Book 3: Chapter 198: Mage Ranks

Millennium Witch

The morning mist gathered and dispersed; the asters withered and bloomed again. Time, like a gentle spring breeze, twirled along the eaves of Sanglen Village and drifted lightly past, leaving no trace—aside from blowing a few more hairs off the priest’s head.

Another year passed. Yvette’s research into the faith element hit a bottleneck. Beyond a shortage of materials, her main findings were confined to the mental realm; it felt like this stuff wasn’t good for much besides developing a few mind-type potions.

That afternoon, cicadas droned. Sunlight filtered through the green canopy, scattering into broken patches beneath the cottage porch.

Lounging in her chair, dozing through a nap, Yvette half-opened her eyes at the sound of footsteps to see Lucia whirlwind into the yard, plop onto the edge of the recliner, and grumble, 「Yvette, Dad won’t agree—what should I do?」

Yvette glanced at her. 「Agree to what?」

By now it had been three and a half years since the transmigration—close to four. Lucia had gone from nine to thirteen. Her posture was much straighter; the baby fat had faded from her cheeks; her lines were clean and crisp, carrying a hint of heroic spirit.

The most eye-catching thing was still her vivid red hair, its purple-tinted tips like a burning sunset. One red, one white—she and Yvette were the village’s most captivating beauty duo.

But because people held the witch in awe and dread, the boys’ crushes on Lucia showed even more. Lucia, however, could really fight—her swordsmanship cut through all comers. Most boys couldn’t even beat her, let alone work up the nerve to confess—so it was unrequited love across the board.

「Registering at the Academy of Truth,」 Lucia said dejectedly. 「Didn’t we agree to go together?」

In her otherworld travel plan, the Academy of Truth was a must-stop. With her faith-element research stalled, she’d decided to leave. When she’d brought it up earlier, she’d learned Lucia also wanted to take the Academy’s entrance exam, so she’d agreed to travel with her.

The Academy was both familiar and unfamiliar to her. There would be many new people, matters, and environments to deal with. Going with Lucia meant mutual support—and less loneliness.

「Mr. Sterling won’t let you go?」 Yvette asked, curious.

「Yeah,」 Lucia sighed. 「He says the Academy is too far and unsafe, the travel costs too much, and he doesn’t want to go anywhere far either.」

Listening to the redhead grumble, Yvette more or less understood. Eamon Sterling seemed to mean that, after wandering half his life, he planned to settle down in Sanglen for good—no interest in long trips—just run his forge and live out his years.

Also, if Lucia went to take the exam, the tuition and travel alone were a hefty sum, and it was easy to run into danger along the way. Besides, at a place like the Academy, the entrance exam was one-in-ten-thousand hard; if she failed, it would be a huge loss. Better not waste the money to begin with.

Yvette suspected a lot of excuses in there. Lucia’s magical talent was downright absurd. While the second-most-gifted kid in the village was still striving for 100 mana to condense a mana core, Lucia’s mana had already exceeded 500—junior mage level. Even on the high-magic Radiant Continent, that surprised Yvette a bit.

With talent that good, there was no way Eamon hadn’t noticed. If he still refused to let Lucia take the Academy’s entrance exam—and wouldn’t accompany her—the reason was probably just one: Lucia’s background definitely had issues, and he worried that in a world-famous, mixed-bag place like the Academy, she’d attract trouble.

By the way, according to the Academy of Truth’s “Standard Mage Rank Classification,” set by a legendary archmage back in the day and used to this day, the average mana totals for each tier are as follows—magic apprentice is a fixed 100 points, corresponding to condensing a mana core.

Junior, intermediate, and senior mage are human-defined tiers, with averages around 500, 2,000, and 5,000—though it’s not absolute and often varies widely.

Archmage is a fixed 10,000 points—a kingdom-stabilizing powerhouse. The wording might sound a bit grandiose, but even a small country like the Kingdom of Jisul counts as a “nation,” doesn’t it?

Additionally, 10,000 is said to be a bottleneck. Upon reaching that number, most archmages never advance another inch in mana for the rest of their lives. Only a very few of astonishing genius can take the next step and become the legendary “Saint Archmage.”

Yvette didn’t know why. Her own mana was twenty-four thousand and she hadn’t felt any bottleneck. The only clue was that after ten thousand, her mana pressure stopped rising and the mana core in her chest began to grow day by day. She didn’t know whether that was related to the so-called bottleneck.

Back to the point.

Having guessed Eamon’s thinking, Yvette shook her head inwardly. With her along, how could Lucia possibly run into danger? What would that say about her?

So she said directly, 「Go ask Mr. Sterling this: if he escorts you, I’ll cover all travel and registration fees. What conditions does he want?」

Lucia wavered—it was tempting. But traveling with her dad would cost at least a dozen silver. She sighed. 「That’s too much money. How could I accept that?」

Yvette said, 「If you can’t accept it, treat it as a loan. If you pass the entrance exam and enroll at the Academy of Truth, your father will pay me back at once. If you fail, you can owe it. With your ability, you’ll pay it off sooner or later, won’t you?」

Lucia blinked, then brightened at once. 「Alright, I’ll go talk to Dad!」

Yvette nodded and settled back into her lounge chair to rest her eyes. But in less than half an hour, Lucia returned, head drooping, looking even more helpless.

「What now?」 Yvette said.

「Dad says he doesn’t like long trips, and he’s not at ease about me—so he still won’t agree.」

「…Is that so.」 Yvette thought that if it really wouldn’t work, then forget it. It wasn’t as if she had to force going to the Academy with Lucia.

「Did you ask if he had any conditions to relent?」

「He did,」 Lucia sighed. 「He said—unless I can prove I can beat him, that would prove I can protect myself, and then I can go to the Academy—」

「But how is that even possible!」 she added with a wail.

Hearing that, a peculiar look crossed Yvette’s face. 「That—might not be impossible.」

「Huh? How do I do it?」 Lucia blinked.

「…If you’re willing to learn,」 Yvette said, giving her a look.