It has been two weeks since I arrived at the Holy Palace in the Holy Kingdom.
My daily routine is quite simple.
First, when morning begins, I get out of bed.
There’s really no reason to sleep longer, but I take a short nap to clear my head and start the morning anew.
Today in my dream, my mother appeared.
Just for reference, she’s Lily’s mother.
After getting out of bed and lightly dressing up, I look into the mirror.
Being only 15, I still show signs of being quite young, but lately, I feel like I have grown a lot.
In the past week, I feel like I’ve aged an additional 1 to 2 years.
If before I felt like a young middle schooler, now I feel like a first-year high school student.
If there were any senior saintesses around, I would have asked them, but since there aren’t, I inquired with Cardinal Bonslee, and he said it’s a natural phenomenon.
He mentioned that as I use the divinity within me, I transform accordingly.
But he also reassured me that I wouldn’t surpass the age of around 20, so I shouldn’t worry.
Knock knock.
─“Saintess Lily, it’s Miya.”
“Come in.”
Miya the maid always visits my room when morning comes.
She helps me dress in the saintess’s attire, and the handmaidens who follow her do my makeup.
…Honestly, I think I look pretty, so I could probably do without the fuss.
“But no, we can’t have that. Saintess Lily is the only saintess left, the face of the Holy Palace, so she must look her best.”
That’s why the makeup is mandatory.
“Did you sleep well?”
“Thanks to you. The book is still difficult, though.”
“You’ll grasp it in no time.”
On the table in front of the mirror, a book titled “Holy Magic and Understanding” is open.
When I read it multiple times before bed on the first day, I wondered what it meant, but as I go on, it makes even less sense.
I picked up the book and continued from where I left off.
“Manifesting the divinity within to heal…”
So what exactly is this ‘manifesting’?
It seems to explain it convincingly, but the method of manifestation is left vague, practically leaving it to the imagination of the caster.
In the first place, it’s nothing like the “Healing Magic” the Magic Professor teaches.
“Alright.”
Is that it? I look into the mirror.
‘…I still look pretty today.’
I bowed my head slightly towards Miya and the handmaidens.
Since the cardinal mentioned it, I shouldn’t bow too much, right?
“Thank you.”
“It’s nothing. It’s only what I should do.”
“Absolutely, Saintess!”
“You look truly beautiful today!”
“You’re so gorgeous!”
The handmaidens squealed as they showered me with compliments.
He lifted me up.
This was a bit uncomfortable on the first day, but it seems I’m slowly getting used to it after a week.
“Today, we have magic class first.”
“That’s right. Shall we move right away?”
“Sure.”
I opened the door to my room and led the way.
Miya the maid stood slightly behind me, with three handmaidens lined up behind her.
I found out around the seventh day that not only Miya but also the maids are quite skilled at handling mana.
At least they are capable of one-on-one fights with apprentice holy knights.
It seems they were arranged like this to protect the newly blossoming saintess.
“When is Saint Angela coming? I’m curious.”
“The ogre extermination is taking a bit longer than expected. However, according to the magic formation communication, she will be back soon.”
“Aren’t you using the Goddess’s Gate?”
“Getting there is urgent, but coming back isn’t much of a problem. She’ll return by carriage.”
If the Goddess’s Gate is limited, they can’t be using it every time.
It’s not just one saintess, but three of them.
‘Is it now four?’
I had various conversations with Miya as we arrived at the teaching room.
Inside was a woman with tangled red hair and glasses, who looked quite cheerful.
She was wearing a somewhat dull-colored robe for someone from the Holy Palace.
“Oh! Welcome! It’s already the fifth class, huh?”
“Hello.”
As expected, she was not from the Holy Palace.
She is an 8th-circle mage.
I’ve heard she’s capable of summoning several fireballs the size of small hills.
Originally, she was a competent professor at the Imperial Academy but came rushing to help with the birth of the new saintess and assisting with my lectures.
It’s not even the academic term.
The professor looked at me with a playful expression and smiled.
“You’ve grown immensely in no time.”
“Well… I am growing, yes.”
“Your magical skills must have grown too, right?”
“Uh, probably…?”
“Great! I’ll be looking forward to it.”
With fiery eyes, the professor looked at me with hopeful anticipation.
Somehow, it feels like the gates of hell are about to open.
─Fighting!
Behind me, Miya and the three handmaidens cheered me on as we left the teaching room.
