With classes in the mornings, working at the apothecary shop in the afternoons, and learning sigils in the evenings, Lily's days were jam-packed with activities. Her dedication to her studies was phenomenal, making her a shining example of commitment. Compared to the other children, she was doing enough for two or three combined at minimum.

Her sedentary nature proved an unexpected boon, as she had little excitement or recreational activities before this. Now, in an odd turn of events, learning all these new things had become her source of entertainment.

Although the staff were unaware of her evening lessons, they couldn't help but notice Lily's sudden drive. They felt a little bad for the girl juggling so much at once, but their admiration for her skills was undeniable. A few days later, she was graduated from her writing class. In all honesty, she could have probably stopped taking those lessons ages ago as her penmanship had surpassed even the teacher's, thanks to all the practice she was doing with Arakil.

However, when the offer was made to her, she expressed apprehension rather than excitement, as the lessons were one of her regular sources of ink. Initially, it was suggested that Lily could provide tutoring aid to some of the other children trying to learn the basics in exchange for ink.

It's too bad they won't let me stop taking math...

The trial run barely lasted a single lesson, as though the children were, in fact, younger than Lily; they were bigger than her, and many of them refused to listen to her instruction or aid someone seemingly so young and small.

Disheartened but refusing to give up, Lily explained her intentions, although under the guise of her personal improvement and art. While the staff felt sympathetic to her openness, they didn't want to waste too many resources on someone who was clearly just doing it for fun now. Surprisingly, her teacher proposed a solution: Lily could start doing scribe and copyist work as she was already more than adequate.

The work of a good scribe could be rather expensive, as the cost of materials was baked into the price, with a bit extra as insurance in case of errors. It was an industry-standard rate, so if Lily was diligent enough, she could recoup the insurance fee and any leftover materials for herself.

Due to her age and lack of time, she would be limited to only doing a few documents or manuscripts at a time, but her teacher reassured her it would be more than enough to get her foot in the door.

Lily didn't mind, as long as it secured her more ink, although she felt guilty that her teacher mistook her for wanting to transcribe an entire book or something similar in the future.

Sorry... But my heart is set on magic now!

Likewise, Lily was experiencing a similar ordeal with her herbalist and apothecary lessons, which she found relatively frustrating.

Camilla knew that Lily wanted to create glyph ink after her interrogation, unlike the staff at the orphanage. Yet despite knowing this, Camilla was teaching her as if she would be an apothecary in the future.

Lily could admit that some of the lessons would be useful, as anyone could benefit from making something like a healing salve. Still, Camilla was also going too far, covering topics for skincare, rashes, and even foot fungus!

Camilla was probably setting up Lily for a backup plan when reality came calling, and the flaws of the glyph ink became apparent. She adopted this new attitude after she had located the historical texts she had mentioned and, upon reading them, confirmed that it was abandoned as a practice for very reasonable causes.

The glyph ink needed consistency, so the preparation was required to be near perfect, or you were putting your life in the hands of chance. Arakil had already mentioned this, so it was no surprise to Lily when Camilla revealed it.

However, efficacy and scarcity were the primary reasons it was abandoned. In the past, inks were broken into various grades based on the type of plant used to create them. Not all usable plants were equal, and the highest quality also ended up being the rarest.

If those reasons weren't enough, the final nail in the coffin was that certain glyphs could only function if high-grade ink was used. Anyone limited to low-grade ink would have to settle with being able to light a candle rather than throwing out a fireball.

I bet their glyphs were just inefficient. Arakil taught me that you are meant to refine your glyphs to perfection, or maybe they didn't use enough limiting sigils. Lily thought determinedly.

Of course, it looked like Fairymoss would only yield low-grade glyph ink, from Camilla's estimate. The silver lining of this discovery was that Camilla no longer had a reason to potentially withhold the knowledge from Lily, as it was now deemed safe enough. As far as Camilla was concerned, if the girl wanted to struggle to light a candle as a neat party trick, that was her business.

The only reason they couldn't make glyph ink now was trying to determine the correct solvent to use. The ones Camilla had on hand that were strong enough to dissolve the plant thoroughly would result in a solution that ate through parchment.

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Lily would have been happy to accept that, as she believed Arakil's pages would withstand it, but Camilla had unfortunately denied her. Her reason was that it would be irresponsible to hand over such a chemical to a child.

Lily briefly considered trying to steal some herself but realized it would be foolish, especially since she was still early on in her lessons with Arakil. She had also seen Camilla place the order for different solvents, so she knew it was only a matter of time.

It wasn't all bad news at the shop. Once Lily finished replacing all the labels, many customers no longer required Camilla's direct assistance, as Lily went out of her way to list not only the name but also their uses. This led to Camilla having a lot more time to teach her.

Lily's glyph lessons with Arakil in the evenings were definitely the highlight of her day. There, she would practice the proper forms as well as their variations.

