Chapter 36: Mana

One can say, it's a magical day, isn't it?

Don't forget to drop those power stones!

*

"How nice of you to pay a visit, my dear apprentice.", Roselia responded playfully, looking at me peak my head out the window. We were still on the highway so we were going pretty fast, well over 50mph, but the wind didn't bother Roselia one bit.

'Aren't you the one who dropped in unannounced!?', I inwardly said, wanting to retort at Roselia.

"You do realize the situation at hand, don't you, Master?", I answered back, rolling my eyes a bit.

"On second thought, hold that thought for a moment.", Roselia suddenly said, only to move her staff a bit. She turned and looked at the secret agent about to open fire, and let out a quick chant.

"Lacero.", Roselia chanted, causing the secret agent to get confused.

"What the...", The secret agent tried to say, only for his hands to feel lighter all of a sudden. Clank!

In the next moment, the secret agent saw his orbal pistol tear into pieces, quite literally. It split off into chunks of metal, quickly falling onto the fast-moving highway. Soon after, a sigh reached the secret agent's ears.

"Stand down, agent.", Prince Eugent said, causing the secret agent to blink.

"But Your Highness, this person is an intruder!"

"She is no intruder. You know that well, don't you, Giliath?", Prince Eugent said back inside the vehicle, only to look at Giliath. Giliath responded with a grin of his own.

"Haha, you know me too well, Your Highness. Though honestly speaking, I've only come to learn of this result several moments ago. I can say this person has a rather peculiar bond with my son.", Giliath explained a bit.

As for Victor, he was the one who felt strange the moment this person arrived.

"Why am I getting this strange feeling...It's almost I've felt this before.", Victor uttered softly

"This is good, it seems your familial ties have been kept in check, Arseid brat.", Roselia responded. And yet, that only caused Victor's eyes to turn wide a bit.

"Just who in the world?", Victor replied in surprise. He couldn't hold his curiosity back, and decided to go to an unoccupied window, and look out. The moment he did, he saw a little girl with long blonde hair, holding a crimson staff.

As for Roselia, she took a good moment to stare at Victor, only to reveal a smile.

"Good. It looks like Lianne didn't waste her breath with you lot. You have good foundations.", Roselia said to Victor with a smile. "But alas, I have no need for you. At least not right now, so move along back inside.", Roselia continued to say, even going so far as to shoo Victor away with her hand.

As for Victor, he tried to reply back, but was unable to find any words. The moment he heard the name "Lianne", a thunderous boom struck inside his mind. It started to crank rapidly, wondering how this little girl in front of him knew his ancestor who perished over two hundred years ago. Let alone calling her by her first name so casually.

But in the end he could only let out a sigh, only to look at me on the other side. Victor spoke out to me.

"Very well. I will not inquire about this. Naoto, our talk about our interest to teach you will be put on hold for now.", Victor said, before pulling his head back into the car. As he did, Matteus remained silent but proceeded to nod his head, crossing his legs over his seat.

"Now that the brats aren't here, why don't you come join me, Naoto?", Roselia said, turning her head my way. She even proceeded to sit down onto the car's roof.

"Seriously?", I retorted back at her, but could only follow along. Making use of my small frame, despite my robes, I was able to hop onto the car's roof with relative ease, quickly reaching Roselia's side. I ended up seating down cross-legged beside her.

As for those back inside the car, the secret agent ended up listening to Prince Eugent, resulting him in returning to the car's front with the other couple of agents. Talks began to resume while Prince Olivert's eyes began to shine. And well, as for Aurelia, only her eyes showed confusion as she spoke out.

"Am I the only one who is confused about all of this? Isn't there an intruder on the roof? Why aren't you all doing anything?", Aurelia asked.

"I told you, didn't I? The person of concern is of no threat, to us at least. But if you truly want to see, why don't you go see for yourself?', Giliath asked Aurelia.

"Is that alright, Your Highness?" Aurelia asked Prince Eugent.

"Yes. You may go, just be sure to not disturb them too much.", Prince Eugent answered, nodding his head. Aurelia smiled hearing that. In the next moment, in one fell swoop she hoisted herself out of the window, directly landing on the car's roof, not too far away from us. Doing an action this quickly while on a fast moving vehicle was no easy feat, and yet Aurelia made that look easy.

Prince Olivert saw this as well and smiled.

"Perhaps I ought to go as well--", Prince Olivert tried to say.

"Oh no you don't. You're staying right here. I will not let that kid influence you.", Mueller said, letting a mark of anger appear on his forehead. Prince Olivert even tried to follow suit, but Mueller pulled him out of the window. Prince Olivert let out a laugh seeing Mueller do this.

