Finishing My Highbeast and the Wax Stencils

Finishing My Highbeast and the Wax Stencils

Finishing My Highbeast and the Wax Stencils

When we arrived, Damuel and Brigitte were instructed to train on the opposite side of the arena to us. I turned to face Ferdinand as soon as they were gone; it was time to begin.

“Now then, start by changing the size of your feystone to practice what you learned last time. And take care not to imagine it exploding this time,” he said, reminding me of my past failure as a warning.

I took out my feystone and tightly gripped it so as to not drop it. This time, as I changed its size, I imagined it as a sturdy bowling ball instead of something flimsy like a balloon. It wasn’t long before I heard Ferdinand’s voice again.

“Very good. Next, practice locking its shape. Pour mana into it until it is the size you have imagined, then stop. It should be quite easy for you to consciously halt the flow of your mana.”

Since I regularly stopped and started my mana flow during my offerings to the divine instruments, this step was just as easy for me as Ferdinand had predicted. Once I was able to easily change the ball from the size of a ping-pong ball, to a basketball, to a massive inflatable beach ball, Ferdinand told me that was enough.

“Now you will practice changing its shape.”

I turned the round feystone into a pyramid, then a cube, then a spiked pufferfish-looking thing, then a book, and then a pen. It took me a while to form the shapes at first, but as I got used to the process, I became able to instantly turn the feystone into whatever I envisioned in my head.

“You truly are a fast learner,” Ferdinand said, complimenting me in a tone that suggested a mix of both respect and exasperation. That was rare for him. “Rozemyne, this is your final task: remove all unnecessary thoughts from your mind and imagine an animal that you can ride.”

When I tried to picture a rideable animal, the first things that came to mind were the bouncy spring rides that could be found all over amusement parks—the kind where you would slide a coin in and then ride for three minutes.

“Once you have decided on a form, cut off your mana to lock it... What in the world is that?”

“Um... A (panda) ride.”

It had a single seat and was pretty small—in fact, it was less like an amusement park ride and more like a toy that a toddler would sit on and move about with its feet. In other words, it was absolutely pathetic.

While I sadly shook my head at my failed attempt, Ferdinand looked down at it with thoroughly dubious eyes. “Can this thing fly?”

“...I imagine that would be a little difficult.”

“It seems to me that ‘a little’ is a vast understatement,” Ferdinand said while rubbing his temples. “You are a fast learner, but your lack of common sense may never be improved.”

I personally had no idea where his criticisms were coming from; he had asked me to make an animal ride, and I did.

“Okay. I’ll make it a little bigger so you can tell it’s rideable.”

“No, focus on the shape before the size. Can you make a lion like this?” Ferdinand asked, brushing a hand against his feystone and forming his highbeast in the blink of an eye. Just seeing that made it clear how trained his movements were. I could only imagine how much practice it would take before I could do that myself.

“Ehrenfest’s insignia is a lion, and the archduke rides one that has three heads. Children of the archduke tend to use lions as well. It is not mandatory, of course, but it is a long-standing tradition.”

I had assumed that Sylvester rode a Cerberus-esque lion because he had the mind of a little boy who would like that kind of thing, but as it turned out, there was actually a lot more meaning behind it. And as his adopted daughter, I would be permitted to use a lion myself.

“Okay. I’ll do my best.”

Ferdinand’s highbeast was so realistic that I found it kind of scary, so I wanted my own highbeast to be a cute lion. I nodded, trying to picture a lion that I wouldn’t mind riding on, then poured mana into my feystone. It swelled in size and actually took the shape of a lion this time, but despite it growing as big as an amusement park ride would be, Ferdinand grimaced even harder than before.

“Your aesthetic sense is catastrophically poor. What foul manner of beast have you summoned in place of a lion?”

“Wait, ‘foul’? This is pretty cute, in my opinion.” I had made a lion to ride on, as requested, but my cartoony take was apparently no good in Ferdinand’s eyes.

“Can you even ride that thing?”

“I can try. Oomph.”

