Inside the red-painted carriage, Fia sat across from a blue-haired girl named Callista.
If you looked closely, you’d notice the blue-haired girl wasn’t human.
Where her ears should be, there were small white wings, and her brown eyes had vertical pupils like a cat’s.
Even though these non-human features didn’t hide Callista’s beauty, anyone meeting her for the first time would probably be startled.
Fia had her fingers interlaced, elbows on the table, wearing a serious expression that gave nothing away.
“So, you’re here because you want to know about the magical disaster in the Parched Wasteland?”
“Y-yes, exactly.”
Callista, who’d only just been untied by Anastasia, still seemed a bit uncomfortable.
She was stretching her arms and looking around the carriage.
Right now, only she and Fia were inside.
Anastasia, not knowing when the rain would return, was outside bleeding the wild rabbit they’d caught, trying to get dinner ready early.
Liti and Callista’s companion weren’t in the carriage either—Liti thought it was too stuffy inside and refused to come back, while Callista’s companion was standing guard nearby, using “keeping watch” as an excuse.
It was worth mentioning that both of these third-tier folks were actually pretty strong.
The only reason Anastasia had tossed them aside like trash was because she was much stronger than the two of them put together.
Even if she wasn’t a true fifth-tier yet, a quasi-fifth-tier was still way out of the league of two third-tiers.
The gap in mana reserves, learned spells, combat experience, and mastery of power wasn’t something you could close overnight.
Looking at the blue-haired girl in front of her, hair a bit messy, Fia felt a headache coming on.
The “magical disaster in the Parched Wasteland” Callista mentioned was obviously her own doing.
The question now was what Callista’s intentions were.
If she was just curious, like the moon dragon Radrick, that was fine.
But if Callista was thinking, “You’re strong, so I want your help,” then Fia would have to lie her way out of it.
There were always people like that in real life—thinking others had plenty of time or were good at something, so they’d always try to bother them.
Like when someone gets rich, suddenly all sorts of distant relatives or even total strangers come asking for money, with the excuse, “You’re rich, so lending me a bit won’t hurt,” and as for when they’ll pay it back, who knows.
And it’s not just about money—people do this with all sorts of things.
Fia didn’t really care about the reward.
What bothered her was that she had nothing to do with Callista and saw no reason to waste her time helping her, especially since who knew what kind of trouble that might drag her into.
Besides, she had more important things to do—a hundred Callistas put together wouldn’t be as important as Claire.
Rather than admit she was behind the magic in the Parched Wasteland and have Callista beg her for help, only to have to refuse her anyway, it was easier to just play dumb from the start.
With her plan set, Fia waited quietly for Callista to speak.
Callista swallowed nervously, sat up straight with her legs together, and folded the wings at her ears back against her skin.
“Your Highness, as a seventh-tier magic chanter, your magical skills are beyond what most people can imagine.
Even though Aurora City is far from where the disaster happened, with the power of that explosion, I’m sure you could tell it was on par with tenth-tier magic.
You must know something about it.”
Callista looked up at Fia with her brown, vertical pupils.
Compared to Anastasia’s strength and maturity or Claire’s gentleness and wisdom, Callista was more lively and charming.
Just from the way her eyes darted around, Fia could tell she was a mischievous type who probably caused a lot of trouble.
“I do know something.
And?”
Seeing that Fia wasn’t annoyed, Callista, dressed in an off-shoulder coat, brightened up.
“I saw you fighting the moon dragon that night.
That dragon was at least sixth-tier.
If you’d beaten it with magic, that’d be one thing, but you fought it with your bare hands, and it couldn’t even fight back.
If you hadn’t held back, you would’ve beaten it to death—no one’s ever heard of such a thing! If I told people ‘the elf princess beat a moon dragon to a pulp with her fists,’ everyone would think I was crazy!”
“It was just luck.
That moon dragon didn’t use magic, otherwise it wouldn’t have been so easy.”
“Even so!”
