Chapter 28: Let’s study, my lord!

After the clerk’s visit, Roland became even more aware of the urgency of time. She couldn’t afford to stop and rest just yet.

She had originally planned to take Miya to the town to play and visit her old friends at the convent, but looking at things now, that was completely out of the question.

After silently apologizing to Miya in her heart, Roland decided to continue studying the grimoire. There were still many spells inside she hadn’t learned.

However, not every spell was as useful as Fireball. For instance, there were daily life spells like Cleaning, Sound Transmission, and Heating, as well as auxiliary spells like Scouting, Marking, and Engraving. There were only two or three spells that were truly practical.

Fortunately, while using the magic scrolls, Roland had managed to learn Explosion magic along the way.

Despite being a third-tier spell, its principles and magic circuits were easy to understand. She could grasp them after just a few glances and could replicate them in her mind with a little time.

Her next goal was to thoroughly master the knowledge in the grimoire and then go to Isaiah to learn light-attribute magic.

Returning to the living room, Roland found that the desserts on the table remained exactly as they were when she left. Miya was slumped over the table and didn’t look like she had taken even a single bite.

Was she feeling unwell?

Considering that winter was fast approaching, it was very likely that someone with Miya’s constitution could catch the flu. It was best to ask.

Walking over to the table, Roland asked with concern, “Miya, what’s wrong?”

Miya slowly raised her head. Her eyes were filled with a trace of confusion and helplessness, looking as though she were watching someone drown while being unable to do anything to help.

Roland immediately realized that the situation might be more serious than she had imagined.

“What on earth happened? Did someone bully you while I was away?”

Miya took the pen and paper from the table and wrote down her thoughts: “I want to learn magic.”

“Just because of that?”

She continued writing: “I want to become strong. Strong enough so that no one can bully Mama.”

“Don’t worry, Mama is very strong.” Even as she said it, Roland felt a wave of warmth in her heart. “If you really want to learn magic, you can go with Graym to find Isaiah. Can you do it on your own?”

At the thought of leaving the house alone to face a stranger, Miya’s little face turned pale with fear. Even so, she still forced herself to nod.

Roland could see she was feigning strength, so she kindly reminded her: “There’s no need to force yourself so much. Some things don’t happen overnight. If you can’t do it, I’ll go with you when the time comes.”

Suddenly, a thought occurred to her, and she changed the subject: “Or… for the next few days, you can follow me and learn the magic from the grimoire. Although the theory is quite difficult to understand, you should be able to learn it.”

Hearing that she could study magic together with her mother, Miya’s expression bloomed with joy.

Roland also realized that companionship didn’t necessarily have to involve eating, drinking, or playing. As long as she could be with Miya, the girl would be happy no matter what they did.

Then let’s give it a try—letting Miya follow along to learn magic.

Roland began to recount her learning achievements from the past few days: “First, I’ll give a systematic overview of the definition and learning path of magic. Magic refers to the sum of using one’s consciousness to manipulate mana and drawing the corresponding magic circuits to achieve various incredible feats.”

“According to its nature, magic can be subdivided into six major categories: Basic Magic, White Magic, Black Magic, Elemental Magic, Ritual Magic, and Racial Magic. According to its function, it can be divided into four types: Offensive Magic, Defensive Magic, Auxiliary Magic, and Daily Magic.”

“The very first thing to learn in magic is sensing and absorbing mana. Next is drawing magic circuits. As long as these two steps are handled well, you aren’t far from becoming a mage.”

As she spoke, Roland stole a glance at Miya’s condition. She seemed fine—very focused and not nodding off. She was a teachable child, so Roland continued her lecture.

Facts proved that doing this was indeed better. It allowed Roland to consolidate her own knowledge while deepening her emotional bond with Miya, laying a magical foundation for her so she could get the hang of things quickly when she studied later.

However, what Roland didn’t expect was that Miya’s understanding of magic theory was incredibly poor—it was practically like playing a lute to a cow.

Roland had originally thought it was the book’s fault. After all, the person who wrote this book was most likely a teacher; the number of technical terms in the book was no less than the stars in the night sky, and the organization and expressive ability were equally worrying.

Miya was inexperienced, lacked worldly knowledge, and didn’t know many words, so it was understandable that she couldn’t comprehend it.

But even when Roland tried to put the theories into colloquial language and relay them to her, Miya’s head almost started smoking from trying to figure it out, yet she still couldn’t understand.

“How strange. Where exactly is the problem?”

Roland then tried directly demonstrating the magic. As it turned out, Miya bypassed all the messy theories and replicated the spell in no time.

When in doubt, consult the System.

“System, do you know what’s going on?”

[Probably, likely, maybe, perhaps… Miya is actually an abstract type?]

“What do you mean, abstract type?”

[A sheep in thought, a giant in action. Or to put it another way, her intuition is terrifyingly accurate.]

“I don’t understand. I’m not listening anymore.”

Re-focusing her mind on teaching and learning, Roland began to contemplate what method she should use to teach Miya magic.

Since the general method didn’t work, she would treat it as a special case. She would demonstrate all the magic she currently knew and let Miya learn them, seeing if she could naturally understand the process along the way.

So, Roland displayed the magic circuits for Fireball and Explosion for Miya to try and replicate, while she herself began studying the remaining spells in the grimoire.

Aside from Fireball, the other noteworthy spells in the grimoire were Mana Bullet, Healing, and Lesser Convergence Magic.

The first two were easy to understand. Mana Bullet belonged to the offensive category of Basic Magic; its function was roughly to condense mana into a sphere and release it. Healing belonged to the auxiliary category of White Magic; it could accelerate the healing of wounds but could not be used for disinfection or sterilization.

Lesser Convergence Magic was quite special, belonging to the auxiliary category of Ritual Magic. Its main function was to collect scattered mana within a certain range and store it within a magic circuit. This mana could then be used to release other spells, similar to re-collecting parts of a snowball after it has been smashed to make another one.

If one could set up Convergence Magic before a battle, they could recycle the scattered mana during the fight, thereby reducing consumption. This was a very useful spell for mages with low mana reserves.

Roland felt that it would be somewhat difficult to fully master these three spells in less than a week. Anyone else would likely take an extra ten days or half a month due to insufficient mana, but she didn’t have that problem. As long as she patted Miya’s head on time every day, played cards with her more, and told her stories before bed, the problem would be easily solved.

About half an hour later, Miya tried to construct the magic circuit for Fireball. Just as it was about to be completed, the circuit collapsed because she ran out of mana.

After failing, Miya looked a bit dejected. Roland comforted her, “Don’t be sad. You’re almost there. Take a break and try again in a little while.”

Miya obediently lay down on the sofa, her limbs stretched out. She fell asleep not long after closing her eyes.

“Youth is great. Falling asleep the moment her head hits the cushion.”

Roland also stopped her magic studies and stretched. “Right, I still need to make a pair of boots for Miya.”

The question was, was it necessary for her to waste precious rest time just for a pair of shoes?

Roland arrived at the answer almost instantly.

It was absolutely necessary, because this was a gift for Miya.

“I’ll go find Cheryl.”