The day following my dad's lesson, he gave me further information about my tutoring with Sigmund. He would arrive on Wednesdays and Thursdays for short lessons, but most of the teaching would take place during the weekend.

It was a bit worrying that I would have less time to do my weekend assignments, but I would have to manage.

I tried to rope Florence into the lessons, but she had refused, stating that she had learned from an accredited school in her past incarnation.

The following weekend was when I had my first lesson on magic.

With the beginning of the tutoring, mom and dad had given me permission to use the library. Having access to the library would have excited me years ago, but now that I had internet access, I found that there wasn't a lot I needed.

I suppose that there might be a lot of resources for learning magic, though.

Can't really find that on the internet.

Lessons would begin at nine and so I sat down ten minutes early with a notebook and pen in hand.

Father told me that I would be able to text the man any questions I had, but that was no excuse for being lazy with my note taking.

A few minutes before nine, Sigmund walked into the room. Seeing me sat down already, he gave me a quick smile and approached.

Sigmund Emyrs, my teacher, was a middle-aged man with gray hair speckled throughout his brown locks. He had a stern manner, but his eyes were kind.

"Hello, Mr. Phenex."

He pulled out the chair in front of me and sat down. He then began to sort out the small containers he brought with him. They were opaque, so I had no idea what was in them.

Once he was satisfied with his sorting, he looked back up at me.

"When we are in lessons, refer to me as Professor Emyrs. During breaks and outside of lessons I will permit you to call me by my first name."

"Understood, Professor Emyrs."

He let out a cough and began to direct me.

"First of all, I need to understand where you currently stand. I would like to see a demonstration of your abilities."

I took a moment to think about what I was going to do. A few seconds Iater, I come up with an idea.

I begin by creating a meter-wide ball of fire.

Directing it upwards several feet, I separate it into seven equally sized fires. The seven of them drift around the room independently of each other.. Keeping this up for half a minute, I decided to move on. Recollecting all of them back into a single fireball, I begin to ramp up the heat. The fire changes from a light red, to a deeper orange, and all the way to white. At the end, I'm left with a mostly white ball with blue tinting towards the bottom.

"Thank you, you may now relax."

I begin to lower the fire back down into my hands.

Once firmly on my hand, I snuff out the fire and pick back up my pen.

"You're rather skillful with fire, as expected of a Phenex. Do you have any other proficiencies?"

"I'm afraid not, Ruval and I focused solely on my pyrokinetic abilities."

He let out a low hum in response.

"I understand, let's start you off on the basics of magical theory."

Sigmund rose from his seat and snapped his fingers.

Beside him appeared a chalkboard, and with another snap he conjured some chalk.

He picked up the chalk and wrote down three words.

'Intent' 'Imagination' and 'Belief'

"When we first begin to talk about magic, there are three things we need to first bring up. These three things are intent, imagination, and belief."

"Intent is a simple one, when you cast magic your emotions will have a large effect on the end result. When angry, You may try to light a candle, only to melt it in an instant. This is not inherently a bad thing, it all depends on whether or not you can properly utilize it without losing focus."

"Imagination is the term brought up most often when it comes to devil magic. Truthfully though, all magic is based on imagination. Devils, Angels, Youkai, even humanity's magic is based on imagination. Imagination is a pretty simple concept, anything you can imagine you can bring into this world. There are limits to this though. A large part of it is understanding, the more you understand something the more efficiently you can conjure it."

"The last concept is belief. Believing in yourself is enough to make extraordinary things happen. However, you can also use the beliefs of others to strengthen yourself. This is how the gods maintain their strength. That is not to say that devilkind does not also use belief. Devils make pacts and deal with humans which lead to those humans believing in them."

"Let's begin putting this information into practice. I noted while watching your performance that you never manipulated the fire's shape, you let it burn in whatever form it desired to. This freedom may work fine for fire; but I believe you would see better results molding the fire to your desires."

I never really thought about that. He's right that I just let the fire burn on its own, but is it not more efficient to let the fire burn naturally?

I held my hand up so I could ask him about this.

"How would I get better results by molding the fire, professor? Would that not just be wasted power changing the shape of the fire?"

He didn't skip a beat in answering.

"The reason you would want to change the shape of your fire is twofold. First of all, learning to manipulate your fire now will help you progress faster in different fields of magic. Control is critically important, and so if you already have a keen sense of control, you will do well."

"Second of all, It does have an important effect in battle. This being density and surface area. When you throw something like a fireball, it is an attack with a lot of surface area and not a lot of density. This will make it easier to block. If your attack has less surface area and is very dense, then it will stand a better chance of breaking through shields and other barriers."

"Any other questions?"

I shook my head.

"Alright then, let's get to work."

Over the next few hours, Professor Emyrs guided me through the proper steps.

Manipulating the fire's form was foreign in the beginning, but eventually I reached a point where it felt simple to do.

From that point we moved on to a few other elements. These being water and ice.

I very much expected to struggle with water. Being a creature of fire, I thought it would be so much harder than other elements. It seems not though.

When I asked him about it, he laughed. He told me that just because my family was in tune with fire, doesn't mean that I could not also use water.

