Chapter 26 - Princess x Study

The next day. Once again, in Sir Alfonse residence.

I am currently standing in front of a room with a blackboard behind me.

Yeah, I am currently fulfilling my promise to Master Alfonse to teach Princess Isabella magic.

Currently, there are 5 people in this room. Me, Master Alfonse, Princess Isabella, and 2 of her guards. They are female knights or shield maidens that have been working as the princess guard since they were still a child.

They act as her personal maids and bodyguards at the same time.

They are called Katherine Callahan and Kimberly Callahan. Yes, they are from the same family and yes, they are blood related sisters. Or specifically, twin sisters.

They both have semi long brown hair that is tied in a braid. Katherine is the younger one and she has a fierce expression while Kimberly, the older one, has a gentle expression.

Katherine is a straight forward knight while Kimberly, who has a gentle look, is actually more of a scout / assassin if categorized by the mainstream fantasy jobs back on Earth. I was flabbergasted the first time I heard that. The way she utilizes her looks is exemplary as an assassin I guess.

Anyway they are always around the princess most of the time. But they mostly only guard her from a distance, especially in the academy. That's why I didn't see them when I met the princess for the first time.

Now, as I am going to teach the princess magic, I might as well teach her guards as well.

They disagree at first. Saying that they are already trained in the knight’s path already so they don't need to learn the mage’s path. But I disagree with them. I told them that if they know more about magic, it would make their job at protecting the princess become easier. If someday the princess was afflicted by a curse or other malicious spell, will they just give up because they don't know about magic?

I also tell them about the people in my army. Most of the soldiers in my army could cast basic convenient magic to make their job easier. Although they might not reach the standard of a tier 1 mage who can cast a standard basic magic, they can cast level 0 lifestyle magic with ease.

They got convinced by my persuasion and joined the princess in my magic class.

And so, here I am teaching them from the basics.

“Okay, so let's start from the basics. We have 2 common paths of cultivation in our kingdom. There might be more in the world but that is for us to explore next. The 2 cultivation paths are the knight's path that focuses on the body and the mage's path that focuses on the mind”

"Most people only choose to train in only one of the available paths. But I personally think that it is not good to only train in one path while totally ignoring the other”

"I see that you want to ask about my opinion but please let me finish my explanation first”

“I heard of a saying that going too much is as bad as going too little. Moderation is the best way. From this piece of wisdom, I manage to conclude that balance is a good thing"

“Since then, I start to see the path of mage and the path of knight in a different light. Mage is an extreme path for mind and knight is an extreme path for body. So I questioned myself: will combining both path make it more ‘balanced’?"

“I never experienced being on only 1 extreme path from the start so I can't say anything about the difference between only training 1 path or both path. But I can make some guess from my observation. As a knight trains their body to the limit, their mind department will be neglected. This will cause their reaction time to be slightly delayed which will lead to them unable to move their body in the fastest way they could. They can move fast, but their mind could not follow it which made them lose fine control for their body”

"On the other hand, mage has their mind developed greatly while their body is neglected. This will lead to them noticing danger that is coming but they could not do anything because their body could not follow their command. Am I just speaking nonsense? We can prove whether I am speaking nonsense or not as we have someone in the extreme path of mage here after all. Master, have you ever felt the thing I described here?”

"That is really thought provoking Young Milo. But yes, I have experienced that you said painfully so”

"Grandpa…"

Whoops, did I just step on a landmine? If the princess is also affected then… that should be about the death of Master Alfonse’s daughter who is also the princess’ mother.

“Master, I am sorry if I made you remember something awful"

“It's okay. I can already learn a lot of new things by your opening lesson. Please continue"

“Thank you, Master. Then I will continue. Although both knight and mage path will also train the neglected part in the advance level, it was more like forcefully pulling the lagging part along the advanced part. For example, a knight could gradually get used to moving at high speed as they train. That is actually training the mind in a sense. And it is also not as efficient of a training as training the basics of the mage path. While mage would slowly strengthen their body because their mana capacity reach a certain level that their body couldn't handle”

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"That kind of ‘compensating’ is not only not efficient as a training, it will also slow down the growth of the main part your path is training as it is being held down by the neglected part. And just like a wise word says: prevention is better than cure. With ‘compensating' as the cure and training both path as the prevention"

“Then do you mean we should master both paths at the same time?"

Katherine, being the brash one, immediately questioned me.

“Please raise your hand first if you want to ask. To answer your question, no. It is hard to master both paths as especially not everyone can become a mage. But even if they can't become a mage, they can still do basic mana training to cultivate their mind all the same. You could treat the other path as a support for your main path”

“Myself as an example, I feel like being a mage is more suited for me as I am bad in fighting close combat when compared to the members of my army. Before meeting a fortunate accident, I was just a tier 2 mage and a tier 1 knight. And most of my soldiers had also reached tier 2 in their main path. This should be a good enough proof that training both path could fasten your cultivation speed”

“So yeah, both of you, Miss Katherine and Miss Kimberly, should try to learn the basic mana training drill and try spending some time before you sleep to cultivate it. You should feel some improvement in the few following days”

"You guys should also try the training I held in the hunter guild. With most of my soldiers being in 2nd tier, it should show how effective my training is compared to the others”

"Won't it be troublesome to have the princess appear in public?”

"... That concludes my lesson about balancing the two cultivation paths. Yes, Miss Katherine?”

I ignored Katherine who brazenly cut me in my talk again. And it seems she gets the hint by raising her hand now and repeating what she asked before.

“That is indeed a problem. Then you can join the training in my mansion instead as it has better privacy"

That was a slip in my mind. I've been living without caring about one's title after all. In Goldcastle, my family is the highest in social strata so I can ignore it most of the time. I should be more careful.

