“Morning,” I said, smothering a yawn as I sat next to Felton.

  “Morning,” the green-eyed boy said, looking significantly less tired than I felt.

  I shouldn’t have stayed up so late studying by candlelight.

  My reading was improving, but it still took me a while to read through both spells in full, back to back. I didn’t know what the words meant, being the demonic language, but I did notice some areas with similarities. I was still debating if that would help or hurt my ability to learn two at once. I had to focus on [Create Water] for class, but I really did want to learn [Create Light] as well.

  Byron had brought me the candles I had used to study with, just before the natural light in my window started to fade. Candles were a bit of a luxury growing up in Redding. No one was sitting around reading, and it was a bit wasteful to burn them for entertainment instead of just sleeping when it got dark. Having multiple candles to light my study desk after dark was just one of the many ways that Somnial’s household was investing in me, even if to them, it was likely a tiny expenditure. Learning [Create Light] would give me that much more independence and make me that much less of a leech on their kindness.

  In the short term, though, I would probably need to pace myself. It wasn’t a big deal to stay up late studying sometimes, but Byron had still woken me up at the crack of dawn and drilled my [Swordsmanship]. He quickly realized I was under-rested, but rather than back off, he pushed me even harder, declaring that practicing when tired or out of sorts was extra useful since I would not always get to enter battle in perfect condition. After grinding me down to the point where I could barely stand, he sent me off to wash up and then fed me a big breakfast before taking me to school.

  I had fallen asleep in the carriage over, but that short nap made me even more groggy when I was reawakened and sent in to the academy for class.

  Felton nudged me out of my reverie, and motioned with his head towards the door. I glanced over, and saw Ramius enter the classroom, his lackeys in tow.

  They pointedly ignored us. I wasn’t sure at first, but eventually one of the lackeys looked up and caught my gaze. His eyes widened and he quickly looked down at the floor as though wronged.

  So I’m guessing they know about my sponsor now.

  It figured that Ramius might try and find out about my “family’s company” so he could crush it or whatever the young noble had planned as payback for my minor slight, though I had to admit I was impressed he was so spiteful as to dig into it within a day. Since there was no such thing, he could only have found out that I was sponsored by the great sage himself. Despite being the son of Pendor, lord of Ivarnel, he couldn’t exactly act against the house of the man who defeated the demon king.

  That’s sorted, then. But it also means the secret is going to spread, and probably immediately.

  I glanced over at Felton, who shrugged in response to Ramius’s attitude, or lack thereof.

  From here on out, new friends might just end up being sycophants who want to ingratiate themselves with Somnial, I thought with a sigh. I’m glad I met Felton, first. I’ll have to make sure he isn’t driven off by jealous idiots.

  I frowned. Maybe I’ll just tell him?

  My concerns were set aside for the moment, as Professor Merria entered the classroom with pep in her step.

  “Good morning, students! Today we’ll be doing some arithmetic practice problems,” she announced, getting a couple groans in response. “This is just a baseline. You should all have the basics already. If anyone’s struggling, let me know and we’ll get you up to speed.”

  Students shuffled out some writing supplies, and Merria turned to the board to begin writing out some problems.

  “Problem one, the sum of one hundred sixty three and eighty nine,” she began, writing out the words on the board. “If it helps, imagine you’re counting raab!”

  I blinked my bleary eyes, still tired from all the reading I had done the night before. I didn’t want to fight with letters again so early in the morning, so I grabbed a piece of scrap and quickly jot down ‘163+89’.

  Merria spoke out a few more problems, writing them out in full on the board, and I jot them down as well. They were all simple enough to solve in my head, so I did so and wrote out the answers in long-form.

  I sat back once finished, then glanced around at the normal eleven year old children, many of which had intensely furrowed brows as they did mental math on the words, some of them scribbling out partial answers as they went.

  Felton glanced over at me, and his eyebrows shot up. “You’re done already?”

  “No talking, please! Eyes on your own work,” Merria said from the front of the class.

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  I glanced over at the pretty young teacher, who cocked her head, watching us. Shrugging, I looked down at my paper, trying to avoid letting my eyes close and falling asleep.

  * * *

  “Come on, tell me,” Felton whined as we waited in line at the cafeteria.

  “It’s just a shorthand I learned,” I said, frowning.

  After I inevitably nodded off in class, I had been a bit disoriented upon waking, and had forgotten about my scrap of numbers. The boy sitting next to me had not, however, and made use of the opportunity, getting a good look at it and then pestering me to explain it to him.

  “So teach it to me too!” he said, continuing to badger me.

  I tilted my head back, looking at the ceiling and sighing. I was not equipped to figure out if introducing numerals and Earth mathematics to this fantasy world was safe or a terrible mistake. “Maybe,” I said, hoping to defer the decision to later. “Let me think about it.”

  Felton grinned. I just shook my head and willed the line to move faster, my stomach growling.

  “Hello, Tovar!” Felris said as she joined us at our table, ruffling her little brother’s sandy hair.

  “Hi Felris,” I said, suppressing a yawn before I dug into my food.

  Felton scowled, though it was a halfhearted expression, performative at best. “Don’t you have your own friends to sit with?”

