Was it too abrupt? Oh well... That's all of Volume 1. The second volume is already in the works, rough drafts and everything.

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Chapter 7

It’s been two weeks now since Rachel started training under Chris.

I was wary of him at first but Daniel holds him in such high regards that I decided to trust him for now.

Rachel has been looking for improving her Magic. Daniel was not a very good idea for a mentor because he works with the Lord of the city. He will be suspicious if Daniel is gone every day.

Ever since Rachel started her training, she’s been going home late and waking up early to leave. I couldn’t go anywhere at all as I refuse to go outside alone. Who knows when the brat would show his face again.

So today I decided to accompany her. I might just get bored and fall asleep watching them, but it’s a lot better than staying cooped up in the house.

“Alice!” Rachel’s shout was heard from outside my house.

“Just a second!” I replied back as I get my coat and the basket I filled with food for lunch.

At some point during the two weeks that Rachel was training, I got curious at what she was learning. Part of it was also that she was coming home late and tired.

“You okay?” Rachel asked me the odd question.

~Hmm? Something wrong with my appearance? ~ I thought to myself before answering “Yeah, I’m okay.”

“Oh… It’s really strange that you decided to come with me. You’re not even the least bit interested in Magic.”

“Oh. Well I was getting bored during the day. I couldn’t get out of the house without anyone accompanying me. Well anyways, how’s your training going? He’s not pushing you around is he?”

“What? No, why would he…?”

“Well, you’re small and shy.” I put my free hand on top of her head. Letting her know of our difference in height.

She brushes off my hand while pouting. Her expression was so cute that I couldn’t hold myself and started squeezing her in my embrace.

“Wha! What’s gotten into you?!” She lets out a shriek and tries to push me away to which I just responded with an even tighter hug.

“But you’re so cute!”

After a while, with no struggle coming from her I let her go.

She clears her throat and brushes her shoulders and pretended that nothing happened. “Well I’ll have you know that my training is going perfectly fine.”

“Oh yeah? You’re not shy around him anymore?”

“Um… We talk…” Fiddling with her fingers as she answered.

“Hmm… Not to the point of having useless conversations yet huh? I thought that since he was teaching you that you wouldn’t be as timid around him. Maybe even get him as a boyfriend.”

“What? What are you saying… That’s not going to happen.”

“Why not?!”

“Well, I’m very timid and I’m not that attractive.”

“Oh come on, you’re only shy towards people you don’t know at first and what are you saying?! You’re the cutest girl I’ve seen!”

“Oh stop” She slapped my arm as we both giggle.

“So, how are you doing with your training?” She still hasn’t properly answered the question.

“Well we’ve been working manipulating Ambient Mana this whole time.”

“What’s that?” Maybe it was just because I didn’t care much about Magic but I have never heard of the term.

“It’s basically the Mana in the surroundings. There’s an infinite amount of it and it can neither be created nor destroyed.”

“Then how did it exist in the first place?” What she just said made me a bit curious, how can it exist if it can’t be created.

“I don’t know; he didn’t tell me how.”

“Hmm… Then how does this help you? Instead of teaching you spells.”

“Well, by being able to freely manipulate Mana, you’ll be able to take control of the elements which is a lot more convenient than the conventional spells.”

I tried to talk but I was cut off by her. “For casting more complex spells like teleportation, we would need to use our own reserves to basically disobey the law of the world.”

Yet again I was cut off from speaking. “The problem is that a person’s Mana pool starts off incredibly small, but it is possible to permanently expand it by making it overflow. The problem with that is that there’s a chance that you can die from too much Mana and it just runs rampant inside you.”

“What?!” My sudden outburst interrupted her and earned the attention of those around us. “That’s dangerous!” I grabbed her by the arms.

“C-calm down! He’s not going to let that happen! He sucks away all my Mana whenever my Mana pool gets full and overflows.” She says while trying to push me away.

“B-but…” My friend has a chance of dying in front of me. I don’t want that to happen.

“I said calm down. I’ll be fine. I have to do this to get stronger.” Thinking about it now, I still have no idea why she’s so dedicated on trying to be stronger. All I know is that she wanted to be like the Magician that saved us back when we were little.

“Oh, there he is.” My eyes wandered to where Rachel was looking at.

In front of a stall was Chris. He was wearing a black leather coat and pants. He was basically all black from the hair to the toe.

He was holding a bouquet of flowers and was just standing there.

I look at Rachel who was also looking at Chris.

