I Reincarnated to Another World as a Woman-Chapter 286: A Quiet Disturbance
Theo returns to the apartment with Alicia. He has been quiet the whole way back, making Alicia question his earlier decision.
Alicia wants to ask why he is being quiet, but she also doesn’t want to disturb him.
In her opinion, Thea Montrose is too mature for her own age. Alicia always feels that the young woman is much older than her.
Which is strange, because Alicia is the oldest among Rhaenas.
Now that she has time to think about it, she realizes that since their very first meeting, she has already felt a slight sense of reserve and respect toward Thea. The kind of feeling she usually has when meeting someone older.
The more time she spends with Thea Montrose, the more obvious it becomes that she is on a different level of maturity compared to the rest of Rhaenas... and even herself.
As they open the door to the apartment, the other three are watching TV, not looking at them. Only Maeve does.
"You guys are back? How did it go? Some stations have reported live, saying that there’s a fire in the Rhaenas building," she explains.
Arthur, Julian, and Liam are all watching the TV, which shows their building, fire trucks, police, and the situation.
The three of them turn around when Alicia closes the door.
Julian turns off the TV.
"There’s nothing worth listening to or watching," he says.
Arthur asks, "How did it go?"
Alicia glances at Theo, who stays silent.
She guesses that he wants her to explain, so she says, "Just like I said. I told the fire chief, who recognized me, that it was a false alarm and I apologized. That’s it."
"They believed you?" Liam asks, eyebrows raised.
Alicia nods.
Then she glances at Theo again, who is still quiet.
The other four notice her glance, and they also look at Theo, confused.
Julian looks back at Alicia, gesturing, What?
Alicia just shakes her head.
"Something else happened?" Arthur asks.
Theo takes a deep breath.
He scans his team members, including the unofficial new member, Alicia.
"There were... some interesting individuals down there, which I don’t quite know what to make of yet," Theo starts.
He walks toward the sofa and plops down.
"Go on," Arthur urges gently.
"There were five of them, and they all—"
"Wait. There were five of them?" Alicia interrupts, stunned. "I thought you said one bald man?" 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎
Theo nods. "There were five of them. One of them is bald. But all of them were leaking mana," he says casually.
The other four react instantly.
"Whoa!"
"Leaking mana?"
"No freaking way!"
"That’s impossible!"
Theo waits until they settle down.
Arthur looks at Theo. "What do you make of this?"
"First, I’ll share what I sensed. There were five men, all leaking mana. What’s interesting is that all of them were leaking Fire mana, and I’m sure not all of them have Fire as their resonance."
He smirks. "In fact, I’m positive that none of them has Fire resonance."
He recalls the aura of their leaking mana.
He notices that everyone is silent, staring at him.
He chuckles and shifts into a more comfortable position.
He takes a deep breath. "I guess we can consider this a pop-up class."
"Okay, I—" He suddenly feels Maeve giving him a death stare.
Theo blinks, remembering Maeve’s warning through the message she sent via Resya.
He quickly corrects himself. "We... when we first learned magic, we were taught to hide our mana. We must be careful not to let any mana leak, right?"
His audience nods.
"Do you know why?"
They shake their heads.
"It’s because leaking mana can be seen or read by other magi. And that would be dangerous. Let’s say I’m more powerful than you," he points at Maeve.
"And you don’t hide your mana. I can tell that your resonance is Light. If I want to harm you, it becomes very simple, because I already know your resonance."
Understanding dawns on everyone’s faces.
"So mana indicates your resonance?" Arthur asks.
Theo nods. "Yes. If it’s Fire, the mana appears reddish. Water is bluish, Earth is murky yellowish. Light is similar to sunlight. And Wind..." he looks at Alicia.
"...is light greenish."
"I say ’ish’ because it depends on how high the resonance is. So it’s very important to hide your mana. We can’t let anyone read ours."
Julian grins. "But it’s not like everyone here knows how to wield magic, right?"
"I know there’s one group that can wield magic," Liam says, glancing at Maeve.
