171: Court monks

"I'm here to learn magic."

When these words, amplified by Ilya von Klein's bionic throat module, echoed in the ears of everyone on the city wall, the entire world seemed to fall silent.

The Rocassia City Guard soldiers, poised for battle on the city wall, froze with their spears in hand; the mages in the towers, ready to activate the magic cannons, forgot their incantations; even the commoners below the city wall stopped panicking and exchanged bewildered glances.

They had imagined countless possibilities: this evil dragon had come to demand treasure, to request the sacrifice of a princess, or simply to destroy the city. But no one had ever thought that the silver-haired girl, appearing like a deity descended from the heavens, riding on the back of a terrifying beast capable of destroying a nation, was merely here to... learn magic?

"Learn magic?"

General Carlisle, the City Guard Commander, felt his brain short-circuiting. He looked up at the tiny figure, then at the Red Dragon, which was as docile as a quail.

In this world, which of the strong individuals capable of taming a giant dragon wasn't a legend standing at the pinnacle of magic?

"Someone who can use Klaus Difan the Red Dragon as a mount actually says she wants to learn magic?" General Carlisle mumbled to himself, cold sweat trickling down his forehead from beneath his helmet. "Is she some species even more terrifying than a giant dragon?"

Whatever she was, they couldn't afford to offend her.

"Quick! Go report to His Majesty!" General Carlisle whispered to the messenger beside him. "Tell His Majesty that the other party is not hostile for now, but her request is very unusual."

...Inside the royal palace, Taros IV paced anxiously before the throne.

When the messenger brought the news that the "Dragon Knight has come to seek knowledge," the king's first reaction was to doubt his own ears, followed by a wave of relief.

As long as she wasn't here to wreak havoc, anything was negotiable.

"Learning magic? Good! Very good!" Taros IV was overjoyed. "This is a good thing! If we can make such a powerful individual owe the Rocasia Kingdom a favor, what do those rebels to the south even matter?"

"Issue my command!" The king immediately regained his authority. "Whatever this esteemed adult requests, as long as it doesn't endanger the kingdom's safety, fulfill it all! Open the Royal Library, and grant access to all restricted sections! Also, have Sylvia immediately go outside the city to greet her! She is the Chief Court Mage, and this matter falls under her purview!"

...Outside the city, the tense atmosphere, like two armies facing off, still hadn't dissipated.

Just as Ilya von Klein was growing a little impatient and preparing to have Klaus Difan fly over the city wall to enter the city, the city gate slowly opened a crack.

A woman dressed in a deep blue star-patterned magic robe, holding a crystal staff, emerged, escorted by several knights.

She appeared to be in her thirties, with an elegant and composed demeanor, yet the knuckles of her hands, gripping the staff so tightly they were turning white, betrayed her inner nervousness.

She was Sylvia, the Chief Court Mage of the Rocasia Kingdom, and one of the few Six-Ring spellcasters in the kingdom.

Sylvia took a deep breath, cast [Eagle Eye] and [Aura of Courage] on herself, then walked alone towards the massive dragon.

As she drew closer, the scent of sulfur and destruction emanating from the dragon made it difficult for her to breathe—it was the life-level suppression from a top predator.

"Respected powerful one." Sylvia stopped fifty meters from the dragon's head, respectfully performed a mage's salute, her voice clearly transmitted with the aid of an amplification spell.

"I am Sylvia, Chief Court Mage of the Rocasia Kingdom, and I extend the highest respect to you on behalf of His Majesty Taros."

Ilya von Klein looked down at this human female.

"Active bio-electrical signals within the body, brainwave frequency different from ordinary people, surrounded by a faint energy field." After scanning with miniature sensors, the analytical data in Ilya von Klein's eyes flickered rapidly. "It seems this is what they call a mage."

"Are you the most powerful one here?" Ilya von Klein asked directly.

"Excluding the reclusive seniors, I do have a slight reputation in the secular kingdoms," Sylvia humbly replied, but her gaze uncontrollably drifted past Ilya von Klein to the Red Dragon at her feet.

That was Klaus Difan.

The King had once told her that five years ago, her mentor, the respected Archmage Anthony, was pursued by traitors, accidentally entered Kalamo Canyon, and ultimately perished there. Although there was no definitive evidence, this Red Dragon was definitely involved.