"Boo. You're no fun.", Prince Olivert responded, shrugging his shoulders. Well, with that out of the way, Prince Olivert could only stay in the vehicle. There was about an hour left now before reaching Heimdallr as the people inside resumed talking about their current affairs.

As for Aurelia though...

Only surprise could be seen on her face, seeing a little girl seated next to me with super long blonde hair. But what attracted her eyes the most was the crimsons staff placed over her legs.

"...Who are you?", Aurelia asked, a bit hesitant.

Yet Roselia ignored her question, only to look at me and spoke out.

"So this little girl is one you're interested in?", Roselia decided to ask me, which almost caused me to spat out my saliva.

"That's a blunt way of asking that, isn't it?", I retorted Roselia. However, a look of anger appeared in her eyes.

"I am not a little girl! I am a proud girl hailing from the Le Guin family!", Aurelia yelled back in anger.

"Yeah yeah. I've met nobles far worse than you, little girl. Now just shut up, sit down and watch. Or else I'll toss you off this car myself.", Roselia replied to Aurelia.

"You...!", Aurelia tried to say. And yet, in the next moment, Roselia's eyes constricted, letting her irises become two slit like eyes. Just seeing that alone and releasing a bit of her pressure caused Aurelia to come to a halt Aurelia even started to shiver a bit.

'This pressure...don't tell me I am scared of this little girl?', Aurelia thought to herself. Reluctantly, she agreed, and proceeded to sat down cross-legged as well behind us. Roselia smiled seeing this.

"Good. Now we can continue.", Roselia said happily and looked my way again. I tilted my head a bit before responding.to her.

"Are you seriously going to show me something like this? Isn't there a time and place for training?", I asked back.

"I would rather teach you this step as soon as possible. It is not only the most crucial, but likely the only step to temper your Mana and unlock your Mana Core. Well, you probably know what this method is already from those memories I've read.", Roselia said, shrugging her shoulders a bit.

I then saw her proceed to stand up, clutching onto her staff. Next, Roselia proceeded to walk behind me, with me now in front. Turning forward, only one word came to mind when Roselia said that.

"It's [Meditate], isn't it?", I decided to ask.

"Bingo. Once one meditates, those proficient enough in feeling the flow of the Spirit Veins and nature nearby will be able to temper their Mana and grow stronger. With enough force, we can unlock your Mana Core in one go.", Roselia explained to me. "As for the logic behind what Mana and Magic actually is, we can go over those details later. It looks like you're up to something fun right now, so I might as well play my part, right?", Roselia said, revealing a grin.

"...You just wanted to tag along, didn't you? Don't you have others waiting for you back home?", I retorted.

"Well there is Emma, and as much as I want to introduce her to you, we need to make sure you're ready to enter my village first.", Roselia explained.

"Right...A witch cannot enter a witch's place without being a witch...is it?", I questioned.

"Well, something like that. Most of of the time it falls upon me whether they are allowed to enter.", Roselia responded with a chuckle.

"Wait wait wait, I cannot follow you two once so ever. What is this talk about Magic? Stuff like that only exists in fairy tales!", Aurelia complained, unable to realize what's happening right now. Hearing that, Roselia snorted.

"Didn't I tell you to shut up, little girl? Just stay quiet. If you can learn something from this experience, then you may be able to soar to greater heights.", Roselia said, feeling a bit annoyed.

"...!", Aurelia tried to say, not expecting to receive an answer like that. She could obviously tell that Roselia and I were a student and master pair, as she felt very similar to her times learning under Matteus Vander. I know she has yet to learn from Victor, but it seems she is already starting to call him Master as well.

Aurelia didn't say anymore and kept quiet. Roselia nodded seeing this. Next, she decided to place her spare hand on my back. Roselia started to silently chant, allowing a bluish glow to start covering her body. Aurelia saw this aura for the first time and her eyes turned wide, but remained quiet. A moment of silence passed like this, before I heard Roselia's voice reached my ears. Or more specifically, it looked like it reached my mind this time?

"Can you hear me, Naoto?", Roselia asked as a voice directly entered my mind.

"Loud and clear, Rose.", I answered, confirming her.

"Umu. I have already connected once with your mind, so doing it again took relative ease this time. I will teach you the proper steps to meditate. Are you ready?", Roselia asked me.

"Yes.".

"Then let us begin. Listen to the sound of my breathing, and feel what happens inside of you. Don't let go once you have found what you are looking for.", Roselia explained.

Inwardly nodding, I turned quiet, and Roselia started to meditate. Sure enough, it didn't take long for me to follow suit. On top of that I began to feel a certain warmth I have not encountered previously, in either of my two lives...And to confirm that, I heard my system give me a notification.

[Ding! New active skill acquired: [Meditate]].