The class began.
…
“So, you need to arrange the mana to match the magic circle to properly manifest it…”
It’s hard.
Really hard.
Magic in this world is extremely difficult.
If I were to express magic in one sentence, it would be this:
“A discipline that mixes mathematical formulas with the artistry and creativity of art.”
“It’s academia.”
To master magic, you need to handle complex formulas and additional transformations, and on the flip side, artistic sense and technique are equally important.
Truly, it’s the end of difficulty.
I found myself lost in thought as I faced the bizarre reality of academia.
“Why is it so hard?”
I can definitely draw circles, the foundation of magic circles, and arrange mana within them.
But after that, twisting, transforming, and adjusting in various ways gets incredibly complicated.
It feels weird to think it’s just because I don’t understand it…
Up until the fifth lecture, I was still on the learning side, and since the professor is amazing, I just went along with it.
There seems to be some unnecessary parts in that process.
So… so…
“In conclusion, to increase the power of magic, you need to draw additional arrangement patterns… Yes. Please go ahead, Saintess.”
“Why do we need to draw five more arrangement patterns?”
“Well, to block the subordinate effects of power increase and additional variables…”
“What if we do it this way?”
I drew a blue circle in the air.
The small amount of blue mana dwelling within me was so little that I wondered if it could take down even one orc learned from the first lecture.
I drew a circle to contain the magic.
After drawing the circle, I placed the magic of ‘Fireball’ inside.
Then, I drew the magic arrangement to increase the power of Fireball outside it.
As I swiftly sketched the magic circle in the air, the professor, preparing for potential mishaps, drew a magic circle to suppress explosions.
The more magic circles that appeared, the more the professor looked on with pride, only to shake his head and smile softly.
“Saintess, you drew it well, but won’t there be inadequate space?”
“Why would there be inadequate space?”
“Of course, the auxiliary magic arrangement has to handle both Fireball and the power increase. If both spells take up too much room, then…”
“Wouldn’t this work?”
“No, that way… Huh?”
Swish. Swish.
I drew two lines crossing through the magic circle.
It looked like the circle with magic was wrapped in a cross shape.
By the way, the crossing lines aren’t merely arrangement patterns; they’re a ‘magic circle.’
The professor’s jaw dropped.
“B-but whether that’s possible is… unknown…”
“Fireball.”
“W-wait a second!”
Whoosh!
The wrapped magic circle burst into flames.
The professor was startled and nearly prepared to douse it with water, but the fire with greater power than an ordinary Fireball just floated in front of me.
Whoosh…
Calmly, without a hint of potential runaway.
“…Uhm, how…”
“How?”
“Well, it worked, didn’t it?”
Gulp. Gulp. Gulp.
Phew…
The professor took a moment to calm down, chugged some water, and set the bottle down again.
“Why’s that?”
“Alright, Saintess Lily?”
“Yes.”
“Could you show us the magic you did earlier once again?”
I nodded and drew the magic once more.
It consumed quite a bit of mana, but as long as it didn’t manifest, re-drawing it wasn’t a problem.
After all, it’s much simpler than twisting, transforming, and reducing.
The professor’s expression grew more serious.
“…There’s a problem. No, let’s just say there’s something strange I need to point out.”
“Okay.”
“You, Saintess Lily, prefer complex methods, so you made it this way, right?”
“Yes.”
“Actually, it’s not impossible to make it like this. In fact, this method is actually easier. I use a similar approach too.”
The magic circle is the canvas, and the magic circle drawn on it is the blueprint.
The arrangement of the magic and mana are merely mediums that help that blueprint manifest in reality.
The problem is that the canvas isn’t infinite.
“Most of my students stick to using just one canvas for their magic. Using two canvases as one is something even skilled mages struggle with.”
Simply put, it’s like attaching another canvas to the original one.
It sounds easy in words, but using two canvases for one single spell is nearly impossible.
The professor referred to it as a spatial issue.
“It’s tough when your left and right hands have to do different things, right? It’s the same with the canvases. Using canvases in different spaces as one is an even harder problem.”
“Like this?”
“Exactly…”
I summoned ‘Spark’ with my left hand.
And ‘Fireball’ with my right hand.
For reference, both spells required additional magic circles, so a total of six magic circles were in place.
“…?”
“?”
“Why?”
“Yes?”
“How is this even working?”
Um…
“…I dunno?”
It just does, you know?
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