Chapter 646 227 - Guide's Guidance (Part 1)

Zoemi, Ludier, and Mizoe had quite some road ahead of them still, and the black-haired boy had some time to think things through.

|In this timeline my family and Espine families are enemies, so it will not be easy to become Miriette's attendant...|

"Uncle... could you tell me about magic?"

First things first – even though he was expecting that without the original personality living inside of him he would not awaken to magic, his black hair and eyes would make others believe that he was a darkness magician.

What the black-haired boy was doing, was doing was asking in a very roundabout way about the treatment of the darkness magicians.

"That's a nice question and a good way to kill some time."

Ludier looked at the child before nodding his head with a content expression.

"Our continent is filled with an energy called mana. Mana is everywhere, in the air we breathe, the ground we walk on, the water we drink, and the food we eat. It is also coursing within our bodies thanks to the organ called mana heart."

"...?!"

Although Zoemi expected to get just the basic explanation, Ludier clearly set himself up for a full-blown lecture – and dropped an equivalent of a bomb right at Zoemi's shocked head out of nowhere.

|Mana heart?! What hell is that?!|

"Besides mana heart, each person is born with a mana reservoir – its size determines whether it is possible for that person to awaken as a magician. That's what separates commoners from aristocrats. It is historically known that only aristocrats have mana reservoirs vast enough to be able to bend reality to their will and cast spells. Let's just say that if a child is born out of two commoner parents and that child does awaken to magic – it means that at least one parent is hiding something, be it an affair or secret identity."

Ludier explained sneaking a playful glance at the bright-red Mizoe who got embarrassed after hearing about marital infidelity.

"My lord...!"

The light-blue-haired boy complained, motioning at the black-haired child sitting right in front of the

pale-blue-haired man.

"He doesn't know what that word means, relax."

Ludier waved his hand dismissively and laughed at Mizoe's innocence.

|...is it the same as how it was back in the previous timeline...? Because that would mean that Burushi was a secret love-child of some noble...|

Zoemi not only knew what the other two were talking about but also came to a surprising conclusion.

"But let us not get sidetracked. Magic is separated into six basic branches. Every magician is locked in the branch they awaken to. Those branches are – Light, Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, Shadow."

Ludier shook his head and then started lifting his fingers away from the reins while counting.

"The order in which I just revealed them isn't accidental, on average, the light magicians have the largest mana reservoirs while the shadow magicians have the least. Still, it is possible for the shadow magician to have more mana than a light magician – only that in such case that shadow magician will be called a transcended magician."

The pale-blue-haired man continued as the lack-haired child was staring at him dumbfounded.

"Everything is more or less based on those six branches... but now you may think to yourself – but uncle Ludier, you are an ice magician! And you would be correct!"

"..."

​

The pale-blue-haired man joked nudging Zoemi but the black-haired child was too busy staring at him to react.

"That is because each basic branch can evolve into its higher form. Shadow evolves into darkness, earth evolves into necromancy, wind evolves into sound, water changes into ice, fire transforms into lighting, and light becomes space manipulation. It is a phenomenon that doesn't have anything to do with the amount of mana at the magician's disposal and is completely separate from it so they do not count as transcended magicians – some called them evolved magicians, but most commonly used term is just saying the name of the evolved attribute."

The ice magician revealed, raising his head proudly as if expecting an awestruck gasp.

"There are necromancers just running around contorling dead people?!"

But what he got instead was Zoemi's bewildered yelp.

"No! Of course not! I mean... lady Aspakeony, the head of the Apsakeony Academy does have a group of dead magicians under her control, but she is a special case – she is one of the founders of the Bellcephora kingdom and her corpse puppets are hundreds of years old. She didn't add a new one in centuries! No, the necromancers are controlling the bodies of animals and monsters."

"...monsters..."

Ludier hurriedly explained not wanting to scare the child but ended up only making him more worried instead.

"Do not worry, monsters pop up in the wilderness from time to time, but we have their population under control."

The pale-blue-haired man assured Zoemi.

"Where was I...? Ah! Yes, still those twelve attributes aren't the only possible ones. Sometimes the basic attribute can diverge from the normal path. Water can become blood or mist, the earth turns into metal or golem creation, the wind into mind control or weather control, and so on... the possibilities are numerous, but it happens extremely rarely. In a case where the magician wields an attribute that isn't one of the basic six or their evolved forms, they are called variant magicians. The mana of each attribute has its own color and dyes the hair and eyes of the user in it, which sometimes leads to misunderstanding – for example, a blood magician can be mistaken for a fire magician because blood mana is amaranth and fire is crimson... and that covers the bare minimum of knowledge about magic. I could tell you about what each magic specializes in, but I honestly cannot speak about it without being heavily biased... so I will leave it at that until some more suitable teacher will show up. That said, did I miss something?"

Ludier hurriedly moved back to the previous subject and finished his explanation before turning to Mizoe and motioning at him with his chin.