The Moons - 23
The moment his excitement exploded, mana suddenly began overflowing wildly around his body again.
Juro immediately pointed at him.
"Aahahahah kid your mana."
Marc widened his eyes.
"Oops… hehe, sorry. I got excited…"
The overflowing mana gradually settled down as Marc returned to his normal state.
---------------
Marc's eyes sparkled with excitement as he hurriedly looked at Juro.
"Teacher Juro! What was that??? I couldn't physically see you up there! Was that magic?? ✨️"
Juro grinned before letting out a chuckle.
"Yep. It was invisibility magic."
Marc's jaw practically dropped.
"Woaaaaa! Invisibility magic??? Like, you can actually turn yourself invisible??"
Juro nodded casually.
"Yup. Although the moment you move, the invisibility breaks."
"That's so coooool!"
Meanwhile, Bell quietly thought to himself while listening.
"I don't know if he'll mention it or not, but there are multiple types of invisibility magic."
"The one he used is the most common… and also the easiest to detect."
Marc suddenly paused mid-excitement as another question popped into his head.
"Wait, Teacher Juro. You said the magic disappears once you move, right?"
Juro nodded again.
Marc tapped his chin while thinking carefully.
"Then… does that mean you were controlling the shots using mana without moving?"
Juro's smile widened.
"Ding ding. Correct!" He laughed proudly. "Such a smart kid, huh?"
Marc smiled bashfully from the compliment.
"Yep, you're right. Since I couldn't move even a finger, I was just using mana magic to form small water bullets remotely."
Marc listened attentively.
"Oooooo, I see…"
Juro honestly couldn't help smiling while looking at how enthusiastic Marc was about learning magic.
He reached over and lightly ruffled his hair.
"Hehe, that's right. Learn everything you can about magic—…."
Suddenly, Juro paused.
"…Wait. Why's your hair damp?"
Marc awkwardly laughed while scratching his cheek.
"Hehe… I was training with the modified spell earlier and… it was still a bit too fast for me…"
Juro burst out laughing.
"Hahahaha! That's great though. I can already see the progress."
He then shifted his attention toward Bell.
"What about you, Bell?"
Bell casually replied,
"I'm still trying to master it at three times the speed."
Juro's eyebrows instantly rose.
"Hoho… that's a huge jump for only one day of training."
Marc immediately smiled toward Bell.
"Woah, Bell! Congrats on mastering the two-times speed one!"
Bell gave a smiled and thank him in response.
Juro looked at the two of them quietly for a moment, a gentle smile slowly appearing on his face.
Then he suddenly placed both hands on top of their heads before roughly ruffling their hair.
"Ahahaha! You two did great today!"
Marc happily laughed along with him while Bell immediately tried pushing Juro's hand away from his head.
A few moments later, Juro suddenly spoke.
"Alright, you two. Look up."
Bell and Marc instinctively lifted their heads toward the night sky.
The moment they did.
Their eyes reflected the breathtaking sight above them.
Three glowing moons illuminated the starry night while countless stars shimmered across the dark sky like scattered crystals.
[IMAGE HERE / KOFI]
"Woa…"
Pure awe filled Marc's eyes as he stared upward at the three moons shining over the world.
The three of them stood there quietly, simply admiring the beauty of the night.
Marc softly muttered,
"Maybe the night isn't so dark after all…"
Bell continued gazing upward.
"Yeah… it isn't…"
A small sentimental feeling quietly surfaced within him.
Juro smiled while looking at the night sky himself before suddenly speaking.
"Do you kids want a closer look?"
Still completely mesmerized by the moons, Marc answered absentmindedly.
"Yeah…"
Then his eyes widened.
"…Wait, what???"
The moment those words left Juro's mouth, mana suddenly wrapped around the three of them.
A second later, the mana transformed into streams of flowing air that spiraled beneath their bodies.
Then slowly.
They began rising off the ground.
Marc's eyes widened in complete shock.
"WOAAAAAA— I'M OFF THE GROUNDDDD!"
Meanwhile, Bell simply observed the mana structure calmly while floating upward.
