11 Completion

Days flew by, it was just before noon on Friday when I had 250 scrolls of [Whispers of Light] prepared.

As expected, it was still a drain on my mental state, though I tried my best not to let my fatigued self show. The current priority would be to distribute these to victims as soon as possible.

"I'm just delivering some things to school," I told Annabel before leaving in the carriage. "If 'mother' or 'father' are back early, please tell them not to be alarmed if I show up as well."

"No problem," Annabel said. "When should I expect you?"

"Sometime this afternoon," I said.

I lugged the bag I had always carried with me. Despite being stuffed to the brim with over 300 spell scrolls, 250 [Whispers of Light] along with 50 of my own scrolls, it looked the same as ever.

Of course, I had taken care to carefully engrave a spatial multiplication spell on the inside. With that, it would be no problem carrying thousands of items without weighing more than two pounds, provided the items would be able to fit through the opening of the bag.

On arrival, I rushed straight to Wilfred's office, skipping past the surprised faces of the others at my dress.

Ah, I had forgotten to put on the school uniform before leaving and was currently just in a simple day dress.

Too late for regrets now, I quickly rushed to his office and knocked on the door.

"Ah, Miss Mendoza," he greeted me after opening the door. "Have you had lunch yet?"

I shook my head.

"This is important," I said, pulling out one of the scrolls I had inscribed. "On an off chance, I learned of this spell in an old book I found, though I don't remember where."

It wasn't completely false. It was in an old book, but I did remember where I had learned it. That book still sat on one of the many bookshelves in my house back on Earth.

"It's a purification spell. Inject energy here, at this point, and touch this edge to the patient" I said, pointing at key points on the spell scroll while demonstrating how it was supposed to be used.

"And how many of these would you happen to have on you?" he asked hesitantly.

"250," I said, producing the rest from my bag. Hopefully, he didn't look too carefully at the volumetric differential between my bag and the stack of scrolls.

He nodded. "I'll distribute these immediately."

"Please don't tell anyone who it's from," I said.

"Who am I supposed to say it's from, then?"

"I don't know, just make something up," I shrugged.

"You haven't had lunch yet, correct?" he asked.

"No, I rushed here straight after finishing these."

"I'll drop these off at Erhardt's office, then we can have lunch in town."

"Mr. Eustice, forgive me, but... wouldn't that be neglecting your duties as a teacher?"

"You haven't checked the schedule yet? There's no A-class scheduled for Magic Circle Computation on Friday afternoons."

Does this qualify as dereliction of duty?

We both walked to the dean's office, each carrying a thick stack of scrolls.

Wilfred quickly fabricated a story to the dean, while additionally demonstrating how the scrolls were to be used.

Erhardt quickly nodded. "I'll send these off to the other schools," he said. "Candace, take one for Fredric."

I nodded and took a scroll from the stack without question, quickly stuffing it into my bag.

"Speaking of which, Candace, what are you doing here?" he asked.

"I was just worried about my brother," I replied smoothly. "His condition is only worsening, and there was nothing we could do..."

"I'll escort Miss Mendoza back home," Wilfred said smoothly. Erhardt nodded, waving the two of us off with the stack of spell scrolls on his desk.

Really, it was that easy?

Wilfred smiled as he escorted me to the carriage, past the staring students. He said something that I couldn't hear, even with my good sense of hearing, which made my scrunch my eyebrows.

I quickly adopted a more neutral face as he climbed in after me.

A 16-year old student with a teacher, albeit a young teacher in his mid-20s. There were almost 10 years in terms of age differential.

Even if I was 21 in my past life, it felt odd enough being 16 again.

Wouldn't that generate uncouth rumors?

"Mr. Eustice," I said. "It's enough to escort me home, the Mendoza family employs a fine chef."

"It's fine, Miss Mendoza," he said. "Besides, there's plenty for us to talk about."

"Such as...?" I asked.

"The origin for that spell you handed me," he said.

"I already said it was from an old book," I countered.

"Ah, but would it happen to be so old that not even clerics of the Church would know of it?" he asked.

"It's a possibility. I don't quite remember where I obtained such a book..." I trailed off, my argument falling apart at the seams.

"Because it doesn't exist?" he supplied.

I sighed and turned to open the curtain, turning to face the outside world.

He seemed to smile behind me, dropping the topic for now.

"Please make it quick," I suddenly said. "I have to get home to help my brother."

"Ah, Fredric," he said, nodding. "We won't be long."

So he's still taking me out for lunch? Why did this feel somewhat like a date?

A 16-year old with a teacher ten years her senior?

I fidgeted uncomfortably in my seat while still gluing my eyes out the window.

"So, that spell you inscribed," he started suddenly.

"What about it?" I asked reflexively, trying not to let my nervousness show.

"What's it called?"

An innocent enough question usually, but I knew that in this world, spells did not generally have names. The intrinsic magic was granted by the four elemental deities which are channeled through incantations, while drawn and inscribed magics were usually described, rather than named.

"Are spells usually named?" I asked.

"The more special, older ones are," he said. "Also, how did you know it would be effective against miasma poisoning if you never tested the scroll on Fredric?"

Shoot, I didn't think about that when making up my story! I suppose it would be somewhat suspicious in terms of usage if I had never tested it myself.

"I tried it on myself," I said. "Since I spent less time in the miasma than the others, the poisoning was far less intense."

It wasn't untrue. I had spent less time. But for me, miasma had ceased to be a problem six years ago, when I was first initiated into the Society.

