“You’re all dismissed!”

  At Miss Forsythia’s call, everyone gives a bow and begins filing out except Emily, who remains standing in pce. As they leave the room, she sees Jeremy and Kyle look bad fix her with a gre.

  Damn, I guess I ’t avoid having problems with them.

  Finally, Tom steps through the door as it shut with a loud thud behind him, leaving Emily and Miss Forsythia standing together in silence.

  “So, Emily, why don’t you tell me a little about yourself and how you ended up here,” Miss Forsythia says, walking over to the desks and taking a seat.

  “Sure,” Emily agrees while taking the seat o her. “I lived in Eimdon city w for a aker. An airship of the Mandrago family crashed one day when I was out in the scrap piles, and I found a magic crystal in the wreckage. I obviously didn’t know what it was at the time, so I took it, did some experiments with it, and ended up awakening as a result. The Mandrago family came and found me soon after, forced me to e with them, and then attempted to use a spell to brainwash me. Then they sent me here. That about sums it up.”

  A look of anger spreads aiss Forsythia’s face as she listens to Emily’s at.

  “Those shitty excuses for nobles!” The air around her begiing up, causing Emily to flinch back.

  She’s this angry about the edited version?

  Notig Emily’s reaiss Forsythia quickly calms herself down and apologises.

  “Sorry about that, I should be setting a better example.”

  “It’s fine. What was that though Miss Forsythia?” Emily asks with a look of eager curiosity.

  “Please, just call me Jenny. You’re making me feel old,” Jenny says fshing a gentle smile. “That was me losing trol of my anger. As we grow in circle, our trol of and e with mana also grow, which leads to phenomena like that when a mage feels stroions.”

  “I see. Why are you so angry?”

  Jenny sighs and begins to expin with a sad tone:

  “Many years ago now, I was a rowing up in a small territory of the Hawthorne family. I roached by a member of said family, and told I had magical talent. The family treated me well a me here to learn. As I grew, I made a lot of friends with other oners who had been brought in like me, and even started dating.” A small smile grows on her face as Jenny reminisces.

  “However, unfortunately, our happiness couldn’t st. One day my partner suddenly said she had to leave for a dungeon with the heir of the family she served. The dungeon was estimated to require third circle mages, but she and the family’s heir were only sed circle. I told her not to go, but she said she had no choice.” She silently wipes a few tears from her eyes as her sad expression morphs into a look of seething rage that strikes a chord in Emily. “She died in that dungeon. Afterwards, I was allowed to gh her belongings and found several letters giving her orders. The family bag her didn’t have any third circle mages and wao use her as fodder to help their heir gain the resources to bee one. Knowing this, when I reached the third circle, I requested to separate from the Hawthorne family, so they didn’t get dragged into it if I got punished. I gained my own le iurn for fifty years of service as a teacher here and, after being given the name Forsythia, the first thing I did urge the offending family from this kingdom.”

  With a look of grim satisfa, the shimmeri surrounding Jenny slowly fades.

  “It should have ehere. However, when I was going through the family’s records, I found information on how they’d been usial magic to trol all the ohey brought in. When I returned here again afterwards, I started cheg with my students and my oner friends, and found a rge portion of them gave strange reas wheioned about the noble families bag them. Sihen, I’ve been looking into mental magic to try and find a way to break these rotten nobles’ trol, but my search has yet to bear fruit.”

  Jenny goes silent, giving Emily some time to process the flood of new information.

  I k wasn’t just the Mandrago family. I’m not sure if I trust this woman, but the fact that she was willing to talk about this is promising.

  “You said that you tested a lot of students, right? Do you have a list of which families I should watch out for?”

  “Yes, I’m not sure if it’s one hundred per t accurate, but I write it out for you if you’d like?”

  “Thanks.” Emily passes Jenny her notebook and quill.

  After a couple of seds scribbling, Jenny hands back the notebook with a dozen noble families written down. Reading over the list, Emily lets out a small sigh of relief, the st of her caution towards Juliana washing away.

  No Madonna family!

  “Do you know if the udents from these families know what they’re doing?”

  “I’m not sure. I’ve tried to avoid asking any questions directly to family members that could draw suspi. I don’t want to risk turning half the nobles in the kingdom against me yet. However, given the way they act towards es, I wouldn’t be surprised if they know,” Jenny answers with obvious disdain for her students.

  Emily nods, then asks a question she suspects she knows the ao while narrowing her eyes at Jenny.

  “Now, why did you approach me and tell me all this?”

  Jenny smiles as she answers.

  “Simple, you’re a vassal of one of the families I know do brainwash oners, yet you were able to freely insult them and clearly hold them in pt. One of the major tells of brainwashed students is being uo insult their ‘masters’. So, of course I would be curious as to why you weren’t brainwashed: as you firmed yourself, they tried and failed.”

  Jenny’s eyes light up with intense curiosity aement.

  “So this is a great opportunity! I’ve mentioned my fruitless researto mental magic. This is mostly due to the knowledge being sidered taboo and being illegal in this kingdom. I’ve failed to find much, other than scraps of knowledge buried in the library, but if you still remember the process and talk about it, I finally start some proper research!”

  Emily silently siders what to do.

  I don’t really want to gather too much attention from the other families while I’m here, and I don’t have much of a reason to help. But, it would probably leave a bad taste in my mouth if I ignored i people being brainwashed ao their deaths. Besides, maybe I’ll get the ce to learal magic if I help her.

