Both Sera and Vina were taken aback by Emma’s outburst, a flicker of guilt crossing their faces.

  “Both of you,” Emma continued, voice firm. “You should know that you can’t always be by Tia’s side to protect her. What if, someday, she might have to leave Ravencrest. How will she survive without any skills?”

  “That...” Sera hesitated, wanting to say, she will not allow Tia to leave Ravenscrest.

  “Moreover, you’re both too busy with your own work. You with your research, and Vina with her training. Do you have any idea how boring it must be for Tia, all on her own in this rge castle?”

  “Argh,” Sera and Vina flinched. They did.

  “Come on, Sera,” Aric added, his tone softer but no less firm. “We all know how much you both dote on Tia, but this isn’t fair to her. Look at her. Tia, who is usually so patient, is also frustrated.”

  Emma sighed. “She has feelings, too, you know. She’s trying to help you, even if you don’t want to burden her.”

  Silence.

  “If you won’t let her share your burdens, then at least let her pursue what she wants,” Emma urged.

  “But… you know it could be dangerous,” Vina murmured, uncertain.

  “Which job isn’t?” Aric countered.

  Emma folded her arms. “Sera, why are you acting like this? Where is our intelligent Sera? You know that what you’re doing isn’t right.”

  Sera bit her thumb in frustration. “We know, but…”

  Sera thought, ‘We know, but… when it comes to Tia, my mind just goes bnk. Ever since that night when I realized that Tia is our Poris, I can’t help but be anxious. Paranoid. It feels like if I take my eyes off her, someone will take her away.

  ‘I just… I don't want her to get hurt or feel sad. I can’t even bear the thought of losing her. But at the same time, I want to hurt her. I want to make her cry. My lust for her keeps increasing. But I am also getting used to it.

  ‘Considering the ritual, their age and their mental maturity, I still don’t want to cross the line.

  ‘That’s why I stopped all those perverse games and threw myself into research to find a solution, to fix our problems, and to keep those thoughts from creeping into my mind.

  ‘Every night, I exhaust myself to the point where I fall asleep the moment my head hits the pillow… even if Tia is right beside me.

  ‘I can’t bear to lose her. But… I can’t keep her near me either. Or I will go crazy with the thoughts of ravishing her.’

  Emma exhaled sharply. “Look at Vina. Because of your bad influence, she’s acting just like you.”

  Sera turned and caught sight of Vina, her fists clenched unknowingly, feeling a mix of guilt and unrecognized emotions.

  Cornered and unable to refute their words, Sera finally let out a reluctant sigh.

  “Argh.” A low groan escaped her lips. “Fine. Tia, expin how you’re able to read the Arcane nguage. If I think your method can help me solve the issue, I’ll… consider your request.”

  “Consider?” Tia’s brows furrowed. “What do you mean ‘consider,’ Mother—”

  “That’s all,” Sera cut in, folding her arms, sulking. “I will consider it. No more, no less. Are you going to tell me or not?”

  Emma and Aric exchanged gnces before shaking their heads with wry smiles.

  Tia sighed, seeing that Sera was finally willing to listen, even if reluctantly. He also knew how desperate she had been tely.

  “Fine. I’ll expin.”

  “I had thought about this mana and the arcane nguages, and I came up with some theories and verified some. As a result, I found a way to retain more arcane knowledge, with low mana capacity.

  Tia paused before continuing, "Firstly, mother, you’ve always said that a person’s ability to retain magical knowledge depends on their mana capacity, correct?"

  Sera nodded. "Yes, that is what everyone believes."

  "Even normal people can momentarily recall arcane runes. This suggests that even they must have some level of mana within them. Maybe everything in this world may have some mana within them."

  "At your level, you should only be able to memorize the alphabets of various arcane nguages and maybe words and grammar to some extent.

  “If you want to remember other stuff, you first need to forget what you remembered and then learn the new stuff. Right?"

  Sera considered it. "That’s reasonable."

  "Then, how are you able to understand and retain general details about the magic you research?" Tia asked, his voice carrying a knowing edge.

