NOVEL NEXT WORLD Chapter 9: First Class
Times New Roman 9 - First Class
July 2003
Archen
Today is going to be the day that they take me to the branch of the Golden Dawn, which is not a business empire as they first explained, but a bona fide magical order.
It is not even the only one in the world, as there are countless different magical societies. Most of them are state-owned, and if a country wants to actually exist, it needs a decently strong foundation in the magical world, or it would get quietly taken over.
Hearing information like this makes me almost regret not reading more about this world. All I remember is where in the future the "main character" should live, and I do not want to be in his vicinity ever. When I tried watching the show, his entire existence made me ignore the rest of the series.
But what can you do? I will not bother feeling regretful about something like this. No one could have predicted my world-hopping.
I have been left alone in the waiting area while the matron finishes my registration, and I noticed a fair bit of tension between her and some of the more important-looking members of the order. Yet, despite the tension, no one has stopped us or even questioned why we are here.
In the past weeks while I was being reassessed for entry in the mage's association, Gray explained much more about the magical side of the world. Her explanation filled in a lot of the blanks, but I am ready to learn some more theoretical knowledge.
Mostly longer-distance teleportation. Well, only teleportation, if I am being completely honest.
Everyone seems to be capable of it, yet with an affinity for it, I cannot teleport farther than what I can sense. Preposterous.
My musings are interrupted as I hear two sets of footsteps approach the door. When I look up to see who the matron brought with her, I come face to face with Fay, who looks at me with immense curiosity.
Before I can even muster a greeting, she nods, turns around, and runs back the way she came, leaving me behind in disbelief over whatever that was.
When I look at the matron for some clarification, she just laughs and shakes her head, trying to convey a "what can you do" attitude.
"Your first few introductory lessons are going to be fairly private. If after those you wish to continue in a specific path, your lesson schedule will be adjusted."
Cool, I am curious about the possibilities. I do not really have high expectations, but I am somewhat hopeful I will find something that suits me.
"Follow me, and I will guide you to your tutor's room. You will be joined by the girls, as two of them are very curious about your change."
The corner of her lip rises as she explains the upcoming events. In a way, her countenance gives the impression that she is aware of a joke I am not in on.
On our walk toward the classroom, she chooses to take the scenic route to give me a baseline of information on how to find certain places. She explains what is behind most doors and where I can go if I need help with other things.
I do not think they understand how strong my sensitivity to spatial fluctuations actually is. I did not bother reacting when we went through the front door of the "branch" location and ended up somewhere different. But walking through the inner rooms, I can feel that behind most of the doors she points to is only empty space, and they all give off a sense of being in flux yet "sleeping" at the same time.
That is some nifty work. If they are using doors as teleportation vectors, then they have the knowledge to anchor points and lengthen a spell.
I want that so bad.
We stop at one of the rooms I felt was fake due there being no spatial energies surrounding it and it felt like an empty space behind it, only to be given a wake-up call that everyone will try to be as safe as possible and that I am going to need a few extra tools in my kit to scout these types of situations out.
"Here we are. This is the sealing and warding department. They are not very popular, so they opened it for your use."
What? Not popular? Do not tell me they focus on direct combat power only. Sealing has been described as extremely overpowered in most anime I have seen, and warding is what I believe is preventing me from sensing through this door.
"Who is going to be my instructor?"
"Your first instructor is named Elaine Westcott. She is a master magician and a valued member of the house. As one of the youngest to reach that rank, her teachings should be valuable."
Elaine Westcott. I think I have seen her before.
As I try to put a face to the name, the matron knocks on the door three times and opens it slowly. The room has the characteristics of a normal classroom, yet all the items and furniture on display give off a faint magical aura.
At the front of the room stands the supposed instructor, whom I mostly remember as Fay's babysitter, while in front of her, three munchkins sit whispering to each other at a fast pace.
Once I step into the room, expecting the matron to introduce me, she just closes the door behind me with a hushed "have fun" and leaves me to the wolves.
My entrance does not go unnoticed, and I can hear their comments now that I am past the class ward line.
"Oh my gosh, you were right. He looks so different." A shocked voice starts.
"Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! I took a peek before running here, and I almost did not recognize him."
I can guess from that giddy tone and her previous showing in the room who that is, but why is she holding a sword? It is almost as big as she is.
"I told you so, and none of you wanted to believe me when I said he got bigger and looked older."
That voice, I can recognize anywhere.
"But do not let that fool you. He has only gotten meaner and more childish."
Maybe, just maybe, I should tone down the number of short jokes I make about her, especially when she is in the room.
Naah, it is too funny.
"Hmpf! He should not dare mess with this princess."
