The administrator looked at me, a dark grin spreading across his face… before bursting into a fit of giggles.

  “Oh, you should see your face,” he said through his chortling.

  “Please tell me you aren’t setting me up to be some kind of returned demon king,” I said, putting my face in my hands.

  “Nah,” the administrator said, wiping his eyes. “That’s not possible, though it would have been interesting. You were born human in this life, and it’s, well… a completely different pipeline.”

  “But [Mana Manipulation] is what the demons do, right?”

  “Yeah, more or less. I was being genuine, though, when I told you it would serve you better outside of this world. You’re headed to a human academy and going to learn their version of magic, right?” he asked, and I nodded. “That’s all well and good, but if you end up in a world without ambient mana, it’ll be a lot harder. [Mana Manipulation] helps you control your own internal forces way better. Frankly, without the guidance I offered you, there wasn’t really a chance you could pick that up as a human in this life, especially once you got on the academic track where you only memorize ancient demonic chants to cast spells, but going from this to that is still doable. You’re welcome.”

  “Ugh,” I said, lifting my head up and glancing at the white void sky above us. “Thanks. I guess.”

  “Come on, you’ll be fine. Once you memorize that [Create Light] skill, you won’t even need to use [Mana Manipulation] again, at least not in front of other humans. You should still practice in private, though.”

  “All right,” I said, heaving a breath and shaking my head. “Well. That’s all I wanted to know. Is another demon king on the way? Should I worry about that?”

  “Not in your lifetime,” the admin said with a shrug. “That’s probably why the one who tagged you dropped you off here first. You could go looking for trouble, hunt down surviving demons as a human, and you might get stuck dealing with some drama between human kingdoms, but generally speaking the level of magic is low in this world. Even more so in-between demon king risings. Just… live your life, get some skills and stat points under your belt, and enjoy the ride.”

  I nodded, and the administrator waved his hand. When I blinked, I was back in the temple. I shook my head again and turned to leave.

  * * *

  I was up at the crack of dawn the next morning, despite being so road-weary and the comfortable bed. There was just something about sleeping in an unfamiliar space that made it hard to unwind and relax, and I had slept poorly the entire way from Redding to Ivarnel.

  Wiping bleary eyes, I drank some water and got up to relieve myself before taking my new sword out to the courtyard to work through my forms and do practice swings. It had a bit more heft to it than I was used to, and in short order my shoulders had a good burn going on.

  “Quite diligent, master Tovar,” Byron said from behind me. I suppressed a startled yelp and turned to greet the butler.

  “Good morning, Byron.”

  “And good morning to you. Your forms are quite clean. May I ask who taught you?”

  “Uh, a man in my village. He’s a retired soldier.”

  Byron nodded. “I can see the army’s influence in your movements. He likely trained you the same way he was trained, like all recruit soldiers are. Very functional for training large groups.”

  I sensed a ‘but’. “But…?”

  Byron frowned slightly. “That will only take you so far. One must adapt their [Swordsmanship] to their own needs. Their physical size, for example.”

  I glanced down at my young body, then back to the butler. “But I’ll grow into it, won’t I?”

  “True,” he said, stroking the short beard on his chin. “If you’re comfortable waiting that long.”

  “Huh,” I responded, examining the butler. “I didn’t peg you as a swordsman.”

  Byron smiled. “Says the sage apprentice.”

  “Fair point.”

  “May I?” he asked, gesturing to my sword. I handed it to him, and he quickly slashed an ‘X’ in the air with the weapon, feeling out the weight. He shifted his feet in a way that was familiar to me, and deployed a picture perfect form which I had practiced earlier. “That was the young master’s form, correct?”

  I nodded. “Looks right to me.”

  “Now watch, if you would.”

  The butler shifted his weight slightly, and the sword blurred through the air. I could vaguely sense that his movement was covering more or less the same ground as my stricter form—strikes, blocks, and counters, all acting to accomplish the same function—but where mine was functional, Byron’s was like art. It flowed.

  I gaped at the man as he finished up, wondering what level his skill was. “How did you learn all that?”

  Byron handed me back my sword, and I took it, grunting slightly when my tired shoulders accepted the weight once more. “My time together with master Somnial has not always been serving as his head butler, though it is a role I happily perform in my... advanced age.”

  My eyes fell onto the sword, then back up to the distinguished gentleman who had so fiercely wielded the blade mere seconds ago. “Would you teach me more?”

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  The butler met my eyes, studying me and my resolve. “You came to Ivarnel as master Somnial’s ward, by way of revelation, to study magic. Yet you still plan to continue following the path of [Swordsmanship]?”

  “I can do both,” I said, though I sounded a bit petulant.

  To my surprise, Byron laughed. “I don’t dislike that attitude, young master.” He glanced up at the sun climbing in the sky. “I have duties to attend to,” he said with a small bow, turning to go back into the manor. I frowned, but he glanced back at me with a reserved smile. “So I’ll meet you back here at dawn tomorrow.”

  “Thanks, Byron!” I called out after him as he disappeared back indoors.

  I had every intention of continuing with my physical training through my magic studies. Exercise was good for the brain. Totally exhausting myself with physical activity might negatively affect my studies, but if I dialed it in and did the right amount, it should increase my overall available energy for both swordsmanship and magic. I was more than happy to try and increase the level of my [Swordsmanship] skill while getting my exercise in.

