A few days later, in the Grand Mage's study on the ninth floor of the Mage Tower.
Roland looked around idly. The substantial tables and chairs gave the room an air of expense and luxury.
A large bookcase stood against one wall, filled with books whose dark covers looked rather understated beneath the light of the Magic Lamps. Surprisingly, all of them dealt with subjects outside Arcana, such as philosophy and art.
Roland casually pulled out a book to read and was surprised to find it covered in notes.
A qualified Grand Mage had to cultivate himself in philosophy, art, athletics, and other fields in addition to achieving results in Arcana. In Eastern terms, he needed all six arts of a gentleman: rites, music, calligraphy, mathematics, archery, and charioteering.
Yet at that moment, Ovesto sat on a small sofa in the reception area with a serious expression, reciting initials and finals like a kindergarten child learning pinyin.
"(Ah), (oh), (uh), (ee), (oo), (ü)..."
(Note: To make the untranslatable portions easier to distinguish, some phonetic notation has been added. Going forward, notation will no longer be added for anything other than individual characters, since context within the incantations can be used to correct the pronunciation.)
Roland's lips twitched as he listened, secretly amused.
Pronunciation involved training the relevant organs. Intelligence alone really was not enough to master it easily.
Even he had needed some private speaking practice to recover the Mandarin he had spoken before transmigrating-at Level Two, Grade A proficiency. Otherwise, he would have kept stumbling over his words.
As for "Tongues" and the "Silver Tongue Spell," neither had information on this language recorded yet, so they were no help for the time being.
After a while, the recitation stopped.
"Teacher." Roland stepped forward.
"Well? My pronunciation is much more