Celtine wrote him from the side."What do you mean good advice? I just told him I would be bored if it was me. I didn"t propose anything."
Celtine didn"t have the time to write down a proper answer before Cyril made a low groan of defeat and slumped over his desk.
"It"s like a prison! I threw them in a cell and just a.s.sumed they would be fine with it. I feel horrible now. I wanted to be kind but I denied any worth they might have had by stopping them from doing anything. It"s like I"m saying they"re worthless. Not only that but I didn"t sell them back because I was afraid someone else wouldn"t be as kind as I am with them so they"re just stuck in a cage with nothing of interest to do. I"m so duuuumb!"
Emp was impressed that he felt so down about it. He had just said they might be bored, how did he come to a comparison with a prison?
"It"s easy to fix though. You could give them something to do or just free them."
"There"s no way I can free them, It would cost way too much for me. I looked into it already, did you know that it cost way more to free a sealed slave than placing the seal. It"s magnitudes above in terms of costs."
"I did not, you thought me something."
Cyril made a loud sigh that annoyed even Penny from the other end of the room. He scratched his brows and decided to take actions.
"You are right, I should at least give them something to do."
After that, he asked Emp about what he should have them do but he really had no clue. Even just for Celtine, he had no real task to give her so he just carried her around to take notes.
While they were talking, people slowly started filling up the cla.s.sroom. The first thing they did was almost always to ask how Emp was. He felt appreciative of their concern for him. That may not have been the right word but it was the only one he could come up with to describe how the worry of everyone affected him. Many seemed very happy to see he was well when they came in, even though he was only gone for a single day.
A few seemed to not care at all like Heida or Gervaise but for the most part, they expressed their relief and curiosity to his condition. The amount of times he had to answer someone that he felt fine that morning was ridiculous.
Everyone wanted to know how he came to have two souls but all he could answer was that he did know why, that it wasn"t an accident but he couldn"t tell anyone how it happened. They were all disappointed by his lackl.u.s.ter answer but really, there was nothing else he could say.
When Ivar came in, Emp got up from his seat to thank him.
"Celtine told me what you had done for me. I"m very thankful for your Help Ivar."
"Of course I helped. That"s only natural, there"s no way I would have left a friend in trouble like that. Even though you don"t like archery."
"Is it that important?" Emp asked. He knew Ivar really liked archery but he had no idea his own dislike for it would affect him this much. He felt a bit sorry.
"Of course not, I"m kidding! If I was to throw aside everyone who doesn"t like real archery I"d end up alone pretty fast. Don"t make that face."
Mable laughed from the side.
"Look at your face! Before, when someone told you something you just looked plain confused but now, not only do you look confused, you"re showing more emotions than I ever seen on your face before."
"Yeah, you look all turned around." Said Kenneth. "You have to keep it together man, don"t fall for the small tricks."
"The current you would not resist the call of the sea." Added Nereus.
"But that"s not really his fault now is it? Someone messed with his soul, give him a break from random teasing." Juniper pointed out.
"That"s true, I still don"t get it though. You said that you had two souls all along? How does that even work? How was that affecting you?" Asked Aglaya.
Emp agreed to once again explain as best as he could how his emotions and desires were inhibited by the clash between the two souls.
"Or at least that is what I was told, I had not noticed anything. I would have never found out if everyone hadn"t started to point out to me that something wasn"t right with how I couldn"t choose anything for myself. Like how I couldn"t figure out which cake I liked best for example."
"The mage said that since he had none of those emotions before, chances were he would have exaggerated reactions to everything for a while." Supplemented Ivar
"What does that entail exactly?" Nessa asked.
"Well, before, he couldn"t feel anger at all for example. Now though, if he does feel angry, it will be way more than it should. Because he doesn"t have a good understanding of his emotions yet, he may overreact to every little thing. That is why Heinrich asked us to tell everyone to not poke the bear. Who knows, maybe he will barely react but he could also turn aggressive or even violent. He needs time to get used to his new state."
"Of course, you tell us that but the first thing you did when you met him again was to fool him."
"Come on, it was just a small joke. We just have to be a bit careful."
Emp wondered how bad it could possibly be. He remembered that he felt frustrated about the mouse, he wondered if the same was to happen now, would he react differently?
"But now, surely you can tell me what was the best cake right?" Mable Asked, showing up right at his side.
Should he tell her he was still undecided?
"Is this really the first thing you want to ask him after what happened?" Told her Aglaya, incredulous.
"Well, yeah? What else is there to ask?" She asked back with a clueless expression.
