Chapter 13
“Emily, over here!”
On Saturday afternoon, Emily was meeting with Sophia to finish the Welcome Magic 1 class assignment due this week. It was the assignment from the class where Emily had been doused with water by Sophia on Monday, to be submitted within a week.
Sophia had completed most of the assignment, but Emily’s power was needed to add a bit of wind magic to create water with purifying energy. Emily waved back to Sophia, who was enthusiastically waving from afar, and approached her.
With her back to a small lake, Sophia had her dark blue curly hair tied in two braids and wore a pale lemon-colored dress that reached her ankles, looking more energetic than usual. She seemed oddly pleased to see Emily every time since their last class.
“Hello, Miss Sophia.”
“Emily, welcome!”
“…I didn’t know there was a lake here.”
The meeting place with Sophia was inside the forest, slightly off the central path. It wasn’t far from the main building’s garden, but it didn’t seem to be a popular spot for students as it required traversing a densely wooded trail. However, it wasn’t deep in the forest, as the path leading to the academy could be seen through the trees in the distance.
“It’s amazing, isn’t it? I only found out about it recently. Being in a bit of a secluded spot, not many people come here.”
Sophia answered as she spread out a blanket on the grass and placed her books and picnic basket on it.
Trees and bushes surrounded the lake, as if the greenery was embracing the water. Emily approached the lake, marveling. Strong summer sunlight beat down on the lake’s surface, with the reflected light twinkling so brightly it was almost blinding.
Standing by the lakeshore and looking down, the water was so clear and transparent that small fish could be seen swimming. Taking a deep breath, she felt a pleasant freshness from the mixture of water and grass scents.
“…It’s truly beautiful.”
“Isn’t it? And it’s cool by the water. Come sit over here, Emily!”
As Sophia smiled brightly and gestured with the picnic basket she had brought, Emily sat down and placed her book beside her.
“Sophia, did you bring a picnic lunch?”
“I brought some simple sandwiches for lunch. You haven’t had lunch yet, right?”
“No, thank you.”
The sandwiches and fruit that Sophia excitedly took out looked delicious at a glance. The two soon forgot about the assignment and were enjoying the summer lake scenery while eating sandwiches and fruit.
As a cool breeze blew under the tree shade, gentle ripples formed on the lake’s surface.
“My father is very interested in commerce and invests in various fields. Emily, have you heard of the recently popular scented magic stones? My father happened to meet a magician, and the moment he saw his magic stones, he thought, ‘This is it.’ So he immediately went to Count Mille to get investment funds and turned it into a product.”
After neatly finishing her sandwich, Sophia, sitting at an angle, started talking about the magic stones her father, Baron Fons, had recently invested in while eating raspberries.
“Ah, those popular magic stones? That’s amazing. But I’ve never seen them, so I’m not sure. How are they different from perfume?”
Emily, who had been looking to research recent popular life magic stones, showed interest in Sophia’s words. Seeing Emily’s interest, Sophia explained in more detail.
“Unlike perfume, they capture nature’s scents as they are. For example, the scent of a living rose continues to emanate subtly as long as you have the magic stone. They say it feels like you’re constantly holding a rose in your hand.”
“…That’s incredible.”
“Isn’t it? After hearing about this, I became interested in life magic. What made you decide to take the life magic class, Emily? There aren’t many students since it’s a Wednesday first period class.”
“I’m not very powerful magically, but I can use two types of magic. I honestly wasn’t very motivated for magic classes because it didn’t seem particularly useful, but I heard that in life magic, the amount of magical power isn’t important, and it’s more advantageous if you can handle more than one type of magic. That’s when I became interested.”
“I see. Now that I hear it, it seems like the perfect class for you, Emily! I find this class the most interesting too! Although I often doze off during class.”
“It’s because it’s so early. It’s my first first-period class, and I find it hard to wake up.”
“Me too! I have a hard time waking up early, so life magic is the only first-period class I take.”
Sophia nodded vigorously, strongly agreeing with Emily’s words. As they conversed, Emily suddenly remembered something she had been pondering alone and asked Sophia.
“Sophia, if you were to create a life magic stone, what kind would you like to make?”
“Ah, I’ve actually been thinking about that too. In fact, I entered the academy because I admired a magician who worked with my father. I actually learned magic from him. I’m thinking about that direction because if you can handle water magic, you can also handle the trendy cleansing magic. But lately, I’m also interested in purification magic.”
Sophia answered Emily’s question with a shy smile. Emily looked at Sophia, a bit surprised by her words.
“Is it okay even if it’s an existing magic stone?”
