Chương 41: It’s Book Rewind time.

With the primer fully learned, Lira finally turned her full attention to creating a proper book-restoration spell. Her first instinct was simple, if the cleaning spell worked so well on the body, then adapting it for books should be possible. The structure was already there, and only a single component needed to change. Yorad became Linasara. That alone should be enough to produce a functional spell. But before attempting anything, she decided to prepare herself properly.

She already had a practical understanding of book restoration from her previous work, but she was never above learning more. She reached for the seven books she had just gathered. Two she absorbed directly, letting the information settle into her mind. The remaining ones she skimmed through carefully, focusing on techniques, material behavior, and the underlying logic behind restoration rather than the surface-level instructions. Only once she felt ready did she begin her meditation.

"Pika. Selan. Tureth." Ten minutes of knowledge consolidation later… Linasara. Luneth. Velar. Book. Purification. Clarity. Click. The spell formed easily. That alone told her she was on the right track. Still, she did not reach for the damaged primers or the sword saint manual. Instead, she picked a book she would not mind losing.

"Linasara. Luneth. Velar." A soft ripple spread across the surface of the book, moving from cover to spine and then through every page. The effect was immediate. The leather regained its sheen, the surface smoothing out as if newly polished, and the yellowed pages brightened, returning to a clean white, almost pristine color. Lira leaned closer, observing carefully. But to her chagrin, the damage remained.

The faded ink did not return, the torn pages stayed missing, and the thick scar on the leather cover remained the same. She frowned slightly. Technically, the spell had worked exactly as designed. It was, sadly, a book cleaning spell rather than a book restoration spell. She tried again with a different book, one that had only lost its binding. The result was the same. The materials were slightly cleaned, as they did not need much, but nothing was reattached, and the structure remained broken.

Lira exhaled slowly again. This confirmed it. Cleaning was not restoration. They overlapped, but something was missing. The spell needed to be more. Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. She came to an obvious conclusion. A cantrip would not be enough. This required a tier one spell. She reached for her father's lexicon, searching for anything related to restoration or repair, but did not find any singular word that matched the concept directly.

That left only one option. She would have to build it herself. The structure she formed was straightforward in theory. Linasara. Luneth. Velar. Moren. Kaldris. Book. Purification. Clarity. Past. Retrieval. Starting with the previous spell, but with a few additions. She had used the combination of Moren and Kaldris before, once in her memory spell and again in her attempt at divining past events. The pairing was familiar, tied to the idea of retrieving something from an earlier state. In principle, it made sense.

Restoration was a reconstruction based on what once existed.

"Pika. Selan. Tureth." She began to meditate on the new spell. At first, everything aligned. She was able to expand on her former thinking by adding restoration based on a former state. She imagined how she would do it manually, step by step, tapping into her personal experience as well as the knowledge she had gained from books. However, the click never came. Lira opened her eyes slowly, her thoughts shifting as she reconsidered her approach.

This was not a divination spell, nor was it simply a mind-based construct. It touched on something broader: the nature of time, change, and decay. She could not treat those concepts lightly. Without hesitation, she reached for more information.

"Ladar. Linasara. Oshkan. Cognar. Turat."

"Yorad. Linasara. Kaldris." Three books lifted and moved toward her. Two philosophical manuscripts and one book of poetry, all focused on the past. She absorbed two of them immediately and began reading the third, letting the ideas settle as she returned to meditation. Time passed. Half an hour, perhaps more. The process was not smooth, at least not as smooth as her earlier successes.

She had to reconcile multiple overlapping concepts: how purification interacted with retrieval, how clarity defined the intended state, and how the past served as a reference point to that clarity. She thought about how the damage occurred. The wear and tear born from tension and the passage of time. Restoration, in this case, was not simply reversing the flow of time. It was guiding something back toward a previous, stable configuration using what remained as a foundation. The pieces began to align. Click.

Lira let out a slow breath as a dull ache spread through her head. That had been difficult. She could feel the strain clearly. In hindsight, she should have practiced more with Moren and Luneth individually before attempting to combine them at this level. It could have gone worse if the spell had not also included Linasara and Kaldris, both concepts she had worked with extensively. Still, it had worked. Now there was only one step left: testing. She reached for another ruined book.

"Linasara. Luneth. Velar. Moren. Kaldris." The effect was immediate and mesmerizing. It was as if something deeper than the surface had been touched. The damage reversed in front of her eyes. Torn pages drew themselves back together, fibers reconnecting as if guided by an unseen hand. Ink darkened, lines reforming with clarity and precision. The worn leather cover regained its structure, smoothing and tightening until it looked untouched by time. Lira stared, her breath catching. The book was whole again.

Her mouth remained slightly open as she took in the result. Then the sensation hit her all at once. A sharp, hollow pain in her stomach. A second later, it growled loudly in the quiet of her alcove. Hunger. Sudden and overwhelming. She blinked, caught off guard by the intensity of it. Was that the cost of her spell, or had she simply lost track of time? No, it was barely noon. She should not be starving yet. Her gaze dropped back to the book in her hands. It was perfect, immaculate even.

As if it had just been made. Lira exhaled slowly. If food were the only price of this spell, then it was one she could afford. And more importantly, one she was willing to pay.