Chương 99: Hobbies

"We sought wonder. What we found instead was something akin to divinity."

"I wasn't sure if I wanted to stay for long. There was something strange in the air. Something I couldn't quite place. Yet, the longer I lived there, the more I felt like I had to persist. That I had to continue living there and find this truth that had consumed my consciousness and so, I remained. Like many others."

"If it can be proven in any way that Rhel is the most compelling Realm than any other, then look no further than the fact that those who come here almost never, ever leave."

"I was once fortunate enough to meet the greatest being of all. The one who oversees the entirety of a Realm by himself. One who perhaps stands apart from anyone else in all of the cosmos itself. I speak not from mere devotion, but of true, unbiased belief. I will prove it myself if I have to. There is nothing and no one on the level of Kindly Mavar." Collected Quotes Recollections of Rhel Self-proclaimed Escapee Syren L. Ryland didn't get a confirmation about his request just yet.

It was apparently under consideration. That was fine. He was in no rush. Just because he knew full well that Rhel held more pieces of himself there didn't mean he had to get there as soon as possible. After all, they were managing things fine on their own. Just as with the Manabreak mine, Ryland didn't want to upset things through selfishness. For the time being, he had a good number of academy matters to pay attention to. The first of those was his class.

Over the next few weeks, Ryland went through a different kind of lessons on intuitiveness.

"You are not to cast spells this time," he lectured during one of his class periods.

"Even though we're still supposed to channel mana all the while?" Nephrix asked.

"Even then. Instead, you'll let the mana flow out of your manasoul and allow it to pass through you while you do something else. It can be anything, as long as it's something creative. Something that you've put some amount of thought into." That got them thinking and frowning. More of the former than the latter, thankfully. Overall, they responded well to the new exercise. In essence, as Ryland explained to his students, he was still helping them achieve their semester-long project of manifesting a Tier [7] Glyph.

In this case, his plan was to get the students' mana accustomed to the idea of creation. Mana, even when it wasn't officially of the Living variety, still possessed something akin to a soul. To life. A quality that allowed it to change, morph, and adapt. The rest of the semester would revolve around Ryland's students learning how to make use of this specific property of mana. Spell work normally revolved around guiding mana to fulfil definitions set by Glyphs.

But to form the right Glyph, one first needed powerful intentions. Soulful intentions. Practicing that soulfulness was what Ryland had focused on till now. And judging by the students' performance in both the midterms and the duels, they had gotten a good grip on the lesson. But there was more to reaching the heights of magic than just being soulful about one's intentions. So, Ryland intended to teach his students about exactly that.

Through unconventional means, perhaps, but no one appeared to be complaining just yet.

"No," he said, when he was walking around class." Talking about creative things doesn't fulfil the requirements of the lesson." Several students flushed and went back to concentrating on their own efforts. After the first lesson had talked about it, Ryland had asked the students to bring their creative projects to class. Most had taken to it with excitement. Some had brought diaries where they were writing stories, poems, little vignettes, and the like. Nephrax had brought a sewing kit.

Meanwhile, Bulgon had procured a small cauldron from somewhere.

"Cooking is creative," he had said.

"Right, sir?" Ryland had deliberated for a moment, as his idea of cooking wasn't as extensive as his idea on a great many other things. But he had nodded in agreement eventually. Viren was trying to carve some wax into little statues with small spells driven by his Soul Glyph of Burning.

"We can cast magic if it's part of the creative process, right sir?" Ryland had nodded at that too. It was Acrypha who had the most trouble with the class, unfortunately.

"I'm surprised you don't have a creative hobby or anything of the sort," Ryland said. Acrypha took her time to answer.

"I do, sir. Or I did. You might understand. It was the typical education I received—piano, dancing, art, and sewing too. I excelled in most of them. It's just that they all fell away as time wore on and I ended up focusing on magic entirely."

"Well, that sounds like you have a lot to choose from."

"I suppose I do. It's just that…" Ryland smiled at her encouragingly.

"Is there something wrong?"

"It's just my dumb brain that's wrong, I think. I can't justify doing all this nonsense." She huffed a little, then looked a little mortified that she had acted out a bit.

"Of course, it's not actually nonsense! But the older I grew, the more it was emphasized that those weren't the paths I'd be going down, so any time I spent with them was time I was wasting." The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"Ah. That is wrong." She didn't add any comment to that. Honestly, Ryland was a little surprised she had been so upfront with him about it all, especially when they were in the middle of class. Not that anyone was really paying attention to them. Well, no one save Viren, who was pretending very, very hard not to eavesdrop. It was just difficult when he was sitting right next to Acrypha. Her eyes sharpened.

"Anyway, sir, do you have a suggestion in particular?"

"Go with whichever makes you feel the most creative," Ryland said. Then paused.

"Or whichever engages you the most creatively, I should say. Art might sound the most creative of the bunch, but if you favour it less than dancing and sewing, those might end up being better options."

"Hmm. I see." Ryland blinked. That hmm of hers had sounded oddly familiar for some reason. Viren's squint confirmed Ryland wasn't the only one who thought so. Very odd. They all made very good progress over the weeks, even Acrypha despite her niggling doubts. Ryland had asked them all to carry out the exercise up until they were getting better at manifesting Glyph Prints on their own. And they had. Within a few weeks, he was watching Glyph Prints pop up with far greater frequency than they had this semester so far.

The only thing left now was to figure out how best they could raise the potency and power of their magic. For simply manifesting Glyph Prints to create a new Glyph wasn't enough. Ryland's requirement was that it needed to be Tier [7] at least. Even Acrypha's strongest was Tier [6]. But that was fine. The last stretch of the semester would have them fully incorporating their soulfulness and learning a bit about manasoul manifestation.

