Splendor Blooms

Kaledi had long been waiting at the study door.

There had been no movement at the dining table downstairs. Although that was because Jon had instructed everyone to eat next door that evening, it was enough to show that Kaledi had been waiting here for quite some time.

"Why are you in such a hurry? It's not like I won't do it."

Jon had never been particularly formal when speaking to Kaledi, but Kaledi always remained exceedingly restrained, forever putting on the manner of a medieval noble's butler. Jon truly was not used to it.

When he had lived next door, he had not been so formal with those three House-elves either. Although Carica's brother Lori was also a butler, he was nowhere near as rigid as Kaledi.

Forget it. At least his rigidity came from sincerity; there was no need to criticize him for it. If Jon said anything, who knew how much this House-elf would blame himself in private.

With that thought, Jon reached out and gripped the study's doorknob. Magic flowed out from inside his body, unlocking the warding spell before he pushed the door open and walked in.

Kaledi had set the ward on the door himself. Only he and Jon could open it, and without Jon's orders, he would not enter on his own under normal circumstances. This made the room quite secure.

"Master, shall we begin now?"

Kaledi stood beneath the portrait. Though he was speaking to Jon, his eyes remained fixed on the painting hanging on the wall.

"Don't rush. Night has only just fallen."

Jon stood by the window. The glass reflected his face against the darkness outside, while the study lights fell over his black hair, giving him an eerie sort of beauty.

An afternoon of reading had given him a new understanding of the words written in the manuscript.

Words were mysterious things.

They were incarnations of language. Since different language families differed from one another, it was sometimes impossible to express something clearly and accurately in another script. Errors were inevitable in the process of conversion.

Lady Ravenclaw had recorded in the manuscript that, after the glasses were completed, the abilities they gained far exceeded her expectations. What had originally been merely an auxiliary tool for detecting magic had acquired many new functions, though almost all of them needed to be explored anew.

Jon had never feared exploration. After using the glasses for so long, he had more or less gained some authority over them. He could have the glasses record his thoughts, allowing him to reuse the magic stored in their lenses.

And through his new interpretation of the manuscript's records, he realized that the word "explore" likely had another meaning: change.

By changing how magic was used, magic could produce entirely different effects.

To put it plainly, the glasses could tailor different methods of use according to the user. In theory, the glasses could fulfill any of Jon's current requirements.

After all, even Legendary Wizards differed from one another. And considering how powerful Legendary Wizards of that era had been, even something made on a whim would certainly be extraordinary.

He put on the glasses and set his magic in motion. Light immediately lit up within the vision of his left eye. The clear crystal lens reflected the scene outside, projecting every Magical fluctuation within his field of view into his eye, until a clear chart took shape in Jon's mind.

Magic feedback—if monitoring and displaying fluctuations in magical particles in the air was the most basic function of the Magic Glasses, then this was a further application of them.

Still, this application was relatively rudimentary. The design of the Magic Glasses incorporated a spell that took advantage of the human body's own ability to process information. It involved the soul and the human brain, and both its magical principles and precision were astonishingly advanced. Jon was still only in the preliminary stages of exploring how to use it.

After all, Lady Ravenclaw stood on the path of magic like an immense mountain.

The legendary magic embedded within the lenses would analyze the magical environment of the area the user observed. Every spell that had interfered with the environment—even potions and alchemy—would reappear in processed, data-based form, giving the user a direct understanding and impression.

As Jon's understanding of this magical item deepened, he finally grasped this basic method of use. The magical sequences within the glasses began unlocking in response to Jon, presenting results in the manner he had envisioned.

Data charts were the most intuitive means of expression, and also the form Jon was most accustomed to.

"Truly impressive. It's been so long since I last saw a three-dimensional point-and-surface distribution map."

Jon sighed as he carefully examined the chart in his mind, then signaled for Kaledi to begin.

The Magical fluctuations here calmed very quickly. The moonlight had only just spilled across the sky when the magical tide brought by the sun subsided. Jon knew this was because his maternal grandmother's residence stood next door.

His maternal grandmother's family had inherited the traditions of Eastern wizards, so the magical environment in the surrounding area had been arranged by that Ancestor using a method unique to Eastern wizards.

Since his soul itself had come from the East, Jon had naturally made a point of learning a little about Eastern wizarding methods. Much like what he had once read in novels, they solidified the magic between heaven and earth within the wizard's own body. If there was truly any difference between Eastern and Western approaches, it lay in this difference in how power was obtained.

Eastern wizards placed even harsher demands on bloodline purity than Western wizards. The Pureblood Families of the Western Wizarding World might look down on half-blood wizards and Muggle-born wizards every day, but once such wizards became part of the Wizarding World, acceptance of them naturally followed.

Jon felt that this was mainly because there were too few people.

But the East was different. That land's vastness and uninterrupted history had bestowed a unique sense of superiority upon its rulers—the Eastern people. Once a family had too many members, it naturally could not accommodate newcomers.

Moreover, according to the scant and pitiful information Jon knew, its vast territory and enormous population meant that new wizards were born, and people lost their Wizarding Bloodline, more frequently than in the West. Thus, wizarding lineage was valued even more highly. Wizarding families would not allow their family bloodline to remain outside; every wizard was precious.

Jon did not know what the Yang family's Ancestor—the Eastern wizard who had crossed the ocean hundreds of years ago—had encountered in his homeland to make him leave it behind and come here. But without question, he had brought Eastern customs and magic with him.

For some reason, as the successor of an infrastructure powerhouse, Jon felt an instinctive fondness for this self-sufficient practice of artificially creating a magical environment.

Then he saw new feedback in the glasses.

Within his field of vision, a beautiful magical radiance blossomed behind him.