Chapter 23: The Witch's Notes

  Lucien's "innocence" and "sincerity" made Victor burst out laughing, tears almost streaming down his face. Others like Rhein, Lott, and Felice were also laughing extremely hard, unable to maintain their composure. Even Mr. Xavier shook his head with a smile. Only Annie and Colin, who had not yet followed Victor in learning music, laughed with a hint of bitterness and jealousy.

  Lucien looked at everyone's reaction in confusion, roughly understanding that his lack of common sense had become a joke, but seeing that they didn't look strange or puzzled, it shouldn't be too serious, so he spoke up and asked: "Mr. Viktor?"

  Victor coughed a few times, suppressed his smile and looked at Lucien seriously: "What I mean is, Lucien, are you willing to follow me to learn music? Although you're a bit older, the path of music depends more on talent. Even if your talent is average, following me for a few years can make you a qualified musician. Don't worry about your future life, Altor's musicians are the most invited by nobles from other countries."

  Then he paused and added humorously: "Of course, tuition is free."

  This again caused Lott and Rein to burst out laughing once more.

  For Viktor, his students were divided into three types. The first type learned literature from him for 5 silver nals per month. If he took a liking to them and gave permission, they could become the second type of student, learning music with him for 10 silver nals per month. Only when they showed exceptional talent or genius in their musical studies could they become his third type of student, true disciples who followed him on stage and benefited from his connections and reputation.

  Such a disciple, Viktor currently has only one, he has become an excellent musician.

  Lott, Phyllis and Herodotus belong to the second category. Lucien also belongs to the second category if he answers, but is exempt from the monthly tuition fee of 10 silver nails.

  Although Professor Viktor earns about 7 gulden a year teaching, which is the best kind of non-merchant in the commoner class, that is, the annual income of a qualified musician, such as Annie's father, the secretary of the Altor City Court, has an annual salary of only 15 gulden. However, most of Viktor's income comes from performances invited by nobles and other national music associations, normally around 100 gulden a year, which is a relatively high standard that can be achieved in the upper class without having one's own estate or engaging in commerce.

  So even if Viktor turned down all invitations for the past year and was barely scraping by, waiving Lucien's tuition wouldn't be a problem.

  Lucien hadn't expected Viktor's thanks to be a request for him to become his student to study music, and he hesitated for a moment, but soon Lucien thought of the contents of the witch's notes and his desire to repay Uncle Joel and his family.

  "For the time being, I still don't know where is a good place to learn magic, so for a long time, I'm afraid I'll have to continue living in Alto. After all, this is the largest and most prosperous city in the west, closest to the Dark Mountains, and secretly has the most mixed personnel. It's much more convenient to find magical materials and gather information here. In that case, disguising myself as a music student or musician to conceal my identity as a magician and earn the necessary money doesn't seem like a bad choice. This is actually a very respected profession in Alto."

  Because Lucien plans to start learning magic in Alto, he doesn't want to use the various inventions and creations in the library to make money, as this can easily attract the attention of the church. Once a safe place for studying magic is found, it's not too late to do so again.

  The thoughts in his mind were quickly sorted out, and Lucien showed a sincere smile: "Thank you, Mr. Viktor, I hope you can teach me the beautiful and elegant music."

  Victor nodded in satisfaction: "Lucien, your simplicity, diligence, seriousness and cleverness are rarely seen by me. I hope you will have some achievements on the road of music in the future."

  As soon as he finished speaking, it was considered formal permission for Lucien to follow him to study music, and Annie, Colin and others suddenly became a little lost and unhappy.

  "I'm really not that simple." Lucien retorted in his heart, feeling that it was just a lack of common sense earlier, and at the same time sensing the complex gazes from Colin, Renny and others.

  Victor called Aes in, returned Lucien's five silver nails to him, then invited Rhein and Xavier to the study for a private thank you, and had Lott, Phyllis, and Hierod leave to practice in the music room, etc. to continue modifying the pipe organ.

  Lucien, having no musical foundation, after borrowing "Universal Dictionary", went out of the hall and prepared to go home.