Aglaya stifled a laugh for reasons Emp did not understand. Mable"s question made way more sense than Aglaya"s. In any case, he gave her his new honest opinion about the cake he had brought back and told her he still didn"t know to her great annoyance.
"I guess we"ll have to eat more cake then." Said Nessa with a mischievous air.
The girl brightened up right away when she heard the suggestion.
"That"s right! Let"s do that!"
This meant that he would have to go to another cake party at some point didn"t it?
Shortly after, Brenia showed up too and Emp thanked her similarly.
"Right, nothing to sweat over, I just carried you a bit."
"Not only that, you held up the Ancient. They told me I could have died if you had not managed to stop him. I"d like to do something for you and Ivar too to show you how much it mattered."
"You don"t need to, but there is something you could do if you insist." She answered after thinking about it.
"What is it?"
He really did want to return them the favor. Not like how Galana didn"t want to have any debt but more because he didn"t know how else to express how highly he felt about their help. Her answer surprised him.
"Have a spar with me."
"A spar? Right now?"
They were in the middle of the cla.s.sroom, this was no place to spar. How could it be considered a favor or a reward anyway.
"Of course not! In a combat cla.s.s soon I mean. I wanna know for myself how good or bad you really are. It would annoy me greatly if someone talking so big about my supposed flaws was so much weaker than me."
What flaws? Was it about how she wasn"t using magic?
"Alright, I can do that."
He still thought that wasn"t worth saving his life but if that was what she wanted, he could do it easily.
"Good."
The right side of her mouth rose into a grin showing her teeth.
"That all fine but now you got me really curious, what was the ancient doing there?" Asked Aglaya.
"I sent him a message saying Emp was in trouble and he came rus.h.i.+ng in." Explained Ivar.
"Celtine told me he knocked Ivar out and Brenia was about to wrestle with him to stop him from getting in the room." Emp added.
"But he was okay beating up two students to get to another one? Isn"t that strange? Is he in your family or something?" She insisted.
"No, I had never even met the old man before getting to this school."
What was she trying to have him say? Of course Emp knew why he was there but he couldn"t say it. Was she really just curious about the events or was she trying to figure out who he was again?
"Isn"t it normal for the princ.i.p.al to panic a bit hearing one of the students may die from a problem with his soul?" Intervened Norval "If something big is happening, surely he must wish to know immediately."
That explanation was accepted by most and shortly after, Heinrich came in to begin the cla.s.s, cutting short Aglaya"s questioning.
He had all the new students open up the book of basics and started explaining what they all needed to know in length. The students were far from being ready to cast the simplest of spells. There were a lot of rules to remember and a great amount of details to know and keep in mind. After all that, there would still be that spell casting language to learn which would also take a long time.
Heinrich would not let anyone practice any form of magic before he was certain that they remembered everything perfectly.
For most subjects and skills, it wasn"t necessary to have a perfect knowledge of it. Sometimes, you could make a mistake and learn from it. Magic wasn"t the same, mistakes could have a wide array of unpredictable effects that could cause grave injury or death to the user and the people around him. To pa.s.s to the next step in learning magic, you needed to be perfect, nothing less would be acceptable. This was for the security of everyone.
This meant that some, even if they made efforts, would never receive the approval of the teacher and thus, never cast a spell.
Some rare individual did learn magic by themselves outside of the school. Even without a proper mage to teach the basics, it was possible to learn. However, the truth was that self taught individuals died more often than not while trying to cast their first spell. The most common cause being dying from an explosion while trying to cast a fireball. The general populace just loved fireb.a.l.l.s after all and often tried that kind of things first.
The point was, the cla.s.s was boring and nothing practical was done that day. Magic was more about studying and researching than it was about slinging spells at monsters.
Emp was fine with that too, not all things needed to be spectacular to be of interest. Plus, knowing that paying attention to all this it would let him progress to more entertaining steps faster was a great stimulant.
At the end of the cla.s.s, Heinrich reminded Emp to stay for his experiment.
"That will be all for today. You may all leave in peace now. Except for Emp of course, I need you to stay for the test."
Two girls, prompted by his sentence, immediately asked two different things at the same time. Mable and Penny spoke up but it came out in a jumble of incoherent words and Heinrich had to have them repeat one at a time, starting with Penny.
"I had some questions about the lesson today and I wondered if I could stay so that you could answer them."
"Yes but after I"m done with Emp. You"ll have to wait in the hallway in the meantime. Mable?"
"I just wanted to know what Emp"s test was about. I"m curious. Isn"t he already fine?"
Many others nodded in approval, curiosity wasn"t something the cla.s.sroom lacked.
"He is, I only want to test his affinities again to see if anything changed because of the souls. Mhn, they all knew about your souls already right? I talked without thinking."
