“Oh… it’s a kind of expression where I’m from. It just means that old man Kyle is a duke in name only and you’re the true hidden power controlling him from the dark.”
“Hahahaha.”
The robot laughed!
Perelman maintained his polite expression without the slightest hint of a smile during all the lessons. But right now, he forgot about his charisma for a moment due to Abel’s peculiar expression.
“Hahaha, what hidden power? Aren’t you looking down on our duke too much? He may look like that on the outside, but he raised his own count family to what it is right now. That happened 27 years ago in the Rose War between our empire and Kreuz empire. He’s still called the guardian deity of the empire to this day.”
Perelman’s admiration to the duke was overflowing.
This man kept on with his speech as though he couldn’t stop bragging here.
“And how do you think he was able to surpass the First Duke and the Second Duke after he was conferred the duke title?”
He wasn’t exactly looking for an answer. He was just emphasizing.
“Don’t take the duke’s wisdom lightly. He may look all smiles on the outside, but he’s very calculative on the inside. In my opinion the duke’s forte lies with politics and not with magic like what everyone thinks he is.”
Seeing as how Perelman was talking all that, it seemed that old man Kyle was an amazing dude after all.
Only five minutes until the end of this lesson. Like all students do, no one would want to enter a new chapter when there was only 5 minutes until the end of class. So, he asked a very personal question.
“Oh, and… why doesn’t the duke have any family? Is he divorced?”
Yet another absurd question. As a resident of a much more conservative world, Perelman thought that this little boy was definitely not normal.
“Everyone has a wound in their heart. It was probably before I was even born. I do not know much about this either so I cannot answer that question. If you want to know, then ask him yourself.”
He could simply have ignored this question, but he did answer. Perelman… this dude’s kindness was like customer service.
Returning to his expression-less face, Perelman looked at the clock on the wall. Five minutes had already passed. Since Abel used to be a teacher, he knew how to treat a teacher.
“Then the alphabet I taught you today, please learn them all by tomorrow. Then see you tomorrow.”
As always, there was homework.
Perhaps due to the polluted air of the Earth-
‘What are you telling me to feel!’
This was the third month doing this right now. Something that cannot be seen, nor felt, nor material. Asking Abel to feel that something was not much different from asking him to feel the helicobacter in his stomach.
During the past 3 months, he underwent all sorts of methods in order to feel this immaterial energy called ‘mana’. He tried stepping on the mana amplification formation that Kyle drew, and tried let him hold on to a peridotite that was known to be pure mana itself. Above all, an 8 circle mage inserted mana into his body directly!
Despite all these attempts, his dense body had no signs of feeling anything. And right now, he was about to go through the final method.
“Well then. Let’s use this one too!”
Kyle brought a flask that contained a rather dangerous-looking purple liquid.
As the greatest genius in modern history, Kyle managed to feel mana in just half a day, but this pitiful child from another world with no magic had no signs of that at all. Despite that, he was an archmage. He would do anything to make him feel it. Even if it was for his face!
“It’s an item I begged the potionology professor at the academy to give me. Drink it in one gulp.”
“What’s this?”
“It’s a potion that amplifies all human senses.”
The faint smell of a sewer rather disgusted him, but it wouldn’t kill him right? He emptied the flask in one go.
Kyle watched as Abel drank all of the potion. Then, he opened his mouth again in a very sorry expression.
“Oh, I forgot to tell you that there’s a small side effect. It will increase your pain senses as well, so it might hurt a little. But don’t worry too much. I’ll use recovery magic after it’s done so you just need to endure for a little while.”
Huh?
“Why are you telling me that now-aaaaaaaaaaahhh!!!!”
All of Abel’s senses were really intensified to an unimaginable level. He could even feel the nitrogen and oxygen particles in the air as well! Particles and elements bounced off Abel’s skin. And every time they did… it hurt! It hurt so hard! This was more painful than applying medicine to canker sores when he was young. It was like… having all of his skin melted off.
