Ch. 17
Chapter 17: I, Cidy, Would Call Your Talent the Strongest!
On the other side—
The half-grown children stared blankly at their magic being shattered in such a brute-force manner, collapsing weakly to the ground as they gazed up at the sky in a daze.
At this moment, their stunned minds were in no way less than Yan's. In fact, compared to him, they found it even harder to accept what had just happened.
"Ahhh! Run—run!!"
When those half-grown children finally came to their senses, they started shouting in terror.
‘Horrifying—far too horrifying!!’
‘If that spell had struck them directly, they would've been reduced to ashes in an instant!’
The half-grown children scattered in panic, fleeing in all directions.
Only after all the children had dispersed—
"Huuh... huuuh~..!!"
Seeing that the people threatening Yan had finally left, Restia relaxed at last.
She gasped heavily for breath.
When Yan walked over, Restia's body suddenly went limp. Unable to hold on any longer, she collapsed straight into Yan's arms.
Yan reacted quickly, reaching out to catch the girl.
"Her magic... it's completely drained!"
The moment their bodies made contact, Yan instantly sensed her condition with sharp clarity.
Her magic circuits had been completely exhausted—after casting both that Spatial Transfer magic and the large-scale offensive spell, she had nothing left!
"Big bro-ther!"
Seeing the girl being gently held in Yan's arms, the little loli—who had been terrified of that power just moments ago—suddenly puffed up her cheeks in anger.
Her brother was holding that girl so tenderly... Giselle wanted to be held like that, too!
Thinking this, the little girl dashed over and clung tightly to her Onii-chan.
......
"No-chant, large-scale—Flare! No... it was just an ordinary Flare! She just poured so much magic into it at once that it created that terrifying scale of destruction!"
From the shadows, Cidy—who had witnessed everything—trembled all over, muttering to herself nonstop.
‘What kind of monster geniuses are these?!’
‘One can seemingly create from nothing, turning water into ice!’
‘And the other, so young, can already unleash high-level offensive magic! Without chanting, she turned a simple Flare into the power of a massive Flare!!’
Cidy felt like her eyes must be broken.
Everything she saw today had to be an illusion...
"Hehe... hehehe... no-chant, a no-chant Flare..!!"
The girl's lips still trembled, murmuring blankly.
‘Too frightening! So this is the truth of the world?!’
Is this what a true magic prodigy looks like?!
Compared to those two children, her so-called proud talent wasn't worth anything at all.
Ahh... I, Cidy, in the name of the Seventh Tier, the youngest Saint Magus... I hereby acknowledge your 【magical talent】 as the strongest in this world!
Only after much effort did she pull herself out of her daze from that overwhelming scene.
But then she remembered how those half-grown children had recklessly unleashed combined magic in the middle of the village, and her face darkened again.
Cidy: "Those brats—how dare they use joint magic inside the village! There's no way I can overlook this!"
Conjurers were a race born as natural weapons of war.
Even in times of peace, that extraordinary magical talent never faded.
But because the village had been at peace for too long, the younger generation rarely practiced offensive spells.
Even so—
The village had a strict rule: magic must never be used against one's fellow humans.
And what had just happened was far beyond simple play-fighting!
To be honest, that black-haired, black-eyed boy being able to fight against nearly the entire village's youths to such a degree already shocked Cidy deeply.
For an outsider to achieve that much—!
——Impressive!
At the same age, even Cidy herself couldn't underestimate those half-grown children, let alone fight them like Yan had, easily taking on a hundred by himself!
Did they really think the descendants of "war weapons" were just cheap cabbages growing in the field?!
Cidy had actually been ready to step in and rescue Yan.
... But she hadn't expected an even scarier child to appear afterward—【Restia】.
To crush that kind of joint magic with a single strike... what terrifying power was hidden in that tiny girl's body?!
"Focusing only on honing these children's 'fundamentals,' I've neglected their character... Magic isn't meant to be cast on one's companions!"
Cidy sighed to herself, as if recalling something.
The next moment, Cidy raised her hand, and a wide-range detection spell instantly spread across the entire village.
A massive magic array blossomed across the sky, drawing startled gazes from countless villagers.
Then, none of the fleeing boys and girls, not even the rowdiest little troublemakers, were spared. All of them were dragged back in beams of light, pulled straight to Cidy.
As the bewildered children reappeared before her, not even knowing what had just happened, Cidy gave a cold snort.
With a flick of her hand, she bound every one of them with magic.
And then—
......
Today was a special day.
Almost the entire younger generation of the tribe had been punished with confinement by the "village chief."
And when the parents came to pick up their children, they all learned from Cidy just how "dangerous" the things their children had done actually were.
The villagers were furious. They immediately turned around and began scolding their children harshly.
But Yan, his sister, and Restia were left behind in the chief's residence.
The Clovis couple, who rushed over after hearing the news, along with Restia's parents, all stood anxiously, staring at the closed doors.
"Yan and the others... left inside alone... are they going to face an even harsher punishment?"
"My Restia, my little Restia..!!"
On the other side, her beautiful mother's eyes instantly reddened at the thought—could it be that the chief had discovered her daughter's secret?
......
Behind that door—
Yan looked up, eyes widening. "... So vast..."
Was this really just the residence of a village chief?!
The sight before him made one involuntarily think of the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C..
Unlike the other children, who were taken away by their parents at the entrance, Yan and the others were led further inside.
The moment they crossed the threshold, what their eyes reflected changed entirely.
From the outside, the chief's residence looked like nothing more than an ordinary house. But the inside was an entirely different "world."
That door earlier was probably just a "space-transfer" passage.
There was no way that little house, which couldn't have been larger than a hundred square meters, could possibly hold so many "books."
Here, not only the walls, but even the ceiling was lined with shelves that defied gravity.
Countless soft glimmers floated in the air, and towering bookshelves that stretched dozens of meters high created a labyrinth-like space filled with a fantastical atmosphere.
"Incredible..."
From the very moment Yan stepped inside, the 【Simulated Star-Creation Map】 hadn't stopped running. Now, in this space, it was boiling over.
Within him, his "cosmology"—entire clusters of stars and galaxies—shone with dazzling light.
His gaze couldn't help but shift toward the pink-haired "girl" walking in front of them.
It was her—the one who triggered the 【Simulated Star-Creation Map】's mutation! And now, within this space, that mutation was spiraling completely out of control!