  After a few more slow forms as a cool down, I sat to do some breathing meditation. I drew in mana with the breath, increasing the amount in my body just slightly. I wasn’t sure if that actually helped accelerate my recovery and healing at all—I had gained no skill to clearly state as much—but it felt to me like it helped, and it didn’t seem to hurt. Even if it did nothing for my body, it was a way to train my mana circuit and Will stat, so it was part of my daily routine and needed doing. Once I felt comfortably full of mana, I headed back inside to put my sword away and wash up before breakfast.

  Somnial and I had breakfast together. The sage sat with a book open, even during mealtime. He was quite single-minded about studying magic. We ate in relative silence, save for the sound of cutlery clinking on the dishware and the occasional turn of a page.

  “When does the academy term begin?” I asked, breaking the silence.

  The sage looked up, momentarily surprised I was there. “Ah,” he said after he processed my words. “Top of next week.”

  Weeks began after the day of rest and worship, and the next day of worship was in three days, so I started in four. “What should I do until then?”

  Somnial frowned slightly. “Whatever you like.”

  Helpful, I thought sarcastically, but just nodded. Swallowing my pride, I asked another question. “Could I get someone to help me with my studies? I want to drill my letters and make sure I’ve got them memorized before I start classes.”

  My sponsor nodded slightly, looking to the side and communicating the request to Byron with his wordless glance. I wasn’t surprised that he deferred it to his staff, and was fine with Byron or anyone else in the manor helping. I didn’t need babying, but I didn’t want to ingrain a mistake early on and suffer for it.

  Byron stepped forward. “Perhaps we could go pick up some simple Argadian books,” he offered.

  That seemed unnecessary, since Somnial had a library full of books, but once I gave his words another second of thought I realized that those books were likely all grimoires and weren’t actually in the Argadian language. They shared the script, but using those to improve my reading comprehension would be difficult, since the words the letter spelled out were meaningless to me, and presumably also any non-magically trained manor staff.

  Somnial nodded, and Byron looked to me for my confirmation as well.

  “Right,” I said. “Sure. Sounds fun.”

  And so, after the meal I went back out into the city, and spent some time browsing a small Ivarnel bookstore. Instead of grimoires filled with magical spells, these were mostly books about history and politics, business and commerce, religion and faith, and other largely dry and functional contents. There weren’t any recreational novels, it seemed, as books were fairly rare in this country. They were also outrageously expensive, which I tried not to feel bad about.

  In the following days, I spent the early mornings training the sword with Byron, worked on improving my reading and writing with various literate staff members until lunch, and did some [Mana Manipulation] practice as well as memorization of the [Create Light] spell in the afternoon. I ate my meals with Somnial, and after dinner, had the old mage check my work on my memorization, to ensure I wasn’t making any mistakes as I committed each sentence and paragraph to memory. I went to bed early, since there wasn’t much to do at night anyway, and I was starting each day with exercise at dawn. Good rest was important for growth.

  When the day of worship rolled around, Byron and I went to the temple for the service with some of the rest of the manor staff. I wasn’t too surprised that Somnial didn’t attend; he didn’t strike me as particularly religious, and we hadn’t attended any local sermon on the day of worship that had occurred during our travels.

  The temple service was actually quite impressive. There was a choir in addition to the cantor, and seeing so many people gather was moving in its own way, even if they were praying to gods and goddesses that didn’t actually exist. Looking around, I noticed people from all different walks of life coming together for the songs and prayer and the competent sermon delivered by the cantor.

  While there was a clear sense of unity in the temple and anyone could attend, I could see a little bit of class division. The people seated towards the front of the temple appeared a fair bit wealthier, and I saw some youths among the families. I wondered if I would encounter them when school started the next day. At my request, Byron and I had seated ourselves towards the back with the manor staff who had come, rather than moving to the front like he had initially tried to do. I noticed the smiles that I received from those among the staff who I had come to know in my few days at the manor; we were all equal in the eyes of the Five Guardians, so long as we walked our paths, but that didn’t mean that classism didn’t exist between humans.

  I was a commoner though, and despite this big break, I wasn’t going to forget my roots. Back home, my family were likely sitting in Redding’s small chapel, where there was not a single wealthy person in sight, singing the same songs and listening to similar sermons. While I was attending school, they would be working the fields, planting and then weeding and harvesting the season’s crops. My crippled father and my mother, both still mourning my lost brother, alongside Torra and Tomas and baby Tomelia, had no choice but to work hard five out of six days not just to survive, but to supply taxed crops to the domain, which the wealthy here in Ivarnel could simply buy and enjoy without the toil of their own backs.

  That was just how it was. It wasn’t my place in this world to try and incite change: even if I could, there were no perfect societies. If industrialization wasn’t possible due to mana decomposition, machine labor would never be possible, and in order for a country to survive, food needed to be grown. If mages became rich, or were only trained among the rich, there was little chance of magic bridging the gap.

  Nonetheless, I would remain aware it was the common people that allowed the wealthy to attend academies and study something like magic. I had no idea if other mages had similar abilities to Somnial or if he was far outside the norm, but if I could gain a fraction of the power he displayed in our fields a week prior, then that was the way I wanted to use it in this life. I was in Ivarnel for myself first, and to learn skills and gain the stats I wanted to carry into my next lives, but I was also doing this for my family and the good people of Redding, who remained in my thoughts as the sermon came to an end.

  The next morning, I awoke early as usual and did some training with Byron, then took a bath and dressed in my new academy robes that had been delivered to the manor. A carriage brought me from the manor through the city to the large building that housed Ivarnel’s mage academy.

  I stepped out of the carriage, looking up at the structure, and the other kids heading inside.

  My school life begins now.