What Do You Mean There Are Other Transmigrators In My Harem Fantasy?

A loud gasp came from Chancellor Vastraea as she regained consciousness, having only fainted for a few seconds while I was trying to decide if I should move her or not.

Her figure seemed to blur for a moment before she was standing upright again, like her being knocked out cold on the floor was merely just an illusion.

She blinked a few times before turning her gaze towards me, ”Apostle... Aster?”

I tilted my head at her innocently, ”Yes?”

”Did I... Imagine everything or... Did you...”

I raised my hand and let a ball of fire appear above my palm without chanting.

She stared at the ball of fire before closing her eyes for a moment, making me think that she had fainted again before she opened them to look directly at me.

”I suppose... Such was to be expected of you, Apostle Aster...” She sighed, acting as though she had just resigned herself or something. ”May I ask... How did you learn you could cast spells without chanting?”

I tapped my cheek, trying to recall the first time I managed to use magic.

”Well... It was when I was very young, I suppose? Back when I still didn’t actually awaken my magic potential yet... I was messing with Mana Crystals and thought I could use that to cast spells and just had an image of the magic in my mind and... I managed to do it.”

”And... You did this when you have yet to even awaken your magic potential?”

I nodded, ”You already know I’m an Off-Worlder, so I kind of figured that I might as well try to use magic you know? So I just went ahead to test it out and it worked for me and I could just cast magic spells without actually chanting if I wanted to.”

”But you were chanting during the tests...”

”Yeah... Because I was told that was the normal way to cast spells... And not chanting for my spells was weird so I do that in public but I’m fully capable of using magic without chanting...”

”I see... That certainly... Changes some things... And some understandings of how magic works...”

I tilted my head at her, ”What do you mean?”

”Well... Like I said earlier... Being able to cast spells without chanting is an advanced skill and even if you managed to learn it, there is still the risk of it exploding in your face no matter how talented you are... But if I’m not wrong, you’re just using this skill casually like it’s no big deal, right?”

I nodded my head.

”And this ability wasn’t something special granted to you by the Gods or because you’re an Off-Worlder, correct?”

I nodded again.

She hummed, ”There were discussions within the magic community about the usage of magic. While we know that being able to cast magic without chanting is a possibility and also something that can be learned... We also know that despite the fact that it can be learned, there exist different levels of proficiency with it and some people also aren’t able to learn it despite being very talented in magic. The reason behind such a phenomenon has never really been explained.”

I raised an eyebrow, ”Couldn’t you just... I dunno... Ask Isre about it?”

She sucked in a breath and it looked like I had just asked her to go slap her goddess or something with that question.

She looked at me carefully, ”The Gods... To disturb them for a simple question like that... That would be entirely disrespectful... Besides, Goddess Isre would rather we find out the reason ourselves instead of giving us the answer to it.”

Right... If I remember correctly, she’s also the type of goddess who encourages hard work and dedication or something.

Though I wonder if she would actually tell me if I asked?

Chancellor Vastraea continued, ”Anyway... One of the theories we had was that a person who starts controlling mana at a younger age would be able to learn chantless magic easier than someone who starts out later. And if the person started learning how to cast spells through chanting earlier, it would also impede their ability to use chantless magic.”

I tapped my finger on my cheek, ”Hmm... That makes sense? If you’ve already grown so accustomed to using chants to cast your magic since a very young age, you would subconsciously keep relying on it so it would be very difficult for you to suddenly switch to chantless magic. Even after you learn how to do so, you would still be ill accustomed to it. It’s like trying to write with your left hand after writing with your right hand all your life.”

She blinked at me before nodding, ”As expected of Apostle Aster... You figured it out so easily.”

”Err... I mean... It’s just logical, isn’t it? I assume this was the theory? But why hasn’t it been confirmed? Shouldn’t this be easy to test?”

She shook her head at me, ”Trying to use chantless magic is already a risk by itself. Like I said, if you are not careful, your mana might even cause you to explode from within. One would need to know exactly what they were doing when using spells without chanting and to even cast that magic, they need to have a fundamental understanding of that magic itself. Do you expect ten year olds to be able to understand such a thing? The ones that do most likely are children of influential families who will not risk their own children for a magic experiment and would much rather their children learn the normal way of using magic to be safer.”

Well... That is true I guess... The only reason why I even managed to learn to use my magic was because I kind of went behind Mother’s back to try and use magic to begin with.

Eh... Maybe not behind my Mother’s back but I definitely tried using magic without her knowledge so she didn’t guide me in the ’proper’ way of using magic before I managed to start using it.

And that’s not considering the fact that I ate monster meat as well without draining the mana from them... Yeah, that was pretty dumb of me. In my defense, I didn’t know, ok?

I turned to look at her, ”I assume then... That I’m basically living proof that this theory is correct? That if you were to learn chantless magic at a younger age before learning how to chant, you would have a better time being able to cast magic without chanting?”

Chancellor Vastraea hummed thoughtfully, ”Unfortunately... Having one example would not be completely convincing. You could be an outlier and the fact that you are an Off-Worlder would also complicate things as you are already outside of the norm because of that one fact alone. However... It does open the door for more possibilities.”

Just as I was about to wonder what kind of possibilities this opened up to, the Chancellor suddenly let out a cry of surprise before she turned and bowed her head deeply to me.

”For... Forgive me, Apostle Aster!! I had been so caught up in the topic that I forgot who I was speaking to! I have been too disrespectful!!”

I blinked at her before waving my hand, ”No, no... It’s fine, really. I actually prefer this, you know? I can learn better this way instead of worrying about putting on airs. This was quite educational for me.”

She slowly straightened herself, ”Re... Really?”

I nodded, ”Of course. In fact, I still want to learn more about this. I have been made to believe that being able to cast magic without chanting was supposed to be really weird...”

”Could I ask... Who led you to believe something like that?”

”Umm... My friends and my family?”

”Do they know you are very proficient in chantless magic?”

”Err... Yes?”

”And do you trust them?”

I tilted my head, wondering why she would ask something like that but I nodded my head to show I did.

She then let out a soft sigh, ”Then I believe they had led you to believe something like that because they wished to protect you. While it is indeed a possibility, this skill is not widely accepted or propagated. Some even believe that it is an affront to Goddess Isre because the chanting comes directly from her. Or... More accurately, the magic system she has created. So some fanatics believe that using magic without chanting could be seen as rejecting Goddess Isre. If you were seen using chantless magic by people who are unaware about the skill, you may be seen as a heretic or... As you might already know... As weird.”

I nodded my head in understanding, ”I see... In that case... I suppose I should still resort to chanting for my magic?”

”That would be for the best. At least... Wait until you are a fourth year student before you do so openly in your classes.”

Hmm... I guess I can do that. Since that would just be business as usual anyway.