"Hmm," Lily replied without even turning her head.

"You don't ask why I envy her?"

"You'll soon fill me in anyway," Lily said, twitching her mouth.

"d.a.m.n it!" Mystery Moon mumbled, but could not help saying in the end, "Didn't you see how the soldiers at the hospital and the townsmen nearby treat her?"

"Saw it."

" 'h.e.l.lo, Miss Nana,' 'Are you leaving, Miss Angel?' 'Miss Pine, this is the wheat cake I made,' ... I want to be treated like that, too!" Mystery Moon pressed her face onto Lily's cheek, but was pushed away relentlessly.

"That's a return for her ability," Lily said without turning a hair. "Didn't you notice that ever since the Months of the Demons, she's been staying at the hospital almost every day, waiting to treat the wounded? Half of the locals have received her treatment, and the rest are pretty much their families."

"You're exaggerating."

"Not really," Lily said with a sigh and put down the book in her hand. "Although not everyone will fight against demonic beasts at the city wall, it's perfectly normal for townees to get injured—miners can hurt their toes by ores; kiln labors can get burned. The same applies to the apprentices at the steam engine plants and the chemistry laboratory." She paused for a moment and said, "His Highness once told me that Nana and I are the foundation of medical care in Border Town; one of us for internal medication and the other surgery. This allows the operation to remain at an intense level, while still make sure everyone is healthy without establis.h.i.+ng a safety policy. However, in fact, I haven't done anything except epidemic prevention for new refugees."

"So you're feeling sour like me!" Mystery Moon said, leaning over unyieldingly.

"No, I'm not!" Lily fired. "And stay away from me. You're interfering with my reading."

"Aw... " Mystery Moon chickened and said, "but I'm really envious of her."

"Then learn from Nana. Take the initiative to help every townee until they know you and get familiar with you. Then surely everybody will say h.e.l.lo to you wherever you go," said Lily, shrugging her shoulders.

"But I don't have an ability like Nana's," Mystery Moon said, frustrated.

"Then use your physical strength if not your ability," said Lily, mocking. "Regardless, you've been there at the camps of the Witch Cooperation a.s.sociation."

"You... rascal!"

Mystery Moon still nursed a grudge when she went to bed. She knew that Lily was right, but being inferior to the other witches chafed her pride. This was intolerable. She had gone through so much pain before finally finding an ideal place to settle down and idling about all day was torture.

Mystery Moon slept fitfully all night. She knocked on Roland's office door with dark circles below her eyes the following day.

"What's the matter?" the prince asked in surprise. "Were you bullied?"

"By Lily... No, nevermind." She leaned dramatically on Roland's desk and asked, "Your Highness, didn't you say that I have great potential? Why's there no change in my ability yet? It really can't evolve unless I understand Natural Science Theoretical Foundation?"

"I see," Roland said, trying in vain to suppress his laughter. "Actually, I've been thinking about this problem, too."

"What problem?"

"Didn't Agatha say that over 400 years ago, the witches at the Union experienced High Awakening even without a comprehensive understanding of the world? Apart from basic practices, the rest will be a sudden enlightenment—this could be achieved by the observation of natural phenomena, or by an accidental flash of inspiration." Roland continued, "However, the latter is apparently not comparable to the awakening inspired by systematic learning. Look at Agatha's magic power. She's not only the weakest one among the evolved witches, but she can't even compete with some of the ordinary witches such as Sylvie and Andrea."

"Doesn't matter, as long as it evolves!" Mystery Moon's eyes were sparkling. "You've got an idea?"

"It may not work," the prince said, throwing up his hands, "but it's worth a try. What do you know about magnetic forces?"

"Um... A force produced by the directional movement of electrons, which a magnetic field acts on the magnetic bodies and electric currents in it."

"That was copied from the book," he smiled and said. "You memorized it well, but you probably don't understand it at all."

Mystery Moon hesitated for a moment and nodded.

"You've seen lines of magnetic forces simulated by iron powder. You also know the direction of magnetic forces, and have seen the DC generator, too. So I think... you may not enable closed circuits to quickly cut lines of magnetic forces, yet you can change the magnetic field you form, thereby personally experiencing the transformation from magnetism to electricity. "

"I don't quite follow you."

"The nature of the transformation from magnetism to electricity is the change in magnetic flux. If you wanna change the magnetic flux in a constant magnetic field, the only way is to change the area, that is, to cut magnetic induction lines." The prince drew a diagram on the paper and said, "What if the area remains constant? That'll be changing the magnetic field, which means changing the magnetic flux."

Mystery Moon groped unsuccessfully for adequate words, failing because she didn't understand a word.

The prince laughed and said, "It's OK that you don't get it. You only need to do this—quickly release and withdraw your magnetic forces rather than continuously use your power."

"And then?" Mystery Moon waited for Roland to continue.

"Nothing more." He shook his head. "This is the only step."

"Huh? Just release and withdraw magnetic forces?"

"Correct. If you can also change the direction of lines of magnetic forces, that would be perfect. For example, switch from the left hand to the right hand." The prince smiled and said, "While you practice, I'll prepare a 'little toy' for you. You'll know why when you get the hang of this method."

...

Two days later, Mystery Moon received what His Highness called a "little toy". It was a square frame made of copper wires, the top of which was connected to a gla.s.s ball no bigger than half of a fist. Taking a closer look, she could see the copper wires were cut open in the ball, and were connected by a much finer metal wire.

An accompanying instruction manual read, "Hold the two ends of the square frame with both hands and practice. Note: be sure to draw the curtains and hide the Stone of Light."

What the heck is that?

She scratched her head and then did what the instruction manual instructed— "It's practice no matter how I do it. Just ignore it, and it'll be fine."

Mystery Moon learned that it was not hard to quickly release and withdraw her power, but changing the direction of magnetic forces delivered a blinding headache. Magnetic force was an essential power to her and at first, this endeavor was akin to breathing with only one nostril at a time. Although Mystery Moon had restrained herself from playing poker games and been dutifully practicing her new skill for the last two days, the result lasted merely half a minute.

She took a deep breath and summoned the magic power in her body.

At first she felt nothing, but soon she saw a flash of red light.

The metal wire in the gla.s.s ball turned orangy red, and the light became increasingly bright and intense. In a few seconds, the light was glaring. Mystery Moon almost could not believe her eyes. The inkily dark room was lit by soft light much purer than the candle light, which she had never seen.

She was still in a daze when the red light faded away accompanied by a feeble popping sound before the darkness enveloped the room again.