  Sera blinked, momentarily caught off guard. "What do you mean?"

  "By your own logic, you shouldn’t be able to remember anything reted to magic. Yet, over the years, you’ve expined some general magical theories to us. And just now, you listed multiple possibilities for your research. You at least have a rough understanding of what this ritual is about. Not only that. Vina and I also remember the magic expnations you’ve taught us so far."

  Tia leaned forward slightly, his voice ced with certainty. "So, how is that possible? You forget some, while you retain some. Why is that? What is the difference?”

  Sera’s eyes widened as realization dawned. "That’s… true." She frowned, trying to piece it together. "But why?"

  Tia grinned. "Because all of that knowledge was conveyed orally. The information you retained was written in the common nguage we use every day. Not in arcane script."

  Sera, grasping Tia’s point, picked up the papers scattered across the desk. As she skimmed through them, she realized he was right.

  "According to your expnation so far, two things are required to cast magic," Tia continued.

  "First, the knowledge. The understanding of how the magic works and how to cast it. The know-how. Second, the mana necessary to activate the spell."

  He met Sera’s gaze. "If a person cks the required mana threshold, they won’t be able to comprehend the magic. Even if they do understand it conceptually, they still need mana to cast it. Correct?"

  Sera nodded slowly. "Yes."

  "Then, naturally, people tend to learn only what is within their capabilities. Who would waste time studying something they can never use, when they don’t have enough time to learn what they need to? It would be like daydreaming.

  “Pointless.

  “Maybe that’s why no one ever noticed this pattern. And even if someone did, they may not bother pursuing it beyond curiosity."

  ‘Unless, it is someone like me with a lot of time to squander due to an overprotective mother and sister.’ Tia thought, smiling deprecatingly.

  Tia took a breath before continuing. "Over the past few months, I’ve been experimenting with arcane-reted nguages. I theorized that arcane letters hold innate mana properties, making it difficult for people without mana to retain them in memory. Even if we manage to recall the symbols or sounds, the knowledge fades quickly."

  He pointed at the research papers. "But when the same information is recorded in a non-arcane nguage, it becomes easier to remember a much rger quantity of knowledge and can be retained for longer periods of time.

  “However, even then, it still contains traces of mana. Just less of it. Given enough time, even that knowledge starts to fade. But not as effective as Arcane knowledge memorized in Arcane nguages."

  Sera’s grip on the papers tightened as she processed his words.

  "I also tried reading your research notes and found that most arcane or magic-reted knowledge is always written in arcane alphabets."

  Tia gnced at her. "Mother, you once told me that this practice began as a way to help people pronounce and write arcane letters more accurately."

  Sera nodded, still deep in thought.

  "Because of that, no one finds it strange. After all, most people aren’t in the same situation as us. Desperate to use magic but unable to, while still having access to magical texts."

  Tia leaned forward, a spark of excitement in his voice. "But here’s the question: the same sounds are used to pronounce both arcane and common nguages. Then why do we forget sounds and meanings when we learn them using arcane nguage, yet remember them when written in a common nguage?

  "I don’t know exactly what makes the Arcane letters special, but each letter or word consists of three fundamental elements. Its written form, its sound, and its meaning," Tia began, looking at everyone.

  He gestured towards the paper, Sera wrote for Emma and Aric. "Take this word, for instance. It’s made up of two Arcane letters, pronounced as Tzipor , and carries the meaning, ‘bird.’"

  Tia paused, letting the idea settle. "Now, if we separate these components, we notice something interesting. The meaning of ‘bird’ and its pronunciation can be remembered independently. But the Arcane letters themselves? They fade from memory."

  He turned to Sera, "I believe the magic lies within the Arcane alphabets themselves. And the key is our intent or recognition of our mind of something as magic reted.

  “Each letter inherently carries mana. And the moment we bind that mana-infused script to both a sound and a meaning, our minds reject it. It’s as if something prevents us from retaining anything reted to the arcane letters.

