Learning has begun

Unlike Crown Prince Ryan, Flax Mounten was a senior student who had been enrolled at the Royal Academy since freshman year.

Given his current strength and family circumstances, he should have graduated long ago to diligently serve as the Azure Fox vice-commander.

However, Emperor William, out of consideration for his protection, kept him at the academy, not even allowing him to skip grades.

Today, he was suddenly graduated and even granted an additional peerage… Most people were stunned.

But soon, many nobles with sharp political instincts immediately realized that Emperor William was intentionally sending a signal—he was preparing to give the Crown Prince more support.

As for why he didn’t keep Mounten at the academy to assist the Crown Prince, that was the Emperor’s old habit of balancing things; while granting promotion, he also made uncomfortable adjustments, lest one forget whose subject they were after receiving encouragement.

Mounten didn’t think so much; he only knew that this was an affirmation for the Azure Fox family, and he immediately knelt to accept the imperial decree.

After sending a message via a mage to inform Stella of the situation, Mounten left with his subordinates.

People discussed animatedly, mostly speculating if things were about to change and if the situation between the two princes was about to be broken.

Of course, by the end of their conversations, they couldn’t help but ask,

“Wait, wasn’t His Highness Ryan also supposed to enroll today? Where is he? Why hasn’t anyone seen him here?”

Ryan wasn’t particularly interested in showing off, but it was indeed his rightful start.

After Mounten and the young master of the Azure Fox family left, the crowd’s competitive spirit completely cooled, returning to its initial humble state, or a simple, understated display of family insignia.

Lorry observed for a while, and seeing that no new students were arriving and others weren’t showing much, she put away her notebook and turned to Ryan:

“Your Highness, what do you think of the students’ performances just now?”

‘Apologies, Your Highness, what I actually wanted to ask was about their skill levels.’

Ryan pondered for a moment, then nodded slightly: “Some performed decently.”

Flora didn’t respond but had her guard wait in place and told the coachman to drive the carriage towards the direction of the lake.

Subsequently, Ryan analyzed and discovered that Flora had cast inconspicuous and light body magic on the carriage.

Subtly displaying more refined techniques to cross a lake certainly fit Ryan’s somewhat reserved personality.

At the same time, Ryan also believed that Flora, as a Grand Mage, could do something similar to what he, Ast, could do.

However, logically speaking, she should have used flight magic or levitation magic, not light body magic, which only slightly reduces an object’s weight.

And if Ryan wasn’t mistaken, Flora should have only used mage-level magical power, which meant she wouldn’t even be able to fly; she might even sink in a moment—

‘Situation?’

However, as the coachman bravely drove the horses and carriage into the lake, Ryan and his unicorn floated on the surface.

When the coachman tried to float on the water, he also found that the carriage moved as naturally as if it were on flat ground.

Upon closer inspection and analysis, Ryan discovered that Flora had indeed only cast light body magic, maintaining the spell with only a minuscule amount of magical power.

Simply put, Flora had achieved such a feat using only mage-level magical prowess.

‘Is this something a mage can do?’

Ryan was astonished in his heart, unable to maintain his usual composure.

“Your Highness, this is something magic can do.”

Flora smiled slightly, “Please first sense the magical power I’m transmitting.”

Ryan immediately complied and then showed a grave expression: “Such pure magical power, how is this done?”

“This is achieved through magic.”

Flora affirmed.

“Magic?” Ryan was stunned; that statement was as absurd as a son giving birth to his mother.

“Your Excellency must have heard of the ‘Mana Iron Ore Theory,’ right?”

“I have.”

“This is a famous analogy that vividly describes the relationship between mana and magic, comparing mana to iron ore and magic to iron products.”

“Just as the analogy suggests, the human body is a mine of magical power; we extract ore from it and fashion it into various tools… This is the entire process of casting magic.”

Flora patiently explained, “Generally, what we create are consumables like swords, shields, bows, and arrows, and they can only influence external factors. But what if we could speed up the extraction process and influence the internal state of the mine?”

Ryan was momentarily stunned again; after careful thought, he nodded slightly:

“Indeed, that’s true.”

“Not only that, we can actually prepare in advance, thoroughly explore the mine that is our body, and carefully study how to extract more efficiently.

We can even transform a mine buried deep in rock layers into an open-pit mine…

This way, our magical power will become purer, and its circulation speed will also increase.”

“I see, that’s a truly excellent idea… Is there more?”

“In fact, everyone, more or less, enhances the purity and total amount of their magical power through methods like meditation.”

While Flora’s method of magic feeding back into magical power was indeed ingenious, there were many clever people in the world, and she was certainly not the first to think of such a method.

There must also have been many talented individuals who, by fortunate chance, stumbled upon this effect…

But in all his years of experience, Ryan had not met anyone whose magical prowess surpassed Flora’s.

Of course, one could say this was because Ryan was narrow-minded, but he would only be able to reach Flora’s current level by consistently using magic to transform and research himself over a long period.

Although Ryan had decided to start striving immediately after hearing Flora’s words, she believed that since Flora had brought up the topic,

Indeed, Flora had the coachman stop the carriage in the middle of the lake, and then unhurriedly asked:

“Your Highness, how do you view magical power?”

Ryan shared his understanding.

Flora, however, shook her head.

“I believe magical power is actually quite similar to soldiers.”

Ryan was astonished; combining her previous line of thought with the different things he had comprehended in the mansion a few days ago, he realized these were all interconnected principles… He quickly understood.

“Are you saying that magical power can also be managed like an army, militarized to become more efficient or even superior?”

Flora couldn’t help but show a lovely, gratified expression.

“Exactly, magical power can be trained; its efficiency and quality can be improved through long-term, regular operation, and it can even be influenced by ‘formations’ and ‘command.'”

“For example, when a caster is panicked, doesn’t the effect of their magic diminish significantly?

Besides the panic itself, this is also due to the chaotic circulation of magical power within the body, leading to poor magical supply.”

“When soldiers go into battle, that is like casting magic.

Therefore, the suitability of their formation and the quality of their command will affect the outcome of the battle, which is to say, the quality of the magic’s effect.”

“At the same time, battles depend on timing, terrain, and human harmony… This world isn’t solely decided by spellcasters.”

“For instance, this artificial lake we are on; it tends towards calmness and stillness.

In such a situation, casting magic with a goal of minimal disturbance will achieve twice the result with half the effort.”

Flora stopped transmitting magical power.

But the carriage remained quietly on the lake’s surface.

The wind gently blew, creating soft ripples on the water.

The carriage swayed gently with these subtle waves… as if it had become one with the artificial lake.

At this moment, Ryan could clearly sense the magical power of heaven and earth subtly gathering.

This allowed the light body magic cast on the carriage to continue maintaining itself.