It’s around nine at night. I have a hard time believing I lost track of that much time just because I was meditating, but the darkening sky is proof.
The magician left right after the lesson finished, so I’m now on my way to get food…hopefully there are people in the kitchen.
I still have to go meet up with Wisteria and Forest.
Since the courtyard’s attached to the dining room, and the dining room is attached to the kitchen, it’s not that hard finding my way.
I scare all the people in the kitchen when I walk through the door though. Which, all things considered, makes sense, given that it’s nine, and everyone else has eaten. I’m also probably not supposed to be here.
I didn’t really expect to have a hard time getting food, but it’s still a bit disturbing seeing how much they panic when all they have to give me is bread and cheese.
Seriously, why is everyone in this place so afraid?
They want to cook something for me, but I really need to get back to Wisteria and Forest. Now that the satisfaction of magic has worn off, I’m impatient to learn what they discovered in the library.
I convince the kitchen staff that I don’t need any elaborate food, and after eating my bread and cheese in a couple of gulps, I leave to go find Wisteria’s room.
It’s a good thing I have a decent sense of direction; the palace looks different in the dark, and the way is difficult enough to find as it is.
Pretty soon I’m quietly knocking on what I’m fairly certain is Wisteria’s door.
The door opens, and as I walk in, Forest walks back and sits down on the carpet.
It’s Wisteria’s room, but it seems like he’s always the one who opens the door….
I sink to the floor, folding my legs neatly and completing our little circle.
“So what did you guys find?” I ask.
“First of all, we can read.” As Wisteria says that, I swear I can hear Hallelujah playing in the background.
“Secondly, we’re not allowed on the second floor of the library.”
I nod. I’m not surprised, considering what’s happened so far. I resolve to make a trip to the second floor of the library.
What comes next does surprise me, and it’s not a good surprise.
“This is an island nation.” Wisteria says, solemn. “The palace is in the capital, so we’re actually in the centre of the island.”
Damn. Well, as long as the country is big enough, we don’t have to leave right away, but this makes leaving more difficult.
I frown. “It’s an island country, but the capital isn’t near the coast?” I’m not an expert on this, but I’m pretty sure most island countries have their capitals on the coast.
“Apparently the coast is too open to both attacks from enemy nations and tsunamis.”
“…So it’s fine if the enemy army slaughters their way inland until finally reaching the royals…?”
Wisteria tilts her head. “There might be another reason, but this is what was written in the history books.”
“Not a map?” I ask, disappointed.
“We couldn’t find any.” Wisteria looks faintly troubled for the first time. A map would help us quite a bit in this situation.
“The first floor is mostly just novels and textbooks.” Forest adds.
“So nothing of interest?”
“Not unless you want to learn etiquette.”
“…those kinds of textbooks?” I say, my nose scrunching a bit.
Forest nods.
“That might actually be worthwhile to learn” Wisteria tilts her head.
“I don’t think we have enough time to learn much,” I say. “I know I said that we should take advantage of the lessons, but I’m getting uneasy staying here. We should take the opportunity to leave soon.”
“We need the survival skills we’re being taught to live outside the palace.” Forest disagrees, shaking his head to emphasize his point.
“I know that. Honestly, I think finding an opportunity will be quite a bit harder than we had first anticipated. You guys noticed too, right? It looks like we have freedom, but they’re keeping a pretty close watch on us.”
They both nod.
“So essentially, you’re saying that we should take the first opportunity to leave, because we don’t know when the next one will be?”
“Exactly. We’ll probably be stuck here longer than we should be, but I don’t think we’ll have time to study anything other than combat.”
“I suppose it is combat, even though it’s being styled as magic and swordsmanship.”
I nod as Wisteria falls silent. We’re all solemn now. It’s true that we’re leaving because we don’t want to become soldiers, but it’s sobering to realize that we’re really being taught in preparation of fighting. The palace has been comfortable, and they only mentioned war when we were first summoned. Since training in fighting seems natural considering the plotline so far, it’s way too easy to lower our guard.
“How was your magic lesson?” Wisteria asks eventually, as there’s not really anything more that we can say on the subject.
“More complicated than I thought.” I say.
