Chapter 74: Rune class

Finally I remembered what I had forgotten.

I quickly returned under the gaze of Silvia and Lys to where I was sitting talking to Silvia and picked up Selene, whom I had left behind.

He had cast an anti-recognition spell on her, so unless someone was looking for her on purpose, no one would notice her presence.

I put her back on my arm and followed the rest. They, who paid special attention to my movements, noticed the weirdness and quickly the magic stopped affecting them, so they could notice Selene.

I mean, it’s not like she did anything wrong, so it didn’t matter if they looked at her. And while dark magic is frowned upon, it can be used.

A lot of artifacts like presence-reducing artifacts and such that use dark runes and the like to work. In fact, it doesn’t even matter much if one has an affinity towards darkness, like Elena.

The problem is that it is frowned upon and sometimes looked down upon as something unclean, at least in this kindom.

What is somewhat serious is having the blessing of the god of darkness in this realm, which, at the very least, can cause exile, and in some cases, execution.

That’s why no one uses darkness magic much, at least not at a high level, as it might draw attention.

But basic spells like this don’t matter much, so it didn’t matter if they knew he could handle dark magic. Still he had looks as if they wanted to ask something.

“What?”

“Hey, Chris, is that a person over there?”

“yes, is it a person? Why?”

“I mean, why do you have it like that?”

“Oh!, it’s because I found it over there. Don’t worry, let’s start the lesson. she won’t bother.”

“I don’t want to say… hmm…. this, how to say it…”

Lys seemed to want to tell me something, but I didn’t know how, on the other hand, Silvia who knew her asked.

“e-this Chris isn’t her…”

“yes it’s Eira’s sister, Selene ”

“n-no what I mean is why do you have her like this…don’t open”.

“like I said I didn’t do anything we just ran into each other earlier and she fell asleep so I brought her in, like I said she won’t bother so it’s fine.”

“but…ummm if you say so”

’hey stop looking at me like that I didn’t do anything wrong…wait I think I did, but it was consensual, so I’m not a criminal.’

even i didn’t know if what i did was right so i just, i convinced them that it was no big deal and i was thankful that Elena didn’t see me i don’t even want to imagine what she would say or think if she saw me.

after i convinced them we went straight to the empty room, where I taught runes for a few hours.

luckily selene when she woke up, she didn’t seem angry or dissatisfied and when I asked her she said affirmatively that it was good and that we could continue to do so, so she didn’t need to feel that she had done wrong.

In the end everything turned out well and I was able to sleep peacefully, of course after receiving a judging look from Elena when I told her what happened, but well, it wasn’t so bad.’today was a productive day’

*****

Lys’ point of view

******

The sound of the bell announcing the end of class echoed down the hall. As usual, I headed straight for the training field in gym 5, the best facility I had access to. I wanted to test myself and was looking forward to the first examination for class advancement.

The facilities in Class A were said to be even better, and that motivated me to try harder. Since my recent third metamorphosis, I felt more confident than ever, although I knew I couldn’t relax and had to keep practicing.

..

.

The hours passed, and Will arrived punctually, followed closely by Silvia. Thinking about her, although she is a quiet girl, she leaves a strong impression, especially with those attributes that I secretly wish I had….

’No, those would only get in the way in combat,’

I reminded myself, pushing those useless thoughts away and refocusing on my movements.

I was practicing my family’s martial art, an art that, according to the stories, was only a part of a more powerful art that was lost over time.

Will, approaching me, suggested having a spar while we waited for Chris. It was clear he wanted to fight, and I couldn’t have been happier to agree.

After all, that had been the main reason I had sought him out today. Yesterday I wanted to challenge him, but didn’t get the chance, and today, seeing him casually, I couldn’t resist.

Somehow, though, we ended up becoming friends and agreeing to get tutoring from Chris, my other new friend.

Chris always left a strange impression on me. Ever since I met him, I had the feeling that he knew me better than I knew myself, which was impossible, so I dismissed that thought.

However, his skill with words caught my attention, especially when he kept telling me that I was a beautiful girl. Being the only female in my family, raised among men, I always had a personality and appearance that others considered tomboyish.

It was only in recent times that I began to be more conscious of my appearance and strive to be more feminine. Having someone like Chris call me beautiful, with no apparent bad intentions, really made me happy.

Sure, my father always told me that men have ulterior motives and that I should watch them for a long time before trusting, but I didn’t think much of it, as Chris only seemed to want to be my friend.

My main focus was still on perfecting my family’s art and restoring it to its former glory, so every combat experience was invaluable to me.

We took the weapons provided by the academy for training. These weapons were inscribed with runes that prevented us from causing lethal damage, allowing us to fight without restraint.

Thus the fight began. I soon noticed that, although I was faster than Will, he had more strength and balance. Despite not being as fast, he reacted well and counterattacked with precision.

For my part, I couldn’t get through his defense and hit him with a decisive blow, but he couldn’t reach me with an accurate attack either. Before I knew it, we had stalled in a stalemate that lasted for a while….

