“How about we discuss this elsewhere?” I asked the elven instructor, Steyza Rilas.

Someone behind her pushed her out of the way. “We will discuss this with you contained!”

The person looked to be equipped to deal with lawbreakers. And what’s more, there were three of them. Interesting.

“Nah. Spent a day inside there. That’s enough.” I held Steyza’s hand and casted Invisibility on both of us.

When we got out, I advised her to just chalk up her disappearance as a kidnapping. “Don’t want you getting in trouble for running away now.”

“I don’t think that would be necessary. I reported you to the government. Not even the Rizt family has sway over them.”

“Hmm, well, that’s good?” I said, a bit unsure. “Hey, why are you looking out for me? You don’t know me, nor do you know why I’m here.”

She shrugged, “Intuition? Besides, you cast spells without a conductor. Do you not realise how ridiculous that is? You would be nothing more than a test subject if this matter stayed silent.”

Test subject? Really, where in blazes am I? I thought, going silent. My thoughts tripped over each other a bit, until Steyza got me back to the present. “I suggest you return to the guardsmen. They might think you’re a criminal, but they can’t forcefully detain you. Kidnapping gives them a reason though…”

“Hmm, guess you’re right.” We went back. Thankfully we caught the guards as they were leaving. We took a teleportation pad to somewhere, and then I basically ended up in a room in some building. This lasted for days, but hell, I wasn’t going to sit back and do nothing all that time. I made sure my clones were eavesdropping on every important-looking discussion in the building.

Turned out that word of me got out mighty fast, especially to other big elven families. Many of them tried bribes, many of them failed. Synthesised mana crystals, their currency apparently, was offered in what I could only assume was outrageous amounts. Still, the government officials were absolute no-nonsense people that wouldn’t accept any sort of bribe. Until…

“You know what I want,” headmaster Rizt stood up and gently pat a high-status government worker on the shoulder, “don’t make this harder than it should be.” After, he simply ambled off, leaving the worker with a stunned face.

Some hours later, I was back at the Rizt family’s school. How many days have gone?

“Five, I think. That’s impressive. If this were the old you,” she chuckled, “well…”

I’m pretty close to the old me right now. I walked along the corridor, right back to the headmaster’s office with ten city guards surrounding me. When I entered, I saw a bunch of people gathered. Some sitting, some standing. The headmaster gestured the guards to wait outside.

A wordless office it was. So, this is the family. They do resemble each other. Activating Life Perception, I noticed that someone sat out of my sight in a corner, but the other eighteen family members I could see perfectly fine. “So, this is the Rizt family. Such a happy looking family.” None of them said a word, only looked at me. “Well then, guess I’ll be off. Hope your wife gets well soon.”

As I turned to walk away, a magic binding entrapped me. But man, was it weak. Dispel did away with it. One of them rushed in, forming a blade out of pure mana. It was amazing, but still pretty weak. The young man swung down at me, and since I knew he wasn’t trying to kill me, I didn’t dodge. A large cut spread open from my shoulder going down my chest and ending at the side of my stomach. Renew immediately reversed those effects and Discharge stunned my attacker afterward.

“You people must be foolhardy to try such things against a being you know nothing of. I greatly overestimated your magical prowess before, that’s why I used a stronger spell and damaged the matriarch of this family. You’re lucky I didn’t decide to kill her. Now, I don’t know what you want from me, or why you tried to set me up the first time you saw me, but I believe in second chances.”

I walked forward, towards the table, through some family members and stopped in front of the headmaster’s table. “We can bury whatever problems we had and start over, or we can keep fighting. But if you choose the latter, I will simply walk out of here. If you choose to stop me from doing that,” I leaned forward on his desk, “I won’t hesitate to kill.” My hand was extended at this point. A handshake could fix everything.

The person sitting out my line of sight got up and simply walked out the room. Not sure what that was about, but the warmth of the headmaster’s hand just put them on my somewhat good side. “How about we have a mutually beneficial relationship? You teach us how it is you learned to cast without incantations and mana conductors, and we get you whatever you’d like.”

“I’m afraid I’d need to sit-in on one of Steyza’s classes to learn what those are in the first place. And once I understand it, I’ll let you know if it can be done.”

“Take him,” he said to one of his children.

