Melody of Mana

I raced back to my dorm, heart pounding in my chest. "Hello World" Hello fucking world? It was a joke, how was I even supposed to respond to that? I had so many questions, they were rushing through my mind, and nobody to ask them to.

I stopped dead in the hallway. There was nobody I could go to about this, nobody to even ask. If my family were here it'd be worse, but even without... I just couldn't bring this up, it would make too many questions. I'd never told anyone that I was reincarnated, that I'd lived another life, how could I? Lucien would probably have some advice, but I don't know how he'd respond to me having the mind of an adult. Rooke? Yeah that was a joke. I'd never let anyone within the nobility know about this, that'd be insane. Kala? Dras? Both bad options, who knows what they'd do.

I leaned against the wall briefly trying to straighten out my thoughts. The cool stone felt good to press against.

"Are you quite alright my dear?" The voice stirred me, making me turn quickly to see Dean Lorrae looking me over.

"I'm... fine sir, just heading back to my dorm."

"You young people always seem to think you're much better at lying than you are. I don't suppose you'll actually tell me what's wrong?"

"Um..." I tried not to look at him as I worked on coming up with an explanation.

He sighed. "I must at least know if there is a danger to you or any of my students. Or if you're being harassed in some way."

"No sir, I don't think there's any danger, and nobody has done anything inappropriate."

"Oh? Not even Professor Hern? I hear he's been pressuring you quite a bit to let him in on some technique involving building your core. Actually I witnessed him being dressed down for it by Rooke in the staff room, but don't tell him that."

"Wouldn't he already know if you were there?"

"You're not the only one who knows how to make yourself invisible Alana." Dean Lorrae gave me an impish smile as he let me in on that secret.

I chuckled, "Well, he does want me to tell him how I've been building on it so fast."

"Understandably so, but you seem to have some reason for not telling him. I would like to speak with you on that, if you don't mind too much." He turned and motioned me to join him. It was clear that his intent to speak with me was less a request and more an order.

I felt like I was going to my own execution as I marched along the halls beside him. There was no way I could tell him the truth, and I thought he would eventually demand my method for speeding up the core building process. Of course I could now answer that well enough.

Even if they learned a bit about the core, there was no way they'd be able to abuse it. The final little bit would see to it that any attempt at hacking the core itself failed. To undo that they'd need to remake the whole thing from the ground up, and frankly I didn't think anyone in this world had the ability to do so. If someone out there did, they certainly wouldn't need my help to do it. It was in my opinion therefore safe to explain that it was made of logic circuits, at least on an individual level. It might still lead to massive upheaval though, and I wasn't sure I wanted to be responsible for that.

Eventually we made it to the Dean's office and he opened the door. His office was massive, easily the size of a house back in my village. It had bookcases, all sealed with some magic or other that was easily visible along two of the walls. The back wall was home to a number of tools that I now recognized as being used to make magical items, along with a filing cabinet of the kind used for material storage. There was a massive desk, covered in drawers with two chairs before it, as well as two couches off to one side.

Dean Lorrae lead me over to the couches, taking a seat on one and indicating that I should take the other. He stretched back a bit, letting the cushions form around him until he seemed at ease.

"Now, what are your concerns about sharing your method?"

"At first I was worried that someone might use them to attack the core itself. Now I'm worried about what releasing that knowledge could do to the rest of the world."

"Is it dangerous in and of itself?"

"Not as such, but speeding up the making of the cores and giving insight could have massive implications. I'm not sure I want to be responsible for what might come of it."

"Most people your age wouldn't even consider that. It's valid, allowing the training to be shortened could have large scale implications, depending on how easy your method is. It could also upset the balance between countries. It's rather difficult to say on the long term effects of introducing new knowledge."

"Are you encouraging me not to?"

"Not at all. I'm actually of the opinion that you should tell us. My point is that there is research going on all the time that could have huge implications if successful, but we still do it. We still work and strive to share knowledge with the world, even if that knowledge could fall into the wrong hands."

I frowned. "Not all knowledge should be known by all people."

"True, very true Alana."

"What would you do if you learned some secret that could upset the world?"

"I have done so on multiple occasions, to varying levels. There are texts, very old and rare ones, which detail techniques of magic that are lost to most casters of this age. Some which contain the knowledge for spells of great power. These are passed down from Dean to Dean of our school, and used to protect it, or tell others when the time is right."