~ Hmm… Maybe it’s for her? It’s only been two weeks. But then again if you spend most of your time with a girl like Rachel then I suppose it’s possible. Not to mention she’s a very pretty girl. ~

I decided to tease her for a bit.

“Flowers for you already? It’s a bit too fast isn’t it?”

“What? No, that’s not happening,”

“Aww… Why not?”

“Hey guys!” Chris was walking over to us and waving his free hand.

Rachel and I waved back at him.

“You guys ready?”

“Yeah. Alice is coming with us today.”

“That’s fine. I just need to take care of something first before we start. I’ll go ahead and drop off both of you first.”

“Okay” Rachel turned to me and asked. “Are you ready?”

I nodded and she turned back to him and nodded.

Without warning, the scenery changed from the market to that of a river and a forest in the background and behind us was a vast plain. I felt dizzy from the sudden change.

“Wait here for now while I take care of this.”

And the next moment, he vanished.

I regained my composure from the dizziness. “You know what his business is?” I asked Rachel.

She shrugged and shook her head. “I don’t know, it’s the first time.”

We just waited there talking about how tranquil the place was and what Rachel does for her training. Before we knew it, Chris had gotten back.

“I’m back. I’m sorry for making you wait.”

“That’s no problem. Shall we start?” I see that Rachel can talk to him now but it’s all strictly business whenever they talk. Although I feel like Chris is trying to get out of that.

I walked away from them to a safe distance, just like how we did back with Daniel.

I watched them as Chris made a wave from the river as high as two trees standing on top of each other. Rachel was instructed to replicate it.

We’ve been together for about fourteen years now. When we met, we were almost killed by a pack of wolves. That was when a Magician came to save us. As far as I know, that was when Rachel started her fascination to Magic.

I’m very happy that she found someone to teach her Magic.

I was watching Rachel try to generate a wave as big as what Chris showed her but what she generates are not even close to the size of Chris’ waves.

Sitting under the shade of the tree was so comfortable that it made me very sleepy, so I decided to let myself fall to sleep.

                                                                                *             *             *

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

“I think that’s fine for now. You’re getting better and better at manipulating Mana. Just a bit more practice and we’ll be able to move on to more complex spells.”

Chris said to me as I try to make a wave out of the river as large as what he demonstrated.

It’s so hard trying to take control of so much Mana at once.

All he told me to do to get better was to keep manipulating Mana in everything I do. Which is what I have been doing.

“It’s hard trying to control that much amount of Mana…”

Releasing my control over Mana, the river unnaturally became calm.

~ Huh? That’s… weird… ~ Confused, I leaned over to the river.

“You noticed?” He asked as he chuckled. “I was keeping the river calm as you tried to make the wave. I figured it was also a good time for you to practice going against other Magicians.”

“W-what?”

“Yeah, your control over Mana have been getting better as I said.”

I was probably grinning with a stupid look plastered on my face because he just looked at me like I was crazy. But I was happy, being told of the progress of my hard work.

I was snapped out of my trance when he clapped his hands. “Why don’t you go ahead and get something to eat? Alice brought something to eat as I remember, she’s over there sleeping.” He pointed towards a tree and Alice was under its shade sleeping.

I nodded and started walking towards her. I started wondering what Chris does for lunch. He always just brings me something to eat and head off somewhere else.

~ He does look skinny… Maybe he just goes off to nap somewhere. ~ I turned around to invite him to eat with us but found out that he’s already nowhere to be found.

I shrugged it off and just headed off to where my best friend was. She’s been such an amazing friend for me. She’s always thinking of my well-being.

Looking at her comfortable state, I hesitated if I should wake her up. The next thing I knew was me waking up to a sunset and Alice was there still asleep.

I got up from where I was sleeping and walked around to shake off the drowsiness.

I see Chris who was over by the river doing something amazing. Atop his palm was a ball of blue flame enclosed in a ball of water and with electricity crackling around it. I’ve seen him command more than three elements before with his sparring with Daniel.

Daniel told me once that the most a single person can control is three different elements. The ones who achieved that were the Magi, the most powerful Magicians.

“Oh you’re awake. Both of you looked so peaceful so I didn’t wake you guys up.”

A black sphere appeared on his hand and swallowed up the ball of elements. I then disappeared taking the ball of elements with it.

I realized I was staring at his palm with my mouth open when he spoke to me. “You’ll be learning how to do that soon enough, we just need to expand your Mana pool a bit more and fine tune your manipulation of Mana.”

“Uh… Thank you so much for teaching me. With you help, I’m one step closer to my goal.” I wasn’t sure why but I just felt the urge to thank him properly for putting up with me.