We took a quiet stroll through the empty hallways and rudely interrupted Steyza’s class. The boy entered the class with me, earning the gasps of the students. He had some sort of conversation with Steyza and left. Looking up at the rows of seats, in the back of the class was someone who felt familiar. That was the person who walked out the office just now, I think. They certainly resembled their family so I’d bet my money she was in there with us a minute ago.

I took a seat near her. Because why not? Her jet-black hair had a sheen in the brightly lit room, distracting me a little. “You hate your family, don’t you?”

She glanced me when I asked that question, and moved her hair behind her ear. That was some unfair beauty these elves had. “What’s it to you?”

“Nothing, really. Just an observation. They ostracised you for some reason.” I didn’t really care why she was the black sheep of the family, but I figured I could use her to get information.

She properly looked at me this time, but eventually placed her attention on Steyza, “Class is in session,” she muttered.

At the end of class, the students bombarded me with questions. Most of them were teens, I think. It was hard to tell with elves, but their excitement certainly painted them at that age. The Black Sheep slipped away, and Steyza was busy writing something.

A clanking, hissing sound was heard in the distance, getting louder and closer as time went by. Judging from the confused faces of my current classmates, this wasn’t the norm. Before anyone of us thought to go look at whatever the source of the sound was, something suddenly busted through the walls of the class. It was… a robot? Hydra’s ass…

It faced me and the horde of girls surrounding me. Its arm raised and a harpoon of sorts flew straight to me. Convergence lifted its trajectory off of any of us. Some people began their incantations. I’d have never noticed if they didn’t tell me about it. But by the time they got halfway through, a Convergence orb would’ve already fallen the robot. I flew up and went over to it, placing it in a Water Prison and effectively shorting it out.

Steyza was pretty shaken up. Almost terrified, more so than the students. Something didn’t ring right about all of this. The very person who has authority to detain people, cowers the most at the sight of a robot? Whatever that was, it meant something to her. Staring at the thing’s bronze exterior, my mind wandered the planes of curiosity. “Steyza, where the hell am I?”

She looked me in the eyes, still shook up. I cast Vivify and calmed everyone, then closed the distance between me and her. “Answer my question.”

“T-this world is called Jynnak. This country is home to the elves. We’re in the Rizt Institute in the central province.”

Hmm, Jynnak. Why do I feel like I’ve heard that somewhere before? Interesting.

“T-thank you.”

“You know the deal with that thing, don’t you? Tell me everything later.”

She feigned ignorance, claiming she doesn’t know what it even was.

“Hmm,” Donna strutted around my mind, “now what are the chances of the attack not concerning you?”

About as low as my dignity. And that’s pretty low.

“Exactly.”

You’re supposed to disagree you heifer.

I created a Light Link in Steyza. She felt it, but didn’t even reject it. A little regret set in for not doing the same with the Black Sheep.

Night fell soon enough and I was treated just like Bianca back in Methelia. Guards ensured there were eyes on me at all times. So, when I went to the washroom, I switched out with a clone and went about my stalking.

I arrived at quite the awkward time. Steyza was shagging. So, I waited. A while later, the man stepped out and walked into the city’s dimmed alleys.

“Interesting,” I commented whilst relaxing on her sofa. She gasped, jumping and aiming a wand at me. The other hand kept her towel from falling and displaying the goods. “Didn’t know you had a thing for the dark, mysterious type.” Her face foraged around, encapsulating a series of emotions before she arrived at a sigh of relief, somewhat.

“I thought you were a burglar!”

“If burglars are dark and mysterious, then sure I am. I can’t believe you have a man. My heart’s broken in pieces,” I grabbed at my chest in dramatic agony and just then, Donna came out.

“Don’t mind his theatrics. I’m a friend of his who lives in his mind. Name’s Donna. So, Steyza–”

“What spell were you going to cast on me with your magic wand?” I cut in front of Donna, wanting to get that biting piece of information out of the way first.

“Uh, um, eh…”

“Well? You weren’t going to kill me, were you?”

“Of, course not,” she chuckled nervously. “Paralight. A directed light that stuns the target.”

“Any long-term damage?”

“N-no.”

