The Hero And The Prince

My next class ends up being Communication. The first thing students learn is how to read, write, send, and receive letters. Students who are illiterate—something not uncommon amongst countryborn—instead spend this part of the curriculum with a private tutor. It can take a few hundred hours to catch up, so they’re forced to give up time after school and their weekends as well.

After that, students learn professional etiquette, persuasion, conflict resolution, math, negotiation, and various other people skills. I’m honestly pretty excited for a lot of the social curriculum—I could really use the help.

Unfortunately, it looks like I’m not the only one, as it’s immediately clear my class is a dumping ground for all the introverts and delinquents. Gonna guess that Vincent’s praise of me to the school stopped short of my speaking skills.

I place a bouquet on the teacher’s desk, and she accepts it with a silent nod before going back to her paperwork—a surprisingly muted response for a Communications teacher. A nameplate on her desk reads Sabira Slowburn.

She’s a gentle beauty with black hair tied back in a low bun, light brown eyes, and an expressionless face. She wears red rectangular glasses, a gold necklace set with a red gem, a white lab coat over a white button-up shirt stretched across her large chest, a long black skirt, brown stockings accentuating her long legs, and black high heels.

After taking a seat, I look around, but the only people I've spoken to before are Breadhead and Petra—the girl Lucas and I ran into at the store…

…and both of them are glaring at me, whispering with a few of their friends.

I wave and give an awkward smile, but Petra growls and shoots me a dirt look, so I immediately spin back around.

Other than that, the class is uneventful.

***

After a delicious but similarly uneventful lunch with Lucas, we both head outside early to our next class—Basic Spellcasting. Judging by the other students—in complete contrast to Communication—I’ve definitely ended up in the powerhouse class.

I walk up to the teacher to greet her and hand her a bouquet, but when she turns around, I’m knocked speechless by her radiant presence. A million words race through my mind to describe her, but one stands out above all else—hero. It feels like she's straight out of a fairytale.

Her outfit is fancy yet gallant, crimson with brown accents and white frills. Three large feathers adorn her witch hat, two white and one ret. She’s the first teacher I’ve seen without the standard green cape trimmed in black fur. At her side hangs an ornate rapier with a large gem at the center of its guard, swirling with red, blue, yellow, and green. Her mesmerizing eyes shift in a gradient from red to orange to yellow. Framed by long, voluminous brown hair flowing down her back. Both her face and body are utterly flawless, and she carries herself with the boundless confidence to match.

“Ah. You must be Nora.”

“Y-you know who I am?”

She smirks. “Well, when I heard a kindred spirit had joined the school, I couldn’t help but do a little digging.”

“Kindred spirit?”

“Your pursuit of all four schools of magic. I too aim to master them all one day. If you wouldn’t mind indulging me, I was hoping to inquire about your approach to magic, particularly how you learned to forgo incantations.”

“Sure, I don’t mind.”

As she interrogates me, I’m taken aback by how she hangs on my every word, peppering me with question after question to make sure she doesn’t miss a single detail. Yet, despite her larger-than-life demeanor, I feel completely at ease. She’s imposing, yet warm—like the big sister I’ve never had. She occasionally relates my experiences to some of her own, offering me brief glimpses into epic adventures and battles I desperately want to hear more about. But by the time I’ve told her everything she wants to know, it’s already almost time for class.

“Thank you, Nora. As much as I appreciate the bouquet, it’s nothing compared to invaluable information you’ve just gifted me. I’ll have to do some monster observation myself when I get the chance. Maybe you could accompany me some time, show me how it’s done?”

“Sure!”

“Well, if you ever need help with your magical development, don’t hesitate to reach out. I certainly owe you one.”

“Thanks, Veronica! I will!”

But as I walk away, a question nags at the back of my mind.

I turn around. “Um, actually, Veronica?”

“Yes?”

“Your family name—Doehunter—you wouldn’t by any chance know Jane, would you?”

Veronica disappears in a blink.

Wha—

Before I can even process what’s happening, I let out a small yelp as Veronica spins me around and lifts me into the air. Somehow, she’s appeared right behind me, her cool expression replaced with one of pure adoration.

Her previously deep voice shoots up multiple octaves. “You mean my adorable baby sister who I love more than anything in the whole world?! You bet I know her! Why?! Do you know her too?! Are you friends!? I’ve always wanted to meet one of her friends!”

“Oh, um… I don’t know if I’m allowed to call her that yet, but, well, if I could one day… it’d make me very happy. She’s really nice.”

“Oho, I see you’re a woman of culture as well! Tell me, what else do you like about her?”

“Well, uh… she’s upbeat, and um, cute, and uh, I like her summon too, and…”

Veronica proudly nods along.

“Um, Veronica? I’m getting a little embarrassed here.”

