"About magic?" Beth was a little confused. She had never used magic before.
"Yes I'm sure you have seen it before." Kyle had seen Elena and Fred use it on very limited occasions, so for a family in such a nice house they could probably do some fine magic.
"Well... mom and dad use it sometimes, but they only know fire spells."
'What is this with people only knowing fire?' In Kyle's first life, people mostly knew Fire and Ice and one other type. To only know Fire magic was a pity.
"Do you have paper and a pen somewhere around here?" Kyle was going to write something down, but he did not bring those materials because he did not have the money for them. He hoped that Beth would have them, or someone else in the house would.
"Yeah, on the desk." Kyle looked over in the corner of the room at the desk. It was small and wooden, and on the top were sheets of paper and a few pens with an inkwell.
"Okay, I'll need that so I can write something down." Kyle walked over to the desk and took a sheet of paper and a pen and started to write something down.
"Right, so magic is separated into 3 parts for learning it. Memorizing the chant, knowing the event, and channeling the mana."
"But how does that translate into being able to read and write?" Beth was confused. It sounded like Kyle just wanted her to repeat after him.
"That's a good question. To learn a new spell, mages need to know the chant and how it works, and reading it is the most common method." Not all mages knew all spells, so reading them was the best way to learn new ones, at least for Kyle anyway. He was blessed in being able to learn all 6 types.
"I'm going to read magic spell chants?"
"Yes, and to do that I will write down the most basic ones for you to learn writing from." Kyle wanted her to get the chant right and see immediate results for the second stage of the training. Copying was another form of learning.
"But I need to learn reading too." Beth was a little upset because she did not understand. Kyle just said she was going to be writing, but said yes to learning reading. She now thought he was only going to teach her how to write.
"You learn reading and writing at the same time. They both need you to be able to sound out the word." What Kyle said was true. Sound out the word slower and write each symbol on the paper, sound out the word slowly and then put it together inside the brain to say it faster.
"What?" This was confusing to Beth though, she had only repeated words she heard other people say, and sounding out the word sounded like just saying the word slower.
"Each of the symbols in a word make a unique sound. Combine these sounds and you get a word."
"So just need to know the sounds the symbols make?"
"No Beth, you already know the sounds. When you talk it is just saying all the sounds quickly and without pausing. Repeat after me as we go down this list." Kyle picked up the paper he was writing on that had all 26 character of the human language in both upper and lower case.
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Kyle had Beth repeat the alphabet many times while he made some documents on the application of fire magic. Kyle knew about how Fire used special air to fuel it under normal circumstances, but Fire magic was different. Fire from magic would not take the special air as fuel, and it would not produce smoke. The only thing that Fire magic produced was heat.
It was still important to know how ordinary fire worked though, so Kyle made the documents about the combustion process and hoped that they would not be too advanced.
After Beth had said the sounds of the alphabet a few times, Kyle stopped her.
"Beth, there is something I need you to do before I teach you magic though." This was something very serious, so Beth would have to listen or he would not be able to teacher her.
"I need you to not tell anyone about you learning magic. For some reason, adults don't like kids learning it, so this will be our little secret, okay?" Mr. Reese did not even let Kyle read the magic books, and mage school was all the way at 8 years old. It was very strange for children to not be encouraged to learn magic as soon as possible, but that was the way it was.
"Our secret? Okay." Beth happily agreed though.
"Then, let's start with the hardest part of magic, magic theory." Kyle got up from the desk and sat down next to Beth on the bed, then held the document he had made in front of her, and took the one with the letters on it.
"See that at the top?" Kyle pointed to the [Flame] chant he wrote at the top of the page.
"Yeah, I see it."
"That is the chant to use basic fire magic."
"Ooh" Beth looked at the phrase that she probably couldn't read. It was about 20 words long and some of them were quite long.
"I want you to start with copying the symbols and sounding them out at the same time. You should sit at the desk for this." Beth got up from the bed and sat down at the desk. She got another paper and a pen and started to work on the first few words.
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"Beth, come down with your little friend, it's time to eaaaattt!" Reginald's voice sounded through the house and Beth stopped trying to sound out words.
"Looks like it is already time for dinner," Kyle said as he looked around, but there was no clock in the room.
"Yeah, you might want to sneak out though," Beth warned Kyle, but a man with a sing-song voice was not enough to sway him away from a free meal.
'I wonder if it is solid like the lunch...' Kyle imagined the possibilities of what food could be served in this upper class home.
"I'll be fine." Kyle hid the documents on magic foundation in his pocket and kept the rest on the desk, then he followed Beth out the door. They went left out the door and down a staircase to the first floor, then right towards the back of the house.
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Kyle could see the dining room ahead of him, and on the table was a wonderland of food. Potatoes, kale, some chops of mystery meat. It was heaven.
"You're welcome to join us for dinner Kyle." Reginald said as he held out a plate for Kyle.
