It was still the same place in front of the hearth.
Shulim still spent all day crouched there, but this time she was not just staring at the fire. She had begun actively trying to cast magic.
"[ᛓᚠᛟᚾᚲתᛖᛜᚢᚪᛖᛡᛞᚠᛟᛃᛜᚣᚲ]"
The fire particles around the hearth gave the faintest little tremble, then went still again.
...
Shulim did not get discouraged.
She tried again.
"[ᛓᚠᛟᚾᚲתᛖᛜᚢᚪᛖᛡᛞᚠᛟᛃᛜᚣᚲ]"
"[ᛓᚠᛟᚾᚲתᛖᛜᚢᚪᛖᛡᛞᚠᛟᛃ..."
"[ᛓᚠᛟᚾᚲתᛖᛜᚢᚪᛖᛡᛞᚠ..."
The process of practice was dull, exhausting, and painfully repetitive. Any ordinary young child would have lost patience long ago.
The Shulim who had first met Semirys would have been the same.
But ever since that small moment of growth she had stumbled into by chance, her heart was not so easily shaken by thoughts of winning or losing. Even when she imagined how mercilessly she would be mocked if she failed, she simply pressed the thought down and left it there.
For her, there was only one thing that mattered now.
Learn that spell.
Everything else, victory, defeat, being laughed at, no longer mattered.
So one day passed.
"[ᛓᚠᛟᚾᚲתᛖᛜᚢᚪᛖᛡ...]"
The fire particles did not answer her.
Two days passed.
"[ᛓᚠᛟᚾᚲתᛖᛜᚢᚪ...]"
The fire particles stirred slightly.
Three days passed.
"[ᛓᚠᛟᚾᚲתᛖ...]"
This time, the movement was obvious.
Four days passed.
"[ᛓᚠᛟᚾᚲ...]"
At last, the fire particles truly moved and began drifting toward Shulim.
And then...
On the seventh day...
"[ᛓᚠᛟᚾᚲתᛖᛜᚢᚪᛖᛡᛞᚠᛟᛃᛜᚣᚲ]"
Fwoosh.
A tiny flame sprang to life at Shulim’s fingertip.
"I... I did it."
Her eyes widened as she stared at the faint little flame dancing there.
After a full seven days, she had finally cast the most basic fire spell, Ignite.
The joy of succeeding sent a rush of excitement through her.
And the moment her emotions surged, her control slipped. The flame at her fingertip went out.
"Ah... it went out."
Just like that, her excitement settled too.
Shulim steadied herself, quickly replayed the feeling of that successful cast in her mind, and carved it firmly into memory.
"Hoo..."
She closed her eyes and let out a slow breath.
Then she snapped them open, moved her lips, and chanted again.
"[ᛓᚠᛟᚾᚲתᛖᛜᚢᚪᛖᛡᛞᚠᛟᛃᛜᚣᚲ]"
Fwoosh.
As the incantation sounded, she felt that familiar faint drain of mana, and the same warm little flame appeared once more at her fingertip.
Shulim had finally mastered her first spell.
...
Later, Shulim sat on the stone steps in front of the manor, propping her chin on both hands as she stared up at the sky.
There was a rare look of confusion in her eyes.
She was happy that she had learned magic.
But...
It had taken a full half month.
Only half a month remained until the deadline, and she still had six spells left to learn.
"What am I supposed to do? I have to learn six kinds of magic in half a month. Just one spell took me half the month already. There’s no way I can do the rest in time."
Shulim clutched her head in frustration, all trace of earlier happiness gone from her face.
After a long while, she finally calmed down.
Lying back on the steps, she raised her right hand and looked at the sun through the light spilling between her fingers.
Then she sat up again and lightly smacked both cheeks.
"No matter what, I have to try first."
She carefully thought back over the last half month.
It was true that it had taken half a month to learn one spell, but not all of that time had actually been spent practicing magic. The real amount of study time was probably closer to ten days.
And even within those ten days, a lot of time had gone into simply learning how to perceive fire particles.
Besides...
Magic had common ground across all its branches. The attributes were different, but the experience could still carry over.
If she looked at it that way, then the next spell would definitely not take her another full ten days.
"...All right. Time to start the next one."
Shulim sprang to her feet and found her motivation again.
