Vincent gave her an odd look. “Why are you using your telekinesis on them?”
She crossed her arms. “I’m not,” she stated shortly.
He stared, then stared at the weapons. Then he stared at her again. “What?”
The room went silent as they tried to puzzle out what she meant. It dragged on for at least a minute as they began to gain worried expressions. Jacques broke the silence first.
“Free movement?!” he exclaimed incredulously. “Hey, only one in ten thousand sentient weapons have that! And that’s without even mentioning how rare sentient or even demonic and spirit weapons are in the first place!”
“…. Lucille, what’s their rarity?” Vincent asked suspiciously.
She looked away. “Epic.”
All three of them paled. “Lucy, you’re going to get yourself killed carrying these around!” Vincent said, alarmed. “A pair of sentient, demonic and spirit weapons, with autonomous movement, while still being Epic?! Why do you even have these in the first place?!”
She sighed and ran a hand through her fringe. “They were a reward from Scytale’s Inheritance Trial. He didn’t need them, for obvious reasons. And I only soulbound them so their souls wouldn’t decay.”
“Uh….” They looked at Caius as he awkwardly leaned back from the black snake ornament that was swaying in front of his face, unwound from Apophis’s handle. “What is it doing, and why is it doing that?”
Slightly confused herself, she poked the bond to find out. Then she grinned. “Oh, I see. He’s looking at your hair. He’s discovered what ‘colours’ are recently, and he recognises he’s partially red like you.” She glanced at the silver-haired man to her right. “He’s also trying to work out what’s the difference between you and Vincent.”
Vincent pointed at himself, sceptical. “But we don’t look the same at all, even though we’re both Evisenhardts. And we shouldn’t. I’m pretty certain Caius is something like a seventh or eighth cousin.”
“And probably seven times removed, because of how old your father is,” Caius added. “My father’s not even a hundred yet.”
“As always, nobles of the Mystical Realm have weird families,” Lucy muttered. She shook her head and continued before they could react, “He’s trying to work out why you’re both ‘Evisenhardts’.”
“…. shouldn’t that be obvious though?” Jacques spoke up. “It’s just their last name.”
“Oh,” Vincent said, looking at the dagger again. “Is that what you meant when you said they only know themselves as ‘swords’ rather than a demon and spirit? They began as weapon souls?”
She nodded. “Neither of them has come across the concept of a ‘relative’ before so they’re curious.” Then she made a face. “Curious about a lot of weird things. They get fixated on the most random of ideas.”
“Like what?” Caius asked interestedly.
Instead of answering, she pointed at her other dagger. He looked down at his feet to notice the white blade slowly moving under the couch… and then back out again. Then back under… and then out. It repeated the process multiple times.
“…..uh,” Jacques said, looking at it oddly. “Yeah, what is it doing?”
“She’s trying to find out how ‘light’ and ‘dark’ work,” Lucy replied drolly. “Normally, they’re content to absorb the information I send them through the bond, and stay still as their souls develop, but it seems the fact we’re talking about them has made them energetic.”
“I still don’t like that you have them,” Vincent muttered, frowning.
She watched the two weapons, feeling troubled herself. “But the issue is I’m probably one of the few people alive who could heal their souls.” They looked at her when she said that, so she explained, “As they went unnamed for some time, they have soul damage. And I can’t just give them to a soul cultivator to fix, because that might ruin the cultivator's foundation. No cultivation technique enables someone to bond to both a spirit and demonic weapon.”
“Then how come you can?” Caius asked.
She shrugged. “I’m not a cultivator, so the weird rules of their realm don’t apply. But I also have enough soul power that I won’t fall to the destructive urges of my demonic weapon, and can also keep my bond with my spirit weapon safe from accidentally falling to the demonic energies of her pair.” She glanced at Apophis, who had started to gravitate towards a window in the room. “Not that that would happen, as they have no instinctual enmity towards each other.”
“Couldn’t you just find another non-cultivator?” Jacques said.
“I could if they existed,” she stated wryly. “But in case you haven’t noticed, after seeing how spiritual energy doesn’t have the same effect in the magical realms as the Heavenly Realm, not many among the magical realms care too much about soul power and spiritual energy. Where would I find them?”
“….I suppose that makes sense,” Vincent said with a sigh. “I’m not about to prevent you from helping two new souls. But Lucille, do you even know how to fight with these?”
She contemplated it. “Not a clue,” she replied.
“Couldn't you learn?” Jacques asked. “Plenty of warriors could teach you how to use swords. You could even ask a Mythos from Glory Pantheon using your status if you wish. The Major Discipline of the Sword is the most popular out of the 12 Major Disciplines.”