"He's that guy from earlier!" Berry was at the table and was upset when he saw Kyle. Berry could not explain himself not being able to give chase for 15 minutes, but he already didn't like Kyle.
There was also a young boy about Dave and Claire's age sitting next to Berry. He didn't say anything when Kyle walked in, but he looked at Berry and then back to Kyle.
"Go away." was all he had to way to Kyle.
"Don't say that." Sarah scolded her children and smiled at Kyle.
"Hahaha, what a warm welcome." Kyle took a seat at the end of the table between Cory and Beth, making the clockwise order of people sitting at the table Kyle -> Cory -> Berry -> Reginald -> Sarah -> Beth. There was no more room for anyone else.
Berry and Cory shot Kyle evil glances while they ate, but did not say anything else. Reginald and Sarah spoke a little about how great it was for Beth to be taking learning words seriously.
Kyle was completely absorbed by the food. It was not tasty human kingdom bovine, but the mystery meat chops were still good. The potatoes had a different texture from the ones put into the soup, but they too were still good, and the long green leaves of kale were crunchy. Everything was good, and it was an excellent meal.
"So Kyle, are you going to come back tomorrow?" Sarah asked him while she finished her food. She had the same things as Kyle, but ate a little slower.
"Um, If Beth wants to keep going tomorrow too, yeah." Kyle looked over at Beth who had her fork in her mouth and was pulling of a slice of the mystery meat that Sarah had cut for her earlier.
"We should every day after school." Beth chewed her food and spoke with it still in her mouth.
"You mean he's going to come here every day?" Berry said in protest, unable to hold himself any longer.
"Ooh, every day she says." Reginald put his hands on his cheeks and turned his head slightly. It was... unsettling.
"Alright, after school, every day." Kyle agreed and everything was fine.
"Your father and I won't be able to come home every day, so it will be just you two and the boys for a while." Sarah also worked at the clothing store that Reginald owned, so they would not be coming home until it closed. They had closed early today to meet Beth's friend and to judge him. He passed.
"Yeah, so don't get any ideas!" Berry was angry. He wasn't sure what Kyle would do, and Kyle did not know what Berry expected, but Kyle was only 5 and Beth's archetype required him not going beyond a certain point.
They all finished eating and said their goodbyes to Kyle, and then he left. "See you at school tomorrow." and he was gone. It was not a long walk back to his home on the other side of the town, but when Kyle got here, everyone was waiting for him.
"So how did it go Kyle?" Fred asked when Kyle came through the door.
"It was fine. I started teaching her, and I got to eat dinner there." Kyle said as he sat down on the couch. Kyle stretched out and relaxed, it had been a long day.
"Well we weren't sure if we should start eating, but now that you are here I guess we will eat without you." Elena took over the pot of food and placed it one the table. Good old soup, an Elena classic.
Kyle laid on the couch and tried to think about how he would teach Beth words. He did not have paper or pens at his own home, but he might be able to buy some if he earned money somehow. Up until now, Kyle had only used the tangerers for entertainment purposes, but they might be able to earn him money.
The tangerers were like invisible arms that stretched out from Kyle's body and had many fingers to grab onto something with, like a rope with many frayed ends. Kyle could feel tactile feedback from the invisible hands on the end, and if something moved between him and the target the link would be broken. It seemed that only the end had the power to move things.
Kyle however was unable to think of anything to earn him money before having to go to sleep.
'I'll just have to make them at Beth's house.' Beth had plenty of paper and pens, and from the drawings on her desk it looked like she designed dresses. They were all very simple and without much detail, but Kyle had a feeling that Reginald and Sarah did the same. Reginald and Sarah with higher quality obviously.
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The next day was very similar to the last. Kyle went to school in the morning without lunch, and didn't listen to first period. Kyle and Beth talked about words and how much of the alphabet she remembered, and then second period started.
"Today we will be going over the accomplishments of the hero Kirito."
'Kirito was a scholar and a swordsman, he probably did great things.' Kyle thought. Not only did Kirito teach him math, but Kirito was a walking library. He knew little facts about almost everything.
"Shortly after the defeat of the demon kingdom, Kirito invested in the creation of many libraries in the empire."
Most of what was said today was the same from the first day, but it was a good recap. Akira and Kirito turned out to be good people after they betrayed him, so Kyle wondered about Feng and Asura. No matter what Asura did though, his descendants were going to die. It was a fact. Feng was a peaceful guy though, and he probably isolated himself after the betrayal.
The second class ended and they had lunch. Beth had a similar assortment of vegetables to the ones she had the other day and they both ate that.
Third period was best period. Kyle made one rule for himself though, and that was 'Thou Shalt Not Useith They Tangerers Onith Thiey Holy Goddess'. Kyle lived by this rule in order to savor the flavor of the eye candy as long as possible.