“Hydra’s fucking ass, man!” I was losing my shit. “Wait, wait… Define ‘we’.”

“Me, you, those two girls. I did your girl and you did mine, remember?”

I breathed a sigh of relief at the worst-case scenario, but couldn’t get over the fact that I cheated on Anjali. Why the hell didn’t you stop me, Donna?!

“Well, it looked fun, so, you know…”

Suddenly, sounds of laughter escaped the dude, he couldn’t hold it in. “I’m just fooling around. Nothing like that happened.”

“Truly?”

“Truly.”

“Then why the hell am I half naked?”

“We celebrated, a lot. We were all pretty sweaty so we took a bath. Worst thing that happened is we all saw each other naked.” He walked off and grabbed some trousers of his. “You have a really small–”

“I’m gonna stop you right there. Look, I’m just gonna leave, okay?” I made myself some clothes and jetted out of there.

When I exited the room, I had no damn idea where I was. I should get a map of this place to keep with me. Eventually, I just followed the Light Link placed on Steyza and flew back to the Rizt institute. When I got there, she just about finished up with a class. Almost every girl out of the sixty or so students gave me a little hug and kiss as they passed by. I just went with it. What in blazes did I do last night?! Whatever these elves use as alcohol is too much… I complained.

“Aren’t you the popular one,” Steyza commented, writing up some documents.

“The scary thing is, I don’t know why. Anyway, you did what I asked?”

“After this class, follow me.”

I nodded, and took a seat on her desk whilst a different group of other students poured in. “Hey, wasn’t this school a girls-only school?”

“Of course not. But there are some classes that only girls would be interested in. Hey, uh, Eric. Seeing that you’re not busy, can you do a demonstration today? Any harmless spell.”

“What am I getting out of it?”

“A kiss.”

“I got dozens of that today alone. Do better.”

“Alcohol? You seem to like that.”

I was about to argue with her, when I felt an arm wrap around my shoulder. It was that dude I woke up with.

“The name’s Sidgeirano. Everyone just calls me Sid.”

Ugh, this guy. How dare he say I’m small? Shit, why are elves so tall? I had to look up at him. But to be fair, I had to look up to literally every elf. “I’m–”

“Eric. We know.”

“We?”

He then pointed to the two girls who were asleep before. “There’s another party tonight. You can bring your friend along, eh?” he nudged his chin at Steyza.

“I’m no–”

“See you tonight then.”

The class started, and I simply stared at Steyza absentmindedly. I was compiling a list of stuff to bring up when I talked to Black Sheep after this class. “–ric?” I heard the edge of my name. “Eric!” Steyza yelled and I jumped into the present. The class laughed at my startled face. “How about that demonstration?”

“Ah, right. Any requests?” I asked. She shook her head, giving me free choice, as long as it wasn’t dangerous.

“So, by a show of hands, who has a hangover?” More than half that class raised their hands. My goodness. How are they even here right now? “Wow. You guys go hard, huh? Anyway, this is a spell I made, called Vivify.” I channelled it for a few seconds, the golden mist covering the entire classroom.

I then cycled through the God spells. That reminds me, I was supposed to tell you what Thunder God was. Whilst I was back home working on K&A, I also gave a small piece of my day to gaining mastery over the elements. A year of that birthed what I dubbed a ‘God’ spell, like Fire God, Thunder God, etcetera. Whilst I had total control over each of the elements, I found that simply gathering a mass of whichever element around me gave me a better edge in a fight situation. It also looked very threatening, as the element would encapsulate by entire body.

These God spells weren’t spells at all; they were nothing more than manipulation with a name. Which meant I could totally control the power of it. Having mastered manipulation made all my element-based spells I learned before obsolete. If I did use them, it was by force of habit.

I put on a little show for them, then took a bow to a round of applause.

Steyza went back to instructing the class. A knocking was heard on the door. It was a Rizt. There were so many of them, I didn’t care to learn their names. He humbly apologised for interrupting, then asked for my presence. Steyza allowed, which I’m sure she couldn’t exactly refuse without repercussions.

