"You did what now?" Vincent whispered sharply upon hearing Grayton's recollection of last night. The two were inside their usual classroom, sitting through a lecture. The classroom was moderately sized with individual seats arranged in rows of two.

In front of them was a uniformed, middle aged teacher writing some sort of formula on the whiteboard which neither of them were paying attention to.

Grayton simply shrugged as a response. "I could afford to piss them off; I had Charles on my side."

"...You trust him?" Vincent frowned.

"He's... Not a bad person, I think." Grayton replied. "Besides, look on the bright side! This means you can probably learn magic with me as well!"

It took a few moments for Vincent to process what Grayton said. His eyes quickly lit up when he did.

"That's right!" Vincent said in a hushed tone, trying his best to contain his excitement to avoid the teacher's detection. "When can we do it? Today or-"

"Sorry," Grayton interrupted when he realized the implications. "My situation with the witches is still uncertain, and the undyings will start targeting you as soon as you get exposed to magic. I don't think even Charles can protect both of us in the worst case scenario."

"Aww..." Vincent visibly shrank in disappointment. "Still, I get it. Your situation is pretty bleak, huh?"

"You'll get your turn soon." Grayton assured with a smile. "Right now is a bit too risky."

The bell rang soon after that, indicating the end of the lesson.

"Break time! And then... Right, chem test." Grayton thought as he exited the classroom, walking through the hallway toward the cafeteria. Suddenly, he felt a chilling presence from outside one of the many windows.

"Speak of the devil..." Grayton whispered as he felt two ghastly hands grip his shoulders. He continued to walk, as if nothing was happening.

"So this is how school is these days..." Charles looked around as he stroked his chin. "Not much have changed, I see."

"What are you, some sort of stalker?" Grayton joked.

"Wonderin' where ya were." Charles explained as he walked behind Grayton, his feet hitting the ground with a wet slap with every step. "The little missy has been waiting for ya with the potion since noon."

"That's good to hear." Grayton nodded. "I just need to get this test over with, and then we can go."

"Test?" Charles rubbed his hands together with exaggerated curiosity. "If ya want, I can... take a little peek at yer friend's answers for ya, and nobody will suspect a thing."

"He seems to be in a good mood..." Grayton noted.

"That's a tempting offer." Grayton said. "But isn't your presence alone enough to make everyone in the room feel anxious? Even if they're not magic users?"

"Normally that's the case... But!" Charles formed a fist with his hand and thrust it at his chest. "I'm currently suppressin' it as much as I can! Only the most sensitive of normal humans can feel my presence."

"Well in that case..." A grin came across Grayton's face as he pulled out a textbook from his bag. "Forget classmates, take this into an empty room or something; If we're gonna cheat, let's cheat for real."

Grayton got a few weird looks as he chuckled to himself while walking.

----------------------------------------

2 hours later...

Once the test duration finished, all of the students in the classroom packed their bags and attempted to rush out of the room, creating some sort of congestion at the door. While Grayton slowly pushed forward through the uniformed crowd, he spotted Vincent also trying to get through and called out to him.

"Think you did well?" Grayton asked, trying to ignore Charles's snickering behind him. It was quite a surreal feeling, knowing someone no one else could see.

"Yeah." Vincent replied. "You?"

"Hmm, I think I aced it." Grayton said smugly. "Wanna bet on who'll get the higher grade?"

"..." Vincent gave Grayton a suspicious look before sighing. "I think I'll hold off on betting against you for a while."

"Is Grayton really that smart?" Sabrina, one of Vincent's friends chimed in. She adjusted her glasses as she pushed through the wave of students. She had tan skin and her hair was tied in one long ponytail with side bangs.

She had a reputation for being a snobby A-grade student so it was always a wonder to Grayton how she became friends with Vincent. "Last I checked he was only ranked twelfth in our class."

"That's about to change." Grayton glanced at the shadowy figure floating behind him. Giving him a knowing smile.

"Uhh, when he wants to be, yeah." Vincent answered. "You'd be surprised."

"Hmph." The girl stared at Grayton, clearly unconvinced. "If you say so."

"Well, anyway." Vincent changed the subject before an argument could start. "We're about to go study together at the library afterschool, wanna come with?"