  “The same thing is true for sound too. As long as we recognize an arcane sound or something as magic reted knowledge, our mind starts to reject it.

  “Maybe, only meaning can be truly separated from them.

  “I think there is a retion between the word, its sound, its meaning and the intent or recognition in our mind. Something like, each word carries a sound, each sound evokes a meaning, and each meaning is infused with intent.”

  Sera furrowed her brows, absorbing his words.

  "It's confusing and doesn’t make sense but," Tia grinned, "if we strip away the Arcane influence and focus purely on the meaning without linking it to the Arcane script, we can retain more knowledge for longer."

  He folded his arms thoughtfully. "Maybe our minds instinctively categorize Arcane text as ‘magic,’ and because magic is tied to mana, those without sufficient mana struggle to retain it. I can’t say for sure. But at the very least, there’s a workaround."

  He met Sera’s gaze. "Right now, you’re trying to read and write magic-reted concepts directly in Arcane script, just as you were taught. But if my theory is correct, this might be the reason you keep forgetting."

  "But, If you can break down the Arcane letters, their sounds, and meanings. Then sort out the information before reconnecting them, you can transte everything. Just like I did."

  Silence filled the room.

  Emma, Aric, and even Vina were speechless.

  Sera, too, felt a wave of astonishment. What Tia was saying… made sense.

  Copyright ? [May] [2025] [The Rainy Imp]. All rights reserved.

  Sera furrowed her brows, considering Tia’s words. "I understand the logic behind your theory. But how did you actually apply it in practice?"

  Tia smiled, "It was quite simple, actually. I used separate dummy alphabets with unique sounds for each Arcane nguage. Then, I memorized these alphabets and assigned rough phonetic equivalents to them, while following their respective grammatical structures."

  “Take the word ‘bird’ as an example. It is pronounced as Tzipor.

  “We’ll use ‘Z’ as the symbol for the first letter, read as ‘Zi,’ and ‘Pr’ for the second, read as ‘Por.’

  “Writing it as ‘ZPr,’ with an underline under ‘Z’ to indicate a quick pronounced sound.

  “Thus, Zpr will be used as a dummy arcane word, whose meaning is written or understood in common nguage as ‘bird’.

  “ZPr = Tzipor = Bird.

  “So whenever I see ‘ZPr’ in my notes, I understand it as ‘bird,’ and pronounce it as Tzipor.

  “But I will avoid using the actual Arcane letters. This way, we bypass this …mmm… Let’s call this phenomenon of mana capacity determining an individual’s ability to retain or forget arcane knowledge as …..Mana-linked Retention” Tia named his first mana phenomenon.

  Sera is surprised, "You created an entire dummy nguage for each arcane nguage? That sounds….tedious."

  ‘I know a few nguages from my previous world. So I am using their letters as dummy letters. At least I didn’t have to come up with new alphabets for 10 different nguages. At the very least, It made things easier for me in this aspect.’ Tia thought.

  ‘The nguage used in this world is not the same as my previous world. Yet, I was able to understand everything right from my birth. Maybe it has something to do with that gigantic eye that formed on that night.’ Tia reminisced.

  Tia nodded. "It was. But I realized that if I didn't use distinct dummy systems for each Arcane nguage, I might confuse them for each other. Also, I wanted to avoid the overp of grammar of common nguage with arcane nguages. So, even though it was a hassle, I use different pseudo-nguages for each."

  Aric let out a low whistle. "And that worked?"

  Tia nodded, "The key was to memorize the fundamental structure of each nguage. Just enough to reconstruct it when needed. That way, I didn’t have to recall everything at once, just the framework."

  "And once I had that, the rest was easy. I only had to retain my pseudo-Arcane alphabets, which were much simpler and longer-sting in memory than real Arcane text."

  Tia gave an analogy, “Consider it like this. My mind is a jewelry box, whose size is limited by my mana capacity. And the trinkets are the Arcane nguages or magic reted knowledge.

  “I am melting my trinkets into sheets of metal, separating the letters, grammar, meaning and sounds, and pcing them in my jewelry box, along with a written record of the reforging process on a piece of paper.