Callista’s voice suddenly got louder, enough that Anastasia outside stopped what she was doing and looked over.
Realizing she’d lost her composure, Callista rubbed her nose and sat back down, embarrassed.
“But even so, everyone on the World Tree Continent knows elves aren’t physically strong.
Among all the humanoid races, only vampires, some beastkin, and us Starcrystal Beasts have great physical power.
Elves, like fairies, are good at magic, but their bodies are as fragile as humans’.
For you to knock down a moon dragon with your fists—if I hadn’t seen it myself, I’d never believe it.
Honestly, I feel like if you wanted, you could throw me over that mountain.”
She actually could—not just over that mountain, but over the one behind it, too—but she wasn’t here for flattery.
What was Callista really getting at?
Fia couldn’t help but tap her finger on the table.
“Let’s get to the point.
What do you want from me?”
“Uh.
I want to know if the magic in the Parched Wasteland was done by the silver-haired girl with you?”
One second she was praising her, the next she was talking about Claire.
Wasn’t that a bit of a jump? Fia thought so, but her expression didn’t change.
“Why do you think that?”
“She used an eighth-tier forbidden spell, ‘Judgment of the Gods,’ to destroy the Unsinkable Moon.
Never mind that she destroyed the Holy Nation’s national treasure—after using a forbidden spell, she didn’t look tired or drained of mana, which means she’s even stronger than that.
So, I think she might be the one who caused the magical disaster.
I’d like you, Your Highness, to introduce me to her.
Of course, we at Magic of the Midnight Sun will offer a reward you’ll be satisfied with—gold, magic items, even military support, whatever you want.”
Callista paused, watching Fia’s face, sounding very confident.
“I’ve heard you’re a bookworm.
Our Magic of the Midnight Sun is all about pure magic, with no faith involved, and we have the most advanced magical theories on the continent.
However many magic book copies you want, we can provide them.”
“Also, our base is in the south of the Land of the Dead.
If you don’t want magic books, but want the Elf Kingdom to free up its hands and end the war with the Holy Nation quickly, we can send people to help the elves attack the Land of the Dead from the south, easing the pressure on the northern front, so you can move more troops to deal with the Holy Nation on the west.”
“All you have to do is introduce us to that silver-haired reclusive witch, and in return you’ll get military support that would make the Elf King happy and raise your status at home.
That’s a pretty generous deal.
If it weren’t for the fact that only you, who’s been accepted by the witch, can reach her, I wouldn’t be able to offer this.”
“To be honest, I actually learned the silver-haired girl’s name last night, but when I woke up, all I had was a vague impression.
It was only when my companion, who stayed up all night, reminded me that I remembered it was the witch who destroyed the Unsinkable Moon.
I guess the witch doesn’t want to be bothered, so she cast a spell to blur people’s memories.
Without your help, we could spend ten or a hundred years and never find her.”
So that’s how it is.
Fia immediately understood why Callista was looking for her.
Callista had mistaken the forgetfulness curse on Claire as a spell Claire had cast on herself.
The logic was: “Claire is strong, but doesn’t want her peaceful life disturbed, so she put a spell on herself to make people forget about her and avoid trouble.”
And since Claire was traveling with Fia and helping her fight the church, their close relationship was obvious.
Callista thought that only through Fia could they reach Claire.
Plus, because Claire’s power was so overwhelming, Callista had mistaken her for a witch—a pretty funny misunderstanding.
The offer was nice, but Callista had gotten the premise wrong.
That magical disaster was Fia’s doing.
As for the reward Callista offered, Fia wasn’t impressed.
She didn’t know much about the souls in the Land of the Dead, but she figured even ghosts and spirits couldn’t survive a nuclear explosion… or an orbital strike.
If once wasn’t enough, she could just do it again.
After all, if the undead really couldn’t be killed, the elves wouldn’t be able to hold the front lines at all, and the undead would have overrun the continent by now.
So military support was pointless.
And while magic books were tempting, they weren’t a must-have—there were plenty of other magic books waiting for her in the Elf Kingdom.
