Princess's Struggle for Survival-Chapter 515: “...Where did you put your hand?”

Unlike modern human common language magic widely used in the magical world today, ancient human language, Elders Speech, has always been considered as the form closest to the essence of magic, with practical effectiveness even surpassing elven tongues attuned to nature and the inherently magically resonant dragon languages.

Previously, when Charlotte studied various books, researched magical circle construction, and optimized magical machinery systems, she did so based on the modern human common language.

This approach naturally had its pros and cons. The advantage lay in being able to draw upon ancestral wisdom and experience, leveraging identical magical theories and similar elemental properties to accelerate research and development, allowing the designed magical machinery to achieve the inventor’s intended functionality.

The downside, however, was that such magically engineered devices remained confined within the pre-existing framework, a formless prison built upon the foundation of the modern human common language.

Of course, this was unavoidable. After all, every modern mage ascended by following this very path, unable to escape the boundaries of human common incantations regardless of their thoughts, even self-created magic was no exception.

But Astrid was different. She was born with the innate ability to comprehend Elders Speech incantations and possessed the talent to cast ancient magic, an exceptional existence unaffected by the world’s will.

Elegantly crossing her left leg over her right knee, the smooth, delicate skin producing an almost imperceptible friction sound, Charlotte fixed her gaze on the shadow cast upon the desk from the surface of the magical device, and spoke slowly.

"So, Little Astr is saying... while researching ancient language, you’ve discovered some helpful knowledge for improving magical machinery?"

Back when Charlotte was merely an early tier Arcanist mage, Astrid’s ability to decipher Elders Speech incantations had helped her analyze portions of wind-element magic spells. Relying on that insight, Charlotte deepened her understanding of spellcasting principles and subsequently broke through to become a mid-tier Arcanist mage.

Thus, upon hearing Astrid mention the ancient language again now, Charlotte’s first thought was that her exceptional junior had once again revealed a surprise even she didn’t know about.

Hearing this, Astrid curled her lips into a gentle smile, not keeping Charlotte in suspense. Her fingers firmly kneaded the woman’s shoulder, her cheek brushed against the strands of hair.

"Lady Charlotte guessed correctly."

"Long ago, when you mentioned wanting to replace crystals with cheaper resources, or turning crystals into reusable storage forms, I began attempting to explore possible solutions."

"I’ve studied materials in the ancient human artifact storage room at Elizabeth Academy of Magic, the Royal Museum within the capital City’s palace, as well as private collections owned by various nobles."

This was also one of the reasons why Astrid’s schedule had been so packed recently. Even after finishing her busy daytime social engagements, at night she will still sit at her desk, learning about the world and absorbing knowledge only she can perceive and understand.

Even her perfect head maid, who managed Astrid’s intelligence network and took care of her daily life, could do nothing to assist in this matter.

"Originally, after reading so many books and encountering various ancient magic incantations with differing effects, I already had some ideas about improving the operational principles of crystals. But what truly validated my theories was the treasure of knowledge Amalia shared with me after ascending the throne."

"Each successive Valeria Emperor placed their treasures collected within the Imperial Scepter for future generations to read and use, including numerous ancient magic incantations never made public, and even some forbidden spells never before utilized by anyone."

Given Astrid’s relationship with Amalia, this intelligence was naturally shared with her. There were even times when, as Astrid lay in bed reading, a certain petite empress in a white nightgown would snuggle up beside her, using her slender, pale legs, uncovered by white stockings, to Astrid, preventing her from easily pulling away.

"Within the gemstone’s internal storage space, I discovered a peak tier Sorcerer-level arcane spell called [Mimetic Particles]."

Upon hearing Astrid’s words, Charlotte’s expression froze momentarily. After softly repeating the name, her delicate brows slightly furrowed.

"There’s no common language name?"

As the Professor of Magical circles at Elizabeth Academy of Magic, Charlotte considered her expertise in magical studies to be undoubtedly high, her knowledge surpassing that of most mages. Yet she had never heard of such a spell.

Astrid nodded, her voice calm.

"It’s a sequence of text recorded on a stone tablet, with no translation into common language, so naturally, there’s no corresponding common-language spell."