Naturally, they wouldn't get to Pure Manifestations at this stage of their magical journeys, but it was a start. Of course, teaching wasn't the only thing he was busy with over those weeks. He helped the academy fix some of the infrastructural damage it had suffered during that incident with the Eliminators. A couple of clubs strangely needed his assistance for a few of their club activities, so he helped them too. Then there was Tyra seeking to use him as a waste disposal. Well, not literally.

Her recent experiments had just created quite a bit of waste that was far too dangerous to store on worlds with liveable atmospheres, so Ryland had stepped in and sent them to the sun with a rift. Really, he was garnering a strange reputation as one of the most helpful people on campus. He still hadn't received an answer from the Prime Minister, but Ryland remained patient. Especially when he was cornered by the dignitary from Rhel himself. The man had arrived without warning.

So much so that Ryland was just a bit bothered, because he should have sensed the fellow approaching around the corner.

"Well, look who it is." He smiled widely.

"Marionys Ryland."

"I am surprised you are still here, Second High Adjutant," Ryland said.

"Has Rhel lost all use for you at home?"

"It simply recognizes that I am far more useful at Androvia at the moment."

"How astute of Kindly Mavar." They stared at each other for a moment. Ryland didn't recall the old elvhenan from the time he had visited Rhel himself. He was a new addition to the Realm. Though there was no telling whether he was a traditional addition or someone born there.

"How astute of you to mention him in a situation such as this." Yulkaviel moderated his smile into something a bit more genuine.

"I heard something from a certain source that you might corroborate, Marionys Ryland. Because I think we're strangely aligned in our desires yet we haven't yet discussed them."

"You wish me to visit Rhel?" Ryland asked. He arched an eyebrow.

"Despite knowing my history there? To what end?"

"Rhel is turning over a new leaf. We are discarding our centuries of isolation to finally join up with the rest of the Accords. To that end, we need to both look forward to new opportunities and take care of old grudges and failings."

"I'm a grudge, am I…?"

"You are one of the most significant figures in the history of my Realm. Yet, it is undeniable that there exists a vast rift between you and my home. Fixing this rift, bridging the gap between us, would be to everyone's benefit." Ryland didn't reply. In truth, their ploy was rather obvious. Over the course of centuries, things had changed on Rhel. The outlook on life, the flow of civilization, all of that had taken powerful if slow turns.

All the old dependencies the whole Realm had relied on were no longer as necessary for their continued survival and future prosperity. Unfortunately, removing those dependencies was far easier said than done. Especially when they involved the Flourinus Order. That was where the Accords came in. Where Ryland came in. For if Rhel sought to excise itself from the Order, then it would need powerful allies. The kind that the most powerful signatory Accorded Realms could provide.

The kind that the most powerful of mages could grant. Honestly, Ryland was surprised that the Order was allowing this to go through. The dignitary had been here for a while and nothing untoward had happened. There was the incident with the Prime Minister, but no clue had been found that suggested there was a link to the Flourinus Order just yet. It looked like the work of the nation of Kurin and Kurin alone. So what exactly was going on?

"What is happening on Rhel?" Ryland asked. The Second High Adjutant took his time considering an answer. Ryland didn't mind. He was rather fond of deliberation himself, after all.

"A great many changes. If you would seek to be a part of it, the nation of Rhel would be eternally grateful." Well, that wasn't much of an answer. Ryland supposed he wouldn't be given a great many details when he hadn't exactly agreed to anything himself just yet.

"I have intimated that I would like to visit Rhel as well," Ryland eventually said.

"However, I haven't been given an answer yet."

"Oh, I think a positive answer can be obtained. All I need from you, Ryland, is confirmation of your intention to visit us once more."

"You have it then." Yulkaviel blinked. Maybe he was surprised it had been that easy. Or maybe he was wondering why he hadn't started with that since their conversation could have been cut down much shorter. Ryland breathed out easily. If nothing else, it seemed that his visit to Rhel would at least be interesting, if he actually ended up going there. They parted amicably. Ryland still didn't feel like he had actually learned anything of value. And a part of him almost wanted to visit Rhel right now.

He could seek information directly, then. Or at the very least, he could leave behind a way to collect that information for himself, which would then inform him whether visiting Rhel was actually a good decision or not. But he had no intention of violating Rhel's airspace just yet. It was one of the most secure Realms Ryland had ever been on. Kindly Mavar was… a lot of things, but more than anything else, he was thorough.

Ryland wouldn't be surprised if, after all this time, he had attuned himself to every pocket of air, every bit of space itself, to his manasoul. The end of the month had Ryland relaxing a bit. He caught up on some of the missed episodes of Echoes of Stardust and made sure to attend a concert of Archdrakes on Realm 46. It was another one of those once in a lifetime events Ryland had the great blessing of seeing more than just once. Their display literally rewrote the entire planet's atmosphere.

It was certainly an amazing sight to behold. And then, as both the end of the semester and the next Excursion loomed ever closer, Ryland got a visit from the Fatehound. Castigor simply appeared in his office. Ryland was thankful that Alaric had taken his advice and allowed Castigor to move freely without setting off a thousand alarms in the academy.

"Target—found," the enormous hound with the starry pelt said. Ryland sat up in his chair.

"Found, you say? Truly?" He had a hard time believing the one or more operatives chosen by the Order would let their guard down now.

"Fate—read," Castigor said.

"Trail—discovered. Future—resolved. Endpoint—located."

"Hmm." Ryland considered that for a moment. Something had certainly changed, and if nothing else, that change was worth investigating. The real question was whether the change was legitimate or merely an intentional red herring to throw him off. A purposeful distraction. He got to his feet and smiled at the giant good boy.

"Well, let's go check, shall we?"