Preparations. (3)

Wake Alice in the morning, help her with breakfast and picking out clothing for the day. Study magic and help her understand the various new words she had to learn as well as how to draw the appropriate formations. After studying magic for a few hours, it was time to do more normal studies such as history, territory management, etiquette, everything the heir to a duchy should know. Make lunch while studying and prepare a little for dinner, have a tea break and nap to recharge.

After napping there would be a bit more studying, and then dinner. Once dinner was over, it would be time for Alice to meditate so that she could absorb more mana and work on increasing her capacity and control. While she did that, Gabriel went to the training grounds and spent a few hours training under Lawrence and some of the other knights, returning in time to help Alice get ready for bed.

Once she fell asleep, he would have two hours to do his own meditation to gather some mana and then it was once again time to meet Lawrence on the training grounds. The nightly training was kept shorter than the original strength training they did, but as a result they had to go a little bit harder to make up for it. Once that training was over, he could go back and get four or five hours of sleep before he woke up again, slightly before the sun itself rose. He would then spend an hour gathering mana before waking Alice as the sun rose, repeating the day.

It was monotonous, as if the same day was looping without end. But he enjoyed it while it lasted, things would get hectic before long and the number of things he would need to oversee would increase by quite a bit. Originally, he intended to maintain this routine for three weeks while he gathered enough mana to test the various elements, kicking things into gear afterwards. But after just one week, Alice took those plans and crushed them splendidly.

"Gabriel, Gabriel! Look, look what I got!"

Gabriel had been in his room when Alice burst through the door with such gusto that it seemed as if she wanted to take it off its hinges. He had just finished training with Lawrence so he was washing off the sweat as she barged in, his top bare as he scrubbed it with a wet towel. But naturally, both of them were just children right now so neither of them even bat an eye, Alice rushing up to him and waving and item in front of his face.

"Look! Look!"

The item she almost pushed against his nose was a translucent orb resting on a pedestal. If he saw it in his old life then he would think that it was something bought off of a fortune teller. But in this world, this tacky thing was actually quite valuable and useful. A MAT-device, Mana Affinity Testing Device. Using this item, people would be able to save a great deal of time and mana as they didn't need to test every element.

The reason it saved time was the phenomena that happened when you tried to cast a spell of an element that you didn't have an affinity for. The mana would flow out in accordance with the spell formation, but nothing would come out of it. Worse yet, the mana used to activate the non-functioning formation would dissipate so you would have to gather it up again when you had time. It was an extreme hassle, especially when there were so many words you had to test.

"This… How did you get your sister to lend it to you?"

Gabriel looked at the orb somewhat curiously. Within this estate, there were four such devices. The duke held one and each of his children, barring Alice, held one. That way they could all test their own people and work on building up their own force. Her brothers would never lend her theirs and she wouldn't be able to meet the duke even if she tried so the only one left belonged to her eldest sister.

Said sister had no reason to lend it to Alice, but she also didn't have a reason to not lend it to her. But still, from what Gabriel had seen in the show, Alice would have to give a sufficiently valid excuse to make that girl hand it over. After all, Alice's older sister was just too similar to the duke, sticklers for rules that looked at the whole of the duchy rather than this family. They were good people who thought about what was best for the masses, but terrible family members in that regard.

"I didn't, Eldest Sister wouldn't let me borrow it if I didn't have a valid excuse. I… Borrowed… this one from Elder Brother."

Commoners had to be ten years of age before they could get tested by a MAT-device, that was the iron-clad rule set down by the imperial family of the past. Gabriel was her servant, but with Alice's position in the family he was basically still just a commoner, borrowing it to test him would not suffice as an excuse.

"You… 'Borrowed' it?"

Gabriel tried to stop it, but his eyebrow still rose incredulously. This little girl, who previously stumbled just because said Elder Brother spoke to her from his carriage, had taken advantage of the time where Leonardo was out of the house to sneak into his room to 'borrow' his MAT-device?

"Did… Did I do something bad?"

Seeing that she didn't get the overjoyed reaction that she was expecting, Alice couldn't help but shrink back. She had tried to listen to his advice, but had she gone wrong somewhere along the way? Luckily, it seemed as if that wasn't the case.

