It would be a great help if I could find someone, prefered a native speaker, who is willing to do some proofreading. If you find any mistakes, please point them out. Are the paragraphs ok?

I'm sorry, I couldn't cut right to the Dungeon-City Altos. But I included a small and very short fight, it's my first time writing one, I hope I did well. And I gave chapter 3 a small addition at the end. A small insight regarding Lily. It's optional.

Enjoy!

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“There are four basic elements. fire, water, earth and wind.

Fire has the strongest offensive power and attack is the best form of defence.

Water is known for a strong, annoying defence, especially combined with frost magic.

Earth magic is well balanced.

But wind magic alone is useless, if not for those hot days where a breeze is really precious. Though almost everyone has the ability to learn basic frost magic and cool oneself down.

Luckily, a good fire magician can be boosted by wind magic, which makes them perfect supporters.

Every person develops an affiliation for one of the four elements. They stabilize during puberty and can be indicated through enchanted shards, but only if you are a magician.. Just 1 out of about 5 persons is lucky enough to be born as one.

Instead of a dominating, crimson red, for enhancers, their shards will be tainted with blue.

Majestic purple for fire-affiliation, deep blue for water, turquoise for earth and pale blue for wind.

Enhancers need to use the classic way of confirmation, trial and error. They will have a hard time, learning how to manipulate mana first. Then they have to concentrate some mana onto their palms and try to convert it into one of the four elements. If it works with fire, congratulations, if not, you have my sympathy.

But don't hang the head, there is still non elemental magic. Like frost magic, though mainly and best used by water magicians, healing magic, time magic, telekinesis and some more.”

-Fire to Rule Them All, by Max Powers.

***Aeron***

*flop* *flop*

A jolt wakes me up. Blinking I see two pristine girls in light, white nightgowns standing on the other end of my bed.

“Lily! Mia?” I need a small moment to recognize where I am. Third time... Can't I sleep in just for once?

“Oh, did we wake you up? Tell me, what do you think about our nightgowns? I even lend this one to Mia, lovely, isn't she?”

“D-does it really look good on me? Not t-too... short?”

Lily pokes her tongue out and spins the shy Mia around, leaving her white gown flutter slight revealingly.

Flushing and feeling my head already heating up, I try to answer as calmly as possible: “Lovely... but a little more length wouldn't be amiss.”

“I wait downstairs.” Beet red, she jumps down and exits the room quite hastily, with a smile.

Not the worst method to be roused, definitely better than cold water. Lily jumps down, too, and while walking to the door she says: “It took some effort persuading Mia, but you can thank me later. As compensation she just insisted on letting you sleep in, at least longer than I planed. By the way, breakfast time is over, thus we brought you some leftovers.

We are leaving in half an hour, please choose some new clothes from the closet. And Lord Kingsley wants to talk with you before departure. He's in the backyard, easy to find, just follow the sound.”

“er, thanks? But just one question, how did you get in here?” I suspected some kind of prank from her and made sure to lock the door thoroughly.

“Oh silly, ma~ster~key!” A playful wink and she's gone. As I thought, having her as an overseer will be great...

After having a quick breakfast, bread with cold cuts and some juice, I went to the adjacent bathroom. It's almost half the size of the guest-room! With an oversized, luxury bathtub. But not having much time, I took the shower next to it to freshen up. I've always been wondering, if there's electricity in this world. There is artificial light and running water at Mia's home, but no machines. However there are more important things at the moment.

Feeling refreshed I take a look at the closet. So many clothes to choose from... as if! There's only one set of clothing! Luckily, decent undergarments, black pants, a white shirt, light brown boots and a matching leather jacket.

It's creepy how well they fit! And when were they placed in the there?

Stuffing my belongings into a small brown bag, which was placed in the closet, too, I leave in order to look for Lord Kingsley.

I roughly know where the back of the mansion is and after walking for about a minute I hear some sounds, created by impacts. Following the sounds I finally arrive at the backyard, one floor below.

A large terrain, restricted through hedges. There's lawn, but most of the terrain is covered by soil, equipped with some training dummies.

The middle is dominated by a ring, which is the source of the sound. Lord Kingsley is sparring there with a youth. He spots and greets me while defending effortlessly against his adversary.

“Good morning Aeron. Jason enough, have a short rest.”

“Thank you for the lesson.” With a reverent bow he goes to a bench while examining me curiously at first, a depreciative look follows quickly, though.

“Good morning Lord Kingsley.” I bow courteously, he's Mia's dad after all.

