Before I begin telling you about my magical studies, I should explain something. It is generally stated that nobles are better at magic than commoners, especially nobles of royal blood such as myself. Everyone in the kingdom has some magic but ,as the kingdom of Doltia was founded in the blood of our ancestors, noble titles were granted to the most skilled warriors and magic users to form a militaristic society.

Magic is especially hard to predict especially because it's generally hereditary but every once in a while a commoner will be blessed with especially powerful magic. This is a rarity but it's the reason that the magic academy in the capital has an entrance exam instead of only allowing nobles and royalty. Royals are less likely to be rejected but if they show lack of skill they will be put in remedial training until they show they are ready for on level classes. Commoners, no matter how much potential they show, are over scrutinized and more likely to be rejected. Who wants to put a commoner in a school of nobility?

My father became headmaster of the school shortly after I began my training. He changed the entire structure of the exam putting magic skill and potential on top priority and not even bothering to check noble status. The amount of commoners accepted went up and school attendance was at a historically high level. He even banned students from exerting their nobility to stop altercations between students. Needless to say, a royal prioritizing the education of commoners was looked down upon by nobles. Several nobles protested and threatened to pull their students out of school. Finally, it got so bad that the king had to royally decree that acceptance was final and truancy was criminal. The nobles backed off but not quietly. They spread rumors that the new headmaster was only being supported because the king was his cousin. In truth the king appointed him to the position because more magic using commoners meant more magic using soldiers for the impending war. All graduates were supposed to be entered into military service upon graduation but one third of the nobles used their influence to pull their children out of duty. This was generally looked down upon a militaristic society but they claimed that they were joining their personal militias. If war ever came all noble militias would be added to the royal army but if the nobles ever showed themselves it would be hard to tell.

Commoners on the other hand didn't have the influence to dodge service. I despised this plan immediately. I couldn't stand nobles and most of my family too. However, I never heard any family criticize the new academy policies. Probably because they wouldn't dare criticize my father in front of me.

Most nobles and royals were spoiled babies. I never really had the time to get spoiled. My schooling and training disciplined me even more than I was in my last life. As a person of a humble past life, I was not your typical royal. The reason I'm telling you this is because the apprentice my new magic tutor brought was everything I hated in a noble. Even worse she was my cousin on my mother's side.

Emilia Estella apprentice of my tutor James Halberdia and my senior of one year. I hated her immediately. When she first came my tutor introduced her.

"This is Emilia. She will be cotaught with you though she already has a year of training. Please look to her for advice on things you don't understand." He said.

I gave her the royal bow I was taught in basic schooling. "Pleasure to meet you, Emilia."

She gave a stuck up hmf and said "enough with the formalities. I'm not interested in helping tutor a brat who is just starting to show signs of magic. I'm only here because you're a senior family member and my tutor was ordered to be yours too."

'What a bitch' I thought. With no more attention to Emilia I turned to James.

"Shall we begin?"

"Indeed, young apprentice." he said.

He began to give me lessons in magic theory for a month. I was a diligent student but Emilia studied separately. Practicing magic in the courtyard. James said magic came from something called mana, and, while it was all around us, humans could only use magic from their own stores. He then explained that mana stores differed in size from person to person. This kingdom's nobility is based off which people had the largest mana stores a hundred years ago. While mana stores are mostly hereditary some large mana stores are not passed to offspring and some offspring have larger mana stores than their ancestors. This made the noble system of the kingdom imperfect. However the royal family earned their position in the six week war and had the right to rule. Not only had we earned this position but it was said that Elric I had mana stores equal to that of a forest elf making him more magically inclined than any human in history.

That month went by quickly, magic theory fascinated me. But then James said I was ready to get started with spells.

"What element did you show signs of having when your magic began developing?"

"Well, my sword ignited into flames during practice. Then it coated itself with ice the next day. The day after that lightning temporarily paralyzed father's arm giving me my first victory over him" I explained.

"You mean to tell me that you can command not only fire but water and lightning too?" James sounded shocked.

"Is it unusual possess more than one type of magic?" I asked

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"It isn't unheard of but generally those that do possess similar types. Such as fire users being able to use lightning or light magic. Or water users being able to use healing or illusion magic. But possession of opposing elements is very rare Indeed. The only one that I know of was Elric II." He explained

"My great grandfather's elder brother?" I asked.

James smiled. "Yes. You are so well disciplined that I forgot you are related to Emilia," he said softly so she wouldn't overhear, "any other magic?"

"The maid accidentally cut herself while cleaning a decorative sword and when I came in to see what was happening the wound closed as I looked at it. Only later did I remember a faint green glow around my hand." I told him various other stories of strange things that happened.

