“What’s wrong? Do you have a question?” asked Curiosity, sensiudent’s curiousness.

  “You, how are you lifting that stone, when you didn’t perform an invocation?” questioned Chara.

  “Ah, this…?” Curiosity presehe piece of obsidian and chuckled. “I did perform an invocation; you just didn’t notice~!”

  Who didn’t notice? I’ve been watg you the eime! The little spirit wasn’t vinced.

  Notig her skepticism, the curiosity spirit decided to expin further. “First, I envisioned lifting this rock.”

  She raised the rock slightly.

  “Then, I expressed the principle of ‘holding’ by grasping it with my mana.”

  To illustrate her point, she flung the piece of obsidian upward and caught it using a different mana tendril.

  “……What?”

  As Chara attempted to make sense of this information, her swirling grew increasingly turbulent, and her mana rippled meaninglessly. It wasn’t that she didn’t grasp the expnation, it just seemed so arbitrary that it felt absurd.

  Does this mean that if I think of ‘owning’ something, and then I write my name on it, it will really beine? What kind of ridiculous logic is that?! Hmph, I should write my name on Curiosity, just to see what happens…

  Amidst her nonsensical thoughts, the little spirit was struck by a sudden realization.

  Now that I think about it, why did I have to write ae my owo move that creepy rock, when I could have just dohis instead…

  As she pared her overly plicated, amateurish ‘floating’ spell to the curiosity spirit’s easy and simple ‘holding’ spell, Chara felt as though she had spent over two hours pnning and exeg the most ingenious pn to bypass an imperable locked door, only to betedly realize the obvious “pull to open” instrus on its gss.

  At that moment, her swirling slowed dejectedly, and her fused rippling ceased. She was sulking.

  “Alrighty, no more distras. Baby… do not speak,” ordered Curiosity.

  Who—Who are you calling Baby!?

  The muted spirit hadn’t even pnned on speaking—but now she did! All about how mean and wicked this spirit was to her kind, cute, and i pupil!

  Now where were we…? Ah yes, mana~!

  Lost ihoughts, the curiosity spirit raised the ominous bck rod slid it across the whiteboard’s surface. As it moved, the rock left behind a bck line, as if she were using a marker instead of a k of volic gss. When she was finished, she set down her unusual writing utensil and marveled at her creation.

  It was a crudely drawn circle…

  Needless to say, the little spirit was extremely bewildered. So much so, that she fot she was angry.

  Curiosity took a moment to gather her thoughts before she began her lecture. “In this world, there exists tless things. From t mountains to humble ponds, to the beautiful flowers that fill my garden. There is also you, Little Spirit. You also exist.”

  Gee… I don’t know about that… Chara mpooo be ho, even she wasirely vinced of her owence. Regardless, she bobbed up and down to show her agreement.

  “Thanks to this, you, along with all other existences, have the iential to experience ge,” Curiosity passionately expined.

  “These ges could take any number of shapes. For instaake this piece of obsidian. It could move to the left, or it could move to the right. It could spin around in circles or explode into pieces. It could even bee blue, turn into a cloud, or wake up, move out of this building, and bee an artist,” narrated the swirling teacher, as she tormented her illustration full of arrows and scribbling.

  “All of these potential ges are what we call ‘possibilities.’ Capable of happening, but not yet realized. In theory, this piece of obsidian could undergo any one of these possibilities… A, not only are none of them happening now; most of them won’t happen iure either!” harassed the greater spirit, as the tless arrows were inexplicably yanked off the whiteboard and dispersed into a fine mist.

  The little spirit couldn’t help but feel mencholic as the already bastardized obsidian’s potential futures vanished from existe was too pitiful.

  Curiosity lowered the piece of obsidian. “That being said, it’s important to uand when possibilities don’t e to fruition, it’s not necessarily because aence is zy or unmotivated. Rather, it’s typically because the ditions o facilitate that possibility aren’t bei.

  “For instance, why ’t this piece of obsidian move to the right? Because there isn’t a force pushing it from the left~! Why ’t it transform into a cloud? Because its temperature isn’t high enough~! Why ’t it wake up, leave this building, and bee an artist? Because it ’t draw~!” denouhe swirling teacher.

  No, I don’t think that’s the reason… Chara had her doubts.

  “Fortunately… there is a solution. It’s mana~!” cheered the curiosity spirit as she spun in pd released a shower of illusory water droplets that glimmered with an aqueous light before vanishing.

  The little spirit felt pelled to cp but she didn’t have hands. So instead, she envisioned a pair of mana tendrils and used them to cp… though this didn’t produy sound. At this moment, she felt ahereal weight ma over her mind.

  A spell…?

  Intrigued, she pushed on this weight, just to see what would happen, only to get startled when a round of appuse echoed across the .

  Cp! Cp! Cp!

  It ing spell.

  “Ahaha~! What are you doing~?” Curiosity burst out ughing.

  Overe with embarrassment, the little spirit had the urge to hide under her desk. Fortunately, she didn’t do this, or else her teacher would have ughed even harder.

  Unbothered by her student’s antics, the curiosity spirit delivered her clusion.

  “What I’m trying to say is that by using mana, we satisfy the required ditions for any given possibility, allowing us to ma its oute directly. This is why mana is known as the embodiment of possibility~!” procimed Curiosity, her mana swelling proudly.

  maury