“Focus! I will now insert mana into your body so focus your body on feeling that.”
Kyle placed his hand on top of Abel’s head and started inserting mana. Then, Abel started to feel something that entered his body.
An enormous pain! But a cooling sensation from the mana refreshed his body.
Abel started instinctively drag the mana that floated around his head. Then he spread that mana throughout his body.
Kyle also seemed to have felt that and put a lot more strength into his hand.
“That’s it! Faster!”
The cooling sensation spread through his blood vessels. Of course, insane amounts of pain could be felt simultaneously, but he still tried to focus. Only when he overcomes this stage would the pain end! Abel started circulating the mana faster than before.
“You’re doing well! Take it to your heart!”
After around three cycles, the mana all headed to the left chest under Abel’s will. Perhaps due to the strong heartbeat, the mana started to rotate around the heart.
Perhaps due to the mana circulating around the heart, Abel could feel the shape of his heart. It was similar to what he saw in textbooks. The left atrium, the left ventricle, the right atrium, the right ventricle. He could feel them all.
“Now gather the scattered mana and form a belt!”
It was finally the last stage. On Kyle’s orders, Abel created a thin and long strip of mana. The compressed thread of mana started circulating around the heart. Eventually, the beginning of the thread met with the end. A ring formed. The ring around the heart started spinning like a satellite without needing for Abel’s input. It was complete. He was now 1-circle.
“Well done Abel……. And welcome to the world of magic!”
Kyle patted on Abel’s shoulders, seemingly proud of his achievement despite the pain.
Pat, pat.
“Uaack! It hurts!”
Oh yeah, he forgot. Kyle panicked and gathered his hands.
“[email protected]#$%&# ...... blah blah...... @$#%@#$....... Recovery!”
After a minute-long chant, a stream of milky light was emitted from Kyle’s hands. That light swirled around Abel once before entering his body. Then, Abel’s painful struggles started dying down. Then, the pain disappeared like it never happened.
‘Whew, I really thought I would die!’
Abel’s body was filled with cold sweat. However, he didn’t resent Kyle. After all, he hadn’t done it on purpose.
According to the basic magic entrance manual, a person who could not feel mana after 2 weeks has practically no talent for magic, and is recommended to give up. However, with insane amounts of drugs(?) and personal assistance from an 8-circle mage, he could successfully enter 1-circle.
“Once you gather enough 1-circle mana to cover the entirety of your heart, you will be considered a 1-circle master. Then, you would be able to create another circle. So, you need to gather mana every day with training.”
Actually, teaching magic 101 was something that even the lowest-tier mages of the tower could do. However, Kyle didn’t want to do that. He wanted to do it himself. Of course, the fact that Abel couldn’t be shown to the outside world also played a role.
After recovering for a little, Abel grumbled to Kyle.
“It hurt so much, why was there a need to chant for an entire minute? I thought you were an archmage! You’re slow!”
It hurt. Yes, it hurt hard. To the extent that he was singing hymnals in his heart despite not going to Church. I’ve got peace like~ a river~.
After saying that, he looked at Kyle. He looked unjustified. That made him feel a little bad.
“Haha… I tried to do it as fast as possible. I’m sorry about that. The calculations were very complex…….”
Yup. Actually, a minute-long casting of recovery magic was a world record-level. Any other mages would have taken at least 5 minutes all the way up to 30 minutes.
Abel had no knowledge of spells or casting just yet. So, there was no way he would know why calculations would last an entire minute.
“The calculations are complex? Then just use a calculator.”
“Calculator? What is that?”
“A device that does calculations. Oh yeah, I got it with me here. Should I show it to you? It’s in my room.”
“Hahaha, that’s an interesting object. Then bring this ‘calculator’ with you tomorrow when I teach you spells.”
Up until this moment, no one knew what kind of a shock the calculator would bring to Kyle.