  "Hello, Lucien." Brunette with bright green eyes and delicate features, Renny suddenly caught up from behind, flashing a sunny smile. "I'm Renny, Renny Weisz. You're really talented in learning texts and languages."

  Lucien was busy going back to look up the dictionary and thoroughly decipher the witch's notes, and had no mood to chat with Lainey: "Hello Lainey, I'm leaving a bit late today, I have an urgent matter, let's talk another day, sorry, I'm in a hurry."

  "What bad luck. You go ahead with your business, Lucien. Goodbye." Rennie smiled faintly but quickly recovered, filled with understanding and consideration.

  At this time, Annie and the noble male student Xima Ke walked past from the other side of Lucien, humming a faint tune, then ignored the two without looking at them, maintaining an elegant pace, walking towards the outer gate.

  Behind them, Renie's smile solidified, not thinking that she just wanted to establish a normal private friendship with Lucien, but unexpectedly provoked Annie's dissatisfaction, and the deliberate closeness and fawning of the past few days were completely wasted.

  Colin and David looked at Renny with a sarcastic smile, then shook their heads deeply as they gazed at Lucien's back, wondering why they didn't have such good luck themselves.

  …………

  Back in his own little hut in Adrien District, it was just past five o'clock. The Altore still shone brightly as the summer drew near. Lucien found an excuse to read a book carefully and told Aunt Elisa that he wouldn't go to her house for dinner tonight, then roasted a black bread to satisfy his hunger. As for the good news of exempting tuition fees and returning all eight silver Nars to Aunt Elisa, it was put off until tomorrow to tell them again.

  At this time, for Lucien, there was nothing more important than deciphering the witch's notes and learning magic!

  After eating the black bread, Lucien locked the repaired wooden door from inside, laid out paper and a feather pen, made a studying pose, then opened the Soul Library, quickly incorporating the dictionary into it.

  After finishing all this, Lucien opened the witch's magical notebook and carefully deciphered it with a dictionary.

  With the experience and accumulation of the past few days, by around 10 o'clock in the evening, Lucien had deciphered all the contents of the magic notebook except for the last few pages, and he let out a long sigh of relief:

  "It seems that the witch's ancient Hirluvernian script wasn't learned very well, so her magic notes are recorded in great detail, some of which even copied from her ancestors' notes. I can completely learn magic according to her records, but her magic notes only go up to how to become a formal magician and end there. The rest still requires me to think of another way, or to reverse-learn the Hirluvernian script from the magic notes and decipher 'The Book of Stars and Elements'."

  Whether he becomes an official magician in the future or not, Lucien can now start learning magic.

  According to the witch's records, in the ancient magic empire, magic was recognized as a mysterious change of the four basic elements of earth, fire, wind, and water under the action of spiritual power. Later, light, darkness, soul, etc. were added, and monsters could be summoned from hell, abyss or other alien spaces. As a result, magic was divided into eight factions: elemental system, astrology system, death spirit system, illusion system, summoning system, force field system, transformation system, alchemy system. The "Book of Astrology and Elements" is a magical book that mainly focuses on the elemental system and astrological system, with a small amount of other faction magic included.

  Before becoming a formal magician, one cannot learn ring magic and can only learn informal magic, known as magical apprentices.

  The spell structure of informal magic is very simple, in Lucien's view, it is just a clear glyph composed of standard geometric patterns at the junior high school level, simpler than the six-pointed star, and then by reciting its pronunciation, coordinating with spiritual power to stimulate the corresponding magical materials to form glyphs can be cast.

  According to the standard of spiritual power, that is, from fullness to dryness, the number of informal spells that can be used at one time divides the magic apprentices into three levels: probationary, formal, and advanced, which are five, ten, and twenty respectively.

  After cultivating spiritual power and soul to a certain extent through meditation, you can work with potions to construct a model of a ring spell's imprint within your own soul.

  To successfully construct a spell, becoming an official magician, the casting of this spell will not require incantations, materials, or gestures, but only depends on whether the spiritual force is exhausted or still in the buffer period of the previous magic.