The second spell she chose was the first-circle water spell, Water Stream.
There was a river outside Mente, which made it the perfect place to practice water magic.
After that, she began leaving early every day and coming home late, spending entire days by the riverbank.
"[ᛣᛏᚠᚷᛜᛣᛃᛗᛡᛁᚾᛗᛚᚪᛜᛈᛒᚱᚪ]"
Her voice chanting the incantation rang out again and again beside the water.
Just as she had expected, experience made all the difference this time. She sensed the water particles very quickly, and on the very first day she was already able to connect with them.
Actually getting them to move the way she wanted, though, was another matter.
After all, water and fire opposed each other, and among the seven elements they had the least in common.
By the time Shulim realized that, however, she had already spent too much time to switch now.
So she grit her teeth and kept going.
Hard work paid off.
Five days after Shulim began practicing water magic...
"[ᛣᛏᚠᚷᛜᛣᛃᛗᛡᛁᚾᛗᛚᚪᛜᛈᛒᚱᚪ]"
Splash.
A narrow stream of water, no thicker than her thumb, curled around Shulim’s index finger before shooting forward.
After successfully casting Water Stream, Shulim let herself feel a brief flicker of excitement, then immediately steadied herself and carefully replayed every detail of the cast in her mind.
Then...
"[ᛣᛏᚠᚷᛜᛣᛃᛗᛡᛁᚾᛗᛚᚪᛜᛈᛒᚱᚪ]"
The same thing happened again.
Shulim had successfully mastered the first-circle water spell, Water Stream.
She practiced it many more times to make sure it really worked.
Then, as she looked at the slow-moving river in front of her, happiness rose in her chest, along with a fresh wave of worry.
"Only ten days left..."
That meant she now had to master one new spell every two days on average.
Shulim did not give up.
If anything, she threw herself into the rest of her training with even more determination.
Then, when she started practicing her third spell, things suddenly took a turn.
...
"[ᚣᚠᛟᚪᛚᛜᛖᛗᛞᚪᛡᛖᛞᛃᚺיᛤᛜᛣᛃᚢᚠᚳ]"
Crack.
Shulim stared at the small chunk of rock that had appeared in her hand, not even as large as her palm, and for a moment she just sat there in a daze.
Then she tried firing it.
Whoosh.
The rock shot forward, smashed against a large boulder, and left a clear impact mark on it.
"I... it worked?"
No wonder she was stunned.
This was only her second day practicing earth magic.
She had mastered the first-circle earth spell, Rock Shot, in only two days. Compared to that, the first two spells almost felt fake.
Shulim stared at both hands and tried again, still half unable to believe it.
But every single attempt produced the same result. Each time, Rock Shot came out properly, and the sensation of mana being used was unmistakably real.
Only then did she finally believe that she had truly learned the first-circle earth spell, Rock Shot.
But how had she done it?
Her mind was full of questions.
What Shulim did not yet realize was that mastering two opposing elemental magics had pushed her understanding of magic forward by a huge step. When she turned back to learn spells of other attributes, that deeper understanding became her greatest advantage.
That was why the third spell had taken only two days.
"Two days..."
She looked up, hope blazing in her eyes.
"I can do this. I really can."
For the first time, Shulim saw a real chance of winning the bet.
...
Eight days remained until the end of the month.
Shulim came to the windmill outside town.
The narrow gap between the slopes on either side sent gusts of wind through the area every so often.
Listening to the creak and groan of the windmill turning behind her, Shulim carefully felt for the mana particles floating through the air.
It did not take long before she saw them.
Streaks of green light darted through the air with a light, playful motion, slipping through the windmill’s blades. Every time that happened, the windmill, which had started to slow, would pick up speed again.
"[ᚷᚲᚠᛏᛗᛜᚻᚠᛏᛖᛡᛣ..."
Seven days remained.
"[ᚷᚲᚠᛏᛗᛜᚻᚠᛏᛖᛡᛣᛏᚠᚳᛜᚻᛄᚾ]"
Whoosh.
She felt the now-familiar sensation of mana being spent.
A push flared against her palm, and then the bushes a short distance ahead shook.
The first-circle wind spell, Breeze.
Mastered.
At that point, Shulim had mastered all four first-circle spells of the natural elements.