Then there was fucking Paul.
"Ow," I winced in pain. Man is a practitioner from the school of hard knox.
"Jeez, I tell your daddy not to hit you so hard, but can he control himself," Zenith complains as she performs Healing Touch on me.
Ah, so good. Best technique ever.
Healing touch, being our own version of the classic heal spell applied in massage form.
Thank you Lilia.
Apparently the ability to hold a healing spell for the duration of the massage is quite taxing, but needless to say, I made quite an effort to bring this spell into reality.
Over the case of these 6 months studying with Roxy, and massaging Lilia. For medical reasons of course.
"What does 'real man learn through experience,' even mean? Does he forget you're still a child, hmph," Zenith voices her displeasure.
That was kinda cute. Now just tilt your head, throw it to the side, and I can enjoy the perfect tsundere meme.
I need this really. I'm not really sure how I'm doing it, but I'm still standing. Honestly I'm tired as hell, my schedule has been thrown to hell and back after 'that,' day's fiasco.
'Why not teach him swordsmanship in the morning, and Magic in the afternoon?' was it, yeah sure I don't mind except…
WHO THE HELL CALLS THAT TEACHING?! Honestly, boom, wham, kablaming. Da-hell is Ka-blaming! Is that some advanced sword explosion technique?! Can I blow you up?! Please tell me I can blow you up!
"Ara, is that a white hair?" She questioned
I have a white hair? I guess blonde people do get platinum hair every once in a while if I remember correctly.
"Yosh, all done. All healed up Rudy, now onto your magical lessons. Roxy is waiting like usual,"
Will do. Tight schedule or not, will always make time for magic.
"Hai~ see you later~" I wave as I sped out the door.
The secondary effects of rejuvenation after a healing sure can't be underestimated.
Almost makes me sad puting Zenith through that, but… it's just too good to pass up. Stronger muscles, good health, and an energy boost, what's not to like.
I'll have to find a way to make it up to her soon.
I guess I could get better at dodging.
That, or you know, you can not take it so seriously against a little kid. Damn, man child.
Honestly.
There were two large mistakes I made, that made around Paul, besides the obvious one, that led to these 'intense,' lessons.. The first being, I underestimated how much my body has improved through self-training, and Lilia's help. Although I am three, technically, my body is probably closer to that of a five year old.
Considering I am a man in a kid's body I did not notice the difference between a 3 and a 5 year old, but apparently it was enough for father to start his sword training. Yay…
The other mistake, is the more troublesome though, being him finding out about Zenith healing me.
Apparently the shortcut I was using never occurred to him, since he didn't have the luxury of healing magic as he was training. So when he found out that I was getting healed by Zenith every once in a while, to stave off some of the injuries, he had the smugness of smiles on his face.
That was the beginning of my troubles.
Do you think I'm goku? I don't get Zenkai boosts from this!
In any case, my daily routine now consists of sword training in the morning, healing and eating at noon, magic training in the afternoon, and some nightly review.
Amongst other things.
My precious Lilia time has been cut off.
Hmm. Really did need that healing massage though.
I actually do have the ability to do some minor healing now, but if I did that then I wouldn't be able to perform the magic lesson to the best of my ability.
Fucking Paul, I really, really hate… that I can't hate him.
I have been avoiding the man like the plague, keeping in contact with Zenith and Lilia, until recently, for obvious reasons, but I couldn't push it forever. Me and Paul have started our sword training, and I have been spending time with him over these six months. It was alright.
Can't say it was particularly fun, because you know, OW! But I can't completely hate the guy.
It would make my life easier if I could.
Dammit.
I am aware of what he did, and the type of person he is. He is by no means a good person, but… I've never seen it.
It is at this moment that I am reminded of stories where you hear about a murderer or someone of similar level of heninosity, that gets defended by their family members, because they are unable to associate their family member with the criminal acts he commited.
He is without a doubt a scumbag, as far as I know he never apologized to Lilia, but when it comes to his everyday life. He is… fine. He's a bit dim, but besides that he's a loving husband, perhaps too much in my opinion(let me sleep), a good knight, and a good father.
…or at least trying to be.
Combine that with the fact that the common sense of this world would see his actions more as a misdemeanor, than a crime, and it's hard to view him as the same level of scum as my old world.
That doesn't absolve him of his actions. I don't forgive him for his actions in any way, but it does make it rather hard to hate him.
It doesn't help that I have the meta knowledge that he does get better, or that Zenith loves him so.
I don't know what kind of relationship will develop between me and Paul, but for the time being I decided simply to judge him based on his present. So I suppose my feelings for him are neutral.
Then again, I could always focus on the bruises, I always get a bit of rage when I do that.
I'll push these feelings down for later, maybe I'll find an answer through sparring.
