Chapter 26 - The City of Magic

  The view that greeted Daniel the next morning was astonishing. As soon as he opened the curtains to let the sun in, he saw the great city of magic in the distance.

  Novanny.

  It was where most of his story had taken place. The home base of Artorias ever since he started the special class at the academy at ten years old.

  Daniel pressed his palm against the cool glass of the airship window, studying the familiar yet alien landscape below. The large port on the south side and two wide rivers combined near the sea, creating a K-shape of sorts.

  The academy stood on the eastern side, built on top of a hill, looking more like a great castle than an academy. Further to the west stood a tower that reached the clouds, taller than even the tallest building on Earth.

  That’s some serious architecture. Magic is involved without a doubt.

  And if he wasn’t wrong, it stood in the exact spot Artorias’ old home had been. The house his sister had lived in the last time he saw her, along with their aging mother.

  So that's what's become of the Grifantes family… His jaw tightened as memories that weren't quite his own surfaced. It will be a complicated visit.

  The academy was almost shockingly similar to the image in his memories. It had grown, and some parts had changed, but the overall look was almost the exact same. The tall tower overlooking the city remained unchanged.

  The old man never liked change, so this bodes well.

  “Mmh… Are we close to Novanny?” Felicia asked in a voice partly muffled by her pillow.

  Daniel turned from the window, watching as she stretched beneath the covers. “I can see it from here. We’ll probably land in about half an hour.”

  Her hair was an absolute mess, sticking up at impossible angles, and there was a small line of drool on her cheek that she hadn't noticed yet.

  “Seems you managed to sleep well?”

  “Yes, actually. I think I was too tired to be nervous.”

  Daniel chuckled, moving away from the window to sit on the edge of his own bed. "Glad to hear it. Then we know what to do next time we have to fly somewhere."

  "Yes… Well, I think I'll feel safer next time. As long as you're around, I mean."

  “Oh, don’t be so sure. Now that I’ve had time to look at the formations that allow us to fly, I might try to make something much faster on my own.”

  It was more accurate to say he would use ideas from Earth to make better airships than existed in this world. The current ones were too slow for his tastes.

  Even with simple propellers alone, I should be able to make something much better.

  “...How does it work?”

  Daniel looked over at her again. She was sitting up now, fully awake despite the early hour. Her curiosity was greater than he expected.

  “It’s annoyingly simple, honestly. There’s a special type of tree that grows to impossible heights in the northern parts of Patropil, which uses mana to fight gravity. The airships are built around those types of wood, but they supercharge them with mana far above normal levels.”

  “Ooh, you mean the Endless Forest?”

  “Yes, exactly. The wood is probably extremely expensive, though, due to how dangerous the forest is. But enough about that, time to get ready! Try out your dressing function.”

  “Right.” Felicia got out of bed with an eager motion, putting her index up to her face. “Under the spatial storage options?”

  “Yeah, near the bottom.”

  Daniel turned away to give her privacy. The index system he'd created was complex, but he'd tried to make it intuitive. Still, he worried about overwhelming her with too many options at once.

  A few seconds later, Felicia stood there fully dressed for the day, in a yellow dress rather than the blue from yesterday. But her hair remained a mess.

  “Gods, this will save me so much time! There’s not even a point in learning how to dress myself anymore.”

  The genuine delight in her voice made him smile. It would feel more useful to someone used to relying on others for getting dressed. "I'm glad you like it. Come over here so I can brush your hair."

  "I can do that much on my own."

  Independent as always.

  Daniel retrieved a brush from his own spatial storage, one of the many things he had stored from her room. "I know you can, but we don't have much time. We'll have to eat after landing."

  She reluctantly moved over to Daniel’s bed and sat down with her back turned to him. As soon as his fingers touched her hair, Daniel felt a pang of unexpected emotion. It had been a long time since the last time he brushed someone's hair like this.

  Let’s hope I remember how it’s done.

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  The brush moved through her hair in long, gentle strokes. Felicia's shoulders gradually relaxed under his careful ministrations.

  “There are plenty of other functions in the index you still haven’t tested, like the communication or stat checker.”

  “Can I communicate directly with you?”

  Daniel worked through a particularly stubborn tangle, being extra gentle. "Yeah, up to a range of a few kilometers if you spend enough mana. But that's only with me, though. I've made it so that my index becomes the power source if it receives a signal from yours. Then there's an emergency signal that should work up to ten kilometers, but I hope that won't become relevant."

  “Yes, let us hope that… What about the stat checker?”

  Daniel set down the brush for a moment, running his fingers through her now-smooth hair to check for any remaining tangles. "It basically tells you how strong you are in certain aspects, including your overall level. Do you see them?"

  He glanced at the screen over her shoulder, seeing the stats clearly.

  [--|--]

  Felicia G. Harrowbloom

  Initiate Mage

  Level: 312

  Mana: 642 / 642

  Stats not available

  [--|--]

  Three hundred and twelve. That's remarkable for someone self-taught. Who knows where she would be if they had let her train?

  She would not be practising at the mountain, at least. Perhaps it was fate.

  “...Level 312. I didn’t know it was that high.”

