A week later I decided that it was time to try for my combat mage certification. For that I looked into the two possible places to receive that certification: the Mage’s Guild and the Adventurer’s Guild. My research revealed that, while both require you to be able to cast ranged attack spells from three different elements, as well as a buff and a debuff, the two have slightly different standards for what a basic Combat Mage is. The Adventurer’s Guild prefers mages that can cast more buffs and debuffs, as facing monsters is easier when you have more ways of neutralizing them or aiding your side. The Mage’s Guild prefers mages that can use detection magic, which aids in long range targeting and finding hidden targets.
After considering both I settled on the Mage’s Guild. My detection magic was above average, but I still struggled with buffs and debuffs. As it stood, I would have to use Light magic to blind my opponent as my debuff, and cover my arms in stone as my buff spell. The Physical Enhancement spell still eluded me.
As I was still unsure if that would be enough, I decided to put it off until my tenth birthday. In the months leading up to that I tried every day to use the Physical Enhancement spell until one day I managed it. I also didn’t cast it evenly on my muscles and tore one of them. As I screamed in pain, Persy happened to be walking by with a basket of laundry. When she heard, she dropped the basket and ran over. Once she reached me she held her hands over the area and I felt a warmth flow into the muscle and soothe away the tear. After thirty seconds or so, my arm was back to normal. “Thank you.” I said.
“I did what I could to help, Master.” she said, bowing, then picked up her basket of laundry and returned to work. I would need to reward her for that. I knew exactly how I would do that. My family had gotten its name, Starshine, because my great grandfather, Father’s grandfather, had discovered a way to convert starlight into mana. Unfortunately, he was assassinated when my grandfather, Father’s father, was only twelve, and was therefore only able to pass down one of his early discoveries, a mithril alloy that, when exposed to starlight, amplified any enchantment the object bore or any spell that was casted through it. Our family earned much of its wealth through our monopoly on “star mithril”. The mithril mine in our county had been closed down due to monster attacks almost three years ago, however, so the supply of star mithril was low. Still, I should be able to get a small wire of it and have a jeweler make a ring of it.
I went to the family warehouse and asked the man behind the desk if I could get a star mithril wire long enough to fashion a ring. It took a bit of convincing, but such a small amount wasn’t important enough to bother with most of the official paperwork. I still had to fill out a requisition form, as he needed to keep his inventory straight, and pay the set price of one gold coin, but I was allowed to take a ten centimeter wire of it.
I took the wire into town to the family’s official jeweler. She had been making all of the jewelry mother had worn since she and father were married, and was the only person who still purchased star mithril to make jewelry, as the price had drastically increased. I asked her to make a simple ring out of the wire and, while she wanted to do something fancy with it, or at least include a jewel, I convinced her that I didn’t want anything fancy. Twenty minutes later she returned my ring and I paid her the five silver her expertise demanded for even such a small job. I slipped the ring on my finger and went back home.
The next day I went to town to run some errands and sell my Essences, and when I returned I saw the guards at the main barracks playing with a puppy. Confused, as they didn’t have a dog as far as I knew, I started walking over. As I did one of the newer members tried to pick it up, at which point a trail of fire ran down the dog’s spine as it started to growl. The man dropped the dog and backed up as the other guards laughed at him.
I walked up to the Captain of the guards, Sir Philip Quickblade. “Hello, Sir Philip.” I said. “Did you get a new pet? I didn’t know you owned a hellhound.”
“Ah, Lord Cameron, it’s good to see you. Yes, I bought him today. A monster trainer I knew just got him yesterday from an adventurer who captured him nearby, so he contacted me.” Cameron was a knight with Magic Swordsman and Monster Tamer certifications.
“That’s great. Was he expensive?”
“Five gold, but if he grows up to be half as tough as a wild one, he’ll be well worth it.” I saw that the creature had a collar that was covered in pieces of a Worm Core to substitute for being in a mana poor area. While naturally refined manacite like Cores maxed out at a pressure of five, the hell hound wouldn’t need mana at that pressure for at least another year, so the collar was enough for now.
I pulled out a potion of fire resistance and drank it, then went over to pet the hellhound. “Who’s a good boy?” I asked him, and he rolled over for me to pet his belly.
A few minutes later my father walked by. “Ok, guys, that’s enough playing with the dog. Back to work.” he said, and the men started to leave.
“Come on, Pancho.” Sir Philip said, and the dog rolled over and ran to him.
The last day of the month, at around 11 am I found Persy and made her follow me into town. I brought some extracted Essences with me to keep up appearances, and went into the Healer’s Union. We stood at the back of the crowd as the man gave his speech, and when he was done, I motioned for Persy to follow him. “You wouldn’t want to miss your test, would you?”
“You actually paid for me to take the test?” she asked excitedly.
