maury

  “Alrighty, enough of that. The st subject I wao go over is a little something called ‘elemental patibility’—which may sound plicated, but it’s essentially just how elemental mana is with other elemental mana,” Curiosity introduced.

  “As for how it works…” her voice trailed off as she sidered how to best expin it.

  After a short pause, she lifted the ominous bck rod pced it on the grouween the desks. “So… imagine you have this piece of obsidian. What do you think will happen if I cast a spell to push it?”

  “It will… move in the dire it’s pushed in?” Chara answered dubiously, clearly puzzled about where this was leading.

  “Let’s see~!” Rather than giving a direswer, the swirling teacher decided to let the result speak for itself.

  Without hesitation, she jured up a swirling ball of water mana and u at the motionless piece of obsidian. Upon collision, the mana burst into a shower of illusory water droplets and the rock was sent tumbling forward. When it finally came to a stop, as anticipated, it had indeed moved in the dire it ushed in.

  “Wow~! It looks like you were right~!” excimed Curiosity. Unbothered by her student’s unusual look, she returhe piece of obsidian to its inal position.

  “As we’ve just verified, when a single force is applied to an object, it simply moves in the dire it’s pushed in. Now, sider this: what do you think will happen if I use two spells instead of one? In other words, two forces pushing on one object,” she restated in a curious voice.

  “Umm, I think it depends,” Chara betedly answered.

  “Oh~? Depends on what?”

  The little spirit hesitated. After mulling it over in her mind, she said, “It depends on which dire the forces from the spells are pushing. If both spells push in the same dire, then the rock will naturally be propelled much farther. If they push in different dires, then uh… I guess it will depend on the exagles. And if they push i opposite dires, the forces will cel each other out, and the rock will remain motionless—um, are you okay?”

  Midway through her reply, the greater spirit’s mana had begun to ripple in increasingly peculiar ways.

  Curiosity, no longer able to hold back her feelings, did a little spin before releasing a magnifit shower of illusory water droplets that shimmered before fading.

  “Wow~! How you be sooo brilliant~? What a stelr intuition~!” she plimented with heartfelt siy.

  Me, brilliant? I guess you could say so… The little spirit’s mana swelled slightly, her little form overflowing with fidend pride.

  The curiosity spirit giggled. “Now then, going by your predi, what do you suppose will happen if elemental mana, which—simir to the two forces—embodies a particur dire, is with other elemental mana?” she asked with a curious voice.

  The little spirit’s swirling slowed before she pulsed in realization.

  “An iion! One where the oute will be determined by the mana’s specific identity!”

  “Pretty much,” chuckled Curiosity.

  Having made her point, she retrieved the piece of obsidian and positioned herself to the left of the whitebiving Chara a full, uricted view of the elemental diagram.

  “Now then, as you have probably started to suspect, this diagram anizes elements acc to their patibility,” the swirling teacher boasted, as if the chart were her own iion.

  The little spirit perked up.

  This pi was one of the things she’d been curious about for some time now. After all, if Curiosity simply o verify whether Chara knew all the elements, then it would have been much easier to make a list, or even fo writing altogether. Yet, not only did she go out of her way to struct su eborate graph, but she also meticulously pced each element in a specific slot. It was too spicuous.

  Furthermore, as a devoted pyer of a certain monster-catg game, Chara was already quite familiar with the idea of elemental patibility. Despite this, she had never seen a diagram quite like this one, leading to her increased i.

  I wonder if the elements are baoo bad I ’t bee a fairy-type—or else I would have surely goo go bully some dragons~!

  The little spirit giggled inwardly. Chara, lost ihoughts, didn’t notice as her attention was quietly whisked away, her gaze unsciously fixed on the greater spirit. The moment she resurfaced from her thoughts; their gazes met.

  “Baby, you o pay attention.”

  “…”

  Feeling self-scious, she averted her gaze to the side, opting to look at the circur element diagram instead.

  Curiosity, pig up where she left off, said, “Wheal mana goes near other elemental mana, it generally results in one of three reas.

  “The first kind of rea is attraana particles with simir identities tend to attract. This is especially true for mana of the same element,” she expined meticulously.

  The little spirit’s mind sparked in reition. The swirling teacher had actually briefly touched on this during her expnation of normal mana, but hadn’t goo much detail. Thinking back, Chara realized it robably because she hadn’t yet learned about identity.

  “In addition to itself, each element also attracts three other elements. On the diagram, these are the ones sharing a border. For instahe element of water is bordered by the ice, dark, and wind elements, indig their mutual attra,” expined Curiosity, as she poio one element after another using the ominous bck rock.

  The little spirit’s gaze wandered from one pi to the , studying each element and its neighbors, until it settled on the divisioween the glowing sun and the sea of bck.

  Light and darkness? Why are these two toug borders? These two ’t possibly have a simir identity… right?

  Sensing her little student’s curiousness, the swirling teacher hummed approvingly. “Well spotted~. As, it’s an exception—! Please treat the border between the light and darkness element like it does. Unfortunately, there isn’t really a better way to dispy this information. At least, not on a ft surfad not without using dozens of arrows.”

  I see… Chara could tell that there was a story there, but she decided not to ask.

  “The sed type of iion is repulsion. Mana particles whose identity is too different—really ’t stand each other! Run away! Each element repels four other elements. On the diagram, these are the ones not sharing borders. For example, the element of earth is separated from fire, wind, light, and darkness elements, indig their mutual repulsion,” summarized the greater spirit.

  “Oh, and don’t you point at the tiny er betweeh and darkness. ers don’t t~!” Curiosity chided, not even giviudent the ce to voice her question.

  The little spirit lowered her mana tendril dejectedly.

  “The st type of iion is celtion! This occurs betwees whose identities are por opposites! Each element has exactly one opposite. Needless to say, these pairs of elements experiehe stro repulsion and hate each other the most. But in the unlikely event that they actually meet, their opposing potentials cel each other out, leading to the elimination of both!”

  Curiosity thrusted out the piece of obsidian mercilessly, as if striking against some unseen enemy.

  Swish!

  “On the diagram, these destined enemies are positioned directly opposite each other. For example, earth and wind, or fire and ice. Additionally, while the light and darkness elements are pced right o each other, these two are also opposites,” she crified, finally clearing Chara’s doubts.

  “What about essences?” Chara asked after a moment of deliberation.

  “The elemental patibility of essences is the same as its parent element,” Curiosity answered suctly.

  Oh, I guess that makes sense…

  Chara didn’t ask any questions.

  “Welp, that’s pretty much all the learning material I had pnned for today. However, don’t think you go off and py just yet~. To ensure you have a solid grasp of the cepts I’ve taught you, I am giving you an assig!” announced Curiosity.

  maury