Magic Circle #5

With the two instructors departing from the banquet hall, the rambunctiousness once again resumed, primarily by Haruto and his group of friends as Masashi was silently stabbing his food, the mages too exhausted, and Akiro and Ayama too tired to even bother.

"Kaiser-sensei did a swish! and then bam!--"

Akiro was paying close attention to the happy boy, who excitedly recounted his bout with Kaiser-- praising the man and sharing everything he had learned. Ayama on the other hand was silently basking in the presence of the maids, adoring their presence. He was an avid visitor of maid cafes, often trying to drag Akiro to some whenever he got the chance.

"Oh, so this smaller fork is used for this?" Ayama asked the maid next to him, "I did not know that, please teach me more." he beamed, not for the learning experience but for the conversation. "Let’s go! Real maids!! Maids in maid uniforms!!!"

Akiro glanced at Ayama, who happily conversed with the ecstatic maid. "What’s this idiot thinking about now?"

When Olivia's verbal lashing had finally reached its conclusion, Kaiser huffed and turned back to the banquet hall, only to find the summoned heroes being led away to their sleeping chambers.

“Spare me a moment, Ayama, Akiro.” Kaiser reached out, his voice drawing the attention of the others to himself and the two he called out.

As they were detaching themselves from the group, some of the students saw this and wondered. “Why is Sir Knight asking for those two?” Kenji voiced out.

“Those two weaklings probably are gonna get scolded like the ‘hot glasses’ lady from earlier,” Masashi said confidently, recovering from his humbling defeat and ready to throw verbal jabs.

Kaiser, however, turn around and did not refute them, instead, he smiled. "Come, a reward befitting the two who have bested me awaits!" he praised,

“W–wha–!?”

“Whaaaaat!!??”

The startled cries were loud, but the protests were louder, but no one dared to actually come forward to give them complaints. Whether it was luck or skill, the 'weakest' amongst them bested a knight in simulated combat; and malice sowed seeds of doubt into heroes' hearts.

“They are the weakest, and yet–!”

“H–how did they win?”

“They must’ve cheated, right? There was no way they won!”

"I vowed to look after you two, it is only right that I do it properly--" Ayama and Akiro glanced at each other with smug looks on their faces, the extra skips in their step clearly displaying their joy. “The present I shall show to you-- Now if you’d please follow me.” Kaiser obviously noticed and smiled. "--after all, you have a bond stronger than blood, brotherly love, and unfailing trust in yourselves. You two are the unpolished gemstones that will shine brighter than the most priceless jewels."

“Yes, sir!” Ayama replied, and the three went through another door larger than the last. The room was grander than or comparable to the throne room, but instead of housing officials of the kingdom and the two reigning monarchs, it was a vast and grand library.

“We’re here,” announced Kaiser. “The Royal Library.”

They faced a large, double door; it was about three times Kaiser’s height, and Kaiser was considerably taller than both of them. The door made them feel like ants. But, Kaiser kept his confident posture.

Akiro jogged to the knight's side, looking at him in confusion “Why are we here?”

“To study more magic-- or for you two to absorb existing magic." The blonde knight smiled, gesturing to the tall shelves housing magic scrolls and books. “I’m a master in combat magic myself,”

“I see, but now what?” Ayama asked as they continued walking, his finger absently tracing the spins of the thick books as they passed.

“Follow me inside.”

Kaiser lead them through another door, and it opened automatically and introduced them to a spacious room. It was almost as spacious as the throne room; its ceiling was even higher than the door. The ceiling was a glass dome allowing natural light inside. The rows of bookshelves pointed at the center. And at the center, there was a large, blue sphere.

The Knight beckoned them to follow him since the two boys stood in awe of the place. "Now, firmly place your hand on the orb. This will allow me to see what kind of magic you two can learn. Ayama, you first."

Shinggg!

When Ayama placed his palm into the glass, a blinding, white light emitted from the orb, illuminating the entire library. "Whoa! That's so bright!"

Akiro and Kaiser were rubbing because the light was bright and warm, like the sun almost. It was his turn now, Akiro placed his hand on the orb and darkness enveloped the glass enclosure, and a chilling air was felt.

Dun!

"What was that?" Ayama shivered, "Does that mean we can learn magic?"

“I guess…” Kaiser covered his mouth momentarily before speaking. "Simply put, each magic type has strengths and weaknesses: The weakness of fire is water; The weakness of water is earth; The weakness of earth is wind; The weakness of wind is fire. Ice is the superior form of water and Lightning for fire. But there are two elements not part of that cycle—Dark and Light magic. Light magic is the most effective in the daytime. Same for Dark magic at night.”

"This is way too precise to be a coincidence..." Kaiser gave them a moment to process the information. Then, he continued, “Promise me, you two will have each other's back, no matter what happens?” he asked, "Perhaps these two are destined for something way beyond being just heroes..."

