VIP Chapter 344 Student…? (3k)
“Simply put, today, Mother, today I will pass the ‘trial’ you mentioned to me before.”
For the witches who lived in the mezzanine of the dungeon, the passage of time was difficult to perceive.
Long after Lis could no longer remember how long Liya had “returned” to the witch’s lair, she finally emerged from her laboratory.
Standing at the entrance of her mushroom-shaped home, Liya had just opened the door, as if she had only just tied her twin tails a minute ago. Her unevenly high and low golden twin tails seemed uncharacteristic of her, as she usually paid great attention to her hairstyle.
She had heavy dark circles under her eyes, and her face seemed to have thinned considerably. Tear stains were even visible at the corners of her eyes.
“You don’t seem to have left that door recently. Why would you suddenly talk about a ‘trial’? Hmm… let me think, I don’t seem to remember arranging a ‘trial’ for you.”
Lis rested her chin on her hand, sitting on a chair outside the house and watching Liya place the “Ice Spirit Horse’s” liver, a common trade material in the witch’s lair, in front of her.
Although, due to Liya’s personal heavy use of Ice Spirit Horse liver, the entire witch’s lair’s supply was nearly bought out by her alone.
At this moment, she remembered what Liya was referring to as a “trial.”
“Oh! You mean this.”
“Yes.”
Lis listened to her answer while looking her up and down.
“Like this…”
Liya raised her staff and aimed it at the “Ice Spirit Horse” liver.
The metal staff she held no longer bore any sweat from her previous nervousness. She appeared exceptionally composed now.
“Stance · Gentle Blessing of Warmth.”
“Next is…”
“Brilliant Light, Silent Sound – liu4紦咎wuVIII笼 肆灵⑸Qun”
The same operation as usual. After a “flash of fire” that seemed to strip away all sound, Lis’s eyes adapted to the light and saw…
The ice block was completely blown away, revealing the liver in its intact interior.
“Oh~”
Lis’s voice wasn’t exactly “happy,” but more like the encouraging celebration of a mother seeing her daughter excitedly showing off her block towers.
“The trial you mentioned, it should be like this, right? Making your fire power capable of destroying the liver in one blow.”
“That’s right. After all, the research on the Candle of First Creation has only reached this point. For the Brilliant Light, Silent Sound magic used to create the candle wax, I’ve increased the maximum output power, reaching about this level.”
“Is that… all you did?”
“Hm? What’s wrong?”
Lis had been happy that “her daughter wasn’t reclusive but was just training,” but seeing her now, she didn’t feel so happy anymore.
Previously, she couldn’t “observe” Liya, and could only glimpse her mental state when delivering food. After all, she was over a hundred years old and didn’t need much attention.
But…
Now she could see that Liya was not only physically exhausted but also mentally and even in her magic circuits…
“I… I am trying to complete the Ancient Magic ‘Candle of First Creation’. I’ve found a correct method for its necessary component, the candle wax.”
Liya’s tone was much “colder” than before.
“For example, like this…”
As if she had prepared in advance, she quickly pushed out a small cart from the entrance of her laboratory.
On the cart was a magic isolation hood used for flame magic experiments to control small experimental samples and “protect the laboratory.”
Perhaps to create a sense of mystery, or more likely to ensure experimental results and reduce light interference, Liya had also covered it with a red cloth.
“The Ancient Magic does indeed state to first preheat with Gentle Blessing of Warmth, then use Brilliant Light, Silent Sound to complete the final melting, obtaining the candle.”
“Yes. Looking back, this inference was made about a hundred years ago.”
“But… I remembered something. For witches with long lives, perhaps it was not realized. For the author of the Ancient Magic records found in the dungeon five hundred years ago, it might also have been unperceived…”
Liya’s eyes gazed at the object within the magic hood, showing rare anticipation and joy – an expression she hadn’t shown much since her return. She lifted the red cloth.
“This… This is…!?”
Even Lis, who had lived longer than Liya, exclaimed in shock upon seeing what was inside.
Within the magic hood, the Ice Spirit Horse liver, which had been subjected to Gentle Blessing of Warmth, had its fat melted, blending with the melted ice from the outside. It lay in the plate in liquid form.
Although it was still in the state of Gentle Blessing of Warmth and hadn’t cooled down, one could imagine that after cooling, it could…
Form a very suitable “wax block.”
This was something the witches had not been able to break through in a hundred years of research.
“They probably didn’t realize that while a study proposed using Ice Spirit Horse liver as a substitute, the research on the subsequent combustion method combination was nearly two hundred years behind. During these two hundred years, perhaps we who use magic haven’t changed… but would the Ice Spirit Horses obtained from the dungeon still be the same as they were back then?”
