Chapter 948: The Sixth Circle

"So, what are you doing?"

Celine’s voice came through the communication crystal with a faint crackle. Ludwig leaned farther back in his chair and looked at the pile of books covering the table. Several lay open beneath others, their pages marked with notes he had understood perfectly when he wrote them and now found considerably less helpful.

"Trying to improve my mastery of magic."

"Kaiser?"

"Obviously. He’s been bothering me about it for the entire month."

Celine laughed while Ludwig picked up the nearest book. He looked at its title, remembered which section he had been struggling with, and put it down again. Unfortunately, the alternatives waiting beneath it were no more appealing.

"And how far have you gotten?"

"Almost Sixth Circle."

Her amusement faded into surprise. For several seconds, she watched him through the crystal without speaking, apparently waiting to see whether he would qualify the statement himself. Ludwig could practically see the question forming.

"Almost?"

"I’m at the threshold. I understand enough of the structure to construct most of the theoretical formations, and I know how Sixth Circle spells are supposed to behave. I just don’t have enough Nephilium to sustain one."

"So you understand the magic, but you can’t actually cast it properly?"

"Exactly. The knowledge is there. My body is the problem."

"That sounds frustrating."

Ludwig rubbed his eyes before opening another book. Three diagrams occupied the page, surrounded by annotations so dense that the author had apparently considered empty paper offensive. He studied them for a moment, then closed the cover.

"It is, but Kaiser doesn’t care. He says being unable to cast Sixth Circle magic doesn’t excuse me from understanding Sixth Circle magic."

"That sounds reasonable."

"You’re supposed to be on my side."

"I am. Agreeing with Kaiser doesn’t change that."

Ludwig stared at her image until she smiled. That made arguing considerably more difficult, although he remained convinced that she should at least have pretended to share his suffering. He pressed two fingers against his temple and looked at the books again.

"My head is about to split."

"How many have you read?"

"I stopped counting. Most of them are from his stupid collection of Algad’s work."

Celine’s expression changed at the name. She leaned slightly closer to the crystal, looking past him toward the books as though she might recognize one through the image. Ludwig glanced over his shoulder at the shelves.

"Algad? His books are extremely sought after."

"That’s part of the problem. Nine out of ten of the books people sell under his name are fakes. Someone realized that putting Algad on a cover makes scholars lose their minds and start throwing money at it."

"That sounds believable. What about the genuine ones?"

"They’re worse. They make you understand why people fake them."

He retrieved a thin black tome from beneath a larger volume and held it where she could see. The book looked harmless enough until it was opened, which Ludwig considered a deliberate act of deception. He tapped the marked section near the beginning.

"This one took me three days to get through twenty pages."

"Twenty? You’re getting slow."

"I hate you."

"No, you don’t."

Both of them went quiet after that. Celine’s smile lingered, and Ludwig found himself holding her gaze for longer than the joke required. He eventually lowered the book, deciding that magical theory was a safer subject.

"I’d only read a few genuine ones before this. There was one in your brother’s office when I first started learning magic, That one almost split my head open from reading it. And Kaiser gave me another later. Now he’s apparently collected enough originals to ruin my entire month."

"I remember the one in my brother’s office. Are these really that difficult?"

"The theory is good."

"That sounded painful to admit."

"It was. Algad’s understanding of magical structure is ridiculous. He explains things nobody else even bothers asking questions about. It would just be more useful if he wrote like a normal person."

"What does he write like?"

"A man who assumes everyone reading his work already knows what he’s explaining."

Ludwig opened the tome and flipped through several pages until he found the passage that had irritated him most recently. His own notes crowded the margin beside it, with one section crossed out hard enough to nearly tear the paper. He had spent most of the previous evening discovering why his first interpretation was wrong.

"He’ll spend six pages explaining a minor interaction between Mana density and spell stability, then write something like, ’Naturally, this leads to the fourth inversion,’ as though children learn the fourth inversion before they learn to walk."

Celine laughed, and Ludwig found himself smiling despite the book still being open in his hands. He set it down and moved the crystal a little closer. Hearing about something other than magical structure would probably do more for him than another hour of reading.

"Anyway, how’s Bastos?"

