The Girl Who Hacked The Magic System-Chapter 133 - Expanding

"So you see, there wasn’t that much to say to begin with. That’s why I mostly forgot to talk about it before."

"It was little, but it was important, Aurea. Especially the part about the heroes. It gives us a frame of reference for when we should escalate things."

"You’re right... but it doesn’t change our plans."

"No, but it means we won’t have much time to train our recruits. We’ll have to make the most of the time we have."

"Maybe I should drop the Academy, after all."

"Your mothers will have your head on a silver tray if you say that again."

"Ugh."

In any case, I’ll prepare something to try to convince Levinna and Lillian to let me, if not just drop out, at least graduate early.

I’m pretty sure I could write a thesis good enough without having to resort to systemless magic and other outlandish knowledge, but playing within the general academic rules.

"Also, there’s that club you’re going to start with your friends."

"Ohhh, that’s right. But I could just invite them to the army anyway. I’m quite sure they would join without batting an eye."

"Then why don’t you invite them? We need all the manpower we can gather."

"Huh? That’s not a bad idea, actually. I should’ve thought about it before. Do you want to accompany me?"

"Okay, then. I shall meet them and make sure they are safe."

:::

The network of portals between the key cities has been slowly taking shape over the last weeks, with the main obstacle being to secure both an appropriate safe space in that city, at least a mana barrier, and an object with a strong connection to that place that is not perishable.

The anchor is always the hardest part. That’s because the strongest catalyzer of those connections is emotion, and emotion is a property of living beings.

I’m leaning into the hypothesis that the whole ’connection’ thing is a byproduct of conscious minds attributing value to the environment.

And that consciousness is not a zero-one value, but a gradient. A flower, like the one I used to come back home from the Barrens, has consciousness. Even though its world is basically limited to chasing the sun, it is a consciousness.

But flowers are ephemeral, and most other living beings are unreliable. That’s why the next big thing is man-made objects.

Mankind (not ’humankind,’ but ’mankind’ as a concept that encompasses all races) has the habit of adding emotional value to everything that we make, and often that value is tied to a location.

The challenge is to find something that has a tie to that one specific location where we want to set the portal to. The central office is easy, as there were plenty of objects to use, especially weapons scattered around.

A random room at the back of an inconspicuous building where nobody actually lives is a lot harder. That’s the main obstacle for setting up that network.

And yet, here we are. It took longer than expected, because Lovelace wanted to investigate each person in my group of friends to make sure they weren’t something else hidden behind a mask.

And now, we are all here. Liudolf, Bertha, Sieghilda, Ingela, Lovelace, and I. At the army’s office, because it’s the central node of the network, so it was easier to simply gather them here, as they all live in different cities.

And Lovelace has just been explaining the project to them.

"I knew that you had a lot more knowledge about magic than what you were letting out during the classes, but this is beyond anything I’ve ever dared to dream about."

"Right, Ingela? Spatial magic... if we talked about it to our teachers, we would be labelled as crazy."

"Don’t even dream about telling the teachers about it, Liudo."

"I know, Bertha. I know!"

The place itself is very busy, with all the people living and training around. From time to time we could hear someone chanting an aria a bit too loudly or a little blast or scream.

We’ve set ourselves aside in a room so we could have our meeting in peace, but this place really wasn’t built with privacy and comfort in mind.

"And all this chanting we are hearing is the people practicing magic without having the aid of the system?"

"Yes, Ingela. That’s why the language of the chanting is Draconic and not Esperansy."

"I... I’ve actually been training a lot during the break as well. Trying to cast the spells I know without activating the skill."

"Really? Ingela, that’s so cool! Did you manage something?"

"Eh... I... I think it’s better if I show you."

Ingela goes to a corner of the room and starts chanting. It’s the aria for creating a small flame, but something is off. That’s not exactly how the aria goes... WHOA!!

She conjured a little flame, but it actually burst out in several different colors, as if some very small fireworks were coming from it.

"So beautiful!!"

"Amazing!"

"Ingela, that’s so cool!!"

"That’s really impressive, Ingela. You not only reproduced the aria, but actually gave your little touch to it."

Lovelace isn’t saying anything, but she is at the side, smiling and nodding as she looks at the flames.

"I want to join the army and fight by your side, Aurea. I’ve been talking with my parents during the break. They are fearing that a civil war is upon us, and you just confirmed that fear. They said that if I wanted to leave school to join you, I would be allowed to."

"Ingela..."

"Please! I would move here tomorrow, even, and start training immediately."

I never knew that the timid Ingela could have such a powerful presence. Well, maybe she wasn’t actually timid, after all, but just an often-bullied commoner student at a school mostly for nobles.

She has the potential power, as Lovelace attested, the creativity, and the desire, and has nothing holding her back. For me, she’s a keeper.

"I would love to join as well... for the break, at least. But I can’t simply leave school without my parents’ permission. But I bet that they would allow it. They’re also worrying about a war."

"Yeah, same here. When you came home yesterday to talk to me, later my father asked me if you had brought any news about a possible war."

"My father was actually baffled that the raid on the princess’ mansion wasn’t enough to trigger the war. He also thought that the uprising in Marquess Otbert would be the trigger, but then the Crown Prince went and found a negotiated solution."

I imagined that Liudolf, Bertha, and Sieghilda would have a harder time joining, simply because of their status as nobles. But it seems that their families would actually be on board.

"Well, the main reason it hasn’t started yet is because we are stalling it to have time to properly train our forces in systemless casting. And that’s our biggest trump card, so you are forbidden to tell it to your family."

"Then, how would we ask?"

"You can tell them that it’s a secret mission; just don’t give any details."

"I can’t believe... this is like a dream coming true..."

Ingela’s eyes are shining with the fire of a thousand suns as she sits there, taking in all that has been said today.