Chapter – 32
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Crofot had many secrets.
So many that the parchment list the children made each time they discovered one of his secrets was long enough to circle the entire room.
‘Crofot’s Secret No.1 – The origin of the antique shop.’
Out of all possible stores, why did he choose to disguise himself as an antique dealer?
He had only put up a sign and didn’t actually run the shop, which was something Marie had always been curious about.
‘Why did he place a perception-confusion spell on humans around the antique shop? Why doesn’t he sell any antiques?’
Most of all, Marie had serious doubts about the shop’s name.
Lynn’s Magic Antique Shop. Magic. Magic.
Why magic?
Crofot Lynn was a mage. Then shouldn’t it be a magic antique shop instead of a magic trick shop?
When she was younger, she asked him about this, and Crofot laughed in disbelief before answering:
“Mariposa. Instead of asking useless questions like that, go read more books.”
Young Marie had been hurt at the time, but now that she thought about it, he was right.
‘There’s no way Crofot would carefully think about a store name.’
Their lazy guardian only showed diligence when it came to magical research. In every other aspect, he proudly displayed his laziness.
And there were dozens of other secrets too.
‘Secret No.5 – Crofot is always researching something.’
Crofot was always surrounded by complex spell formulas, researching all kinds of magic.
Whether it was related to requests from the antique shop or something else—no matter how much she asked what he was making, he never answered.
‘Secret No.17 – The house keeps getting bigger!’
This wasn’t just spatial expansion magic.
Using brilliant spellwork, Crofot expanded the house several times to match the children as they grew.
Marie and Sasha got a dressing room, their bedrooms were separated to give them personal spaces, and he even created a small library and study rooms.
‘Someday I’ll definitely figure out what kind of magic that is.’
And recently, there was another secret Marie had been paying attention to.
‘Hundreds of letters that arrive at regular intervals.’
The letters arrived in many ways—through Crofot’s illegal foramen, flying in during the night, or delivered by mysterious couriers.
Marie only discovered their existence because of the loud flapping sounds one night.
When she immediately asked Crofot, he answered while sweating nervously:
“Th-that’s… that. Letters from the magic world. From my friends.”
“Crofot doesn’t have any friends though.”
“What? I do! What do you take me for?”
“But… you were expelled from Magia, and you don’t get along with humans, so I thought you didn’t have any.”
“No! I have friends too!”
Seeing the guilty look on his face as he said that made it hard to believe him.
“Anyway, don’t worry about it. It’s my personal business.”
“Okaaay…”
She tried not to think about the letters after that. But after noticing that Crofot became irritable every time he received them—about once every two months—her curiosity grew.
What in those letters made him angry?
Sasha had given up investigating Crofot’s secrets after exhausting herself, but not Marie.
She was curious about everything about her guardian.
And she wanted to help him.
Even though Marie was human and Crofot was a mage, she believed she could figure things out.
Because Marie was…
very smart.
How smart?
Smart enough to overhear Crofot’s basic magic lessons and then teach Sasha herself.
If she learned one thing, she understood ten. And once she learned something, she remembered it for life.
Marie built her magical knowledge foundation entirely on her own by reading the library books and secretly listening to Sasha’s lessons.
When Crofot realized how sharp she was, he started letting her attend lessons not long after they began living together.
“Crofot! Crofot!”
“What.”
“I finished the book you gave me yesterday. According to The Circulation and Rings of Mana, a mage needs a magic circle to use magic. So how do you use magic instantly without one?”
Crofot’s eyes widened.
The Circulation and Rings of Mana.
Since she kept asking questions, he had given her that thick book just to keep her quiet. He never expected her to actually finish it.
“That’s about 800 pages. Did you even understand it?”
“Of course. I memorized all the important parts. To activate magic, you need a caster and a formula scholar. Usually the formula scholar draws the spell and fills the mana rings, then the caster activates it.”
Though faint, she recited it almost word for word.
Crofot gave a short sound of admiration.
Even students several years older would struggle with that book, yet she read and memorized it easily. Feeling proud, he sat down and began explaining magic circles.
“A magic circle refers to the spell formula, the mana rings, and the medium they’re attached to. You know that, right?”
“Yes.”
