Christie was well aware of her dearest father’s competence with the disciplines of Agatecraft, but it was ridiculous at this point.

  “Ugh, I want to puke,” her ladylove said as soon as she stepped across a Gate and appeared on the gazebo.

  “Yet another thing you have to work on,” the vulpine patriarch said smugly.

  “I would have been far better if you had not made me do all those pirouettes,” Agatha gagged and collapsed on the bench of the gazebo.

  Esmeralda, who had been conversing with Christie until now, served her daughter herbal tea with a smile on her face. These parents of ours are a bit too sadistic with their delight, Christie pondered as she drank from her own cup. As she couldn’t control Heat agates for long, it was the brassy seamstress who used one of her agates as a tea plate to keep the tea hot.

  “That is very much part of the instruction,” her dearest father said, and Christie was inclined to believe that – whatever that instruction was – it definitely wasn’t part of it. “For now, you can rest. But you should practice both in the proficiency with the series and your endurance. Back in my days, we would have scouts flying for whole days, you cannot tire in a single hour, girl.”

  Agatha groaned in response to that, and Hasel just smiled heartily as he walked back into the state. Gates weren’t such a casual affair after all if he decided to do so. As for Christie, she hummed in delight.

  “Something wrong?” Her ladylove squinted at her with unprecedented exhaustion.

  “No, not at all,” the redhead placed her cup on the lithic plate. “It is just that I have never seen my dearest father this vigorous in my life. I cannot believe I was once against sharing our relationship. He adores you.”

  “I adore you too, Christina.” Both Agatha and Christie turned to face at Esmeralda who had just talked. They squinted at her. “Okay, okay. My presence is not appreciated here, I get it… Treating me like a third wheel…” The grown woman muttered that softly in the end as she also retreated into the mansion, but Christie still heard it.

  “So,” Christie giggled as she heard those murmurs, “how has the lesson gone?”

  Her ladylove raised a finger as she practically shoved the teacup into her mouth and downed the contents in a single gulp and then set it down on the plate.

  “Contrary to what you might think, it has actually gone surprisingly well,” the seamstress finally said.

  “Oh, really?” The nouveau riche couldn’t help but smile at those words. Perhaps it was because they were uttered by her girlfriend – and that never failed to make her smile – or perhaps because of the tone she had used that was amusing.

  “Oh, do not act so smugly,” Agatha pouted. “It has actually gone smoothly. There was only a slight hiccup at the end. Otherwise, a very productive lesson. I would not have learned so much in a single hour with any other person in the whole world.”

  “Glad to know that my dearest father was of usage,” Christie pressed her cheeks against her palms as she rested her elbows on the table. “So, what have you learned?”

  “For starters? That commands can hurt your head far more than I had ever imagined.”

  The redhead remained quiet there. For better or worse, she had never experienced any mental pain when performing lithorica, so she wasn’t qualified to speak in favor or against it. How queer that it is the same with physical exhaustion and lapiloquia now, Christie giggled at her own thoughts, which made her ladylove raise a brow.

  “Do not mind me,” Christie smiled at her. “So what five-command series are you using to make your head hurt that much?”

  “It is more like two five-command series than a five-command series.”

  Now it was the redhead’s turn to raise a brow. “Pardon my ignorance, but should you only be able to perform a single five-command series, Agatha?”

  “Well, technically speaking, when I use Duplicate on an agate, the command is part of that series.”

  “Ah,” Christie gasped, then snorted as she realized the seamstress was just inflating her achievements. “Even I know that the Duplicate command has no mental load whatsoever, so stop boasting and tell me what commands you are using, mock sapphire. The suspense is killing me.”

  “Oh, having you dying is the last thing that I would want, dummy doll!” Agatha said theatrically.

  That annoyed Christie a lot – she couldn’t state quite why – but it was enough for her to flick a finger on her ladylove’s forehead.

  “Ouch…” The blonde stated dryly as she covered her forehead. “How is it that you always resort to violence when nothing comes your way?”

  Even though Agatha said it as a jest, that made Christie petrified on the spot. She is… right. This is not the first time I have done it…

  “Oh, I am so sorry, Agatha…” She apologized as she truly felt sorry.