“Sir,” The black-haired boy grinned, “We always have.” he jabbed Ayama in the shoulder.

Ayama raised an eyebrow, turning to Akiro with an unbelieving stare, “Without me, this loner would probably die alone.”

“Tsk! shut up!”

“I'm glad to hear that." The Kaiser laughed, pushing the boys outside of the room and back into the library. "Now off you go. You must sleep; it’s getting late.”

[][][]

“Why do we have to be woken up at five in the morning?” Kenji groaned another moan of discontent amongst a sea of complaints.

The maids had awoken them and were quite resolute about waking them up. Instead of being led to the banquet hall, their breakfast was served to them in their own rooms and consisted of light high-sugar jams on toast-- providing them with adequate energy for a large meal despite the lacking the volume thereof.

“Good morning!” Kaiser waved, his smile brighter than the barely-risen sun on the horizon. “Did you sleep well?”

He awaited a response, but all he received were yawns and groans. He inhaled a large breath of air before sighing heavily. “I see, you kids are not used to waking up this early.”

“Actually, sir, we do wake at this hour, but yesterday’s activity took a toll on us,” Haruto stated.

"That's probably the case for you, early-bird. We wake up at seven at the latest!" Akiro squinted, his legs still weak from the feats of the day before.

The knight nodded knowingly. “Well, that's to be expected. You used your skills for the first time yesterday after all.” he explained simply, "That's because you're all untrained! Except of course the athletes among you!"

Ayama turned to the mentioned athletes, who were faring better than the rest of them, except Hitomi-- she could be visibly seen sulking because she has been disarmed so quickly. She did have a lot of confidence in her swordsmanship, as she did practice it before coming to this world.

“Your training regimen will be done in groups,” continued Kaiser. “For this exercise, I'll group you into your respective groups.”

“Stamina training: Kenji and Haruto; Strength training: Masashi; Sword swings: Hitomi, Toshio; Physical endurance: Ryuta; Accuracy training: Yaso; and Speed and stamina training: Ayama and Akiro."

At the mention of their groups, they separated joining with the ones they were called with, except Masashi as he was alone. The training area had been separated into their assignments-- A small track bordered by rope for Kenji and Haruto, weights for Masashi, training dummies for Hitomi and Toshio, a small section of everything for Ryuta, a target for Yaso and an obstacle course for Akiro and Ayama.

“But sir, I’m a tamer I don't physically fight,” objected Ryuta, his hand raised in the air, his hopes clearly betting on that excuse.

Kaiser shot him down immediately. “That's the idea, you don't physically fight, but you still need how to learn how to defend yourself in a situation where your summons is eliminated. So that's why you'll train like the others.”

Ryuta joined Hitomi in sulking.

“Then, we shall begin.”Instructed by Kaiser, the melee fighters began their assigned training.

Meanwhile, in the Wizard Tower in the east wing of the Palace, Miss Olivia was like a ghost, without life and depressed after her fiance’s scolding. She despondently lectured the young mages about mana circulation. She displayed how it is done and further explained the benefits.

“Miss Olivia, are you alright?” Takumi asked.

“Mana circulation is the procedure of breathing in air from the atmosphere and the taking of mana from the air and absorbing it in the heart. Since Mages absorb the mana in the heart, without the heart, you will die. When we put our magic ‘heart’ anywhere else and that part gets detached, we wouldn't be able to use magic for the part we stored our magic in. Our ‘storage’ of sorts, is removed. Ancient mages concluded from their research that the heart has the largest capacity to hold magic…” she recited the information her voice mumbling like a zombie.

“I see…” Keiichi pondered, barely catching most of it.

“More…. school,” Eri grumbled. “I thought being in another world would mean an everlasting vacation!”

“Now that we have covered the topic of Mana Circulation, we will cover the topic of Magic elements.”

“More lectures?!? I wanna go outside and play with magic!” Maki whined.

Olivia suddenly dropped a large book consisting of two thousand pages, capturing everyone's attention.

“This is the book about spells; every spell in mankind has been recorded and written on it, as well as its corresponding chants. You will get a book based on your Element.”

“Ohhh, we're now finally getting into spells, yeah! woohoo!” Katsumi celebrated.

“But,” Olivia interrupted, “you will have to pass a test before your book is given to you.”

“Fu–”

“Now don’t start complaining. The rigorous training my fiancé has set up is the standard. You are lucky.”

The mages were annoyed but entertained by the schooling they had to endure, learning about magic was certainly better than learning physics or studying for college entrance exams.

Like this, every day for the next three months, Kaiser, Olivia, and Sebastian shaped the summoned students into novices capable of improving themselves. It was only a matter of time until they were whipped to a satisfactory state pleasing to the king.

"By Royal Decree, The Hero Party shall depart to the Labyrinth located in the Kingdom of Scavia."