With that he turns from us, leaving me to look at Sir Lector questioningly. He only shrugs before turning around and leading the way off the platform. I follow close behind as he leads to an empty area of a table. We do attract a few glances, though not so many as when he was carrying a dead soldier.
"Well, that moved fast," he says with a laugh.
"I certainly can't disagree with that, master."
"Ah, I can't describe how good it feels to finally have an apprentice. I had been looking for so many years, I had thought that I would never find one. And then I encountered you, and a very strange feeling came over, that you were the one to take as my apprentice… if I had to guess, I would say that it is because you remind me greatly of my younger self, when I was an enslaved mage trying to compete in a field dominated by wealthy nobles. Honestly, I hope that I chose correctly. From what I've seen so far you really are almost perfect to be my apprentice. Though I must warn you, it will not be easy. But if you study and practice diligently, I am certain that you can succeed."
"Of course, I will not disappoint you master. I will do whatever is necessary to excel in this path, to show you that you were right in accepting me as your apprentice. Though I must ask, when shall my training begin?"
He laughs. "After dinner. My residence on this campus was prepared with the intention of me finding an apprentice, I have had an entirely vacant room for years. Living in my house, your training shall have no reason to ever cease. I must warn you, I have full intentions to be a strict master, a master whose apprentice will be provided with the opportunity to greatly excel him. You are already well behind, being about thirty and yet having received no training. This must be remedied, and the only way to do that is training. It is honestly a shame that we are here, as you must still spend most of your day training in useless fields, such as swordsmanship and even physical strength. This will definitely cut into our training time, but sadly there is nothing that can be done about it. Starting tonight, I will teach you more of the specifics of magic. Though this is less applicable on the battlefield, the information is important to develop a complete understanding of the field. Only once you have understood and mastered the basics shall we move onto the applications. Sadly, your inability to work with straight magic shall notably hinder us; however, there are still plenty of fields to keep us occupied until long after your deployment date, even if that date is pushed back a decade. For now, we will work with alchemy alongside elemental manipulation."
"What is the aim of alchemy?" I ask. Though I have obviously heard of it, I want to know what the field generally focuses on.
"Alchemy aims to create spells that temporarily, or even permanently, modify a living user. It primarily focuses on potions, though there are obviously other applications. It is occasionally confused with both artificery, which focuses on infusing objects with magic to have them be useable to produce a spell, and enchantry which focuses on infusing objects with spells that will activate when they are used. Though the general overview of artificery and enchanting are nearly identical, they are different fields. Artificery is about creating objects that use magic to further their goal, while enchanting is about infusing already existing objects with magic to assist their purpose. Does that make sense?"
While he was giving his explanation, I was eagerly feasting upon the food laid out on the table. Meat of some sort, alongside plentiful potatoes and carrots. And, of course water. I suppress the irrational wrath that rises up within me, and just try to enjoy it. When Sir Lector finishes speaking, I only nod, continuing to eat.
"I remember that feeling. The feeling of a neglected slave, joyously accepting any opportunity to eat. Especially after only recently leaving the slavers' care; every group is different, but those that captured me seemed to consider eating more of a privilege than a necessity. Was it similar for you?"
I finish chewing my current mouthful, before wiping my mouth with a towel and responding. "Yes, that was the case for me as well. We were fed some oddly good-tasting brain things, and that was all."
"Ah, yes, I know of which you refer. I have formulated some in the past; they are generally made of leftover animal brains with some spells and cheap alchemical ingredients added to them to give them an acceptable flavor and an impressive amount of nutrition. Still, even the thought of eating them rather disgusts me. I was rather impoverished some years back, so I took to formulating them for my own consumption. I ate them almost exclusively for a year, after which I vowed that I would die before eating them again."
"You must have been pretty impoverished to eat them."
"Yes, I certainly was. I had only recently earned my freedom, and I was kicked from my master's house with nothing to my name. I was almost forced to sell myself back into slavery before I managed to join the adventurers guild. I was already a rather capable mage at the time, you see, and so it wasn't too difficult for me to salvage my position. Sadly, that is not the case for many other recently freed slaves. They are used to having their needs met, even if inadequately, by their master, and when turned to property-less peasants they have nothing to meet their needs to even such a degree as to stay alive."
