Side Story: Meanwhile, Back in Maalt
“Hrrrm...”
Rina—Rentt and Lorraine’s apprentice—stood furrowing her brow as she groaned in concentration and focused on the task at hand. She was currently in the courtyard at the Latuule estate, which was located in a corner of the city of Maalt. Nearby, Alize, Rentt, and Lorraine’s other apprentice, watched Rina as she gathered mana into the magic wand she held in her hand. Once Rina’s concentration had reached its peak, she opened her eyes and shouted out a chant.
“Gie Vieros!”
A moment later, brown matter that appeared to be dirt gathered in the empty space at the tip of the wand, slowly forming into an arrow floating in midair. Rina then motioned as though she were pushing forward. The arrow sailed through the air almost as fast as an ordinary arrow, flew toward a target made up of several concentric rings, and struck the outermost ring.
“Wow,” Alize muttered after Rina’s arrow had landed.
Isaac, who was standing next to Alize, nodded his approval. “Taking into account that this was your first time trying a quickened spell, you did well. If I were to nitpick, I’d say I would have liked you to hit a little closer to the center.”
Rina and Alize were in the middle of practicing their magic. Lorraine had given them a list of tasks to do while she and Rentt were away, and on that list was a note saying to get Isaac to instruct them if they wanted to practice offensive magic. The pair had followed their mentor’s directions and gone to the Latuule estate to ask for Isaac’s tutelage.
Somewhat unexpectedly, Rina and Alize had been able to enter the estate without any fuss. Ordinarily, one had to go through a hedge maze that even Rentt had struggled to navigate, but the pair had been allowed to skip that challenge. That also meant they hadn’t gotten the reward for making it through the maze—a magic item of their choosing—but since neither of them knew about that, they were hardly going to complain about it.
What’s more, given that Alize was a child from the orphanage, it could have been a bad idea for her to be here alone among vampires and undead, but fortunately she was unaware of this; she hadn’t noticed anything unusual when she’d met Isaac and the other servants who worked at the estate. That was natural, though, considering that the vampires there had spent years, decades, and possibly even centuries in Maalt without anyone discovering their true identity. Even if you were shown into the very heart of the mansion, it would take a particularly keen-eyed observer—which Alize certainly was not—to see through their facade.
From Alize’s point of view, she had simply entered a beautiful estate with a gorgeous rose garden and a staff made up of elegant and refined servants. Although the mothers of the world might protest an orphan being in the company of vampires, there were no mothers present and therefore no one to rally against it.
The only “good” person who knew the truth was Rina, and she was a pseudo-vampire herself, not all that far removed from the estate’s undead denizens. Alize was, essentially, a sitting duck—a treat for the vampires to nibble on at their leisure—but no one there would actually feed on her.
“Mister Isaac, is it possible for me to do that as well?” Alize asked.
Isaac smiled that creepy yet elegant smile that might have marked him as a vampire in more cautious company and answered, “Eventually, yes. But it would be difficult to do so immediately.”
“Why is that?”
“What Miss Rina is doing is not ordinary chanted magic, but quickened magic. In general, magic is divided into chanted magic, quickened magic, and silent magic, but the latter two become progressively more difficult. Miss Alize, you’ve only learned chanted magic so far, yes?”
“Yes. Is it that I have no talent as a mage?” Alize muttered with a worried look on her face.
Isaac shook his head and smiled at her reassuringly.
“No, that’s not it at all. The issue is more that if you don’t take care and pay attention to your chanting when you’re first learning magic, you will end up developing some strange habits as a spellcaster. To put it another way, chanted magic is the equivalent of forms in swordplay. A swordsman’s style greatly depends on whether they start by mastering those forms or forgo them altogether. The former produces a swordsman of a particular school, while the latter creates a completely self-taught fighter. It’s not as though one process always results in a stronger warrior, but the former is a more efficient way to learn, is it not?”
Alize nodded, the description jogging something in her memory.
“That reminds me, Rentt’s really good at manipulating mana, but Professor Lorraine said there was something creepy about that.”
“Heh. I understand what she means. Rentt is like the self-taught fighter I mentioned. However, Rentt intends to relearn the basics, so while he can keep the benefits of his own self-taught style, he’ll also get some consistency from learning them. He understands the value of mastering the basics.”
“You’re right. He’s learning from Professor Lorraine with me.”
“Now, as for the magic Miss Rina just used, she has already mastered chanted magic. She’s trying quickened magic as part of her attempt to move to the next step in her training. Since she seems to find earth magic particularly difficult, Gie Vieros is also useful for practicing that type of magic. As for you, Miss Alize, you have time. Take it slowly and focus first on perfecting your chanted magic. I’ll be here to make sure you two don’t learn the wrong lesson from your practice, so don’t worry about making mistakes along the way.”
“Yes, sir!”
While it appeared as though Isaac was teaching the pair how to use magic, all he was really doing was watching to make sure neither of them did anything too dangerous, offering little bits of advice along the way. They were still learning in accordance with Lorraine’s instructions, so she was still their teacher in terms of actual theory and foundations.
And so, the pair continued their training...
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