My face goes a bit brittle at that, and I remember how Meredith is still somewhat in her haughty princess phase.
"His older looks make him give off a bit of the same aura as Arthur."
I hear Fay pondering as if finding some kind of answer to an unasked question.
"I got it! He is giving off older brother vibes." She suddenly shouts, causing me to violently cringe at the description.
"I do not see it." Two voices react at the same time, luckily coming to my defense before she entrenches that idea too deeply in her head.
"No, he does. I am certain of it." With that, her face turns contemplative as she looks at me with a gaze more intense than I have ever seen from her before. "A second older brother, huh. I wonder..."
I fucking felt that rattle something, did she just manage to get a reaction out of my danger sense?
Before the class can get completely derailed by the yapping of three girls, the instructor decides enough is enough and coughs strongly in that distinct way to get everyone's attention.
"Normally, we would do an introduction and try to get you integrated into the group. Yet, I don't think that's necessary for you, is it?" She smilingly starts, easily taking control of the room with her presence.
"Most of you have a lot of questions for each other, especially as for two of you, this is the first time you've seen him since the incident, but those can wait until after the lesson is finished." She nips the problem in the bud before it can continue.
Yet, not everyone is deterred.
Before Fay can complete her interjection, having moved her focus from me back to the instructor, she is silenced by Elaine who conjures up a cloth that blocks her mouth and preemptively responds. "I know Fay, you are getting bored with most of the general lesson plans already, but since you bothered your father so much, he has agreed to your request on accelerating it as long as you follow through in this class."
With those words Fay sits back down, her pointed hand lowering and a sparkle appearing in her eyes, while you can hear muffled words through the cloth still keeping her mouth covered.
At the same time Meredith's hand raises in the air, indicating that she wants to ask a question without resorting to trying to interrupt the instructor at the earliest possible moment.
Elaine just sighs and waves a bit at her.
"Go ahead, ask your question as long as it's not about his change."
I don't wince at the tiredness her movements convey, clearly showing a usedness to this kind of chaos that speaks of untold amounts of headaches.
Meredith, somewhat shyly, asks if she also can move up ahead in her studies as well as she is already done practicing and training in all the books she has been given.
Elaine looks fondly at the two of them and happily yet sternly adds, "you two are advancing at breakneck speeds in your own specializations, but don't forget to fully integrate everything in your current skill sets."
She continues her warnings that feel and sound like she has given them a hundred times before.
This gives me a moment to focus on Gray's reaction to all this, she hadn't been mentioned in the same breath of magical affinity.
But I shouldn't have entertained the notion that she would react any differently, she's looking at this scene with a soft smile and her eyes warm, showing a contentment of just being around people she enjoys spending time with.
She catches me looking at her and without her expression changing, she just waves and pats the seat beside her, inviting me to sit next to her while the others continue their song and dance.
I quietly move over and take my place next to her, making sure I don't make too much noise to interrupt whatever this is.
"Hi, welcome to my new and improved advanced etiquette lessons."
Ha! I can't help but snort at that.
So every time she mentioned that she had to go to these lessons, in actuality they were magic classes and I didn't even question what the fuck advanced etiquette lessons actually meant.
I shake my head and laughingly say, "Hi to you too, glad to be part of it too now." I gesture towards the other two in front of us. "Is this normal for them?"
"Yeah, they are both unmatched prodigies in their fields, but they are too reckless and keep making messes of things." She muses with a hint of remembrance.
"And are you also a magical genius, is that why the three of you are in a separate class?"
"I could be one if I wanted, but magic is kind of boring in my opinion. It takes so much time to study for it and I'd rather hit people with my weapons."
Here she pauses a bit and gets a more contemplative look. "The identity of your teacher has a lot of my family in a tizzy and as you were already supposed to enroll here, they decided to change the arrangement to make you like us more."
That's a lot to unpack, yet their reaction is what I wanted to get by name-dropping her.
And can I honestly say that I am surprised that Gray has their intentions figured out? No, I cannot.
Gray is scarily observant and her as well as I turn to look at Fay, who mirrors her movements to make it that we look each other straight in the eyes at this exact point.
I think I might have been underestimating her.
I poke Gray in the side to get revenge for her cousin many times removed freaking me out.
She yelps loudly at that, fully getting the attention back to us.
I hadn't expected her to be ticklish and if she was, to not be that sensitive to it, but her glowering looks tell me otherwise now.
Elaine seems to have recognized that she's been rambling too long and decides to gloss past the last five minutes and restart the lessons.
"Welcome class, this was supposed to be a one-on-one conversation about your magical interests." She points to me.