She puts me down. “Well, knowing you’re a fellow fan of Jane just raised my opinion of you even further, Nora. I look forward to having you in my class.”

She flashes a grin and winks at me before walking off.

I run over to Lucas. “Lucas! Did you see our teacher? She’s so cool! I wish I could be just like her!”

Well… if you exclude that last interaction.

“Yeah, you and everybody else in the kingdom.”

“...What do you mean?”

“What do you mean, what do I mean—Nora, just how detached from the rest of civilization are the villages out in the boonies that you don’t know who she is?”

“...You don’t need to be mean about it.”

“Veronica the Valiant—strongest Sweeper in the kingdom, possibly all four kingdoms. She’s a living legend. The only summoner in ours that’s more skilled is the headmaster. She’s taken down countless catastrophic threats, riding into battle atop a Red Dragon, wielding all four schools of magic while displaying an unparalleled mastery of speed and perception in her swordplay.”

“What?! Why is someone like that even teaching here? Wouldn’t her time be way better spent going around—I don’t know—saving the day or something?”

“I mean, sure, she’d probably be saving more lives in the short term just by running missions all the time—but by having her spare some of that time to teach future generations instead, she can potentially create dozens of summoners capable of saving countless lives themselves—something far more valuable in the long term.”

He adjusts his glasses.

“If anything, it’s rare for famous summoners not to teach here. And it’s not like they aren’t still active Sweepers—the three-day weekends aren’t just to accommodate students, you know. Most professors use them to conduct research or run Sweeper missions. They can leave during the school week too if there’s ever an emergency. Plus, having so many powerful summoners stationed in the capital is a strong deterrent to other kingdoms attacking us.”

“Is our relationship with the other kingdoms that bad?”

“I mean, it’s better than it’s been historically, but it’s still not great. You can never be too careful.”

“Wow, I never knew… Speaking of, why didn’t you tell me Jane had such a famous sister?”

Lucas looks just as surprised as I was a couple minutes ago. “I… didn’t know that. I just assumed them having the same family name was a coincidence… but that’s quite the bombshell.”

“I know! How lucky is Jane?”

“I…wouldn’t be so sure about that, Nora. Having a sibling like that… it’s not always all it’s cracked up to be.”

“What do you—”

GONG! GONG!

“Alright, everybody, I’ll keep things simple.” Veronica speaks with a theatrical cadence, accompanying every word with melodramatic gestures. “To venture forth unto your second year, our oppressors at the academy ask—nay—demand you all have a thorough grasp of the fundamentals before our time together ends—specfically, that you master 2nd Order magic in one school, and 1st Order in the other three—”

She drops to her knees and pounds the ground with her fist. “Tyranny! I know!”

The class giggles.

“But what’s this?” She pulls out some papers and quickly scans through them before scattering them into the air. “Oh, joyous day! You’ve all already achieved this! Or… well, are just a handful of utility spells away from doing so—but let’s not sweat the small stuff—Extraordinary! Stupendous! Prodigies, the lot of you! Give yourselves a hand!”

After a brief pause, a few students start to clap—

“Alright, alright, settle down—don’t go hurting my ears now.”

More giggles.

“Seeing as how conventional teaching has never really been my thing, I’d say you’ve all done me a huge favor. So allow me to do you one—for the rest of the year, you can now treat this class as a free period.”

The class excitedly chatters.

“However, there’s just one tiny difference.”

Veronica leaps high into the air, doing several backflips before swinging her sword and coming to a hover as color bursts forth—rings of fire, earth, wind, water, and more mixed magic that I can keep track of spin around her. She smirks.

“For this free period, you’ll have my full expertise at your disposal. Use this time to practice whatever magic you want, and if you flag me down when you’re having trouble, I’ll give you every pointer I can.”

With another swish of her sword, all the magic dissipates, and she falls to the ground stylishly before taking a bow.

The class breaks into applause.

“Thank you, thank you, I’ll be here all week—it’s literally my job.”

One final round of giggles.

“If you need targets, there’s some dummies over there, just don’t call them that to their face—we treat our magical instruments with care in this classroom—other than when we’re blasting them with magic, of course.

“For those of you who don’t already have spells in mind that you’d like to practice, you’re free to go to the library and look for inspiration. As for the rest of you, as long as you use common sense when spellcasting around others, you’re all free to get started.”

Instead of going to the library for ideas, I decide to observe the other students as they cast an impressive variety of spells.

After over an hour of frantic note-taking, I feel a tap on my shoulder. “Pardon me—”

I turn aroun—

Arthur?!

“I couldn’t help but overhear your conversation with Professor Doehunter before class and. I must admit, she’s always been a rather important role model to me, as I too hope to master all schools of combat one day. However, I’ve struggled to make the sort of progress you have in magic. I was quite taken by your display yesterday.”

“R-really? Me? But you’re, well, you!”

