Chapter 35: CH 35

“This is it.”

Seeing the required tools for her journey crammed into a pile of luggage, the female scholar gave a satisfied nod. She had made her decision. She would uncover the relationship between demons and the second heart in further detail and ‘spread the truth to the world’. If she chose to hole up in her laboratory, her investigation would go nowhere. 

So, she will leave. 

She will move outside, out of the castle walls in order to continue her research. 

That was the decision she made. 

‘My preparations are completed. I’ve saved up all I could. Everything has been arranged. Nothing to do now’

She thought. Glancing back, she grimaced a little at the mess of bags.

The baggage has become a lot, but I’ll manage it one way or another. Tonight, I will escape the past the walls. Tonight, with my magic, I’ll dig a tunnel. Leaving the demons aside, the soldiers defending the walls shouldn’t be able to pursue me.  Only a wild animal could possibly bother me, but my magic is strong. I could vaporise it. 

She paused her nodding.

No, that would be too flamboyant. I need to focus on my research. Maybe I should check everything again… No I need to be calm. Maybe I’ll read for a little.

…

Slowly, the shadows became longer, the words started to flicker under the candlelight. She looked up. The demonic red sun started to shiver behind the thick dark clouds. The brilliant red sky faded across the horizon into almost pitch darkness. Under the darkness, she would make an underground tunnel, and leave, into the world. Naturally, she was planning to take the caged demon with her. That was how things were supposed to go.

Calm. Keep calm. Normally the book would consume her. She would read it, tease apart the theories, the problems posed and use it to weave and guide her research, but her anticipation was too nerving. It’s getting too dark. She moved to grab her wand, and gave it a wave.

“… Hm? … Huh?” [1]

No matter how many times she waved her wand, the room would not light up. She closely observed the wand, checking to see if there was something wrong with the magic formation. However, no matter how many times she looked over, she could find nothing wrong with it. She once again waved her wand to invoke her magic, but still there was no light. She dejectedly shook her head, and placed her wand on her desk. Then, she drew a magic formation, and recited the incantation to create light. Her magic should have been triggered by this.

… However, the magic would not activate.

Huh?

Why is the magic not working?

The wand didn’t malfunction either…!!

Perhaps!! Could it be that magic has vanished from the world!?

The female scholar jerked her view back through the window. 

No, everyone else still has their lights on. It looks… Normal.

She shook her head again.

This…. [2]

What….

happened to my body….

….

….! It couldn’t be!

By removing my second heart! I can no longer use magic!?

Then, then why could I still use magic until just now!?

!!… Maybe…!!

Was the magic that I used before leftover magical energy from the magic stone in my wand?

The female scholar recalled the instances she used magic since she had returned home, and recounted the total number of times she had used magic power.

As I thought! It’s the same as the number of times I recharged the mana stone inside my wand! So, the second heart isn’t just related to demons, but magic as well!? What a find! A great discovery! 

Thus far, the topic of Where magic comes from?, was a mystery amidst scholars. There were various theories concerning the origin of magic. One theory proposed as such, “It was a protective power bestowed upon humanity by the Goddess.” Yet another claimed that, Humanity was born naturally possessing magical powers, and thus how much magical power one had, determined whether they could wield magic or not

No one had even imagined that such a tiny, useless organ had any relation to magic [3]. To magic, of all things! Yes, prisoners used for experimentation had tests of immunity and physical strength done after the second heart was removed, but not magic.

No one had even imagined that such a tiny, useless organ had any relation to magic.

How profound is the organ known as the second heart…

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Since it’s related to magical power….

… So would that mean… there’s some cause-and-effect relationship concerning magic and demons?

While it had occurred to her, the female scholar reached up to the top of the bookshelf which was filled with textbooks from her student days. She plucked a book out, and flipping through it she reached the chapters “The History of Magic,” and “The History of Demons”

… Just as I thought, although there’s some time delay between the two, as magic has developed, demons have sprung forth. There’s no doubt that there is a relation between magic and demons! 

She originally planned to leave tonight. But not now. The female scholar decided there were more important things to do. Tomorrow, she would go to the library, and learn upon the history, the history of magic and demons. Oh, but the library opens much too late..

