A bit of Rose and another chunk of magic research… yes, I love magic, how could you tell?
"…And that's pretty much it," Cid finally finished his speech.
"Master… You are cheating…" Eta raised her gaze and pouted.
"Well, how would I know that other people could not see magic?" he defended himself.
No, really, it occurred to him just now that everyone else could feel magic, but not see it like he does. Well, they could see it when it was formed like the magical slash or something, but the way he can see magic? This is unavailable to them. And here he thought why girls sometimes looked at him in confusion when he said that they need to look here and not there when he trained them with magic…
"Master…" she reached out for his coat, "Can you tell me how did you do it?…"
"Hmm…"
How could he even achieve it? Viewing magic particles/waves (surprisingly, magic behaved just like light; it had dual nature and behaved like a particle and a wave at the same time) was something he had since being reborn into this world… And probably, if his theories about Soul's Magic Part were correct, even before being reincarnated, but without magic environment it could not reveal itself… Until he found two magic orbs and got reincarnated.
Hold up, he did some kind of training while trying to reach magic, right? Maybe one of them could be a catalyst for that? Maybe there even was magic on Earth at some point, but it was lost for some reason?
"Alright, Eta, let us try… Wait, where is Sherry?" on the third hour, Keen Eye noticed that there was something amiss.
"She got very tired in the middle of your explanations… and went to sleep…" Eta yawned.
"…How long have we been here?"
"Um, twelve hours?…" Eta blinked.
"And how many did I use for my research?"
"About… seven…"
Man. The further he goes in, the longer his research sessions become. Will he at some point just forget about everything else and go straight for days trying to understand something? Not like he minds that, but Shades sure will…
"Master…" Eta drew his attention, "What about… magic vision…"
"I don't know if my methods work for sure," he confessed, "So I need to run some experiments first."
"M-m-m…" his researcher nodded seriously, "Then… I wish you luck…"
Cid walked out of the facility and was met with Nu standing in the hallway.
"Lord Shadow," she bowed, "Queen Oriana is waiting for you."
Well, he wanted to go for the experiments immediately, but it seems like he really took his time with his session in Eta's laboratory. Can he even trust her that it was just twelve hours and not twenty four?
"Ah, hello, Cid!" Rose smiled brightly once she saw him.
"Hey, Rose," he sat down on his throne-like chair and took a cookie.
"I am so happy you have actually invited to a personal meeting! It has been so long since I met with you!…"
'It has been a few days.'
"Yeah, yeah… So I got your letter, what is it you wanted to talk with me about?"
"If you have read my letter, you should know it already," she smiled slyly.
"…Just so you know, I am already-"
"I know about your relationships with Shades, but I still want to take you as my husband," she took his hand.
"No, I am saying that I am married to them already."
Rose froze on the spot.
Hold up, wait, the cookie is actually quite good. And if he also drinks some tea?… Man, now this is life!
"W-When?…" Rose's eyes lost all light.
"Not so long ago, actually… Just before we went to Lawless City."
"Is that so…" she let go of his hand.
Damn, now he feels kind of guilty… kidding, of course. He told her multiple times he already had feelings for someone else.
"However…" she suddenly started, "you said 'to them', right? As in, multiple wives, right?"
"Yeah…?"
"Then I just need to convince them that I would be a good addition, right?"
"Don't you have pride, or something?"
"What pride was left in me when the only one who helped me each time was you…?" she sighed sadly, "I will keep telling this: I will not back down from you becoming my husband, Cid. We are destined for each other, and I want for us both to enjoy it."
"Is that so…"
"I understand that you already have someone you love, but-"
"My Divine Lord, I, Victoria, has come to serve-" pink-haired tall elf girl walked into the room and froze upon seeing the honey-like hair of a certain human, "you."
'Huh, interesting…'
He noticed the hostile gazes both of them sent to each other.
"Rose Oriana, what are you doing here?" Victoria didn't even bother with being polite and went straight to the topic.
"I have come to offer my future husband a marriage offer-"
"Future husband?…" Victoria interrupted her, "Hmph, he was already taken by Seven Shades! You, outsider, have no hope in becoming a partner of Divine Lord!"
"Cid knows how important it is to not give up on your dreams, and he will certainly like the fact that I do not falter in front of anything!"
"So at least deep down you realize that your wish is-"
Crunch.
