Roles to play

I wake up the next day with a bad taste in my mouth, Sabre told me I was useless in combat, well I lucked out with this body I suppose. I might make a few bucks as a street magician perhaps but what would that help in a world that has actual magic?

It seems Gordy was not one to exercise and neither was his father as not only did I have no good athlete genes but I also have undeveloped muscles and as much as I'd hate to admit it, I'll be useless in this fight with just 3 weeks of training.

I've been trying to develop a new spell but it seems to be instinctive or requires great devotion and knowledge. The mentors the king gave me were pieces of crap who spoke of ambiguous garbage like "Focus your magic" or "gather your life energy". First of all how the hell do you focus magic? It's like telling a bird to manipulate the wind, just because the bird uses it for a flight doesn't mean it can control it, and don't even get me started with all this spiritual bull.

Alright, I'll try to figure it out myself, but maybe some other time as I need to prepare for something bigger.

Now we go to major hurdle number one, I lack the manpower to defeat what Shadow reported is 300 men or so. To solve that I'll probably have to ask Rexcarius which I act upon immediately because there is still a lot I need to do today.

As I knock on the doors of his throne room I feel a slight breeze from the seams, as if a hurricane passed by and when I enter, a chair nearly hit my head as gusts of wind circle and individual I cannot see due to the fog.

Far ahead is the throne where everything remains the same and Rexcarius sits unimpressed with the intruder's little magic show.

The intruder notices me and aims his visible wind arrows at me.

" Mirror world"

I cast on him, now I more or less get the gist of mirror world and its possible uses, one is of course bait which their eyes to see through my memories and when they see my father where I stand, most people want to hurt him as well, the second use which I happen to utilize now is to make a literal mirror giving the target a view of himself from the memory I just had of him, a literal mirror you may assume.

Now mirror world has a few limitations, one is that the moment the target realizes it's a trick, it becomes useless, two is that the better I can remember something the more effect it has and the longer it lasts so I can't make them see visions of me as a baby seeing as I don't remember then myself, and third is that its effects vary from every person, the less susceptible to pain a person is the less the spell works making a spoiled brat like Alfron who barely felt the pains of the real world most susceptible and emotionally broken people like Shadow practically immune.

The wind man got distracted for a bit giving me a chance to run to Rexcarius where the length of his mana which created a force field of sorts negated all sorts of combat magic.

"Good day to you Spade"

Rexcarius greets.

"Good morning your majesty, care to tell me who this pretentious man is?"

"Say that again and you won't live to see tomorrow you lowlife"

Guss, my nickname for him coming from the word gust said as he removed his hurricane and became clearer.

Apparently, Guss is a Windy because a striking young woman presented herself as she walked towards us.

"Oh, she's good, mind if I take her?"

"Help yourself"

Rexcarius perforated said.

"Take me? Do you have any idea who I am?!"

Windy agitatedly complained.

"Of course your Windy, the girl who almost impaled me with a chair"

"Who is this man your majesty? a jester? poor taste for one if I may intrude"

"This man is Spade, you will be following him starting today"

"b-but! Uncle, you can't be serious!"

Hoho a relative, I see.

"Go wait outside the door now Windy"

"Scum, call me that name again, I dare you!"

Windy said as she pointed visible wind daggers at me.

"I'm sorry that was inconsiderate of me, what is your name madame?"

Windy became confused by my sudden change of personality.

"My name is Myrtle Revonah–"

I quickly cast my mirror world and made her see a brief show of things I did including beating Rexcarius, rescuing Zyderine, and helping with the upcoming rebellion.

When she snapped out of it she turned her attention to the king.

"A rebellion?!"

Rexcarius only nodded which wouldn't surprise me that he already knew.

She then looked at me.

"Everything you showed me, were they all true?"

"Well, it did come from my memories"

"I can't believe this! Lacquer would betray you?!"

"Well, one of the things I've learned is that when it comes to war, the ones you can't win without–"

He paused and looked at me.

"Are the ones most likely to cause your defeat"

Was that advice? Who would cause our defeat? Is it Alfron and Crystal's inexperience? Zyderine and mine's lack of power? shity old man talking in riddles again.

"I see, very well I'll be waiting for your instructions outside, Escroc"

I nod as she walks away.

"Now then let's talk business your highness"

"The squadron is waiting for you in the battle hall, it consists of 100 footmen and 50 skilled snipers, that is all I'm willing to give"

Well that settles that then, as long as I have a tactical advantage I'll win. I left Rexcarius as I get out and Windy is waiting for me patiently.

"How do you plan on beating Lacquer without any magic?"

Good question but to answer that I'll need a bit more time and research, both of which are limited.

"What do you know about combination spells?"

I say as I walked and she likewise followed me.

"Hehe you've asked the right person, I happen to be adept at combination magic. From my personal experience I've learned that it requires two things that are simple but tricky, chemistry between the magic attributes and between the casters"

"Chemistry?"

