After things had settled down with my mother and the mana restoration drug, I spoke to Sandra about how I wanted to develop some specialized magic. We were now in the room with the blackboard on the training grounds.
“We just went through all of that with Lady Nanalie. Are you sure you want to be coming up with a new spell right now? Shouldn’t you be spending time with your family?”
“I appreciate your concern, but I think rather than family time, my parents should have some alone time as a couple.”
“Oh, I see...” Sandra seemed to understand, then she immediately frowned. “That isn’t something you should be saying at your age, Sir Reid! Talking about your parents as a couple... Judging from your usual behavior, it feels like, how do I say this...like your soul has matured before the rest of you!”
Sandra slapped one hand onto her hip as she pointed the other one right at me. As usual, she was terrifyingly sharp.
“How could something so ridiculous even happen?” I asked.
“You’re not wrong that it’s ridiculous, but you’re so unconventional that I feel like it has to be something like that.”
I did my best to maintain my composure and ignore her.
“Anyway, let’s get back to the spell I’m working on. I was hoping to turn remembering into a spell.”
“You just ignored me, didn’t you, Sir Reid?! Well, it’s fine. You do have some interesting ideas. You want to turn remembering into a spell?”
Sandra’s eyes began glittering with excitement. She’d originally been a researcher studying magic, so she loved discussing topics like this. I immediately began explaining the spell I wanted to create.
There was something about memory that I’d learned during my previous life: Any information you learned remained in your brain for the rest of your life. You might think that you forgot something, but it would still be there, just buried deep inside. Regardless of whether that was true or not, people usually wouldn’t forget their own experiences, at the very least.
I had been reincarnated into this world, and I had not only my memories of my previous life, but memories from this one as well. That led me to think that perhaps memories weren’t only stored in the brain, but they could also be stored in souls. If that were true, how could one go about digging out their memories?
My next thought was that I could perhaps do something about this with magic. Before I tried anything, I wanted to get Sandra’s opinion, and she was listening intently to my explanation. Of course, I kept the part about my memories from my previous life a secret. I simply shared that I thought it was possible for a person’s memories to be ingrained in not only their brain but also their soul. I asked her how—assuming that were true—one would see the memories stored in one’s soul.
Sandra furrowed her brows and replied, “It sounds similar to manatheism.”
“Manatheism?” I repeated.
I’d never heard of it. It had “ism” at the end, so it could be a religion. I was completely clueless, so Sandra proceeded to explain.
“Manatheism is a school of thinking within the study of magic. It’s a lesser-known concept. Most people haven’t heard much, if anything, about it.”
She began writing on the blackboard.
Manatheism
Life force is the source of mana.
It is the never-ending path that connects us to the gods.
“This is the core concept of manatheism, which is why it’s called that,” she explained.
“That’s pretty interesting,” I remarked.
Hm, I don’t remember anything like this from the game or from any of my other memories. I guess it’s a philosophy unique to this world, where magic has existed for a long time. What does this have to do with my spell, though?
Sandra noticed the confusion on my face, and she continued to explain. “All ways of thinking originated somewhere. Manatheism states that our life force, which is the source of our mana, is a path that connects us to gods. I thought this may be the closest magical concept to the type of soul you were talking about.”
“I see... In other words, you’re saying I should try to do the opposite process of mana conversion?”
“Yes, but since this isn’t something I’ve ever even considered doing, I’ve of course never done it,” she replied with a shrug.
If I were to convert my mana back into life force, where would that life force go? Perhaps that was where my soul was located.
“Let’s just try it out,” I said. “Let’s turn mana back into life force. You’re thinking that wherever that life force returns to is where the soul is located, right?”
“I can’t even imagine what the result will be...” Sandra mumbled. “Please don’t push yourself too hard.”
“I won’t,” I assured her.
It felt right for some reason, so I decided to sit on the ground in the lotus pose. Sandra grimaced in reaction, but I paid her no mind and performed mana conversion as usual. Once I felt the mana forming, I stored it deep inside me. In order to convert it back into life force, I tried to send it even deeper inside, but I didn’t feel any change. For now, I decided to just keep trying.
I kept my legs crossed, as if I were trying to meditate. I had no idea how much time had passed, but eventually, a change occurred. Until then, it had felt as if my mana had been bouncing off something, but now, it felt like my mana was finally going into a small hole.
Is this it?
I focused on the hole, and the next moment, I was overcome by what felt like my consciousness being sucked into my body.
This is bad!!!
Though my instincts told me I was in danger, I couldn’t do anything, and my consciousness was sucked into the hole.