Before I closed the door, I made a clone in Invisibility and left him with Steyza. This guy and I walked along the corridor, then eventually teleported to another building. We entered, walking over to a huge glass panel and looking down into a vast room a floor below. In that room laid one bed with one occupant in it. “I brought you here for a simple reason, human. I swear on my Rizt name that I will kill you for what you’ve done to her.” He was referring to his mother of course.

We both looked down at her. She was now in a comatose state, several apparatus helping her keep stable. Hmm. If it weren’t for August’s father passing away, I would’ve left things as they were. “That’s quite an interesting thing to say, elf.” I cast Eden on her, and in a few seconds, she opened her eyes. Her spine became better than it was before I met her. “She’s healed now. But I’d very much relish the challenge of you trying your best to kill me. You better not disappoint.”

I left after he ran to his mother’s bedside.

By that time, my clone was already in a testing lab where Steyza’s students conducted practical training on spells with Black Sheep. “Looks like I caught you guys before you started,” I smiled and her confused face was simply hilarious. My clone shrugged and dismissed himself, disappearing into thin air.

“What do you want with me?” she quickly got to the point.

“Eh, I dunno. I was kind of looking for a guide, someone to hang out with, you know?” I rested on a bench near the wall and earned a look of annoyance from her.

“There are tens of thousands of elves attending this school. Millions of others outside it. Not to mention you already seem like good friends with that instructor. Yet, you chose me. If you intend to pussyfoot around, then I’ll leave.”

What a stern girl she was, or made herself out to be. “Can’t you just accept I chose you because I might have a thing for you?”

She scoffed, got up, and began walking out.

“Alright, alright. I’ll get to the point,” I stopped her and she turned around to listen. “I was serious about the guide thing though. See, I need someone to just kind of feed me with information wherever I might need it. You know, cultural differences. And, if you stick with me, you’ll get a steady supply of this,” I pulled out a vial for her. A mana potion, its blue translucency a sight to behold.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“What is it?” she caught the potion when I tossed it.

“The answer you’re looking for, or at least the way to get that answer.” I stood up again and went totally off-course. “Okay, tell me what’s going on with the breast size here,” I looked up at her, “are all elves this big?”

“Your ability to focus seems impaired. No matter. I’ll consider being your guide. Give me some time.”

“As you wish, um…”

“Amira. Human, if this liquid isn’t the supposed answer I’m looking for, the deal’s off.”

“Just shut up and drink the damn thing,” I palmed my face, “sheesh.”

She popped the cap, sniffed around it, then properly inhaled its rather odourless odour. She stuck the tip of her tongue out, then hesitated.

“Man, this is difficult to watch. Let me drink half and prove its not poison.”

She readily obliged. I didn’t know why, but I assumed she’d assume that I’d be prepared to do this if this mana potion was poison, hypothetically speaking. But at least it worked; she drank the other half. A creeping simper snuck onto my mischievous face, “Aha! You’ll be dead any second now!”

Her body jerked a little. I hospitalised her mother, so of course she didn’t exactly trust me. She was probably just going on whatever Steyza told her; either that or I’m actually getting good at proper negotiation. She dropped the vial and her magic glove lit up as she was beginning to cast some spell, but then she abruptly stopped. “Oh, relax! I was just kidding.”

“W-what’s happening to me? What did you do?” All I could do was look at her and smile. “My mana… what’s going on?”

I wrapped an arm around her shoulder and sat her down next to me. “It’s okay. Take it easy. You just drank a mana potion. Your mana pool is expanding, your mana regeneration and spell effectiveness is increasing. There are other small things it gives you, but those are the important effects.”

Even as I explained those things, all she could do was try to control her breath and stare into the palms of her hands. “Amazing…” she muttered.

I held her chin and made her face me, “Give me what I want and you can have as many of those as you could ever possibly drink.”