“I understand… you mean, the method is correct, but since the substitute is wrong, you cannot follow the experiments from five hundred years ago or even two hundred years ago.”
Lis no longer acted like a mother who stood by watching her daughter grow and perform. She was more like a serious “researcher.”
“Yes. That… that’s the blind spot.”
“Then, what method did you use?”
“The current Ice Spirit Horse liver, compared to the materials recorded in Ancient Magic, has changed in nature due to increased impurities. According to the interpretation of Ancient Magic, Brilliant Light, Silent Sound was originally used to break apart excessively hard material, while Gentle Blessing of Warmth might be closer to a magic that heats it to an oily state.”
“That’s right. It should be that Gentle Blessing of Warmth melts the outside first, and then Brilliant Light, Silent Sound melts the inside…”
“However, the Ice Spirit Horse liver obtained now… the frozen part is harder, while the inside is more fragile. This is due to the increasing internal impurity content.”
“So that’s why there was a misconception about increasing firepower?”
“Therefore, I chose to first use Brilliant Light, Silent Sound to melt some of the outside, and then use Gentle Blessing of Warmth’s specialty in slow heating to cook both the inside and outside to an oily state—but this requires more consideration of the fine details of heat control, and the data needs to be more precise.”
After explaining her thought process with remarkable rationality and “generosity,” Liya looked at Lis.
“How was it? Mother, haven’t I done pretty well?”
Lis looked at Liya like this…
Something seemed to have changed.
For example, if she had achieved such a great feat, such a breakthrough, she should… she should be more “excited” than she was now. And in her eyes, the surge in her magic circuits felt exceptionally “cold.”
But… also, the old Liya would never have introduced herself so readily and waited for her praise so readily.
“You did well.”
She nodded.
Liya was also a little surprised because, as a “mother,” Lis was always more critical of her magic.
She had never witnessed such a straightforward answer before.
“Actually…” Lis paused, looking at the oily substance, possibly the first candle block in all of witchcraft, and seemed to fall into memory. “In the very beginning, it was I who proposed combining Gentle Blessing of Warmth and Brilliant Light, Silent Sound to obtain the candle block.”
She paused for a moment, a smile appearing on her face.
It was the gentle, motherly smile that Liya had only seen when she was still in her “normal human childhood.”
“At that time, I thought it would be difficult for anyone to make further breakthroughs, but I didn’t expect it to be so simple…”
“So… it really was!”
“You guessed it?”
“That writing, like a lizard crawling on it, I knew it was yours immediately!”
“Hey!”
“Of course, I… I’m pretty much the same. This is probably… probably a kind of heredity?”
Liya quickly added, scratching her head a little shyly.
“You have indeed changed a bit, but how much did it take you to research this…”
Lis seemed to want to ask something, but stopped herself before she could.
“Hm? What’s wrong?”
“Nothing… Since Liya has reached the point of having her own breakthrough, then…”
“Hm?”
Liya saw Lis acting coy and going behind the woods. She then grabbed someone from the bushes.
“What is this…”
Lis pulled out a witch who was about her height but had red hair. She had pulled down her magic hat and seemed exceedingly shy.
“Hello… Hello. Teacher Liya…”
“In short, she’s the daughter of my third cousin. I’ll tentatively leave her to you as a disciple, shall I? After all… I somehow feel like you’re particularly lacking a student?”
Lis introduced the newcomer’s identity very simply.
“Actually, among witches, if one’s child happens not to want to learn their magic… entrusting them to acquaintances for training is a good method.”
Upon seeing her, Liya instinctively took two steps back.
Student… student… student…
Hearing this word, the hand holding her staff began to tremble.
A student who followed her…
A student who was always busy with her…
A student who succeeded in helping her out of such a terrible state and allowed her to research until now…
“No, no… I don’t think I need…”
Even before she could clarify the student’s identity or what she wanted to learn, her mouth had already refused for her.
“No. Imperative. Cannot. Agree.”
Lis directly interrupted her.
“But…”
“Since you’re back, just like every witch, forget… forget your life outside and start anew.”
Lis’s words were not finished when the slightly shy witch took a step forward.
Her voice sounded a little nervous, also trembling.
“Hello… Hello, Liya… Teacher Liya…”
Hearing the address, Liya swallowed hard.
She always remembered some… some…
Memories she had been trying to cover up with busyness, memories that would jolt her awake with a pang in her heart every night before sleep.
“You can call me… Meilin.”
