FoxFire C34, Fight Dirty

…

…

Why was she still not up?

Really, Arras had no problem lugging Illia around even with the odd looks he was starting to take note of, but he was much more concerned with what he would swear was magically induced sleep if his extensive probing didn’t tell him the contrary. She was breathing, she squirmed around a little bit, but she was asleep.

She’d been asleep for five hours now. That was only like, two hours past the time she’d normally be up if she didn’t have to deal with this whole school thing, but with all the jostling around she’d recieved in those past five hours, Arras was positively baffled with her adamant refusal to wake up!

It seemed to be normal, all was in order. Arras didn’t even know of a type of magic that could force somebody to sleep so that had pretty much always been off the table, but it didn’t stop him from working his Mind Realm every second of the past hour and a half.

Now, Arras had done a little reading, some research on the side amidst all his other work as of late, and some of that had been learning about what he could already do. He’d heard so many terms thrown around over the course of his life that he basically had to know, and when he found the gaps in his busy study schedule, he’d taken the chance freely.

Information on how exactly ranks in skill were classified, magic capacity (his own being a respectable (not to him) rank six out of twenty), various magic techniques, most of which he still found sort of pointless, bar an exposé into more on magic circles. Those had sort of faded into the background for him, the upkeep of the three that he’d been wielding for a long time now simply becoming white noise that he handled practically subconsciously. But the trivia about their more minutia workings was certainly interesting enough.

Anyways, disregarding all of that, on top of a few things that Arras had heard tossed around in conversation once or twice, he also did a little more research into the topic of a Mind Realm and its adjacents. More specifically, about what he could do. Most of the documentation that he’d gone over had more so been for the purposes of learning about how to use one, so that he could adequately explain it, but he’d sort of glossed over a certain thing that he was curious about.

How did he stack up in comparison to the wider world? Granted, this was certainly something he’d heard in conversation before, that he was oh so great apparently, but this was something he was curious about, for himself.

Magically? Eh, others could do way more. Way, way, way more. At least for now anyways. He’d be better than anybody else eventually if he had his way. He was certainly no slouch magically, but it wasn’t like he held the ability to go toe to toe with somebody like… the Headmaster…

Ergh, he shivered involuntarily at the memory of that particular moment.

There were still a lot of things in this world that were better than he in his chosen field. And… he couldn’t quite put a paw on it, but something about that made Arras’s heart tremble in his chest. It was an interesting mixture of feeling. Anger, dissapointment, sure, those were both there, mostly directed at himself, but overwhelmingly… excitement.

There was so much more to do, so much more to learn! Not being the best was nothing to be upset over, he loved the pursuit of knowledge! He’d forgotten for a time, his mind focused on other avenues, but more than ever Arras wanted to see the world when he was reminded just how big it really was.

However, he breathed in slowly. Now wasn’t really the time to get so excited, he had a point to reiterate to himself for reassurance! He could be boundlessly optimistic about the opportunity to learn when he wasn’t boundlessly worried about his partner's well-being!

Magically, yeah yeah sure he wasn’t all that great. He’d been exceedingly lucky to be at the forefront of an attack on a nation as militaristically weak as Efiramus as he’d come to learn, but ignoring all of that.

Yes, he wasn’t a master in any field of magic, yes, he wasn’t even half way up the global scale in terms of magic capacity, but there was something he was extra good at in comparison to his other skills.

His perception of magic was abnormal, to say the least. Freakishly so. In fact, he was relatively certain nobody even knew how absurdly talented he was in that particular field because his aptitude had prevented him from making minor mistakes that those similar to him would end up making.

For instance, some would spread their own magic around the vicinity to make it easier to uphold a Mind Realm. To force their own minds into a state where it would be easier to focus. Which would in turn make it so that anybody who was paying attention to the more minutiae details in the magic around them would be able to notice. Arras didn’t… do that. He just upped his perception to an eleven. It was like flipping a switch for him. Normal, boom, Mind Realm. Though he didn’t even think he’d be able to teach that particular style of doing it. He wasn’t quite sure how to… explain it.

Next, on top of that, his manipulation of magic was sublime. While different categories of magic were intrinsically different from each other, the overlapping principles that connected them and attributeless magic came as naturally as breathing to Arras. It was... like walking. Whereas others might be born not knowing how to walk, he already knew how to run the second he opened his eyes. And from there, each different kind of magic could be compared to a different type of movement, something like a jog. He wasn't accustomed to jogging, but he already had the foundations to learn how to do it. Of course it wasn't actually nearly as simple as that, magic was complicated, even to Arras, but... that was how he would describe his aptitude.

And for the longest time, his entire life, that was just... how he thought people ticked. That everybody could do magic like he could. Illia certainly hadn't helped to assuage that assumption. Every book he’d read, every nugget of information he could get his grubby little paws on, nothing accepted his method of magic as a viable way to do it. Pure Primordial Casting, based on instinct and perception. No thought to it, no extra intention of any sort. Point A to point B. He thought of casting a spell, constructed it, casted it. That’s not what other people did.

Most people just weren’t attuned to the world itself well enough to make something like that work. At least not as well as Arras could do it. Reproducing flawless spells constantly and without delay without the use of Pattern Casting was a talent that close to none were born with. And it was one that Arras assumed hadn’t been pointed out for one simple reason.