  “Whenever I wish to recall, I retrieve the metal and gems and reforge them, following the instructions on the paper."

  “Uncle, can you tell me the word which mom showed you before?” Tia asked Aric suddenly.

  “Huh! Yes,” After some thought Aric said, “It is ‘ZPr’, meaning ‘bird’. But I can’t seem to recall how it is written.”

  “See, that's how it is. Even without mana, they are now able to remember the meaning and pronunciation.” Tia said, proving his theory.

  "But…. there's a catch." Tia gnced at everyone's dumbstruck expressions and chuckled.

  "Even though I’m using pseudo-alphabets, they’re still tied to the original Arcane letters. My mind registers them as magic-reted, whether I want it to or not. Because of that, there’s a limit to how much I can retain and for how long.

  "I can transte what’s written, but I can’t understand it as it already exceeds the limits of my mana capacity.

  "If I want to grasp it, I first have to let the transtion and the dummy knowledge of the other nine nguages fade before filling my mind with information about the ritual.”

  "Simir to the jewelry box. I need to clear out some old trinkets to make room for new ones as the size of the box is limited by my mana capacity."

  ‘It's like deleting old data on a hard drive, before adding new ones.’ Tia mused internally.

  Tia turned to Sera, his expression thoughtful. "But if it's you, Mother, you should be able to retain far more information than I can."

  “All you need to do is follow a few simple steps.”

  Tia id out his pn. “First, we transte the Arcane text into common nguage. Or better yet, we design a pseudo-nguage as a pceholder.

  “Think of it as breaking the text down into its core components. We separate the meanings and sounds. Retain them both, but don’t link them directly to the Arcane script just yet. That way, we can study its structure without much interference from Mana-Linked Retention.

  “After we’ve grasped its essence, we reconnect the meanings and sounds during spell casting at the final phase.”

  Sera nodded. “So, for step one we transte the ritual and its reted information into a dummy nguage or common nguage. For step two we write our interpretations in common nguage and complete the research. For step three we divide and sort the information into various sections according to our convenience.”

  “Exactly,” Tia confirmed. “This way, we focus on theory and comprehension without getting sidetracked or lost in the loop of Mana-linked Retention.”

  Vina tapped her fingers against the table. “And the mana circles?”

  “For drawing them, we use the original Arcane alphabets. No changes there. Then, we test everything.”

  “What about spells or incantations?” Sera asked.

  Tia’s expression grew serious. “We read it using the original Arcane script. There’s definitely a link between word, sound, meaning and intent. If we change even a sylble, the effect could be completely different.”

  Sera nodded in contemption, processing the information.

  “What you say makes sense. We don’t need to understand every intricate detail of the Arcane nguage or the ritual. Just the general idea of what the spell does and how it works.”

  Sera exhaled deeply, impressed. "Then, can you give me the dummy script you created?"

  “Okay,” Tia nodded.

  Sera lifted him onto the desk, handing him paper and quill. Without hesitation, Tia began writing, filling page after page with pseudo-scripts for ten different Arcane nguages. He meticulously noted their symbols, phonetic approximations, grammatical rules, and his personal insights.

  As the papers piled up, the room fell into stunned silence.

  Vina finally voiced what everyone was thinking. "Tia… how did you remember so much? Even if I tried, I doubt I could remember this much information. Not to mention, you would inevitably forget things as time passes."

  Emma and Aric exchanged gnces, equally astounded.

  Tia chuckled. "There are two reasons, I believe."

  He raised one finger. "First, my memory has likely improved due to all the Arcane nguage practice we've done."

  Then he raised a second. "Second, I use a special memory technique to store information in my mind."

  Vina leaned forward. "A memory technique?"

  Sera, Emma, and Aric immediately perked up, fascinated.

  Tia’s eyes gleamed with mischief. "Call it… a Memory Pace."

  Copyright ? [May] [2025] [The Rainy Imp]. All rights reserved.

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright w. For permission requests, contact the publisher at [[email protected]].