Doggone Academy

Silveryn was deep in thought. Although she couldn’t give a definitive answer yet, there was something she strongly suspected.

She briefly allowed a long-forgotten memory to surface.

Pressing Damian would be meaningless. Asking him why his magic regeneration ability was so powerful would leave Damian also without words since he knew nothing about magic.

With her hands clasped behind her back, Silveryn gently caressed one of the rings on her finger. It was one of the highest-grade artifacts she owned.

Using the artifact, she could delve into Damian’s past hidden within him.

However, if she were to use force to dredge up his darkest places, their relationship would forever be destroyed.

And Damian might close the door to his heart and never emerge from within his cave again.

‘Now is not the time.’

Silveryn removed her hand from the ring.

“Teacher?”

Damian wore a worried expression as he looked at the maid sitting collapsed on the ground. She was clutching at her chest and struggling to breathe heavily.

“Is she… okay?”

He had no idea that he was the one who had caused this.

“No, it will be hard for her to walk on her own. I’ll call for someone, so wait here.”

Damian seemed to have no concept of the magical pressure he exerted. It wasn’t a difficult thing to explain, so she would enlighten him later.

Silveryn took out a Stitch. She needed to summon a servant to take the maid away.

“I’ll do it. There’s no need to trouble yourself.”

Damian rushed over to the maid and offered his back for her to lean on.

The maid blushed and waved her hands in refusal, but unable to win against Damian’s insistence, she reluctantly leaned on his back.

Damian easily lifted the maid and stood up, looking at Silveryn as if to ask when they were leaving.

Not so long ago, when starting his training, he himself was struggling with muscle pain and relied on the maid for support. Now, after completing all training and depleting his magic, he had carried the very maid who had supported him.

He was growing.

This made the corners of Silveryn’s lips curve up faintly.

‘It turns out raising him is quite rewarding after all.’

***

Rows of meticulously groomed garden plants lined the pathway, and at the end of this path stood a stark white grand mansion.

The uniformity of the dozens of plants denoted meticulous care, making each step through the garden feel like déjà vu.

The landscape ingrained a compulsive impression of landscaping on her.

A butler was out to meet her.

“It is an honor to meet you.”

Fear was evident on the butler’s face, even as he tried to hide it, facing a grand magician.

Even though they had specifically requested Silveryn’s help.

“Where is Lord Railles, and why has the steward come out to greet me?”

Silveryn’s unreserved address to a lord, paired with a face that looked thirty years younger than the house’s great family lineage, put the steward on the spot.

Despite such unabashed speech, the steward was cowed into making awkward excuses.

“Faced with unavoidable circumstances, he has responded to a royal summons.”

“Cowards, the lot of them.”

“If you’ve been inconvenienced, I apologize sincerely, Miss Silveryn.”

“Seems Lord Railles has given up entirely, hasn’t he?”

Despite being a matter involving their only blood relative, they had put a proxy in place. It felt as though they were treating it as a mere trifle.

“…The lord is always giving his best.”

Silveryn laughed derisively.

Guided by the steward inside the grand mansion, Silveryn was led on.

“This way, please.”

The steward stopped before a door at the end of the corridor.

“The young lady is inside here.”

Silveryn swung the door wide open and examined the interior.

In this room, devoid of any furniture and even windows, there sat a young girl around ten years old, sitting by herself.

She was sitting with legs straight out in front of her, waving her arms in the air as if they were touching something.

This girl belonged to the Railles family, empire’s greatest spirit summoner lineage.

She was Luna, a genius spirit summoner with the Railles family’s ‘Blessing of the Spirit King’ passed down through generations.

Chattering as if she were speaking something, she acted as if she was playing with the air. However, it was as if a thick glass wall stood in front of Luna; not a single sound from her reached outside.

Luna would sweep her arms through the empty air as if playing, and then burst into giggles.

To the steward’s eyes, it might seem as though Luna was playing with ghosts.

But Silveryn could feel it.

Her room was filled with spirits.

And the language of the spirits that Luna was shouting.

A girl who had learned the language of spirits before that of humans.

A child who had long refused to communicate with humans.

Even Luna’s own parents couldn’t communicate with her.

Luna’s parents, who were affiliated with the Eternia Academy, had selected Silveryn for help, and so she found herself in the grand Railles family estate.

The room in its entirety was Luna’s domain.

And Silveryn stepped boldly into Luna’s domain without regard. Anyone else would have been immediately attacked by the spirits.

Luna then reacted by looking at Silveryn irritably.

She shouts for the spirits to hurry and throw out this intruder.

But the spirits do not move; they all look at Silveryn, fear-stricken.

Luna is bewildered.

These spirits could not touch Silveryn.

Because in their eyes, Silveryn was a being ‘higher’ than Luna.

Luna becomes frightened and retreats backward to avoid Silveryn.

Pressed against the wall, Luna’s expression twists.

Finally, in tears, Luna begins screaming someone’s name.

Thud thud thud thud.

From down the corridor, a maid hastens into Luna’s territory.

She is a young maid of an age just having reached adulthood.

