Chapter 7: Marla’s Magic

Part 1

Leaving the library yesterday, I met with Marla, but as I went ignoring her due to all the things in my mind, she seemed to really express/release her opinion. She gave me yell that normally it would be seen as an overstepping of bounds between master and servant, but since I don’t care much for those and since it was my fault as well, I let it pass, however by the time our conversation came to a conclusion, I learned a few things.

“I actually knew my magic affinity…furthermore, my magic…was never in a dormant state…”

That’s right. Marla was always able to use magic and she even went as far as knowing full well her affinity, when looking at her, I had a mixed of emotions within me. Some sadness, others anger, but the one that resonated the most was guilt. Not guilt that Marla might have felt towards me at the moment, but guilt towards myself, after all, I’m probably the biggest secret within this mansion, and that’s why I can’t show my full anger towards Marla. So, I decided to forgive her…

“Isn’t obvious? I’m going to turn you and your magic into something that I can use. The lie, no more like the secret, hurt me a bit, but I’ll forgive it, after all, we all have some skeletons in the closet…”

I tried sounding the nicest possible while doing that, but I’m not sure if my message got through, one thing is for certain though. Even if I have forgiven her, my trust for Marla has decreased as well…I’ll try and focus on other things for now, particularly her training, I myself can’t do anything with magic, that doesn’t mean I’m not going to use her assets. After all, she’s the only solid piece I have in my disposal for the deal I just made with father, I’ll get the rest in the future. I hope you’re ready Marla, I’m going to pay back your lie with work by the tenfold, with your capabilities…but should I really spend that much on her?

Part 2

“Marla, if I remember correctly, you said you already knew your affinity. Could it be you can use basic spells or is it something else?”

While standing on the clearing before entering the forest trail, I asked Marla what was what she was able to do and how she could do it. Based on the results, I’d start working from there.

“Since I never pursued it, I don’t know how to use any spells…the best I can do and by extent, the reason why I knew my affinity, is because whenever I released a relaxed my body too much, small sparks would appear from it…When I’m asleep this doesn’t happen, but if by some reason I decided to relax right now, I could feel the sparks flowing through my body and my hair begin losing its place.”

Absolutely no control of her power but still aware of it enough to keep it from being noticed, shouldn’t it usually be when you get a strong emotion or a rash action, rather than relaxing…? Interesting, let’s try this for now. I have absolutely no clue how to control or use magic, however, I have a nice book about the basics of military magic and some oddly fitting knowledge from media of my old life on how to deal with this.

“…In that case…Marla, could you attempt to only relax your right hand and let me see the sparks flow?”

With a small nod, Marla followed my instructions to the letter, and it seems to work…for a few seconds.

“Kyaa!!”

“You okay?”

“I-I think so…”

…It wasn’t okay at all…the area she relaxed had the electricity flow within it beautifully, however, the rest of the arm wasn’t. The sparks came into contract with the arm after a few seconds, and the sleeve of the vest was ripped in some parts. It didn’t reach the skin this time, but it was clear that this method would only lead her to be scarred later on…

“We need to find a way to have you control your affinity at will before we try anything else…Marla, has this ever happened before?”

“Not that I can remember, I only did this a few times when it manifested, but since I soon learned to keep it in check by not overly relaxing, I hadn’t dealt with it for almost a year now”

“…How about relaxing your whole body and letting the sparks flow freely through it?”

“Understood”

This time, the results were completely different, Marla was never harmed even after 30 seconds, in exchange for that however, the flow of electricity was minimum, one could even say it was invisible most of the time. The only place that kept a constant, easy to see view of the electricity was around the hairpin that I gave Marla…let’s test something out.

“Marla, could you take off your hairpin and hold it in your hand?”

Following my instructions with a confused look, Marla got the hairpin from her hair and placed it on her right hand.

“Now, relax again and let the sparks flow”

…I see, hehe, so that’s what we need. A lighting rod. Due to her lack of experience with her affinity, Marla can’t control the flow of her electricity, in place of that, a small aid is added, in this scenario the aid came in the form of a metal hairpin. While the almost invisible current of electricity is still flowing through her body, with the pin acting as a focal point, the sparks are clear around it and better yet, Marla isn’t being harmed by it.

“All good, Marla you can stop now”

“U-Understood…”

Breathing heavily, Marla was clearly fatigued from using her magic for so long. The Affinity Stone said she was a 3 in mana capacity, and that’s on the higher side of the spectrum, but nothing goes to its fullest in the first try.

