Chapter 57

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Two months flew by just like that, and even with the addition of full military training, Lily managed to blaze through all of them. All that's left is Magic Training. Lily was given the water ring, which contained a tiny water-aligned feystone in it. Many students dropped out of the magic curriculum since second grade. Now, we were left with less than 20 students choosing different magic rings. Most of the other students chose a fire ring since it has the most firepower, but Lily chose a water ring instead.

"Hmm… I could not do it…." I muttered as I stared at the water ring the school gave us. We are currently in the grade 3 magic curriculum. Once we pass this, the next one would be magical combat, and we are done with Synctail academy. However, I could not fill the jar with water magic despite pouring my mana into the ring.

"Huh? Why ?" Lily asked.

"Maybe I need the feystone. Could you hand me one?" I looked around, and nobody seemed to have any problem except us. All of them use a feystone, though. I thought I could forget about it since I had a blessing.

"Sure." Lily handed me a feystone we got from Rhander. We need to complete the trading. But wait, this spell was so basic that it was taught in the academy. No wonder he felt guilty and gave us monetary compensation and feystone on top of that.

As soon as I used the feystone, water poured out from my hand into the jar before us. Ahh, I see. My fire attribute mana turned into no attribute inside the feystone, and then from there, it turned into a water attribute after passing through the water ring.

"It worked!" Lily whispered. "As expected of Shiro."

"What a waste," I muttered. I spent nearly 5% of my mana to go this far. If I compared it to my fireballs, I would require about five times as much mana and five times as long to use water magic. On top of that, the feystone mana limitation means I could not cast big spells.

"Why?"

"The mana spent is enormous compared to the usual fireballs," I muttered.

"I see."

"And I also need to use feystone to craft the spells. The mana stored in the feystone is the maximum I could use to attack. With a feystone of this quality, I think a single water spear is the limit of spell I could use. And then, I would need about five or ten minutes to charge the feystone again before casting them again."

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"I see. Unless we have an opponent immune to fire, we should not use this water spell, huh?" Lily commented.

With that, our lesson was complete. The following year's grade was easy. It was combat magic. However, I made the task slightly harder by making Lily do it instead.

"Miss Lithe, is attacking the dummy enough?"

"Yes."

"But what about in the heat of combat?"

"Your ally will protect you. You only need to focus and cast your spells. We will practice with some distractions next. If you passed that, then you passed this course." Lithe sighed.

"Lily, casting spells required undivided attention. You needed to see the mana and then mold it with your imagination. It was almost impossible to do it while doing sword fighting. Can you write while playing sword at the same time?" I answered Lily, who was confused. She apparently didn't know that we were unique for being able to cast magic and use swords simultaneously.

"Okay. I will try to do it, Shiro. Just watch. I will cast a water spear on that target."

You have mastered Mana Perception

You have mastered Mana Manipulation

Despite already having the skills, Lily didn't hit the target on her first try. She still had a lot to learn. My job of being her magic sidekick will not go anytime soon.

We already had practical experience regarding casting spells in combat, so we passed this test without issue a week later. Lily still needed to work on her aim, but It is not our primary concern now since her main job is swordsmanship, while my main job is magic.

"Congratulations. I didn't expect that you would manage to pass this whole academy in less than a year. Other tailfolk that was former slave didn't know how to write or read."

"I was a slave to the lord of the city. So I learned." Lily lied through her teeth. She couldn't read even now, but every night, I whispered to her the words and alphabet for her to learn. She could write her name, but she would struggle if given more complex words and sentences.

"Now you shall be on your way to Hoeth. While your writing still has quite a bit to reach the standard, we can proudly present you as our lord's candidate. I hope that in Hoeth, you will find comrades. Did you manage to find any retainer that is willing to serve you?"

"Yes! Alith and Sana will come with me!" Lily nodded. We could not find mages that were free, so we had to do it with these two swordsmen and a swordswoman retainer.

I wish you well on the journey and in Hoeth. Will you be taking your horse, or will you ride a carriage?

"I will bring both of them. I like my horse but traveling alone with Alith and Sana is a bit lonely. I will be joining merchant caravans."

"I see. A lord with the size of Edenthal region should have at least five more retainers, but it could not be helped that we are shorthanded. Most students here are already contracted with others. Only Joseph and Rhander seemed to be willing to part with their tailfolk. But Lina still needs to graduate from Magic Academy. She was stuck at the second year…."The headmaster only sighed at our special ability to pass through our lesson in less than a year. I wonder If we could steal Lala from Rhander instead.

"Thank you for all you have done for us, Miss Lithe! By the way, how much did I have to pay for tuition? I pass quickly and with flying colors, right?"

"You certainly are. I think the bill will be reduced to 200 or 300 thousand depending on how long or extravagant your life will be in Hoeth."

"Alright! Farewell!"

And so, in just under a year, we moved on to Hoeth Academy.