Chương 26: Chapter 6.5 - A word about magic - Magic tutor POV (part 2)

"And that is when the darkness attribute is sticking out from the rest.

Magic is well fitted for spies, assassins, robbers, and other people of... questionable interests.

Basic spells consist of entering the shadow and instantly traveling to the other place that is connected by another spell called shadow connect - it's similar to teleportation.

Another one is muffle – the name is self-explanatory – it muffles the sound of objects and people touched by the caster.

And lastly, there's the darkness blade - a spell that creates a short blade of condensed darkness capable of piercing through both physical and magical defenses of all kinds.

Physical augmentations enchantment: do not exist.

Some of it may sound useful, and it is, to a certain degree.

Aside from the darkness blade, there are no other attacks in this school of magic.

The first spell, which only sounds amazing, is extremely dangerous for the caster.

Darkness attributes is a corrosive magic – it is believed that darkness attribute mana itself is corrosive and gnaws at the body of the wielder – but that was never confirmed and might just be a superstition used to keep the darkness magician from mastering their magic.

But back to the traveling through the shadows - when the caster enters the shadow of their choosing, only his own mana is protecting his body from dissolving while being constantly drained.

Similar to entering and traveling through the darkness, mana is also needed to exit from the shadow.

It's not like with teleportation at all.

If a light magician doesn't have enough mana for a teleportation spell to reach their desired destination - they will not teleport at all.

But when a darkness magician miscalculates the amount of his mana and the distance they have to travel - they will become stuck in the shadow, unable to leave, and their only chance for survival would be if another darkness magician would dive into the exact same shadow and save them, in any other case, they will die slowly and painfully."

I finished the explanation and pushed myself away from my desk which caused the wheels to creak and the sound had snapped the children back to reality.

"Teacher! How is it possible that the darkness magician entering shadow might die? Isn't it just shadow?"

The blond prince raised his hand and immediately asked with a confused face.

"There is a lot of things that we don't know about magic – it might be that the darkness magicians are merely using the shadows as a medium to travel to some other world vaguely connected with our own, and that's why they can get trapped inside, but it's all unconfirmed theories that had not been explored since three hundred years."

I answered to the best of my ability – I wasn't lying, no one even touched the subject of darkness magic since the day of the heinous crime three centuries ago.

"B-but it's still magic, you can just be careful with it and everything will be fine! Why do people dislike it?"

To my surprise, the young prince wasn't finished with the matter and was the one to speak in defense of the darkness attribute.

|Sigh...|

It felt bad talking about it but it's better they'll learn this as soon as possible, I guess – especially when it comes to the studious boy with the burn scar...

"You may or may not be aware that the darkness attribute magicians are often despised and ridiculed... But the laughter hides fear, and the reason for contempt is rooted in our kingdom's history."

I spoke up and propelled myself away from the dest and towards my students.

"Because you see, if the darkness magician wants to, they can store things in their shadow as long as they have enough mana to do so – which more often than not they do not... Either way, if said things or people have been secured with the protective layer of darkness mana they will last for a while but when the barrier depletes, they will be dissolved by the surrounding darkness - without exception."

I was beating around the bush too much – I saw the frowns of confusion on their faces...

Maybe I shouldn't tell them after all...?

|I'm their tutor now - they will have to learn it sooner or later anyway...|

I took another deep breath and started explaining.

"Think about it for a moment. It is perfectly possible for the darkness magician to pull a living creature inside against their will - and only the darkness magician can pull them out. The shadows are sealed spaces with no way out for anyone except for the darkness magicians."

Even after I made the decision of bringing up the tragedy of that dark day, it still took me a while to get to the point, but there I was...

"Three hundred years ago, in times before mana crystals, when all magic was treated the same way - Bellcephora kingdom had a special military unit formed of only the transcended magicians wielding the darkness attribute.

They were the pride of the king of that time, Kasorius Reterne Bellcephora, and caused both fear and respect from the other countries.

The members of that unit were known as the Ghosts of Bellcephora.

Thanks to them wars would end with only the commanders of the enemies being taken hostage with no way to stop them.

They were the country's heroes!

...until one day they have betrayed everyone that trusted them and turned their spells against their ruler...

King Kasorius was traveling with his family to the neighboring country for peace talks.

In the middle of the travel, the king's horse's shadow turned deeper and the members of the Ghosts emerged around his family.

