Althea

Althea sat in her bed, staring at the mirror. Mana revolved around her as she narrowed her eyes, trying to focus on her reflection and find something out.

This was her third attempt. The first had been just generally sensing into her body, trying to find some particular way mana moved. That was a success, somewhat. Mana moved through in a particular way every time she tried to cultivate.

The only problem was, this was the only way she could detect mana moving. If meridians existed, and there were more of them than she was seeing, she should be able to sense them. But no. As much as she tried, she was not able to move mana in any other way. The second she tried, she felt a flaring pain that made her give up.

The King of Merlen had obviously succeeded in cultivating without a manual. There had to be a way. Was it that someone that had already started using a manual couldn't do it? But that didn't make sense if people from the Solerian Clans used to make their own battle manuals. That meant you could still sense meridians even if you were cultivating a manual. So why was she unable to do it? What was she missing?

The next thing she tried was pushing mana along her 'meridians', trying to see if there was a spot where pushing mana around didn't hurt. The only spot that did that was the core. The pathways she detected led there.

And of course, that didn't count. The meridians obviously didn't intersect. But that couldn’t work. The meridians had to be more complicated for a battle manual to work.

What now?

Well, Althea was out of options. So here she was, staring at her reflection, trying to see if that turned up something. Of course, it didn't. That much she could predict. There might be magical properties to mirrors, but making meridians visible wasn't one of them. Hmm. A lot of things had magical properties. Perhaps one of them could help.

A knock on the door interrupted her research session.

"Come in." she said.

"Countess, you are required on the deck." the Steward announced.

"What happened?" she asked.

"The Golden Turtle has been spotted on the horizon."

"The what now?"

The Steward snickered. Althea did a double take. Did the Steward just laugh? What was so funny?

"I apologize. The Golden Turtle simply brings back memories."

"Of the time you spent travelling the southern continent?" Now she was curious. The Steward didn’t talk about that much.

"Oh yes, the golden Turtle was a fixture throughout those travels." the Steward said, gesturing for her to follow him.

"Oh?" she replied, following him outside. "Should I change for it?"

The Steward looked at her dress thoughtfully, assessing it as if wondering if it would suffice. Another oddity, she had not known the Steward to actually care about clothes before. "Yes. I think you should wear your most expensive dress, Countess."

Althea's face darkened. If someone were to talk about the most expensive dress, she knew exactly the one. That dress was also something she did not want to wear.

"Are you sure that is necessary?" she asked.

"The Golden Turtle is the richest merchant in the Southern Continent. Or, as she calls himself, the Diery family of the Southern Continent."

"Oh." Althea shut the door, her face darkening. “I shall get ready.” The Diery family of the Southern Continent, huh. Well, she would like to see who it was that used her family's name-wait. The dress wasn't in the suite.

Althea opened the door again, and went in search of the Steward. Retrieving the dress took a few minutes. Thankfully, it was already kept aside. The maids were scared of keeping it together with the other dresses. After all, it was not every day that you dealt with a dress made of green diamonds.

Yes, a dress of green diamonds. Althea had trouble keeping her face straight as she felt the weight of the ridiculous dress. Had she not been a Master, she would not be able to wear it at all.

The dress was something only the Diery family could afford to make. Mira had woven it just to see if she could. As a Jewel Mage, she did have control over her element, even if she was just a Novice. This dress was the result.

Forged with magic, and more gems than most noble families had in their treasury, it was a single piece. A single jewel that looked like a jewel, without a single piece of cloth, metal or anything that wasn’t some form of green diamond.

The top started with darker shades, like a jungle at nighttime, and then gradually grew lighter until it resembled grass. A classic style that she enjoyed wearing. There was just one problem that she kept coming back to.

The bloody thing was made of diamond.

Just holding it on her shoulders required enormous amounts of magic. Althea doubted anyone else would be willing to sacrifice this much magic just to hold the dress together. Mot to mention that it needed someone to have the Earth element to strengthen the dress, lest it break under its own weight. And then to modify it so that it would flow like cloth.

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What she was trying to say was that it was inconvenient. In more places than one. Like when you were putting it on. Althea had to actually use magic to put it on. The dress was too heavy and unwieldy. Magic was needed to lift it up, to keep it in shape so that she could put it on. Even putting her hand through the dress arms needed magic, jewels did not flow like cloth. Not without significant amounts of magic.

A lot of magic. Althea just couldn't stop thinking about it as she poured increasing amounts of magic into the dress just to wear it. Perhaps she should call Mira and scold her for making it. Just because they had rooms full of jewels lying around did not mean that you made a dress out of it.

Mira had even combined jewels to make them hold more magic, melded dozens together and given them a proper sheen and texture. That of course made it even heavier. Magic couldn't just ignore the Law of Conversation. So the dress weighed about a literal ton. Ok, maybe just a quintal. But that was a lot.

Heck, Althea was surprised Earth even worked. Jewels were technically a part of Earth, but this was stretching what she knew of the magic system to a breaking point. Then again, she had been obsessively chasing the natural cycle, not the limits of what each element could do. There was still so much she did not know.