Juro chuckled before increasing the flow of air beneath them.
The three of them immediately started ascending higher into the night sky.
"WAAAHHHH WE'RE GOING UPPPPP!!"
The rushing wind constantly flowing around them created loud roaring noises as they climbed higher and higher above the field.
Then Juro casually spoke.
"Shizukesa."
The instant the incantation left his mouth.
Everything went silent.
Marc blinked rapidly.
"Woaa… the loud wind noise disappeared?"
Juro grinned.
"Yup."
Marc looked even more amazed once Juro started speaking again.
Despite them flying high through the air, Juro's voice sounded unbelievably clear and comfortable to hear because every other sound around them had completely vanished.
"Woaaaa…"
Juro laughed softly.
"I just casted a magic that cancels out outside noise for anyone near me while still letting us hear each other."
Marc's eyes sparkled again.
"Ooooo…"
While Marc and Juro continued talking excitedly, Bell quietly drifted into his own thoughts while staring far below them at the distant ground.
"He used mana magic to make us fly…"
Bell glanced at the streams of air swirling beneath them.
"Why didn't he just use actual flight magic? There are far more advanced spells and magic that allow smoother aerial movement without the constant airflow noise…"
His gaze slowly shifted back toward Juro.
"And now he's using Shizukesa…"
"A semi-old magic originally created by an old friend of mine."
Bell narrowed his eyes slightly.
"So far, he's only been using basic or old magic…"
"I haven't seen him use any advanced spells… nor advanced mana magic techniques."
…
"Right, Bell??"
Bell snapped out of his thoughts.
"Huh? Ah— yeah."
Marc smiled brightly while admiring the massive night sky surrounding them.
Then he suddenly asked,
"Teacher Juro, why do we have three moons while there's only one sun?"
Juro smiled slightly before answering.
"Well, those three moons you see up there are actually enormous."
Marc looked up again in awe.
"Woaaa…"
Juro continued casually,
"Hmmm… if we're talking numbers, each one is around 6,800 kilometers in diameter."
Marc simply kept smiling blankly after hearing the number, clearly not understanding the sheer scale behind it.
"(. ❛ ᴗ ❛.)"
Juro burst out laughing after seeing Marc's completely empty smile.
Meanwhile, Bell quietly listened while staring at the moons.
"Well… he's not wrong."
"The latest official measurements of the moons were taken a few hundred years ago…"
"And I was the one who measured them."
Juro then casually leaned back against the flowing wind beneath him, looking completely relaxed despite floating high in the sky.
"Now for the fun part." He grinned slightly. "There's this saying, well, I don't even know if it's still considered a saying anymore since most people already agree with it."
He pointed upward toward the three moons.
"We have three moons because our planet itself is ridiculously massive."
Juro comfortably placed both hands behind his head while laying against the flowing wind.
"The moons can actually reach across different continents," he explained casually. "Some continents only see two moons, while others see all three like we do. There are even rare places that only see one."
Marc listened with sparkling eyes.
"The reason for that is because the moons themselves are massive. Their visibility depends on where a continent is positioned across the planet."
Juro smiled faintly while looking toward the glowing moons above them.
"Also, here's another fun fact." His grin widened slightly. "There's something nobody in the world has managed to achieve yet."
"Not even The Greatest Mage… although he got the closest."
Marc's curiosity exploded instantly.
"Oh??????????????? What is it?! Tell me!!"
Juro laughed before answering.
"Not a single race or person has ever fully mapped the entire planet we live on."
Marc froze.
"…WOAAAHHHHH."
His eyes widened even further.
"Really????? No one fully explored the whole world???? Not even him??????"
Juro nodded.
"Mhm."
Bell quietly smiled to himself while listening.
"Yeah… that's true."
"I traveled across hundreds of continents… yet even I couldn't fully grasp the true size of this planet."
The memories of endless lands, oceans, kingdoms, ruins, and skies flashed faintly through his mind.
And despite all of it.
The world still felt unfinished.
Still vast.
Still unknown.
Marc looked completely amazed.