He looked towards Emp with a questioning face. Didn"t he tell him just the other day to be more careful with other peoples secrets? Apparently, this wasn"t just a one time thing but a trait in him. At least this one wasn"t a real secret.
"Teacher, did you just say affinities with an "s"? Does this mean he had more than one?" Asked Aglaya.
Emp was surprised by her comment and even more by the deep frown Celtine made in reaction. Why was Aglaya so focused on details relating to him and why was Celtine so nervous about it. The teacher on the other hand didn"t express much of a reaction.
"How many he may or may not have had is irrelevant now since we have to check all over again."
Everyone turned their heads towards him, taking the teachers answer as a confirmation. Emp felt pressured to answer.
"I did have a few but most weren"t that high."
"So they were like minor affinities?" Asked Kenneth.
"I didn"t know there were such a thing as minor affinities." Commented Penny.
"I didn"t either but it could be a possible explanation." Nodded the teacher, jumping back in the conversation. "This was a situation I had never witnessed before and thus, I am eager to look again and see if it was in any way related two him hosting two souls. On this, I would ask you all to leave the room."
Everyone complied and went back out of the room, Brenia being the first to leave. Penny showed a frustrated pout as she left but did not complain and closed the door behind her as she was the last one to leave.
Since Emp had already experienced this affinity test, he knew what to expect. He climbed up on the stage and stood in the magic formation while Heinrich prepared everything.
Like last time, the spell was cast without difficulty but the result was wildly different.
The white powder which was zigzagging all around him the first time around was now weakly floating in small patches while many of the strangely acting powders from before seemed to be more attracted to him.
The blue and brown powders were now speeding around his head, with the teal spiraling around them both. The red powder was jumping about erratically in front of his chest while the green was snaking around his legs. There was still some pink, silver and yellow as well but they had not changed much since the last time and just lazily floated all around him. They just seemed to be more coherent now, less confused. They gave the impression they were waiting for something.
"This is fascinating!"
The teacher was almost jumping about in eagerness. He quickly threw a feather into a nearby ink-pot and started furiously taking notes.
"Your light affinity seems to have collapsed. I theorize that it was the main affinity of the parasite soul. Now that it is mostly gone, the others that were held off by it came back to you. The wind overtook the plant affinity in terms of prominence and is now on par with your earth and water proficiency. Fire too is now more comfortable with you as well. This will cause an uproar through the community of scholars residing in the empire. I cannot wait to show them those findings."
Emp thought it was good for his research but he wasn"t really here for that.
"What about the other colors? What does it all mean for me?"
"I am still not sure. We could guess it is linked to your emotions or rather, your previous lack of them, but it would be an unsatisfying theory. Like I said the first time, those emotions are often linked to a color and an element but in reality, everyone posses all of those. The most angry person you will ever meet may not have any affinity for fire at all. People love to guess the personality of others by their magical affinities but there must be more than just this that explains affinities. In short, they will probably all stick to you in the future as well once certain unknown conditions are met."
"So all of them are affinities I truly posses?"
"Yes but since we lack the knowledge about them, I am unsure when, if at all, they will awaken. Anyway, this would not stop you to learn spells from any of their types. It just means that you do not resonate with them as strongly. I explained all that already."
Emp remembered clearly. The affinities didn"t really matter even if the students made a big deal of it.
"I am gathering a lot of valuable information on souls and affinities because of you, I"m glad you had two souls."
That had almost killed him but obviously, the teacher wasn"t thinking about that. He just meant that he was happy to learn more about those subjects that he was pa.s.sionate about. At least, Emp hoped that was what he meant.
Celtine tried to dust off all the powder that fell upon him before he picked her up and left the room. The mage did not wish him goodbye because he was too absorbed in his notes but Emp still thanked him and left. He guessed he would need some more books later in accordance to the colors of powder for which the teacher had not given him one yet but he had no need for them right now. Those books could wait another day.
Outside of the room, two girls were talking as they waited for him to come out, Penny and Aglaya. Emp didn"t hear more than half a sentence so he didn"t know what he interrupted but Penny seemed relieved when he showed up. With how the other girl acted recently, he guessed she was probably trying to extract some secret out of her.
"Are you done?" Penny asked immediately.
"Yes, the teacher is taking some notes now but we are done. I think you can go in."
"Thanks, see you later you two."
Penny didn"t wait for any answer and darted into the room, leaving Emp to Aglaya. That girl seemed to be indifferent to which prey fell into her grasp as she smiled like usual towards him, right before asking more questions.
"Hi Emp, did it turn out well?"
"I think so."
"Good, I"m glad you kept all those affinities."
