4. How to Grow Your Mana Pool

I awoke to a clicking sound. From the sun coming through the cracks in the curtains, I could tell that the sun was fairly high in the sky. Did I oversleep? I went to sit up, thinking that, but was stopped by Gina.

“You mustn’t get up yet.”

“Why?” I asked, tilting my head.

She blinked at me for a second, before answering, “You’ve been sleeping for three days straight, Lady Chelsea.”

“Huh?” I was shocked.

“According to the healers, your body needed a break after your status ailments were cured. We were told that once you had awakened, we should keep you in bed until a second examination.”

“Okay...” I replied, nodding from my spot on the bed.

A while later, an old man with a white beard that I’d never seen before came. He was wearing a black robe, and had a red stole across his shoulder.

“I’m Ishel, a Healer from the Mage Order,” he said, introducing himself as he touched my forehead and wrists. “Everything seems to be in order. But you mustn’t rush things. Keep resting in your room for now.”

“Thank you.” I slowly sat up and bowed my head to him.

“Ah, that’s right. I was told to give this to you once you awoke.” Lord Ishel pulled a book from the large bag he was carrying. “His Highness gave me this, thinking that you might want something to pass the time with.”

I opened it and saw that it was an illustrated guide to plants. But then, I realized he’d said something odd.

“His Highness?”

“Yes, he was very worried about you.”

With that, Lord Ishel gave me a smile and left the room.

The term “His Highness” is used for princes, isn’t it? Why is someone that important worried about me? No matter how hard I thought, I couldn’t think of an answer, so I decided to look at my new book, instead. Our first research session, I had only been able to think of pumpkin and sunflower seeds. If I looked through the book, maybe I’d learn about lots of other seeds to make.

With that in mind, I flipped through the book, and for some reason, I was able to learn things easily. Up until now, anytime I’d tried to learn anything, it’d felt like my head was all foggy, and it would take a long time before I could remember things. The change might have been from Lord Glen clearing my status ailments. The guide I’d been given was centered on fruits and vegetables, and even included how to cook them after harvesting. Fantasizing about how each seed would grow, and what they could be cooked into after harvesting, the time just flew by.

＋＋＋

After a few days of bed rest, Lord Ishel finally gave me the go-ahead to get back to life as normal. Now I could finally return to the Institute. And thanks to my book, I now had a lot of ideas for seeds I wanted to create. I was ready and raring to go when Lord Tris came to pick me up.

“You look a lot better today!” he said with a big smile.

“I’m feeling better. Sorry for the trouble,” I apologized with a little bow. Oh, that’s right! I could ask him about something I’ve been wondering. “Um, I’ve been wondering since my first day, but am I not supposed to wear a gray robe, too?”

“If you were gonna wear a robe, it wouldn’t be a gray one. But since you’re a new Skill user, you don’t have to wear one at all. Don’t worry about it,” he replied, a look of surprise on his face. “You seem kinda different now.”

“What do you mean?” I tilted my head questioningly.

“Nah, nevermind!” Scratching his cheek slightly, he started walking.

I followed behind him, book in my arms. Our destination was my sunny personal lab. Lord Glen was waiting inside, with his usual gentle angelic smile on his face.

“I’ll leave the rest to you! I’ll be out in the fields!” After dropping me off, Lord Tris cheerfully skipped out. He must really love working the fields.

“Tris is making a field for all of the seeds you create,” Lord Glen said as we watched Lord Tris leave. “After all, we can’t be sure the seeds you make are really the seeds you wanted to make without growing them.”

“So that means examining my Skill is going to take a long time, huh.” The words just slipped out of my mouth, and Lord Glen gave me the same shocked look as Lord Tris had. “Is something the matter?”

Lord Glen looked above my head as I tilted it in confusion.

“...Not all of those status ailments were physical. Some of them were mental. So now that they’ve been cured, she can have conversations normally?”

He was muttering something, but I couldn’t catch any of it. After a while, he gave my head a pat.

“Seems like you’re feeling a lot better, so I’m going to teach you a lot today.” He took my hand and led me to the table. Then, he sat in the chair across from me.

“I look forward to working with you,” I replied, straightening my posture before giving him a proper bow.

“You don’t need to be that formal. I’ll be teaching you the basics on mana first,” Lord Glen started. “Mana is generally described as something that most people can’t see, but is in everything. Air, water, earth... Living things take it in from those to live.”

I nodded, looking into his blue eyes.

“The mana we take in is stored inside of us in what we call the ‘mana pool.’ This is used up when you use Skills or magic, and refills when you eat or sleep.”

“So the reason I suddenly fell asleep was because I emptied my mana pool, and had to sleep to refill it... Right?”

“Right,” he replied, with a happy smile. “What we just talked about is what everyone is taught, but the real lesson starts here. New research has actually shown that eating delicious food grows your mana pool.”

He kept going, excitedly, “It’s always been a mystery as to why royals and nobles had larger mana pools than commoners. But now we know that it’s because they’d been eating high-quality, delicious food since they were young. If we can get the common people eating the same kind of things, it’ll grow their pools, and they’ll have better lives. ...If everyone can use Clean, then there’ll be fewer plagues.”

Suddenly, he slapped a hand over his mouth, looking surprised. His ears were a bit red, too. After clearing his throat, his usual gentle smile returned.

“Anyway, from today on, we’re going to have you eat delicious food to grow your mana pool.”

“Eh?”

While I was busy being surprised, Lord Glen rang a bell that had been on top of the table. Knocking first, Gina came in, pushing a cart inside. Lord Glen then led me by the hand to the sofa. Gina laid a white cloth on the table, and put a big cushion on the seat I’d been sitting on. After that, she bowed to Lord Glen before pushing her cart back outside.

