Ascendance of a Bookworm

When we arrived at the castle’s Magic Training Ground, Darmel and Brigitte were told to train on the opposite side, and I turned to face the high priest. The special magic training was about to begin.

“Alright, as a review from last time, try changing the size. Be careful not to imagine it cracking or breaking.”

“Yes.”

I took the mana stone out from the ornament and held it firmly in my hand so it wouldn’t fall. Instead of imagining a balloon, I pictured something sturdy like a bowling ball and changed its size. Soon enough, a voice of approval came down: “Good.”

“Next, we will practice fixing the shape. Once you’ve flowed mana to the desired size, stop there. You’re just stopping the mana by your own will, so it shouldn’t be too difficult for you.”

Since I already controlled mana flow myself during offerings to divine relics, as the high priest said, this wasn’t particularly hard. I became able to freely change sizes from ping-pong ball to a large ball for bowling. Then I heard the high priest’s voice say, “That’s good.”

“Now, let’s move on to changing shapes.”

I transformed the round mana stone into a triangular pyramid, then a rectangular prism, then spiky like a sea urchin, then the shape of a book, then a pen—constantly changing the stone’s form.

At first, it took a long time to create one shape, but as I got used to it, I could quickly shape it into whatever I imagined in my head.

With a voice mixed with admiration and a hint of disbelief, the high priest praised me: “You really are a quick learner.” That was unusual.

“Rosemine, this is the last one. Don’t think of anything unnecessary. Imagine an animal you can ride.”

When told to create an animal mount, the first thing that came to mind was the animal rides at amusement parks. Those toys where you put in a hundred-yen coin and they move for about three minutes.

“Once the shape is fixed, cut off the mana to stabilize it... What is this?”

“Um, it’s a ‘panda’ ride.”

It was quite small and for one person. Rather than an amusement ride, it looked more like a toy meant for babies to straddle and push along with their feet. It was really cheap looking.

I thought I’d failed, but the high priest looked down at the panda ride with a suspicious gaze.

“Does this fly?”

“…I think it’s a bit difficult.”

“It doesn’t look like ‘a bit’ difficult to me.”

The high priest pressed his temple and muttered, “You have a good memory, but no sense of practicality.” I couldn’t understand why I was called impractical even though I had made exactly what I was told—an animal mount.

“Got it. Next time, I’ll make it look more like an actual vehicle and make it a bit bigger.”

“No, focus on defining the shape rather than size. Can you make this lion?”

With a single stroke over the mana stone, the high priest summoned his own mount. Watching his refined movements, something only possible after much practice, I sighed. It would take quite a lot of training to reach this level.

“The emblem of Ehrenfest is a lion, and the lord rides a lion with three heads. The lord’s children basically use lions. Of course, it’s not mandatory...”

Because it was Sylvester, I had assumed that out of a boyish love for complexity, he rode a Cerberus-like lion. So there was such meaning behind Sylvester’s mount.

Apparently, even I, the lord’s adopted daughter, was allowed to use a lion.

“Understood. A lion, then.”

Since the high priest’s mount was so realistic and scary, I wanted to make my own lion a cute one I could ride.

I imagined a lion that I could ride and gave a nod before flowing mana into the mana stone.

“…Your aesthetic sense is disastrous. Why does your lion look so strange?”

“Huh? Strange? I think it’s quite cute.”

I had made a lion ride as instructed, but apparently, deformed versions were not acceptable.

The lion shape had grown much larger, taking on the size of a proper amusement park ride.

“Can you ride it?”