Anastasia had said the Elf Kingdom was extremely powerful, even called the Elf Empire in some countries.
Just the royal city alone had two forbidden libraries.
The reason the elves lost ground to the Holy Nation at the start of the war was because the Holy Nation threw everything they had into a surprise attack, and the elves happened to have moved some of their troops away, with their top magic chanters not on the western front, so they got caught off guard.
Once the elves got their act together, the front lines quickly pushed back, to the point where the elf princess could run wild behind enemy lines and the Holy Nation had to bring out their national treasure to stop her.
If it weren’t for the fact that most of the land between the elves and the Holy Nation was ocean, with only a chain of small islands connecting them, and the elves lacked ships that could withstand magical storms, making supply lines hard to maintain, the Holy Nation would’ve lost a ton of territory by now.
Given all that, the Holy Nation should be grateful the undead in the Land of the Dead are keeping the elves busy.
From the elves’ perspective, if they can’t crush the Holy Nation before winter, they’ll be fighting on two fronts—against the endless undead in the Land of the Dead, and across the sea in winter storms against the Holy Nation, with the gains nowhere near worth the cost.
Even so, the elves had still managed to take half the Holy Nation’s coastal cities.
Fia said all this without changing her expression.
“The purpose? Just an introduction, and the reward is already so generous.
What do you want from her?”
“We want to invite her to join Magic of the Midnight Sun, even if it’s just in name, or for her to show up occasionally.
Magic of the Midnight Sun needs someone like her.”
“Oh?” Fia’s expressionless face twitched, and she tilted her head slightly.
“Let’s hear it.”
Callista took a deep breath, her expression turning serious.
“Our Magic of the Midnight Sun is an organization that rejects the gods and firmly believes that intelligent beings can change nature and create miracles with their own power.
Faith magic has its merits, but it lacks flexibility, and you have to become a believer of a god—in fact, calling them believers is too kind, it’s more like being a vassal or a subordinate.
That’s humiliating and demeaning.”
“We are born equal, whether human or dragon, god or darkborn patient.
Intelligent beings have no obligation to obey another race from birth.
Gods are just another kind of being with great power.
As long as our magic is strong enough, even gods will bow to us.
Instead of begging the gods for miracles, isn’t it more appealing and feasible to rely on ourselves and our peers to get out of trouble? Gods accept people’s devotion but give nothing in return.
That’s arrogance.
We have no reason to worship them.”
“So… you want to use tenth-tier magic to kill gods?” As an atheist, Fia found Callista’s words somewhat persuasive.
In Fia’s world, sages had said there was no need to worship gods; with technological progress, humans could become gods themselves.
But that was a world without gods.
On the World Tree Continent, gods really existed—unless the “oracles” that both the Cardinal and Claire mentioned were just people pretending to be gods.
“Of course not,” Callista denied.
“At least not now.
The power intelligent beings have is still too weak to oppose the gods.
We want that witch to join Magic of the Midnight Sun so we can make her a hero who proves mortals can defy fate.”
“Her existence proves that intelligent beings can use tenth-tier magic on their own.
Right now, it can only destroy, but what about in the future? Who’s to say someone won’t invent magic that turns deserts into oases, or creates things from nothing? We’re full of possibilities.
To break free from the gods’ shackles, Your Highness, please introduce us to that witch.”
“Hmm…” Fia fell into thought.
She could just deny Callista and say Claire wasn’t the one who caused the magic disaster.
But then what? Fia wasn’t sure.
To be fair, she thought Magic of the Midnight Sun was a decent organization, but since she couldn’t say for sure that the gods on the World Tree Continent were all fake, she couldn’t agree so easily.
This world wasn’t Earth.
On Earth, there were no observable gods, but here, she hadn’t even had a good look around yet.
In the future, she’d not only have to find the elven god to break the curse, but maybe other gods too.
Picking a side rashly wasn’t wise.
Besides, faith magic really did benefit people, and was even cheaper than elemental magic.
