Chapter 27 - Early learning

[Luz Leywin POV]

I woke up in my bed, it was a Wednesday morning, my cheeks very red from some dreams I had. I got up and scratched my head a little, going straight to the bathroom, showering and getting ready. I still remember yesterday well.

Yesterday, I had stayed with Kathyln, as arranged by Queen Priscilla, and not only that, I had stayed with her for 2 days in a row, as they were still finding a way to allow me to be with Curtis in the Xyrus Academy, before my time of studies that will take place in 2 and a half years. The answer they found it was for me to be disguised as Curtis' personal guard during these days. And well, today will be the first.

"Argh...that sucks..." I complained to myself as I picked up a package that I had received from the queen, inside it was the uniform I would wear, together with a black mask, looking like those I saw at parties, where just cover it from the nose up.

"Interesting. You're going to feel the troubles of a first day of school, when you won't be there to study... yet.... Sage, tell me, is there a word for 'traumatic experience before school'?" I could hear Sylvia's voice in my mind as she laughed heartily.

"I deserve... I already have my life as the Masked Adventurer Diamond, now I will be the Prince's Masked Guard?" I sighed and went to dress in my new uniform and mask.

Leaving the room, I went straight to the kitchen to have my breakfast. I've seen some maids preparing fried eggs, and while I'm waiting to have them, I grab a large cup of black coffee and sip it down.

"Here you go, little Leywin." a maid said bringing me a plate with my breakfast, and I ate.

When I was done, I saw my mother coming down the stairs and finding me already dressed to go. She looked at me, approached me and gave me a big hug, I returned the hug without having to think.

"Be careful there, okay? I know it's good for you to get to know the place beforehand and help Art when he goes to study with you... But there are several nobles there. And you know how they are sometimes..." Alice told me, hugging me still, the essence she has makes me sometimes forget that my current body didn't come from her blood.

"Mom, I've survived so far 5 months facing mana beasts in dungeons. Relax." I kiss her cheek and pull away from her hug.

"Okay, I asked the maids to make you some food to take away if you can't use the cafeteria there." She said, calling some maids, who brought me a small container, I kept it in the dimensional ring.

"The carriage isn't even ready, dear. How are you getting to the King's residence?" she asked curiously, because due to the role I was going to play, I was forced to go in with Curtis and couldn't get away from him.

"Simple, Mom. Illusion and movement magic. Anyway, have a good day, and kiss Lilia and Ellie on the cheeks for me." I say leaving the Helstea house.

"Illusion cape." I activate an illusion spell around me, rendering me partially invisible.

"Thunderclap Impulse... Soul Speed..." I activate the double spell, with dark lightning flashing around my body, I got into a running position, one hand on the ground. I propelled myself forward, and ran through the City of Xyrus, with my illusion protecting me from people's eyes, as I managed to go with high speed to the Glayders' residence, I could even see Curtis walking to the carriage they have.

Deciding to scare him a little, I approached Curtis and walked beside him, still being invisible. But soon I deactivated the spells, and I could hear the shock of the maid who was leading the prince to the carriage, and Curtis giving a little cry of shock, which soon turned into a hearty laugh.

"You should stop doing that! My God, at least I know my 'Private Guard' is amazing at being undetected." He said playfully.

"Hm. Don't let this 'Private Guard' thing go to your head. I'm on this role just so we can fulfill your selfish desire to want me close to you as much as you can, while I still have to share my presence with Kathyln and have to travel in a few days." I told him the situation to his face.

"At least you'll get to know Xyrus Academy better." He said as he got into the carriage and got in with him.

"I agree, it's good that I already have an idea of ​​things there, so I can choose my subjects."

"What do you mean, choose?" He looked at me confused as I close the door and the carriage starts to move.

"Because I am an Augmenter who has knowledge of a Conjurer, Cynthia said I could choose whatever materials I wanted."

"Cynthia? Man, how do you manage to speak her name as openly as if you've known her for years?"

"Well, I know an old friend of hers, and as much as he talked about her, sort of my mind associated Director Cynthia with a good and storyteller grandmother next door." At my speech, Curtis chuckled back at the situation.

