Despite Rose being back, Lily's routine remained relatively the same. Rose was kept rather busy catching up on her missed studies and extra lessons, the content of which she kept a secret. However, they spent all three meals together and the afternoons of their weekends since Camilla still only worked the mornings.

In the evenings, if Lily was busy with practice or scribe work and Rose wanted to hang out, she would lay on the bed and chat or occasionally watch her work.

Lily even offered to teach her how to draw glyphs, but to her surprise, Rose refused.

"Sorry, but there's no way I'm taking that course when I go to Regarth. It's far too nerdy... No offense."

Lily sighed. "You could do such cool inscriptions..."

"But how much drawing and writing practice would I need?" Rose asked rhetorically. "As impressive as it looks, I'll stick to standard magic and work on my bloodline. I already want to take the dungeon and monster electives. I dislike studying far too much to take glyphs as well."

"Electives?" Lily asked curiously.

"Optional lessons," Rose answered. After a brief pause, she further clarified. "Well... Mostly optional. You must take at least one to go with the standard lessons, and bloodline magic is mandatory at Regarth."

Lily frowned; she hadn't known that. "Does that mean even if I get my own magic... I can't follow you to Regarth?"

Rose tried her best to hide her emotions. She had been dreading this question. Despite everything Rose had witnessed, she still had doubts that Arakil could truly grant Lily Mana and, thus, natural magic.

As much as she hated to admit it, she had opinions similar to Camilla's that Lily would inevitably be limited to performing a few tricks with her magic drawings. No matter how good her illustrations were, they wouldn't be enough for any magic school, let alone Regarth.

"Umm... I'm not sure... Bloodline magic is a requirement," Rose answered, trying to sound as diplomatic as possible. "But you could maybe get around needing one? I mean... Who knows? No Lagia has ever had Mana before. Or maybe you could trick the examiner?"

Lily was silent. Eventually, she nodded. "If Arakil teaches me some special magic, I could pretend it's my bloodline."

"Yeah! That might work..." Rose fibbed. A little white lie.

"What do you think, Arakil?" Lily asked.

[I'm unsure what constitutes bloodline magic now, but choosing a particularly unique form of magic is certainly doable. Can either you or Rose elaborate?]

"Arakil says unique magic is doable, but he's not sure what bloodline magic is now," Lily relayed.

"I can kinda answer that," Rose replied. "It's a unique form of magic linked to your demi type. As for me, it's fire, but I think an Aviania's would be wind."

"But can't anyone do fire magic?" Lily asked.

"Yeah, but not as good as me," Rose replied bluntly. "Sure, anyone can throw a fireball, but I can control the fire like it's my third arm."

Rose snapped her fingers, and a little flame flickered into being in the palm of her hand before jumping toward her pinkie finger. It continued to bounce and bob onto her fingers one by one. Lily stared in amazement. The flame tried to make the final jump from index finger to thumb and fumbled, falling to the floor.

"Damn it!" Rose shouted, embarrassed as she stomped the flame out, which left a tiny black scorch mark on the carpet.

"I think your third arm needs some work..." Lily murmured.

"Yeah..." Rose admitted. "But still, I hope you get the point?"

"It sounds almost like magic stereotypes... Like, of course, the dragon would have fire," Lily responded before giving Arakil some ink to see his response.

[Interesting. An innate magical predisposition. It certainly does seem somewhat stereotypical in its leaning. You could claim nearly anything if there are no records of any Lagia spellcasters.]

Lily sounded thrilled as she relayed the information to Rose.

"I mean... That sounds good, but you'll need to progress in it faster than normal people, too," Rose expressed her concerns. "That goes for control, also. You might get expelled if you choose water magic and aren't faster and better than a regular student."

"I'm sure I'll be better than regular students with Arakil teaching me," Lily said confidently. "I can also put in a lot more effort."

Rose wanted to say something but held her tongue. After all, sometimes, effort alone was not enough.

[I have no doubt that we can overcome any normal students and teachers together. Alternatively, you could pick something unheard of; there are many esoteric forms of magic we could explore.]

Once again, Lily read the words happily.

"That..." Rose paused. "Actually, sounds like a really good idea. If it's something they can't do, then you'd be the best at it by default. I can ask my teacher more about bloodlines, maybe give you a list of the common ones or something like that."

Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

"Sounds great to me," Lily answered happily. "I'm just glad you aren't trying to convince me to give up like Miss Camilla..."

Rose hid her wince. That had been her intention, although with care and kindness rather than blunt honesty. But... It was certainly starting to sound a little more plausible. If the magic was strange enough, then even Regarth might be tempted.

***

Just like that, an entire month had gone by. Even timid and non-confrontational, Lily had begun to lose her patience. Camilla was stalling; she was convinced of it.

Camilla had continued giving her the occasional liquid solution, but something was always wrong with it in the end, making it unsuitable. While it was still extra Mana for Arakil, it wasn't good enough as Lily wanted to use magic herself.

Arakil's words had rung true, and it seemed he was being very unlucky with the continued search of his archive. He had found some potentially usable solutions with ingredients he presumed might not be too rare if they saved up enough money, but when Lily or Rose had tried to inquire about them, they were met with bewildered stares.

This meant the Mana they had gathered continued to burn through almost faster than Lily used ink. Rose had even taken the initiative to potentially purchase supplies from a different store so that Camilla wouldn't know, and they could try creating the glyph ink themselves.

It was a weekend morning not long before closing time. Lily looked particularly down when Camilla tried to cheer her up with platitudes.