"Uhh, no thanks." Grayton hesitated, almost accepting the offer out of reflex. "I'm a bit busy today..."

"I see." Vincent nodded, unfazed by the rejection, as if anticipating it. "Alrighty! See you around!"

"Ugh, why'd you have to invite him?" Grayton managed to hear as they separated.

He watched Vincent and Sabrina walk toward the left side of the hallway before turning to walk to the right. He soon reached the school toilets and entered one of the standard blue stalls. Once inside, he opened a portal leading to Keyla's treehouse.

"Get in; we have a lot of things to do." Grayton commanded.

"Uhh, no." Charles flat out refused. "One dip in that stuff and I'll be a goner!"

"Oh, right." Grayton said as he changed the destination of the portal. "He's made out of the same stuff as the undyings... How did I not make the connection?"

"In that case, go float to the witch's place yourself. I'll meet you there." Grayton said. "I'll go get changed first."

"You got it, boss!" Charles snickered sarcastically as he faded away.

"Alright." Grayton thought as he dived into the portal. "I'll need to explain my formula to the witch as well."

----------------------------------------

Keyla's treehouse, 10 minutes later

Grayton rose out of a portal on the floor, stepping into the wooden floor. As soon as he did, he noticed both Keyla and Charles were already facing his direction with blank expressions.

"I guess my portal exits appear quite sometime before I arrive..." Grayton thought.

"About time." Charles snickered. "You'd think someone with portal abilities wouldn't keep anyone waiting. Also, yer right arm's missin', kid."

Keyla squealed upon looking down and finding Grayton's exposed flesh and bones staring right back at her.

"It's a side-effect of my portals." Grayton sighed, shielding his left ear from the noise with his remaining hand. "It'll grow back in a few minutes; no need to worry."

"S-sorry." Keyla apologized, keeping a concerned gaze on the missing appendage.

Grayton noticed another thing as he looked around the room to find the mana potion: his two "colleagues" were standing on opposite sides of the room. Keyla was standing by the windowsill behind the open window while Charles was hovering at the exit door.

"So what's the deal with the distance?" Grayton said, placing himself between the two. "You guys had a fight?" He joked.

"I-It's nauseating to be near him." Keyla explained. "I d-don't know how y-you handle it, but when he's i-in the same room, it f-feels like maggots, c-crawling all over me!"

"That's weird..." Grayton thought, caught off guard by the unusually animated response. "For me, his presence just feels... cold. He did stink a little when we first met... Well anyway, time to get to business."

Grayton took a deep breath before turning to face Keyla. "Now comes the hard part."

"Well anyway, before we get to the good part, there's something we need to get out of the way." Grayton announced, walking closer to Keyla. "Remember the potion making formula I used as a bargaining chip?"

Keyla nodded nervously. She took a few steps back in response to Grayton's sudden approach.

"So her comfort zone is around... 2 meters?" Grayton glanced at the ground, eyeballing the distance between him and Keyla.

"The truth is, it's incomplete." Grayton admitted, taking a step backwards. He watched as Keyla subconsciously took a step forward to match his movement.

"Good, that confirms this is a two-sided conversation. She's still trying to be comfortable in this conversation." Grayton thought, taking half a step forward, watching as the witch back-stepped approximately the same amount of distance. "I was afraid she'd be totally averse to talking with me, but that doesn't seem to be the case."

"But, I'm sure with your help, it'll be done in a flash." Grayton continued. He walked over to the desk and pulled out a neatly rolled stack of paper and set them down on the desk. "These are your stolen notes, with my own added to them."

Grayton then took a step away from the desk and broke eye contact with the witch as she approached the table. Combined with her curiosity for the contents of the notes, this allowed Grayton to stand much closer to Keyla without making her uncomfortable.

"Got the vantage point." Grayton thought to himself. "Next is..."

Grayton waited for a moment, allowing Keyla to skim through the contents for a moment before interrupting her.

"But before you get into it, would you mind telling me about the situation with the witches?" Grayton asked. "And how is it going with your friend, what's her name?"

"Miranda. T-that's her name." Keyla hesitantly replied. "I... don't think a-any of the other witches know about our business... I-I haven't heard from her since y-yesterday though."

"Hmm, how should I proceed?" Grayton paused for a moment.

