Lark issued a recruitment notice for the restoration of the Western Land. At the Central Plaza, where hundreds of people pass by daily, a written notice was pinned on the board and several workers started actively recruiting those without a job.
After the restoration of the Northern Land showed results through the current abundant harvest, people were eager to join in the next project.
Several people started signing up to be included among those who would be cultivating the Western Land.
In just a couple of days, they managed to recruit the required number of men. The workers immediately gathered the treated composts and the magic tools used to till the soil and transported them to the west.
Unlike before, Lark no longer had to directly explain to the new recruits how to use the magic tools, how to properly spread the composts, and how to till the soil. All explanations were done by the head farmer, Oliver. Lark simply stood there and listened, as the new recruits gawked in amazement after the magic tools were introduced to them.
The humanoids who would be assisting them in the restoration of the Western Land were also introduced to everyone. Just like Lark expected, the new recruits, although wary, no longer feared the humanoids—who resembled monsters—after being exposed to them every day in Blackstone Town. On the contrary, some of them even cheered after realizing that they'd be assisted by them since everyone had seen how strong these beings were.
This reception was a stark contrast to how the farmers in the North reacted when the humanoids were introduced back then. It was apparent that, gradually, the town and its residents were growing by each passing day.
After all preparations for the restoration of the Western Land had been taken care of, Lark summoned Captain Qarat and the herbalist of Blackstone Town, Mores, to his office in the mansion.
"My Lord?" Captain Qarat saluted. "You called for us?"
Herbalist Mores imitated the salute of the captain.
"I plan on clearing a portion of the Endless Forest of trees," said Lark.
"We'll be expanding the Eastern Residential District. But the Endless Forest is simply too large and it'd be reckless if we suddenly started cutting down a massive number of trees without first scouting the area."
Captain Qarat understood what the young master was trying to accomplish. He also thought that it would be reckless to cut down numerous trees and delve deeper into the forest without any form of reconnaissance.
After all, the mine was previously a goblin's den. There might be more monsters in the forest that they were unaware of.
"You're called Mores, correct?" Lark said to the herbalist.
"Yes, Young Lord."
The herbalist was a typical middle?aged man seen in Blackstone Town.
But according to the data they'd gathered, he was the most knowledgeable person in this territory when it came to the Endless Forest. It was the place where he'd been gathering the herbs he'd been selling, after all.
"I'm going to organize a scouting party in the Endless Forest," said Lark. "And I hope that you can guide them. Of course, you'll be appropriately compensated. Furthermore, you'll be accompanied by the soldiers and several Blackstone Knights in the process. They'll prioritize your safety above everything else."
Herbalist Mores had heard of how powerful the Blackstone Knights were. Furthermore, he'd be accompanied by the so?called veteran soldiers who'd survived the war with the Empire. He'd been wandering the Endless Forest for over a decade now and he was sure that there were no monsters in the area around a day away from the edge of the forest.
The only threats were the dangerous animals he'd sometimes encountered. But with such powerful escorts, those ferocious beasts wouldn't even be a threat at all. Mores thought that this was a chance to earn a hefty sum with minimal risk to his life.
"I'll be glad to do it, Young Lord."
Lark nodded. "Good."
Lark turned to Qarat. "A dozen soldiers, six Blackstone Knights.
You'll be divided into six teams; each should be escorted by a Blackstone Knight. You'll be tasked to scout the area around thirty kilometers from the mines. All reconnaissance activities are to be postponed once dusk comes.
Everyone will gather together at an agreed location when that time comes. I don't want anyone to lose their life for this mission. Bring at least two weeks' worth of rations with you."
The captain was surprised that the young master was asking them to bring two weeks' worth of supplies. If things went well, they could probably come back to deliver their findings in just a week.
"Understood?"
After the captain and the herbalist had been briefed of their mission, Lark summoned Austen, George, and Chryselle into his office in the mansion.
"Sorry for holding it off until now," Lark said to Chryselle. "As promised, we'll start with your magic lessons today."
Chryselle was thrilled at this declaration. "Yes?"
Lark grabbed the thick book on his table and tossed it toward Chryselle. Although the book was heavy, it slowly and perfectly landed on her hands as though someone controlled its speed and trajectory.
"Have you seen this book before?"
Chryselle stared at the book, frowned, and bobbed her head. "Yes. It's the book written by the former royal court magician, Algrove Aria. My great?great?grandfather."