His spells were on average, so efficient, that anybody who perceived him casting would simply assume it to be Pattern Casting if they didn’t know better. And why wouldn’t they? Every trace of his casting would make you presume it to be Pattern Casting. Done to an exact every single time, practically a form of art!

His spells way back in the gathering that Mikaela had forced him to participate in, his wind spells in the middle of the desert, his counter spells used against Alexarius while he’d tested him… the flow of magic used in them was the same every time. Not the same, same, but each category of magic that he worked with was reproduced multiple times with almost zero variation.

Really, only Illia would actually be wise to it given Arras had instructed her to follow along with the way he worked multiple times, but she’d never seen fit to point it out for some reason. Though, he supposed he'd sort of placed her on a pedestal of being all knowing. When really, she was only a little over a month older than Arras himself... as she'd seen fit to point out herself a few times now, she wasn't... omnipotent. Just, a bit knowledgeable on certain subjects.

Speaking of her… this long winded spiel was all to say, that when Arras continually dug his proverbial claws into Illia’s magic, in and out, practically tore her apart in a non-physical manner, and didn’t perceive anything wrong… he knew she was fine! His ability to perceive and manipulate magic was top of the line, and anybody who could genuinely evade his senses would be ludicrously skilled!

Sure, he didn’t know about any spells that forced somebody to unconsciousness, and while they probably did exist somewhere, somehow, if one had been casted on Illia, he’d know something was wrong! He noticed an improper signature in his magic way back when in Efiramus despite that being practically untraceable according to what he knew now, and he’d dealt with it in short order despite the fact.

So he knew, if something was wrong with Illia, he would KNOW. Unless some mage so skilled that they could properly hide their magic from Arras’s complete and thorough ministrations showed up out of nowhere and cursed his partner for absolutely zero reason, which was totally possible.

He said that last bit sarcastically to himself an hour or so ago, but he was really starting to wish he hadn’t given that particular thought decided to stick.

And so, tough times called for drastic measures. He was paranoid, she was asleep, and he could bear it no longer…

…

“Was that… really necessary?”

“Absolutely.”

“Why!?”

“You were asleep for five-five and a half, hours, not waking up! You missed my entire first class, and you were going to miss this one if I didn’t wake you up!”

“...Wait wha?”

“Why were you asleep for so long?! Do you have any idea how many times I combed over your entire body?”

“You… you did what?” Illia’s head tilted in a mixture of embarrassment and confusion, glancing back at the crowd of students now in the “classroom”.

“I scoured every last trace of your magic at least thirty two-thirty three! Times over! I was starting to think you were dead!”

“I… jeeze no...! I’m fine! I was just-"

“Just what?”

“Uhhhhh, just… had a little trouble sleeping last night, so excited for your classes that it was difficult to settle down...!”

Well, that was fair, he was pretty excited himself, but not excited enough to make the mistake of sleeping past the class itself! And she wasn’t exactly squirming around last night… but maybe she got restless later while he was asleep.

Something seemed fishy to Arras, but pressing the issue wasn't in his interests. “...Okay, just don’t do that again, I was worried about you.”

“Alright. I’ll try not to be a log in the morning again...But was the wind slap really necessary? Six different times?”

“You didn’t wake up when I did it once. Or twice, or three times, or when I did it six times more gently.”

“You did it multiple times, before I woke up?”

“You’re a very heavy sleeper.”

“...Oh my god. You didn’t do it in front of everybody here, right?”

“It’s just wind Illia.”

“Magical wind!”

“I don’t know why you’re so worried about your image, you’re not even the one teaching class.” Arras scoffed playfully as he refrained from ruffling Illia’s feathers in front of a crowd. He couldn’t quite say that he understood her aversion to less than… elegant displays in front of others, but he did understand the concept of a level of separation between himself and his students.

It could be difficult to treat somebody you know personally as an authority figure that you should be learning from. Illia herself was proof of that, even if she did actually learn from him regardless. Despite that fact, he still felt like she’d be a bit more willing to learn if she herself was the one seeking it out on her own like the twenty-something individuals before him, all doing something on their own time. And, if she didn’t actually know Arras.

Obviously, he didn’t want her to not know him, but it was just a simple fact. Illia knew what she could take advantage of, where Arras’s tolerance and limits lay, all of that.

But to these students of his…

“Hello, everybody.”

…Was he not loud enough? Only a few heads turned in his direction. A second or two later, they looked away. Except for his currently favorite student, Miela, displaying why they were his favorite.

…

Alright, attempt number two.

One of Arras’s tails flicked to the side in annoyance, casting a spell in the same motion, though nobody seemed to notice. Which was what he’d intended. It was subtle, not all that subtle for Arras’s work, but given nobody seemed to be paying attention to him…

Big spells like this were more difficult to create with less magic pushed into them, but he could manage. If there was something that was difficult about it though, it was attempting to pay attention to the gibberish conversation that currently found itself echoing from the students, while also casting his spell.

After a few seconds of trying to do that, he gave up given it was more like eight different conversations taking place at once, scratch that, it was half a dozen different conversations at once. That’s literally just what it was. Well, they were probably about to stop anyways.

