Despite the situation, Yuuki showed not a trace of worry.
Not only were those who had just obtained their grimoires unlikely to be his match, but the old magic instructor would never allow a brawl to break out inside the Grimoire Tower.
"Silence!"
As Yuuki had predicted, the old instructor frowned and gave a low, displeased shout.
The voice carried a trace of mana, amplifying its resonance throughout the entire Grimoire Tower, instantly suppressing all noise.
"The grimoire-awarding ceremony is over. You may all leave."
The old instructor spoke calmly.
At his words, no one dared make a move. One by one, the crowd began to disperse.
Yet several pairs of eyes still glared sharply at Yuuki, as if to say that things weren't over between them.
But Yuuki paid them no mind.
"Thanks, Yuuki."
Asta's voice sounded somewhat dejected.
"It's nothing," Yuuki replied with a small laugh, glancing at Asta's low spirits.
Failing to obtain a grimoire — combined with how Yuno had ignored him earlier — clearly hit Asta hard.
Yuuki wanted to offer a few words of comfort.
"Don't worry, I'm fine. I'm going back to train."
Before Yuuki could speak, Asta forced a small smile and said that instead, leaving the tower quickly.
Yuuki didn't go after him.
Asta needed time to be alone right now. Besides, Yuuki wasn't worried — Asta would soon obtain a grimoire of his own.
Pulling his thoughts back, Yuuki glanced at the silver grimoire in his hand, then looked toward the corner of the tower where the priest, Sister Lily, and the others stood. He walked over.
"Father, Sister Lily — Nash, you're here too."
Yuuki greeted softly.
"Yuuki, you rascal, you got a grimoire too? You and Yuno are now the pride of our church! Hahaha!"
The priest's face lit up with joy. He laughed heartily, patting Yuuki hard on the shoulder.
Seeing the priest's exuberance, Yuuki smiled helplessly and sidestepped to avoid another slap.
"Wow, so that's a real grimoire?"
"Yuuki's amazing!"
"Asta and Yuno just ran off without even saying hi — but Yuuki's the best!"
A few of the church's children crowded around him, eyes sparkling as they gazed at the silver grimoire in Yuuki's arms.
Since the church had only the priest and Sister Lily as adults, they'd brought all the children along to watch the grimoire ceremony rather than leave them alone back home.
Yuuki gently patted the children's heads to calm them down before looking up at Sister Lily.
"Congratulations, Yuuki. From today on, you're an official magic knight."
Sister Lily's eyes shone with warmth as she offered her heartfelt blessing.
"Thank you, Sister Lily," Yuuki said with a grateful nod. Then, after a brief pause, he added,
"Sister Lily… could I borrow your grimoire for a moment?"
Her smiling expression faltered slightly in surprise. Yet she didn't question him. Without hesitation, she handed her grimoire to Yuuki.
To a mage, a grimoire is their second life. For Sister Lily to lend hers so freely showed just how deeply she trusted Yuuki — he was family to the church.
Yuuki accepted the grimoire solemnly, his gaze turning serious.
He needed to test his Replication Magic — a crucial experiment that could determine his path from this point on.
Yuuki placed Sister Lily's grimoire atop his own silver one. With a thought, a surge of silver mana enveloped both books.
It was the essential step of his replication process!
The elf Licht's ally, Liar (Raia), had once used Imitation Magic, which required touching an opponent's grimoire to copy its spells.
Yuuki's Replication Magic, however, required placing the target grimoire on his own to perform the replication.
In terms of convenience, Raia's imitation was clearly more suited for battle.
But—
"Magic Replication!"
Yuuki murmured the words inwardly.
Whoosh!
The spells within Sister Lily's grimoire immediately surfaced in his mind.
One attack spell: Holy Fist of Love!
One healing spell: Water Healing!
Those were the only two spells she possessed — yet that alone proved her talent.
After all, owning a grimoire and developing original magic were two entirely different things.
Many commoners and peasants could live their entire lives without ever creating a unique spell of their own, relying only on raw mana for simple, everyday uses.
This was exactly why Yuuki felt newfound confidence. His Replication Magic could save him enormous time in researching and developing spells.
At that moment, every detail about his Replication Magic revealed itself to him.
And then Yuuki finally understood what "Complete Replication" truly meant.
Complete Replication: The ability to devour another's grimoire, fully recording it into one's own, creating new pages and inheriting the other's magic attributes.
Yuuki's eyes widened.
The term "complete" was no exaggeration — this ability far surpassed his expectations.
It could consume other grimoires and generate entirely new pages!
Before, Yuuki had worried that his grimoire, which contained only four blank pages, wouldn't have enough space to store all the spells he wanted to replicate.
He'd feared he would need to choose carefully between them — a nearly impossible decision.
But now, the power to create new pages by absorbing other grimoires erased that worry entirely.
If that revelation thrilled him, then the next part — gaining the opponent's magic attribute itself — left him utterly astonished.
Take Sister Lily's grimoire, for instance.
If Yuuki were to devour it, he would gain Water Creation Magic!
Raia's imitation could never do that.
Imitation Magic could only copy existing spells; it couldn't create what didn't exist.
But with Water Creation Magic as his own attribute, Yuuki could develop new spells freely, adapting them to his will.
That went far beyond mere duplication — it was true replication.
"Spell Replication," then, was just a secondary function — an extension of "Complete Replication" itself.
"What a dangerous magic…" Yuuki muttered under his breath, throat tightening in unease.
The ability to devour another's grimoire put him squarely against every mage in the world.
In this world, when a mage dies, their grimoire vanishes with them. That's why it's called a mage's second life.
If Yuuki's ability consumed a living mage's grimoire… what would happen to its owner? He didn't know — but it couldn't be good.
Having discovered his grimoire's true power, Yuuki's first thought was… what's the difference between devouring an ordinary three-leaf grimoire and a four-leaf one?
Of course, that thought vanished as quickly as it came.
His second thought, however, was certain — he must never reveal the truth about "Complete Replication."
To others, he could only describe his ability as "replicating opponents' spells."
After all, his magic… didn't sound like something a righteous mage should possess.
That was the thought running through Yuuki's mind.
(End of Chapter)
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