The Cornflower Witch Chapter 25

Chapter 25: Understanding of Knowledge

In class, Scholar Hyde once again recounted the history of the current world.

“After vast generations of change and the passage of time, the era we are currently in is the Ninth Epoch, also known as the Covenant Epoch.”

“What is a covenant?”

“In order to curb the expansion of the Corona Dragon and end the extremely brutal ‘Cataclysm War’, the Fairy Lord and a group of Hour Lords agreed to draw a line between mortals and higher beings. From then on, the Heavenly Court and the Earth were separated, and free passage was forbidden, with only certain passages and rituals available to connect them. At the same time, the intensity of warfare was limited, so that mythical creatures beyond human imagination were isolated in the Heavenly Court and could no longer arbitrarily interfere with the mundane world.”

“In this epoch, all parties revived from the ruins of the Cataclysm War, re-established their nations, and achieved a balance. More than two thousand years have passed, and it is now the year 2145 of the Covenant Epoch.”

The Ninth Epoch, Hylial noted in her notebook, marveling at the ancientness of this world’s eras.

The ‘Scorching Sun’ and ‘Phantom Moon’ were born in the Third Epoch. They ended the second epoch, the Sky Sea Epoch, when the sky and sea were one. Thus, that era of sun and moon shining together was called the ‘Sun-Moon Epoch’ (Third Epoch).

When the ‘Scorching Sun’ and ‘Phantom Moon’ split, the Third Epoch also reached its end, entering the Fourth Epoch.

…

After class, Hylial packed her books, intending to get something to eat, when a female student with chestnut-red hair approached her.

Hylial recognized her; her name was Valeni, and she was Knight Leven’s daughter, though they had never really spoken before.

“Your name is Lia, right?” Valeni walked up, twirling a strand of hair by her ear, her brow slightly furrowed.

“Yes.” This might be a bit troublesome, the girl thought.

“I see your notes are very good every day. I want to see them,” she said, directly reaching out her hand.

“This…”

Several thoughts crossed Hylial’s mind. Lending her notes was a small matter, but she suspected that if the other party borrowed them, she would never return them, especially since this person had not left a good impression on her.

In the eyes of nobles, commoners were insignificant. If they asked you for something, it meant they thought highly of you, and you should be happy.

“I understand.” Hylial thought for a moment, took her notes out of her bag, and handed them over.

Her memory in this life was excellent, and she didn’t really need the notes, but her habits from her previous life still made her take notes. Besides, this was more reasonable; all students took notes.

After receiving them, Valeni casually flipped through the notebook. The girl’s elegant and clear handwriting, the well-arranged paragraphs, and the diagrams outlined with fine lines gave the notebook a rare beauty.

“Hmph, not bad,” Valeni nodded slightly.

“I’ll remember you. After graduation, you can come to Wheatfield Town for a clerical job.” Wheatfield Town was Knight Leven’s fief.

In Valeni’s eyes, this was a great favor. Ordinary commoners, especially women, didn’t have such good career prospects.

“Thank you.”

At the girl’s bland response, Valeni glanced at her a few more times, then took the notes and left.

After the first week, Scholar Hyde’s lessons gradually deepened. The topics he taught were unfamiliar even to educated noble students, and at this point, the differences among the students became apparent.

Some might understand in class but forget it immediately, while others might not understand at all and, for the sake of appearances, wouldn’t ask questions in class, only to ask others after class.

“What does it mean that ‘Blazing Sun’ is not ‘Phantom Moon’, and ‘Phantom Moon’ will definitely be reborn in ‘Blazing Sun’?” Komia covered her head in distress.

“Karen, why don’t you look worried at all? Did you understand?” She turned her head.

“No, I didn’t understand from the beginning,” Karen said, sitting at the dining table, eating the black bread provided to the students.

“Then why aren’t you panicking?” Komia continued to ask.

“Because I can’t learn those complicated things anyway,” Karen continued.

“The teacher said that as long as I master the three most important subjects, I can be a good hunter,” she explained.

“But that’s definitely not enough to get a high score,” Komia bit her lip.

“Don’t you ever think about getting a high score and going to the Hidden Forest?”

“That’s too far for me,” Karen felt very fortunate to be studying with Scholar Hyde. As someone from a remote village, she didn’t have high aspirations.

“Oh, I can’t explain it to you,” Komia slumped onto the table, bored, feeding herself bread with one hand, looking like a limp slug.

At this moment, she saw a familiar figure enter the dining hall, and her body straightened up again.

“Lia, over here~” Komia waved.

Hylial carried the bread and water she got from the kitchen servant and walked over, sitting across from Komia.

The dining hall was built entirely of stone bricks and was dimly lit. A long table was placed in the middle, right next to the kitchen. It was used for casual meals, while formal guests would be entertained in another large dining room in the mansion.

“Lia, how was your study today?” Komia asked impatiently.

“It was alright,” the girl replied calmly, then took small bites of her bread.

“Alright means you understood?”

“Yes, I understood,” Hylial blinked, puzzled as to why Komia was asking.

“Oh? You really understood? Then let me test you,” Komia was a little skeptical. She thought she was quite intelligent herself; her family members always told her so.

Komia then asked about the ‘Blazing Sun’ and ‘Phantom Moon’ again.

“This is it,” Hylial put down her slice of bread.

“It’s actually quite easy to understand if you look back at how the teacher described the three aspects of the moon’s attributes.”

[Blazing Sun] (Gentle radiance and spirit, mental activity and beautiful fantasies)

[Mist Shadow] (Absence of radiance, vague forms, and lightless shadows)

[Nightmare] (Mental destruction, also the collapse of reason and despair)

“Mist Shadow is the manifestation of the absence of radiance, and Nightmare is the despair of the spirit. They are both like companions to the Blazing Sun; one is the shadow of the Blazing Sun, and the other is its mirror image.”

“In other words, their concepts require the Blazing Sun as a reference. If there were no Blazing Sun, both would lose the conceptual anchor for their existence.”

“Just like a shadow must have light as a backdrop, and a reflection in water must have the original object.”

“This means that if someone wants to recreate the ‘Phantom Moon’ aspect, they need to use the Blazing Sun as the core to condense the other two, achieving a certain strange balance.”

“And that’s where the teacher’s saying, ‘Blazing Sun is not Phantom Moon, and Phantom Moon will definitely be reborn in Blazing Sun,’ comes from.” Hylial finished explaining just as she ate the last piece of bread.

“I feel a bit stupid,呜” Komia now roughly understood, but she also realized that she might not be as intelligent as she thought.