Chapter 20
Kaian finally embraced even his fear and opened his eyes.
At that moment...
As if responding to the courage of the young life before it, the world revealed its true form.
Fwoooosh...!
Kaian trembled at the sight.
"...!"
The mine was no longer dark.
Brilliant mana in five different colors floated through the air in perfect balance.
The paths through which mana flowed were clearer than anything he had ever seen.
And beautiful.
It truly felt as though his eyes had opened for the first time.
But his sight was not the only thing that had changed.
Something even more incredible had happened.
Without moving from where he sat...
Kaian could sense all of Eldargrove.
What is this?
I can see everything.
No... I can feel everything...!
Lightning Ridge.
The volcanic region.
The Golden Plains.
Even Twofold Lake and the Emerald Forest, places he had never visited, entered his awareness.
It was an awakening on the level of his very existence.
So this is how a mage sees the world.
Eldargrove, sensed through his inner world, was completely different from the Eldargrove Kaian had known until now.
He could feel the richness and harmony of the five manas directly through his soul.
And instinctively...
Kaian understood that such perfect mana balance was anything but normal.
This is the world Eldarin dreams of.
The balance of mana that was lost long ago.
For some reason, Kaian felt intense longing for a world he had never known.
He thought he could hear mana singing mournfully.
No.
There was no mistake.
All of Eldargrove was singing together.
"...Beautiful."
Eldarin raised one corner of her lips.
"So you've finally seen this land properly."
"Yes. This is Eldargrove."
Kaian stared around in amazement.
"You created all of this..."
"With your own magic?"
His hands began trembling.
Every arrogant thing he had ever said to Eldarin flashed through his mind like a moving picture.
"Well..."
"I had a lot of time."
"That's all."
She had this level of magical ability...
And she was still humble.
"Whoa..."
Kaian stared at her face with entirely new respect.
Eldarin slowly frowned.
"I dislike that look."
"Can I become as strong as you someday?"
"Why are you asking me?"
Eldarin looked directly at him.
"Ask yourself."
"A mage understands, imagines, and brings that imagination into reality."
"You can become as strong as you believe you can become."
"Understand..."
"Imagine..."
"And make it real..."
"Correct."
Eldarin continued.
"Those are the three powers used to Realize Mana Matter."
"More precisely, they belong to Secondary Mana, though most people simply call them magical powers."
Kaian had heard a little about the three powers used to Realize Mana Matter.
Anyone born in Mana Gaia, a Mana Gaian, awakened magical power around the age of fifteen.
At that time, they normally gained one of three powers.
[Thought Power]
[Creativity]
[Willpower]
Thought Power allowed a mage to cast magic through understanding a phenomenon.
Creativity allowed them to cast through free imagination.
Willpower caused mana to respond directly to the caster's powerful determination.
"Thought Power is the most common."
"It accounts for around sixty percent of Mana Gaians."
Eldarin continued adding to Kaian's knowledge.
"Willpower is the rarest of the three, at around five percent."
"It sometimes appears among mages who excel in physical combat."
Then she asked,
"Do you know what color each of the three powers produces?"
Kaian confidently nodded.
"Even children's books teach that much."
"Thought Power is green."
"Creativity is blue."
"Willpower is red."
"Not bad."
Eldarin looked at him.
"Then what color appears when you use magic?"
"Obviously it's...!"
Kaian froze.
"Huh?"
"What was it again...?"
Every time he had used magic, he had completely lost himself while trying to burn everything.
There was no way he had been calmly checking what color his mana was.
Kaian answered in a tiny voice.
"...All I remember is wanting to burn everything."
"Turquoise."
Kaian tilted his head.
"Is that different from green?"
"Yes."
"...?"
Kaian waited for Eldarin to explain how turquoise and green were different.
But Eldarin sat there with an expression that clearly said:
I answered your question. Why are you still looking at me?
In the end, Amber smiled and explained.
[Turquoise is a mixture of the green of Thought Power and the blue of Creativity.]
[It means Kaian is a Multiple Mana User who possesses more than one magical power.]
"Ooooh!"
Kaian's eyes sparkled.
"Multiple Mana User."
"That's a good thing, right?"
"Hah. What an obvious question."
The rarity of Kaian's turquoise mana had been one major reason Eldarin decided to raise him as a hero.
"You may freely take pride in your power."
"Only around three percent of mages in Mana Gaia use turquoise mana."
Of course...
Eldarin could see another dormant power inside Kaian.
But she decided not to tell him.
If I tell him now and he later fails to awaken Willpower, those words may become a wall trapping him.
It is potential he must discover himself.
Naturally, Kaian became curious about mages who possessed all three powers.
"Ooooh...!"
"Then are there mages who can use all three?"
"How many are there?"
"Hmm."
"Less than half a percent."
"You could live your entire life without ever meeting one."
Eldarin looked at him strangely.