"Yeah, apparently for some no matter how hard they try to combine their spells nothing happens. I have tried it myself and although I have done combination magic many times before and with the same magical attribute mind you, we still couldn't do it"

I'll have to look into that later. First things first is that I need to make sure that Crystal and Alfron are compatible, I mean it should be as they come from the same sources. Magic attributes can be both Inherited and earned by either having magical parents or being recognised by the gods which I assume is just cult talk for it's purely luck.

I do notice however the magic spells vary from one's personality, Alfron's is showy and brave like him, Crystal's is Subtle and elegant, Zyderine's is uncontrollable and fierce, and mine is calculating and dependent. Even Myrtle's magic complemented her unwavering but logical personality as she had control of the wind that although it was still free and indivisible, she could still make shapes out of it which was invisible yet painful.

"Where are we going?"

"I need you help creating a combination spell with Alfron and Crystal"

She was surprised.

"First of all I doubt you can pull that off but secondly how did you know that I'm an expert at combination magic?"

"I didn't"

"But you already knew early on to ask for my help?"

"Yes"

"How does that make any sense?"

"Whether you were an expert or not is irrelevant"

"Why? How exactly am I going to help?"

"By being the target dummy"

Complain immediately when I said that.

"I'm royaltly yo... no matter how...who do you….I won't..."

I hear groans as I continue to ignore her objections but doze off in the middle of her sentences. I'm really sleep, guess even the circadian rhythm is messed up in this world.

"Ah we have arrived"

I finally rest my ear.

"Hey are you even listening to me?"

Crystal and Alfrin have been patiently waiting for me and they both seem to have better conditions today. Granted, Alfron still doesn't talk to his sister.

"Myrtle!! I missed you cousin"

Crystal hugged Myrtle as soon as she saw us. While they were catching up, Alfron approached me.

"So is this how you're going to defeat Lacquer? I know that the both of us are strong but I have seen Lacquer in his weakest and we barely even have a chance against that"

"Let me tell you something about horses Alfron, when two of them work together they can carry 4 times the weight of what one can do on it's own. Believe in yourself, and more importantly believe in your sister"

Alfron still has a long way with connecting with his sister, and although he has acknowledged her strength he still needs to see her as an equal.

At the very least they can be rivals and together they will polish each other in ways I could never achieve with Crystal if I trained her alone and then when it's all said and done and their relationship becomes strong, I will destroy the very foundations and have Crystal destroy Alfron.

She would fall into despair and I shall be the one who holds control over her. Zyderine's role in this is the glue that bonds them together.

"Alright Escroc what do you want me to do?"

"Stand there "

"What just… and how wo..."

I'm becoming better at muting this noisy girl at least.

"Now you two I want you to combine you spells and pierce her force field"

Alfron immediately released a stone shard and it went through Myrtle's wind shield and bumped her head. I suppose I need a stronger test dummy.

"Alfron! How be gentler to how you treat Myrtle"

Wow Crystal is really vocal when it comes to people she loves.

"It's her fault for being so weak"

"I said together didn't I?" I scolded and checked on Myrtle.

"I'm fine" She said that but her forehead was swollen and bleeding.

"She said she's fine, We need to take this seriously if we want to defeat Lacquer"

"If you want to take it seriously then Myrtle would hardly be the best dummy"

Zyderine came and started chanting and when she ended, constellations glowed and from that came a ram with silvery wool.

"Why don't you try Aries now then"

She suggested and Alfron casted the same rock shard and before it could reach the ram's fur the rock turned to ashes as it touched the wind surrounding Aries.

"So this is a familiar!"

Myrtle exclaimed, amazed by it's majestic appearance.

Zyderine showed no interest in Myrtle and started to instruct the two.

"What the two of you need is to be in sync so how about for every failed attempt you make, a secret is revealed?"

"Whaaat!"

Both of them gasped.

"If you take this as seriously as you claim then you will approve"

Crystal looked at the ground flustered while Alfron was conflicted. At times these three actually seem like real siblings, it's odd they aren't like this all the time when obviously they care for each other, even the arrogant Alfron actually respects his older sister actually.

"I-I'll do it" Crystal meekly agreed.

"See Alfron, what about it then? Will you let a girl outmatch you?"

There's the daily dose of toxic masculinity, wow they are really seeming like generic, sitcom siblings.

"Damn it I'll do it!"

At their first attempt, Alfron didn't rush into it anymore and consulted Crystal on how they will be adding to the speed that it pierces the ram before it disintegrates and they made it like a slingshot with Crystal's vines as the bow and Alfron aiming his sharpened shard.

As the propelled it, the shard was released in an amazingly fast rate, almost twice as the previous bullet however it still failed to reach the ram's fur.

The pressure Zyderine is one I'd rather not use because although it gets the subject working harder because of the punishments, it also makes them really stressed and quick to burn out with every failed attempt.

I expect in a matter of an hour of no progress, either Alfron will blow up or Crystal would give up. I'd rather use reward method where for each progress their rewarded and rather than focusing on the failures they'll focus on their progress but if I do that then Zyderine might be the one upset.

It's times like these where knowledge from another world comes in handy because I have an idea.