"I see, it seems that I don't need to worry for any other witch coming after me." Grayton nodded. He then noticed Keyla was nervously fidgeting with her hands, her eyes darting back and forth between the floor and him, as if she had something to say but was hesitating.

"There's the opportunity." Grayton thought, suppressing a smile behind his blank expression. "Based on the context, It's easy to tell what she has to say."

"If you're worried about your friend, I won't do something like joining a faction or reveal myself anytime soon." Grayton assured. "Not until we can find a way to convince your elders that you had nothing to do with me anyway."

Grayton notice the witch's expression brighten up a little when she heard him.

"Heheh, that whole spiel was awfully out of character for ya, don't'cha think?" Charles suddenly chimed in. "I never took you for the considerate type."

"Charles..." Grayton turned to face Charles, making sure Keyla couldn't see his expression.

"You haven't known me long enough to make such assumptions, Charles." Grayton said with a calm tone. However, he gave Charles a glare that could only be perceived as a signal to stop talking.

"Anyway, on that topic." Grayton turned back to Keyla. "Tell me about the magical factions. You people have tried incredibly hard to stop me from joining any of them but I don't even know who and what they are."

"O-oh, well, there's... A few but we were mainly concerned about the Aegis Association." Keyla explained.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"Aegis Association?" Grayton asked.

"Hey! I know those guys!" Charles interrupted. "They tried to hunt me down a few times as well." He laughed.

"Y-yes, they would do that." Keyla said. "Their mission is to, in their words, 'subjugate every undying and save as many lives as they can'. A-and yes, they take in pretty much anybody."

"W-we we're concerned about you joining them the most for t-two reasons." Keyla continued. "One, t-they have an ongoing feud against the witches... And two, this city is t-technically their territory."

"Territory?" Grayton raised an eyebrow.

"It's... complicated." Keyla sighed. "This city has been fought over between the witches and the AA for decades until r-recently, when the two parties decided to have a truce by ceasing their attempts of claiming this city. W-which resulted in this... fragile peace."

"I wonder what exactly they gain from 'claiming' territories..." Grayton wondered.

"Hah, between the witches' policy with kidnapping and enslaving people and Aegis's motto, it seems like the witches are the bad guys!" A dry laugh escaped Grayton's lips.

"E-exactly." Keyla reluctantly agreed. "H-had they found you first, you would have most likely j-joined them by your own accord."

"Yeah, I can see that." Grayton said. "But here I am now. If I join them, it would screw you and your friend over."

"S-sorry." Keyla stammered.

"Don't be, I'm more than happy to play with the cards dealt to me currently." Grayton shrugged.

Out of the corner of his eye, Grayton spotted Charles appearing to be struggling to contain a giggle which caused Grayton to launch another sharp glare at him.

"Well anyway, may I have that mana potion now?" Grayton gave a soft smile as he outstretched his hand.

"Good." Grayton thought. "Wording it like a request gives her a sense of agency, as well as painting the image that I care about her opinion."

"Oh! O-of course!" Keyla said as she hurriedly turned to grab a glass vial from one of her drawers, seemingly surprised at the question.

"Y-you know, you're... nicer than I expected." Keyla said as she put the vial containing a shimmering blue liquid in his hands. "I m-mean, you were acting like a madman w-when we first met."

A wave of regret went across her face as she contemplated if what she said could be deemed offensive.

"That was just a persona I assumed to piss you and your friend off." Grayton explained as he pretended to struggle opening the tight cap on the vial. "It worked, didn't it? That act dulled your judgement enough for me to come out on top."

"Y-yes." She admitted.

"But in any case," Grayton said as he finally opened the vial. "You'll find me to be a reasonable person normally; that binding vow was simply a precaution measure."

Grayton gulped down the contents of the vial at the end of his sentence, perfectly on cue.

"Now that was a perfect execution!" Grayton thought. He forced himself to not let the bitterness of the potion to affect his complexion as he drank.

Grayton exhaled deeply once he exhausted the contents of the vial. "So, what now?"

"Do you... feel any different?" Keyla asked.

"Well, not reall-" At that moment, a sharp, burning sensation spread through Grayton's body, starting at his abdomen and spreading to his extremities. When the sensation reached his head, Grayton felt a spinning headache that came along with a fiery pain in his eyes that caused him to clutch his head and stagger around.

