I felt like a weight had been lifted from my chest as we quickly made our way out of the Great Hall, but my heart remained heavy, and I didn't dare to lower my guard for one bit.

We had won this battle, but I knew that we had just made a lot of enemies there. As I glanced back over my shoulder, I could feel their menacing stares burning into my skin. This was a victory, but at what cost?

Theo looked at me with almost visible relief in his eyes. He appeared more than happy that this ordeal was over us and offered me a nervous smile. "Did we truly win? I still can't quite believe it..."

I didn't want to muddle his mood with my worries, so I forced out a smile and nodded. "It appears that way."

It must have been really hard for him back there, especially since his own father was among the dignitaries watching the proceedings. But it seemed like Theo didn't want to discuss it, so I didn't push him.

The rest of the way back to the mansion we spent in silence, both submerged in our own thoughts, contemplating the consequences of our actions today.

That was especially true for Theo, who, after this, burned every last bridge that would allow him to get back into the Alchemist's good graces, closing his access to the Guild once and for all. There was no way they would let him back - not after the humiliation they suffered today.

But that was okay. We could simply carve out our own path, and if we achieved success with our elixir, it would shatter the Guild's monopoly on potions once and for all.

***

Soon after the conclusion of the public hearing, winter finally came once again to Ereneth, blanketing the city in a thick layer of fresh snow.

I had to stop visiting Jenny in the Fortress as it was getting too cold to be outside in this weather despite our bodies being strengthened by the abundance of essence flowing through them.

I dedicated most of my time to ensuring our elixir-making operation progressed smoothly. There were a few instances where some people tried to harass Isadora's customers in front of her store from buying our elixir.

Still, Dominic held up his end of the bargain and dealt with those slight disturbances before they could become something serious.

It seemed as though no love was lost between the Alchemists and the gangs as they apparently never get along too well in the first place, so our "friends" didn't have to go out of their way to assist us too much.

Still, the gang didn't take the change in our recipe too well, as now they couldn't pass it out as a real potion. Thus forcing them to sell them for a much lower price.

But since they were getting twice as many elixirs as before and for free on top of that, they couldn't complain as their profits were basically the same as before. I thought this out in advance to avoid agitating Dominic too much, and it seems like it worked out quite well.

However, in a funny twist of fate, the Guild's fierce opposition actually made even the people who were originally skeptical about our new elixir believe there must be something to it if it made even the Alchemist so anxious.

So in the end our sales skyrocketed. This meant that the Guild did more to promote our new elixir than we could ever have done by ourselves.

I was more than happy to take advantage of that, although I will have to wait until spring when we receive our massive order of herbs, before we can ramp up our production even further.

Still, I didn't like our adversaries' weird lack of activity, always wondering what they were up to and if this was the proverbial quiet before the storm.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

But no matter how long I pondered about it, I couldn't come up with anything, and with each passing day of peaceful routine, my paranoia increased further until I felt like I needed a break or I would go mad.

Thus, as the winter blizzards descended upon the city and the world outside was engulfed in biting cold and howling winds, I cuddled beside a fire in my favorite chair as I finally decided to focus solely on my magic studies once again, hoping it would help me come to different thoughts.

During the past two months, I learned nothing new and simply repeated the few basic spells I already knew.

I tried to look for some interesting magic in the books from Sir Roderick's collection Jenny had brought for me, but all I found was magic theory and explanations about various magical concepts I already knew.

After meticulously reading various books on the subject, I finally learned that the incantations themselves are recorded in special tomes called grimoires.

They seem to be every mage's most guarded secret, and they apparently never allow anyone else to read them except for their successor, who would inherit their legacy.

This was true even for Lily as she never showed me her own grimoire despite the fact that she must have one for sure but instead opted to teach me each incantation by word of mouth only.

Such excessive need for secrecy was a completely foreign concept to me as I vividly remembered those wondrous inventions like the internet and public libraries from my previous life; thus, I didn't understand this stupid conduct one bit.

If, for example, every known spell could be cataloged and freely accessed by each student of magic, wouldn't this mean not only a much higher standard of knowledge but also much faster research and discovery of new spells?

Instead, every mage and magical academy treated the advanced spells as some sort of perpetual patent passed out only to their apprentices.

This was also one of the reasons the Grand Tower was so sought after, as they apparently boasted one of the largest collections of arcane knowledge on the whole Continent.

Still, there was nothing I could do about the lack of spells for now, and I had to simply accept the fact that I could only learn what Lily decided to teach me.

There was, however, one thing I was most curious about and wanted to get my hands on - that particular book Lily had shown me when she helped me with that preservation enchantment.

I had a feeling I could learn so much from it about magical circles and arcane symbols that I would be able to come up with my own enchantments in no time, yet she didn't let me see it not once, even though I asked her about it.

I would love to acquire it for myself even if I had to buy it. Still, there was not a single bookstore in Ereneth, and apparently, if you wanted to purchase a book, the most common way was to borrow a copy while hiring a skillful scribe who would transcribe it for you and then have it bound.

This all apparently cost an insane amount of money, not to mention the trouble of securing a suitable copy in the first place.

That was especially true for books about magic, which you couldn't get even if you had the money. So it was even more of a feat for someone like Sir Roderick to boast such a sizable collection of books and the mind-boggling amount of wealth it must have cost him.

So again, I was stuck with what I got; thus, I simply passed the days engrossed in my routine. By now, I had all those incantations Lily had taught me perfectly memorized, and I felt it was time to move to something a little bit more advanced.

Luckily, I didn't have to wait for too long. One day, shortly before my thirteenth birthday, Lily addressed me out of the blue at our morning lesson.

"...It is time for you to learn new spells." She said matter-of-factly.

I blinked a few times, wondering if I heard right, but then a wave of excitement surged through me like electricity, and I gaped in shock as I realized that my prayers had finally been answered. My heart raced wildly as I beamed with joy that I could finally start learning something new.

Lily's delicate hands drew lines and circles in the air as she started explaining the concept of spell tiers. Some of it I already knew from the books I read, but many things I was hearing for the first time.

She told me that what I was taught until now were spells of the lowest first tier. Well, since there were already tiers for talents and essence gems, it didn't surprise me that there would also be tiers for spells.

I listened attentively, hanging on her every word as I was finally learning something interesting again.

Apparently, the first two tiers were the general spells every mage could learn. But the spells of the third tier and higher were taught only to those specialized in the said element.

I still needed to figure out what element I wanted to specialize in, not to mention Lily wouldn't be teaching me any advanced spells as those could apparently only be taught at an academy.

"...Since you seem to be so good with the fire, I will now teach you an incantation for the most common fire spell of the second tier - Fireball."