Crofot tapped his pipe. His magic circle’s distinctive pale blue-white light appeared and traced lines in the air.
“You asked how I use magic without a magic circle.”
“Yes!”
“Your premise is wrong. No mage can use magic without a magic circle.”
Marie blinked her large green eyes. But Crofot was clearly using magic without one.
“The core of my magic is the mana ring. Mariposa, how would you draw a ring?”
“Umm…”
She tilted her head.
Draw a ring. Make a ring. For a child, the answer seemed simple.
“Like… just draw a circle?”
“Exactly.”
Marie drew a circle on paper with a pencil. Crofot looked at it and created a mana ring in the air.
“Normally spells are drawn on flat surfaces, so even a simple circle can control the flow. But aerial spells are different. You can’t control them with something that simple.”
Just as he said, the floating spell and the ring began twisting unstably.
Marie flinched, thinking it might explode, and Crofot waved his hand to remove the ring.
“Then how do you use magic?”
He snapped his fingers. Three rings surrounded the floating spell. The glowing rings vibrated gently as they rotated.
“Normal mana rings can’t handle aerial spells because their control rate is too low. So you just add more rings to compensate.”
“I know about multiple mana rings. It was in the book. But it still looks like it might explode.”
Even after adding dozens of rings, it still looked unstable.
“Right. So you keep adding more until you can control it. Dozens, hundreds… maybe even hundreds of millions.”
“Whaaat?”
“Then it won’t just be multiple rings anymore. A new kind of ring will be born.”
Marie’s clever mind began spinning.
She frowned while staring at the spell, then muttered:
“Not a ring… a circle… um… then—”
She picked up an apple from the desk.
“A sphere?”
Crofot’s smile reflected on the red apple.
A ring that completely enclosed the aerial spell. A sphere of light glowed pale blue.
“That’s right. Correct.”
Marie admired the glowing sphere like a tiny sun.
Soon it faded and disappeared along with the spell.
Crofot tapped out his pipe.
“In reality, the sphere ring doesn’t look like that. It’s far denser and stronger. Extremely complex. Not something just anyone can copy.”
In truth, only an archmage could do it. But he didn’t bother explaining that.
“It doesn’t glow like that either. You can’t even see it. That’s why it looks like I’m using magic without a circle.”
“Wooow…”
“My mana rings can be created centered on me. If I have enough mana, they could even be larger than the antique shop.”
“Wooow!”
Marie clapped.
Crofot drew the curtains and darkened the study, then drew a path of starlight with spells.
Marie’s green eyes sparkled as she followed the magic. As she spun around in delight, Crofot rotated the spells with his pipe.
“That’s why this is called an aerial spell.”
“That’s amazing, Crofot!”
His cheek twitched.
He made the room darker and the spells brighter, stealing her attention.
“Until now, no one has drawn spells in midair. Because no one thought about increasing the dimensionality of mana rings.”
“Increasing dimensions?”
“Yes. Normal rings are two-dimensional, like drawings on paper. My mana rings are three-dimensional, floating in space.”
With a wave of his hand, all the spells gathered toward him.
The beautiful universe was sucked into his pipe.
One corner of Crofot’s mouth lifted.
“I surpassed dimensions.”
Marie stopped admiring the magic.
It was obvious Crofot was showing off.
“Then Crofot is a dimension-transcending mage!”
“…Well, yes.”
He quickly opened the curtains and turned on the lights. Realizing he had bragged too much in front of a ten-year-old, his face heated up.
“Enough. Forget that. Anyway, your question is answered, right?”
“Yes! You’re amazing, Mr. Dimension-transcending mage!”
A dimension-transcending mage.
A once-in-a-generation genius who used aerial spells no one else could imitate—Crofot Lynn.
Maybe uncovering his secrets was impossible. Marie was young and just a normal human.
But she didn’t give up.
Because it was Crofot’s secret.
She still had hope.
“Crofot! I’ll make dinner tonight!”
“Mariposa, it’s not your turn today.”
“But mine tastes better than yours.”
Hope that she could at least beat Crofot at something.
“So I’ll do it. We have smoked duck anyway.”
Crofot stayed silent.
He had nothing to say.
Because she was right.