King's escorts seeing the king's most trusted troops arrive, took up their arms as they were sure that if the special unit arrived then the king was in danger.

So they surrounded the king and the Ghosts, their swords pointed outside the protective ring, and they waited.

And listened.

Then a scream could be heard, but not a warcry from some enemy lying in ambush, but from the center of their defensive position!

When the king's guards turned around, they saw almost the entire royal family pierced by multiple blades of darkness – the king and queen and even the first prince who was riding together with his father and the first princess raiding besides her mother all died on the spot from the ruthless and vicious attack.

The only survivors of the initial attack were the second princess and the second prince, but even they were in grave danger - two of the Ghost caught the children and were escaping into the shadows together with them.

Guards couldn't react in time - they couldn't believe that the country's heroes would commit such atrocity and if not for the quick-witted squire who thanks to his wind magic's wind blade spell managed to cut off the arm of one of the Ghosts, the traitors would have all escaped after eradicating the royal family completely.

But thanks to the squire the second prince managed to escape from the one-armed Ghost.

Thankfully he managed to survive... but he was the only survivor.

All Ghosts escaped into shadows and disappeared taking the struggling second princess together with them.

At first, it was thought that the traitors would use the young second princess as a hostage, but the truth turned out to be much more gruesome.

Once the king's guards returned to the kingdom with the surviving second prince, what awaited them was the mountain of corpses of every official that had said behind in the castle and the mutilated remains of the kidnapped nine-year-old second princess corroded by the darkness and seated on the throne as some sort of grim warning or declaration...

The entire kingdom of Bellcephora has fallen into chaos.

After the chaos, ruin and famine followed.

It took over a hundred years to rebuild what was lost that during that single day."

I sighed, massaging my forehead, and looked back at my young students.

"So, my prince, I hope that this story answers your question why the darkness attribute is disliked by everyone."

I added with a weak smile.

"..."

The children looked terrified - especially the boy with the darkness attribute was looking at his hands in horror.

|Well, better to learn now, he will need to grow a thick skin if he seriously is going to become the attendant of the future queen...|

I thought to myself and moved back to the desk.

"But back to the original subject."

Even though the atmosphere was fit to end the lesson I continued the lesson.

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Chương 27: Chapter 6.5 - A word about magic - Magic tutor POV (part 3)

"Sometimes, very rarely humans can awaken to something called a variant attribute. A variant attribute is a kind of attribute that cannot be classified as one of the basic six – although very often is derived from it. For example, general Telorius Graxul Victureo possesses the lightning attribute, which is a hybrid of fire and light. But on the other hand, we have the royal magician, lord Lazaram, who doesn't wield an attribute that we understand as an attribute at all - he can't use normal magic but can manipulate the pure mana itself! It also happens that lord's Lazaram's son wields a variant attribute allowing him to use spells belonging to all of the six main attributes."

"...!"

It looks like I've boosted the heavy mood a little...

The story of the Ghosts might have been too heavy for the kids after all...

"..."

While I pondered, young lady Miriette raised her hand and waited for me to notice her.

"Yes, lady Espine?"

I asked curiously.

"Teacher, but my daddy can make a very strong armor out of his fire, so his close combat and close range spells are really powerful - and my mommy can even create a tornado very far away!"

She asked in a confused voice.

"Doesn't that mean that what you've said is inaccurate...?"

She added furrowing her brows.

"That's a brilliant point!"

I exclaimed satisfied, ah, it was nice to teach perceptive students!

"The things I described are accurate for the average amount of mana that the users of particular attribute possess. But every human is different therefore everyone posses a different amount of mana. Some are so weak that they cannot even use the full potential of their attributes and similarly there are some who possess enough mana that they transcend their rank. And when the latter thing happens a hidden potential of that magician and their attribute unlocks. For example, lady Miriette, your father's mana is as strong as someone with a light attribute. Thanks to that he can do much more than someone with the level of mana of an average fire magician. That means he has transcended one level and to make up for the most pressing weakness of the fire attribute he developed the magic that increases his defenses by many-fold. And also your mother - she transcended two levels and she reforged the spell to send messages into the ability to detect the presence of magic in her surroundings. And as you've already pointed at with the mention of her being able to create a tornado - her attack power got amplified allowing her to achieve far greater feats than any other wind magician before her!"

After that explaining all that, I finished the lesson.

As soon as I did that, both the first prince and lady Miriette stood up from their desks and surrounded the darkness attribute boy.