Forest raises an eyebrow. “What did you think it would be?”
I’ll just ignore the eyebrow. “Like, saying fireball, and then a fireball shoots out of your hand or something?”
“Isn’t your skill air though?”
“Does it really matter?” I ask.
Wisteria laughs a bit. “There’s no way such a convenient system actually exists.”
“Well, that’s true, I suppose.” I’m a bit reluctant to admit that. Given the clichés we’ve already seen here, is it so much to ask for the ‘overpowered protagonist’ and the ‘easy magic system’ clichés to be present?
Of course it is.
“So?” Forest says.
“Right. Well, it was mostly meditation to sense the mana. I did shoot an air blade though.” I try to explain the lights and the points, but I don’t do a very good job of it.
“You’ll figure it out when you try it.” I say, frustrated by my lack of ability to explain it to them.
“From what you’ve said, it’s going to be difficult to learn to fight in the time we have.” Forest frowns.
I shrug. “It’s not like I devised the system. Anyways, we should be able to find training outside the palace, and as long as we have the basics down, we can extrapolate from there. Probably.”
He raises his damn eyebrow again. “Your confidence inspires me.”
“Oh, shut it.” I grumble, but even I’m unsure of the situation, so I can’t really argue with him.
Forest yawns, and I realize that we’ve been talking for a while. It was already past nine when I got here, so it’s pretty late, I guess. Well, I think it was past nine, anyways. I only have my internal clock to go by.
But as teenagers, aren’t we supposed to stay up until two or something?
Though I guess we did get up at sunrise, which in the summer, is really early.
Forest and I let ourselves out, and return to our individual rooms. I’m strangely not tired. I would have thought that using magic would wear me out, but instead I’m feeling good. Like the energy from the mana is still circulating inside me, even though I know it isn’t.
Maybe it’s like…the aftertaste equivalent of using magic? Or a magic buzz.
In any case, lets take the time now to examine
Finally.
I open my status and immediately hit a roadblock. Now that I think about, I changed it quickly out of necessity, but I can’t investigate
Once again, the monotone thought crosses my brain.
This is getting a little creepy, honestly. It’s in my head, and it’s reading my thoughts.
My skin crawls and I shudder, thoroughly freaked out.
But I won’t learn anything if I ignore it, so I think yes.
It seems that it learned from last time and decided not to open
So it’s in my head, it’s reading my thoughts, and it can learn. Lovely.
But again, I do need to learn how this works, so I think yes.
…
…How useless. But at least the corruption didn’t happen again…or more like, the voice thing blocked the corruption?
This is extraordinarily frustrating.
But for now, I’ll take a look at
I change my status back to normal (‘normal’) and sure enough, Air Magic is conveniently written under Master of Magic, and Air Blade is written under that.
Once again, I had to interact with that freaking creepy voice. It didn’t really bother me the first time, but the more I hear it, the more my nerves are being scraped raw.
I wonder if I can change other people’s statuses…I can’t really check though, seeing as that would expose me, so I’ll put it way on the backburner.
So, the result of screwing around with
If I want my status to just say ‘pie’, that’s all it will say. I can also change it to symbols like ‘})i({‘, that’s fine too. Other languages are a go as well. No pictures though.
Well, I can pretty much only imagine using it to hide my real status though. There don’t seem to be many restrictions on it, but the freedom’s kind of useless in this case.
Now for
Yes please.
I have a feeling that I’m going to get very tired of all these restrictions and limitations. Or rather, I’m already nearing the end of my patience.
I’m not entirely sure what’s supposed to be happening, but so far, nothing’s changed. A failure?
Idly, I look across the room, somewhat unsure of what to do next. I don’t know what the skill is supposed to do, so if nothing obvious happens, I can’t tell if it works.
As I’m thinking, I’m staring at the desk chair. More accurately, I’m staring into space, but my vision is fixated on the chair.
And suddenly, a status window appears in my vision, attached to the chair.
Item: Chair
Materials: Redwood, Steel
Creator: Palace Carpenter
Primary Use: Sitting
Secondary Use: Stepping Stool, Weapon, Breaking Windows, Blockading Doors, Table Substitute, Hanging Rack, etc.