  Felris removed her hand before he could slap it away. “And miss out on this opportunity to spend time with my adorable little brother? You know, next year we’ll have different lunch periods. I have to enjoy this while I can!”

  I listened to the brother and sister bicker, rather amiably, while I slowly chewed my food, eyes meandering across the room and studying the other kids.

  Ramius and his lackeys were eating elsewhere, still not acknowledging me at all, which was fine. Sure enough, though, I saw a few kids attempting to take subtle glances our way. I think word’s already spreading about Somnial. Oh well.

  “Hey,” I asked, turning back to the siblings, my mind going back to my discussion with the sage from the night before. “How did you two get your Will up to the admission standards? If you don’t mind my asking.”

  Felton and Felris were nobles, sure, and far wealthier than my family, but even still, the cost to hire in a mage for both of them would have been extreme.

  The siblings looked at each other, then back to me. “Our territory has a small dungeon in it, which our family manages,” Felris said with a shrug. “It’s a pretty minor source of income.”

  “Had to spend weeks in there to get the third point,” Felton grumbled.

  “Wasn’t it dangerous?”

  “Not really,” Felris said. “We didn’t go deep inside, and our guards cleared out the monsters in the first level beforehand, then kept watch.”

  “So you didn’t fight any monsters?”

  The siblings shook their heads. “Just camped, really.”

  That was interesting. “Wait, what do you mean, income?”

  “Some monster parts have value and can be sold. And sometimes dungeons produce other things. Like ores and treasures.”

  “Neat. I’d like to check it out sometime,” I said, mostly to myself as I picked at my food.

  Felris and Felton exchanged another glance. “Sure,” Felris said.

  I looked up in surprise. “What do you mean, ‘sure’?”

  Felris shrugged. “I don’t think there’d be a problem with it. We’ll be headed home for summer break. If you want to come with, we can arrange a dive.”

  “Oh,” I said. I’d have to check with Somnial, but I didn’t think he’d have a problem with it. “Thanks, that would be fun.”

  Felton leaned forward, pointing at me and grinning wickedly. “If you teach me that arithmetic shorthand, that is.”

  Ugh. Well, Gudell did say that Metasurvivor reincarnators weren’t a big deal, even if they brought things from one world to the next. Numerals just make math easier. I’m not teaching them how to split the atom or anything. “Fine,” I grumbled. Felton pumped his fist in victory.

  Felris looked at the two of us. “What arithmetic shorthand?”

  * * *

  In the end, I agreed to show both of them how numerals worked, and in turn I’d join them for a trip to Obdorn on summer break and check out the dungeon. We said goodbye to Felris at the end of lunch and headed back to class, settling in for another lecture from Somnius.

  Afternoon classes continued to be interesting, though I had to tense my leg muscles to stop myself from nodding off from post-lunch torpor. I was a bit too used to taking mid-day naps, and being sleep deprived wasn’t helping, but sooner or later I’d break the habit.

  History gave way to invocation practice, first repeating the previous day’s section and then moving on to the next to drill. This time around, I recognized the next section of the spell from my read-through.

  “Enunciate!” Somnius said, slapping his hand down on the lectern. “Pronounce each word clearly! Sloppy diction makes for sloppy spell-craft!”

  I was pretty sure most of the class preferred our mornings to our afternoons, even though Somnius was the one teaching magic. He was a bit of a drill sergeant, but I didn’t dislike that about him. I was there to do what I needed to in order to learn magic.

  “Ugh,” Felton complained as class let out. “My throat hurts.”

  “You headed to the library?”

  Felton nodded. “Yup. Oh! Come with! You can start teaching me your arithmetic tricks!” His eyes widened with excitement.

  Dork. I snorted, then shook my head. “My ride’s probably waiting for me.”

  Felton frowned. “Oh, come on. Tell them to come back after the senior classes let out.”

  “I… huh. I guess.”

  “I’ll come with.”

  Together, we made our way out to the front of the school, where I found Byron waiting with the carriage. Unlike the day before, when I had been held back a bit by Somnius, today I caught more of the young students being picked up by their various staff and chauffeurs. Several students simply walked past the carriages, making their way home by foot. Maybe I’ll start walking. I don’t need the pampering, the exercise would be good for me, and it would give me some more flexibility to come and go as I please.

  A particularly ornate carriage caught my eye as it pulled away. Through the window, I caught Ramius’s profile. Nice ride.

  “Hey Byron,” I said, approaching the butler standing next to the familiar carriage. “This is Felton. Uh, we were going to do some studying in the library. Can you… wait? Or come back when the senior classes finish?”

  “Good day, master Felton,” Byron said with a little bow to the boy behind me, then turned back to me. “Very good, master Tovar. There are a few things I can pick up from the market while I wait. I’ll return later.”

  “Thank you!” I said, waving as he climbed into the carriage and headed off. “All right then.”

  I turned back to Felton, who was watching the carriage depart with wide eyes. “Uh, Tovar,” he said slowly, turning back to me. “Why is your butler wearing the crest of the Great Sage?”

  “Oh. Right,” I said, glancing back at the shrinking carriage, then back to Felton. So much for my secrets. “So. About that.”