Chapter 101: Lower-Rank Angel
The Heavenly Mountain, the Saints, lower-rank angels, and the Celestial Finch’s pure holy light attribute magic power—Janna had long been suspicious about them, but bound by contract, she had been unable to verify her guesses.
Now, through a few offhand remarks from the Celestial Finch, she finally had an inkling of its true origins.
“So it turns out that the magical creature I formed a contract with actually hails from the Holy Realm of Heaven...”
She pondered this silently.
Though the Celestial Finch always referred to its home as “Heavenly Mountain,” it often let slip terms like “Holy Light,” “Lord of Light,” and “Honored Saint”—names far too unusual to be coincidental.
These had always made Janna harbor suspicions about the Celestial Finch’s background.
Until today, when Janna, using her [Spirit Phase Travel] talent, accidentally encountered the “Honored Saint” that the Celestial Finch often spoke of.
Even though the holy light at that time was blinding, Janna could still discern from the outline that this figure matched the depiction in the Illustrated Encyclopedia of Magical Creatures she had once read in the library—a lower-rank angel with the strength comparable to a First Tier Wizard, specifically a two-winged Archangel.
“Angels” were an exceedingly rare but exceptionally powerful type of humanoid magical creature aligned with holy light.
They generally resided in the Holy Realm of Heaven and rarely appeared in the mortal world.
Aside from occasionally descending with divine oracles to subordinate planes, there was little factual information about them, even in the Wizarding World.
Since the Celestial Finch had such a close relationship with that “Saint” angel, its origins were clearly far more than just a low-grade holy light sprite.
Even if it always acted pitifully, from what Janna knew, creatures that surrounded angels were usually all holy light reserves with potential to ascend into angels themselves.
Ordinary magical creatures simply couldn’t survive in the Holy Realm of Heaven, where magic was so utterly pure.
“Aph, you once said you would never lie to me, right?”
“Of course, Master. Aph would never deceive you——”
Looking at the Celestial Finch’s utterly sincere expression, the smile on Janna’s face became even more genuine.
“Alright then, let me ask you—does a place called Heavenly Mountain really exist in the Spirit Realm?”
“Ah—this—”
Upon hearing Janna’s question, a flicker of panic flashed across the small bird’s face.
“I’m sorry, Master. These are secrets that the Holy Light absolutely forbids me to reveal. If Aph says anything, the all-knowing Holy Light will surely punish me——”
“It’s alright, Aph. I was just asking. It’s fine if you don’t answer.”
Seeing how troubled the Celestial Finch looked, Janna’s suspicions only solidified.
Though the Celestial Finch was highly intelligent for a magical creature, it still couldn’t outmatch Janna.
Like a naive child, it frequently and unwittingly gave away information that it probably shouldn’t have.
Such as “Holy Light,” or “Lower-Rank Angel”...
Had the Celestial Finch not talked so much, Janna might have avoided these topics out of deference to some vague taboo.
But she couldn’t stop the bird from revealing things on its own.
“The Holy Realm of Heaven is one of the Spirit Realm’s most purely magical domains. It contains formidable laws of nature, rivaling even the Primary Material Plane—especially the Law of Purification...”
“And if the Celestial Finch is a holy light reserve, then its path of advancement won’t be as simple as just being a light-aligned sprite——”
Making silent calculations in her heart, Janna looked at the Celestial Finch perched earnestly on her shoulder and once again showed her warmest, gentlest smile.
“It’s alright now, Aph. You can go rest early.”
“Ah, alright—”
Seeing that Janna wasn’t angry about the secrecy, the anxious Celestial Finch finally let out a relieved sigh from its little beak.
“Then I’ll go now, Master.”
“Go ahead.”
With a flash of milky white light, the now-relieved Celestial Finch vanished into the Contract Array under Janna’s soft gaze.
“All things should proceed step by step. As for the Law of Purification... there’s no rush just yet.”
After all, Janna had only just mastered the [Spirit Phase Travel] talent. She had yet to fully tap into the potential of this A-level gift. Once she advanced further, she would have ample time to study her talents in depth.
In the days that followed, besides attending classes and her job as usual, Janna devoted most of her energy to daily meditation and preparing materials for the Contract Summoning Ritual.
Because the ritual required many spiritual ingredients, she had already anticipated a significant hit to her finances.
However, for some reason, whenever she finished class and was about to return to the dormitory, a crowd of apprentices would surround her, eagerly asking all kinds of questions about spellcasting.
And without her prompting, they would proactively hand over Gold Surrel before even asking.
At first, Janna was a bit baffled by this. But as more and more paid consultations rolled in, her pace of collecting money only grew quicker.
In just a few days, she managed to earn enough to cover the cost of the spiritual materials.
“I hope Professor Margaret continues teaching more advanced spellcasting classes. That way, I can keep this quite lucrative side job going a bit longer.”
Knowledge might be priceless, but once learned, it no longer generated ongoing income from those whose needs had already been met.
As a result, after a surge in popularity, the consultation trend sharply declined these past few days, and there wasn’t much left for Janna to capitalize on.
“Miss Janna, you’ve got a message.”
“A message? From whom?”
Just as she was about to push open the dormitory door, the Door Spirit called out to her from within the frame.
“It’s a verbal message from Miss Vivian’s messenger. She said: ‘I’ll be back in a couple of days, so wait for me obediently, okay? I’ve got a big surprise to show you~ That’s all.’”
The Door Spirit, mimicking Vivian’s tone with uncanny accuracy, repeated her message in a high-pitched voice. Despite the perfect imitation, Janna still couldn’t help but frown.
“Alright, got it. Just relay messages normally next time. No need to mimic the sender’s voice.”
“Understood, Miss Janna.”
With a soft thud, she closed the door. As she gazed at the crimson-tinged evening sky outside the window, the constant tension in her body finally began to ease.
“Caw—Caw—”
As the days grew longer, the rooks perched on the tree vines became increasingly active.
A sudden loud caw startled the surrounding apprentices, drawing grumbles of annoyance.
“With everything ready, it’s about time to start meditating—”