Chapter 5: Latia's Training Arc (3)
"And that'll be it for today's classes… Tomorrow, we will learn about the potential of Elemental Magic and how it can be used effectively, along with ways to mix more than one element to multiply their powers."
Placing the book down, Alice looked at us with a smile before fixing her glasses. Unlike her usual red-themed armour, she wore a long-sleeved white shirt, a black skirt, and a pair of rather intellectual-looking glasses.
'Maybe she thinks they make her look more like a teacher? Talk about taking a job seriously.'
Alice was, in her own right, an airhead. While she could do even the most complicated tasks without a problem, she would occasionally screw up while doing simple things, which I found somewhat cute, in all honesty.
"But we can already use basic elemental magic, so can't we learn how to mix two elements directly?"
After saying that, Latia placed her hand on the table as a small fireball appeared above her palm.
"Well, can you do this?"
Alice raised her index finger as a pale blue fireball appeared above her fingertip, and it wasn't hard to tell that it was way hotter than the one Latia made.
'She increased the oxygen for more stable combustion, raising the temperature until it turned blue, huh? Latia couldn't pick it up and copy it with her [High IQ] because she hasn't studied that topic yet...'
Although Demonic Power worked based on imagination, that wasn't necessarily true for complex spells.
Otherwise, everyone would go around spamming the Power of Time or Regeneration Magic.
After all, how hard was it for someone to imagine their limbs growing back?
As a wise manager once said, it was a weirdly constructed power system.
"Aren't you supposed to be a [Knight]? Why are you acting like a [Bishop] all of a sudden?"
Hearing Latia's grumble, Alice smiled at her, and the blue flame in her hand disappeared.
"Right, Alice, what about Light and Darkness Magic? You never talked about those two elements."
"Hmm..." Alice pondered after hearing my question for a few seconds. "Devils can't produce Light Magic with Demonic Power, and even if they can, it won't be that strong unless the caster is a Reincarnated Devil with some Light-based Sacred Gear or a Magician."
"And what about Darkness Magic?"
"As for Darkness Magic, I have no idea. There are barely any people who use Darkness Magic except for Vampires or Dhampirs, who have the natural ability to manipulate Darkness and shadows. The Devil Magic System mostly focuses on Fire, Wind, Earth, Water, and Lightning elemental spells, along with someone's clan trait… Are you interested in Darkness Magic?"
'Figured as much…'
Even within the Astaroth Clan's library, there were barely any books related to Darkness Magic.
But learning Darkness Magic was important.
'A Vampire, huh… Getting a few wouldn't hurt anyone, right?'
Darkness magic directly countered Light Magic, and from what the Great Sage had theorised, at a high enough level, it'd gain the ability to absorb and dissolve any energy-based attacks, along with any living thing.
It was my best bet against Light Magic and Light Power, at least until my innate weaknesses as a Devil were dealt with.
'That'll be a good counter to Fallen Angels, who are no longer blessed by Biblical God's system...'
But that still left the things related to Holy Power that were blessed by the Biblical God's system, like Holy Swords and Angels' Light Power.
Angel's light creations contained both Holy Power and Light Power, unlike Fallen Angels, who only had Light Power, which made Angels all the more lethal for Devils.
A much simpler explanation would be based on the amount of damage those various 'lights' did to beings of darkness like Devils.
The order went from Light Magic used by Humans, followed by Light Power used by Fallen Angels, to the Holy Power granted by the Biblical God's System.
'I don't know how effective Darkness Magic would be against Holy Power…'
Even if it was effective, there were a lot of things to consider.
[Answer. Adding some 'Fallen Angels' and 'Angels' to Master's 'Things I need to secretly experiment on' list is advised.]
'I know, but from how it seems, the Satans, Seraphs, and the Governor General of Fallen Angels are trying their best not to cause conflicts within their factions. It'd be bad if my actions got exposed.'
Then again, it was the same for all my inhumane experiments.
No amount of good deeds could have saved me if my research had been exposed in my previous life.
'Well, I'll just need to be more careful with them...'
[Answer. 'Fallen Angels' and 'Angels' are added to the Master's 'Things I need to experiment on secretly'.]
With that, I pushed those thoughts to the back of my head.
"Forget it. I'll figure something out. In the meantime, how about you teach me swordsmanship, along with any other weapons you're familiar with?"
At that question, Alice narrowed her eyes at me, wondering if her ears were playing tricks on her.
Her reaction wasn't out of the ordinary.
Ever since my birth, I never showed even the slightest bit of interest in anything that required physical work, which included hand-to-hand combat, much less swordsmanship.
My desired fighting style was that of a Wizard-type, someone who used Magic to fight long and middle range, and I had no intentions to change that.
"Swordsmanship? Do you plan on becoming my [Knight]? I don't mind, but I think you'll be a good [Queen] for—!"
Before Latia could get ahead of herself, I interrupted.
"Keep dreaming. I'd much rather not get involved in the Peerage System altogether than accept servitude to someone, even if it's you."
