"After reading that book, did you feel any headache?"
Doctor Schneider asked again.
"Did I? Probably."
He observed their expressions.
"Probably. I fell asleep right after finishing it."
Shade answered hesitantly. In truth, he had spent some time playing with Mia that evening, putting off his reading until he stayed up too late and could no longer hold on. He had indeed felt a headache, but it was most likely because he had gone to bed too late and had been woken too early by a starving cat that had grown impatient for breakfast.
"That's perfectly normal. Books containing mad knowledge will affect anyone who reads them. Even if a Ring Arcanist has Another Me to block the direct force of that knowledge, the Ring Arcanist themselves will still be affected. Shade, there's no need to rush. Acquiring Spirit Runes takes time."
The Doctor kindly consoled him. Shade nodded with his lips tightly closed, while asking in his heart:
"Is my mind strong, or are you helping me block those effects?"
You are me, and I am you. There is no difference.
During the Study Group, Shade could understand only half of the difficulties Doctor Schneider and Miss Louisa raised regarding their studies as Ring Arcanists.
Doctor Schneider had recently joined an elective course called "Aether Mechanics." The course itself was open only to arcanists of five rings or above, but it taught no power and focused solely on theory. Its official name should have been "Mechanics of Ling," the study of the interaction and effects between Ling, an idealistic existence, and matter.
But Professor Rutherford, who taught the course, preferred the old name for Ling from past eras—"aether"—which was why the course was called Aether Mechanics.
This course was extremely difficult to understand and belonged to the cutting edge