Talia Finds Humans Hard to Understand

Several Stars still glimmered faintly over the Border City-State, like verses in the Night Sky about to fade away.

Only when dawn quietly arrived, tinting the horizon with a pale blush, did it drape the Lanqi Family estate in a hazy veil of color.

In that tranquil moment, Lanchi's bedroom seemed especially peaceful. Light spilled through the sheer curtains, like strands of pure spirits dancing in the air.

Yet Lanchi was already awake.

He shifted his body, pushed the blanket aside, dangled his feet over the edge, and gently placed them on the carpet, feeling its softness beneath his soles.

"How did I dream that I was in the Netherworld, with the King of Hell taking a long vacation and leaving me to sign the Book of Life and Death for him...?"

He rubbed his eyes, recalling the dream as he muttered,

"Right. I can return that borrowed grimoire now."

After stretching hard, a sense of ease spread throughout his body. Lanchi straightened his back and rose from the bedside.

After washing up, he did not head downstairs for breakfast right away.

Instead, he pulled open the curtains beside his desk and bathed in the comfortably warm Morning Sun.

A breeze brushed against the leaves outside the window, while birds sang from the treetops nearby.

Strings of crisp notes drifted in through the windowsill and filled the pleasant morning light in Lanchi's bedroom.

It had been two weeks since he borrowed the grimoire on his desk from the Border Library.

Over those days, the pile of books on his desk had only grown larger.

Besides the grimoire, he had also asked the Butler to buy several introductory books that were sold directly by the Card Maker Association in this city-state.

Learning and using magic in this world was obscure and difficult, much like mathematics at the doctoral level. If one could not learn it, one simply could not learn it.

Lanchi was fairly certain that he lacked the talent to become a "traditional mage who could skillfully wield magic through his own abilities alone."

But the good thing about this world was that everyone could use magic through "Magic Cards."

However, Magic Cards that could undergo Soul Binding had limits to what they could bear.

Thus, they did not diminish the uniqueness of combat professions. They only made the strong even stronger.

Ordinary people, meanwhile, could use Magic Cards to cast all sorts of convenient little household spells.

For that very reason, Magic Artisans capable of creating Magic Cards were extremely popular!

Compared with crafting other types of magical items, card making required not only a thorough understanding of Magical Engineering principles, but also exceptional creativity and mental ability, along with highly refined drawing skills.

What relieved Lanchi was that knowledge related to Magical Engineering—such as the construction of magical items and the principles behind magical devices—felt unexpectedly easy to him. Even when skimming rapidly, he could understand it very quickly.

"Of course, it might just be that the textbook compiler was particularly skilled."

Lanchi sighed as he looked at the stack of reference books on his desk.

Coincidentally, all of these textbooks had been written by the same author:

"Hutton Kingdom Magic Engineering Basics, Seventh Edition—by Bora Ao"

"Common Misconceptions in Tier 1 Magic Card Creation—by Bora Ao"

"Card Maker Moral Ethics Code—by Bora Ao"

He had heard from people at the Card Maker Association that Professor Bora Ao was an instructor at the Magic Engineering Institute of Iketerite Academy.

Unfortunately, Professor Bora Ao did not take on students.

Otherwise, Lanchi might have considered working hard for a hundred days and applying to the Magic Engineering Institute.

Still, compared with the academically complex and demanding Magic Engineering Institute, which also assigned dedicated instructors, he preferred the freer, more relaxed course structures of the Sage Institute and Knight Institute: few required courses, many electives, and graduation only required completing all mandatory courses and earning enough credits.

As for the Magic Engineering Institute courses that suited him, he could simply add them to his schedule as electives when the time came.

That was the conclusion Lanchi reached after carefully researching Iketerite Academy.

"All right. Now that I've finished studying the theory, it's time to experiment with making Magic Cards."

Lanchi felt that the energy called Mana, which he had used up drawing Talia's portrait a few days ago, had probably recovered by now.

Today, he could rent a Card Making Workshop from the Card Maker Association and try practicing.

And besides that.

Since he would be leaving the city-state for the royal capital in two and a half months,

he also needed to make arrangements for Talia.

Though she was a demon, they each needed something from the other.

Perhaps the two of them could become decent trading partners in the future.

Lanchi looked out the window.

Before long, his gaze found a gray figure beyond the walls of the family estate.

At a street corner untouched by sunlight, a young woman stood with dignified poise like a lifelike Artwork statue, her figure as delicate and soft as porcelain.

In the breeze, the dark gray cloak concealing Talia fluttered lightly, adding an extra touch of mystery.

In that quiet moment, she seemed to blend into the surrounding scenery as part of a painting, yet it also seemed as though her existence alone was the painting's sole focus.

Resting his chin on his hand, Lanchi gazed from afar at the demon princess who had perfectly disguised herself as a human.

"What a shame she's so old. She has to be at least several hundred years old."

He sighed.

Though Talia was also a young demon among demonkind,

by human standards, it did not seem wrong to call her an old lady.

Of course.

Lanchi had no idea what the consequences would be if he truly called Talia an old lady.

In the distance.

As though she had sensed Lanchi's gaze, Talia glanced toward the second floor of the estate.

"Good morning."

When their eyes met, Lanchi smiled and gave the distant Talia a light wave.

Talia ignored him.

Her Gray Hair slid over her shoulders like silk and quietly fell across her cloak, while her eyes gazed calmly ahead.

She only wished to confirm whether there was any movement that might threaten the estate's residents.

Since it was Lanchi himself rather than someone who might threaten Lanchi, she had no interest in paying further attention.

Just as she only cared about completing her duty—protecting her employer.

Not the employer himself.

However...

For some reason, she felt that the boy's thoughts had been unusually active just now.

And he seemed to have been thinking something utterly detestable.

Yet Talia could not say where that intuition had come from, nor could she guess what might have been going through the boy's head.

Clearly, no matter how she looked at it,

he had merely been offering a friendly greeting.

Perhaps it was just an illusion.

After all, ever since the demon nation had fallen... she had begun to hate humans.

Even with a harmless, gentle human like Lanchi, she occasionally harbored suspicions, wondering whether he might be an exceptionally vile person hiding behind a perfect disguise.

But both her lie-detection spell and her own observations proved that this human possessed impeccable character.

"Haah."

Talia sighed softly.

She had thought that, after wandering through human lands for so many years, she had begun to understand humans somewhat.

But now it seemed that if she wished to endure humiliation and perfectly integrate into human society in search of an opportunity to Restore the Nation,

she still had much work ahead of her.