She averted her eyes, “W-what do you want?”

“Too fast?”

Too fast, I agreed with Donna. She went from cold and calculating to brittle and shy in the snap of a finger. Can one finger even snap? Forget it, you get my point. This happened too easily. She wanted this to happen, but why? How does she expect to use me, though? I know it’s not for the mana potions, because she didn’t know about those.

“Every elf here is obsessed about not using their complicated spellcasting process now that they know you exist. It could be about that.”

You think so?

“Not sure…”

She looked the type to be so preoccupied with her own issues that she wouldn’t even bat an eye to what some random being could do. And according to Steyza, she had more than a few problems with others in her family.

“Let her do it.”

Let her do wh–

I felt Amira’s lips suddenly touch mine.

Oh, that.

“Don’t!” Donna stopped me from pushing Amira off.

Now why would I willingly let her play me?

“It might work in your favour.”

Says who?

“My hunch.”

I’ll hunch you over tonight, I jested. Or was I serious? Food for thought.

I stood up, suddenly acting startled, as if I was in a daze. “If you feel my magic passing through you, get to someplace where you’re alone and I’ll meet up with you.” Brisk steps took me right out of the room, and the minute I broke line of sight with her, I entered the ethereal plane of the void and floated right back inside the room.

She had a grim smile on her face. “Easy,” she uttered, then calmly stood up.

Donna and I had a mental high-five. We just played a player. No, she played herself. Now I knew definitely that whatever she wanted, she was very motivated to get it, which meant I had a lot more leverage over her.

~

“Steyza!” I appeared out of the wall like a ghost. The poor woman nearly choked on her tea.

“By the feathers of the phoenix! You damned brat!” she scolded me. “And is this going to become a thing? Please don’t let it. Knock the door like any normal person.”

I looked at her strangely whilst she was having her morning tea. “Okay, cultural lesson time. What’s the story with this ‘feathers of phoenix’ thing?”

She took her bathrobe off, revealing those beautiful twins underneath. I dramatically gasped. “What? You saw me like this already, so it doesn’t matter.” I then gasped a second time, even more exaggerated. She rolled her eyes, “Please don’t make this any more awkward than it has to be.”

“Hmm,” I thought about what she said, and did what any normal gentleman would do, start undressing.

“By the phoenix…” she palmed her face at my antics, but her words brought me back to something I got side-tracked from.

“Oh, yeah, that phoenix thing. What’s that about?”

She said, “Your ability to jump from subject to subject amazes me.” She slipped her underwear on.

What’s that you ask? Was it sexy? Yes, yes it was. “Anyway, it’s part legend, part belief. It was said that long ago, when Jynnak was afflicted by one of the worst winters, the bird of legend spread his wings and flew, spreading a trail of fire across the skies that saved many of us from freezing to death. Other people view the bird’s reincarnation ability as signs of an afterlife, and so, they treat it like a deity.” She stood in front of a fancy mirror and began doing up her hair, “Why are you here so early anyway?”

“Not important. What do you believe? About the phoenix I mean…”

“None of it. The trail of fire was probably a bunch of mages using SMCs to fuel some type of spell.”

“You didn’t have sex with that dark and mysterious fella, did you?”

Her eyes opened wide, then her mouth followed suit. She was going to say something, but then stopped. A couple more repeats of this later and she sighed.

“Why didn’t you?” I asked, not so much for actually wanting to know why, but curious to see how she would reply to an uncomfortable question.

“He, couldn’t get it up.”

“Is that so? Hmm, too bad,” I shrugged.

Funny. That guy–

“Was hard as a rock.”

Hey! You’re my woman! You’re not allowed to say that in front of me.

“I’m inside you, not in front.”

Fair enough…

“You, don’t believe me, do you?” Steyza put her hands down, letting them dangle.

“Was I that obvious?” I chuckled. “Sorry, but you don’t need to tell me if you don’t want to. So, don’t wor–”

“I, got cold feet.”

