Chapter 51. The Fragaria Family (4)

“Isn’t this too flashy?” I asked in surprise as the headmaster, Aurora smiled. Her hand approached me as I closed my eyes out of instinct before a pat came on my shoulder, snapping my eyes open as her bright, confident smile appeared in front of me.

“You are supposed to make it flashy, especially when it’s that old man. I also want to let them know not to underestimate my own student!” she said as the figure of her having a muscular body, flashing her muscles appeared in my mind.

“Pfft…” I laughed, wiping my right eye as she looked at me confused as I nodded with a smile, looking back at Mana and Leisha who were all smiles as well together with Flora who was hopping around like a rabbit with excitement on her face.

You could tell from her face that she was after the boar more than anything, most parties will always include boar meat as a dish because of how abundant it is while also being unbelievably delicious. A single full boar is enough to feed close to forty people, which is why it is the first pick of almost all parties since they get to save a lot.

“Shall we head to the battlefield now?” Aurora questioned as I turned around, nodding as we walked towards the carriage before a broom-riding orange-haired girl passed by us, winking as we entered the compartment of the carriage that was of white and gold. The interior was absolutely stunning, the seats were all made of luxurious and comfortable leather and cushions, the walls were of refined wood and the entire compartment, despite not being air-conditioned, was cold.

“How do you manage to keep this cool without an air-conditioner?” Mana inquired with surprise as the headmaster smiled proudly before sitting down on the other side as she winked, responding to Mana’s question.

“It’s a secret~!”

All of a sudden, the door closed by itself as the carriage soon started moving. The horses ran faster than any ordinary horse would, we couldn’t even see the scenery outside. There was only a motion blur when looking out of the window, it was like we were moving at the maximum speed of a sports car. Most horses run super slow that even the nearest town which is the Town of Gesturia takes nearly a day.

“Coooldd~!” Flora shivered, hugging Mana tightly before Aurora smiled as she pointed her finger up until a stream of mana leaked from her finger. The temperature of the compartment soon rose with each second before the stream sliced itself off as she retracted her finger with a smile.

From what I could comprehend, the stream acted as electricity flowing upwards towards a translator at the top. The translator is most likely a custom engraved object that could be a stone of some sort which translates what the stream of mana is indicating almost like the processor in a computer, after translating the output, it will then send it towards the magical device that handles the air cooling for the compartment.

“It seems like you managed to comprehend the entire system in a single look, impressive~!” Aurora said as she looked at me with a bright smile. A smile that was filled with pride, like a parent looking at her child grow up. That is what I could see.

“I didn’t do much, I don’t even know whether my theory is correct,” I said before she laughed, taking out a pebble that had plenty of engravings on it. It was like a rune stone from Solis VR, yet it also looked a bit different, in particular, compared to a rune stone, it lacked color.

“A Nuxaia stone?” Leisha suddenly asked as Aurora nodded before placing the pebble or stone on her lap as she pointed her finger towards it before another stream of mana flowed towards the pebble. Contrary to what I expected, not all of the engravings lit up rather only a specific few lit up and it keeps changing as the stream got thinner and larger.

The larger the stream of mana was, the more engravings lit up while the thinner the stream, the lower the number of engravings. It was like how current works but a tad bit different, if we are going by that then the only explanation I have over how the translator works is through hardcoding the functions based on the number of engravings that lights up.

“As you can see, there is a special characteristic the Nuxaia stone has and that is its ability to self-determine which engraving should light upon a certain amount of mana. We first discovered it after a short accident that involved several professors wherein a professor poured mana all over the place, hitting several Nuxaia stones that had plentiful of scratches.”

“As you would have expected, some of us immediately found a use for this ‘useless’ stone and that is to act as a receiver for inputs through the usage of mana. The first object we created with it was a simple fan that changes speed depending on the amount of mana the stream contained,” she explained before taking out another crystal stone that had several engravings on it like a maze.

“Isn’t that a Julia stone?” Mana asked as the headmaster nodded before she placed the crystal stone at the end of one of the engravings of the Nuxaia stone. The line matched the endpoint and starting point of both the Nuxaia stone’s engraving and the Julia stone’s maze of lines.

After placing them properly together, she soon poured a tiny bit of mana onto the Nuxaia stone as the engraving that led towards the crysal stone starting point lit up followed by the Julia’s stone crystal blue light firing as the Nuxaia stone’s light dissipated together with the stream of mana from Aurora, yet the crystal stone still retained its light.

“As most of you know already, the Julia stone can retain any mana it receives as long as it doesn’t go beyond its capacity. It can also transfer that mana to another source, if you haven’t guessed yet what is happening here then let me explain.”

“The air conditioning system here utilizes a single Nuxaia stone and several dozens of Julia stones which acts as an indicator of how fast the fan should be running. The output of the Julia stone is manually configured to send a stream towards the main power source which would then lower or increase its output to the air conditioning device depending on the intensity of the mana it receives,” she explained.

To make it simple, the stones themselves are like electric burst signals that strike another device whenever it is triggered to which the device or the power supply would react and either lower or increase its output towards the actual device. It’s a simple yet complex system in this world, it is even revolutionary in a way.

“Anyway, that is another lesson for next time. I don’t want to delve much into new technology that we haven’t mastered yet, though I do plan on having the two of you join us in experimentation. Kaleen could also join, but that simply depends on whether she is willing. We still have more important events before us like for example, the Unified Kingdoms Tournament,” she said as all of us nodded.

The tournament was in less than a week from now and I have to say, I am not prepared at all especially when you consider that I haven’t been training at all over the past few days. Though, if Aurora said that the opponents are weaker than me then I should be fine as long as no mishap occurs, but overconfidence is a sin that will slap back at me.

“Well then, we have reached the residence… how about the four of you go first, I will follow suit in a short while,” Aurora said as Mana and I looked at each other nodding before turning towards Leisha who soon nodded back as we stood up and walked out of the compartment one by one before a semi-muscular noble handsome man with red hair dressed in a business suit stood by the gate.

“Welcome to the Fragaria Residence,” the man said as Mana looked at him with an indifferent look on her face as she mumbled, “Father…”