"Well, thats an incredibly rude way of greeting your personal healer Mr. Samuel!" Zor the devilkin woman spoke up in a voice where she pretended to be hurt before showing him a sly smile. "Believe it or not, but I am a healer that loves working with blood! Bloodlines and magical history are just amazing constructs of this world, they tell so many stories!" Her completely yellow eyes stared at the ceiling with a blissfull smile.
"Well I do agree on that last part... but don't you own like - your own healer clinic? Who runs it while you are gone?" Samuel walked inside as the surprise faltered. "Hmm yes my own clinics are perfectly run by other healers, at this point I am simply the owner." She replied after snapping out of her reverie.
"Clinics?" Samuel asked, "More than one now?" He raised an eyebrow and she nodded, "Indeed! I own five separate healer establishments. So when I got the offer to be a teacher of bloodlines I couldn't help but say yes! My main talent lies in healing and history, but there are plenty of accomplished healers here already!"
"So I took the history offer instead, because I simply like it better than healing... healing gets so boring, its always the same thing... listening to complaints and stories of commoners get so boring while nobles just talk about how rich they are... ugh, the only ones worth healing are adventurers. At least they can tell some stories worth listening to... most of the time!"
Zor suddenly realized to have started ranting so she stopped doing so. "But what about you? Have you figured out anything more about yourself? You look like you have!" She suddenly smirked like she was looking at him like he was a lab rat.
Instinctively Samuel took a step back with an uncertain face, but he made up his mind to tell her a few things. "Indeed I have found out I have a rare bloodline, No you may not experiment on it or research it in any way... I do believe I have some rights according to contract with you as my personal healer!"
Zor's grin faded and she sighed. "Yes, you are right, I will not go against my patients wishes. But I do have a bigger job now after all, it seems like your mother heard of me so she contracted me, I am now your personal house healer my lord Gillfall!" She gave him a quick bow with one arm stretched out and the other on her waist.
"But do not think for one second that it means I will give you special treatment up here! Up here I am your teacher after all!" She stood tall once more. Samuel nodded, "I wouldn't have it any other way!"
"My ability to heal wounds that are fatal are connected to my bloodline, that much I can tell you since I have your confidentiality as my personal healer. As my teacher however, please do teach me all you can about magical history and bloodline history! I want to learn as much as I can!" It was Samuels turn to give her a bow.
"Well, considering all the specializations you picked, I assume you won't be here as much. But thankfully in the course of magical history and bloodlines, one can learn mostly about it from reading!" With a snap of her fingers, about 10 books magically appeared on her desk. "These will be your first task! Tell me when you have read them all and I will give you a test on them, after that I will give you more books to read!" She smiled wryly at him.
Samuel returned it with a sarcastic nod as if saying it would be no problem for him. He quickly put a bag down and started taking all the books and placing them inside. "Thank you Professor Zor! I will make sure to not let you down!" He said with a genuine smile this time and finished packing up.
"Hmph, yes yes. Be a good student and make your teacher proud! I look forward to great things! So you better not disappoint!" She said and started laughing.
"I wish you a good night professor!" Samuel shook his head and left the building after their short conversation. Heading back home during the evening darkness that revealed few stars under the cloudy night sky. He took a bit of a leisure walk and just enjoyed the gentle chill night breeze. He felt a singular tear streak down his face and took a deep breath of relief, reminding himself once more that he was free. Finally free, although he still had promises to keep now they would wait for him as long as they were not forgotten.
"Hey!" He suddenly heard a voice speak out from the side from a few other buildings. Suddenly a group of four others stepped out of the shadows. Samuel instinctively took a step back, even though he saw that they wore student clothes he had a hard time trusting anyone.
That was until all four of them knelt in front of him. Samuel was confused, three of them were fellow second years and the last one that had spoken and shown himself first was a third year. "We wish to thank you sincerely!" The third year spoke again.
He was the only human of the group, the other three were all half elves. But he was adorned with silver streaked black hair and blue eyes with a smudge of purple in them. He looked like someone with a very strong build and thats when Samuel saw the House Genger emblem he so proudly showed on his clothing.
"Thank me for... what exactly?" Samuel still confused, he had most certainly beaten up a relative of this man so he was confused as to why he was thanking him. Then he saw that the other three half elves all looked simillar and he realized them to be house Genger as well.
"We wish to thank you for getting rid of a black stain that used to smear our family name through the ground. For many years we have attempted to make Father realize just what a plague he was letting fester in the house, corrupting it from the ground up and breaking it. But father was adamant in his love and wouldn't see it."
"Although we managed to make him see many of Al's shortcomings it was not enough, until you revealed what he had done, for years our house had slowly been losing allies and friends because of Al and his goons, and since he was our brother we dared not go directly against him. But you didn't hesitate. I wish to personally thank you and to know what your name really is, only having rumors to off is quite hard!"
Samuel sighed and realized what it was about finally, "First of all, I bid you to stand! I do not want anyone to bow before me!" He rubbed his temples and all four of them got off the ground, "Secondly its not like I personally went after your brother... I only protected innocent students!"