I felt a bit embarrassed afterwards, most systems of magic I knew of posed the two as being opposites, hard to master both.

Ice was very fun to use; I wasn't much of an artist, but conjuring that first piece of ice gave me an urge to begin sculpting something.

Professor Sigmund had agreed, but only if I agreed to only sculpt by changing the ice itself.

How long I took, I had no idea. Before I knew it, I had a small statue of mom. I would have to give it to her soon, maybe say it was an early birthday present.

"It looks very nice, you've really gotten the hang of this. If you would like, we can take a small break."

I took out my phone and looked at the time.

'12:15 PM'

Whoops, I've missed lunch, haven't I?

Looking up at him in dismay, he laughed.

"I called out to you a few times, but didn't receive a response. Don't worry though, I took the liberty of speaking with a staff member. They're preparing a small meal for the both of us."

I hadn't even noticed that he had left the table.

"Thank you."

"Please do not worry about it; however while we are waiting, is there anything you want to ask me?"

Plenty, although I wonder if you would tell me though…

"Um, do you mind if I ask about you?"

He gave me a hesitant smile

"That would be fine."

"Your last name… Do you have some relation to Merlin?"

His smile brightened.

"I see you know your history well. Indeed, I am a descendant of Merlin. In fact, my family are his direct descendants.

I hesitated for a moment, trying, and failing, to think of a more tactful way to say this.

"Why would a descendant of Merlin teach devils?"

He slightly stiffened, his smile lessening.

He sat frozen for a few seconds.

Finally, he unfroze and his smile was replaced by a sad frown.

"It's a bit of an unfortunate story…"

"Would you tell me?"

He hesitated, tapping his fingers on the table in an unrecognizable pattern.

"...If you're interested, I suppose so."

"My family has been in the service of the Pendragon's since Merlin's time. We serve as companions and protectors, ensuring the survival of King Arthur's bloodline."

"Why is it important that King Arthur's bloodline still lives?"

"What do you know of reincarnation?"

What a loaded question. Having both experienced it myself, and having a servant who has also experienced it, I was left wondering how much to say.

I quickly decided to mention Florence's situation to him.

"Oh? How interesting, Florence Nightingale reincarnated into a pureblooded devil? Has she told you the mechanisms which can lead to someone reincarnating?"

I shook my head.

There are rules for this kind of thing?

"Ah, well, for someone to reincarnate there are a few things which need to happen. First of all, you need to have been a renowned figure. People have to still remember you. Secondly, You need to have died with a strong desire you want to see fulfilled. Lastly, you need descendants still currently living."

So that means that Florence's children became pure blooded devils? How can you become a pure blooded devil in 200 years?

The only way I could see that making sense is if one got reincarnated and married into their family.

"Anyway, my family has protected and served the Pendragon's for generations. Hoping that one day The Once and Future King may appear again. From the moment I could walk, I was assigned to a Pendragon child, to protect them with my life. I served faithfully, but I always had a passion for learning."

"Being descendants of Merlin, we were already magical prodigies. However, I devoured knowledge with a fervor our family had not seen in generations. Many believed in the beginning that I may have been Merlin reincarnated, and hoped that with my arrival, Arthur might soon reincarnate. That was not the case, I am not Merlin."

"By the time that I was twelve, I had become a master in several different fields of magic. I hungered for more though. There were branches of magic mostly forgotten and tomes so rare they had completely disappeared from history in our library. I tried to take one of them out of the library and got the biggest scolding of my life."

"I was told, among other things, 'That magic is evil! You will put that book back and never even think about it again.' I was also assigned extra chores for the next two months."

"I can still remember what was going through my mind at that time. Mainly because my perspective hasn't changed. There is no such thing as evil magic, it's a ridiculous concept."

"They found you practicing the forbidden magic, right?"

"Yes, less than a year later they found a book missing from that section and traced it right back to me. I was thrown out without a second word. It wasn't all that bad though. I had enough knowledge to survive, and I even found myself working as a tutor for supernatural children. My life has taken many ups and downs since that day, but I've found my happiness."

"Do you ever regret continuing to learn that magic?"

"No, like I said, my perspective has not changed. There is no such thing as evil magic."

I had no further questions, and so the two of us sat in silence.

A little while later, the staff entered the library with food for us to eat.

Once the plates were empty and the staff had taken them away, we continued our lessons until dinner.

Once Sigmund had packed up his things and left, I met up with mom and dad.

Mom was ecstatic to receive the statue, lording it over dad for the rest of dinner.

The lessons immediately following the story had been awkward, but we eventually moved past it.

In the following couple of months, I noticed a gradual change with Professor Emyrs.

While he had never shied away from laughter and smiles, he began to relax more.

Instead of calling him professor, he insisted I call him by his first name.

He had also gotten very affectionate, heaping praise on me, and messing with my hair.

I wasn't sure what to think. He was almost treating me like his child.

Did he treat his other students like this, or was I misinterpreting something?

I've never been in a situation like this. I have no idea what to do. Do I discourage him from doing it, or do I go along with it?

