CHAPTER 62: ENLIGHTENMENT

"Milady, all tasks have been completed." The young maids, with composed demeanor, followed

Alice closely and reported the day’s situation. Since Losiya left, Alice was undoubtedly the most authoritative figure in the manor, perhaps even in the entire territory. During the day, after issuing instructions concerning the manor, she had gone out to inspect various parts of the land. When she returned at night, it was these maids’ reports she listened to.

"Mm, you may go rest now." Alice nodded calmly after listening to the report.

It had to be said that, at least within the manor, compared to the kind and approachable Lady Catherine and the easygoing Lord Losiya, this cold and indifferent head maid Alice was the one the girls feared most.

So, upon hearing Alice confirm they could go rest, they all unconsciously sighed in relief, respectfully saluted, then left in small groups.

Soon, the manor shifted from its slightly lively atmosphere to complete tranquility.

Alice walked to the dining table and, with a gesture, extinguished all the lights. The entire first floor of the manor was now immersed in peaceful darkness.

Standing in this shadowy silence was her favorite state. With her eyes closed, she could perceive everything within the manor purely through her senses.

Except, of course, the room upstairs shared by Lady Catherine and Julian.

After a moment’s hesitation, Alice ultimately chose not to interfere. She silently laid traps around the manor’s perimeter, then slowly vanished into the darkness.

Meanwhile, in the room on the second floor—

Lady Catherine and Julian sat with their fingers interlocked, their faces extremely close, almost touching.

But the two were not engaging in anything ambiguous. From the glowing, sealed magic circuits on their bodies and their closed eyes, it was clear they were engaged in a very serious matter.

A long time passed before Lady Catherine opened her eyes, gazing at Julian’s exquisite profile, her eyes filled with appreciation.

It had been less than a week since he awakened the Holy Mark, yet the speed of his magical power accumulation was unbelievably fast.

Julian then opened his eyes. The feeling of ’linking’ hands with Lady Catherine felt as though he had just been carried through a difficult game by a top-tier player. He had completely let go, trusting her fully. As her magic tide receded, the stagnant circuits within him suddenly flowed freely.

"Your current magic level in the lower tier is almost at the peak," Lady Catherine commented.

"Already? That fast?" Julian expressed his disbelief.

From what he had learned, besides the tiers of Holy Marks, magical power itself was also divided into levels.

"You must understand, the Holy Mark and magic aren’t calculated separately—they are one and the same." Lady Catherine patiently explained.

"The majority of mid-zone transcendents can only reach mid-zone levels of magic. Even if a lower-tier Holy Mark user can step into the mid-tier, they’re often among the weakest of that tier."

"Likewise, even if a mid-tier transcendent manages to reach the upper-tier, they’re usually still the weakest within that group."

"On this continent, no innate gift has ever guaranteed one can become a transcendent. But as long as someone awakens an upper-tier Holy Mark, they are destined to become an upper-tier transcendent by adulthood, because magical power grows naturally with age, and few methods exist to artificially boost it."

"There was once a mage named Merlin who categorized magical power units: below 10,000 was lower-tier; between 10,000 and 100,000 was mid-tier."

"As for upper-tier..."

Due to her angle, Julian’s face was tilted just enough for his white-flowered right eye to catch her attention. She paused, stunned, before regaining focus and continuing.

"100,000 to 1,000,000 units of magic is the range for upper-tier transcendents."

Julian couldn’t help but let out a sound of awe.

The lower tier only covered 10,000 units. The mid-tier’s cap was ten times that. Reaching upper-tier meant increasing by another tenfold. While it looked like three stages, the actual difference between them was enormous.

"What’s my current count roughly?" he asked, curious.

Lady Catherine touched the back of Julian’s hand, and after a moment, confidently said: "Close to 10,000. You might go to sleep tonight and wake up as a mid-tier transcendent."

"But you mustn’t become arrogant," she added quickly.

Julian nodded obediently.

"Among transcendents, talent largely determines their future. At first glance, this seems like a blessing, but once you hit the bottleneck..."

Lady Catherine gave a helpless smile.

"That’s when the true difficulty begins—this is the cruel side behind Lord Farad’s mercy."

"Take elves or dragons—some of them are born with powerful talent and instantly possess upper-tier magic. But even then, humans can still surpass them among the highest-ranking transcendents. That’s why, no matter how strong you’re born, your potential isn’t fixed."

"I’ve been stuck just below the 990,000 mark for over a decade. And the Holy Seat, though slightly younger than me, reached the Holy Realm long ago," she said with a calm tone, as if letting go of a long-held regret.

Julian could now understand why there were fewer than ten known Holy Realm transcendents across the continent.

Heaven may grant humanity transcendent gifts, but the path to the Holy Realm requires one to break through the very ceiling heaven imposes. It demands a breakthrough entirely of one’s own.

This was completely unlike the relatively simple leap from lower to mid-tier, or mid to upper-tier. The gap between those three stages already hinted at how unimaginable the next leap would be. Moving from upper-tier to the Holy Realm was at least ten times harder again.

"But Julian, you are different from everyone else," Lady Catherine’s voice suddenly turned fervent. She tightly grasped both of his hands.

"No, you’re not just different—you’re one in a million... no, even rarer. You are truly unprecedented."

Her passionate gaze made Julian blush. His hands, caught in her grip, could only stay still.

"A boy, without a doubt... yet you awakened a never-before-seen, supreme-level Holy Mark."

She loosened her grip and gently caressed Julian’s face. Her scholarly obsession lit up her eyes with a rare infatuation—as though Julian’s very existence broke all established laws.

He stirred up countless waves in the once stagnant pool of her heart. Life, emotion, vitality—things she had long since abandoned, were now reignited because of him.

Her hand instinctively brushed along his jawline, then down his throat, finally resting over his chest. Pressing gently, she said with both seriousness and tenderness:

"Child, are you ready to face your future enlightenment?"