Merlin’s Lecture

The next day I woke up and remembered where I was..

I quickly got dressed in standard dark ages fashion and left my room.

I arrived only to see Artoria outside practicing her sword swings as the sun begins to rise.

I slowly walk over to her side and watch her techniques,

'Swing'

'Swing'

'Swoosh'

The air splits under her swings and I decided at this point to speak up,

"Artoria."

She flinches and jumps up in fright from the sudden intrusion.

"Ah? Arios?! Don't scare me like that..!"

She posted before saying, "How long have you been there?!"

I reply with a cheeky grin, "Just a couple minutes."

"..Eh!? Really? I didn't even notice!"

"Of course you didn't you were too entranced with training."

"Well, I do this every morning."

"When did you get up?"

"Couple hours ago..."

!!!

"So early! You should rest more or you won't grow!"

She nods her head along with my words until, her cheeks tint red in embarrassment then anger,

"—Wait, what do you mean by that?!"

I wave my hands out while she charges at me ready to attack,

"Haha, stop! I didn't mean it like that!"

"T-then why are you laughing?!"

She attacks me as I activate Telos Karma manipulating her chances of hitting and mine of dodging, cause her to miss me repeatedly.

Meanwhile, I begin to observe her swordsmanship in the process and I can tell the countless hours she has poured into it, the art is refined but there is something wrong....

"Artoria."

"What?!"

"Why is you're swordsmanship so...stiff."

Her onslaught brakes as her face turns sour, I quickly realize my mistake and followed up,

"I d-didn't mean anything by it, it just feels.....off."

She seems a bit sad then sighs,

"My adoptive father was a retired knight, he taught me the way of the sword and it has been my grand passion ever since, but I always felt something was off.....like I was intended for something else.."

.....interesting, I ponder over her words before walking up to her and saying,

"I'm sure that everything will work out in the end, remember that effort never betrays you."

I left directly after those words as today I begin my tutorage under the original wizard, Merlin.

——

I entered into Merlin's study and scanned the room, the room was filled with all kinds of enchanted relics, scattered papers, and evidence of numerous experiments.

.....basically what I expected.

I turned to face towards Merlin and he had an extremely serious expression,

"Sit."

I quickly take the seat in front of him and wait for him to speak.

"I want ask of you to swear something to me."

My expression turn solemn as I continue to listen,

"Swear that you won't reveal Artoria's gender to outsiders, I have allowed you to find out the truth because of Vivian's trust in you is so immense to the point of giving you the sword."

I nod my head before breathing a sigh of relief, so it's just something like this?

"I swear."

"Very well."

His demeanor changes from the solemn expression to cheerful like the drop of a pin,

"Very well, let's begin your magic training."

He takes out a large grimoire and puts it in the desk between us,

"This is my original grimoire that I have been writing in since my youth."

I open the first page and I see a large magic circle with complex equations written off to the side,

"The basis of my system of magic is to replicate the effects of magic formed from Demonic Energy through complex calculations."

I nod in understanding while he continues his lecture,

"Humans as a whole have a very small innate mana pool to perform magic from, there are some irregulars but this is the median. We can make up for this weakness by enhancing the complexity of calculations, therefore making the spell more efficient."

"Now let's begin."