  “Er… I was joking, Christie,” her ladylove awkwardly scratched the back of her head.

  “I know, I know,” the redhead nodded and grabbed the petite girl’s free hand. “But that does not make it less true. I do not know why I react so… primally. Even if they are light touches, I should not do these things to you…”

  Agatha looked at her with a mixed and indescribable expression. Most of the time, it was already hard to think what a person was thinking – accurately thinking without any speculation – but now Christie found herself totally blind. She hated that, for she thought she closely knew her ladylove after a whole year of dating. She wanted to be so intimately close to her that she knew her every thought as if it were her own, even if it wasn’t possible.

  “Christie,” the blonde muttered softly as she indicated with a finger for the redhead to get close.

  She did; not wanting to antagonize her girlfriend.

  Then Agatha pressed her lips against Christie’s. Ah, the lapiloquist found herself moaning mentally and audibly as a tongue infiltrated into her mouth and answered in kind. She melted in her ladylove’s arms, practically collapsing on the bench of the gazebo as Agatha held her with her arms, not mattering if she was only half as massive as the redhead. Christie felt Agatha’s hands creep on her nape and hair, and that only sent shivers of happiness all around her body.

  But like all radiant and good things, it came to an end as the blonde finally separated her lips from the redhead’s, a bridge of saliva hanging between them – showing the deep intimacy of the exchange – before it ultimately collapsed.

  “I do not care for such things, so stop worrying, dummy doll,” Agatha was blushing as she spoke, but that didn’t make her words with any less gravitas. If anything, her ladylove was as solid and grounded as a mountain.

  “Mhmm~” Christie grunted affirmatively, drunk on love. Ah, how weak I am. One single gesture is enough to bring me to my knees… She loved steering Agatha, but she also loved being steered by her. “…It has been a while since we have kissed this way,” she added softly at the end with a blush of her own.

  “It, indeed, has been,” Agatha giggled and combed her fingers through the redhead’s fiery mane. “Now,” her tone became deeper, “could you stand up, Christie. You are kind of smashing my leg with your body.”

  Christie snapped out of her lovesick stupor, and she noticed her half-prone position that poured most of her weight onto her ladylove.

  “Sorry!” She squealed as she stood up.

  “No problem, no problem,” the lithorist giggled as she dusted her legs. “But it is more than enough knowing that you have no more dummy ideas in that beautiful head of yours.” Agatha smiled radiantly at her, which made Christie blush even more. “Should I finally explain the series?”

  The redhead was left agape for a moment before she responded. “S-sure, be my guest.”

  “So your father taught me how to use two series. Well, more like one because I already knew the Amplify Speed Control Anchor.”

  “So you are using one duplicated agate with the series that you use for your platform without any new changes?” Her ladylove nodded at her words. “So what about the other free agate with the four free command slots?”

  “Ah, this one is interesting. I do use the four slots, but first, there is some preliminary work.”

  “Oh?” Christie raised a brow. “Can I see it?”

  “Sure,” Agatha jumped out of the bench, even if she had been completely exhausted only a handful of minutes earlier.

  Her ladylove first summoned the platform Christie was used to. It looked ever-so-slightly smaller as the increase of Strata wasn’t an exact twofold increase in mass – more like ninety percent – of Agatha’s sapphire. With the other agate, the lithorist summoned a set of angled dual blades joint by a pointy nexus. The blades were very thin and curved, not exactly the ones you would see in a water or windmill. Those were tools of the past that Christie still couldn’t believe existed, but at the same time, it was free energy when lithorica was normally accompanied by a headache for most people, especially for laborers limited to one command.

  “Let me guess,” the redhead started, “you use the Spin command to move these blades to create thrust but…” She now realized a problem in her assumption. “How would they even connect to the platform?”

  “Whoa,” the blonde looked at her with something short of adoration. “How did you guess all of that?”

  Christie chuckled. “Well, you have said it, guess. I am good at connecting things. And from how you have said it, I guess I was right too?”

  “Yup,” Agatha nodded. “Though for being good at connecting things, you did not connect that I was in love with you until I kissed you.”