Both turned around to see Cid happily eating cookies. Upon realizing that they are not quarreling anymore, Cid stopped and looked straight at them.
"What? Please, continue, it is very interesting to look at you bickering with each other," he munched on another cookie.
"Uh…" Rose averted her gaze, "I am sorry for making such a scene…"
Victoria, on the other hand…
"Please grant me a punishment, Divine Lord!" she fell on her knees and lowered her head, "I have sinned! I interrupted your conversation merely because of my feelings!…"
"Stand up."
He sighed as he saw Victoria standing up, still not daring to look in his direction.
"Come to me. Both of you, I mean."
They complied with his 'order'.
He reached out his hands to them.
Pat. Pat.
They looked up in shock as they felt his hands caressing their hair.
"M-My Lord?…"
"If you mess up again, I will take measures."
"U-Understood, my Lord! Your trust shall not be misplaced!" Victoria beamed.
"O-Of course, Cid!" Rose brightened up, too.
"Good. Now, I have a gift for you, Rose."
He inhaled and took out a large purplish crown.
"That's…"
"This crown is made out of the best materials possible. I have decided that since you are to become a Queen, you need a proper crown, not this… thing that previous rulers wore."
"Thank you, Cid," she took the crown with shaking hands, "It is not a wedding ring, but it's a gift from you… I appreciate it greatly!"
"Good. Now, go. I expect great accomplishments from you, Rose Oriana," he turned into his Shadow mode.
"Of course, Lord!" she giggled. "However…"
"Yes?"
"Will you take me as wife if-"
"Go already!"
She chuckled in amusement and went out of the room.
Man, what's with these women and their wish to become his wives? Rose only knew him for such a short time, yet she was already obsessed with him…
"My Lord, what do we do now that we are alone?" Victoria turned to him and leaned in.
Her cleavage was revealing enough that he saw the four-star eye necklace peeking out of it. His gift, huh? She seems like to love it a lot.
"I have some research to do. Notify everyone that I will be absent for… some time."
"Understood, my Lord!" Victoria bowed.
Man, such a good devotee he has… Just kidding, but it's really nice to have someone that would just do anything you say.
"Alright, I am out. Bye, Victoria."
"I wish you luck, Lord Shadow!"
Where does he find a steady supply of test subjects? Bandit camps, of course!
That's exactly where he went. And, of course, the very first camp provided him with a large amount of test subjects! Though most of them couldn't even use magic, but that's even better!… Now will they shut up already? Good.
Right, so he wants to know how Magic Vision is even possible. Like, he's the only one who is able to see magic, right? What caused it? Why others could only feel it, but not see? That requires some experiments!
The main test subject is, of course, himself. Yes, he wants to try to understand it on himself first. Just watching, of course, not touching. Then he wants to try to replicate it on someone else.
It is most definitely not something body-related, because otherwise Claire and his other relatives would probably be able to see magic, too… So it has to be related to soul. That's where Soul Space comes in.
In order to see the soul, you have to take it out first, right? However, it does not work quite the same for him now. Instead, he can plunge his consciousness into Soul Space, while the soul itself stays… Well, stays. And he can get a rough outline of it as if he's watching at someone else's soul. Very rough, though, but better than nothing.
Alright, here, here, and here… Hmm, these parts are quite big and developed… Oh, that's Magic Part! Could it be related to Magic Vision?… Maybe not, considering that he got Vision before even developing the Magic Part properly… Alright, he definitely needs a name for it.
Right, anyway, he started sketching it down. As much as he could, anyway; it was very hard to try and look at your own soul, as if he tried to stare at his own back without using mirrors. He did, however, pick up the largest parts of his soul: Magic Part, something connected to it closely, another something that was barely in touch with Magic Part but fully connected to the one that was connected to Magic Part, yet another one that was connected to previous two but not that connected with Magic Part… Hmm, how interesting…
Now, time for the experiments!
He took one bandit and started studying his soul. Yeah, here it is, the completely undeveloped Magic Part of someone who has never used magic in their life… But it did exist! Now, he needs to find a way…
Hmm, how about that one that was connected with Magic Part properly? A little touch here… Now there… Oh, fuck, what did he do?!
Bandit that was previously threatening him suddenly went silent. He still reacted to Cid's actions, especially ones perceived as danger, but outside of instincts he did nothing. So, that part, the one connected with Magic Part… It was mind? That's… quite scary.