"Let's have a competition shall we? If you can beat me and Myrtle in creating a spell that ram first then I'll cook something none of you have ever tried before"

"Hahaha you can consider yourself beaten, how would illusions penetrate that ram?"

Alfron bragged.

I'll also mention I can only do one spell but that doesn't really matter, I'll only need to get them distracted from the pressure so they wouldn't burn out.

What will I be cooking? Tsk tsk tsk, I'm a middle aged man who lives alone with access to internet, and no I didn't just use it for porn you judgemenatal bastard, I used it to increase my skill in cooking and I know a lot of recipes using only very little ingredients, because I was also poor.

"I would talk to flowers when because I'm lonely sometimes…" Crystal confessedd embarrassingly, I forgot about their little arrangement.

Myrtle hugged Crystal in pity.

"I changed my friend's answers on some tests to make me seem like the smartest" Alfron also confessed but not with a flustered look but one of a smug kid caught cheating. He wasn't guilty in the least.

Both Myrtle and Zyrerine then gave him a judgemental look. Alfron just averted his eyes and created another plan.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

- 2 hours and 6 secrets later-

The peeping tom, booze stealer, forest shitter and cheater Alfron becomes flustered after knowing that the remaining secrets he has are going to be brutal for him and the least damaging was the fact he was jealous of his sisters and if he admits that then he'd lose face. while his food stealing, garbage smelling, and stable sleeping sister has a similar problem because the remaining secret she has involves her crush to Spade.

After 6 attempts they have seen their mistakes and they now know not to make the shard too small, reinforce it with magic petals, and not too rely too much on the vines. This shall be their final attempt because if they do anymore they wouldn't be able to face the people present there.

Slowly Alfron creates his shard, making sure there isn't any excess edges that could slow it down, at the same time Crystal enshrouds it with petals to make it moist and also sharper, then Alfron surrounded his hands with stone making it thick while some vines enter it that allowed Crystal some control. Then lastly the bow was created and they released the shard in to the air.

"This must work!" They both think simultaneously.

As the Shard was released from the air and propelled by the bow, Alfron punched it to add acceleration and with his strength added by the vines of Crystal, the shard was propelled quicker than the blink of an eye, in fact it was so fast that it broke the sound barrier and created a sonic boom that blew away areas of the castle walls from just it's release.

When the smoke cleared, a hole on the ground where impact occurred leaving a ripple like shape as if a small meteor hit the area, which is why it was called "Shooting Star"

When they looked Aries was nowhere to be found and Zyderine clapped in congratulations. Both Crystal and Alfron cheered with delight and Spade and Zyderine looked at each other.

Later on when the two rested and Myrtle came with Crystal, Zyderine approached Spade.

"You created an illusion"

Which was true because Spade feared the effects it could have on the two should their last attempt fail, he could at least make sure first and if things are fine just remove the illusion.

"And you released Aries"

This was also true as being their sibling Zyderine couldn't bear the embarrassment she has put them into and as amazing as the move was, it wasn't enough to destroy one of her strongest zodiac.

"I'm still stronger than the both of them you know, besides they deserve this"

"You make a much better teacher than a student" Spade teased.

"And you are much better when you're not there" Zyderine retorted.

They both joked and chuckled for a while then parted ways as Spade still had a promise to fulfil.

When Spade entered the Palace's kitchen although he was alarmed by the few health protocols, he was still amazed at the size of it and the variety of goods and cooking equipment despite being in the middle age era.

The cooks saw Spade but they just let him be as he was one of the King's pets and they would rather not be involved with him but still stared intently as he came searching for things and eventually settled with taking salt, flour, sourdough, lard, cheese, and duck meat and proceeded to cook.

He first mixed the flour and sourdough then put some warm water in it and kneaded like you would bread but instead he made it flat and circular, he then proceeded to cut the cheese and duck meat, put the ingredients together and then cooked it in the brick oven.

This style was unorthodox in the least, putting meat in bread at the same time it cooked? This seemed absurd at the time putting cheese in that as well but then it began to smell wonderful and after around half an hour and Spade revealed the dish, it looked absolutely delicious in their eyes and they would later copy it and make versions of their own.

A few years later after Spade's first dish, all sorts of flour dishes were created along with cheesebread and pizza and Spade became known as the "Mysterious Scholar Baker" in the cuisine world.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When I served it to the Valhaliens they found it delicious which was ironic because back in my world, it was bland and cheap especially with the duck meat that wasn't genetically enhanced by the good farmers of the past, I really didn't have a choice because domesticated pork and chicken also didn't exist neither did tomato sauce, parmesan cheese or pepperoni so i made due with what I had. Damn magic made people lazy and slightly stopped playing God ironically.

When dinner was over, Crystal and Alfron seemed to have created a new bond because they started talking a lot of improvements to their spells and all that, even Rexcarius was surprised at the interactionn between the two.

I had one more stop before I go to bed and it is to no other than Lacquer. These environments, it's enough to make even me feel at home, surely he feels the same. I want to give it one try before I fight him, convince him that this could still be his home, like it became mine.