Shuraina walked around all of the food booths, tried all of the foods, and slowly grew bored. She decided to look through the magic booths.
There were an assortment of magicians introducing a variety of magic circles. There were a few of them who were desperate to show off their products, seeing that this was their livelihood.
Shuraina passed through the various booths and looked at their magic circles and drew out a few sample circles.
She was interested in an ice circle that created ice cream in an instant, so she stopped walking for a moment. The magician in question couldn't create different flavors, but they showcased a way to mass-produce it for this festival.
The magician froze milk with magic and blended it until soft. Then, they repeated this process to create a large quantity of ice cream. With an additional circle, they were able to add syrup to the ice cream in their hand. The magic itself was simple, but people were reacting well to it.
"Maybe I should make one too…."
She could use the magic circle they had used to create a magic ice cream device that could create different flavors. Maybe that would give her some more liveliness in her life right now.
She thought briefly about making and selling it, but she felt too lazy to do it and just decided to keep her creation to herself. Shuraina threw the freebie ice cream container into the trash.
"Can you show me the magic circle you used earlier? How much is it?"
"Oh! It's two silvers. Thank you!"
"Happy earning."
Shuraina purchased the magic circle she just saw. The magician drew out the circle they had just used with their finger and saved it on a memory orb and handed it to Shuraina. They had even wrapped it neatly with a ribbon. How nice.
To be honest, she didn't need the magic circle to see how the circle worked–but she had bought it based on their efforts and good will.
Magicians, rise!
Shuraina had quite a bit of gold in her pocket. Whenever she walked, the gold coins jingled. She was hellbent on spending money today.
The magician had given her about two more ice creams as a thank you. Shuraina decided to walk deeper into the festival to look at the other booths.
While she had been looking around thoughtlessly around the booths, she suddenly came to a halt. Her eyes soon wandered towards the biggest booth in the location.
"W, what is that."
Her body stiffened as her eyes grew wide. She almost dropped the ice cream from her hands.
[The Living Legend: Shunivalen, The Great Magician]
There was an incredibly fancy booth in the corner of the festival. The size of it was about the same size of three regular booths put together.
Her hands shook. What the hell was this? A living legend? Great magician? The banner was filled with childish phrases. It was filled with exaggeration after exaggeration. Shuraina had grown more thick-skinned over the years, but her face still burned a bright red from the embarrassing words on the banner of the booth.
For her stage name to be on such a large banner like this. She didn't really know why it had taken her so long to find it, but this particular banner was so big that it was visible from far away. Right above the booth were four videos making a rectangle to form a giant screen.
[The mysterious magician, Shunivalen, who appeared one day like a shooting star. To explain their first work…..]
The video showed all of the magic circles and devices she had developed through the years and gave detailed explanations of them all. They even added a narrator over the video to detail her history as a magician.
It would've been great if it had only been a video, but they were also selling cups, clothes, pens, and more with her insignia on it.
"Oh, I thought it was weird that I just kept earning more money for no reason. That was why."
One day, a while ago, Shuraina had signed an advertisement agreement for Shunivalen. The papers had been thick and it went into minute details about how they would advertise for her. The methods of advertisement were so diverse that it had almost gone up to a hundred pages or so. They would advertise, make fan goods, and they would give Shuraina all of the profits back to her.
Reading through the agreement, everything was good for her. This had been long after the time she had been chased around for doing illegal activities and Yvnes had already wiped her deeds clean, so it was the perfect time for her to branch out like that.
But she had no idea that the agreement she had signed back then would come in full force like this.
"…..it's pretty incredible."
She awkwardly walked to the booth and took one of the pamphlets. The pamphlet was so well-organized that she couldn't help but read through it in awe. It went into extreme logical detail about the types of magic circles that Shunivalen used, the effects of the magic circle, and how those circles were being used today. Even she didn't know about the things they went into. Meanwhile, while they were doing their best to advertise Shunivalen themselves, none of the layouts or magic circles had been leaked. They were intense with their copyright protection. They avoided anything and everything that could possibly make it uncomfortable for her.
She had no idea who this was, but they were marketing her while taking a net loss. So she was a bit taken aback.
She meandered around the displays of the items she had created. They were organized by era, purpose, use, and more. Reading through the explanations felt like she was reading a letter filled with compliments about herself. It almost felt excited.
'Oh dear. What's that.'
Shuraina stopped dead in her tracks at the sight in front of her.
[Shuval Stan Group]
There was a group of people who were meeting under the 'Shuval Stan Group' banner. The people were all sitting in a circle with a table in the middle. All of them had a '$' sign badge on their chest as they participated in a heated debate. Shuraina listened to the group use words like 'Shunivalen,' 'Great', and tried to figure out what they were doing. They…were they a Shunivalen fan club. Please. Let's not do this.