BOOM

With an almost thunderous explosion, a blast of fire popped in the air above Arras. A small explosion, an off-shoot of fire magic that Arras had come to find quite practical for many situations. Weak in most ways that mattered without the proper juice behind it, but it was loud. Not particularly harmful, but it made for good filler, magic-wise. To be fair, it wasn't exactly new magic, he'd always been doing it, he just... hadn't classified it as anything other than fire magic until he read into it.

“Hello, everybody! Do I have your attention?”

Stunned silence would be an affirmative, “yes”, in Arras’s books. Or maybe it was just normal silence and they weren’t stunned. This was supposed to be a class for people who knew what they were doing, at least, somewhat. He was a little concerned about his ability to teach these people if they were already somewhat experienced, but hopefully it’d be fine. Miela had certainly found the limited guidance helpful so far.

“Good! I’m sure you’re all ready and awake, so no need to waste time!”

There was a resounding mumble that Arras himself would vaguely list on the side of positive, for some reason, despite him really not saying anything that should bring joy to his prospective students… In fact, they should be afraid, because that just meant he was going to get to work with them even longer. According to Illia, that was a fate to be avoided. But maybe, just maybe, she was just lazy.

This was a class of already experienced individuals, people who had spent at least the prior year learning lessons about this. He should be good to dive right in.

As opposed to his previous class, this one was much more… his choice. Teaching about Mind Realms, he had a set curriculum to follow that had already been laid out for him. With the ability to add a little bit of his own experience onto it. This one though, this was practically his playground for the next few months. He, got to make the rules. It wasn't as if anybody coming to his class made a permanent commitment. If they didn't like his teaching style, or if they found that the class wasn't particularly useful to them, they could always switch to one of the other dozen or so combat classes available at their grade with little issue.

Effectively, that meant he could do whatever he wanted in the name of education. That... sounded a little bad when he thought about it, but he had no poor intention. He had a very... specific... vision.

“One of you, please step forward for a duel!”

There was a moment of hesitation, but one individual quickly broke through the silence that came after Arras’s request.

“Ah, not you, Miela.”

No, he’d already spent... quite, long enough, being battered around by Arras. It was good to see him eager for more, but not yet. He needed to see what he was working with.

“Arras!”

“...What?”

“Don’t call a noble by their first name in front of other nobles! That looks really bad for you.”

“...Why?”

“It looks like you’re playing favorites to the nobles, if you’re on a first name basis with other nobles.”

“...But I am going to play favorites. Whoever’s eager to learn is who I’m going to treat better.”

“Well don’t tell them that! Keep your options open!”

“...If you say so.”

“Would anybody else, care to step forward? Pennsworth has already had his fair share of practice against me, and it would be rather disingenuous to have them go first.”

“Better.”

“Excuse me!” A lighter voice called out as a hand went up, quickly drawing Arras’s attention.

Tilting his head towards the individual, Arras acknowledged them. “Yes…?”

“Ah! Javi, sorry, Professor! But what do you mean Pennsworth has already been practicing with you?"

"Oh, it's simple enough. I simply happened to meet them a few days before the Academy year began. They've been learning from me for a little longer than any of you, so I'd like to see what a few more of you can do. I'd like to know what level of skill I'm working with."

Still felt a little odd to lay his thoughts bare to a crowd. But, they were quiet, at least somewhat respectful given the only conversation that his less sensitive than usual ears picked up on was the occasional murmur. This was something he'd just have to get used to, and he was already well on his way.

"Now, somebody other than Pennsworth, please?"

A few seconds of silence later, and somebody finally stepped forward. A rather tall individual, in Arras's opinion. Much taller than him, anyways.

"Then, I should be acceptable, yes?"

Looking up to meet his eyes, Arras paused for a moment before nodding curtly. "Sure. Everybody, please step aside."

The thought occurred that he'd once more forgotten to ask somebody's name, but oh well he could rectify that momentarily. For the moment, he had a fight to participate in.

"The first person that gets hit three times will lose." Arras stated matter of factly as he hopped down from the platform that found itself accommodating each outdoor classroom.

A short, polite nod was what he received in acknowledgement.

"Illia?"

"Yeah?"

"You're not the teacher, but you are the assistant. Would you count us down, please?"

"Uhhh... sure. How?"

"...Three lights, please?"

"We'll begin once there is no fire left."

"Pardon?"

He didn't need to explain, given three small floating flames appeared between himself and the student a moment later.

Arras couldn't quite explain why it was so satisfying to finally let loose with his magic, to just... stop restricting himself and use his tails for spell-casting... but there was something to it. Something, well, magical. He'd allowed himself to use his full prowess when it came to teaching and everything related to it, and well... today had been very liberating.

Two flames remained.

Did it count as cheating to start preparing spells even before the duel began? Perhaps, but to do otherwise sort of... went against his lesson plan. But he could see how it might be construed as a little unfair, so he'd take it easy.

With a fwoosh each flame dwindled to nothing, and taking a quick peek at the magic flowing in the vicinity, Arras noted that he wasn't cheating by the standard of an official duel, because there his opponent was coalescing a blast of their own magic. If he wasn't wrong, he was fairly sure that was... water magic? Interesting enough. Nothing much to look at though, it was just a blast of water.