  Stolen novel; please report.

  The lapiloquist pouted at those words, but instead of saying anything, she stood from the white bench of the gazebo, strolled right in front of her ladylove, and flicked another finger at her forehead.

  “Ouch! This is downright abuse!” The lithorist protested, but instead of being disgusted with herself this time, Christie smiled and raised a hand to comb the blonde’s hair. After two years of using the cosmetics provided by the academy, it was incomparably soft. Even more than Christie’s.

  “I have seen you sparring. You have the best reflexes out there,” she then approached her mouth to the petite girl’s ear, practically having to squat to do so. “If you are getting hit, it is because you like it.”

  “Ah!” Agatha let out a drowned squeal as she backstepped and covered her face.

  A useless endeavor as Christie could see the blush covering her whole visage. ‘I should not have forgiven and given free rein to you,’ that was what her dual sapphires were telling the redhead. And that made it more exciting. Ah, I do not know any longer if I want to be fulgurated by your radiance or devour you whole. It was hard for the tall girl to decide what to do with her monstrously cute girlfriend. And even harder to contain herself from doing either of those things.

  “So, what series do you apply to this construct?” Christie snickered and walked to the side to slide a finger down the suspended dual blades.

  Agatha pouted at her, both irritated yet satisfied by the teasing – Christie could see it, if not outright taste it – and sighed before finally talking.

  “This series here is quite interesting,” she said with a neutral voice, as if the teasing hadn’t happened. “What I am using is Amplify Spin Range Embed. Well, not using right now, there is only Control Anchor at the moment, but you get the idea.”

  “Yes, I do,” Christie smiled, but then hummed in thought. “Range Embed, huh? What does that do?”

  “You want to know, eh?” Agatha chuckled and smiled back at her. Radiantly, of course. “How about you experience it firsthand? Try pushing the blades forward.”

  Christie squinted at the proposition, but she saw no harm in trying. She pressed her palm against the blades and pushed softly, as she knew that they only weighed around a kilogram and they could only move forward due to Control Anchor. Though even that measly weight would be nullified by both Control and Anchor. And, of course, with the slightest of touches, it advanced.

  “What was that test abo…” The words died in Christie’s mouth as she turned to speak to her ladylove, only to see that the platform behind the blades had also moved. “It cannot be, can it?”

  Agatha smiled and shrugged at her words, which made the redhead push the blades yet again, only that now she was looking at the platform as she did so. And when she pushed one, the other one pranced.

  “Oh,” she gasped.

  “That was my same reaction,” the lithorist said with a giggle.

  “So Range with Embed works like when applied to Invert Summon?” The lapiloquist theorized aloud as this time she pulled from the blades instead of pushing, and the platform answered in kind by moving at the opposite direction from before.

  “Not… quite,” Agatha revealed. “I think the logic between the two series is the same, but it does not work equally by virtue of Invert Summon Range having my normal command range as its effective range, while Range Embed only has a fraction of my summoning range. Also, do not ask me why it is Range Embed and not Embed Range like it would be with Invert Summon Range.”

  Christie had thought about it but hadn’t commented on it. It is probably due to semantics as it is being embedded at a distance… but I am just shooting in the dark.

  “Hmm, interesting,” Christie nodded. “We have been told in classes and in the textbook that commands have different scaling with variables like Strata and quality, but I never thought that those scalings would apply to series too. How queer.”

  “Yup, and it is definitely a mess for my head to take into account. So many variables. And then the Protect command also has its own scaling on a command basis… It is just nonsensical chaos.”

  But what if there is a formula? People usually told Christie that she was really good at math, or at least, in mental calculus; but she didn’t think the same. She simply saw the world differently from most people. The numbers were there, and they had a correlation.

  “What fraction of the summoning range is the Range Embed series?” The redhead inquired, a part of her head itching with interest.

  “Uh… I cannot say. Your father reached a bit more than two meters, but I can only do like a meter and a half.”

  “Hmm…” Christie put her hands between the blades and the platform, and after extending them, confirmed that it was roughly a meter and a half. Not that much of a difference, but Agatha has definitely far better quality agates. “Do you happen to know my dearest father’s highest Strata?”