…

It was late morning when the library lazily opened its doors, signalling the female scholar to storm into the depths of the building.

As I had feared. The first discovery of “demons” overlapped with the period in which magic began to become commonplace. 

It would appear that from looking at early records of magic development, there were many small demons at first. In the records prior to the discovery of demons, animals displayed increasing severity of aggression. It conspicuously stood out

It seems like within the country, there were a considerable number of animals before they transformed into demons. As they began to grow violent, however, humanity was at a loss with what to do. In the end, they decided to slaughter them all.

That’s right, long ago, wasn’t there a concept of “pets”? According to the accounts, there were several species kept at home, living as if they were members of the family. I can’t fathom it now. It is common sense that “animals are violent,” and cannot be kept at home. Any experiments that involve animals, will eventually result in injuries on way or the other.

Magic and demons are undoubtedly connected.” 

After an entire day looking up references in the library, she firmly reached this conclusion. She decided to modify her original research investigation. There was one location which she wanted to investigate in more depth. This place was “the great nation from the distant past which fell to the demons in just one night.”

I wonder why that country was destroyed overnight.

What could have caused this many demons to manifest and destroy the country in just one night?

Perhaps this has something to do with magic.

I must go there and see for my own eyes.

The female scholar returned home. She walked up to the table.

On the desk was a jumble of maps stitched together. Most of the maps dated back to the times when the trading routes were still in use. Among the spread of yellowed parchment included a couple of squares of bright paper – new maps distributed by the church. The female scholar traced her finger across the towns and cities marked on the map, sometimes cutting through the painted forests, or driving along the thin roads. It would take one year if she followed the main roads. On the other extreme, cutting through all the forests and woods would reduce the time taken to half a year or so. The possible dangers inside the forest were of no concern for her. Demons would not attack her. In fact, the Bestowed riding in luxurious carriages would frequent the highway. It would be a wiser choice to avoid the highway if she wanted to remain hidden throughout her travels.

Her initial plan was to use her magic to drive away any possible threats such as wild animals but this was no longer an option. She would be unable to use magic without a mana stone charged with magic power. Of course she could acquire more magic stones but it wasn’t as simple as that. The stones were not so big or heavy, but considering the half a year round trip to the location plus a few months for the investigation, the amount of mana tones she would have to procure would be (large). Opportunities for replenishing her stock of mana stones would be limited; thus she would have to buy even more stones right now to ensure the trip would be successful. After making the calculations, she concluded that the weight of stones she would have to carry would be almost what she could carry, leaving little weight for daily necessities. The mana stones could be tossed as she travelled but even so, carrying the extra weight would greatly increase the initial predicted journey length. 

Her reluctant gaze lingered on the numbers and towards her wallet.

Her life savings

A long sigh escaped her mouth. 

And with her wallet in one hand, she walked off to the mana stone store.

Several days later, she obtained a large amount of mana stones from the store and made a last check of her luggage.

Finally, she was going to set off tonight.

The caged demon was now stuffed into a bag.

All that was left was to leave the country without any witnesses.

She took out one precious stone and put the demon to sleep before saying goodbye to her home. 

The desolate streets were engulfed in darkness.

Reaching the wall was effortless. She then dug out a tunnel just wide enough for one person to pass through. Then she returned the misplaced dirt into the tunnel and freed the currently snoring demon out of the bag. A patrolling soldier was making his rounds. Ensuring that she wasn’t visible to the soldier, she stood up and departed.

By the time the sun peeked its head from the horizon, a female figure could be spotted inside the woods.

Just as she had expected, there were herds of demons wandering in the forest, a few of them have even stopped to stare at her.

However, she paid no heed to the gazes and continued to trudge on through the forest carrying her oversized backpack.

Occasionally, she would swipe a glance at a demon large enough for her to strain her neck as it strolled past but little did it affect her march.

[1]: DC: It was in this moment, she new she f*cked up

[2]: DC:  It sets in in 3… 2… 1

[3]: tony chen: like an appendix. absolutely useless and only exists to explode and kill you.

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