“If I don’t get a spot, people will start saying that the younger generation of the Lumient family may not be as strong as the old - and that can’t happen, especially since you and I are the only descendants from the main line of the family. We’re the only ‘chances’ the Lumient family has to show that it’s still the strongest in the Reiniad Kingdom.
“Hell, why do you think gramps was so happy to see you? It was because you have potential, Wesley. If you didn’t, sure, he may not have thrown you out, but he certainly wouldn’t have cared about you. Hell, have you even any of your second cousins, uncles, aunts, at all?”
“I… guess not. It’s just us here, right?”
“That’s right. It’s me, you, gramps, my dad, and the servants. The rest of the family lives a few blocks away, and they’re not even allowed to enter this estate unless gramps calls for them.”
“...What? But this estate is huge!”
“That’s how it is.”
Wesley thought back to when he’d been travelling with Gust. Although harder, that life had also been easier in its own way.
At least, family politics hadn’t been part of the equation.
Was this a place he belonged? He looked at Kate, then at the patriarch, then at the surrounding signs of affluence, the giant grand hall, the intricate decorations on each and every item in sight.
At this moment, the man and the patriarch finished talking, and suddenly Wesley and Kate could hear the patriarch’s words again.
The man and the patriarch bid farewell to each other, and the man walked past Wesley and Kate without giving them so much as a glance.
“Ah, Wesley, Kate, how are the two of you? Wesley, Headmaster Farhir told me the news! Congratulations on making the school’s representative team - you’ll do us proud, yes?
“Kate, you had best work hard, or your little cousin here will soon surpass you, yes?”
“...Of course.”
Wesley looked sideways at his “big sister”.
Hm.
Later that day, Mathilda, the maid who had assist Gust and Wesley on their first day of arrival, was trimming the plants outside the guest houses, where Wesley was still living.
Hearing her, Wesley walked out to meet her.
“Excuse me, could you bring me to Kate’s living quarters?”
“Ah?” Mathilda couldn’t help but look at Wesley, confused. “Of course. This way, please.”
Mathilda set her tools off to the side and led Wesley through the maze that was the Lumient family estate, until she finally stopped in front of a building that looked exactly like every other residential building in the family estate.
“Young master, this is Arthur and Kate’s residence.”
“Thanks.”
Wesley walked up to the front door of the building and knocked on the front door.
“Kate?”
“Hm?” Kate had been practicing her magic when she heard the knocking. She quickly made her way to the door, and opened it.
“Wesley, what are you doing here?”
“Practice fighting against me.”
“Ah?”
“It’s better than practicing alone, isn’t it?”
“...” Kate wasn’t sure how to respond.
Actually, the Lumient family had hundreds of mages at its beck and call, and commanded thousands of more mages, in the name of the King.
If Kate wanted a sparring partner, she could easily ask for one of these mages to come by the family estate for her to practice against.
However, looking down at her little cousin, who was being so earnest…
“Sure, let’s go. There’s a clearing on the northwest side of the estate that’s meant for this kind of stuff.”
…
A few minutes later, the two faced off in a small clearing.
“Show me what you got, lil cuz!”
Wesley began drawing seals. “Don’t lose heart.”
“Oo, someone’s confident.”
Only Wesley knew that he was the one out of the two with real combat experience… and not just from one lifetime.
However, the Lumient family name, along with the power of the pages under them, was no joke. Kate may not have real combat experience, but she had sparred against the best of the best before.
Wesley’s first spell shot a flurry of icicles in Kate’s direction. However, it seemed she’d been expecting such a move, and had sidestepped it easily.
“Sun’s glory!”
A halo of light appeared over Wesley’s head, and a beam of light shined down.
“I win~” Said Kate in a sing-song voice.
“Let’s go again!” Wesley’s competitive spirit had been ignited.
This time, Wesley, gave no quarter to Kate, and unleashed the working of his newest battle plan.
Entrapment!
His first spell created an ice box around Kate, blocking her off from the world.
“Oh? Is this all?”
Kate shot a beam of light into the ice box, breaking it apart, only to find that…
Wesley had created a second box!
“Hm.” Kate briefly paused, trying to determined what Wesley’s goals were, then drew her next seal.
Beams of light shot out of the ice boxes, breaking them all completely before Wesley could cast another.