Oh, and should I also invite Celestine to my own mansion? She is also a VIP after all. It would be too hectic if she mingled with the public.

Let's put that for another time. Let's focus on giving lesson first for now.

“Okay. I guess now everyone should see the merit of practicing both paths, right? So now let's talk about magic elements and its interactions with each other"

“First are the wind and earth magic. Why am I bundling these two elements together? Because they are basically the same with just a little difference which is the material they are made of. Wind and earth will only deal physical damage. Those don't deal special magical damage like fire, ice, or lightning. But according to their use, they could be deadlier than fire, ice, or lightning. Arguably, the earth element has greater versatility when compared to the wind element but I will explain more in detail later. I will now skim the surface of all known elements first before going in depth”

“In case of elemental strength and weakness, contrary to many beliefs, wind and earth do not contradict each other. Wind is weak against fire as wind feeds fire to burn stronger. While earth is weak against… well, things that are harder than it in general. So would metal element users overwhelm earth element users? Well, a fight is never that simple”

“Next up is fire and water. I should not group them like this but I kinda carried away the previous explanation style. Anyway, fire, the start of human civilization as told in many myths and legends, is the most destructive element amongst the 4 basic elements. It even coined the term ‘fire power’ to measure the destructive prowess of a spell. That should show the superiority of the fire element in terms of destruction. But in reality, fire magic is not a convenient spell to cast. You can injure yourself and your allies easily if you are not careful. You will burn your foes to charcoal rendering you unable to acquire any loot from them as most items aren't fireproof. In case of monsters, claws, fangs, horns, and scales might be able to survive the burning but most flesh, skin, and other valuable fleshy parts like poison sacks would become ruined and you won't be able to harvest them”

"Now for a pop quiz. Princess, do you know what will happen if someone carelessly uses fire spells in a dense urban area or in a lush forest?"

"It would turn into a disaster”

"Exactly. I have a feeling that this is the main reason why you couldn't teach kids spells. And instead of giving the correct guidance, the people with authority just carpet ban the teaching of magic to kids”

“Anyway, indeed a careless use of fire magic could create a disaster as fire magic would persist to exist even after it lost the mana supplied by its caster as long as it has something to burn. Different from wind magic and earth magic that won't leave anything behind after the mana supply stopped, fire will stay and will spread to other flammable things in the surrounding. So it is hard to use fire magic inside a city and in the forest. There is also one place where you should be careful when using fire magic and that is inside a cave”

"Why you asked? Then let me tell you a secret. In the air, there is an invisible substance that we need to breathe. And this substance would also burn in fire and it will be depleted after. In open air, this substance is all over the place so it will constantly replenish itself. But in a closed cave where the air circulation is limited, it will stay depleted and you will choke to death. Well, not to death perhaps, but you will still be rendered unconscious. And we all know how dangerous it is to be unconscious in a cave”

"That sounds like a bunch of lies. I heard a bard told a more convincing lies once”

"Indeed it sounds like something out of this world. That's why we need to experiment ourselves to prove whether something is true or false. After all, there are indeed lies spread to protect the benefits of people on top. And we also have our sole volunteer for the experiment. Everyone, give your applause to Miss Katherine”

"But I don't… Fine, I will volunteer"

Katherine reluctantly agrees when she sees Kimberly giving a sign to her. I guess Kimberly is the behind the scene mastermind type of person just like her primary job as an assassin. I have the feeling that she is the evil one of the twins.

I told Katherine to walk to the front and stand there facing the others. Then I ask Master to put a waterproof barrier around her.

“Okay. Now, Katherine is perfectly isolated from the surrounding air. In this condition, even if I don't cast a fire spell inside, she will still choke to death if we leave her inside long enough. But it will take hours before that happens so let's speed it up. I will cast a simple basic fire training spell to burn the substance inside. Miss Katherine, please keep standing still. And try your best to stay conscious”

And just like most Earth denizens knows how it will end, Katherine faints soon after even when she struggles really hard in the end to stay awake. I can hear audible gasps from the princess and Kimberly. You don't expect this, do you?

Master immediately releases the isolation barrier after he saw Katherine fainted so there won't be immediate danger to her. I hope so. Well, I can ask Celestine later to heal her if anything bad happens. I lift Katherine from the ground where she fainted to the sofa where the princess and the other half of the twins were sitting. To help her regain consciousness faster, I lie her down on the sofa, put her leg in an elevated spot, and massage her neck and temple.

She soon wakes up. But when she tries to wake up, I tell her to keep lying down until she completely feels better.

But well, as a character with strong self-assertion, she does not listen to my advice and immediately sits down only to wobble around like she is about to faint again.

Well, not my problem anyway. Do as you like. I just told her that I don't mind having her lying down for a while after volunteering in the experiment.

Then I'll just continue the lesson.

“As you just witnessed, that is something that would happen if you lack the breathing substance. And this breathing substance is actually counted as a fuel that can be burned with fire albeit not the primary source, it is still an important part of a burning process. Let's do another experiment to prove this”

Next, I lit a wood on fire and ask Master to isolate it again. Soon after, the tongue of fire that is licking the burning wood moves with less and less vigor until it is put out. There are still smoldering signs on the wood but it is not lit.

“There you have it. This is the key for me to comprehend what fire is which enables me to cast fire spells later on. Most people in my army could also cast fire magic albeit just the basic finger fire and some of them also need years to finally master it. The important thing is, if you understand enough about fire, you can also learn how to cast fire spells even without having fire affinity. Unless you have a special type of affinity that prevent you from casting fire magic such as ice affinity or other unknown affinity”

“In terms of weakness, water could be said to be one. But it is more appropriate to call it being opposed to each other as a larger fire could evaporate water and a large amount of water could drown the fire. It is just a matter of which one is stronger”

The lecture continues on.