I start a bit, but at least now I know how
That’s my own conjecture, though.
Anyways, since I can see the status of objects, does that mean I can see people’s statuses?
I’ll experiment on Forest tomorrow. I’m a bit scared to aim it towards any of the natives, as I don’t know whether they’ll be able to tell what I’m doing, and I don’t want to invade Wisteria’s privacy.
Although I suppose I should play around with it for now and check the limitations.
After about half an hour of running around using
One, if I stare at an object long enough while the skill is active, a status screen will pop up.
Two, if I want to see the status screen immediately, I can use mental commands to make it happen.
Three, I can set the skill so that everything in my field of sight has a status screen.
If this works on people’s statuses as well, it will be really useful.
By now, the energy that came from using magic is gone, and I do have to get up tomorrow (and, sadly, every day until I manage to leave here), so I decide to go to bed.
As soon as the decision to sleep is made, I lose all energy and my limbs and eyelids grow heavy. The power of psychology is truly amazing,
I barely manage to drag myself to the bathroom to brush my teeth. Thankfully, I have a nightgown, so no buttons or anything.
I flick off the lights and collapse into bed.
……………………………………………………………………………………………...
I wake to the sunlight again; thinking back on it, I never did close the curtains. I consider going back to sleep, but eventually I drag myself out of bed.
Since I have an hour, I might as well use the public baths. They should be pretty empty, as I doubt there are many people who get up this early voluntarily.
But I woke up fairly clearheaded, and I know that if I go back to sleep I’ll just wake up more tired, so to the baths it is.
Thankfully, I don’t need to bring shampoo or a towel with me, but I do need a change of clothes. Sanda said that she would bring my original ones to my room, so I assume they’re in the closet.
I open it and stare in shock for a moment. Now that I think about it, didn’t that maid say that they prepared a set of clothes for all of us?
But seriously, what a waste of taxpayers’ money.
The closet is mostly full, stuffed full of different styles and colors. Thinking about the twenty-five other closets that are presumably stuffed with clothes in the same manner as mine, I feel my heart bleed a little bit for all the hardworking citizens who are paying taxes to clothe us so extravagantly.
I find my clothes pushed at the back of the closet, but I reconsider before wearing them. They’re not the best clothes to wear if I consider magic training, and I don’t want to seem too attached to Earth either. I put them back and focus on the other clothes.
Finding clothes that are practical takes longer than I thought it would. While the clothes in the closet are beautiful, they’re not made with exercise in mind.
I suppose that so far, magic training hasn’t actually included any kind of physical exercise, but when I hear the word ‘training’, I feel like training clothes are in order.
Finally, I drag from the depths of the closet thick black pants that, honestly, look a bit like skinny jeans, and a white tunic, which seems to be the standard shirt item. I also find super light black leather lace up boots. They seem to have been made with the idea to have the boot double as light calf armour.
There are, I notice, no bags in the closet. Fancy that.
I grab the clothing, clean underwear, and the hairbrush and set off to the baths. Since I have time, I can relax and soak in the actual bath. As expected, I was the only one stupid enough to waste an hour of precious sleep, so I am, thankfully, the only one there.
When I walk out, Wisteria is standing right in front of the door. Right in front of the door.
“Ugyahh!” I jump and make an extremely embarrassing noise.
“Did you have to stand there?” I snap, my adrenaline still up from the start she gave me.
She tilts her head and admits, “I probably could have picked a better stop to wait.” But she’s smiling as she says it, so it’s definitely not an apology.
I have a feeling I know what’s coming.
“Ugyahh?” she says, still wearing that little smile.
I droop inside. “You startled me.”
“I could tell.” She says.
“Ugh, whatever. What did you come here for?” I sulk.
She just laughs. “It’s almost time for breakfast, you know? You weren’t in your room, so we came to find you.”
…We?
I look behind her, and there is Forest, smirking away.
He opens his mouth, but I cut him off before he can say anything. “You mention this, ever, and I will kill you.”
He shuts his mouth.
I can actually be pretty scary when I want to be, if I do say so myself.
We walk to the dining hall together. I’m sulking, Forest is sulking, and Wisteria won’t stop laughing.
