CelestialShadow
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Chapter 125 - Inexplicable magic
🕑 Added 2024-03-26 14:49:22 +0000 UTC“No improvement, I see. 20 credits will be deducted from you for your disrespectful behavior,” An elven woman who looked to be around 40 years old said as Adion walked past her and her some other professors.
Her three colleagues soon joined in and deducted 20 credits each from Adion for the same made-up reason.
Adion wasn’t really that bothered by it anymore, though. His talk with Dean Lukas the day before had worked to ease all his worries.
No matter how many credits you take away, I’ll get it all back for helping Dean Lukas.
I just hope the Headmaster doesn’t go easy on anyone. It would be a shame if it just stopped without anyone getting punished. But I guess I shouldn’t expect too much. Resolving the situation is more than enough for now.
Adion grinned at the professors as they deducted points from him, causing frowns to appear on their faces.
What jokes.
Adion arrived in the Fifth Hall not long after passing them, and started heading to his classroom.
Finally time to see what ‘Inexplicable Magic’ is about. Hopefully, Professor Haul isn’t in a bad mood. Not that any credits he takes away from me will have much effect.
Adion spotted Sell standing by herself as he arrived outside the classroom. There were around 15 other students besides her already there, but no one Adion recognized. This wasn’t an obligatory class he took with the rest of the diamond class, but one that he had chosen himself. So the students taking this class could be from any year and any class, although he had heard that students who were not in gold or diamond class had to pay credits in order to take the class.
“Adion,” Sell looked at him with a warm smile when she noticed him approaching.
“Good morning,” Adion said and smiled back. “Why has no one gone inside yet?”
“The doors are locked,” Sell said, “I guess we’ll have to wait for Professor Haul to get here.”
“How long until the class starts?” Adion asked.
“It should have started a few minutes ago, actually,” Sell said with an amused smile, “Were you held back by some professors, or did the sun give you the wrong time again?”
“Professors,” Adion said resolutely.
“Haha,” Sell laughed, “I can tell that you’re lying, Adion.”
How does she do that?
“You’re weird,” Adion muttered, “Always reading my mind.”
“You’re the weird one,” Sell said, sticking out her tongue childishly.
“Er,” A hesitant voice came from beside them.
How long has he been standing there?
Next to them was a man with short brown hair and an awkward smile on his face. Adion felt from his aura that he should be in his fourth year.
“Sorry to interrupt,” The man said, “I just came to say hello. You’re Adion Remori, right?”
“That’s right,” Adion nodded.
“I’m Marso Valis. I’m in the same class as your sister,” Marso introduced himself, “I heard you’re having a rough time despite your talents. I just wanted to say that I’m willing to help if there’s anything I can do.”
“Oh? That’s…nice,” Adion said hesitantly, “But I’ve got a handle on it. It will all be over soon.”
“Really?” Marso asked, “That’s great news.”
“You said your name was Valis? As in the Royal family? You’re a prince?” Adion asked.
“I am,” Marso nodded, “But I’m far from being a contender to the throne.”
“I heard that the king had a lot of children,” Adion nodded slowly.
“Father has been lucky in that regard,” Marso said with an awkward smile, “Anyway, I just wanted to introduce myself and offer my help. I’ll let you two continue.”
“Right, thanks,” Adion said as Marso returned to his group of two friends.
“Why did he want to help you?” Sell questioned.
“Maybe he hasn’t heard about us becoming a family of Cyalis, so he thought I’d be important for the Valis Kingdom in the future,” Adion suggested.
“I doubt he wouldn’t be aware of something like that,” Sell said. “Oh well, he didn’t seem to have any ill intentions.”
Adion nodded in agreement. Marso seemed like he just genuinely wanted to help.
“Move, Move!” A yelling voice reached Adion from down the hall. Adion turned to see Professor Haul walking toward them with the help of his cane. “Can’t you see I’m handicapped? Show a little concern.”
Everyone immediately made some space and moved to the walls to let Professor Haul pass.
“Where were you raised? On a farm?” Professor Haul questioned as he unlocked the doors to the classroom. “There. Don’t linger. Get to your seats.”
“You weren’t kidding when you called him grumpy,” Sell said in a low voice as they headed inside the classroom.
The classroom was a small auditorium, having seats for at most 40 students. But there were only 20 of them at the moment, so Adion and Sell could sit down next to each other without a problem.
“Right,” Professor Haul said as he faced the students. He turned to a 2nd-year student in the front row and asked, “You there, why did you choose this class?”
“Wha-, Er, I thought it’d be interesting, Professor Haul,” The student answered.
“Why did you think so?” Professor Haul asked.
“Because it’s about magic we can’t explain, right? How can that not be interesting?” The student answered.
“How boring,” Professor Haul muttered and turned to Adion further in the back, “You! Why did you choose this class?”
Did he forget?
“You said you would come find me if I didn’t take it, Professor Haul,” Adion said in a serious voice. A few of the other students laughed at his response.
“I did? Oh, right, it’s you,” Professor Haul seemed to remember him. “Fair enough,” Professor Haul said with a nod. He then turned to Sell and asked, “How about your girlfriend?”
“I-” Sell was a little stumped at the way he addressed her. “Er, It’s not like that,” Sell began explaining with a slight blush but was interrupted by Professor Haul.
“Oh, forget it,” Professor Haul waved her off, “I forget that you’re all children. 10 credits deducted from you, young miss, for failing to answer a simple question.”