Not even a minute later bandit suddenly regained consciousness as the Mind Part restored its stability, however now he fearfully stared at Cid. Sorry, friend, but he needs to know more.
He already realized that the connection between Magic and Mind; of course, the Mind controlled the Magic. However, what piqued his interest was how the Mind Part restored itself after some time… If he Cid was to explain it, in normal circumstances the Mind Part was connected to (and 'stored in') brain. Seems like whenever one part gets damaged, it's backup on the other plane attempts to restore it… As much as it can being non-magical being, anyway. Cid himself was not quite sure he would survive the complete destruction of his physical body, especially in light of recent discoveries about pure magic being nigh impossible to use without physical body…
Anyway, back to the topic. Cid noticed that each part was still weakly connected with one another; yes, some parts are connected better with each other, but otherwise they were all interconnected… For example, this one which was almost like a foundation for Mind Part, but was not in connection with Magic Part that much. What was it?
Cid in curiosity tried to inhibit this part on the bandit, and slowly the bandit in question started losing his fear. Strangely enough, organism itself tried to produce the hormones necessary for that, but it was as if the individual did not register it; the body itself continued shaking, however Cid could see that the person himself did not have a slightest bit of fear left. For ten seconds, anyway: as soon as Cid released his pressure, the ability to feel fear returned to the man.
Emotional Part, huh… Come to think of it, the soul structure is somewhat layered. Like, Magic lies on Mind, Mind lies on Emotion, Emotion lies on… something else, which, in turn, is the one which resembles physical body in shape. By the way, there was another part which he did not see at first, and that one was actually right inside the physical body; seems like it was some sort of… life energy? Maybe that's the mythical Ki, or Qi, or whatever? In short, physical body hosted two different types of layers, one for this Ki, another for everything that was about Emotion, Mind, and Magic.
Yeah, he will call them Layers! Physical Body, Lifeforce (or Ki), unknown layer that resembles Physical Body, Emotional Layer, Mind Layer, Magic Layer… and just as he expected, Magic first passed through Mind and Emotion, then went to this third layer, and then either went straight away, or through Physical Body.
However, this did not explain Magic Vision ability… It was not Mind, nor Emotion, and while it was related to Magic, it was not here, either… The third layer, maybe?
Cid slowly reached out for the third layer. It almost completely mimics the Physical Body, however, there were some… interesting parts. And unlike anything else, Cid couldn't even understand where to start. Sure, it mimics physical body… And that's exactly why it's so hard to start! What part of physical body requires you to see magic?! Alright, alright, relax…
Let's look at it another way. This layer is right in-between Physical Body and everything supernatural, correct? Correct. However, there are some parts where it ignores Mind and goes straight for (undeveloped) Magic Layer. There is also part where it only touches the Emotional Layer… Hmm, alright, there should be a connection somewhere…
Come to think of it, Cid's Magic Vision was active since the moment he was born. He had, in fact, to concentrate a bit to turn it off, and then he could use it whenever he wished…
Hams, could you please note which parts activated when he used Magic Vision?… Really, should've done so sooner.
Ah, this one?… Yes, the one that acts as inter-connection between Mind, Magic, and third layer… He will call it Spirit Layer. Right, so… It opened up a bit each time he tried to use Magic Vision… So it acts as an intermediate organ between Mind, Magic, and Spirit.
Interesting… Let's say he pours a bit of his energy into it and try to open it for the vic- subject. Aha!… Or not. Nothing seemingly changes.
No, wait, it does change a bit… Maybe if he pushes it a bit more?
"A-A-A-A-A-!"
Huh?
"What is it?! What did you do to me?! What is this… light I see?! Why it hurts so much?! Why-"
Oops. Blood leaked out of his… everything that was near brain. And brain itself… yeah, dead.
So, pros: he did open Magic Vision, if bandit's words about light are to be believed.
Now, cons: it's very taxing on the being if they are not prepared. R.I.P. in peace, unnamed test subject, you will not be missed. Next in line, please, he needs to refine the Magic Vision opening technology.
Got lost in Soul's structure? It's fine, I am a bit lost too.
Short version: Physical Body hosts Lifeforce and Spirit Body, and SB, in turn, hosts Mind, Emotions, and Magic. You can lose some parts, however if you lose everything, the Core (which Cid did not see because you need to remove all layers first to see it) will go on reincarnation immediately.