“Surprise. I knew you’d been working hard, and have seen you use more than enough magic to pass the test, so I set this up for you. Just come back to the palace when you are finished, ok?” She nodded enthusiastically. I motioned towards the last of the people who were leaving the room. “Well?”
She nodded and bowed. “Thank you, master.” With that she followed them out of the room.
I walked over to the desk. “Looks like your slave was happy.” said Glenda.
“Yeah, she loved reading her manual, and she’s really good at healing spells. Hopefully she’ll pass.” I sat the Essences I brought with me on the counter, and Glenda rang them up. I returned home and practiced my buff spells. Maybe when Persy got home she could give me some pointers.
As I watched the sun set over the town from my study room window I saw Persy run up to the palace. The guards let her in and she immediately came upstairs to meet me. She came into the room, temporarily forgetting that a servant was always supposed to knock, and showed me her Union ID. “I passed.” she said excitedly.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
I looked over the card. It looked much like mine, only the information was different. It had her name, race, age, and certification earned and at the bottom said “Slave of Viscount Cameron Starshine”. “Congratulations.” I said. “It seems like I should reward you.”
“Oh, just being able to get my certification is enough, master. You don’t need to reward me.”
“Still, you studied hard and even came to heal me when I injured myself while failing a spell, I think you deserve some kind of reward. I know. How about you hold onto this for me?” I removed my star mithril ring and placed in in her hand.
“You mean it?” I nodded, and she held it close to her chest. “Thank you master. I’ll treasure it always.”
I smiled. “Well, I’m going to go eat supper. Do you mind cleaning my study for me?”
“No, not at all.” she said, then ran over to start putting up my various alchemical tools.
Several months later, on the last day of the month before my tenth birthday I registered for the Combat Mage certification test at the Mage’s guild. Nothing as exciting as with the alchemist test happened, and I managed to pass easily. I had been able to do most of the casting test since I was seven, after all. The magical theory questions weren’t any harder, as I had covered those in my studies with Reginald even before that. The only thing that even made me think was when I had to prove my Detection magic skills by hitting a piece of iron ore behind a barrier that also had copper, silver, and tin ore behind it. I hadn’t practiced on detecting metals, but I was wearing a steel dagger, so I had something to compare the iron ore to. That test gave me a second ID card which worked much like the first, and even had the same mana signature number, only it had “Combat Mage” listed as my certification and the seal of the Mages Guild on it rather than the seal of the Healer’s Union.
Now that my noble title was secure, I could relax a bit in my studies. The next two years were spent expanding my magical studies using a Military Mage Training Manual my father had while studying any subject that caught my attention, including magical stones and magic circles. I even read a book on the basics of artificing, though I found the process too familiar to enjoy practicing the skill. I was certain that I had knowledge of electrical engineering in my past life, but hated it. Artificing was too similar to that.
Eventually, shortly after turning twelve I reached the end of the Healer’s Manual. I had bought Persy the intermediate level book and she had almost learned all of the spells in it as well. Maybe I should take her to get her intermediate certification too? At the back of the manual were some useful Detection magic spells that weren’t required learning for a healer but were useful. The three that sounded the most interesting were “Relation Sense”, “Race Sense”, and “Mating Sense”. Relation Sense told you if the other person was related to you, or if two people were related if you used it between two others, and the strength of the response gave you an estimate of how closely related they were. Race Sense told you if the other person was the same race as you, with the strength of the response changing based on the different racial heritage. Mating Sense told you if you could reproduce with the other person, or if two people could do so.
After learning these three I decided to test them out. First, I used the three on Persy. The Relation Sense didn’t return anything. The Race Sense returned a very weak signal. Maybe she had a human ancestor, or maybe the scriptures were right and beastfolk were the result of humanoid wizards using Awaken spells on their pets and livestock, possibly to make familiars, leaving behind some of themselves in the process. The Mating Sense also returned a weak signal. The book said that meant that it was possible, but would be very difficult or unlikely.
I wondered the hall looking for someone else to test it on and found Reginald at his desk doing paperwork. Recently he had been helping mother manage the books of her many business interests, only teaching me once a week, usually about tax or trade regulations. I sent the three strands towards him. Relation Sense was weak. He was born a noble. Maybe we had a common ancestor? He was probably my fifth or sixth cousin, judging by the strength of the response. Race Sense returned strong. We were both pure human. Mating Sense didn’t respond. Interesting. I was wondering if the spell could detect that we were both men, and therefore couldn’t breed. I guess now I knew.
It was getting late, so I went to the dining room to get supper. Mother was busy dealing with her businesses, so she wasn’t available. That, combined with the pregnancy and the illness it caused, meant that she rarely ate supper with us. As it was harvest season, Father had been pouring over tax documents, guaranteeing that he collected and paid the correct taxes, so he was still in his office. That meant that I was alone.
