Another day at the academy came to an end. Even after everything that happened, it didn’t take long for classes to begin again, the special class included, even if in some reduced state. Already 8 days after they all came back, classes started again and now a week after Mia left for her house, their classes are back to normal.
As everyone began to go their ways to either the clubs or other activities, Narissa looked for her professor, Mirai, who she found in the classroom out of all places.
“Hello?” Mirai asked, clearly confused by seeing Narissa there. The girl would either go straight home or visit Mia nowadays.
“Good afternoon professor. I need your guidance with something.” Narissa said as she walked towards Mirai's table.
“What would that be? I don’t think it’s anything related to the classes, you are one of the smarter ones and we didn’t breach anything you shouldn’t know so far. Is it about magic?” Mirai asked casually.
“More or less. I need help with this.” Narissa said and suddenly various purple tattoos similar to the ones Mirai herself had began to appear over her body.
Mirai was at first panicking, then confused and then angry.
“Who and how did you get those?” Mirai asked very seriously and with a lot of anger behind it.
“That is for you to wonder and for me to know. I need help in fully utilizing this power.” Narissa said very coldly.
“Are you crazy? Do you know what you did? If you have even a drop of elf blood on you, you will become like me! And even if you don’t, do you know how much you are putting your future children at risk?” Mirai said very angrily and loudly, almost screaming at Narissa.
“I am fully aware of all the risks. I do not have a single drop of elf blood in my family for generations now nor do I plan to have.” Narissa calmly explained.
“Does your family know about this?”
“Yes, they do.”
“Narissa, I am saying this as a woman to you. Nothing is worth the risk you are putting yourself into. Please let me remove those markings from you. No one deserves the risk of living an existence like mine.” Mirai said very frankly to Narissa, putting her hands on the shoulders of the girl.
“I’m a noble woman. I would not do anything that would sully my bloodline.”
“What you are saying and what you did are not compatible.”
“Professor, forgive me for being rude, but not everyone is you. I understand the risks of getting these marks but I also know how to mitigate those risks.”
“No! You don’t understand! These things are a curse! The simple fact you have those marks means that anyone with elf blood will instinctively not like you if you use them near them and if for some reason you lose control and become the human equivalent of what I am, whatever that is, you will not have a life.”
“What do you mean? I know that they will give access to more mana and more control over it. I also know about the relation with elf blood but what are you talking about?”
“Let me ask you a question. Have you ever seen me leave the academy?”
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“...No.” Narissa said after thinking for a moment.
“That is because the academy has various wards that suppress my curse. If I leave this place without a few items or people to protect myself, a good number of people will just stop anything they are doing and come after my life.”
“I will not allow the marks to fully consume me.”
“That is the thing, you don’t have much of a choice. Don’t know how you even found out about them but I bet it didn’t explain that once they fully mature you will not age, right? That your skin will turn purple and that you will have an almost uncontrollable desire to find a companion in the same situation as you to breed more of your new race, right?”
“W-What?” Narissa asked, panic beginning to show on her.
“Narissa, do you know why I became a teacher?”
“Because you wanted to run away from your job as vice-principal?” Narissa jokingly said, trying to do anything to not think about her possible mistakes.
“That too. But it’s because I can’t in good conscience have children myself. This curse is hereditary, specially in someone like me where it has fully settled in. I would have to constantly purge the mana of my own children non-stop from the moment they are born until they are grown up enough to do it themselves just so they are not stuck in whatever age they are when the curse fully settles in. I know of dark elves that are hundreds of years old but stuck in the body of a child. I knew of one that was stuck in the body of a baby, you can imagine what was done to it so it wouldn’t suffer an eternity in that body. And let’s say that I manage to do all that. My child wouldn’t be able to leave the academy grounds for the most part because his curse would be stronger than mine and the things I have barely kept in check.”
“I-I-I didn’t know…”
“That is obvious. If you knew, you wouldn’t have done something so stupid. I know that things are still heavy on your mind but selling yourself for power is not something I would imagine you doing.”
“I…All I have is my brain. I am utterly inefficient in any real use or gathering of mana. I can’t cultivate, make knots or increase the amount of mana I control no matter what I do.” Narissa said, clearly hurt in admitting it in front of someone.
“Having a good brain is more than enough for the path you carved for yourself.”
“But it’s not enough. If I had more mana I could use more spells to help the people under me! I can only use my best spell twice in one day and will probably be out of mana for a few days at least. If I didn't constantly eat high-end food I would probably not be any different than the lowest peasant.”
“Don’t it all go to your mind?”
“No. Mia and Luminus checked it. I have 0 progress in all the paths of power.”
“Again, being smart is a path to power.”
“Not one that can save a life in an emergency out in the battlefield.”
“...Will you please let me remove those markings from you? We still have time.”
“...I can’t. If you are not going to help me with this I will learn by myself.” Narissa said after a moment of silence. Even if there was a risk, the amount of power she could gain from these tattoos was too great to pass on.
“Arrgh!” Mirai angrily groaned as she held her head in anger and began to pace around the classroom. After about a minute she returned to Narissa. “Girl, I am going to ask this only once. I may or may not have a way of ‘fixing’ all of this but it may or may not kill you. Do you want me to try it?”
“What exactly?”
“That's not a yes or a no. Look. It will probably just let you have access to the good parts of the curse but it’s going to hurt, like a lot. And the only reason that you may not die is if you indeed do not have elf blood but I don’t have guarantees. Hard to find test subjects for this kind of thing.”
“Why should I go through that?”
“Because if you get cursed and stuck here like me, we both know who will flip the world around trying to cure us and I can’t put more on her plate than what is already coming.”
“What is coming for her?”
“Nothing you can do anything about if the curse settles in.”
“...Alright. Do it!” Narissa took a moment to breathe and then gave her answer with conviction.
“Hold still.” Mirai said as she used a very strange spell on Narissa. There were no visible effects but the girl suddenly was out cold once it hit her. “Now let’s hope she doesn’t die so I can find out who gave her information about this thing. Someone is already attacking us, the question is who.”