Because of Luna's baffling situation, she desperately took the book again and read the following paragraphs while hoping to find an answer.
'Instruction for dummies:
One more thing, to restore the released magic substance, do the reverse of step 1. Place both your hands on the magic substance and let it flow back within your veins. Do it slowly and carefully to avoid the clashing of the magic substance inside your body.'
After reading that part, Luna couldn't help but curse its author. This part should have been included in the first step but the author chose to decisively write it in the middle of the second step.
Luna placed her hands near the magic substance and closed her eyes, imagining that the magic flows reversely in her mind and kept her calm state. The clashing of the magic substance was dangerous especially for a beginner and maintaining a calm state of mind was a must.
There were a couple of times recorded that a magic-user ended up clashing their magic substances inside their bodies. It happened mostly for people that didn't have a personal instructor/ guidance. Because of that, most of the magic-users began to consider joining an Adventurer's guild or going to the Academy.
Only Luna would bravely follow a book's instructions without skilled persons' guidance.
Meanwhile, she had finished restoring back all of her magic within half an hour. In her whole room, the huge magic substance's traces vanished and with her weak body, Luna hurriedly ran towards her bed. Her lower body was on the floor with only her head on the bed.
Her body weakened greatly as she restored such a huge amount of magic substance and bearing the slow and careful accumulation was easier said than done. Normally, restoring own's magic substance wouldn't take that long since the amount wouldn't be greater than the user's body. But with Luna, her abnormal condition made her restore that huge magic substance.
Not long after, she was awakened by the sudden loud knocks on her door. Luna immediately stood up and closed the book first before opening it. Akiro's blank face, scrutinizing gaze, and straightened body with his right arm left hanging on the air welcomed her.
"What took you so long?" Akiro asked.
"I slept after eating lunch. Are we leaving early? I'll fix myself in an instant," Luna answered.
Akiro nodded. "Make it fast, the carriage is waiting for us downstairs," he said.
The wooden door on Luna's bedroom slowly closed. She heaved a sigh of relief. Luna found it weird that she possessed magic other than powers of the time. Although Luna was putting her trust in Akiro, she chose to hide this for the time being.
This abnormal power was not new to her. According to the books she read, such powers shouldn't be seen by people and keep it a secret until he/she could protect himself/herself without the help of others. The only thing that differs was Luna did not treat herself as a protagonist but instead as a person that needed to go back home. Moreover, if Luna somehow blurted out the wrong words, she might find herself dead in Vermillion.
The thoughts that continued to bother her had silenced her the entire time while she was fixing herself and preparing things. She sighed and closed her luggage.
With a rectangular wooden case in her hands, Luna stepped out of her bedroom. Then she saw Akiro who was sitting on the couch with his own wooden case. He stood up and took both cases the moment she went out of her room.
"Let's go," he said.
Luna nodded and smiled awkwardly. She followed him outside of the room numbered 4023 and saw a man waiting for them outside. From his silver nameplate, she saw that his name was Erik.
"Your bags, sir!" he said.
Then he cheerfully took both the rectangular wooden cases with ease and followed them while maintaining his high energy. Luna couldn't help but think about what he ate for having such energy. If she obtained one, her energy from using magic would lessen, and would not even need to sleep. Meanwhile, Akiro ignored it and walked down the hall, unbothered.
They soon reached the ground floor and walked out of the Red Castle Hotel. It had a huge garden in front and the horse carriage was just near from the huge two-way door. Luna followed Akiro inside the carriage while the cheerful man named Erik placed their bags inside after they took a seat. It was similar to the horse carriage they took when they first came in the borders of West and South Village.
The carriage ran at a fast speed which Luna prepared for as she didn't forget to close the windows before the carriage started to move.
'Of course, I'll not forget that one!' Luna thought.
After her experience that day, Luna promised herself that she would not forget to close the window as a roller coaster-like ride was not her cup of tea. Then she comfortably leaned on the carriages' seat but Akiro turned his head toward her.
"What did you do earlier?" Akiro asked.
Luna's body suddenly got frozen but prevented herself from showing it too obviously and said, "Earlier? Do you mean when I took longer to prepare? I said that I suddenly fell asleep. I'm just reading a book that time."
Akiro seemed convinced as he only nodded and did not ask any further, to her relief. After that, no one talked inside the carriage until the ride had ended. Half an hour had passed since then which made her get out impatiently outside of the carriage.
Akiro's huge stunning mansion welcomed them and Luna saw Miss Zione waiting outside. Meanwhile, Akiro paid the man who was riding the carriage with a bag of coins. Luna began to wonder how much it was to ride one. 'Must be an expensive ride,' she thought.
Then Miss Zione took their luggage and placed it in the mansion's lobby. "Welcome home, Master, and Miss Luna," she said.
Akiro nodded while Luna smiled at her despite her cold disposition that seemed to threaten anyone away. Not long after, someone walked downstairs with an exciting look.
"You came back!" Ryle said with long strides.
Hearing that, Luna suddenly thought that her ears would go numb from his endless chatter.
"How did it go?" Ryle asked.
"It's perfectly done," Akiro said.
The two of them continued to talk while Miss Zione went towards Luna. "I already placed your luggage inside your room, Miss Luna. The room's already clean, you can take a rest," she said.
'That fast?' Luna thought and thanked Miss Zione before she went into her room. However, she did not take a rest and instead opened the rectangular wooden case and took a book. It was the one entitled 'To Bend Magic at Your Own Will'.
She flipped the pages hurriedly as she was looking for the one she stopped reading earlier.
"Here!" Luna uttered.
'Make sure that you already learned how to control releasing and restoring back your magic before taking into this next part of step 2. For assurance, do it several times until you familiarize yourself. Always remember to make it slowly but surely. There's no shortcut in learning magic especially this one!'
'This is the first step in becoming an expert in our nation. To keep yourself practicing it longer, I'll remind you that the next step requires you to bend magic with your element. As a magic tier of 5, think carefully before thinking of an element that suits you better. Although it is known that you can't freely choose an element, your thinking can affect the element you're suited for. Before you stepped into this tier, you might have familiarized yourself with using basic spells of different elements. The magic tier of 5 and above allows a person to be skilled with a limited element so assess yourself with what element are you really suited for.'
'To hit two birds with one stone, practice the first step while thinking. Do your best novice magic-user!'
'If you're still undecided after all this, I wrote a guide about different elements on page 45. Read it carefully.'
Luna stopped reading the book after that part with her mind full of thoughts.
"Element? Hmm, I wonder what element will suit me," she said.
--To be continued....