Celtine made a grimace that made Aglaya laugh.
"Don"t worry, I won"t tell."
Aglaya was a friend and Celtine a.s.sured him that she did not have any malicious intent but wasn"t this obsession for information getting strange?
"Aglaya, why are you prying into everyone"s secrets like that?"
Aglaya was taken aback by how blunt his question was.
"Eh? Wha, did I not answer that already?"
"You didn"t really. Also, if you keep doing that, sooner or later, the others will get annoyed."
"And not you?"
"I don"t think so but I can"t be sure because of this whole soul thing. As long as Celtine tells me you have no bad intentions behind your questions I will keep answering as best as I can."
"That make my life easier."
"Still though, you will annoy the others."
"Not if I know when to stop. All I have to do is look at the changes in the mood. Speaking of changes, did your opinion on me or Mable change after your soul got cut?"
Where was that question even coming from?
"No, I did not change my mind on anyone since then. Although I do now think that I don"t really want to stay close to Heida or Gervaise. The more I think about them, the more annoyed I get."
"I see, that"s great. Not about those two, I mean, about the group. I was asking for the cohesion of the group. It"s best to know who works well with who."
That seemed like a strange reason but Emp just accepted it, he had his own strange question to ask.
"I have a question too then, why are her hair so long?"
"Huh?"
He had never seen her that confused before. His question really came out of nowhere.
"Mable, why are her hair so long?"
"What sort of question is that?"
She visibly couldn"t grasp where this came from or what was the point of that question.
"I wondered why since I met her. Her hair is impressively long, maybe even abnormally so. I thought that maybe she had a reason, is it really just because she likes to have them this long? Really, I"m just curious."
Aglaya seemed to struggle mentally with his answer. How could that question produce such an effect, was it this hard to answer? In the end, she chose to give it to him.
"I don"t think it"s that big of a secret since Nessa and Gytha already know. So fine, I will tell you but you must promise to not tell anyone else."
"Sure, I promise, but I don"t see how the length of her hair could be an important secret."
"That"s because it"s not about her hair, it"s about scissors. Don"t laugh and don"t tell her I told you but... She is deathly afraid of scissors." (1)
"Afraid of scissors?"
That was an unexpected answer to say the least.
"Yes, she starts crying when she sees those things. Since her parents would not have any other blades close to their daughter, her hair was never cut in her life."
"They allowed scissors close to her but not razors or even a knife? Why is she even afraid of them?"
"Well, it"s hard to cut hair with a knife, it gets messy and uneven, they refused to allow it. As for the reason why she cannot stand being close to them, I don"t know. When I met her, she was already afraid of them and this was a looong time ago. I"ll ask you again, don"t tell anyone and also, now that you know, don"t show her any scissors."
"I will keep it in mind."
"I would prefer you didn"t actually."
What else could he possibly answer to that revelation? That was too strange for him to question any further. He could only agree to not show her the object of her fear.
This meant that her hair was long not because she wanted it so but because she was unable to cut them. How long would they get in the future? Having to wash them in a few years would be so troublesome it would end up taking most of her days. Emp was very glad he wasn"t afraid of scissors.
"What about you then? What are you afraid of? It would only be fair to tell me now wouldn"t it? I"ll tell her later, I"m sure she is going to laugh."
That would have been fair to tell her yes, but Emp wasn"t really afraid of anything.
"The woodland horror was very scary. I think I was never afraid of anything else after that. Even knowing that I could die from the two souls didn"t scare me as much. Maybe it was just because I was unable to feel fear at that point though so I don"t know."
"The fearless boy who wants to be the strongest of all. That"s a bit boring isn"t it? I"d say you were boasting but from what I know about you and the thing that happened the other day, I don"t think it"s a lie."
"It is not. I am sure there are some things I must fear but I do not know them yet. If I do discover them though, I will tell you just to be fair. The scissors were pretty surprising after all."
"Right? Do you think it"s dumb?"
"No, I just do not know the reason. It is unfair to say that something is dumb or bad or anything else without knowing."
"That"s wise for someone of your height."
"I was asked to become the wisest too."
"By who? Why?"
Maybe he shouldn"t have said that. Now he had to think of a good answer for that as well. Should he just remind her that he didn"t know yet why she was asking all those things? There must be a more satisfying answer to give.
In the end, he didn"t have to answer anything since Penny reappeared at the door. She showed surprise at their presence.
"You"re still here?"
Aglaya answered with that strange predator grin again.
"Yes of course, I wasn"t done with you after all."
That was a bit intimidating but Emp was sure Penny would be fine.
"I"ll be on my way then, I"ll see you both at the moral cla.s.s."
