R-S Chapter 16 (Patreon)

“The testing machine I’m about to use is really expensive... So if anyone asks... Don't tell them that I took it.” He moved over and put the needle into a container at the top and it began to whir and make noise like it was doing something. I didn’t know enough about what it was trying to accomplish before the whirring stopped and a sheet of paper was printed from the bottom.

He picked it up with a smile on his face as he read the readout of whatever he learned from the blood. The smile dropped from his face and his eyebrow quirked up in confusion. “Nothing to out there. We only test the first base elements but you have an above-average affinity with shadow magic. This though… It seems you have a partial soul bond which… Shouldn’t be possible.” He scratched his head as if he was trying to figure out what he was looking at.

“Alright, I’ll have to ask you. Have you heard of soul mates?” I was taken aback by his question. “Y-yea… Like love at first sight?” He chuckled before saying. “Yeah, no. Real soul mates are between two families that link each other similarly to making a contract with a monster. It’s normally only done with large families where each side might betray the other because if one of them dies… Well, so does the other.”

“So what’s that have to do with me?” He flicked the paper. “Because you have the beginnings of a soul contract with something but it isn’t fully defined. It’s as if you tried to make a contract with someone unconsciously unless… Did your parents say you were betrothed to someone when you were growing up?” I didn’t remember anything like that. “Not that I remember, no.”

“I… Don’t know then… That’s incredibly interesting and frustrating at the same time. Well… If you figure it out please tell me because that’s going to bother the shit out of me… Also, your soul is weird, there’s normally a slow steady growth but right here it stutters and you suddenly grew stronger..” He tried to explain it to me. “Normally, it’s easy to tell how many connections a soul can make for the machine but it errored out scanning your soul. It’s another thing that’s going to bother me until I figure it out but on top of everything… This soul contract is also weird.”

“Normally, the contract between two people would be mutual death but this one is clearly a master subordinate connection being formed. Like you’d form with a monster, which shouldn’t physically be possible. It’s more symbiotic than the familiar contract where both would be improved as well. I’ve never seen anything like it. Well… Fuck it, I don’t care. I don’t care because I’m not going to spend all my time thinking about this.” He threw up his hands in frustration.

“Alright… Besides that, we can look into shadow magic for you but it’s rare. You might only get one or two shadow spells over the course of the rest of your time at school.” He thrummed his hand on the table as he muttered to himself. “What else, what else? You can get a better focus, but those will be far out of your price range. Learning how to make them would take years of you apprenticing under someone else and that would normally come with a magical contract binding you to the family… Certain artifacts would also make you stronger but those are normally family heirlooms even more out of your price range… The main thing holding you back is money and there really isn’t anything I can do except suggest getting more money somehow which will open you up for other options.”

He questioned himself on methods while talking to himself. “I think that’s it… Get better weapons, and better equipment, learn more spells and practice them so they become easier to cast, eat food to boost your affinities, keep practicing your new senses, expand your mana thread control, learn how to upcycle to increase your body's natural strength, keep taking the ambrosia, make familiar contracts since I assume you can make more than one and… That’s it?... That’s all you can do right now. We’ll talk more about what you can do in the future if  you keep up on all this alternate training.”

I left with a smile on my face. He gave me many ways to strengthen myself outside of the normal methods now. I had been practicing my spells but casting the same magic over and over again became tedious very quickly. Casting them over and over again would make them easier and cheaper to cast in the future but I was already burning myself out doing so. New methods to increase my strength were desperately needed so I didn’t succumb to my boredom and slowed down my progression.

I kept my head down just practicing the new methods until I read the next week's newspaper and remembered how big the story was. It was something so big that I heard about it even though I was solely focused on getting stronger the first time I went through school. The princess went missing… The king’s daughter, who the royals are working on dethroning.

My mind immediately went to the worst thing that could have possibly happened, and that wasn’t her death. My thoughts went to her being kidnapped and used as a bargaining chip to keep the king from making any moves against his opponents. He had eleven daughters so I wasn’t sure how much he loved that particular princess, something even worse than that is they could possibly have her married off to whoever they decide will be king to give him more authenticity as the true ruler.

It was another thing I had to be worried about. This quarter I just planned to learn and if I remembered the princess went missing I could have attempted to track her, but most likely not. I didn’t even want to ask questions about how the princess went missing this time because it could end with me being put under observation or even killed if I looked too deeply into it.

Weeks passed and right before the start of the second month, the familiar interaction happened again. Frey Blaire came up after class and tried to convince me to quit. It was slightly different, the first time he stopped me before class but I had been spending every second I could outside of class practicing the new methods to get stronger.

“You should quit this mage class… My father even offered you a position as one of our mages.” I couldn’t help but notice he couldn’t meet my eyes. He was too soft hearted for his own good and knowing the full picture attempting to save me could have easily backfired on him and his family. “I can’t quit.” The look of disappointment on his face was more defined this time. I wasn’t gay, but I could still feel bad for him thinking that someone he had a crush on was doomed to die here in this attack.

I was more curious about why he picked me out of everyone. Was it because I was poor? I was above average in looks but so was most of the men in the academy. I couldn’t be sure. His lackey(I don’t think he was a bodyguard) squinted in my direction when I declined. I don’t think I’ve heard him ever speak before. He was built more like a dwarf and I thought he might have some dwarven blood in him, brownish blonde hair, and a thick mustache while almost everyone else only had stubble or was clean-shaven. He stood out more than the other mooks in the class.

“It’s just a piece of advice… It would be a shame to lose a mage, even one at the bottom of the class. I’ve done my part to warn you. Hopefully, you make the right decision before it’s too late.” With that, he and his group of mages walked passed me. I was curious why his opinion of me improved so much between time loops but wasn’t curious enough to look into it.