“First of all, I have to apologize. Yesterday has been a long day and pretty much happened. So I acted quite rash, I'm sorry. I just want Mia to be happy and it's getting tougher, lately. Mia told me a few things about you, though I never thought of you as a real person. Please take good care of her, she really trusts you.”

Is it Mia's doing? After yesterday I never thought of being accepted that easily. Am I accepted or just useful? He still didn't ask for my opinion. Never mind for now, at the moment we have the same objectives.

“It's fine, I will do my best!”

“Then it's settled. You will need to gain great power and prestige, if you want to have a chance to stand beside Mia, protecting her. I can't give you much support, it's important that this stays confidential. You will be targeted, if your involvement with Mia becomes known. In this world, you are just a commoner, be careful.

Jason, get up and prepare to fight!

This is Mia's cousin. He's 14 and started academy last term, not the earliest coming-out. Not the best fighter either, and just a level 1, but most of the upper academies lay their focus on technique first. It would be disastrous, if they were to send noble children to their deaths.

I assume that you can't use any mana or aura, yet?”

“No, Sir.”

“Too bad, you won't have any advantages. Just a small test, catch.” With his commanding tone he throws his wooden sword in a high arc towards me. I succeed in catching it at the hilt. Jason positions himself opposite of me, smiling nasty and grasping his wooden sword with both hands.

“Time to learn your place, peasant.” Though almost inaudible, Lord Kingsley overheard it, too.

“Jason! Guard your tongue!”

“I'm sorry Lord Kingsley. I will take it back,... if he survives.” The last part was said even quieter than before, still audible for me hear, though. Looking even nastier, he places his sword on his right waist with the tip pointing to the ground behind him. Shouldn't we wear some protective clothes? Should I say something? Can I refuse?

Still thinking, I grab the sword with two hands, place the left hand below the right, the hilt points slightly below my navel with the tip pointing at his throat. It's the Chudan-no-Kamae. With a deep centre of gravity, it's good for defending and attacking. One of the sports I did was Kendo, unluckily I haven't started practising it all too long ago.

But I can notice, that Jason is taken aback, seeing me taking a stance. Not expecting me to know a stance? He should still have the advantage, though. I'm not small for my age, but he's still one head taller than me and should have more strength and practise.

Suddenly, he charges at me, before even starting to swing his sword. Mistake. You shouldn't jump into an opposing blade while still swinging it back. Without hesitation I used this small opening to jump forward, trying to stab his chest before he can finish his swing.

Taken by surprise he abruptly stops his charge and tries to parry with his swing.

He catches my sword and diverts it, but it's too late. My tip grazed his left shoulder. Promptly I jump back, taking the stance, Kamae, again.

Success!

But then, looking into his face... perfect, now I got him really mad...

He gets ready to close in again.

“Match is over. It's Aeron win.”

“What? That was nothing! I didn't even feel that scratch!”

“You know the basics, he doesn't, you can harm him, he can't really harm you... nevertheless you reacted to his stab. There's still plenty for you to learn.”

“That's not fair! At least give me second chance!”

“You should rest yourself, when I'm back, we have lots of time, time to 'train' you.”

When he turns to me, I can see traces of a roguish grin. He gestures me to follow him, leaving a meek Jason behind.

“I was surprised, you know some swordsmanship. But it's not suited for this type of fight. Can you guess what would happen if the same situation happens again against Jason?”

“He wouldn't care about my stab and hit me as hard as he could?”

“Yes, and even if you can use your aura, it doesn't matter who hits first, but who can penetrate the opponents aura first. Remember this clearly.”

He guides me through the mansion, but before we reach the front, he turns towards me: “One more thing, Don't do anything improper to Mia!”

His face is starting to get a grim look and there is no way I could mistake this for a mere request. Hence I reply hastily: “I won't do anything improper!”

This calms him down.

“Good. Lily will be your contact person. I gave her money for decent basic equipment. By the way, this fight showed me a lot about you. Grabbing the first, best chance courageously... without hesitation... a nice performance... for a fledgling.”

Arriving at the front we get to see a sobbing, small girl embracing Mia. It's Mia's little sister, Elenora. She is one of the reasons Mia is striving for power. She is carefully patting Elenora's head. Lily, standing besides her together with another maid, spots us first. She taps Mia on the shoulder.

Elenora starts crying anew when Mia leaves her at the maid. Lord Kingsley takes his time bidding farewell to Mia before lifting Elenora up and comforting her. In the meantime Lily waves me to the carriage. It's towed by four horses and accompanied by about 10 mounted guards, who keep watch.

Mia follows after a short time. Getting farewells one last time, we board the carriage and start our journey.