Departure to the Capital.

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As always, the reception room of the Berions' manor was illuminated by the fireplace. The glow that came from the hearth had an orange tint, but the fire didn't produce any heat. As long as no one turned the fireplace off, its flames would stay indefinitely.

What made that achievable was humans' ability to channel mana even without spells. Normally, however, it wouldn't have a tangible effect on the world unless you poured an enormous amount of energy into it. But the advancement of magical circuits changed that. It allowed people to utilize the natural flow of their mana to activate magical implements.

In the case of the fireplace specifically, the injection of energy served as a switch that changed its state from active to inactive and vice versa. Afterwards, the energy it needed to maintain itself was absorbed from the surroundings.

Fabian stared at the fireplace as he sat in the reception room. 

He was having a tea party with Mary. As she did every summer since their engagement, Fabian's fiancée was currently living with Berions as a guest. Tea parties were something they hosted almost every evening. It was a chance for the two of them to catch up and have some time to themselves. Although, Lucy was still present and attending to them, but she was pretty much always there anyway.

As he continued watching the magical implement, a thought that had been on Fabian's mind for a long time popped up in his head again. After some deliberation, he began speaking.

"Now that I think about it, why does the fireplace not produce heat?"

"Why?" Maria repeated her fiancé's question, somewhat confused. "It's because it's summer right now. If the fireplace also raised the temperature, we would be steaming hot."

Maria explained as she imagined the unbearable heat that would result in.

"Yeah, but that's not what I meant..." Fabian replied. 

Sure, they didn't need it to generate heat. But what interested him wasn't why, but rather how. How did it not produce heat despite containing fire? How did the flame not burn, no matter how much he touched it and no matter how long his hand remained in the flame?

"What I'm interested in is not why. Instead, I want to know how does it do it," Fabian added shortly after.

"Because it is a luminous flame?" Maria answered. Fabian's words didn't help clarify her confusion. Instead, it only made her more puzzled.

Luminous flames were one of the most used light sources in the Spirit Union. They became widespread over half a century ago. Nowadays, they were present in every well-to-do household. Fabian, of course, knew what they were.

In theory at least, he understood how those luminous flames worked. Leaving aside the complex techniques used to get the magical circuits up and running, the process of luminous flames' creation mainly relied on tweaking the visualization process. As long as craftsmen focused on aspects of fire like illumination and glow instead of heat, they could produce a variation of flames that wasn't dangerous to the touch.

It was a simple idea, but it became popular surprisingly recently. Only a hundred years ago, people didn't know about luminous flames. That is, unless you counted all the myths and rumors about fire that supposedly didn't burn. It only took one genius magical inventor to gather and transform those rumors into reality for the idea to spread like wildfire.

You could even go as far as to say that their current popularity was the exact reason why luminous flames were easy to make. After all, It was much easier to visualize what already was on hand than something that only existed in legends.

But that raised another important question.

"But wouldn't that..." Fabian started but paused, unsure if it was a good idea to keep going.

"Wouldn't that what?" Maria asked.

"...No, nevermind. It makes sense," Fabian finally answered.

He understood it. He really did. After all, magic's effects were all about imagination. But something about it bothered him.

How was that any different from incorrectly learning the meaning of words?

When a spellcaster didn't understand the Spiritspeak they used, it resulted in a jumbled or dysfunctional spell. So then what was the difference between not understanding words correctly and having a flame that didn't burn? 

Wouldn't a luminous flame also be a case of an incorrect interpretation? No matter what you believed in, fire did normally burn. That was a fact. And yet, magical craftsmen could create luminous flames without a problem. How was that possible? Where did the line lie?

Maybe the Deas never intended for burn to be an inherent property of fire. If a flame's identity lay in things beyond its heat—say, it's appearance—then it wasn't surprising that fire that was cold to the touch also existed. In that case, luminous flames weren't a contradiction.

Or maybe, this had nothing to do with Deas, and it was simply the change in human perception that allowed luminous flames to exist...

Fabian recalled the old man's words once again. This entire train of thought reminded him of the conversation he once had.

Who was it really that shaped the world? Was it humans? Or was it some unknown will that defined the boundaries of what was possible?

Fabian ruminated on the topic for some time. However, he was still in the middle of a tea party with Maria. Not wanting to bother his fiancée any more, Fabian eventually let go of that train of thought.

Less than a year after that, the old man's question would disappear from his mind.

***

"...ian, Fabian."

"Ah, w-what?" the youth responded as he woke up from his dream.

That youth's name was Ayu—no, his name was Fabian Aes Berion. He was a mage that was capable of skillfully using all of the main elements of magic. He could even handle roaring flash and perform prolonged cast. That, in addition with the memories he had gathered, had made him confident that he could now call himself a 'genius mage'. That was now his identity.

"Finally, you're awake. You fell asleep before our tea party started," Mary said as she stopped shaking him.

That's right. Today, they were having a last party before the festival. 

Mary said that it was better to relax than continue cramming until the last possible day. And Fabian was originally planning to do the later. Still, he listened to his fiancée's advice and sat for a cup of tea in the evening. But before she arrived in the room, he fell asleep.

"Oh, oh yeah. Sorry, my bad. I just got really sleepy all of a sudden," Fabian responded, feeling slightly guilty.

"It's fine. It just speaks volumes about how tired you were. You've made great progress in the last weeks so you should get some rest."

Twelve more days had passed since Fabian had finally succeeded with his first prolonged cast. Since then, he had managed to become even more consistent at it. It still failed at times, but by now, his success rate was over ninety percent.

"But I'm not sure if it's good enough..." Fabian responded.

"It doesn't matter. At this point, one day of practice won't make that much of a difference in terms of your skill, but a single day off will go a long way."

