Tutoring Sylphy

The next morning after sword practice with Paul, I made my way out to the tree on the hill and waited for Sylphy. She didn't show up, but I made good use of the time regardless. While I was waiting, I practiced my magic. I fired off electric spells with one hand and dispersed them using disturb magic with the other.

Another form of practice I came up with was attempting to make two figurines at the same time. I created a small sculpture of ice with one hand and a small stone figurine in the other. Using two different types of magic at the same time in such a precise manner would expend an incredible amount of mana.

I doubt there are many in this world with sufficient mana to perform this training routine, yet I can do it for hours on end without even feeling the slightest bit tired.

In addition, this was excellent practice for further mastering my ability to simultaneously cast multiple spells with precise targeting.

I made my way home by late afternoon and enjoyed dinner with the family before working on figurines some more in my room before bed.

That was essentially my daily routine whenever Sylphy wasn't able to meet me up at the tree on the hill. While it made me a bit lonely, I understand why Sylphy couldn't come meet me to play every day; she's only five years old after all.

The next day, Sylphy showed up at the tree on the hill around noon. She excitedly showed off by throwing around a couple water balls; evidently she had been practicing on her own since I taught her that spell.

It didn't take too long for her to burn through her mana reserves, so we simply played afterwards. We explored the village, looking for interesting plants and seeing if we could find them in my botanical encyclopedia.

I made sure to walk her home before it got dark. Her parents were very welcoming. Evidently they were just excited to hear Sylphiette had made a friend as Paul and Zenith were.

On the way home I remembered how Sylphy's parents had died in the mana disaster. I will have to think about a way to save them as well.

After a couple weeks, Sylphy's mana had grown enough that I could work with her for a couple hours a day. I explained the process of silent spellcasting. First use the incantation in order to get a feel for the spell. Remember that feeling of mana pooling up in your finger tips and visualize the spell's effect.

She got the hang of it in no time. There's a reason everyone at the Ranoa University used to call her a genius.

We went through all of the elementary level spells, one by one, until Sylphy had learned to cast each of them silently. I gave Sylphy our book on magic so that she could better study and practice at home, cautioning her that some of the information in the book was outdated. (Specifically the portion about one's mana being determined at birth).

I told Sylphy that the more she used magic now while she was young, the better off she would be. I'm not entirely sure how well she understands, but she enjoys practicing magic with me, and would always do what I asked. In fact, this reminded me about Paul's concerns and why he decided to ship me off to teach Eris in my last life.

Before moving on to intermediate magic, I worked with Sylphy on customizing the spells she already knew, and combining them with others. This was a much more important skill to learn in my opinion. Spells themselves are relatively easy to learn if you know the incantation.

I used my stone cannon spell as an example. I demonstrated how you could alter the density of the stone as well as its size and shape, and even projectile speed. We worked on improving this little by little over the next couple months until Sylphy had gotten the hang of it.

By now, Sylphy had enough mana to practice with me all day without getting tired. She taught herself most of the intermediate level attack spells simply enough using the incantations in the magic book I gave her. I had to help her with the intermediate fire spells, however. It seems that Sylphy still had little affinity for fire magic.

One day it started downpouring while we were out playing. We hurried back to my house as we happened to be nearby.

When we walked in, Lilia told me she had a bath drawn for me and handed me a towel; she seemed a little surprised to see Sylphy with me.

I guided Sylphy up towards the bathroom and handed her the towel.

"Warm up in the bath and then dry off. I'll have Lilia bring you a dry set of clothes.

"What about you?", she asked.

"I can use the bath in the next room over", I replied.

"Oh. Ok."

I walked down the hall to my room and used earth magic to create a makeshift bath and then used combined magic to fill it with warm water.

After warming up in the bath, I dried myself off and changed into dry clothes. I used gravity magic to lift up the stone bath I had made and dump the water out the window; then I used earth magic to turn the bath back into dust and air magic to blow it out the window.

Lilia gave Sylphy a pair of old clothes I had outgrown and then we sat down to eat dinner.

This was the first time Sylphy has had dinner at my house, so everyone was in a cheerful mood to have met her. Well, Paul had met her a couple times briefly when Sylphiette had went to bring Laws (her father) lunch, but he was still excited to have her over.

Paul and Zenith invited Sylphy to spend the night in our guest room since it was late, but she seemed kind of nervous, so I offered to walk her home. I didn't want to worry her parents, after all.

After walking Sylphy home, Laws and Hope invited me to stay the night as well. They seemed worried to have me walk home by myself when it's so dark out.

"Thank you, I appreciate the offer, but I really should head home. Mother and Father would worry if I didn't come back."

Laws tried convincing me that Paul wouldn't mind, which to be honest I thought so as well, but I insisted.

"I may be young, but I know the way back home and am quite capable of protecting myself if needed."

Laws seemed a little worried, but in the end he agreed with me.

After walking out of sight I looped back around and waited for their lights to go off. As soon as I was sure they went to bed, I cautiously lifted myself up onto their roof with gravity magic. I began engraving a teleportation circle onto their rooftop with earth magic, taking care to be as quiet as possible.

It took me a couple hours, but I finished it without being noticed. As far as teleportation circles go, this one was quite simple. It was only meant to receive and I could not use it for outgoing teleports. I knew that the teleportation incident occurred the day after my tenth birthday. I figured that the night before I could return here and take them to safety.

By the time I got home it was nearly dawn. I snuck into my window using gravity magic and got in bed.

The next morning, Paul and Zenith were surprised to see me home.

"I had thought you spent the night at Laws' place", Paul remarked.

"I came home, but everyone was asleep so I snuck into bed so that I wouldn't wake you."

Paul seemed a little suspicious about that, but in the end he shrugged it off.

Another year and a half has passed, and I was just about to turn seven years old.

I had been worried that my differing actions might cause my sisters not to be born, but thankfully destiny seems to have a way of keeping things in place. Or perhaps they have a 'strong destiny', as Orsted likes to say.

When Lilia came forward with her pregnancy, I played the devil's advocate, just like in my past life, and guilt tripped Zenith into allowing her to stay.

Norn and Aisha were born happy and healthy. I enjoyed doting on them and helped out Zenith and Lilia whenever I could.

By now, Sylphy had reached the advanced tier in water, air, and earth magic, but was still intermediate in fire. She also had reached the intermediate tier in healing and detoxification magic, and could also cast it silently, unlike myself.

Unfortunately, I just don't have a knack for healing magic; it must be my opposition school. Although I am actually advanced rank in healing, detoxification, and barrier magic, I still can't cast them silently like Sylphy can. I also haven't made it known that I'm advanced tier in those schools as Zenith would surely wonder who I had learned it from.

I got my letter from Roxy telling me that she had become the Royal mage for the Kingdom of Shirone and had taken Pax as a tutor. The letter also informed us that Roxy had become a King tier water mage and suggested that I enroll in Ranoa University.

I used this letter as my cue to ask Paul if he could pay admission for myself and Sylphiette into the university.

"Just you would be one thing, but we can't afford to pay for Sylphy too."

"I understand", I answered. "In that case, could I please ask you to find me a job?"

"A job? What for?"

"By the time I'm ready to leave home, I'll earn Sylphy's tuition myself."

Paul silently contemplated my request for a while.

"Fine. If that's how it is, I'll see what I can do."

And with that, I knew it was only a matter of time until I would be sent off to tutor Eris.