First of all, I kinda messed some words before between mahou and majutsu—mahou 魔法 literally means witchcraft or magic principle while majutsu 魔術 literally means magic techniques/skills.
A maid enters to light up the lamp and swiftly puts it in front of Aurora to brighten up her needlework. At the sight of the lamp illuminating through the embroidery tools, Felix took it and channels his magic over the magic stone to further brighten up the lamp.
The room was lighted up by hands using magic stone. This kind of tool was useful because the light can be freely adjusted according to the amount of magic power being channelled through the magic stone without generating unnecessary heat. However, despite the invention of magic stones in the passing years, they are still far less accurate than the natural ones, and are expensive for the common people. The existence of these stones is a sign of the Marquis’ richness, even small stones which aren’t frequently used are being made use in this place.
Aurora’s figure was illuminated before lamp and the needle in her hand shines in palish yellow mirroring the light of the magic stone.
“Fortune-telling—something like the practice of divination?”
“That’s right.”
“Then it’s something similar to horoscope and love fortune-telling?”
“If I we through the concise and proper procedures, you may also call it like that—it started during the time when our house was still serving the royal family which used to be a priest of a temple, we then became a house of knights when one of the royal family became the king. I think our job was somewhat like an Acolyte Knight.”
“Weren’t Acolyte Knights… The kind of knight that guards the temples?”
“They not only protect the temple but they have also the concurrent post as the administrator of the priests during the temple’s rituals. My ancestors seemed to have worked before as the temple’s assistant and actively played their parts on some of the royal’s rituals that’s why many skills related to fortune-telling were handed down.”
Aurora meekly peered towards the unusually talkative Felix. It would be rude to say this but she was surprised to hear him speak this long. Felix’s eyes looked brighter and ardent, more than when he was handling his sword. Felix may look like a beautiful moon, cold and icy man man when he is silent, but when he gets excited, his eyes would spark fervently like a little boy.
——So he also have a cute side, Aurora earnestly thought.
“There are still fortune-telling skills handed down specifically for men in the house who are actively involved in the temple rituals in our territory. I was first taught by my grandfather when I was 8 years old and since became interested. What fascinated me was the multitudes of methods of how the mechanism of the fortune-telling skills were taught.”
“So you’ve been practicing fortune-telling since you were 8 years old…”
“That’s right.”
Felix is now 21 years old so it’s been 13 years since he learned it. Thinking about this made Aurora admire him. She learned how to handle a needle when she was just 5. Her grandfather and grandmother dreaded their granddaughter who at that time showed interest towards swords after seeing Luminox practicing swordsmanship, and so they gifted Aurora some embroidery tools along with an embroidered sample. Since then, she had devoted much of her free time doing embroidery. Her brother says that hobbies lasting for more than 10 years isn’t a hobby anymore but for her, the time she spent embroidering wasn’t for nothing.
“So what exactly is fortune-telling? I saw some magicians doing some fortune-telling in the flower festival in our territory, was it the same as that?”
“Fortune-telling is nearly close to a magic skill as its the kind of magic that works as an arbiter between evil and good, good luck and bad luck.”
“So it’s quite similar to foresight?”
“They might produce the same result but there’s a clear difference between foresight and fortune-telling——it will base on the individual’s ability to judge which course of possibility have the highest probability to happen.”
“I don’t understand very well.”
“Unlike fortune-telling, foresight is a magic that’s innate to an individual. In other words, it’s not something anyone can do. As you may know, magic skills are acquired through learning which magic itself is something that’s born within the individual. Fortune-telling is magic while foresight is a magic skill.”
“What does it mean to judge between good and bad?”
“You can observe the magic power in the surroundings and judge if the way the course of events happened is good or bad for the subject by channelling your own magic power around you—shadows of the crystal, the movements of the stars, the tremors of the pendulum, the embers of the firewood, the direction where the wand fell off, the order in which the magic symbols appeared, the order in which they were arranged——besides being an arbiter of good or bad luck, there are other skills used to show what is necessary to achieve a certain goal, but those skills are more advanced.”
“E-Err…”
She doesn’t understand anything he said but Aurora simply can’t say this to Felix who’s speaking eloquently.
Aurora’s mother was a great magic knight for quite some time before she got married and she was proficient in magic. Aurora was also taught magic when she was a child but her tutor says she only have the general skills as a magician—in short, she has no talent for magic. If she would want to be a magician in the future, she would require a great deal of effort in training herself.
Aurora, who neither wanted nor was in a position to be a magician, decided not to choose the future of becoming a magician at the word of her tutor. Therefore, Aurora’s knowledge of magic power and magic circulation is limited except for those magic that’s commonly used by her mother and the knights of the House of Porta.
“For example, when you are at a loss as to which way to go by the street, a magician would knock down his wand to circulate his magic power into things such as the surrounding areas——and it is through that wand that a magician is able to determine which way is the best option. However, it’s still a mystery even now why this magic circulation leads to this result—is it quicker to understand if we try it out?”
Felix loosened up his eyes after realising the expression on Aurora’s face. He then reacher out to Aurora’s teacup and took out the silver teaspoon that’s been on the cup for some time.