“A goal huh? Keep that up and you’ll become so powerful in no time.” He looked at me in the eyes. “Back then I didn’t have a particular goal to pursue Magic, but two years ago I found it. Now I’m doing a lot of experimenting with spells to see what I can come up with.”

Two years ago huh? Something happened two years ago. It was really well known but I had forgotten what it was.

“The sun is setting, both of you should probably head home.”

That’s it! It was supposed to be the death of the heir to the throne of the empire. I doubt it’s related to him, but then again, it’s not impossible.

Chris suddenly appeared in so close to me. Waving his hand close to my face. “You okay? You weren’t answering…”

I was trying so hard to remember that I completely lost track of what’s around me. That’s not good.

Chris sighed, “I was asking you if you can wake her up.” He pointed at Alice. “It’s already dark out.”

“Y-you’re right… I’ll go wake her up.” I jogged over to Alice and woke her up. She slept through the entire day so it’s not a surprise that she got a headache.

“That’s because you slept so much.” I told her with a scolding voice.

She just laughed and shrugged it off. She held her head and tried to fix her disheveled blonde hair.

Blonde hair is rare in this world. Which is most likely why the trash Hector wants her.

“You’re ready to go? It’s already dark outside.” She nodded at my question.

“I’ll walk you guys home, I need to speak with Daniel anyway.”

The next instance we were directly in front of Alice’s house.

“What the?!! Don’t move!!” A shout came from neither of us three.

I looked around and in front of Alice’s house were guards armed with swords, spears and bows. Among them was the trash Hector. ~ Why is he so damn persistent?! Just leave my friend alone! ~

A man appeared beside him. It was Daniel. ~ Did he sell us out? ~ I thought as I saw him with a smirk on his face. ~ Damn it! I knew it was strange of him to just suddenly help us out. ~

“Ooooh, so nice of you to finally come for me my love. I was beginning to think that you were with another man. It turns out it was just Daniel’s friend.” The guards surrounded us as Hector spoke.

~ Don’t tell me Chris is a part of this too? ~

Hector’s eyes fell on to Chris. “Daniel told me all about you. What do you say about joining my workforce? I pay very generously.”

Chris started scratching the back of his head. “Hahaha, well it’s an interesting offer but I would rather not work for a stupid, self-centered bastard like yourself.” A sigh of relief came out of me. But he didn’t have to aggravate him.

Hector started walking towards us, towards Alice. “Hahaha, such a foul mouth, but soon you will realize that everyone including you, is at my mercy.” He extends his hand towards Alice who slapped it away.

“Get your filthy presence away from me.” Alice growled at him.

Hector suddenly grabbed Alice by the hair which made me use wind to blast him away from us and past his guards.

He landed on his feet and restored his balance. “You bitch! How dare you?! Daniel! Take care of the Magician!” Daniel bowed to him as Hector barked his orders. Daniel then went straight for Chris and warped both of them out of the area.

~ Damn it! I knew Daniel couldn’t be trusted. Why did we even believe that for a second he was on our side? ~

“As for you bitch.” He pointed at me as he spoke with a rough, raspy voice. “Kill her!”

I have no experience in fighting. The best I could do was to stall them and keep them away from Alice and I.

I noticed in the distance behind the swordsmen was a glint. I realized too late that it was an arrow aimed at me. By the time I realized, there was already no time to react.

~ Crap ~ I thought I was done for and closed my eyes but the impact never came. What stood before me was Alice who had an arrow through her chest.

“Alice!!!” I screamed her name with a shrill voice. I tried to catch her falling body but she was yet again pierced with even more arrows.

“NO!!!!!!!”

“Stop!! You imbeciles! I did not order you to kill the blonde!!”

I caught Alice’s body, preventing her from hitting the ground. Tears started rolling down my eyes onto her face.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Chris reappear, he looked at my direction and when he looked at Alice he snapped his fingers and everyone, all the men that were with Hector, even Hector himself started getting pulled into a spot on the street.

They all converged and collided with each other but the unknown force kept pulling them in.

“Aaaaargh!!!”

“Stop!! Stop!!”

“Gaaaahhh!!”

They all screamed in pain. Not long after, their bodies started bending in the wrong directions until finally, their screams stopped and their bodies destroyed.

I looked over to Chris as I hold on to Alice, pleading, hoping that Chris would be able to do something.

He walked over to us and put his hand over Alice’s head. He raised his head to look at me. My vision started getting blurry as I started wailing.

~ No, No, No ~ He lowered his head and shook it. He held my shoulders, likely to convey his sympathy as I sobbed the night away.