Suddenly, I felt a battle intent coming toward me, thick and dangerous. Without hesitation, I turned my attention away from Will and looked at the approaching person. Surprisingly, it was Chris, hands covered in metal gloves, attacking us both.

I could barely hold his punch without backing away, while Will, with more leeway, began to talk to him. I simply listened while keeping my guard up, not allowing myself to lose focus.

Finally, hearing that we could use mana, I decided to push away Chris’s fist that was pressing me and launch a strong and fast attack. However, Chris disappeared just when I thought I had hit him, leaving me bewildered.

Before I could react, I heard a loud bang and saw William smashed face first into the ground with Chris at his side. I tried to retreat, but my position was disadvantageous, and I regretted attacking with all my might.

Chris grabbed me by the wrist, preventing me from moving my rapier and pulling back, bringing his hand dangerously close to my throat, quickly ending the fight.

I had heard from Will how strong he was, but seeing him in person is another thing. I don’t think there is anyone in the academy stronger than him, and I was happy to have him as a friend. After all, my father told me it was important to hang out with the right people.

He had neutralized both of us without wasting a single move, showing himself to be someone truly respectable and worthy of admiration.

After checking on William, who didn’t seem to be moving, Silvia loaded him up, and we headed to what we had agreed.

Everything seemed normal until Chris suddenly remembered something and said he would be right back. As he returned, he picked up something from the floor. At first, I thought it was an object, but then I realized it was a person, a girl who didn’t seem to be moving.

A little panicked, I wanted to know if she was alive, as she showed no signs of movement.

However, she was only asleep, which didn’t make it any less worrisome, as she looked young and cute, not to mention those weird, adorable ears that I wanted to pet.

If I didn’t know Chris, I would have gone to alert the instructors, thinking there was a perverted kidnapper among the students.

I still wanted to ask, but I didn’t know how to do it without sounding rude, so in the end I couldn’t get what I wanted to say out of him.

Finally, Silvia, who seemed to know the girl, asked Chris if anything had happened to her. There seemed to be some substance that only they knew about.

In the end, Chris mentioned that he had simply found the girl unconscious and could not leave her alone, assuring her that he would not interrupt the lessons, although that was not what mattered to me.

At first glance, it seemed like a valid explanation, but something about the situation felt uncomfortable. In the end, all that remained was to wait for her to wake up and find out the truth.

Finally, the five of us, including two unconscious people, entered one of the private classrooms adjacent to the gymnasium.

Since only candidates for kingdom representatives attended the academy, many facilities remained free, so it didn’t matter if we used this space.

Eventually, Will woke up, although he didn’t remember anything after being knocked down by Chris. Not that he had missed anything important.

but when he saw the girl named Selene, carried by Chris, he immediately panicked.

Will started asking questions and shaking Chris with a frightened face, he looked very worried, as if he was afraid that Chris had done something irreversible and had become a criminal.

I was dying of curiosity to know what the story behind it all was, but I couldn’t ask.

Finally, Chris convinced Will, and I thought the lesson would begin… or so I thought, because out of nowhere Chris pulled something out of his bag.

I was surprised when I saw Chris pull out a piece of meat. I thought maybe he was hungry, but instead of eating it, he used it to wake up the sleeping girl, passing it over her face.

She bit the air and then, smelling the aroma of the meat again, reached for it, waking up completely. chris gave him the meat along with a lot more food that he took out of his bag, and then whispering something I couldn’t hear and the girl nodded, causing Chris to let out a sigh of relief…it was suspicious.

but Seeing how the girl was acting, it seemed like there was nothing wrong, so there shouldn’t be a problem…. maybe.

Finally, the class began.

Chris explained that runes are a way to communicate with mana, which helped me understand it better, as my previous instructor had explained it in an overly technical and complicated way.

Chris went on to say that some people can cast spells without using runes due to their elemental affinity or through chanting, but that runes are fundamental to learning magic efficiently and saving mana.

The most important thing Chris mentioned was that, although warriors do not necessarily need runes, since their arts function as a kind of chant that is conjured with the body, the circulation of mana in their body is like making a kind of runes.

In short, runes are used to communicate with mana and create phenomena, and could be compared to an alphabet to communicate with the world or mana.

Chanting is a form of oral communication and the arts, a form of bodily communication, each with different characteristics.

Runes have the advantage of saving mana and help to understand spells at a fundamental level.

Finally, affinities allow communication using will, omitting chants and runes, though that didn’t matter to me, as I don’t possess an affinity. It was a very enlightening class, and the way Chris explained was clear and concise.

The class became more complex when Chris began to explain how to wield mana to create magical circles with runes in perfect harmony, which requires great control and concentration.

I took notes diligently, especially on the runes related to wind, as they are linked to my family’s art so the lesson lasted more than an hour.

I honestly didn’t expect much since he was just as much a student as us but that was just my prejudice, and I learned more than what I had learned during the classes, the more I find out about Chris the more I respect him.

As my father used to say, one must always create true friendships and from the right friendships one can grow, both as a person and as a warrior.

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