"Ugh, shit! Why can't magic just be painless?" Grayton thought, as he struggled to use the desk as a crutch to stay upright. He couldn't see very clearly as tears were uncontrollably flooding through his eyes but he could feel Charles getting closer behind him from the slight shift in temperature.

"A-are you okay?" Keyla asked.

"Gah! What the hell was that?" Grayton exclaimed, coughing out his words. "It feels like tear gas but worse!"

"T-that's what happens when mana is f-forcibly ran through someone who wasn't born with it." Keyla hurriedly explained under Charles's glare. "T-this is the only p-painful part of the procedure, promise."

"Ergh," Grayton wiped the tears off his face using his coat's sleeve. "You could've at least warned me..."

"Can't blame 'er, kid." Charles interrupted. "I don't know much about this kind of thing but even I can tell that this procedure is only carried out once in a blue moon. Ya can't expect anyone to know much 'bout the details."

"Figures..." Grayton grumbled. Still, despite all his frustrations, he felt a certain energy welling up inside of him. And he began to feel this same energy permeate the room which he would guess to be mana so he could not argue on the potion's effectiveness.

"Hmm, that's weird..." Keyla put a hand on her chin.

"What is?" Both Grayton and Charles asked in unison.

"W-well normally at this stage, you would begin violently expelling all the mana in your system in the form of your own innate magic." Keyla said. "T-that's what was written anyway."

"And what does that mean?" Grayton asked with a concerned tone.

"Well..." Keyla paused to think about her next words.

"It means that if ya had fire breathing powers you'd be torching up the place right now." Charles sighed. "So? What's the problem, witch?"

A moment of awkward silence passed by as no one in the room could come up with a logical explanation.

"I'm not sure... A-actually, try this." Keyla extended her index finger toward Grayton. "Lumen"

Grayton saw as some of the ambient energies around the room converged around her finger into small vectors of light that formed a geometrical structure. The result was a small, dim light emanating from her finger.

"It's one of the simplest spells." Keyla said. "Try replicating it. M-maybe you are of witch descendant after all."

"You say that but... How?" Grayton thought, attempting to move the ambient mana in the air which he found to be a pointless endeavor as he could not in any way interact with the dormant energy. However, he discovered that he could move around the mana in his body easily.

"Do I have to chant?" Grayton asked as he continued to fiddle with the mana.

"N-not really... In theory" Keyla answered. "Chants are used to make it easier for us to cast spells by binding it to a certain keyword in our minds. Each witch has their own different chant for every spell... some more obvious than others. B-but since you literally just started out, I would recommend-"

"Oh, Oh! I think I got it to work!" Grayton suddenly said. He envisioned the structure Keyla formed in his mind, and attempted to slowly replicate it. He twisted and bent the slippery energy every time he made a mistake; the effort took an immense amount of focus. However, just as he thought he completed the task, the spell simply fizzled out.

"Huh?" Grayton stood, stunned and confused. "Did I do something wrong? I swear that was exactly how you did it."

"N-no, that was perfect!" Keyla said, as if she herself was surprised at the failure. "Even t-the amount of mana was nearly identical to the example I showed you."

"What? Then why...?" Grayton said as he attempted the spell again at varying strengths, all resulting in the same failure.

"No way..." Charles murmured from across the room, causing the other two to turn their heads at his direction.

"Do you know something, Charles?" Grayton frowned.

"The contract." Charles shook his head. "It's the only explanation."

"The contract..." Keyla repeated, Grayton could see on her face that something clicked in her head. "It's stopping you from using spell formula."

Another silence befell the room. Grayton could see expressions of pity on his partners' face, both of them avoiding eye contact with him. However, he was puzzled at why this was such depressing news for them.

"Hey, it's not like it's the end of the world." Grayton said, putting his hand on a random book lying on the desk. "To a normal person like me, just being able to control mana is already a superpower. Plus, I can still do things like this!"

He lifted his hand, and to the other's surprise the book came along with it.

"Hmm?" Charles tilted his head.

"I made an elastic cup on my palm with mana." Grayton explained. "I just put a hole on the other end and expelled the air out before closing it, turning it into a suction cup."

"T-that's... Really impressive for s-someone who just learnt how to control mana but..." Keyla said, hesitating continuing her sentence.

