Understanding Knowledge

In class, Scholar Heide once again told everyone about the origins of the present world.

"After vast cycles of generations and shifting ages, the era we now inhabit is the Ninth Era—the Covenant Era."

"What is the Covenant?"

"To check the expansion of the Dragon of the Corona and bring the excessively brutal War of Cataclysm to an end, the Fairy Monarch and the Hours made an agreement. They divided the boundary between mortals and higher beings. From then on, the Heavenly Courtyard and the earth were severed, forbidden from freely coming and going. Only a few passages and rituals remained capable of bridging them. At the same time, the intensity of war was limited, isolating those mythological creatures beyond mortal imagination within the Heavenly Courtyard, no longer allowing them to interfere with the mundane world at will."

"During this era, all sides recovered from the ruins of the War of Cataclysm, rebuilt their nations, and reached a balance. More than two thousand years have passed, and it is now the year 2145 of the Covenant Era."

The Ninth Era... Sylutia wrote it down in her notes, marveling at how ancient this world's ages were.

The "Blazing Sun" and the "Phantom Moon" were born in the Third Era. They ended the Second Era, when sky and sea had been one—the Dome Sea Era. Thus, that age when sun and moon shone together was called the Sun-Moon Era, the Third Era.

When the "Blazing Sun" and the "Phantom Moon" split apart, the Third Era also reached its end, giving way to the Fourth Era.

After class, Sylutia packed up her books and prepared to get something to eat when a female student with chestnut-red hair approached her.

Sylutia recognized her. Her name was Valenie, Knight Levin's daughter, though the two had barely ever spoken.

"You're called Tia, right?" Valenie walked over, twirling a lock of hair by her ear with one hand, her brows faintly furrowed.

"Yes." This is probably going to be troublesome, the girl thought.

"I see that you take very good notes every day. Let me have a look." She directly held out her hand.

"This..."

Several thoughts flashed through Sylutia's mind. Lending her notes was a small matter, but she suspected that if Valenie borrowed them, she would never return them. After all, this girl had not left a good impression on her.

In the eyes of nobles, commoners were insignificant things. Asking you for something was already an honor bestowed upon you—you ought to be grateful.

"I understand." After thinking for a moment, Sylutia took her notes from her bag and handed them over.

Her memory in this life was excellent, so she would have been fine even without notes. Yet habits from her previous life still led her to take them. Besides, it was more in line with common sense; all the students wrote notes.

After receiving them, Valenie casually flipped through the pages. The girl's elegant, graceful handwriting, clearly layered paragraph arrangements, and diagrams traced in fine lines gave the notebook a rare beauty.

"Hmph, not bad." Valenie nodded slightly.

"I'll remember you. After graduation, you can come to Wheatfield Town and take up clerical work." Wheatfield Town was Knight Levin's fief.

In Valenie's eyes, this was an immense favor. Ordinary commoners had no such good prospects, especially girls.

"Thank you."

At the girl's calm reply, Valenie glanced at her a few more times before leaving with the notebook.

After getting through the first week, the material Scholar Heide taught gradually grew more advanced. Even educated noble students did not understand much of what he spoke about, and the differences between students began to show.

Some might understand it at the time, only to forget it the moment they turned around. Some did not really understand it from the start, but were too concerned about saving face to ask in class, leaving them to seek out others after lessons.

"What does it mean that the 'Radiant Moon' is not the 'Phantom Moon,' but the 'Phantom Moon' will certainly be reborn within the 'Radiant Moon'?" Comia clutched her head in distress.

"Karen, why do you look like you're not troubled at all? Did you understand it?" She turned her head.

"No, I didn't understand it from the beginning." Karen sat at the dining table, eating the black bread provided for the students.

"Then why aren't you panicking?" Comia continued asking.

"Because I was never going to learn those complicated things anyway," Karen continued.

"The teacher said that as long as I learned the three most important subjects well, I could become a good hunter," she explained.

"But if you want high marks, that definitely isn't enough." Comia bit her lip.

"Have you never thought about getting high marks and going to the Secret Forest?"

"That's too far beyond me." Karen already felt fortunate to be studying under Scholar Heide. Born in a remote village, she did not harbor overly lofty hopes.

"Sigh, I can't make you understand." Bored, Comia slumped over the table, pinching bread in one hand and feeding it into her mouth. Her whole body looked like a softened slug.

At that moment, she saw a familiar figure enter the dining hall, and her body straightened again.

"Tia, over here~" Comia waved.

Sylutia carried the bread and water she had received from the kitchen servants over and sat down opposite Comia.

The dining hall was built entirely from stone bricks and was rather dimly lit. A long table stood in the middle, and it was right beside the kitchen, used for ordinary simple meals. If formal guests were being entertained, they would dine in the grand hall elsewhere in the manor.

"Tia, how did you do with today's lesson?" Comia asked, unable to hold herself back.

"Not bad." The girl answered as calmly as ever, then took small bites of bread.

"Not bad means you understood it?"

"I understood it." Sylutia blinked, not understanding why Comia was asking.

"Huh? You really understood it? Then let me test you." Comia did not quite believe her. She thought she was quite clever too; her family had always said so.

Afterward, Comia asked again about the question concerning the "Radiant Moon" and the "Phantom Moon."

"This?" Sylutia set down the slice of bread in her hand.

"It's actually quite easy to understand. If you look back at how the teacher described the Moon-Attribute Three Aspects, you'll more or less understand."

[Radiant Moon] (gentle radiance and spirit, lively minds and beautiful fantasies)

[Mist Shadow] (the absence of radiance, blurred forms and lightless shadows)

[Nightmare] (the shattering of the spirit, as well as the collapse of reason and despair)

"Mist Shadow embodies the absence of radiance, while Nightmare is the despair of the spirit. The two are like the Radiant Moon's accompanying existences—one is the Radiant Moon's shadow, and the other is its mirror image."

"In other words, their concepts require the Radiant Moon as their point of contrast. Without the Radiant Moon, the two would lose the conceptual foundation on which they stand."

"Just as a shadow requires light to set it off, and a reflection in water requires the original object to exist."

"This means that if someone wished to recreate the [Phantom Moon] Aspect Power, they would need to use the Radiant Moon as the core, gather the other two, and achieve some strange balance."

"And so the teacher said, 'The "Radiant Moon" is not the "Phantom Moon," but the "Phantom Moon" will certainly be reborn within the "Radiant Moon."'" Sylutia finished explaining just as she ate the last piece of bread in her hand.

"I feel like I'm a little stupid, boo..." Comia more or less understood now, but she also felt that perhaps she was not all that clever.