She glared at Vincent as he smirked. “Ah, but that would be if her weapons weren’t snake-swords.”
Jacques and Caius blinked. Jacques raised an eyebrow. “You mean you soulbound a snake and-”
“A snake and two snake-swords, yes, I have. Please just shut up about the snake thing,” she interrupted, feeling very annoyed. “Scytale annoys me enough about it.” She turned to Vincent. “Why are you so amused by the fact I have a snake bond and two snake-swords?”
He grinned. “Because I found a topic you dislike.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Oh, so that’s what this is, Mr. ‘I hate bitter things’.”
His expression stiffened as Jacques laughed at him. Caius shook his head in amusement, before moving the topic along. “Well, I understand why it would be a struggle then to find out how to use them. Snake-swords aren’t part of the 12 Major or even 24 Minor Disciplines, so you would be hard-pressed to find any sort of fighting style or mana-art for them.”
She sighed. “Yes. But I’ll come up with something when I need to fight. It’s true that they’re strong, so it would be a waste if I didn’t-”
Clang!
They quickly glanced at the source of the noise, and Lucy’s eyes widened as she saw Apophis try to attack the glass of the window he was at with his levitating dagger form, attempting to smash it. She hurriedly got up and ran over. “Hey! Apophis! No!”
She grabbed the weapon before he could re-attempt it and held it up, staring incredulously at it as the snake decoration tried to bite her. “Stop attacking your wielder! That defeats the entire purpose of you being my weapon in the first place!”
Then she looked up at the roof and glared. “Ouroboros! Stop trying to turn off the mana lamp! You’ll break it!” The white dagger slowly lowered itself near Lucy as she scowled, and grabbed it as well.
Vincent, Caius and Jacques watched her with bemusement. She angrily shoved them both back into their sheaths and then walked back over to her couch, sitting down on it with a huff.
“So…. What was that about?” Jacques asked, looking very confused.
She scowled again. “Apophis has decided he wants to work out why I can see things outside his perception and wants to check for himself. Ouroboros is still trying to discover how light and darkness work.” She glared down at Apophis, who had started buzzing. “And now they’re telling me that they want to move around again.”
“Seems like you’re going to have your work cut out for you if you end up wielding them,” Caius commented.
She rubbed her temples in frustration, and then looked at them. “Anyway, did we want to move on to the part you came here for?”
“What did we come here for again?” Jacques asked, holding his chin as he tried to remember with a frown on his face.
Lucille gazed flatly at him as Caius facepalmed and Vincent sighed. “The contract, Jacques,” he told the man, sounding weary.
“Ah, right,” Jacques said with a firm nod, crossing his arms.
They all stared at him, making sure he wouldn’t make any more dumb comments before Lucy shook her head and opened her dimensional bag. She pulled out two folders and held them up.
“While this chat has been enjoyable, I believe it’s time we start discussing what your jobs will entail.”
…
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After they had signed the contracts, they continued with their conversation and had lunch, before Caius and Jacques left Headquarters through one of the side entrance hallways. Lucy glanced at her aide beside her as they watched them go.
“Is Jacques going to be okay doing this job?” she asked dubiously.
He sighed but nodded. “He acts like that, but when it comes to actually doing what he needs to, he’s capable. I’m not certain he’ll want to stay here though. But I’m not certain there’s anything he wants.”
She tilted her head as she watched the ponytailed man disappear from view. “If I offer him another position, and he accepts, would you be fine with that?”
“I’m not sure what this other position could be, but it’s not up to me to decide what he should do,” Vincent said, looking at her with a strange expression. “To be perfectly honest, I never thought I’d see either of them ever again, considering my status as a member of Evisenhardt’s direct bloodline. We went our separate ways some time ago.”
She turned around and began heading back down the hallway, Vincent following. “I’ve been considering what to do about Alichanteu, and I believe the best decision is to give the Empire’s political factions a distraction. This wouldn’t occur until next year though.”
He frowned. “I would prefer for him not to be placed between Radical and Olden. That sounds too risky.”
“It wouldn’t happen instantly. It would take some time before they start paying attention to him,” she replied. “I’m wondering if asking Jacques to help create a commoner commerce union might be a good idea.”
His eyes widened slightly, and he went silent as he considered it. “But… he’s a noble?” he asked hesitantly.
“One with a good relationship with commoners,” she stated, taking a turn to go find the nearest lift. “I wouldn’t want him to be the leader of the organisation. But if I can set up a situation in some of the cities where Alichanteu will be implementing my plans, Radical and Olden will be preoccupied. I want Radical to desire to control this new neutral force, and want Olden to try to sabotage their attempts to do so.”
