"Auntie? What are you doing?" She was still half asleep and yawning.
I took a second to realize who I'm talking to. It was Ari. She was awake WAY to early for the amount of magical essence she lost.
"Ari, baby you should still rest you are still very tired." I hug her tightly and silently cast my spell.
"Way of Ines: Reserved Mana."
"What are you saying auntie? I just woke up and I feel very excited about today!" she pouted and I distract her with another question.
"What are you excited about today?" come on, finish the analysis.
"I don't really know, but the fact I am with you makes me very happy and wanting to learn more!" She smiles sweetly.
The analysis finished. I kept blinking when I saw the results. She was fully healed with no issues and her mana reserves are full. I scratched both of my eyes in disbelieve.
How? Did I miss something with my analysis? There is no way, how is this possible? My thoughts were broken by her soft voice.
"Auntie, are you alright?"
"Yes, I'm fine thank you for asking." No I'm not.
"Come sit on this chair next to me, I got a few questions I would like to ask." We both sit on our seats and I face her. I pick up a pencil that I brought with me from my old office.
I think it is best to write down everything and study it just so I can understand how she has this power.
"Ari, do you remember what happened when I left with the knight?" I open a notebook and awaited her answer.
"I don't remember much and when I think about it, it gives me a headache." I lean forward and kiss her forehead.
"Does that make it go away? hehe~." She got embarrassed but she also tried to hide her dimpled smile.
"Yes, it's going away, thank you auntie. Like I said, I don't really remember much but I do remember reading a book."
That book might be the one she was holding when she was unconscious.
"What did it look like?"
"It was a weird looking book with an 'I' on its cover."
Yep, confirmed she read my book.
"Do you remember what you read on that book?"
"No, I'm sorry I don't remember."
A weird sound came from nearby. It sound like growling.
I took a glance at Ari, she looking down and had her hand on her tummy.
Ah she is hungry.
Most be all of the regeneration that made her hungry. Now that I think about it, I'm also getting hungry.
"Are you hungry darling?" I stroked her hair.
"Yesss." She was getting dizzy from the stroking, she was like a little puppy enjoying her petting.
"Let's start cooking shall we?"
"Yay!" we both got up and looked around the shack trying to find something edible.
We failed finding anything to eat. So I came up with an idea.
"Ari, could you just give me a minute while I go outside and look for food?"
"Please don't take a long time!" She hugged tightly.
"I won't, this will take less than a minute. Watch."
I walked outside the shack and prepared to jump.
"Teleportos." I teleport back to the kingdom, my old home.
After the flashing beam dissipated, I was greeted with handful of soldiers that were sitting and a holy knight.
It was Artikus.
"What in the hell are you doing here, Ines? Came here looking to repent from your sins?" He unsheathed his sword and pointed it at me.
"No, something else." I looked around to figure out which part of the house I was in.
I was in the living room.
"Men get up! There is a wanted criminal here!" He shouted it and commanded them to kill me.
Artikus lunged at me with another solider. I pull out my sword and deflect both of their attacks.
"What the- why the hell are you back here? Do you want to massacre this kingdom for laying you off?"
"Oh come on, if this was years ago I would have, now I'm being commanded by someone else that has a soft heart for humans." A chuckle came out and I walked over to the fridge.
Couple more knights swung their swords at me but failed.
"Listen, right now I'm in a good mood. Do not make me want to change my mind." My anger can be seen through my face and the soldiers backed off from fear.
"Thats more like it." I open the fridge and I stuff all of the potatoes and the essentials in Ruis storage.
"Gateos: Portos Alexandria." The portal opens and Artikus was calling for reinforcements.
"Gateos: Rally." Artikus gave every knight in the vicinity courage and moral. He called the other elites.
"Potatoes? Food? Is that why you are here? What a joke, you wont survive with that for more than a day." Everybody laughed except me.
"Well someone signed their death wish, Gateos: Portos Alexandria disperse." I close down the portal and looked at Artikus in the eye.
"Commander Artikus, what is the meaning of this rally?" holy knight Francis came running and after he saw my face, he knew exactly what what was going on.
"Start casting it already!" Francis and Artikus were chanting a spell that I recognized.
I have to kill them quickly, they want to wipe me out with a destructive spell that vaporizes a huge area. They do not care about the civilians in the area.
"Way of Goddess Rixxia: Judgement." A beam of flashing light was coming down and I teleported to Artikus and chopped his head off.
The spell was dispersing at a rapid rate.
The only way to cancel this spell is to kill one of the casters. Which luckily for me they were not protected at all.
I dodged it in time, but not everyone nearby did. It destroyed the house and killed some unfortunate souls.
