I AM A MAGE BUT WITH MILF SYSTEM

Chapter 716: A challenge to foundation

He continued calmly. ”I found the entrance by accident. The floor of a building I was passing through had broken, and beneath it was a hidden space. It looked like no one had been there for a very long time.”

Olivia listened carefully, her hands folded in her lap.

”I went down there,” Julian said. ”I don’t have a better explanation for why. It was just curiosity. Something about the air inside felt different from the rest of the city.”

He paused again.

”Inside, there was an inscription on the far wall. I didn’t recognize the language at first. But the longer I looked at it, the more it started to make sense. Not like reading words. More like understanding the meaning directly, as if it was meant to be understood rather than translated.”

He fell silent for a moment.

Olivia leaned forward slightly.

”The inscription contained a technique,” Julian said. ”It had no name, so I gave it one. I call it Mana Reversal.”

Olivia raised a brow, the skepticism clear on her face. ”Mana Reversal?”

”You understand how mana works,” Julian said. ”It always follows a predetermined path. Whether it moves from the outer surroundings into the core during absorption, or from the core to outward during use — the route is fixed. The veins that carry it are specific, and they run in specific directions. That is the foundation everything else is built on.”

”Yes,” Olivia said slowly. ”Every child learns this.”

”This technique breaks that,” Julian said. ”It allows the mage to create their own path.”

Olivia’s eyes widened.

She stared at him for a long moment without speaking, the color slowly draining from her face. The small private room suddenly felt smaller.

Then she said, her voice sharp with disbelief, ”You are out of your mind.”

”Mother—”

”Have you gone ill?” Her voice cut through his words. ”Do you hear what you are saying? Creating your own mana path? That is not — that is not how the body works, Kraven. The veins are not decorations. They are fixed structures. Attempting to force mana outside of them would not produce a new pathway. It would tear the surrounding tissue apart from the inside. You would die in agony.”

Julian reached forward and took both of her hands in his.

Olivia froze.

The sudden contact surprised her so completely that she stopped breathing for a second. Her hands were warm, soft, and slightly trembling in his grip. She looked down at their joined hands and for a heartbeat she seemed caught between pulling away and staying exactly where she was.

Before she could decide, he continued:

”Trust me, mother,” he said quietly. ”Listen to the rest of it.”

Olivia’s eyes lifted to meet his. The warmth of her skin sent another unwanted ripple through Kraven’s residual patterns. Julian crushed it down harder than ever, forcing his breathing to remain calm even as the body tried to react to her closeness.

He continued:

”The technique doesn’t fight the existing veins,” he explained. ”It creates temporary secondary pathways that exist only while the mana is moving. Think of it like opening new rivers beside the old ones. When the flow stops, the new paths close naturally. No permanent damage. No tearing. Just... freedom.”

Olivia stared at him, clearly struggling to process what he had described.

”I don’t know, Kraven,” she said after a long pause.

Her voice was calm and controlled, as if she was choosing every word carefully. But underneath that calm tone, there was a clear sense of resistance. It was the kind that comes when something you’ve always believed in is suddenly being questioned.

”I’m trying to understand,” she continued, more quietly now, ”but I’m having a really hard time believing this. It doesn’t fit with what I know... and I don’t know how to make sense of it.”

She pulled her hands back gently and folded them in her lap, looking at the space between them as she organized her thoughts.

”The principles of mana are accepted everywhere,” she continued, speaking slowly as if trying to make him understand. ”No matter the kingdom, no matter the style or tradition, mana behaves the same way.”

She held his gaze.

”Yes, our kingdom has isolated itself. And yes, we may be behind in some areas. But that doesn’t change the basics. Those aren’t just ideas from the Hermes Kingdom—they are simply the way mana works.”

”What you’re describing...” she said more quietly, a hint of unease slipping through, ”it isn’t just a new method built on those basics. It sounds like you’re tearing those basics apart completely.”

Julian was quiet for a moment.

He had hoped that the story would be enough and the sincerity in his tone would do their job. But Olivia was too sharp. She wasn’t going to let something this monumental slide without proof. The Hermes Kingdom’s magical knowledge was outdated and they clung to the old teachings like scripture. Anything that contradicted those teachings sounded like madness... or heresy.

He also knew she would not stop pressing until he gave her something undeniable.

Julian stood up slowly from his chair.

Olivia’s eyes followed him, surprise flickering across her face as he moved. He stepped around the small table and came to stand directly behind her chair.

”What are you doing, Kraven?” she asked, her voice tightening with alarm.

”Turn around,” he said.

She blinked. ”Kraven—”

She started to turn her head toward him, but he placed both hands gently on her shoulders.

”Turn around, mother,” he said. ”And sit still.”

She looked at him for a moment, her expression caught between annoyance and curiosity. In the end, curiosity won. She turned in her chair so her back faced him, sitting with her spine straight and her hands resting quietly in her lap.

He could feel the warmth of her skin through the thin fabric of her gown, and a faint tremor ran through her muscles. Kraven’s lingering instincts stirred again—dark, possessive, and restless—reacting to how close she was, to the faint scent of her hair, and to the way her breathing had already started to quicken.

”Calm down,” he said quietly. ”I am not going to hurt you.”