Eventually, I break the silence. “Are you going to stop laughing any time soon?” I’m not even upset anymore. I’m more amazed that she’s managed to keep it up this long.
“Yes, alright,” she says, still laughing.
“Oh yeah, you said you came looking for me, but it’s not that late?” I say, a bit confused. I took my time, but I didn’t take an hour.
“The teachers came early, so breakfast got bumped up.”
I frown. “Early? All of them? Together?”
“Yes, that's what we were told.”
“I see…”
We stop by my room for a second so I can toss my stuff in it. Literally: I throw it from the door, and it lands on the bed.
As we’re walking to breakfast, I recall my need to test
I start humming Behind Blue Eyes as I walk, and a few seconds later, I’m struck by the realization that unless my phone miraculously starts working again, I’m not going to be able to listen to any of my music. It’s a sad realization, and I stop humming almost as soon as I started.
Wisteria and Forest notice my melancholy, but they don’t pry into it. They’re in the same situation as me, so they’ve probably also realized it.
Our music, television, our favourite books, our favourite movies…we’re not getting them back.
Our people, too. We will never see them again.
I’ve been having trouble recalling anyone, and I would say that most likely, everyone is. We can remember books, and music; but nothing that relates to who we are or who we loved. It’s probably a side effect of the emotional summoning, just like the deadening of our emotions.
I’m sure I have parents. I don’t know if I have any siblings. I definitely had friends. I wonder if I had a boyfriend?
I unconsciously grab my shirt over my heart. Do I still love people I can’t remember? I don’t think I feel anything like that. I’m alone in this world, and I can’t remember what loving or being loved feels like, and the really disturbing part is that while that bothers me, it’s not to the point where it warrants more than a few moments of somewhat detached musing.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
Well, I’ll just take it as I exchanged television for magic, which is way more interesting anyways.
The music is still a sore spot though.
“By the way, did you guys find out anything about our situation in the library?” I ask. I suppose I should at least look for a way to get back first.
Forest glances at me. “There’s no way they’d have books like that where we can access them.”
Well, that’s true.
Wisteria states what we’re all thinking. “We’re going to have to get onto the second floor of the library, preferably more than just once.”
Forest and I both nod silently. At this point in the conversation, we can see the dining hall, so continuing to talk like that is impossible.
Actually, considering how open the hallways are, I shouldn’t have brought up the conversation in the first place. The life of espionage is definitely not for me.
We finally reach the dining hall, where most of the class are more than halfway done their food. Oh well.
This time I opt for what looks like sausage bread pudding, a little orange muffin with almonds on it, and, of course, coffee. The coffee here is surprisingly good.
Forest makes a sandwich with bacon, egg, and toast. I can’t really see how that’s different from yesterday just because he put another piece of bread on top, but whatever. He also grabs a chocolate muffin and orange juice. Classic.
Wisteria grabs some sort of mini breakfast pie and tea.
Once I’ve gotten my food, I look around. If you think about it, it’s really just a super fancy cafeteria.
I note with amusement that the princess and the ‘heroes’ are deep in conversation.
I suppose that technically, the entire class would be considered heroes, but there’s been one group particularly gung-ho about saving humanity, so I’ve been thinking of them as the ‘heroes’.
I can’t remember their names though. Or actually, I don’t think I’ve ever heard their names before.
As I stand there thinking, Forest, passing by, gives me a weird look, and I realize Wisteria is already sitting at a table, looking at us. Oops.
We’re seated in the same place as yesterday, though Wisteria is the one with the empty seat beside her.
We shovel our food into our mouths, so there’s not much room for conversation. I’m pretty hungry, so I make it through my food fast, and I leisurely drink my coffee as I watch Forest and Wisteria eat.
Wisteria is eating elegantly, moving fast while looking relaxed. As for Forest …well, it’s pretty neat as far as eating sandwiches goes.
I’m enjoying my role as the impartial coffee drinker when the girl next to Forest gets a bit too excited in her gestures and knocks her orange juice all over him.
She turns to him, apologizing, and then time slows down as they meet each other’s eyes….
Not really. But the girl does blush quite a bit, and after he tells her it’s fine (snappishly), she glances back a couple of times.
