Months after the pseudo-annihilation, pretty much everything was back to normal for Alice. Even her tinnitus disappeared after a few weeks.
She took some notes during her lessons and asked questions, compared this world’s knowledge to the one from her dreams, and actively helped Maximilian assimilate the aspects he didn’t quite grasp. Some days, just after the meal, she would train at the sword with Rachel. Despite her friend’s pleas, though, Alice always refused to protect herself with her magic.
Then she would have the afternoon lessons and would do the same as in the morning.
To her, the only difference was Maximilian’s attitude toward her. At first, he was almost rude when he talked with her but, since that certain event, he seemed slightly kinder. Even for little things like the flavor of tea that he asked his maid to prepare for both of them, he took his guest’s preferences into consideration.
At some point, Alice heard from the Marquis that Maximilian had been quite shocked when he saw her covered in severe burns on the ground. He must have realized that he cared about her, so she started to view him as a valuable friend in return.
For his sake, Alice was adding much more details to most of the original lessons. For example, when there were basic lessons on the human body, she did her best to describe the role of each part of the brain, various things about the immune system, cells, or genetics. She was not sure it was still entirely true in this world, though. After all, back on Earth, there was no such thing as mana veins.
Moreover, in this world, because of the importance of mana, meals were slightly more calorific, and digestive organs tended to be a bit bigger compared to those of Earth's humans.
"So, Maximilian, did you understand the lesson? This concept of force is important. With this, you can predict an object's trajectory pretty accurately."
"It sounded a little too abstract for me. I might need your help."
"Still, I am worried about you learning a gravitation theory with flaws and developing a weird magic type as a result. I wonder if I should introduce you to general relativity at some point."
"A weird magic type? Like you are one to talk... Also, do you not realize that our tutors get upset when you act like you know more than they do? Where did you get this knowledge, anyway?"
"Um... reading books?"
"I doubt it. The tutors did it too for way longer than you."
"Let us just say that I am a genius."
"If you are, why are you wasting your time teaching this to me only? You should write books for everyone in order to help the Ouronia Kingdom."
"Uh… I will do it someday. For now, I want to share this knowledge with you only."
Maximilian was surprised when the usually expressionless Alice spoke so boldly, especially while maintaining eye contact. In reality, Alice had been doing this deliberately lately in order to show her affection to those close to her. She was worried people would think her ever-stoic expression meant she was a sociopath or something similar.
"I see. Thank you."
Over time, Alice became more comfortable speaking casually with Maximilian, Rachel, their parents, and even the attendants at the manor. This mutually beneficial relationship between the Vallmonts and the Ravendalls helped both families increase their influence.
For the Count, being on good terms with a marquis was a major advantage, and he was no longer mocked as much as before for being a former baron. Countess Leila had also greatly expanded her network through her tea parties with powerful nobles.
As for the Marquis, strengthening his relationship with the Count meant getting closer to the royal family. Some rumors even said that the King would soon make him a duke due to this new relationship and the Marquis' consequent mana pool.
On the day Alice turned thirteen, the Vallmonts celebrated with her at their manor. Even Count Edgar de Ravendall made his way to the manor for the occasion. As a gift, the Marquis announced that he had hired a talented practical instructor for Alice from the King's network. He had originally wanted to hire Viktor de Brangett, who had briefly taught Alice a few months prior, but his specialty was helping newly awakened people to discover their elements and training them during their first week.
This first week was critical, as it was during this time that a person could lose control of their mana and straight up die. Viktor was so busy with this that he didn't have the leeway to train a specific person for a long period of time. However, since he was very interested in Alice's magic, he insisted on sending his greatest disciple in his place. Most likely, he did this to receive regular reports about her magic.
"This instructor will teach you magic at your mansion on the days you do not have to come here. How do you like it, Alice?"
"I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I am very happy to have someone competent to teach me."
The Marchioness seemed relieved that Alice liked this gift. She feared that the young lady would still be traumatized by the explosion incident that had happened a while ago.
"It is nothing. You deserve it just for helping out our Max. His grades have become so much better than before."
(This is really good news since I was worried about stopping using magic at such a bad time. Though I'm not sure about being tutored by someone close to that old man...)
Now, Alice would finally be able to use magic again after many months of restriction.
***
And so, the very same week, on a day Alice planned to do nothing in the Ravendalls’ mansion, a young woman asked the guards to meet her new student, the daughter of the Count de Ravendall.
This new instructor sat with Alice in the parlor while her maid Mia was serving them tea.
She quickly introduced herself. Her name was Serena, and she was the youngest disciple of Viktor. Yet, apparently, she was recognized by everyone as his best one.
In turn, Alice concisely introduced herself as the daughter of the Count.
Then, neither of them spoke for a few seconds. This was too familiar to a certain memory from the darkest place of Alice’s mind.
(Oh no! Not that again! I’m the host, and I don’t know what to say!!)
However, her worries disappeared immediately after.
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“So, what exactly is your magic?! Master Viktor told me that it was totally like strengthening magic but that at the same time, it had nothing in common! How come?! Let me see! With my magic, I’ll understand it immediately! Let’s quickly drink this tea and go outside!”