Arras didn't even need to use his spell, he just... stepped to the side.

Tilting his head curiously, Arras merely flicked a finger in his opponents direction, erecting a force barrier within moments which blocked the next shot of magic which had formed in... somewhat impressive time. Only took them three or so seconds, not bad, but not great either. Faster than Miela had started anyway. Unfortunately, three seconds was more than enough for Arras to make a barrier capable of blocking a simple projectile.

...Surely that wasn't all they had though, right? They didn't just shoot water at somewhat threatening speeds did they? That would be... disappointing. And Arras didn't want to be disappointed, he wanted to see his student doing well.

With a second finger, Arras launched the barrier forward. And while force magic wasn't exactly visible... he made no effort in hiding the magic. What he wanted to see was how his student would defend against him. With their ability to cast a spell of that caliber in a span of a few seconds... the somewhat slow pace that his spell was advancing at should be more than enough time.

Observing intently, Arras waited impatiently as his force magic slowly traveled. He could've just casted an entirely new spell instead of moving the already existing one, which certainly would've been more effective... but that was sort of the point. He wasn't trying to legitimately harm. No, that was for later. Right now he needed to know what they could take.

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And... they could take it well enough apparently! After leaning back for a moment, they'd launched their first forward in a solid motion, shattering the barrier and scattering the magic that Arras had used to the wind. Perhaps not the best test to use force magic, it was rather costly to simply have wasted. But it was interesting how they broke it. Arras couldn't quite vouch for the effectiveness of strengthening magic, for obvious reasons, but it did seem to be a somewhat practical method of simply taking such attacks. But, to what extent?

He couldn't exactly use force magic like he just had on end, recycling his usage of force magic into more of his magic was essential for the efficiency of his spell-casting. Simply allowing it to be destroyed wouldn't do, he'd run out of magic unfortunately quickly in that way. So, his least lethal form of attack wouldn't exactly do in this case, but no matter, he had other options. His first thought being earth magic, but that could be a little bit more dangerous than his second choice. Explosive magic wasn't too harmful with less power behind it.

But... alas, he'd set a restriction on himself! Three hits to decide the winner? What had he been thinking? He could only hit his student three times... Or well, three solid... hits... no... he could work with this.

Oh, and it was about time to work with his illusion magic. He'd been allowing this particular spell to waste away for a little bit too long.

The next blast of water that had come in retaliation simply hit the air. Harmlessly phasing through an image of Arras's form left behind by the original himself. Immediately, his student began weaving more magic. But, he was slow. Very, very slow. Slower than normal, as they'd noticed a little bit too late. Before they had the chance to react, a small burst of ash clouded the air, obscuring their vision and sending them on the back-foot. And yet still, they had nothing else to show Arras except for further attempts to prepare water magic.

Was that really it? A whole year of practice before this class and that was all they had to show for it? Arras wasn't even all that excited about this anymore. His tails slowly drooped as he allowed the illusion magic that he'd channeled for almost half a minute to simply vanish, reclaiming most of the magic pushed towards it. The spell was overkill to begin with, he really didn't need to interfere with his opponents magic perception, visual perception, and their sense of balance.

They must've noticed the lack of the third effect when their body suddenly snapped straight. It had been very subtle.

"I do hope you have more to show me than just water magic." Arras frowned as he dispelled the cloud of ash that had formed from a more intricate explosion spell, his tails once again starting to move. Weaving spell after spell, all stored for an occurrence in the very near future.

Instead of bothering to respond, his student simply began channeling something else. Their magic once again amassing...

Hold on, why exactly did it always collect at his hands? Putting the formation of his spells on the back-burner for a moment, Arras squinted his eyes ever so slightly as he noticed the many rings adorning his students fingers.

...Were those artifacts? Well, they were human, so it made sense for them to need a spell focus unlike Arras himself... but, that was certainly an interesting way to do it! More mobile, easier to work with if you never needed to unsheathe them. And-ah, that was fire magic.

Compared to before, this magic was of FAR higher quality. Forming slightly faster, with far more power placed behind it. This could actually be seriously threatening if Arras didn't take any defensive action!

So, he did just that. Prematurely detonating (literally) his magic, Arras unleashed a barrage of tiny explosions, dozens of tiny pellets scattering forward and exploding a moment later, each one small and quiet, creating a small puff of ash, but together, creating quite the unexpected... boom. This offset his student's aim slightly, but not nearly enough to actually cause him to properly miss. And Arras had used the explosions as a smoke-screen, rather than an attack as he'd initially intended.

Defending himself was simple enough, a force barrier did well on that front, the quick cast not breaking on impact like it would against water due to the less physically heavy nature of, you know, fire. But after his student recovered a moment later, they were already back on the offensive. Fire magic prepared in yet another short moment. Just over two seconds for this spell. That was actually relatively impressive, for real this time.

This, was so much better.

