María finished eating as quickly as she could, using the remaining bread to clean the plate.

She licked her fingers and looked at Aria, who watched her with those serene yet impatient eyes.

“Are we doing this right here?” María asked, her mouth still slightly full.

“Of course,” Aria responded without hesitation, her authoritative tone echoing in the kitchen. “Or do you have a problem?”

María quickly shook her head, almost stumbling over her words.

“No, no, it’s fine,” María said, glancing around at the golems still working, tirelessly cleaning and organizing things.

She left the dirty dishes on the table without worrying too much about them. The idea of feeling mana and attempting to create a ring made her anxious despite her fear.

A small part of her kept insisting this could be dangerous, but the curiosity and the opportunity were too tempting to ignore.

“I’m ready,” María declared, more to convince herself than Aria.

“Good,” Aria said, resuming her explanation with the same meticulous precision. “Close your eyes. Now, feel the mana around you, and then sense how it circulates within you. Focus on organizing that flow so it passes through your heart. Just as your heart pumps blood, you must try to create a ring there, slowly and progressively.”

María closed her eyes and tried to follow every instruction to the letter.

Little by little, she felt a slight energy around her, like a gentle breeze brushing her skin.

And then, something deeper—a warm, rhythmic pulse circulating inside her body.

It was almost comforting, but then the doubts came.

‘How big should the ring be?’ María wondered, feeling her insecurity grow.

‘Where exactly should I place it? How should I design it?’

But the question that troubled her the most was:

‘What if I make the ring so small it pierces my heart?’

Fear overwhelmed María, and she opened her eyes abruptly, gasping slightly.

She had been so close, but uncertainty had stopped her.

What if she died from failing…?

Aria looked at María curiously.

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“What happened?” Aria asked in her usual calm tone.

María rubbed her hands, trying to shake off her nerves.

“How big should it be…?” she began, stuttering a bit. “The ring—how big does it need to be?”

Aria blinked, confused.

“It should surround your heart, according to its size. You have to feel it and form the ring accordingly.”

“And how exactly am I supposed to do that?” María asked, even more nervous.

“Your instinct will guide you,” Aria replied with her usual calmness.

María repeated the words quietly, as if testing them.

“My instinct will guide me… my instinct will… How is my instinct supposed to guide me?!”

Aria shrugged.

“That’s what the books say.”

María stared at her, searching for some logic in what Aria seemed to take for granted.

“What are the risks of creating a ring incorrectly?”

Aria paused, considering the question.

“If it’s your first ring, the consequences aren’t too severe.”

María pressed her lips together.

“That doesn’t matter, I want to know.”

“You might feel an internal itch,” Aria explained indifferently. “Or a kind of shock if you fail.”

María swallowed, fear returning as she imagined those sensations.

The idea of continuing the attempt became less appealing, and her mind debated whether it was really worth it.

‘Should I try it?’ María wondered, looking at Aria and then at her own hands.

The decision wasn’t as simple as she had initially thought.

María stared at her trembling hands, feeling the doubt growing inside her.

She wasn’t like Aria.

She didn’t have an overflowing intelligence or the ability to memorize tons of information with a single glance.

Aria had read books about magic, studied complex theories, and still hadn’t been able to cast a single spell because she needed Key 04.

María didn’t need any key, but she hadn’t done anything remotely similar to what Aria was describing.

How was she supposed to create a ring around her heart?

The idea sounded absurd.

‘It’s impossible for me to do something like this,’ María thought, and at that moment, her mind filled with memories.

She saw herself, younger, in her family home, surrounded by voices telling her she was foolish and distracted.

Her mother, always so strict, and her father, resigned, telling her that her only duty was to learn basic etiquette to marry another merchant and bring prosperity to both families.

She had been prepared her whole life to fulfill a role she never wanted.

Books and adventure stories had been her only window to the outside world, a way to escape the expectations imposed on her.

But María also remembered the sense of liberation she felt when her uncle gave her the chance to leave home and work to live out her dreams.

At that time, making that decision had been hard because of fear, but she took the leap after her brothers played a prank on her, ruining the few friendships she had.

María had taken the risk of facing the world, despite all her family’s warnings about the dangers lurking beyond the family walls.

Her mother always said the streets were full of kidnappers or magical creatures that could devour her whole.

But María had decided to take the risk, and that had led her here—to living with vampires, golems, and mages, and standing in a kitchen, learning magic from a two-year-old girl.

‘How surreal…,’ María thought, laughing briefly as she finished recalling her memories.

‘Can I really not do it?’ María asked herself, feeling the contradiction within.

She had already been through so much...

And her current situation wasn’t so different from home, except that here, at least, she wasn’t being hit.

María took a deep breath and clenched her fists, silently cursing her own insecurities.

If Aria, with her limitations, was willing to keep pushing forward, why couldn’t she do something like this?

Other mages had done it in the past, so… why couldn’t she?

‘I can do it!’ María shouted in her mind.

Aria continued to watch her with her neutral expression, waiting patiently.

María felt a spark of determination ignite in her chest.

“Alright,” María finally said, despite the nerves still within her. “I’ll do it. But please, guide me.”