It was close to half an hour later when I finally made it to the training grounds Carmine had told me to meet her in—By the time I got there I was sweating, my breathing was rough and ragged, it left me feeling incredibly out of shape. It felt like my entire uniform was fighting against me when I had jogged here, with the heavy seams and equally heavy material bogging me down substantially.

And Akemi wasn’t exactly helping with that either. The added heat from heaving fifteen pounds of fluff around my neck was not insubstantial in the slightest, she only added to my Exhaustion.

“Phew…” A heavy breath escaped me as I leaned forwards a little. Resting my palms on my knees I tried my best to regain my bearings and my breathing as well as I reasonably could—Thankfully Akemi used this chance to hop off of my shoulders, making herself comfortable on the ground next to me.

She sat on the dirt soil, licking at her paw before raising it to run over her head like a cat.

I turned my gaze around, taking in the training grounds properly—It was a different area from where Levi chose to train me and Tulip every morning. This one was a fair bit smaller, placed at the back of the school near where I had ran out before meeting Carmine. I could even see the forest beginning not too awfully far away as well.

Most of the ground was made of packed dirt and gravel, It was yellow in color and sat in a clear, circular area. Beyond the edges of the circular dirt area the ground quickly turned to well kept grass—But it was still clearly overgrown as it had entirely overtaken the stone pathway that led out to here.

I had to wonder why Carmine insisted on this being the exact place that she wanted to train me, after all there were over a dozen more places inside the school the exact same size and shape as this one.

“Ah, Kirin!” Carmine's voice called out from behind me, breaking the absolute silence of the training ground.

“Eep!—” I cried out in panic, unprepared for Carmine’s sudden voice. I raised a hand to my chest, sighing as my racing heart quickly slowed.

“Scare you?” Carmine asked with a chuckle—Akemi even shared a small laugh with her, her hounding giggles bringing a slight grin to my face.

“Just a little—It was just quiet, and I didn’t hear you coming.” I sighed out, but I quickly started thinking. How did Carmine sneak up on me like that? I was in the middle of an open field with a few hundred feet of margin from any cover, yet she just appeared without a sound… strange.

“Well that’s something we’ll have to work on as well…” Carmine mused as she approached. She reached behind her head, flicking her violet hair from her face to back behind her shoulders. “And… where did you get a Kitsune?” Carmine asked with genuine curiosity in her tone.

“Akemi?—Sanders, he’s the teacher of my ‘Beast Research’ class—He wanted to have all of us pair up with a beast capable of ascending? I’m not even sure what that entirely means…” I turned my gaze to Akemi, her glowing eyes met mine. Our gazes intertwined for a handful of moments before a huff escaped from her and she moved to lay down.

“That sounds about right for Sanders, he’s never quite been a pragmatic person,” Carmine sighed out as her gaze narrowed—It however quickly lightened, a small smile crossing her lips as she spoke again. “Akemi you said? Well, she’s adorable. And I believe she’s just reaffirmed my own choice to have you represent me—After all, not everyone can say a Kitsune was willing to be friendly to them.”

“Is it that uncommon?” I asked curiously, my gaze flicking between Akemi and Carmine with uncertainty.

“Not just uncommon, in fact I believe I’ve only heard about it in legends. Kitsune’s are an incredibly rare species of beast. They’re incredibly intelligent at that, I wouldn’t be surprised if she understood most of what I’m saying right now.” Carmine looked towards Akemi, her inquisitive gaze narrowing ever so slightly whilst she awaited a reaction—One which she received when Akemi raised herself up, her head lifted skybound while her chest puffed up with pride.

“Now I feel bad for making my questions so basic for you…” I shifted around uncomfortably while I spoke, my gaze moving to the ground with a sigh. Akemi looked at me with a curious gaze, and a soft tilt of her head.

“Don’t worry about that—You didn’t know better, now you do,” Carmine spoke reassuringly. “Akemi? Could you go and wait in the grass over there? We’ll be moving around a lot and having an obstacle isn’t the best thing for today.” Carmine asked the Kitsune kindly, her gaze settling on the small fox with expectancy. Akemi just gave a mildly annoyed huff, standing up she pranced her way over to the grass where she returned to laying down.

“Quite smart indeed,” Carmine mused before her gaze turned back to me. “Before we start working, do you have any questions? About anything in the school really, I can answer them as well as I can.” She offered with an expectant look.

“Right now? No, I don’t think so. Or, at least I definitely don’t have anything important enough to take away from whatever time you’re spending to train me.” I let out a soft sigh, turning my crimson gaze to meet Carmine’s. She gave me a satisfied nod, taking in a slow breath before she spoke.

“Show me everything you know with magic.” She requested gently—Her tone was far from the demanding one that Levi used. Instead it was calmer, much closer to a gentle tone of a caring family member than Levi’s harshness.

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

“Alright.” I nodded in understanding. I had to think over everything that I understood about my magic—So, I started with the simplest thing I knew.

Raising my palm skywards I felt heat begin building between my fingers, slowly swirling together in my palm as I focused my mana into a condensed sphere. My Mana Burst was far more controlled now than it had been when I first needed it, back when the massive spider attacked Tulip and I in the Elven jungles.

