LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 061 – Expressive
Sophia spent most of the day filling her domain with extra magic by using her body to transport her authority through a portal and resetting it in the regular world at the same time. While doing that, she also had a good time with Maya because they used their time off to watch TV and cuddle in their mansion in the capital.
“Again, wow!” Sophia still had difficulties wrapping her head around the fact that her entire vision had turned pink and purple from all the magic particles in the vicinity around her. She wasn’t even sure that she was in the right spot where the cherry blossom forest was planned to grow because she couldn’t even see her lower body because it was just magic particles everywhere. In fact, she could barely see her chest, and her hand disappeared around 20 centimeters away from her face when she tested it out. “It’s actually pretty scary…” She didn’t like how limited her vision was.
“Could you all give me some room to breathe and see?” While saying so, the blonde moved her arms in a way like one would open and part a curtain. Immediately after, the particles started moving and created an empty zone between the tiger and the outskirts of the borrowed cherry blossom forest that was indeed in front of her.
“Much better!” She looked relieved. “Not that I don’t love being surrounded by you all, but I was starting to feel claustrophobic here.” Now that she was actually able to see, the literal walls of pink and purple particles around her seemed even more impressed. “My method was way more effective than I thought, huh? How many times of my regular authority ended up being here?” A second later, a small group of particles split from the wall and moved in front of the tiger. There, it reshaped itself to a floating ‘30x’ in the air.
“Thirty times?!” Her eyes grew wide. “How did that happen?!” Sophia couldn’t believe that it was this much. “But! Regardless of that, that has to be enough for the size, the terrain, and the colors, right?!” The particles in front of the tiger changed again and turned themselves into three checkmarks instead.
“Let’s go!” The blonde energetically raised her hand high in the air. “Wait!” She then looked at the three floating checkmarks in front of her while also tilting her head. "Were you guys always this good at communicating?" The tiger seemed quite confused. Hearing that, the particles then changed themselves into a question mark shape.
“That!” She pointed at them. “Before, you all only moved up and down or from side to side to deny or confirm something or hit me with wind magic when I made you upset! I still easily understood you because there were tons of emotions behind the way you reacted, but I’m getting precise answers now! What changed?” She was certain that something was different. Immediately after those words, the rogue magic particles scattered and merged into the walls around the tiger again.
“Oh, you don't want to tell me, huh?” Sophia then proceeded to sound extra hurt and sad. “And here I thought we would be able to get along even better now… I guess I was wrong…” The instant she finished her sentence, the magic particles got quite active. They began to move around the blonde frantically and created something like a tornado, just even more frantic-looking. “Well, at least it still seems like you’re easy to read. That’s a small relief, I think…” She tried her best to sound even more sad. "A-Ah.” Unfortunately, it backfired, though. Magic saw through her act, and the next thing the blonde noticed was being hit by a powerful gust of wind. It had so much force that it easily lifted her off the ground, but not just that, it was enough to shoot her into the wall of magic particles and made her disappear into it before the tiger even had the chance to react.
“Ha.” It took Sophia around 5 minutes to return to the spot she was blown away from, and it wasn't just because she had difficulties navigating through the dense particles. “Woah! My ears are still ringing because the wind was super loud while flying through the air so fast…" She needed a moment to recover. “You definitely still get very upset about being teased, too. That’s reassuring. In one way or another.”
“Seriously, what changed?” There was no way she would let something like that just slide. “You all definitely got way more expressive! Never before have you used actual signs or even numbers before! WAIT!” She then took a good look around. “Is it because there’s so much of you now? It’s the only thing that actually changed, after all. It certainly can’t be because I brought you all here by expending my authority constantly. It’s impossible for you to get smarter by passing through me. If anything, you’d get dumber.” For some reason, the magic particles completely stopped moving and froze in place.
“HEY!” She didn't like their absolute lack of a reaction. “You can lie for all I care, but don’t stay silent there!” Not moving for another moment, a few particles then formed a ‘thumbs-up’ sign in front of the tiger. “It’s too late now!” She didn’t enjoy being consoled, either.