Only a few days remained before the festival of Deos Cogitus began. Tomorrow, they would depart to the capital.

In the first place, all the magical practice was only a supplement to the research. They wanted to make sure that Fabian was as capable with roaring flash as its rightful wielder would be.

Thankfully, they had a good point of reference. The heir of the Darius family was about Fabian's age. If they could match his mastery with lightning, that had to be enough to convey that Fabian's skills were the real deal.

"Okay," Maria said, "let's try to relax as much as we can before tomorrow!"

"Yeah, sure. Let's have some fun," Fabian replied and they continued their tea party.

***

The following morning Fabian, Mary, Berion couple, Vivian, and Lucy gathered early to prepare for their departure. They were accompanied by servants and several knights that would serve as their attendants and bodyguards for the duration of the trip.

In total, their procession consisted of three carriages, each pulled by an equadera—a horse-like magic beast that could use earth and strengthening spells. That allowed them to traverse difficult terrain and maintain stamina throughout long periods of time. Their significant endurance that surpassed normal horses made them a popular means of transport within Spirit Union.

With that said, their temperament was pretty wild, and they were difficult to breed and domesticate. That made them a pricier alternative. But what you got for that price wasn't simply a stronger, more durable animal. On top of their magic and physical features, equaderas were among the smartest magic beasts that were domesticated by humans.

So there were three carriages and three equaderas—one for each. Two of the coaches were owned by Berions and the third one was rented from the village's coachman.

The seating arrangements were as follows: the first carriage contained Julian, his wife Beatrix, Vivian, and a knight handling the reigns; the second carriage had Fabian, Maria, and Lucy, with a young knight sitting at the front; the last one contained the remaining knights and servants.

Fabian looked at the carriages and saw that the last one was starkly different from the rest. They were all made from wood, but there were significant differences in their make and quality. The first two, while not extravagant, were fully made of thick lumber and painted. They even had glass windows with curtains for some added privacy. Meanwhile, the last one looked closer to a wagon than a carriage. Instead of a proper wooden roof and walls, it had a wooden frame that was covered with a thick cloth sheet. You could clearly tell which of the transports didn't belong to nobility.

When Vivian heard about the seating arrangement, she became displeased.

"Why am I in the first carriage? I don't need to be looked after," Vivian said, bothered by the fact she was placed together with her parents. "I'm not a kid anymore."

She was, in fact, a kid, but it was a truly mature thing from everyone else not to point that out.

"Vivian, no one is trying to look after you. We just thought putting you in the third carriage was a bit too much," Julian, the head of the household, reassured her.

"Then why not put me in the second one?" Vivian asked grumpily.

"Well, Fabian and Miss Maria are already there so it will be too crowded if we were to put you in as well."

"You could just put Lucy in the third carriage," Vivian complained.

"She's Fabian's personal attendant. No point in separating them."

"Then leave her in! I would fit anyway," Vivian replied, still dissatisfied with Julian's decision.

Then, Maria intervened in the conversation.

"I get it, Little Viv, you don't want to be separated from your Big Bro, right?" she said teasingly.

"...I told you already—I don't care about that doofus. I just don't want to be babied by everyone," she responded resolutely, albeit with a slight pause.

"Well then, you're being a baby by throwing a tantrum. If you really are mature, then simply seating with your parents shouldn't bother you." Maria stated casually but confidently.

"..." Vivian went quiet and didn't reply to her. She did, however, obediently get in the carriage.

Everyone else followed after Vivian with wry smiles and populated the carriages according to the seating arrangements.

Looking at his passengers, the young knight at the reigns of the second carriage sighed.

"Hah, why do I feel like I've drawn the short straw again... Every time young Lord Fabian gets involved, my life becomes just a bit more dangerous and problematic..."

His complaint disappeared into the wind as they set off for the capital. The knight's name was Kyle Caelius, and he was, in fact, the same knight that was involved in the fight against lupens a month ago. That wasn't the first time he got pulled into an incident which involved Fabian, and he was confident it wasn't the last one either. Still, no matter how many times it happened, constant disasters weren't something you could just get used to.

The capital was only about a day's worth of travel away. Kyle sincerely hoped that one single day wasn't enough for his Lord's luck to get them into massive trouble. Although, his experience told him the opposite.

And so, they departed. Throughout the trip Kyle carefully watched for possible dangers.

At every corner of their journey, he expected some disaster to emerge: for wild beasts to attack, or for bandits to assault them, or for a magical cataclysm to occur, or for an earthquake to shatter the ground, or for a volcano to erupt, or—

Well, you get the point. One had to wonder what sorts of dangers had Fabian gotten involved in that made the knight so cautious.

Surprisingly, Kyle's fears didn't come to fruition.

Twelve hours later, only a single hill separated them from the capital. When they crossed it, nothing but flatlands would remain between them and their destination. And so, Fabian and the others crossed the last obstacle. 

On the other side, they saw a grand bountiful city. 

The capital was surrounded by massive walls, and a giant river ran through it, entering the city from the southern wall and leaving from north-east. Outside of the walls, plains stretched across the horizon as far as the eye could see. 

At the center of the capital stood the majestic Palace of Storms. Its grandiose spire reached to the heavens and was bigger than anything Fabian had seen in this world. From the spire, white pillars gracefully protruded at even intervals, highlighting the symmetry and beauty of the construction. The palace was made of beautiful white marble, and its modest decorative patterns shined with gold glitter.

This was the royal capital. A grand city—no, a metropolis—that was home to over a million people. The center of Audera Kingdom, the place where wandering winds from all over the world gathered.

New home for souls that lost their place in the world.

Novem Lar.