"I hope it was worth getting a holy knight killed for not taking any of my warnings seriously." I swiped my blade and cleaned the blood stains from it.
Francis was panicking and was on the floor after seeing his comrade die.
He got up and charged at me.
"Just what are you doing?" I knock him out cold with couple hits on his neck.
"I need you to be alive and commanding the rest of this army. Without your command this kingdom and your arrogant queen will fall in the hands of the raiders." I whisper to his ear.
"Now if you guys would excuse me, I've got mouths to feed. Bye bye!" I waved the soldiers goodbye and teleported back to our hideout.
"That took longer than expected, dammit." I heard little footsteps running behind me.
"Auntie, you are back!" She hugged me tightly.
"Of course I'm back, I wouldn't want to disappoint you sweetheart." I rub her head and started quickly preparing to cook the meal.
Minutes later…
"Food's ready!" I shout it like a housewife would to her children. I see my daughter running to me.
"What did you cook today auntie?" She sat down on the chair near Rui.
"Today, I've cooked a delicious chicken soup." I place her bowl in front of her with a wooden spoon.
"I hope you like it, I made it with a secret ingredient hehe~."
"Thank you for your hard work auntie, I'll make sure to eat it all!" She slowly took sips and cherishes it.
"Auntie, why is Rui sleeping again?"
"It's because he worked hard and got tired, that's all." I can't tell her that she almost wiped a kingdom out.
"Is that so? Then where even are we?" She looked around to confirm that we are not in the kingdom.
"We left our old home, to continue on a journey to find Rui's friends and mine as well." I take a bite out of the chicken piece that is left on the bowl.
"Rui has more friends? He never told me that! He only said you were his friend." She glanced at Rui that is still in his sleep.
"Of course he has 2 more trusted friends that are still missing." I chug the rest of the bowl. Tasty.
"Woah, you should tell me about them!" She got pretty excited hearing that.
"Well for today, because I'm also tired from eating, I'll have you randomly choose between these two cards." I pull out two cards that I always carry with me in my pockets.
Pride & Trickster
Pride has an image on its front depicting a blonde man pointing his sword to an entity to fulfill his desire to nourish his pride.
Trickster has an image on its front depicting a person hiding in the shadows, awaiting its pray to take the bait to shoot its arrow. Just like a hunter or an Assassin.
"Please pick one of them of your liking and I'll give you a tiny history about them."
Ari goes into a deep thinking, biting her nails, trying to figure out what is the most interesting of the bunch. Then she glanced at Rui again, she looked up to me and pointed at "Pride."
"Interesting choice dear." I pick the trickster card and stash it back in my pockets for safekeeping.
"Now then, this is a story of a knight named Leroy. A proud knight that would do anything to boost his charisma and ego. He used to work under Rui as his student, but his pride didn't allow him that. He always sought out for power to win over Rui. In the end his search ended in disappointment. He wasn't the most liked in our group, but was very valuable asset because of his intellect." I take a moment to think of what else I should add.
"Is he smarter than Rui?"
"Ask him that, but he would tell you that he isn't as smart as Leroy." She had a disappointed face on her.
"Honestly, I would rather work under Rui than Leroy because of how calm he is and is more charming than him." I try to sweet talk Rui to cheer Ari up but she notices me blushing.
"Auntie, I know you have a crush on Rui. No need to hide it." I faceplanted the table and get embarrassed.
"Is it that obvious that I like him!?"
"Haha, yes." We both laugh it off.
Minutes later…
"Ari! Come over here for a second." I am outside preparing the lessons for her. Now that I got permission from Rui, I can do whatever I want!
"I'm here auntie, what is it?" She looked around and saw me sitting with books on the grassland. She slowly approaches and sits down next to me.
"What are you doing auntie?"
"Preparing a lesson for you."
"Hm? What kind of lesson?"
"Magic!" I shout it with excitement.
"Really!? Am I going to be able to cast magic like you auntie!?" She was giggly to the thought of becoming as cool as me.
"If you take my teachings seriously, you will be like me or even better."
"Alright, I'm going to study everything you teach me twice teacher!"
"I like your spirit my student, I shall teach you everything I know! Now onto the main course. What do you know of magic, Ari?"
She takes a moment of pause before coming up with an answer. "I don't know much, but after reading a book of yours, it seems that magic is something connected to the soul." She isn't entirely wrong but I will correct her anyway.
"Magical essence is an important component of every soul on this world, without it you wouldn't be able to function. That is why even animals have magical essence. Here is a notebook for you to write down anything you want." I hand over a notebook with a pen for her to use and revise on what lessons she took. Or to draw on it, I wouldn't mind anyway.