Lady Gemini had never translated this particular spell. Whether this was intentional or simply because the tablet had been unearthed after her active period, thus never receiving a translation, remains unknown.

"It’s neither an offensive spell with strong destructive power, nor a defensive spell meant for healing. Rather, it’s an auxiliary spell similar to [Resonance Hymn of the Glorious Cathedral], aiding mages in casting magic. However, its versatility exceeds that of [Resonance Hymn of the Glorious Cathedral], which is specifically tied to light-element existence."

"Its specific function is to cause arcane particles in the air to simulate the properties of certain elemental particles, temporarily exhibiting identical external reactions."

Astrid exhaled softly, internally chanting the incantation. A cold, diamond-shaped ice shard appeared before Charlotte, refracting light into sparkling fragments.

Charlotte gazed at the ice shard on the table, a flicker of contemplation passing through her clear amber eyes.

A beginner-level apprentice ice-element spell, [Ice Shard Technique], typically used for training novices, with little practical use. At most, it provides pure drinking water for mages with high ice-element affinity, replacing water-element spells.

Clearly, Astrid’s focus wasn’t on the spell itself, but rather on the earlier arrangement of the magic circle. Having been an Arcanist mage for many years, even without deliberately activating her elemental vision, Charlotte could sense subtle elemental fluctuations.

In this private bedroom, exceptionally well-insulated and warmed by heat radiating from surrounding fire-element crystals, ice-element particles were scarce. Yet Astrid used a special spell to rapidly gather ice-element particles in the area.

More accurately, not gathering, but generating.

Just one second prior, invisible, colorless arcane particles had arranged themselves on the spell circle, exhibiting properties similar to ice-element particles: low temperature, solidification, and transparency to light.

Then, the ice shard formed from their arrangement, becoming a solid block emanating cold.

"Ar... arcane particles... temporarily replaced ice-element particles that should’ve existed in those positions?" Charlotte murmured.

Upon closer inspection, the color of the ice-element particles on the ice block’s surface was slightly paler than the deep blue of true ice, and their state was less stable.

Reaching out to touch the ice shard before her, contradicting the imagined scenario of it shattering upon contact, the woman’s slender, pale fingertips met the icy surface, only sensing intense cold seeping into her skin.

Knowledge was the source of power for every mage, and the lifelong pursuit for many devoted to this path. Especially for someone like Charlotte, who had walked the magical path for so many years, the emergence of a new spell was as alluring as a clear spring to a thirsty traveler in the desert.

Encountering such a novel phenomenon for the first time, even someone as composed as she struggled to suppress her excitement.

Astrid softly hummed in acknowledgment, her lips parting slightly.

"That’s exactly the function of [Mimetic Particles], forcing greater elemental support in environments where elemental particles are scarce."

"While it doesn’t compare to the power of peak tier Arcanist mages who can draw elements from other dimensions to cast corresponding spells, this fine-scale manipulation and the special form of simulating elemental particle emission gave me many inspirations."

As her words faded, Astrid ended the casting process of [Mimetic Particles]. The arcane particles reverted to their original form, and the ice shard in Charlotte’s hand rapidly dissolved, leaving no water behind, quickly shrinking to a tiny piece no larger than half a palm.

"Once the spell ends, these arcane particles lose their ice-element properties."

Charlotte sensed the changes in the surrounding elements, speaking softly.

"How incredible... I’ve never seen anything like this before..."

As Astrid said, for Arcanist mages, the abundance of elemental particles was no longer the biggest factor affecting their combat strength. But this didn’t mean [Mimetic Particles] was merely a flashy, useless spell.

As intelligent as Charlotte was, she immediately connected Astrid’s earlier incantation to her mention of tackling crystal energy loss, instantly grasping Astrid’s meaning.

"Little Astr means... using arcane particles to fill the crystals, releasing them temporarily as elemental particles?"

Theoretically speaking, this approach could drastically reduce crystal energy consumption.

Astrid nodded slightly, indicating her agreement with Charlotte’s statement.