Tails once again swaying gently, Arras reinitiated his usage of illusion magic, though this time not nearly as forcefully. All he needed was the second of the three effects he'd made use of prior. Dipping past another blast of fire magic aimed at a vision of himself slightly off to the side, Arras made his way closer and closer as he readied more explosives, offsetting the occasional blast of fire magic with a well placed force barrier, and entirely avoiding others with his trickery.

Despite his physical disadvantage, given that his student could use physical reinforcement to its seemingly fullest while Arras himself could only make use of a slight increase to his durability via the use of his clothes, his student was the one backing up as he got closer and closer. Scattering the gravelly floor with each stamp of his boots backwards.

Well, it made some amount of sense. Each one of his attacks had at least the potential to seriously wound Arras, so there was no need to get closer... well, that was if he could actually land them in the current state of their fight. While it might have looked like Arras was struggling to an outside observer, barely deflecting each attack, to somebody who was actively observing their magic being displaced time and time again, they started to notice a pattern.

Each counter was exact. Their magic displaced at the exact same location each and every time, a hairs breadth between the attack and Arras. Yet somehow, it never even managed to leave a mark on his clothes. The instinct that drove them back being one that could be understood quite simply. It was fear, a raw subconscious understanding of the difference in skill between him and his opponent. And a well placed fear at that.

There was only so much distance between Arras's student and the wall by this point, there wasn't anywhere else for them to go so... against their better judgement, they decided to step forward instead of back, towards the flickering image of Arras approaching him from multiple angles. Almost immediately after the fact, all four of them combined into one, much more solid version of the fox.

Curious to see what he was going to try, Arras didn't retaliate, and instead waited... and waited... and a fist went flying through their head as his student leaped forward, a solid impact shuddering through the air.

The image of Arras which had, once again been fake, his actual body being behind his student the entire time... vanished a moment later. An assortment of small orbs of flame surrounding his student as they whipped around, seemingly sensing Arras behind them. It was a little bit late for that though, given the earth was already rising to swallow them.

The detonations were muffled quite effectively, Arras barely even heard them, but he certainly felt them, magic wise. It had been an interesting exercise to create so many smaller scale explosions, but it'd been done out of a want for safety! He couldn't just very well blow up children. Ironically though, doing that was so much more difficult than just creating a single, larger, kaboom.

Speaking of doing that, blowing a hole open in the earthen dome that he'd erected a moment earlier, Arras waved his hand gingerly as smoke wafted out, doing his best not to breathe it in. Fire magic in a more raw state didn't leave much smoke behind depending on its level of heat, but explosive magic had a tendency to leave more... undesirable effects, for longer periods of time before they vanished. Well, undesirable from a non-combatant point of view.

What to do next... this should be a good showing of how much punishment that this individual could take, but he wanted to see a few more things still. Their attack power and spell casting time was good enough, and if they were still standing properly then their physical strengthening was up to snuff. But he still wanted to see how they could adapt, how they could change their strategy in the middle of a fight. They seemed to have had an idea when they stepped forward, but... but...

"Are you alright?"

Groaning on the floor, the... not quite too singed form of his student was what awaited Arras's eyes. They didn't appear too badly harmed... but they certainly weren't up to more fighting.

"Illia?"

"...How hard did you hit him?"

"Maybe a little too hard. I figured he'd be able to take it if he could use strengthening magic to the degree that he'd shown a moment earlier... He's alright, mostly. Could you direct him to the stage, please? See if you can't help him a little bit with healing magic?"

Sensing an incoming groan of exasperation from Illia, Arras was mildly surprised when she simply acquiesced. "...I'll see what I can do."

...

Surprisingly enough, the rest of the class wasn't exactly eager to go up against Arras after that earlier display. Once he'd actually set his mind to it, Govira, as he'd now learned, had gone down frighteningly quickly. They weren't exactly top of the class last year, but they certainly weren't a pushover either. So... in other words, slightly above average. Somewhat disappointing, if most people aren't even up to THAT standard, but he supposed it'd be alright. He just needed to do what he was getting paid for!

Arras managed to get his paws on a few more students, and well... he was a little bit more gentle than he was with Govira. Despite his aversion, he unfortunately worked with mostly force magic. And each shattered barrier was a painful reminder of his wasteful usage... All the way up until class ended. And well, Arras had to say... he was... pretty alright, honestly. It wasn't like he'd given himself a massive headache through over usage of his own magic, no. It was just dissatisfying to him.

Anyways, he would've offered his students the opportunity to stay longer, and learn from him off school hours, cause he was more than willing to do so, but unfortunately, the day wasn't over. Most of them ended up leaving for their last class of the day, including all of the students whom he'd sparred with today.

So! That left him with... one whole thing that he still had to do today! What thing? He certainly didn't know what it was! No, he wouldn't know that until near midnight in fact. What's that? He did know? Whaaaaaat? That's silly, he was going to the Dimensional Library!

"So, how do you think I did?"

"I think you're going to be missing half your class tomorrow."

"Oh come on it wasn't that bad."

"You know most Professors probably wouldn't drop half a dozen nobles to the ground in front of their peers. Well, at least you didn't do it to only one of them. That'd be way worse..."

"It's a combat class."

