Seria's first day on the job

Seria stood before a crippled Beyklir, that Hariot had created by shooting his blue force through each one of it's limbs 'How does he even do that?' She wondered, trying to get past the fact that a suffering creature was lying before her.

'I've heard of magic before, but shouldn't it be... Slower?' She pondered 'The mage that I heard the blackshifts had hidden away was supposed to need at least a minute before firing anything out, and that was some kind of black thing.'

Without any consideration Hariot took out a dagger from his bag, latching onto her hand and forcing her to grip it in quick succession "You're not blind, yes?"

"Uh, no?" Seria said, confused as to why she was asked this, wasn't that obvious?

"Good, then you can see the Beyklir that can no longer move," With his grip over her current hand movements, he twisted the dagger into a reverse grip and pointed it at the Beyklir "Kill it."

"-Eh?" Seria hands shook slightly.

Without her response, a voice wispered in to her ear "What are you worth, if you can't even kill a single beast?"

Her eyes turned to her left, feeling a warm breath on her ear, she saw the same face Hariot always had- Right to her side.

She couldn't stop herself from shuddering at the next breath, goosebumps appearing on her arms against her wishes.

Suddenly, Her hands pressed forwards without her own actions, Hariot not giving any pause.

The next moment, Hariot let go his hands, leaving Seria with her hands on a dagger piercing the skull of the pitiful creature that had once lived.

A hastening breath being heard.

-----

"What do you see when you look at it?" Hariot asked, a placid tone accompying him.

Seria, who seemed less than comfortable at the moment "A-A... Dead animal?"

"No, that's not what I asked," Hariot said lightly "When you see it, what comes to mind first, what words best describe it? Not what is layed before you, but the feeling it incites. See the void beyond the veil, not the illusion splayed before you."

"I-I see... A..."

"Just say it!"

"...A trace of life."

Hariot smiled a little bit more "A pitiful remnant?"

"...A bloody remnant."

Hariot took a step back, this was for one thing; Trying to get the kid a principle, or at least the foundation for one.

He might've gone a little extreme, but better to be extreme than to be soft when dealing with principles.

Beyern actually knew about them, and how to get them, since it was an open secret that he was actually interested in.

'Who would've thought that everything I learnt for when I got my class would be basically useless to me.' He thought with a small mental smile.

Back when he was younger, he thought he'd get a physical class since that was overall more probable than everything else combined.

A principle was simple to get- But that didn't mean it was easy.

You need a strong belief or conviction for that, and it's kind of hard to make yourself one of those conciously. And if you give someone else one of the two- Or at least try to- While they know about the purpose, the difficulty would spike.

So it was obvious to, like, not tell her before she got it 'I really do wish I got one too, then I wouldn't have to bother scrounging around <Necromancy > and have all the information just appear in my mind.

Sadly there's no support from the system for a Necromancer.'

He shook his head "Wakey wakey! I think your enlightenment has gone on long enough."

Seria flinched back to reality, and seemed suprised at the fact her clothes weren't bloody. But it should've been obvious that Hariot wouldn't let it get bloody, he paid good money for it!

Seria looked around for a moment, then at Hariot who had his neutral smile on as always "F-from what you said earlier..."

She seemed to choke on the word for a moment "What's the void?"

Hariot's act instantly fell, frown adorning his face instantly "You... The void is a mythical existence from ancient stories which hides behind what we call 'The veil'. And no, I don't know what it actually is, since it's a myth."

He looked at her for a moment, her seemingly not understanding what he just said "Please tell me you at least know about the Eye of the moon."

...

Hariot sighed for a good while, before saying "The Eye of the moon is basically something that kills if you know to much about it, while also making people forget about it. Though it isn't real, it's used as a cautionary tale for adults and children alike to not look into things that are beyond them, the most famous fiction of it being 'Lunar reflection'."

"W-What's a 'Fiction'?"

Hariot sighed even more "I am not going to tell you what a fiction is, this entire conversation in null and void, got it?"

With a small nod, he looked around before saying "Oh, and you can keep the dagger if you want."

-----

"Alright, so this collection of letters means 'Dragon', repeat it five times and get back to me." Hariot said, shoving away the responsiblity of learning how to write on to the individual instead of the teacher.

