William’s career wasn’t the only one to advance. Marius went along a similarly scholarly path, though he had somewhat less time to devote to it. He had matters to attend to as a noble, as well as family to spend time with. William found it somewhat odd to be of the age where his peers had children, again. Even though Marius was older, William himself was still of the age where it would be reasonable and expected to have children. William’s only immediate interest in the topic was whether or not wizards produced children with the potential to be a wizard.

However, the potential to be a decent wizard was rare enough that it was hard to gather proper statistics. All that was known for sure is that the children of a wizard (or two wizards) didn’t always have the potential to be a wizard themself. There had, of course, been a number of cases where the children had equal or greater magical potential, but there were mostly cases where they had lesser potential as well. Even if the probability was five or ten times as high, which was really just speculation, there were not enough records to check to determine the truth. There would have to have been hundreds, preferably thousands of births. While there had indeed been thousands of children born from wizards, most did not have specific records. William added a note to keep track of such statistics in the future.

Lila, meanwhile, went into “field research”. This involved much more time spent away from the academy, doing various things. Occasionally, she would fight or capture some magical beasts, either things that people needed for research, or to remove them from populated areas. There weren’t enough magical beasts that attacked populated areas for them to be a problem, but it would be extremely dangerous to try to exterminate them. Thus, they were mostly left alone, as long as they didn’t bother anyone. There were also safer jobs, such as finding and gathering rare herbs. Even Lila, who enjoyed fighting, didn’t want to risk her life every day, but she did enjoy traveling.

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William also broadened his areas of study. He wanted to have at least a fundamental, working understanding of every magical area. Among these was alchemy, though it really wasn’t particularly magical. It was basically medicine, though some of the ingredients were magical, and wizards were the majority of those who studied it. However, it was not like even alchemy could create miracle drugs. There wasn’t a single thing that could be used to cure all disease, or all poisons. Even those things made to a specific end often had some side effects, big or small. Thus, it was medicine.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Some things required the injection of mana to functions properly, and for those William called upon Chris’ help. Fortunately, Chris didn’t need to understand the mixtures to fulfill that role. It was not that Chris was stupid, but he wasn’t interested in learning many things. Even if he had been interested, it was not like he had hands to mix herbs, or do anything of the sort.

William also ended up fulfilling the role of combat magic teacher, though it certainly wasn’t a full time position. Nobody, with the possible exception of Lila and Marius, had more expertise in the subject than him. William was somewhat disappointed in that, but that was the way things were. Lila was not always available, and not suited to teaching, so she rarely contributed. Marius did provide some guidance as well, and was generally preferred to William. This was likely because William required students to do physical exercises, though nothing excessive. Just enough that they could run or sprint if they needed to. It also helped with lung capacity, which was helpful for continued spellcasting, which the students reluctantly admitted that they needed.

William himself hadn’t fought any magical beasts himself, however, so occasionally he would catch Lila when she was around and get information from her. She may not have been able to explain things in a manner general students would understand, but William was able to extract useful information from her descriptions of fights. The most important thing was that, unlike in a duel, real fights could contain the element of surprise on either side. This meant a wizard performed best when they were alert, or had allies who could scout, or both. Knights were a necessity for fighting magical beasts as well, since some beasts could run fast enough that they would overwhelm a wizard before they could even finish chanting a spell.

Not that wizards needed to chant anything in particular, but William kept that secret fairly closely. He had only told Lila and Marius, and they could keep a secret. Even Lila, who was somewhat irresponsible, kept the secret. In real combat situations, she would cut short the typical chants once she was done gathering magic power. Even if others noticed a discrepancy, they would likely contribute it to her status as a natural wizard, capable of amazing feats.

It was possible that it would be an important matter for fighting against the Demon King, but that was also another reason it should be kept secret. The Demon King, and many demons with him, used magic. If they had such an ability at their disposal, it would make them even more dangerous. If it really became necessary to use, it was fairly quick to learn. At least, if the learner had a flexible mind. If they didn’t, they probably couldn’t learn it at all anyway. In addition, William would leave the information for the next Archmage, and those following, to keep, whoever they would be. If they decided that it should be widely known, that would be their choice.