“Mm…”
The sun slowly rose, its dazzling light spilling across the earth. A beam slipped through the curtains and fell across Itefeil’s face.
Itefeil rolled over, buried her head under the covers, and went right back to sleep.
“Meowww~”
La Luna came out of one of the rooms, crouched low, and stretched. Then she spotted Itefeil still fast asleep.
“Meow, meow!”
(Wake up! Wake up!)
La Luna jumped onto the sofa and nudged the sleeping Itefeil.
“Mmm… Mom, let me sleep a little longer~”
Itefeil clutched the covers tightly and pulled them over her head, with no intention of getting up at all.
La Luna yanked the curtains open. Sunlight instantly flooded the whole room. Then she tugged the covers right off Itefeil.
“Aah! My eyes!!!”
Itefeil shot upright and flailed for a moment, then slowly opened her eyes. The familiar living room. The familiar cat. Her mother was nowhere to be seen.
“Was this your doing, you little rascal?”
“Meow.”
Itefeil scooped up La Luna, who was standing beside her, and vigorously rubbed her cat head.
“You little troublemaker! You couldn’t even let me sleep a little longer!”
Itefeil checked the time. She had just enough time to make something to eat before heading to the police station to report for duty. But thinking about food reminded her of La Luna: she’d been so exhausted last night that she’d fallen asleep without eating dinner. Her stomach was completely empty now.
“Huh? Where did the things I bought last night go?”
Itefeil searched by the entrance for ages but couldn’t find the two bags of food she’d carried home the night before. She began to wonder if she’d been so tired that she’d only imagined buying them and coming home.
“Meow, meow!”
Just then, Luna tugged at Itefeil’s pant leg, then pointed toward the kitchen with a tiny paw.
?
La Luna led Itefeil to the kitchen, where she immediately spotted the two bags of food neatly arranged on the counter.
“So that’s where they were. I was looking everywhere… Wait, how did they get up here?”
She turned a puzzled look on La Luna, who immediately shot her a deeply disdainful look in return.
(What’re you looking at? Get lost.)
Then Itefeil rubbed her forehead.
“Whatever. I’ve probably just been so tired lately that I’m getting forgetful…”
Itefeil quickly whipped up a ready-made breakfast. After pouring La Luna some dried anchovies and a few slices of sausage, she wolfed down her own food, gave her appearance a quick once-over, and hurried off to the police station.
“Meow, meow, meow…”
(Sigh. Young people these days.)
Watching Itefeil hurry away, La Luna suddenly remembered how, in her previous life, she’d often seen people on social media complaining that their children rushed off to work and never had any time for them.
La Luna didn’t have to worry about that sort of thing. In her previous life, she’d always been alone. ┐(´-｀)┌
Once Itefeil had left, La Luna could use magic without holding back.
(I finished the first book on the basics of magic last night. I should practice the spells I’ve learned a little.)
La Luna focused on the six magic runes quietly arranged in her mind. Nearly the entire first half of the beginner’s book covered magical theory and structure, while most of the second half explained how magic runes were constructed. But the very last page covered the relationship between mana and mental energy, along with how to practice.
That was when La Luna finally understood: magic in this world was formed by combining mental energy and mana. Mana, drawn from one’s mental energy, made it easier for a caster to control magic and reduced the strain caused by exhausting their mental energy. That was how Mages could keep casting spells for longer.
But until now, La Luna had always cast spells using her mental energy alone. The cost might not have seemed high because she’d deliberately kept her output under control. And when the target was a living creature, the amount of energy used depended on the target’s mental strength. That was why using magic to move herself had taken so much out of her.
(Then let’s try this.)
“Meditation.”
She slowly converted her mental energy into mana, which in turn replenished her mental energy on its own. This was the most basic skill every Mage had to learn. As La Luna meditated, she clearly felt a little of her mental energy turn into mana and fill her body. As time passed, the mana gradually filled her up, while her mental energy remained full to the point of nearly overflowing.
(What should I do… Keep going?)
La Luna had only been meditating for a short while, yet she already felt as if her body were full of mana. Just as she wondered whether she should stop converting it, her body suddenly began to change.
“Meow, meow…”
Her thin cat legs gradually gained a little muscle. The claws tucked inside her pink paw pads grew sharper and harder, and her hearing and vision rapidly improved. At the same time, the mana that had filled her body was slowly being used up.
Feeling the mana slowly transform her body, La Luna decided to keep converting. This was clearly a good thing. A stronger body could hold more mana, and her physical strength was increasing too. That meant her overall abilities would definitely grow stronger.
La Luna also realized that if the Mages of this world trained the same way, they wouldn’t be the frail, helpless sort she’d read about in books in her old world. They’d all be musclebound monsters.
But so far, she hadn’t seen any Mages with particularly powerful builds. Or were the people she’d seen along the way even Mages at all?
It was clear that after learning about magic, La Luna had realized her first impression of this world was off. She’d mistakenly assumed that everyone she’d met could use magic. But as she recalled, the way they’d all used their abilities was different from spellcasting—for example, the bandits carrying black blades on the Divine Road, and that white-haired girl.
That fireball the white-haired girl had conjured earlier—was it really a fireball spell? Flames created by magic were ultimately just ordinary fire unless a high-level Mage shaped them according to magical principles. And she’d also enchanted a weapon, making flames wrap around its blade—and those flames had all sorts of abilities.
La Luna thought about how many magic runes that kind of technique would require. The number was downright terrifying!
By comparison, all the spells Itefeil had demonstrated were fairly basic water- and fire-summoning spells. Of course, that had a lot to do with the fact that La Luna had never seen Itefeil fight.
Even so, La Luna couldn’t help wondering whether magic was the only ability in this world.
