Returning to her desk, Hulim Heyerar opened the book and continued reading.

  "To... mast... the fundamental particles that form magic—Mana Essence—one must have a clear un... understanding. Our Spiritual Power is the b... bridge that connects us to Mana Essence... Bridge? Bridge of what?"

  "......"

  Seeing her youngest daughter standing in front of her once again, Lilia put down the book in her hand for the umpteenth time.

  "Mother, what do these two characters read?"

  Hulim held up the book and asked.

  Lilia explained patiently, "These two characters read ‘bridge’—you know, the kind that spans across a river."

  "Bridge?"

  Hulim blinked her big, round eyes, a look of confusion crossing her face.

  "Uh, what this sentence means is..."

  Noticing her daughter’s puzzlement, Lilia was about to elaborate.

  "I understand now. Thank you, Mother."

  Hulim bowed politely, then turned and scurried off with the book in hand.

  "......"

  Watching Hulim’s retreating figure, Lilia couldn’t help but wonder to herself,

  Just what did she understand...

  Back at her familiar desk.

  "Our Spiritual Power is the bridge that connects us to Mana Essence..."

  As she read the sentence aloud, a question mark popped up above Hulim’s head. Why a bridge? What was the point of building a bridge between Spiritual Power and Mana Essence? Was there a river between them? If so, was it a wooden bridge or a stone bridge?

  For a moment, Hulim’s mind wandered down a bizarre path, trying to wrap her head around the relationship between Spiritual Power and Mana Essence.

  "When our Spiritual Power recognizes Mana Essence, we will discover that it exists almost everywhere—including within our own bodies. Through the method of... of what?"

  "...What method of thinking?"

  "......"

  "Through the method of meditation, we can convert free-floating Mana Essence into Mana and store it within our bodies."

  Faced with Hulim, who had appeared before her yet again, Lilia explained with the same patience as before.

  "So it’s meditation. I get it now. Thank you, Mother."

  Hulim bowed deeply, then turned to leave with the book clutched to her chest.

  Watching her daughter’s small figure, Lilia hesitated for a moment, then called out softly, "Hulim."

  "Yes, Mother?"

  Hulim looked up at Lilia, her eyes wide with curiosity.

  "How about... Mother reads it to you?"

  Hulim glanced down at the grimoire in her hands, then up at Lilia, who was smiling gently at her. After a moment’s hesitation, she finally handed the book over to her mother.

  Lilia set her own book down on the windowsill, took the grimoire from Hulim, and lifted her daughter gently onto her lap.

  Then, the soft sound of Lilia’s reading voice filled the study.

  "The so-called magic is a miraculous power bestowed by the world itself. To wield this power, one must first have a clear understanding of the fundamental particles that constitute magic—Mana Essence. Our Spiritual Power is the bridge that connects us to Mana Essence. When our Spiritual Power recognizes Mana Essence, we will discover that it exists almost everywhere—including within our own bodies. Through the method of meditation, we can convert free-floating Mana Essence into Mana and store it within our bodies......"

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  ......

  ......

  Three days after Hulim began her study of magic.

  Snap!

  Hulim closed the grimoire with a decisive sound.

  "There’s no actual magic in it..."

  Yes, only now did she realize that this book was nothing more than an introductory text on magic theory. It was not a grimoire that contained magic incantations one could learn to cast spells from.

  Pushing her dictionary to the side, Hulim picked up the book and walked over to the bookshelf.

  Lilia couldn’t read to her all the time, but Hulim was completely absorbed in learning magic. So Lilia had found her a dictionary. Hulim had quickly learned how to use it, and with its help, she had managed to finish reading the entire book on her own.

  And thanks to these three days of self-study, her vocabulary had expanded dramatically. She even felt confident that she wouldn’t need the teacher’s help for the next school year.

  Putting the introductory magic book back in its place, Hulim pulled out another book on magic from the shelf.

  Returning to her desk, she flipped through it quickly—her goal was clear this time.

