A Possibility

The massive explosion at the village hall caused considerable damage to Oak Village.

At the time, five people had been inside the village hall: Frederick, Ah Fu, Frederick's coachman, and two guards. The blast sent all of them flying.

Ah Fu landed in a nearby family's chicken coop, killing three old hens. He suffered several scrapes and bruises.

The guard keeping watch at the village hall's entrance was flung straight across the ground, leaving a deep furrow in the mud softened by the rain. His left shoulder was dislocated.

The guard who had been resting landed on the roof of a nearby house and broke his right leg when he crashed into a beam.

The coachman was just an ordinary man. He was lucky to survive, landing in a haystack with only two broken ribs and a gash on his head.

The culprit flew into an oak tree. The dagger Maria had given him, which had originally belonged to the Grand Duke of Mainz, was a magic item. The defensive enchantment on its scabbard activated automatically, leaving him with no serious injuries—just a branch stuck in his gluteus maximus.

The falling roof caused considerable damage, punching holes in the roofs of many homes. Fortunately, the heaviest main beam crashed into a pigsty, preventing an even greater disaster.

Oak Village descended into chaos. Fortunately, Manuel and Bishop Clement, who were staying at a farmer's house, stepped in at once. They directed the students and clerics to calm everyone down and treat the injured. By dawn, the rain had stopped and the village had returned to normal.

The rain stopped at dawn the next day. With Bishop Clement and the other clerics treating them, the injured people and livestock were mostly out of danger.

Frederick was immediately put in a carriage and sent back to Weissenburg, where the castle erupted into another frenzy.

Richard Nahl, who was holding down the fort at Weissenburg, dropped his fishing rod and hurried back to the castle as soon as he heard the news. When he entered Frederick's bedroom, he found him sitting against the headboard, looking fairly well—apart from the lumps covering his head.

"Was it that bad?" Richard Nahl exclaimed, reaching out to feel Frederick's head, which looked much like a Buddha statue's. "Does your head hurt? Are you dizzy? Do you feel like throwing up?"

Frederick grimaced in pain and shrank his neck back. "I'm fine now. Psyche poked all these lumps into my head."

Just a moment ago, Psyche had poked his head while giving him an earful for half an hour.

Richard Nahl froze, only then noticing Psyche sitting in a chair by the window, her face dark as thunder.

"What happened?" he asked, puzzled.

"Nothing much," Psyche said coldly. "He just stumbled into a field you've never encountered and nearly got himself killed."

Richard Nahl immediately understood the gist of it. He turned to Frederick and said sternly, "I don't know what you did, but remember this: among the stupidest ways to die, getting killed by your own magic ranks near the top."

"I'll remember!" Frederick replied at once.

He understood the principle. He had only meant to make a sort of firework, and he'd never heard of magic elements colliding in any special way. He hadn't expected it to end in an explosion.

Richard Nahl didn't ask what he had done. Though they were master and student, they each had their own secrets for staying alive. He simply said, "You just focus on resting. Tell us right away if anything feels wrong. If you develop any aftereffects, things will be much harder. Let someone else handle the work. If they don't, take their wages back."

Frederick nodded.

At that moment, the bedroom window suddenly swung open, and Katie climbed in from outside.

Ignoring her sweaty head, Psyche by the window, and her father across from the bed, she strode up to Frederick. Her eyes were sharp as blades as she demanded, "Who did this? Have they been caught? Do we know who put them up to it? If we can't get revenge openly, should I find someone to help? Those people from the Freedom Society still owe me a favor."

Frederick hurried to answer, "No one tried to assassinate me. I got into trouble while experimenting with magic."

"I had a Magic Shield protecting me at the time. I'm fine now."

Katie asked uncertainly, "Really? It wasn't an assassination attempt covered up with a fake story?"

"Really," Frederick said with a nod.

"You!" Katie suddenly snapped, poking him in the head as she scolded him. "Don't you know that getting killed by your own magic ranks among the three stupidest ways to die?"

"You barely know anything about magic yet. Your foundations aren't even solid, and you're already messing around. What if you'd died?!"

Frederick nodded along, wincing in pain. His senior sister didn't go easy on him when she poked his head, and her technique was exactly the same as Psyche's.

Well, at least now the lumps on his head were symmetrical along the left-right axis.

"Get some rest." Katie pinched Frederick's cheek. "I'll go make you something tasty."

Katie left the bedroom, with Richard Nahl following behind her. As he stepped outside, Frederick heard him say, "Katie, I want to talk to you about the Freedom Society..."

Only Frederick and Psyche remained in the bedroom. An awkward silence settled between them.

Psyche had been the first to visit after Frederick returned. Once she learned what had happened, she had poked a whole headful of lumps into him to teach him a lesson.

Frederick was still baffled. Why had the collision of magic elements caused such a violent explosion?

At that, Psyche went and locked the doors and windows, cast a soundproofing barrier, then sat beside the bed and sighed. In a grave tone, she said, "You've already touched the essence of this world's magic elements."

"Huh?" Frederick was so shocked he nearly jumped out of bed.

Psyche continued, "You can use a relatively small amount of energy to produce this kind of enormous force. If you made it into a weapon, you could level Weissenburg—level it both physically and geometrically."

Frederick's expression shifted several times, his shock too great to settle.

What the heck was going on?

Had he just built a nuclear bomb by hand?

Frederick immediately thought of a question. "But I've never heard of anything like this happening before."

Psyche reached over and pinched his cheek, speaking calmly. "Do you think you're an ordinary person?"

"Be careful, and study it slowly. This world might change because of you."

Frederick pursed his lips. "Then why don't you change it?"

Psyche shrugged. "I'm just a passerby."

Frederick's eyes lit up. This was the first time she had said anything about who she was. Seizing the moment, he asked, "Who are you, really?"

Psyche smiled faintly. "Why do you think I'm human?"

"Huh?!" Frederick froze, at a loss for words.

Psyche only gave him an eerie smile, then left the bedroom.

Frederick spent some time thinking about what he should work on next, until Katie brought in his lunch.

He was a little surprised when he saw it: sausage pizza. The crust was small, probably made from leftover steamed-bun dough.

The locally adapted pizza tasted good, and Frederick ate happily. Katie smiled at him warmly.

"Big sis," Frederick suddenly said, "try making a ring like this, and make the magic elements inside spin as fast as they can."

Katie didn't understand why, but she did as he asked, forming a blue ring of Water Element above her palm.

The Water Element kept speeding up inside the ring until it reached its limit.

Frederick realized what was wrong. Katie was quite powerful, but she couldn't make the magic elements move very fast.

A flash of inspiration struck him, and he thought of a possibility.