Chapter 61 - Instructor

Instructor Richardus slowly approached one of the stars, and Lily halted its movements with a minute gesture to allow him to observe it better. He blinked in surprise before smiling at Lily and muttering a soft thanks.

After observing the tiny star, poking it with a pencil and eventually his hand, he seemed to have reached some conclusion and nodded.

"At first, I thought this might have been some form of Light magic; however, if it is, then it's like none I've ever seen," Instructor Richardus admitted. "On closer inspection, it undoubtedly resembles a star, not dissimilar to the ones scattered throughout the night sky. It provides a soft ambient light, quite different from normal light spells."

To demonstrate his point, he began a magical chant. His enunciation was extremely precise, and his routine was clear and rehearsed. When he finished his chant, he held out his hand, and a perfectly formed sphere of light formed inches above his palm.

Lily's eyes widened in surprise at the sudden magical display, causing the old man to chuckle in amusement. "You'll be seeing plenty more magic if you join this class, my dear. I hope each and every spell won't cause you to gape like a goldfish."

Lily closed her mouth and frowned slightly, causing both the adults to chuckle softly. She felt a growing pout starting to form but managed to suppress it, not wanting to further their teasing.

And they're supposed to be the mature ones…

With his free hand, he gestured toward his own light spell and then to Lily's star, "As you can see, the light itself is very different not only in color but intensity. Likewise, this spell has a slight warmth, but the tiny star is absent of such. Furthermore, I cannot maneuver this spell the way Lily is, and at best, I could place it in a fixed position relative to my own body."

He demonstrated this by placing it above his right shoulder. Once fixed, it seemed to almost lock in place, and then he moved about the room, the orb following him as if attached to him.

The instructor then asked Lily if she could position her stars. He had her recall them to herself, send them to Margit—who let out a delighted giggle—and even have her spread them out into a different corner of the room.

"Very, very interesting…" Richardus muttered to himself, once again stroking his chin in thought.

"What does this all mean?" Margit asked.

"Well, not only has she shown an unprecedented level of control over the spell, not dissimilar to a bloodline, but the spell's origin is clearly not from light magic," Richardus explained.

Lily silently cheered. Her control over the spell being called similar to a bloodline was precisely the outcome she wanted.

"Does that mean she can go to Regarth?" Margit asked, sounding especially pleased herself.

"Regarth?" the man replied, sounding somewhat startled. "Perhaps, based on the uniqueness of her situation, she could get in, but whether she's actually qualified to go? I am uncertain of that at this point. At the very least, she would earn a spot at trying to take the entrance test."

"I can do it!" Lily replied confidently. "I'll pass their test!"

To her surprise, the instructor chuckled and gave a rather pleased nod. "I admire your confidence. I'll gladly give you any support I can to knock the socks off of the examiners."

Lily smiled happily as Margit offered her congratulations.

Richardus cleared his throat, "Sorry to interrupt your celebrations, but an outstanding issue was also brought to my attention."

Lily tilted her head curiously, wondering what else there was to discuss.

"There's the matter of how you dispatched Tim, a well-bodied Leonia who had partaken in monster essence."

Lily gulped nervously.

"And also displayed a usage of fire magic. Care to explain?"

"Umm… I stopped Tim with a big star; it exploded into stardust when it collided with him," Lily explained. "As for the fire… I drew glyphs."

"Glyphs ?" Richardus questioned, the surprise evident on his face. "That's preposterous. How did you even gain the knowledge to draw them?"

"I read about glyphs in a book… And then I got an alchemy book on glyphs and their uses for potion making," Lily explained, once again treading a fine line between truth and fiction.

"That witch gave you a book on glyphs? You could have burnt yourself or worse!" Margit replied in shock and rage.

"I was extremely careful… I practiced a ton before drawing them for real," Lily explained.

"And yet you used them offensively when defending yourself," Richardus commented.

Lily gulped again, her throat parched, and her ears drooped with concern.

"I'm not faulting you for defending yourself," he added. "Heavens, no! I'm almost proud that you used magic to defend yourself, untrained. I'm just pointing out that you went far beyond what I presume was written in a book for alchemy ."

"I… The other book I read had different glyphs, and I started combining them," Lily explained.

Margit didn't seem to understand what Lily said, but Richardus, on the other hand, seemed absolutely shocked.

"You… Modified glyphs?" he stammered slightly.

"Is that bad?" Margit asked, sounding quite concerned.

"It's certainly risky…" Richardus said, stroking his chin. "I admit I didn't go beyond the basics, opting for different courses at the academy. But I do know that you shouldn't deviate from the tried and true solutions."

Lily frowned, "Does nobody work on improving them? That seems terrible!"

Margit gaped at Lily's outburst. Richardus, on the other hand, looked at her momentarily as if she'd sprouted a second head before chuckling to himself.

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"Interesting! An innovator, huh?" he commented, shaking his head while still chuckling softly. "Improvements are still made to them and then officially published to the public once they are discovered. It's heavily regulated, and proper glyph makers are licensed."

"So it really is a money-making scam!" Lily blurted out.

"Lily !" Margit responded in shock. "What's come over you?"

Lily blushed slightly, "Sorry… It's just what Miss Camilla told me about glyphs. She said it was incredibly expensive, costing her an absolute fortune. It really does sound like a big scam if they regulate it so heavily!"

Margit continued to stare at Lily in bewilderment while Richardus grinned and spoke up.