"As I thought. The two of you are related."
"He's the founder of the Magic Academy and is said to be one of the strongest magicians who lived in this country. This book is the one the first years and seconds years use in the Magic Academy."
"I bought that book in the capital and read it on our way here to Blackstone Town," said Lark. "There are a lot of interesting things written in that book, and most of them are correct."
Chryselle didn't miss the latter part of Lark's statement. Lark was implying that there were several mistakes in the book written by her great?
great?grandfather. She did not take offense and continued listening intently.
"You know how to dispel magic?"
Chryselle nodded. "Yes. We were taught how to dispel the five basic elements."
"Perfect. Before I proceed with the basic lessons regarding magic formations, I want to correct a simple misconception. As someone taught in the way of magic with that book as the guide, it must have been engraved deeply into your mind."
Lark willed the small piece of wood placed on top of his table to hover up. He cast his spell and its tip started blazing into fire. He cast another spell and an orb of fire, around the size of a fist, manifested itself next to the burning wood.
"Try to dispel the fire spell I cast. Both of them."
Chryselle cast her spell and the orb of fire slowly dissipated and vanished. The wood, on the other hand, was still burning fiercely.
"Now tell me why the wood remains untouched by your spell, while the fire orb was easily dispelled by it."
A first?year student of the Magic Academy may have found it hard to answer this question, but to Chryselle—the Fifth Elder of the tower—the answer was glaringly obvious.
"The answer is simple," she said. "The orb is fueled by mana, the wood isn't. By disrupting the mana which formed the inner circuit of the spell, the spell was unable to maintain its shape, thus the fire dissipated.
The Grand Magician Algrove defined magic as the creation of a phenomenon through mana. The process of manipulating mana to achieve a desired result. A dispel is meant to disrupt the fuel—the mana."
"And this concept is taught to all students in the Magic Academy?"
"Yes."
Lark sighed. As he'd thought, it seemed that the magicians in the Kingdom were performing their magic with this book as the basis of their spells—as their foundation. There were a lot of useful things written in this book, but some of them were simply inefficient. Those who learned magic with such an inefficient system would eventually reach a bottleneck and fail to achieve greater heights. The basic magic formations alone, written in this book, had several flaws.
"A dispel is meant to nullify the elements. It doesn't matter if it's fueled by magic or not. This is one of the things separating mediocre magicians from true ones."
It was a statement rejecting the teachings of the Grand Magician Algrove—the Founder of the Magic Academy.
"Cast an orb of fire," said Lark.
Chryselle nodded and cast an orb of fire.
"Watch closely," said Lark. "This is a real dispel."
Lark pointed a finger toward the orb of fire and the burning wood, and in an instant, both of their flames instantly vanished, as though blown away by an invisible giant.
Chryselle's eyes widened as she realized that Lark dispelled even the fire unfueled by mana.
"The Grand Magician Algrove defined magic as the creation of a phenomenon with the use of mana," said Lark. "It's not entirely wrong. But my definition of magic is this: It is merely an alteration. We do not create and consume anything; we merely alter it. A common misconception written in the book is that mana is a fuel, when in reality it is not. Mana is an existence we alter into a distinct form in order to accomplish the phenomenon called magic. This concept is the reason why unstructured magic, spells which do not use any magic formation, exist.
"Hypothetically speaking, if by chance a magician is confined in a space where ambient mana did not exist and he used up all of his mana reserves, he would never recover his mana no matter how long he rested.
This is because mana is never created by the magician himself. This is the same reason why the Magic Empire collapsed, based on the story you told me. The Dragon ?ein—the source of all mana—was wrung dry by the cataclysm and the magicians never recovered their mana after using up all of their reserves."
The memories of his previous life passed through Lark's mind. He felt mixed emotions after reminiscing about his days in the Magic Empire. If the planetary alignment, which happened every ten thousand years, did not occur, maybe the Magic Empire would still exist even in this timeline.
If he was still alive during the cataclysm, maybe they could have closed the void and prevented the mana of this world from leaking out.
Lark canceled his floating spell and the burned wood dropped to the ground.