“Are you going to do it with this spoon?”
“It wouldn’t matter if I use a spoon but I think using a wand would make it easier to understand. There are various ways of turning the surface of the tea like a crystal or mirror but that would require you some more time to prepare.”
“The surface of the tea?”
“It’s because crystal balls and mirrors are commonly used as a basin. Although stone pot is the formal container used in fortune-telling, on some instances, you can also use a teacup with some tea poured in as a basin.”
While speaking, Felix looked around and his eyes settled on Aurora’s hand which have the recently embroidery of a small bird.
“Can I borrow it?”
“Yes, by all means.”
“Do you have any other designs?”
“I have embroidered a rose yesterday.”
Aurora stretched out her hand in a basket laid on the couch. The basket that was filled with ready to use embroidery tools and some cloths folded, is about the size of a lunch box.
Felix lined up the white fabric with the embroidery of a small bird a to the black fabric with the embroidery of a pink rose then he put his bony fingers to the edge of oneof the fabric. He closed his eyes as he held the silver spoon with his index finger.
『May Aurora el le Porta blessed with good luck』
Along with a sound, the silver spoon glowed with the same color as Felix’s eyes. The palish blue aura around him was visibly seen on his eyes and his magic power was so cold that one would be reminded of a spine chilling winter mornings. Aurora was taught before that an individual’s magic power would have the same color as their eyes, she saw this before from both his grandfather and mother who have green eyes. She knew that the green eyes and magic power were probably inherited from the House of Flos.
When Felix lifted his hold, the spoon spinned twice in air making Aurora gasp as the aura in the spoon grew more brighter until it stopped and fell down. The handle of the spoon landed on the white fabric with the embroidery of a small bird.
“What does this mean?”
“I’m not too sure but it’s either that the color of the fabric or the embroidery of the small bird seems to be your good luck.”
“How does Clavis-sama understand this?”
“I couldn’t explain the principles of understanding this but, I am certain as I have I never once gone wrong. Although, I can’t see the full extent of your good luck.”
“The full extent…”
“Everything depends on the result of the fortune-telling—some are fortunate enough to eat their favourite meal at night while others were lead to a successful career that determined their life. I suppose a greater magician can have a better result but to unknown extent.”
“I see, so there’s quite a difference…”
Aurora picked up the spoon and looked at it earnestly. It was made of silver and was polished so much it clearly reflected Aurora’s face. The smoothly carved style and the elaborate engravings of the house’s crest were beautiful, and the subtle scars on the house’s crest made her
feel the history of their use.
Nevertheless, this silverware was no different from what Aurora had used before which was a common silverware the nobles used. Aurora has no idea what Felix had done except performing a little magic, then there’s a sudden gleam of the spoon and it’s casual fall. While looking at Aurora who tilted her head in wonder, Felix subconsciously let out a smile—Aurora who saw this widened her eyes and he, too cleared his throat after realising it.
“No, most of the people I meet aren’t familiar with fortune-telling.”
“It must be because they don’t understand how the results were found.”
“I don’t know about that, either. Even the court magician has little understanding towards about the principles of fortune-telling.”
“So there’s a few mysterious magic in this world that even the people who practice it doesn’t understand.”
This time, Felix took the one which Aurora was looking at, it was the white fabric with the small bird. It was one of the needleworks she started right after Crown Prince Textus and Felix asked her. She hasn’t done anything new aside from what the usual embroidery she has been working on.
“Didn’t you say that this design you embroidered was a gray thrush?”
“Yes.”
Felix tilted his head wondering he had seen one around the territory of Clavis as Aurora spreads the fabric in the table.
“I believe I have said this before but this gray thrust isn’t that uncommon on the magic forest. On summer season, I can always observe their adorable feathers, dyed in a beautiful black and white colors.”
After her debut to high society, Aurora had been coming to the capital frequently during spring and fall. This inevitably reduced the opportunities to walk around the forest and the surrounding areas which were the fun during summer seasons and to make it worse, there have been a decreasing amount of sightings of gray thrush. Aurora cast her eyes on the embroidery she spread and pictured the all too familiar scenery—the vibrant sunshine flowing between the trees in the forest and the dancing birds above the field of flowers. The summer song happily sang within the family members——
“You hardly find them inside the forest but on the times they suck nectars in a field of flowers, these birds gets too noticeable due to the colors of the flowers. There are also instances where they are attacked by larger birds but I usually see them when I go on a picnic——”
Aurora who’s speaking of her distant memories, suddenly stopped and perked up and Felix caught her line of sight right away asked—
“What is it?”
Aurora responded with a smile but she stood up after seeing the look in Felix’s eyes.
“Clavis-sama’s fortune-telling… It might be right on the mark! Perhaps, this small bird will bring me a great luck!”
I was pretty motivated lately since were halfway from the end of the series. Added new version of the family tree, IDK if it’s pretty important since I’m translating at the same time reading the series. Tell me if there’s anything confusing about it on the comments below (•̀ᴗ•́)و ̑̑