Chapter 20: Magic

“Lian…”

Yare murmured blankly, her beautiful eyes trembling.

Reflected in her pupils were the overlapping silhouettes of two girls, merging until they became one.

“Eh?”

Bai tilted her head, confused by the sudden change in Yare’s demeanor.

Her aura had completely shifted.

The usual arrogance and disdain were gone, replaced by a heavy silence, memory and sorrow.

“Who told you to wear that?”

Yare’s voice came suddenly.

Bai couldn’t tell whether it was cold or something else entirely.

“Bai found it in the storage room on the first floor. If it’s not okay, Bai will take it off right away,” she said quickly, waving her hands.

She reached to remove the white apron, but Yare said calmly.

“Take good care of it. From now on… it’s yours.”

With that, she turned and walked back into the dark room, slowly closing the door behind her, leaving Bai standing there, dumbfounded.

She didn’t know what had suddenly gotten into her master, but one thing was certain, now was the time to escape!

Grabbing her tools, Bai made a run for it down the stairs.

Task complete.

Time to sleep!

Inside the room, Yare stood silently by the door for a long time.

Her silver hair seemed to have lost its luster, veiling her face.

After a moment, she moved to the large bed and collapsed onto it, curling into a tight ball.

The proud True Ancestor now looked like a helpless child.

You swore to forget her completely, Yare.

Yet you gave Bai that apron.

What are you hoping for?

What are you afraid of?

***

You just wanted to see Lian again.

Even if it’s a fantasy.

Even if it’s a lie.

Your pride, Yare… is a joke.

Yare curled up tighter, her voice echoing softly in the empty room.

“Lian, I miss you so much.”

***

The next morning, Bai was already in the garden bright and early.

Faced with the devastation, toppled statues, weeds choking every corner, her heart sank.

Just clearing the rubble and pulling weeds with her small frame was already nearly impossible.

Fixing everything?

Out of the question.

“If only Bai knew some magic too…” she muttered to herself.

Maybe a fire spell like Lady Aiersha’s, or levitation magic like her master’s… then all this would be so much easier.

Dragging stones and yanking weeds by hand?

She’d be at it forever!

It’d probably take half a month, and her body would give out before she even finished.

After thinking it over, Bai clapped her hands together and made a firm decision.

“All right! I’m learning magic!”

She remembered, a study room on the second floor had been abandoned.

Maybe there’d be some magic books left in there.

If she could learn how to float things, cleaning would be a breeze!

Hehehe~

Just imagining how cool (not) she’d look using magic made Bai start humming to herself.

Time to act!

She headed to the second floor and followed her memory to the abandoned study.

The room was pitch black, the air filled with the old, dusty scent of books.

Bai lit a candle and began searching along the dust-covered shelves.

“Blood Feast Chronicle? Nope. Forbidden Love Between Lowly Humans and Noble Vampires? Definitely not. Ten Ways to Cook a Blood Slave? What even is this?!”

Bai dug deeper into the book piles, half her body buried in the mess, but everything she found was strange and absurd.

“Who the hell was reading all this stuff?!”

While flipping through yet another odd volume, a familiar cover caught her eye.

She picked it up and wiped off the dust.

The Self-Cultivation of a Blood Slave.

“Didn’t expect to find this one here too.”

Good taste, just like her.

But it wasn’t a magic book, so she kept looking.

After half an hour of digging, she finally spotted a purple book deep in the back.

The cover was torn, with only a few words still legible.

Magic Record

“Found it!”

Even though the first two words were unreadable, this had to be a magic book!

Surely there’d be some spell in here she could use.

Bai dashed back to her room and opened the book, excited to read.

Though she hadn’t learned other types of magic before, Aiersha had taught her healing spells, so how hard could the rest be?

On the first page, obscure symbols greeted her eyes.

“Blood clan script? So this is a blood clan magic book.”

Luckily, Bai recognized the writing, Aiersha had taught her before, even praised her for learning so quickly.

Within a year, she could read all of it.

At the time, it had seemed useless… but now it was perfect.

She traced her finger along the page, sounding out each word.

“Ah-si… Astaru… no, that’s not right… Asbaru…”

After puzzling through it for a while, something clicked in her mind.

Bai raised her hand toward the window and shouted:

“Ας πάρουμε το τέλος! (Let the wind rise!)”

The air around her stirred instantly.

Wind gathered into a swirling vortex, forming a white sphere of hurricane force in her palm.

“OOOH!”

Bai’s eyes sparkled, she couldn’t believe it worked on the first try!

Magic wasn’t so hard after all!

This was easy!

But the wind ball kept growing, faster, stronger, expanding until it filled half the room without slowing down.

Bai panicked.

Wait, wasn’t this getting way too effective?!

The gusts flipped the book to the second page.

Only then did Bai notice, there was a second incantation to actually fire the spell!

Her arm, now struggling to hold the storm, began to tremble.

She lunged for the book before it blew away and shouted the words she saw:

“Προχώρα μπροστά! (Go forth!)”

BOOM!!!

The wind sphere exploded from her hand like a cannonball, blasting straight out the window toward the garden.

The shockwave it left behind tore through the room, sending everything flying.

Even Bai’s hair was swept back into a slicked-back mess.

Wide-eyed and stunned, Bai gulped hard.

So… this is how terrifying magic actually is…?

She leaned over the windowsill to look….

The wind sphere had slammed into the garden, and in the next second, it burst outward.

Compressed wind howled in all directions, sending rubble, weeds, and who-knows-what else flying through the air.

The already chaotic garden was now an even greater disaster zone.

“D-damn it! Bai’s made a mess again!!!”

She slammed the window shut, then dove straight into her bed…

And played dead.

If I sleep fast enough, Master won’t catch me!

Trembling under the blanket, she waited a full hour… but Yare never came.

Maybe she hadn’t noticed?

Bai cautiously peeked her head out and glanced toward the door.

No sign of Yare.

She let out a sigh of relief.

She really thought she was going to get drained again.

After tidying up the room, Bai picked up the book once more.

That wind spell had been effective, sure, but it wasn’t practical for cleaning.

She needed utility magic, not something that would obliterate everything.

Page by page, she searched, until finally, on page thirty, she spotted a phrase that caught her eye:

「Η μαγεία της βαρύτητας」 (Gravity Magic)