"After reading this book, I realized why General Alvaren remained undefeated until this recent war with the Empire," said Lark. "Only those capable of unstructured magic are capable of fighting against him one?on?
one. This is the reason why my brother and ?iscount Zacharia lost. It's truly fortunate that the Sword Saint was there during that battle. Only someone like him, who isn't fully reliant on magic, could defeat the Magic Slayer of the Empire."
Chryselle was momentarily speechless after hearing these things.
Everything Lark said made sense, and if she took his words as reality, then dispelling even spells "unfueled" by mana should be feasible. It was only a matter of how good a magician was in alteration.
"You probably grew up believing the words written in that book," said Lark. "But as long as you're under my tutelage, you'll have to throw several of those things away. We'll correct all the misconceptions taught to you from a young age."
Chryselle clenched her fists. "Yes?"
Lark liked those determined eyes of hers. "Then let's start today's magic lesson."
*** The magic lessons continued until dusk.
After dinner, Lark received an unexpected guest in the mansion.
"Princess," said Lark. "Had I known you were coming tonight, I would have prepared a proper reception."
The princess looked conflicted. She looked down and remained silent for a moment. Behind her were her personal knights.
Lark waited patiently for her to speak.
"I heard that you're conducting an expedition to the Endless Forest."
She finally raised her head and stared straight into Lark's eyes. "I want you to let us come along with the soldiers."
The latter part of her statement was said with conviction, clearly not taking no for an answer. This was the first time Lark had seen that fierce look in her eyes, as though this expedition meant the world to her, as though she was carrying a heavy weight of responsibility on her shoulders.
Lark remained calm and replied, "I need a reason to let you tag along, Princess."
The princess bit her lip. "That… I cannot tell you. I'm sorry."
"My head will come rolling should anything happen to you while you're in my territory," Lark said gently. "Unless I know the reason and I judge that it is worth the risk of a royal joining the expedition, I shall have to decline, Your Highness."
The princess looked at Parzival and silently pleaded for help. The knight understood what the princess was trying to convey and nodded his head.
"The five of us will be responsible for the princess' safety," said Parzival. "Rest assured that nothing will happen to Her Highness as long as she's with us. Her safety will be our utmost priority."
Lark fell silent. He started pondering whether or not he should let the princess join the expedition.
Truthfully, the Endless Forest was full of mysteries. They were frequently attacked by monsters on their way to the capital, and even the forests near the major cities weren't safe to traveling merchants. But the Endless Forest was different. It was eerily peaceful, as though someone was controlling all the creatures living inside it. Even the goblins who previously inhabited the mines never attacked Blackstone Town.
Furthermore, the Endless Forest was absurdly large, to the point that it was presumed to be larger than the entire Kingdom of Lukas. All attempts to map the place proved futile due to its sheer size. Even with flight magic, Lark was unable to make a map.
After weighing all possible scenarios, Lark made up his mind. He decided that it would be too dangerous to let the princess wander the Endless Forest, even if she was escorted by the knights.
"I need a reason, Princess," repeated Lark. "Unless I hear the reason you wish to go, I can't let you join the expedition forces."
The princess closed her eyes and sighed. Eventually, she spoke to her knights. "We're leaving."
She could have lied her way out of this, but she simply chose to remain silent. Lark found this quite admirable.
She bowed her head. "Sorry for disturbing you at this hour, Lord Lark."
The knights looked like they wanted to say something but eventually decided against it.
After the visitors left, Lark summoned Anandra and Captain Qarat.
"You called for us, Young Lord?" Anandra and Qarat saluted.
"The princess just left the mansion a while ago. She wishes to join the expedition forces."
"Ah, she did ask me this morning about the reconnaissance mission to the Endless Forest," said the Captain of the Blackstone Soldiers. "But why does the princess want to join the expedition?"
"I asked her the same question," said Lark. "But she refused to answer.
Listen, I want the two of you to monitor the movements of the princess and her men. Do not let her take part in the expedition, and you are to inform me immediately if she suddenly enters the Endless Forest."
Captain Qarat was clearly uncomfortable monitoring the movements of a royal. He hesitated for a moment before he replied. Anandra, on the other hand, immediately made his response. To him, the royals did not matter. His master was Lark Marcus, no one else.
"As you wish, My Lord."
"Y?Yes, Young Lord?"
Lark had a bad premonition about this. Those eyes filled with conviction—she would surely enter the forest despite Lark's refusal.
Lark sighed. This was one of the reasons why he hated being associated with royals.