NOVPUBIn the classical-decorated Magic Workshop on the second floor of the Manor of the Lord of Chinston City, time-washed brown wood was carved into tastefully varied countertops. The barrier symbols engraved on their surface emanated a soft glow, like a rhythmic breath.
Sikder sat in a corner chair holding a kitten, watching Lanci making cards with great interest.
Although it was her first time hearing of a magic device master’s requirement to have someone to "watch while making cards", she was still more than willing to help Lanci, or rather, she was originally planning on observing her Saint Heir make cards.
Until this day, she still remembered that the first time she encountered Lanci was at Herram’s Knights of Nirvana during a test for the Nirvana Branch, she was captivated by his work from then. Now, whether it’s watching him carve, paint, or make magic tools, she never gets bored.
At the deepest part of the workshop near the window, a hefty silver piece of Magic Isolated Velvet Cloth was laid out on the workbench, aiming at reducing the interference effect of the magical facilities within the room on the materials and tools. Under the warm yellow light, Lanci’s shadow cast around him, his focused emerald eyes reflected the magical tool in front of him.
To the right of Lanci were neatly arranged small glass bottles with marks. Each bottle was filled with liquids of different colours and levels, they were magic core liquids that he painstakingly extracted and measured. He had just set down a bottle of freshly prepared magic core liquid and immediately switched to his right hand side skillfully, continuing to make new mixings and ratios with the mini-balance and a set of precision-graded bottles.
"Why does he need so many materials?"
Sikder, puzzled, asked softly in a breathy whisper into the ears of the little black cat.
She had seen other cardmakers making cards too.
Normally, they all prepare one set of materials to make one Magic Card.
But Lanci is like a canteen chef, preparing materials for ten or twenty portions before making cards.
"I don’t know meow, this kid’s card making always seems like he’s preparing for a fifty draws, but his family seems to be quite rich, enough for him to waste..."
The cat boss also murmured to Sikder.
Each time it stayed in Lanci’s dormitory watching Lanci making cards, besides sealing magic cards which had a high success rate, cards of spirit and light were also okay, the success rate of other categories of magic cards were basically dismal.
After thinking about it, the cat boss decided to stop this topic.
No matter how rich Lanci’s family was, it was only at the level of a rich civilian. Even the hints it heard at Ichrite Academy alone let it know, the Wilford Chamber of Commerce could not withstand huge turbulence, and Sigrid, the Cardinal Bishop of the Rebirth Church was an existence from another world.
If one day Lanci’s father meets Sigrid, who appears to be his daughter-in-law, showing up for a visit, the cat boss dared not imagine what the scene would look like.
"I see."
Sikder nodded and looked again at Lanci’s figure.
He was carefully weighing the Magic Crystal Powder of changing properties, the magic crystals used were low-ranked but have extremely high purity. Lanci gently poured the required amount, even a breeze could change the readings of the balance, but his movements were so delicate that he ensured the right amount, accurately in place at one go.
"Heart-aching proficiency."
Sikder silently commented.
"..."
The cat boss glanced at Sikder but said nothing.
Lanci slowly dropped the concentrated magical core liquid into the magic crystal powder. The moment it was dropped, the powder and liquid came into contact and a slight reaction took place. The process of boiling till it subsided instantly completed and began to emit a fluorescent light. Then, he picked up the engraving pen, slowly injected the prepared Magic Ink into the pen until it was four-fifths full, and carefully sealed it.
Him having completed the process, he took out a delicate semi-transparent blank card. This is a material required for making Magic Cards, unique to the Shadow World. It can hold fixed magic spells and ensure the durability of the card and the stability of magic power.
In front of the workbench, Lanci began to open several commonly used low-order magic scrolls related to transformation. He gently spread them open, the symbols and patterns on them appeared and disappeared in deep blue lines on light brown moonflower paper, he skillfully used specialized carving knives and magic power to cut the required parts, a special alloy-made metal could withstand and conduct high intensity magic power, precisely placed it in the designated location of the card, and started to proceed in rebuilding the scroll compiling procedure.
Recording magic circuits requires high levels of concentration and skill, but even though Lanci was clearly doing work that required intense concentration, his breathing and heartbeat remained unadjusted as if he was doing ordinary work.
The difficulty of the engraving was apparent even to outsiders like Sikder and the cat boss, the densely packed demon language magic text on the card looked like ants crawling, even if they could see clearly, they wouldn’t want to take a closer look.
Lanci is lightly engraving as if he doesn’t anticipate failure.
Like an artist drawing a familiar old work.
Every stroke is swift and decisive, yet incredibly delicate.
Which made Sikder watching Lanci from behind somewhat serious.
This temperament of Lanci only gave people the impression that he is a grand master of the arts, even anticipating what kind of card he would make!
After several dozens of seconds.
Accompanied by an uprising flame and a loud noise.
It exploded. 𝙣𝙤𝙫𝙥𝙪𝙗.𝒄𝙤𝙢
"Quick explosion."
Among the dispersing sparks, Sikder, her eyes widened, sighed.
Although her Saint Heir seemed a little wasteful and confusing in his operations right now.