He had a complicated look on his face as he thought over it, and then sighed. “Please ask me about this after the annual banquet, so I have time to consider this idea. And you don’t even know if Jacques could do it yet,” he pointed out.
She shrugged. “I’ll know if he could soon enough.”
They didn’t talk for a while, just walking through the building. It wasn’t until they entered the lift that Vincent spoke up.
“Lucy… do you... uh…” He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. “Not care about what I said about you earlier?”
She looked at him. “What, that I’m sarcastic, unpredictable, stubborn, have a weird sense of style, strange sleeping habits, and enjoy annoying you?” she asked dryly.
He went silent as he stared at her, clearly not having expected her to bring that up.
She shook her head as she stepped off the lift. “Not really, no. Couldn’t care less. It’s not like I’m unaware of what you think about me.”
“…have I been that obvious?” he replied.
She smirked and pretended to think. “Let’s see…. The first time we met you only spoke up because you were annoyed I was handing you so much work. When I took you out to go find Sedric, you complained you were having a break when I found you and were perfectly happy to glare at me whenever my back was turned, not knowing I could still see you.”
She opened the door of her living room. “Now, you’re just happy to complain whenever I do anything that seems slightly annoying to you, which includes kicking my feet up on desks and my couch, leaving out some details just for fun, and apparently, bringing around a magic staff in the form of a cane.”
“Don’t make me sound like someone who complains about everything,” he said, disgruntled.
She turned around and leaned against her couch, smirking. “Is that complaining I hear?” She grinned as he crossed his arms, looking irritated. “Anyway, I haven’t cared what other people thought about me for more than two centuries. With my soul power,” she said, gesturing to her head. “I see and hear a lot, and not much of it is anything I needed or wanted to see in the first place. I’ve grown used to hearing others’ opinions on me.”
He looked at her silently for a while and then sighed with a nod. “Well, I’d still like to say sorry anyway. I shouldn’t have spoken about you like that. But… I’m still curious about something.”
She tilted her head curiously as he asked his question.
“Why do you never sleep in your room?” he said with mild exasperation. “I’ve heard you sleep on the couch at night, and then I catch you in random places every other time. You have a perfectly good bed.”
She blinked and then smiled. “That’s actually because I developed the ability to sleep pretty much anywhere when I was younger. Because of that, I don’t feel much need to rest in my room. But during the day, if you catch me like that, then I’m not asleep.”
“Not asleep?” he repeated, raising an eyebrow.
“I have eidetic memory. Typically, I’m immersing myself in my memories,” she explained, walking around the end of the couch, and taking off her jacket to place it down. “That, or looking at my soul space. I’m very much aware of my surroundings during that time, so if you need to talk to me, it’s fine to approach.”
“… well, I’ll make sure to do that if I need to,” he replied with a strange look on his face.
Lucy gestured to her couches. “Do you want to stay here and have some tea?”
He opened his mouth to answer, paused, and then narrowed his eyes at her. “Actually, no. No, I won’t. I have the distinct suspicion that I will not like whatever it is that you put before me.”
She clicked her tongue and smirked as he sighed, and shook his head wryly at her reaction. After that, they parted ways, and Lucy went on to lay sideways on her couch as she delved into her thoughts, as per usual.
Also, she was definitely going to continue bringing her cane around.
…
“Is your understanding of arcane mana and its workings any better now?” she asked a dark-brown-haired man below her.
Sedric paused when he heard her voice, looked up, and took off his goggles. Then he glared at her. “No, no it is not! This makes no sense!” he exclaimed angrily, gesturing to the large metal plate engraved with a mana-circle on top of his workbench.
He gestured for her to follow as she walked down the stairs, and pointed to a much larger version of a slightly different mana-circle he had on a plate on the ground. “I can’t work out how these are supposed to work! The rules are different for everything I throw at them!”
“But do you know the most basic functions they have?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.
He frowned. “Kinda. This one generates this weird translucent clear hemisphere shell and stalls objects that are chucked at it, but some objects I throw at it don’t register at all and pass straight through it. And then there’s this one,” he said, pointing at the one on his workbench, “That the objects rebound off! The first time it happened the object hit me! I swear I have a lump.” He scowled, rubbing his head.
“Well, it is called a force reflection shield for a reason,” she replied, feeling amused. “Now, imagine if I gave you a mana-circle that used fire mana instead, and you tested that out for the first time.”
