“What in the World’s Tree Black Rot did you do?!”

I recognize the voice of my elven landlady.

“Turn off that blasted [Light]! Did you just cast that in front of you, you Human dimwit?!”

“I—”

“Turn it off, kid! You made it too bright!”

“I don’t know how!” I whine on the ground, still blinded.

It’s like someone poured hot lava into my eyes.

“You flat-eared idiot,” I can hear the landlady. “Whatever; I’ll do it.”

She mutters a simple word.

“[Dispel].”

Then, she approaches me and takes my cheeks in her strong, wiry hand.

“Don’t move, stupid Human,” she snarls.

I feel a cork coming off something, and she pours a liquid onto my closed eyes.

“Open your eyelids; you need to get the potion in there to make it work.”

I try, but it hurts too much. I feel like I might have scorched off my corneas.

Without ceremonies, she takes two fingers and forces my eyes open, not caring about my screams and protests.

“I swear, boy, if you don’t shut up, I will break your nose with a [Shockwave], and this time, I won’t waste a good potion on you.”

I whimper on the ground, my eyes still hurting. However, I feel a wave of relief after half a minute. Clearly, the potion is working.

“Gently open your eyes. How can a person be so stupidly green behind their ears, I wonder. Are you a child? I mean, was that the first time you casted a [Light] spell, for every stupid rotten forest?”

“Yes?”

I try to open my eyes, but even though I can see some blurred figures now, they are still extremely sensitive.

“What?”

There’s a short silence.

“That’s the first time you casted a [Light] spell?” she asks again, but this time, her tone is wary.

"Hum, yes? Hss, my eyes still burn."

The silver-haired woman, previously all-but-caring, sighs and bends on her knee. "Drink the remaining potion. At the very least, it will take an hour before your eyes go back to normal. Don't worry, I've seen a bunch of students do stupid things like this at the academy."

"That's... thank you," I reply with a smile, almost moved by such great compassion.

"Don't worry. Clodia will be paying for it. With a mark-up. I don't carry that many health potions on me."

Then, with surprising strength, she hauls me off the floor, helping me stand up.

“Get up, boy. We need to talk a little, you and me. And you probably won’t be able to work in this condition. I’ll send a message to that other stupid kid. You need some rest.”

“Uhm, I’m sorry, can you wait? I’d like to go to work if it’s possible. I still have to take a nap too. Maybe that’ll make it better.”

Again, her moment of silence makes me think that she’s looking at me with an eyebrow raised.

“Let’s do that, then. Take my hand now, and follow me slowly,” the landlady says and grabs my wrist.

She gently leads me out of my apartment. I hear her putting my kingly keys into my pocket. I’m surprised by how maternal this woman is.

We got to her apartment after I almost threw myself off three flights of stairs.

She closes her door and steers me toward a chair.

“So, kid. I’m giving you a minute to come up with a good explanation for how you managed to overcharge a magic spell that you shouldn’t even be able to make flicker. No— not just flicker. [Light] spells are supposed to be pale and lactescent at best. You basically made a [Flash] spell, the kind you use to blind someone like you did to yourself.”

Well, it appears that this woman is onto me. I guess that the matrix of that spell must have been super-efficient or something like that. Or maybe I just screwed up and used too much Mana. I can’t really know for sure. And I’m also not sure what I should tell this woman. Should I reveal I have a very powerful relic that is forcing me to learn magic?

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Something tells me that’s not the smartest choice.

I really don’t want the attention, but I really cannot lie because I suspect she has a truth-stone on her. She doesn’t look like the type that cares about etiquette or rules—especially when I am in her house.

“I—it’s nothing dangerous for you. I think. But I have a very unusual way of training magic. Wait, not just training. I have a very unusual way of learning magic. And it’s kind of a secret. I can’t tell you without putting us both in danger.”

Then, I try to slowly open my eyes again, and I finally get a blurry image of the landlady who’s a bit too close to me for my own taste. I have to say, she’s fit and doesn’t look half bad. But I guess she’s more on the cougar side than the milf one.

Is that a problem for me?

Well… Not really.

It’s not my fault that I like to think of every female I meet in sexual terms. Well, maybe not every single one. I'm not interested in Raissa, for example. And Flaminia and I are clearly hitting it off as friends, and I’m not that interested in her.

But mmm... Would I mind seeing her naked?

I don’t think so.

But do I want to see her—

Well, let’s leave it at that.

"Joey Luciani," I can feel the heavy gaze of the silver-haired Elf on me, even though my vision is still impaired. "Take this."

I feel a hot cup being placed between my hands.

"It's herbal tea. Nothing magical, but you could probably use a hot beverage."

For a second, I feel lost.

Lost in the warmth of this moment. The previously harsh landlord gives me some nice tea after I so stupidly hurt myself, and... my eyes tear up. Thankfully enough, they were already tearing up before because of the inflammation.

"I believe you when you say that a secret could put us both in danger. The [Mages] back at the academy have been killed over secret classes before. Right, when I say secret classes, I'm talking about special lessons... whatever. I believe you. Just be careful."