  It didn’t take long before she was carrying the book back to the bookshelf.

  And so, for the entire morning, Hulim shuttled back and forth between the bookshelf and her desk.

  Until the very last book was returned to its spot on the shelf.

  Hulim stood frozen in place, her face blank with shock.

  "There’s none... not a single one..."

  There were no grimoires that could teach one to cast actual magic in the Heyerar Manor’s library.

  ......

  "Father! Father!"

  Hulim went in search of Rezelian Heyerar.

  "What is it, my little Hulim?"

  Rezelian drove his training sword into the ground, then knelt down to meet Hulim’s gaze at eye level.

  "Father, don’t we have any grimoires at home?"

  "Grimoires? Didn’t you find any on the bookshelf?"

  "No, not those kinds of books! I mean the kind that actually lets you cast magic!"

  Rezelian blinked in surprise.

  "What do you need a grimoire like that for, Hulim? Those books are quite dangerous, you know. If you read them and start casting spells recklessly, you could easily get hurt—or worse."

  Hulim quickly reassured him, "It’s okay! I’ve already learned all about magic theory thoroughly. I won’t do anything reckless!"

  She wasn’t exaggerating.

  Even though the books she had read these past few days had contained no actual spells, they had given her a solid understanding of the basic concepts of magic.

  Magic, in its essence, was a special phenomenon triggered by Mana Essence—which permeated every corner of the world—operating according to specific laws.

  There were seven types of Mana Essence. Normally, every person’s soul resonated with at least one type of these essences—a trait known as affinity. Those who possessed an affinity for a particular type of Mana Essence could use their Spiritual Power to manipulate it, drawing large amounts of it into their bodies to form Mana. By constructing special pathways for this Mana to flow through, one could trigger specific phenomena.

  These pathways were known as Mana Circuits.

  Through observing the flow of Mana and the phenomena it produced, people had derived certain laws. These laws, when codified, became Magic Incantations.

  Chanting a Magic Incantation caused Mana to flow in a specific manner, thereby triggering the desired phenomenon.

  And this artificially controlled phenomenon was what people called magic.

  Seeing the earnest look on his daughter’s face, Rezelian’s expression turned serious.

  "Grimoires that contain actual incantations... For safety reasons, we don’t keep any of those at home."

  Upon hearing this, Hulim’s face immediately fell, her eyes filling with disappointment.

  "But," Rezelian quickly added, seeing her crestfallen look, "even though we don’t have any here, White’s Bookstore in town sells them. If you really want one, Daddy can go buy it for you another day."

  "Really?!"

  Hulim’s eyes lit up with excitement—but then she suddenly remembered that she had already wasted three days, and she shook her head firmly.

  "No need, Father! I can go buy it myself!"

  With that, she turned and darted back toward the house.

  The Heyerar Manor was a two-story mansion with double doors, accompanied by a small warehouse on the side for storing tools and sundries. It was surrounded by a stone wall topped with iron railings, and the front entrance was a sliding iron gate. A stone path led from the gate, through the courtyard, and straight to the mansion’s main door.

  Hulim raced up the stairs to the second floor, heading for the room at the end of the hallway on the left—her bedroom.

  The room had a round, double-hung window that looked out onto the flowers and plants in the courtyard.

  Rustle!

  Hulim pulled open her desk drawer.

  She rummaged around inside and found her small coin purse where she kept her pocket money.

  Opening the purse, she counted out her savings: nineteen silver coins and fifty-two copper coins—in total, 1,952 Kohl.

  Ever since she had started attending prep school last year, her mother Lilia had given her two silver coins every month as pocket money. She had spent a little, but saved most of it—and this was what she had accumulated over the past year.

  Looking at her bulging coin purse, and the beautiful silvery glint of the silver coins inside, Hulim felt a surge of confidence.

  "So much money! With this much, I can definitely buy lots of grimoires!"

  Tucking the coin purse safely into her pocket, Hulim hurried out the door—she wasn’t willing to waste another single moment.