Chores and Magic (Part 2)

"Fred, you don't have a mana affinity." Puck declares

"Huh?" Did I just get the biggest Nerf of all time?

"Is that even possible?" I can't accept it. This goes against the laws of this world. At least that's what I learnt from the canon.

"I suppose you didn't get what I meant." Puck says in a matter-of-fact voice, "You don't have any particular mana affinity. But you do have mana. I sense a colourless flow of mana from your gate. And about your Gate- it's in very bad shape. If Subaru's Gate can be called 'rusted' then yours is like 'overworked' and ready to blast."

"Not 'break' but 'blast'?"

"Yes, blast. Your odd has a very large source pool so all the magic stored in there will blast up the surrounding area."

Even Puck is saying that I'd blast instead of my Gate breaking. I suppose Roswaal was not lying in that case.

"What would be the radius of the blast?"

"Hm? It should be enough to blow up the entire mansion. And the heat waves from it should blow up all the area surrounding the mansion." So he says. My situation was really hopeless.

"So I suppose I'm more or less crippled. I at least wanted to use one or two decent magic. Damn, my luck!" I would have to re-formulate my plans. I had pushed myself too hard back in the loot house and this was the aftereffect. All those stupid people who said 'What doesn't kill you only makes you stronger' must've had their heads up in the clouds. I felt like showing them my situation if I could.

"It's not like you can't use any magic. But you'll have to figure it out yourself. I can give you the starter tips though."

"Huh? What can you do if even Beatrice can't help my situation? She's a whole lot smarter than you and she read up all the books in the library too." I didn't want to owe this cat a favour. And I was sarcastic about what he said.

"She might be a greater spirit and smarter than me, but she has a definite elemental affinity. She's what you can say- 'a human made of mana' if I have to put it that way. But all the four great spirits including me can cast all types of magic.

If she is a human-like artificial spirit, I am an artificial animal spirit. I can cast all types of magic in fact.

Sooooooo…..

I can tell you the tips if you give me your word." He has got me there.

"I'm listening."

He flies close to my ear and whispers the deal.

"OK, ok, hm, hm. That's alright.

Ok. It's a deal." The terms were really simple and didn't collide with my plans. I suppose making a 'deal' was just an excuse so that it didn't seem like he did me a favour. But I wonder if this cat has that much brain, to begin with. Regardless,

"Are you sure you don't want to make a contract on that?"

"Not really, You helped Lia out in the loot house. And even if I wanted to make a contract with you, I couldn't." he shrugs.

Oh, that's right! Since I am contracted to Beatrice, I can't form contracts with any other spirits. It's one of the penalties for making a contract with her. But it helped me out in a strange way as Puck couldn't imprint me with his Puck mark, uh I mean 'contract'.

"Well, it's alright then. I'd like to begin right away." Standing up after carefully placing Beatrice out of my lap, I straighten myself up and turn towards Emilia.

"I'd like to borrow Puck for a while. Can I?" I wasn't in the mood to do some formalities or make it out with my silver tongue, so I just said it plainly. All the stuff happening around me was giving me a headache. I'd have to turn into a masochist nerd to survive in this world, it seems.

"It's okay. I was talking to my other spirits anyway.

But make sure to return him before the sunset, OK?

He needs to return to his necklace before then to rest."

"Ok, gotcha." I did a polite bow to Emilia. I don't know why, I just felt like it. Then waved them bye,

"Subaru, you can continue from where you left off!" I shout to him from a distance.

I knew it was time to grind for me as I left for the library with Puck flying all around me whistling a tune and Beatrice holding my hand silently.

(Nighttime after dinner)

I was going through the letters and character sets of this world.

They were called the 'Glyphs' and there were three sets of them. After trying to get a basic understanding of them and pronouncing them a bit, I decided that my brain could take in no more at the moment.

So I decided to write it out until I could fluently recognise the letters. Word forming and sentences can come later. It was all so that I could survive if I got separated from the main cast at some point in time.

"Fred, it happened in fact." Beatrice's voice broke through my constant ruffling and scrubbing sounds as I was writing down like crazy.

Putting the quill back in the inkpot, I stood up and did some stretches

"Yawn…so should we get going now?"

"I suppose so." She moved closer to me and held my hands.

We stepped out of the library as a dull light greeted us.

______________________________________________

(3rd person POV)

"So you write it like this. Yes, yes, that's how it is." The blue-haired girl said. Wiping the sweat off her forehead, she sat down on the nearby chair.

She was exhausted from the day's work but she didn't show it on her face. It would be unbecoming of a maid of the Roswaal household.

However, there was this particular urge which she couldn't seem to ignore. It was overbearing and about to engulf her. Even though she knew it was wrong, she couldn't help but act on her instincts.

"Subaru-kun, are you done?" She arose from her chair and moved closer to him.

The boy yawned lazily and rubbed his eyes. The fatigue from the day's work was getting the better of him.

"But it isn't bedtime yet. And there's more of it…" The rest of it went muffled as he drifted off to sleep while Rem massaged his shoulders. And he couldn't even react or blush at the touch of a maiden.

"I suppose we can leave today's lessons till here." she whispered.

Rem stared at the space between his head and torso. His neck was so tender and weak. It would break at her slightest force. Her hands which were massaging Subaru's shoulders moved gradually to his neck. She kept on pressing it until he squeaked out some gibberish. She stopped to listen to what he had to say.

"Mhm…Emia-tan….u r swoo… cute…"

He was still uttering bullshit when at death's door.

But she wondered. If it was really alright. She wondered if it was alright to kill him without any evidence. He was suspicious. He was very suspicious.

[He should've asked for a reward or something else. Even Frederick-san is not as suspicious as him] She thought. Her doubts were valid. And her logic was more than valid. No normal person would want to work as a 'Butler' as a reward for saving someone. There was a high probability that he was a spy. However, her sister had told her against acting without evidence.

However, she couldn't tell anyone that she didn't need any other evidence to know that Subaru was evil and deserved to be killed in the most brutal way possible.

She COULD SMELL THE WITCH ON HIM.

[WHAT MORE EVIDENCE DO I NEED?] There was no reason for her to stop.

"Yes. What are you waiting for? Kill him" a voice echoed silently in the room.

"Yes, he needs to die!" she said with a feverish grin.

[WAIT, who was that?] Rem turned around to find the owner of the voice-

"Hik!~

Frederick-sama!" Fred stood behind her. Silent and nonchalant.

"What? Seen a ghost?" Fred calmly looked at her with his red eyes. They were like burning fire and blood itself. He moved his eyes towards her hands. She still had her hands on Subaru's neck. It was a comical pose.

[Her pupils are dilated out of shock and surprise.

But not out of fear, I guess] Fred assumed.

"A bitch like you deserves no redemption. Tch!" he spat on her face and proceeded to bitch-slap her.