The Girl Who Hacked The Magic System-Chapter 134 - Answers

"You really should’ve told me this earlier, Aurea."

"I’m sorry, Mom. I forgot completely about it until Lovelace started asking me about it the other day."

Lillian sighs and looks at the ceiling of the room we’re in. It’s an office in the second biggest city of the kingdom, Groenburg, and I have just told her the thing about the heroes summoning.

"Alright, I allow you to graduate by the end of this semester. Make sure to have the graduating thesis written by then."

"Right! Thank you, Mom!"

Though the Royal Academy is similar to Earth’s middle and high schools, it has a graduation thesis system like a university. You can graduate without doing it, but a good thesis is often seen as a huge CV bonus.

But if you want to graduate early, like me, then it’s a hard prerequisite. You aren’t allowed to graduate early without presenting one. But you are allowed to enroll in the thesis course and not do any other classes.

Which is exactly what I’ll do. I get to still live in my quarters in the Academy dorms, but I’ll spend most of the day in the arena and write my thesis a little bit at a time during the night.

Oh, and I’ll found the club anyway, if I have to spend one semester in that place. It might be fun, and I might end up finding more promising recruits.

Sounds like a solid plan.

:::

Ingela joined our little army the next day and quickly became the most promising recruit. Her passion for the magic arts exudes in every syllable she chants, in the precision and care with which she formulates her own arias.

Is this how it feels to have a prodigy student?

To be honest, all our recruits are outstanding. Kudos to Lovelace for spotting the most promising mages just by looking at their mana.

And they are treating this as their big chance in life. Almost all of them are commoners, and most didn’t have much of a perspective for the future. For them, this is the only chance they’ll have to make it big.

So they are all doing their best, and their best is very good indeed. The thing is just that Ingela still outclasses all of them.

She probably was really holding back at the Academy. Or maybe the Academy was holding her back with the myopic views on magic and the whole social hierarchy thing.

Now she is in full bloom, and it’s beautiful. Her control of fire magic is absolutely impressive, and she learned spatial magic on the spot.

Really. She reproduced the portal aria on the first try and was able to hold technical conversations about its intricacies with me and Lovelace in just a few days. Truly impressive.

The others of my group of friends talked to their parents and got their approval, with the same condition as mine. That is, to present a graduation thesis by the end of the semester.

Ingela was the only one who was allowed to simply drop out of school. I guess that shows the difference in importance that the families give to the formal education system.

But they are all living here in the office for the remainder of the summer break. When the classes are back, we’ll commute here together via portal.

:::

And thus, finally, the big day arrived.

Of course, I’m talking about the day to go visit Yaci again. It’s when we are supposed to get the answer from the beastkin about them joining us or not.

I’m really hoping they do. Just the idea of seeing Yaci every day again makes me really hyped.

"Nervous?"

"You bet."

Lovelace is, obviously, accompanying me.

I conjure the portal from the office and we step in.

:::

"Ha! Didn’t get me off guard this time!"

"Yaciiiii!!!!!"

I jump on her, hugging her tight.

"I missed you too, Aurea! I’m so happy you’re back safe and sound. The whole talk about going to war has made me quite worried these days."

"I’m sorry, Yaci."

"It’s not your fault. By the way, hello too, Lovelace!"

"Hi Yaci! I was just leaving you two lovebirds to say hi to each other."

"You don’t need to be so conscientious, Lovelace."

Hehehehehe. Are you jealous, Lovelace?

"Anyway, you two. I’m supposed to lead you to the elders’ tent as soon as you arrive, so come this way."

We are in front of her tent in the middle of the camp, now that I look around. There are lots of people staring at us.

It seems that they were all in wait, and... wait, something’s different.

In the fox tribe, normally all the adult women are fox beastkin, but here we’re having adult wolf and cat beastkin women as well!

"Yaci, are we in a different oasis from last time?"

"Yes, the Loa sent us, the wolf tribe, and the cat tribe to meet here in this oasis. The elders will tell you more about it."

Oooh... does this mean what I think it means?

Yaci guides us to a tent that is bigger than the usual elder council’s tent and then leads us inside.

"Welcome back, Aurea and Lovelace."

"Hello, Yara. Kwarah, it’s been a long time!"

"A long time indeed, Aurea. And this is Yawarete, the head elder of the cat tribe."

"I’m pleased to meet you, Aurea and Lovelace. I’ve heard several tales about you two, and I’m honored to meet you both in person."

"The pleasure is mine, Yawarete."

"It’s my honor, Yawarete."

There is a circle of five chairs in the middle of the room. The three of them are standing up, each in front of one chair, and they gesture for us to sit on the remaining two.

The moment we take our seats, the three of them sit as well.

Yaci heads back outside, leaving only the five of us inside. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

The center of the circle has a heating stove that has been activated by magic, with a kettle above it. Yara then produces a cup that seems to be made from the horn of a monster.

The cup has some dark green herbs in it and a metallic straw coming out of it. She takes the kettle and pours boiling water in the cup, takes a sip, and passes it to Kwarah, who does the same and passes it to Yawarete.

When the cup reaches me, I’m familiar enough with the gestures to be able to repeat them. It’s actually pretty similar to the mate drinking from southern Brazil and other countries of South America.

And it tastes really close to the mate herb. This is truly a find. But, as nobody has said a single word while we do the ritual drinking, I save the questions for later and pass the cup to Lovelace.

I can feel the caffeine rushing through my veins right now. Oh, how I missed this.

When the cup reaches Yara again, she finally breaks the silence.

"This herb symbolizes friendship and community. In the olden times, when we had more of it, it was drunk at all social gatherings. These days it’s become pretty hard to cultivate, so it’s reserved for rituals like this one. To seal agreements and alliances."

Well, this already answered some of the questions I had about the herb. And also answered the lingering question. It means that the beastkin will join the war, right?

"I’m honored by you sharing this herb with me. It is a very nice herb; it’s a pity it’s so hard to find these days."

"Indeed, and that’s one of the reasons the Loa told us to join your war. Though not all tribes will join, just the three of us."

"As Yara said, it is so that the other tribes will take in the people who aren’t able to fight. It will put a strain on them for some time, but it’s for the sake of our future."

"Yeah. Those two are looking for future peace, but I’m really looking forward to the fighting. But having a place where we can grow this again would be great."

Oh, yes, you bet.