While Waver and Tia were still in shock, Tia's Dad had already stepped into the middle of the human-skin magic crest. He crouched down with one hand on the ground and began chanting a spell with a steady rhythm.
Tia had no idea what Dad was saying—he just figured it was some kind of combo spell.
"Tia, listen," Waver suddenly spoke, his eyes still on Tia's Dad but clearly talking to Tia, "Since you're calling me your teacher, I might as well teach you something. I'm pretty sure you didn't understand a word of the theory I just explained, but that's fine. Even if you don't get it, just follow your Dad's spell—repeat it exactly. Make sure the pronunciation is right, and the rhythm is accurate. If you can do that, it'll work!"
"Really?" Tia looked at Waver in surprise.
Waver nodded. "Yeah. I made this spell because of my low-quality magic circuits and a poor-quality magic crest. I originally designed it to help me cast stronger magic. But after researching for a long time, the final result was totally unexpected. Instead of making me stronger, it turned into a kind of theory that lets regular people become Magus—as long as they prepare a magic crest ahead of time. After going over everything, I finally figured out the reason. I know a lot of spells, but I couldn't bring out their real power. Because of that, I totally misjudged how some spells would react. The outcome ended up being something I never imagined."
Tia was amazed—this really was the genius of El-Melloi II, inventing something like this so early on.
But… this thing never appeared in the original story at all. Could it really be a cheat skill made just for him?
The more he thought about it, the more Tia felt he was right.
At that moment, faint glowing patterns began to appear on Tia's Dad's body as he kept chanting. The lines looked very familiar to Tia—just like magic circuits.
At the same time, the human-skin magic crest on the ground started to slowly shift toward Tia's Dad, little by little. It was like the crest had grown legs and was crawling across the floor, climbing up along his arm.
Nobody knew how much time passed, but eventually the entire crest had reattached itself to Tia's Dad's arm. Now both his arm and body were flowing with magic circuits.
"This is amazing! Mr. Velvet, it really worked!" Tia's Dad looked down at himself, then casually tested out a few small spells. "Mr. Velvet, thank you so much!" he said, turning to Waver.
"Ahaha~ You're welcome. Honestly, I didn't expect it to work this well. And this is way different from what I imagined. I never thought the magic crest would actually be on a piece of human skin. I figured you just had it removed in the normal way," Waver said, scratching his head again.
"I didn't know how to remove a crest the normal way. But I really needed one at the time, so I had no choice but to do it this way," Tia's Dad replied.
"Alright, Mom. You're up next," he said, turning to look at Tia's Mom.
Tia's mom nodded, reached out to hold Tia's Dad's hand, and began chanting the spell with the same rhythm.
Very quickly, the magic crest began moving into Tia's Mom's body on its own. Patterns appeared on her body and arms—they were clearly magic circuits.
"Tia, it's your turn now," Tia's Mom finally looked over at her.
But Tia looked at Waver instead. "Um… I can't remember the chant."
"Sigh… figures…" Waver let out a long sigh, then started teaching Tia the chant word by word, like teaching someone a song. He'd say a line, and Tia would repeat it.
After a whole hour, Tia finally got the hang of it—luckily, the chant wasn't too long.
When Tia also held his mom's hand and started reciting the chant, she suddenly felt her body heat up, and her hand began to itch. She could feel something crawling up her skin, like something moving inside her body in a specific direction.
No one knew how much time passed, but Tia finally finished the chant. The creepy crawling feeling all over her body disappeared completely, and she finally let out a sigh of relief.
"Phew…"
Tia looked at the magic crest on her arm, at the magical patterns on her body, and felt the clear flow of magic inside her. A smile crept onto her face without her even realizing it.
"I didn't expect to see a chant hidden in the magic crest that actually awakens a person's Origin," Waver said.
"Yeah, our family's ancestors spent generations researching this. They studied people's Origins in great depth and eventually developed an Origin Awakening Spell that was passed down in our family's magic crest. No matter what attribute a person originally has, in the end, it gets replaced by their true Origin attribute. Because Magi who've awakened their Origin often show great potential, people believe that Origin Magi can reach much deeper levels of magic. Who knows, maybe one day our family will produce someone who reaches the Root through their Origin," said Tia's dad.
"Origin, huh? Basically the source of one's soul—the so-called past-past-past life. Weren't your ancestors afraid of awakening some dangerous, insane Origin that could destroy the whole family?" Waver asked.
Tia's dad shook his head. "We never made any preparations for that. If it happens, it's just bad luck. I was originally planning to hand over the magic crest to the Clock Tower once Tia grew up and could live on her own. I didn't care who inherited or researched it after that, as long as it kept getting passed on. But meeting Mr. Velvet has been a huge stroke of luck for us!"
"Wait a second—does that mean Tia's Origin might have something to do with when you first transferred the magic circuit to her?" Waver asked again.
"No one really knows with Origins. It might have something to do with Tia's, or maybe it's because of mine," Tia's dad replied.
"Your Origin? What is it?" Waver asked instinctively, then quickly apologized. "Sorry, sorry, I shouldn't have asked something so personal."
"It's okay. I don't mind sharing. After all, Mr. Velvet saved our lives," Tia's dad said. "My Origin is compassion."
"My Origin is return" Tia's mom added.
Tia was completely stunned hearing her parents talk about their Origins.
Their Origins?! What the hell?!
(End of The Chapter)