After Marya put the plate in front of me I sent my three detection spells out to her. Race Sense? Strong response. Both full human. Mating Sense? Strong response, but with a bit of a distortion I didn’t get before. I’d have to look that up when I got back to my room. The Relation Sense was the surprising one. Strong response. That didn’t make any sense, though. I asked Tanya who her father was one time and she said he was an adventurer she was dating, that left town. I knew I had an uncle whose Occupational Certification was Adventurer. Could Marya be my cousin? That didn’t quite work. The book said that cousins almost always returned a medium signal. I thought about it for a few minutes before I realized that there was only one conclusion I could draw.
After I finished eating I got up and went to my father’s office. I knocked on the door and when he said it was okay I entered. “Oh, Cameron.” he said as I closed the door behind me. “You rarely come to my office. What brings you here?”
“I need to ask you something. See, I was practicing my detection magic, using “Race Sense”, “Mating Sense” and “Relation Sense” on different people when I discovered something. I used them on Marya, so I have to ask. Is Marya my sister?”
Father sighed and nodded. “I was wondering how long it would take you to figure it out.” He motioned to a seat and I sat down. “I used to not be as loyal to your mother as I am now. I probably took a dozen maids to my bed, which is why we never kept them around for long. Then we found out your mother was pregnant. I tried to stop, but due to the pregnancy she wanted to call things off until after you were born, and we had a new maid, so…” He paused for a few seconds. “We found out the maid was pregnant shortly after that. Your mother wanted to get rid of her, but I felt I owed her something. I talked it over with your mother and she agreed that Tanya could stay on as our maid as long as I kept my hands off of her and all the other servants.”
I nodded. “I figured it was something like that. Thank you for telling me.”
I started to get up but he stopped me. “I’ve been meaning to talk to you about a similar topic anyway, and I guess now is the time. You see, I know that you are at the age where you are becoming a man, and well, things are going to start changing for you.”
I held up my hand. I did not want to receive the talk again. It was bad enough in my first life, and was one of the few memories I regretted still having. “I know what you are going to say, Father, and I already know all about that. I have read almost all of the medical books in the library, after all. You don’t need to give me the speech.”
He nodded and looked relieved. “In that case, just let me add a few words of advise. Don’t bed the Fox.”
I coughed in surprise. “What? I wasn’t going to...”
He interrupted me. “Look, I know why you were using the Mating Sense. I know it wasn’t just to practice your magic. I was curious about girls too at your age. Most men are. And I realize that it seems a bit hypocritical of me to be telling you this now, after what you just found out about me and Tanya, and legally there wouldn’t be an issue as she is your property, but please, take my advise. You know from the test that Beastfolk and humans can have kids together, however unlikely it is. If she were to get pregnant, and if it got out that you had a Beastfolk child our family would be badly damaged by the scandal. The only way to fix the situation would be to terminate the pregnancy and send her far away, maybe even sell her to someone else. I know you’ve grown attached to her, and don’t want that to happen, so please, for her sake and the sake of the family, don’t bed the fox.”
My face was bright red in embarrassment but I nodded. “Very well father, I promise. Now if that is all...”
I turned to leave but he spoke up once more. “If things get too hard and you feel like you really need to bed a woman, any of the men in the guardhouse can show you to the good brothel in town. No one will judge you for visiting it.”
I couldn’t respond, as I was too embarrassed, and ran out of the office and back to my room. Seriously? Why would father tell me I should visit a brothel to deal with my “urges”? I was only twelve. Sure, I noticed girls. I might have even had a bit of a crush on Marya before finding out she was my sister. But I wasn’t thinking about THAT.
When I got to my room I changed and jumped into bed, not even bothering to take a bath first. I just needed to get some sleep to forget all of this.
When I woke in the morning from a pleasant dream the first thing I noticed was that the front of my pants and my sheets were damp. It took me a few seconds to realize why. ‘Surely not.’ I thought. Had father talking about it yesterday made me dream about it? I wasn’t sure about that, but I was sure that I needed to change before Persy saw. Just as I was getting out of bed Persy climbed out from under my bed. “Good morning master. You’re up early.”
“Uh, Persy, good morning. This, uh, this isn’t what it looks like. Just ignore it.” I tried to cover the area up with more blankets.
“Oh, that’s nothing to be embarrassed about.” she said, stripping the sheets off of my bed. “I deal with it all the time. I’ve been washing the sheets for the guard barracks for the last three years, even when they break the rules and sneak a woman back to the dorms. This is nothing new.”
“B..But Persy, you’re only ten.”
“Beast folk grow up faster than humans. Developmentally I’m the equivalent of a twelve or thirteen year old human girl.”
“But still, you’re too young...”
“You’re a twelve year old boy, and you made the mess. Why can’t a developmentally twelve year old girl fix it?” I didn’t have a response to that. “Now, how about I draw you a bath and get you some fresh clothes?” I nodded and she went to the bathroom to do that.