Chapter 67 - Classes

The junior classes continued for a bit longer, but Lily desperately hoped they would end soon. The theory portions were enjoyable, as she learned some little tidbits of information for Arakil and herself. Still, the practical exercises were so mundane and straightforward that she felt like her time was being wasted.

While the kids tried controlling their Mana, Lily practiced chantless spells by limiting herself to the Starlight spell and ensuring she formed them out of sight from Instructor Richardus. Unlike Camilla, he did not have a pair of magical spectacles to see Mana, so he remained none the wiser.

Or he has noticed but doesn't care. If that were the case, I wish he would just let me leave early after the theory portion.

She also spent some time trying to gather Mana, although it was minuscule without her gathering array, but Lily felt every drop counted.

When it came to theory, one thing she learned that sounded useful was the laws regarding magic. Offensive spells were strictly prohibited in civilized areas, but minor utility and defensive spells were allowed.

On the other hand, academy graduates were granted far more leeway in this regard. They could openly perform nearly any magic, as long as it didn't have any offensive uses—except in the case of self-defense.

Lily had to admit she found that a little odd; why could only academy graduates use magic as self-defense within a city? And so she raised her hand to ask Richardus.

"A good question. It's a little more nuanced than that. Truthfully, if you defend yourself with magic, it will be overlooked even if you aren't a graduate, as long as there is no property damage or harm caused to bystanders," Richardus explained.

"Now imagine you're a bit hotheaded, and someone attacks you, and you set the entire street on fire? Or worse! It's safer to just say it's illegal and dissuade someone from such actions. It is lifted from academy graduates because learning to control one's magic to be restrained and not cause collateral damage in civilized areas is required for graduation. Whether you attend a prestigious academy like Regarth or a simple one like Tresnia, it's all the same."

Oh no… I hope Rose learns to control herself. Imagine if she fails to graduate because of her temper. That would be devastating.

Other than her classes, the rest of her life was relatively normal. One exception was that Camilla took it upon herself to squeeze Lily for every drop of Mana she could during their potion-making.

The silver lining was that it meant she wasn't getting her wages reduced despite coming over less often. In fact, on some days, Camilla even paid her more, much to Lily's surprise.

On the weekend, she went clothes shopping with Margit as promised, and the woman was somewhat surprised when Lily showed her the amount of money she had brought for this excursion.

I better not tell her that I've got more money stashed away. I'm saving up for another Mana potion!

Lily still wasn't sure whether the potion should go towards herself or Arakil. When she asked him about it, he told her to take it herself as he kept mentioning they had plenty of time and her own growth was more important than some minor conveniences for himself.

Logically, it made sense, but she was still feeling guilty for not being able to help improve his situation more quickly. If Arakil received her donated Mana in an equal fashion, then her taking the potion would be a no-brainer, as the more Mana she had, the more she could give him.

But that was not the case. Arakil only received a fraction of her donated Mana, for whatever reason, and so raw Mana was more valuable to him.

He mentioned seals, but I don't understand their meaning. Hopefully, he will explain them to me one day when I'm ready.

Even with that fact, Arakil had still said that Lily's own improvement should come first, as even at a fraction, it was still a better long-term benefit. He'd mentioned something about compounding interest, but truthfully, it went almost entirely over her head.

I don't get it… If I were giving him 2 Mana every day and drinking the potion, it would let me give him 3 Mana per day, but giving him the potion would give him 200 Mana right now. It would take me over half a year to match the potion on the new difference alone. Surely more now is better, right?

The only other noteworthy event was that Lily overheard some kids talking about Tim, who had apparently recovered but acted as if he was spooked out of his mind. Either he was distraught with Lily beating him, or someone had scolded him greatly for his actions—Lily hoped it was the latter.

As long as he stays away from me, I'll be happy. But I'll be ready even if he tries to pull something again. I'll have my cloak, and soon, I'll be able to wordlessly conjure Starclusters.

Lily really wanted to practice that spell but was having a slight hiccup finding a suitable training location. She could only reliably practice it if she snuck out at night beyond the wall. While she had been successful in the past, she was nervous that her luck would eventually run out.

Arakil had suggested she ask Instructor Richardus if she could practice her bloodline, but he had asked her to hold off until she had joined the advanced class. She'd reluctantly agreed, and with that time approaching, she had held off on resorting to nighttime escapades.

It sucks… I feel so close, but everything is just out of my reach. Arakil is right; I need to improve my patience.

***

The time had finally come, and Instructor Richardus officially "graduated" Lily from the beginner course. She hadn't really stayed long enough to make friends with any of the kids, not to mention they were far younger than her.

That's not to say that attempts weren't made or that Lily was being antisocial, but the kids' only interest in her was either for her to show off some magic or to try to see if she could help them skip ahead in their class.

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The first few times, she was more than happy to display her stars, but it quickly became a bit tiresome. As for helping them, Lily couldn't even if she wanted to. Her method of controlling her Mana was so different from theirs that she was liable to hamper their growth if they tried anything she did.

No spirals for them. It's all about seizing control of the Mana.

At the end of class, she politely said goodbye to them and stayed behind with the teacher to be informed of the new schedule.

