Episode 48. Two Problems
"Then try using magic once."
Priya said, crossing her legs.
The hem of her velvet garment rustled as it draped down.
"Magic?"
"Yes. The type you're most confident in."
'What should I use?'
What Binaeril mainly used was elemental magic.
He was confident in wind and lightning as well, but ever since handling Eden, he had often used earth-attribute magic.
'But. As expected, it's that.'
But even among those, there was a type he was most confident in.
This was the magic for which he had first received praise from others.
A single snow crystal formed at Binaeril's fingertips.
Even with just a little imagination, he could manifest a snowflake clearer and more complex than before.
'Ugh!'
But even casting this simple magic was followed by a stabbing headache.
Priya observed Binaeril's magic with impassive eyes, then noticed him furrowing his brows.
"It seems your mind hasn't fully recovered yet."
"No. I can do it."
"As if you could."
Binaeril's mind was devastated by the fight with Dominic and the subsequent strain.
So much so that even using a single simple magic caused pain right now.
"It can't be helped."
Binaeril had expected her to suggest resting for a few days.
But Priya presented a completely unexpected solution.
"Let's try it in our dreams."
Priya Merzina. After leaving the Vitori Theocracy, she had been chased by the order's soldiers and drifted into the Empire.
That she, who had mysophobia, had hidden in the Winterthorn Marsh was all to avoid the order's pursuit.
During the days she had been active in the Theocracy with her lover, one nickname filled with people's fear had followed her.
'The Witch of Illusion.'
Priya Merzina was a mage specialized in handling illusions and enchantment.
Priya exhaled a long stream of smoke from the pipe in her mouth.
Her room gradually filled with smoke.
Binaeril was sucked into her dream.
"How is it?"
A muffled voice came, as if his head were submerged in water.
Binaeril opened his eyes.
Even though it felt like he had merely closed and opened his eyes for a moment, his mind was refreshed and clear.
"How long have I been asleep?"
"Haha, how long have you slept? Well? I suppose it depends on when you wake up?"
Priya was sitting in the same backless white chair as before.
The pipe in her mouth was the same too, but the surrounding scenery had completely changed, excluding her.
"This place is...?"
"It's my dream. And your dream at the same time."
"Huh?"
Binaeril repeated with a foolish expression.
"I told you to use the magic you're most confident in, and I understood right away. What kind of student you are."
"Student?"
"Yes. If that's all you can do with magic, then you're not a mage or anything at all. You're merely a student who wants to be a bookworm trapped in that narrow Magic Tower."
At her cold evaluation, Binaeril felt his throat tighten.
"Do you feel wronged? Then try again. With the magic you're most confident in."
'Yes. Then with that.'
Binaeril recalled the Hungry Ghost magic that had devoured the Hounds at Fairhill.
The moment he slowly pictured the image and tried to draw mana.
'Huh?'
Veritas. Veritas's mana did not flow in.
Priya looked at the flustered Binaeril and asked again.
"Why? Can't you do it? 'Your' magic that you're most confident in. I told you to try it once."
According to Veritas, the mana consumed by the Hungry Ghost magic was comparable to a 4th-tier spell.
So Binaeril tried chanting a magic one tier lower than that.
It was a 3rd-tier lightning strike magic.
"Lightning of the heavens, hear my call. Bring down heavenly punishment upon my enemy."
But this time too, he was short on mana all the same.
The frustrated Binaeril lowered another tier and barely managed to cast a 2nd-tier magic.
He was ashamed.
Binaeril realized anew that without Veritas, he was nothing.
All the mana he used came from Veritas.
Without the Book of Truth, he merely had mana at the level of 2nd tier. At that level, he would be at a level where he couldn't even pass the Skala of Elfenbein.
"Hmm. There are two problems."
"What are they?"
"You think of magic in a rigid, mold-bound way?"
"It would be better to show than explain."
Having finished speaking, Priya tore apart like slime and became two people.
"Hehe."
The two Priyas smiled the same smile.
She, who had been two, split again into four, soon eight, sixteen...
Before he knew it, countless duplicates of her were sitting in a circle around Binaeril.
"Can you do this?"
"This? Me?"
"Or how about this?"
The Priya located to Binaeril's right melted away.
"This?"
The Priya on the left scattered like dust.
Another one disappeared into shadows while maintaining her seated posture.
Someone turned to stone, someone was torn in half, and another swelled like a balloon and burst.
They were like people in a nightmare.
Finally, only a single Priya remained.
"I think I roughly know the magic you use even without watching. Freeze, burn, pierce, shatter, raise wind, strike lightning... Something like that, right?"
Of course. Wasn't that what 'common-sense' magic looked like?
"Aren't you underestimating magic's potential? Magic is, in short, the 'power of imagination.'"