Next, Martha came in with another cart. It smelled sweet. I gulped, and Lord Glen gave me another pat on the head from his spot beside me. Martha quickly set tea and plates of sweets out on the table, before moving to stand by the wall.

“Looks like they’re done. Let’s go back over,” Lord Glen said, leading me back to the table by the hand again.

I sat on the chair with the big cushion. In front of me was sweets, not a delicious meal.

“Wow... They’re cute...” I murmured.

Lord Glen’s smile got even bigger. “Any delicious foods will work, so I had them bring us sweets. Now, let’s start our ‘Mana Pool Growing’ tea party.”

“I’ve never been to a tea party before!”

I was so happy, I smiled. The next instant, Lord Glen froze. I could see Martha in shock over by the wall.

Oh no! I let my guard down and smiled! Even though Lady Medisina and Lady Margaret always told me not to... I quickly put my usual emotionless face back on and lowered my head.

“...I’m sorry for showing you something so horrible...”

Lord Glen looked confused as I apologized. “What do you mean?”

“My smile is so ugly that I should never make anyone else see it...”

“Who told you that?”

“My mother, Lady Medisina, and my sister, Lady Margaret.”

As soon as I said that, Lord Glen stood. His chair clattered and the table shook, nearly spilling the tea in our cups. I looked up at him, surprised.

“Why do you use ‘Lady’ for both your mother and sister?”

“Since I’m such a failure, part of their disciplining me was having me call them that.”

“It just gets worse the more I hear...” he muttered, before sitting down again with a sigh. “I’m sorry for scaring you.”

“Oh no, it was my fault for smiling...”

He furrowed his brow. “I’ll be straight with you. You’re really cute. You’re not ugly in the least. So if you want to smile, smile,” he said, staring straight at me as he did. I could see Martha nodding along by the wall.

I’d never been told anything so positive to my face before, so I didn’t know how to respond.

“And I want you to forget everything you learned back at home as discipline. I’ll be teaching you about a lot of things instead, so focus on remembering what I say.”

“Okay.” I nodded.

If Lord Glen, a nationally-approved Appraiser and the person who cured me, was telling me that, I’d believe him.

“Now, let’s eat.”

“Okay!”

We gave a little prayer to the earth god before looking at the sweets spread across the table. Each sweet was small enough to eat in one or two bites.

“I should teach you what the sweets are called, too,” Lord Glen said before telling me what everything on the table was called.

The crunchy bread-like things were called scones, and were usually bigger. You ate them with jam or cream. The pink stuff in the little cups was strawberry jelly, and it wiggled. There were also little dark brown chunks of something called chocolate, which made me happy with just a bite.

After trying those three, I couldn’t eat another bite. The table was still covered in treats I’d never had before, too. Should I make myself eat more, just to grow my mana pool?

“Only eat as much as you’ll actually enjoy. It won’t have any effect if you force yourself,” Lord Glen imparted, seemingly realizing what I was thinking. “Let’s just drink our tea and chat.”

And so, he taught me the names of the sweets I hadn’t managed to eat.

＋＋＋

After lunch at noon, Lord Tris came back holding two trays. His white robe was spotted with dirt, and I could tell he’d been in the fields all morning. He set both trays on the table with a smile. One was empty, while the other had a flower with the roots still attached.

“I got the flower and seed from the gardener. It’s called baby’s breath. I want you to try to make these seeds today.”

Looking closely at the tray, I could see something near the edge. Apparently, baby’s breath seeds were really tiny. After carefully studying the seeds and flower, I straightened myself up and cast my Skill.

“Make a baby’s breath seed — [Seed Creation].”

With the tiniest clink, a little seed appeared on the empty tray. Lord Tris compared the seeds on each tray before nodding to himself.

“They look exactly the same. Tiny seeds like this have a hard time coming to sprout. Can you make four more seeds, just in case?”

“Okay,” I replied, making four seeds in a row.

“Next I wanna get you to make a big seed. I’ll bring you another example,” Lord Tris said, starting to tidy up.

He must want to experiment to see how big the seeds I make can get. I suddenly remembered a big seed from my guide. Pulling it out, I flipped to the page, pointing it out. “How about this one?”

The seed I was pointing to was for something called a palm tree, which grew in warm climates. Specifically, I was pointing to one called a coconut palm, which grew fruit with juice inside.

“A coconut, huh? I forgot that was a seed, too,” Lord Glen spoke up, getting up from the sofa to stand beside me with an interested look on his face.

Lord Tris was just staring at the page, enthralled. “I didn’t even know this existed, but I’m interested! Let’s do it!”

“Okay. Then... Make a coconut palm seed — [Seed Creation].”

As soon as I finished casting, a big brown seed rolled onto the tray. It was about the size of an adult’s palm.

“So this is a coconut, huh! It really is big!” Lord Tris grinned from ear to ear as he examined the coconut palm seed.

“So you can make seeds that you see in books...” murmured Lord Glen, hand to his mouth as he stared at me.

“It looks like it. I’ll make lots more!” I was honestly happy, knowing that the more seeds I could make, the more it would help in researching my Skill.

“Coconuts are big, so let’s just go with one of them. Now, I wanna see you make some other seeds from your book.”

I nodded at Lord Tris before making another few seeds I’d wanted to try.

“Strawberry, melon, and peach seeds!”

“Those are all yummy fruits. I can’t wait to get ’em planted!”

Lord Tris’ eyes were positively sparkling as he looked at the seeds on the tray. They’d take a good while to grow, but I was really excited, too!

“Okay. Since you’ve used your Skill nine times already, we’ll stop here for today. Tomorrow’s our break day, so I’ll pick you up the morning after,” Lord Tris said before skipping out with the tray of seeds.