Magic Research

I returned to my room. The maid Annie was delighted to see me back. Feeling a little tired, I pointed behind me and said, "Take care of the new maid. Help me prepare hot water. I want to bathe."

"Yes, Young Master."

I glanced back at the girl, who was still trembling. Acting like a slave trader, I lifted her hair and pried open her mouth to inspect her teeth.

"Can you speak? Can you read? What is your name?"

The girl flinched again when she heard me speak and replied, "I-I can speak. I can read. I attended literacy classes. My name is Doristina Papurhos."

That name sounded familiar. I felt like I had heard it before.

Somehow, I vaguely remembered hearing that name in some chapter. She must have appeared very rarely, a minor supporting character. Otherwise, I definitely would not have forgotten. Never mind.

Since I had heard her name before, she definitely had not died. Then saving her life should not have altered the course of fate.

"Your original name definitely cannot be used anymore. From now on, you will be called Lilith. As a slave, I have no intention of using you for that sort of thing for the time being.

But as a maid, you must fulfill your duties. There is no way I will pay you wages, because you are my property. Do you understand?

Your parents have already sold you to me. So do not think about running back to your old home. Your family would only beat you black and blue before sending you back here.

And do not think about running away to the commoner district. A child as small as you could never survive there. Either someone would pick you up and make you a slave again, or you would starve to death on the streets.

Do you understand?"

The little girl lowered her head deeply. Tears silently fell as she rasped, "I understand."

I shook my head and ignored her, going off to bathe. I also instructed Annie to take the new Lilith to the servants' quarters for a bath.

Sitting in the steaming tub, I fell into thought.

This little girl should have appeared in the later plot. It should have been during the period when Ariel returned to Ars. I could not remember what state she had been in then. Was she still a slave under Darius?

A little girl only a few years old would probably not survive even a week under Darius's abuse. If she had stayed alive all these years, she was incredibly lucky.

Maybe she had escaped midway through. There was no point dwelling on it. The important thing now was how to get rid of this hot potato.

She definitely could not return to her family. A four-year-old child had no ability to support herself, so I could not just release her either. And I had no idea whether she had any trustworthy friends.

That was far too unrealistic. How could a girl sold by her own biological parents possibly have friends she could rely on?

For now, I would keep her by my side and cultivate her abilities. Once she could support herself, I would secretly leave an opening for her to escape. That settled it!

During that time, I could not treat her too well. What if she fell for me? I was a man determined to leave this family and make my own way. What would it look like if I brought along dead weight?

After bathing, I rang the bell in the room and used fire magic to steam the water off my body. Annie then came with the other maids to help me dress.

At first, I did not notice anything. Then I suddenly saw there was an extra Dwarf-kin. Looking closely, it was Lilith. The little girl looked quite delicate after being cleaned up. I could only say that Darius had good taste in women.

Stop, stop. How could I think like that?

Putting on an imposing manner, I said, "Lilith, your face is too pale. From now on, smear some dust on it. There is no need to tie up your hair either. Just cut it off. Cut it to chin length.

Annie, help her cut it later. Do not bother trimming it. Just cut it."

The maids looked at me strangely. I had no intention of explaining myself. Though none of them answered, I was not worried they would disobey my orders.

Once I was dressed, I returned directly to the master bedroom and lay down on the bed to sleep.

Lying in bed, I could not calm down. My mind was filled with things I had never considered before. This world had magic and battle aura, allowing women to fight and granting some women a certain social status.

But this world also had slaves. It was an extremely warped institution. Some people could not afford food and sold themselves into slavery. But far more slaves had been kidnapped by force. Many women were abducted by traffickers simply because they were beautiful.

These people were even more rampant than modern human traffickers. They had an entire "supply, transport, and sales" chain. Captured slaves were easier to sell, which in turn created even more bandits who abducted people. The biggest problem was that the largest market for slaves in the entire country was the nobility. As those in power, they would not crack down on the slave trade to protect the commoners under their rule. Instead, they supported it.

Another unsolvable problem. From a modern person's perspective, there were so many things about this world that I could not stand.

I had Lilith cut her hair and smear dirt on her face so she would look uglier, reducing the chance that Darius would take a fancy to her.

As for slavery, it was merely something I found intolerable. I would make changes when I had the ability. But I was still too weak now. To hell with it. Sleep!

The next day was the day I attended lessons with my magic teacher, Bradycond. I brought Lilith with me. Her hair had already been cut short, and her face had been smeared with dirt. She looked like an ugly duckling. Since her hair looked truly awful, she wore an oversized maid's cap that was clearly lent to her by someone else.

I did not care. She still looked ugly in the maid's cap anyway. She was completely different from how she had looked before.

After arriving at my teacher's residence, I did the same as always: knocked on the door to wake her, helped clean the place, and waited for her to get up before practicing magic.

The difference today was that I had brought my new weapon, "Starfall." During the latter half of yesterday's banquet, my mother told me that this sword was worth over ten thousand gold coins. She did not know exactly how many tens of thousands, because it had been given to my father as a gift by a down-and-out nobleman seeking his help.

What a wasteful noble. The former owner probably did not know it was a magic sword. A normal person's first impression would be that it was an ordinary sword with a beautiful scabbard. The blade was too short, and the sword itself was too thick.

It could be used to chop people, but it was not especially sharp. The jewels on the scabbard had been added by my father later. Otherwise, that impoverished noble probably would not even have been willing to give it away because of the gems on the scabbard.

After following my teacher to the square, I handed her the sword for inspection. I vaguely felt that the sword was controlled by magic power and had nothing to do with swordsmanship.

It was more like a wand than a sword.

After fiddling with it for a while, my teacher tried pouring magic power into it. After sensing the blade's affinity for magic power, she returned it to me.