“Of course! Magic stones differ slightly in function depending on the magician who creates them, and they’re sold in different regions too. I heard that you’re not allowed to use the exact ratio of existing products. If you discover a certain ratio, you need to get a registration certificate and register it as your own unique product.”
“You know a lot about this field, Sophia.”
“I’m very interested in my father’s work. And someday, I want to sell my own magic stones.”
Emily looked anew at Sophia’s face as she spoke with enthusiasm. It was a different side from her usual timid appearance standing next to Miss Astina.
“What about you, Emily? What kind of magic stone would you like to make?”
“Well, I’ve been pondering because nothing comes to mind immediately. I’d like to focus on voice recording, but…”
“Hmm, you said you mainly handle sound and illusion magic, right? How about magic that enhances hearing?”
“That would require body enhancement magic as an auxiliary magic formula, wouldn’t it? I can’t handle body enhancement magic, so it might be difficult.”
“Ah, I see. I didn’t know that. Oh! How about this? Magic that stores monster cries in a magic stone! If there were such magic stones, even beasts would be too scared to approach!”
Sophia tapped her pen against her lips, then clapped her hands as if she had an idea and looked at Emily. Emily couldn’t help but smile slightly at her words.
“It’s certainly creative, but… to capture a monster’s cry in a magic stone, you’d have to capture the monster alive, right? I’m a bit scared of something so dangerous.”
“Ah… that’s true. I’m scared of monsters too. It really is difficult to come up with item ideas.”
Sophia blinked as if she hadn’t thought of that aspect, then suddenly looked dejected.
“Indeed. I’m going to think harder about it too. I plan to look into recently popular magic stones as well.”
“Oh, then I’ll look into them with you! Let’s brainstorm together, Emily.”
“Sure. But Sophia, I think we should start working on our assignment now.”
After eating sandwiches and chatting endlessly, quite some time had passed. When Emily brought up the assignment, Sophia nodded and took out the pendant she had brought from her bag.
“I’ve already stored the basic water magic. I think we just need to overlay your wind magic on top of it.”
The pendant Sophia brought had a small sapphire attached, already filled with water energy, shimmering with a blue and transparent aura. Emily opened her notebook with the formulas for storing magic and discussed with Sophia, checking the textbook to see if the formulas were correct. After much trial and error, they completed the formula and Emily concentrated on manipulating her magic power according to the formula to store a gentle breeze.
A soft breeze swirled around Emily, gradually narrowing its range and seeping into the small sapphire.
As the small ribbon on Sophia’s lemon-colored dress fluttered slightly, and Emily’s sky-blue dress and the ends of her brown hair swayed in the air before settling back, blue and white energies mixed and rippled inside the sapphire.
“Wow! Emily! The color is so pretty!”
“It seems this formula was correct. I’m so glad, Sophia.”
Emily smiled back at Sophia, who was clapping her hands and rejoicing at the completed magic pendant. After failing several times and revising the formula multiple times, they finally succeeded, and a sense of achievement welled up.
The two put the completed pendant in an assignment submission envelope and sealed it.
“Finally complete! We’re done now! Oh, by the way, Emily, you’ll be attending the freshman welcome party the day after tomorrow, right?”
Sophia, who was rejoicing over finishing the assignment while stretching her arms upwards, suddenly asked as if she had just remembered.
“Yes, I even went to town yesterday to buy lace gloves for it.”
“I see! It’s a shame we couldn’t go together! I heard there’s a shop in town with delicious macarons. Let’s go together next time for sure!”
Emily nodded to Sophia, who was smiling brightly while clasping her hands together.
The two began to chat about trivial matters, avoiding topics related to Kira or Astina, and it turned out to be surprisingly comfortable and enjoyable. They inserted the envelope containing the pendant into the assignment submission box in front of the faculty office, then walked in the garden together for a while, chatting before parting ways.
* * *
The sweltering heat had suddenly approached.
The weekend passed in the blink of an eye, and Monday arrived, but all classes were canceled today due to the freshman welcome party. Nevertheless, the young ladies in the academy were busy, spending the entire morning getting dolled up. However, Emily and Kira were spending a leisurely time unlike the other young ladies. Neither of them had much in the way of fragrances or cosmetics, so it didn’t take much time to prepare.
With the party starting at five in the afternoon, Emily, who had decided to prepare at a relaxed pace, was enjoying a weekend-like Monday after waking up late. A muggy breeze entered through the open window.
Knock knock
“Yes, who is it?”
Emily was lying on her bed reading a book when suddenly there was a knock at the door.