“Do it,” I told her, truly interested to know the kind of spell she’d use on a burglar. Actually, this was all part of getting a feel for how powerful elves were in general. I know, I know, you’re going to tell me my sample size makes whatever hypothesis I could conjure null and void, but it’s not like I would stop there.

Steyza looked at Donna, then gave me a second look, one that said I was an idiot but also gave me the benefit of the doubt that I was that idiotic. Boy, did I prove her wrong. “I’m dead serious. Use it on me,” I concreted. She glanced at Donna again, almost as if asking for permission from a parent. Donna glided over to the heavy-chested elf and gave her the okay.

“R-ready?” she asked again.

“Just do it,” I opened my eyes, making sure not to blink. After a hot second of some incantation, the wand burst forth a bright light and I was dazed. My motor senses fell apart for a couple seconds but quickly returned. My sight however stayed with the burn-in image of pure white for about thirty seconds. After it all faded naturally, I asked her to do it another time. This time I used Dispel but it didn’t do much because that Paralight spell messed with your physiological workings. Renew fixed it right away. Hmm…

“Steyza, you gorgeous, gorgeous woman, would you mind obliging me tonight?”

Her face, once again, had an orgy with a kaleidoscope of emotions, until she calmed herself with yet another sigh. “Sorry, you’re not dark and mysterious.”

“Fair enough. But I wasn’t talking about giving you the best time you’ll ever experience in your entire life.” She scoffed laughingly at that statement. “I was talking about answering some questions of mine, and doing me a favour tomorrow.”

Donna, such a sweetheart, conjured up some tea for us as she sat quietly leaned against me. “Well, maybe. But nothing’s free,” Steyza warned, a smirk on her face. I didn’t know what she’d want, but I had to go with it. At that point though, I truly wondered if I should just use overwhelming power and enforce my will the way I saw fit. But, y’know, being married to the royal negotiator gave me a liking for the art of the tongue – not in that way.

“You scratch my back, I scratch yours, huh? Okay, teacher. Let’s hear that request of yours.”

She stopped crossing her feet and sat straight-legged, if that was a thing. With a lean forward and all smiles vanishing, she emphasised the weight of what she was about to say. “A law is about to be passed. It states that all independent uses of SMCs are to be prohibited. Only certain government officials and specially delegated people may use it, aside from law enforcement, of course. That law,” she clenched the tea cup, “cannot be passed.”

“Hmm, I see, I see,” I gave my chin a swift rub.

Donna leaned in even more, intending to cuddle, “Laymen’s terms, honey. He didn’t understand a thing. First, explain what an SMC is.”

“Oh,” Steyza realised her blunder. “Synthesised Mana Crystal. It’s basically a little gem with fake mana inside it. We use SMC’s to cast spells that we can’t usually cast, spells that are too demanding. There are three groups of people that would have authority to use it. And there is one group that benefits from monopolising SMCs. The three with authorisation are government officials, law enforcement, and ‘specialised personnel’, which just means rich folk, which translates to the five great families.

The biggest manufacturer of SMCs is one of those families, called Genuk. If the Genuks can control who gets SMCs, they control the magical strength of the entire country. They can undercut whoever they want, whenever they want. You following?”

I shook my head negatively, “Those big bouncy breasts are a distraction.” She pulled tried to fold her arms over them, but it just made the situation worse and gave me a hearty bout of laughter. “Anyway, so how do you propose we stop the law from becoming, well, a law?”

She looked down, her wine-red hair falling over her mounds of paradise. “Chaos. Panic.”

“Eh?” I didn’t like the sound of where this conversation was going. She was bargaining at a way higher level than I had in mind.

She put her tea down and looked me dead in my eyes. “I don’t know how you’re going to do it, but you have to severely injure a bunch of people. It has to look like a freak accident of some sort as well. You also can’t reveal who you are. Seeing that you cast without incantations or conductors, the families could easily identify you. That can’t happen.

Now, I don’t want you kill anyone. The power of your spells must be enough to force the public to use whatever SMCs they may have to defend themselves, but weak enough so they don’t actually die. Only by the widespread and public use of SMCs in situations like that, could the government see the issue with passing such a law.”

“Wow,” I leaned back to soak in the importance of what she just said. I’d have to confirm all of this is true in the first place. “There’s an issue there.”

