Once Elly turned 5, his parents got him a private tutor to live with them for a while.
Sapphire seemed like a decent one. Simple blue hair, simple blue eyes. A caring, cute smile. And she was earnest in all her efforts. She was the daughter of a baron too.
He understood why she had been named that.
In her first few weeks with him, she taught him etiquette—how to act as an aristocrat, the ins and outs.
But Elly spaced out through half of it. Etiquette won’t keep me alive, dummy.
Before diving in to teaching him magic, she set a test first. “I want you to attack me. Let me see what you know so far.” She was holding her staff in front of her defensively.
In a wide, open field, they stood far apart.
Okay, probably not a good idea to set her on fire. That would be pretty unfair.
She had given him a staff too, but what was he to do with this piece of stick?
He understood that staves were used as effective conduits for spellcasting, and for precision, but to him personally, they were just luggage, especially the hefty ones that would weigh him down.
Elly dropped it. He raised a hand into the air. A small blue flame formed and floated above his palm. Bit by bit, it grew bigger. He wasn’t even done and Sapphire was shocked already. Can she even handle this? Better dial it down.
He shrank the fireball but added more mana and condensed the energy for more power. This should convince her that he wasn’t holding back.
She waved her staff and put up a transparent barrier.
He threw the ball.
It clashed with her barrier, pushing her back a few meters, but she managed to deflect it and sent it up into the air where it exploded and released an intense wave of heat.
Elly had to shield himself in a forcefield and close his eyes.
When the light faded, Sapphire gazed at him in awe.
~~~
There was 1 thing Elly didn’t like about Sapphire.
“You’re so pretty, bright, and strong! Yes, yes, yes! You’re the best student I’ve ever had! You’re my favorite!” Sapphire pulled him into her, pressing his face against her stomach so tightly he could hardly breathe.
It didn’t take much to impress her. Either that or his standards were higher.
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After a while, she loosened the hug, and Elly took the chance to gasp for air.
It was times like these when he realized that his feminine looks were a curse. They worked against him.
Ugh.
She would hug him for 20 minutes at a time in the library when they took a break from studying.
On many nights, Sapphire would read Elly a story before bed until he fell asleep.
He liked that about her at least. She was like a good babysitter.
~~~
They learned a lot from one another.
As they sat around the table, Elly explained a sheet of paper on the desk. “Why not take out the unknown variables,” he pointed to sections of the page, “and replace them with a fixed variable. Because if you don’t, the mana concentration in the spell will decrease and weaken, causing the spell’s reliability to drop by about 21%, which would thereby widen the margin of error. And as the margin widens, the fail rate increases.”
Sapphire was beaming with pride. He had come up with that explanation all on his own. “But how do you find the fixed variable?”
Elly scribbled on the page. “Use this coefficient to get a series of possible answers, which should be no more than 7. From there on, it comes down to trial and error.”
Sapphire nodded. He made it so easy to follow!
He had to invent entirely new formulas to circumvent the conventional ways. Through his invention, he ended up inventing new spells.
She taught him how to use teleportation magic, and within a dozen tries, he had the basics memorized perfectly, but only short-range teleportation for now.
She also marveled at the way he used utility spells, like when he levitated books around the library and talked to a floating pencil.
He taught her the spells for it. It wasn’t just about knowing the spell and telling the objects what to do. Dexterity was heavily involved. “Think of the inner mechanisms of a clock. All those small parts. Then try to control them delicately in tandem with one another.”
Once she mastered it within a week, she only needed to think rather than move around her staff or make gestures with her hands.
Sapphire was the jack-of -all-trades type, so Elly helped her to hone many of her skills. She hadn’t chosen a specialization because she was indecisive.
Then she fully introduced him to spatial magic. Teleportation was only part of it. Opening portals to other places was the other half of it.
“Can you use it to go to other planes of existence?” Elly asked.
“Yes, but I’d rather not teach you that. It’s dangerous. Next thing you know, we have monsters coming out of 20 different portals.” She laughed.
“Does that include dragons?” He wanted to see a dragon up close.
“Yes, that includes dragons.” She patted his head.
Her answer lit a spark in him. Now he had to go see for himself, but only when no one was looking of course.
~~~
Around noon, they had sandwiches and tea at the table on the balcony of Elly’s room.
“Do you want a big hug for all your hard work?” Sapphire grinned.
“No, thanks,” Elly instantly shot his reply.
She deflated and slouched in her chair with a groan. “I might die if I don’t hug.”
“That’s fine with me.” Elly sipped his tea.
Sapphire wailed. “BUT I NEED MY DAILY DOSE OF ELLY. YOU’VE STARVED ME FOR A WHOLE WEEK ALREADY!”
“Oh, it’s been a week? Well, surely you can survive another week.” He munched on his sandwich.
She cried out in agony as if trying to endure a great pain inside her. “So unfair!” She dropped her head on the table with a soft thud.
“Hey, at least I love your sandwiches. They’re really good.” He tried to cheer her up.
She only sighed. “Thanks.” Her reply was heavy and drawn out, weighed down with deep sorrow.
They finished their studying hours with more mathematics.