Hearing him speak those words they all looked at him with a hint of another type of admiration. The three half elves especially, when they stood up Samuel realized all three of them to be women. "Lastly, I do not mind giving you my name... as long as you promise not to go around saying it, I prefer to keep a lower profile!" He sighed again, but looked at all four of them and they all nodded.
Samuel stretched his hand to the third year. "Samuel Fayt Gillfall! At your service!" The man in front of him quickly had his eyes widen but then returned the handshake. "Vuloc Genger! Third Oldest of House Genger!"
"These are my sisters, the three triplets, Tyva, Ylva & Alyv Genger, respectively!" They all gave him a small curtsy when their older brother called their names. "If there is ever anything we can do for you my lord, then don't hesitate to ask! We are all younger born in the Genger household, which means we won't ever hold any important positions. So if you ever in the future need reliable mages to serve you, then don't hesitate to ask!" Vuloc spoke quick, his voice filled with excitement and funnily enough all his sisters seemed to nod to his words.
Samuel couldn't help but inwardly sigh and wonder what kind of shit he got himself mixed up in, but alas on the outside he nodded. "I will be sure to remember that! I thank all of you! But if you don't mind I will take my leave now!" Samuel nodded and they all bid him goodbye.
Samuel walked faster after that hoping that nothing else would interrupt him before he reached his house, thankfully nothing more happened on his fast paced remaining walk and he entered the house and slammed the door shut a bit too loud. "Whoops!" He exclaimed, noticing that no one else was downstairs he locked the door. They had all probably gone to bed or something already.
The introductions to specializations did run pretty late into the evening and there was a lot of new things to learn which meant that everyone else was probably tired. So he decided to not disturb anyone else and made himself a quick sandwich and ate it before going to his room.
He was a bit surprised to find his room dark and and an empty bed, but before he turned on the lights he saw a slight light peek out from under the bathroom door. Samuel got himself prepared for bed and changed out of his clothing and into the comfortable sleeping pants.
He knocked on the door before entering the bathroom, the drapes were covered so he quickly made sure to clean himself up and brush his own teeth. Inwardly adding to one day thank the genius centaur that had invented the toothbrush by making it with their own hair.
It was still quiet though, "Are you okay?" He asked gently at first, receiving no answer he quickly walked over and pulled the drapes away. Ulma had filled the huge bath with water and was quietly floating around in it with her eyes closed.
Samuel sighed in relief and smiled as he watched her floating peacefully, her long white hair spread out like half a sun in the water. Samuel started flicking the water surface making water get flung on her face which made her slowly flinch in her deep slumber before she finally opened her eyes slowly with a sigh.
"Good morning sleepyhead!" Samuel whispered softly from the edge he was sat on. "Did you have nice dreams?" He smiled at her as she stopped floating and her lower half sank below the water as she took a seat. She slowly looked at him with tired eyes and smiled when she saw him. "You look pretty sexy right now, not gonna lie!" Samuel said tenderly with another smile which made her blush.
It took her only a second to slide over to the edge where he sat, she stood up fully and seeing how he was still sitting on the edge she was at least a head taller than him. She smiled and grabbed his head and leaned down to give him a tender kiss. Samuel embraced her wet body and started slowly caressing her back.
After what seemed like ages she finally parted their lips and gently blew wind into his face. "I was training my mana flow. Apperantely sleeping in water is a great way for healers..." She whispered to his face which she still held in place staring into his eyes.
Samuel stared back into her beautiful different colored eyes and smiled. "Wow, where did you learn that? Healer specialization or something?" His sassy reply made her chuckle and she nodded. "Well if someone isn't cheeky today!" She said and grabbed his hair before kissing him again. Parting their lips a second time he replied, "Always!"
Ulma finally let go of him and turned around and brought all of her hair over her shoulder leaving her back exposed, Samuel saw there a weird tattoo depicting a large triangle that seemed to be made in the design of leaf and stick. "What is this?" He whispered and stood up as he left his fingers on the tattoo.
"The mark of nature and who I am, I received it today... after learning to heal using divine magic, the moment I healed with something other than natures blessing... that tattoo was burned into my back. It still stings a lot, but for some reason your touch on it feels cold and soothing!" She turned around slowly again and put her head on his chest.
Listening to his hearbeat almost made her fall over again. "I think you need a proper bed!" Samuel said and dried her off with a cleaning spell as he lifted her out of the bath. Leaving only a few singular droplets remaining. Samuel took her in a princess carry and she almost immediately fell asleep as she leaned in on his chest.
Samuel brought her to the bed where he lay her down and made sure she was covered by plenty of blankets and pelts. She fell asleep the moment her head hit the pillow, so all Samuel could do was take care of her, he smiled as he brushed some of her now mostly dried hair out of her face. It was certainly difficult and required several heating cantrips to dry so much wet hair but eventually he had gotten the job done.
Samuel wasted no more time, he quickly drained the water and turned off the lights, locked the door and went to sleep next to her in bed. Almost as if on command the moment he had gotten himself comfortable under blanket and pelts, Ulma had turned around in her sleep and put her naked body on top on his.
Which made him sigh but smile as he kissed her forehead before sleeping himself.
The specialization introduction day certainly had been an interesting one and he was glad that there was so much more to come.