Callista’s claim that “gods can’t answer their followers’ prayers” was a bit shaky.
After all, not everyone could learn elemental magic.
For ordinary people who couldn’t use magic, it didn’t matter whether faith magic or pure magic became mainstream.
Magic of the Midnight Sun could use water magic to bring rain to crops, but so could the church, and their healing magic was even stronger than regular healing magic.
Thinking of this, Fia couldn’t help but sigh inwardly.
Callista made it sound nice—“overthrow the gods”—but in the end, their fight with the church was really about whether faith magic or pure magic was better.
Gods and the church were just personified enemies.
Their struggle wouldn’t change ordinary people’s lives, and might not even advance society.
Faith magic and pure magic were really just two different tech trees.
Until history reached that point, no one could say for sure that faith magic was inferior to pure magic, or vice versa.
After all, both could improve over time, and the church hadn’t stopped people from studying either kind of magic—the church had never forbidden magic research, or there wouldn’t be a Mage Association in Aurora City.
For ordinary people, it was no different from a change of dynasty in a monarchy.
Even if pure magic replaced faith magic, the poor would still live the same way, with hunger and cold always hanging over them like a shadow.
Although Callista’s group had saved three darkborn patients in the square earlier, maybe it was just to prove that darkborn patients weren’t colluding with the darkborn, to make trouble for the church.
If those three hadn’t been darkborn patients, but had been executed by the church for some other made-up crime, Callista wouldn’t have saved them.
Telling the truth wouldn’t help at all, and might make enemies without realizing it, or even get her mistaken for the leader of Magic of the Midnight Sun.
More importantly, she had to deal with Claire’s curse first.
If Magic of the Midnight Sun’s goal in defeating the church was to actually help those in need, not just to prove their pure magic was better than the church’s faith magic, and they could improve ordinary people’s lives, maybe she’d help them.
With her mind made up, Fia pressed her lips together and smiled.
“Your idea is good, but Claire isn’t the one who caused the magic disaster.
The reason your memory of Claire is fuzzy, Callista, is because she’s cursed by the world.
She has two curses: to be feared and to be forgotten.
Also, she’s not a witch.”
“Claire… so that’s her name.
But besides her, who else could have caused that magic disaster?”
Fia just smiled and didn’t answer.
After a moment, disappointment appeared in Callista’s eyes.
“Your Highness doesn’t know either… Sigh, I knew it wouldn’t be that simple.
Ah, we can discuss something else.
Your Highness must be interested in the magic disaster in the Withered Desert, right? Magic of the Midnight Sun is willing to work with Sylval to investigate and find the person who used tenth-tier magic.”
Seeing that Fia still didn’t answer, Callista clenched her hands and her tone dropped.
“I know the elven nation is much stronger than Magic of the Midnight Sun, but we won’t just take your information for free.
We’re willing to pay for it.
Of course, if we find anything useful, Your Highness will have to buy it from us too.
How about it?”
“If that’s all, I agree.” Since she was the one who used tenth-tier magic, there was no problem agreeing.
“Also, since Magic of the Midnight Sun has its own unique views on magic, maybe you can offer a new perspective on breaking Claire’s curse.
Her curse is something even the Goddess of Life can’t fix.
If you can solve it, it would definitely prove your magic is better than the gods’.”
“We can, but the Claire you mentioned isn’t with you.
If she’s not here, even if we start researching, we can’t test the results.
Professor Andrew always said research is a step-by-step process.
Only by trial and error can you find the answer.”
“That’s true.”
Fia couldn’t help but smile.
Callista didn’t refuse or look troubled, but agreed right away.
This Magic of the Midnight Sun really was impressive.
At least when it came to pursuing magic, they were serious.
“Can you tell me your address? I’ll come find you in the future.”
This time, it was Callista’s turn to smile.
“When Your Highness returns home, just go to the Mage Association and mention Magic of the Midnight Sun and my name.
Someone there will ask what you need.”
At this, Callista seemed to remember something and pushed a green leather pouch toward Fia.