"But as the three of you whined and plotted to change your previous classes to make the four of you have it at the same time so it would be more fun." And here she points at the other three, who look sheepishly at her calling them out, except Fay still making muffled sounds.
Unconcerned with the reactions she's getting, she still points at the three of them. "You three will get to revise your last practicals and once done, you can choose a new book from my personal collection."
They barely pay attention at the revising part, but the reward seems to pique two of their interests.
"In the meantime, I will have a conversation with Archen and we will figure out what he hopes to achieve while studying here."
She seems like she knows a lot about the lay of the land, maybe I can get her to give me more information on all the different factions and dangers I will have to pay attention to.
"You three, get to it, and Archen bring your chair to my desk and we can start on making a lesson plan."
I pick up my chair and walk towards her desk as the other three start to comply with her words. I can see them shuffling around slowly and taking random-looking items from the shelves to continue their practice.
While we start our conversation in a fairly relaxed manner, mostly catching up on how we've both been and my sudden addition to the magical world, the others have finally started fully focusing on their own projects and stopped paying attention to our conversation.
Only once their attention was no longer on us did Elaine start asking about the crux of the matter.
"I've been given some of the outlines on what you went through, but none of them were relevant in what you might want to learn. Can you, in your own words, tell me what you wish to learn from me?"
I've thought about it, and I can say with full confidence that I have no idea how others use magic. Focusing on understanding how they will use it should give me a better chance at countering it.
"My teacher has mostly trained me in practical use of my magic and deepened the width and scope of how I use my limited abilities. I already am aware of how to continue in that path, but outside of my own magic, I have no understanding of what others can actually do. This is more evident since, at this moment, I am still sort of assuming others would do things in the same vein as my teacher."
She nods at most of my explanation, showing how she accepts that my previous teacher does things differently, but her expression twitches in a bemused and pained manner at my ending statement.
"I will start off by saying only this, your 'teacher' is a freak of nature. Most of what we know of her paints a picture of someone who has reached close to the pinnacle of their craft, only a scant few living or dead have come close to her level."
Yikes, teacher, what have you done in the past.
"Don't misunderstand me saying this that modern mages aren't dangerous, but she can be seen as a generalist who has mastered all of her tools, while we, the modern mages, are more like specialists with one or two mastered abilities."
That is surprisingly a very easy way to understand the difference. Just imagine teacher using only two types of spells. It wouldn't diminish her danger, only limit the amount of different ways she can torture me.
"I get it." I nod approvingly. "It's like when my teacher only uses two of her runes instead of using all of them."
Her face turns actually pained at this, and she shakes her head rapidly.
"No, when I was talking about your teacher's magic, I wasn't taking her runes into account. Primordial Runes are an entirely different matter, you can liken those as the closest thing to ex nihilo type of magic."
She fervently replies, a hint of manic entering her voice at the end.
Should I use my one rune now?
I really shouldn't, but think of the memes, maybe I can blue screen her. No, patience is a virtue, there should be a better opportunity at a different time.
She's visibly calming herself down while returning to a previous conversation point to distract herself, I think. "It's why the three of them are so highly valued. They have specialties in fields that most others never get to touch, and they are extremely talented in them as well."
Huh, that's a huge contrast in Gray's own opinion of herself.
"Returning to your question, then I would first like to learn about the major magical classifications and what they entail, as well as a primer on how you learn to use modern magic." I respond.
She's returned to her calm demeanor, no more magic mania showing. "Good choice, first learning about the basics will make the rest go smoother. I may not be as accomplished as your previous teacher, but I will do my best to impart all I can to you as my new student."
Her serious response shows her dedication in her upcoming task, but I might have had an overreaction to a certain word she used.
Because the moment she called me by that epitaph, I already sprang into action, dashing to the other end of the room with my back to the wall and summoning my staff while everyone just stared at me with incomprehension.
Except the instructor. She had summoned a staff as well and was warily looking around, clearly expecting an attack to happen.
And when nothing actually happens, she looks at me in askance without saying a word, sort of motioning for me to explain my sudden movements.
"I-I might have reacted a bit strongly to that word. It might be prudent to not use it too often for now." I just sheepishly reply, not actually answering the implied question.
They keep staring, her eyes still dryly looking at me but with a hint of curiosity now.
I sigh, no point in hiding it.
"My teacher used that word a lot, and as part of my training, whenever she called me that word, she would attack me."
She chuckles at that. "All right, that's a fair explanation. Return back here, and we'll continue."
I take my place at the front, and I can feel Gray look at me with a mix of jealousy and dread.
Elaine continues her explanation on the different types of magics, and boy, what a list it is. With every mythological story being true, there are countless magical traditions, and with most of them doing something different to get the same results, they decided to start calling them by their result instead.
