The three savored the mesmerizing view before them. The gentle breeze brought upon a sense of harmony. It was only a short moment ago that Galeila finished telling her story. Rume gazed intently at the spectacle, wanting to engrave it into her memories. This scene and moments that followed it, all the knowledge she obtained, were all very important to her, she wanted to never forget anything about it.

Amidst all that, Lein called out to her with an excited grin, Rume couldn’t tell the reason was.

“Rume.”

“Yes?”

“As for we are not doing anything at the moment. I will introduce to you the basic knowledge about magic.”

Looking forward to the subject, Rume leaned forward and moved closer to Lein with a bright smile.

“Yes please!”

“Good! Enthusiastic, I like it.”

Lein stood up and patted her clothes as not a single piece of grass remained. She fixed the position of her hat and fixed her scarlet hair. She appears to be extremely conscious about her appearance. Lein had already struck Rume as a very beautiful person, so Rume could imagine her still looking fine even if she didn’t fix herself too much.

But that was what Rume liked about her. She was so neat, not to mention beautiful. She admired her. She somewhat wanted to be like her.

“Right! Let us begin the lesson.”

Rume fixed her posture and straightened her back as she kneeled on the ground. Her mother taught her to be polite to adults, thus she figured this would be the best method to show respect and be polite.

“Lesson one! Introduction. There are several categories of magic! Please do your best to familiarize it dear student.”

Rume nodded. Galeila beside her also sitting on the ground had quite an impressed smile on her face while nodding as well.

“Oh, you’re really into it, huh. This is going to be interesting.”

“Hey! What are you sitting beside Rume for!?”

Galeila formed a quizzical look.

“Why wouldn’t I be? Because I will be listening to your lecture.”

Lein appeared to be in panic of some sort.

“Huh!? Why? You’re already too good to listen to the basics!”

“Come now, you don’t have to be embarrassed.”

“Me!? Embarrassed? No way, why would I be?”

She did say that, but Rume began to notice that her cheeks were starting to turn red. The little girl couldn’t fully fathom why Lein would be embarrassed though. She was just teaching, there was nothing embarrassing about it, right?

“Right. Continue, don’t make your students wait.”

“Why is student plural?”

“Because there are two of us?”

“Ugh! Never mind! I’ll just go on. Besides, this will only be short.”

She cleared her throat as she took a deep breath.

“Alright Rume. Magic spells are classified into several categories, or to be precise, into tiers. Low Tier, Middle Tier, High Tier, Grand Tier, Heroic Tier, Heavenly Tier, and lastly Divine Tier.”

Rume’s eyebrow twitched. Reason being was there were too many to remember.

“Um, Low? Middle… High… Grand…? Um…”

“Hm. I should have thought it was too much at once. Sorry, for the meantime, remembering up to High Tier is fine.”

Rume nodded. Those words were easier to remember.

“What do you think is the difference between those tiers? Why does it have classifications?”

Lein asked Rume. The question seemed easy to answer. Rume already had an idea about what they were for.

“They have classifications because each one is stronger than the other. Meaning, Middle Tier is stronger than Low Tier, like that…?”

“Exactly! The higher the tier, the stronger the magic. Low Tier is the lowest, and Divine is the highest. Thus, you Rume, will begin from Low Tier, in other words from beginner level. If you cannot cast low then how can you cast middle? Right?”

“I understand. So there is no way one can skip?”

“Of course not, that would just be ridiculous. No one can just suddenly get power out of nowhere without working for it. But that being said, there are those that have something called “Blessing”.”

“What’s that?”

“Individuals that have, you could say, special traits. For example, one can learn and cast magic faster than normal, or one can become skillful in using a sword faster. Some if they cast a spell, the stronger the spell would be than normal. It is rare to have a Blessing, but if they do, they should have a unique type of Blessing.”

“Do you have a Blessing, Miss Lein?”

“I can’t say I do… Hm, I don’t seem to have one. I'm as normal as you can get. But there could be something hidden deep within me. No one can precisely tell if one has a Blessing or not. Sometimes, there are those that are inconspicuous, and some are not. Some might even live their entire life not knowing they actually have one.”

Rume nodded in understanding.

How lucky if anyone has a Blessing.

As she heard, a person having a Blessing was rare. Still, it would be interesting to personally see someone having one. Though she could not find it in herself to be interested in the person, but only to the Blessing itself.

“Alright, moving on. As we are still on a field trip, I suppose I will teach you magic spells tomorrow. But there are still first steps into casting an actual one. And don’t worry, it will be easy at first.”

Lein smiled.

“I understand. Um, by the way, which Tier are you at, Miss Lein?”

“I’m at Heroic Tier.”

Rume’s eyes seemed to glitter.

“Wow! So you’re a hero?”

“Goodness no! I am not! Heroic Tier is just a name that determines that you are at the level of a hero, but you can’t exactly be a hero.”

“Why not?”

“To be a Hero, you need to be acknowledged as one, by the people or by a kingdom. Well, that is how it works here in the north.”

“I see. So are there heroes here?”

“Yes indeed, there are those that have the title of a Hero.”

“They must be very brave?”

“....... I think soooo…. But let’s not talk about them, for now let’s focus on magic.”

“Okay.”

“For now, I will show you what magic I will be teaching you first when we come to it.”

