The official questioned him about every detail, and the young man answered everything he knew. The royal official's face lit up with delight, and he exclaimed, "This boy has a brilliant future! If I recruit him for the first prince, I shall be rewarded!" He ordered the young man to continue his surveillance.
After leaving, the young man put his disguise back on and went to the market to buy food. He handed the vendor some coins, and among them was a folded piece of paper. When the vendor finished packing the goods, he later took that paper to a trading guild. The guild leader read it, his eyes narrowing, and then made his way to the royal palace. "I request an audience with the second princess!"
He waited a while before being admitted. Seated on one of the palace balconies, he sipped his coffee until he heard the steps of a young woman approaching.
"Welcome, Pedro! What kind of deals do you bring me this time?" It was the second princess, her golden hair and golden eyes radiating nobility.
"There's only one deal this week," Pedro replied. Loyal to her, he managed affairs in her absence, and as the leader of a trading guild, any meeting between them seemed like nothing more than business. He handed her the paper and said, "These are the latest reports from Royal Official John, your highness"
The princess unfolded the paper and read it, but her expression soon turned sour.
"What's wrong, your highness?" Pedro asked.
"That man I had expelled from the family… it turns out he was the disciple of someone extremely powerful. He's now inherited his master's legacy. If he sides with my brother, things will turn grim."
The princess sipped her coffee, her eyes sharpening. "Well, it seems he'll never aid us after what I did. He's a scoundrel at heart and will surely seek revenge. Prepare lists of people we can ally with — especially the Moon Duelist, Kin Light."
"At once, Smoke!"
"And also… gather information on Shion Ranus — I mean Shion Lan. Perhaps I'll find something to bind him."
"As you command!"
While the second princess was reassessing her plans, Shion returned to his room, exhausted from the day's developments, and lay down. "Two weeks left before my test… I'll cut back on training for now and study the stars more deeply."
He stepped outside to gaze at the night sky. Darkness blanketed the world, yet the stars shimmered faintly, not enough to brighten the heavens but enough to illuminate the earth around him. Opposites coexisted: darkness and light, heat and cold, sky and earth. He recalled the books of Shi Yon Lan, which spoke of stars that burned in the frozen void, of the paradoxes that defined creation itself.
An idea took root. Every movement required opposites — contraction and release. Perhaps magical techniques, too, had paths that could be reversed. Remembering the light-element techniques he lacked, Shion tried channeling energy in reverse. At first, the results were strange: nothing happened, or different techniques emerged. But he persisted through the night, experimenting with energy flows. Eventually, he discovered he could invert, merge, or alter spells — a theoretical breakthrough, though untested in practice.
He smiled faintly, recalling his earlier joke to the royal official about creating a technique called "Stellar King." He hadn't expected his lie to approach reality. Yet "king" was not the highest title. In the hierarchy of the otherworld, the summit outranked the king. Thus he resolved: "If levels are equal, then the summit surpasses even nine circles or nine stars. My art will be the strongest! Its name… 'Stellar Summit!'"
He analyzed his ideas with renewed determination. To create an art, one needed profound understanding of both sorcery and swordsmanship. Though he had Shi Yun Lan's books, he would also rely on the academy. He had no desire to practice the Art of Annihilation; instead, he would forge his own path.
For the first time, Shion laughed to himself. His falsehood had turned into a seed of truth. The stars above seemed to affirm his resolve, and the night spread before him like a promise: the birth of an art yet unnamed by the world — one that would shine like a true star.
That night, Shion laid out his plan:
"One week of study will be enough, then I'll spend the last week training hard!"
The next morning, he went to the academy, heading straight for its famed library. It was vast, holding tens of thousands of books like an ocean without end. Yet he wasn't there to read about combat techniques or spells. His goal was clear:
"I'll study astronomy… match it with what I already know, find links to magic and swordsmanship. And I need to figure out a way to construct magic circles and aura stars—different from the ones Shi Yun Lan has."
Shion entered the theoretical section, he sat in a quiet corner of the library, surrounded by shelves heavy with the scent of old paper. He reached for a thick volume on astronomy, opening its pages slowly, as though every word were a gateway to a vast world beyond the dark sky. His eyes traced the diagrams of orbits and distant stars, each line making him imagine the energy flowing between them. He wondered how those distant celestial bodies could connect to magic, how aura could weave its circles in the same patterns as the stars above. From time to time, he lifted his gaze toward the window, watching the sky as if whispering to him: "Understand me, and you will forge your own art." Deep in his heart, he felt that the study of the stars was not mere knowledge, but the key to uniting magic and swordsmanship—turning every light in the heavens into a source of new power.
surrounded by ancient star charts and scrolls about the heavens and planets. The flickering candles cast long shadows across the pages, as if the very light itself was guiding his steps toward knowledge. He traced the positions of the stars inked onto the parchment with his fingers, comparing them to the real night sky he had observed in recent evenings.