Maeve looks around. "Yeah. Mine."
Alicia looks confused.
Arthur quickly adds, "Thea, you saw five men all leaking Fire mana, but you’re sure none of their resonance is Fire. Meaning they are weak magi?"
Theo nods. "Yes, we can see it that way. And the way they learned magic is wrong."
Maeve immediately frowns. She has a hunch those five people are connected to the Custodians.
Because who else could have taught them magic?
And they did teach her the wrong way.
I need to confirm it with Victor.
"So, Thea, don’t they need to be monitored?" Arthur asks.
"Is there a risk of them going berserk?" Liam asks at the same time.
Theo shakes his head. "No to both. I need to confirm it with Teacher, but I believe we don’t need to do anything for now."
Alicia is confused.
Teacher? Who is this Teacher they’re talking about? Is it different from Thea?
Then something clicks.
That’s right! If no one taught Thea, how did she know all of these magic theories? So there’s a more powerful magus than Thea?!
Her jaw drops. She has seen how powerful Thea is. To imagine that there is another person even more powerful than her... Alicia already feels a deep sense of respect for someone she has never even met.
"Wait. I don’t understand something." Julian raises his hand like a student.
"What is it, Jules?" Theo asks, reaching for an orange from the fruit bowl on the table.
"You said none of those people have Fire resonance, and yet they are leaking Fire mana. But you also just said that if a person has Fire resonance, their leaking mana would be reddish. So..." Julian trails off, frowning in confusion.
"There are two different manas? One indicates the type of magic they’re learning, and the other indicates their resonance?"
"I’m sorry for not being clear. I’m also kind of fuzzy about it," Theo says, pretending he doesn’t fully understand Teacher Theo’s teachings.
"From what I’ve learned, there are two types of mana, and I’m sure you guys know this. One is the planet’s life force, the other is your own personal mana."
"Oh!" Something clicks in Julian’s mind.
"That’s why you said ’ish.’ Because apart from how high the resonance is, it also shows that if the life force mana and personal mana don’t match, the color would be off."
"Bingo," Theo says.
"So you’re saying, if I learn Fire, but I’m Water, and both of my mana are leaking, then... my aura’s color would be... purple? Because red and blue make purple, right?" Julian asks again.
Theo chuckles. "No, it doesn’t work like a color wheel. Let’s take the bald man as an example. He’s leaking Fire mana, but his resonance—I’m sure it’s not Fire. I can’t be certain unless I check him. But his Fire mana was weak. His aura flickers."
"And it’s because the life force mana around him is reddish, indicating he’s learning Fire magic. But his personal mana is not. I couldn’t really tell what it was because the distance was too far, but I could see that it wasn’t reddish."
He looks at their confused faces.
He laughs.
"Don’t worry about this. I was also confused as hell when I first learned about it."
In Caelthorn, when I was fifteen years old. Not that much younger than Thea now.
"We’ll learn together. Our advantage is that we have time to learn. Others simply do not have Teacher’s knowledge."
Maeve gets up. "Agreed."
She walks to the kitchen. "I’ll prepare dinner. We’re having steaks tonight."
Alicia also gets up. Even though her mind is racing, she knows she’s not part of Rhaenas... yet. So she wants to show that she can contribute.
She wants to be part of their family more than ever now.
------------------------------
Hawk is standing on the balcony of his hotel room, smoking.
His mind is still occupied with thoughts of that white-haired princess.
He knows this is not normal for him, to keep thinking about a woman. And in this case, the woman in question is more than twenty years younger than him.
Hawk is now thirty-eight.
Which makes her twenty-two years younger than me. Am I really thinking about her? As a woman? But I’ve never even seen her face. I mean, I’ve seen her photos.
He turns around and sees his laptop screen on the desk.
The screen shows the last page he viewed before he stepped out onto the balcony to smoke.
It is filled with Thea’s details.
Everything he can find online about Theodora Leira Montrose.
Hawk exhales smoke, staring at the screen.