The maid hugs Luna and soothes her in the language of the spirits.

Silveryn watches this with a look filled with intrigue.

Seeing a maid using the language of the spirits is an extremely rare sight.

Silveryn speaks to the steward.

“Does this family employ even the servants as spirit summoners?”

“Not at all. Sonia has never learned spirit summoning; she is merely a servant who has been with the Railles family since she was young.”

“How does a mere servant speak the language of the spirits?”

“Neither I nor even Sonia herself understand that.”

According to the steward, Sonia was the only person Luna had ever opened her heart to.

Luna and Sonia’s relationship had endured for nearly ten years.

Sonia said that during the initial years of caring for Luna, she could neither see spirits nor understand their language. However, at some point, she began to comprehend the language of spirits and even managed to control some of the lesser spirits.

For Silveryn, this phenomenon was also a first encounter. The meeting of two talented spirit summoners raised questions—attributing the awakening of innate talent in Sonia to their encounter alone seemed statistically improbable.

***

After finishing dinner and a bath, Silveryn was seated at the balcony table. Night had deepened, and it was soon time to sleep.

On Silveryn’s table lay a letter from Luna. A few years after receiving Silveryn’s help, Luna had been sending annual letters of well-being to her.

According to recent news, Luna was on the verge of entering the Eternia Academy.

While Silveryn read each of Luna’s letters, she had never sent a response. To her, Luna was just one of many figures passing casually through the trivialities of daily life, and she had no intention of emotionally engaging with her.

Yawning, Silveryn went back to flipping through her magical research papers and notes.

She never thought she’d revisit this once dull topic.

The phenomenon similar to Sonia’s case had been reported to the magical association and had been the subject of earnest research for the past few years.

The reason Sonia came to learn spirit summoning was due to a phenomenon known as ‘magical power transference,’ which occurred when a person with magical talent maintained a strong bond and deep connection with someone over an extended period.

‘Magical power transference’ could be described, simply put, as a blending of magical abilities due to over-attunement.

Ironically, this was not a new discovery.

For centuries, families from long-established lineages of magicians had been utilizing ‘magical power transference.’

It was a public secret amongst these magical families.

These families would identify a child with innate ‘authority’ within their bloodline and force a marriage within the family.

By doing so, they sought to ensure that the authority’s power was completely bound to the family and maximized the familial gains that could be obtained through the authority by inducing ‘magical power transference’ through the enforced bond.

Of course, because it was forced, the effects were minimal. Yet they considered this much preferable to sharing the authority with outsiders.

Silveryn suspected that Damian’s aberrant growth in magical power was due to ‘magical blending’ with someone who had authority.

Sonia’s spirit summoning skills had also grown aberrantly.

The language of spirits was an ability that unfolded through a contract with mid-tier spirits. Yet, she spoke the language while barely managing to control only lesser spirits.

A discrepancy similar to Damian’s—small in magical capacity yet exceptional in regenerative capability.

Assuming that Damian’s ability resulted from ‘magical power transference,’ Silveryn pondered the depth of the bond and the intensity of the connection required to generate such regenerative powers.

For Damian, with below-average magical aptitude, to awaken high-level abilities…

There was not a single case in the association’s records where ‘magical power transference’ had developed abilities up to a high rank.

‘It’s too strange.’

The more concretely Silveryn imagined it, the more her head throbbed, and she found herself massaging her temples. Even distaste began to creep in.

More than just a favorable bond, they must have reached into the realm of pain.

A desire for each other so strong it was almost suffocating, enough to cause pain.

Such a bond would have to be maintained for nearly nine or ten years.

It was too far-fetched a tale.

***

Haman’s workshop.

This had been Damian’s place of work until a few months ago.

Ordinarily, at such a late hour, the workshop should have been deserted, but this time it was different.

The workshop was filled with people.

All had their arms and legs bound with ropes, filling up the workshop in a line.

These were all Damian’s former colleagues and teachers at the workshop. Among them were orphans who lived with Damian at the Lorelai Manor.

They were trembling with extreme anxiety.

Standing opposite to them were five hooded figures with masks covering their faces.

Above their heads, hundreds of ice spikes, each the size of a human forearm, floated aimlessly, aiming at the bound people.

At the center of these masked figures stood a woman with long silver hair, holding a lengthy staff. To Damian, it was a somewhat familiar shade of silver.

And she was pointing the staff at the neck of Damian’s former workshop mentor.

“Where is Damian?”

Her whole body shuddering, she shook her head.

The staff then turned to an orphan who lived with Damian at the Lorelai Manor.

Likewise, tears streaming down, he gave a shake of his head.

“….”

As if drained from despair, the staff in the woman’s hand slowly dropped, her gaze turned towards the floor.

Then, in an instant, the hundreds of ice spikes rushed toward the people they targeted.

Screams filled the workshop, and within moments, it had turned into a bloodbath.

The other masked figures summoned orbs of fire in their hands and hurled them around.

The workshop was engulfed in flames in the blink of an eye, and the roof started to collapse.

And that was when Damian awoke from his nightmare.

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