GETTING A TUTOR

In the days after the youngest young master of the Highreich duchy was outed as capable of magic, strange things were reported by the castle servants one after the other. Maids who just put their laundry up would immediately feel a warm, dry wind, and within a fraction of the time it usually takes would put away the laundry and be on to the next chore. Soldiers patrolling the castle grounds found the stone walls to be in a better state of repair than they remembered, and arguments ensued over whether to investigate the walls for sabotage. Merchants delivering goods into the castle courtyard commented how the cobblestones seem more even than usual, though without quite being able to quite say why.

Some might implicate me, but there is absolutely NO evidence that I am involved in any way whatsoever!

Nope. Stop looking at me like that. I’m just minding my own business. I especially have to mind my own business today, as today is the day I meet my first magic teacher!

“First? What about the decades of magical experience that I beamed into you?” Meno groused.

“You’re an extension of myself. He’s someone else, so he gets called a teacher!”

“Are you even sure you can learn anything from them? Why are you so excited?”

Isn’t it obvious? Have you noticed what I’ve been up to these last few days?

“I’ve been conserving my memories for when I actually need to remember something. Please regale me of your latest endeavors, my most precious ego.”

Snarky asshole.

“Well, besides training in magic in secret, I’ve been making my way over to the library and reading whatever I can find. However, I have to put my book down and swap it with a children’s picture book every few seconds, whenever I think someone is watching me. I’ve heard enough rumors to figure out that I’m terrible at pretending to be five, there’s no sense in adding fuel to that fire.”

A voice calls out from behind me.

“Young master! Young master?”

Crap! That’s Ioana’s voice. I scramble up the window ledge which held a perfectly good view of a set of clotheslines and into the library through the open window and make it in time to be standing innocently as she rounds a corner.

“Young master! Why didn’t you respond when I called? You had me worried.”

“She’s pretty. I can see why you secretly helped her with chores.”

I thought you weren’t aware of that. And shut up.

“Okay… Mommy’s little helper.”

I’m ignoring you.

“Yes Ioana? Sorry. I was, uh, distracted.” My eyes shifted to the bookshelves. Now I wished I had taken some picture books out to use as reading props.

“I see” she said.

“…

I was looking for picture books” I finally said.

Her eyes, which didn’t seem quite believing at first, softened. And then she patted my head, as if I weren’t fully aware that I am a midget, and in fact need a reminder.

“You are just so adorable.”

Really? Old guy in a child’s body? Personally I find it rather creepy.

“Anyway, Young master, the lord Duke Highreich has called for you to meet him in the reception hall. It would seem your magic tutor is here.”

Yes! Now I have a proper excuse to be practicing magic — I can just say it was homework he gave me. Plus, I can learn a bit more about this world’s magic system from the perspective of it’s inhabitants. Maybe I’ll blend in a little better.

“Oh you.” I hear a voice come from deep within me.

“I give you lifetimes of magic practiced and mana control condensed, to the point where your spells will move as extensions of you, and you expect to go learn their lesser way of doing things?”

I respond in thought as Ioana leads me through a maze of corridors, presumably to our destination. Yes, Meno. If I can blend in then there will be fewer scenarios that I have to fight my way out of. Life’s not all about about killing your way to a goal.

“My Ego, you are missing out on the fun way to do it, and that is a crime.”

Ioana kept her distance as I stepped into a large stone room, with a platform at one end holding two large thrones and three smaller ones. Opposite the throne was an open area meant for accommodating dances and feasts. On the wall to the left of the throne was a fresco depicting five men in pitched battle with a dragon the size of a small city. On wall to the right was a fresco of a man -vaguely identifiable from the opposite wall- carving a castle out of a mountain range with earth magic while a mass of battle-worn refugees watch on in astonishment and hopeful expectation. I recognized from the books I read that these were the five heroes who would later found the five duchies of Pentheim, and the latter as the scene when the hero August Highreich settled the north and founded the Highreich duchy.

Between these walls stood two men. The first one was obviously the Duke. The second was a man with neatly-cropped, navy-blue hair who wore a robe of scales that shimmered like a golden dragon.

“Robes as armor. That’s.. pretty cool, actually.” I know, right! Also, I need to focus.

I approached the pair and took a small bow. “Maximillian Highreich greets the Duke Highreich and his guest.”

The Duke’s eyes widened.