  Daniel resumed brushing, working on the left side of her hair now. "Yeah, pretty impressive for only learning on your own. It was probably under three hundred when we met, but it's hard to say for sure."

  The improvement made sense. Exposure to high-level magic and instruction would accelerate anyone's development, but Felicia seemed to absorb knowledge like a sponge. He'd noticed her mana control becoming more refined even in the short time they'd known each other.

  "Oh, it can increase that fast?"

  "You know how levels are gained, right?"

  “Through knowledge.”

  “Mmh, sure. In basic terms.”

  “How would you define it?”

  Daniel's hands stilled for a moment as he chose his words carefully. "I would say that every lesson, every fight, every hour spent researching and practising any kind of magic, every breakthrough in understanding, all contribute to your total level. But the level system is really just something I created to keep track of progress, so the numbers themselves don’t matter much."

  He resumed brushing, noting how Felicia's expression shifted as she processed this broader definition. “That does seem more accurate… What does the ‘stats not available’ mean?”

  Daniel set the brush aside, satisfied with his work. Her hair now fell in smooth, golden waves around her shoulders, catching the morning light streaming through the airship windows.

  “It takes time for the system to get enough points of data to accurately measure the stats. Might take a couple of days.” He leaned back to admire his handiwork with her hair, then booped her nose with a smile.

  Her sharp jolt in reaction told him she hadn’t activated her mana vision yet. She turned to face him, soundlessly complaining with puffed up cheeks.

  "Eh, sorry about that,” he said gingerly. “Are you happy with your hair?"

  She reached up to touch it, running her fingers through the smooth strands. "Oh, you did a good job!"

  Better than I expected, actually. Muscle memory is a strange thing.

  "You don’t have to sound so surprised.” He stood from the bed, glancing around the cabin. “Let's get ready to leave."

  As they gathered their belongings, Daniel felt the familiar weight of anticipation settling in his chest. Novanny awaited, with all its complications and memories.

  One step at a time. First the academy, then… we'll see what the old man has to say. If he’s still there.

  The ship was landed at the skydock on a hill near the edge of the city, where a dozen guards stood ready to receive them.

  The pirates and the captain were all handed over to the local authorities, a job the second in command on the ship had agreed to handle once they landed. And with plenty of eyewitnesses, it was settled without trouble.

  Daniel guided Felicia out of the airship and down to an elevated platform at the top of the hill, giving the duo a great view as they entered the city proper. Or, giving Daniel a great view, which he then described to Felicia.

  “There really are flying carriages. And a tower that reaches the clouds.”

  Felicia's head turned toward the sound of magical engines humming through the air above them. “Mmh. I was looking forward to this, but hearing them described feels less exciting than I hoped.”

  Daniel squeezed her arm gently as they walked. “Maybe you’ll feel differently when you enter that tower?”

  “...I think I’ll be too nervous to think about it. Will they even care about me?”

  “Of course they will. And if not, one of their ancestors might appear and have a serious talk with them.”

  Felicia's steps faltered slightly, and Daniel felt her grip on his arm tighten. "I feel like that's an even worse outcome."

  Daniel's lips quirked upward. “For them, sure. Don’t think I’ll sit idly by if they act like fools.”

  “Don’t you want to stay anonymous?”

  “Well, I would prefer to. Getting the Artorian religion after me will be annoying. But there’s not really anything they can do to me if I don’t let them, either. So it depends on how much my nieces and nephews annoy me.”

  “At least you have one good niece.”

  “Oh? Who?”

  The question earned him another punch on his shoulder.

  "Ow." Daniel rubbed his shoulder theatrically. "Such violence from a young lady."

  "You deserved it," Felicia said primly, but he could hear the laughter in her voice.

  They soon found a flying carriage that could take them to the academy. Felicia was nervous to board, but managed much better than when she was about to board the airship. Her breathing remained steady, and her hands only trembled slightly as she settled into her seat.

  It took them half an hour to get there, so although the view was great, the speed left something to be desired. Though, it could be for safety reasons in this case.

  After landing and stepping out of the carriage, Daniel looked up at the main entrance, truly feeling the full range of emotions.

  The massive doors stood three stories tall, carved from white wood and inlaid with gold runes. He had forgotten the words written over the door, even though they were his own.

  'Compassion, Wisdom, Courage.'

  The motto blazed in golden letters above the archway, radiating a soft light. Daniel felt his throat tighten as old memories bubbled inside him—memories of a young Artorias walking through these very doors for the first time, full of hope and determination. And a large dash of anxiety.

  A thousand years… Thankfully, some things still remain.

  Daniel knocked on the door, feeling the formations behind it roar to life. Ancient magic surged through the stone, scanning him with methods that predated most of modern magical theory. Layer after layer of defensive spells activated, each one designed to identify threats and turn away the unworthy.

  But these formations remembered him. They remembered Artorias, the boy who had walked these halls, and the man who had improved the very foundations they were standing on.

  After a thousand years, they still remember.

  The doors had opened for an old graduate.

  And somewhere in the depths of the academy, alarms were quietly sounding, alerting the administration that someone very, very important had just arrived.