"Woaaa… the world we live in is THAT big?? That's so cool!!! ✨️✨️"
Then another thought suddenly hit him.
"Oh wait.. does that mean the sun is huge too?"
Juro nodded casually.
"Mhm. Way bigger. Like… really big."
Marc looked even more fascinated.
"How big is it?"
Juro shrugged helplessly.
"That, I honestly don't know. I don't remember anyone ever figuring out the exact size of the sun."
Marc stared upward at the sky again.
For some reason, hearing all of this only made something inside him burn even stronger.
A huge world.
Unknown lands.
Unexplored continents.
Things even The Greatest Mage couldn't fully achieve.
Marc slowly smiled.
"For some reason… hearing all this just made me even more motivated… hehe…"
Bell and Juro both quietly smiled after hearing that.
Juro then let out a long yawn and his stomach grumbled.
"Alright, kids. That's enough star gazing for today. Let's head back down and get some dinner."
The flowing air beneath them slowly began descending toward the ground.
"Waahhh… this is so cooool…"
Marc still looked completely amazed by the fact they were casually floating high above the sky using magic.
As the three of them gradually descended back toward the grassy field, Juro casually snapped his fingers.
The magic Shizukesa immediately deactivated.
At once, the sounds of the world returned.
The rustling wind.
The distant insects.
The soft movement of grass.
After landing back onto the field, the three of them began walking toward the village together beneath the glowing night sky.
As they walked back toward the village beneath the moonlit sky, Bell suddenly spoke.
"This is our last night in the village. What are we gonna do next?"
Marc instantly reacted.
"Awwweeee, our last night already????" He puffed his cheeks slightly before sighing dramatically. "But I still wanna read more books about The Greatest Mage and hang out with Alex…"
Juro walked beside them with both hands tucked inside his jacket pockets while thinking for a moment.
"Hmmm…"
Then he smiled.
"Well… we explore."
Marc looked back at him.
Juro continued casually,
"And we can always come back here to visit Alex from time to time."
Marc still looked a little sad hearing they were leaving, but excitement slowly mixed back into his expression at the thought of exploring the outside world.
..
…
Eventually, the three of them finally arrived back at the inn.
Then suddenly.
Marc's eyes lit up.
"Bell! Teacher Juro! Order LOTS of food for our last night here!" He quickly turned around while grinning. "I'll be back!"
Before either of them could ask anything, Marc suddenly sprinted away from the inn.
Bell and Juro exchanged confused looks.
"…What's he doing?" Juro muttered.
Bell lightly shrugged.
…
A few moments later, the two simply sat down and ordered dinner while waiting for Marc to return.
Not long after, bowls of steaming Tinola were brought to their table, the warm scent of ginger and broth filling the air around them.
Right as the food arrived.
The inn doors suddenly opened.
Marc hurried inside with a huge smile on his face.
And behind him.
Were Alex, his mother, and his little sister.
Alex's mother quietly followed behind Marc while carrying her daughter in her arms, looking slightly hesitant about entering.
Meanwhile, Alex nervously trailed behind them.
Marc happily waved them over.
"Hehe, come sit over here!"
Juro immediately understood what Marc was trying to do.
With a small smile, he grabbed another nearby table and pulled it closer to theirs, creating one larger table for everyone to use together.
Alex's mother looked slightly flustered.
"U-Um… it's alright. I only came because I wanted to thank the people who helped me and my children. You really don't need to offer us dinner."
Marc immediately shook his head.
"Cmonnn, it's fine! It's our last day in the village anyway, so why not have one big family dinner together?"
Alex, despite usually being shy, finally gathered enough courage to speak up as well.
"Y-Yeah, Mom… it's okay. They're really nice…" He glanced toward Bell and Marc before quietly adding, "And they're my friends."
For a brief moment, Alex's mother looked slightly emotional after hearing that.
Then finally.
She gave in.
"…Alright."
She sat down beside Juro while her daughter sat on the other side of her.
Meanwhile, the three boys sat across from them together, with Marc positioned right in the middle.
Marc looked around at everyone gathered at the table before smiling brightly.
"Now this is a family dinner!"