Arcane Innovator

At last, she was here—my very own magic tutor. I looked at her slender figure as she approached with both excitement and nervousness.

She carried a large backpack on her back, which looked way too heavy for her, yet she carried it with seemingly no trouble at all. As she was walking across the courtyard with confident steps, her elegant crimson robes gently fluttered in the wind.

When she got closer, I slightly raised my eyebrows, as she didn't look like I imagined a venerable mage to look at all. She was tiny—a good head shorter than me. Her big eyes and childlike face made her actually look kind of cute, not projecting an image of a powerful mage at all.

I stared at her for a short while before I broke out of my stupor and quickly cleared my throat. "Ehm..." I didn't want to appear rude, so I hurriedly offered a slight bow of respect and said politely,

"Be welcomed, venerable magi, to our humble estate."

"..."

'Huh? Did I say something wrong?' I wondered worriedly as I quickly raised my head to look at her. After a moment of awkward silence, she looked at me for a brief moment with a complicated face and muttered,

"... Lily"

"Excuse me?" I blinked a few times as I stared at her with a puzzled face.

"... My name is Liliam, but you can call me Lily," she muttered in a barely audible voice.

"Oh, it's a pleasure to meet you, Master Lily. I'm Darian." I said with a bright smile before remembering what was customary to say in such instances and quickly adding in a respectful tone.

"I'm the one who is seeking your invaluable guidance, and I humbly request that you bestow your illustrious knowledge upon me..."

"..."

The corners of my mouth twitched as I once again didn't receive any response from her. Not sure what to do, I simply smiled at her and pointed toward the house.

"Please let me give you a tour of the house, and then we can discuss the details," I said with a forced smile, as this first meeting was not going at all how I imagined it would go.

Lily simply nodded but didn't say anything else as she silently followed me inside. It turned out that my new Master was a person of very few words indeed. During the tour, it was me who did all the talking, while Lily maintained her silence, only offering a small nod of acknowledgment at best.

After I left her to settle in the guest room I assigned for her, I released a heavy sigh. 'Is this going to work...?' I furrowed my brows.

In my excitement, I didn't pay it any attention before, but now that I stopped to think about it... It was kind of suspicious—why would such an important person settle for the lowly job of tutoring a commoner in the first place?

I couldn't help but chuckle. 'I guess I have my answer already... What a weirdo.' I shook my head frustratingly as I walked back to my room.

My only consolation was that despite her antics, she was still a graduate of the Grand Tower, so she must have some sort of amazing ability, right? At least I hope she does...

***

It was now time for dinner, and I instructed the cook to prepare a sumptuous feast to impress my new tutor. However, Lily seems not to be impressed at all. She simply ate what the maids placed in front of her with a deadpan expression.

Helga, who was sitting beside me, was throwing covert glances at Lily, being both curious and afraid, as she had never met anyone of such high status before. I cleared my throat as I decided to break the awkward silence.

"So, Master Lily, can you tell us something about yourself? Where have you come from, and what did you do before?" I asked her, hoping I could pry some information out of her.

"...I studied"

"Wait... so this is your first job after graduating?" I asked with widened eyes.

Lily looked at me briefly before nodding. The corners of my mouth twitched as I forced a smile. 'Great, so not only is she a weirdo, but she doesn't have any experience with teaching at all...'

The rest of the dinner we spent in complete silence, as I didn't dare ask her anything else, as every time Lily spoke, any kind of expectations I might have had about her were always utterly shattered.

In the morning of the next day came the moment of truth—my first magic lesson. I prayed to all the gods so that it wouldn't turn out to be disastrous, but in the end, my fears seemed to have been unfounded.

Lily turned out to be a surprisingly competent teacher. I, of course, had no one to compare her to, as she was my very first teacher in this world. But she still seemed very knowledgeable about magic. And most importantly, when she explained things to me, she also seemed to lose her aversion to talking.

"...Aether essence, or simply essence, is believed to be the primordial energy of the world left over by the gods from the Creation itself," Lily explained as we sat in a spacious room on the second floor I designated as a study.

I already knew the basics, but I still listened attentively. Not just because Theo might have some inaccurate information as he was not a mage himself, but also because I didn't want Lily to know I learned to cast spells on my own.

The reason was quite simple. From everything that Theo told me plus the several magic theory books I had the opportunity to skim through in Sir Roderick's collection during my brief visit, I figured out that my approach to learning magic was quite unorthodox indeed.

As I didn't previously have access to any magical knowledge, I used the only thing I had access to: my memories from Earth. It worked somehow, but it was not even close to how magic is done here...

Thus, in order to not stick out like a sore thumb when I travel to the Grand Tower, I decided to forget all that I knew and start learning everything from scratch the proper way.

Of course, I won't simply discard everything I've learned so far, as I believe some of my own inventions are already quite an improvement over standard practice. But doing things this way will give me a better perspective on the two systems, and afterward, I can combine the best parts of each of them.

So I continued to listen to Lily's explanations for the rest of the lesson with keen interest. I also wondered if we would move on to some practical demonstration of the concepts she was explaining to me...

I was eagerly looking forward to seeing Lily cast some magic, but to my great disappointment, the first lesson turned out to be just a theory class.

'What a bummer...' I masked my disappointment behind a smile as Lily finished her lesson, and then she instantly reverted to her silent persona and left the room without uttering another word. I just shook my head in utter bewilderment and left the room too...

In the following days, I continued to have more lessons. But I couldn't help but feel a slight disappointment that it was all still only a theory.

However, it kind of makes sense. I had the hindsight of over ten years of self-study by trial and error, but everyone else wouldn't know the first thing about magic, so starting with the basics kind of made sense.

That doesn't mean I was bored; on the contrary, Lily turned out to be an excellent teacher and was able to explain things clearly and in a way that was easy to understand.

The ancient tongue was the language of magic, and each word was somehow able to control and shape the essence itself, requiring no extra effort on your part, which was kind of neat. This meant that even in the heat of battle, all you needed to do was chant the incantation, and it would always work perfectly.

I also learned an interesting piece of information that I didn't know before. There were two distinct ways to cast a spell: you either chanted an incantation with the ancient tongue or drew a magic circle using the ancient script.

I already knew that there were magic circles, as they are used in alchemy. But I always thought it was just a way for people with insignificant talents to utilize their limited essence. But apparently, they were also used to cast spells, and you could achieve the same result with either the circle or the incantation.

But this begged the question: if you can deploy your magic by simply chanting an incantation, then what is the point of the magic circles in the first place?

When I asked Lily about it, she showed a rare, subtle smile and explained that they are, in fact, very useful for complicated spells. In the case of incantations, you need to specify the effect precisely, and the more complicated the spell, the longer the incantation.

With the circle, however, it all depends on how well you design it. With a clever application, each symbol could then perform multiple functions, allowing you to achieve much more profound effects with less essence.

I continued to diligently digest all of Lily's theory lessons in the following weeks, and during this time I became all but convinced there wouldn't be any practical lessons at all.

But when I came to the study room on one sunny morning in the middle of autumn and was preparing to sit down to listen to my Master's teachings like usual, Lily suddenly raised her head and looked straight at me for a short while before pointing with her finger at the window.

"...We shall go out today. It is time for you to learn how to cast a spell."