After Martyn took the mantle of essentially the second ruler of this kingdom, he assigned us to this sort of classes. I was sent to Lady Chloé and Princess Amadela to learn about magic while Arthur was sent to prince Kristof to be taught swordsmanship. But I still wonder why Martyn didn’t just teach it himself, I mean, he not only does know that kind of stuff, he is even a somewhat master at swordsmanship or fencing that he probably wants me to call it.

For the first hour of the class, I thought it was going to be fun in a way and it is nice to do something productive rather than slacking around in a huge castle, and well... I wasn’t wrong.

Reading the introduction of Codex Magika that Lady Chloé’s instructed me to do, caught my attention because of the principles and how this world’s magic works.

From the words of the author himself, Hugo de Pommeville, humans in this world can’t access or use magic from birth, they must perform a contract with a Familiar or a divine-made lifeforms, like Fadas, pretty much elves, Subtañs, pretty much dwarves, or familiars like Ceniza.

The why humans should form contracts with them, is because they were born with the access to use magic from the get-go. But by making a contract with them, an eternal contract formally named, humans could use magic, and all this is due in part because of the mother of Familiars.

I was already hooked at seeing how this world’s humans are not magical, but it even got more interesting for the fact that this ‘eternal contract’ must be a consensual deal from both parties like the intro said.

The two must have a level of trust, akin to the likes of Lovers or Family towards each other.

The next one that caught my interest again is the splitting of Magic and this world’s meaning of Magic, the book said that Magic all in all is about tempering or defying the rules of nature for the self and even nature itself, though it has to be an inanimate one for First Magic wielders, hence why.

Magic is split into two in this world, First Magic, commonly referred to as Magic, and Second Magic or Divine Privilege formally called.

First Magic is the most common and pretty straightforward, you just need to know what you want to cast and just change its rules. But yet complicated as well because you need to know the fundamentals and the rules of what you want to manifest.

Second Magic on the other hand is far more interesting, even if the procedure and steps are the same as First Magic. Because it’s all about creating rather than tempering, from its origins second magic is a privilege, hence why it’s called Divine Privilege, to the Divines by Lux to create things like him and it’s the reason why there are Elves, Dwarves, Dragons, Familiars, and etc.

Though it was intended only for the Divines only, it can be acquired by non-Divines. The only requirement is to have a Divine blood. Or in other words, you have to be related to the Divines, which is probably rare or even rarer than having access to Magic itself.

“I am done reading the intro!” I informed.

“Ohh! okay… then flipped to the first chapter and read it aloud!” Ceniza playfully said.

As I turn the last page of the intro, I was introduced with a giant title called, ‘Procedure’ from the text itself I could tell that its contents is about how to use Magic, it was split into three steps.

The first one that I was reading, said that you must first visualize and know the feel of what Magic you want to cast. The book gave an example of casting a fire where one must ask themselves what your vision of the visuals of fire is, like how big or small is it? How bright or dimmed is it? Is it hot or cold?.

After reading aloud the first step, I went over to the second step where it asked me of the knowledge of the fundamentals and rules on how it manifests. Going back again with the fire example, the book obviously said that a fire, is created by friction at flammable materials.

I continued then to the last step, where it asked me now to materialize it. The book then gave a note on that matter, specifically about First and Second Magic. For the First Magic caster, which is every ordinary magic user, the book said that the caster can’t and won’t be able to materialize it at a living being, they can only materialize it to dead things or on their own.

But if the caster has Second Magic, then they can materialize it wherever they want.

Thinking back again to what this book just said to me, it gave an interesting impression to me about this world’s magic, you virtually can do anything!

Well at least to yourself or dead things, I mean one of the lines at the beginning of the book said that imagination and knowledge of the rules of nature itself are the only limits to being either a good magic user or a great one.

This raises up some questions, peculiarly this world’s rules of nature. If it’s the same back as on earth, then shit like plasma and nuclear could appear with just a flick of a finger in front of me...

Woahh…

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I pondered to myself while being bewildered at the limitless possibility of whether this world’s physics, chemistry, and biology are similar or even a one-to-one scale copy of earth. But that pondering was cut short as I sense a certain important presence in this room was gone.

“Ehh… Mr. Ceniza, where did Lady Chloé go?” I confusingly asked when I realized that my teacher was gone after I read the Codex Magika.

“Ohh, her? She teleported to his majesty’s personal study room, before she started the class, she ordered me to watch over you.” Ceniza in his crow form answered.

“But why? Didn’t Martyn order her to tutor me on magic?” I continue asking with a confused tone.

“Well, that’s just the case m’lady, last time we met him, he ordered us or actually just her to suddenly enter our King’s study room, it’s for a power-play he said,” Ceniza answered.

“Power play? Do you know what he meant by that?” I asked again.

“Enfer if I know! He is your old friend, right? Shouldn’t you know how he thinks?” Ceniza bashed my question.

He was right that we’re old friends, but as much as time has given us both to understand one another, his… actions to this day can still be unreadable.

Like that one time, I remembered where he let one of our classmates bullies an underclassman.

When taken at face value, Martyn is just a neglectful person but in reality, which I was caught off guard as well, he was actually gathering evidence against that classmate.

Ehh… who is he? Damn it El! High school is not that long ago, this shouldn’t be that hard to remember, aghh… ohh! Yeah, yeah it’s James… wonder what happened to his life now after the whole getting expelled from the school thing.