“ANYWAY!” Sophia decided to not further engage in the topic. The topic she started, that is. “It is because there are more of you now, right? Are you some sort of hivemind?! The more of you there are, the higher your intelligence and capability to think gets? Or at least being able to communicate on a higher level?” The loose particles returned to the others, and all of them began to move just a little bit.
“I’m not actually sure what that reaction means.” The blonde scratched her cheek. “It doesn’t seem to be a no, though?” She stared at them for a while longer. “If that’s actually the case, that’s beyond amazing!” Sophia was getting excited. “The possibilities! They’re endless!” Really excited. “WAIT!” Incredibly excited. “How much ambient magic in one spot is needed for you to actually TALK?! Spoken words and all that!” The ambient magic stopped moving for a moment afterward. Then, a sizeable group of particles separated from the rest and circled around Sophia a couple of times before moving up and down in front of her.
“Yes?” She tilted her head while interpreting their nodding. “Yes, is not a suitable reply to my question!” The tiger got loud. “I can’t believe even you guys are using that sort of non-reply on me! I never should’ve introduced that to this world!” Sophia sounded extra dramatic. “Not telling, huh? Well, I guess I have to find out myself! It’s more fun, too!” Hearing that, the particles got extra cheerful and circled around the tiger at an even higher speed.
"You want me to find out but can't help me too much, is it?" She tried to guess their reaction, and she got a floating checkmark in return. “Stupid rules, but I can see the reasoning. It’s quite big, after all. I can’t wait to talk to you all, though!” She smiled at the floating particles in front of her, who then eagerly swished around all over the place, seemingly being excited, too.
“Alright, let’s play with the forest for the time being.” Sophia decided to change the topic. "Wait!" She reconsidered. “If we go through with the plans and grow the cherry blossom paradise, won’t all of you stop being here? You’ll get used up to convert the area, ri-?!” The blonde wasn’t able to finish her sentence because another gust of wind had sent her flying again.
“No?” The tiger tried to understand why she was sent flying again after she returned a few minutes later. Immediately after, multiple pink and purple floating ‘X’ formed in the air all around her. “Okay, that’s a clear reaction.” Sophia nodded a few times. “Why, though? For the plants to grow, they absorb you, right?” Reacting to that, the particles got very active in front of her. At first, a group of them formed into a cloud. Then, a sparkly pink and purple tree appeared next to it as the particles formed into something resembling it. “Okay?” She looked quite confused. The particles weren’t done, though. The cloud moved into the tree, and it turned twice as big. A little while later, many pink and purple particles began shooting out of the tree's crown like a fountain. After it was done, the tree still had the same big size, but the cloud that got absorbed later was back and had more than three times the previous size.
“Soo…” Sophia needed a minute to let it sink in. “Right, if plants turn magical, they start radiating raw magic into their surroundings, which then help the other plants grow, and so on and so forth.” She nodded a few times while remembering that part. “Rather than being used, you just change purpose for a while before returning stronger than ever?” Hearing the tiger come to that conclusion, the magic particles stopped their play, and a few of them formed into a thumbs-up shape. Even more so, the thumbs-up then moved in front of the sparkly tree while a thumbs-down appeared in front of the regular pink and purple cloud.
“Hmm?” She tilted her head. “You want to be useful…?” It was the only thing the blonde could think of. “Just being a massive pile of sparkly particles is no fun, and you'd rather be productive?" The particles then only showed a thumbs-up reaction before getting rowdy and swirling around Sophia a couple of times in an excited manner. "Ah, I see!" She started smiling. "Fair enough! It makes sense that you guys work a little differently! I still want to get enough ambient magic that I can talk to you, though! Well, I guess having a massive forest that constantly generates more of you would help there, huh?”
“Alright, let’s finally get started on our cherry blossom paradise!” Sophia energetically raised her arm while the particles around her only increased their pace, too.
Afterward, once the complicated topic was over, they finally got to work on what had been planned hours before.