We arrived at Xyrus Academy at 7 am, I could see the style of the place I was going to, it was extremely elegant, grandiose, and slightly reminiscent of a mixture of human and elven cultural structures. I could see people arriving there on foot and by carriage, they were boys, girls, young adults and some "elders", all human.

"Apparently the idea of ​​uniting races through Xyrus Academy hasn't started yet." I whispered as the carriage door opened.

"I heard that, apparently they're going to officially start doing it in 2 years, but they have some elves doing 'private' classes with special teachers." Curtis answered me.

I had gotten out of the carriage first and was helping the prince out, keeping the impression of my "work" there. I noticed some people looking at me strangely as I walked side by side with Curtis, completely entering the confines of the Academy and moving through the halls.

I was analyzing my surroundings, until I entered a room with my royal friend, it was a large room where the chairs were separated by steps, so that everyone could see the blackboard without problems of someone obstructing the view. There were already some students around, they went to us to talk to Curtis.

"Hey, Glayder. Who's that guy next to you?" One of them asked.

"Just a guard my dad asked to stay with me, apparently he and my mom want to know how things are going with me and if my status is affecting the way I interact. So he's here to be my limiter." Curtis answered him.

"It's a pleasure to meet you. As Prince Curtis said, I'm here to teach him that there are times when nobility status can't be used to get everything. I'll keep showing up on random days to always take him by surprise." I said, using a sound spell to make my voice sound like a 20 year old, that way no one could guess my age, and what I said would explain the fact that I would appear now and then during these two weeks.

One of the boys looked at him intrigued while the others seemed to ignore me, maybe it was something normal, or they considered my existence there irrelevant. In fact, everyone seems to be noble and I'm the only "ordinary" person in the school.

During the first few hours, I stayed by Curtis's side during some theoretical classes. Two teachers had noticed me and, intrigued by the prince bringing a guard with him, asked me a few questions, to see if I was some strong guy or the intellectual type.

I managed to answer the questions quite simply, with one of the two teachers claiming that my explanation was at the sixth grade theoretical level, this grade being the highest for students of this academy for what I know. That was great, it would make people around me really think I was a young adult with growth problems.

Lunch time began, and I went with the prince to the cafeteria, deciding not to get anything for myself, as I was not one of the students, yet. Instead, I took the container my mother and the maids from the Helstea house had given me.

"Can I sit with you? I mean, I brought my own food from home, but it's pretty annoying to eat standing up." I asked Curtis and he just nodded and left a space next to him for me to sit.

Opening the container, I felt a sweet smell coming from it, the maids had prepared for me a sort of fried bacon bits bathed in a slightly sweet sauce. I could see the prince looking at this too.

"Oh my." He said.

"I'll see if the maids if they can give me the recipe so you can ask your cooks to do it." I spoke and he agreed.

The container was made of a slightly bluish metal, so to heat it up I just put my hand on the bottom and used fire mana. Curtis already had his own plate, but I let him grab and taste one of the bacon bits there.

"Divine..." he said tasting and drooling a little, making me laugh.

I noticed there weren't that many people approaching the table Curtis and I were at. Maybe it's because of his nobility status, or is it because of me? Anyway, I asked him about it when we finished our meals, he said that there were actually days when no one was around him and other days when specific people approached to talk.

So we went to another room, it was time for a practical class. Apparently, this one was a substitute teacher and he lectured on basic combat. Everything was going the way I would have expected, until...

"Hey there you!" The substitute teacher watched me next to Curtis.

"Yes, any problem sir?" I said it with a modified voice and using language that I think is appropriate for the position I'm pretending to have.

"I know you're here to be some kind of guard for the prince. But could you go up fast here in the arena? You've got a core advanced enough that I can't see it, so it would be okay to use you a little to exemplify moves for the class?" He asked these things looking at me, but clearly he was waiting for answers from the prince.

"Of course he can, but what kind of moves do you mean, professor?" Curtis replied.