"No? You found something you wanted and then did everything you could to get your hands on it, you followed the third tenet to a tee. And when you're doing it to a bad person, it can't really be considered bad. The only way to beat a bastard is by being a bigger bastard."

By all accounts, Leonardo was a bastard. Ignoring his… extracurricular activities, just the way he was treating his younger sister qualified him for that title. Don't hate the child just because the mother is no longer around to hate, that's just pathetic.

"!That's great…"

Alice let out a long breath of relief, mentally noting down everything Gabriel had said. This last week was probably the happiest she had ever been in her entire life. He was always there, gently guiding her forward, teaching her new things, learning alongside her, helping whenever she needed it. For the first time in her life, she felt like she could understand why people were so fond of the word 'friend'. And perhaps, if she was lucky, they would become so close in the future that he could also teach her why people loved the word 'family.'

"Use it then, quickly! It stings at first, but you have to grit your teeth and bear it, otherwise the magic inside the orb will surge out and chew up your arm!"

The little girl raised her hands above her head as if she was reciting a ghost story, her face dead-serious as she warned him. But what met her warning was a very small smile on Gabriel's face.

"My Lady… Whoever said that was lying to you, there's no way the Imperial Family would use such an item on their own members."

True, the device would cause a bit of stinging pain, but the magic going wild and taking off your arm? That was just an old wives tale used to scare children into behaving in front of the officials when they got their affinity checked. As for how that story reached Alice, he didn't doubt that one of the brothers wanted to make her squirm by whispering it to her as the device activated.

"…Muuh…"

A light groan escaped the girl as a light shade of red spread on her cheeks. He was looking at her with the same expression he had when he was teaching her a particularly hard subject and she was having a hard time understanding it. There was a certain gentleness to that thin smile, but she still felt like an idiot whenever he flashed it. Her cheeks puffed slightly, but Gabriel raised an arm before she could even say anything to retort.

"Alright, alright, I'll use it."

She was getting a little better at talking back to him, nagging even, so if he let her go off now then they might sit here for a few more minutes. And since neither of them really knew when Leonardo would return, it would be best to not waste more time than they already had.

Alice zipped her mouth shut and Gabriel placed his hand on the orb, flipping the small switch on the base that would complete the internal magic formation to power it. Tens, if not hundreds, of small barbs immediately rose from within the orb, digging into Gabriel's palm and drawing out his blood.

But still, not a single drop stained the outside of the translucent orb. Each barb sucked in the blood around it and fuelled it into the orb, light starting to surface from within the orb.

"Well, we've got something at least."

The fact that the orb lit up meant that his blood was conducive to mana and he thus had a body that could store, and later on produce when he reached the appropriate star, mana. He'd already started gathering mana so he knew he could store it in his body, but looking at the clarity of the light it seemed as if this body was a bit more talented in the magical aspect than he would have expected.

The clear light was slowly overtaken by the crimson that came from his blood, a floating blob forming within the orb. All the light was drawn into the blob, its reddish colour washing away in favour of three new colours that were slowly starting to rise up.

"Three, that's a lot better than expected. If I'm lucky then I can probably also use some combined magic."

Gabriel mused to himself as the colours slowly solidified. There were two ways to use the combined magic words like Iras and Duvak . The first was to be born with an affinity for them, like Alice. The second was to have the two elements that formed it. So a person born with affinity for Arais and Eras could combine the two in a spell to form Iras.

But sadly, the three colours separated as they formed, meaning that they weren't capable of meshing with each other. But looking at the three colours that now shone within the orb, that thought was as far away from his mind as possible.

"This… Is unexpected."

Pitch black, ashen grey, dirty yellow. Three separate colours, each taking a bit of distance from each other, floated within the orb. The dirty yellow was fine, it was a very normal element. Waraya, Strength. The two others however… were a bit special. Both of them fell outside of the normal magic elements, generally referred to as the Elemental Star. No, these two elements belonged to the star focused entirely on solitary magic elements, the Divine Star.

