Soon after the moon changed to signal the end of that night, I was giving Kaili her very first lesson. Due to the nonstop efforts of my undead servants, the conference room was in good enough condition to use. I thought about getting a special room for this, but that would have to be for the future.
The cooks were still good despite being undead, so Kaili's face showed how pleased she was by breakfast.
I knew from experience that after a full stomach came a drowsy spell, but I was confident that she wouldn't sleep while I taught her.
...At least I hope she didn't.
"Ehem, let's begin with a simple introduction of what I'll be teaching you."
"Yes, young mas-, I mean Professor Elios."
I couldn't keep a straight face as Kaili almost called me 'young master', but I couldn't say anything about it since it was a compromise with Jeanne.
Since it was a good opportunity, I asked Kaili to stop calling me mister and call me by my name instead. However, Jeanne quickly objected.
"I can't let that happen."
"Why not? I'm the one giving her permission to."
"Master, you must be aware of your position. From now on you'll be acting as a proud elite among demons. Even though I'm sure you could easily prove your greatness, it is important that you do not do anything that can make other nobles underestimate you."
As someone with commoner experience, I wanted to say something back in my defence but I could get where she was coming from.
'This is going to be much more annoying than I expected.'
"Fine, what should I have her call me then?"
"How about Lord?"
"Isn't that too stiff? She's also going to be something like an apprentice to me."
"Then, Wise One."
"Why did the formality strangely go up?"
While Jeanne and I argued over what title would fit best, Kaili watched us in quiet amusement. I could usually ignore this gaze, but considering the topic my embarrassment became more of a problem than usual.
"Ugh, fine just let her call me mister again."
"No, that won't do since she might follow you in public if her training bears fruit."
At this point I was more than ready to throw in the towel, but not before one last surprise attack.
I covered Jeanne's hands with both of mine and raised them in between our faces while trying to act as meek as possible.
"Please, can't you be a bit more lenient, for me?"
"Uwow!"
It was an attitude I knew didn't match my style, I didn't need Kaili's exclamation to figure that out. As Jeanne stared back at me with a straight face, I wondered if I went through this embarrassment for nothing, but then she slowly turned her face away.
"What about young master, and she can call you professor when you're teaching her?"
'Yes! Ein, your memories were not wasted.'
"I can agree with that. What do you say, Kaili?"
"Understood mis-, young master."
She answered more readily than I expected but there was nothing wrong with that so I returned my full attention back to Jeanne.
"Thanks."
"... It's only my job."
Thinking back on it made me shake my head with a wry smile before getting back to the lesson.
"Now then, based on my analysis your personal talents are basically in line with your racial talents. I'm not sure how good you would be with a bow, but you do have a decent magic capacity and elemental affinities."
Magic capacity was just the amount of mana you had and how many spells you could cast, but this could be improved just through proper training. However, elemental affinities were different.
I didn't need to worry about it due to my use of Assimilation, but normally a person was born with types of spells that they were inherently good at and inherently not good at.
For most undead, their best affinity would normally be darkness and their worst affinity would be holy. For half-spirit familiars like Jeanne and Bony, their best affinities would stay as they were before they became half-spirits, furthermore their spiritual natures made it so that they had no worst affinities.
Drows, unlike dark elves, were only decent at darkness and perception magic but excelled in body/physical magic. They didn't have any particularly bad affinities which was a good thing but depending on how grew they could end up as jacks-of-all-trades.
"You look like you could do well with the reinforcement technique, but that can wait until you're a little older. I have something else planned for you."
"Well, what is it? Don't keep me waiting."
"Haha, for now, just look at my hands."
Instead of answering the impatient Kaili, I began a demonstration.
First, I showed my open palms to her to prove that they were empty. Then, I rubbed my palms together while chanting three lines. Finally, I opened my palms and allowed a bird to fly out from between them.
"Woah! How did you do that?!"
"Summoning magic."
While I responded, I also returned the bird back to the open sky through teleportation. It would one thing if it tasted like chicken, but I knew from experience that this bird wasn't the type that I would enjoy eating.
"Summoning magic? Isn't that um, the thing where, uh, like spirits and stuff...?"
"It's okay. I know it can be hard to come up with a proper definition if you don't have any experience. From my perspective, summoning magic is a form of spatial magic specialized in transporting entities from their location to yours."
"Uh, huh."
"Don't worry, this part won't be on the test."
"There'll be tests?"
"Well yeah. Though I'm sort of ashamed to admit it, as long as I think up the questions I can just have Je-, Witch handle the rest."
I wasn't suspicious of Kaili, but I still didn't want to blurt out Jeanne's true name since I couldn't be sure that this place was secure.
"Wow, spoken like a true VIP. A test, huh? I'm looking forward to it."
"... You've never taken a test before have you."
"Oh, no. Why?"
"... Nothing. Anyways let's get back to summoning magic and why I'm teaching it to you. In a lot of legends and fairy tales, you normally see people summon great elemental spirits to fight for them in battle. Therefore, it's portrayed as if one summon can be enough to make someone a terrifying threat.
That's the most popular view of summoning magic."
"Mmm, but since summoning magic is so strong, why doesn't everyone learn it?"
"Well, there are a lot of reasons, both practical and economic ones. But the main reason would have to be talent. With summoning magic, no matter how passionate you are, if you don't have the talent then that's it."
Her face seemed to deflate after hearing my words, but as if she caught on to something it quickly brightened up again.
"Then, do I have the talent?"
"Yep, I'm not sure to what extent but you definitely have the aptitude for it."
"Yay!"
As Kaili exclaimed with her hands held high, I thought about how lucky both of us were. If I didn't dabble in summoning magic that time when I was bored, I wouldn't have been learnt enough to realize Kaili's talent.
I was only at level 3 of Summoning Magic, so I was sure that she would be able to surpass me soon, but I had to at least know enough to continue guiding her.
"Okay, it's nice that you're motivated but learning summoning magic won't be a walk in the park just because of your talent. Though it's possible to skip past the foundation with certain relics, I don't plan on giving you that easy way out."
(I don't have the money to either.)
"I know. I'll work extra hard so that I can summon an amazing spirit!"
"Good, good. Now..."
Before the excited face of Kaili, I took out books on top of books and watched how her smile slowly vanished.
"What's, all of this?"
"Your presecribed texts. Intradimensional summoning is one thing, but for contracts, oaths and other otherworldly summoning topics, it's essential that you have a good grasp on who you're trying to summon.
Let's see. Why don't you memorise the name and title of every demon and spirit mentioned in these books and then we move on to the practical stuff."
"Uh, huh."
Seeing her looking at the books with a forced determination, I felt a little nostalgic.
'Ah, school. Those were the times.... Actually, never mind my school days weren't that good.'