TEACHER AND STUDENT

Today is my first magic lesson.

I was so excited I barely slept last night.
I buried myself in books until the candle burned out, imagining I’d walk into something grand—arcane circles, glowing sigils, mysterious tomes...

But reality?

Well...

“Ahh, that hit the spot,” Selene sighed, sprawled out on the grass with a half-empty flask in her hand.

...She’s drunk.

Yup. Just straight-up drunk. On my first day of magic training.

My mom already doesn’t like her—and now she’s been grilling Dad nonstop about why he hired her.

“She came recommended by an old friend,” Dad said.

Looking at her now, she’s either one of those eccentric geniuses with a tragic backstory…
Or Dad definitely got scammed.

SNOOOORE.

(Yup. Definitely got scammed.)

If I had plot armor—or didn’t care about accidentally blowing up the castle—I’d just try to learn magic on my own.
Too bad I wasn’t a genius in my past life.

I took a deep breath and steeled myself.
I really want to learn magic… no matter what.

I walked over and nudged her lightly.

“Excuse me, teacher. I thought you were going to teach me magic?”

“Huh...? Oh… right,” she mumbled, sitting up and rubbing her eyes.
“Is that what I’m here for? Alright, Sparkle Boy. Let’s test your mana first.”

“I have a name, you know!”

She ignored me and wobbled to her feet.

“Let’s start with the basics. Repeat after me:
‘Bestow the water where it’s demanded—stop my enemy! [[Water Ball!]]’”

With a lazy flick of her staff, she launched a water sphere that splashed cleanly against a tree.

“Okay, your turn,” she muttered before flopping back into the grass and promptly... fell asleep.

“Wait, what?! That’s it?! You’re just gonna—?!”

SNOOOORE.

(Ugggh...)

Still, I decided to try it.
But… chanting just felt so embarrassing.

I remembered something from the manga I used to read—
Some protagonists didn’t chant at all. They just visualized the spell and shaped the mana directly.

Could I do that too...?

Mana, as I understood it, worked like stamina.
The more powerful the spell, the more energy it consumed.
But just like muscle, it could be trained.

So I focused.

I imagined a current of energy connecting me to my Chronosphere.
I visualized that energy pulling hydrogen and oxygen from the air...
gathering into a spinning sphere of water.

It started to form. Slowly.
Until it became a medium-sized ball.

“[[Water Ball!]]” I shouted, releasing it.

The water sphere flew forward and hit the same tree with a satisfying splash.

(I did it! I actually cast a spell!)

But then... everything started spinning.

(Eh…?)

My knees buckled. My arms went numb.
I felt myself falling—
And then everything went black.

When I opened my eyes again, the first thing I saw was Selene’s grinning, tipsy face hovering over me.

“Hey there, sleepyhead~! I can’t believe you fainted just using a basic spell! Ha ha ha ha ha!”

...

(Great. This is definitely not going to be annoying at all.)

She stopped laughing for a moment.

“But I think you’re worth teaching.”

(Wow, the audacity.)

“Thanks?” I muttered. Honestly, I didn’t know how to react to that.

“Come on, Sparkle. Let’s continue with your lesson,” she said, lifting me up with surprising strength.

“I have a name. It’s Caelum.”

“Nope. You’re my student, and that gives me the privilege to name you.”

“I’m not a pet!”

“Sparkle Boy~,” she sang while patting my head.

From there, our “lessons” were… unconventional. She’d sprawl in the grass, giving strange advice like, “Picture your spell like it wants to hit the target” or “Stop thinking about mana. Let it think about you.”

It sounded like drunken nonsense — but when I followed it, I got better. She noticed, too, giving me these rare, fleeting smiles that felt like medals.

The truth? Selene wasn’t lazy. She was tired. I could see it in the way she stared at her staff sometimes, eyes going somewhere far away. But when she looked at me, I caught a glimmer of something different — like teaching me was pulling her back to the surface.

In the afternoon, I trained with Sara.
She came from a bloodline of Draven—this world’s version of Spartans.

