Chapter 25: Understanding Knowledge
In the classroom, Scholar Heide once again explained the origins of the current world to everyone.
“After experiencing vast generational changes and shifts in time, the era we live in now is the Ninth Epoch, namely the Covenant Epoch.”
“What is the Covenant?”
“To check the expansion of the Corona Dragon and end the excessively brutal ‘Cataclysm War’, the Fae Monarch and a group of Star Lords made an agreement to divide the boundary between mortals and higher beings. From then on, the Heavenly Courtyard and Earth were separated, with no casual travel allowed between them. Only certain passages and rituals could connect them, while also limiting the intensity of wars, keeping those mythical creatures beyond mortal imagination isolated in the Heavenly Courtyard, no longer able to interfere freely with the worldly Earth.”
“In this epoch, all sides revived from the ruins of the Cataclysm War, re-established nations, and achieved balance. It has been over two thousand years, and now it is the year 2145 of the Covenant Epoch.”
Ninth Epoch, Xilutiya noted in her notebook, marveling at how distant the generations of this world were.
‘Blazing Sun’ and ‘Illusory Moon’ were born in the Third Epoch. They ended the Second Epoch when Heaven and Sea were one, namely the Sky Sea Epoch. Thus, that era when Sun and Moon shone together was called the ‘Sun Moon Epoch’（Third Epoch）.
By the time ‘Blazing Sun’ and ‘Illusory Moon’ split apart, the Third Epoch also reached its end, entering the Fourth Epoch.
……
After class, Xilutiya packed up her book and prepared to get something to eat. At this moment, a female student with chestnut-red hair walked over.
Xilutiya recognized her; her name was Valenie, the daughter of Knight Leven, though the two had hardly spoken.
“You’re called Tiya, right?” Valenie walked over, twirling a strand of hair by her ear with one hand, her brows slightly furrowed.
“Yes.” It felt like it would be something troublesome, the maiden thought.
“I see you take good notes every day. I want to see them.” She directly reached out her hand.
“This…”
Several thoughts flashed through Xilutiya’s mind. Lending the notebook was a small matter, but she suspected the other wouldn’t return it after borrowing it. After all, this girl gave her a bad impression.
In the eyes of nobles, commoners were insignificant existences. If they asked you for something, it was a favor—they thought you should be happy about it.
“I understand.” Xilutiya thought for a moment, took the notebook out of her bag, and handed it over.
Her memory in this life was very good, so she didn’t need the notebook, but the habit from her previous life made her take notes anyway. Plus, it was more reasonable this way—students all took notes.
Once she had it in hand, Valenie flipped through it casually. The maiden’s elegant and refined handwriting, the clearly structured paragraphs, and the diagrams outlined with fine lines gave the notebook a rare beauty.
“Hmph, not bad.” Valenie nodded slightly.
“I’ve remembered you. After graduation, you can come to Wheat Field Town to do clerical work.” Wheat Field Town was Knight Leven’s fiefdom.
In Valenie’s eyes, this was a tremendous favor. Ordinary commoners didn’t have such good prospects, especially girls.
“Thank you.”
At the maiden’s plain response, Valenie glanced at her a few more times before leaving with the notebook.
After the first week passed, the content taught by Scholar Heide gradually deepened. The things he explained were unknown even to educated noble students, and at this point, differences among the students became apparent.
Some might understand at the time but forget immediately after, while others couldn’t understand at all. For the sake of face, they didn’t dare ask in class and could only ask others after.
“What does it mean that ‘Brilliant Moon’ is not ‘Illusory Moon’, but ‘Illusory Moon’ will definitely be reborn in ‘Brilliant Moon’?” Komiya clutched her head in distress.
“Karen, why don’t you look worried at all? Did you understand it?” She turned her head.
“No, I didn’t understand from the start.” Karen sat at the dining table, eating the black bread provided to students.
“Then why aren’t you panicking?” Komiya continued to ask.
“Because I never learn those complicated things anyway.” Karen continued.
“Teacher said that as long as I master the three most important courses well, I can become a good hunter.” She explained.
“But to get high scores, that’s definitely not enough.” Komiya bit her lip.
“Haven’t you thought about getting high scores and then going to the Secluded Forest?”
“That’s too far away for me.” Karen already felt lucky to be studying at Scholar Heide’s place. Coming from a remote village, she didn’t have high ambitions.
“Sigh, I can’t explain it to you.” Komiya boredly slumped on the table, pinching her bread with one hand and feeding it to herself, her whole body like a softened slug.
At this moment, she saw a familiar figure enter the dining room, and her body straightened up again.
“Tiya, over here~” Komiya waved her hand.
Xilutiya carried bread and water she had gotten from the kitchen servants and walked over, sitting across from Komiya.
This dining room was built entirely of stone bricks, with dim lighting. In the middle was a very long table, right next to the kitchen. It was used for casual meals. For formal guests, they used the large dining room in another part of the mansion.
“Tiya, how did your studies go today?” Komiya asked, unable to hold back.
“Pretty good.” The maiden answered plainly as usual, then ate her bread in small bites.
“Pretty good means you understood it?”
“I understood it.” Xilutiya blinked, puzzled why Komiya was asking this.
“Huh? You really understood? Then let me test you.” Komiya was a bit skeptical; she thought she was smart too—her family always said so.
Afterward, Komiya asked again about the question regarding ‘Brilliant Moon’ and ‘Illusory Moon’.
“This one.” Xilutiya put down the piece of bread in her hand.
“It’s actually easy to understand. If you go back and look at how the teacher described the Three Lunar Natures, you’ll get the gist.”
【Brilliant Moon】（Gentle brilliance and spirit, mental activity and beautiful fantasy）
【Mist Shadow】（Absence in the brilliance, vague forms and lightless shadows）
【Nightmare】（Mental destruction, also the disintegration of reason and despair）
“Mist Shadow is the manifestation of absence in the brilliance, Nightmare is the despair of the mind. The two are like companions to Brilliant Moon—one is Brilliant Moon’s shadow, the other its mirror image.”
“In other words, their concepts require Brilliant Moon as a contrast. Without Brilliant Moon, the two would lose their conceptual foundation.”
“Just like how a shadow must have light to back it up, or a reflection in the water must have the original object.”
“This means that if someone wants to recreate the 【Illusory Moon】 nature, they need to use Brilliant Moon as the core, gather the other two, and achieve some strange balance.”
“Thus, there is the teacher’s phrase: ”Brilliant Moon’ is not ‘Illusory Moon’, but ‘Illusory Moon’ will definitely be reborn in ‘Brilliant Moon’.’ ” After finishing the last piece of bread in her hand, Xilutiya had just finished explaining.
“I feel kind of dumb now, wuu.” Komiya now mostly understood, but also realized she might not be as smart as she thought.
