Chapter 120: Moonshadow and Magic

The girl seemed to have a low level of education, or to put it bluntly, she appeared somewhat dim-witted. Although she could understand Vilyric’s intentions with the help of props, her responses were limited to ineffective nodding or shaking her head.

“Are you Noviya Moonshadow?”

The girl neither nodded nor denied; she simply tilted her head again in a somewhat similar manner. However, through this exchange, Vilyric realized that the girl didn’t understand the significance of that name and just didn’t know how to respond.

But to be honest, she should be Noviya.

While the appearance was drastically different, the aura emitted by the same individual, especially on a soul level, wouldn’t vary too much regardless of how it changed.

Not by the naked eye, but through the feedback from the sp scan, Vilyric was almost certain that the silver-gray-haired girl’s spiritual fluctuation was nearly identical to that of the little wolf cub. If there were any differences, it was that the former’s soul was in an active state, and the concentration of magical power within her body had nearly reached a hundred times what it was before.

Though still inferior to high-level beings like Vilyric or Little Dragon Daughter, this amount of magical power was already beyond the comparable standards of legends and more.

Moreover, though invisible to the naked eye, the air was thick with powerful magic, surging and being absorbed into her body like an ocean. The concentration of magic above this lake was already exceeding thirty times the usual level.

The entire forest, nearly everything containing magic, had become nourishment for the girl, forcibly drawn in by a power akin to rules. It was just that, since her absorption speed was somewhat slow, it was temporarily accumulating in the air in high concentration.

Vilyric was almost certain that the unusual root of the Puppeteer Forest tonight was this seemingly harmless little girl, who didn’t even speak. And most likely, she herself wasn’t aware of it, merely following her instincts, like a passive action such as breathing, which was why the Priestess didn’t resort to violence right away.

【Source of Magic】…

Only powers related to the 【Rules】 could do this unreasonably; she must be Noviya, that much was certain. But why the sudden drastic change…?

While deep in thought, the black-haired girl seemed to sense something, suddenly looking up at the uniquely bright and luminous triple moons, coming to a realization.

Tonight was the Night of the Triple Moons.

The Night of the Triple Moons actually referred to the full moon night.

Unlike Blue Star, this world has three moons: one main moon and two accompanying ones. The main moon constantly maintains its perfectly round shape, being the largest and brightest, while its two orbiter moons undergo periodic changes throughout the year.

The universal calendar of this world— the concept of year and month— was determined based on the cycles of the three moons, and the day when all three transform into the 【Full Moon】 occurs only once a year.

And that day is tonight.

Vilyric had read in books that the Moonshadow Clan, the Moonshadow Magical Wolves, were a peculiar race capable of absorbing the essence of the moon at night, strengthening themselves as the tides of the triple moons ebb and flow. Their transformations would, to some extent, align with the moon’s patterns, hence the name 【Moonshadow】.

As a Source of Magic, Noviya was undeniably also a Moonshadow Magical Wolf, perhaps even royalty among them. In fact, Vilyric now realized that this lake was the most open and suitable place in the entire forest for absorbing the power of moonlight.

With a brief moment of thought, the Priestess changed her question.

“Did you come here all by yourself?”

“Wuwu!”

This time, the girl resembling Noviya appeared no longer bewildered; instead, she cheerfully nodded her head and pointed toward the bright, full triple moons in the sky, revealing a comfortable expression.

I see, it seems she’s already figured it out.

The power of the Night of the Triple Moons caused Noviya, as a Moonshadow Magical Wolf, to undergo certain changes, awakening and transforming into her current form, and instinctively activating what was likely a form of the 【Source of Magic】 to better absorb the essence of the moon, which brought her here to bask in the moonlight.

Probably came out through the window.

When conducting the sp scan, Vilyric indeed discovered that she hadn’t previously noticed the window in Aiste’s room was open; only this place in the entire forest was quite unusual.

So… what exactly is the 【Source of Magic】? Why does it exist in the form of Noviya?

Tonight’s incident seems to be a coincidence born from the overlap of Noviya’s two identities and the cosmic phenomenon, but is it really that simple? If so, why didn’t Aiste, also a Moonshadow Magical Wolf, have any indications?

The ancient Guniir language song Noviya instinctively sang earlier was also quite intriguing…

Regardless, let’s first try to control her current endless absorption of magic.

Vilyric gently placed her hand on the girl, and in the confused but not wary gaze of the silver-haired girl, activated 【Information Detection】.

A stream of data representing physical information flowed into her mind. With the help of the skill, Vilyric quickly grasped a more detailed status of the girl and basically confirmed that she was undoubtedly the little wolf cub named Noviya Moonshadow.

Just as she planned to delve deeper into the current state of Noviya’s originally sleeping soul.

“Zizi… Zzzz… Bang!”

A burst of dense electricity suddenly flared at their fingertip contact, and the effect of 【Information Detection】 was forcibly interrupted!

“Eek!”

Simultaneously, Noviya’s face turned pale as if receiving some heavy blow, her delicate body unexpectedly swaying toward the astonished Priestess, who quickly raised her hand to catch her.

“?”

A faint milky fragrance wafted up from the soft body in her embrace, but Vilyric had no mind to appreciate such beauty right now, staring blankly at her unscathed fingers.

【Information Detection】 failed?

No, it wasn’t truly a failure; the information she gathered earlier was all presented fine, but it was abruptly interrupted when touching the most crucial certain content.

There was only one explanation: the mystery she was probing exceeded the upper limit of what this skill could detect and possessed some kind of self-defense mechanism.

Vilyric was not specialized in information-type occupations. She could handle lower-tier entities with ease, but when it involved contents of high mystery, the 【Information Detection】— a universal skill that wasn’t even of the Holy Light type— sometimes didn’t work well.

For instance, as the Life Goddess, Xi Fu Lin, she generally couldn’t investigate much at all, or that mysterious silver key she unintentionally obtained from Count Ban Meikailande of the United Kingdom, it too only provided a few fragmentary descriptions.

Wait? Speaking of that long-forgotten strange key in her bag…

Although it seemed unrelated to the current situation, Vilyric suddenly had a thought. After propping Noviya, who still seemed a bit dizzy, to sit properly, she fished out that inconspicuous little thing from the corner of her bag, held it in her hand, and examined it closely under the moonlight.

“This is!”

The oddly-shaped silver key actually emitted a heartbeat-like flickering glow under the illumination of the triple moons in the night sky!

   

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