The last time someone tried to force me into servitude and make me exclusively work for him, he didn't get to live a good ending. I destroyed his life, mentally torturing him to the point where he killed his entire family before committing suicide.
It wasn't something out of the ordinary for me, but that asshole had to burn himself to death in front of my house while shouting how God would punish me.
And while it was funny watching him burn to death, it took around two months for that incident to die down, and the smell of burning flesh was disgusting. For all everyone cared, that asshole could've just shot himself, like he did his family, and be done with it.
That incident also led to some people being suspicious of me, but alas, they couldn't dig up any dirt on me.
After all, my image was that of a crippled doctor trying his best to help humanity—one who never visited Epstein Island.
What wrong deeds could a man like that commit?
'Thinking about it now, not only did God not punish me, but I also got a second chance at life. Kinda funny, isn't it?'
But unlike my previous life, I had no goals to speak of. All of my plans were for sating my curiosity, and the desire to gain strength was for my safety.
There were a few things that I wanted to experience, like destroying a strong and confident person mentally and physically with my strength alone. However, there was no way I'd go around with a mindset like, 'Since my body was weak in my past life, I will make sure to reach the pinnacle of physical strength in this world full of magic and supernatural beings.'
The only thing that bugged me was my lack of goals in this life.
It was like this back in the day, before my brother's death.
A meaningless life without any purpose, living just for the sake of it, doing whatever felt right, and going with the flow.
Maybe it was because the last decade of my life was solely for the sake of my goal, but to live without one made me feel a bit empty.
'No point in wracking my head around it. I have thousands of years to find a goal in this life, and even then, it might as well be meaningless.'
For now, the only thing to do was enjoy life as it was.
"You meanie." Latia made an unnecessarily long 'Boo~' sound while pouting.
"But then again, if it's about Peerage, you can be my [Queen]… It doesn't matter who it is, but I can't think of a better candidate than you."
"It doesn't matter? You don't wish to participate in Rating Games, Azrail?"
It had been a while since Alice started calling me by my name when we were alone, although it took a lot of nagging from my side.
We were pretty close, so her calling me 'Lord Azrail' felt a bit weird.
"Not really; I don't care about my rank, and neither do I care about anything related to the clan… And even if I were to participate in Rating Games, I'd rather have the strength to win alone."
The last part was much better than expecting things from others. Expectations often lead to disappointments, especially from those close to you.
"But there are Rating Games you can't win with strength alone, thanks to the rules, you know?"
After hearing Latia's question, a small smile appeared on my face.
"Why else do you think I asked you to be my [Queen]? If it's you, I'm sure you'll do a good job—much better than anyone else could."
Although it might be a waste to use the [Queen] Piece on Latia since she didn't seem interested in physical combat, considering that the [Queen] Piece boosted things other than Demonic Power, it wasn't something that bothered me.
My intentions weren't for Latia to fight since all I wanted was someone to look after the things that didn't interest me.
It was easy to tell that she'd eventually agree to my proposal, and when she did, nothing much would change except for the fact that she'd lose her right to become the next heir of the clan in case something happened to the current heir.
The clan head couldn't be in someone's peerage, as regardless of how sugar-coated it was or what their relationship was with their master, peerage members were still servants.
Not to mention, it didn't seem like Latia was interested in the position of the heir.
'Or maybe my mind will change if a more suitable candidate appears in the future? Who knows...'
"I—"
Before Latia could reply, the door opened, and Vanessa entered the room.
As if forgetting about what we were talking about, the thoughtful expression on Latia's face instantly disappeared, and she turned towards her mother with a bright smile.
"Mom, why are you here?"
"I just came to check on you guys." With a smile, Vanessa turned toward Alice. "Thank you for always taking care of them, Alice. Sometimes, Latia can be a handful."
"Why only me? Azrail causes a lot more trouble than me!"
Latia looked baffled by Vanessa's statement, and she exclaimed a bit too loudly. When comparing the two of us, although well-behaved, she was a troublemaker.
"Don't ignore me!"
My poor niece tried her best to stand up for herself, but alas, everyone ignored her pleas.
"It's not that big of a deal…"
Alice smiled at Vanessa, but before she could continue, Alice noticed that Vanessa was staring at her breasts, which were more visible than they were in her armour.
"Alice." Vanessa pondered for a few seconds. "... Have you grown bigger? Did you finally find a boyfriend?"
Hearing her words, Alice slowly started turning red.
"I... Well..."
The moment Alice stuttered, Vanessa's smile turned into a sly grin, and maybe it was my imagination, but two cat ears manifested above my sister-in-law's head.
"Oh, My~ Alice, did you finally find a boyfriend? Is someone going to take our Alice away? That makes me sad. You didn't even tell me about it; how cruel." Vanessa sobbed, wiping the non-existent tear from the corner of her eyes. "I still remember the unruly little girl Ajuka suddenly brought one day, saying that we couldn't talk about her with anyone else, not even mother and father. From how you behaved back then, I never thought you'd find yourself a man. I was so worried about you, you know? I thought I'd die without having the chance to see you get married. But now that you did, you won't even introduce me to him. Is that all my love is for you? Alice, how could you do this to me?"