"Will you tell me what you know about the core? The things that others might be a bit surprised by?"

"Hmm? That's an interesting one, but I'll share some insights." Dean Lorrae stroked his chin. "First, there are a number of commands that make no sense in any language. While Atali has some of the words used in the rune sequences in its language most scholars suspect this is because the adapted those from the runic language. Basically, it came first, and added a lot of words to Atali. There are also commands that lead to menus in another language. I, and several others, suspect that this is important, but we've no way to translate them. There's no point of reference for what they say."

"They bring up pages in another language? What are they?"

Lorrae waved and two words in Atali script appeared in the air. As far as I knew they had no meaning in Atali, but if you sounded them out phonetically they were roughly 'guide' and 'help'. Then it popped into place, a lot of the commands that were runic sequences were Atali script that spelled out English words phonetically, which made good sense. There were parts that were still nonsense to me, but they probably meant something to someone who knew about coding.

"You're staring at those as if they're something more. I will say that while that knowledge isn't common, at all, it isn't secret either. Anyone who studies the core could have told you, most just think it's irrelevant and would distract you from your learning. So do try not to lose yourself in figuring them out."

"I'll keep that in mind sir."

"Also, the message that appears when the core is first finished. There are a number of theories, but I think one speaks above them all."

"What is that sir?"

"How much do you know of Ristolian?"

"I cannot say that I have ever heard of him."

"Then we'll need to reevaluate our History course. He was a magus of his age, and quite amazingly powerful. A wizard through and through who performed feats I would personally have loved to witness. When he first finished his core he did so with a number of his fellow students around him. It is reported that he fell on the floor and began laughing. When asked why, he simply responded that it was a joke. I think he had some insight that we do not, perhaps he cracked the language of the core and understood it for what it was."

Well, that's three. If he actually got it then there was a nearly one hundred percent chance that this Ristolian was another reincarnated person. Being a wizard probably let him use what knowledge of the modern world he had to beat up physics like it owed him money.

"What happened to Ristolian?"

"Nobody knows. Around the time he turned forty he just disappeared. While he was reported to be amazingly powerful he was also a bit of a nut. Perhaps he ran off to become a farmer or something. Based on the stories about him I really wouldn't be surprised."

I had lots of questions about the who and why of people being brought to this world. I also had no way of finding the answers, but it was nice to know that I wasn't the first. At some point I'd have to go and learn about the others. Probably a good place to start by looking for stupid powerful spellcasters who came up with potent magics.

I sat in contemplation for a good long while after that. Dean Lorrae seemed to be amicable to that and waited for me to think about things. It was truly annoying how some people could do that, just wait while you thought about crap. Like they knew disturbing you would only cause them more problems.

"I still think that I will hold off on sharing my technique for now."

"Are you still considering it dangerous then?"

"Less so than before, but there's something else."

"What's that then?"

"I think that there's no reason for me to share it, it doesn't benefit me. I keep meeting all these nobles who only do things that help them and theirs, but this doesn't aid me, only those around me."

That actually got him laughing. "Now, that is a good answer Alana. You should only share things if they're harmless or useful to you. We'll make a proper noblewoman of you yet." With that he waved me off, and I finally got to head back to my room.

I stared up at the ceiling as I drifted off. There was much to consider and I had the feeling that the list would only be growing from now on.

I awoke the next morning to a cheery and smiling Emma.

"Good morning Miss Alana. You've received several letters."

I resisted the urge to beat my head on the wall. I'd totally forgotten about the bloody dance, and the incoming invitations I'd been hiding from while working on my core. I had to read all of these dumb things and come up with answers. Then word them properly and go with Dras in all likelihood.

I took the stack and looked at the names, Dietrich, who I hadn't really spoken to at all in the academy, two boys from upper years that I didn't even know, and Troy, the boy from my Combat Casting class, he was a bit of a surprise. I blinked and looked again. I flitted through them a third time before looking at Emma.

"Is this all of them?"

"Of course."

I frowned, there was no letter from Dras. Had I done something? Had he forgotten to send it? Maybe he didn't want to go to the dance at all, that was understandable. I'd have to find some way to find out.