"MATH?!?"
What the fuck.
She sighs at my outburst, looking at me with a gaze that has seen this exact scenario before.
I can hear Gray snickering behind me, and I suddenly understand why she doesn't like it.
"Yes, math. All other types of magics are either connected to a 'god,' a form of alchemy, an inborn ability, or an expression of nature. Our magic is one that everyone could learn with enough dedication, without the need to rely on others."
That's all very interesting, but if magic requires you to be extremely good in math, does that make...
I sharply turn my head and look at Fay, who has been watching the byplay with a smile, and she happily waves at me when I turn to face her.
"You are actually smart?"
Her face turns smug, and she doesn't even bother to reply. While Meredith next to her visibly slumps in her seat.
I woodenly turn back to Elaine to continue our lesson. I don't want to think about the implications behind it.
Continuing her explanations over the course of an hour, I start asking bits of information about the different pantheons and other factions around the world. She answers all of my questions without hesitation, but I can feel a clear bias in all her words.
But honestly, I can't blame her. Hearing her talk about how certain folklore creatures still kill many humans or how certain yokai hunt and eat humans for sport. Let's not talk about how she views the devils and fallen.
While we are talking about how vampires are to be purged whenever possible and how best to use their weaknesses against them, the door gets opened with a slam, and a blond-haired, blue-eyed young adult walks in.
He looks a lot like Fay, and I see him look around hurried but not frantic. His eyes stop for a moment when he looks at Elaine, and his face softens as he smiles at her. Then he looks at the rest of us, barely paying attention until he sees Fay and the sword she had brought with her.
With a quick 'excuse me for the intrusion,' he power walks to her and starts grabbing her by the cheeks while interrogating her.
"Why do you keep forgetting to close my door? The wards only fully activate if they are closed. And why do you keep taking my sword with you? Do you know that I get stressed out every time you do something like this?"
He says this all in an aggrieved tone, while Fay sits there just staring back at him with the same silly smile and not responding.
"Haah..."
I hear Elaine softly sigh behind me. As I turn back to her, trying to tune out the bullied older brother, I check on her reaction.
"Arthur is usually always so composed and nice, only his sister can drive him completely nuts and I think she has made it her life's goal to get a reaction out of him whenever she can."
She says this all in a chiding tone, but I can't help but notice how much she enjoys seeing their bond and the different reactions he apparently gives at moments like these.
"Aagh!" I hear a slightly pained voice behind me while Elaine chuckles at the show.
I turn around to see Arthur holding his hand and Fay softly massaging her cheeks, both looking affronted at each other.
"Why did you bite my finger?"
"You shouldn't have squished my cheeks!"
"Then stop stealing my sword."
"Don't leave your door open, others could have taken it."
"My door literally can't be opened by anyone else except you, me and Elaine."
"Well, it's your fault anyways. You shouldn't have been so annoying."
I feel a strange type of kinship with the guy, yet I can't bring myself to help him in fear of the possible retaliation from who might be the most dangerous one in this room.
I can see him take back his sword and make it vanish somewhere. "What else did you take?" he outright asks now, clearly done with her nonsense.
"I didn't take anything else!" she replies, acting pissed off as well.
"Then why is my room such a mess?"
"Because Elaine was with me for the past few days and you can't live by yourself without her," she smugly retorts.
That causes him to pause in his questioning, and he nods.
"That's fair. But stop deflecting. It was never this bad, you must have gone through my stuff to take something and I don't know what I am missing."
"Hmpf, if you don't even miss anything then that means I haven't taken anything. So how could you accuse me of something else missing if you don't even know yourself that something else is missing?"
That is the most backwards logic I have ever heard.
I see some weird gears turning in his head. Does dealing with her too often make you lose brain cells or something? Is that why she is so smart? She takes other people's brain power and makes herself smarter.
He nods to himself. "I will go check again and if I find one thing missing, you will rue this day."
He turns around. "Sorry for the disturbance." He walks over to me, gives me a firm handshake, and quickly introduces himself.
"Arthur Pendragon."
Heh.
"Archen."
"Please take care of my sister," he says while walking past me and giving his girlfriend a kiss, softly saying some sweet nothings.
As he quickly leaves the room after, I just stare at Fay, trying to divine whether or not she planned for all this to happen and to what extent she had plotted to get this scenario to play out.
Meredith asks slowly, "Soo... did you?"
Without looking, Fay responds, "No, I just messed up his room. I want to see how long it takes him to notice I didn't take anything else," she says while taking out a stopwatch.
...I hope I can get rid of that big brother aura soon.
As she turns on the stopwatch, she looks at me with an innocent smile.
Shit.