Then, Kate rushed forward towards Wesley, drawing a seal with each hand as she rushed forward.
“Mirror of light!”
From each seal from her left and right hands, two blocks of light shot out toward each other, combining to form a beam of light that shot towards Wesley.
Just before they hit, however, Wesley activated a mana barrier that took the brunt of the damage.
After this flurry of blows, the two looked at each other, eyes glowing.
They were evenly matched!
Chapter 8
The two clashed again and again, until their mana pools ran dry. After all of it, Kate and Wesley had more or less split the rounds, both improving at incredible speeds to best the other.
Almost collapsing from exhaustion, the two laid on the ground, panting.
“Wesley, where did you learn how to fight?”
“Uh…”
Wesley wasn’t sure he should tell Kate of his experiences, but his adrenaline was still pumping, and he was in a truly elated mood.
‘Ah, I’ll just tell her. What could be the worst thing to happen, anyway.’
“So when Gust and I were crossing the Kenta Kingdom to reach the Larwin Kingdom, we were low on money so in order to afford food that wasn’t just plain bread, we decided to fight in stadiums for prize money…”
Wesley continued to speak of his and Gust’s feats and troubles.
“...And there I fought this person named Marcus…”
After enough time for someone to read around twenty chapters of a story, Wesley had almost reached the part where he and Gust had fought alongside the other travellers in the Alaki Mountain Range.
“...And so we crossed the mountain range and travelled across the Reiniad Kingdom and arrived here.”
“Wow, you’ve really experienced the world out there.”
“Mhmm, yes I have, I’m a travelled man.” Wesley puffed his chest out.
Seeing this, Kate laughed. “Right, right.”
The two chatted for a while longer, until the sun began make its way under the horizon.
“Well, Wes, I should leave for now, the day’s getting dark. Want me to walk you back to your place?”
“Sure.”
The two walked, hand in hand, back to Wesley’s guest house, where they quickly parted ways. After a bit of thinking, Wesley groaned, and collapsed on his bed.
His duels with Kate today had really dealt a blow to his confidence - despite all the advantages he had, learning in his sleep, experiencing battles in his dreams, he had yet to step into the realm of the true geniuses. Despite being only slightly older than he, and focusing on spells that were more supportive, Kate ha
d been able to match him blow for blow. He had to improve, faster.
With a sigh, he reached his mind into his Band of Holding, and pulled out a book from the giant stack the Patriarch had handed him.
After lighting some candles with some fire magic, he leaned in close to the book, and began reading.
‘An encyclopedia of all known spells, huh. Where are the ice spells?’
…
The next morning, the two walked to school together, alongside Dave.
Kate noticed giant bags underneath Wesley’s eyes. “Hey, why do you look so tired?”
“...I couldn’t sleep.”
“Aww, that’s too bad.” Kate patted Wesley on the head.
Wesley decided it was time to change the subject. “Hey Dave, what’s my first period class today?”
Dave pulled a slip of paper out of his pocket and checked it. “Elementary Ice Magic.”
“...Does the school have any penalties for skipping classes?”
“I think students are allowed to do whatever they like - as far as the school is concerned, the students’ futures are in their own hands. Personality responsibility and all that.”
That’s quite different from my old school. Thought Wesley.
It was a simple difference in mindsets. In the Conarite Kingdom, mages were treated very similarly to Knights, in a militaristic manner. Each mage was considered a potential military asset, and it was unacceptable for a mage to slack on their development.
In the Reiniad Kingdom, however, mages were just seen as people who had special abilities in a certain field - perhaps because mages were just far more numerous in the Reiniad Kingdom.
Of course, they were well respected, but they were treated like any other people, instead of assets. This meant that they had more freedom to do as they wished. Those who were determined would succeed, and those who weren’t would fall from grace.
“Am I allowed to sign up for different classes?” Wesley asked Dave.
“You’ll have to talk to staff about that, I don’t know.”
“Well, let’s go to Headmaster Farhir instead of class, how bout it.”
“You’re the boss.”
At the school gate, Wesley and Dave waved goodbye to Kate, who proceeded to walk to her first period class.
“Actually, Wesley, I just remembered. Today is the day the Rank 9 Elementary Mages are going to compete for their spots in the school’s representative team. If you’re not interested in going to class, why not watch the competition?”
Wesley agreed. It would be helpful to see his future teammates in action.