Professor Haul started limping to the blackboard but stopped after a few steps and turned to look at Adion with a grin. “And 10 credits to the young man for snagging a princess.”
This old man…
Adion didn’t know what to say, so he only gave the Professor an awkward smile. He glanced at Sell and saw that she was looking down at some papers, trying to hide her blush.
The other students in the classroom looked at them, and most had amused smiles on their faces.
I hope this isn’t spread around. Please, just a few weeks without any trouble coming for me.
“Now,” Professor Haul said, “Let’s begin with what I meant when I named this class. Inexplicable magic is simply a term I made up to describe all the kinds of magic that elude us. Not the usual spells or conjuring of elements, but the mysterious forms of magic that I’m sure brought you here. I’m talking about Gifts, Words of Truth, Oaths, you name it. It’s all different from the magic most of us know.
“If I am being blunt, they don’t make any sense. We all know about the Theory of Treaded Paths. It is the most widely known theory out there; even children of non-mages get it explained to them. It is usually explained simply by saying that the world likes to do things as it always has done.
“But that is not entirely accurate, not just the world, not just mana, everything. Everything in existence prefers to follow the path that is already treaded. That is why a common spell used by millions is so much easier to learn than the restrictive spells of Nobles. That is why we can read the words of people from 100,000 years ago and still understand them. Perhaps, it is even why the Phoenix is reborn.
“All of this is obvious to anyone who has studied the topic. But it does beg the question, what is the deal with Gifts? With Words of Truth? These forms of magic seem to not follow the Theory of Treaded Paths as we understand it. Adion, right?”
Adion was a little stumped at being called out all of a sudden. “Er, yeah,” Adion nodded.
“I believe most of you know of his Gift since it made quite the spectacle along with his Silver strength,” Professor Haul stated, “Adion’s Gift is strange. Just like almost any other Gift, it is different from the elemental magic we usually think of when we hear the word ‘magic.’ And it is also different from other Gifts. So how can he do it? How does he break the Theory of Treaded Paths?”
Professor Haul looked at the students silently for a while. “That was an open question. You’re meant to answer it.”
“He doesn’t break it,” A girl in her fifth year said with a raised hand, “It is known that Gifted all come to receive their Gift at a highly intense and often life-threatening moment. I believe that made it possible to ‘tread’ a new path all at once. Instead of thousands of people slowly making a path with a new spell, given the right circumstances, someone can do it all on their own in just a moment.”
“Good,” Professor Haul nodded, “20 credits. But can you answer why, then, no one else can learn their Gifts after this path is treaded? If it works like you explained, shouldn’t we all be able to do what Adion does easily now that is already being used so much?”
“That…” The girl hesitated for a moment, “Perhaps the path closed straight after it was trodden?”
“Well, anything is possible,” Professor Haul said, “But that explanation doesn’t get us anywhere. So we might as well leave it for now. Any other ideas?”
“Perhaps the Theory of Treaded Paths is wrong? Or at least incomplete?” Another student suggested.
“I am open to everything. But the arguments for the Theory of Treaded Paths are a lot more convincing than anything against it. Find some proof for your theory, and I’ll listen. But as it is now, we will assume that the Theory is correct. So how do we explain Gifts?”
No one answered this time. So, after waiting for a while, Professor Haul made his way back to the blackboard and started drawing. He drew two straight lines. The one to the left, he left clear, but the one to the right, he started crisscrossing other lines all over.
“I will tell you my thoughts, I suppose. These lines that I’ve drawn are all paths. Imagine that the leftmost one represents a fireball, perhaps the easiest of spells. And this line over here is Adion’s Gift.”
Professor Haul pointed to the cluttered line that represented Adion’s Gift.
“There is a path for his Gift, but it is hidden. Hidden very deeply. Adion has, in a moment of desperation, managed to find that path, and now it appears as clear as the path of the fire ball to him. But for the rest of us, we can only see the path of the fireball clearly, while the Gift’s path escapes us.
“There is a path there. Something perhaps used plenty long ago, during the Ages of the past. But to get there, you must pass a certain hurdle. Only then will it become clear.
“This is only one theory, of course, and one with holes in it. Another theory is that Adion created the path through sheer brute Will. Another is that Ganta, the world itself, saw him as worthy of receiving this power. There are plenty more, and we will discuss many of them in this class going forward.
“We will also look at Words of Truth and see how we can compare it to Gifts. Where are they alike, and where are they different? We will discuss why Oaths work, even for non-mages. And plenty more of the unexplained.”
Professor Haul looked at the students for a second. Then, with a small smile, he said, “If you are looking for answers, I’m afraid this is the wrong class for you. Here, you will only have more and more questions.
“Now, let’s go through the faelin and their strange magic. Some of you might have heard about it already but listen up as you could learn something too. Hopefully, we’ll have time to discuss the fae before it’s time to end.” Professor Haul then began giving a brief history of the faelin and Words of Truth.
Adion couldn’t help but glance toward Sell as Professor Haul talked, as he never once mentioned a race other than the faelin accomplishing what Sell had.
Why is it that she was able to grasp Words of Truth? And at such a young age at that? Is there some explanation, or is it all just a happy coincidence?
The class went on for a long time, and Adion had to agree with Professor Haul’s words at the beginning of the class.
He had more questions than ever before.
Comments
Kbzzy
Haul the goat professor
James Faulkner
Tftc!