And so, Vanessa went on and on about Alice's childhood, which wasn't something the latter was proud of.
'Talk about being overdramatic…'
There were a few things in Vanessa's explanation that caught my attention, but addressing them now didn't seem necessary.
"Mom, that's enough! Alice is drowning in guilt! You'll send her into depression!"
Latia exchanged glances between Vanessa and Alice, trying to calm her mother down as the latter kept revealing my favourite [Knight]'s embarrassing memories.
After a while, she finally turned towards me.
"Why do you look so proud?"
Latia traced where my eyes were fixated, leading her eyes to Alice's bust, causing her to tilt her head in confusion.
"Any man would be proud after getting his 'hard work' acknowledged."
Ignoring Latia's ignorant expression, I glanced at Alice's breasts, internally nodding to myself.
'My hard work...'
Yeah, although rarely, I still sucked on them sometimes. Fight me.
---
"Azrail."
With a refreshed smile, Vanessa turned toward me.
She certainly enjoyed teasing Alice.
"What's up?"
"The things you ordered have arrived… I asked the servants to move them to your study room."
"Wait… My study room?"
At my words, Vanessa just smiled at me, well aware of what I was talking about.
'Vanessa, you didn't.'
No way would that fit inside my study room.
"I'll go check it out."
A teleportation magic circle appeared under my feet as I got up from the chair.
"I'll tag along. See you at dinner, mom."
Latia also jumped into the teleportation circle.
"Alright, take care."
"Please don't forget about tomorrow's classes. And about your swordsmanship training, we can begin anytime you wish."
Alice, for the first time in a while, looked exhausted.
Then again, anyone would be exhausted after hearing someone talk about their embarrassing childhood moments in front of others, so it wasn't surprising.
"Thanks, Alice."
With that, the two of us disappeared.
---
"Why didn't you teleport us inside the Study Room?"
The moment we appeared outside my study room, Latia turned towards me.
"Well, that's because I couldn't teleport us inside."
"What does that mean?"
Without any warning, Latia went ahead to open the door, much to my surprise. It didn't take me long to step away from the front of the door.
"I wouldn't do that..."
With a loud sound, thousands of books came crashing down on Latia, burying her before she could even shout, much less call for help.
"... if I were you."
After a few seconds, from the small mountain of books lying on the ground, Latia's hand emerged, causing another massive wave of books to rush out of the room, burying my poor niece once again and turning her grave into an enormous mountain of books.
F.
'I should help her. Hopefully, it's not too late.'
Approaching the spot where she was, or at least should be, I started picking up books and tossing them back into the room.
Naturally, all of these books were here because of my orders.
After preparing a very long list of series I never had the time to read before my illness emerged, along with the ones I had already completed, I handed it over to Ilya, our headmaid, and my mother's [Queen].
Illya, being the perfectionist she was, took over three weeks to get all of them, excluding the ones that didn't exist in this world or the ones that had yet to be written, like One Piece, Vinland Saga, Homunculus, Bleach, Naruto, Vagabond, and so on.
Collecting books has always been a hobby for me.
In this world, the Manga release dates were mostly in the order I remembered from my previous world, but the television series and movies were all over the place.
For example, the Arrowverse, which was supposed to start airing in 2012, was already out, similar to Marvel Movies and television series.
I watched Oliver Queen die in the crisis a few days ago. His back must've hurt after carrying the entire show for so long.
On the bright side, Neon Genesis Evangelion will start airing in October.
Thud!*
My eyes fell on the book that landed near my foot, and surprisingly, the cover caught my interest.
[Berserk Volume 4]
'If I am not wrong, volume 10 of Berserk will release on September 29th...'
Picking up the Manga, I skimmed through a few pages before realising something.
'Although the cover is the same, it's not the one I've previously read.'
'Hell yeah!'
Curious about it, I sat cross-legged next to the mountain of books, reading my favourite manga series with a pleased expression, completely ignoring the muffled groans that occasionally came out of the book mountain.
I was sure Latia could survive this and grow stronger.
It was Latia's training arc, her first step in becoming my [Queen].
.
.
.
Latia was finally rescued after I finished reading up to Volume 8 of Berserk. The reason she escaped so early was simple—she just happened to be lying near Volume 9.
"Waaaaaaaa..."
And her reaction was… intense.
It surprised me a little.
'Maybe I bullied her too much?'
I almost facepalmed when Latia started crying her lungs out while hugging me.
If she wanted to, she could've easily moved the books away with [Wind Magic], but she most likely never thought about it out of fear.
Regardless of how smart she was compared to others our age, she was also a child.
'Haah…'
No matter how much I liked messing with her, I still had a soft spot for the kid I'd been hanging around with since birth.
"It's alright now; you're safe."
Patting the back of her head, I let her hug me for a good while, and although it took some time, she eventually calmed down.
'Let's be a little nicer to her from now on.'
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