He had his own things to do now that he had filled up his mana stores with compressed mana and his bags with the gallbladders.

That being; Pyromancy.

He had read a full book on the basics of it, so his act of being a pyromancer could be less of an act and more of a reality. But more importantly; Magic!

'I'm finally going to do real magic that I can use in public,' He sniffed slightly 'I can finally go full force in gaining power.'

He ripped out 1 mp in a 8;1 condensation, and attributed it to fire, giving it an light orange hue.

"I did it." A somewhat neutral statement was said behind Hariot.

He quickly turned around, finding Seria having already repeated the word he had written in the ground three times like he told her to do. It was nice she could do it, but he already felt his blood pressure rise as the amount of time he would have to take out of his day to teach her.

'I'll just give her a piece of paper with words on it, along with a drawing of said thing, and me telling her what it means. Then later on giving her an oral test about it.' Hariot thought with a nod "Good, good, that's quite quick of you."

'For now I'll get my free time with {Conditioning}, it'll have to happen eventually anyways, better to start now.'

He put his hand behind his back "We will continue to teach you the art of reading in the city, but as my... Servant? Slave?- I'm not certain what to call you yet- You must have grit."

"Could- Could I be called a teammate?" Seria suggested.

Hariot responded prudently against her "Eehhh? I'm not sure, 'Teammate' has connotations of being on somewhat equal grounds, when our power dynamic is- Obviously- extremely unbalanced."

"B-But won't it be weird if the one with better clothes was called a servant?" She persued- Her small serf mind never being capable of a proper scheme.

Hariot shook his head slightly; "You foolish rat, what do you think would happen if a you were a merchant and saw that I called you a servant?"

"I-I would... Think you're hiding your wealth badly?"

"Exactly!" He said vocally, as if some huge secret had been revealed.

Seria seemed as if a heaven-defying mystery had just been revealed to her- But then paused "-But i-isn't it strange to call me servant?"

"It isn't, it's as normal as me calling the sky the sky, a god a divine being, and the abyss a terrifying quagmire where I will hopefully never have to go to." He said, slowly pouring out mana on to the surface of the ground- To store it of course.

He didn't dare to... Once again do a few more tests on Seria, not until he could constrict and manifest an already 'Spellified' anchored ring of mana.

"Bu-" Seria was going to continue, but Hariot would no longer placate her inferior design.

"I'll think, ponder, and contemplate about this, so stop worrying about it. I'll listen to your half-minded arguments when it becomes relevant." He said with a wave of his hand and a still neutral smile on his face.

Though, he would obviously bring this up later, since he honestly didn't actually know what to refer to her as. And he was- Like the great emperor Ling Geradnil- Not going to call a subordinate without any achievements by their name.

He was running a meritocracy here! What would happen if he just ackowledged every servant's existence as an individual? Nothing good, that he was sure of.

Looking at the mana currently forming a circle on the ground around his servant, he smiled just a slight bit "But, thinking about it... You lack a lot of masteries, I think it's best if you train for them instead of writing, for now at least."

Seeing Seria's mouth open up in a somewhat nervous but also child-like joy at the thought, Hariot's passive smile seemed to give off the feeling of schadenfreude.

-----

Seria couldn't help but scowl- Which wasn't even slightly troubling to the person which it was directed towards- While panting on her knees from exhaustion "How does this even get me a mastery?!"

"You wouldn't understand, you'll only find belief in the truth after you gain the mastery I have layed out before you." The mage said, flippantly ignoring her moments later, seemingly playing with that weird orange stuff.

She had her doubts, but seeing the light blue mana getting released from the mage, she gritted her teeth in frustration; Remembering when one of its cousins had wreaked havoc in her body.

The mage turned his head once more "Stop slacking off, training is obligatory."

She frowned as she stood up, and then fell back to the floor, doing push-ups 'This won't do anything,' She thought with obvious annoyance 'Why do I have to this for so long, just because he told me to do-'

=====

Congratulations, Seria, due to support from an elder, and also their orders, you have perservered unlike most, 'Conditioning' has gained 1-star mastery!

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These words left her befuddled 'But my name's Cecil!'