Lucia Tries Using a Crystal

To get to the Cristallo Sacro of Foristarn, we had to head toward the Vatis Duchy, which was the homeland of Prince Edoardo’s mother. Though she had passed away about ten years earlier, it was said that she had been very beautiful.

“The Vatis Duchy is a nice place. You’ll like it, Maria,” His Highness said, turning away from the window.

“Really?”

“Yes, the legend is that the Sacred Maiden who saved our world 1600 years ago was summoned there.”

“Summoned...”

“The last Sacred Maiden was from another world, just like you.”

His words shocked both Miss Maria and I, and we looked at each other. I had known that there had been another Sacred Maiden 1600 years ago, but I didn’t know anything specific about her. His Highness was royalty, so maybe he was more familiar with the story than us commoners.

“What happened to the Sacred Maiden after that?” I asked him.

“I don’t know. All that my mother told me was that she was summoned in the Vatis Duchy and that she purified the Cristallo Sacro... That’s it.”

I had hoped he would tell us more, but he adamantly refused to reveal any further information. Closing his mouth, he crossed his legs and looked out of the window again, clearly finished with the conversation. That meant they didn’t know whether the Sacred Maiden was able to return home.

I bit my lip softly. If the last Sacred Maiden was able to go home, then Miss Maria could as well.

“You don’t know anything else?” Miss Maria asked.

“I’m not from the Duchy — I’m from Banfield. That’s all that’s told there. There’s no way I would know anything more.”

The prince had always spoken to Miss Maria so gently, but this time, he was cold — almost as if he didn’t want to talk about the subject.

“So I really can’t go home...” I could hear Miss Maria whisper that softly beside me.

A cold feeling spread through my chest. Being unable to return home was probably one of the first things they told her. If she could go back, they wouldn’t have made her engagement to the prince public. She was brought here against her will with no way to return. This wasn’t some oppressive fairy tale, but Miss Maria’s reality.

“I see...”

Miss Maria went silent, looking away through the window. The carriage remained quiet after that.

◆ ◆ ◆

“Okay, Lucia, you promised! Time for experiments!” When we stopped for a break and I left the carriage, Eric ran up to me, as if he had been waiting.

“Alright. I’m sorry for making you wait. I kept putting it off...” I apologized.

“There’s nothing you need to apologize for. We can still do it now! First, we’ll measure your mana levels. We still don’t know how Shiro affects things, so he’ll have to sit this out.”

I gave Shiro, who had been peeking out from my apron pocket, to Eric. In return, he handed me the scale, and I put it in my mouth.

“Your mana is full right now. Try using your magic.”

My heart jumped at the word “magic.” It’s okay, it shouldn’t have any effect on anything this time. This is just to see how much mana I use. It won’t hurt Miss Maria. But I was still afraid.

I glanced around, and locked eyes with Sir Celes, who had been looking my way. He gave me a strong nod, and I steeled myself. It’ll be alright. I can do it. I had decided that I’d do all that I could, hadn’t I?

Taking a deep breath, I cast my magic towards the sky.

“Soap!”

At my words, rainbow-colored soap bubbles appeared. They floated towards the sky, sparkling in the sun.

“It really is pretty, huh? So what’s the reading now... Ohhh, I see! Okay, hold this and try again.”

Eric casually tossed me the wing-shaped crystal that had been on his chest. I rushed to catch it with both hands. Usually, you couldn’t cast magic without a crystal to use as a catalyst, so this experiment was important.

By the way, people without magic could still use items that contained crystal pieces imbued with mana to use magic, so it really was quite strange that I could use magic without one. I had used magic since I was a child without knowing anything about needing one — it had just been normal for me.

“Soap!”

Holding the crystal, I cast my magic again. I watched the soap bubbles float away a second time while my mana was measured again, and—

“Huh, it didn’t change?” Eric’s voice rose in surprise when he checked the scale. “Okay, wait, let’s do it all again from the top.”

“Alright.”

No matter how many times we tried it, the result was the same. Whether I used a crystal or not, my magic used the same amount of mana.

“That’s weird. You’re using the crystal as a catalyst, so in theory, that should take some of the weight off you and lower the mana cost, but...”

“Aren’t I the same?” While we looked at the scale, Miss Maria spoke up.

“Miss Maria.”

“Yeah, you might be right,” Eric said, looking confused. “So both the Sacred Maiden’s and Lucia’s magic are similar? It’s different from how ours works.”

“Why can’t other people use magic without a crystal?” Miss Maria asked him, tilting her head.

“The Cristallo Sacro are made of crystal, right? Our magic resonates with the trees when we cast our spells. We don’t know much about how, exactly, but it’s said that crystals are catalysts because they’re seen as pieces of the trees, and therefore take power from them.”

“But why?”

“I dunno. As much as we want to study them, there are too many monsters around, so we could never get close.”

“Then how do you know that crystals resonate with the Cristallo Sacro?”

“There was a little bit of research done waaaaaay back. That’s why I wanna restart it once the Cristallo Sacro are purified. Won’t that be an awesome undertaking?”

Eric held his crystal up into the sunlight, with a big grin on his face. While he was usually so mature, his innocent smile made him look his age. He must really love research.