I smirk at him, but he just rolls his eyes at me. Thinking about it, Forest is pretty attractive. It’s kind of amusing how no one notices him at all.
“If you’re done with your little skit,” Wisteria says drily, “You might want to go change into a clean shirt.”
Forest nods, getting up and leaving. Orange juice can’t be that comfortable when it’s soaking your shirt.
“Was I a good extra?” I ask innocently.
She rolls her eyes at me.
The princess stands up and says some things about the teachers that I don’t listen to at all. When she’s just finishing up her mini speech, Forest walks back into the room and other to us. He’s moving unhurriedly, but he’s also taking deeper breaths than he should be if he walked here.
He just gets back when everyone stands up to start moving towards the courtyard. The girl who was sitting beside him turns to him and smiles. “I’m Cerise Lily.”
“…Forest Snow.”
We begin moving, and Cerise starts asking Forest questions; is he a fighter or a magician? Does he like the palace so far? Forest’s replies are brief and uninterested, but she doesn’t give up, and they slowly drift away from us. She’s pretty good at manipulating her surroundings.
He looks back at us, and I smirk. Wisteria tilts her head and shrugs.
He frowns at us. We look at each other and laugh, but Wisteria sobers up quickly.
“Can I see your status?”
I frown, puzzled, but obediently show her my status.
“No, not that one.”
Her casual sentence shocks me. “You knew!?”
“You were pretty suspicious about it on the first day.” She tilts her head as she talks.
I think about it, and decide to show it to her, but later. Seriously though, she’s too sharp. I can’t believe she caught that.
“Why now?” I ask.
“I only came to the conclusion after mulling it over a bit. I was pretty sure, but you definitely confirmed it just now.” She smiles.
Oops. Dammit, I have to step up my game.
“Right. Well, can we do this later?” we’re approaching the entrance to the courtyard, lagging behind a bit.
“Of course.”
We enter the courtyard, and a barely contained chaos of sounds and colors assaults us.
I guess it makes sense, but most of the teachers are wearing flashy clothes that belong in a fantasy RPG. Though I guess we’re pretty much in one right now.
I look at Wisteria, only to find her looking back at me. “I’ll help you look?” I say, having no intention to try and find the magician in this crowd.
We wander around until we find the earth mage, a woman with long brown hair. Then I wander around by myself, idly looking at all the instructors.
The magician finds me before I find him, but I expected that, so I’m not too surprised that he shows up behind me.
“Come with me.”
Shit. Even though I expected it to happen at some point, I still jump.
I turn around and smile. “Must you come up from behind every time?”
He just looks amused.
We end up in another courtyard in the palace. I look around, adding the route and location to my mental map of the palace.
“This is a pretty sorry excuse for a courtyard,” I remark absently. It’s true, though. Normally, especially considering this is a palace, you’d expect some sort of decoration or greenery, but it’s just a flat field of grass, not a tree or bench in sight.
The magician looks at me askance. “You want to destroy the palace gardens?”
“? No.”
“But you want to practice shooting out blades of air in a confined space?”
“I was commenting, not complaining.” I suddenly feel very tired, though this is just the beginning of the day.
“Hmmm…use the skill I taught you last time.”
I blink, lift up my hand, cycle the mana, and shoot out the air blade.
“Now say ‘air blade’.” He narrows his eyes at me, and I can’t figure out what he’s thinking.
“Air Blade.” The mana gets sucked into my hand and cycles automatically, then the air blade once again shoots out of my still raised palm.
I make a complicated face. Having the magic happen automatically didn’t feel nearly as good as doing it manually. Or rather, while the previous air blade I released gave me energy, this one tired me out.
Of course, these changes are very small, but still. There doesn’t seem to be much advantage to using skills over doing it manually. It takes about the same amount of time as well, so I can’t imagine preferring the skill version, especially since there is the obvious disadvantage of saying the skill name aloud.
“So?” the magician asks.
“…It doesn’t feel right.” I reply.
“I thought so.” He seems…excited? It’s almost imperceptible, but I can sense it faintly. Well, it might just be me though. “From now on, forget skills. Actually, just forget the status window altogether.”
What?
“What?” I say, disbelieving.