"Well, hopefully I don't have that issue. Though, of course, that I'll even earn my freedom in the first place is quite unlikely. I guess I'll take that problem if and when it comes."
"Why, that's a rather pessimistic outlook! While it's true that only about two percent of enslaved soldiers survive to earn their freedom, you are a mage and my apprentice, your prospects are surely much better! If you are diligent in your studies, you should be just fine. Though you'll be close to fifty by the time you earn your freedom, magic isn't all that dependent on age."
"Well, it's certainly a relief to hear that my master believes in me to such an extent. I will be sure to be diligent in my studies, if for no other reason than to live up to your expectation."
"Ha ha ha, you do that!"
We then finish eating in silence, the wizard appearing as an inversion of myself, eating daintily and with reserve.
Once we have finished eating, he motions for me to follow him out. "Mustn't I wait to be dismissed before leaving?"
"Bah! As your commander, and your master, I dismiss you. Now, follow along and keep up!"
I do as he commands, following him from the dining hall. He leads the way past a few buildings, into the commanders' living area. Unlike the soldiers, each commander gets a building of his own to live in; Lector's living area is a medium sized building that looks as though it can hold several rooms. I can't help but be disappointed; I had hoped that he would live in a stereotypical wizard tower.
We enter, straight into a room that must be his bedroom. A small bed is pushed up against one wall, and a desk is against another. Various papers, books, and strange objects sit about. The room is lit by a few candles; I can't help but think of this as a fire hazard, considering the wooden construction of this building and the abundance of flammable materials within. Clothes are strewn about haphazardly, laying on the floor and draped across nearly every fixture.
"This is my room, forgive the mess. You will soon learn that tidiness comes at the cost of self improvement, and is thus a mere waste of time. Anyway, if you'll follow through here…"
He opens a door on the wall, unveiling a tiny room with only a bed and a desk. The desk is situated in such a way that the bed must clearly be intended to be used as the sitting place when using it.
"This is where you'll be sleeping. You can drop your stuff in here."
I set the bundle of things that I received this morning on the bed, alongside my sword. I then follow him back out of the room.
He opens one more door, this one unveiling a room with what appears to be a toilet. "This is obviously the bathroom. Unlike the soldiers, we commanders get our own in our residences. This object makes use of the latest artificery to instantaneously dissolve all forms of waste that enter it. Use it if you wish."
[Instantaneously dissolve whatever enters? It is certainly a good thing that I don't have a phone to drop in. Not that I would ever do such a thing in any case, but still. It does seem rather dangerous to me.]
"Alright! It is time for your training to begin; are you ready?"
"Yes. Though I must admit, I am rather tired." [Come on! I only got about four hours of sleep last night, and have been up for about seventeen already today. And that is on top of getting minimal sleep since coming to this world.]
"That will not be a problem. I have a method to entirely remove the need for sleep; in fact, I have not slept in close to a decade."
"Oh? And what is this method? And, more importantly, why does the military not use it on everyone in order to increase training time?
Sir Lector goes over to the desk and opens a drawer. Inside are hundreds of tiny vials of a bluish-green liquid substance. He takes one out, opens it, and then drinks it. "These entirely remove the need to sleep. As for why the military as a whole doesn't use them, there are two reasons. The first is that it is rather difficult to transition to. While this does restore the parts of the body restored during sleep, it does not cure mental exhaustion to the same extent that sleep does. Simply put, though soldiers would no longer need to sleep they would still want to sleep due to not having the mental fortitude to remain continuously awake. The other reason is simply one of cost. To buy these for every soldier for every night would be prohibitively expensive. I am able to mostly negate this cost by formulating it myself; however, I still need to spend a notably large amount to make it even for myself. Though it is still within reason for me to make it for myself, and even for you, it would still be too expensive even if the military made it itself."
He hands one over to me, and I drink it in one sip. It tastes unbelievably bitter, but I persist and swallow. Immediately, my tiredness fades away and I feel as though I have just received a good night's sleep.
"Thank you for sharing your methods with me. So how does my training begin?"
And with that, he begins to tell me of magic.