Back then it was an uncontrolled blast that nearly tore my arm off—But now it was controlled enough that I could hold it in place with relative ease in comparison. I felt more and more mana pumping into it, rushing out of my body with each pulsating beat of my heart giving it the momentum to reach my outstretched palm.

Slowly I closed my fingers together, focusing the unwieldy mana into a more precise and tighter sphere that blasted out from my hand. I still had to tense my arm, my elbow bending from the overwhelming force of the blast. But it was controlled.

I watched as the iridescent blue light glided into the distance, making it a few hundred feet away from me before it halted and faded away. The remaining mana scattered like glittering stardust, reflecting with the late afternoon sunlight.

“A rather capable Mana Burst,” Carmine noted aloud. “Next?” She requested plainly.

Another sigh broke free from my lips just to be quickly followed by a deep breath inwards. I had to close my eyes, focusing on the world of mana that existed within my body as I pressed what remained flowing through my blood outwards—I gradually forced my mana to congeal, covering my skin as it began to form a crude latticework of polygonal shapes.

I tried my best to keep the forming shield close to my body, but no matter how hard I tried to focus on it my mana refused to obey. It fought back against my efforts to reign it in, pressing outwards until it created a rough spherical shape. It was just large enough so that if I extended my arms all the way out, they would still have an inch of margin from the border of the shield.

“A shield? Interesting—Most students in their first year struggle to even produce a spherical one.” Carmine gave her praise with a smile across her face. “Anything else?” She asked with a single eyebrow raised.

“Just… one more…” I spoke through gritted teeth. I felt tension rising in my chest from the effort required to keep my shield up. And when I finally let in, releasing my shield to scatter into the wind an explosive burst of air escaped from my lungs.

“Don’t push yourself too hard—” Carmine spoke with concern in her voice. “You still have to train after this, I just want to see what all you can do.” She continued without the concern wavering for even a moment.

“I’ll be fine… I need to show you what I can do, so I’m showing you what I can do.” Once I finished speaking I took in another deep breath. I felt the cold air rush into my lungs, refreshing me enough so that I could focus on the part of my mana that felt the most natural to control—My Attuned Element.

I could feel the slightly different mana deep inside my body, I could even see it if I focused my gaze inwards. Almost everything inside of my body when I focused upon it was a deep, azure blue. Pure and raw mana, unattuned to any element—But deep inside my chest, near what Levi had called my “Origin,” the color was different.

A light purple tone that sent sparks of energy out with every pulse of my heart. I pulled at this differently colored mana, and it rushed to obey me. With absolute ease I was able to bring it out to my arm, electricity began to jump across my skin in uncontrolled arcs that ended at my fingertips.

I kept the flow of attuned mana going for several seconds, only ending it once I felt a soft strain beginning to form whenever I pulled more out.

“That’s everything I can really do—At least it’s everything I can do reliably.” I looked over to Carmine, already expecting the worst. I assumed that at any moment she would be asking why I could only do three things, why were they so basic? Why couldn’t I do more despite training? Any number of insulting questions. But I didn’t expect praise.

“Impressive!” Carmine exclaimed, a joyous grin spread wide across her face. “You certainly need a lot of work on what you can do still, but you have two out of the three basic forms of magic down well enough to use them. And you’ve what, known how to use magic for a few months at best?” She asked, intrigued.

“Yea… Maybe three or four months? I’m not really sure how long we were missing.” I sighed out as I thought slowly. I was trying to register the fact that I was being praised for once, but I wasn’t given the chance when Carmine threw even more praise at me.

“That's incredible!” She exclaimed again. “Even prodigies amongst the noble houses don’t learn magic that quickly. And to already be a Magus? Even if you’re on the lower end of that spectrum, what you’ve done is far from anything to scoff at.” Carmine furthered as she approached, her smile sitting steadfast.

“Is it really that impressive?” I asked uncertainty. “Tulip’s better than me at everything… shouldn’t she be called a prodigy and not me?” I furthered before Carmine could answer.

“Tulip is a prodigy, Kirin. But you’re clearly lining up to be one as well,” Carmine spoke with such confidence that I couldn’t do anything but believe her. Her hands extended out, placing themselves firmly upon my shoulders. “Don’t let others talk you down so much, alright? You deserve praise sometimes, and you’ll definitely earn more as well.”

I opened my mouth but couldn’t find any words—Forcing my jaw shut I just smiled, nodding my head along with Carmine's words until she stepped back.

“Now,” Carmine clapped her hands, drawing my attention directly to her. I felt a cold bead of sweat form across my forehead, creeping its way down my face as she steeled her gaze. Her smile faded away as a dreadful seriousness overtook her jovial attitude. “Are you absolutely certain you want to be trained by me? It won’t be easy—Only one person has even gone through to the extent of what I could train them before.”

Carmine’s warning took me by surprise, I wasn’t even sure how to respond to it for several moments. Taking in a deep breath, I clenched my jaw down tight as I met her gaze.

“I’m sure—And you’re the one who wanted to train me! I didn’t even know who you were until you dragged me onto that stage…” My shaky confidence turned quickly into mild annoyance, made only worse by Carmine’s response.

“Oh, right. I did that, didn't I?”