With the winter came the snow, and farming operations around Gallus Town slowed to a crawl. Hundreds of farmers across tens of farms carefully observed the sky, waiting for devilish white flakes to begin their assault on the fields that grew year round. At a time when most families were hiding away, huddled around the fireplace in their homes, the farmers were defending their livelihood from nature’s yearly attack on the fields.
For reinforcements, the farmers relied on magicians with subtable affinities. Fire magicians were excellent at warming the fields, and wind magicians were great at redirecting snow away from crops. Water and ice magicians were slightly less effective, but still in high demand. Wherever magicians traveled, farmers were offering small bags of their previous harvest’s yield in exchange for a few hours of assistance against the cold.
Winter in the nation of Fridus only lasted for a few months, but many magicians were able to earn enough money to last then the rest of the year if they found a farm that needed them for several continuous days. Some crops could live under snow for a while, but only because the snow insulated the crops from lower temperatures. When waves of freezing temperatures invaded, fire or wind magicians were absolutely necessary to protect the next harvest.
Among the magicians leaving the city of Nikandros, a group of mages from the nation’s largest mage academy left to recruit new students. They split up and searched through different towns, villages, and hamlets, all looking to find talented magicians without teachers.
Early mornings were the coldest in Gallus Town, but Andric still went to work. His magic could be used to warm his body, but he couldn’t maintain the spell constantly. For Wolter, who only left the house an hour or two before noon, the ambient temperature would have already raised due to the sun being out. Andric, though, rushed to the smelters of the blacksmith forge to bask in their warmth.
In the winter, many people began wearing coats, except for those people who worked around a blazing hot forge, which included Andric. He wore his usual summer clothes with a thin jacket, and intermittent use of a heating spell was enough for him to keep warm when traveling throughout the town.
Boele and the blacksmiths still required Andric to keep them cool, and they continued paying for his services throughout the rest of the year. When the monster attacked Gallus Town, they had gone several days without Andric’s assistance, but magicians who could replace Andric were few in number, and they weren’t able to get a replacement. Andric could have used the opportunity to ask for a raise, but he decided against it.
In the past, Andric focused on earning money and discovering a way to become rich in his new world. Since the attack, however, he began thinking more about his magic. He and the ones close to him had always thought him to be a root variety of healing magician, but his magical affinity actually went much deeper.
Magic affinities were commonly equated to tree anatomy, with specific affinities being branches and broad affinities being roots - calling them limb affinities would be more anatomically correct, but most magicians called them root affinities. The further along a branch, the less variety of magic one could use. The closer to the trunk, the more types of spells that were possible.
Andric always thought he had a healing magic affinity with ranged capabilities, but he actually had a root affinity of that. How deep the root went, nobody knew, and Andric could only learn through experimentation.
But, Gallus Town wasn’t an ideal location for experimentation. Moreover, excessive experimentation required funding, which Andric severely lacked. Most of the money he saved from years of working at the forge had been spent after the fire destroyed his house, and resources to experiment with became scarce after much of them were burned.
Although he had used his magic in the past to destroy flesh from a person's body, it was always done in the circumstances of healing that person. Never had Andric purposefully destroyed body tissue for the sake of its destruction. He always assumed the bad elements were destroyed because it was a necessary process when healing someone; out with the bag, in with the good.
To develop and test theories, Andric needed living test subjects, and those cost money. At the present time, after a disaster and during the winter, live animals were too expensive for Andric to purchase. His magic only worked on living tissue, so using corpses was out of the question. Meats from shops were usable to a certain extent, but spells on them cost more mana than spells on a creature, and they were still expensive.
When Andric held a piece of meat in his hand, his options were to either test a spell on it or eat it. Although Wolter earned enough money from his job to support everyone in the house, they only ate meat about once a week. Vaporizing an expensive ingredient would be considered a waste in anyone’s eyes.
As lunchtime rolled around, Andric left the forge and walked to his father’s work. The blacksmiths would eventually leave and find something to eat, and Andric could take as much time as he wanted. He wasn’t paid much, but he wasn’t under any pressure to return in a timely fashion or even show up at all. Because Andric was the only magician of his type in Gallus Town, the blacksmiths needed to work around his schedule.
Typically, Andric would buy a large bowl of soup, then occasionally talk to Wolter while he ate it. However, this time, a small stand a few dozen feet away from the food cart caught Andric’s attention. He remembered seeing a similar stand every summer, where parents would take their children to get their magical affinity tested, but the current season was winter, and the affinity tester shouldn’t arrive for several more months.
“What’s that guy doing out there?” Andric asked Wolter when he saw him.
Wolter glanced at the man at the stand, then replied, “He’s from the national mage academy, recruiting for the mage corps. I’ve seen hundreds of people go to him, but it looks like only one has been accepted so far. You want the same thing?”