“That’s enough for today Marla, you did great. Let’s go back and get you some rest.”

“Tha-thank you…Master Lucien…”

“We finally found the way to attract your magic to somewhere you can begin controlling it, but I don’t like you using the pin for it”

“Wh-why is that…?”

“Despite being a good lighting rod, the pin is still something among the lines of a decoration, simply put, I don’t want this to shatter due to misuse”

As I said that, I was putting the pin back in place like I did when we first got it. Marla’s face showed signs of blushing, however, due to her exhaustion and heavy breathing, something that normally would be cute, it’s instead creepy and a bit scary.

“Thank…you, Master…Lucien”

“Don’t mention it, let’s go back inside, I need to figure out what to use as your lighting rod in the future, along with how to make you at least control the flow so when you have your pin on, it doesn’t act as a second lighting rod and it breaks”

Part 3

While letting Marla relax and regain her mana for the afternoon, I decided to list some of the things I’ll need to begin putting together for the travel. Although I have the recollection of traveling in my old life, I have absolutely no idea how to put together a traveling bag, let alone everything else that’s included for the trip…

Per the traveling books and maps of the country, the best route from Germas to the Academy is travel north through the Borea Forest route, that route would only take 5 to 10 days of travel depending on the weather, the terrain is mostly flatlands so the preferred beast of burden is the chibar, a horned horse-like beast. The only problem with the route is that the route is also commonly used by slave traders and other people of less than welcoming backgrounds, it’s not like I’m guaranteed to be robbed, but it seems that the only successful way to go around this is to either find a method of clear self-defense or hire mercenaries…

“…ah but hiring mercenaries is an extra waste that I don’t wish to have”

*knock**knock*

“Master Lucien, your afternoon tea”

“Ah, come in, leave it here and then lay down in the bed over there”

“Wh-why!?”

“I told you to relax for the afternoon and here you are doing more work, that won’t help your mana and fatigue replenish. So, lay down on the bed and stop complaining.”

“Understood, but isn’t there somewhere else for me to rest at, after all, a servant should never rest in her master’s bed”

“It’s fine, I don’t really care for it”

“U-understood Master Lucien”

The whole conversation with Marla was completely done without me once changing my sights from the books and papers in front of me…I wonder if that was rude, I’ll drink the tea and compliment her on it.

“…it’s good, you’re getting better at it”

“Tha-thank you…Master Lucien, what is it that you’re working on there?”

“Plans”

“Plans? What for?”

“I already told you of the talk with father, so now I’m trying to put together a list of everything I’ll need. I found the best possible route, but that one requires a source of income I don’t have.”

“What’s the cost?”

“Protection, mercenaries to be exact. We can achieve some level of self-defense between you and me, but that won’t be enough to travel for 10 days through a forest route that slave traders and country bandits use. We need more people, not just for protection, but for food preparation and guarding at night, point is, I don’t want to spend my budget on mercenaries…now that I think about it, I also need a way to expand my budget…FUCK!!!”

“Master Lucien!? What was that!?”

“Oh, that’s just a stress relief word from another language. Don’t worry too much for it.”

“I-I see…well, as for the protection, Master Lucien, do you have a problem with slave traders?”

“Can’t say I’m a fan of slavery, no I think the opposite, it’s a putrid thing in every sense of the word. Treating humans as less than animals, but more than that, the idea of how many profit from it, I can’t say it’s something that I could ever think good of.”

“…”

“…Don’t tell me, you want me to buy off a slave or two for protection?”

“*nod* I-I believe it will be the most cost efficient way to achieve what you desire”

“*sigh* Well, you heard what I said, I have no desire to pay off a slave trader”

“How about doing it for the slave then?”

“Meaning?”

“You can buy a slave, use their labor to make up for what you spent on them, and then release them. You get your workers, they get a chance to be free, and it will all be better cost efficient than hiring mercenaries”

“That does sound tempting, maybe we should try that. Well it will depend on how expensive the slaves are, but it sounds solid, we’ll go next week. But until then, I want you to be able to expand your mana pool, you have the potential but it can’t be accessed yet.”

“Understood Master Lucien”

Using a slave as a cheaper resource than a mercenary…not bad Marla…but…I’m worried to think what that mind of yours might be thinking sometimes…Maybe I should start thinking of moving on from Marla in the future as well…

End of Chapter 7