  After reading through these, Lucien suppressed his eager mood and continued to interpret the last few pages, planning to read it thoroughly first.

  "Today I met another magician, and in Alto, I actually met other magicians! He looks very different from the reclusive magicians, it's weird."

  After deciphering one page, Lucien suddenly deciphered this content with great significance: Altor really has other magicians!

  At once, Lucien's spirits revived, and he continued his interpretation:

  "A strange red-eyed mouse with a magical flavor was found in the sewer, but it's unknown where it came from and couldn't be found after searching for a long time."

  "After experimentation, this red-eyed mouse breeds extremely quickly, its blood is toxic, mildly hallucinogenic and paralytic."

  "With Laplace's Bloodstone, the effect is unexpectedly good. The magical trap I envisioned can finally be set up."

  "Who raised them?"

  Lucien couldn't help but glance at the ground, if the red-eyed rats weren't magical creatures raised by witches, then whose were they? Were there other dangers in the sewers?

  Lucien hastened to continue his interpretation:

  "Met that magician again, his insight into magic is so unique and knowledgeable, with a fascinating charm."

  "But he actually said that ancient magic, apart from many powerful and mysterious spells that can be referenced and used, everything else is completely outdated, it's blind, instinctual exploration, how is that possible?!"

  "He showed me a treasured book of magic, not thick, a kind of publication called a periodical, this magical book is called 'Arcane', according to his explanation, 'arcane' represents the knowledge of the origin and operating rules of the world, arcane means the essence and principles of magic, very interesting."

  "This volume of 'Arcana' was the first issue published over three hundred years ago, and on its first page is an article by a great arcanist, being the text of a speech he gave at a conference of magicians."

  "Judging from his expression, he had great respect for that grand magician, even bordering on worship."

  "I read this article carefully, and my whole body felt a trembling sensation, I didn't even know how to get back home, my mind was all muddled, I want to record it down, how come I never thought of these things?"

  These lines of text were like most of the last page, with letters large and small, uneven and shaky, looking chaotic and trembling, as if their owner was in a state of great emotional agitation. Lucien read on in puzzlement, wondering what it was that had prevented the witch from calming down for so long:

  "Gentlemen, ladies, many years ago, our respected ancestors learned how to harness spiritual power from dragons, elves, giants, demons, devils and various magical creatures. By analyzing their physical structure and blood properties, they gradually merged their bloodlines, transformed their bodies, invented many meditation techniques to enhance spiritual power, and created various magic spells based on the magical patterns within and outside their bodies. As a result, they gained immense power, banished demons back to the abyss, kicked devils back to hell, and forced dragons, elves, and giants either to retreat to remote, uninhabited mountains, wilderness, and other dimensions, or to submit under our feet."

  "A brilliant victory, the ancient legendary magician became even more obsessed with power, to the depths of hell, to various dimensions of space conquest, until the Truth God Church expanded, in just a few hundred years, the three major magic empires were destroyed, past glory turned into today's bitterness, confusion and despair."

  "Gentlemen and ladies, it's time to calm down, don't be blinded by power, it's time to settle down and think about some issues, we need to figure out:"

  "What is the essence of magic?"

  "Why do living beings have spiritual power?"

  "What is the essence of spiritual power?"

  "In what form does it exist?"

  "Are earth, fire, wind and water really the basic elements? If so, in what form and under what laws do they constitute this wonderful world? If not, what are they? What other magical elements should there be?"

  "What is the essence of the soul?"

  "Are soul and consciousness different? If they are different, in what form does consciousness exist?"

  "Do we need 'tools' to articulate and help establish magical models?"

  "Does God exist? If so, what is His essence and form of existence? What kind of existence is the vampire ancestor Aitina, and why can't she die?"

  "Why does the world have sun and moon, why do they rise and fall every day, what power makes them maintain this operation? The material world these seemingly normal things, if we ask a few more whys, will find that the truth is still not understood. Are these truths, laws and knowledge related to magic, can they be combined with magic, can they help us explore the essence of the magical world?"

  "Your dear friend, Douglas."