"So? What do you think?" Hedin asked the raven which was huddled in the corner, silent and watching. His feathered companion spoke out, "Good! Good!"
His intention was to alleviate some tension with the blue haired maid. She was, as he had noticed, too paranoid about him. And so he had opted to share a story.
"In the end, all was ruined because of corruption. I wonder, would things have turned out different for them if there was no miracle?" His eyes scanned the book he was reading. The tales of Alec Hoshin, the cover read.
"What a tragic story."
Hedin shook his head with a bitter smile and looked outside again.
"The great waterfall huh... so this is another world." His eyes were a bit unfocused. He clenched his fist tight and couldn't help but take a deep breath.
"May the miracle bless my journey."
As the sun disk sunk under the horizon, Hedin offered a prayer to the Miracle. Whether it reached it was another matter entirely.
...
The night lengthened. The moon shone down on the landscape, bathing it in silver. The hallways were lit with the silver glow from the windows and inside his office sat the tall clown.
He was reclined in his chair, his hand subtly massaging the forehead of a certain Pink haired maid. Roswaal's heterochromia eyes shone with a crazed glint as he looked out of the window and far into the night. Ram did not speak. She was here for mana. Nothing more. Truthfully speaking, she felt disgust simply being near the clown. But she had made a contract and could not give it up.
"Have you revealed something?" Roswaal said, his clear voice devoid of his usual mannerisms. Each word was concise and terse.
"No. He has been elusive so far. Although he does not shy away from revealing information about himself, I suspect that is mainly for the sake of gaining trust. He has refrained from revealing too much of his power and his words are cryptic at best."
"No progress in that regard then." Roswaal's finger touched the centre of her forehead, where the stump of her cut off horn lay. Slowly, he began to inject mana through it. "And what of your own observations?"
"Nothing worth mentioning." Ram said. "As I said, he is elusive. There is nothing you can use to manipulate him. Though, he does seem to value life very much."
"He values life huh." He chuckled. "That is the most glaring weakness of all."
"Indeed it is." Ram agreed without hesitation. She, herself was proof of that fact.
"What has he asked of you until now?"
"Nothing in particular. He only questions me about the lessons. The rest he reads and understands on his own. He says he will go to Lady Beatrice in some days to ask permission to enter the library. I do not imagine he would ask any questions, from me no less."
"Does he not trust you?"
"He seems to. But he keeps his distance."
"Is that so..." Roswaal smiled and said nothing more.
The night passed along in silence.
...
On the other hand, Hedin was having trouble sleeping.
He, a hunter of the night who was used to sleeping once in 10 days had never had so much free time that he could sleep everyday. And so, he opted for more training.
He took deep breaths as he sat cross legged on the bed. His breath was steady and his body was bare, sweat glistening in the moonlight. The silver sheen of the moon seemed to seek him out, invariably attracted towards him. The darkness seemed almost alive with motion, a cacophony of whispers and feeling tendrils. The shadows were more prominent in the room, almost pitch black.
Training glory was never an easy task.
It had mainly to do with the mind.
Glory comprised of four core powers.
First was the light of dawn. It symbolized rising and growth and could elevate the power of a hunter indefinitely, provided he practiced it long enough and was able to bear it. As it progressed, just like humanity's progress, the speed would pick up explosively, leading to greater and greater strength gains in the same time frame.
The second was the light of dusk, also called the light of twilight. It symbolized decay, destruction and aging. It's core concept was change. It allowed the hunter to decay any and all poisons, mental afflictions, external objects and other living beings; returning them back into ash. If practised to the extreme, a hunter could even decay his own mortality or injuries.
The third was a form of borrowing. Borrowing a piece of history. Many in the ages had called it 'standing on the shoulders of giants.' A hunter could, in theory, borrow any skill, language, knowledge or parts thereof from the entirety of human history; sharing their glory in success and making it one's own. Of course, it was impossible at Hedin's current level.
The final one had little to do with glory itself, but more to do with the miracle.
Being the force of nature that it was, the miracle could be shaped. Each hunter used glory to cradle the miracle, gathering the ambient power for later. This power, cradled in their glory could be used in any way they desired. It was how the first hunter had pulled the concept of destined death into the physical world.
It could be used to achieve literally anything, provided that the hunter gathered enough power for it. It was how Hedin had located the little girl's mother back in the capital. Miracle could be shaped through glory exactly how glory could be shaped by the miracle.
Hooooo~
He exhaled again. The primary way to train his powers was by cradling the miracle. It not only increased his control, but could also be used as a way to power himself up.
An unknown amount of time passed and Hedin opened his eyes again.
He looked to the window. It was still night. The moon had moved to the very top of the world, directly overhead and nocturnal creatures still roamed free in the forests.
He looked to his feathered companion. It was wide awake and staring right at him. As a being having received the boon of companionship, raven could share his glory and power over the miracle. It also shared his need for sleep and nutrition.
It was, in many respects, the ideal companion.