The two made their way to the fields the competition had been held at yesterday, and looked on - the fight today was about to start.
“Who do you think is going to win?” Wesley asked Dave.
“Hm? Well, as a guard I hear stuff, and I’ve picked up on some interesting tidbits. I believe there’s a space-magic mage who is considered to be the top-tier genius in the school. Aside from him, though, I’m not sure.”
“Oh? How old is he?”
“I believe he’s 10 years old.”
His progress is almost as fast as mine…
The more Wesley learned about the geniuses of the Reiniad Kingdom, the more apprehensive he became.
“Guess I’ll keep a lookout for him.”
As the competition started, it was just like the previous day - a few standouts appeared in the midst of the confusion. In the thick of it all, though, a person remained untouched by the chaos around him, as though those around him had all agreed to leave him out of the fight.
Of course, this wasn’t the case, but each spell that headed in his direction seemed to disappear, then reappear, headed in someone else’s direction.
Soon enough, only six combatants were left, and it was easier to see what each participant was doing.
Aside from the one who was adept in space magic, there was a close-combat mage, an earth mage, a defensive support mage, a light mage, and a summoner.
In a surprise to Wesley, as well as some of the spectators, these six combatants didn’t continue to fight each other, but instead divided themselves into two groups of three.
On one side, was the space mage, earth mage, and the defensive support mage, while on the other was the close-combat mage, light mage, and summoner.
Seeing this, a murmur spread through the observers. These students were joining forces?
In the center of the field, the two sides exchanged words, but due to the distance between them and the watching crowd, nobody else heard what was said.
After the brief pause, however, the two sides clashed.
Chapter 9
The close-combat mage charged toward the space mage, trying to knock him out of the fight before he could do anything.
However, the defensive support mage stepped in his path, a giant, translucent golden shield at the ready.
“HA!” The close-combat mage was equipped with two silver one-handed swords. He smashed both into the golden shield, which cracked, but didn’t break.
At the same time, the earth mage created a giant fist made out of earth, which then flew directly at the space mage.
The audience was shocked. Was the earth mage betraying his allies?
Before the fist hit the space mage, however, he activated his seal, and the giant fist disappeared into a vortex, then reappeared next to the close combat mage, flying towards him.
“Ah!” The close combat mage was startled by the sudden appearance of the earthen fist beside him.
“Duck!” The light mage shot out several beams of light toward the earthen fist, breaking it apart.
Some of the pieces, however, still hit the close combat mage, knocking him to the ground.
“Go, my loves!” The summoner had summoned several elemental creatures during the battle, including a fire fox, ice wolf, and earth giant. At his command, his summons charged forward.
“Hmph.” Before the creatures could reach him, the space mage drew and casted another seal.
A vortex appeared right in front of the creatures and swallowed them whole.
However, they did not reappear.
Seeing this, Wesley had to think for a bit before he understood what had happened - once the creatures had entered the vortex, they had technically entered a separate space, where the summoner could no longer provide them with mana to continue their existence.
Smart move!
At this point, the second team was in shambles - the summoner was without his summons, and their close-combat mage had also suffered injuries from the shattered earthen fist.
The only one at full fighting capacity, was the light mage.
Even he was quickly taken down, as the defensive support mage, with nothing to defend against, quickly cast a fire spell and cast it into the light mage’s direction, who had yet to finish drawing a seal after using his last to protect his team’s close-combat mage.
The rest of the fight held no suspense, as the second team was systematically removed from the competition by the first.
Dave looked toward Wesley. “What do you think of your new teammates?”
“Strong, but their cooperation was flawed. If the light mage had been willing to sacrifice their close-combat mage to take down one of their enemies, they could have kept the fight to a two versus two situation.
“Furthermore, if the summoner had controlled his summons better, and separated them to attack from all sides, it wouldn’t have been nearly so simple for the space mage to deal with them like he did.”
Wesley paused. Were these really his words? Since when did he think so much about… anything?
He shrugged, then shook his head.
“What’s my next class?”
“Uh… Mana control.”
A class Wesley actually needed.
After he arrived at class, an old teacher who looked to be nearly eighty years of age, with ghostly features, walked in.
“Alright everyone, do the usual.”
Ah? Was that it? Wasn’t the teacher supposed to tell them about how mana control worked?
Memory Seal- Volume 2 Page 4