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Nekotrans

The Cornflower Witch

Chapter 25: Understanding Knowledge

In the classroom, Scholar Hyde once again explained the origins of the current world to everyone.

"After going through vast generational changes and the passage of time, the era we currently live in is the Ninth Epoch, namely the Covenant Epoch."

"What is the covenant?"

"In order to counterbalance the expansion of the Corona Dragon and end the excessively devastating 'Calamity War', the Fairy Monarch and a group of Hours made an agreement to divide the boundary between mortals and higher beings. From then on, the celestial gardens and the earth were separated, with no casual travel allowed between them. Only certain passages and rituals could connect them, while also limiting the intensity of warfare, thus isolating those mythical creatures beyond mortal imagination within the celestial gardens, no longer able to freely interfere with the secular earth."

"In this epoch, various factions recovered from the ruins of the Calamity War, reestablished nations, and achieved balance. This has lasted for over two thousand years, and it is currently Covenant Epoch year 2145."

The Ninth Epoch, Sylutia noted in her notebook, marveling at the long generations of this world.

'The Proud Sun' and 'Phantasmal Moon' were born in the Third Epoch. They ended the Second Epoch where sky and sea were united, namely the Vault Sea Epoch. Thus, that era of simultaneous sun and moon radiance was called the 'Sun-Moon Epoch' (Third Epoch).

When the 'Proud Sun' and 'Phantasmal Moon' split apart, the Third Epoch also reached its end, entering the Fourth Epoch.

......

Sylutia recognized her - her name was Valeny, daughter of Knight Levin, though the two had barely spoken.

"You're called Tia, right?" Valeny approached, twirling the hair by her ear with one hand, her brow slightly furrowed.

"Yes." This feels like it might be troublesome, the young girl thought to herself.

"I see you take very good notes every day. I want to look at them." She directly extended her hand.

"This..."

Several thoughts ran through Sylutia's mind. Lending notes was a small matter, but she suspected the other girl wouldn't return them once borrowed, especially since this person had left a poor impression on her.

In noble eyes, commoners were insignificant existences. If they asked you for something, it meant they thought highly of you, and you should be happy about it.

"I understand." Sylutia thought for a moment, then took the notebook from her bag and handed it over.

Her memory in this life was excellent, so she didn't really need the notes, but habits from her previous life made her take notes anyway. Plus, it seemed more normal since all the students kept notes.

After receiving it, Valeny casually flipped through it. The young girl's elegant and neat handwriting, clearly structured paragraph arrangements, and finely drawn diagrams gave this notebook a rare aesthetic beauty.

"Hmph, not bad." Valeny nodded slightly.

"I'll remember you. After graduation, you can come to Wheatfield Town to work as a clerk." Wheatfield Town was Knight Levin's fiefdom.

In Valeny's eyes, this was an enormous favor. After all, ordinary commoners didn't get such good opportunities, especially female ones.

"Thank you."

At the young girl's calm response, Valeny glanced at her a few more times before leaving with the notebook.

After getting through the first week, the content taught by Scholar Hyde gradually deepened. What he explained now was something even educated noble students didn't understand, and at this point differences began to show among the students.

Some might understand during class but forget immediately afterward. Some didn't understand from the beginning but, to save face, didn't dare ask during class and could only seek others' help after class.

"What does it mean that 'Luminous Moon' is not 'Phantasmal Moon', yet 'Phantasmal Moon' will definitely be reborn within 'Luminous Moon'?" Komea held her head in distress.

"Karen, why don't you seem troubled at all? Did you actually understand it?" She turned her head.

"No, I didn't understand from the very beginning." Karen sat at the dining table, eating the black bread provided to students.

"Then why aren't you panicking?" Komea continued asking.

"Because I was never going to learn those complicated things anyway." Karen continued.

"The teacher said if I just master the three most important subjects well, I can become a good hunter." She explained.

"But to get high scores, that's definitely not enough." Komea bit her lip.

"Haven't you thought about getting high scores and going to the Hidden Grove?"

"That's too distant for me." Karen already felt fortunate to be studying under Scholar Hyde. Coming from a remote village, she didn't have particularly high aspirations.

"Sigh, I can't get through to you." Komea slumped boredly on the table, using one hand to pinch bread and feed it into her mouth, her whole body resembling a softened slug.

Just then, she spotted a familiar figure entering the dining hall and sat up straight again.

"Tia, over here~" Komea waved.

Sylutia, carrying bread and water obtained from the kitchen servants, walked over and sat opposite Komea.

This dining area was largely built from stone bricks with dim lighting. A very long table stood in the middle, located right beside the kitchen, used for simple meals. For formal guests, they would use the larger dining hall elsewhere in the mansion.

"Tia, how was your studying today?" Komea asked somewhat impatiently.

"Pretty good." The young girl replied as calmly as ever, then took small bites of her bread.

"'Pretty good' means you understood it?"

"Understood it, yes." Sylutia blinked, puzzled why Komea was asking this.

"Eh? You really understood? Then let me test you." Komea seemed somewhat doubtful. She considered herself quite smart - her family always said so.

Afterward, Komea repeated her question about 'Luminous Moon' and 'Phantasmal Moon'.

"This." Sylutia put down the bread slice in her hand.

"It's actually quite easy to understand if you look back at how the teacher described the three lunar Aspects, then you can roughly grasp it."

[Luminous Moon] (Gentle radiance and spirit, mental activity and beautiful fantasies)

[Mist Shadow] (Absence of radiance, blurred forms and lightless shadows)

[Nightmare] (Destruction of spirit, also collapse of reason and despair)

"Mist Shadow represents the absence of radiance, while Nightmare represents spiritual despair. These two are like companions to Luminous Moon - one is Luminous Moon's shadow, the other is Luminous Moon's mirror image."

"That means their concepts require Luminous Moon as reference. Without Luminous Moon, both would lose their conceptual foundation."

"It's similar to how shadows require light to be visible, or how water reflections require the original object to exist."

"This implies that if someone wants to recreate the [Phantasmal Moon] Aspect, they need to use Luminous Moon as the core, coalesce the other two, achieving some kind of peculiar balance."

"Hence, we have the teacher's statement: 'Luminous Moon' is not 'Phantasmal Moon', yet 'Phantasmal Moon' will definitely be reborn within 'Luminous Moon'." Finishing the last piece of bread in her hand, Sylutia just finished her explanation.

"I feel kind of stupid now, wuu." Komea roughly understood now, but also realized she might not actually be that smart.