"If the aura within the body flows in circles, then perhaps the stars in the sky are greater cosmic circles…" he murmured, jotting down his notes in small, precise script.
He began drawing lines between the stars, forming shapes that resembled the networks of energy he had studied in magical texts. Each line represented a possible flow of aura, and every intersection symbolized a node that could become a magical circle. As he sank deeper into thought, it struck him that light and darkness in the sky were nothing more than reflections of an inner balance he had to master.
Bit by bit, his notes grew bolder. In large letters, he wrote in his notebook:
"No element exists on its own… every force is born from its opposite. Fire is only known through cold, and darkness only understood through light."
In that moment, Shion felt his understanding stretch beyond the bounds of reading, as though the stars themselves were whispering their secrets to him. Yet he knew this was only the beginning, and that turning these ideas into combat techniques or practical spells would be the hardest path of all.
Memories surfaced—of the year he'd spent observing Shi Yun Lan's bizarre reading method. The latter would pour energy into his head and eyes, flip pages at incredible speed, then close his eyes to process it all. If he understood, he'd move on. If not, he'd ask an elder.
Determined to try, Shion infused magic into his head and aura into his eyes, then opened the first book…
Meanwhile, outside, the librarian was sorting papers when a young man and woman entered. Seeing how close they seemed, the librarian frowned:
"This place is for reading, not for dating!"
"Ah… forgive me, I didn't mean that," the young man bowed politely. "I came to browse a book from the elemental magic section."
"And the young lady?"
"I came to read as well, so I accompanied him," she said innocently.
"Very well," sighed the librarian. "Go on in, but follow the rules. Don't disturb anyone."
Inside, the girl muttered irritably, "What's wrong with him?"
The boy replied, "I'm here to examine something about my art… so please, keep quiet."
She glared. "Are you saying I'm noisy?!"
He panicked. "No, no, I didn't mean that!" But she walked off anyway, clearly uninterested in reading. He sat with a book on light magic and the basics of magic circles, flipping through as he murmured: "Why hasn't Lili contacted me lately? Did I upset her? … Looks like I'll have to study alone this time."
Before he could finish the first page, the girl's voice rang out from the theoretical section, arguing with someone.
"Nell!"
He rushed to her side—and there he found her shouting at a white-haired, silver-eyed boy. His face darkened immediately.
"Shion Ranus! What are you doing here?!"
Shion stood by the window, gaze elsewhere, as if something beyond the glass held his attention. He ignored the question.
The boy shouted again: "I asked you—what are you doing here?!"
Finally, Shion turned calmly: "What do you expect someone to be doing in a library?"
Nell sneered, her voice dripping with scorn: "Do you think someone like you has a reason to be here?"
The librarian entered just then, and Nell quickly pointed at Shion. "Sir, throw him out! He came here just to cause trouble!"
But the librarian frowned at her. "Didn't you both say you were headed to the magic section? What brought you to the theoretical section?"
The boy stammered, embarrassed, while Nell retorted, "Can't we go wherever we want?!"
"And is that right yours alone, not anyone else's?" snapped the librarian, already fed up with them.
Shion raised his voice just enough: "Excuse me, sir. I was here first. True, I caused her trouble once before, but this time I'm innocent. She came to me."
The librarian understood immediately and cut Nell off: "If you have personal problems, solve them outside the academy—or in the arena. Not here! Either go back to the magic section or leave the library!"
The boy looked like he wanted to argue, but his expression quickly shifted. He grabbed Nell before she could protest further. "We're sorry, sir—we'll leave now." And they left.
"Thank you, sir," Shion said sincerely. Then he returned to his seat, calm once more, though his thoughts burned: "Nell… Kin. I was rude to them in the past, and I paid for it. But I'm no longer that person. If they try again, I'll make them regret it—her and that witch as well."
He smirked bitterly to himself: "How foolish was I to have liked her? She's only slightly prettier than Sol, dresses herself up, and thinks she's a queen! Was I blind?!"
Then, recalling Kin, he seethed: "No, Kin is even blinder than me! He has a beautiful witch by his side, yet he's obsessed with Nell! If I could meet my old self, I'd bash my head for such pathetic taste!"
Exhaling deeply, he tried recalling the ten pages he had read. Most of it was already familiar, and what was new stuck in his memory. With determination, he whispered to himself:
"Let's begin studying!"