"It certainly is costly. I can't confirm or deny if it's a scam, but the price is atrocious from what I've been quoted. It's certainly made me question my studies, at the very least."

I can't wait to tell Miss Camilla she was right. This is crazy… Why put so much control over it? Arakil would no doubt be furious; he'd say they were suffocating innovation!

"Moving on… I'd suggest you stop modifying any glyphs," Richardus said.

"Why!?" Lily asked, outraged.

"Lily… It's dangerous," Margit tried to reason.

"It's not… I'm always extremely careful," Lily whined.

Richardus cleared his throat loudly, silencing the two, "Do you have one of these glyphs to show me?"

Lily hesitated first before nodding and pulling out a single firebolt glyph. She'd spent a tiny portion of her morning replenishing her dwindled supply after she burnt through all of them trying to deal with Tim.

Richardus carefully took the page and started analyzing it. Lily almost laughed at his various expressions as he scrutinized everything on the page.

"Well ?" Margit impatiently asked, clearly still worried.

"I have to admit… I'm not entirely sure what all of these do," Richardus said, his face turning a shade of pink. "But the ones I do recognize are remarkably well drawn; Lily must have spent hours and hours practicing every single detail until it was perfect."

Lily smiled happily at her efforts being recognized, but Margit was not pleased.

"Don't praise her for that! You said it was dangerous!" Margit snapped.

Richardus' face reddened, and now Lily could vaguely see why Rose had described him as a tomato.

"It's safe, I made sure it's limited," Lily explained, trying to defend herself.

"Oh? Care to explain," Richardus asked curiously, causing a glare from Margit.

Lily nodded, and after Richardus held out the paper, she began pointing to the sigils on the glyph.

"I made sure to limit it; it won't exceed ten meters. Also, it's made from low-grade ink, so it doesn't have that much strength, and I didn't include anything to boost its potency."

"Remarkable!" Richardus said excitedly. "I'd always heard there was a lot of potential in glyphs, but if what you say is true, then this is outstanding."

"It is true. I promise!" Lily declared.

"Lily, no, you don't play with fire," Margit scolded.

"That didn't stop the dragon girl…" Richardus commented before coughing and trying to hide that he had spoken out of turn.

Margit frowned, "Rose is a Dragia. Her situation is entirely different."

"It's not different," Lily protested. "My fire is completely safe; it's nothing like what Rose could do."

Margit was about to respond, clearly getting a little heated, when Richardus clapped his hands together loudly.

"How about Lily proving to us it is safe?" he suggested.

"Yes, I can do that!" Lily said as she eagerly tried to grab the glyph from him.

Conversely, Margit frowned, "I bet you just want to see what it does."

"I do admit to being deeply curious about this subject," Richardus agreed. "However, if what she says is true and it only goes a limited distance and with regulated potency, then I don't see the harm in it. That Leonia boy could certainly do worse now that he's partaken in essence, and any child with a more dangerous bloodline could produce much more devastating results entirely by accident!"

Margit opened her mouth to protest further but then closed it and shook her head with a sigh. She reluctantly agreed with the caveat that if Lily failed, she would promise not to touch something dangerous like fire until she left the orphanage.

Lily agreed, also reluctantly but determined to prove herself. She knew what the glyph did, which was practically perfect; she was not losing this wager. Lily briskly walked to the far end of the room and then, with practiced ease, thrust the glyph forward while activating it with a flick of Mana.

The page burnt up as it activated, causing Richardus to sigh somewhat disappointedly at the glyph being destroyed in the process. As it burnt away, the familiar sight of the firebolt burst forward and traveled its distance before fading entirely. It certainly didn't hit the opposite wall like Margit had assumed.

"Spectacular!" Richardus cheered.

Margit frowned, but it looked like she had to admit she lost. Lily couldn't help but laugh at how the situation had almost flipped; now, the instructor was cheering her on, while the one who originally came to support her was discouraging.

I understand she's just worried about me, but these firebolts are nothing like the dire hawks or even Tim's attacks. Heck, I think even a gremlin bite might be worse; I really kept these to the bare minimum!

"The potency was a little disappointing, but I was utterly flabbergasted to see it wink out of existence at precisely ten meters!" Richardus continued talking.

"Sir!" Margit interrupted. "Please don't encourage her to try to make it more powerful after we just established it was relatively safe."

"Yes, yes," he halfheartedly agreed. "Although I will remind you that self-defense is part of our course, including some basic offensive magic."

"But isn't that mostly wind?" Margit asked.

"Do you truly think wind is any weaker than fire?" Richardus questioned, sounding almost offended by the insinuation. "I'll have you know that wind can be just as potent, if not more deadly than fire. The same goes for water or some of the other less obviously destructive elements."

"Oh …" Margit responded, looking genuinely surprised.

"However, you are somewhat right," he replied, throwing her a bone. "We generally only teach a defensive gust spell to try to knock an assailant off or away from you. But if Lily does indeed go to Regarth, then she will be learning all sorts of strange and powerful spells!"

Margit sighed and nodded, "I guess I just have to come to terms with the fact she's growing up. I just hoped it wouldn't be so soon."

"It's always hard, but that's what we are here for," Richardus said with a gentle smile. "We give these kids a foundation, but the future is their own."

Lily nodded happily at those words, as she really liked the meaning behind them.

The future is mine! I'll definitely get into Regarth and become a fully fledged mage!