Luke didn't know how hard casting spells would be for him, but in the tower, some people took days or even weeks to manage it—and that after taking days to weeks to memorize every detail of a rune.

Fortunately, he had a cheat: his phoenix heart.

Not only did it give him perfect memory of runes so he would have no trouble using them in his spells, it also improved his fire affinity, thus making it easier for him to cast fire spells.

He would use both perks now. His very first spell would be a small, floating flame which required only one mana rune to work.

The fire rune didn't resemble fire at all. It was circle surrounding two rhombus which intersected with each other at a precise point. A dot was then added to the middle of the intersection and all around the circle at an specific interval. To finish it, a line cut through everything.

The runes in Luke's mana core were very small because he had inscribed them by chiseling his soul patiently. Spellcasting used runes made only of mana though, and his level 5 Mana Control couldn't deal with rough edges. It was one thing to form a tiny drill to pierce his soul, but another thing altogether to form something as complex as a mana rune. The smallest he could make his fire rune was as wide as an adult's hand, and he had barely enough mana in his permanence rune to draw it.

But barely enough was good enough.

Luke pulled the mana from his core, moved it through his single mana channel, then to the air. As soon as it stopped touching his soul, the mana started resisting his control, but it was still his thanks to the ownership rune. Even so, he had to keep it within two inches of his soul and use some willpower not to lose control over it.

Next, he started drawing the rune. He began from the central dot, then drew the rhombuses. He didn't drew them completely though. A simple rhombus could be a rotating rune—it forced mana to rotate—and if he drew them, they would activate unless he used more willpower to keep them from doing so. The way to prevent that was by keeping the separate parts of a rune incomplete until he was ready too cast the spell.

Luke realized right then that his muscle memory wasn't just muscle memory. When the phoenix heart had synchronized his memories, it affected more than his fighting ability. The little technique of keeping runes incomplete, for instance, had come to him naturally, as if he had done it before.

Or maybe that was muscle memory? Just because it was called muscle memory, it didn't mean it was only related to muscles.

Anyway, he had a much bigger advantage than he had thought. Something to think about when he wasn't focusing on something like drawing runes.

For now, Luke drew the circle, then the surrounding dots, the line, and completed the rhombuses. Right after, he added some extra instructions to the spell using only his will.

Finally, the spell was complete.

Fire appeared out of thin air in front of his chest. He swiftly pushed it away from him fast enough not to burn anything. The flame, which was small enough to be from a candle, just floated about half a yard away from him. And as he willed it, it also moved around.

He looked at it mesmerized.

The magic wonder only lasted for a few seconds, then the mana it was made of was spent, and the flame died.

Luke smiled like a fool.

He had done it.

He had done real magic.

The small flame wasn't anything to write home about, but it felt exhilarating to witness the supernatural, and to manage it at his first try to boot. The phoenix heart's memory sync had instantly made him as experienced as an old mage, which was a great boon.

It made him exhilarated. Before, he had wanted to finish building his mana channels before moving on to the next steps, but now? Now he couldn't wait for it anymore. He wanted to save his grandpa as soon as possible.

He was also ecstatic for succeeding on his very first try. It wasn't enough to make him a genius, as at least one in every ten novices could do it. It did put him in the upper echelons of mana users though, which would certainly contribute to his efforts to protect his loved ones in the future.

His next step toward greater power was improving his mana stats, which was done by strengthening his core runes. Days of non-stopping cycle would follow until he was ready to heal his grandad.

At least, that was the plan, but Sakura finally returned after only six cycles.

Sakura brought a new food tray as she approached. She was wearing a purple dress with silvery flowers, had put some light makeup on, and her hair was let loose.

"Hi," she said with a smile that gave him butterflies.

"Hi," he replied with a dumb smile of his own.

She approached and put the tray on top of him. The plate had shrimp in the pumpkin as the previous meal, and Sakura blushed a little. "This is the only Western-ish dish I can cook." Then she started feeding him. "I want to learn new dishes to cook to you, but the last days were... erratic."

It tasted as delicious as before. "You don't need to learn to cook Western food just for me; I'm up to tasting whatever you make," he said. "I never had Japanese food before, but some people are crazy for it, right?"

"Oh. I thought you didn't like it. Back in the elder's house, you only ever ate fried fish."