Cold feet? I repeated the words mentally and gave her a glare, “Like I said, you don’t need to tell me if–”

“I’m not lying!” she stamped down a little, in annoyance that I’d shrug her honesty aside with my indifference.

Creepy as it was, a smile adorned me. I circled her. “Are you telling me you’re a vir–”

“Inexperienced. A little. Can we discuss important things now?” she steered the conversation away from her clear embarrassment.

Instead of the teleportation pads, I flew her to work. Even though they had a huge variety of spells, they probably had nothing strong enough to maintain flight. Her hair became a bit frizzy from the wind by the time we got to the Rizt institute. She went about her business, and I was left all alone to do whatever the hell I wanted.

Leaving the oversized premises, I couldn’t help but feel like I was jailbreaking. Technically, I was supposed to be watched at all time by people the headmaster placed, but I suddenly wasn’t hounded down anymore.

Walking through the streets of a nearby town, I did some sightseeing. I was quite wary of bars after waking up with total strangers; luckily, they were nice enough to loan me their underwear.

“Psst, kid,” an enfeebled voice caught my attention on the sidewalk, “would you mind helping an old man run an errand?”

“Eh,” I folded my arms, “I dunno. I’m a pretty selfish kid.”

“Tch,” he sucked his teeth, “so be it then. How does five coins sound?” He smiled as he wobbled near me with his cane.

“Make it fifty and you have a deal, gramps.”

“Oi, that’s how you cut a deal off,” he said, his contrastingly bushy eyebrows furrowing in frustration whilst the sun reflected nicely off his bald head. “What kind of kid haggles like that?”

“C’mon gramps. One, I’m not an elf. Two, elves here are polite to a fault, so you could’ve literally asked anyone. But no, you chose the dude who’s rumoured to have a very different grasp on magic than regular elves out of the thousands of elves around you. Which leads me to my last point – why would I do something that’s very obviously not going to the market and buying a pound of salt for an old decrepit man for a mere five coin?”

A bead of sweat trickled down his face. If you listened closely, you could almost hear it screaming “Abort mission!” at the old man. Yet, he willed himself to press on.

“Twenty,” he said, pushing me into a less crowded side street.

“Forty. Not going any lower.” I placed my palm out like a spoiled kid. He dropped a little pouch into my hand and I carefully counted. “This is twenty, gramps.”

“You’ll get the next half when you do what you need to.”

“Alright, fair enough. Talk.” And so, he did talk. And boy was that an interesting talk. It was so interesting, I put my hand out again like the spoiled kid I impersonated, “Five hundred.”

“What?!” he yelled out in stupor on the abandoned outlook we went to. It oversaw an intersection of roads outside town, giving a beautiful green and grey view of the stony yet bushy landscape.

“Don’t ‘what’ me, gramps. You just asked me to kidnap someone. To top it off, it’s some kinda ‘princess’ character. Meaning, they’re important. Meaning, more coin.”

He grunted and closed his eyes in irritation. “You are without a doubt the worst gullible foreigner I’ve ever met. For a couple hundred more, I could just hire a damn assassin! This is extortion, kid!”

“Extortion my ass, gramps. You waited around a corner, and the minute I broke that corner, you asked me to do an ‘errand’. Think I don’t know you were shadowing me? Or maybe you don’t realise that I know I have the upper hand in this deal. Christina Genuk? Youngest kid of the family that makes SMCs? Only daughter to boot? I’m giving you a raw deal because you know that’s the only kind of deal you could get for this type of work.”

“Fine, have it your way. Just have it done before the Mirage festival. I don’t have all the coin on me now, but I’ll get the proper payment to you.”

As I was about to turn his deal down because I’d clearly only gone along with this due to my curiosity, he said something that would later make me commit. “Say hello to Steyza for me, will you?” I looked around at him in vain at that point, he disappeared. Some sort of spell I figured. I could see his life essence taking its time and creeping away with Life Perception.

Our interesting talk was something that I would relay to Steyza before making a decision.