"How'd ya expect something like that to be useful?" Charles asked, finishing the witch's sentence.

"Of course, this is just a party trick." Grayton let go of his control, letting the book drop back on the desk with a thud. "But what if I make thousands of small hairs with suction cups as well out of mana? I could probably walk on walls with that!"

"That sounds... Insanely hard." Keyla commented. "B-but you did just do something that would take normal people a month to do, so..."

"Well even if I can't, just mana control is far less limiting in my point of view." Grayton said as he attempted to form a blade on his arm, which only resulted in a dull wedge. "So don't bring the mood down."

"Well i-if you say so..." Keyla said. "By the way, I-I didn't see you moving any mana in the room . Where d-did you draw the mana from?"

"Hm? I just used some from my body." Grayton said.

"S-so you're telling me, you can use spell formula and store mana in your body?" Keyla asked, a bewildered expression her face.

"Yeah, why?" Grayton tilted his head.

"That's... not possible." Keyla said. Her expression seem to hint that she was racking her brain, trying to come up with some sort of explanation. "Witches don't have mana vessels and humans c-can't use spell formula...."

"That's right, Charles did say something like that." Grayton recalled.

"Maybe it's part of the contract?" Grayton suggested. "Remember, none of us here knows the exact terms."

"Y-yeah, that has to be it..." Keyla nodded, satisfied with the explanation. "W-well anyway, you still have a long way to go if you want to make mana constructs your specialty. So h-here's a few spells you can practice."

However, there was one big flaw with that explanation. "Why would the contract both enable and disable me from using spell formula? It just doesn't make sense! Then again, most things don't when magic is involved..."

Unable to come up with a valid conclusion, Grayton stayed silent and nodded as he continued to listen attentively to her.

The witch then spent the next few minutes teaching Grayton a few spells ranging from simple to complicated. Once Grayton memorized their structure, Charles called him outside for some sort of training which Grayton assumed would be composed off killing undyings.

----------------------------------------

Grayton silently fiddled around with the spells as the two walked down the street, completely focused on the endeavor. At first he practiced casting on the palm of his hand, but as he got more proficient he started attempting to cast in the air further from him and even behind him. One of the few benefits from not being able to use structured magic was that he could practice as many dangerous and complicated spells possible without any risk. And he didn't even need to worry about running out of mana as his spells collapsed before he needed to spend even a fifth of the mana cost the spell usually required.

"It is sort of frustrating seeing my hard work just crumble like that every time." Grayton thought as yet another spell fizzed out harmlessly in front of him.

"So, I noticed ya were talking to the witch a little differently today." Charles said, breaking the silence. The flaming orbs behind his mask seemed to project a mischievous aura.

"Hmm." Grayton paid little attention to his words, opting to focus on his mana control practice instead.

"Does our little prodigy have a crush? Hmhmm~" Charles teased, drawling his words.

The spell Grayton was currently working on fizzed out, this time, not because of the contract's interference.

"Crush?" Grayton scoffed. "You know better than that, Charles."

"Alright, alright, just kiddin." Charles shrugged. "Still, I can't help but wonder what's the point of all that sweet talk. Isn't the binding vow enough?"

"Charles, when you want someone to do something for you, using force is the worst way possible." Grayton explained.

Charles scoffed. "And what, you think she's gonna work harder since yer bein' all chummy to her? Is that your plan?"

"Not simply because I'm 'nice' to her." Grayton shook his head. "Pay attention for once, that witch is the type of person who is allergic to failing other people's expectations. Acting like that only reinforces that behaviour."

"The binding vow helps in my favor in this case as it removes the possibility of an ulterior motive in her mind." Grayton continued. "After all, what's the point of acting compassionately if I already have a binding vow? Could it be that I'm an actually decent person?"

"So... Basically guilt-trippin'?" Charles asked.

"Basically." Grayton shrugged.

"What about that promise ya made about not joinin' any other faction?" Charles asked. "Are ya really planning on keeping it?"

"If I can afford to." Grayton sighed. A silence befell the two of them as they both knew what Grayton implied with his answer.

"Look, I really don't care about this whole thing with the witches." Grayton sighed, breaking the silence. "Once I've learnt what I've can, I'll leave the girl alone and have my little adventure. That way, we won't be connected; should be easy with my portals, right?"

