“Well, my young pupils, I think after these two months, we are finally ready to start learning some practical, actual magic,"

“YEAH! This is what I’ve been waiting for!” Ran raised his fist into the sky, jumping up and down in a joyous dance. Sofia, the older sister embarrassed by her little brother’s behavior, went a little red on the cheeks and lowered her head, but she still clenched her fist and smiled slightly.

“What are we going to do? Throw fireballs?” He asked with unabashed excitement. Finally, the time had come. He would do real magic.

First, I want to throw fireballs, Edwin thought.

“You really are fixated on those fireballs, aren’t you? Hahaha, It’s normal for a kid though, but no, I may have to disappoint you today, young Edwin.

Was I the same when young? Taft questioned himself.

Three weeks had already passed since that night when he fell asleep by the tree with Freesia. When he woke up, he had felt the familiar softness of his bedsheets. He was in his room, a few loose clothes scattered on the floor near some wooden toys and a training sword.

He sluggishly raised his still sleep-addle body from the bed. Edwin Raanan wasn’t known as a morning person even though he was known to occasionally make the effort to, but usually, he wakes up in a state of confusion and drowsiness. But that morning, he was even more tired than usual.

By the time he went to the bathroom and washed his face, he had collected his thoughts, the night before he had indeed asked Freesia to help him fix his problem, she had, to his surprise, accepted, she had even been very kind to him.

maybe I’ve been imagining things.

That’s when the realization struck

I can do magic now!

He tried to replicate the feeling he got by the tree, and while it wasn’t as strong as before, he could feel it. Maybe this time it would work.

He spent the whole day in a blur, trained with Alden and Lucius, but this time he didn’t complain about it being boring. He got his ass kicked either way.

He went to meet with Amos, had history lessons with Baul. He may have not been as attentive that day, since the old man hit him in the head with a history book, a rare occurrence for a good student like him. It hurt.

“Pay attention young man, Ostaran history is an important subject, we are just getting to the bloody parts, new ones, that is,"

But Ran didn’t care. He was just waiting for the time to meet with Teacher Taft. Who, as usual… had the spirit sensor hanging around his neck.

He got close to him, not a single word was uttered. Taft must have realized his intentions because he didn’t move, just looked at him.

Taft grabbed a hold of the necklace and extended his arm towards Ed, and as he got closer and closer, the stone started shining faintly.

The youngest of the Donn felt so happy he almost cried; Taft even congratulated him with a pat on the head and some praising words.

Lan, who had been watching the scene from the distance, actually smiled. “See? I told you she didn’t hate you,” she said to him.

I can’t help but feel strange when I’m around Freesia. However, I’m happy I asked her for help.

Afterward, the young teacher gave them some strict lessons about channeling, said that they should practice every day in order to make it as natural as breathing.

Edwin also learned that, apparently, channeling mana drains your stamina as well, not the same way as casting a complete spell would, but this is a given, since you aren’t doing anything with the mana you gather.

“Channeling mana and not doing anything with it can be very bad for you if you don’t do it well. This is also the basis for the body strengthening most fighters do,”

The kid told the story of he had managed to learn magic channeling, by the time he got to the point on which he passed out Taft had a strange look on his face.

“That’s weird, technically it can happen, but you should have been channeling way above your limits for a very long while, it may have something to do with the method used but I’ve never experienced something like that so I can’t be of much help, you know what she did?”

“We talked… just talked I guess, but she didn’t tell me anything,”

“It’s all right, the important thing is that now we can continue with our lessons and move on to bigger things,”

As he said that, the young man, dressed in fashionable clothing, moved in front of his pupils, facing to a deserted location of the manor.

“Our objective is this, open your eyes and take a good look, I will repeat it as many times as I can, but you have to make sure to commit it to memory,” Taft closed his eyes for a second, he re-opened them with a determined look, extended his right arm as he got his left arm closer to his heart “Stranger from below, hallowed be thy name, grant me sweet strength and swift waters to let my enemies wash away [water ball]”

Next thing, what looked like a droplet of water materialized in front of the teacher’s right hand, just a few centimeters out his palm, the droplet grew in size faster and faster until it was akin to a big water orb the size of a leather ball, then, the orb was launched with great speed towards the sky in an arc, disappearing and dissolving as it traveled, until it had completely fizzled out, leaving the water spray over the rooftops, an impromptu rainfall.

“Chants are a bit embarrassing hahaha,” his cheeks were a bit blushed. “But this is the first spell you two will learn”

The kids were stunned. This was for all intents and purposes, the first time they saw this kind of magic.

Especially since Freesia’s healing magic was inherently not as flashy and a bit gruesome at times.

“Do it again! do it again!” Edwin asked while jumping up and down

“Okey... pay close attention you two,”

Again, the water orb appeared and disappeared in just a few seconds.

“This is our goal for the coming weeks,”

“So, we learn the chant and channel magic?” Lan asked.

“Yes, but that’s just a small part of the process. after today you both will start to understand just how difficult the path of the mage really is,”