Pitch black for Karas, darkness, and ashen grey for Akasha, demon . They fell more in the uncommon range, all the elements in the Divine Star did. Well, in truth it was only called the Divine Star because it contained Diverta and Akasha, in truth it would be more fitting to just call it the Non-Reactive star.

Naturally, the fact that they couldn't be combined with other elements didn't mean that they were weaker, it just meant that they were too unique to properly merge with the others. That was especially the case for that ashen grey light, it was one of the two more unique elements.

Akasha. In the ancient language, it meant Demon. But in truth, it also had a secondary and a tertiary meaning, all depending on which text you took it from. Memorial and Memory. Some thought that this meant that Akasha was the memory of the world, a library of all things that had been.

But in the end, it also meant demon, so it was a demonic library. And that was reflected in the magic it became as well. As it was right now, Gabriel would not be able to cast even the lowest-ranked Akasha spell. It wouldn't be because he lacked the mana, it would be because he lacked the required ingredient.

Demons.

Akasha magic required demons, be they beasts that broke through a fissure between worlds or monsters deformed by mana. A dragon, as an example, was a highest-grade Demon, a Cataclysm Demon. Should an Akasha user manage to kill or subdue a dragon and use their magic on it, they would be able to use their Akasha magic in the future to call upon the elements and might of said dragon.

At the base-line, Akasha was the weakest element. But the growth potential it had was terrifying, only beneath Diverta, which drew power directly from the gods.

"Alright, guess that one's on hold for now."

Hunting demons? In his current state? He may as well just slit his own wrists to get it over with faster. Luckily, he still had Karas and Waraya, both would certainly be useful. Especially Karas, he was planning on doing a lot of things now that he knew what magic he had at his disposal, Karas would give him an extra layer of safety.

"Waaahh… That's Akasha, isn't it? It is, isn't it? And Karas too… Awawawa, you're amazing!"

Alice rubbed her eyes as she looked at the three colours, those two dull colours practically sparkling as they reflected in her crimson eyes. Two elements from the Divine Star, the last time something like this was recorded was around three thousand years ago, when the Sword Saint cut down the last king of demons, a Deicide-grade Demon.

"My Lady, I must ask for a favour. Please do not tell anyone about this. If news of this spreads, there's a good chance that the duke, the Imperial Family, or the family to the east will take me away. So we need to keep it a secret, otherwise I don't think we can keep staying together."

Gabriel had never seen Alice's mouth zip shut that quickly, for a second he was a bit worried that she would have cracked her teeth from how hurriedly she shut it. She nodded her head like a chicken to show that she understood it and quickly took the device from Gabriel, the lights within fading as she flipped the switch.

"I won't tell anyone, I promise! So you can't leave me either, okay?"

She held the device tight to her chest, her previous cheeriness slipping to give way to some worry. She knew her own position, and it had only become more apparent after Gabriel arrived. Forget her brothers, if the Imperial Family or the eastern family made him an offer then there wouldn't be anyone else in this world who could match it. And even if he rejected them, they could just force him, they had that authority.

"I won't. I already promised that, and promises are made to be kept. But you should return that before it's too late, there's no telling what Leonardo will do if he finds out"

Gabriel could only placate and distract the girl, who was just starting to understand how nice it was to have someone by her side and was thus extremely sensitive about losing it. Luckily, she didn't linger on the topic, remembering where she got the device from.

"Yes, yes! I'll get rid of it right now! We never had it, nope, never even seen it!"

She hurriedly stood up and darted out of the room as if she was holding hot coals. Gabriel was left alone again, still bare-chested with a wet towel over his shoulder. His gaze lowered to the wash-bin beneath him, his own face looking back at him. Silvery-white hair that hung a bit past his ears, violet pupils a shade so deep that you could get lost in them, tanned skin that was finally losing some of its roughness, and a pair of thin lips that were slowly pulling up into a smile.

"Right then… Leonardo, let's smash the back of your head a little."

Oh yes. He had only waited with acting until he found out what magic he could use because it would change his plans. The expected three weeks became a measly one thanks to Alice, now it was time to start moving, it was time to make this estate where she could actually live with some modicum of peace.