Shuraina pulled her hood even tighter and walked closer to the group to listen to what they ahd to say.
"Noooo! I'm telling you, our respected Shunivalen prefers to break down circle equations into half and then mix them in. That takes less magic and makes the circle start more effectively. Look at Shunivalen's long-distance contact series 003 model!"
One magician pointed at one of Shunivalen's device manuals as they debated.
"I'm telling you that you're wrong! The most effective circle layout is a short, single-line formula! If you take a look at their most recent device, they didn't use the formula like the one you mentioned! They found a more effective layout and then changed their preferences, I'm telling you!"
Another magician stood up from their seat and took out the Shunivalen item they were holding so dearly to their chest and yelled back.
"And I'm telling you that your wrong! They used the method that I talked about recently. You can't see it well, but the circle that I'm talking about is always embedded in the main circle."
"What are you talking about? Are you blind? Where is it?"
The magicians under the Shunivalen marketing booth were in the midst of a heated debate, er, argument about how Shunivalen drew their circles.
They continued to show proof after proof after proof, exaggerated claims after exaggerated claims until they both got confused. Seeing how the debate seemed to be never-ending, the two of them glared at each other before turning to look at one person at the end of the table.
"Sir Cory, what do you think?! Which one is the more appropriate method?!"
Once 'Cory' was called, everyone turned to stare at the person named Cory. At the end of their gazes was a blond man who was almost laying down on his chair. He had quietly been reading through the Shunivalen pamphlet before his head snapped up at his name being called.
His green eyes were angled sharply, but the gaze in his eyes were relaxed. He gave off a strange aura. It seemed like he hadn't been able to sleep much. He blinked slowly.
He looked as if he was completely absorbed by the pamphlet, but he had been listening closely to their heated conversation. Cory stared at the ground for a moment before speaking.
"I researched the equations that Shunivalen tends to use for the past few days and nights….."
Cory tried to speak in the formal tone that nobles used. He didn't sound like he was used to it yet.
"Sir Cory, we're alone so you can speak casually!"
"Thanks."
Cory still didn't like the formal noble tones, so he went back to his casual speech whenever he was with people he felt comfortable with.
Once everyone was staring at him, Cory smiled awkwardly before raising one finger. He made his magic visible and began to draw in the air. They were complicated equations that would be impossible to decipher for normal people.
"After I almost researched my eyeballs off. Our Shunivalen uses different layouts or equations based on the use of the item, the wanted effect of the item, and more."
Once he began to break down the magic circle, the equations began to spread out as it wrote itself out. Once he continued to solve the equations, all of the people around him stared in awe.
"….and as you can see, the great Shuivalen uses the third equation for the first example, and the fourth equation for the second example. They consider the use and effect of the item when they combine the circles for the best effect. So that means that they don't really have a preferred method. They're not using magic circles based on comfort but with their mind.
Once Cory wrapped up his explanation, everyone stood up and applauded him.
"Our wonderful Shunivalen is an artist. Sob. They're really at the pinnacle of artistry!"
"Right. They're not a magician, they're an artist."
Cory's lips began to twitch as he listened to everyone praise Shunivalen. The compliments meant for Shuraina also gave him joy. He wanted to compliment Shunivalen next to them, but he was trying to control himself these days.
After the heated debate, everyone grabbed a pen and began to decipher the magic circle that Shunivalen had presented two years ago. They all used pens engraved with the '$' symbol as they scribbled symbols and numbers before they threw their pens in the air with excitement.
"Wow, sir Cory, look at what I just figured out! If you solve this equation and line this up right here, the error disappears! That seems like why they used this equation here! Wow, how'd they come up with this?!"
When people began to chatter excitedly, Cory smiled as he nodded.
"That's right, our Shunivalen is a genius."
Shuraina just stared blankly at Cory, who was nodding with an embarrassed grin.
She was suddenly reminded of something that had happened in the academy. She remembered how Cory had said that he wasn't a Shunivalen supporter anymore as he held an article about another magician, how Cory was ripping off Shunivalen-related articles off his wall when Swan and her had broken into their room, how Cory had shook his head when she asked if he was still her fan.
Cory had, from some point, pretended to not be a Shunivalen fanboy in front of Shuraina, but….
"Shunivalen is what?"
"The best!"
"Sir Cory, you shout too!"
"…..ah. Shunivalen is the best."
"Loud and clear!"
"The best!"
Cory weakly threw up his arms in time with the loud and energetic chants of the 'Shuval Stan Group'. He seemed tired but excited.
Shuraina just blankly stared at Cory.