She held out her hand, then gradually, her hand began to glow with golden brilliance.

“Just a basic one. Though it could be brighter if it was nighttime.”

Even though it was just basic for the mage, Rume’s eyes were already wide in amazement. She only got more excited about learning it.

“Amazing. Can you cast more magic, please Miss Lein?”

“Of course. Hm, what should I cast...? Oh I know, I’ll show my original spell!”

She turned behind her and faced an open space.

“[Raving Streams].”

At her extended hand emerged a wild blaze of crimson flames. Then it split into three torrents of flames with two moving to the sides and one straight towards the middle. The flames were fierce and wide that one could devour a little girl like Rume whole. The three torrents then converged into the same spot a fair distance away then erupted into a ball of flame while sending strong wind that even reached where the three was.

Then the ball of flame bursted sending an even stronger wind that made everyone’s hair sway violently. With that, everything was over, what remained were small flames burning the grasses rooted on the ground.

“Quite flashy, Lein. But do you have to use such a destructive spell?”

Galeila asked Lein while nonchalantly sitting in contrast to Rume who was quite stiff after seeing such a fearsome spell.

“Why not?”

Galeila sighed. Apparently, Lein just used one powerful spell to impress the little girl. But perhaps it was too much.

“Well, to be honest, I am impressed to see you cast a spell of that caliber. However, do something about the remaining kindle of flames.”

“Right.”

She waved her hand and a burst of wind came forth, blowing off the tiny flames completely.

Seeing it, Rume was once again bewildered. It was mind boggling to witness that magic could make someone control both fire and wind. Magic can indeed do most of everything.

“Did you see that, Rume?”

Lein turned to Rume with a smug on her face.

“Yes! It’s amazing! Do you think I can also use fire, Miss Lein?”

“Of course you can.”

Rume gasped in anticipation.

“Then that means I can easily light a fire more easily every time I cook!”

It wasn’t easy to always grind pieces of rock together to create a spark and find something dry to light the fire. Mostly it was tiring, especially to the arms. But with magic, it will certainly be a breeze.

“.... Uh, mm, I’m not sure — well, yes you can use it on… that…”

Lein smiled wryly.

“Ahem. But you will need to of course start from the very beginning. I’m afraid you can’t learn to cast fire magic at that part yet.”

“That’s fine! I will do it, no matter what steps I have to take!”

“I’m impressed by your determination.”

Rume nodded, it was then that Rume was reminded about something. Something she was curious about.

“By the way, Miss Galeila.”

“Yes, Rume?”

“What tier are you at?”

She slightly tilted her head as she gave it a thought.

“Humans are what made those tiers, so I don’t think I can precisely tell where I’m at. But I am likely about Heavenly Tier.”

“-- That strong?!”

“Well, I am hundreds of years old, so… Plus I’m a dragon. Dragons are naturally stronger than humans.”

“It’s almost impossible for humans to reach Heavenly Tier. But it’s very rare, rarer than any chance of stars falling.”

“Unless a human is half of a species that is naturally stronger than a human.”

“That could work… It could have a higher chance”

Rume’s curiosity rose again after hearing the exchange.

“Half? Do you mean that there are those that are not… entirely human?”

It was a strange thing to know about it. Rume couldn’t begin to imagine how that person would be, in terms of appearance or maybe personality. Could one be half human and rabbit? Would they have ears of a rabbit? Or maybe a body of a rabbit and head of a human? Whatever she imagined, it did not bring any beautiful image in her head.

In fact, it made her feel somewhat frightened. She will likely run away upon seeing such a thing. Well, these were all just because of the horrifying images inside her mind. They might be more pretty to the eyes, you’ll never know. Thus she restrained her imaginations from going wild.

Lein replied to her question.

“Indeed. There isn’t really an exact term to be used. Hafling, Hybrid? Whatever word one wishes to use.”

“What kind of half could someone have?”

“Well, some might be half demon. What else… half elf, also half dragon.”

She was a bit familiar with demons because she had heard of it a couple of times. In addition, she already saw a dragon. However, she never heard of elf.

“Elf?”

“You never heard of them?”

Rume nodded her head.

“I see. To keep it simple. They are similar to humans, except they have long sharp ears, about the same length of their hand. Plus, they’re more slender than humans. And their women are naturally beautifu — Anyhow, they have several defining qualities.”

Rume’s mind once again was filled with imaginations. She was lucky to just even hear about them. As she wondered, she realized something.

“How does a half human and dragon look like?”

Rume naturally turned to look at Galeila, anticipating an answer.

“......” There was a delay to her reply however. Rume noticed that Galeila’s smile lowered for a second before returning. “Ah yes, well, they are naturally born in the form of a human, so the mother must give birth in human form. But such a thing is an incredibly rare occurrence so nothing much is said and known about it.”

“Oh I see.”

Rume recalled that only a few dragons could only turn into humans. Therefore, it was only expected that there was only little to tell about a person that was half human and half dragon.

Rume had a tiny idea of how adults create a baby of course. Her friends once talked about it, to be precise, the boys. But she didn’t think a lot about it. She was only an innocent little girl.

“Alright! Here ends the introductory lesson. Be prepared for tomorrow, okay Rume?”

“I understand!”

“Perfect.”