"That was my initial idea. But considering the difficulty of inscribing circles within crystals to store arcane particles, entities even more elusive than wind-element particles, and then using them to simulate specific elemental particles via [Mimetic Particles], undergoing transformations across storage, casting, recasting processes, the operational complexity proved too high. So I ultimately decided to set it aside for now."

The reasoning was sound. Even without attempting implementation, just Astrid’s explanation was enough for Charlotte to understand the difficulty.

Rushing leads to failure. She hadn’t even fully grasped the casting principles of [Mimetic Particles] yet, no need to get overly excited.

Returning from her state of fervor to her usual composed rationality, Charlotte idly played with the transparent ice cone Astrid had sculpted with her mental energy. After a moment, she spoke.

"So what’s Little Astr’s current idea, installing a [Mimetic Particles] interface at the crystal’s circle output port, allowing the gushing elemental particles to be enhanced by arcane particles, achieving high returns with low output as an energy-saving method?"

This improvement method eliminated the greatest difficulty, storing arcane particles, though the downside was that arcane particles needed to immediately simulate specific, lacking flexibility and offering only the particle’s single function of boosting output power.

"Mm, Lady Charlotte’s thinking is indeed in perfect sync with mine. No wonder you succeeded so brilliantly during our first resonance casting."

Astrid’s tone softened as she gently opened her pink lips.

"The most suitable improvement method right now is exactly what Lady Charlotte described. I’ve experimented several times in the capital before, with mediocre results. Perhaps it’s because I only possess peak tier Magnus strength, and my mental control precision isn’t sufficient."

"Maybe Lady Charlotte could do it better."

After all, she was a mid-tier Arcanist mage and a frontline researcher constantly working with magical machinery, her skill level was undoubtedly superior.

Thinking this way, she suddenly felt a strange sense of familiarity, she was worse than the up-and-coming Amalia at handling politics and winning people’s hearts, inferior to Lyra in battlefield command and combat prowess, and even lagged behind the elegant, intelligent Aunt Charlotte before her in magical expertise and knowledge reserves.

Perhaps she really was better suited to being a carefree Princess removed from conflicts, or simply a famous imperial princess known only for her beautiful face.

Her thoughts drifted slightly without reason. When Astrid snapped back to reality, Charlotte had already finished contemplating all the possible applications of [Mimetic Particles] in magical machinery.

"So how should Little Astr teach me to cast [Mimetic Particles]?"

"I originally reverse-translated the common-language incantation for [Mimetic Particles] based on the effect fields of common incantations and the ancient arrangements of arcane particles..."

"But coming here, I unexpectedly discovered that achieving soul resonance with Lady Charlotte isn’t particularly difficult. We could use co-casting to help Lady Charlotte grasp the casting essentials in the fastest way possible."

Guiding her step-by-step through the common-language version of [Mimetic Particles] via soul resonance would be far simpler and more direct than mere demonstration or explanation.

Recalling the sensation of her soul touching Astrid’s, the state of nearly-complete mental nakedness and honesty, along with the gradually spreading scent of cold roses invading her soul, Charlotte hesitated for half a second before agreeing.

"Mm, let’s do it your way."

This truly was the fastest method. When it came to important matters, there was no need for hesitation.

Hearing this, Astrid nodded. Her arms slipped around Charlotte’s neck, gently embracing the mature, alluring figure before her, her pretty face buried in the dark hair. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

"Then I’m starting... Lady Charlotte..."

A crisp, melodious voice sounded by her ear. Charlotte softly acknowledged it gradually, lowering her defenses while relaxing her spirit.

"Mm, go slowly. Don’t hurt yourself."

Although this casting method was called resonance casting, it seemed that every time they performed it, Astrid was the active party, always taking the dominant role.

Charlotte was nearly used to it by now.

A water-like tenderness washed over her soul, intentionally outlining intricate patterns with mental energy activity, completely revealing every detail of [Mimetic Particles] to Charlotte.

Several minutes passed. After guiding Charlotte’s soul through the general process, Astrid withdrew from the soul connection. At the same moment, she heard a barely perceptible soft moan from the person before her.

"Little Astr..."

A few seconds later, a voice tinged with three parts embarrassment and seven parts coquettish irritation reached Astrid’s ears.

"...Where did you put your hand?"