“And that is?”

“I don’t know any of your incantations, nor do I know how to use your fancy wands and staffs. So, is there something like, I don’t know… a beast? Something that could rampage about that the locals are familiar with. Something that wouldn’t seem out of place, despite being a rare occurrence.”

She dwelled in thought for a minute or two, shaking her head and rejecting certain things that came to mind until she finally found a way. “I’ve got it! A festival is coming up, and in it we use a variety of different magical beasts to perform a show every night. If, one of those nights, one of the beasts were to escape…”

“Great, you found a way. You can fill me in on the details later. Now, time for my part…”

For the rest of the night, my questions were things that would get me up to speed with common knowledge in Jynnak. It turned out that, elves were the magically superior race, yes, but they were extremely weak nonetheless – at least compared to humans back where I’m from.

The average elf would be out of mana after casting an average of five average spells. That’s a lot of averages. Although their mana pool was absolutely awful, it appeared their biology looked out for them in other ways. Elves had Division from birth. Steyza was so confused at that question because she never once had the thought that using mana could sap physical stamina. So, whilst humans’ mana pools were much bigger, our lack of Division made our ammunition limited. On the other hand, elves could cast any spells as long as they had enough mana to do so, but their top tier spells had the hurdle of a big mana cost. That’s why they used SMCs.

Hmm, what else did I learn? Oh yeah, magic was everything here, however, it was also nothing. Let me explain. So, remember Ulanos? Yeah, those warlike guys? Military success meant everything there. It determined the quality of life for you and your family.

For the elves, magic was everything. Every job made use of magic. Even keeping the street lights on a particular street powered was a proper job here. Elves had variety, lots and lots of variety. This variety, coupled with their tendency for peace, ironed out a lot of judgment and classification of society. Most people were truly equal here; and that brings us to the other end of the spectrum – those very bad at magic.

If you were bad at magic here, it meant you kept messing up the magic sequences for a spell or the incantations, but there would always be spells with a limited amount of sequences and incantations, which meant, no matter how bad you were, there was a job for you. In fact, most of the elven population used magic so much, that there was a demand for people to work jobs requiring the most basic spells, and even those jobs paid well.

Why am I saying all of this? Well, to tell you that the elves were a striving race and most of their shady side was nothing to be feared. Crime was near non-existent. This was largely because of the government’s hold on every part of society. Rules were strictly enforced and it was extremely hard to commit even the simplest of crimes without being caught.

“Oh, could you tell Black She–” I stopped myself when I realised Steyza wouldn’t know someone based off a nickname I decided to give them. She raised a brow.

“There’s this girl…”

“I thought you liked me? You moved on so fast,” she teased.

“You’re only giving it up to the dark and mysterious types, and I’m not that. Anyway, it’s someone from the Rizt family. Elves confuse me with your ages, but she looked like the youngest. Seems disconnected from the rest of the family.”

“Yeah, I know who you’re talking about. What about her?”

“I want to speak with her. Can you arrange that?”

“Sure. Is that it? I thought it’d be something difficult.”

“Of course, it isn’t. You still owe me one for doing this law thing,” I ogled her body in a rather suggestive way.

“I’m already over a hundred years,” she smiled, “but I wouldn’t say no to you. If, you do your job perfectly.”

I smiled. “Oh Steyza, you drive such a hard bargain. I’m sorry but, what I’m going to ask for is a lot better than your body. Anyway, I better be on my way.”

With that, I set off in Voidwalk to explore the city. That’s when I saw a bar. Now, I know what you’re thinking…

And you’re exactly right.

I woke up in someone’s bed, somewhere. On the left of me was a beautiful elf. On the right, another beautiful elf. Literally lying on top of three of us, was some dude. My eyes opened wide and disturbing thoughts raced through my head. I shimmied my way out and used Renew on my hungover ass. That’s when I realised my clothes were nowhere to be found, but at least I had underwear on – underwear I’d never seen before. More thoughts came crashing down into my mind. What the hell happened?

“Oh, you leaving?” the guy woke up. I used Renew on him immediately.

“Did uh, did I do anything last night that involved me having to take my clothes off?”

He stood up, a physique like nothing I’d ever seen before. What was even more alarming was that his underwear matched mine. “We copulated.”