Finally I rembered what I had forgotten.
I quickly returned under the gaze of Silvia and Lys to where I was sitting talking to Silvia and picked up Selene, whom I had left behind.
He had cast an anti-recognition spell on her, so unless soone was looking for her on purpose, no one would notice her presence.
I put her back on my arm and followed the rest. They, who paid special attention to my movents, noticed the weirdness and quickly the magic stopped affecting them, so they could notice Selene.
I an, it’s not like she did anything wrong, so it didn’t matter if they looked at her. And while dark magic is frowned upon, it can be used.
A lot of artifacts like presence-reducing artifacts and such that use dark runes and the like to work. In fact, it doesn’t even matter much if one has an affinity towards darkness, like Elena.
The problem is that it is frowned upon and sotis looked down upon as sothing unclean, at least in this kindom.
What is sowhat serious is having the blessing of the god of darkness in this realm, which, at the very least, can cause exile, and in so cases, execution.
That’s why no one uses darkness magic much, at least not at a high level, as it might draw attention.
But basic spells like this don’t matter much, so it didn’t matter if they knew he could handle dark magic. Still he had looks as if they wanted to ask sothing.
"What?"
"Hey, Chris, is that a person over there?"
"yes, is it a person? Why?"
"I an, why do you have it like that?"
"Oh!, it’s because I found it over there. Don’t worry, let’s start the lesson. she won’t bother."
"I don’t want to say... hmm.... this, how to say it..."
Lys seed to want to tell sothing, but I didn’t know how, on the other hand, Silvia who knew her asked.
"e-this Chris isn’t her..."
"yes it’s Eira’s sister, Selene "
"n-no what I an is why do you have her like this...don’t open".
"like I said I didn’t do anything we just ran into each other earlier and she fell asleep so I brought her in, like I said she won’t bother so it’s fine."
"but...ummm if you say so"
’hey stop looking at like that I didn’t do anything wrong...wait I think I did, but it was consensual, so I’m not a criminal.’
even i didn’t know if what i did was right so i just, i convinced them that it was no big deal and i was thankful that Elena didn’t see i don’t even want to imagine what she would say or think if she saw .
after i convinced them we went straight to the empty room, where I taught runes for a few hours.
luckily selene when she woke up, she didn’t seem angry or dissatisfied and when I asked her she said affirmatively that it was good and that we could continue to do so, so she didn’t need to feel that she had done wrong.
In the end everything turned out well and I was able to sleep peacefully, of course after receiving a judging look from Elena when I told her what happened, but well, it wasn’t so bad.’today was a productive day’
*****
Lys’ point of view
******
The sound of the bell announcing the end of class echoed down the hall. As usual, I headed straight for the training field in gym 5, the best facility I had access to. I wanted to test myself and was looking forward to the first examination for class advancent.
The facilities in Class A were said to be even better, and that motivated to try harder. Since my recent third tamorphosis, I felt more confident than ever, although I knew I couldn’t relax and had to keep practicing.
..
.
The hours passed, and Will arrived punctually, followed closely by Silvia. Thinking about her, although she is a quiet girl, she leaves a strong impression, especially with those attributes that I secretly wish I had....
’No, those would only get in the way in combat,’
I reminded myself, pushing those useless thoughts away and refocusing on my movents.
I was practicing my family’s martial art, an art that, according to the stories, was only a part of a more powerful art that was lost over ti.
Will, approaching , suggested having a spar while we waited for Chris. It was clear he wanted to fight, and I couldn’t have been happier to agree.
After all, that had been the main reason I had sought him out today. Yesterday I wanted to challenge him, but didn’t get the chance, and today, seeing him casually, I couldn’t resist.
Sohow, though, we ended up becoming friends and agreeing to get tutoring from Chris, my other new friend.
Chris always left a strange impression on . Ever since I t him, I had the feeling that he knew better than I knew myself, which was impossible, so I dismissed that thought.
However, his skill with words caught my attention, especially when he kept telling that I was a beautiful girl. Being the only female in my family, raised among n, I always had a personality and appearance that others considered tomboyish.
It was only in recent tis that I began to be more conscious of my appearance and strive to be more feminine. Having soone like Chris call beautiful, with no apparent bad intentions, really made happy.
Sure, my father always told that n have ulterior motives and that I should watch them for a long ti before trusting, but I didn’t think much of it, as Chris only seed to want to be my friend.
My main focus was still on perfecting my family’s art and restoring it to its forr glory, so every combat experience was invaluable to .
We took the weapons provided by the academy for training. These weapons were inscribed with runes that prevented us from causing lethal damage, allowing us to fight without restraint.
Thus the fight began. I soon noticed that, although I was faster than Will, he had more strength and balance. Despite not being as fast, he reacted well and counterattacked with precision.
For my part, I couldn’t get through his defense and hit him with a decisive blow, but he couldn’t reach with an accurate attack either. Before I knew it, we had stalled in a stalemate that lasted for a while....