"Thank you teacher, I shall write that down." She writes it down fast, surprisingly with a beautiful handwriting.
"Next up, do you any spells you could cast?"
"Yes, I know two spells. Gateos and Pyros." Impressive I hope she knows the incantation.
"Do you know the incantations for those spells?"
"No, I forgot them, sorry." She looks down with a sad face.
"Don't worry, that is why I'm here to teach you." I pat her head and reassure her.
"In this world every spell has an incantation, it can be either really short or really long. Especially when you are in a fight with someone. You wouldn't wanna cast a really long spell for you to be killed mid cast right? So what do you think you could do in this situation? Any ideas my student?"
She glances around trying to figure out a suitable answer. After a while she comes up with an answer.
"Maybe don't cast really long ones and cast short spells."
"You may be right, but what if that ONE long spell could turn around a fight but you struggle to cast it. Any idea to make it be able to cast while being in an intense fight?" Come on, this is the last chance you get for this.
"What about, if you could make your own spell? That spell would have less incantations and be able to do the same as a long cast spell." That is a pretty good answer.
"That is also an option, but a very difficult one. The correct answer is going to be… Shorten it!" She looks at me confused and writes it down.
"What do you mean shorten it? You mean shorten the incantations?"
"You are correct my student."
"Is that what you and Rui do? I haven't heard any of you do any incantations."
"Correct."
"Yay! But how do you do that?"
"It takes a lot of practice, not everyone can do this technique." This technique that the lich lord Kadan invented, I learned it and mastered it and made it much easier to perform than before. It took Rui a very long time to master it.
"There are couple of steps you have to master before you can perform the shortening. Firstly, you have to imagine yourself casting it in your head."
"Casting it in my head? You mean imagine it?"
"Correct my student. Close your eyes and imagine yourself in a puddle of water. Floating on its surface, feeling the yourself getting wet and being one with the water."
She puts herself in a fetal position and closes her eyes. I give her a couple of minutes to figure it out on her own.
"I don't feel anything."
"Try again, you will see it and feel it."
Moments later…
"Do you feel it Ari?" Ari wasn't answering at first, but then she answers me moments later.
"Yes, I can feel the water. It is cold."
"Now open your eyes and look at me." She opens her eyes and looks at me
"Congratulations, you passed the first step!" I proceed to go for a hug and she immediately hugs back.
"Yay!" We both rejoice at the first step, it is still the easy part of the process. Nonetheless it's impressive that she pulled it off less than an hour. Now to the most difficult part.
"Well then, now onto the next step, my student. Magic manipulation." I get up and signal her to also get up.
"Now, this will be very tricky to pull off. Do not be sad if you don't manage to do this today. It could take you days or months to master it. You understand what I am saying my student?" She nods.
"Great, let's start. Now, I think you have experience using the 'Gateos' spell, am I correct?"
"Yes, but I forgot the incantations." I hand her over the book she read and pointed at the page that the Gateos spell is in.
"Now, cast it." She hesitates to cast it and looks at me again.
"It is going to hurt me, are you sure that I have to cast it?"
"I am sure." She stares at the book for a moment, she closes are eyes and goes for it.
"Heed my words and obey me, for thee shall let my words fill the void of the wild, open your caressed heart and unleash the power that is sealed within me, Gateos." She puts one of her hands on her chest. She clenches it hard and had a pained expression.
"What do you feel?" I place my hand on her shoulder to comfort her.
"My chest hurts, a lot." She grabbed it more tightly.
"That is one of the side effects when releasing your mana. In your case, you have more than the average person, that is why it is painful."
"How do I get rid of this pain?"
"You don't, you redirect it." She looked at me confused and teared up.
"I do what?"
"For you to understand, you have to 'move' the pain anywhere else but your heart. That pain, is where all the magical essence is concentrated at."
"And how do I do that?" I am sorry but there is no easy explanation for this.
"Figure it out on your own, everyone has a different way to move magical essence."
"Teacher, it hurts so much, please help me.." I feel so bad putting her in this situation. I will ease the pain by a margin.
"Stay still and move your arm away, my student." I place my hand on her chest and cast a magic draining spell.
"Way of the warlock: Drain." I draw a significant amount of magical essence from her heart, she started to feel a little better.
"There you go, now you should feel a lot better."
"The pain is still there, but not as much. Thank you Teacher." She hugs me for a bit and then she pulls away to ask something else.
"Where do I move the pain to?"
"The best place to put it in my opinion, is one of your hands or both. I will not be able to help you anymore, you'll have to figure it out yourself. Have faith in yourself and your goddess, she may help you."
If she still exists anyway.