The image shifted as Celine moved toward what looked like one of the manor’s balconies. A section of railing appeared beside her, with darkness beyond it. She rested one hand on the stone before turning her attention back to him.

"Quiet."

"Anything strange? Anyone burying dead pigs in my farmland?"

"Not recently. The wells are normal again, the crops are growing properly, and the livestock is recovering. The cattle are eating without trying to empty every trough in sight."

Ludwig relaxed slightly. He had been waiting for another report of ruined fields or animals starving despite everything they consumed. Hearing that the ordinary problems of farming had become the worst ones again was unexpectedly satisfying.

"No strange hunger or excessive thirst?"

"None. Nothing rotting beneath the fields either."

"That is an excellent improvement."

"I thought you’d appreciate it."

"What about Gluttony’s people? Any scouts, strange objects, suspicious priests?"

"Ludwig."

"Just checking."

Celine shook her head, though she was still smiling. Ludwig knew she would have told him if anything had happened, but asking helped. After what they had dug out of his farmland, he was willing to sound irritating for a little reassurance.

"Nothing unusual has happened since you and Kaiser removed the carcass."

That was good news, and Bastos deserved some. Ludwig had learned not to trust quiet periods entirely, but he could at least appreciate one while it lasted. He settled more comfortably into his chair.

"How are the people?"

"Happy. Actually happy."

She seemed almost surprised by her own answer. Her gaze moved toward something beyond the crystal’s view, and the smile on her face softened. Ludwig waited while she looked out over the town.

"The harvest is recovering, the new families have settled in properly, and the workshops are staying open later. The market is busy enough that we’re already discussing expanding it."

"That fast?"

"You brought a lot of people back with you."

"Technically, I brought problems."

"Some of those problems have become excellent merchants."

"That’s reassuring."

Celine glanced away again, then paused as though the mention of newcomers had reminded her of something. Ludwig noticed the change immediately. His hand stopped moving over the corner of the book beside him.

"Oh. There is something."

"What?"

"A group of adventurers arrived."

"There are thousands of adventurers. You’ll have to be more specific."

"They said they know you. Apparently, they fought beside you the last time you were helping clean up the Bastos Marquisate."

Ludwig frowned as he searched his memory. It took longer than it should have before faces began returning, followed by the circumstances in which he had met them. That had been years ago, back when Bastos had felt more like an assignment than somewhere he might eventually call home.

"I know them. Are they settling?"

"They asked if they could, and I said yes."

"Good."

"You don’t want to know who they are?"

"I remember enough."

"That sounds ominous."

"It probably is. I’ll come see them when I return."

Celine’s expression softened, but she shook her head. Ludwig had already begun wondering how much they might have changed since their last meeting. He looked back toward the crystal, unsure which part she was objecting to.

"Don’t tell them that."

"That I’ll come see them? Why?"

"Because then they’ll wait. Finish what you’re doing first."

"Kaiser will never let me finish."

"That isn’t the same thing. Rest when you can, Ludwig."

He glanced toward the books piled across his table. Somewhere beneath them was a list of subjects Kaiser expected him to understand before they could attempt the next stage of their research. Ludwig had stopped looking at it after realizing the lich kept adding things.

"I don’t need sleep."

"I didn’t say sleep."

That left him quiet for a moment. Celine looked away from the crystal, and he thought she might say something else. Her lips parted before closing again, leaving him with the uncomfortable familiarity of knowing exactly how that felt.

There were still things neither of them knew how to say. They had kissed, and that had changed something between them, but it had not suddenly made either of them comfortable putting a name to it. Words like love still felt too large to use simply because a conversation had become quiet enough to allow them.

Ludwig was strangely content to leave those words alone for now. No battle was forcing this particular decision, and no prophecy demanded they settle everything before their next conversation. They could let something begin without immediately deciding what the rest of their lives had to look like.

Celine turned back toward the crystal. The hesitation had passed, though a trace of it remained in the way she looked at him. Ludwig smiled before either of them could make the silence awkward.

"Talk to you later?"

"Yeah."

"Try not to let Kaiser dissect you."

"No promises."

"That isn’t funny."

"It was a little funny."

"Good night, Ludwig."

"Good night."