But under such circumstances, either you’re an extremely arrogant genius, or you’re an unrealistic idiot.
She believes, her Saint Heir is definitely the former.
"Exploded again..."
The light barrier in the card-making workshop protected Lanci from getting hurt, Lanci, somewhat taken aback, looked at the exploded Magic card in his hand, as if everything happened too suddenly, even he himself didn’t have time to react,
"Sorry if I scared you."
He turned back and apologized to Sikder, looking a bit embarrassed.
"It’s okay, I love watching fireworks."
Sikder, with a slight cheerful smile in her eyes, encouraged Lanci.
Lanci seemed slightly stunned, as if he had just been scrambled or received feedback drastically different than the usual or expected.
It took a moment before Lanci came back to his senses, lowering his eyes and sighing in relief.
He would never again say that Sikder was an older woman who couldn’t be married off. In fact, her qualifications were too good.
Sikder’s eyebrows furrowed slightly.
But all she did was grip the Cat boss a little tighter in her hands. She did not speak.
And so, Lanci turned around and continued making cards, and Sikder continued to support her chin and watch him.
After an unknown amount of time, sporadic sparks flew about in the cardmaking workshop.
Despite the occasional unexpected noise, the atmosphere in the room seemed exceptionally tranquil between them.
By nightfall, Lanci still hadn’t made the card he aimed for.
Sikder had become sleepy, closing her eyes and sleeping in the chair.
It seemed like she was having a blissful dream, sleeping very soundly, even making light snores, the ordinary noise of failed card-making couldn’t wake her -- accompanied by the noise of the tools, it was as if she was in a thunderstorm.
"Meow."
Cat boss got a relatively thick blanket from the room on the second floor and covered Sikder’s body using telekinesis magic.
Then it couldn’t help but look at Lanci worriedly.
It felt that with Sikder present, Lanci was blowing up cards even faster.
Previously when it watched him blow cards, he could at least make a few more steps before blowing it up. Now it seems like he’s especially careless, like he’s playing with mud.
He didn’t even seem the least bit embarrassed just like regular cardmakers would be, all he did was chuckle to himself.
It was clear to see that after completely letting go of the pressure, he was genuinely joyful, having found the pure happiness in cardmaking.
Cat boss couldn’t judge, the reverse buff that Sikder gave Lanci is good or bad.
All it knew was that when Lanci returned to the South Continent and let Tata see him making cards like this, his blood pressure was surely going to explode.
As the last hint of dusk escapes from the horizon, leaving only the stars twinkling quietly upon the ink-colored curtain, the world outside of the room was already plunged into a bottomless night. The curtains of the cardmaking workshop carved out the silhouettes of the starlight and moonlight.
The hand on the grand clock in the corner crossed over the threshold of midnight. Each tick tock was exceptionally clear within the workshop.
Accompanying an unusually long duration without a sudden noise echoing in the workshop, a dazzling light finally emerged from one side of the workbench amidst the silence.
"Hmmm..."
Seemingly sensing the light, Sikder opened her eyes slightly, lifting her hand to rub her eyes.
She saw that not far away, the light grew increasingly intense until it extinguished, Lanci held up a magic card enveloped in purple mists.
Sikder quickly came to her senses, turning her gaze towards Lanci.
"Eh, a purple rarity magic card! No wonder the little black cat said you are quite impressive."
Sikder clapped her hands in satisfaction.
Having created a targeted purple rarity magic card within only about ten hours or so, though it was second-order, it’s already enough to prove his excellent skill.
"Being a cardmaker is my main trade."
Lanci said, by the time he’s back in the South Continent, a large portion of his time would be taken up by the improvement of his magical engineering techniques. He found the North Continent more liberating, every day felt fulfilled and joyful.
Cat boss didn’t pay attention to what Lanci was saying. It hopped down from the armchair and took a closer look at the card Lanci just made.
It turned out to be a second-order spell [Transformation Technique: Human] which Lanci and Talia had thoroughly studied before.
But this one was clearly a special version with a targeted physical appearance change.
"You put in so much effort just to create a new disguise?"
Cat boss asked in surprise.
It did know that Lanci and Sikder were lacking new disguises, so much so that Lanci had to lend the one he uses to transform into Rocky McCarthy to Sikder the last time.
Lanci laughed without responding, just gently touched the [Transformation Technique: Human], and then his figure became blurry and twisted, under the surprised eyes of the cat boss, when he became clear again, he had turned into the Saint of Nirvana.
"Meow?!"
Cat boss was scared stiff, its fur standing on its ends as it screamed and jumped into Sikder’s arms.
Then after careful thinking, it abruptly realized this was Lanci, so it poked its head out to observe again.
Not far from it, Lanci still had his unique aura. He didn’t seriously perform like the Saint of Nirvana.
In terms of appearance, though, the transformation was seamless!
"...You capture others and can even disguise as them to infiltrate their own side... I don’t even know how to describe such an evil being."
Seeing Lanci turn into the Saint of Nirvana, Sikder basically understood what he was going to do next. Even she found it difficult to comment.
It could only be said that he was naturally suitable to be on the side of the Rebirth Church.