"Come now, my dear. A happy smile will attract many more customers," Camilla said. "Why ruin your cute face?"

"Miss Camilla..." Lily began. She swallowed. "I think I want to quit. I'm grateful for the opportunity, but I want to learn magic, not remedies."

Camilla gave a gentle smile. "We're trying, my dear... These things take time."

"No..." Lily shook her head. "I think you're stalling."

Camilla sighed. "I should have known this day would come... Especially when your friend started selling to other shops."

Lily frowned. "How do you know about that?"

"I'm old, not stupid," Camilla snorted. "Plus, I'm friends or acquaintances with the other shopkeepers. Some of those plants are relatively rare, and they tried to sell them to me at a markup. I asked where they got them, and they said a kid brought them, and unless Oz told some other youngsters about his secret spot, it could only be one of you two."

"Well..." Lily instinctively began trying to defend herself but then realized it didn't matter and instead took a different approach. "Anyway, I've already bought my own mortar and pestle. I'll make the glyph ink myself."

"Lily..." Camilla sighed.

"I'm sorry, Miss Camilla, but I've made up my mind."

Lily expected Camilla to get angry, but instead, she just looked sad.

"Okay. I'll tell you the truth, even if it hurts you," Camilla answered. "I made the glyph ink weeks ago."

"I knew it!" Lily exclaimed, feeling hurt and betrayed.

Camilla raised her hand, gesturing for Lily to calm down. "Let me finish, please..." She sighed. "I finished the glyph ink and tried to use some of it with one of the most basic glyphs I know of, and it failed."

Lily winced, her ears drooping.

"Fairymoss is just too weak of an ingredient," Camilla stated bluntly. "I tried some other mixtures or adding catalysts, which were the failed ones I gave you, but nothing worked that increased its potency while still being usable as ink."

"What if your glyph was wrong?" Lily asked, trying to cling to some hope.

Camilla sighed again. "I thought that might have been possible. I tried the exact same glyph using some of my blood, and it worked perfectly."

"Can you show it to me?" Lily asked.

Camilla looked torn. "I really wish you'd just give up on this foolish hope. You're such a bright girl, and you could easily be an apothecary, a scribe, a researcher, or anything else."

"Please, can you show it to me," Lily repeated more firmly.

"Fine," Camilla responded as she went over to flip the sign of her store to indicate it was closed.

Camilla then left, entering one of the backrooms she used as her private atelier when performing alchemy. Lily seldom stepped foot inside that room, as Camilla had said the recipes were potentially hazardous or noxious for someone as young as Lily.

After some intense waiting moments, Camilla exited the room holding some sheets of parchment and two bottles, one containing a dark navy ink while the other contained a crimson mixture.

Camilla placed them on the desk and motioned for Lily to join her. Once Lily was up, she produced two pieces of parchment and gestured at them. Lily looked at both; they each held identical-looking glyphs, the only difference being that one was blackish-red while the other was blackish-blue.

"This is a very simple fire glyph used in alchemy," Camilla explained. "It produces a small flame of a fixed heat and is wonderful when a recipe requires a very specific level of controlled heat."

Lily nodded; she recognized nearly every component of the glyph and could likely guess what the unknown sigils did from Camilla's explanation.

"Good, now watch," Camilla said as she touched the red glyph.

The red glyph shone briefly. A tiny, flaming sphere materialized in the center of the page, floating motionlessly at a fixed distance. Lily marveled at it, even if it was a relatively simple spell.

"As you can see, this one works," Camilla continued.

Then she reached for the blue glyph and touched it. Like the red one, it shone briefly, but instead of forming a flaming sphere, it merely flashed again and then went entirely dark.

"And this one, as you can see, doesn't work," Camilla said. Her stern expression then dropped, and she took on a look of concern. "I'm sorry, Lily... I tried. I ensured the mixture was prepared correctly and tried various catalysts, but nothing changed the result."

Lily opened her mouth, but Camilla interrupted.

"You're probably thinking of other ingredients. I looked into them. But unlike Fairymoss, which nowadays is merely a headache remedy, those are expensive as they still have other uses to this very day. Such as Mana recovery potions that even demis can use."

Camilla expected Lily to sulk, or cry, or have an outburst. Instead, Lily simply frowned as she stared at the now-blackened glyph.

"I'm really sorry, Lily... I hoped you'd forget about it eventually, or maybe I'd get lucky and find some catalyst. But you just can't argue with results this bad..." Camilla said, pointing again to the two glyphs. "And this one is made with my own blood and not even a lot of it."

The flaming sphere still hovered silently and unmoving.

"Miss Camilla..." Lily finally said. "I'm not sure how to say this..."

"Speak your mind, girl," Camilla said. "I'm sure your heart is broken; I can take it."

Lily nodded, opened her mouth, took a deep breath, and pointed to the glyph.

"This has got to be the worst glyph I've ever seen. I know your handwriting has gotten bad, but these imperfections are simply unacceptable. This is barely a circle," Lily began her tirade.

Camilla's eyes went wide. She had definitely not expected this.

Lily pointed to the red glyph. "I'm shocked this one even functions; your blood must be more potent than you realize to brute force a result through such obvious defects."

Camilla's jaw dropped.

Lily shook her head. "And these sigil choices? Why make the flame a sphere? If you just wanted a heating flame, then fire has much more synergistic shapes. I feel like someone was trying to simply repurpose a fireball spell into a convenient tool rather than making something fit for purpose."

Camilla blinked in astonishment. She shook her head frantically.

"Excuse me!?" She exclaimed, interrupting Lily before she continued her rant.