"I mean, I guess? I just suppose I hadn't really come to my senses by the time I was watching you brutalize a bunch of kids. I know you wouldn't care about that, I know you can and would do it, I know it's a combat class, but despite all of that, it still hadn't really dawned on me that you were going to magically beat multiple nobles..."

"The way you talk about this, it makes me rather concerned. I simply did my job, did I not? It's not like I forced anybody to fight me."

"I mean you kind of did... but, oh whatever. I get that this is just your method of seeing how much punishment they can take? But word of the wise? Maybe try a little bit more actual teaching, alright?"

"Not everybody works with Primordial Casting. I can't just have them do exercises like we'd do together." Arras half-mumbled as he fumbled with the keys to his room, opening it up within short order. "If I can't help everybody there practice in a straight forward manner, then they need to be learning how to fight instead. I can't know how they fight without fighting them beforehand."

"I guess... anyways, uh, what are you doing heading to our room? Weren't we supposed to meet with my sister after sch-"

"No idea what you're talking about, 'after school', my silly Fiance! Why, in fact, they merely specified today!"

"...You're unusually chipper about this."

"I'd rather help you avoid them for as long as possible." Arras frowned, opening the door to the library proper.

"Well... I can't say that avoiding the confrontation is going to be a good thing. The longer we take, the worse off we'll be. It'd probably just be better to see them a little after school ends. So, in three or so hours."

"Mmm... well, I'm doing it for you so... if you'd rather we go, then we can go. But not right now, I did actually have a few things I wanted to read."

"Oh yeah, same! That works for me."

...

For some reason, Illia had chosen to spend her time separately from Arras. He wasn't quite sure why they couldn't just read together, but it wasn't like she was all that far away. Nothing to get worried about, given her magic was easy to perceive for as long as she was in the general vicinity.

Speaking of her magic, Arras couldn't quite be sure what she was reading, but she was currently using her manipulation magic. Which... made sense, he supposed. How else was she going to turn the pages?

For his part, Arras had been waiting ever since yesterday night, when he'd denied himself the opportunity to read what he currently had in his hands, in order to actually get a reasonable amount of sleep.

"A Delve Into Advanced Reality Aspect Magics." Written by an author that he'd started taking notice of by this point, and one of his favorites, one James Morus. He could not wait~ to get into this one! dimensional magic, time magic, spatial magic, and in Arras's opinion, the wackiest form of magic he was presently aware of, a mix of dimensional and spatial magic. Magic that, instead of altering already existing space, or creating entirely new spaces, instead altered the world around it. The rather aptly named, reality magic.

He wasn't really sure what that "altering" actually meant right now. That was sort of why he was looking for this book! To sate his curiosity, and on that note, he opened it right up.

Arras had a little bit of know how on dimensional magic. Emphasis on a little bit, though. The most experience he had with it was simply by proxy of his brother Darai a long time ago. He would be able to tell you if something was dimensional magic or not, and that was about it. Admittedly, he hadn't done much on his own time to improve that deficit of knowledge, but there was always so much to learn... could he really be blamed for that?

So, it was probably a good thing that the book started on a topic that he actually had any sort of know-how on. He was sure it'd get even more incomprehensible than it currently was in no time. He looked forward to it. Much more than the other thing he had to do today.

Hold on, wait a minute, why was this person sitting down across from him? It had been at the back of Arras's mind, but he was keeping track of all nearby magic, given he didn't want to lose "sight" of Illia, and a few people had come and gone by now. Nobody stayed put though, besides this person who now found themselves sitting in a rather uncomfortable silence with him.

There were other tables and places to sit... were they really going to insist on this? Why?

Slowly tilting his head upwards, Arras raised an eyebrow at the woman sitting adjacent to him. He'd rather not have any distractions distracting him from his distraction... but he supposed he could spare a moment.

A short one.

"What is it?"

"Uh-" after just barely sputtering for a short moment, she cleared her throat in mild surprise. Letting out a quick "hm?" in response.

...She'd sat down without anything in hand, when she could've sat or gone literally anywhere else, so clearly her attention was on Arras.

"What business do you have with me?" He asked with mild annoyance in his tone. He was on a time limit, just like he always was. And he had no desire of wasting it speaking with somebody who he didn't even know. He already had enough of that slated for later in the day.

"My... do I need a reason to make acquaintances with my fellow professors?" She smiled a little nervously, waving a hand at Arras's glare, which was still rather disconcerting despite her reasoning.

Even with that said reasoning, Arras simply did not care. So, to be blunt...

"Yes. I'd like to have time to myself."

"O-oh."

"So, if you don't have anything that you need to speak to me about, I'd prefer you leave me be."

Hesitating for a moment, the woman eventually let out a reluctant sigh and stood back up. "...I... alright, didn't mean to bother you."

Nodding in acknowledgement, Arras raised his book back up as he ensured her departure proceeded smoothly with his ever present detection. Smiling ever so slightly, he nodded once more in satisfaction as he turned another page.

...

All good things, unfortunately, did have to come to an end. Yes, he would count that book as a "good thing" even if he could barely understand the pile of gibberish, because even testing his knowledge of magic like that was what Arras would consider to be, a good time.