He thought about it and then grimaced. “Yeah… I don’t really want to imagine that.”
She walked over to inspect the mana-circles and then looked back at him. “Do you just need a more in-depth explanation of what they do?”
He sighed. “Pretty much. And why they act differently. You also said these two were circles of a three-layered spell?” he asked.
She nodded and sat down on a stool at the workbench. “These aren’t the exact ones used, because they’re designed as single-layer spells, but yes. Have you looked at the component differences?”
He nodded and sat opposite her, and then pulled forward both the folder she had made for him which contained the arcane components, and also a big notebook. He flipped to a page that showed how he had analysed the two circles by drawing them as diagrams.
“The difference between them is just one frame, and which node they’re linked to. But that doesn’t mean I know how each frame works, with how rune arrangements are. You can’t read them like normal sentences, even if they can be translated.”
“If we still used magic like the wizards of old, then we could. We’d also have to read fifty paragraphs to describe one mana-circle,” she remarked. Then she grinned and pointed to one of the diagrams. “Also, Sedric. They both use all the same frames.”
“What?” He pulled it closer and frowned. “How?”
She smirked. “That frame’s rotated.”
He lifted the notebook to look and then dropped the book on his bench with mild exasperation and annoyance. “Okay, great. Still tells me nothing,” he replied sourly.
“The rebound one is easier to explain. All it does is reverse the direction of the object by reflecting it with the same or similar amount of force it had on contact.” She tapped on the metal plate between them. “It doesn’t decrease or increase the acceleration though, so when you throw something, it will be thrown back at roughly the same speed, or the same speed if it had continued to travel along the arc of your throw.”
“That’s… interesting, but I don’t get why you’d need a spell like that. Anything with enough mana gets through anyway,” he said, looking confused.
“Well, it’s not going to reflect anything non-mundane.” She continued, leaning her chin on her hand, “We’re not dealing with the high-level Mirror element here. Also, you need to take into account that the speed isn’t perfectly preserved, nor is the object reflected instantly. A more complex circle could reduce the energy inefficiencies, but that’s not necessary right now.”
She gestured to the other one on the ground. “That one is… slightly more difficult. It doesn’t reduce acceleration to 0, otherwise, gravity would not affect it, rather it loses all momentum. Have you tracked the mana cost when it activates?” she asked him. He shook his head, so she continued, “The circle will be drained faster the more speed or force behind the thrown object.”
She pointed to the one in front of them. “This mana-circle only loses mana dependent on the size of the thrown object.”
She glanced at him. “And Sedric, these circles aren’t made for actively thrown objects. They’re made for passive protection.”
He looked between her and the circles. “I’ve sort of guessed that, but passive protection from what?”
“Force damage,” she replied.
He rubbed his chin, considering her answer. “Force damage isn’t very dangerous though. Especially if your CON is high enough, and Users with low CON don’t normally get close enough to be harmed by it. Mana negates most of it too.”
She sighed. “Let’s just say my situation is a little different. This won’t be the only force damage-reducing item I want made either, so it would be good for you to get used to this function of arcane mana.” She shook her head. “Anyway, are there other questions you want to ask before I move on to the multi-layer spell?”
“Yeah. Why that circle still let stuff through,” he said, pointing to the plate on the ground.
“Ah, that’s because it will let through any object under a certain level of momentum. I don’t need to protect myself from anything without enough force to hurt me, after all. It just decreases the mana cost.” She paused to consider it. “Well, maybe some things could still hurt me without the force, but I shouldn’t have a reason to be around anything like that in the first place, and should also be able to protect myself from them.”
He nodded as she held out her palm. “I’m sure you can see the conflict between the two mana-circles if they’re part of the same multi-layer circle, right?”
“One stops the object, and one lets it continue moving. You can’t have both,” he replied. Then he watched with interest as white glowing lines appeared above her hand, and she started magically sketching out the three-layered mana-circle with illusion mana.
She formed one larger circle, and then side-by-side, two smaller circles appeared above it, slowly rotating. A third even smaller circle appeared above those two, only large enough to cover the centre of both smaller circles. The two smaller circles happened to be the two circles she had given Sedric. Then she changed one of them to blue and one to red, just so they were distinct from the circle below, and changed the top to green. She pointed at it. “And here we have the mana-circle that will be in the item’s core gemstone.”
She made the illusion move towards Sedric so he could get a better look. He leaned closer when he noticed something. “The two circles have a sixth node in the centre on this? The ones you gave me had five nodes.”
She smiled and pointed at the bottom circle. “They have to have some way of connecting to the bottom circle’s sub-nodes, don’t they?” She gestured to the nodes outside of the central node frame.