Suddenly, I felt a battle intent coming toward , thick and dangerous. Without hesitation, I turned my attention away from Will and looked at the approaching person. Surprisingly, it was Chris, hands covered in tal gloves, attacking us both.
I could barely hold his punch without backing away, while Will, with more leeway, began to talk to him. I simply listened while keeping my guard up, not allowing myself to lose focus.
Finally, hearing that we could use mana, I decided to push away Chris’s fist that was pressing and launch a strong and fast attack. However, Chris disappeared just when I thought I had hit him, leaving bewildered.
Before I could react, I heard a loud bang and saw William smashed face first into the ground with Chris at his side. I tried to retreat, but my position was disadvantageous, and I regretted attacking with all my might.
Chris grabbed by the wrist, preventing from moving my rapier and pulling back, bringing his hand dangerously close to my throat, quickly ending the fight.
I had heard from Will how strong he was, but seeing him in person is another thing. I don’t think there is anyone in the academy stronger than him, and I was happy to have him as a friend. After all, my father told it was important to hang out with the right people.
He had neutralized both of us without wasting a single move, showing himself to be soone truly respectable and worthy of admiration.
After checking on William, who didn’t seem to be moving, Silvia loaded him up, and we headed to what we had agreed.
Everything seed normal until Chris suddenly rembered sothing and said he would be right back. As he returned, he picked up sothing from the floor. At first, I thought it was an object, but then I realized it was a person, a girl who didn’t seem to be moving.
A little panicked, I wanted to know if she was alive, as she showed no signs of movent.
However, she was only asleep, which didn’t make it any less worriso, as she looked young and cute, not to ntion those weird, adorable ears that I wanted to pet.
If I didn’t know Chris, I would have gone to alert the instructors, thinking there was a perverted kidnapper among the students.
I still wanted to ask, but I didn’t know how to do it without sounding rude, so in the end I couldn’t get what I wanted to say out of him.
Finally, Silvia, who seed to know the girl, asked Chris if anything had happened to her. There seed to be so substance that only they knew about.
In the end, Chris ntioned that he had simply found the girl unconscious and could not leave her alone, assuring her that he would not interrupt the lessons, although that was not what mattered to .
At first glance, it seed like a valid explanation, but sothing about the situation felt uncomfortable. In the end, all that remained was to wait for her to wake up and find out the truth.
Finally, the five of us, including two unconscious people, entered one of the private classrooms adjacent to the gymnasium.
Since only candidates for kingdom representatives attended the academy, many facilities remained free, so it didn’t matter if we used this space.
Eventually, Will woke up, although he didn’t rember anything after being knocked down by Chris. Not that he had missed anything important.
but when he saw the girl nad Selene, carried by Chris, he imdiately panicked.
Will started asking questions and shaking Chris with a frightened face, he looked very worried, as if he was afraid that Chris had done sothing irreversible and had beco a criminal.
I was dying of curiosity to know what the story behind it all was, but I couldn’t ask.
Finally, Chris convinced Will, and I thought the lesson would begin... or so I thought, because out of nowhere Chris pulled sothing out of his bag.
I was surprised when I saw Chris pull out a piece of at. I thought maybe he was hungry, but instead of eating it, he used it to wake up the sleeping girl, passing it over her face.
She bit the air and then, slling the aroma of the at again, reached for it, waking up completely. chris gave him the at along with a lot more food that he took out of his bag, and then whispering sothing I couldn’t hear and the girl nodded, causing Chris to let out a sigh of relief...it was suspicious.
but Seeing how the girl was acting, it seed like there was nothing wrong, so there shouldn’t be a problem.... maybe.
Finally, the class began.
Chris explained that runes are a way to communicate with mana, which helped understand it better, as my previous instructor had explained it in an overly technical and complicated way.
Chris went on to say that so people can cast spells without using runes due to their elental affinity or through chanting, but that runes are fundantal to learning magic efficiently and saving mana.
The most important thing Chris ntioned was that, although warriors do not necessarily need runes, since their arts function as a kind of chant that is conjured with the body, the circulation of mana in their body is like making a kind of runes.
In short, runes are used to communicate with mana and create phenona, and could be compared to an alphabet to communicate with the world or mana.
Chanting is a form of oral communication and the arts, a form of bodily communication, each with different characteristics.
Runes have the advantage of saving mana and help to understand spells at a fundantal level.
Finally, affinities allow communication using will, omitting chants and runes, though that didn’t matter to , as I don’t possess an affinity. It was a very enlightening class, and the way Chris explained was clear and concise.
The class beca more complex when Chris began to explain how to wield mana to create magical circles with runes in perfect harmony, which requires great control and concentration.
I took notes diligently, especially on the runes related to wind, as they are linked to my family’s art so the lesson lasted more than an hour.
I honestly didn’t expect much since he was just as much a student as us but that was just my prejudice, and I learned more than what I had learned during the classes, the more I find out about Chris the more I respect him.
As my father used to say, one must always create true friendships and from the right friendships one can grow, both as a person and as a warrior.
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