"This sword should be capable of conducting magic power. Magic cast upon the blade works the same as magic cast from your hand. You can try using your magic power to form different spells on the sword. As for its other uses, you will have to study them yourself."

I nodded. It was just as I had thought. This sword should suit me well. And I had not yet figured out what the magic crystal in the slot on its hilt was for.

"Teacher, please evaluate this. The technique I have thought of so far is forming a Wind Blade around it. That would create invisible wind blades, increasing the unseen attack range and hurting people without them realizing it."

"You can form a Wind Blade, but maintaining one continuously will consume a great deal of magic power. Wind Blades also produce air currents. They may be invisible, but skilled swordsmen can sense them with their bodies. It cannot achieve a one-hit kill. Furthermore, this only works for someone like you who has mastered Silent Casting, so it is too limited. That cannot be this sword's proper use. Take it back and study it more yourself. Do not come asking your teacher about everything. I am not omnipotent."

All right, then it was time for the usual magic lessons.

Teacher Bradycond's teaching was fairly relaxed. She did not pay excessive attention to whether I had learned anything. She simply explained what she knew, and as for whether I understood it, she did not care.

But Teacher Bradycond truly was knowledgeable. As a Long-ear Race woman over three hundred years old, she basically had no concerns about lifespan. She said that when she was young, she had even seen King Kavanis Sirian Asura of Asura, who had won the Laplace Campaign. He was a figure straight out of the history books.

As a Long-ear Race woman of especially pure blood, she also explained the origins of magic to me. She said magic had been invented by the Ancient Elves. After they invented magic chants, every race could cast magic by reciting incantations.

That should have been a shortcut. In theory, the history of magic should predate the elves' invention of it. If magic had not existed before then, the elves should not have been able to create incantations. Ancient Magic probably had no incantations. Magic back then was more like a talent, an innate ability to control magic power.

Using talent to control magic power and manifest magic meant that magic must have been limited to certain races or individuals at the time. Those people must have had extraordinary talent for manipulating magic power. And by people, I did not simply mean humans. They might have been individuals of other races as well.

Then the elves invented simple magic instruction and spread it everywhere. That was Modern Magic, Chant Magic.

My Silent Casting should also count as a kind of talent. If so, I should be able to attempt Ancient Magic.

The following day was time to practice swordsmanship at the Water God Style Main Dojo. To test my theory, I planned to conduct a small experiment today.

After the Water God Style's daily training and sparring ended, I brought Isolte to an empty little room. I did not know why she suddenly blushed.

But I did not ask. I simply began preparing the equipment for the experiment.

Using earth magic, I made a cup and built a stand beneath it to hold it up.

Then I poured the cup about half full of water.

I had Isolte hold a piece of cloth above the cup, roughly ten centimeters away.

Then I used fire magic to light the firewood I had prepared beneath the cup.

We quietly watched the water boil, then watched the steam drift into the cloth.

Then I turned to Isolte and found that she was staring at me.

I asked her, "Did you see it clearly?"

"Huh? See what clearly? I do not know."

I shook my head helplessly. "Where were you looking just now?"

Blushing, she lowered her head and said softly, "I was looking at you."

"I'm shocked. Why were you looking at me?"

"Because you looked very serious and focused just now."

I nearly fell over because of that sentence. Was there something wrong with this woman's head? Maybe I should find someone else for the experiment.

Helplessly, I said, "Let's do it again. Keep your eyes on the top of the cup and watch the white mist."

She nodded, blushing.

I refilled the cup with water and lit the fire again.

After a while, the water in the cup had boiled dry.

I asked her, "Did you see it clearly? Where did that white mist go?"

"Onto the cloth."

"What is on the cloth now?"

"Water."

"Good. That white mist is water elements. These water elements exist everywhere in the air. If you had not caught them with the cloth just now, they would have dispersed into the air.

"Now give me one hand. With your other hand, gather your magic power and try to control the water elements. You only need to condense a single drop of water in your palm. Do not recite an incantation. Use your heart to feel the magic power."

I felt like she was completely confused, but she obediently gave me one hand. She held her other hand flat and strained as if she were trying to take a dump.

I sent my magic power into her body and tried to observe the flow of her magic power. It was basically chaotic and disordered, completely different from the proper pathways used when casting Chant Magic.

All of those disorderly flows of magic power were useless effort. They could not cast magic. Then I guided her verbally.

"Water elements are composed of two other particles in the air. I call them hydrogen and oxygen. Try to capture those two elements from the air and combine them.

"Imagine the process from just now, when the water boiled and steam drifted onto the cloth. That white steam was the combination of hydrogen and oxygen. Try using your magic power to draw those two elements into your hand, then mix them together."

Through the magic power inside her body, I could clearly sense that after countless attempts, she finally stabilized it. After cycling it several times, a drop of water condensed in her hand.

Ignoring the little girl's excited shriek, I released her hand and fell into thought again.

Ancient Magic should have been something in which talented people discovered these magic power cycles capable of casting magic.

We modern people could use modern knowledge to identify such cycles of magic power more easily, thereby casting magic.

Of course, talented people could also achieve it after receiving guidance. Different talents required different methods of guidance.

Sylphie should have been someone with exceptional talent. After Rudy guided her, she quickly learned Silent Casting for all magic, and she could even use healing magic without incantations.

Excellent. With the basic data from this experiment, I could continue my magical research.

When I came back to my senses, I found Isolte sitting beside me again, staring at my face. Before I could speak, I heard her say gently, "Junior brother, you look handsome when you are serious too!"

Then she ran away in a flash. From the distance, I could still hear her voice: "I'm going to tell Master this good news!"

Silently, I covered my face, which felt slightly hot as though it had been burned by fire.