"Well, I'd like to show you the importance of knowing the whole body, each muscle moving together will do more than if you focus on specific things. For example, if you want to be the mage type, Augmenter or Conjurer, who can run fast, you'll need to exercise or fortify with mana, areas beyond the legs. " While the teacher was giving that theoretical example, I was already getting up and going to the elevated arena.

Arriving there, he looked at me. "For demonstration, I'd like you to try to just dodge a few attacks that I'm going to do, initially with full body use, and then with tied hands, Can you understand where I'm going with this?" I was slightly impressed with the way the teacher wanted to demonstrate in practice the effect of having the whole body in use for his students, and I agreed with him.

The teacher took a long stick and started attacking me. As requested by him, I was just dodging the attacks using every movement of my body, being very acrobatic, using arm movements to always be balancing and pushing myself, in order to help the movements of the legs. I could see that some students were surprised by the situation.

"Now, students. This man will now demonstrate the level of difficulty of doing everything he did, with his hands behind his back." With the teacher talking to the class, I put my hands inside the uniform, in the back area.

He went through the same process of attacking me with that big stick. With only my legs free, I started to dodge using some jumps. I could see that this teacher was really trying to hit me, but I didn't give it a moment, dodging it using false steps, jumps, and acrobatics. Arriving at a point where I ended up falling on my back and dodging a blow from the bat by rolling to the side and getting up with only the strength of my hips, legs and back. The students were still impressed by it.

"I'm sorry for the intrusion, but as your teacher said, it's much more complex to move with the lack of some access to the body. However, with knowledge of one's own body in conjunction with magical knowledge, these disadvantages can be overcome. For augmenters this is more obvious, but conjurers can also use this concept." I said after the teacher got tired of trying to hit me.

"But sir guard. What are you? I mean, I don't see a conjurer being able to do these things without the help of magic, so would conjurers need to use movement techniques in a mixed way?" A female voice said among the students.

"Well, I did all this here without using any mana, only through physical training that anyone without a mana core can do. And reinforcing how wrong your statement is, I myself am a Conjurer." It wasn't quite a lie, I was both an Augmenter and a Conjurer, and I didn't really use any mana on my moves, showing that this was something that wasn't limited to the mage type, I wanted to make that clear to them.

Some students were quite shocked to see that someone who called himself a Conjurer could make moves like that and others just applauded for my answer.

"Well, really thanks for the great speech, these boys really need to see the importance of things besides magic." The teacher said giving me a smile and I just nodded, returning to the seat next to Curtis.

But before I got to the seat, I heard an elderly female voice calling me. "Excuse me, Prince Curtis, could I have a little talk with your personal guard?"

When I went to see who it was, I noticed that same little old lady with an equally pleasant and frightening appearance at the door of the room. Curtis allowed me to leave and I went to the Director, who was guiding me through some corridors, while I felt a sound magic surrounding us, it wasn't me who activated it, but her.

"It's good to see you, Luz Leywin. But I thought you'd be joining the Academy in two years." Cynthia spoke curiously.

"Well, Arthur and I are still doing our adventuring careers, however I decided to take a 1 month vacation to visit my family and pay a visit to the royal family, as they invited me before. But it turned out that they decided that I would go with Curtis here, under the pretext of being his guard, for 2 weeks." I answered honestly to the sweet candle, who ended up laughing a little.

"Kukuku... Boy how many connections do you have? I feel like your existence alone could connect the realms of Sapin and Elenoir."

"Speaking of Elenoir, you told me earlier that you were requested to be Tess' mentor. Is she around already? Or are you training her elsewhere?" I asked, remembering a few months ago, when Art and I did a spar with her.

"Yes. She's here right now in a special room I've arranged. Want to go see her?" she asks while I nod.

We walked to the building where there was her training room, meanwhile, we updated on the things that happened. Cynthia told me how she was doing with the inscriptions of other races in the Academy, and I talked about my life as an adventurer with Arthur. She seemed impressed by me, especially with the amount of mana cores I had with me, handing some to Tessia later wouldn't be a bad idea.