  “You do not know?”

  “I have not bothered to ask, and he has not bothered to say, but I have the feeling he would answer me if I were to do so. Anyhow, do you know?”

  “Yeah, I just heard today. Seventh Stratum.”

  “Oh, you are close.” Surprisingly close.

  “I was amazed too when I heard it!” Her ladylove giggled with a mixture of joy and nervousness. Hearing that one was close to a miner in might ought to set some expectations.

  “Agatha, could you try to recreate the length of my dearest father’s Embed gap with your agates with the maximum accuracy possible?”

  “Uh, sure.” The seamstress elongated the existing platform instead of recalling her agates, until it stopped growing. “I think this should be around it. I am… ninety-four percent sure.”

  Christie giggled at her ladylove’s oddly specific number and ran her own in her mind. Seventh Stratum. Fifth Stratum. Summoning range formula is one hundred times strata – minus one hundred to offset for the First Stratum – centimeters. One hundred centimeters. Around two hundred and twenty centimeters. Hmm…

  “Two point seven…” She murmured under her breath.

  “What?” Agatha inquired. “Did you say something?”

  “No, nothing,” Christie dismissed it with a smile. It sounds eerily similar to the natural logarithm we learned in calculus class, but I guess it is just a coincidence. If only I had accurate numbers… “I think we have lost too much time with random scaling,” she continued smiling even if that part of her head continued to itch, “so how about you show me these dual series in action?”

  “I am a bit tired still, but…” Her ladylove giggled radiantly yet ever-so-slightly in a vulpine manner. Dearest father has been a bad influence, I can tell… Christie stated empirically without any margin of error. “I believe we can run a test this afternoon.”

  ***

  Christie couldn’t deny that she felt a bit nervous as her ladylove summoned the flying contraption before them. She had at least changed into warm and closed clothes after Agatha’s warning, but if anything, that only made her more nervous.

  “All passengers aboard!” The lithorist enthusiastically said after she mounted her platform.

  The platform was slightly shaped like a saddle – with handles and all – to maximize grip and comfort whilst still being resistant and thick enough to not snap. After all, these platforms were pretty thin due to just being a kilogram of agate. If I could hold my agates for more than a few minutes, then I could give them Control and give us a massive and weightless platform instead of a glorified stick… Christie lamented her inability as she mounted the thin platform. She required no help as her legs were more than long enough to stride over it.

  “Either grab me or the handles I put in place,” her ladylove told her, and the redhead opted to grab her. Tightly. “You are not scared, are you?”

  “I have… more or less beaten my fear of heights as I am aware that I am virtually immune to fall damage, but… I am not immune to my instinctual fright,” Christie said softly as she pressed her body against Agatha’s. “Now that I think about it, is it not a bad idea to do this after just having eaten?”

  “Probably!” The blonde giggled as the platform started to rise from the ground. Even if they were two on top of it, the Amplify Speed plus Control on the lithic platform was enough to separate them from the ground at a handful of meters per second, as Agatha’s agate was just in a constant increase of quality. This speed couldn’t even compare to when the big sapphire was a little sapphire at the Third Stratum and they had to run from a behemoth.

  “Should we not try la-“

  “Too late!” Agatha shouted and the blades on the front of the contraption started spinning.

  Fast. Very fast.

  The Amplify Spin downright terrified Christie as the blades went from static to static. But even more frightening was the sudden change of speed. If it weren’t because she had been holding onto her ladylove for dear life, Christie was one hundred percent sure she would have fallen out of this fractured contraption. They went from a standstill to a speed far faster than she had ever experienced in her life in a matter of seconds.

  And she had experienced quite fast speeds!

  Crown in the heavens! Christie tried to scream, but air just rushed into her mouth, impeding her from doing so. Even looking forward was hard from all the wind, even if the rotor in the front was creating a bubble free of current for them. That was just how bad the wind was. The redhead blinked repeatedly from trying to avoid her eyes drying out, yet from her privileged position, she could stare directly at Agatha’s face.

