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Chapter 255: Blooming the Flower (6)
Lloyd hid his surprise and sank into thought.
‘The delay is an illusion. That’s the correct answer.’
The reason so many people experienced the phenomenon was simple.
At the fleeting instant when mana flowed through circuits and turned into magic, the brain was overloaded.
In other words, the magic manifested instantly, but lowered cognitive ability couldn’t keep up, creating the gap.
‘It’s correct… but how?’
Lloyd was unsettled.
In his knowledge, it was impossible for a 6th-level mage to answer this question.
‘Even I only became certain of it after reaching 8th level.’
Unable to contain his curiosity, Lloyd asked.
“Who told you that?”
“No one told me.”
“Nonsense.”
Lloyd shook his head firmly.
“There are structural limits in this world. No matter how sharp one’s vision is, a person cannot see the back of the head of the one standing before them. This problem is the same.”
“You’re right.”
Oscar readily agreed, then added.
“But the world also has inference and deduction. Those are humanity’s greatest engines of progress.”
“…You deduced it?”
“Yes. Even if you can’t see the back of someone’s head, you can guess from the size and shape of their skull. It was the same with this problem.”
“For something deduced, you sounded quite certain.”
He had even declared it was “easy” the moment he heard the question.
At this, Oscar smirked.
“I think a lot, all the time. Because of that, I already have answers for most of the problems I’ve personally experienced.”
“…”
If that was true, then he was no mage to dismiss as just a 6th level.
In fact, that flexible way of thinking was bound to be of great help.
Lloyd made up his mind and nodded slowly.
“For the next week, I’ll count on you.”
“Yes. I’ll give my best advice.”
When the conversation ended, a peculiar awkwardness hung in the air.
‘What is this? Why so awkward?’
After some thought, Oscar realized.
Though they felt internally close, Oscar Crucian and Lloyd Schultz had never shared anything personal.
Of course they’d feel awkward.
“…”
“…”
They waited in heavy silence for Edna, who still hadn’t arrived.
Surprisingly, Lloyd spoke first.
“Did Sasha complain about the result?”
“She didn’t understand at first, but once I explained, she accepted it.”
“…Sasha did?”
Knowing her stubbornness, Lloyd was slightly surprised.
From childhood, wasn’t Sasha the one with the strongest competitive streak?
That she accepted it so easily was hard to believe.
Just as he was about to ask further, Edna entered the training hall.
“Sorry I’m late. Let’s begin.”
At her words—shrrrrk!
Behind her, sixty-four book-shaped tomes floated into the air.
Lloyd looked up at them and muttered.
“These are… surely not?”
“These are the high-tier magics stored in the White Tower. Including the newly added Wind Archive, there are sixty-four.”
Sixty-four high-tier spells.
Lloyd’s eyes trembled.
He remembered the time he had yearned to restore even just one of them.
‘Though I never bloomed them with my own hand…’
They had truly returned.
Seeing those books, Lloyd felt a deep relief, as if confirming his days in the Red Tower hadn’t been in vain.
It felt like a reward for that time, and he smiled faintly.
“That’s a relief.”
“You must choose one of these.”
Mages who weren’t Tower Masters had to first select one high-tier spell to learn.
Only after mastering it completely could they move on to others.
“Hm.”
When Lloyd gestured, each book flew to him one by one and opened to its first page.
There, descriptions of the spell were written.
Just reviewing all sixty-four took him over an hour.
“I’m not sure.”
After finishing, Lloyd held one book in his hand, looking pensive.
“I chose one… but I don’t know if it’s the right choice.”
“If you don’t mind, may I see what you picked?”
Oscar stepped forward and glanced at it.
Then he gave a fascinated smile.
“Sword that Cleaves the Sky? Quite the unexpected choice.”
“…The lack of firepower in my fight against the Red Tower Master kept coming back to me. Is it a bad choice?”
“Hm.”
The Sword that Cleaves the Sky—a massive blade of wind summoned to descend from above.
Its attack power was among the very highest.