"Sorry for keeping you here. It was probably longer than you needed, but I wanted to ensure nobody said I was rushing you and that you have sufficient knowledge of some basic magic theory," Richardus informed her.

"It's okay. I got to practice my Mana control a lot," Lily replied diplomatically.

"That's good. You'll need it for proper chanting. Which is what I wanted to speak about; tell me, what do you know about non-bloodline spells? I'm assuming Rose fed you some information."

Lily nodded, Rose had indeed given a bit, but the lion's share was obviously from Arakil.

"I know that you need to pronounce the words correctly. The words chosen also matter a lot, and you need to sufficiently imagine the intended result," Lily said confidently.

Richardus seemed astonished by Lily's answer, scratching his head in thought before finally replying, "I'm perplexed… I thought for sure that girl was not listening to my classes at all. I expected her to tell you about enunciation at most."

"I think Rose just gets bored very quickly," Lily suggested.

Richardus sighed, "Maybe I needed to give her more stimulation. More practical lessons… I'm not sure. Regardless, I'm glad to hear that you've gotten a good foundation on the theoretical side."

Lily nodded.

"We tend to stick to the basics here, a simple spell from the basic element, which includes a defensive wind spell," Richardus informed her. "Teaching beyond that is the academy's job, and I'm merely here to help you start your journey. Tell me, have you tried casting any spells outside your bloodline?"

Lily gently shook her head, "No. Unless you count my glyphs?"

He chuckled softly and shook his head, "No, my dear, I do not count glyphs. You could almost say that you learned to swim before learning to crawl in that regard. But I'm glad that Rose wasn't foolish enough to start trying to teach you magic words; who knows what could've happened if it was done without supervision."

"Rose preferred to just control the fire herself," Lily admitted. "I only saw her chant once, and it was to gather and put out fires."

"I see…" Richardus sighed, suddenly looking a bit weary. "I suppose rather than get upset about why there were fires in the first place, I should be glad that she had the foresight to put them out."

Lily nodded.

"I know I shouldn't be encouraging this, but how far are you with your glyphs? Other than the firebolt you showed me, do you have others?" he asked.

"I haven't done too many. I also can conjure water and a small shield," Lily replied.

She didn't want to mention the shadow cloak or anything else Arakil had taught her. She briefly considered not even mentioning the shield, but she had used it against Tim, so that cat was already out of the bag.

Richardus hummed in thought as he mulled it over, "Interesting. I can understand finding fire and water-related glyphs in an alchemy book, but a shield spell? That's relatively advanced."

"It was drawn on one of the pages," Lily fibbed.

"I see… A careless student repurposing any paper on hand?" Richardus suggested. "Although that was extremely dangerous for you to draw an unverified glyph, what if it was something nefarious or dangerous? You could have gotten yourself hurt or worse."

Lily's ears drooped, not happy at all about being reprimanded. That glyph had probably saved her life, and she wasn't too pleased about it being badmouthed.

"I won't be experimenting with glyphs again…" Lily whispered halfheartedly.

"Good. I'll hold you to that," Richardus said sternly. "However, since you've already verified these three you mentioned, I don't see why you cannot continue to use them. Although the firebolt one will have to be under supervision."

He paused and scratched his head, "And possibly the water one too… You'll need to show it to me to determine it's not an offensive spell."

"Water, too?" Lily asked in confusion before her memory caught up with her. "Oh … Wait, you mentioned it is just as dangerous to Margit…"

"Precisely! I'm glad you remembered that," the instructor said, now looking quite proud. "When I was doing active duty, one of my companions, Zate, was a water mage, and he completely revamped my evaluation of the power of water. We both joined the squad as rookies, and one of the seniors tried to instigate a fight and set up a pecking order."

Lily nodded along, listening intently to the story.

"The senior berated him, called him a glorified waterboy," Richardus continued. "There were plenty of insults thrown that I won't repeat, and he even suggested that he be on laundry duty and wash their backs. It was very petty but not uncommon in the service. Anyway, when Zate refused and didn't give in to the taunts, he was challenged to a duel. The senior expected him to forfeit, so imagine his surprise when Zate agreed."

Richardus chuckled and shook his head as if reimagining the scene.

"Anyway, Zate agrees to the duel. It's a good way for people to settle differences, blow some steam, or even practice. Anyway, the duel became official, and they began. Now the senior was cocky as all hell and even gave the first move to Zate—big mistake there.

"Zate immediately conjured a water spell; it looked like a bubble and sent it rushing out. Everyone laughed at it, thinking it was nothing. I'll even admit I joined in on the chuckles; I mean, who throws a bubble at someone? Well, Zate proved everyone wrong that day. The bubble sealed itself around his opponent's head, effectively drowning him."

"What !?" Lily gasped. "That was allowed?"

Richardus nodded, "When the senior was beginning to black out, Zate canceled the spell, and the bubble popped. We had medics and even a healer, so he lived. But ever since then, nobody ever got on the wrong side of Zate ever again. So you see? Even water can be just as, if not more, deadly in the right hands."

Lily gulped.

Magic could be terrifying.