  “If I help you, you guarahat no one will know it was me that helped so they don’t target me if you do succeed?”

  “I son the name Jenny Forsythia that I will ell anyone about your involvement in this,” Jenny says solemnly, with her hand on her heart.

  A small smile slips onto Emily’s face as she watches.

  “Fine, what would you like to know then?”

  “Great! Could you please ret to me the entire process of their attempted brainwashing?” Jenny asks while tapping her wrist.

  Immediately, a faint lia spreads from within her robes and a book and quill appear on the desk in front of her. Shocked, Emily looks closer ahe outline of a bracelet holding a glowing purple crystal within Jenny’s robes.

  Seeing Emily’s curiosity, Jenny chuckles and pulls back her sleeve.

  “It’s a spatial ste item. They’re quite hard to make, only a skilled mage specialising in space magi produce them, but the venieally makes it worth the price.”

  Gazing at the exposed bracelet, Emily sees four bands of iwined metal, two silver and two bck, with delicate runes engraved across every inch of their surface. The four bands are curled around a purple crystal and each of the runes closest to it glow with the same lic hue.

  After giving Emily a few moments to ihe bracelet, Jenny drops her sleeve and opens her notebook. Seeing her expet look, Emily begins reting her run-in with mental magic. She expins every detail she saw, from the elder's staff, to the order of the runes breaking against her mental defences.

  “Is that everything?” Jenny asks with a slight frown.

  “Yes, why? Is there a problem?”

  “No, I’m holy surprised you remember so much. It’s just everything you told me about this points towards breaking the spell being even harder than I had hoped.” She sighs and leans ba her chair, rubbing the bridge of her nose.

  Emily silently waits for Jenny to collect herself and expin properly.

  “Have you been to any lessons on ts yet?”

  “No.” Emily shakes her head.

  “I see. To put it simply, this spell seems problemati the w of the t and the state of the caster. You said the elder looked decrepit, right?”

  “Yes, his back was crooked, and he looked shrivelled.”

  “Then I suspect it’s not his age that makes him look old, it’s probably a limitation pced on the spell to make it stronger. Mages don’t visibly age past their prime until they only have fifty to sixty years left on their lifespan, uhey do it iionally. And when a mage does age, they usually don’t gain deformities, due to having a far greater vitality than a normal person. You see, when making spells, most ts are just used to give a mental image. But there are some where the words of the t are used to designate rules and effects on your spell. For example, this part here,”

  Jenny underlihe first passage from the t written into her notebook, ‘With gnarled mind and twisted flesh’, then she scribbles down a note o it as she speaks:

  “This probably strehe hold of the spell, at the cost of def its caster. However, this is bad news because the rest of the spell” - she underlihe st two lines of the spell, ‘An oath fed with nth to resist; till the end of her life, it shall alersist’ - “ be interpreted as: the target will be given a ce to resist, however if failed the spell shall st till the target's death.”

  Emily nods in uanding before leaning over and underlining: ‘Broken and bound to our family tree’.

  “Then this would expin why a blood member of the family came to give me instrus when they were sending me here. Does this mean it’s impossible to break the spell?”

  “Goddess no! Nothing is ever impossible, especially with magic! If I were multiple circles above the caster then it would be retively easy even with the extra strength from the ditions, but otherwise, it just means I will need a more perfect ter spell and possibly a lot of resources.”

  “Okay, is there anything else you o know from me, or is that all?”

  “That should be all. I’ll let you know if I think of anything else I o know. Thank you for your help.”

  “No problem, I’m happy to do it.” Emily stands up and starts walking towards the door.

  “Oh, and Emily,” Jenny calls out to her before she leaves. “While it’s great to be cautious when dealing with someone you don’t know well, you should work on managing your expressioer. I easily spotted the moment you decided to use me, and so will most experienced mages.”

  Looking back at Jenny’s knowing smile, Emily blushes and bows lightly before stepping through the door.

  ***

  Ba her room, Emily sits down at her desk, dropping her notebook down in front of her along with a new spell from the information hub.

  Well, that was embarrassing. I thought I was better at hiding my thoughts, but I guess living a long life among so many nobles will make you adept at reading people. I’ll avoid having that chat again with her till my final reset. Hopefully I’ll py it better then.

  Shaking her head and puttialk with Jenny behind her, Emily opens her system to look at her quest notifications.

  ˉˉˉˉˉ

  -Quest pleted: True Magical Genius #1

  [True Magical Genius #1]

  [Rank:] D

  [Description:] Living up to your title of teancer, you have maed a using your uanding of physics! But are two maions truly worthy of a magical genius?

  Requirements:

  -Ma 3/3 Elements in your first maion attempt (plete)

  Rewards:

  -Meiowledge: Basic Material Sce

  -Meiowledge: Basiematics

  -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

  -Quest Geed: True Magical Genius #2

  [True Magical Genius #2]

  [Rank:] C

  [Description:] Three maions down, three more to go!

  Requirements:

  -Ma 3/6 Elements in your first maion attempt (Not plete)

  Rewards:

  -Meiowledge: Basic Waves

  -Meiowledge: Basic Thermodynamics

  -Skill: Basic Metalw (passive)

  _____

  Seeing the increased maion t on the sed part of the quest, Emily grins and mutters:

  “Ha, guess I o show off again!”