At first, she didn't understand why you would want something to only go 10 meters and not just forward until it hit something, but soon, she was starting to see how the limits would refine the overall glyph.

Arakil explained his completed shield glyph, which helped paint the picture for her. Theoretically, you could make a giant shield, but that would lower its saturation unless you put in a bunch more Mana. This explained why he set the shield so close to the owner: to minimize the covered area.

Arakil also explained that the shield crest, in particular, was quite partial to the hexagon shape, so he converted the sphere into one made from interconnecting hexagons. This allowed his glyph to keep the all-encompassing sphere while still receiving the augmentation of a hexagon. There were numerous sigils to change the shape of something, and Lily was very grateful that they often matched the shape.

As for distance or radius limits, there were various sigils for that function. The most common one looked like a long line between two sticks, and then you placed another stick between them to set the limit.

When Arakil finally gave her the go-ahead to start trying to make her own glyphs, she dove right in. It felt like building a small puzzle for her, and it rapidly became her favorite activity. Well... With one exception. Circles.

Circles were an integral part of glyphs, and since your glyph could be at varying sizes, being able to reproduce a circle on demand to match the required size was a necessity. Arakil tried to offer her some finger tricks and hand gestures to practice drawing them, but being limited to explaining through text meant that it was a struggle for poor Lily. Ultimately, she would just endeavor to practice more.

Between the scribe work and her part-time job at the shop, she was slowly building up a respectable amount of savings. Of course, she spent most of it on her own supplies, and the peak of her expenditure came when she bought herself a new set of pens.

This was Lily's routine; she had little time or thought for much else, and so the days went by in a flash.

***

Lily was returning home from the shop. She felt slightly down as their latest attempt to find the right solvent had failed. It had come so close, as they finally found one that dissolved all of the Fairymoss and wasn't harmful to parchment or paper.

Then they mixed it into ink, and disaster struck. The solution somehow destroyed all of the pigmentation within the ink and turned it into a crystal-clear liquid. It baffled both of them, and while it would still work in theory, Lily was nowhere near confident enough to draw glyphs blindly.

Despite its failure, she still took the bottle of liquid home as she figured she could at least feed the solution to Arakil. He was growing more confident in his stored Mana reserves and said they were nearing the point where he could search his archives for a solution.

If this continues, Arakil will give me Mana before I draw a single working glyph. Lily thought somberly.

Although then I could probably put my Mana into the ink myself. I don't want to say I wasted my time working for Camilla as it was interesting, not to mention the money, but not having glyph ink after so long is really upsetting.

She said her usual goodbyes to Camilla before heading towards her room. She was busy unlocking her room door when she heard footsteps rapidly approaching.

Before she could turn her head, a vaguely red shape collided with her and nearly knocked the wind right out of her.

"Lily!" A familiar voice cried.

"R-Rose...?" Lily managed to struggle out while in a hug that felt like it was squeezing the life right out of her.

"I finally got to leave and came to see you!" Rose shouted excitedly, her hug now picking Lily off the ground. "But you weren't here! They said you have a job now! My little sister was growing up without me!"

"C-Can't... breathe..." Lily gurgled.

Rose must have finally realized the situation as she released the hug and placed Lily's feet back on the ground. Then she started to rub her head and ears softly.

"Gods, I missed these adorable fluffy ears so much. It was torture!" Rose lamented.

Lily took her chance to catch her breath while Rose was distracted with her ears. When she had recovered, she finally asked the question that had been bugging her for so long. "Where have you been? They wouldn't tell me anything!"

"They had me locked in an estate belonging to some minor noble. Lady Desthu," Rose said in an almost snarling spit. "She was a real piece of work. Wouldn't even let me write you a letter because she said it would make me lack proper motivation!"

Lily couldn't believe her ears. But seeing Rose again, she felt those lost emotions after the incident stirring up again. She practically threw herself at Rose as if fearful she would vanish again.

"I missed you... So many things happened... The dire hawks... Arakil was asleep... You were missing... I was all alone," Lily mumbled incoherently as she clutched onto Rose's side to hug her.

Rose softly returned the hug while gently stroking Lily's back. "Hey... It's okay, I'm back now."

"Mmm," Lily mumbled in acknowledgment.

They stood there for a while until Lily had recovered. Rose was now a little soggy, and her clothes probably had some bunny snot on them, not that she minded too much.

"Hey, let's go into your room and talk about it," Rose suggested. "I want to hear all about your job and what I missed."

Lily nodded and sniffed. Then, she finished unlocking her door and entered inside. When Rose closed the door behind her, she looked up and down at her curiously.

Rose was wearing a very long dress, almost down to her ankles, and it seemed far too baggy for her body. She was also wearing a large coat, but it was nowhere near cold enough to need something like that.

Since when did Rose wear dresses? Lily couldn't help wondering.

However, that wasn't the first question she asked, and instead, Lily couldn't help blurting out what was immediately on her mind.

"A-are you taller!?"