"Yes, err, thanks," my usual smooth talk stumbles and trips over her caring, almost grandmotherly attitude.

I hear her sigh loudly.

"My nephew, Domitilla, has recently decided she wanted to be a [Mage]. She can barely do the first few Cantrips for now... I don’t think she's got what it takes to become a [Mage]."

"What's that?" I ask, curious.

"Are you familiar with the Vanedeni lore?"

As she says those words, I suddenly feel a spark of electricity go through my body as if the book was on the verge of zapping me for some reason.

What the hell?

"No?"

"Well, how many heroes of theirs do you know?"

"What?"

"What?" She stares back at me, uncomprehending.

"I don't really know much..."

"Intriguing," she mutters, "the Vanedeni have had several heroes. I took a secret class on their history when I was attending the Nine Towers Academy. Allegedly, the teacher was a Vanedeni herself. But she was under several spells that altered her aspect and voice... This class would appear every now and then, and it was rumored that a truly powerful spellcaster taught it. At the end, you would be taught a spell that almost no one knew or was familiar with. I can still remember mine..."

I hear a crystalline laugh coming from the old Elf.

"As a [Green Mage], I still get a lot of work requests, you know? But I never knew that soil could actually be Mana-infused. I had always thought that magical soil was just a natural occurrence. Whatever. Damn my rotten mouth..."

She sounds like she’s just revealed something she wasn’t supposed to while high on excitement. Not that she sounds like it was that important, but I do find it slightly amusing.

"What I wanted to say," Agostina speaks more deliberately now, "is that she taught us that even among the Vanedeni, it takes a very particular breed of people to pursue magic. The Vanedeni have had the highest numbers of [Heroes] compared to any other known civilization. Elves had one. Teiko's Humans had one too. That's across fifteen-hundred years. The Vanedeni have had around twenty officially recognized [Heroes]. And this teacher spoke very mysteriously about [Heroes] that no one knew because they were too reserved and too engrossed in their craft.

"She would often speak about the conflict with the Ahalis, saying that a powerful-enough [Mage] could easily turn the tide more than any other hero."

I feel a spark of electricity run through my body, and I blink repeatedly. Suddenly, my vision is clear. My eyes are perfectly fine.

What the...

Is the book playing games with me? And isn't the book in my room anyway?

"The Vanedeni have had half-[Heroes] too. Many of them. But not a single publicly-known [Mage] that was also a [Hero]."

Every time she mentions the words 'Vanedeni' and 'Hero,' I feel a spark of electricity go through my body.

"This woman, a Vanedeni, perhaps, taught us that only the craziest of the Vanedeni actually learned magic. The normal course of life is learning to wield a weapon or to craft one. Or any other thing related to war—even being a [Merchant], truly. But Vanedeni [Mages] are few and far in-between. And do you know why?"

I take a sip from the hot tea, not speaking up about the healed eyes yet.

"No?" That's the answer to her rhetorical question.

"Because magic is an all-consuming search for knowledge. Only if you are ready to immerse yourself deep enough to drown can you become a true [Mage]. Creating a few sparks is easy... that [Light] you made instead? That's hard."

Well...

"I would put a hole through your head before you could say 'Elf' if I was still the same young woman who entered the academy," Agostina speaks casually about my murder as I see her drink from her cup of tea. “All of that to learn how you summoned that [Light]. But you are lucky I’m too old to care.”

"You are still a beautiful young woman," I say with a full smile on my face. "Not one bit worse than any girl in their twenties."

Even though I have heard her laugh before, I can now see it with my own eyes, confirming it wasn't just a special effect conjured by magic.

“Now, now. Be careful with your weird magic, Human. If you did what you did today with a [Fireball], you would be dead. And that would ruin the apartment. Since I can’t take money from the dead nor kill you again, I would prefer if you practiced the most dangerous spells outside. Are we clear?”

“Loud and clear, ma’am,” I say cheerily. Now that the pain has subsided, I am back to my normal self. “Thank you very much for your help. I don’t know what I would have done without you, really. And thank you so much for using that potion on me. I can only imagine how costly it is for you to help idiots—”

“Yeah, yeah,” she waved her hand at me, “don’t worry. As I've already said, I’m going to bill your boss. The one I gave you wasn't the best I had anyway. So it should be only a few silver coins.”

There is not much goodwill in this woman, is there?

“I have some biscuits that muscled rascal brought when she brought you here. I’ll go take them. I’ll also make some more tea. We’ll discuss more magic, you and me. I want to make sure you avoid burning down my building complex.”

Oh, I take it back. She’s nice.

“I’ll bill the biscuits and tea to your room, don’t worry about cash.”

Wow.

I take back the taking back.

What a scrooge.

"Before I make the tea— out of my own curiosity, how many weeks did it take you to learn that [Light]? Eight? Nine?"

"Weeks?" I look at Agostina, uncomprehending.

"Oh, dear. Was it months?"

Months?! That stupid book cheated me!

ZAP!