"..."

I wanted to step in and stop the unpleasant situation that might occur, but honestly, I was just the magic tutor and nothing else... also, the whole stepping part was impossible for me anyway.

Therefore, as it was none of my business I acted as I didn't see anything and pushed myself to the exit.

It's not my problem if the darkness attribute child will get bullied by the two children that honestly will probably wield more power than I could ever imagine -both in a political sense and the magic power one.

"Zoemi, you don't have to worry about that! You're not like those Ghost!"

"...!"

But I froze before closing the door when I've overheard the first prince's words.

"Yes! It's just like my daddy has said! It doesn't matter what attribute it is, everything depends on the person who uses it! Those Ghosts were scums and made a bad name for everyone else – but that doesn't have anything to do with you!"

Even lady Miriette was encouraging him!

That's unthinkable! Even after learning about the story of the tragedy... How much do they like that black-haired boy, and is he really worth that kind of affection...?

"Bu-but...!"

I've heard the darkness attribute boy's voice for the first time after the introduction.

"If people will see us spending time together, they will start speaking badly about you too!"

He cried out.

"!!!"

I hide behind the door and leaned against the wall.

|So he doesn't want to make his friends look bad, huh?|

I kept on listening to the childrens talk.

"Who cares what people say! You are still my friend, right!?"

Prince Horeo spoke in a serious voice.

"Y-yes...! Of course, my prince!"

The black-haired boy straightened his back and hurriedly bowed his head down to the prince.

"And you still want to be my attendant...?"

Lady Miriette asked in a concerned voice – and it looked like she almost give the poor black-haired boy a heart attack.

"O-of course, my lady!"

He hurriedly declared as if even a mention about him not becoming her servant would make his world crumble into ruin.

"Then what's the problem? Now, let's go play!"

"That's right, there's no reason for you to be moping around!"

"Thank you, my prince, my lady."

The children stormed out of the room passing by me without a word.

The first prince and lady Miriette were holding hands of the darkness attribute boy and pulling him with them.

"Funny kids..."

I smirked to myself and pushed myself forward while balancing the books I brought with me just in case my students will have some difficult questions, but it was a rather annoying task – still, nothing new...

"Ack...!"

But then a sudden ice-cold bolt of pain pierced through my useless legs and I jolted so hard that the books ell all over the hallway.

"...at least the kids did not see that..."

I muttered to myself while clenching my teeth and pushing the wheels of my wheelchair in order to get to all those damn books.

My condition was rather... special...

I was a water magician whose mana was stuck between the water attribute and the variant ice attribute.

During my youth, I experimented too much with it and ended up damaging my spine, lost power in my legs, and chained myself to a wheelchair for the rest of my life.

Honestly, for a researcher like me that wouldn't even be so bad, if not for the occasional spasm and piercing pain as if my lower body was stabbed with countless icicles...

Then, as I was about to pick the final book back up...

"Teacher Valto..."

"...?"

I heard a voice and small hands with burn marks all over them picked it up and offered it to me.

It was the darkness attribute boy.

He was looking at me with his odd, slightly disturbing eyes that sometimes didn't reflect light...

Did he have problems with his vision or did it has something to do with his attribute?

"What it is, student Auequas? Weren't you going to play together with the prince and young lady Espine?"

I asked forcing myself to remain calm.

I honestly preferred hostility over pity, so I waited for the boy's next move.

"Teacher, I'm sorry to bother you but I didn't manage to write down everything that you said... and if you have time will it be okay if I asked you some questions...? There are some things I didn't quite get... If that's not a problem...!"

The boy asked timidly, raising his hands and hiding the scarred side of his face behind a notebook.

"Ah, of course, there's no problem. What do you want to know?"

I smiled, pleasantly surprised.

We talked for a bit, I helped him with the few parts that he had trouble with understanding – he was living in the slums until he was seven and he thought he will not awaken to magic until just a few weeks ago, there were some things that were obvious for others but for him seemed odd.

After I helped him out, he walked behind me and started pushing my wheelchair while we talked a little bit about magic and the use of spells – he seemed to have a knack for figuring out the small details that others would miss.

After that, he helped me all the way to the carriage that the royal family prepared for me and waved me goodbye before running off to the young Horeo and Miriette waiting for him n the palace garden.

|Huh...? When was the last time I allowed anyone to push my wheelchair for me...?|

I realized watching the back-haired boy disappear behind a hedge.