Returning to her desk, Hyurim opened the book and continued reading.
“Must have a clear understanding of the most basic particle that constitutes magic, the magic element. Our spiritual power is the bridge that connects to the magic element… the magic element’s what?”
“… …”
Seeing her little daughter appear before her again, Liliya once more set down the book in her hands.
“Mother, how do you read these two characters?”
Hyurim held up the book and asked.
Liliya patiently explained, “These two characters are read as ‘bridge,’ like the bridges we usually see spanning over rivers.”
“Bridge?”
Hyurim blinked her big eyes.
“Uh, what this sentence means is…”
Noticing her daughter’s confusion, Liliya was about to explain further.
“I understand, thank you, Mother.”
Hyurim bowed again and ran off.
“… …”
Watching Hyurim’s retreating figure, Liliya couldn’t help but wonder to herself what exactly the child had understood…The familiar desk.
“Our spiritual power is the bridge that connects to the magic element…”
As she read, another question mark appeared over Hyurim’s head.
Why a bridge?
Why build a bridge between spiritual power and the magic element?
Was there a river between them?
And if so, was the bridge wooden or stone?
For a moment, Hyurim fell into strange and whimsical thoughts about the relationship between spiritual power and the magic element.
….
“When our spiritual power perceives the magic element, we discover it exists almost everywhere, including inside our bodies. Through… a method of thought…”
“What method of thought?”
“… …”
“Through meditation, we can convert the free-floating magic element into magical power stored within the body.”
Facing Hyurim standing before her once again, Lillian patiently explained.
“I see, meditation. I understand now, thank you, Mother.”
Hyurim bowed and was about to turn away, clutching the book.
Looking at her daughter’s figure, Liliya hesitated for a moment, then softly said, “Hyurim.”
“Yes, Mother?”
Hyurim looked up at Liliya.
“How about… Mom reads it to you?”
Hyurim glanced down at the magic book in her hands, then looked up at Liliya’s smiling face.
After a moment of hesitation, she finally handed the book over.
Liliya placed her own book on the windowsill, then took the magic book and gently lifted Hyurim onto her lap.
Soon, Liliya’s voice began to fill the study with the sound of reading aloud.
“The so-called magic is the miraculous power given by the world itself. To wield this power, one must have a clear understanding of the most basic particles that compose magic—the magic elements.”
Our spiritual power is the bridge that connects to the magic elements. When our spiritual power perceives the magic element, we find it exists almost everywhere, including within our bodies.
“Through meditation, we can convert the free-floating magic element into magical power stored within the body…”
……
Three days after Hyurim began learning magic.
Snap!Hyurim closed the magic book.
“Magic… there isn’t any.”
Yes, only now did she realize this magic book was merely an introductory text explaining magic—not a spellbook containing incantations one could learn to actually perform magic.
Pushing the dictionary aside, Hyurim picked up that magic book and walked over to the bookshelf.
Liliya couldn’t read to her all the time, but since Hyurim was now engrossed in learning magic, Liliya had found her a dictionary.
Hyurim quickly learned how to use it and, with its help, finished reading the book.
Thanks to these three days of self-study, Hyurim’s literacy expanded significantly.
She felt she might not even need a teacher next school year.
After returning the magic book to its place, Hyurim pulled out another magic book.
Back at her desk, she began flipping through it quickly, this time with a clear goal.
Before long, she was carrying the book back to the bookshelf.
All morning, Hyurim went back and forth between the bookshelf and her desk like this.
Until finally, the last book was placed back on the shelf.
Hyurim froze.
“There’s no…”Books.
There was no magic book on the Heyeral family’s bookshelf that could teach magic directly.
“… …”
“Father! Father!”
Hyurim sought out Rezelian.
“What is it, my Hyurim?”
Rezelian stuck his training longsword into the ground, crouched down, and looked Hyurim in the eye.
“Father, does our family not have any magic books?”
“Magic books? Didn’t you find any on the bookshelf?”
“No, that’s not what I want. I mean books that actually let people cast magic.”
Rezelian was momentarily stunned.
“Hyurim, why do you want that kind of book? Those are quite dangerous. If you mess around after reading one, you might get into trouble.”
Hyurim quickly reassured him, “It’s okay. I already understand magic well enough not to mess around.”
She wasn’t speaking nonsense.
Though she had only read innocuous books these past few days, Hyurim had truly gained a genuine understanding of the concept of magic.
The essence of magic is the omnipresent magic elements in the world triggering extraordinary phenomena under certain rules.
There are seven types of magic elements.
Normally, everyone’s soul resonates with at least one type—this is aptitude.
People with the corresponding aptitude use spiritual power to control the matching magic element, gathering a large amount into their body, forming magical power.
As long as this magical power is arranged into special circuits and flows, it will trigger specific phenomena.
These circuits are magical power circuits.
By observing the flow of magical power and resulting phenomena, people have summarized certain rules, which culminate in magic incantations.
Chanting a magic incantation lets magical power flow in a specific way, triggering the desired phenomenon.
This artificially controllable phenomenon is called magic.
Seeing her daughter’s serious expression, Rezelian became serious as well.
“Spellbook-type magic books, considering safety, we don’t have any at home.”
Hearing this, Hyurim immediately looked disappointed.
“However,” Rezelian quickly added, “though we don’t have them, the White Bookstore in town does sell them. If you want, I can buy one for you another day.”
“Really!”
Hyurim’s eyes lit up, but suddenly recalling she had wasted three days, she shook her head.
“No need, Father! I can buy it myself!”
With that, she turned and ran back inside.
The Heyeral family estate was a two-story building with double doors, attached to a storage shed for tools and sundries.
Four sides were surrounded by stone walls with iron railings.
The front gate was a sliding iron gate, and a stone path led straight from the front gate through the courtyard to the main entrance.
Hyurim quickly ran upstairs to the end of the hall, to the room on the left—her room.
The room had a round glass window that opened up and down, through which she could see the flowers and plants in the courtyard.
Rustle!
Hyurim opened the drawer.
She pulled out her small wallet where she kept her pocket money.
Opening it, she counted nineteen silver coins and fifty-two copper coins, totaling 1,952 Kohr.
Since she started preparatory school last year, her mother Liliya had been giving her two silver coins monthly as pocket money.
She had spent some but saved most, accumulating this much over a year.
Looking at the full wallet and the beautiful silver gleam of the coins, Hyurim felt brimming with confidence.
“So much money. With this much, I can definitely buy lots of magic books!”
Putting the wallet away, Hyurim quickly left the room.
She was determined not to waste any more time.