"Mhm." Charles nodded. "What're you gonna do after that?"

"After that..." Grayton paused to contemplate. The boy was caught off guard by the question as he hadn't had any time to properly think about his future plans. "I'll keep going until I get bored of magic, I guess?"

Charles immediately started bellowing in a scathing manner.

"What?" Grayton frowned.

"Let me tell ya somethin', kid." Charles stopped walking and leaned closer toward Grayton. "Once ya get a hold of magic, ya can't let go of it."

"I find that hard to believe- Ugh!" Grayton felt a drop in temperature as he was knocked down to the ground mid-retort.

"What was that for?" Grayton asked angrily as he got back up, only to see a black appendage rushing toward him.

He hurriedly leaped to the side to dodge the attack, but this haphazard maneuver resulted in him face planting in the asphalt.

"This will be yer training." Charles announced as he assumed a more humanoid form with two misshapen wings at his side, all composed of the deathly miasma.

"What's the point of this? -Ack!" Grayton shouted before ducking to avoid another attack. Now that he could see Charles more clearly, he saw that his attacks were made by extending his deformed wings and launching them in an arc-like movement.

"I thought long and hard about what's the most important thing to know how to do while fightin' undyings on the way here." Charles explained. "And I realized that no matter what ya do, yer gonna have to dodge and fall... So!"

One of the wings on his back extended into an arc-like motion once more. But this time, Grayton was ready for it. He side-stepped the wing, feeling its black feathers brush against his right shoulder, only to be hit by the other wing directly on his stomach. "Agh!"

"Here's what we're gonna do." Charles said. "I'm gonna attack ya once every two to five seconds. I'll give you an extra three second break to recover if you get hit in a fatal spot and five in a non-fatal spot."

"Alright." Grayton thought as he prepared himself for the next attack, keeping a close eye on Charles. "Should be fairly easy now that I know what;s going on."

"And lastly-" Charles said as he suddenly vanished.

"Huh?"

The dark miasma seeped through a sewer grate behind Grayton and materialized back into Charles. Before Grayton could even process what happened, he felt a wing crash into his side, causing him to fall and reel in pain.

"I can also dish out up to two consecutive attacks." Charles said before tilting his head in a taunting motion. "Any questions?"

"Kuh..." Grayton clutched his side as he stood back up. "What happens if I block it?"

"Block? Haha!" Charles laughed as he sent another attack. "Why don't we find out?"

"Alright. Here goes!"

Grayton balled up his fists, reaching into the mana reserves within him and poured some into his right hand as he watched the appendage flew toward him. The feeling of power welling up in his arm was unfamiliar but not at all unpleasant.

With a newfound confidence, he threw a straight punch directly at the wing before it hit him. However, the boy discovered that the attack had way more force than he expected and ended up flinging his hand backward along with him.

"H-huh? Fuck!" Grayton cursed as he hit the ground, the blow knocking away whatever faith he had in his newfound abilities as well.

"That would've taken yer arm normally, therefore, it was fatal." Charles said.

"You're enjoying this, aren't you?" Grayton complained.

"I will neither confirm nor deny, heehee~" Charles snickered smugly before throwing out another attack.

"Alright, how about this?" Grayton thought, a new plan in mind.

He lifted his left hand in front of him and channeled all the mana he could into it, shaping a dull but sturdy wedge along his arn. It was shoddy work at best, as the construct immediately began to dissipate after it's creation due to his inability to maintain the constructs density... But!

Grayton crouched down and leaned forward before throwing his hand in the path of the attack. A loud grinding noise could be heard as the wing impacted with the wedge and was redirected at an angle, crashing into the ground.

A moment of silence passed by as Charles processed what had happened while Grayton waved around his sore arm.

"So, what does that get me?" Grayton cheekily asked.

"Well alright then!" Charles said. Grayton immediately felt another drop in temperature as he spoke. At this moment, he could feel a constant chilling breeze from Charles's direction. "Ya asked what that'll get ya?"

Grayton saw as the miasma around Charles's body got thicker and two more deformed wings sprouted out of his back.

"Uh oh! Looks like ya just unlocked hard mode!" Charles laughed, reveling a the sight of Grayton's incredulous expression.

"Hah, shit..." Grayton facepalmed.