Supreme Magus novel Chapter 46

Almost four years had passed, and over time many things had changed.

Two years ago, when Lith was still ten years old, Rena had reached adulthood. She participated to the Spring Maiden contest, winning it by a landslide.

Between the clothes from the Count, the make-up from Keyla and the beauty treatment from Lith she had basically no competition.

She has soon started to hang out with several young promising bachelors, before finding the right one. His name was Senton, and he was the son of the blacksmith.

After dating for almost a full year, they were ready to marry.

In that same year, Tista had reached her growth spurt at the age of twelve. She was officially healed from her congenital condition and had started to practice fake magic under Lith’s and Nana’s guidance.

Her mana core had become deep green, and according to Solus, there was still space for it to grow at least up to bright green. Tista was finally able to get out of the house without supervision, starting to make friends with the children of the neighbours.

It was too late for her to try to attend to a Magic Academy, she barely knew the basics of chore magic, but she didn’t mind. After being prisoner of her own body for so many years, she had no interest in perpetual challenges.

The only thing she really wanted was to enjoy her new life, trying out all the things that had been forbidden to her before. Becoming a magica and inheriting one day Nana’s business was already beyond every expectation she ever had.

Even Lith’s household had deeply transformed. Between his magic, the help from the Count and all the money he was able to earn, the walls were now made entirely of stone, only the floor and the roof were still wooden.

He had also built a new bedroom for himself that served as a study too. Lith was getting too old to keep sleeping with his sisters, and had no intention of moving in with Trion.

He demanded his personal space and privacy, and since he was the one paying for it, no one could make any objections.

As for Lith himself, he had changed deeply, at least physically. Despite having yet to become twelve years old, he was already one meter and sixty centimetres (5’3") high. His thin and scrawny build was only a memory.

Now he had broad shoulders, his muscles were well developed but not ripped, rather cleverly chiselled. He didn’t want to stand out nor to carry useless weight, Lith wasn’t planning on becoming a soldier, after all.

He was plenty content with a far from average build and a body that was able to react instantly, according to his will. His mana core was still cyan, but not deep anymore, halfway through the light cyan that would precede the next evolution.

A mana core on the strong end of the spectrum had proven to be much stronger that the previous ones, but at the same time it put a much stronger burden to Lith’s body. He had reached a bottleneck that couldn’t be overcome with training or study.

Only after hitting his growth spurt, his body would become strong enough to allow him to refine further the mana core. Before such event, the use of Accumulation would bring to him only pain and no benefits.

(AN: Accumulation is the breathing technique that allows Lith to absorb the world energy into his mana core, making it grow stronger through expansion and shrinking cycles, with the mana core turning of a lighter colour at every cycle.

See the end of chapter 7 and chapter 9 for more details)

Also, since now all of his clothes had the Lark’s household crest on either the shoulder or the chest pocket, he made full use of his newfound authority, protecting the village in Nana’s absence. For a fee, off course.

The only criminals he would take out for free, were those with a nice "Dead or Alive" bounty on their heads. Lith would strictly deliver them feet first.

Now that he was almost twelve, the number of spells and the skill level he could reveal had increased exponentially, since now he officially had more than six years of magical training.

Seeing him fly around or hunting for pelts or bounties had become a common occurrence in the Lutia village. By having three healers and two protectors, the village kept growing in fame, size and population.

It was only thanks to him that Rena and Senton were able do date each other. Previously, the idea of the son of an artisan marrying the daughter of a humble farmer would have been preposterous.

Inside, though, Lith had changed very little. He was still the cynical, mistrustful broken man he had always been, with no real friend or loved one outside his family and Solus.

Having to deal with criminals, chasing away profligate boys that molested his sisters and interacting with the nobles, had further rooted in his mind the idea that mankind, even in the new world, was a plague that he had to avoid.

His only real confident was Solus, and despite all her attempts, she had not been able to change his mind, even one bit.

He was also in a very bad mood.

"Dammit, tier four spells are really hard. I can manage to reproduce them with true magic, but I still feel they are somewhat lacking. Either when I cast them with true or fake magic, something keeps feeling amiss."