"I was wrong, please forgive me," he jocked and she giggled. "If you're up to it, I would love for your Japanese food to be my first," he said with a smile. "And after I'm good, I would love to cook for you too." His grandpa had no taste buds, but Luke believed he had some talent in the kitchen. He had found ways to make even cheap food taste good.

His face burned in shame as soon as he finished talking. He barely even believed he had said that at all.

He was flirting now?

Who was he and what did the system do to the true Luke Kells?

She smiled. "It'll be my pleasure."

Luke was surprised when he realized he ate the whole serving even though he had had lunch not too long ago. It seemed he was more hungry than he had realized. He failed to hold a burp in, and reddened right after it.

"Sorry," he said quickly, then completed. "And sorry for saying sorry."

She smiled faintly, but it quickly became annoyed. A moment later, it became outright discomfort.

Luke steeled himself for the worst. She had probably been told to let go of him and had agreed to it. It only made sense. Of course, he would support her decision and stay by her side as a friend for the rest of their lives.

Or would he?

It might be better to just... let go of it? To cut ties? That's what some people did, right? Was it the mature or the immature thing to do?

He was lost in thoughts when she said something that was nothing like what he had thought. "I have to apologize for my behavior. I keep acting like I know better, like I'm some sort of perfect wise person that's incapable of making mistakes. If you think you should apologize, you should apologize unless I convince you otherwise. You shouldn't shut up out of fear of me. I don't want to become another Jackson in your life."

Her words shocked him.

Indeed, she was becoming another kind of Jackson, wasn't she? The only difference was that he liked her, but he still feared her reaction and obeyed her words without a second thought, just like he did to his former bully.

"You're nothing like Jackson," he said quickly. Time to be a reassuring boyfriends. "You're not a demon."

Her first reaction was to look at a corner of the window, where Luke noticed a small camera for the first time.

'Shit,' he thought. They had recorded him casting a spell.

Sakura had said before that they were recording him, but it had just slipped his mind when he became pumped up to grow stronger for Sakura. She had even kissed him! How could he think straight after that?

He might have perfect memory, but he could still get distracted and not thing about the things he knew for a while.

Well, no use crying over the spilled milk. Not to mention, he would love to get distracted again with more kisses any day of the week...

"Speaking of Jackson, I think it's past time we talked about what happened at the hospital," she said, taking him from his useless musings. "But first, I want to tell you two things."

The way she said it worried him. "What is it?"

She hesitated, but ended up saying, "I... The first thing is..." She took a deep breathe. "I told the clan head about some of our interactions to date, and she... admonished me about telling you to stop behaving like cattle and fight back. I acted like... How would you Americans say it? An asshole. I acted like an asshole. I disrespected your difficulties, I dismissed your experiences, I disregarded your feelings." She stepped back, than bowed low. "I'm sorry I hurt you more than you were already hurt."

Luke got agitated at that. "What? No! You helped me! If it weren't for your words, I might not have fight back against Jackson. Did you see his broken finger? I did that after school the day we met!"

She shook her head, still bowing. "I cannot claim credit for being lucky. You're hurt, and you need care and affection, not more aggression."

Luke suddenly felt... pissed off. Very pissed off. He knew she wanted the best for him, but the way she was doing it...

"Sakura, didn't you just say you were behaving like a perfect wise person that knew better? You're doing it again!" he said exasperated, and she straightened up, eyes wide in surprise. "Please stop making decisions for me. I want you to be you. And I... I want to get better too. I'll work on myself, and I appreciate your input on how to accomplish it."

"I- I'm sorry." She bowed again. "I... I was raised to be in control, and that includes telling people what's better for them, and doing it regardless of what they might think or feel about it. I shouldn't be doing that to you though. I was also taught to treat the people I like as equals, not subordinates. I'm too used to being bossy but have little experience with maale friends. I also want to improve and will strive to do better."

"It's alright," Luke said quickly, feeling uncomfortable at the seriousness of her apology.

"On that note..." Sakura straightened up and said a little hesitantly, "It brings me to the second thing I want to talk about... I... There was something I had to do... So we could pursue a relationship... And I kind of... decided something without your asking your opinion first—"

"Luke Kells, what did you just do?" an unknown woman interrupted her as she entered the room.