After passing through corridors, I enter a large training room, with an artificial environment that resembles a beautiful garden with some trees and a water fountain. In that room, I saw a girl repeating smooth movements of her arms, as if she was practicing throwing blades of wind. She had long silver hair, and I could see her features well, with a huge smile and surprised to see me there, as I took off the black mask I was wearing.

Tessia... I really missed you, my little sister.

Tessia hugged me tightly as I patted her back. "How were you in these days?" I asked with a smile.

"Everything's going well. Are you and Art getting along as adventurers?" she asked excitedly.

"Yes, we ar- Wait a sec... How do you know that?" I asked curiously and with a raised eyebrow, while she just gave a silly smile and patted her forehead. I looked to Cynthia, and the grandma shocked her head, as if she didn't say nothing about this to the princess.

"You didn't use grandma Rinia to keep an eye on my brother and me.... Or did you?" I closed my eyes and took a deep breath as I asked that.

"Hihi." She just left the tip of her tongue out playfully, I could hear Cynthia laughing at the situation.

"Sister... I know you love Art, but you don't have to keep an eye on us."

"I know, it's just that... there was a moment when I was watching you and I saw an intense accident happen... I was in agony and since then I've watched you when I can..."

I took a deep breath and looked into her eyes. "So you saw the incident at the auction house... Well, know that all is well for now. I'm even managing to make friends with the royal family, but trying to set limits so they don't hire me."

"I think you failed that by being Curtis's guard." the Director said laughing.

"This is just an excuse for me to see what this school is like while I spend time with him. Honestly, he's very different from his father, and I feel like if I'm going to be in the army, he's already ruling."

"But aren't you considered a noble elf by your title?" Tessia said confused.

"Yes, but in this case I'm talking about a continental army. As the races are starting to come together, it's logical to think about creating an army that has all three races together to end possible rebellions from people who don't like the idea of the union of Dicathen." I replied, I noticed Cynthia looking at me intently.

"You don't even look like a child sometimes." Both said in unison.

"I'm just doing my best." I replied with a slight laugh.

I stayed with Tessia for like 2 hours, we talked a little and I told her some theories of wind spells that she could try. Cynthia was surprised, as some of these theories I was saying were spells that are usually learned at advanced levels of education. Now I feel that Director Goodsky will always be watching me closely.

After that, I leave that building where the training room was, putting on my mask and heading towards the first year study building. As I walked, I noticed a girl in a battle mage course uniform, with red hair and a familiar face, she was Claire Bladeheart. Seeing her at that moment made me have a comical thought.

"Pupupupu... So my future disciple is very close to me and she doesn't even have a clue about it. How hilarious... I think one of the things I can teach is to detect strange presences as a passive skill" I thought, with a smile on my face and returned to my original route.

Meeting Curtis at one of his practical classes, I watched him until that class was over and we were leaving school, because it was his first year, and being in the battle mage course, he only had classes until 4 pm, so we were free at the moment. We got into a carriage that was waiting for us and left the school.

"So, man. What did the Director want with you?" he asked me while looking at the landscape outside.

"No big deal, we just chatted and found out that a friend of mine is also at Xyrus Academy, but being Goodsky's disciple" I said while activating a simple illusion spell on the carriage windows and taking off my mask.

"Wow! Amazing. I knew she had a disciple, I just don't know who it is. And you already knew her? Wow... What a small world." He said looking at me as he put his hands on the back of his head, he seemed to feel a slight pain.

"Relax, I'll help you there." I said and he turned his back to me.

It looked like he was having some difficult to move his back, because of today's practical classes, so I just put my hand in some areas and with the use of mana fortification along with mana boosts from the wind, I was hitting his pressure points. He let out a small cry of fright and backed away from me.

"What the hel-... Wow... I think I'm lighter???? What did you do?" He said confused.

"You were stressed after class, so I just gave you a little help, it helps a lot so I recommend asking your parents to hire a professional masseuse to do that for you once a month."

"Are you some kind of instructor and I don't know it?"

"Maybe." with my answer, we had a few laughs.