Hitting him on the face could work, to figuring out my feelings.
Anyways, "Time to get magical up in here!"
/
"If you activate Water Fall, Heat Island, and Icicle Field, in that order what will happen?" My teacher questioned.
"You will create Fog."
"Then how do you dispel the fog?"
"Reheat the earth again,"
"Correct. Now once more, and we can practice the 'other,' magic,"
We have moved on to Melded magic recently.. Melded magic is exactly as its name implies, but a series of spells combined in a way to create a different effect.
Similar interactions like this happened over the last two months. Well, at least, we got the boring part out the way.
Being my teacher didn't include just teaching, but as well as other topics, like geography, and history, for the most part unneeded, I remembered quite a bit from my time as a reader, but others not so much.
It's good to have a map for the future.
Don't have to worry about being seen as too smart for my age now, as there was plenty I didn't know/remembered..
My progress in magic has been… interesting.
Or perhaps it was my own impatience talking.
Roxy sensei is quite studious, but also quite cautious.
Makes sense, I wouldn't want my pupil blowing up either.
But my heart and soul is a weeaboo, and he wants to cast some explosion magic. Not that it exists in anycase. I think.
Anyways, over the few months we went over the basics, one spell at a time. Luckily we didn't waste too much time, the basics were… well, basic. So I was able to zoom through many of the beginning lessons one after another.
Practicing my mana control also gave me an advantage in my learning speed.
It was only when we came to the more complicated ones, that I had to actually study, and practice.
I have no shame in admitting, I have no idea how fog is made. I, vaguely, recall it had something to do with a change in pressure and moisture, but the actual process escapes me.
As such I was able to breeze by the beginning, but struggled at the later lessons. At times I would be completely stumped, and would not play dumb, for I was, and asked Roxy for help at those times.
I think she was really happy then, but it's hard to tell with her faint smiles.
At others it would be more like remembering than actual learning. Like today's fog.
So yeah, magic lessons have been a rollercoaster like experience. Still fun though.
Oh, there is one particular high, I am quite happy with.
"Roxy sensei, almost out of mana, can we start the other lessons now?"
"Fine, let's go,"we move on to my favorite part of the lesson. Recreational magic, a.k.a recess, from her point of view, from mine…
"Trace on!" a boy shouted as he spread his energy through a rock..
That's right, good old thaumaturgy. Well, my version of it at least. Needless to say If I can reproduce some magic from some of my favorite fictional characters I would.
Crack. The rock broke. Unfortunately, bringing fictional techniques into reality has been… difficult.
"See, it can be done,"
"All I saw was a boy breaking a rock with his mana. Make that rock as strong a stone bullet, than I'll be impressed,"
Yeah, reinforcement was a dud.
For now…
Our beginning lessons, six months ago, were simple.
Simply put… I'm dumb. Or at least dumber than I thought.
I did not pay enough attention in physics to be able to cheat my way to the top in this world, so I didn't need to pretend I didn't know what she was talking about, and act as a kid, as I really didn't have a clue what she was saying.
Luckily, I remembered the basics like the atomic structure, H20, heat is friction of the molecules, etc, etc, so I wasn't completely out of tricks, but for the most part, I really did have to re-learn quite a few things.
Regardless I've gotten the fundamentals down by now, and have a good feeling,literally, on how the elements feel. So I can now cast elementary spells of all the fourth spells unconsciously.
As for intermediate spells, it depends on the spell. I've given precedence towards Ice shard, and Swift step, but others need work.
I am the bone of my sword. Just kidding. But I am shamelessly ripping off a certain fate franchise character, or trying to at least.
I've gotten questionable results.
Apparently I had some radical Ideas, at least in Roxy's opinion, when it comes to magic.
I think it's a bit of an exaggeration. I mean this world follows a similar logic to fate in many cases. There's even summoning magic.
I didn't exactly have the reserves, or knowledge, of the fundamentals to be able to experiment properly at the beginning. As of last week that's changed though, and now the final hour of my training ends with us diving into my research.
Three cheers for thaumaturgy, hip-hip.
Although, from her point of view, she's just entertaining me. Is this a playdate?
"…well then, how did your 'analysis' go?" Roxy queries.
Right… questionable result step number one; Structural analysis.
"...Nothing… but I do get a feel of things,"
"Sigh, that's to be expected… out of curiosity what did you get a feel of?"
"It's hard to explain, it's like I remember the feel of how my mana hits against something. Like… when it bounces against something particularly hard, it means there's more Iron here than the rest,"
"Hmm, sounds like you're making progress with the advanced spell Metallurgy. Although not the intended result, it's still progress."
The Fun-damentals, fate version, have been a mixed bag.