Althea took a deep breath, steeling herself for what was to come. Well, it was time to get exercise by standing around. Or walking. Althea took a few testy steps, extending her body more than she'd ever had to before, and then walked forward.

The door was pulled apart as she accidentally used too much force. Then she started walking. The ship was creaking under her weight. The Steward's smile seemed to be a fixture on his face as he stared at her. The sailors tried not to look like they were staring.

"That is certainly an expensive dress, Countess." he commented.

"Thank you." Althea said, keeping her smile splendid. The dress required no effort at all. Just a walk in the park. There was certainly no part of that felt like it would break apart at any point.

"Now, where is this Golden Turtle." she asked.

The Steward pointed towards the horizon. "An hour away, by our estimates."

Althea sagged in her position. An hour. Why the heck had the Steward told her so early? Perhaps she should have dressed later. Or not dressed at all. Dressing in a less heavy dress sounded like a fine idea. There was certainly time to do it.

A sigh tore through her as she moved in the dress, proud that she still looked graceful. Changing now would tell everyone watching that she couldn’t take wearing a simple dress.

The shimmer of the dress glittered as she moved, falling into horizontal blocks that adjusted to her body. Hmm, this was practically training. The dress was forcing her body, forcing the mana to move around to counter its weight, while it absorbed as much as it could.

Althea could feel mana moving through her. Just like it did while she was cultivating, but it was strengthening her body. Accomplishing what would have taken years of normal exercise for her to accomplish.

As expected, Magic was great. Perhaps the dress was useful for something after all.

"So, what is this Golden Turtle about?" she asked.

"The Golden Turtle first became famous by calling herself the Diery family of the Southern Continent. To this day, their main sale is still food." the Steward said. "The Southern continent is a very warlike place. There are few farms there. In fact, meat is the main source of food there."

The exact opposite of the Northern Continent, huh.

"But that also makes it hard to transport food. At times half the continent would not have food while the other half would have a lot. As there are no farms, food can only be sourced by hunting. The jungles and deserts run out of beasts often enough. The Golden Turtle took it upon himself to provide food to all those that needed it. "

"The Diery family of the Southern Continent. " Althea nodded. Of course, that was what the Diery family was known for in the last few centuries. For providing humongous amounts of food.

"Is there anything else I should know?" she asked.

"Yes, this is the most north I have ever known them to come. There has to be a reason they are here."

"Do you think they are here for us?" she asked the Steward.

The Steward hesitated before answering.

"I doubt it. The people of the Southern Continent look down on us, the Golden Turtle would not come out this far to greet us. There is very little profit in it. The fleet is already provided for, and there is nothing we would need that we could not buy from them in the Southern Continent."

The Golden Turtle might still want to get an early start, get them while there were no competing merchants around. But she got the Steward's point. The Southern Continent looked down on the Northern one. There was no chance they would hold them in such importance as to use such tactics on them.

"What do you think they are here for then?" she asked.

"I have no idea, Countess. But I suspect that we might not like it." the Steward said. "I would caution you to be careful, the Southern Continent is far more powerful than anything we have faced before. A single Adept of theirs could take the might of this entire fleet. A dozen of our Masters will have difficulty facing one of theirs."

Althea nodded, but she wasn't really paying attention to what the Steward was saying. The reason was clear enough. A Golden Turtle had appeared.

A literal Golden Turtle. The turtle part of it seemed to be made of some kind of white substance, but the entire shell seemed to be made of gold. Glimmering against the setting sun, she felt like her dress was suddenly suppressed by the display of wealth.

"Is that real gold?" she asked.

"I was told that it was another alloy." the Steward said. "But the alloy has been gold-plated."

"That...is a lot of space to plate with gold." Althea said, wondering if the Diery county had enough gold to do it. But she knew for sure that even if they did, they didn't have enough to make a ship like this and continue operating normally.

As the ship floated closer, she noticed two more things. The ship was fast. And it was big. A good deal bigger than the largest ship in this fleet, it was an intimidating presence.

"This merchant sure has a presence." she muttered as the ship caught up to them astonishingly fast. Was it an illusion, or was the ship speeding up?

"Yes, she is certainly something." the Steward said, a smile touching at the edge of his mouth.

"Oh?" Althea stared at him. There it was again.

"Steward Ven, what do you think of this merchant?" A she, as Althea had just heard. Did the Steward perhaps like her?

"An admirable woman." the Steward answered. Althea smiled. Well, that was something. "I have not known anyone else that had broken through so many obstacles, and is willing to shame herself so."

Wait, what? Did she hear it right? Shame herself? What did it mean?

"Oh, ho, ho, ho!" A voice yelled from the ship. Althea had to put her hands against her ears. The voice was just that loud. The Steward just smiled. Mana was already shielding his ears from the noise.

Althea quickly copied him, glaring at her loyal Steward that had, for some reason, decided not to warn her.

"That's a lot of ships!" the voice blasted again. "What is going on here? Could it be...a party? And you did not invite me?"

The muffled sound of mock, clearly fake crying suddenly erupted from the ship as the massive golden turtle ship continued shooting towards them with incredible speed.