“You didn’t like how the skill felt, right?”
“Yes, but…”
“Then do what I told you to.”
“But…”
“It’s better to do it manually.” He says, and I can’t really deny it.
“I get that it’s better to do the skills manually, but then why are there skills in the first place?” I say, irritated.
“Not everyone can do it manually. Most people can only learn skills through skill books, or through skill bestowal. They don’t, or rather, they can’t, meditate and absorb mana. They can’t even sense mana; they just rely on the skill system and the status window.”
“…So basically, I’m a cheat.” I say.
“A cheat?”
I suppose since it’s more of a cultural reference, so even if it’s translated, it won’t be understood.
“Like, I have something that gives me an overwhelming advantage over other people.”
He frowns briefly, looking troubled. “Yes and no. Over most of the people here, yes. But that also means that you’re joining a class of experts who are much better than you. Right now, you’re like a cat amongst chickens, but if you continue down this road, you’ll definitely meet a lion at some point.”
So, don’t get complacent? Not that I was planning to.
“Then what about the status window?” I ask. He explained the skills, but not the window.
“In the first place, assigning numbers to strength and whatnot is arbitrary. Beyond that, what really matters is the efficient use and application of your strength, not how much you have. All the status window shows you is your rough position in relation to other people’s statuses. It doesn’t even give a clear idea of who would win in a fight. Besides, no one knows what magic power is in terms of the actual process of magic, so it’s the basest of base indicators.”
I take a moment to digest that. “Then why do we have status windows?”
He looks at me, irritated. “How would I know? It’s how the world is.”
…How useless.
He glowers at me as if he read my thoughts.
“Then has anyone tried to find out what magic power is?” I ask.
“Of course. But just like strength, it doesn’t have an inherent numerical value to it, so investigating is mostly useless, since the whole thing is, like I said, an arbitrary system.”
Huh. Normally in games, or game like fantasy worlds, magical power is purely a number.
“What a weird system.” I mutter to myself.
“So I won’t be using skill bestowal to give you skills. Instead I’ll show you how to cycle the mana, like I did yesterday.”
I nod. It doesn’t seem that different to the skill system, but I’ll assume he knows what he’s doing. I certainly don’t.
“You know what the pattern is for air blade?” he asks.
I nod.
“Try to modify it.”
“Modify?” I say, surprised.
He frowns. “Change it, make it different.”
“…I know what modify means.”
I consider how to modify it. I feel like changing the actual pattern right off the bat would be a bad idea. Maybe I can make the pattern bigger?
This time when I cycle the mana, I don’t release it. I pull the pattern further down my arm, to my elbow, keeping the centre in the middle of my palm. It willingly stretches for me, and instead of the feeling of the pattern getting bigger, it feels more like I’m pulling on a bowstring.
Curious, I let it go, and this time, the air blade is condensed and much faster.
“Huh.” I’m a little bit surprised.
“Good.” The magician says. “Now change it to something different.”
So he’s going to make me figure all the variations out by myself.
I pause for a moment, thinking. Last time, I tried to make it bigger my stretching the pattern further up my arm, but that made it faster instead. If I want to make it bigger, I probably need to increase the size of the pattern without stretching it. However I think about it, doing that on my hand is impossible, so maybe I can move the pattern?
Since I’ve only ever absorbed mana into my hand and through my breathing, it feels pretty weird to absorb it through my torso.
I cycle the mana according to pattern on my stomach, then let it go. A huge blade of air shoots out in front of me, leaving me a bit shocked. While the pattern on my stomach is certainly bigger than the one on my hand, the actual size of the air blade is way too big for it to be proportional.
I look at the magician, and he nods. “The purpose changes depending on where you have the pattern on your body, so of course it’s not going to be exactly the same. Now, again.”
I frown, but immediately start absorbing and cycling mana. This time, I decide to make a bunch of small air blades by having multiple patterns that are separate from each other, and sure enough, I get my intended result when I release the magic.
“Again.”
I pause to think for a moment. This is really a test for creativity, isn’t it?
I make many small patterns again, but this time I link them up, almost like gears. The result is surprising. I feel the entire thing connect like one big system, and suddenly I’m drawing in way more mana from my surroundings than I was before. As soon as I release the magic, it’s almost as though I’m a machine gun. Rapid fire of multiple air blades.