“Maximillian, I’m impressed. Where did you learn that etiquette?”

“I got it from observing Friedrich, Father.”

I actually got it from one of the books I read, but that would be far less believable given my age, and I might as well throw my older brother a few freebie points.

A smile bloomed on the Duke’s face. I guess it worked.

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“Well done. Though, you only need to keep that in mind for formal occasions.” the lord Highreich looked at the man next to him. “Anyway, I’ve called you here to make good on a deal.”

The golden-scaled man stepped forward and knelt down until he was eye-level with me. Is he the first person to do that so far?

“Hello Maximillian. My name is Zaknidas Volferron. I’m a Master wizard in the mage’s guild, and I’ve been sent by your father to teach you magic.”

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Despite my expectations, the walk to the outdoor training grounds was long and awkward. Zaknidas would glance down at me, then quickly look away as if he didn’t know how to regard me. I too was silent, trying and failing to muster up the right way to broach a certain topic.

“So, will you be able to teach me any information magic?” said me, having chosen to stop thinking and just blurt it out directly.

Oddly, Zaknidas smiled the patient, knowing smile of a man who received a question that he had heard about in advance and was clearly prepared for.

“Your father told me you seem to have a fixation on information magic, so yes. In fact, depending on how you do on your first lesson I might even teach it to you this afternoon.”

I felt my steps get lighter. Was this really going to be that easy?

“Don’t get your hopes up.” Echoed a voice at the back of my mind.

The training grounds was a large stone patio and an open field that sat between the flower garden and a fruit garden that much resembled a jungle. Zaknidas stopped within the open space and let out a whistle. I imagine few places in Pentheim could afford people to mow grass — at least if it isn’t wheat.

So… where do we start?

When Zaknidas turned back toward me, he looked serious. His eyes sharp eyes met mine, and he asked.

“From now on you will call me ‘Teacher’. Now, for starters, have you had your affinity tested?”

I followed Meno’s advice on this one. Best not to show my full hand and draw too much attention to myself.

“Yes. I can use shadow magic.”

Zaknidas raised an eyebrow.

“Only darkness magic?”

“Yes. I can use shadow magic” I repeated. It came out monotonous, but oh well.

“In that case, show me what you can do.” Zaknidas pointed to a pebble lying on the stone pavement - a fragment from one of the larger stones, and said. “Try to pick that up.”

I had years of compressed memories, but this was one of my first times using magic in this life — in this world, with this body. I willed it, and the mana moved within me. As I willed for it’s flavor to change, the mana reaching towards that pebble shifted into a snakelike shadow, which wrapped around the pebble and brought it up to my hand. When I looked up at Zaknidas I saw him in shock, his eyes wide, his jaw agape, his hands hanging at his sides.

Did I overdo things again?

“Did I do something wrong?”

“There is a low-level spell called ‘shadow hand.’ It let’s you conjure a hand to pick up and retrieve a small object. I didn’t actually expect you to know it, but… that wasn’t a hand, and you didn’t chant. Instead it seems like the shadow moved as an extension of yourself.” said Zaknidas, wiping his hands on his robe in a strange bid to regain his composure.

“Yes…”

“That’s impossible!” he shouted.

The rest of the lesson proceeded smoothly, with me using shadow magic pass every test he threw at me — it was good practice. I reveled in the fact that he looked more and more dumbstruck with each new test, eager to get the prize he had laid out for me at the beginning of the lesson.

Finally the hour came to a close and my mind kept drifting off the prize. Would I get it? I had proven myself, right.

“S-stop!” Zaknidas called.

“Yes teacher.” I replied, as three thick tendrils of shadow retreated and lowered three large paver stones back to their rightful places.

“W-well. Th-that was amazing. Truly amazing.” He stammered. Then promptly turned and fled just as I opened my mouth.

…

BUT WHAT ABOUT INFORMATION MAGIC?

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The lord Curtis Highreich sat and glowered as the butler dropped yet another sheaf of papers onto a small tower that had already existed on the right side of his desk.

“I’m already working as fast as I can!” he griped. “Can’t you put that on another desk?”

“You Sir” the butler responded, “directly ordered that all such papers be placed on the inbox on your desk. Something about missing your work if you’re not able to see it.”

