.

They sat on the sofa in a brief silence. Alice deliberately sat a little further from Aoko, still feeling a bit embarrassed by Aoko's actions earlier. Aoko, on the other hand, seemed unfazed.

"So, tell me," Alice said after calming herself down, "have you completely mastered the Fifth Magic now?"

"More or less," Aoko replied, standing up to pour herself and Alice a cup of black tea. "The old man disappeared after I opened that door. The cave vanished after I returned from there."

Aoko felt the black tea in the teapot had become a bit cool, so she subtly heated it with magic.

"...Did your grandfather die?" Alice asked after taking her teacup, pausing as if to gauge its temperature. She took a sip and then asked, "Or is it like when that priest 'killed' him last time?"

"I don't know," Aoko said, sitting back on the sofa and gazing at the ornate chandelier on the ceiling. "But I don't really believe that old man would die so easily. I suspect he's hiding somewhere, happily watching me deal with all these follow-up troubles."

"What about the situation in the cave?" Alice continued, savoring her black tea. "Did you encounter any obstacles?"

"I ran into a stinky white dog," Aoko said fiercely. "It broke my spine and almost gutted me."

Aoko rubbed her waist as she gestured towards her chest.

"Your vitality seems quite strong then," Alice commented. "Did you use magic to reverse your condition?"

"Nope?" Aoko replied nonchalantly. "I entered 'that place' and thought, 'I shouldn't be injured,' and when I came back, the wounds were gone."

"...Huh?" Alice sounded surprised. She turned her head, her beautiful, large black eyes scrutinizing Aoko, who now had long red hair, as if searching for an answer to her current appearance.

"...Is there a problem?" Aoko felt a bit uneasy under her gaze.

"Problem?" Alice's usual cool expression broke, replaced by a rare, slightly sarcastic smile. "You have a big problem, Miss Fourth Mage. No one can return alive from the Root, not even mages."

"Didn't the First Mage, Yumina, achieve that?" Aoko asked, confused.

"She didn't," Alice stated decisively. "Precisely because she didn't, I exist, holding the 'Fragment of the First Magic'."

Aoko fell silent. She had assumed Yumina, like herself, had obtained the First Magic from the Root, then returned to the real world, creating the foundation for subsequent magic with her "Negation of Nothingness."

Now it seemed Yumina, similar to her grandfather's situation, had obtained the First Magic at the door, left behind her bloodline, entered, and never returned.

"My situation was quite dire," Aoko said, choosing her words carefully. "If I hadn't entered, I might not have survived five seconds, so I chose to go in."

"That place..." Aoko struggled to recall her experience within the Root. It seemed all the words she knew now were pale and inadequate for an accurate description. "...I don't know how to describe it, but I confirmed that a part of me 'melted,' while another part stubbornly refused. That's why I came back."

"...Is that all?" Alice asked thoughtfully.

Aoko thought for a moment, then began to take off her outer jacket, followed by her sweater. She was left with just a simple white undershirt, her well-proportioned figure completely exposed to her roommate.

"..." Alice suddenly stopped talking. She turned her face away, appearing a little shy.

"What's the big deal? We're both girls anyway," Aoko said mischievously, sitting down beside Alice. "This is what I got from there. Want to see?"

Alice hesitated for a moment before turning back to look at her roommate, who was openly displaying her skin.

Her figure was so good that Alice felt a pang of jealousy. Even with clothes on, her fullness was evident, and her skin was unrealistically fair and delicate. Her current state seemed to exert a certain pressure on Alice—

A faint azure glow emanated from Aoko. Alice was surprised to discover that her roommate's arms, hands, and even a large part of her back and face were now covered in intricate and mysterious patterns. These were undoubtedly some kind of crests.

But make no mistake, Alice had certainly seen Magecraft Crests before, as her entire body was covered in Witch-inherited Magecraft Crests. However, she had seen Aoko's previous Magecraft Crests; at that time, it only existed on her right forearm and its form didn't quite match the current one.

And now, at this scale...

"Amazing, right?" Aoko said, raising her left hand to examine the glowing crests, which illuminated as she connected with her magic. "They weren't like this when I first got them. But I've noticed they keep growing. It was most apparent when I encountered that red shadow on the mountain road; I think they grew considerably at that time."

Alice remained silent because the "magecraft crests" on Aoko were unlike any magecraft crests she knew, and also different from her own Witch crests. This was because she had never heard any news about magecraft crests that "grew on their own." Magecraft crests were typically artificial crystallizations of mystery, requiring the holder to continuously crystallize their research findings and accumulate them through generations to form.

The "crests" on Aoko were clearly abnormal, or rather, anomalous—

Thinking this, Alice couldn't help but reach out her slender, jade-like fingers to touch the glowing crests on Aoko's body.

"Hahaha, it tickles," Aoko said, covering her shyness with laughter and quickly grabbing Alice's wandering hand. "Your hands are cold! Let's drink some tea to warm up first, shall we?"

Alice Kuonji also realized her action was inappropriate and quickly pulled her hand free from Aoko's grasp, picking up her half-finished black tea to savor it again.

"I need to go to my grandfather's workshop again tomorrow to move out all of the old man's 'inheritance'," Aoko said as she put her clothes back on. "Will you be home tomorrow? I might put some of it in the Kuonji Residence. It would be best if you could help receive it."

"...I don't have anything planned for tomorrow."