My eyes widen a bit. Magic is super cool.
Though this one doesn’t seem to be stopping. My body just keeps on absorbing mana to replace the mana that’s being turned into air blades.
I think a bit, then impose my will on the mana, and my body stops absorbing it. The last bit of mana is quickly release as more air blades.
I turn and look at the magician, who’s muffling laughter.
I frown. “What?”
“Nothing. Anyways, you’ve now learned that while some magic is only used once, other magic will continue indefinitely until you consciously stop it. By the way, every modification you did was a different skill that most people would have to learn separately.”
“Huh,” I say, surprised. It looks like being able to sense mana is handier than I thought.
“Oh, and another thing. The restrictions on learning high-level magic aren’t imposed on people learning true magic; it’s only applicable to the skill system. Though it’s unlikely that a beginner will be able to use it anyways. On the other hand, you don’t have to learn every single base level skill before learning higher levelled skills.”
“I see.” It seems like I really did get a cheat.
He gives me a measuring look. “Since you’re ahead of all the others anyways, thanks to yesterday, I’ll leave off for today. Tomorrow, I’m going to start teaching you combat.”
“Combat?” I ask, surprised. I’ve barely started learning magic, and he wants me to learn combat? It suits me just fine, but I didn’t expect to be able to learn it before we left.
“It’s better to learn both at the same time. Besides, you’ve already mastered all of what I’ve taught you, so you should be fine with the rest of the magic I’m going to teach.”
The odd tone of voice he uses to say that last sentence tips me off.
“Is it weird?” I ask, a bit worried. I definitely don’t want to be some prodigy; in fact, if I was worthless as a hero, that would be better.
“Normally, people would be fine with mastering skills at your speed, since it’s all automatic anyways.”
“So, because it’s not skills…?”
“You’ve basically bypassed most people. It’s a bit complicated, but once you learn everything you should, which won’t take very long, you’ll be among the magicians.”
Fuck.
Well, no, this is actually good for me. The fact that the magician knows is what’s bad.
I smile, my go to response when I don’t know what to say.
“Anyways, go explore the palace and have a rest day, since you’ll be pretty busy from now on.” He waves his hand lethargically in the general direction of indoors.
“If you were going to give me a rest day anyways, than why did you not just let me have it yesterday?” I ask.
“I was already there anyways, so there would be no point in just going back.”
“…Isn’t that what you’re doing right now?”
He glances back at me, already walking away. “That’s none of your business.”
I roll my eyes and turn around, walking back to my room from memory. The first thing I do is pull my phone out from the drawer in the vague hope that it got over its allergies to summoning magic. No such luck.
I sigh and put it back, flopping backwards onto my bed. I feel like there’s something that the magician isn’t telling me about magic, but it’s not a problem I can figure out on my own.
I pick myself up and go to the window. Judging by how high the sun is, lunch will be in a couple of hours.
I sigh again and leave the room to go find the library. My body is energized from the magic, buzzing with energy, but my mental state isn’t nearly as lively. The stress from paranoia and the desire to escape is wearing me down, and it’s only been a couple of days.
I’m wandering the halls, expanding my mental map and looking for someone I can ask directions from, when I decide to leave the library for after lunch. Since Wisteria and Forest already checked it, it’s unlikely I’ll find anything there, so whether I go now or after lunch doesn’t really matter.
As such, I start wandering the halls in a slightly more systematic manner, adding to my mental map as I go. It seems kind of pointless to have such a big palace, but I suppose it’s a symbol.
By the time my stomach growls at me to remind me of lunch, I’ve found the library, three other kitchens and dining rooms, fourteen various courtyards and gardens, most of which had heroes practicing with their teachers in them, another set of baths, and the royal wing, which I am absolutely not allowed in.
At this point, I’m not even surprised they have armed guards blocking the entrance to the royal wing.
I head back to the kitchen I’ve been eating in, and after a light lunch of soft cheese on toasted baguette, I head off to find the library, which I did pass at some point in my wanderings.
Going off my mental map, I reach it quickly, and open the doors.
Finally, the library.