Sinseki Era – 21 Years Ago
Northern Countries – Eng Road
A carriage full of passengers slowly made its way along the trail.
Though it was called a "trail," outside of the start, end, and a village it passed through, the Eng Road was largely just dirt roads winding through the mountains.
On such terrain, the carriage couldn't travel fast.
But compared to earlier segments where travel had to be done on foot through forests and mountains, this was a luxurious way to move.
Inside the carriage:
Gut put down his spell book and looked at Hero Himmel across from him, who had been fiddling with his hair nonstop since morning. Gut sighed and quipped:
"Hero Uncle, no matter how much you fluff up your hair, you can't hide the fact that it's thinning."
"That's harsh," Himmel twitched his eye, still adjusting his hair in the mirror, and retorted:
"Even middle-aged men have to manage their image."
"As for hair loss — when you get to my age, you'll understand the pain of balding."
Seemingly finally satisfied, Himmel tucked away his mirror and casually shook his hair, repeating a cool gesture from his youth.
"..."
Gut fell silent, hesitating for a few seconds before commenting:
"Hero Uncle, when you shook your head just now, you exposed your receding hairline even more."
"What?!"
Himmel hurriedly pulled out his mirror again.
Sure enough, as Gut said, the hairline that had been hidden by fluffy hair was now glaringly obvious after that dramatic shake.
"Sigh..." Himmel sighed deeply.
He was no longer the lush-haired youth he once was.
Seeing his idol so deflated, Gut was about to offer some consolation when Himmel, instead of giving up, grabbed his comb and started frantically re-fluffing his hair again.
Unable to stand it anymore, Gut shook his head and offered:
"Uncle, instead of desperately puffing up your hair, why not ask my teacher sitting next to me if she knows a magic to regrow hair? It'd be way more effective."
At this suggestion, Himmel's eyes lit up with hope and turned his burning gaze toward Serie, who was napping beside Gut.
Awakened by that intense stare, Serie wiped a droplet of drool from the corner of her mouth and attentively listened to Himmel's heartfelt request.
"Magic to regrow hair... hmm."
Serie rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "I do vaguely recall something like that."
"In the highlands of the Northern Countries, in the Enst Region, there used to be a type of folk magic like that."
"But it's from a long time ago... probably around the early days of the Unified Empire?"
"I'll need a bit of time to think."
"Please, you must remember it!" Himmel clasped his hands together in a heartfelt plea.
"I got it," Serie nodded. She rubbed her eyes and asked seriously, "Do you have paper and pen? If I jot things down, I might remember faster."
"Yes! Right here!" Mut, sitting next to Himmel, quickly dug out some high-quality paper and a pen from his pack and handed them over to the legendary elven mage.
"Thanks," Serie said, and started scribbling at the table.
Thus, the carriage fell back into a comfortable silence.
As for how the four ended up traveling together:
It all began after the Purification Ceremony ended, when Mut invited the teacher and student pair to join their journey again.
Coincidentally, due to the king's death in the Royal Capital, the First Mage Examination had been postponed three weeks, and Hero Himmel's final destination was also the Holy City.
Serie, mildly curious about the secret place Mut mentioned, thought it over and agreed — better to take a detour and admire the wild landscapes than risk getting dragged into dull political ceremonies in the Royal Capital.
After Serie agreed, Gut naturally followed without hesitation.
Thus, the group of four ended up sharing a carriage.
Unlike Serie's broader strategic thinking, Gut's main thought at the time was simple:
Safety.
Seriously — with Serie + Himmel riding together, it didn't matter if Grausam, the pursuing Seven Sages of Destruction, or even the Demon King himself popped up — they'd probably get flattened!
Imagining things from Grausam's perspective, Gut almost wanted to laugh.
Can't provoke Serie.
Can't beat the Hero.
Now both of them are guarding the target.
That's not just one dead end — that's two.
...
Ten minutes later:
Serie's pen stopped moving.
"Have you remembered the spell, Lady Serie?" Himmel asked eagerly, voice trembling a little.
"Hmm?" Serie glanced up at Himmel, then shook her head.
"No."
"Still not complete...?" Himmel's voice faltered a bit.
"It's just a long-forgotten piece of folk magic with no combat value," Serie said casually. "If I wanted to recall every fine detail, it would take time."
"I see..." Himmel looked a bit discouraged but quickly rallied himself.
"No worries, Lady Serie. We have plenty of journey left. We can—"
"I never said I couldn't finish it," Serie interrupted, smiling slyly.
"Huh?"
"You said you hadn't remembered the whole thing, didn't you?"
"I haven't," Serie shrugged, "but it's simple."
"I'll just reconstruct it from scratch based on the basic magic circuits I remember."
"After all, it's just folk magic. Instead of struggling to recall old memories, it's faster to recreate it anew."
"..."
Both Himmel and Mut gawked at her, stunned.
Gut, long accustomed to his teacher's monstrous ways, simply added calmly:
"Did you know?
Nearly half of all spell books in existence are written in Ancient Elvish."
"You two want to guess... who made that happen?"
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Powerstones?
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