  Ah, Christie moaned mentally because physics didn’t allow her to do so physically. What she saw was a gorgeous blonde with a massive grin and wide open eyes, completely undisturbed from the harsh environment as she enjoyed herself. Yes, I really love this Agatha too. This fulgurating, radiant, and megalithic Agatha.

  The nouveau riche closed her eyes, for she knew she had nothing to fear with her girlfriend around. Dearest father told me to eat the world, but why do so when Agatha is going to enjoy doing so far more than I ever will? Christie had no need for such glory or thrill, but seeing her ladylove enjoy herself so much made her heartbeat accelerate. How can you be this gorgeous?

  She was really tempted to kiss Agatha there, but knowing how embarrassed her girlfriend could get, Christie held herself back and allowed her to drive. Even if Christie could significantly reduce any impact with a coffin of agates wielding Control, they were moving so fast and flying low enough that she wasn’t sure she would react in enough time to summon all of her agates in time if a collision were to happen.

  Depths, I should really tell her to fly even higher later. Christie now felt a morbid tranquility. She knew that death constantly surrounded her, so her body couldn’t just bring itself to worry. It was almost a… pleasant feeling.

  The blades on the front stopped spinning after a handful of minutes – not that many, truth be told – and Christie could finally hear her own thoughts without needing to scream to herself. The decelerating process went into phases. The first one was very rough as the speed declined abruptly and almost made the redhead fly away from the sheer inertia – by virtue of her ladylove not being able to control the magnitude of her commands – but the next one was more controlled until they were brought to a halt. The peculiarity of the movement made Christie believe that her ladylove had changed the Amplify command for Control, as it would align with what she experienced.

  Once they no longer experienced horizontal speed, the contraption started to descend. Christie couldn’t even take in the views because even the vertical speed was surprisingly fast. It took but a handful of seconds for them to be on firm ground again.

  The moment Christie’s boots touched the ground, the platform that sat between her thighs vanished, and whilst it startled her, she was able to recover her equilibrium and avoid an embarrassing fall. She was so tall that when the elongated sapphire had been recalled, Agatha hadn’t been touching the ground. But of course, a bit of a drop wasn’t a problem for the feline seamstress as she landed with ease. Hmm, squirrels are also known for being able to land from heights with ease…

  “I would appreciate a warning, mock sapphire,” she harrumphed.

  “Sorry, sorry,” her sciurine girlfriend chuckled. “But you cannot deny it is the best way to dismount.”

  “Best? Doubtful. Quickest? Without a doubt,” Christie snickered. “Your advice on warm clothes was correct. I felt rather comfortable up there, but next time we should add some ear protection to the list. Perhaps a whole helmet as my hair was also wavering like a flag.”

  “Yeah, my bad,” Agatha scratched her head. “But if those are your only critiques, I guess the rest of the journey was fine?”

  “The landing – in specific the deceleration – could do with a bit of work, but yes. Though if you want to do long journeys, there is a lot more to do. Perhaps I can even help there myself.”

  “Glad to hear that,” she also clutched her forehead with the other hand. “But sure, any help is appreciated.”

  “Are you alright, Agatha?” The redhead put a hand on the blonde’s shoulder.

  “Oh, yes. It is nothing.” Christie squinted at her. “It really is nothing, dummy doll!” The seamstress jolted at the accusatory glance. “It is only that I am using eight commands simultaneously – technically ten, but no one counts Duplicate – and I am not used to it.”

  “It has only been a handful of minutes…”

  “Now? Yes. Before? Not only a handful,” the lithorist chuckled darkly. “If lithorica has taught me something it is that the exhaustion of the mind can also build up like the exhaustion of the body. I need even more practice if I want to fly from the estate to the academy.”

  “We moved quite fast in these few minutes; would you happen to know how long it would take for you to fly from the capital to the barony?”

  “Uh…” Agatha rubbed her temples and pressed her back against a tree as she thought. “If Hasel’s claims on these series and fractured contraption are true, then it should take me around ten hours to make it to Knight’s Ascent.”

  Christie became petrified.

  Lithified.

  Two weeks down to ten hours? She couldn’t even believe what she was hearing. So in her bewilderment, her speechcraft completely left her body and she could only utter a single word with the cadence of someone who might have been dropped as a child.

  “What?”

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