Hatred, fear, vigilance... various emotions intertwined in Sylvia's eyes.

Ilya von Klein keenly noticed this. She glanced down at her 'mount' and saw the stupid dragon drooling at Sylvia, clearly mistaking the magical equipment on her for priceless treasures.

"It seems you two have some history?" Ilya von Klein raised an eyebrow.

"Big lizard!"

She suddenly stomped her foot, her foot, harder than alloy, landing heavily on the dragon's head.

"Ow!" Klaus Difan cried out in pain. "My Lady, what is it now?"

"What kind of look is that? Do you want to eat people?" Ilya von Klein said coldly. "Stop your disgusting drooling."

"Also, I need to go into the city to study. You're too big and in the way, and everyone in this city seems to be afraid of you."

Ilya von Klein pointed to the distant river.

"Go wait over there. I have a few demands: no destroying anything, no eating people, not even scaring people. And wash yourself clean; you reek, and it's giving me a headache."

"If you dare to violate any of these before I finish talking with this Mage Miss..."

Ilya von Klein narrowed her eyes and made a cutting gesture.

"I'll dismantle you into parts. My biological specimen collection just happens to be missing a complete dragon skeleton."

Klaus Difan trembled all over. It had no doubt that this goddess would make good on her word. It immediately shook its head like a rattle-drum.

"No! Absolutely not! I'll just lie by the river! Like a rock! I won't move for anyone!"

With that, it retreated backwards towards the distant river as if granted a great pardon, its cautious demeanor showing not a trace of a giant dragon's majesty.

Watching the giant dragon depart, the last great weight in Sylvia's heart finally lifted, and her reverence for this mysterious girl increased even further.

To tame a chaotic evil Red Dragon into a house pet—this was definitely not something an ordinary human could do.

"Alright, the annoying fellow is gone."

Ilya von Klein clapped her hands and looked at Sylvia.

"Lead the way. Let me see what your magic is like."

"Yes, My Lady, please follow me, the carriage is already..." Sylvia was about to turn to signal for the distant carriage to approach.

But the next second, she saw Ilya von Klein perform an action that made her head spin.

The girl didn't chant any spells, didn't use any flying implements, and didn't even mobilize a single trace of magical elements.

She simply took a step forward.

As if stepping onto an invisible stair.

Buzz—

There was only an extremely faint vibration of air.

Ilya von Klein's body defied the law of universal gravitation, rising straight into the sky, then, like a feather blown by the wind yet moving with the speed of a cannonball, she instantly traversed dozens of meters and gracefully landed in front of Sylvia.

During this process, Sylvia did not feel any flow of wind elements, nor did she sense any magical fluctuations from a spell formation.

This completely defied the principles of magic!

"You... Your..." Sylvia's eyes widened. She pointed at Ilya von Klein, incoherent. "Didn't you say... you don't know magic?"

In this world, flight was the privilege of high-level mages, requiring a continuous and massive expenditure of mana to sustain the wind element's lift.

"Magic?"

Ilya von Klein looked down at her toes, hovering ten centimeters above the ground, where miniature anti-gravity generator arrays were operating.

"This isn't magic; this is physics."

She looked at the bewildered Sylvia, suddenly intrigued, her passion for popular science burning brightly.

"Listen carefully: universal gravitation is a geometric effect caused by massive objects distorting spacetime. The device within my body, by exciting gravitons—which are bosons with spin 2 and zero rest mass—creates a spacetime bubble of negative curvature in a localized region."

Ilya von Klein gestured enthusiastically as she spoke.

"In simple terms, I'm shielding myself from Earth's... oh no, Mana Star's gravitational pull, and using magnetic repulsion for vector propulsion."

"According to the field equations of general relativity, as long as the energy density is high enough..."

Sylvia: "???"

She heard every word, but strung together, they sounded like some ancient divine language she had never encountered.

graviton? Spacetime curvature? Relativity?

This Archmage, who held the kingdom's highest intellectual title, now felt like an illiterate who had never attended school.

Her head was filled with question marks, and she even began to wonder if the other party was attacking her mental world with some profound illusion.

"Stop! Stop!"

Sylvia finally broke down, clutching her forehead in distress.