James looked astounded by the end of my story. "It seems you possess many elements. And the ones you didn't exhibit usually show themselves after years of training. Are you the reincarnation of Elric I himself?" I flinched at the word reincarnation but he didn't notice, "Your magical ability is still untrained but you already healed someone completely. Even if it was just a cut, untrained healing users only heal about halfway or so."

I hated having servants suck up to me. I got enough of that with the maids. "Are you going to stand there with are jaw on the floor all day or will my tutor actually tutor me?" I tapped into royal pompousness.

He smiled knowing that arrogance didn't come easily to me. "Very well, young apprentice. We will start with meditation and mana manipulation."

The lesson was boring the meditation was to help locate my mana store and draw magic from it. I located it immediately. it was so massive that drawing magic from it was like trying to draw well water from a fountain in the capital. I wanted to learn spells not sit on my ass with my eyes closed. Finally James realized that I did it immediately and congratulated me.

"Lessons are over for today. Go practice with the sword. Your father wants you to not get rusty." James said.

" yeah, yeah," I said disappointed, "any excuse for you to not do your job."

"I do have another student who I haven't taught anything to for a month." James responded

I hadn't spoken to Emilia since the first day. Despite her living in one of our mansion's guest rooms, our schedules never intersected, thankfully. I was glad not to have to speak to her because I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to refrain from profanity.

The next day the real magic lessons began. "Though you've already been using your mana, it's best controlled through use of incantations," he put his hand up and pointed his palm out to the target. A dead tree my mother wanted to have removed, "FIREBALL!"

Flames interrupted from his palm. A bright white sphere appeared and launched toward the tree. The fireball made contact, exploded, and split the tree in two.

"Impressive. Now, If you dig out the stump with earth magic, you can save my mother a few gold coins." I told him sarcastically.

"Maybe we should practice on a less flammable surface." James responded.

"I'll have mother acquisition us some archer targets. Perhaps she can get us some nice ones if you actually do remove that tree for us."

Lessons reconvened that afternoon. "Remember that simply shouting the words won't actually create a fireball. You have to input your mana and picture the spell." James explained.

"Couldn't I just input mana and picture the fireball and do the spell without shouting like an idiot?" I asked

"You could but shouting like an idiot helps beginners picture the spell." Said the smiling James.

I put my hand in front of me and faced my palm toward the target. Gathering my mana I shouted the incantation and pictured a ball of flames. What I felt was unlike anything I previously experienced. My mana not only acted as fuel for the flames but it gathered oxygen and ignited into a red puff. I was so surprised that science actually applied to magic that I allowed the spell to die seconds after it started.

"Wow Alfred. You actually managed a puff on your first try. Emilia uses water magic and she couldn't manage a drop on her first try." Jamed sound genuinely impressed.

"I was just surprised. Allow me to exceed your already low expectations." I said confidently.

Without speaking a word I gathered my mana and condensed the spell into a tighter form. Adding more oxygen and fuel than before and making the fuel more combustible. When I ignited it, it burned bright blue. As I launched it at the target, I still had yet to speak a word. It made contact and exploded. The explosion destroyed not only the target but the surrounding ground. It was louder than a gunshot (speaking from experience, they are pretty deafening).

Soon the entire staff was outside to see what that sound was. And the guards came running to see who was attacking.

James calmed everyone down. "Sorry, sorry everyone. It was just a spell backfiring everyone is fine."

"Fine?" said the gardener, "FINE? The lawn is destroyed. Its going to cost at least thirty gold coins to get the recourses and manpower to fix this crater!" I handed him the gold plus five coins in apology for destroying the lawn.

James turned to me after everyone got back to work. "How did you do that? That was a fireball, one of the most basic attacks, how did you make it so powerful after a single failed attempt?" He looked astonished but for the first time, excited.

"How does fire work?" I ask in answer to his question.

"It burns." He said not getting my point.

"Yes it burns. But it needs to burn something. We provide mana and the fire burns it. This means that you can manipulate the mana to make the fire burn how you want it to." I explain

"I tought you this in magic theory" he said, trying to make me get to the point.

"You know how you can put a candle out by putting the lid on it? Fire needs air to stay lit. By gathering air I was able to create a hotter fire and by manipulating mana to be more explosive I was able to create a larger blast." I told him.

"You are the first person that I met who thinks about what makes fire burn instead of what you want it to do once it's burning. You truly are a rarity."

As I continued training I discovered that magic was just physics and chemistry combined with mana. By understanding the basics of what made spells work I was able to make everything i tried more effective than my tutor's demonstration. Soon years had passed and I was 13. James had held off on letting his two students spar but he finally felt like Emilia would survive my freakishly effective spells. Dispite her training for longer than I had, my talent for magic far exceeded most full grown adults. In fact James gave up on tutoring me 4 months after he started. Instead he gave me a book of spells for each element I exhibited and told me to memorize them.

For whatever reason he believed that sparing with me would help Emilia improve. But he underestimated her ability to be a pain in the ass.