I climbed onto its back and successfully grabbed the handles I had made in place of reins, but it didn’t move like I had thought it would. Well, that wasn’t quite true—it only moved like I thought it would, since it moved based on my thoughts. I had envisioned it as an amusement park ride, and with that in mind, I couldn’t get it up into the air at all; my best efforts to move its feet just caused it to shuffle very slowly.

That was a big problem. No matter how hard I thought, I just couldn’t work out the motions to make an animal fly. It didn’t feel like it would be leaving the ground any time soon.

“A lion I can ride, but one that can also fly through the sky...” I murmured to myself, deep in thought. Lions were a bit different from cats, but I had a feeling that I could make a flying highbeast by copying what I had seen in that one famous movie with the cat bus running along power lines. It was one fast bus—definitely one that could run through the sky.

The highbeast that I actually ended up making was pretty heavily influenced by thoughts of cats, so the Lionbus ended up looking less like a lion and more like a cat with a shower hat for a mane, but, oh well.

“What in the world is that?”

“As you can see, it’s a (Lionbus).”

I stood in front of the Lionbus and a window dropped down to form an entrance for me. I climbed inside, joy welling in my heart because it had moved exactly as I had imagined, and saw that there was a steering wheel and driver’s seat right by the entrance. These parts had probably been made based on my subconscious knowledge of cars, and perhaps due to me having owned a driver’s license back in my Urano days, the area around the driver’s seat was more detailed than the outside of the bus. Incidentally, I only knew how to drive automatic cars. The Lionbus also had a seatbelt so that I wouldn’t have to worry about falling out, and I had a feeling that it would probably be pretty warm in here even during the winter.

“That is a waste of mana. Make it smaller,” Ferdinand said from outside the bus.

I tried shrinking it a little, and the microbus-sized highbeast became as small as a one-person car. It had a lion head and legs, just like before.

“Rozemyne, the form of your highbeast is highly irregular. Will it truly be able to fly?”

“I’ll give it a try.”

I sat down in the driver’s seat and fastened my seat belt, then gripped the steering wheel and poured a bit of mana into it as I pressed the accelerator. The lion’s feet started to move.

“Wow! It moved!”

I drove laps around the practice area, then thought “fly” while pulling the top of the steering wheel toward me. The lion’s head pointed upward as the whole thing lifted off of the ground like a plane, and my body was pushed against the seat as it steadily gained height.

“Wooow! It’s flying!”

It seemed that I could fly around by changing the angle of the steering wheel, and I made it all the way up to the ceiling of the training building.

“How was that, Ferdinand? I think it’s pretty good,” I said, proudly puffing out my chest once I had gotten out of my Lionbus. But Ferdinand just looked perturbed.

“...Do you truly intend to ride that?”

“Absolutely!”

I could make it smaller when I was alone, or bigger when I needed more people. It would be perfect for any situation, not to mention much safer than most highbeasts as there was no risk of anybody falling off. And, of course, it was infinitely cuter and more functional than Ferdinand’s scary, realistic lion.

“If you insist on riding that, then I ask that you change the animal you are basing it on. I would rather that bizarre creature not be associated with Ehrenfest’s lion.”

“Aw, what? But it’s so cute,” I said, looking at my Lionbus. But Ferdinand simply furrowed his brow as he followed my gaze, before marking it off as, quote, unquote, “not beautiful.”

“Well, whatever you say. I guess I’ll take this opportunity to make it even cuter.”

“I will repeat that your aesthetic sense is unnatural and will never produce anything even remotely close to cute.”

He sure was being mean over our tastes being just a little different. In fact, he was being so mean that I wanted to make it even cuter than I was planning to out of spite.

“...What is this? A feybeast? It looks entirely like a large grun. If this really is the route you wish to take, then at least model it after a shumil; that will make it easier for other nobles to accept.”

“What’s a shumil? I’ve never seen one, so that’s out of the question. And no, it’s not a grun or whatever. It’s a (red panda). Don’t you think his lovable face and bushy tail are just adorable?”

“Not in the least.”