He left the pleading look of Penny behind him and escaped the questions of the girl.
Later on that day, the moral and ethic cla.s.s proceeded as normal. Mrs Blackbull went through the subject matter with efficiency and called an end to the students day, except for Emp.
"We are done here for today young ones, you may all leave, except for Mr. Emp. You have another private lesson with me today."
Emp had expected it but still felt a bit down from the news. Mable laughed at Emp"s misery but was swiftly thrown in the pit herself.
"Miss Mable, don"t be so swift to mock your friend, you"ll have your own private lesson tomorrow."
She made a defeated groan and this time, everyone else laughed.
"I wasn"t mocking him though, I just thought the face he made was funny." She said in an attempt to save herself.
"I also have to talk about the little party you organized a few days ago. I insist, you have to come."
She groaned once more and everyone left the room, Aglaya and Nessa trying to cheer up their friend who was sentenced to more of this.
For Emp, the next few hours were mostly as he expected. Countess Blackbull tried to figure how he had changed since the soul split if at all, she asked for a complete recap of the two parties he attended and criticized most of the things he did or said there.
At least, many of those criticism weren"t directly on him alone but more about how others had acted out of line. For example, she was angry that he didn"t try to stop Brenia from standing on top of the table.
When that kind of criticism appeared, he felt that it wasn"t really his fault. He tried to keep them all in mind anyway so that next time he would try something
Aside from that, she mostly seemed to think that the small changes that had started to appear in him were good.
"You made some impressive progress and managed to dodge some scary questions. Although some may misconstrue your intentions towards the small miss Mable for a while, I think overall, you did good. Now miss, was there something you wanted to add about your master or the recent events?"
Celtine had thought about it long before the teacher asked the question it seemed since she already had a few sentences ready to answer.
How was this related to Mable? Wasn"t she just too curious? Blackbull took a sip of tea and nodded after she finished reading.
"You are perceptive. Miss Pierail is doing what she is meant to do but you are very right. She might find out about the Muraciers and it would be catastrophic for you. I would intervene and tell her to stop digging but honestly, doing this would only spur her further into her research. She is from the capital after all, uncovering the secrets of everyone is what they do best. Sadly, there is nothing much I can help you with on this, I would strongly advice you against answering any more of her questions, even if they seem inoffensive. As long as she believes you have some interest in Mable, she will try to dig anything and everything from your past, your heart and your mind. You have to either convince her you want nothing to do with her and her friends or that you present absolutely no threat for them without the shadow of a doubt."
"How is this related to Mable?" Asked Emp, not following.
"From how you retold the party, your answer concerning your goal could have been misinterpreted and Mable"s reaction was too exaggerated. Rumors sparked from less in the capital. Miss Pierail is smart enough to understand that there is no relations.h.i.+p between you and Mable but she can see a possibility of it happening, this is enough to spark her interest."
Emp guessed she meant a loving relations.h.i.+p with how the talk went but it had never even crossed his mind before. Well, not many emotions crossed his mind before anyway. What was love anyway? He felt it wasn"t the first time he was asking himself this.
"What do I do then?"
"I don"t know, I don"t know what is the plan of the great general after all. You tell me, will it upset the n.o.bles in the capital?"
"I don"t think so?"
If Chinui had a plan, he didn"t know about it either but as for himself, he had no reason to even go to the capital, he could not see how he could upset them.
"Then continue to act like normal. It is plain to see that you are not a schemer. You do have things to hide but as long as miss Pierail gathers enough information to guarantee that you are on their side rather than against them, she should relax her search. I explained this the other day did I not? Uncover the secrets of everyone because who knows who will stand with you and who will turn their back on you. Anyone could be a threat, she followed those principles long before she came here and she will do her best to see through everyone."
That wasn"t rea.s.suring at all. He didn"t mean harm to anyone and didn"t really mind them knowing but who knew what the ancient would do if she found the truth? (2)
***
(1) Yes, our Mable as a phobia of scissors specifically. Not blades or sharp objects; scissors.
(2) This sounds a bit foreboding and seems to be a flag but it isn"t. The story will go somewhere else entirely. That sentence was just meant to reiterate that Emp really doesn"t care who knows his name or not. He"s only hiding because the ancient told him to do it. I didn"t know how else to say it so that sentence was sp.a.w.ned but I"m sure I"ll get criticized later on for missed opportunities and flags with no payoffs.
I apologize in advance.
Maybe she will find the truth and maybe the ancient will find out about what she learned. I"m not saying this will not happen, I"m saying the ancient won"t make a bunch of students disappear because Aglaya found something she shouldn"t have.