“Yeah,” Andric replied and then turned to look more at the man at the stand.
The national mage academy was a massive school in the city of Nikandros, and they trained thousands of combat magicians every year. Most of those magicians, who would then have the qualification to be called a mage, joined the mage corps, which was the Fridus army. They had no guns, swords, or spears, but only magicians and mages, and so they were called the mage corps.
Being a magician soldier took a lot more work than being a soldier who held a weapon. Magicians needed to evolve their magic to the point where they could be proficient in combat, and teachers of every affinity were impossible to find. Instead of quickly teaching a soldier to use a weapon, the magicians had to be coached into realizing their own potential.
Andric’s food came to him a minute later, and he ate while thinking about the mage corps and the mage academy. If he simply wanted to learn more about magic, the mage academy would be an excellent place to go, but he’d have to pay money for that. Joining the mage corpse would be a cheaper option, but it would have much more danger accompanying it. In the academy, he could study in safety. In the corps, he could have enemy magicians trying to kill him.
Nations in the world of Paege were often hostile to each other. Fridus, where Andric lived, continuously fought with the nation of Abbthyth, to the east. As long as a powerful magus wasn’t involved, the fighting would pause at a stalemate for decades. If Fridus hadn’t sent a recruiter to Gallus Town in the last twelve years, something must have recently happened to break the stalemate, or the various government leaders suspect something will happen soon.
Either way, joining the mage corps would be inviting a huge risk into Andric’s life. The benefits, however, if numerous enough, could outweigh the risks. Most magician warfare involved magicians shooting spells at other magicians. If Andric was in a place where killing his opponent was encouraged, he could use his opponents as test subjects.
Stolen story; please report.
Of course, Andric wouldn’t be comfortable killing people for no reason. Even if he joined the mage corps, he wouldn’t be able to use his membership as justification for taking a human’s life. And, although atrocities committed by Abbthyth had been documented to a large extent in Fridus, Andric couldn’t be sure how much of it was propaganda.
Each nation fought for resources, and Andric wasn’t stupid enough to believe that both sides were innocent. Fridus must have done something to Abbthyth, and Abbthyth must have done something to Fridus. Neither could remain passive when the other possessed the amazing power of magicians.
Once again, Andric thought about why someone would be recruiting in Gallus Town. Could one side be preparing for a large-scale invasion? Did one side have a magus?
The power of a single magus could not be overestimated. Ordinary magicians and mages paled in comparison to the frightening ability of magi. If a nation had a magus backing them, would they even need magicians or mages? No, they wouldn’t.
After tens of minutes sitting and eating his soup, Andric came to a final conclusion: Abbthyth had produced a magus, and Fridus was recruiting magicians to help counter their insane power.
Unless the legendary group The Council of the Magi interfered, Fridus would need to pull out all the stops just to protect itself. If that was the case, Andric could feel fine joining the mage corps. Then, he would be protecting his country from those who would destroy it.
Andric finished eating, gave his bowl to a man working at the food cart, and then approached the man at the stand. There was no line, but young magicians came to him every few minutes, and they needed a minute or two to be tested. Often, they simply had their affinity checked. Sometimes, though, they showed a few spells to the man, and he gave his input.
“Hi, I heard you’re recruiting for the mage corps,” Andric said and stood on the opposite side of the man’s stand.
“Hello, yes, I’m so glad you came to ask,” he said and shook Andric's hand, then continued, “I’m recruiting not just for the mage corps, but also for the Nikandros National Mage Academy, a school specially designed to nurture young magicians into powerful mages. We have the instructors, facilities, and the resources to bring out the best of any magician.
“But, don’t think we’re only there to help you learn how to fight. When you join the mage academy and sign up for a four-year stand with the Fridus Mage Corps, we’ll let you take two years of your three-year enrollment at the mage academy to learn anything you want.
“The Nikandros National Mage Academy has instructors for all the major elemental affinities, as well as over a hundred instructors that specialize in abstract affinities. Tell me, what’s your magical affinity?”
Andric replied, “My affinity is healing magic.”
Obviously, Andric thought about what he was going to say before he approached the recruiter. He overheard two people being interviewed by him, and he knew what lies to say. For his own safety, so that he would not be put in combat situations, he told the recruiter that he could only use healing magic. Healing magicians were always in high demand, and Andric didn’t worry about himself being rejected.
“What luck! You can sign up with the mage corps and receive a 400,000 coin bonus upon completion of your four-year stand! That’s included with the free three-year enrollment into the mage academy, and it’s exactly what any healing magician needs to start up their own clinic in a city!” The recruiter eagerly explained the benefits Andric would gain if he joined.
Andric had to admit that the 400,000 coins were a big incentive for him to join the mage corps. Even though he worked at Boele’s forge for half a decade, he still hadn’t earned that much. That many coins would be enough to live off for several years without working. But, more attractively, it could help him start his own business.
