He pricked his fingertip, and a single drop of crimson blood fell onto Iri's smooth, flawless back.
Magic... Heaven and Earth: Fortune's Blessing, activate!
As Leon channeled his magic with total focus, the Falna ceremony was completed in short order.
He glanced at the information that surfaced, blinked once in mild surprise, then wore a look that said just as I thought.
Inscribing, transcribing, locking, every step done in one smooth motion.
With Jeanne supervising through narrowed eyes and Rose thoughtfully helping Iri straighten her clothes, Leon finally handed the parchment to Irisviel, whose curiosity had already brimmed over.
"This is your personal information now that the Falna ceremony is done. Mm... you haven't learned the common tongue or Hieroglyphics yet, so I translated it into English for you. That work?"
"Mhm, mhm, I've got a dozen-plus languages down. English is no problem!"
Leon: "..."
So this was the ease that came with genius?
But then he thought about his own Scholar's Heart...
Oh. Never mind, then.
Over on her side, Iri stared at the Falna information on the parchment, her eyes full of curiosity.
"Wow, so this is a Falna. It can actually lay out a person's qualities on a panel like this."
With Iri's permission, Jeanne and Rose took a look at her magic and skills.
"Hss..."
02...
Name: Irisviel von Einzbern
Title:
Race: Human
Profession: Mage
Affiliation: Hart Familia
Level: Lv. 1
Floor Reached:
Basic Abilities:
Strength: I0 Endurance: I0 Dexterity: I0 Agility: I0 Magic: I0
Development Ability:
Weapons:
Equipment:
Casual wear: white fur ensemble, wine-red ladies' blouse, black high-waisted pleated skirt, black leggings, white knee-high heeled leather boots
Uniform, Training gear, Armament
Magic:
Angel's Poem:
Silver threads interweave to trace out an intricate outline, building into a delicate three-dimensional form like a woven wicker craft, a massive silver-thread eagle with savage wings, a sharp beak, and hooked talons.
Alchemical magic
Chant: Bones, I grant you life.
Forms:
- White Stork Knight: fires magic bullets, forming a dense barrage;
- Angel's Sword: transforms into a sharp blade and is fired at the enemy;
White Grail:
Group healing, sustained regeneration, status cleanse
Wide-area recovery magic
Chant: White Grail, sing!
Black Grail
Group all-stat boost, greatly enhanced attack power and attack speed (including magic and magic-cast speed)
Wide-area amplification magic
Chant: Black Grail, sing!
Skills:
Beloved's Crest
Obstructs detection; an ordinary disguise that deceives the gods, blocking divine lie-detection and probing.
Raises potential, super-accelerated growth; increases potential and the capacity of the vessel, growing at an ultra-fast rate.
Einzbern Bloodline
Magic effect amplification, increased magic range, expanded magic area;
doubles the enhancement effect on alchemical magic
Dress of Heaven
Massive boost to Magic
Boost to Agility and Dexterity
Holy Maiden of Winter
Massive boost to all abilities
Permanent spirit regeneration, improved efficiency of spirit usage
Small boost to the spirit regeneration speed of same-Familia members and allies
...
Ridiculous!
Looking back over Irisviel's Falna panel, which could only be called off the charts, the only word Leon could come up with was ridiculous.
Never mind the magic slots that covered attack, healing, and support all at once, just her whole skill set, three skills that radiated pure "beauty of numbers" from start to finish.
You could say there were no mechanics to it, all raw stats.
It was a true demonstration of what it meant to win by brute force.
What did it mean to be an Einzbern? Did they have any idea how much weight one of the Three Founding Families carried?
Did they really think all those Magic Circuits running through her body were just some decorative tattoos?
On top of that, as the incarnation of a Lesser Grail, Iri had been specialized in magic to the absolute extreme by her very initial design. He wouldn't go so far as to say she matched the Witch of Silence across the board, but on the single matter of magic, Leon was certain, Iri absolutely had the qualifications to stand alongside her.
So, for an ability this ridiculous, what was the price?
Leon thought it over, recalling how Jeanne had been forcibly summoned by the invitation at the very moment of her death...
Perhaps, the instant the invitation activated, the lifespan limit that Iri faced as a homunculus had already been completely resolved.
If nothing was off, she should now be a complete, independent human being.
This guess wasn't pulled out of thin air.
Earlier, when he had performed the Falna ceremony for Iri, through the bridge that the ceremony's framework provided, he hadn't sensed any defect or limitation in her body. With the reality laid out in front of him, the only possible conclusion was that the invitation's mechanism had been at work behind the scenes.
Once he worked that out, he quietly let out a breath of relief.
He didn't know the process, but judging by the result, this was a happy ending for everyone.
He looked at Laurier making a fuss, Aura watching with envy, and Iri, surrounded by a smiling, curious Jeanne, Rose, and Kureha, and a smile tugged at his lips without his realizing it.
Looks like my cheat isn't such junk after all...
...
Time flew by, and several days had quietly passed since Irisviel joined the Familia.
That day, the sky was still overcast, but the snowfall had clearly eased. After this heavy snow, the weather in Orario turned bitterly cold for good. Look anywhere, and even the Falna-blessed Adventurers had switched to thick winter clothes, not one of them spared.
In the courtyard of Leon's home and the alley out front, several figures were busy clearing away the piled snow.
They all wore matching black cotton coats, orange scarves wrapped around their necks, and ushanka caps on their heads, sweeping brooms in perfect unison.
What was even more astonishing was that these figures all had the exact same face.
That's right, every one of them was Leon.
"Big sis Iri, hurry, bring the carrot! Our snowman just needs a nose!"
"Coming, coming! Hehe!"
Jeanne was bent over, laying down warm padding for the little darlings Leon kept in the corner of the courtyard. Hearing Laurier and Irisviel laughing, she rubbed her slightly aching lower back, straightened up, and a helpless smile crossed her face.
"Hard to imagine she's... not even two years old since the day she was born."
"And she looks the same age as the rest of us."
Rose and Kureha had just finished clearing the snow off the training equipment, and a trace of envy crossed their eyes as they looked over at Irisviel.
"Seeing her so pure and innocent like that, I can't help thinking back to when I was little..." The snowman-builders built snowmen, the snowball-fighters fought, the chatters chatted...
He was the only one quietly carrying 99% of the snow-clearing, inside and out.
Watching the ten ice clones produced by White Art clear the snow with meticulous care under his precise control, the corner of his mouth twitched uncontrollably.
He never would have guessed that his trump card's first real combat trial would turn out to be... sweeping snow.
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