It's not really harmful, and for all I know, this may be some way of grieving for a lost child.

Probably not a healthy way of grieving, but people work through pains however they can.

It took me an additional month to come to an answer.

I would simply ask him about it, and if needed, lend a shoulder to him.

Probably not something that should have taken a month to decide upon, but I've always been an indecisive person.

One winter day, while we had lessons, I decided to bring it up.

Not wanting to pry too deep, too quickly, I had to start small.

Having just finished the quiz Sigmund assigned me, I had a small break so he could grade it.

"Do you have a family Sigmund?"

The pen in his hand stopped in place, and he looked up from the paper.

"What brought this up?"

Oh no, was he already on to me?

I literally just began!

"Oh, I was just wondering… You seem very comfortable teaching children.

He looked at me, confused.

"Well, I have been teaching children for decades."

Taking pity on my attempt to pry information from him, he continued speaking.

"I do have a child though. His name is Freud."

It took me a second, but I very quickly realized the joke there.

"Really? Sigmund and Freud?"

He smirked at me.

"Yep."

"Do you have some kind of unresolved attraction to your mother you want to discuss?"

"I mean, you're the creature of sin here, if anybody is going to have an Oedipus Complex, I don't think it would be me."

"You would think so, wouldn't you?"

I had gotten carried away with the chatter, he mentioned he did have a child. I didn't see any lingering sadness, though.

Maybe I was wrong about him having a deceased child.

"So, you have a son. What's he like?"

A glint appeared in Sigmund's eyes at that question.

I could see a plan forming in his head in real time.

"Would you like to meet him?"

So he's confirmed not dead then.

"You didn't answer my question."

"I know."

That smirk was back on his face.

I almost said no out of pure spite.

Thinking further about it, while Florence had alleviated a lot of my loneliness, I could always do with more friends.

If Freud was anything like his father, I think the two of us could become fast friends.

"How old is Freud?"

"Just a year older than you."

I held back a comment about how he knew my age, and thought for a little while.

Sigmund didn't push for an answer. He just picked up his pen and continued to grade my quiz.

It didn't take long to decide, but I decided to let Sigmund finish grading the assessment before I told him.

Roughly fifteen minutes later, Sigmund pushed the quiz back over to me.

I took a quick glance through, noting a few things I would have to look back over for next time.

I looked back up at Sigmund and gave him my answer.

"I would love to meet with Freud."

"Thank you."

"I'm not sure that is something which needs a thanks."

Sigmund tapped his fingers on the table in his usual pattern.

"Growing up, Freud has always been a loner. Preferring to focus on his studies and not the people around him. I can empathize considering that I did the same, but I still had friends to talk to. The Pendragon child I protected became a close friend and confidant of mine. Freud doesn't really have anyone like that. If you could become his confidant, I would appreciate it greatly."

The conversation fell into a lull after that.

By unspoken agreement, we had decided to continue the break.

A half hour passed in comfortable silence.

But like all things, it came to an end.

Sigmund startled me by clapping.

"Before we continue, I would like to say one thing."

He went quiet for a moment, and then his smirk reappeared.

"You weren't very subtle, you know."

I winced.

"You knew then?"

He laughed and then messed my hair up again.

"Don't worry about it."

I paused for a second, if he already knew, then there was no reason to try and steer the conversation. I could just ask plainly.

"Why did you begin treating me like I was your child?"

He looked at me, sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck.

"I actually began by accident. One day, I was lost in thought, you approached me and I didn't think twice. Since that day I've thought about the similarities between you and Freud. You two share more personality traits than I think either of you would realize. "

"We share similar personality traits?"

I could see Sigmund debating if he wanted to respond, but eventually he did.

"You both have a certain steel to you. While Freud prefers to display that steel, you hide yours beneath a veneer of velvet."

That almost feels like a backhanded compliment.

I'm not sure if I should be pleased or insulted.

Maybe both, to be honest.

Seeing the look on my face, Sigmund bursts out into deep laughter.

"Don't worry about it, I meant it as a compliment. The fact that you play nice with others is a boon. Sometimes I wish Freud would do the same."

With no further statements, Sigmund opened up his textbook, and I followed suit.

AN: This chapter touched on quite a few subjects quite lightly. That's just where my fingers lead me, though, I didn't plan for it at all, lmao.

I'm not entirely happy with the speech on the principles of magic; I've gone back and forth writing it, but hopefully it's coherent enough.

I changed DxD's magic slightly. I dislike how human magic is based around calculations. Well, based solely on calculations. If humans were made in God's image, then they should be able to perform magic with their own power. I can absolutely understand them being weaker than the supernatural races, though. This could give some measure of reasoning to why they rely on calculations for fights. Hopefully I can keep this in mind, should we meet human mages at any point.

I split this chapter again. The first introduction to Freud is going to take a lot of my processing power, so I might as well get something out there in the meantime.

I think I'm going to do a long time skip soon. Maybe after the next chapter… I really want to get into more interesting things, and I think that the beginning of learning swordsmanship will be my jumping off point to expand the academy and push Lucius out of his (and mine) comfort zone.