"Though... you seem to have been rather fortunate."
"Me?"
Kaian looked completely confused.
No matter how hard he thought about it, the word fortunate did not feel particularly close to his life.
Or maybe surviving everything means I am lucky...?
While Kaian frowned over the question, the ever-kind Amber explained.
[The mana your mother left inside you through her Word Magic.]
[I can feel all three powers within it.]
Only then did Kaian remember the moment Liana had cast body-enhancement magic on him.
Back then...
A brilliant white light had flowed from his mother into him.
"You should be grateful."
Eldarin's voice became gentler.
"You inherited an extremely noble bloodline and powerful mana."
Kaian's voice trembled slightly.
"My mother's mana..."
"Is it still inside me?"
"Yes."
"Very faintly."
"But it is definitely still there."
"I see..."
Kaian lowered his eyes.
"She's still here..."
That meant he might be able to hear his mother's voice again through her Word Magic.
Perhaps the voice he had heard when he opened the door to his Core Area had not been an illusion after all.
Kaian thought about that incredible, heart-wrenching possibility again and again.
Then, after a while, determination returned to his face.
He pointed into the air.
"Amber."
"Do I just send the flames through that path?"
"...!"
Amber and Eldarin's eyes widened at the same time.
There really was a path of mana in the air where Kaian was pointing.
A short while earlier, after checking the height of Kaian's raised arm, Amber had manipulated the surrounding mana and created it.
The hardest part of casting magic for the first time was controlling direction and power.
So Amber had prepared a path.
If Kaian simply released his flames freely, the mana path would naturally guide them toward the silver vein.
Eldarin quietly admired him.
I didn't think he would notice it.
But Kaian had clearly seen the mana path.
He had even realized Amber was the one who created it.
His mana perception is even better than I expected.
Eldarin lightly nodded toward Amber, giving her permission to explain.
[Yes... that's right.]
[I made a path so you don't need to worry about controlling the direction or power.]
[If you repeat the incantation Eldarin teaches you, the flames should follow this path and reach the silver vein across from us.]
Kaian immediately turned toward Eldarin.
"Then how do I do the incantation?"
"Hmm..."
Originally, Eldarin had planned to teach him the most basic fire spell.
If he simply repeated a prepared incantation, the spell would activate naturally.
But after seeing Kaian's mana perception...
Eldarin suddenly changed her mind.
"...An incantation is simply one method of conveying your will to the world."
"It should be short."
"Clear."
"And powerful."
"In real combat, you will never have time for long casting."
Kaian blinked.
"Huh?"
"Then spells don't have fixed incantations?"
"There are countless spellbooks in the world."
Eldarin's eyes narrowed.
"But those are merely guides for incomplete mages."
"They are not the true path."
"Every mage possesses a different inner world."
"So why should the words used to bring that inner world into reality be identical?"
While explaining, Eldarin realized something herself.
...I nearly made a serious mistake because I was impatient.
Kaian's future path was the path of a hero.
Calling it merely difficult would not be enough.
In the future, he could not simply choose the fastest path.
He could not rely on luck.
He would have to choose the single path he believed was right...
And continue forward.
Eldarin's duty was to give Kaian the strength to make that choice.
The strength to carry his own decisions through.
And the strength to survive the brutal road of a hero.
Her voice grew firmer.
"A mage is someone who brings their inner world into reality."
"Child of turquoise mana, understand the world, but never build walls around your possibilities."
"The same applies to incantations."
Eldarin looked directly into Kaian's clear turquoise eyes.
"Simply give a name to what you wish to accomplish."
"Then your Mana Matter, and the world itself, will answer that name."
Kaian looked at the mana path floating in the air again.
A clarity sharper than ever entered his eyes.
"A name..."
"Yes."
Eldarin nodded.
"Naming is casting."
Kaian's gaze slowly moved away from the mana path.
Past it.
Toward the enormous silver vein.
"Then I don't necessarily have to use that path, right?"
"Correct."
Eldarin's expression twisted strangely.
It was the familiar look she made whenever she was desperately trying to suppress an excited smile.
Kaian's own mouth began curling upward too.
"Understand."
"Imagine."
"Make it real."
"Right?"
"Exactly."
"And the name should be good?"
"Short."
"Clear."
"Powerful."
Amber looked nervously between Kaian and Eldarin.
Their smiles looked disturbingly similar.
What kind of smiles are those...?
Then Kaian changed from sitting comfortably to kneeling.
"Good."
"I was already in a hurry."
He looked toward the burning world inside himself.
"The whole country in there is on fire right now."
"And honestly..."
"That path looks a little too narrow."
Kaian grabbed his right wrist with his left hand.
Then he pressed his right palm against the ground.
His grin widened.
"All right."
"Let's do this in one shot."
FWOOOOOSH!
As if understanding its master's will...
Powerful turquoise mana erupted from Kaian's body.