Even compared to the destructive spells of the Red Tower, it lacked nothing.
“I think it’s fine. But you must have doubts.”
“Because of the Fire-Lotus.”
The so-called bomb flower.
Lloyd’s combat style, detonating those blossoms, was already explosively powerful.
Learning an attack spell on top of that felt redundant.
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“My battles begin with the Fire-Lotus and end with it. Adding this spell won’t change the mechanism.”
“I see. Then all the more reason to learn it.”
Oscar continued.
“Lloyd, your magic is special. Its applications are limitless depending on how you use it. If I may guess—wasn’t the Fire-Lotus something the Red Tower Master taught you?”
“How did you know? He said it suited the Red Tower’s flames best, so he taught it.”
“Combat with Fire-Lotus is straightforward and strong, but also monotonous. And in such direct fights, the strongest would be…”
“The Red Tower Master.”
Of course—Kudel Redmane, who ruled that domain.
Lloyd knew this as well.
“I knew he taught me Fire-Lotus deliberately. If I became his opponent, it’d be easy to counter. But even without that, Fire-Lotus combat is undeniably strong.”
“True. It’ll work fine against most, probably up to about level seven.”
Oscar’s view was clear: Fire-Lotus combat had a high floor but a low ceiling.
Excellent for soldiers, but lacking for mages who sought the peak.
“…Are you saying I must change my entire combat style in just a week?”
“Of course not.”
Oscar smiled faintly.
“Not only that. What I mean is—you can’t just change that. Lloyd, your world itself is twisted. That must change too.”
“My world is twisted?”
Even if he admitted Oscar’s ability, hearing that from a mere 6th level mage stung his pride.
Lloyd asked sharply.
“I heard you freed your world at the White Night Festival. To create a world of your own at only 6th level is remarkable. But don’t act like you know everything.”
“How many have you seen?”
“…What?”
“How many worlds of others have you witnessed?”
Lloyd thought back.
“Three.”
“As I thought—our Red Tower Master, my White Tower Master, and Commander Theodore, correct?”
“Yes.”
“Then let me ask—how did their worlds seem to you?”
“…”
He pondered longer this time.
“Each was strongly distinct.”
“Exactly. Others’ worlds are like that too. Each pursues something, a place that amplifies what they seek.”
A world was the embodiment of what one had not yet achieved but yearned for—the inner cosmos that helped bring it forth.
“But yours, Lloyd, isn’t like that. To me, it looked half-formed.”
“…Half-formed?”
“Yes. Your world told me nothing. From a true world, you should learn of its master’s essence. But all I felt from yours was loneliness.”
“…”
“A desert cannot bloom healthy flowers. Was that, too, the Red Tower Master’s work?”
Lloyd said nothing, but silence often meant assent.
“To maximize Fire-Lotus explosions, dryness is ideal. Without moisture, ignition is easier. From the moment you learned Fire-Lotus, unconsciously, you shaped your world to be a desert. Even the western front where you lived was desert.”
In other words, the Red Tower Master had even steered Lloyd’s world into desert form.
“My combat style and my world… you want me to change both in one week?”
“Yes. Otherwise, you cannot win against him.”
“I agree.”
Even the dragon chimed in, leaving Lloyd no choice but to nod.
“…Now I see. That’s why I suffered such a crushing defeat.”
Lost in thought, Lloyd finally nodded slowly.
He asked.
“Then in your view, what should I change my world into?”
“That, I don’t know.”
“…What?”
His face was priceless at that answer.
Oscar met his eyes and said.
“It’s your world. Only you can choose how to shape it.”
“What are you…”
Lloyd began to argue, then stopped.
Oscar’s method—throwing down the problem, but giving no solution—
It was the way his own master had often taught.
Rather than feeding prey into the mouth, teaching how to hunt.
“…”
Back at the White Tower, training again, he found the young mage before him overlapping with his old master.
“One week. In that short time, you must find your answer.”
“No problem.”
Lloyd replied with confidence.
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