"Student Dormitory ->"

Really, Arian wasn't all that hard to figure out. If it only took Arras an afternoon, he imagined most others would be able to do it fairly quickly as well. He learned faster, but faster didn't mean incomparably to every other creature in existence. A day of work for him would take another a week at most.

...Probably.

Anyways, knowing Arian was quite handy for traversing the building itself. It suddenly became much less of a maze, and more so just slightly inconveniently large. Slightly inconvenient wasn't an issue though, so onwards he went, with Illia once again aboard and not being carried. Though, for some reason, he still got a whole lot of odd looks. Couldn't tell you why, but he still didn't care!

Another left, another left, could've sworn he'd gone in a square, but no, there he was. Standing at the door to... S51? That should be the correct number.

"And you're sure you'll be alright?"

"Yeah, of course I will." Illia lightly brushed a wing against Arras's neck, punctuating the claim. "I mean come on, I put up with her for a month I can put up with her for twenty minutes."

The joke was somewhat comforting for Arras, but there was still an underlying sense of dread in her tone. In Illia's best interests, he'd have rather just gone on his own... but her presence had also been requested. Well, had to get it over with at some point.

KNOCK-KNOCK-KNOCK-KNOCK-KNOCK-

"Squa-"

...What the heck was that?

Standing there with a mild tilt of his head, Arras merely stared at the door in confusion. Sounded like a bird, which would be a noise Arras was more than familiar with in every aspect of his life, but why would that...

That Lilly... she was human, wasn't she? She certainly looked like one when Arras saw her, but that could just be a skilled use of a transformation spell. Arras couldn't be sure, but it'd probably take a lot more effort to transform to a completely human shape as an ashwing, wouldn't it? Their very WINGS were a focus point. Just like it would be difficult for Arras to morph his tails, surely the same held true for their wings?

...Well, her and Illia were sisters, were they not? He hasn't really thought about it before... perhaps they could've just been born from different parents, somehow? Though, perhaps they really were just that skilled in the field of transformation magic. Illia was no slouch herself when it came to magical prowess, and Arras supposed being alive for... what, seven or so months? That should be about right, practicing constantly would net you results, if he was anything to go by.

"One moment, please!"

Yup, that bird that he hated. That was certainly a voice that he recognized. Similar to Illia's mental voice, but different enough to make his blank expression twitch ever so slightly. He honestly couldn't put his paw on why exactly he was so predisposed against her, sure he'd heard bad things about them, pretty bad things admittedly, but it was a little weird. He didn't usually feel so strongly about these things on first impression. Not like he was inclined to change that perspective, but it was just an odd observation to him.

Ker-click

"Ah, if it isn't my dear sister and, her Fiance, was it?" Lilly smiled somewhat teasingly, though there was something off with them. Not much, just... they looked a little nervous, if Arras had to put a word to it. About what though, exactly? She was the one who called them here to begin with... hold on, that smile felt a little forced.

"Lilly. I hope we didn't catch you too unawares. Really, didn't mean to spook you so badly. You should've given us a more specific time!" Illia spoke with a light drawl to her voice. She wasn't quite in "business mode" but, there was a noticeable frigidness to her tone.

The corners of her smile curved upwards ever so slightly further, before she turned away and waved a hand in dismissal. "Oh, no, no. I'm just fine. In fact, since you're here so soon after the school day's out, that just leaves us with all~ the more time to discuss certain, matters. Please, come in! Our brothers will be out for awhile still."

"...Right."

She seemed to have gotten Illia there, she didn't quite have a snappy retort.

Being the vessel of movement in this instance, Arras stepped forward and into the room as Lilly leaned to the side and made way. The room was certainly... decorated. To be fair, it was mostly the same as Arras's own room. If not a little larger. But, as opposed to Arras's attempts to decorate (non existent), the residents of this room had clearly made an... effort.

First things first, there were a lot of brighter colors. It felt like they were trying to give off a very vibrant feeling... red, was the through line for the most part. A more crimson red, like his own fur, but still red. Red carpet, red... posts. There was a table, with a few chairs of course, those actually being brown. Though, the table itself was outlined in black with white patterns similar to his own outfit... etched? into it, with a duller red filling in the rest of it.

Glancing at Lilly once again, whom smiled just the same as she had a moment earlier in response, Arras once again noted the coloring of her outfit. Yeah, that checked out.

There was also a couch on the other side of the room, though that was grey, blending into the duller blue of the wall itself. Lastly for a notable feature, opposite to the door that Arras had entered from, a very familiar door was placed somewhere that seemingly lead to nowhere.

He hadn't seen any students in the Dimensional Library, so he could only assume that it led somewhere else, but that currently was none of his business.

"Why don't you two take a seat?" She raised an arm in the direction of the table as Arras continued to slowly walk into the room. Was he dragging it out? Yes.

"As you wish." Arras acquiesced with minimal resistance and made for the table with a little bit more haste than he'd had entering the room to begin with.

Right before he almost took a seat at one of the half dozen chairs placed at the sides of the table, Illia interjected and gestured towards one of the two seats on opposite ends of the table. "Take one at the head of the table."

"Sure, but, why?" He asked curiously, already making his way to the north-most option.

"Sends a message." She stated very matter of factly, despite that clearing up just about nothing for Arras. Now wasn't really the time to take a deep dive into her psychology so... he supposed he could allow it to pass by without an explanation for now.