He hesitated as he had a thought. “Does… that mean frames can be inserted vertically as well?” he asked cautiously, likely worried about how complex that could make a spell. “Like a wizard’s heart circles?”
She shook her head. “Not when casting a runic spell, nor for most of the spells you’ll be working with, although it can be different when it comes to elemental spells and the rarer non-casted spells. The extra nodes here connect directly to their sub-node. But when it comes to a runic model, it doesn’t work that way. Because the greater runes used in that are three-dimensional, a mage needs to take into account all directions when building the model in their mana pool.”
“Also….” He pointed between the two smaller mana-circles of the illusion. “They both have a really thin outer ring frame added that is almost entirely filled with runes that are left disconnected. Do they connect when they touch?”
“Yes, they do,” she confirmed with a nod. She held up her gloved hands and showed him how she linked them together. “Here, they act like cogs. One has to activate, and then the other is frozen into position and doesn’t activate. The other has to activate, then the opposite can’t. Their sixth nodes constantly send a signal to the mana-circle below, which detects what circle is required, and then rotates them into the correct position. If both are required, the top circle activates to use them both. This will enable the item to properly reflect the force damage depending on the situation.”
“The spell can change depending on the situation?” he asked with surprise. “I didn’t know a low-ranked spell could do that.”
She smiled. “That’s why it’s an ‘adaptive’ spell.”
“Ah, so that’s what that means,” he replied, eyeing the illusion with curiosity. “Adaptive skills and spells have always seemed kind of vague to me. I don’t have any, so it’s hard to find out what they are.”
Lucy nodded and then pointed to the illusion. “There’s another important element of this ‘cog-like’ function I wanted to discuss. If you have circles that are linked and engraved in actual cogs, then when you have a spell like this….” She grinned. “You generate machine power. Someone only needs to input mana, and then your mana engine can start moving.”
Sedric stared at where the illusion was, with wide eyes. “Hang on… that’s magic engineering? That’s what the Coalition is famous for developing?”
“Indeed. A key detail of magic engineering is that it very rarely uses multi-layer spells. It uses ‘mana circuitry’ to ensure the engraving channels are all linked up, rather than projecting the spells into 3-dimensional space,” she explained. “Which is why the Coalition rose to power so quickly. They don’t need many powerful gemstones to use their technology. They can create highly powerful machines for much lower cost.”
She shattered the illusion and pointed to him. “And I’m sure you know why this is important to you.”
He raised his eyes from where the illusion had been to gaze at her with a complicated expression. He was silent for a while before he spoke. “So, you know who my grandfather was,” he said.
Lucy stared back at him, registering what he said. Then her eyes narrowed. “Sedric Ferin, be very, very careful about what you’re trying to suggest. I do not know who your grandfather was.”
Her words made him blink and he replied with a weird look on his face. “Suggest what? That you’re a dissent-”
She grabbed a binder pen from the bench to chuck at him. He dodged it as she glared at him. “I said not to say it,” she growled. “I have nothing to do with who you’re thinking of right now.”
“Uh…. But you knew about my class… and you’ve said you’ve been to the Coalition…” he replied, looking slightly confused.
“Of course I’ve been to the Coalition. Did you think I could just learn all this stuff anywhere?” she stated flatly. Her irritation built when he still looked sceptical. “You know what, let’s just stop this conversation here,” she said, standing up from the table. “The reason why I said knowing magic engineering is important to you is because your class’s third primary skill comes from a magic engineering class.”
He hesitated, the dawning realisation of just what kind of misunderstanding he made spreading across his face. “Oh… right…”
She climbed up the stairs to leave. “Anyway, I have to prepare for the competition now, if there’s nothing more you need help with.” Then she had a thought and went over to the railing. “If you want, you can watch the competition next week. It might be interesting for you. But when they discover you’re my contracted crafter, they might bother you. You can ignore their attempts to see your skills or accept their requests. I don’t mind either way,” She paused and then added something else. “But just remember that it’s not them that have the talent to be the Head of the Aurelian Commission’s crafter.”
Then she left the workshop, ignoring the slightly stunned look on his face because of her words. She fingered the chain hanging from the violet pocket watch in her pocket as she walked to her room.
Maybe this way he’ll find out he’s quite a capable crafter when it comes to understanding magic.
She was expressionless again, but a faint smirk briefly appeared on her lips as she saw him duck to avoid the reflected binder pen he had thrown at the mana-circle.
Well, he was one of the Coalition’s ten Grandmaster crafters for a reason.