Binaeril reconsidered the definition of magic he had known.
"You can manifest everything you can imagine. As long as you have sufficient mana and willpower."
"But..."
"But?"
"Isn't that something only mages who have reached a higher realm can do?"
Priya let out a sigh.
"Good grief, this is why brats who haven't shed their Magic Tower habits are pathetic. They only try to do exactly as they learned, exactly as their professors taught. Fools who limit their own potential."
Binaeril flinched at Priya's stinging rebuke.
He was included among the fools she mentioned.
"You really can only do what you were taught? Think. Have you never once used magic in a way not taught by the Magic Tower?"
'Come to think of it...'
There was one thing.
An advantage only Binaeril had that other mages didn't.
It was none other than chantless magic.
Binaeril felt a sense of incongruity.
Now that he thought about it, Priya had shown magic several times in front of him, but he had never once heard her chant.
"Priya-nim?"
"Ah, throw away such titles. I detest stiff formalities."
"Then, Nuna?"
The corners of Priya's lips rose subtly.
"How can Nuna use magic without chanting?"
Priya tapped the pipe she held with her fingertips.
"Thanks to this guy."
"What is it? An artifact?"
Priya let out a light scoff and answered.
"It's not like that. Just a cherished item. Chanting is merely one of many methods to activate magic. In my case, inhaling pipe smoke is the trigger."
"Then why do they teach chanting at Elfenbein?"
"How would I know? Probably because chanting is the easiest trigger. But."
Priya cut her words off once, then spoke as if hammering them into Binaeril.
"Those who can only do as they're told will only grow as much as they are told. Got it, kiddo?"
"...Yes, Nuna."
"Good. Then it's time to hear the second bitter truth."
"...I shall listen gladly."
Priya recalled her old lover.
The man called the Knight of Salvation.
She explained using an analogy.
"Suppose there's a man here who wants to become the greatest knight."
Hearing that example, Binaeril thought of his older brother.
By coincidence, the two were thinking of the same person.
The analogy continued.
"To become the greatest knight, he wanders the world seeking treasures.
Impenetrable armor, a ring that charms people, a sword that cuts everything, things like that.
The man who wrapped all those treasures around his entire body became the greatest knight he desired.
But here's the question. Did he truly achieve the goal he wanted?"
"No... he didn't."
"Yes. Without those treasures, he would be nothing more than a worthless person. You can never become strong by parasitizing others' power."
Priya raised her finger and poked Binaeril's chest.
Her words and her finger stabbed into Binaeril's chest like a dagger.
Parasitizing others' power.
Perhaps it wasn't Veritas parasitizing him, but he who had been parasitizing Veritas's mana.
"Too outstanding a weapon cannot make its master grow. You have to think of becoming strong enough to match it on your own."
Without Veritas, Binaeril was nothing but a brat mage barely beyond 2nd tier.
"Then what should I do?"
"Why ask that? To run well, you have to run. It's the same. To use magic well, you have to use magic. Here, in my dream."
"But didn't you say you were leaving soon?"
"Look at this kid flirting with Nuna. Don't worry. You can spend a day like a hundred days in my dream. That's why my nickname is the 'Beauty of Illusion.'"
Priya was an amazing mage.
"Here, you don't need to eat, drink, or sleep. Train as much as your greed allows. I'll watch over you."
In truth, it wasn't without risk.
Bringing Binaeril into her dream was purely her magic.
The longer Binaeril stayed here, the greater the burden she would have to bear.
But Priya didn't tell Binaeril that.
Because this favor was due to the lingering attachment she owed to the name 'Dalheim.'
"You'll need an opponent. How about this guy?"
A human figure suddenly sprouted up from the floor.
"This is...?"
It was the form of Dominic Silreo.
"Try your best against him. I'll go rest."
Priya turned her eyes back to reality, leaving Binaeril behind.
Unlike how Binaeril would be fighting desperately in the dream, his sleeping face was peaceful.
Priya approached him and covered him with stacked fabric pieces like a blanket.
For a moment, the image of Nunnaeril Dalheim overlapped with the young boy's face.
"I was truly surprised."
The fact that the unfamiliar visitor was the younger brother of a former lover was surprising, but the truly surprising thing was elsewhere.
Both brothers possessed ominous items.
"Hey, don't we have things to talk about too? I'd like you to stop the smoke."
She shouted at the empty room.
-Truly surprising. I should be the one saying that.
A writhing shadow rose up behind her.
Black, wispy hair; crescent-shaped eye corners, as if hiding insidious inner thoughts.
The Book of Truth, Veritas, manifested its form.
-A mere human mage claims to have seen through my existence?
"Hah, this is absurd. A mere object dares provoke Lady Priya?"