Society initiates have a series of ritu

It was primarily a soul attack instead of a physical attack, so the fact that only my soul had been transferred and not my physical body hardly changed much in the way of my defense. It may look to have a physical component as well, due to the perceived difficulty of movement, but in reality, that was only a resulting factor of the soul being slowly eroded. The soul connects the body and mind, and is the most important, yet intangible part of the human construct.

[Whispers of Light] was normally only a purification spell, but I had added a soul restorative component to each scroll to fully purify the miasma poisoning. With that, it wasn't completely [Whispers of Light] any longer, but I still called it that, since it was the primary base spell, and there weren't extensive modifications to the base structure.

As I was caught up in my thoughts, I hardly felt the carriage stop at our requested destination.

"We're here, Miss Mendoza," Wilfred prodded me.

"Mr. Eustice, why do you insist on calling me that?" I asked as we got off and he paid the driver.

"Because you call me by my last name as well," he answered matter-of-factly.

"You're my homeroom teacher, I don't even though most of the class remembers your first name," I said. "And besides, you call everyone else by their first names."

"Well, I guess I never noticed," he said. "I'll call you Candace if you prefer?"

"It just sounds odd from you now, but that would be significantly less off-putting to everyone else."

"Well, why don't you enter?" he asked, holding the door to the restaurant open.

"Mr. Eustice?" the server asked once we entered.

"Yes," he answered, nodding.

"This way," the server said, leading us up a set of stairs to the top floor.

I felt somewhat self-conscious at this point, just dressed in a simple day dress with walking shoes in. It seemed many other guests were dressed far more formally than I was.

We were led to a private room, where the table was set for a fancy meal.

Wilfred nodded at the server, dismissing him before holding a chair out for me.

"A-ah, thanks," I said, sitting down.

He pushed the chair in after me before I had a chance to reach my hand down to scoot in.

Taking the seat across from me, he poured a cup of tea into the teacup sitting in front of me.

He was likely from the nobility as well, this restaurant didn't seem to be a place that normal individuals, even of the middle class, could afford to frequent.

I suppose mages to make quite a bit of money, even as teachers. But even at home, I rarely ever ate more than two courses per meal, even when I dined with family. And even moreso on Earth, since me and Therese lived together, she often just cooked simple meals for the two of us out of whatever we could gather from the woods.

Venturing out to the grocery store was a risky excursion, so we would only do it a few times a month before quickly leaving the area and moving to the next.

Thus, as the first course was served, I sat awkwardly, sipping my tea while looking at the food on the plate.

I didn't know what the course was even called, but there was a small amount of food on a large plate in front of me.

Wilfred looked at me, amused, as he lifted the entire snack and consumed it in one bite.

I had often been scolded at the dinner table by my mother for taking bites that were too large, so I nibbled carefully this time, though the dish really qualified as a dish, rather than a course.

"Is the amuse-bouche not to your taste, Lady Mendoza?" he asked, changing the form of address again.

I blushed. "I don't think I've been to such fanciful dinners before."

"It's okay," he laughed. As soon as we were done, the servers came in and took the plates out, replacing the small 'amuse-bouche' with a bowl of soup.

Soup was something that I would often drink straight from the bowl while ignoring the spoon, much to the wrath of my mother after being transported to this new world.

"So, Miss Mendoza," Wilfred started again.

"Mr. Eustice, could you please call me by my name?" I said. I didn't see my face since there were no mirrors around, but it was probably bright red.

"Ah, yes, Candace," he said smoothly. "I was wondering about this magic circle I found the other day."

He passed me a piece of parchment with a magic circle drawn on it. It was brushed in extremely competent strokes, as if the author had drawn this exact circle thousands of times.

"What about it?" I asked carefully.

"I discovered it in an old book," he quipped.

"And?"

"I was wondering if you knew anything about it."

I did. It was an elaborate magic circle, but I instantly recognized it as the magic circle for [Muspelheim], the counter to my [Niflheim] spell. It had additional elements on it that made it far more stable than the version of [Niflheim] I had cast in the duel, but that was to be expected, as I had cast the most simplistic version in the fight.

"I don't know anything more than you, Mr. Eustice," I lied.

Lying and pretending to be ignorant were quickly becoming the way in which I talked to many individuals. I couldn't say I was good at it, and it left a somewhat dry taste in my mouth every time.

"Pity. It looked somewhat similar to the one you used in the duel," he said.

"I... can draw the one I used back then, if you'd like?" I offered, taking a pen and parchment from my bag.

I didn't have a proper brush pen, but the smooth gel pen was usually my instrument of choice regardless. I could draw thinner lines without sacrificing accuracy.

There were three versions of Niflheim that I used primarily. The first was the one that I had used in the duel, drawn quickly on the spot. It was an extremely bare-bones version with only the extremely essential components for the spell. The second was the standard version that I would take out with me. It was much more stable and drew less focus than the stripped version. The third version I used was my improved version that I would bring in larger-scaled group fights. As long as I handed my teammates a certain magic circle, they would be unaffected by the colds of [Niflheim] as long as that paper was in their possession.

I drew the simple version for him today.

What I noticed, oddly, was that he wasn't particularly fixated on the circle itself, but on me.

"Is there something?" I asked, blushing. I was only halfway done, even though I could draw fairly quickly.

The version that was stripped bare was still a magic circle of medium complexity.

"No, nothing," he said, before continuing to stare at me.

I continued drawing, and a few minutes later, I was done.

I threw the pen back into my bag, and held out the finished circle to him.

His eyebrows furrowed as he looked back and forth between both circles.