Waking up would have been a lot better were it not for the bell at the crack of dawn. I could have accepted it if it was the temple’s bell ringing for morning prayers for students that were devout followers of the Pantheon or even just an alarm. But no, the sound of a gong ringing out which nearly made me shout in a flustered moment had belonged to none other than the ominous figure that would have blended into the shadows were it not for the bright yellow gong and grin with far too many teeth.
“Wake up, my dear boy. It’s dawn already and I’m in need of entertainment.” Ashroth thankfully seemed to have chosen his melodic voice as opposed to the ear bleeding screech it was when I first met him.
Turning to one side I tried to stuff the pillow against my ears but all that did was make me uncomfortable as the sound did not muffle even in the slightest which was mostly from the fact he was not physically there but in my mind.
“Someone as pitiful as you needs to be studying and diligently working hard if you want to be better than the rest. Have some dignity and get to work or if you’d like you could simply be given access to the Abyssal Archives if you shake my hand.” With a toothy grin he outstretched his hand almost mockingly which I batted away and got up. Grabbing my clothing I did my best not to wake anyone else as I got changed into my uniform. Loosening the upper buttons of the shirt, rolling the sleeves and fixing my hair into a ponytail was the least I could do to get comfortable. Grabbing my watch I saw the time was barely ‘05:00’ which meant breakfast would not be for another two hours and if I made too much noise I would be waking most of the dorm. Stepping out of the room I brushed aside the fact it seemed the other bunk’s top resident was either missing or had headed out early too.
Walking down the hallway I took in the quiet bustling of the servants that worked throughout the building as they seemed to not pay attention to me. Ashroth at first had terrified me but as I realised how little power he held over me he just became a headache. After all, he needed me to accept his deal to truly have any influence over my body or even harm me. Right now I was more his unwilling tour guide of the modern world. Heading out of the dorm building the autumn breeze shook through me bringing an uncomfortable but familiar cold down my spine.
“You could be grateful and accept my deal. After all that way your father might actually care about you. Wouldn’t that be nice?” Ashroth mused as he kept himself entertained sifting through my memories before a click of tongue echoed in my skull. “Are you some kind of eunuch or monk? Why is your head full of so little desire? At most you had a need for validation but that seemed to have been snuffed out… I can’t imagine why.” With a taunting chuckle from him I decided to do my best to ignore any more comments on my mind. So I decided to at least busy myself studying some fundamentals of magic in the library as according to the lecture schedule it was the first thing we had at nine in the morning.
Passing the morning studying was helpful to remind me of just how complex magical runes really were. In a way I was grateful I had practised my singular cantrip to the point I could cast it without thinking, which however did not help with my anxiety and reflexive casting. If I could cast any higher class spell I would have been able to follow the same path as uncle Relus and be an Arcane Combat Engineer. Arguably the most dangerous of magic paths but one which rather than focusing on high level spells and mana needs prioritised using low level magics effectively. Being able to help efficiently make large military camps as well as being a logistical powerhouse there was a reason their acronym had been A.C.E. Higher level combat mages tended to specialise into destructive spells or had very poorly practised defensive magics and utility skills. So they were the equivalent of a large cannon albeit easier to transport. Heading to the lecture hall I let out a yawn and made my way in, glancing at a few students I had seen in the main hall the day before as well as the others. The three I had the unfortunate experience of being beaten up by the worst was that girl who I could see was staring me down with a glare like she just saw me as a slab of meat. With how badly she had attacked me and more or less left me for dead it would not even surprise me.
Sitting as far as I could in the back I did my best focusing on the lecture which honestly was just a blatant re-reading of the textbook I had gone over before this. My eyes began to feel heavy as I shut them for a short while till I felt someone nudge me. Startled, I sat up glancing at the irritated girl that sat besides me with wiry framed glasses.
“Sorry, if I disturbed you.” I replied feeling apologetic for whatever I must have done.
“Just make sure if you’re going to fall asleep you don’t do it on someone else’s shoulder.” She huffed with a look of annoyance.
“Sorry, I got back from the forest later than most and well I ended up waking up a lot earlier.” Ashroth was currently cackling just as the amusing idea that a duke’s son was apologising to a Baron or commoner girl. A telltale sign was the glasses she wore as most people above Viscount and above could go to the Temple of Orsirac and have them heal whatever ailment affected their vision. A rather expensive price but to most nobles held more benefits in convenience than a conventional pair of glasses. Yet for those who could not afford such magic as a luxury could also go to their temples and buy their glasses. Although aimed at commoners the cheapest would still cost easily a month’s salary for the average commoner. A merchant or the sort is more of their target clientele.
She held a somewhat sympathetic look as I brought up the hardship of the forest. “Well, I won’t exactly blame you too much. That forest was abhorrent to navigate especially with how dark it was and how many people fought over the flags I barely grabbed one for myself. How many did you end up collecting?”
I froze as that was a rather sore reminder of the traumatic moments of my life. “None… I did have a few but they ended up getting taken.”
“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that. But surely you weren’t the only one who got none.” She was trying her best to be positive which might have helped if the examiner had not told him he was the only one that failed that miserably.
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“Yeah… there’s probably others. I’m Lucas by the way and I’m really sorry about earlier again.”