A wise man once said, “Get money; get paid,” and all capitalist knew that large sums of money were able to produce a snowballing effect. With a 400,000 coin initial startup, Andric would be able to fund ventures that could launch him closer to unimaginable wealth.
Before he made his final decision, Andric asked, “So, that’s three years of school, four years of deployment, and then I can leave with the 400,000 coins in my hands?”
“That’s one hundred percent correct,” the recruiter replied and placed a sheet of paper on his stand. He then placed a pen and inkwell next to it and said, “Just fill out this form that I can take back to the academy. I’m having all the recruits from Gallus Town meet with me, here, tomorrow afternoon, and I’ll tell you then how to enter the academy.”
He then extended his hand and added, “Oh, and I’ll need to quickly test your magical affinity. It should only take a second.”
“Right,” Andric said and took the man’s hand.
The recruiter tested Andric’s magical affinity by injecting him with a small amount of mana. Then, with that mana, he partially manifested spells of different affinities. If the spells easily activated, then it meant he had the affinity for it. Andric didn’t lie when he said he had an affinity for healing magic, and the recruiter easily confirmed that Andric indeed had the affinity. Although people would sometimes lie about what magical affinity they had, they rarely said they had a worse magical affinity than they really had, and the recruiter suspected nothing.
Once the recruiter was done testing Andric, the latter turned his attention to the form he needed to fill out. He wrote basic information about himself, and he only lied in one section. When the recruiter was talking to other possible recruits, Andric learned that the minimum age for joining the mage academy was fifteen. But, because Andric trained his body, he could easily pass a young-looking fifteen-year-old. As long as nobody checked with the town’s birth registry, his falsified age would go unnoticed.
Although Andric missed many technologies from his previous world, there were some instances where not having technology was a good thing. Without sufficient communication, age verification couldn’t be performed quickly or easily. Finding out someone’s age wasn’t as simple as looking it up in some database, or even going to where that person was born. As far as Andric knew, the town mayor might not even have records on when Gallus Town citizens were born.
Magicians valued privacy, and they valued respect even more. In order to not risk offending a healing magician, the recruiter might even ignore evidence that Andric is really only thirteen years old.
Andric filled out the form, then handed it to the recruiter and walked away. He intended to return to the forge, but he caught Wolter’s eye at the food cart, and he switched his direction. He instead walked to the food cart and stood in silence, waiting for Wolter to say something.
Finally, after a moment of silence, he asked, “When are you going to tell Susanna and Cato?”
The question, both valid and important, hadn’t even crossed Andric’s mind when he made his early decision. Their opinions wouldn’t change his decision, but he felt remorseful that he hadn’t even thought about what anyone else would think of him joining the mage corps.
Andric’s relationship with Wolter changed after the deaths of Lieve and Hedy. Both of them developed a purpose for living, and they pursued their separate goals independently of one another. Wolter aimed himself at restoring what they had lost, and Andric searched for a way to prevent it from happening again.
Andric never felt particularly close with Susanna. She was Cato’s mother and friendly with Lieve, but she wasn’t a main character. Though Wolter had tried to bring everyone together as a family under one roof, Andric couldn’t accept Susanna as a motherly figure or as a friend. He tolerated her, but only because of his obligation to Cato.
Andric and Cato were friends. Even though she constantly threw things at him or carelessly tested dangerous magic on him, he considered her a friend. They weren’t great friends, but Hedy had managed to bring them together to a certain extent. After Hedy’s death, though, Andric and Cato gradually grew apart. For one, Andric stopped spending entire days with her, and they didn’t have a third person to help work through awkward moments.
Wolter and Susanna were adults. They could handle a relative’s death and a friends departure, but Cato was just a kid. When Cato wanted to test her momentum-enhancing punches, Andric felt like declining her offer for him to be a test subject. However, his memories of Hedy encouraging him to accept Cato’s past unreasonable demands made him accept the current demands. Plus, it wasn’t like Cato could actually hurt him.
Moreover, Wolter consistently reminded Andric to be nice to Cato and get along. Andric wasn’t sure what kind of relationship they shared, but he suspected Wolter had ulterior motives. Andric wasn’t blind to the developing relations between Wolter and Susanna, and he sometimes thought that the two adults were trying to encourage a good relationship between the two children.
Andric would never let that happen, obviously, but it didn’t mean Wolter and Susanna wouldn’t try, or that Cato wouldn’t be grateful for their assistance.
In the end, Andric’s circumstances were just too strange. There was no way he could tell Wolter, Susanna, and Cato that he reincarnated after living a short life in a different world. Even imagining that conversation made him cringe.
“I’ll tell them, eventually,” Andric replied, then walked away. Eventually, he would have to tell Susanna and Cato about him joining the mage corps, and he’d eventually - perhaps years down the line - have to tell everyone about himself coming from a different world.