“Thank-you-for-reminding-me” Curtis said through gritted teeth. He finished looking over the papers in front of him - ostensibly a proposal by the merchant guild to revise the trade and tariff regulations with the Archduke’s territory, it was mostly an excuse to levy taxes and restrictions that the merchant guild could handle more easily than it’s competitors, a bold attempt since their monopoly was revoked. Curtis made several corrections to the documents in front of him in red ink, then finished off with the words “if you make these changes then I will consider it.” He then took those papers and placed them in the “outbox” demarcated on the left side of his desk. A servant waiting at the side of the room immediately stepped forward and took it out of the room. It would then go to the messengers who would deliver it back to the merchant’s guild, but only after a scribe in one of the adjacent rooms made a proper copy. He was finally ready to choose the next most important task.

“So what are these?” He inquired, motioning to the paper tower.

“This-” the butler pointed to a bundle of papers at the bottom of the tower, meaning it was the oldest pending request “is a proposed emergency budget for the people of Danube, whose dam burst a few months ago.”

Curtis remembered that disaster. The resulting flood destroyed more than half the town’s farmland. Since his government was responsible for the dam, it would be his burden to make sure those people don’t starve. Now, he is scared to admit that he does not know how good of a job he is doing. The butler motioned at the next group of papers.

“These are prospective candidates, and their requisite background checks, for a new high judge. We have fifteen people who have offered to replace the late honor Donario.”

Donario had been executed. It was the first time in the Duchy that a judge had been executed for something as small as a sexual harassment case. It was also the first time that a judge had chosen to sexually harass the Duke’s wife.

Curtis grimaced as he took those papers out of the tower and handed them to the butler.

“Give these to Helena. Have her choose the five most promising and interview them. During the interview, have it seem that she’s alone with the candidate. Do not let the prospective judge know they’re being supervised.”

“Very well.” The Butler said. With a single hand gesture another attendant stepped forward and took the papers. She transcribed Curtis verbal instructions into a note and then placed the papers onto an -admittedly much smaller- tower on his wife’s desk.

“Okay, what’s next.”

The following bundles were a written report on the rock that fell from the sky a few nights ago, a report about the screams and flashes of light that came from mount Kilua as little as an hour later, potential new marriage candidates for Bella, and finally a personnel selection of nights and adventurers chosen for a more thorough investigation on the events in mt. Kilua.

“Let me skip to that third one.” Curtis demanded, reaching for the corresponding papers in the tower. The butler blocked his hand, instead pulling papers from the bottom and placing them in Curtis’ still-open palm.

“The lord of this castle” the butler started, “instructed me that unless the matter is both grave and urgent, only papers from the bottom should be worked on, lest important concerns from the citizens be delayed or forgotten about.”

“This lord sounds too diligent for his own good” the lord complained. “Perhaps” he strained, “this lord’s servants could help encourage him to take a break once in a while.”

A faint but wry smile appeared on the lips of the butler.

“I’m sorry my lord, but it seems I admire the lord who makes these regulations a tad more than the lord who complains about them.”

Curtis flinched. He had often told Friedrich about the importance of getting subordinates who encourage the best in you, who hold you to your highest possible standard, and of how greatly it had helped him in the past. He did not tell Friedrich just how annoying it was in the moment. The boy would have to learn that on his own.

A knock on the door interrupted them. Thank god. Curtis hoped it would not lead to more paperwork.

“Please come in.” Curtis called out.

The door opened and a man with an angular, lean face, blue hair and expensive battlerobes hesitated, and then strode into the room with an air of stiffness.

“Duke Highreich” Zaknidas bowed.

“What brings you here? I hope the training is going well? Don’t tell me my genius of a son mastered magic and has taken to teaching you, and that you have come here to pay me for the privilege.”

Zaknidas finger scratched his cheek and his eyes shifted.

“Well, your Excellency, you’re not entirely wrong.”

“Hoh-?”

Curtis leaned back into his chair. In the back of his mind he wondered why he isn’t more surprised at that.

Zaknidas looked him straight in the eyes and addressed him directly.

“Your Excellency, I believe your son is —”

“— a very bad liar?” Curtis offered.

“Well, yes. But, -”

That gave Zaknidas some pause. What he said next made the room go quiet enough to hear a pin drop. Well, not exactly a pin, but the butler did drop the stack of papers he was holding and have to awkwardly scoop them up while Curtis and Zaknidas both stared at him.

“I haven’t confirmed this yet, but I believe that your son is a Child of God.”