Pulling the seat out, Arras sat down a moment later as he watched Lilly do the same on the other side of the table.

...Wouldn't it have made more sense for them to just sit across from each other on one of the sides of the table if they were supposed to be speaking to each other? Just another thing that didn't make any sense. Not like the distance was impossible to work with or anything, but it was inconvenient... whatever.

"Now, I imagine you might already have some idea of why exactly you're here?" Lilly leaned forward with that everlasting smile still plastered across her face. Notably, it was certainly less curved by now, more natural.

"Maybe, but I think I'd like to hear what you have to say first." Illia responded evenly.

Her and Arras had spoken about it before making their way to the meeting, and, to Arras's lack of surprise, they'd elected her as the main speaker for this confrontation. She just had more know-how on the entire topic. She might've not been knowledgeable about everything, but this was the one field she could claim superiority in. Or well, superiority when compared to most people.

...Her sister was probably better and more experienced than she was... but it'd prooooobably be fine. It wasn't as if she could kill them with words alone. As long as they did what they asked, which, shouldn't be too unreasonable... it should be fine.

"Hm, fair enough. Does your Fiance have nothing to say about this?"

Deflating just a little bit, Illia sighed ever so slightly as she prepared herself to speak on a topic that usually got her quite flustered without so much as giving an inch. "My 'Fiance' has a name you know. You can call him Arras."

"Oh, my my! How rude of me. I'll make sure to remember that."

...The Arras in question couldn't actually tell if that was genuine or not.

"Well, I'll assume he doesn't mind, given his lack of an answer. So!" She clapped with an unhealthy amount of enthusiasm, before carrying on with what felt like an attempt to butter them up. "What we're looking to accomplish is, quite simple really. We'll only require your cooperation for a few days, and for the most part from then on you can distance yourself as much as you'd like from, our little family." Her eyes narrowed at Illia ever so slightly as she said that, knowing full well that's exactly what they wanted to do.

"I can't say I wouldn't like to remain in contact, but oh well, what can I do if my dear sister and soon to be brother in law don't wish to speak to me?" She shrugged playfully, though, it was only that. No aggression to be found, at least in Arras's eyes.

...To be frank, he was getting a very mixed bag of signals here. She didn't exactly sound malicious, nor was she displaying any real threat or something similar, but Illia was so on edge around her, stiff and flat when compared to her normally vibrant personality. He was naturally inclined against her for obvious reasons, and something else he couldn't quite describe, but she wasn't exactly playing into that preconceived notion...

He supposed he could hear what she had to say. Well, he was going to "hear" them either way, but maybe not "listen" to them. It depended on what she started w-

"So! Ignoring that little tidbit, as I was saying, very simple conditions for your unpermitted use of the family name. We're simply going to make it official. Not in the sense that we'll accept you into the family, you've basically already accomplished that for us yourselves. No, you might not be aware, but the nobles who were on the front lines against Efiramus certainly gained a bit of a public figure for themselves. Nothing too major, all except for one... Somebody who, for some reason, absolutely refused to capitalize on their boosted reputation. The only remnant of their person being the name... 'Veile'!"

Leaning back ever so slightly, Lilly tugged at her dress and for the first time since Arras had entered the room. She stopped smiling and stared straight at Illia. "Thanks for that, by the way, mother's been overworked since before, and after you left, and took it upon herself to track you two down."

...Illia didn't respond to that. Arras almost lifted a hand, but a fierce "Do not." quickly dissuaded that course of action.

"...Anyways." She leaned right back in and raised her smile once more as if nothing had ever happened. "Thanks for that! Some way or another that lack of claim to fame only resulted in more of it, all directed to the family with nobody else to take it. However, there's been a bit of concern as to whether the Veile's actually contributed or not. So, if you're going to use our name, you might as well, as I said, make it official! A noble gathering will be occurring within the span of a few weeks, and among other members of the family, you'll be participating."

"...Is that all?" Illia asked cautiously.

"Hmmmm... sure, for the moment! That's all I've been instructed to tell you, yes." She sighed quietly and leaned forward just a smidgen further. "Instructed to, anyways. If you ask me, I think you're being let off just a little bit too easily... you running away caused quite the commotion in the household. You're lucky Mother still cares about you."

Something about those last few words seemed to upset Illia beyond measure, the link between her and Arras trembling under the weight of it. But in a display of mental fortitude Arras didn't realize her to be capable of, she reigned it in and sucked in a breath. "...I don't see how me running away would cause much of a problem. You all never..."

"Never, what, hmm?"

Things seemed to be reaching a boiling point. Arras didn't exactly want to interrupt Illia in her element, but...

"I think that's enough. We didn't come to talk about... the family, did we?"

"Well, didn't we?" Lilly sat up straight and chuckled, waving a hand at Arras and closing her eyes for a moment. "But I digress, you are correct. No need to blow anything out of... proportion, is there?"

"...No." Illia shook her head, before directing a message to Arras's ears only. "Thank you."

"Now! Shall we discuss the... finer details?"

"...As you will."

Illia nodded slightly, readying herself for a long, tiring, evening.

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