“Well, anyways… I am done reading the first chapter!” I said to Ceniza.

“You got any questions from the first chapter?” Ceniza asked.

“Not really, everything seems to be straightforward and not that confusing!” I replied.

Ceniza after that pondered quietly after my remark, which didn’t last long when he suddenly ended the class. I was confused at first but considering Ceniza said that he was just watching over me, it showed clearly that he really doesn’t know what to do with this class.

Though I wonder why he asked me to read the first chapter, maybe for material in the next class?

As I was picking up my Codex Magika textbook and about to walk out of the room, Ceniza suddenly gave some advice to me out of the blue.

“I’ll give you a little advice before the Princess and Chloé sent you off to a forest to find a familiar of your own! Go there with a mindset to find a friend, or maybe a lover if you’re that desperate, hehehe…” Ceniza sarcastically said.

“I’ll stick with a friend… thank you very much…” I said with a slightly annoyed tone coming out. Though I was slightly annoyed by that statement, something popped into my mind. “Speaking of mindsets, what was Lady Chloé’s mindset when searching for you?” I asked curiously.

“Sadly, not as a lover!” Ceniza said with a saddened tone.

“Sadly? I think it’s great that I wasn’t desperate! And besides, if my eldest brother still gave stink eyes towards Ioannes, he would probably give dead eyes to you if we were in that kind of relationship!” Lady Chloé out of nowhere appeared from thin air in this room and bashed Ceniza’s remark.

“Lady Chloé!!” I shockingly said.

“And where are you going? Class is not over!” she said menacingly.

I froze a bit and went back to my seat, sitting quietly and opening back the Codex Magika textbook, and continued where I and Lady Chloé left off.

* * *

After about three hours of reading and lectures from Lady Chloé have passed, we ended the class but before I could go back to my room, Lady Chloé talked to me about something that might interest me.

“By the way Lady Eleanna, I heard that you are well versed in the art of intrigue?”

“Art of intrigue?” I was confused at first but then realized Martyn probably told something to her about me. “Wait… did he tell you that!?” I got caught off guard.

“The Queen of Threads? Quite an elegant title if I have to say!” She said while praising my stupid title.

“Hmm…” I mumbled with disapproval and anger. “I am going to kill him!”

“Wait… don’t be too hasty my lady!” Ceniza tried to calm me down.

“Hehe… well if you are well versed in the art of intrigue, then could you tell me your methods?” Chloé asked me.

I was kind of reluctant to tell her because I never saw it as a hobby or as something that I am proud of. It’s just an annoying habit of mine really, sneaking and eavesdropping, trying to find someone’s dirt whether it’s from a student or teacher.

It really is just an annoying habit of mine, but at least with that habit, I can avoid that pain again.

Eventually, when I think about it, there was no harm telling her, so… “I don’t really have ‘methods’ but I do have one reliable method I have used for three years. The ‘just gather it yourself’ method.”

“Hehe… I see that you’re a direct person!” She let out a little laugh. “Well… it is true that a direct approach is much more reliable, but it lacks efficiency!” she then stated

“I don’t really need ‘efficiency’ it was just a school after all, and I only need the ones near my bubble,” I said.

“True… but shadows should always be linked rather than be engulfed by a larger one.” She stated. “Let’s get back to the main topic here, the Lord Protector asked me to teach you about the art of intrigue and subterfuge under my wing! I, at first, declined because I already have a pupil under my wing, but when he told me about your exploits back in your world, I just couldn’t pass the chance! So, I am offering you this and by the request of the Lord Protector himself, would you like to learn the art of intrigue under my wing?”

I was kind of stunned and a little bit weirded out, it always passed my head when developing this annoying habit because, again, it is an annoying habit! But when I heard that he literally asked Lady Chloé to teach me about this, this… made me really angry.

“Ohh… I am really gonna kill him!!” I mumbled angrily. After a bit of a breather to compose me, I then answered her. “I am sorry, it’s something that I may be good at but it’s something that I don’t like about myself!” I declined.

“Hmm… he was right… then please read this letter, it’s from the Lord Protector himself!” She gave me a short letter.

“What’s in it?” I grabbed the short letter.

“Something to convince you.” She said ominously.

I looked at the rough short letter and flipped it over to see Martyn’s handwriting, it said.

Eleanna If you’re reading this, then I was right that you declined her offer, and firstly I know, I know, we should talk about this face to face rather than through a letter, but my hands are tied El! I am sorry, but I am really busy!

So let me convince you through this letter instead, I need that annoying ability of yours. In truth, I don’t actually want you to develop that skill because you loathe yourself for doing that, but I really, really, and I mean REALLY need you because you’re the only one I can trust when it comes to that sort of skills, so please… take that offer and please don’t kick me in the balls when you see me!

I giggle a bit after reading the ending, but it kind of touches my heart that he needs me, even though it’s the annoying part that I fear that he’ll hate me for it.

But after reading that, I now have the somewhat courage to develop this annoying part of me.

“Well, I guess… I’ll be under your care!” I said to her.

“Splendid!” she cheered. “Ohh… like I said before, I already have a pupil, so you won’t be alone under my wing! I hope you two get along when I introduce you tomorrow!”

“Ohh… a classmate, well I hope he or she is friendly…”