(S-so much energy… She’s exactly like Rachel. At least, she goes straight to the point…)
Serena was apparently a magic addict who thought about nothing else all day. She did not look like one, though. She had long, beautiful blond hair, profound yellow eyes, and the face of an angel. She was quite short for a woman and must have been 19 or 20 years old.
She even wore an elegant golden dress that made her look like a dignified lady. Truly, it was as if she was made of gold.
Yet, after drinking her cup of tea in only two or three gulps without checking for poison, she completely ignored etiquette, stood up, and hurried to the door in order to go to the training ground, despite all the dirt there.
"S-slow down, please! Why are you in such a hurry?!"
Serena stopped, turned, and looked at Alice with a smile.
"We have only four hours for this lesson. We need to start as soon as possible to try out things!"
"Do you really expect me to last four hours of mana training?! I am only thirteen, so my mana pool will not last that long!"
"Fair enough. However, you do not need to worry, for I have mana potions."
"What? It's the first time I have heard about those! Why did no one tell me about them?!"
"Well, they're hard to make since the flow of mana is so easy to mess up as it gets in the container. But I'm kind of a genius, you know?"
"I see…”
[https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/563044399261417475/1065405857136910416/SPOILER_serena.png]
Even though Serena was kind of bragging, she still looked dignified. But this impression immediately disappeared when she resumed her race towards the training ground.
Alice had to quickly drink her tea as well and just ran after her. She did not really like this flavor of tea anyway, but Mia had told her that this one was a hit with all noble women of the Ouronia Kingdom. The disappointed maid decided to follow them at a more dignified pace. Somehow, this girl acted more gracefully than those two even though she was merely a servant.
Serena saw that Alice looked exhausted after running for only thirty meters, so she decided to stop and wait for her.
When they got there, Alice thought she had to warn Serena.
“I must say, however, that you might not find my magic that interesting. Viktor might have exaggerated a little."
"Don't say that. I’ll be the judge, and I promise that I’ll be honest if I find your magic lame. Considering what Master Viktor told me, I have some things I want to see with my own eyes. Okay, destroy that dummy over there in a similar fashion to what you did with him, if you would."
"A-are you sure? I already got scolded by Father when I destroyed four of them last time..."
"You don't have to worry. I'll just talk to your father after your training!"
"If you say so..."
Alice then proceeded to do the exact same thing she did while Viktor trained her. She put her mana around the ball as some kind of potential energy that turned into kinetic energy on contact. The ball was launched with all the young girl had (that is, pretty slowly) but still destroyed the dummy.
"Fascinating! Since your throw was so weak and yet the result was so impressive, it really is not strengthening magic. Viktor called it power magic, and I now see why.”
"Um… 'pitiful', 'weak'... why are you all being so rude while I am in front of you...?”
“Well, anyway, did you deliberately activate the magic at the moment of the impact?"
(Do not ignore me, dammit!)
Alice's practical tutor wore a serious expression and seemed to wait for a response. When she was like that, she somehow had a lot of charisma. Alice quickly lost her anger and thought she would get scolded if she said nothing.
“N-no, I tried to activate my magic when I threw the ball…”
“Mmh, that’s weird then. What other things can you do with your magic?”
“... I can do the opposite and deprive things of their power.”
“Do you perform complex mana operations to do this?”
“No, I would not say so… It activated itself when I just thought about it last time…”
Serena looked at Alice suspiciously. Was using her own magic freely an unnatural thing? That could not be.
"Alright, I see. From what I heard, there is another thing you can do. Show me."
"W-what is this thing you are referring to?"
"Can't you create explosions too?"
"How much did you hear about my magic?!"
Alice’s anger immediately came back after Serena casually dropped a bomb seemingly from nowhere.
"Well, I'm a good acquaintance of Lucius, the healing mage working at the Vallmonts that you must know well by now. I heard he had to treat some burns on you from an explosion some time ago."
"If you know I got messed up in the explosion, why are you telling me to do it again?! Look at my arm, I still have a burn scar!"
"You have to go past your trauma! You won't progress otherwise!"
"There is no way I am doing that again! Trust me, messing up could result in something way more severe than last time. Just talking about it like this is dangerous!"
"You say that you're weak, yet you're so confident that you're way too powerful. That is contradictory."
"I never said that! I am sure YOU were the one who said that my throw was weak a minute ago!"
"Well, it doesn't matter. Show me something else then. Did my master show you how to manipulate your mana outside your body?"
(It doesn’t matter? Are you kidding me?!)
"... I can do it, but I am not going to just yet."
"Mmh... does it have something to do with the explosion?"
"You are right. It does. So I am not ready to risk it."
"You are with a professional. It won't be dangerous, I swear."
"I-I said no!"
"Just once. Please."
Serena kept asking her exactly the same thing for at least two minutes. She excelled at using her pretty and angelic face and she used a lot of different expressions and intonations to convince her. She realized that her sad expression as she implored her pupil had the most effect on her, so she kept on with only this one for another minute.
It really had an effect on Alice. Seeing such a pretty lady with a saddened expression almost made her want to cry, even though she knew Serena was totally faking it.
“F-fine! Just once, okay?”
“Yeaaah! You’re my best student!”
“Did you not say that I was your first student when you introduced yourself earlier?!”
“Alright, stop with your straight-man act, and let’s get going!"