“This is a little token of sincerity from me.
My magic mentor, Professor Andrew, is a famous madman in the field of magic.
This is an item he invented called the ‘World Tree Key.’ If you stab it into an enemy, it can temporarily separate their soul from their body.
But it doesn’t work on souls that are too strong or stable.
Maybe it’ll help you in battle, so please accept it.”
“It sounds valuable.
Are you sure you want to just give it to me?” Fia opened the pouch and found a yellow-green dagger inside.
“No problem,” Callista sighed helplessly, looking troubled.
“If Your Highness doesn’t take it, I’ll be the one with a headache.
Professor Andrew is a notorious magic maniac.
He tells everyone the World Tree Key is his greatest invention, but honestly, it’s hard to call something with such a weird effect a ‘great invention.’”
“But I was unlucky enough to be assigned to Professor Andrew.
If I don’t finish his assignments, it’s hard to graduate from the academy, even if I outrank him.
His assignment for us is to spread the World Tree Key as much as possible.
Whoever makes it famous gets a mentor’s recommendation and can become a mentor themselves.
So this thing is basically worthless.
Look, Your Highness.”
With a look of disdain, Callista took dozens of identical pouches out of her spatial pocket and spread them out on the table.
“The production cost is ridiculously low.
Every student gets two or three hundred of these.
Separating soul from body sounds impressive, but only if the soul isn’t too stable.
And what’s stable? I can say for sure, except for newborn babies, everyone’s soul is stable.
Our souls and bodies are matched from birth—there’s no such thing as unstable.”
“Only undead or spirits possessing other bodies have stability issues.
And after being stabbed with the World Tree Key, the soul only leaves the body for a few seconds before returning.”
“Whoa!” Fia exclaimed.
This was basically made to deal with her.
“Is there a limit to how many times it can be used?”
“No, just inject mana and it works—wait, Your Highness!” While Callista was talking, Fia had already pressed the dagger hard against her fingertip, slicing it open.
Blood welled up quickly.
But aside from her finger hurting a bit, nothing happened.
Practice is the only test of truth.
Looks like this invention really is useless.
Fia pursed her lips.
Because of Fia’s sudden action, Callista panicked, standing up and leaning over the table to grab Fia’s injured hand, looking agitated.
From this angle… she could see right down her collar.
Light blue.
Fia politely looked away.
“Huh…? I saw blood, but nothing happened…”
Because of nanomachines, nanomachines.
Fia answered in her heart.
Thinking she’d imagined it, Callista looked embarrassed and sat back down.
“Ahem, that’s all I wanted to say.
Any other questions, Your Highness?”
“No.
Thanks for the gift—want to have dinner together?”
“No…” Callista’s already awkward expression became even more awkward.
She touched the white feathers that had replaced her ears.
“That subordinate of yours… I don’t want to see her again.
She reminds me of bad memories.”
Probably has something to do with Anastasia’s interrogation.
I’m a bit curious about what actually happened.
I’ll ask Anastasia about it later.
“Well then, I’ll take my leave first—oh, by the way, the magic chanting corps that appeared in the plaza that day and helped me escape, that was actually under the command of Her Highness the Princess, wasn’t it? That’s a truly well-trained team.
I’ve never seen a magic chanting corps with such perfect rhythm and such precise control over their magic.
On behalf of Magic of the Midnight Sun, I salute you.
You are a magic chanter worthy of respect.”
“Uh, actually, that was…”
“Well then, until we meet again.”
Because Fia’s hesitant voice was a bit too quiet, Callista didn’t hear her.
After placing her left hand on her right shoulder and bowing to Fia, Callista jumped out of the carriage and left with her companion using flight magic.
It’s worth mentioning that, seemingly on purpose, Callista didn’t take the dozens of pouches filled with Yggdrasil Keys on the table, leaving all of them for Fia.
Looks like Callista really is troubled by this invention.
Fia couldn’t help but give a wry smile, then let out a long sigh.