Shirou Emiya's basics; Structural analysis, Reinforcement, and Projection. These are the 3 magics that I am working hard to pioneer. It was unfortunately a dud. Kinda.
Structural analysis is the most important, and first step, in order to get a handle on the rest, and consequently begin my OP journey.
It didn't quite work out that way.
Rather than structural analysis, I created something more similar to metallurgy.
I throw my mana into an object or area, keep it connected and steadily flowing from my body, and focus my concentration on the 'feel,' of the object.
The massages with Lilia have worked quite well for this technique. Not only have I been training my mana, but experimenting with structural analysis.
Unfortunately, it wasn't enough.
The cheat, that is magic circuits, can't be underestimated, to have a monster level understanding that you can 'read,' an object's atomic structure, not to mention its history. When used on Lilia the results I'm getting are… inconclusive, there's something there, probably the curse, but that is all.
In essence; my understanding of magic needs work.
Still, though, I'll take what I can get.
"So, have you tired of your gam-experiments yet?" Roxy asked.
"Nope,"
"I see. How is the rest?"
RIght~ the other two. Reinforcement and Projection.
"Reinforcement is… interesting, but…"
"Still, not as good as Toki," she wisely answers.
She is unfortunately right. For a moment I thought Toki was just mana used internally, and I still haven't given that up. I refuse to believe ordinary bones and muscles can cleave boulders.
Are you a super-soldier?
But yeah, Toki is very… primal. It's done unconsciously and as such there is no thinking, just feel. And although I've been able to empty my mind quite a bit, it's never empty, not truly. I am conscious of my efforts, I 'know,' what I am doing.
Toki doesn't work like that. You have to give into it full heartedly, otherwise you get half measures.
Which is what I developed.
I can't really call it reinforcement, or if it is, it's at a very weak level, but I can't call it Toki as I have to consciously activate it, and remind myself to keep it going. The concentration doesn't have to be constant, but I do have to remind myself.
Kind of like cranking a wheel. It will continue to spin if you stop cranking it under its own momentum, but it will stop if you don't remind yourself to 'spin,' it.
So yeah, I developed a boot-leg version of Toki. Still, though, bet any mage would still kill to have it.
Dying of envy yet. Eat your heart out Dumbledore.
And lastly, Projection. That was a complete failure. Or rather it's useless to me.
Projection magecraft is supposed to be the materialization of the mana into physical form, you are supposed to use the knowledge from the previous two techniques, to create a stable image.
Haven't I already been doing that?
Right, I didn't notice it at first, since I was so focused on the atomic structure when creating a water ball, the good oh H two O, that I didn't realize I was overdoing it.
The realization came when I had to perform other magics like earth bullet.
And I did… a little, too easily…
I imagined an earth clump, and there it was. DIdn't have to think about its structure, the fact that it's composed of minerals, it simply was.
Then I realized just what kind of cheat this brain was. This body may not have any magic circuits, but it does have an amazing brain. In essence; this brain is activating projection magic subconsciously.
Amazing, I'm amazing!
But, still though… all my effort.
"Sensei… I'm pooped,"I muster out
"To be expected. You have been training non-stop,"
"Even, if you say that, I don't really feel like I'm moving forward at all,"
I still feel I could do more. All these setbacks are starting to get to me. No, it hasn't even been that many setbacks, I'm just at a standstill, and I hate it.
I still have some time before night classes, after a meal I could probably, sneak off and do some privat-
Drip. Ah.
A nosebleed. Again. It's been happening more and more lately.
"Rudy?"
Crap, distract. I don't think she saw it.
I wipe the blood on my side of my slacks, and carry on. "A-ah, it's nothing, so now what sensei?"
"…" She stares at me for a bit.
"Sit," she orders.
"Sensei-"
"Night classes are canceled today,"
"EH? Ah, sure…" What is this about? We barely started night lessons.
She sits next to me in a seiza position.
"Sensei, is there something…"
She grabs my head, and places it on her lap.
"Eh? Sense-"
"Stop pushing yourself. It's alright to slow down, alright?"
I mean I get that, but there is still more to do. All my magics came back inconclusive, there are still avenues to explore, I haven't read about metallurgy. More things to learn, more things to practice more-
I get petted on my head.
"Sensei?"
She continues petting me silently.
…
"I…"
This is pleasant.
I don't know what's going through her head, but this feels nice I… I suppose I could humor her, for just a moment.
/
A boy experiences a lap pillow, and sleeps silently, in the middle of a prairie field on top of a blue haired girl.
"To be called a master from such a child. Idiot disciple, you worry you're master. Just be a boy for once…" she said as she patted him in his sleep.
"Being a teacher is more about academics isn't it…"
Silently she and her disciple enjoyed the late evening before she decided to carry the boy home.
He did not wake once.