The carriage soon arrived at the Glayders' residence, we were entering the place and we met with Kathyln, who ran directly to me and gave me a flick on the forehead.

"Ouch....?" I was confused by that.

Soon she joined us and we went to the practice room there. There was an instructor waiting for him, I sat next to Kathyln watching Curtis's tutor teaching him swordsmanship moves.

"So this was the guy who's been teaching Curtis..." I whispered.

"It looks like he's in the solid yellow core, but I don't feel any element in him" Sylvia said inside my mind.

When she pointed this out, that's when I took a closer look at the instructor. He appeared to be a pure mana user. It was good that I saw this, it reminded me that there are people who have no affinity for elements, even though they have a mana core, and they are just using the pure mana coming from their cores. This was just like Mom Alice does, with the difference that she is a "Deviant Healer", if I can categorize her in that way.

I was thoughtful as I watched things over there.

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[Zalgnity POV]

I was there, sitting in an armchair, watching everything my successor did. I yawned and sat up in the seat, watching beside me, that beautiful woman with white hair and black clothes, Lady Sylvia.

Beside her was a little boy, he had completely black clothes, like a uniform, he had a hood that covered part of his head and on top of that, there was a slight glow that came out from under his clothes, as if he was glowing inside the clothes. His appearance was identical to the current one of my successor.

He appeared the day that silly battle at the auction house took place. He said that his name was Sirius, and that he was the original owner of the body that Luz was controlling, he had allowed his soul to be combined with the possessor, thus making him exist within this mind's territory. Since then, he and Lady Sylvia have been talking to each other, while leaving me out of some matters.

"Wow. Don't you guys stop talking?" I said irritably, as I pulled my own head off to get my horns polished more easily.

"We're talking about some things we have in common. Any problems?" the dragon asked me and I answered with a sigh.

"You must be feeling bad for not being in the middle of the conversation, but I just don't tell you anything, because these things are only worthy for the princess of the Asuras to know." Sirius said, his voice was distorted, as if there were 5 voices at once, two female, two male and one that reminded me of the corrupt monsters I created in my old days as a true god.

There were few subjects we talked about this current world, so I discovered that Dicathen is not the only continent that exists here, there are actually 3 continents, the other two being called Epheotus and Alacrya.

The first is the home of the Asuras, great beings who are not gods but are seen as deities in the eyes of lessers. In there are several clans, and Lady Sylvia was seen as the future heir of the Indrath clan, which is the most powerful compared to the others, as they are dragons and this is the only race that is able to use a magical element called Aether. I didn't have much information about this form of magic, just that it's not a type of mana, it's extremely powerful, and that since its magic particles are self-aware, they can't be absolute controlled, only mutual interaction at best cases.

The second continent, Alacrya, from what I've been told, is ruled by a tyrant from the Vritra clan, a clan of Asuras who were expelled by problems between the other clans, where its participants are from the basilisk race and they are the only ones with access to a decay-type mana art. The name of their tyrant is Agrona Vritra, and from what I could understand, he was Lady Sylvia's lover.

From the way she talked about him, I could see myself in this dictator's place, my way of thinking and acting was identical to his in my old days. Sylvia sometimes even said that my current self was very reminiscent of the way she saw Agrona, before she realized how mad and insane for power he was.

But... Did we say such informations to my Successor? No.

According to Sylvia, he would know about things like this when he and Arthur reached a stage beyond the white core. She wanted them both to make the most of it without thinking about the existence of other continents or other unknown forms of magic.

Luz was also unaware of Sirius' existence within this mind realm. Because he didn't want to show off, not now. The reason for this? He didn't tell me, but Sylvia seemed to know why and she just told me it was better that I didn't know either for now, I just accepted it.

After polishing my horns, I put my head back in place and went back to watching what my successor was doing, I had a few laughs seeing him interacting with that pale girl with black hair.

"Definitely a Yandere." I laughed after saying that.

"A... yand- what?" Sirius and Sylvia asked me at the same time, confused.

"Hahaha... better you don't even know." I said playfully, just imagining the hell that my boy's life will be.