Although magic is a part of daily life here, people rely on it a bit too much.
That’s why in Draven culture, they focused on close combat and weapons training.

And honestly… she’s right.
Even Leon, who’s more of a long-range magic user, was trained by her.

Before I could learn to use a sword, I had to build up my strength.

Jogging.
Push-ups.
Sit-ups.
Everything.

I didn’t exercise in my previous life, so my muscles were screaming from all the physical training—
But weirdly, I felt exhilarated.

Surely mana worked the same way.
I couldn’t neglect training just because my capacity had increased.

At night, before bed, Selene had me practice mana control.

Apparently, mana could be used not only to cast spells,
but also to act as a defense mechanism and even a physical enhancer.

It’s a great skill, but it has to be activated consciously, which is kind of a hassle.

To overcome this, I started activating it in my sleep.
At first, it was a bad idea—maintaining a mana shield while unconscious drained my mana fast.

But I kept it up... until it became like muscle memory.

Four months passed.

I was now able to use all the intermediate spells.

After improving my mana control, Selene used our nighttime sessions to teach me miscellaneous knowledge.

Even though she’s always drunk, she’s surprisingly a good teacher.
She doesn’t stick rigidly to the curriculum—
Instead, she teaches progressively, based on my understanding.

She’s highly adaptable to her students.
She picks questions from a textbook to test me.
If I answer correctly, she moves on.
If I don’t get it, she patiently explains it again.

And because of that, I feel like…
My view of the world has broadened.

One day, out of curiosity, I examined my Gunblade Chronosphere.

I discovered it had two modes: Sword Mode and Gun Mode.
What struck me as odd was the revolver mechanism on the side.

(Wait! I think I’m supposed to—)

I grabbed a lamp and removed the crystal from it.
It was called an Aether—used as a battery for all magical technology.

Selene once told me that when people die, their mana is released into the world, and that residual energy becomes Aether.
No one really knows how it works.

I inserted a gold-colored Aether into the revolver and pointed it at the wall.

BANG!

A flashbang went off.

“AHHH… MY EYES!” I screamed, tripping over my bed.

The guards rushed in.

“Young Prince! Are you okay? What happened?” one of them shouted.

“Yeah, I’m good. Just doing some... late-night studying. By the way, could you help me?”

Let’s just say…Sara scolded me hard after that.

The magic lessons continued to progress smoothly.

Recently, I could use all the advanced spells, and even perform voiceless incantations.

Compared to the usual training, advanced magic was mostly attack based so casting it felt... restrictive.

Still, it helped when Selene got requests from villagers and used magic to solve their problems.

Then, one day, I asked her something.

“Teacher, it’s already been a few months since we’ve been together. Should I call you Master by now?”

Selene thought for a moment.

“No. I don’t think that’s necessary.”

“Why?”

She gave a sad smile.

“It’s just... you’re not my first student, Sparkle Boy. He was a lot like you. A brat.”

“That’s rich—coming from you.”

She chuckled, then continued.

“He loved magic. Found wonder in everything. And he was smart, too.”

“Sounds like me and him would’ve been friends.”

“You two could’ve been twins, honestly—if not for the attitude.”

There was a pause.

“…He’s not here anymore, is he?” I asked, already knowing the answer.

Selene just nodded.

“Then why don’t you want me to call you Master?”

“Because that title should belong to someone worthy.
I failed him. So I don’t deserve it.”

I didn’t really understand what she was feeling.
I didn’t know what to say to make her happy.
But seeing her like this reminded me of my mom from my old world.
I wondered… did she feel the same way after losing me?

So, I just spoke from the bottom of my heart.
“I may not be your first student… but you’re my first master.
And I’m happy you chose to teach me.”

Selene looked into my eyes, quiet for a moment.

I continued,
“I promise to become the kind of person he could have been.”

Selene chuckled softly.
“You’re a weird one, Sparkle Boy.”

“Hey, come on! I’m trying to cheer you up!”

She laughed.

Good.
I don’t want to see the people I care about sad anymore.