“It’s alright no point apologising twice. My name is Lydia Blake, of the Blake Merchant Company.”
That had gotten Lucas’ attention considering that was a name he had heard brought up by his father when talking to Dean, his older brother about investing into. Something about being connected to the Eastern Empire and being a large spice importer. So it was clear she was a lot more important than he thought.
“Anyways has anything important been mentioned during the lecture so far?” He decided to steer past the chance of her asking about his family.
“It’s mostly introductory magic theory but judging by how bored you looked before you fell asleep on me you had already heard it before, right?”
“That’s true. Spent this morning reading the textbook and well Professor Goldwin is just reciting the textbook with flashy demonstrations of magic. Not that it matters much to me.”
“Why is that?” Lydia seemed almost intrigued by his nonchalant statement.
“I have no ability in magic besides the sparks cantrip.” Rolling his eyes he found his gaze glancing to Damian who had been talking to the blonde student from yesterday, the one with the audacity to butcher those beautiful flowers.
“Lucas, you seem a little upset, is something wrong?” She leaned away a little hesitant.
He turned and gave her a smile trying to play off his annoyance. It was weird as much as he loved flowers his anger should have settled after his rant yesterday. “It’s nothing much. Just brings up bad memories.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t realise it would bring up something that sensitive.”
“It’s alright.” Passing it off with chuckle they had begun to tune in to what their professor was saying once more and it seemed he was still talking about his time in the Magic Tower. However almost as I was about to sleep again he spoke up a little louder.
“Now students, the card in front of you…” Followed by a click of fingers a card with an emblem of a flame sat in front of me as for Lydia was a card with a swirl. “The card in front of you represents the Lab you will be assigned to for magic practical labs. Check the class schedule and just look for your respective matching class. Fire is Ignis, water for Hydro, stone for Terra and the swirl is Aero for air. Now as this is the end of the lecture I recommend looking up the textbooks in the library for Fundamentals of Mana and Manifestation by Elizabeth Caswell. Read through chapters one to five, for this week. Books can be purchased in the town off campus or accessed in the library. Whichever is more convenient and to all students the rewards and privileges for the forest trial will be assigned to you over this weekend.”
With that a spiral of flames encapsulated him and he had disappeared without a trace from the front of the class. Even the board behind him was swept clean of any notes he had written. I found it a little amusing that Professor Goldwin was such an eccentric fellow but his clear intentions of being the kind of Professor more diligent in leaving on time than making a class engaging left me with worry. However, that was a problem for me as I took the folded lecture schedule in my pocket out and saw that being in Lab Ignis meant that my first lab was today. I could not help but feel a little hopeful after I made an acquaintance that even bothered to talk to me as we went our separate ways. Though in truth the class could not be that hard as I had finished the book on fundamentals and even memorising the runes was something he had done before coming to the Academy. But it made sense if it was targeting the students who came from backgrounds without an education in magic.
“Now, that girl seemed interesting. Why not make her your woman? As a Duke’s son you could have plenty of women and one belonging to a rising merchant group is its own kind of investment.” Ashroth kept goading him as he whispered into his ear. “She might be a more petite figure but you could easily make her yours with the demonic charm of mine I could offer you, how about it?”
A sigh left me as I thought in my mind talking to him. “I’m not exactly desperate enough to use magic to seduce someone. I’ll manage.”
“You’re a damn virgin and as a Duke’s son that’s rather pathetic. Whatever happened to leveraging your position of power to get women and flaunting wealth?” Ashroth clicked his tongue irritated by my rejection of him and he decided to be petty. “I had been stuck for over a damn millenia yet the brat I end up with is a dead end eunuch. You’re not into men are you? Tordeus liked men, though he had an odd habit of picking the girliest ones for his harem.”
“Who is Tordeus? I asked a little curious and judging by Ashroth’s voice must have been someone who had gotten on his nerves.
“My brother I suppose. A warlord who idiotically possessed a human mortal simply so he could enjoy the feeling of conquest with the risk. The idiot got himself sealed back then because he was in the mortal body long enough he could not separate from it freely anymore.”
“You can get attached to mortal bodies, does that mean you’ll be attached to me?”
“No, I’d rather die than be actually intertwined with a child as prideless as you. Alphonse would roll in his grave looking at you now. I only stick with you because if you die I’ll be waiting in that damn broken altar again till another corpse falls on it. Which I doubt will happen.”
“You know you aren’t that bad when you aren’t trying to possess me.”
“Well being evil all the time will just make you more on guard with me. It’s counterproductive besides I can just wait till you’re about to die and force a possession.”
That caused me to choke on air as I froze. “If I die again you can possess me?”
“Of course, I did tell you that I was giving you a chance to revive. However if you die again without being my contractor I will not withhold you from Abbadon when he comes to collect. Though if you like you can make a deal with me I can stop that.” His voice began to sound sweeter than ambrosia and I could only huff in my own mind, nearly falling for his words.
“As if I’ll be at risk of dying again. I’m in the Academy, they wouldn’t just let that happen.”
“Don’t be so sure…” I winced as Ashroth seemed to fade from my mind as he finished his words. The voice was that ear bleeding and high pitched again as I began to walk to my first practical lab. ‘It’s not like I’ll be at risk of dying again…. right?’