He extended his hand and gave raven some scratches. Then, he got up and changed into his night gown. He looked at the corner of the room where his weapons were kept. He still felt strange leaving them in the room. He was so accustomed to bringing them everywhere that not having them made him feel empty.
Raven flew onto his shoulder and he walked out into the hallway, intending for a short walk.
The hallway was completely deserted. Silent.
Hedin randomly chose a direction to head to while scratching raven on the chin.
Just then, as he passed by the fourth room, he felt something. Door crossing spell. He realized. Thinking it over for a moment, he twisted the door knob and opened the door.
Instantly, the brightly lit interior of the library came into view. And right before him sat Beatrice.
"Greetings, Miss Beatrice." Hedin said.
"And what it is that you want, I wonder? And at such a time? Aren't you humans supposed to be sleeping right about now?"
"I have little need for sleep." Hedin walked into the library.
"I'm sure you've been made aware about the reward I asked of Roswaal." He said.
"I have. What of it?"
"I was wondering if you would allow me to study here in the library?"
Beatrice sighed. "This is a library, I suppose. It is meant for reading. Stray away from the restricted section though. It may contain dangerous spells." She explained, going back to her reading.
"And how do I know if a book is restricted?"
"I will sense it and tell you, I suppose."
"That's convenient."
With that, Hedin began his browsing. Raven hopped off his shoulder and flew over to Beatrice to be seated atop her head.
"Aah! What is this strange creature!" Beatrice yelped and tried to shoo raven away. The poor bird croaked and landed on the floor.
"That's raven. My companion."
"Hmph! Keep such birds away from me!" She hmphed and resumed her reading.
Hedin and raven exchanged a silent look and shook their heads.
After some time, Hedin found the book he wanted.
'Magic and it's basic Principles.'
Sensing no rebuttal from Beatrice, Hedin plopped himself on the ground and began his reading. His three days of language practice had yielded excellent results. He could read the children's books with perfection and was able to even read many of the advanced language books. As such, getting into the book was not difficult at all.
An unknown amount of time passed. The book he had picked out was gigantic. A full 400 pages. And by the 237th page, even Hedin began to realize something.
If he did not know of his own affinities, studying magic was basically useless.
Magic was divided into various elements, each doing something different. And the way said magic was invoked was roughly the same in all cases. It was used by uttering a single word, the spell and using a prefix at the front.
Take, for example, the Yang spell Jiwald. Jiwald, spoken by itself is the base form of the spell. Adding prefixes like El, Ul and Al increases the power of the spell - going from weakest to strongest.
And affinities were specific from person to person. A man couldn't use the spell of an element that he did not have the affinity for.
"Hey, Beatrice." He called out.
"Hm?" Beatrice hummed without turning her head.
"How do you figure out someone's affinity?" He asked.
"It's a simple matter, in fact. I can do it if you would like it." She offered.
"Can you?"
"Come here, then." She looked at him and offered.
Hedin, not wasting any time approached her.
She placed a hand on his chest and hummed. "Hmm. I believe I mentioned this before but you have quite an unusual gate I suppose." She said.
"Unusual how?"
"Unusual in that it seems practically new." She mused, scratching her chin. "And yet, it feels so strong. The mana is also extremely dense and flows like a tide. It seems like a bottomless well, in fact. But too bad it hasn't been unlocked yet."
"Unusual! Unusual!" Raven croaked as he flew around the room.
She met his eyes.
"You have two affinities, I suppose. Yang and Water. Would you like me to unlock your gate?"
"Please."
"Hmph! Do not take it as charity. I will take some mana from you as compensation, I suppose."
Hedin waited for the process and Beatrice closed her eyes.
Then, she softly spoke a single word. "Huma."
Hedin felt something break.
And instantly, everything was pushed back.
Boom!
Shaaa!
A film of water laden with ice appeared around him, curling like a snake. Beatrice was unaffected as she looked at the books that had fallen over from the shelves. Steam hung low in the library and stuck some pages of her book together.
"There you go." She said, removing her hand.
Hedin touched his abdomen, finding a strange strength flowing into him. It was distinctly different from the power of glory. It felt more... physical?
"That feels strange."
"It is in fact. I'm surprised your gate wasn't damaged by such a violent release of mana. If I hadn't absorbed most of it, you would have wrecked my library, I suppose."
"I do apologize for any trouble I've caused then." Hedin smiled at her and softly, he held out his hand.
Silence~
"..."
"..."
"What do you think you're doing?"
"Oh, right. Sorry about that." Hedin retracted his hand. "Do you mind if I take the book?"
"Feel free to do so. As long as you return it, I suppose."
"Got it then."
"Unusual! Unusual!" Raven croaked the same word and landed on his shoulder once again. Hedin picked up the book alongside another - 'The Known World' - and was off for the night.
While leaving, he could not help but throw one more glance behind him. And as his eyes met Beatrice's, he sensed her sorrow getting a bit alleviated.
...
Don't forget to donate dem stones.
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(Image Here)
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A/N: Ligma.
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