“Would you mind if we converse for a while? I was hoping to learn more about you and your methods.”

“O-oh! Uh, sure!”

He holds out his arm, which I bashfully take, and guides me over to a fruit tree. He plucks a few for us to savor as we sit in the shade.

Throughout our conversation, I’m struck by how down-to-earth Arthur is. You’d think he’d have an ego with all the praise and attention he gets—but he’s not like that at all. In fact, he’s actually quite, well… charming.

“Thank you, Nora. While I’m admittedly not sure how much of that I’ll be able to apply to my own magic, at the very least, I quite enjoyed our conversation. You make for lovely company.”

My heart starts to race, and I find myself fidgeting. “I-I really enjoy talking to you t-too, Arthur.”

“Though, I must inquire—is there anything that you’d like to ask of me? Any fire magic you find difficult? I’d hate for this to be a one-sided affair.”

“Oh, w-well, uh… you know that spell you used against Cold—I mean, Boldheart? With the multiple explosions?”

“Yes?”

“C-could you maybe… teach me how it works?”

“Well… I’m not opposed, but it might be a little advanced given your lack of experience with 3rd Order fire magic. The cascade’s also not a part of the traditional spell—it’s an addition of my own, and one I’ve only recently gotten the hang of.”

“Could you… teach it to me anyway? Even if I can’t actually use it, I’d still love to know how it works.”

He chuckles. “Sure, it’d be my pleasure.”

Arthur goes into careful detail about the mechanics of the spell and walks me through the exact sensations I should feel at each stage. I decide to give it a try, subtly de-summoning Pudding before standing up and holding out my wand as I get ready to cast.

“Eep!” I jump as his hands suddenly touch me.

He stands close and speaks softly. “Try to position yourself like this.”

I can feel my heart pounding out my chest as his strong hands slowly move down my body, gently adjusting my stance as they go.

“Maintaining a firm, balanced stance will give you greater control over your magic. Try to make a habit of it.”

I gulp, then nod. “Mhm.”

He steps back. “Alright, give it a try.”

I think through everything he taught me, trying to recreate each sensation myself. He’s not wrong—this stance is genuinely helping. As I start to prime the mana for a sudden outward release of energy…

“Flash—” BOOM!

The mana bursts right in front of me, sending me flying. But as I hurtle toward the ground—

“Gotcha!”

Arthur leaps into the air and catches me. He lands gracefully, cradling me in his arms.

He looks down at me. “Are you alright?”

Heat rushes to my face.

Oh gosh—he really is like a prince…

…Uh oh. I think I’m starting to see why all the girls fall for him.

GONG! GONG!

“Well, that’s all, folks! See you on Wednesday!” Veronica shouts before walking off.

I snap back to reality and look around, only to find the whole class staring, with a lot of the girls giving me dirty looks.

“O-Oh! Uh, yeah! S-sorry! I mean–uh, thank you! I mean—uh, y-you can put me down now.”

He gently sets me back to my feet.

“T-thanks.”

He chuckles. “It’s no trouble at all, Nora. Though it seems you might want to avoid using any explosion magic while I’m not around.”

“Uh, yeah.” I laugh nervously. “Maybe you’re right.”

“I’m sure if you start with something simpler, you’ll get it eventually. Alas, it seems class has come to an end. Thank you for your time, Nora. I really do appreciate it.”

“Oh! Uh, I do too! Appreciate you—I mean, your time, that is!”

He bows his head, then waves as he walks off. “Until next time.”

“Uh, y-yeah! Until time next! I mean, next Tim! I mean, uh—bye bye!”

…

GRAH! STUPID! STUPID! STUPID!

“You got a bit of drool on your lip there, Nora.” Lucas walks up beside me.

I gasp and go to wipe my mouth—

“No, I—Hey! Not funny!”

“Didn’t take you for one of those girls who fawn over pretty boys like him.” He looks visibly annoyed.

“I wasn’t fawning! It’s just—he’s ranked first, you know? There’s a lot I can learn from him!”

“Yeah, sure. I’m ranked in the top ten too, but I don’t see you or any of the other girls tripping over themselves to ask me any questions.”

“Oh, so you’re saying the other girls and I should be fawning over you instead?”

“Wha—No!” His face turns red. “I just—all I’m saying is—you know what, never mind!”

I can practically taste the jealousy coming off him. I raise an eyebrow. “Uh huh.”

“Can we just get going to Beastiology already? I don’t want to be late.”

“Fine. Let’s go.”

After walking for a little bit, I break the silence. “Would it make you feel any better if I asked you for some tips on wind magic?”

“N-No!” he protests.

I side-eye him and flash a knowing smile as I bump shoulders with him.

He looks away, embarrassed, adjusting his glasses. “M-maybe a little.”

Heh. Goofball.