"My Lady... although I don't understand what you're saying, it sounds... very profound. Let's go to the Mage Tower first; it's quieter there and suitable for discussion."

She gave up trying to understand, thinking to herself that perhaps this was the world of the powerful, where even the method of flight was so unique.

"Hmph, boring." Ilya von Klein pouted, abandoning her urge to explain science. "Lead the way."

...In the center of Angus City, a pristine White Tower stood tall.

This was the Rocasia Kingdom's sacred place of magic—the White Tower.

Led by Sylvia, Ilya von Klein entered this building, which was shrouded in mystery for ordinary people.

The moment she stepped inside, Ilya von Klein's eyes lit up.

It was spacious, bright, and filled with an academic atmosphere.

The interior of the Mage Tower was a massive hollow structure, with spiraling staircases and corridors winding upwards along the inner wall.

And on the walls of these corridors, countless bookshelves were densely arranged.

From the ground floor all the way to the top of the tower, tens of thousands, perhaps even hundreds of thousands, of books, scrolls, and parchments were neatly stacked, and the air was filled with the old scent of mildewed paper and ink.

"This was originally the residence of my mentor, Master Anthony."

Sylvia looked at the books, a hint of nostalgia and sadness in her eyes.

"After my mentor disappeared five years ago, I took over here. His greatest hobby during his lifetime was collecting various magic tomes and ancient documents; he said that knowledge is the source of a mage's power."

"This place gathers all the knowledge about magic, history, geography, and biology from the Rocasia Kingdom and several surrounding countries over thousands of years."

"This is less a Mage Tower and more a grand library."

"Good! Excellent!"

Ilya von Klein rubbed her hands excitedly, her eyes gleaming.

For her, this was simply paradise.

These weren't just books; these were data! These were samples! These were the source code for analyzing the underlying logic of this planet's civilization!

"Can I look?" Ilya von Klein asked. "All of them?"

"Of course, His Majesty has already ordered that everything here is open to you," Sylvia nodded. "As long as you don't burn them or take them away, you are free to read here."

"Don't worry, I only read information."

Ilya von Klein flew up, pouncing on the nearest bookshelf like a diligent bee.

Her eyes entered extreme-speed scanning mode, and her fingers rapidly flipped through the pages.

Whoosh, whoosh—

A thick book of several hundred pages, "Basic Elemental Theory," she finished in less than ten seconds. The content of each page was instantly scanned, recognized, translated, and stored in the database on the Wanderer.

"Mana Circuit Construction," "Detailed Explanation of Ancient Runes," "Preliminary Exploration of Dragon Language Magic"... one after another, Ilya von Klein greedily devoured the knowledge of this world.

Sylvia watched from below, dumbfounded.

"Is this reading?"

She had never seen anyone read like this; the speed of her page-turning could even extinguish candles. Was this also a special ability of that adult?

About an hour later, Ilya von Klein finally calmed down from her initial excitement. She had scanned thousands of books on the lower floors and gained an extremely rough but foundational understanding of this world's magic system.

"A very interesting system."

Ilya von Klein floated down from the air and sat on a round stool in the center of the Mage Tower.

"Using spiritual power to resonate with free energy particles, constructing models through specific geometric patterns (magic circles) and sound wave frequencies (incantations)... this is practically an in-vivo programming language."

She looked at Sylvia, who had been waiting by her side.

"Sit, Mage Miss."

Ilya von Klein patted the stool beside her.

"Since I've toured your territory, it's now our turn to have a good chat."

Sylvia sat down as instructed. She adjusted her magic robe, her expression growing serious.

She knew the main topic was coming.

"My Lady, you've read so many books and displayed such incredible power." Sylvia took a deep breath and asked the question she, and indeed the entire kingdom, most wanted to know.

"Who exactly are you?"

"Where do you come from?"

"Why do you want to learn magic? With your power, magic doesn't seem that important to you."

Ilya von Klein looked at this curious native mage, a mysterious smile playing on her lips.

"Me?"

Ilya von Klein pointed upwards, to a small patch of blue sky framed by the tower's skylight.

"I come from the heavens."

"Higher than dragons fly, further than the clouds."

"As for my purpose..."

"I am a scientist, a scholar, someone dedicated to researching the truth of the universe."